A writer who lurks

Don't worry. I'm more scared of talking to you than you talking to me. Mostly screaming as @Jane_Lu24 on Twitter now. Read my work on AO3.

[bromomentum]

TFP Optimus: I know you were part of an oppressed class and want the best for your people, and i want to help. So please stop acting like the people who hurt you and help us find a better way. TFP Megatron: lmao no fuck you. WFC/Earthrise Megatron: I was part of an oppressed class, but i know both you and me have the same goal for our people. Surrender so we can stop this war none of us wanted and find a way to repair cybertron. WFC/Earthrise Optimus: lmao no fuck you

[jane-lu24]

Transformers Animated world-building time

I’m the kind of writer who really needs to know the universe of whatever world I’m writing in. This originally was going to be a history of the Decepticons to help me in working on “The Many Incidents of Courtship”, but it kinda turned into a very long thing. Most of the basic information was taken from the AllSpark Almanac. Enjoy!

Early History

In the beginning there was the AllSpark and the planet that it was bound to. All records about its origins have been lost to time. But this mysterious energy source gave life to simple automotons equipped to build and to shape the planet into a habitable space. When invaders from the skies came to disrupt their work, the AllSpark created larger tougher automotons to protect the builders.

This worked to repel those invaders, and the two types of mechanical lifeforms began to work together to make the planet their home. They worshipped the AllSpark and communed with what's contained within. The planet also responded to them, forming pathways and shelter as needed. The AllSpark continued to create those two frame types for many millions of years, civilian frames meant to build and to create, and war frames to defend and fight.

Early Tensions

The falling out between those two groups did not happen overnight. War frames always had the advantage in power and size, and used the AllSpark to commandeer the planet to fend off invaders. Along with fighting, many of them were proficient in the arts, such as music, architecture and writing.

Civilian frames in turn used the AllSpark to shape the planet and populate the cities. They were skilled in scientific developments, building things out of scratch and managing relations between different groups. They also supported the war frames by creating weapons for them.

The civilian frames who became leading figures in scientific and construction work eventually came to call themselves the Guardians. They formed a governing party that held much of planetary leadership. The war frames who served as Cybertron's main defense force were known as the Malignus. It was around this time when the rank of Magnus was first created. The Magnus answered to the Guardians and was given the Magnus Hammer as a symbol of office.

However, this system had its flaws. Eventually, Guardian leadership became progressively uncomfortable with the destructive potential that the Malignus possessed. When the two factions defended the planet against alien invaders during the First Cybertronian War, the Guardians made frequent decisions to exclude the Malignus and were rarely able to take decisive action during the fighting. Despite all this, the Cybertronians were able to drive back the invaders.

Afterwards, Ariex, a Malignus military caste leader, rose up and resolved to overthrow this weak ineffective faction. He believed that the Guardians had no right to hold leadership over them and the war frames had no reason to listen to a bunch of soft-sparked civilian models who would quake at the sight of spilled energon. This coup began the Second Cybertronian War, one that the Malignus lost.

But the Guardians were toppled as well when Zeemon Magnus' private guard, known as the Protectons, used the opportunity of war to stage a successful coup. This group rose to power in place of the Guardians, and renamed themselves the Protectobot faction.

The Third Cybertronian War

However, the relationship between war frames and civilian frames remained tense and continued to deteriorate. Nova Magnus sought to erase all history of war frames and civilians collaborating as equals, and reshape Cybertronian history to forever label war frames as ruthless bloodthirsty warriors that the Protectobots had subjugated to their will.

By this point the Protectobots had become a force to reckon with. They were regularly kidnapping war frames to reprogram and cracked down harshly on any mech who spoke out against them. When the war frames protested and plotted to make a statement by attacking Nova Magnus' residence, the Protectobots were able to slaughter many war frames by luring them into a trap, and hung their multilated frames out in public as a warning.

