#robotswriting

[lakelandseo]

Humans vs. Robots: Picking the Best Audience for Your SEO Content

Google processes more than 8.5 billion searches every day. That’s more than 100,000 searches per second, thousands of which could lead a user to a purchase.

It’s no wonder, then, that 60% of marketers list SEO as their number one inbound marketing priority.

But generating organic traffic comes with challenges. Google has hundreds of billions of webpages in its index, competing for the top spots on search result pages. Not to mention, when you’re writing for search engines, you technically have two audiences: bots and humans.

Let’s look at how these audiences compare and see who you should be writing for.

Writing content for SEO: who to write for

Bots and humans are the chicken and the egg of search engine optimization. You need humans to make a sale, but you can’t get the humans without the help of bots.

The question is, which one comes first on your priority list? To answer that, let’s define each of these audiences.

Writing for humans

Human readers are the ones that can eventually make a purchase and become a customer. When making purchase decisions, humans need product details and pricing, but that type of information usually isn’t enough.

If you want to create content that resonates with a human audience, your content needs empathy, storytelling, and emotional reasoning. Studies show that storytelling, in particular, releases oxytocin in the brain, a hormone associated with positive feelings such as happiness and trust.

Storytelling also helps you structure your writing in a way that’s easy for human readers to follow and understand. Ultimately, when you write for people, you want to have a clear message that connects with humans.

Writing for robots

In this case, the robots we refer to are search engine crawlers or spiders. Unlike humans, web crawlers can’t buy a product from you, no matter how great your marketing.

But bots influence your position on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs), which impacts whether or not human readers will see your content.

Search engine spiders respond to optimizations around indexing technical SEO. In other words, you want to use your keywords and heading structure to make it easier for bots to figure out the context of your content.

How to pick your audience

An analysis done by FirstPageSage found that the top-ranking article on Google’s SERPs receives an average CTR of 39.6%. And by the time you get to the 5th position, the average CTR drops to 5.1%.

If your goal is organic traffic, you need the help of search bots to get more human eyes on your content. But you never want to sacrifice your human audience. After all, they’re the only ones who can become your customers.

So, the answer to our question of which audience to choose is: Both.

This sounds like a bit of a cop-out, but the good news is they’re not mutually exclusive.

Google has continued to update its search algorithm to better process natural language and measure performance metrics that affect the user experience. These updates have made it easier to create an SEO content marketing strategy that works for both audiences.

How to write SEO content for humans and robots

Writing SEO-optimized content that works for crawlers and people is all about balance. You need to understand which elements impact each target audience the most and include them without ruining the experience for the other group.

Here are some steps to improve your SEO content strategy and drive more organic traffic.

Word choice

Word choice matters most for your human readers, but there are some aspects that apply to search engine bots.

For bots, you want to stay concise and make your content easier for Google to read and establish context. To do so, remove fluff terms, choose strong words over adjectives, and avoid long, multisyllabic words.

Here are some examples of how you can tailor the word choice for Google bots.

“Open the app” instead of “simply open the app”

“We’re thrilled” instead of “we’re very excited”

“Required” instead of “mandatory”

Choosing words for humans requires a little more nuance. First, avoid language that insults your reader's intelligence, such as the word “clearly”.

Second, opt for specific terms instead of general ones. For instance, “50% of respondents” is clearer than “many respondents”.

Finally, use inclusive language. Words such as “humankind” and “they” encompass more people than “mankind” and “she”.

Reading level

People search Google to find answers, not to read college-level explanations. Lowering your content’s reading level gives humans a more pleasant user experience.

Reading level doesn’t impact SEO rank directly. However, it can affect page experience metrics like dwell time and bounce rate, which impact SEO.

The Flesch Reading Ease score is a tool you can use to analyze the readability of your text. For instance, you can benefit from online tools like the Hemingway Editor that use Flesch score to test your writing.

The Flesch score uses average sentence length (ASL) and average syllables per word (ASW) to get your score, ranging from 0 to 100. The higher the score, the easier your content is to understand. Your score can also be connected to a Flesch-Kincaid reading level, which compares your writing difficulty to a school grade.

Here’s how the scores are divided by grade level:

Any score above 70 is easy for 7th grade or lower to understand

Scores between 60 and 70 are 8th to 9th-grade reading level

Scores between 50 and 60 are 10th to 12th-grade reading level

Scores below 50 are at college and professional reading levels

The Flesch-Kincaid reading level means someone at that reading level could easily understand your content. Try to aim for a score of 60 or higher, even if you’re writing for a college-level audience. Remember, your reader came to Google to find a clear answer, not read a dissertation.

