Victory Condition

by Astolat

Fandom: Transformers Generation One
Relationship: Megatron/Optimus Prime
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“Do you want me to tell you a story?” Megatron said mockingly. “You won’t like it, Prime. It’s not a very nice one.”

105 pages, ebook

Published January 5, 2018

About the author

I've written fanfic and made vids in a really ridiculous number of fandoms. Over the years, I've also used the pseudonyms shalott and the lady of shalott. All my work is available on the AO3 and you can also find me online in various other places.

http://ao3.org/users/astolat
http://astolat.dreamwidth.org/
http://astolat.livejournal.com/
http://astolat.tumblr.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/astolatvids
http://intimations.org/fanfic/ (outdated)

You are welcome to add and review any of my stories here if you like, and I also love comments at AO3 or any of my other online haunts. I also have a blanket permission policy for noncommercial transformative work of my work (eg, podfic, remix, fanart, etc) -- I love to be linked to anything you do, but you don't need to ask permission.

Reviews

[Claudie ☾ · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s been years since I’ve read a Transformers fanfic, and I’m not sure why I decided to read one now, to be honest, but this was simply excellent.

[Dani · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is simply wonderful in a myriad of ways.
But what I love most about it is the sneaky breaking of the 4th wall, the sly author's wink: "Yes, my love, you just spent a few hours of your valuable time caring deeply about robots being infatuated with the differing configurations of their emotional circuitry. You really, really did."

[Marta Duda-Gryc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking. Against hope, hopeful.
If you hadn't read "Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin, best to read it before this story.
Did I say it's about huge robots in a cave-in reminiscing about autocratic society inequalities and abuses? And then they can walk from Omelas.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I have never watched any of the Transformers movies or cartoons and I have almost zero knowledge of the canon. However, after hearing this fic recommended on the podcast “Be the Serpent” (which compared it to The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas) I decided to give it a try. It’s Astolat after all, who can write amazing stuff in any fandom.
And... wow. I had no idea a novella-length fanfic about robots featuring smutty scenes of “interfacing” could possibly produce so many THOUGHTS and FEELINGS, that giant killer robots could have such nuanced philosophies of life and truth. There’s even an epilogue featuring Megatron’s poetry.
Unhesitatingly recommended, even if - like me - your previous knowledge/interest in The Transformations franchise is nonexistent.

[বোন রোদ · Rating 5 out of 5]

11.3/10

That's it, I fucking cried again reading this. First I cried when Megatron saw his brothers in the matrix. That hurt. I almost cried again as Optimus saw his life as Orion Pax and Dion and Ariel and the way it was always doomed.

And then I cried for twenty minutes straight, stopping and starting so perhaps I ought to count it as multiple sessions, reading through the poem. It hurts so much, the unsheathed knives that so delicately express his love. The agony of never reaching there despite all that he's gone through. Both of them. The idea that he's not unwilling to imagine a scenario where they both make it through, but thinks it impossible.

That Optimus will grieve him and he knows it but would not sacrifice a cycle of his breath to change it, is not sorry for the deaths he caused, it's all.

God.

I can't remember the last time I cried for an AO3 fic. I'm not sure I ever have, maybe not for years at least, upwards of five, who knows.

Her writings are the quintessential ode to MegOp. This is the prime example. If ever there is to be an introduction to MegOp, this should be the fic to do it with. It perfectly captures the ship's inherent angst, both with the melancholy of repression and rivalry, and the excitement of revolution and war. It is, by far and away, the most poetic ship, and this, by far, is the ship's most poetic work. READ IT.