Fiat justitia ruat caelum

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Days 3 and 4 were "go meet someone" or "go comment", so uh... things happened?
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Day 15

In your own space, share a favorite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, crazy times with fellow fans (whether on-line or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

The one everyone knows, which is bittersweet now: I met someone through fandom and fell in love. We're no longer together, but I have to say that was the first time in my life I really was in love with someone. Everything else, in comparison, was fun or friendship or exploratory or, in a few unfortunate cases, really fucked up. I think that relationship really taught me a lot of things... and I don't quite know how to express how pleasant it is to be with someone you love, even the quiet just hanging out and sitting there doing nothing parts.

I'd have to say that, as a whole, this fandom has really been good for me. I've said more than once that I identify strongly with the Decepticons for very personal reasons. I'm not sure that I want to explain all of that here again, but I will say that at the time I really got into this fandom I was looking to figure out how to change some things about my life. How to become a more confident, strong person. How to care less what other people thought of me. How to deeply believe in myself, which I had trouble doing despite also being strong in my convictions. How to push myself to strengthen and care for my body. How to hold myself to high standards without getting scared or weak and running away.

How to find my own path despite fear of being judged, and hold to my beliefs when people around me said "well, good people don't..." How to answer that with "Okay, good people don't -- well, I'm just not on your map, then. Oh well." I think that was the big one for me. I used to get all angry and up in arms about people who defined good in this really narrow way, who decided people couldn't do this, want that, like the other thing. Because it meant being bad somehow. Immaturity. False consciousness. Unintended cruelty. Whatever. And their vision of "good" seemed to me like a straightjacket, and I said so, loudly -- but I internalized their ideas nonetheless, and felt if they were good, I was bad. And hated myself for being bad, even as I felt rationally that they were crazy, and nowhere near as good as they thought they were.

So... the Decepticons. This isn't about canon at all and it's my own weird personal extrapolation. But it gave me a way to say "I'm just made different. These things -- I want or do or like them because I'm something else, something that doesn't fit your standards, something that isn't on your map. You're fine -- well, I'm not convinced you are fine, but that's neither here nor there -- but I'm fine too. I'm the way I'm supposed to be, even if it bothers or frightens you. I haven't done anything to you but exist, and I won't. And if you can't see that, it's because you can't see anything but what you yourself are. I'll just be over here with people who understand or with people who don't but who know better than to judge."

It's funny. In canon, there's always a war. But for me, this gave me a way of not warring. It gave me a way to make peace in my own head with those I'd seen as my enemies. I'm still a Taurus and I still get angry at things, but I'm ten times calmer than I once was, because I can look at people who I feel spin choking rules for themselves and who seem to me like they fear of their own darkness too much and not jump in to berate them or save them or convince them. It gave me a way to let it go, to say, "That's their thing, and that's their business."

It's not like I think that the villainous faction from an old TV show that was on when I was five or so has all the answers or something. It's that I was looking for a metaphor, an idea, an identification to strengthen me. And for some reason I know partially but not fully, this is what ended up happening. I get obsessed with art I love, but I don't stay with it for longer than a year. But this, I did -- because this was something I needed in a time of growth. I could have latched onto anything, really. It happened to be this.

I've seen people talk in a few places about how I take it all too seriously. I don't mind them saying that. I even agree, in some ways. But I think the importance is what the identification means to me, and that's personal, and not something anyone has to understand, really.

So -- labels. We talk a lot about them, and whether they're useful, and the consensus is generally "Labels! Ewww!" But I like that one, even though it's one I can't really explain to people outside fandom and have trouble explaining to people in it, too. Because it's not something external any more. It's something that I made my own, and that's why it matters to me.



Massive, massive thanks to akamine_chan and glitteryv for creating this! I liked some days better than others, but on the whole... this was amazing. Thanks for putting it on!

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Days 3 and 4 were "go meet someone" or "go comment", so uh... things happened?
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Day 13

In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favourite interview, a book) and explain why you love it so much. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Megatron: Origin. No question. Because it's beautiful, and because it gives Megatron a past and an identity and makes him sympathetic without thereby convincing you he's Just Misunderstood By The Meanie Autobot Establishment. And did I mention it's beautiful? I mean like oh my God, is this really a comic book beautiful? (I don't mean that as a dig at comic book art. I just mean this is different, and different good. Different in a "whoa, I'm not used to this" way, where after you get used to it you realize wow, it's beautiful.)

Honestly, when I first heard about it I thought I'd hate it like a Star Wars prequel. But instead of making Megatron retroactively into some whiny angsty teen with a bad temper, it fleshed out a character I loved in a way that really engaged me and opened up new possibilities. And I remember reading an interview with the script writer who said "This is about someone who discovers his dark side -- and realizes he likes it, and comes to revel in it." And that intrigued me from the moment I read it, though I still feared they'd deliver like Lucas.

Nope. They delivered just as cool as they made it sound. I'm a sucker for dark ascension done right, and they hit it out of the park.

Oh, and (minor spoiler, I... guess?) for once, my side gets to win one.

