TFs: DARE TO BE STUPID

ABSOLUTELY I DO!!! I'm behind on reading the OP and Unicron issues, and writing anything for them will probably have to wait until I read how it plays out myself, but if I'm apparently actually drawing things again? Oh man, right near the top of the queue. I haven't drawn for so long I don't want to jinx it, but man did I forget how I love drawing!!

(I have story ideas too, especially since Aileron is a person who knows what an emotion is and how to process it, and Arcee being 'EVERYONE LOOK AT MY WONDERFUL AND BRILLIANT GIRLFRIEND' and Aileron being like 'it's just... asking you how you're feeling......'. And also thoughts about touch and contact and words sometimes being difficult and lots of things I want to convey one way or another XD So it needs a little more shape than that before I can write, but it's definitely percolating!!!)

 

Spoiler: LL23 sdffsda I'LL SHUT UP SOON

Two things. One, Pharma chilling on Delphi for an ungodly long time, millions of years, and he gets into sketchy shit, sure. But then JUST as he releases a rust plague, his old crush drops in for a surprise visit like 'lol hey haven't talked in millions of years what u doin'

And then to add insult to injury, at the very end, his crush's new boyfriend(?) cuts off both of his hands and drops him off a giant cliff.

That's just beautiful.

And also also also, the whole business with him definitely positively having feelings for Ratchet puts an extra layer on how he couldn't pass through the aequitas force field because of guilt. There was already plenty of guilt to go around, just from Ambulon if nothing else, but I'm almost positive he wouldn't have been able to pass even before that. And then to top it all off, he's got that fresh, stinging awareness that he's escalated to new extremes just to hurt this person he supposedly cares about.

Anyways, just tossing Pharma on top of the pile of my self-destructive, self-sabotaging, self-hating faves. He was already there from subtext, but now I get to polish him up as totally canon. LOV HIM.

And on a totally different note, there's something that I really like about Solomus being completely ready to throw down and fight Adaptus, even though he's supposedly not very good at fighting. That could be Adaptus talking shit, but I really like it as an accurate assessment. Because that means in the old fight, Solomus was right there going toe to toe with him, and in the present Solomus goes from ally to 'FITE ME' in a matter of moments. And that's cool and all if Solomus was evenly matched with Adaptus, but I like it even better if Solomus is super outclassed, but totally willing to throw down anyways.

 

OKAY so I joked about Arcee and Cyclonus and what if Arcee was ceiling cat in the LL instead of in Iacon, and I made a tactical error and painted my nails, which means I can't draw, SO. I'm gonna ramble about this here :V

Spoiler: Yet Another Spockandawe Essay

Okay, the reasons for Arcee being aboard the LL can go in any number of directions. Was she sent there by Prowl? Did she decide to ollie out of the broken Cybertron, like Cyclonus? Was it Vague Feelings Of Existential Dissatisfaction? Arcee is tired of being directed? Arcee wants to make friends but how do?

Since mtmte didn't do the exrid thing of having narration for inner monologues, it doesn't have to be terribly clear! Definitely not at first, and possibly not forever. Arcee stows away on the LL, for Personal Reasons, but she's not afraid of the MAN, so she goes around Red Alert and just sneaks onboard like the unstoppable beast she is.

(also, i want there to be parallels with arcee doing things like cyclonus, and them knowing each other from before, but her doing the cyclonus things better than cyclonus does. cyclonus grabs onto the outside of the hull to tag along, arcee is nice and comfortable in the ventilation system)

What happens? The ship goes nuts around her what with quantum leap nonsense, but nope, she's on vacation, not her problem. And then there's a sparkeater. It is VERY important that she has an encounter with Skids while he is gallivanting through the vents. Skids is still too wobbly on the memory to do more than ???????? at her, definitely he can't PLACE her, he probably doesn't remember to ask about it until it's awkwardly late and he wonders if he imagined her.

Probably she would have spied on the end of the sparkeater business, but ehhhh, Rodimus handled it, she doesn't need to come back from vacation yet.

I think.............. I think it is funniest if she has no idea Cyclonus even tried to tag along and is amazingly offended to find out that he stowed away too. This was HER IDEA, fuk off, discount galvatron. She's better at sneaking than he is, so his awareness of her presence will have to wait until an appropriately dramatic+funny+awkward moment.

In the meantime, I wrote that one whirlcee fic as more of a joke than anything, but like... they would be hilarious together. Arcee can't rattle Whirl. Whirl doesn't cut off people for missing social cues. Whirl accidentally got his first roommate killed. Substitute roommate Arcee, oh my god please, this would be amazing to read

I think that Whirl can get away with having a secret roommate for a long time if he wants to. Neither of them has the kind of hosility field that would drive the other one away too easily, and Whirl is very 'fuck the police', and would probably love keeping secrets from Ultra Magnus. Probably he would try to fuck with her by like... changing the passcode on the door so she can't get in, but she enters and exits exclusively through the ceiling, and when he tried bolting her vent closed, there was a new arcee-shaped hole in the ceiling next time she tried to come home. She'd have to feed herself, I doubt Whirl would help with that, but the LL is so chill and laid back.

Now, other people.

Once Arcee notices Cyclonus is hanging around, I want to tap in to the disgruntled jealousy that coldstars wrote so well oh my god i'm still dying. SHE THREW HIM OUT A WINDOW. But I want her trying to People, and still disliking Cyclonus, and really, REALLY disliking how she can't read Cyclonus, and stalking him via the ceiling vents like a cat with a grudge. I don't know if it would ever escalate to actively fucking with him, it would need to be a setup that was just the right balance of petty and not-too-contrived, and I can't think of what it would be but I BET it's out there.

