Nanni

Despite failing to actually write it all up (I still kind of PLAN to, it just - didn't happen in anything resembling actual time) I finished my rewatch of Transformers Animated and have moved on to Transformers Prime.

I think I can go for a show where Arcee's the Brooding Mysterious Dangerous One in a central narrative position. Yup. I can definitely go for that.

I've been contemplating on Transformers ocs again. I really need to figure out what Moraine actually looks like, since after I decided not to kill her off while I was writing In the Low Places, I pretty much stuck her permanently in my mental conception of G1-verse and Beachcomber's personal circle therein. (Which means also Perceptor's circle, poor mech. I don't think he's ever going to find her any less disquieting.) I know she's a smidgebit taller than Beachcomber, and about the same mass, so miiiiiiildly less cobby. Single optical sensor band like a visor. Last time I was thinking about this I was trying to figure out her alt mode, and I pretty much got to "....basically Curiosity, only the wheels are more elliptical, almost oblong, and are basically like little mini tank treads, instead of wheels and they let her go up very steep slopes safely." I figure you can //definitely// see all six treads in her robot mode.

I'm very fond of my worryingly solitary geologist.

And I've been thinking about Cheerly, again, who I haven't put in any stories ever, and I'm not sure sure where to start. Although, really, I think she could make an excellent piece of supporting cast for a dockworker origin Early Optimus Prime story.

Cheerly's a tugboat, who works as tugboat and sometimes as a longshoreman or stevedore, around docks and harbors. I pretty much have her around not for any of my usual reasons - usually I create characters because I have a narrative slot that needs filling, and then they kind of expand - but because I was reading Patrick O'Brian one day, and he had Jack Aubrey say in a crisis to his crew, "All together cheerly now! Cheerly!" and it struck me that there could not be a better name than that for an autobot, and an autobot with a name like that would absolutely have to be a tugboat. There was just no other choice.

...Interestingly, and which I did not know till rather later, there actually was a rescue tug named HMS Cheerly that operated in the Atlantic during World War II.

I rewatched the first season of Transformers: Animated recently, and I kind of feel like writing up a quick version of my thoughts before I go on to the second season. There's gonna be kind of a lot about narrative structure and building characterization here, because I've been thinking about writing and how you do it.

So! To start!

( Transform and Roll Out pts 1-2-3 )

Title: Succession Crises
Author: Tiamat's Child
Fandom: Transformers G1
Word Count: 737
Rating: K
Characters/Pairing: Rodimus Prime, First Aid
Summary: Rodimus and First Aid talk socially oriented anxieties and coping mechanisms.
Warnings: None.
Note: Because I mention Nellie Lutcher in this little story, and, alas! There are probably folks out there who have never had a chance to listen to her music, I'm attaching her "Hurry on Down", which is. Uh. Marginally unsafe for work. Here is a link to a download of "Hurry on Down" at MegaUpload.

( Succession Crises )

Title: The Fix'd Foot
Author: Tiamat's Child
Character: Beachcomber, with Perceptor insisting on making his opinion known.
Word count: 1,444 words
Rating/Warning: G
Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers!
Group/Theme: For the 7minibots community on Livejournal Theme set: The Seven Major Chakras – Prompt: Muladhara (governs stability and survival)
Summary: Perceptor has never been able to get Beachcomber to do anything. Not for his own good, and not for the good of the world.

A link to the orginal story.

( Commentary! )

Title: Poetics: The Cybertonian Tradition
Author: Tiamat’s Child
Fandom: Transformers G1
Word Count: 788
Rating: K
Summary: Poetry, fiction, and criticism from Cybertron.
Warnings: None.

( Poetics: The Cybertonian Tradition )