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Days 3 and 4 were "go meet someone" or "go comment", so uh... things happened?
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Day 11

In your own space, ask for recs. Something as simple as "I like XYZ (where XYZ is a kink, a pairing, a trope, etc) - please rec me some." Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Megatron. I'm predictable. Who writes him well? I'm not asking for a particular version of him or take on him, as long as his character is complex. What does he value? What does he want? How does he see the Decepticons? Does he feel he has any duties to them? What are they? How are they alike and different from how a "good guy" would see such concepts? I love fic that explores that somehow. Short or long, smut or gen. Which awesome versions of him have I missed?

Megatron/Starscream. It's a popular pairing, but I always get the feeling there's some writer out there I must have missed. So, recs? Especially for people who aren't known for it.

I vastly prefer this pairing depicted as consensual. Fucked up is fine, as long as they both like it.  Bittersweet or angsty is also all right, as long as Starscream gets something out of it all. Abuse fics are not to my taste; please only rec them if they are completely amazing, and please warn if you do. I'll like anything if it's breathtaking, but I do have preferences.

Worldbuilding. This one's tricky. Often I hear a fic has a rich setting or well-developed Cybertronian/Decepticon/Autobot/whichever culture, but it doesn't grab my interest because it begins by jumping right into densely packed Issues. I love philosophy through the lens of giant robots, but I also need to feel invested in the characters to fully care about their philosophies.

I don't mean I need fights or explosions or nothing talky. I mean that rare talent that means it's complex but still feels natural. I've tried to give examples of writers I feel do this well throughout the challenge, so hopefully it's clear what I mean.

Concisely put... who writes good worlds and good beginnings?

Day 1 is here.
Day 2 is here.
Days 3 and 4 were "go meet someone" or "go comment", so uh... things happened?
Day 5 is here.
Day 6 is here.
Day 7 is here.
Day 8 is here.

Day 9

In your own space, create a fanwork. A drabble, a ficlet, or an icon, art or meta or a rec list. A picspam. Something. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so... If you created something for someone on Day 7, feel free to count that for Day 9 as well.

I did, so I will. Wish fill is over here. And I think I have a new pairing now, because adorable. ^_^

I feel a bit like I haven't done enough not going and doing something, but fanworks I really feel are real take me at least a week if not two, so...

I know I could do another minific or drabble (and I owe agentak some Knock Out/Sierra anyway), but I'd rather consider this a kick in the pants to work on Desiderata. It'll probably take a while, though.

*is kicked in pants*

Title: Nerds Need Love Too
Characters: Perceptor/Chip Chase
Verse: G1
Wordcount: 515
Rating: K
Contains: non-explicit xeno (awkward flirting)
Summary: This is a fill of one of femme4jack's wishes in the Snowflake Challenge. She asked for some xeno featuring Chip Chase, saying that she felt he's an underused and underappreciated character. I agree. I  like Chip. As a person with a disability myself it makes me happy to see someone like us being a hero. While I get that he's in many ways a token character, and I can understand why others might not like him, I always did. Especially since the Transformers often react to his "wheels" in ways I always found interesting. They have this sense of him not as broken or messed up but as "kind of like us," it seems to me. I could be misremembering, but I think I can even remember a Decepticon (Starscream? Skywarp?) referring to Chip as "the human with wheels," rather than as "the broken human" or "the weird human," and that really makes me feel good. So I like him. But I write about Decepticons most of the time and could never come up with a story I wanted to tell about him.

When I saw femme's request it reminded me of liking him and of always planning to do something for him, so I knew I wanted to fill it. When I saw an article linked on access_fandom about characters with disabilities "vanishing" from science fiction (because in The Future, we have cures, so no one has those pesky disabilities any more!) , I knew I had to fill it.

So here it is. It's just 500 words of cute awkward nerd love between a human and a giant robot, so I'm not sure it's going to change the world, but I had a blast with it. Hope I haven't mucked anything up -- I'm not paraplegic and it's been over a decade since I was a chair user, so if I got anything awkwardly wrong, let me know so I can fix it, please.

Day 1 is here.
Day 2 is here.
Days 3 and 4 were "go meet someone" or "go comment", so uh... things happened?
Day 5 is here.

Day 6

In your own space, rec at least 3 fanworks you thought you wouldn't like (because they weren't your fandom or they pushed against your boundaries or you thought you just wouldn't be interested) and that you ended up loving.

What No One Understands by Wyverngirl. I can no longer find this, and don't know if it's still up. Also, I haven't read it in a while so I'm not sure about the warnings, and I may misremember something in here, too. There's violence for certain, and abuse. The fic is about Starscream being left for dead by Megatron and saved by Optimus. They become lovers.

Normally I really don't like this pairing because it's often about redeeming or saving Starscream... and what I love about Starscream is that he's bad -- as I see him, sassy-evil to his core and totally unapologetic, no matter what.  But people who pair him with Prime often see him differently -- as tragic and bitter,  and very often as an abused victim of Megatron, who is often himself portrayed in a very one-dimensional way in these fics, so the h/c can hurry up and happen. (I also tend not to like h/c.)

