Creme de la creme
Nov. 8th, 2009 10:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Okay. I have read as much of the currently-extant Transformers fanfic as I ever will. Let me show you my favorites, the ones that tore at my heartstrings long after I read them, the ones so beautiful they made me cry for joy, the ones that left me filled with soft warmth. I am completely, amazingly in love with every one of these stories.
Newly Minted by
tiamatschild
Some violence, a little robotic gore (it's like watching surgery on TV but with wires)
Oh my, I do love this. It is just so beautifully adorable. Focuses on the Protectobots, particularly First Aid.
“He didn’t mean to, but geeze, jets just don’t know how to stop, it’s kind of pathetic,” Blades said, with all the brisk superiority of a two day old helicopter who’d been built to turn on a size zero washer with no trouble.
A Wing And A Prayer by
atalan_fic
Robot slash of the still-courting sort.
The only WIP I think I've ever rec'd. It's just utterly, wonderfully sweet. This is the story that made me fall in love with the Aerialbots. And heck, Silverbolt and Skyfire might be a crack pairing to some people, but who am I to argue when it works this well? Their courting makes me wriggle in glee.
Stand Together by
casusfere
War and related violence.
On the other side, the formation of the Combaticons! Vortex waggles his rotors a lot. I love this Swindle, love this Vortex - they're adorable and kooky and violent and totally freaking nuts and it works.
Vortex's visor blinked in what could either be laughter or surprise, Swindle couldn't tell. He was having trouble reading the chopper, and it irritated him. “I already made a crack about your size. Repeating myself is boring. And repetitive. Now I'm on cracks about your paintjob, then we'll probably move on to cracks about your intelligence.” Vortex paused. “Or I might have to dwell on your paintjob for a while. Really, purple and gold?”
Staying Alive: A How-To by The Starfish
Violence, schadenfreude.
I've rec'd this before, but it deserves it again! Poor Sideswipe didn't mean to stab Optimus in the back and make him flop like a fish. This ensemble is just so FUN. I love reading this story over and over.
Harmonic Progression by
lyricality
Robot slash of the spark sort.
Optimus and Megatron, pre-movie-verse. A beautiful unification of movie-verse, Optimus' origin stories, and, well, everything that is beautiful in the world. :D Seriously, this story is so... mmm. Who else but Megatron would say lines like "the two of us will repair your calamitous idiocy."
Belonging by
lyricality
Violence, dub-con (for both parties), robot slash of the spark sort
(navigate to the other chapters through the Next Entry link @ top of page)
Oh my goodness. This is Animated the way it should be - Megatron is so monstrously beautiful, so impossibly huge in fact and in personality, so coldly vicious. And Optimus is, as always, his perfect foil - young and impetuous and trying so very, very hard. I love how neither of them want to be bonded to each other, neither even like or trust the other, and somehow it works. It totally works. This is Optimus/Megatron without any bowing of the characters, without any compromises.
Rain Over Blue Water by The Starhorse
Minor violence, grey moral areas.
Have you ever had one of those days where you haven't slept all week, you're physically beaten down, your life is going nowhere and everyone keeps piling more and more on your shoulders until you go right past can't take it anymore and right on to oh hell why not? Sideswipe has one of those days. His exhaustion, deeper than bone-deep, runs through the whole story. That kind of bitter, teeth-gritting grin-and-bear-it outlook is so familiar and so painful. And in the end it's not any better and it's not any worse, but it's bright and hopeful anyway. I love this story to death.
Letters Home: Bluestreak by
kinrazza
Tissue warning.
SADDEST STORY I HAVE EVER READ AHHHHHHHH. This didn't just tug at my heartstrings, it ripped them out. Achingly, unrelentingly painful - Bluestreak writes letters to Prowl after he's lost to them. Every time it can't possibly be sadder, it is. Movie-verse, with the most heart-wrenching explanation for why Sideswipe but not Sunstreaker was in RotF.
Phoenix by The Starhorse
MASH-style violence, war, abuse, grey moral areas.
I love this take on Ratchet, on all of them really. Just barely on the functional side of being completely and utterly mad. It is a truly abusive relationship depicted here, don't get me wrong, but... it's kind of beautiful too, in a strange way.
“You know,” Sparkplug added when Ratchet obviously wasn’t going to reply, “I been around a while -- a pretty long time for a human, anyway -- and I’ve met a lot of mental cases. But you know, even with the nut jobs I’ve met, I have to say I think when it comes to crazy, humans are just amateurs. You people,” he leaned in, meaning it completely, “are professionals.”
Lost In Transmission by Koi Lungfish
Horror.
I really can't write a description of this without ruining it. The details that flesh this out are so amazing - the automated reports, Optimus' interjections... It is a fantastic short story, and possibly the most horrifying thing I have ever read.
11 Kisses: Slingshot and Metroplex by
kinrazza
Robot slash of the totally non-explicit sort.
This story is perhaps my most favorite. How do you write a love story between a city and a jet? Like this. It is beautiful, achingly so. It felt like it was about a tiny bit of hope in the midst of a sea of war and loss and despair, and the ending ties that theme back together beautifully. There is one image in particular from this that I will never, ever lose from my mind's eye, an image that is perfectly magical and wondrous: "Slingshot rides on the back of Slammer as though they're riding into battle and together they trundle noisily through Metroplex's corridors in search of adventure."
