Unfinished Fics: #7 - Blood & Diesel

[koilungfish]

Unfinished Fic #7
Blood & Diesel
A motorway pileup causes Optimus Prime to have a nervous breakdown.

Comments

[lunatron.livejournal.com]

Interesting. From the title alone, I would have expected more, er, roadway carnage and less Jesus, but the Jesus idea is pretty interesting.

Granted, I would generally cast Optimus in more of a Moses role, but that is me.

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

Well, it started with roadway carnage ... if I'd completed it, I probably would've changed the title. I often do. Heck, Army of You started out as Heat Death.

I didn't originally intended to do the temptation parallel thing, it just kinda happened ... by which I mean I didn't consciously choose what I was doing there. Otherwise I would have done something else.

[lunatron.livejournal.com]

Interesting! I usually get a story finished and then stare blankly at it for a while before giving it a title.

Oh, I also liked Tesseract. Random screwed up tortures appeal to me. >_>

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

I have to come up with a title in order to save the file ...

Rar! I'm not sure what I could have done with him. He was just there :: shrugs ::

[jedi-sheng.livejournal.com]

Ummm *offers hug* I am sorry that you are feeling bitchy and I hope that you will feel better soon, with the cause having improved?
A FASINATING delve into cybertronian culture and tech. I would love to have seen the discussion on the tires and their function (not to mention the delving into how far someone with Optimus armor-class would roll). I LOVE doing stuff like that, looking at TFs and sorting out what would be different and why and the hows.
Also, I love seeing the Optimus-comic-version show up, I like the comic characters better than the cartoon versions most time (mostly because I was introduced to the comics first by my Grandfather, who was a friend of one of the minor artists). I also like how you worked the comic personality and history in and melded it with the cartoon history.
Thank you for posting these unfinished fics, I must admit I enjoy reading them, and seeing your explinations for various plot points and tech.

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It was nothing - just a sore shoulder :)

Culture and tech, and the interaction between the two, was always one of my major fascinations with the TFs. The conversation started out mostly about Autobots and car crashes - I think we'd just been watching G1 and noticed how short a brake run Optimus has. I think it's Plague of Insecticons where he's trucking along and hits the brakes and stops dead. Those aren't normal brakes, no ...

Cartoon Optimus was always a bit too flawlessly heroic for me. Besides, I grew up watching the cartoons and reading the comics at the same time, so for me the characterizations are blurred together, quite inseparable. It's easy to see comic Prime's depressive self-loathing in cartoon Prime in Megatron's Master Plan, coming as it does immediately after Microbots, wherein Prime had to stand by helplessly as his men were damn near slaughtered by Megatron, who was drunk.

Enjoy! More Landwaster stuff next ... oh boy.

[jedi-sheng.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear that, I hope you continue to feel better. *offers some of her knox gelatin and pain-a-trate?*

Oh most certainly not, I love the detail that the carformers can 'feel' the road through their tires, I'm glad I was not the only one to think such! It's Plague of Insecticons, yes, although there are other episodes.

*nods* It is easy to blend the two personalities and characters and see aspects of one in the other canon.

Ohhh, fun.

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It's not too serious - just something I did to a muscle years ago that sometimes cramps up and gives me headaches.

It makes sense that they should. They're half-car, it's not just something they do for transport, it's what their bodies are and how they live. Not being able to feel with their tyres makes about as much sense as not being able feel with their feet.

Yeah. There are some characters where you can't do that - Cyclonus, most obviously, and to an extent Grimlock - but Prime has some overlap.

And the next one up will be slash!

[jedi-sheng.livejournal.com]

Ouch, still, I'd offer my pain-a-trate in reality were I able to reach across the pond;) It has asprin in it so I like it better than bengay or the like.

Wonderfully thought out.

Oh my yes on cyclonus (I do love when he and Scourge are running from Death's Head and run over Rodi. It's so much fun.

I still don't know how you can get slash with genderless robots but YEA in any case. (I hang onto hope eternal that it will have more Inferno and Red Alert interactions)

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

I don't bother with painkillers, really. By the time they're strong enough to have an effect, they're so strong I'm walking into doors and walls because I don't care if I hit them or not.

Ta. It just ... it's one of those things you don't think of at first, but when you do, it makes so much sense you can't think why you didn't think of it before.

Also beard-grabbing!

They both use male pronouns so, genderless or not, it's kinda the done thing to call it slash ['fraid I don't think I've got anything more for them. Sorry!].

[jedi-sheng.livejournal.com]

Well pain killers I usually have to avoid which is why I use bengay and the like it dulls the pain a bit where it's applied and helps with inflamation;)

*nods* I know what you mean. I hope you have moments like that as you write your original works too.

Oh yes;) I love Death's head chasing Rodi and coming out facing down all those guns;)

Oh yes, I know, I just always have to blink then chuckle, tis part of how I was pulled into Insecticomics her use of the 'they're genderless'

And oh darn on Inferno and Red Alert. Oh well, I still look forward to what you'll be putting up. (*looks around then nabs Red and Inferno from 'Going to the Dogs' and sneaks them off all ninja like uhh, ignore the knee and hip brace noise... meeheeheehee! ;)

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

If I'm in that much pain, I generally just drink ;)

I'll be worried if they don't happen now and then ...

He's a smart mech. Got out of it all right, yes?