Devron, a young charismatic member of the old Malignus faction, rose up and gathered war frames around him to resist Nova Magnus. The newly-formed Destrons fought to end the brutal reign of the Protectobots. They were successful, but the conflict killed many war frames. Nova Magnus was an excellent tactician who was never above using low-handed tactics. He even had many Protectobots who opposed him offlined discreetly.

Unfortunately, many documents had been lost because of the Nova Magnus' purge, including all accounts of Cybertron's early history. The AllSpark, Vector Sigma and the Magnus Hammer became objects wreathed in mystery.

Golden Age of Expansion

Powered Convoy, an officer of Nova Magnus who managed to lay low during the war while trying to undermine Nova Magnus whenever he could, began to broker peace between the defeated Protectobots and the Destrons. The Protectobots remained leaderless for quite a while during this time. But Convoy worked tirelessly with Devron, leader of the Destrons, to restore the relationship between the two frame types. There were rumors that these two became lovers.

Convoy was eventually chosen as the new Magnus and renamed P. C. Magnus. The Autobots rose from the remaining Protectobots, advocating for Cybertronian expansion efforts that both civilian and war frames should participate in to leave their bloody history behind. Wanting to erase the Protectobot legacy, Convoy joined the Autobots and removed all Protectobot presence in his new faction.

For a very long time, all was well. Civilians and war frames usually got along and collaborated with great effect to colonize planets nearby. However, the Quintessons attacked when they tried to colonize planets in their territory. The Autobots and the Destrons were unable to drive them back, and Devron perished in the conflict. The expansion officially halted. The Autobots were reluctant to run into any more large scale conflicts, while the Destrons chafed restlessly at the sight of uncolonized worlds they could not touch without the help of the Autobots.

Decepticon Uprising

After the Quintesson conflict, a Destron named Megazarak rose to prominence. He incited the Destrons to see that the Autobots had been treating them unfairly during the expansion and led a couple of violent demonstrations. Megazarak was smart enough to use the idea of a return to colonizing other worlds to whip his supporters into a frenzy. He named the new group the Decepticons. He was also uncommonly obsessed with the AllSpark, and sought to wrest it from Autobot control for his own ends.

P. C. Magnus was reluctant to crack down on the Decepticons. He knew that because of history, this would likely lead to another war. Despite the protests of his officers and other high-ranking Autobots, he refused to take action.

Megazarak continued to ramp up tensions between the two factions. Because of P. C. Magnus' inaction, many Autobots begin to see war frames as nuisances and threats. Violence was commonplace at every city-state on Cybertron, usually between Autobots and Decepticons. Ultra Prime, just an officer at the time, was particularly determined to "get the Decepticons under control".

Beginning of the Great War

Convoy was stripped of his rank as Magnus after Megazarak successfully bombed an important Autobot supply port. Autobot leadership was finally fed up with his inability to do something. Ultra Prime was named the new Magnus, and immediately went to work in quelling the Decepticon uprisings.

He closed off civilian city states to war frames, disbanded Cybertronian armed forces, disarmed all war frames who served, and enacted a series of laws barring war frames from all academic institutes and professions. He planned to cut off the Decepticons from any resource that would contribute to them becoming a force to be reckoned with. He also broke up many riots and group protests using force.

Instead of backing down, war frames joined the Decepticons in growing droves by the solar cycle, frustrated by the new restrictions and angry that this was how the Autobots repaid them for their efforts during the Golden Age of Expansion.

It was also around this time when Megatron worked to win over the Decepticons to his side and bested Megazarak in single combat. Megazarak was exiled, but the damage was already done. Ultra Magnus showed no sign of reversing the restrictions, and instead issued the Decepticon Registration Act. It required all Decepticons to submit themselves under Autobot jurisdiction, hand over all property and lay down arms for perpetuity, in exchange for lowered restrictions and cessation of force against them.

Megatron took the Decepticons to war in response. The rest is history.