Best practices to improve readability include adding transitions, writing shorter sentences, and using active verbs.

Content structure

Your content structure affects humans and bots. Headings and subheadings should make your post easier to read. If you include a table of contents at the top, a reader should be able to understand what your post is about and find the information they need.

Furthermore, your section titles are opportunities to capture your reader’s attention. So descriptiveness is not enough; you have to have a hook. For example, “10 Ways to Improve Your Time Management” is more personable and specific than “Time Management Tips.”

As for the search bot, structure helps it figure out the context of your article. To optimize for bots, include primary and supporting keywords in your headings. You can even use GPT-3 AI Tools to help generate outlines once you’ve done the keyword research.

Remember that AI tools are great for pointing you in the right direction when it comes to ideation, but you should ensure your finished text still makes sense to a human reader.

Visuals

Using images and other media to break up large chunks of text helps improve the user experience. Similar to structure, visual elements matter for both of your audiences.

When it comes to your human audience, you want to choose visuals that help readers understand the text they complement. So ensure you include images near relevant text and avoid generic stock photos.

Instead, try:

GIFs

Embedded videos

Infographics, statistics, and graphs

Screenshots with annotations

Expert quote images

To optimize images for search bots, Google recommends using high-quality images and compressing the files, so they don’t lower your page speed. Furthermore, you should add descriptive metadata (such as title, caption, and file name) that includes keyword phrases when relevant.

Finally, pay attention to your alternate text (or alt text). The alt text describes images for search engine bots and screen readers for people who can’t see. Writing descriptive alt text is an essential part of accessible content writing.

While bots scan this text, you ultimately want to create a description that helps your human reader picture what’s in the image. In other words, avoid keyword stuffing and opt for a description of what’s going on in the image instead.

For example:

Keyword-stuffed alt text: “shoes trainers sneakers fashion shoes footwear women’s shoes accessories athletic shoes”

Descriptive alt text: “pair of women’s sneakers in white”

Grammar, spelling, and capitalization

Proper grammar and spelling help you build trust with your readers.

According to Google Search Central, grammar is not a direct factor for search engine rankings. But, if a search bot can’t crawl your website because of errors, that’ll harm your search performance. On the other hand, proper spelling can improve your page’s authority score.

Spelling is especially important when it comes to brand names. As Dale Carnegie, author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, states, “A person’s name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language.”

This might seem like a minor factor, but the brands you write about care if you spell (and capitalize) their names correctly.

Here are a few brands that people commonly misspell:

WordPress, not Wordpress

HubSpot, not Hubspot

Mailchimp, not MailChimp

Some word processors might not have brand names included in their spell check, but you can use Grammarly’s style guide feature to autocorrect for brands you frequently write about across a team of writers and editors.

Content length

Although Google has confirmed that word count is not an SEO ranking factor, that doesn’t mean you should ignore it.

Google does prioritize comprehensive answers to search terms, so long-form content may perform better. In other words, content length can indicate how well your writing meets a user’s search intent compared to the competition.

SEO optimization tools like Clearscope provide word count suggestions based on the length of the top-ranking pages. That said, don’t sacrifice quality content to create longer articles. Adding meaningless content to meet a word count goal can hurt the reader experience.

Page titles

You should write your page titles for bots and people. Writing for bots means including the target keyword in your SEO title tag and meta description. Doing so gives search engines more context and improves your chances of ranking for the right keywords.

Page titles for people should include keywords, but they also need to pique the reader’s interest so you can increase your click-through rate. You can make your titles click-worthy by including emotional words, adding urgency, and making them personal.

Here are some examples.

Emotional: “5 Proven Ways to Fall Asleep Easily”

Urgent: “How to Stop Procrastinating Right Now”

Personal: “Resume Template to Land Your Dream Job”

Titles are one of the main factors affecting how much traffic your page receives, so they’re an excellent place to A/B test.

Writing for search engines: optimize for robots or people?

When it comes to writing SEO-friendly content, it’s not a question of humans vs. robots but rather how to optimize for both. The actionable steps in this article are an excellent place to start if you want to create content that ranks on SERPs and resonates with potential customers. 

To read more about creating consistent brand style guidelines and copywriting for an online audience, check out my book Writing for Humans and Robots: The New Rules of Content Style, available in print and Kindle on July 18, 2022.

[bfxenon]

Humans vs. Robots: Picking the Best Audience for Your SEO Content

Google processes more than 8.5 billion searches every day. That’s more than 100,000 searches per second, thousands of which could lead a user to a purchase.

It’s no wonder, then, that 60% of marketers list SEO as their number one inbound marketing priority.

