Tada, I'm not dead

[koilungfish]

15/1/07 - Fail
16/1/07 - Ill
17/1/07 - Ill
18/1/07 - Fail


19/1/06 - Attitude Adjustment

          Hot Rod had been on Earth for all of twenty minutes and wasn't in trouble yet, so it wasn't entirely to his surprise when he wandered around a random corner and ran into an argument.
          The centre of the argument was a huge Autobot, a grey and golden giant as big as Ultra Magnus if not bigger, who was backed up against the corridor wall, surrounded by three Autobot jets barely half his size.
          "It's easy, big fellow, you can do it!" one of the jets - a white Autobot with the best part of a big black aeroplane on his back - was saying. "Answer the question, Sludge!"
          "Wuh?" went Sludge, optics wide with hopeless confusion.
          "Aww, come on," the short one said, waving a hand at Sludge. "Are you having us on, or are you seriously this stupid?"
          "Hey!" Hot Rod exclaimed, not liking what he was seeing. He ran up to the group, drawing the stares of the three jets. "Leave him alone. Can't you see you're upsetting him?"
          "Who asked you, punk?" the short one asked, getting in his face.
          "Who are you?" asked the third one, the red one with the big white wings.
          "I'm Hot Rod. I just got off the shuttle," he said, giving him his best smile and open-handed chill-out-guys stance.
          "Sheesh, just what we need. Another no-good punk car," the short one groaned, tossing his hands in the air in theatrical despair. "Come on guys, let's split before we get the big lecture on being nice." He barged past Hot Rod and swaggered off up the corridor, fellows in tow. The one with the white jet on his back shrugged to Hot Rod in passing.
          Hot Rod could only stare blankly after them for a few moments, wondering what on Cybertron he'd just walked into. This is Optimus Prime's unit! What's a bunch of guys like that doing here? He turned to Sludge. "Hi. You okay?"
          The giant looked at him with a slow, blank stare. "Me Sludge not okay," he said, startling Hot Rod.
          The inside of his mouth is yellow? Hot Rod wondered. "What's up, big guy?"
          "Me Sludge not understand question."
          "What question?"
          "If two by two is four, why two by four is stick?"
          "Eh?" Hot Rod asked, conscious of his ungraciousness.
          Sludge looked pathetic. "Me Sludge not understand."
          "That's okay, I don't get it either," Hot Rod admitted.
          Sludge beamed. "Me Sludge like you!" he said, reaching out to pat Hot Rod on the shoulder with a colossal hand.
          Hot Rod was bounced on his impact absorbers. "Whoa, nice to meet you too!"
          Sludge's great hand clamped down on his shoulder. "Me Sludge take you to see all Dinobots. You Hot Rod like Dinobots!"
          "You mean there are more like you?"