Well, in this fic, Starscream is abused and bitter and Prime does rescue him. But it's so beautifully and heartbreakingly rendered that I can't help but feel invested even though it's everything I should dislike. Starscream is deeply wounded, but not pathetic, and his emotional responses to everything are rich, believable, and deep. And although Prime's love is magical in its way, it's no simple cure-all, and he doesn't always do or know what his new lover needs. That's complicated and thoughtful enough that it works for me.

Harmonic Progression by lyricality. Warning for incest between twins, though exactly what that means among mechanical beings I'm not even going to guess.

I don't like stories where the villain is the way he is because some Macguffin looks into his soul and finds it wanting. So reading the first few paragraphs of this -- though many of my assumptions about Optimus and Megatron alike turned out to be wrong -- had me all set not to like it. When Megatron turned out less angry about the slight and more invested in finding the true Chosen One, I was intrigued... but also kind of confused. And the twincest should have had me fleeing... and Megatron bottoming should have had me throwing things.

But somehow I found myself deeply drawn into the story and the characters' lives and rich, complex motivations. I don't think I'd ever write anything like this, but it's one of my very favorites. The worldbuilding and imagery are so magical it's worth reading for that alone. And the story is very much worthy of that beauty.

Any of ultharkitty's Combaticon stories. Not sure how to link to everything at once or to warn for everything at once, either, but: Vortex (and the others) are mean bastards. Violence and non-con are common, though not in everything. This is a link to at least some of her fic that involves Vortex specifically, though Vortex is not my point.

It's no shocker and no secret that her work is on my list of likes. So why is this here? Simply put, because I hated the Combaticons in canon. So much of what happened to create them was so poorly explained. Imprisonment in little boxes? Old Earth vehicles being perfectly fine as frames, with no modifications needed? Personality components being enough to fully activate them? A detention center, with no explanation of what lands a Decepticon in it when Megatron keeps a traitor around and uses physical punishments of short duration with him?

The inconsistencies were too much for even me. I didn't like them. But ultharkitty manages to take those things and make them central to everything that happens. Her Combaticons are misfits who know it, who struggle with who they are as Decepticons and even with who they are as a bonded team. They're not who I would ever have chosen to read about at all, and now I love several of them. I might have liked Vortex anyway because I like creepy amoral sadists, but I never would have appreciated the rest of them.

Honorable mention goes to the many brilliant fans of G1 Season 3 who have cured me of a violent allergy to Galvatron (and Rodimus.) (Once again, I can't really warn because it's a collection of things. Be on your guard. Galvatron's violent and crazy.)

I still seethe with the fury of a thousand suns at canon for doing that to Megatron and then piling crazy on top of it. But I actually, honestly like fanon Galvatron, and it is because those wonderfully creative fans made stuff awesome enough to reach through my RAGETIEMZ.

Day 1 is here.

Day 2

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you did not create. Drop a link to your post in the comments. See if you can rec fanworks that are less likely to be praised: tiny fandoms, rare pairings, fanworks other than stories, lesser known kinks or tropes. Find fanworks that have few to no comments, or creators new to a particular fandom and maybe aren't well known or appreciated. Appreciate them.

Wow. I don't think I find this easier than yesterday, primarily because I really don't know who's Known and who isn't. I used to know this but I've stopped paying attention really. Or caring. And so... ye stuffe. I'm reasonably sure these are obscure.

femme4jack self-rec'd this one yesterday BUT I DON'T CARE, IT'S THAT GOOD: For the Beauty of the Earth. It's no secret that I'm not the biggest fan of the way the Autobots are portrayed in canon. They're too good. So it's nice when someone messes with that, and that's what happens here. This is a dark, creepy version of Hound. But sometimes when people do dark!'Bots (or good!'Cons), I have a hard time seeing the connection between the canon character and the dark version. This one, though, is done really well. What would it really be like for an alien to fall in love with Earth's ecosystems and want to preserve them? It might well not be as nice and sweet as we'd figure. Cue this fic. Dark and creepy and atmospheric and best of all it makes sense.

Fighter by Sphinx01: I always felt a little disappointed with Cosmic Rust for making Megatron such a wimp. It doesn't make sense with how I see him at all. This story fixes that in a wonderful way, showing you his internal struggle to fight off the infection that is killing him -- and the strategy those around him use to help. I really like Starscream here. Not only are the things he does clever and unexpected, but they're also hilarious.

War Memorial by Blue Buick R: I love the sense of loss in this one. It's not often that a writer tackles what it means to the Decepticons to have lost their home. I guess because they're Big and Mean and Nasty. But I love it when someone touches on it, on how it affects not just the Good Guys but the Bad Guys. What regrets they might have. Or if they have no regrets, whether they made a choice to refuse regret. That kind of thing. Anyway, I love the wistfulness of this. I love that we see two characters who would usually be at odds with one another sharing quiet, solemn time. And the thing that puts this over the top for me is the speech Starscream quotes at the very end. I love the idea that the Decepticon cause really meant something to everyone in the beginning, and I love the implications about what it means that everything went so terribly wrong.