obvs there is something great about when a Big Scary turns into a Big Softie where Tiny Useless is concerned, but what i like better is:
Tiny Useless decides, with no prompting and for no apparent reason whatsoever, that Big Scary needs protecting. and if no one else will do it then this accidentally-gets-stepped-on, blows-away-in-a-stiff-breeze motherfucker is going to have to be the one to protect this living mountain of pain. you wanna get to this troll, youāre gonna have to go through this pixie. you try to come for this tibetan mastiff, this chihuahuaās gonna try to kick your ass first.
and the Big Scary is mostly just?? really confused???? there are at least twenty different reasons why this is fucking dumb. but also this feeble lil shit is the first person in the entire world to try and stand up for this person that absolutely does not need it. Big Scary continues to be huge and terrifying but now Tiny Useless has their undying loyalty and it will probably not end well for anyone.
i like seeing all of the ships this has been tagged with, but, i am going to be completely honest with you guys, when i wrote this i was thinking about little girls like my sister, who at the age of five had a strict ātalk shit get hitā policy about the incredible hulk
seeing a lot of folks with some weak-ass ābut actually the tiny one is deadly and the big one is niceā tags and lemme tell ya
that is a different trope
do you think i picked the words Tiny Useless by accident. do you think there is no reason i called the Big Scary a mountain of pain?
not to get petty but this isnāt an idea about appearances being deceiving, or the amusement of reversing expectations, or the aesthetic.
this is about someone who can absolutely take whatever punishment the world throws at them, and probably throw plenty back, being told that their capacity for horror doesnāt mean they should have to endure it. someone who canāt defend themselves choosing to try to defend someone who can because to them there is no moral difference.
hogarth didnāt save the iron giant by punching a tank, my dudes. the iron giant didnāt have to be helpless to be worth protecting. you know what i mean?
(With a nervous joy in his spark, Bee bounces in a safe space between Megatronās legs and Bigger Beeās kicking and protesting. His spellbook stays clamped tight in his arms, ready to help uncover the monster and get rid of this menace once and for all! They were gonna be heroes!)
(But where Megatronās optics fall on the living, Beeās attention hones in on the dead. Thick and tumulous clouds diffuse the light of the fire, casting an evil red glow along the corpses strewn over the colony. They lie in agony, mangled and twisted into forms he canāt make sense of. Parts of them seem to disappear from the physical plane and simply appear in ways it should not be. It might have been bearable, even ignorable to a degree, if the other bots hadnāt dropped to their knees to weep or try to gather up their loved ones while their offlined optics wrenched and mouths gaped to the hazy sky above.)Ā
(Thereās a shifting in the ground, a literal one. Out ahead of them, deep in the ichor pool, the ruins of buildings not only start to shatter, but roll. They casually dip to the sides as if they were floating on water, but remain there, wrought out of place. That must be it!)Ā
(Bee wails the spell and chucks it at the space between.)Ā
Margi!
(Its colors swirl in an unholy violet.)
Megatron was accustomed to chaos. The panic of civilians, anguished cries for the dead, twisted husks littering the ground were nothing new. That he was so unbothered by the setting disturbed him more than the vile horror that appeared before them. It did however rank fairly high.Ā
A hellish monster that needed defeating. Megatron fell into his instincts, analyzing the beast as his blaster warmed again. Every part of them that touched the oozing ichor rusted. This creature was full of the bile, so melee combat was unwise. The spell was meant to banish it back to some other realm, but as he watched, the amalgam seemed to take offence to the fact that it was no longer invisible.
All of its mouths opened in concert, along with every loose bit of plating and space between the viscera that spilled from its center, to let loose a deafening cry. One of its limb-like structures detached itself from the ground in a series of sticky snaps. The piece waved over them before slamming into the ground mere feet from where the group stood. Megatron leapt into the air and transformed, flying around the horror in a wide arch. Eyes followed him wherever he went, more limbs beginning to sprout from every surface. ::Itās preparing to attack! Take cover and-::
A point of color got his attention. A grounder, still alive, trapped in his alt-mode beneath a section of the building just beside the monster. Megatron swore internally, firing his cannon into the beast with as much power as he was able with every pass. The holes it made soon filled with more organic gunk as it healed, but the screech it made at least sounded angry.
(Beeās working away at his own piece of bread as they talk.) Aw man! Whatād you try?Ā
(And here, have another. Beeās made a bunch.)Ā
*He pauses before taking another, glaring into space.*
You did not miss it. I passed out the results of my mistake at Halloween.Ā
YOU MADE THOSE?!
(Bee bounces to his feet.) THOSE WERE SO GOOD! The little swirlies were so pretty! And they werenāt too sweet and I ate them all in, like, an hour!Ā
That is good to hear at least. I had intended on making a small batch, but our energon is a bit more volatile than the recipe anticipated, leaving me with far too much. I have stacks of them still. In addition, I was unaware that the additives would turn them purple. *He growls.*Ā
Megatron's back up 