HOLIDAY SPECIAL! My manual pirating ways finally come in handy :') Spoiler: holiday special, cybertron edition, 1/2
Spoiler: TGWP HOLY SHIT?? HOLY SHIT???? oh man i knew starscream was staging a coup but that was fast and, more importantly, they aren't fighting a war anymore how far is this going to reach how is the city going to react oh my god soundwave be on the right side
Spoiler: TGWP HOLY SHIT Is it bad I sort of want Soundwave to side with Starscream? Starscream is bad but Megatron is a maniac.
Spoiler: TGWP No, because I do too. I think it would be easier to free most of the Autobot slaves under Starscream too, because he's got a vested interest in Skyquake at the very least-- he might not give a shit if a slave is being starved to death, but he doesn't seem to have the intense hatred of them that Megatron has either. And if they side with Starscream and manage to overthrow Megatron, then from that point free the Autobots and align harder with the neutrals, kick Shockwave to the curb and engineer a fairer economic system that doesn't rely on slave labor, that might start getting close to addressing a lot of the huge issues with. Everything really. Updated the epub file on dropbox for anyone who wants it with the newest chapter. @applechime edit: The formatting on the livejournal chapter is fucked up for some reason >:/ It's not HUGE it's just a shift in font size, but I'll try and fix it tomorrow.
Spoiler: TGWP HOLY SHIT??? Oh my god, I was not expecting so much, so fast!!! I love it. I love all of this. I'm cheering all-out for Starscream, no shame, the (lying) seduction bit won me over, but then the rest!! LE SWOON, take me now, you absolute asshole. I'm definitely hoping Starscream has some real success here, and that Soundwave decides to go for it. Because if Starscream is sincerely emotionally invested in Skyfire and Skyfire is emotionally invested back, plus there's Jazz and Soundwave, plus Thundercracker will presumably side with his trinemate and he's got his thing for Fireflight. I can see Hook (with First Aid) getting on board this thing, personally, because he's a pretty sensible guy and Megatron is a bag of tyrannical dicks. But even without that, you've got two SUPER influential Decepticons on board the treason train, plus a pretty high-profile seeker. That's a lot of oomph. I mean, apart from them, who's left? You've got Megatron, Shockwave (side-eyeing his combat credentials), Astrotrain Blitzwing (lazy and ineffectual), mmmmaybe the cone-looking trine, the Stunticons (needed to keep the earth slaves in order), and maybe the Constructicons (though if you lose one part of the gestalt, I think you'll lose all of them, and Hoo has been shown to be a relatively decent dude). The Combaticons are AWOL and difficult to steer, but I doubt they'd be coming down on team Megatron. If the people who care about slaves bail out, the balance of power shifts HARD. Then there's the way we've seen cameos from Hot Rod, Blurr, Springer, and maybe Arcee (the pink femme in the club seems too specific to not be her, but given IDW, I have such a hard time seeing her as a club dancer). I still don't know if those are just for fleshing out the worldbuilding, but I mean. In other continuities, they oppose Megatron, and Hot Rod (if I'm right about the sex thing) and Springer have been given solid reasons to oppose him here. And Megatron's rule would give ANY neutral decent grounds for wanting a change in leadership. Where's Starscream going to go? :D Who will he rendezvous with? Did he comm the other seekers to tell them to gtfo? That would have been sensible. Is Starscream trying to get off the planet? Is he going back to earth? Are there any defenses directly on the spacebridge? If he goes back to earth is he going to try to grab Skyfire??????? :DDDDDDD Please, please, I want that so so so badly. I need it. Also, the author said in a comment that they hope to be done by the end of 2016, so it looks like the action is SERIOUSLY rising here, the stakes are going to get stakier, I want to know where it's going to goooooooooo. And apart from my other selfish desires to roll around in Decepticons being sweet on their slaves, I desperately want to see Soundwave getting emotional over Jazz protecting his cassettes
Spoiler: TGWP Alternate direction: Starscream knows Soundwave is sweet on Jazz, and tries to capture Jazz or one of the cassettes to blackmail Soundwave if Soundwave turns down an offer to work together. Because frankly that'd be the most logical direction for Starscream to take if Soundwave turns him down.
Spoiler: TGWP OHHHHHH I WANT IT! Especially if Starscream's trine defects with him, because that means Skywarp is there, and he's a complete ass and has just seen how hot Jazz can be when he wants to, when he was performing for Soundwave, and the trine will be operating without any command oversight from Megatron to keep them in order, and oooooooooooh there are so many emotionally loaded ways this could go! :DDDDD Though... now that I think of it, one of the next moves almost has to be that people will try to use Jazz to control Soundwave. Both Starscream and Megatron know that Jazz is a weak spot for him, and both of them are probably aware of how delicate the balance of power is, especially since Starscream being sweet on Skyfire (and Megatron using that to exert control over him) is one of the factors that contributed to Starscream's rebellion. Soundwave is practically made of weak spots if you have inside knowledge (five frigging cassettes, plus all the leftover hurt from Blaster's cassettes), but Jazz is the only one outsiders are really aware of. And apart from Soundwave's personal feelings, he's aware of how important Jazz is to his whole family. Oh, plus Soundwave is surveillance. He's going to be maybe THE most critical person for either side to secure. Because if Megatron has him, he'll at least be able to keep tabs on the city. But if Starscream has him, that opens up MASSIVE security holes all over the place for Megatron, and there isn't anyone outside his cassette family who's even remotely qualified to step up and take care of that. The story even mentions particularly that the Reflector trio is dead and they keep coming back to how overworked Soundwave is. Depending on how important emotional attachment to the Autobot slaves is in this rebellion, I think one of Starscream's top priorities will be getting a medic who can disable the collars (Hook can do it, Hook thinks First Aid could do it, but the two of them probably come as a pair). But after that, I think that recruiting and/or coercing Soundwave would be his top priority. He was even trying to court him back on earth, now that I think of it, so he's definitely aware of how important Soundwave will be. God, I'm just so excited about this story again. I got distracted between updates, but now I'm just so fucking pumped
In light of this compelling evidence I cede to your well constructed rationalization, and now have a deep desire to read fic with Megatron adjusting to just how tactile all these mechs are.
Spoiler: TGWP The thing is, is Soundwave willing to turn against his 'loyalty' to Megatron if Starscream offers him something good enough? I guess we'll see. I think it also hinges on... did the Seekers shoot Laserbeak? Because if they did, I'm not sure Soundwave would be able to work with them.
Spoiler: TGWP I feel like this Starscream is more likely to try persuading Soundwave in POSITIVE ways. I get the feeling that Megatron is going to exert control via threats and fear, but Starscream might be observant enough to tell Soundwave that siding with him is the only way he'll have a chance for any sort of lasting happiness with Jazz. I do get the impression that the Seekers didn't shoot Laserbeak, because otherwise Starscream probably would have been more conscious of the threat she posed in the command room. If he'd known she was there, I'm sure he would have had her killed, but his later actions read to me like he didn't know what she'd seen.
