#robobrainrot writes

[robobrainrot]

What’s Past is Prologue

An Earthspark Post-S1, Pre-S2 summary fic

If you were left unsatisfied by the jarring time gap and tone shift between S1 and S2, here's a mini fic to help fill the void. I'm going to write out the full version on Ao3. But this is the short and sweet summary~

It had been a month since The Battle of Witwicky. The Maltos are still picking up the pieces, both literally and figuratively. While they succeeded in their goal of defeating Mandroid, saving all Transformers on Earth, and quite possibly, the world as a whole, some things were left shattered. Most notably, Quintus Prime’s Emberstone. The pieces were scattered across the globe and, for a moment, Team Prime feared they would be lost forever.

However, Quintus Prime would never leave his chosen stranded. Prime Power or not, the kids did not give up hope. The shards of the Emberstone dispersed, but they were not lost forever. Starting right in their backyard, The Maltos found their first shard in the cow pasture… With the help of Fluffy-Ears, of course. Less than a week later, another was found by Breakdown while racing across the countryside with Bumblebee.

At first, the alliance between Autobots and Decepticons had been tense. Both sides were anxious that the other might sell them out or deceive them. But with the help of the newly declared “Malto-bots,” tensions eased. It was hard not to enjoy their company. It had been centuries since any of them had interacted with bots so young. It was refreshing to have such young and enthusiastic faces around.

Every day, the Maltos searched for more ways to find the missing shards. Some they stumbled across accidentally. Some ended up in museums- dazzling archeologists. Schloder and Optimus Prime had to be the ones to get those. Nightshade created a way of scanning for the shards, but their device’s range was limited so the scouting parties had to travel the world to identify possible locations. Did someone say road trip? The Trine were quick to point out that they were much better suited for the job thanks to the help of Skywarp’s powers.

Starscream had to admit, he was fascinated by these ancient Cybertronian artifacts. His volunteering to help the Maltos was not entirely altruistic. It was an opportunity to show off the superiority of himself and his fellow Seekers and gain knowledge about these strange crystal shards. That’s what he told himself at least. The fact that he often hoovered around the Malto residents when Hashtag was around, and Megatron was not, was purely so he could gather intel.

As for the Malto-bots, they enjoyed the month of relative peace. While not all the Decepticons were eager to become ‘friends’, the ones that stuck around would do their best to teach the kids something while they were there.

Breakdown was the first. Never one to turn down a chance to show off, he was happy to oblige Thrash when he asked for racing tips. He showed the young bot a few flashy new moves, including one that Robby insisted was called “The Akira Slide.” Breakdown maintained that it was a Stunticon specialty, and certainly not inspired by a cartoon.

Swindle tried to teach the kids how to override security locks at the junkyard, but was quickly shut down by Elita-One. He complained to Hardtop about what a wasted opportunity it was for three days straight.

Skullcrusher, Grimlock, and Jawbreaker formed a special alliance that Jawbreaker dubbed “The Beastie Boys.” They spent their down time sparing and seeing who could leave the biggest dent in scrap metal pieces.

Soundwave and his casseticons taught Hashtag how to utilize her radio to scramble comm frequencies. In return, she taught them about the wonders of the internet. This was a terrible decision, as Frenzy quickly became engrossed by internet subcultures. Soundwave had to step in with what Mo would call his “Mad Dad Voice.” On the bright side, the discovery of Kandi culture led to a group friendship bracelet making party.

Even Shockwave took some time to mentor the bots. Well. Realistically it was just Nightshade in the lab, but The Great Shockwave was cool enough that the other Maltos pretended to pay attention for half of his science monolouge.

The Decepticons started creating their own home base in between Emberstone shard scouting missions. Led by Starscream, with Shockwave as his Second, they found a suitable location far enough away from the former-GHOST base, but not so far away that it would be impossible to reach the Terrans if needed.