          There were more like him. Four more, and they filled the tiny chamber off the control centre like humungous cannons in a very small arms-locker. Four more pairs of huge blue optics stared down at Hot Rod. Four more pairs of giant hands patted his head and shoulders.
          "Me Sludge say him friend!" Sludge crowed, not letting go of Hot Rod's shoulders. Hot Rod was starting to feel rather squished, amongst the huge bodies and the massive feet and the great hands that rubbed the top of his head and gave him static-squeals in his radio.
          "Why you Sludge call him friend?" the yellow-chested giant with the faceplate asked. "Him just 'nother Autobot."
          "Him Hot Rod nice!" Sludge protested, giving Hot Rod a jostling hug no doubt meant to reassure him of Sludge's kind feelings. "Him Hot Rod save me Sludge from Aerialbots."
          "Hrrrm," growled the red-faced Dinobot. "Me Slag say Aerialbots no good." Beside him, the one with the red crest on his head chuckled, and the group's fifth nodded silently. "Me Slag say Aerialbots need taste of own medicine!"
          "Me Grimlock say no stomp Aerialbots!" Grimlock ordered in a thunderous voice, shaking Hot Rod on the spot.
          "What you do, Hot Rod?" the red-crested said, leaning over. "How you save Sludge?"
          "I didn't really do anything," Hot Rod said, spreading his hands apologetically. "I just told them to lay off him."
          "What they do to him Sludge?" Grimlock asked.
          "They ask stupid question," Sludge said solemnly, patting Hot Rod. "Me Sludge not know answer." He hung his head, saying sadly, "Me Sludge so stupid."
          There was a chorus-like bawl of outraged sympathy, and Hot Road was almost crushed as the Dinobots closed in to comfort their distraught comrade. Unable to move for fear of colliding with Swoop's spurred knees, he reached back and patted Sludge's side.
          All at once, the dark wall of bodies opened out. Five huge heads looked down at him.
          "Why you pat him Sludge?" Grimlock asked, almost bristling. "Him Sludge Dinobot."
          "Just because you're a different unit," not to mention a different world, "doesn't mean I don't think what the Aerialbots did was wrong."
          "Me Sludge said him Hot Rod nice," his huge patron said quietly, patting him on the head so hard Hot Rod thought he might've dislodged something.
          Grimlock leaned down to look at him, optic to optic band. "Me Grimlock not know you. You new 'bot, come in space-ship with new commander."
          "Err ... yup."
          "Where you from?"
          "Cybertron," Hot Road said truthfully.
          "Why you come here?"
          "To fight the Decepticons."
          "Why you not fight Decepticons on Cybertron?"
          "Because the Decepticons are all on Earth."
          "Hmm," Grimlock paused, musing. "Lot of Autobots want to go back to Cybertron. You want to go back to Cybertron?"
          "Go back? I only just got here!" Hot Rod protested. "I want to have a look around first!"
          "You fight Decepticons?" Slag asked suddenly.
          "Sure," Hot Rod said, turning to face Slag.
          "Fight Decepticons with Dinobots?" Swoop chimed in, favouring Hot Rod with a quirky half-smile.
          "Sure, why not?"
          "You fight Decepticons before?" Grimlock asked.
          "Been fighting them since I was built," Hot Rod replied with a laugh.
          "How old you?" Grimlock continued.
          "Seven thousand five hundred," Hot Rod shrugged.
          "Hmm. You mighty warrior!" Slag said approvingly. "Bash many Decepticons!"
          "I lost count a while back," Hot Rod shrugged.
          "Hnah! You stomp Decepticons with Snarl?"
          "Well -"
          "You stomp Decepticons with Sludge?" Sludge interrupted.
          "You melt Decepticons with Slag?"
          "You explode Decepticons with Swoop?"
          "You bash brains with Grimlock?"
          "Sure!" Hot Rod shouted. "I'll bash Decepticons with the best of you!"
          Grimlock chortled, grabbing Hot Rod by the waist and hoisting him up so he almost bashed his head on the ceiling, then perching him on his massive shoulders. "Me Grimlock like you Hot Rod! Make you honorary Dinobot!"
          "Great!" Hot Rod said. "But could you put me down first? The ceiling's kinda low in here."
          He was rather relieved that they all laughed, and was happy to laugh with them.