I might develop some stuff further, but for now this is all!

[dangerously-nervoustudent]

There are a lot of little lines in TFA that sort of tip you off that something isnt quite right with the "heroic autobots" and it just gets more pronounced once you've noticed it. Like everything about Optimus's speech in the first episode. "We're all cogs in the great big autobot machine." Emphasizing the needs of the collective over everything else (and notice that this is apparently something he says a lot. Something he's internalized). "Don't try to be a hero, it's not in your programming." Idk bro sounds like functionism to me. But probably the most unsettling line is Ratchet's implication that they can just.. delete emotions. Just run a program and bam! That feeling of dissatisfaction with your lot in life? Gone. Thats a big old red flag if Ive ever seen one.

[little-bullheaded-shit]

I would also like to add that the protectobots which would later become the autobots, after the first war, canonically deleted massive amounts of historical documents to and I quote "Remove all undesirable elements and information from society" -Allspark almanac 2

*sniff sniff* smells kinda fishy in here..🤔

[littlemisstfp-deactivated202212]

Another red flag is that in Autobot society, the society comes before your own personal needs and wants.

Individualism is treated like a second thought and discouraged because thinking your own thoughtz leads to someone questioning the regime as a whole. I wonder what they would do had Optimus comes to questioning the regime earlier since the seeds are there.

[justmenoworries]

Another huge red flag: The way Autobots treat prisoners.

For one, this?

This is horrible.

Yes, Blitzwing is a war criminal, but they’re treating him more like a trophy than a real bot. He’s gagged, he’s wearing stasis cuffs in his cell, which is humiliating and wholly unnecessary and Jetstorm takes a picture with him as if he’s a novelty.

When the Elite Guard arrives on Cybertron he’s paraded around and shown off with big fanfare, so everyone can see how superior the Autbots are to him and his faction.

There is zero dignity or respect for your enemies here.

And, hey, remember Wasp?

That teenager who got thrown into prison because of very minimal evidence that he might be a spy? And tortured until he lost his mind?

Keep in mind by the Autobot’s standards he was barely an adult.

Yet he was still convicted without a trial, without further investigation, simply because a fellow trainee who didn’t like him accused him of being a traitor and the commanding officer accepted it without question. He was literally carted off in front of his friends, with zero discretion and had his insignia pulled off in the same manner, while begging to be listened to.

And when it turned out he was innocent, the Elite Guard still wanted to throw him back into the Stockade, because they didn’t want to admit to the public that they made a mistake.

Yeah, the Autobots are just as messed up as the Decepticons are.

[littlemisstfp-deactivated202212]

TFA is way darker than I remembered even before Season 3.

[bot-imagines]

Also the entire deal with the Jettwins. They were in a horrible accident while on the job as energon refiners and were selected to be reformatted with Starscream's CNA to become the first flying Autobots.

A reformat that they were incapable of consenting to.

Not to mention that when selecting subjects for Project Safeguard, Ultra Magnus said "Find me someone expendable."

That's absolutely chilling, you guys.

[aquagirl555]

see this is why i loved TFA, because underneath all the colorful robots, the bright shiny kid friendly cartoon, there is proof that the decepticons and autobots may not be as different as it may appear at first. One curious thing is that all decepticons have actual weapons, primary use is to cause harm. Autobot tho? their weapons are all tools, who can be used as weapons as a secondary use.

this implies that most decepticons were originally military bots, built to fight, while the autobots were the non fighters, the workers.

i wonder what would cause the fighters to rebel against society?

another thing. Only decepticons can fly, indicating that flying was only for the fighters.

[jane-lu24]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Relationships: Megatron/Starscream

Having nowhere else to turn to, Starscream joined the Decepticons at the beginning of the Great War. It didn't seem like a bad idea then, even with rumors that the new Decepticon leader was a frivolous playmech who basked in the admiring attention from most of the faction. Starscream would find a new start, work his way up the ranks, shoot a couple of Autobots...

