Transformers: These Games We Play

aaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAA!

It was a baby update, but it was a GOOD update!!!

Spoiler

OH MAN, I was pretty positive the seekers would defect, but I wasn't expecting the triplechangers to go with them!! But but but but what did Octane do? What did Bumblebee do? What about Fireflight?????

Oh my goddddddd, I want to know what's up with the slaves! Because Bumblebee was definitely down for treasonous shenanigans, and Fireflight seems to have one of the best relationships with his master out there, and Thundercracker wants to take care of him. Octane was ALL about that megatron fanboy lyfe, but the narrative also mentions that triplechangers are pretty clannish. Did the cone trine go to? What about Groove? Also I was so worried about Soundwave and backlash, but he's REALLY the good child in this dysfunctional family now. But he's also a target for Starscream, since as of the Insecticon fight, Starscream has officially stopped giving a shit about whether Jazz gets murderized or not. WHAT ABOUT SKYFIRE???

Agh, before I go off on that tangent, okay. So is Starscream *really* planning to hole up in Vos? Because I kind of doubt it. I think maybe for short-term regrouping purposes, it's a good bet. But Cybertron is a wreeeeeck and Megatron is super hostile and still has oodles of firepower at his disposal, even if he's kinda lacking in fliers at the moment. Actually..... if we assume both trines and his triplechangers defected, the combaticons (and blast off) are still prodigal sons, and I belieeeeeeve the stunticons are all grounders.... does Megatron have ANY decepticon fliers left to command? Or wait, I'm forgetting cassettes. Given what's happened to Laserbeak, uh... I guess the only flier Megatron has left under his command is Buzzsaw :VVVVVV

But oh right, I tried to avoid one tangent and went off on another instead :B But basically, how long is Starscream even planning to stay in Vos? Even if he brought a number of high-level decepticons with him, all the general population is still living under Megatron. Megatron can recruit additional bodies for... forever, pretty much. But Starscream's got like. Eight decepticons and maybe a few slaves. And no real access to resources. There's an energon shortage. How are they planning to feed themselves? How will they protect themselves from an eventual assault before being starved out? Unless the Constructicons secretly defected too, they don't have any medics. I doubt the author is a reliability engineer or anything (like me!), but I bet the basic preventive maintenance for a flier is significantly greater than it is for those grounder plebes. And also, Starscream might be protecting himself in Vos, but he's also cornered himself and has cut off any opportunity for future growth. He's either going to make another attack on Megatron (a risky proposition, given the extreme differences in manpower), or... I think he might go for the space bridge. Because he knows Megatron already wasn't going to let him rebuild Vos, and that goes double now, because this Megatron is a pissy spitebaby. But earth. Earth has resources, rain that isn't made of acid, a cowed native population, a relatively small number of loyal decepticons to fight. And Skyfire. I betchu Starscream's going to go for the space bridge and try to set himself up as ruler of earth.

Alsoooooooooooo I wanna know what's going to hapen with Perceptor!! Because Megatron was already side-eyeing Soundwave and the way he treats his slave, but Soundwave is the Good Son right now and Starscream is SO far off the end of the Worst Son scale that he's making new records for how Worst he is. Would Megatron give Perceptor to Soundwave? Or would he keep Perceptor for himself and work off his Starscream anger issues through a... surrogate. I think giving Perceptor to Soundwave would really upset Soundwave given his ten million jealousy issues, but leaving Perceptor with Megatron at a time like this would really, really upset Jazz. And Bluestreak... sorry, buddy, I don't see a good way out for you :P

Basically, Soundwave, baby, if you were only willing to be just a LITTLE more treasonous, you could have bailed from the city with your entire family, and Megatron would have been left with like... the Constructicons and Shockwave (though I do guess that then Laserbeak would have been a little fucked, and Jazz and Soundwave would have been very Not Okay with that)

Aaaaaaaaaaa, this is so EXCITING!!

 

So I just started another reread of this fic, and aw man, just in the first chapter, this line gets me to so bad

I just have so many emotions about Soundwave and cassettes and auuuughghhgghhh EVERYTHING. I'm really sad none of the continuities I've read have done much similar to what this fic does with the carrier protocols. The closest we get is IDW, with the telepathy, and his eventual cassettes finding him on the streets and helping him learn how to cope. But that was only briefly in focus, and we don't get anything comparable to all the emotions we get here. My heart breaks for him in this setting, even when he's doing shitty, shady things, and that's just the way I like it.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my god, WHAT A GOOD UPDATE!

Spoiler

First, I love love love that the seekers and triplechangers were totally clueless about what Starscream was doing, but so willing to drop everything and bail without hardly any hesitation, even from the non-seekers. Really says something about how shitty Megatron is as a ruler. Everyone must know by now that this is Starscream's Thing, and they all have seen how well that worked out every other time, and they still all ran with him. I want to know what Thundercracker thinks about Fireflight being left behind. I'd LOVE to know whether he wishes he'd brought Fireflight with him (kinda shaky when they need to fly fast and Fireflight can't transform) or whether he thinks it was safer/better for Fireflight to leave him there, especially since it means he'll maybe be reunited with his gestalt team. I want to know what Fireflight thinks about all this. I am dying to know what his reaction is.

I also have to wonder about Megatron's personal reaction to all this. I mean, we've seen some of it. Lots of pointless violence, etc. But... is he going to take the defectors' slaves for himself and take his anger out on them? :C That's Perceptor, Bumblebee, Groove, and Fireflight. I hope he won't, but also I kinda do, because mm, angst. Especially if Thundercracker has to realize that he kinda brought this on Fireflight, on top of all the other suffering that goes with being a slave.