          It took the Aerialbots four days to catch up with him, but they did in the end.
          It was dawn, Hot Rod was just back from patrol, and they appeared out of nowhere so quick he thought they must've teleported in.
          "Hey, you!" Slingshot hollered, shoving him in the chest. "What did you think you were doing back there?"
          "Just walking down the corridor," Hot Rod protested, backing up and colliding with Air Raid.
          "Watch it!" the Aerialbot protested, brushing himself down as if Hot Rod was covered in mud.
          "Not here, dim-diodes, three days ago," Slingshot sneered, shoving his face at Hot Rod's.
          "What you were doing to Sludge was wrong," Hot Rod said, not backing down this time.
          "The big lug-nut's a moron," Air Raid said, almost laughing. "He probably don't even remember by now."
          "What is with you guys?" Hot Rod asked. "He's an Autobot."
          "Wrong, Hot Wheels," Slingshot said, "he's a Dinobot. That's a new way of saying stupid."
          "Look, I don't know what your problem with the Dinobots is, but -"
          "Hey, we got a right to not like them!" Air Raid said. "All they do is take up space and hog the energon and they get treated like they're something special."
          "And you don't, is that what you're saying?"
          "We are the only flying jet-team gestalt in the entire army," Slingshot smirked, jabbing a thumb at his chest as if he were personally responsible for capturing a Decepticon warlord or two. "We're the latest, greatest thing." Hot Rod decided against saying what he thought the Aerialbots were.
          "Nobody pays any attention to us," Fireflight protested.
          "And you gotta go taking their side again," Slingshot snapped, "like all the other dumb cars do."
          "I'm not responsible for people not liking your attitude," Hot Rod said.
          "Yeah?" said Slingshot, giving Hot Rod another shove. "Well, I ain't responsible for you having exhaust-breath."
          "Enough!" Hot Rod said loudly, giving Slingshot a one-handed shove in return. "You just back off, okay? Go cool down." And Kup says I'm a hot-headed loud-mouth?
          "Oh yeah?" Slingshot sneered, balling a fist. "You ain't fought the Decepticon big-shots! You ain't nothing!"
          "Him Grimlock's friend," boomed the Dinobot commander, suddenly looming over them out of a side-corridor. Slingshot yelped, Fireflight yelled, Air Raid ducked. "Me Grimlock say you tell me what you doing."
          "None of your business, you big dumb lizard," Slingshot yelled, backing rapidly out of reach.
          "Me Grimlock say it my business," Grimlock said, laying a protective hand on Hot Rod's shoulder. "Me Grimlock say talk!"
          "Me Air Raid say 'hex-nuts to Grimlock!' " Air Raid hollered, making to run.
          Grimlock's huge paw snapped out, grabbing the Aerialbot by the nosecone and hauling him close. "Me Grimlock say you tell me what you doing."
          "Hey! Let go! That's sensitive equipment!" Air Raid squalled. Down the corridor, Slingshot was yelling rude comments at them. Fireflight stood behind him, looking worried.
          "Me Grimlock say you going to talk to me Grimlock," and the satisfaction in his tone couldn't have been thicker, "because me Grimlock outrank you. Me Grimlock order you to come with me Grimlock straight to Optimus Prime, and you Aerialbots talk to him and me Grimlock and him Silverbolt too!"
          "Aww, no!" the third Aerialbot whined. "No fair!"
          "Guys?" Hot Rod interjected, waving at the Aerialbots to get their attention. "Don't you think what you did to Sludge wasn't fair?"
          There was the rueful silence of three Aerialbots who couldn't deliver their standard response due to the presence of Grimlock.
          "Me Grimlock thought not," the Dinobot commander said, lifting Air Raid bodily off the ground and tucking him under one arm. "Now, we all go talk to him Prime and him Silverbolt!"
          He paused, looking down at Hot Rod. There was a faint glimmer in his optic band that made Hot Rod start smiling even before Grimlock spoke.
          "Me Grimlock hear there new commander, him Ultra Magnus. Him really not have time for Autobots who mean to others."
          "No," Hot Rod said, sharing Grimlock's chuckle, "him really not."


Final Version Posted

Comments

[apprentice-lurk.livejournal.com]

EEEEE! Dinobots! And Hot Rod! And Dinobots! And EEE!

...Ahem. The Dinobots are as adorable as anything, as per usual, if only because they're so in-character and so protective of their own, and Grimlock picking Air Raid up and dragging him off to Ultra Magnus makes me squee and giggle like a lunatic. And YAY Hot Rod getting to be all confused and paladin-ish and still be himself at the same time!

In short, EEE!

*fussings and skritchings and ribbons for the fishie* Glad you're feeling better, bossfish. *fussksritchfussfuss*

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

:: is blown backwards snout-over-tailfins:: Egads, Bootscreature. That squee of yours is a dangerous weapon!

You'd say the Dinobots were in character? I'm really not sure about Hot Rod, m'self ... [why do I keep writing Autobots I've never written before?] ... any how, you liked? Found fault with?

:: purrs and preens:: I am feeling rather better, yes, albeit still pretty limp and lame. Thankee.

[apprentice-lurk.livejournal.com]

...Eheh. ^_^;; Maybe that's my Speshul Powaah or something, making people's eardrums explode through squee. ;)

I want to take the Dinobots home with me and keep them in my room. ^_______^So very, very much love, and like Peper says, it's nice to see Grimlock pulling rank, being that little bit sneaky and staying in character while he does it. I really, really like Hot Rod, for all he makes me think of Rodimus Prime a little more - I'm not sure why, though, before you poke me! *ducks fishsticks*

The brattiness of the Aerialbots was interesting, since they were still acting like the stuck-up twits fresh onto the planet far more than Hot Rod ever did, and I really liked a couple of Hot Rod's lines - particularly the one about this being Optimus Prime's unit, and his surprise at such jerks being part of it. That was a nice touch. ^_^

*skritchskritchfuss* This is good. A poorlyfish is a very bad thing! :O *ribbonsribbonsskritchies*

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

So ... you're actually Scowl with a new and pretty outer shell?