This was one area that walked the line of the treaty. The Decepticons were entitled to make a home on Earth. Optimus Prime respected their wishes on this matter. He instructed the other Autobots and Maltos to stay out as well. If there was going to be a chance at lasting peace, they needed to build trust. Many of the Decepticons had been imprisoned by GHOST for years. They deserved a safe space without surveillance as much as anyone. Freedom was the right of all sentient beings, and Prime would sooner go offline than go back on that principle.

There was still much they didn’t know. With every new answer about the emberstones came more questions. Between chaos and confusion, there was also stillness and affection. For these precious moments, both Autobots, Decepticons and Maltobots could enjoy the time of respite.

However, nothing really lasts forever.

[robobrainrot]

@astralstardrops gave me permission to elaborate. I hope you like it! 🫡

Ao3 wouldn't allow me to "gift" it to you

megatron’s holoform

[deliicacymercy]

Bruh- @robobrainrot sent this to me AS IM WRITING ABOUT GAY ROBOTS HAVING SEX-

[macadam]

WIP GAME

Tagged by @optimistpax (thank you <33)

Rules: Write the latest line from your wip (or post where you last left off in your art) and tag as many people as there are words in the line. Make a new post, don’t reblog.

[ID: a redesign of megatron as a plant creature. Inspiration is largely taken from his tfp and tfe designs. There are branches growing from his shoulders and arms]

I have had this idea of designing a bunch of transformers into plants (plantformers?) for a while now and have finally started playing around with the concept. Having a lot of fun. Might open my inbox for suggestions on who to design next over winter break, we will see…

No pressure tags: @utane @robobrainrot and anyone else who wants to join :]

[rotorarc]

W.I.P Game

Tagged by: @robobrainrot

Rules: Write the latest line from your wip (or post where you last left off in your art) and tag as many people as there are words in the line. Make a new post, don’t reblog.

The thing is…

Tagging: @seacanaryy @rainyyjayy @t-t-tartaglia

I’m in the middle of editing a presentation about Megatron vs. Cybertron Courtcase for Presentation Night.

[tarnishedspark]

Nah, she does that to be condescending.

Awkward moment where I have been staring at my one fic without writing anything for several hours and to get the last sentence I write I had to go and open up something else I wrote last night

hmm. 7 people to tag uhh. idk if all of you are interested or write things but here's a thing

@vivificanousprime @robobrainrot @robotsaremymuse @agentsquirrelsgotrobots @caffeinatedbison @ivycorp @amillionstarsandyouchoosethisone

Tagged by @apomaro-mellow !

RULES: Post the last sentence you wrote (fanfic / original / anything) and tag as many people as there are words in the sentence.

“Faith and I clap and holler, and I know exactly what I'll get for her birthday.” (from my original horror novel, Molt)

sorry for tagging some of u when we dont talk, i had a 16 word sentence lol.

@cruisin4crazy @weirdo09 @butterflies-f0r-michael @sugargoreguts @apofid-puffleburry @hazmatazz @a-sleepy-aro @plyerice27 @cloudycleric @cornfieldsrambles @websofreality @cheertain @byler-berries @byler-alarmist @merth-or-nothin @howellslides

[robobrainrot]

@deliicacymercy made this amazing fanart for the fic snip-it I posted of Rory, so who am I to deny them the full chapter.

Here's the first chapter of "The Knack," my Transformers OC fic.

Notes: its a Knockout-Centric Fic with a human OC. Breakdown is alive and well. Optimus is alive and well. Set in the Prime Universe: Post Predacons Rising, Pre-RID15 (or disregarding RID15 in general)

Chapter 1: Never Happened

“Knockout. Are you coming back soon?” Breakdown asked through his radio.

“Soon enough.” He replied. Even though he was in vehicle mode, it sounded as if he was gritting his dentaplates. “I have a human watching me.”

His partner laughed through the intercom. “What? Afraid to blow you’re cover? You’ve never cared about that slag before. Where are you?”

“Sending my coordinates. I was on my way home but ran into some… trouble. I’m trying to keep a low profile. This human looks like a screamer.”

“Speeding again?”

“Bingo, BD. This area is flooded with human law enforcement vehicles. I swear it’s like there’s one on every corner… Prime said we’re supposed to be ‘robots in disguise.’ If I make another scene Ratchet will make me do hotspot duty. Again.”