But generating organic traffic comes with challenges. Google has hundreds of billions of webpages in its index, competing for the top spots on search result pages. Not to mention, when you’re writing for search engines, you technically have two audiences: bots and humans.

Let’s look at how these audiences compare and see who you should be writing for.

Writing content for SEO: who to write for

Bots and humans are the chicken and the egg of search engine optimization. You need humans to make a sale, but you can’t get the humans without the help of bots.

The question is, which one comes first on your priority list? To answer that, let’s define each of these audiences.

Writing for humans

Human readers are the ones that can eventually make a purchase and become a customer. When making purchase decisions, humans need product details and pricing, but that type of information usually isn’t enough.

If you want to create content that resonates with a human audience, your content needs empathy, storytelling, and emotional reasoning. Studies show that storytelling, in particular, releases oxytocin in the brain, a hormone associated with positive feelings such as happiness and trust.

Storytelling also helps you structure your writing in a way that’s easy for human readers to follow and understand. Ultimately, when you write for people, you want to have a clear message that connects with humans.

Writing for robots

In this case, the robots we refer to are search engine crawlers or spiders. Unlike humans, web crawlers can’t buy a product from you, no matter how great your marketing.

But bots influence your position on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs), which impacts whether or not human readers will see your content.

Search engine spiders respond to optimizations around indexing technical SEO. In other words, you want to use your keywords and heading structure to make it easier for bots to figure out the context of your content.

How to pick your audience

An analysis done by FirstPageSage found that the top-ranking article on Google’s SERPs receives an average CTR of 39.6%. And by the time you get to the 5th position, the average CTR drops to 5.1%.

If your goal is organic traffic, you need the help of search bots to get more human eyes on your content. But you never want to sacrifice your human audience. After all, they’re the only ones who can become your customers.

So, the answer to our question of which audience to choose is: Both.

This sounds like a bit of a cop-out, but the good news is they’re not mutually exclusive.

Google has continued to update its search algorithm to better process natural language and measure performance metrics that affect the user experience. These updates have made it easier to create an SEO content marketing strategy that works for both audiences.

How to write SEO content for humans and robots

Writing SEO-optimized content that works for crawlers and people is all about balance. You need to understand which elements impact each target audience the most and include them without ruining the experience for the other group.

Here are some steps to improve your SEO content strategy and drive more organic traffic.

Word choice

Word choice matters most for your human readers, but there are some aspects that apply to search engine bots.

For bots, you want to stay concise and make your content easier for Google to read and establish context. To do so, remove fluff terms, choose strong words over adjectives, and avoid long, multisyllabic words.

Here are some examples of how you can tailor the word choice for Google bots.

“Open the app” instead of “simply open the app”

“We’re thrilled” instead of “we’re very excited”

“Required” instead of “mandatory”

Choosing words for humans requires a little more nuance. First, avoid language that insults your reader's intelligence, such as the word “clearly”.

Second, opt for specific terms instead of general ones. For instance, “50% of respondents” is clearer than “many respondents”.

Finally, use inclusive language. Words such as “humankind” and “they” encompass more people than “mankind” and “she”.

Reading level

People search Google to find answers, not to read college-level explanations. Lowering your content’s reading level gives humans a more pleasant user experience.

Reading level doesn’t impact SEO rank directly. However, it can affect page experience metrics like dwell time and bounce rate, which impact SEO.

The Flesch Reading Ease score is a tool you can use to analyze the readability of your text. For instance, you can benefit from online tools like the Hemingway Editor that use Flesch score to test your writing.

The Flesch score uses average sentence length (ASL) and average syllables per word (ASW) to get your score, ranging from 0 to 100. The higher the score, the easier your content is to understand. Your score can also be connected to a Flesch-Kincaid reading level, which compares your writing difficulty to a school grade.

Here’s how the scores are divided by grade level:

Any score above 70 is easy for 7th grade or lower to understand

Scores between 60 and 70 are 8th to 9th-grade reading level

Scores between 50 and 60 are 10th to 12th-grade reading level

Scores below 50 are at college and professional reading levels

The Flesch-Kincaid reading level means someone at that reading level could easily understand your content. Try to aim for a score of 60 or higher, even if you’re writing for a college-level audience. Remember, your reader came to Google to find a clear answer, not read a dissertation.

Best practices to improve readability include adding transitions, writing shorter sentences, and using active verbs.

Content structure

Your content structure affects humans and bots. Headings and subheadings should make your post easier to read. If you include a table of contents at the top, a reader should be able to understand what your post is about and find the information they need.

Furthermore, your section titles are opportunities to capture your reader’s attention. So descriptiveness is not enough; you have to have a hook. For example, “10 Ways to Improve Your Time Management” is more personable and specific than “Time Management Tips.”