(and I would really like Cyclonus being actively unsettled by someone that he can't manage. Whirl prods him, and Cyclonus holds firm and is exasperated but not rattled, but Arcee is a whole different unsettling ball game)

Now. Okay. TAILGATE.

Because Arcee tries really hard to people, and she gets rebuffed a lot, and she makes moves that make other people uncomfortable, and she tries hard and it breaks my heart every time something goes wrong for her.

I want to hold Arcee up against the softest, sweetest marshmallow boy and give her a friend. A genuine, straightforward friend, who feels very out of place himself, and isn't going to be too judgmental about someone not fitting in well. A sweet boy who is also lonely, and also very much wants friends, but who has a lot more natural talent for making them than Arcee has.

fuckdammit, i know i'm about to fuck up my nails, but this is important.



Anyways.

Once she's friends with Tailgate, there's not going to be much of a secret from Cyclonus for much longer, or the rest of the ship. Arcee cheerfully ignores all the rules she's apparently broken, and like, if they're letting Cyclonus stay.... she's got a good case for being allowed to stay too :P

Also, she might have gotten to know Swerve before now, because alcohol, but also because another person who badly wants a friend.

Which doesn't necessarily preclude Swearth, or even Arcee continuing to be a creeping creeper who creeps, but she's not likely to recognize mental health issues and what needs to be done about them. She might be aware that Swerve is in his room sending out a solid light holoform to do Shenanigans, but not realize that yo, this signifies a serious problem.

I want her and Cyclonus to talk Galvatron. I want to lock these two avoidant, emotionally repressed dumbasses into a room and make them talk about their feelings. I don't know what I want either of them to say, except I want all of that coldstars fic to be true :P

dasffsafsd ARCEE PERPETUALLY THINKING OF HIM AS A KID while everyone else is like 'yeah, grumpy old man cyclonus' and arcee is all 'YOU ARE LIKE BABY.'

I like the idea of her and Rung getting on well, though I don't know where I'd go with it.

I am an absolutely awful shipping gremlin, and hate breaking up good ships, my mind immediately went arcee/cyclonus -> arcee/tailgate -> arcee/tailgate/cyclonus -> arcee/whirl -> ARCEE/TAILGATE/CYCLONUS/WHIRL--

(especially because i like arcee working through her emotions by pretending she doesn't have them and throwing herself into some other social relationship that definitely has nothing to do with those emotions she doesn't have, no sir)

Though I also very much like the idea of her being interested in the new Camien ladies who start showing up. And unlike in iacon, where people are there to awkwardly be like 'HEY, THEY'RE LIKE U', Arcee here is more socially established, and also able to sneak around and watch them on her own terms, not because people are like 'U AND THEM, RIGHT?' I think that would be a little more pleasant for her, and she's less likely to say fuck it and somersault off into the wilderness.

Which is to say, Arcee/Nautica has me very OuO in ways that like, cygate does, with the old and tired warrior person and the young, fresh, sweethearted idealist. And, I mean. Once Velocity arrives, like. CLEARLY Arcee/Nautica/Velocity is the same thing, but more and better, and two younger friends who know each other well teaming up like OuO on the other one who isn't used to being liked or wanted. Like. PLEASE. I NEED.

Ummm what else. I think she and Rodimus would be on warily decent terms, I think she and Ultra Magnus would be NOT that. I like her sneaking around and creeping on Megatron, and Megatron being clever enough to realize, but smart enough to know he shouldn't retaliate, and being intensely frustrated by how ridiculous this autobot ship is in all sorts of different ways. Her and Ravage.... definitely antagonistic at first, because fuck off, bub, this is MY creeping territory. But once Ravage starts getting along with people, I like them getting on well. Soundwave is also a socially awkward loner with a rich inner life and lots of emotions. I really, REALLY like the idea of Ravage starting to reluctantly adopt Arcee, though both of them would be all offended denial if anyone said it outright.

I do want a LOT of arcee and cyclonus struggling hard to read each other, because what is a social and how do i eat it. They're both really closed off and unreadable, and have put a lot of effort into learning how to social, with questionable results. And having them mirror that back at each other over and over has delicious tension potential, especially if they manage to resolve it eventually. Also something something not being the only person out there who thinks like this, I don't have to adapt to him, we're on a similar wavelength naturally.

I'm bored now, I dumped my momentum by doing that photoshop, which is wonderful and worth everything, but I was born without the ability to focus. Arcee. Lost Light. Everyone loves her, they just don't know it yet. Arcee starts collecting Camien girlfriends. Tailgate collects old jaded Cybertronians. This is too sprawling for me to see workable story in it so far, but there's definitely stories that could be told from this. I have to see if I can find one gripping enough and manageable enough to write on paper :P

 

Hang on, at first I posted this in my brainbent, like 'oh nooo i'm too self-conscious to put it in the main thread' and then I stopped and considered and what is this self-conscious bs, I am clearly happy to post anything and everything over here, so let me see if I copied everything right

SO.

Cyclonus is a useless lesbian. Yes? Yes. Cyclonus is very much a useless lesbian.

But. While giving Cyclonus shit for being a useless lesbian, I missed something important.

Just look at this nonsense.

Spoiler: mtmte 47 no really this is spoilers if you haven't read yet

Just look at this. Tailgate, mister 'yes i was just in the middle of accepting a marriage proposal and also tried to kill our co-captain, almost got killed, and then you attacked our co-captain and his cat, and we're kind of running for our lives, but ummm anyways the important things HAVE WE BEEN MARRIED THIS WHOLE TIME???'

I'm not going to say Cyclonus isn't a useless lesbian.

I'm just saying that these are useless lesbians squared. These are exponentially useless lesbians. and I love them

 

Spoiler: ARTE (sfw)

AN ARTE