“Right. Well-”

“Finally! The human is leaving. Knockout; Out.” He ended the transmission quickly as the human in question walked closer to the car. Instead of continuing down the sidewalk, they stopped next to Knockout’s side mirror. They pulled a piece of paper off the thing they had been fiddling with, then flipped it over and scribbled something on the back.

It took everything Knockout had not to smack them away as they lifted up one of his windshield wipers and tucked the paper neatly under it. He was trying to be a better bot. If he kept causing issues, the Autobots might have second thoughts about giving him so much freedom. He remained tense as the human placed their hand on his hood.

“Don’t see many beauties like you around here.” They said under their breath. “Thanks for letting me draw you. Love the sticker thing.” Then, they patted his hood and walked away.

Knockout sat there for a moment stunned. First, yes, he was quite beautiful. More humans should be like this one and notice that. Second, they had spoken to him. Not at him. Not to some fake driver. Him. Third, they had touched him. Their grubby little human fingerprints were no doubt on his hood now. He was going to have to pull over and fix that before returning to base. Not to mention whatever it was that they stuck under his window wiper. It was terribly itchy.

Still, he watched them turn the corner down the street. He had many questions. Were any of them worth pursuing? The blinking missed message from Breakdown on his dash told him no.

“Stay out of trouble, Speedster.” The text read.

He turned on his engine then rolled out. He would stay out of trouble… for now.

…

Knockout pulled over at an abandoned gas station far outside the city. He ran a quick scan and found no incoming vehicles in the immediate proximity. He was far enough from the highway to be out of sight as long as he remained under the canopy. He took a ‘running’ start and flipped into robot mode inches before ducking under cover.

First thing first; he pulled the thin sheet from between his plating. It had ended up in his abdomen under his central chest plate but it was easy enough to remove. Really, it was remarkable the little thing didn’t tear.

He was about to toss it aside but a streak of cherry red caught his attention. On the paper was a loose render of his alt. mode. It looked like the concept cars he’d seen in automobile enthusiast magazines. Knockout stared at the little image for a long moment.

It was beautiful, in a sort of imperfect way. Even the stray lines worked in its favor.

Artistry was not foreign to him. While he didn’t exactly consider himself an artist, he knew artistry well. When someone is passionate about something, it shows in their work. Which is how his finish looked the way it looked; Breakdown was always incredibly meticulous and careful. This had a similar level of care.

Why would the human leave this for him?

He turned it over to the back and found a short message. “Love the paint job. - @ky-ltd.”

“Kai L-T-D?” He repeated aloud incredulously.

Was this some kind of bribe? If they knew he was sentient, then was this some passive way of sucking up to him? Was he that obvious?

He shook the thought away. Maybe it was something he could ask Fowler about at a later date. Though, the agent was skeptical, at best, of the former Decepticon. Who’s to say he would answer him honestly.

Next problem: the smudge on his now chest plate. It was extremely tiny. Barely visible. But ‘barely’ might not cut it. If the Autobots thought he’d been hanging out with a human, he’d never hear the end of it.

He chuckled to himself at the thought.

Humans were disgusting.

Knockout pulled a microfiber cloth from his glovebox, which was now a small compartment in his chest. The graphite smear came off with a single swipe.

“There.” He sighed as he tucked the cloth away. “It never happened.” He paused to look at the little piece of paper between his digits. “It never…” Before he completed his thought, he shoved the paper in his glove box and flipped into vehicle mode.

[CHAPTER 2]

[robobrainrot]

On Wednesdays, we post The Knack chapters.

This time with Art!

[robobrainrot]

Me: Putting multiple variations of the "You were inside me" joke into my fic.