Grimlock has his smart and sneaky moments in canon, albeit not as often in the cartoon. Besides, if you take the tech specs literally, he outranks Silverbolt [which makes sense, since he has seniority], let alone the other Aerialbots. And Hot Rod really ought to contain little germs of what made him Rodimus Prime. The Matrix may have given him power and wisdom, but it had to have something to work with first.

The Aerialbots, for all that I seem to be using them as a stick to beat themselves with recently, are a bunch of tossers three times out of five, especially without Silverbolt. Besides, if you take "Kup's Story" into account, Hot Rod is several hundred years old minimum. He's had time for life to knock the bratty corners off him.

:: purrpreen!:: In-bloody-deed.

[raisedbymoogles.livejournal.com]

.....


....


*deep breath*

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! :D :D :D ThisissocoolRoddy'ssocutewiththeDinobotsandstickingupforSludgeandGrimlockespeciallyissoincharacterwhatwiththecutenessandthebadasseryandandandEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

*falls over dede* X)

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

:: is blown out of the room!:: Egads, moogle!

:: picks self up:: I take it you liked it then?

[raisedbymoogles.livejournal.com]

I think that's a safe assumption. ^_~

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

Ever so slightly. So, care to render that squee in a more readable fashion? :)

[raisedbymoogles.livejournal.com]

Okay, okay. *deep breaths*

I can't speak for the Aerialbots, but Roddy and the Dinobots were all wonderfully in character, especially Grimlock. I love how he goes from protecting the Dinobots from Roddy to being protective of Roddy as an honorary Dinobot, and then pulling rank (which we hardly ever see in S3, sadly). Also, the story was cute and made me flail like a mad thing.

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for characters being in character! Grimlock, for all that he's overexposed, is a surprisingly versatile character to write with.

:: tickles the flailing moogle:: Why am I not surprised?

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

And someday, the non-asshole Aerialbots will get to show their faces in Koific. ^_~

Poor Fireflight. He should learn not to go along with Slingshot. Air Raid is probably already doomed, but he has kitty ears and is thus cute.

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

I'll try and think of something to do with non-jerk Aerialbots. Where and when this would happen is another question.

Given that Skydive seems quite happy to tag along behind Slingshot on his making-an-arse-of-himself trips, Fireflight is hardly to be blamed. All Slingshot has to do is tape a shiny thing to his back and Fireflight will follow him anywhere ;) Air Raid is equally doomed, but he goes out and finds his own doom.

[invisiblemoose.livejournal.com]

I really like this story. Sludge especially worked well for me for some reason. I guess because it's so easy to remember his voice. Hot Rod seemed to be a bit of a nice guy instead of losing his cool or being a hothead in general, but it's not as if he was out of character.

It's such a perfect first meeting for Sludge and the Dinobots and Hot Rod, though. It sets up their canon relationship perfectly.

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

Hurrah. Sludge never gets written, for some reason. Then again, you don't tend to see much fic for individual Dinobots other than Grimlock [not that this really qualifies]. Writing Hot Rod, I wasn't sure if he was coming across as a bit too nice, but then, he's not a rash lunatic [except in Spotlight :p ].

I didn't really have "set the canon up" in mind, but it does seem to have worked out that way.

[invisiblemoose.livejournal.com]

Well, your Grimlock and other Dinos were pretty good, but for some reason Sludge's lines really stuck with me. Possibly because, like you said, he's not used so often and was handled so well here.

And no, you don't have to have Hot Rod being a rash lunatic in order to be a hothead. The trick, I guess, is to find a place for him somewhere between "I'm going to travel to an enemy planet via a METEOR SHOWER" and "hey now, let's stop and think about Sludge's feelings for a minute, mm'kay?"

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

If his lines stick, I guess that means I've gotten him right. Also, yes, Grimlock doesn't have to be a knuckle-dragging goon to be acty-before-thinky.

If you consider a character as a circle on a Venn diagram, covering many aspects of personality, Hot Rod does cover "nice guy" and "hothead". You just have to take one into account when writing the other. Meteor showers aside ¬_¬

[invisiblemoose.livejournal.com]

Indeed it does mean you've gotten them right. Well done.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you WERE writing him as if he had to talk about his feelings, and like I said, it WAS in character.