Newly Minted by
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
Some violence, a little robotic gore (it's like watching surgery on TV but with wires)
Oh my, I do love this. It is just so beautifully adorable. Focuses on the Protectobots, particularly First Aid.
“He didn’t mean to, but geeze, jets just don’t know how to stop, it’s kind of pathetic,” Blades said, with all the brisk superiority of a two day old helicopter who’d been built to turn on a size zero washer with no trouble.
A Wing And A Prayer by
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
Robot slash of the still-courting sort.
The only WIP I think I've ever rec'd. It's just utterly, wonderfully sweet. This is the story that made me fall in love with the Aerialbots. And heck, Silverbolt and Skyfire might be a crack pairing to some people, but who am I to argue when it works this well? Their courting makes me wriggle in glee.
Stand Together by
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
War and related violence.
On the other side, the formation of the Combaticons! Vortex waggles his rotors a lot. I love this Swindle, love this Vortex - they're adorable and kooky and violent and totally freaking nuts and it works.
Vortex's visor blinked in what could either be laughter or surprise, Swindle couldn't tell. He was having trouble reading the chopper, and it irritated him. “I already made a crack about your size. Repeating myself is boring. And repetitive. Now I'm on cracks about your paintjob, then we'll probably move on to cracks about your intelligence.” Vortex paused. “Or I might have to dwell on your paintjob for a while. Really, purple and gold?”
Staying Alive: A How-To by The Starfish
Violence, schadenfreude.
I've rec'd this before, but it deserves it again! Poor Sideswipe didn't mean to stab Optimus in the back and make him flop like a fish. This ensemble is just so FUN. I love reading this story over and over.
Harmonic Progression by
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
Robot slash of the spark sort.
Optimus and Megatron, pre-movie-verse. A beautiful unification of movie-verse, Optimus' origin stories, and, well, everything that is beautiful in the world. :D Seriously, this story is so... mmm. Who else but Megatron would say lines like "the two of us will repair your calamitous idiocy."
Belonging by
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
Violence, dub-con (for both parties), robot slash of the spark sort
(navigate to the other chapters through the Next Entry link @ top of page)
Oh my goodness. This is Animated the way it should be - Megatron is so monstrously beautiful, so impossibly huge in fact and in personality, so coldly vicious. And Optimus is, as always, his perfect foil - young and impetuous and trying so very, very hard. I love how neither of them want to be bonded to each other, neither even like or trust the other, and somehow it works. It totally works. This is Optimus/Megatron without any bowing of the characters, without any compromises.
Rain Over Blue Water by The Starhorse
Minor violence, grey moral areas.
Have you ever had one of those days where you haven't slept all week, you're physically beaten down, your life is going nowhere and everyone keeps piling more and more on your shoulders until you go right past can't take it anymore and right on to oh hell why not? Sideswipe has one of those days. His exhaustion, deeper than bone-deep, runs through the whole story. That kind of bitter, teeth-gritting grin-and-bear-it outlook is so familiar and so painful. And in the end it's not any better and it's not any worse, but it's bright and hopeful anyway. I love this story to death.
Letters Home: Bluestreak by
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
Tissue warning.
SADDEST STORY I HAVE EVER READ AHHHHHHHH. This didn't just tug at my heartstrings, it ripped them out. Achingly, unrelentingly painful - Bluestreak writes letters to Prowl after he's lost to them. Every time it can't possibly be sadder, it is. Movie-verse, with the most heart-wrenching explanation for why Sideswipe but not Sunstreaker was in RotF.
Phoenix by The Starhorse
MASH-style violence, war, abuse, grey moral areas.
I love this take on Ratchet, on all of them really. Just barely on the functional side of being completely and utterly mad. It is a truly abusive relationship depicted here, don't get me wrong, but... it's kind of beautiful too, in a strange way.
“You know,” Sparkplug added when Ratchet obviously wasn’t going to reply, “I been around a while -- a pretty long time for a human, anyway -- and I’ve met a lot of mental cases. But you know, even with the nut jobs I’ve met, I have to say I think when it comes to crazy, humans are just amateurs. You people,” he leaned in, meaning it completely, “are professionals.”
Lost In Transmission by Koi Lungfish
Horror.
I really can't write a description of this without ruining it. The details that flesh this out are so amazing - the automated reports, Optimus' interjections... It is a fantastic short story, and possibly the most horrifying thing I have ever read.
11 Kisses: Slingshot and Metroplex by
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
Robot slash of the totally non-explicit sort.
This story is perhaps my most favorite. How do you write a love story between a city and a jet? Like this. It is beautiful, achingly so. It felt like it was about a tiny bit of hope in the midst of a sea of war and loss and despair, and the ending ties that theme back together beautifully. There is one image in particular from this that I will never, ever lose from my mind's eye, an image that is perfectly magical and wondrous: "Slingshot rides on the back of Slammer as though they're riding into battle and together they trundle noisily through Metroplex's corridors in search of adventure."