My readers:

[short-circuit-the-great]

Tagged by @omnipotentgarlicbread

Relationship status: I don’t do all that. “But ShortCircuit, you write so much romance!” Yeah I’m making this sh*t up I have no idea what romance even is 👀

Favorite color: Red and blue

Three favorite foods: Pancakes, chocolate chips, and chicken

Song stuck in my head: “Ride” by Sir Mix-a-lot 💀

Last song I listened to: “Sugar” by System of a Down

Last thing I googled: A national park I visited recently

Dream trip: The Arctic because I want to study glaciers and all the cold sh*t, but also any travel at all is a dream trip. I never got to travel growing up outside of visiting relatives on occasion and I have lived in the same area for almost my entire life. I have seen an embarrassingly low number of places (though that’s gotten better this summer courtesy of adult freedom + cheap airline ticket lmao). My post-grad plans are to travel around the country (and the world once I see everything here) and freelance/do contract work. I hate being stuck in one place.

Anything I really want right now: Peaceful time to write—I have been camping a lot lately with a class and it’s been fun but there is also little opportunity for quiet. You can go sit by the water but the bugs will be there—they belong there, but they are distracting as hell.

@transingthoseformers @robobrainrot @breakdowns-spare-tire @brockendrems if y’all want to do this 👀

Get to Know Me Better Tag Game

Rules: Tag ten (10) people you want to get to know better.

Tagged by @sphnyspinspin - Thank you! I’m making a separate post because I don’t need strangers seeing everything. lol

Relationship status: Single since always, and still uninterested in changing that

Favorite color(s): I have quite a few, but gold has me in a vice-like grip (more than usual).

Three favorite foods: Cheese, potatoes, and, uh…salmon.

Song stuck in my head: Funny story: Last week, for the first time in almost a decade, I got a song stuck in my head. It felt so foreign to me. I don’t remember what the song was, though. lol

Last Song I Listened To: Where We Go by P!NK (Spotify | YouTube)

Last thing I Googled: “roles of the king and queen in chess” - I needed it for an extended analogy, illustrating how the fandom perceives Soundwave and Megatron versus how I’m writing them ;)

Dream trip: Last time, I said Reynisfjara, so I’ll go with a different location this time: The Uyuni Salt Flat in Bolivia [1] [2] - I have absolutely imagined doing photo shoots here with my favorite characters. The only problem is that salt, water, and metal are not a good combination (Sorry, guys. We’ll just wash your pedes off with fresh water when we’re done.)

Anything I really want right now: To finish my Big Bang fic. This is only the beginning of a story I’ve been writing in my head for over 2 years, and I’m very excited to share it.

Tagging @iamanemotionaltimebomb @xisum @greenbookreclaim @staijey-the-creator @cadet-songbird @teletraan-exe @virovirokun-has-adhd @kshahrwarmamochi @prismicnexus @elindae-writes (Hello, hello 👋 Some of you are new to my notes; others have been around for a bit. For your convenience, a copy and paste-ready version of the form is in the replies.)

[robobrainrot]

HOT METAL chapter 2 is up on Ao3 🥵

Thank you my lovely Beta-Readers: @deliicacymercy and @mspareader

[robobrainrot]

The Knack

Chapter 6: Seeking Arrangements

A Knockout-Centric fic with a genderfluid human OC. Breakdown is alive AU. Optimus is fine again AU. Set in the Prime Universe, post-predacons rising, pre RID15.

Updates Wednesdays on Ao3

[robobrainrot]

The Knack

Chapter 5: Hook, Line and Sinker

Early update in honor of me getting an Ao3 account! Chapters will now be posted on Ao3 but I'll put out announcement posts here on Tumblr for updates 😎

Updates on Wednesdays

[robobrainrot]

The Knack

Chapter 4: Rory Magellan

Notes: its a Knockout-Centric Fic with a human OC. Breakdown is alive and well. Optimus is alive and well. Set in the Prime Universe: Post Predacons Rising, Pre-RID15

Updates Weekly/Wednesdays

[Prev chapter] [Jump to chapter 1]

Once they were out of the densely populated area, Knockout wasted no time burning rubber. He needed to put some real distance between them and the scene. He could call Ratchet for a groundbridge out, but that would be admitting that he completely failed the “in disguise” part of Optimus’s golden rule.

His human passenger was not thrilled about his driving style. They had their feet up on the seat with their arms wrapped tightly around their knees. On a couple particularly tight turns, Knockout felt their shoulder hit his side door. Hard. They might have started crying at some point but it was hard for him to tell.