Slash, if Megatron keeps four more slaves for himself, on top of the two he already has, on top of the one renegade autobot he's preemptively claimed for himself, I wonder how his remaining underlings are going to react to that. Because the slaves are their reward for loyal service, and they've stayed even when half of Megatron's officers totally defected, but are they getting rewarded for that? No, no they are not. Regardless of where the slaves go, I think there's going to be a lot of resentment. Because the stunticons will want more workers (and mining more resources has got to be important right now), the loyal soldiers will want to be appreciated for their loyalty, Shockwave will probably want more workers for his pet projects. And if anyone gets rewarded, I bet it's going to be Soundwave, since Laserbeak was the one who caught Starscream, and Soundwave doesn't want to be rewarded like this.

I also have to wonder how close the Constructicons are to defecting. They've got their gestalt family thing going, so I assume they come as a package (also now I wonder if mind meld gestalt orgies are a thing, like with Soundwave and company. it couldn't be shared with their other partners, but STILL. DANG). I'm guessing Starscream didn't bother approaching them at least partially because they don't have flying alt modes. The Combaticons are already gone. The Stunticons seeeeeeeem like they're still pretty solidly Megatron's, but we don't have much window into their situation at all. But they're pretty tied down on earth. And especially as Megatron bulks out the labor force there with formerly-loyal cybertronians, it's going to be harder and harder to keep a handle on them. Slash, I wonder if maybe Springer is going to be taking indirect advantage of this power swing to instigate a revolt? He's had less time to be worn down by the prison camp than the autobots, and his wreckers are probably in better shape than the slaves, with less restrictions in the way of deep-wired collars and such.

Also, what is Starscream going to do by way of gathering resources? Because... the space bridge is firmly under Megatron's control, and I'm sure it's going to be well-guarded now, especially. Cyberton's ecology is fucked. The acid storms have been getting worse. Will Starscream and company even have the resources available to properly track the weather patterns? They stole as much energon as the cone trine could carry, but how long will that even last? It's not a tenable situation, in the long term. Starscream is going to have to make an offensive move soon, and I think his best bet might be doing it as fast as he can, so Megatron doesn't have time to prepare.

And Megatron's forces really are decimated, aren't they. Soundwave and company are intelligence. The Constructicons are construction. Shockwave is a bureaucratic waste of space. The only real soldier-soldier forces he has left are the Stunticons, who are already busy. I wonder if he's going to start promoting neutrals into true decepticon-hood? And if he does that, I have to question how effective and loyal those new decepticons are going to be. I think in the eighties movie, most of the fatalities were autobots. I think Starscream died, and Megatron became Galvatron, etc., but past that, I think the decepticons mostly made it out alive-ish. I don't know who most of the post-movie new decepticons were. There's Octane/Tankor, and there would be Cyclonus (but he's like, Galvatron's herald or whatever, and always has Weird Time Shenanigans going on, which seems like an awkwardly large thing to bring in this late in the fic, and a big enough part of his character that it would be hard to dodge).

But oh my god. That orgy was everything.

First of all, my heart MELTED when Jazz finally coaxed Soundwave into opening up a little. Because Soundwave doesn't even articulate these worries to himself. You can read it into the text around what's actually written, especially because of how wrapped up in his family he is, but he said it. And Jazz giving him comfort, aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh. That was the sweetest sex scene. And then Soundwave opened up the mindlink. Oh my god. That's one of the hottest things I've read in ages. The slow burn of cassettes being folded into the link, Jazz asking for more, him being so overwhelmed, all the joy and happiness coming from the cassettes. Just. Oh my god. All the distinct reactions. The contrast between Ravage's initial, persistent hostility and his contentment here. The exuberance from Frenzy and Rumble, and them getting busy themselves while they're in the link with the others, and everything echoing back and forth. Buzzsaw and Laserbeak, and the pleasure pushing the pain aside for her. Just. Holy shit, man. This was so good.

And also, I kind of wonder if it's really possible for Ravage, Laserbeak, and Buzzsaw to do interface in any other way? Because this flavor of interface is all about getting inside someone's plating, and their plates are so small! I'd be worried about Frenzy and Rumble too, but clearly they can take care of each other (and do). But bird/cat anatomy is a lot less conducive to sexing up other cybertronians, and seems like it would make self-service pretty tricky too. And all six of them and Jazz, with all the sensation and pleasure echoing back and forth!!! I'm so happy to have the sexy poly family confirmed, with Jazz happily in the mix, and that was as hot a sex scene as I could have ever asked for.

 

Spoiler

I'm so conflicted about this plot point! I love it, because protecting Fireflight mmmaybe hopefully. But also I wish he'd taken Fireflight with him, because goshdarn do I ship it. I wish wish wish we had an insight into his POV, so we could know how mjuch of this was expedience/practicality/being ordered to come alone, and how much his personal feelings and judgment factored into things. I want to know moreeeeeeeee my shipper's heart can't handle this.

But also, I have some dreadful suspicions that Megatron is going to use Skyfire to try to hurt Starscream. Maybe with Soundwave on duty to watch, record, and broadcast the whole thing. I don't want Skyfire to suffer, but... also I am a sucker for angst. IF I am reasonably assured of a happy ending, but I just can't judge how happy the endings are likely to be for some of my problematic faves in this story :C