And somehow deal with Megatron's undivided and relentless efforts in initiating a courtship.

Inappropriate doesn't begin to describe the bad timing of it all in the middle of war. Unfortunately, Megatron seems to have missed the memo.

I’ve been reviving this fic lately after leaving it dead for 5+ years. Mainly based on the idea of “what if these two started courting during the Great War” and all of the inappropriate bad decisions that happen.

[bittyboom]

so uh. in the allspark almanac. starscream calls megatron “meggy” which I cannot get over

bonus!

[jane-lu24]

Yakichou on Twitter

“I had the joy to work with @Jane_Lu24 for 1 of my #HCRBB! They did an amazing job! They did all the hard work and managed to create something strong and really beautiful! I'm amazed and in love of this story 💕 https://t.co/dulOkMey1U #hankcon #dbh #detroitbecomehuman #hannor”

The deviant uprising is over. Connor is free. For the first time he has something to look forward to, namely starting a new life as a detective at his favorite partner’s side, a partner who means more to him than he dares to admit.

But Hank and Connor soon discover certain loose ends cannot be tied. In an overgrown garden a woman clad in white watches all. CyberLife allows no exceptions. Connor has a debt to pay.

Find out what happens here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20447330/chapters/48512915

I worked with the wonderful @charlottepioge for the Hankcon Reverse Big Bang! Her art is absolutely gorgeous, and I hope my writing could do every bit of it justice!

[memewhore]

[hymnofvalefor]

[comrade-bastard-deactivated2024]

[cannibalcomputer]

[jackscarab]

[jane-lu24]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Hank Anderson didn’t ask to drive through the city at night, with an android partner at his backseat who doesn’t know how to shut up. At best it asks probing questions to which he has no answers. At worst it reminds him that he can never run away far enough from himself, or from Connor, for the matter.

He couldn’t leave Connor be, and neither would Connor. The edge they were inevitably driving each other over has never been so near. My contribution to the @hankconbb2019 (art pending)! If you ever wanted to see Detroit being used more in the game and character tension between Hank and Connor to the max, this will be your jam XP

[spones]

if androids were a common thing rn they would DEFINITELY come with apps so imagine hank getting notifications like this

[sunsetagain]

Recent WIP. (RK900 was modified from Connor just for fun, he won’t appear in this story.)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

[fun-rai-per-blog]

Based on a scene from Brooklyn Nine-Nine  🌝

[piggyhoho]

(I should really continue my comic)

(But I have new comic idea)

[jane-lu24]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Hank should have known. It had been too easy for Connor to break free of his programming, to become the turning point of the android revolution. He should have known that CyberLife would never let Connor go. I now break my chain of fluffy Hankcon fics to bring angst. This was based on a chat on how if Connor becomes deviant leader, is friends with Hank and chooses to fight Amanda's control, there was a high probability that Hank saw Connor commit suicide on TV. This one is also less shippy than my other ones.

[piggyhoho]

Female Cole asking Reddit for advice about HankCon

*not an actual Reddit post I wrote this fyi* 😂

[incorrect-cyberlife]

Connor: There’s only one thing worse than dying.

Connor: *rips paper away to reveal ‘Hank’ above dying*

Hank, nodding: Myself.

Connor: nO

[jane-lu24]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

For Hank Anderson, an average day at the DPD consisted of paperwork, going out for witness interviews, investigating homicides and dealing with nosy coworkers.

He could not understand when “Rebuff the over-affectionate advances of a lovesick android partner” got added to the list.

This is my gift for @readitson for the 2019 Hankcon BB server gift exchange! Have some more soft Hankcon until the end of time.

[jane-lu24]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Connor has no sense of personal boundaries. Hank should be annoyed, but at this point he's just lying to himself.

Here’s a soft Hankcon for your Hankcon needs!