Humans were so weird.

Finally, Knockout slowed down outside an abandoned storage facility outside of the city. Fowler had given the group a map of various government facilities that were no longer in use in case they ever needed to hide. He assured them that they wouldn’t be bothered there, and the areas were kept free of outsiders.

He pinged the door with his code, and sure enough, the bay doors opened for him. The Aston Martin pulled into the facility and opened his passenger door as soon as the doors were closed.

Kylan stayed sitting.

“I cannot transform if you are in here.” Knockout commented after a solid minute of silence. That was a lie but he didn’t feel like throwing the human onto the ground. They’d had enough of that for today.

They gripped onto the seat belt against their chest. “That’s okay… I- uh- you’re… what are you?”

He sighed, blowing air at them through the vents. If he was being honest, it was a relief to know they didn’t actually understand what he was. They were some weirdo that talked to cars.

“I am a Cybertronian. Racer-Medic-Model and so much more.”

“Who made you?”

“Ha!” He laughed, “You think humans could make anything like me?” then he remembered that M.E.C.H. did in fact make a copy of Optimus Prime. He reset his vocalizer. “No one. I’m not from this dirtball of a planet.”

“Oh,” they replied, as if that cleared up anything. “So… you’re an alien then?”

“That’s right, Sherlock.” He drove in a slow circle with the passenger door still open. With the exception of drive-in theaters, he never liked staying in one place for long in vehicle mode. “If it makes it easier for your tiny squishy brain, you can think of me as a robot.”

They thought about that for a minute. “Can I think of you as a person?”

Knockout wiggled his wheels as a nod, then realized he just jostled his passenger. “Yes. You can. Can I think of you as a person?”

The artist snorted. “Yea… Yea, you can.”

After a few more lazy circles, they finally released their death grip on his seatbelt. Kylan’s breathing slowed as they relaxed. Knockout released the buckle for them. The Cybertronian rolled to a gentle stop as the human moved to be properly sitting in the seat.

“Do you have a name?”

“Knockout.” He replied.

“‘Knockout?’” They laughed back incredulously. “Really? Like boxing?”

“Yes. Knockout. Like an attractive bot. I didn’t make fun of your name.” He rolled his optics internally. “‘Kylan’ doesn’t mean anything. It’s not even a word in your own language.”

“My name isn’t…” They bolted upright in their seat. “WAIT- YOU’RE MARTIN?! Ah-uh- @AstonMartin892? I knew your car- or- you looked familiar.”

“Pump the breaks and back up, human.” Knockout changed the UI on his dashboard display to show their social media page. “Your name? It says Ky Limited… it says ‘Kylan.’”

They poked the display. “That’s my screenname. I use it as an alias online. My real name is Rory. Rory Magellan.” The artist leaned back against the headrest. “So, if you need something to write on my tombstone, I’m Rory Magellan.”

He sighed, blowing air at them again. “I’m not going to kill you, ‘Roar-EE.’ I couldn’t just leave you there after… that. I will take you home– safely– after we talk.” He jiggled his side door. “Face to face, preferably.”

Rory intentionally ignored his gesture. “Can I ask why you’re here on Earth? Are there other aliens here too?”

“It’s a long story, kid.” He shifted into park. “Big war, Big mistakes. It’s… over now. We won, but we lost a lot. There’s a handful of us taking solace on Earth while our planet is being rebuilt.”

Rory rubbed their hand on the dashboard in a placating motion.

“Don’t do that. You’re getting human oils on me.” He groaned.

They snapped their hands away. Awkwardly, Rory folded their hands in their lap. After a moment of silence, they sheepishly said, “I’m surprised you can feel that.”

“You are perspiring and sticky.” He replied indignantly. “Now that you’ve got your wits about you again,” Knockout jerked the seat back as far as it would go while being upright. “Remove yourself from my cabin.”

With that, Rory finally got out of the car. They took a few steps back to watch as he converted. Car parts unfurled and shifted into a humanoid form. It was like watching the world’s most complicated Rubix cube. With a flourish, the alien finished his transformation into his giant robot form.