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. I thought you were saying I'd written him too nice. It's good to know I got him okay :)

[navigatorsghost.livejournal.com]

*glee!* I like this, I really do. Nice prose on the bit where Rod is being introduced to the Dinobots - I could practically feel the claustrophobia and the nervousness of "whoa, I like these guys but yikes I'm a bit out of my depth here!". It reminded me of being a young Rath the first couple of times I went in a rock bar. ^_^

The Aerialbots seemed a bit too nasty, if anything, to me, in that I've written Decepticons who were about on a par for bitchiness. I know you're not terribly impressed by them and on occasion neither am I, but that felt a tiny bit off - Slingshot might be that bad but I'm not so sure Air Raid would follow suit.

Grimlock's dialogue seemed a bit clunky right at the end, but that could just be because getting that number of "him (name)s" into one paragraph is hard without it ending up a bit forced. He doesn't usually manage sentences that long in canon after all. ;)

And I like Hot Rod. Sure, he's being a nice guy, but I think he's in character. He's being nice in a way that means he opened his mouth and had a go and was about to get kicked for it, which seems accurate enough. He's still being a brash young punk, he's just doing it out of goodness of heart rather than nastiness, which makes a nice contrast to the Aerialbots. Way to go on explaining why Grimlock was later so close/loyal to the young Prime, also!

...egads, long comment. I go now...

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

Well, the Dinobots *are* rather bigger than Hot Rod ...

The Aerialbots are the king jerks amongst the Autobots. I may have taken them a little too far [I don't think they were going to do anything worse to Hot Rod than a bit of shoving and name-calling], but then, it's pretty bloody hard to create tension when everyone's always nice to one another, eh? And Air Raid, if his TFU is anything to go by, will happily get into anything if he thinks it'll be fun. Shame the cartoon doesn't give him much characterisation.

Long sentences in Lingua Dinobot are a pain. No wonder they don't use them. And rah on Hot Rod being IC.

[Also rah for long comments :) ]

[ravenclaw-devi.livejournal.com]

I like it, for basically the reasons already mentioned. Would explain why movie!Roddy could herd the Dinobots when Blurr failed with his 'nicedinogooddinosweetdino', for one. :D

The Aerialbots can be such punks, eh? Between them and the Seekers, I sometimes wonder if the bad attitude gets handed out with the wings...

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

Well, calling Grimlock "nice sweet dino" will never get anyone anywhere ...

Wings do seem to come into it, yes. It's the same as how all the helicopters ever seem to be disruptive loons.

[sapphirebreeze.livejournal.com]

*finally gets around to reading this. Or rather, the posted version.*

Very nice. I quite enjoy the interaction with the Dinobots, and Hot Rod's acceptance through, mostly, just giving them a chance. This fic amused me and made me smile, and I'm not much of a Dinobot fan.

One of my earliest memories of watching the Transformers was of wanting, very strongly, to slap the Aerialbots around for being asshats (even if I didn't know that word yet). This fic brought those memories to the front of my mind.

One error:

There was a chorus-like bawl of outraged sympathy and Hot Road was almost crushed

Hot Road? I doublechecked the posted version, and it's there, too.

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

Hurrah. Glad you enjoyed it.

The Aerialbots suffer rather from a lack of positive characterisation, it has to be said. Nor were the comics much better, given that Optimus Prime basically had them brainwiped for being jackasses.

Oy, not another Hot Road. I seem to have some sort of knot in my fins that makes me keep typing Hot Rod as Hot Road. Not as bad as the time I called him Hot Toad, but still ... I thought I'd caught all those excess 'a's. Thanks for catching that one. Are you sure I can't persuade you to do some beta reading for me? ;)

[sapphirebreeze.livejournal.com]

No time, Fish. Considering the level of demand you're prone to putting on those hapless enough to just give you feedback, I'm not sure I could handle the demands of being a beta! Two other reasons, though:

1) I sometimes go through extended phases of simply not being in the mood to read fic, as the length of time between your posted fics and my actual responses should indicate. Sure, I usually get around to them eventually, but you'd probably want somewhat more timely responses from an actual beta reader.

2) I'm really not that good. Sure, I catch the occasional typo here and there, and when I see them, I report on them, but as far as reading for content and giving in-depth reasons for why I think this about that passage, or whatever, that, I'm not so hot at. Basically, it requires a bit more self analysis than I'm willing to do with reguards to fanfiction.

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

Ahah. Sorry about that. I am still a feedback junkie, it seems ... in any case, thanks for picking those random Roads out.

:: picks up net and goes in search of a beta reader elsewhere::