Gotcha :: nods :: The debate about tagging for slash is one thing - I don't like tagging for it, but people flail if I don't, and it's easier to stick two words at the beginning of a fic than deal with heteronormativity-is-god morons.

Eh, I have always been pretty 'con-centric ...

[jedi-sheng.livejournal.com]

Can't drink, I'm allergic to alcohol;) just a tiny cup of beer makes me sick for day at least.

Point^__^

Yes there are always people like that, some are nice despite such at least! I can not wait to see which couple it will be (maybe TC and SW!)

I do believe that I noticed that trend (And you do seem to hate the Aerialbots, poor boys;). I am a flat out neutral when it comes to 'choosing sides'. Both have pros and cons (no pun intended) and I am glad that you are con-centric. It created a swath of much needed WELL WRITTEN con based fanfics where the decepticons were not... well not what White Chromia pretends to be or worse, to use Insecticomics as a referance;)

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

Man, that sucks. I'm pretty picky about what I drink - won't touch cider or brandy, for example - but just knowing I can drink is a relief a lot of the time.

Actually, it's Megatron & Starscream ...

I don't hate the Aerialbots. It's just that a lot of the characters I'm writing think they're jerks and morons. Doesn't help that Skydive, Fireflight and Air Raid never got much in the way of characterisation to work from. And thanks :)

[jedi-sheng.livejournal.com]

There are times I wonder if being able to drink would be nice, but as I've never been able to it is as foreign a concept to me as the flavor of energon ^_^.

Oooo, that should be most interesting *pauses in posting to go read*
Oh, well crafted!! I enjoyed it very much and it was very nice to see your take on their relationship! (Also a mention of Lunatic Cabaret, yea!)

Apologies then, they were rather consistent in their portrayal no matter who they interacted with. I rather like the tumbling buch myself, however I know that many others dislike them... and given that like Prowl they tend to be a bit of a jerk as a general cocnept one can see why^_^ ...then again I love Prowl and ADORE Red Alert so mayhaps I am simply odd.

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

That's ... ow. I never really thought of energon having a taste, since it's not exactly matter [in Koiverse].

You like? Lunatic Cabaret will be up at some point ... although it's almost all Skywarp.

Well, it doesn't help that there aren't that many characters in the canon who'd seem to get on with the Aerialbots, at least until S3. There's nothing odd about liking Prowl and Red Alert though.

[(Anonymous)]

That bit of fanon about the Matrix is a rather elegant solution to the S1-S2 Prime's chest cavity problem. One would think Magnus or Prowl would have at least suggested leaving it behind, under the circumstances.

Reconciling it with Beast Wars might be a bit tricky, but then Beast Wars never quite made up its mind about whether Prime was carrying the Matrix or not.

I'm glad someone other than me noticed Megatron and Starscream's policy differences. Looking at fanfiction, one gets the impression that they have no substantive disagreements at all and every fight they have is a provocation. It's like people can't wrap their heads around the idea that their professional dynamics might be motivated by something other than their interpersonal relationship. Of course sometimes they are just picking fights with each other, but they clearly also have a fundamental disagreement about how to prosecute the war.

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

You'd think, yes.

BW never made it clear if that was the Matrix or Prime's spark that Primal picked up. More likely the latter, I think.

Yeah, there's a lot about those two that doesn't get noticed - such as how Starscream goes 100% business in jet mode, or how Megatron's temper affects his commands. They have different leadership styles which are pretty much at odds with their fanon personalities. I'd think their differences may be one of the reasons why the Decepticons are winning. As said, Megatron plays the long game for the high stakes, Starscream plays shorter but harder. When they're working together, they've got an impressive double-team that covers most if not all possibilities. When they're working against each other, there's often a sense of two swords that sharpen one another.

[(Anonymous)]

BW never made it clear if that was the Matrix or Prime's spark that Primal picked up. More likely the latter, I think.

The trouble is Prime's spark container looked exactly like the Matrix. So it's impossible to know- does Optimus Prime randomly have a Matrix-shaped spark container? Is the Matrix-bearer's spark the glowy bit nestled in that core of the Matrix, and that's how the Matrix communicates with him? Either way it's a bit baffling, especially since in G1 the Matrix is blue and glowy whether it's in someone's chest or not.

They have different leadership styles which are pretty much at odds with their fanon personalities

Fandom almost has an excuse for fanon!Megatron, because there's so much emphasis on his physical strength that people think 'dumb jock' and don't look further, and he does go off on anti-intellectual rants from time to time. But what about Starscream could possibly make anyone think "subtle long-term planner," I couldn't begin to guess. He's occasionally a better strategist than Megatron because he favors shooting the Autobots now before they have a chance to regain the advantage, but that has less to do with native intelligence and more to do with him lacking Megatron's determination to kill Optimus Prime in a sufficiently ironic and dramatic way.

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

Well, the blue glow inside the Matrix can't be Prime's spark, since it has an obviously solid, crystalline nature - just look at it when Hot Rod opens it in TFTM, and how Optimus was able to take a piece out and give it to Longtooth in the comics. Also, the Whatever from BW and the Matrix from G1 look to be different sizes and designs. Similar designs, but not the same ...

It's the same as how they don't notice that Megatron can be surprisingly agile [Fire in the Sky, Heavy Metal War]. Basically, comes down to people not looking at the canon and putting all the pieces of data together.