All and all, Rory stood at Knockout’s knee height. The lighting in the facility was dim at best, so his glowing red eye lights were extra pronounced. They took a few more steps back so they wouldn’t hurt their neck looking straight up at him.

They had to admit, he did live up to his name. He was beautiful, in an alien sort of way.

The Cybertronian knelt down on one knee like he had watched the Autobots do when talking to their human companions. It was supposed to make him less threatening, or something. He was still above their eye level, but it was less drastic now.

“Woah…” They breathed as they looked over him.

“Yeah. I know.” Knockout preened, wiggling his shoulder pauldrons.

Rory gestures vaguely to him. “I meant to ask: What pronouns do you use? Do alien-robots have genders or is it just kind of… whatever?”

“‘He-Him-His’ is fine. Cybertronians,” he stressed his correction, “typically default to masculine terms but not always. We had different words for it back home… but in English, ‘he’ is most accurate.”

“Ah.” They nodded. “I’m fine with any pronouns but usually they/them.” Rory curtsied overdramatically. “It’s nice to meet the real you, Mr. Knockout.”

He smiled. Even though he could still see color through the ambient glow of his eyes, he thought they looked silly illuminated by red. Knockout nodded his head as a bow, so he wouldn’t bump into them. “I will admit, I have been looking forward to meeting ‘the artist’ as well.”

Rory fiddled with their beaded necklace between their fingers. “Do… you want another sketch? Or I could do something more refined, if you want. You probably saved my life today so… I owe you.”

Knockout raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t know humans dealt in favors… Hm…” He leaned his face down to be much closer to theirs. Their eyes widened. He smirked deviously, just to mess with them. Once a Decepticon, always a Decepticon. “I’m sure we could work something out.”

Rory quickly took several steps backwards. “Oh man. You’re…” they were going to say unsettling but caught themself. At certain angles, he really was alien. It fell into the uncanny valley zone for them. His proportions were just slightly off. They finished their thought; “huge.”

“Does that scare you, human?”

“It’ll take some getting used to.” They replied. They reached up to touch his helm, but Knockout pulled his face out of reach. Apparently, this was a look-but-don’t-touch experience. Rory put their hands on their backpack straps to signal they wouldn’t try again. “Assuming I can see you again? Y’know, after this.”

“Well, if you’re going to be my personal artist, I hope so.” He folded his servos under his chin and batted his optics at them. “In exchange for ‘saving your life,’ as you put it.”

Rory blinked up at him. “Do you want me to do your car form or, uhm, this?”

“Would you consider both?” He cooed.

“Are you kidding? I’d more than consider it… but when you say ‘personal artist,’ do you mean commission or are you going to kidnap me?”

He shrugged. “Neither. I’m not paying you if you’ve already offered them as a gift. Admitively, I don’t know much about human media, or how you create what you do. I don’t know how long this arrangement will last... I’ve seen pictures and movies.”

“Oh.” They nodded. “That’s fair. I assumed you didn’t have money.” Rory slipped off their backpack and started digging through it. They laid a few things out on the ground before turning back to look up at him. “Well, I guess now’s as good-a-time as ever for an alien art lesson. I’ll show you some work samples, then you can choose the style you want… and we’ll go from there. Deal?”

The Cybertronian wasn’t about to tell them that he did, infact, have money. And a lot of it. His racing escapades were quite lucrative. The only expense he had that the human government didn’t cover was his extensive collection of car detailing supplies.

Knockout smiled, then took their tiny hand between two digits. He shook it as gently as he could, but it still seemed to rattle the little human. “You have yourself a deal, Rory Magellan.”

[robobrainrot]

Unless ya girl (gender neutral) gets REALLY inspired to write in the next 24 hours.... Knack update will be late

[robobrainrot]

I've cocked the gun. Fic is imminent. I have a title and notes.

Just finished Season 2 of EarthSpark and Jesus Christ y'all weren't kidding

I'm so upset that I could write a 50k fix it fic about it