As for the search bot, structure helps it figure out the context of your article. To optimize for bots, include primary and supporting keywords in your headings. You can even use GPT-3 AI Tools to help generate outlines once you’ve done the keyword research.

Remember that AI tools are great for pointing you in the right direction when it comes to ideation, but you should ensure your finished text still makes sense to a human reader.

Visuals

Using images and other media to break up large chunks of text helps improve the user experience. Similar to structure, visual elements matter for both of your audiences.

When it comes to your human audience, you want to choose visuals that help readers understand the text they complement. So ensure you include images near relevant text and avoid generic stock photos.

Instead, try:

GIFs

Embedded videos

Infographics, statistics, and graphs

Screenshots with annotations

Expert quote images

To optimize images for search bots, Google recommends using high-quality images and compressing the files, so they don’t lower your page speed. Furthermore, you should add descriptive metadata (such as title, caption, and file name) that includes keyword phrases when relevant.

Finally, pay attention to your alternate text (or alt text). The alt text describes images for search engine bots and screen readers for people who can’t see. Writing descriptive alt text is an essential part of accessible content writing.

While bots scan this text, you ultimately want to create a description that helps your human reader picture what’s in the image. In other words, avoid keyword stuffing and opt for a description of what’s going on in the image instead.

For example:

Keyword-stuffed alt text: “shoes trainers sneakers fashion shoes footwear women’s shoes accessories athletic shoes”

Descriptive alt text: “pair of women’s sneakers in white”

Grammar, spelling, and capitalization

Proper grammar and spelling help you build trust with your readers.

According to Google Search Central, grammar is not a direct factor for search engine rankings. But, if a search bot can’t crawl your website because of errors, that’ll harm your search performance. On the other hand, proper spelling can improve your page’s authority score.

Spelling is especially important when it comes to brand names. As Dale Carnegie, author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, states, “A person’s name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language.”

This might seem like a minor factor, but the brands you write about care if you spell (and capitalize) their names correctly.

Here are a few brands that people commonly misspell:

WordPress, not Wordpress

HubSpot, not Hubspot

Mailchimp, not MailChimp

Some word processors might not have brand names included in their spell check, but you can use Grammarly’s style guide feature to autocorrect for brands you frequently write about across a team of writers and editors.

Content length

Although Google has confirmed that word count is not an SEO ranking factor, that doesn’t mean you should ignore it.

Google does prioritize comprehensive answers to search terms, so long-form content may perform better. In other words, content length can indicate how well your writing meets a user’s search intent compared to the competition.

SEO optimization tools like Clearscope provide word count suggestions based on the length of the top-ranking pages. That said, don’t sacrifice quality content to create longer articles. Adding meaningless content to meet a word count goal can hurt the reader experience.

Page titles

You should write your page titles for bots and people. Writing for bots means including the target keyword in your SEO title tag and meta description. Doing so gives search engines more context and improves your chances of ranking for the right keywords.

Page titles for people should include keywords, but they also need to pique the reader’s interest so you can increase your click-through rate. You can make your titles click-worthy by including emotional words, adding urgency, and making them personal.

Here are some examples.

Emotional: “5 Proven Ways to Fall Asleep Easily”

Urgent: “How to Stop Procrastinating Right Now”

Personal: “Resume Template to Land Your Dream Job”

Titles are one of the main factors affecting how much traffic your page receives, so they’re an excellent place to A/B test.

Writing for search engines: optimize for robots or people?

When it comes to writing SEO-friendly content, it’s not a question of humans vs. robots but rather how to optimize for both. The actionable steps in this article are an excellent place to start if you want to create content that ranks on SERPs and resonates with potential customers. 

To read more about creating consistent brand style guidelines and copywriting for an online audience, check out my book Writing for Humans and Robots: The New Rules of Content Style, available in print and Kindle on July 18, 2022.

[minimus-ambus]

Megatron just wants to help. Minimus just wants to be selfish for once. They stumble around each other and somehow manage to realize some very important things.

A fic I wrote for the Minimegs server gift exchange!

[minimus-ambus]

Day 5: Battle/Talk! For today I decided to make some pixel art – and a matching perler, too! I’m pretty proud with how it turned out :)

[minimus-ambus]

Animal Behaviors – Beastformers Zine Preview!

Hey y’all, I wrote a fic for the @animaltfzine!!! It’s about the Maximals showing off their wilder sides, Rattrap being stubborn, and rats rats we are the rats celebratinyetanotherbirthdaybash

Go check the Zine out on gumroad!!! It’s got so much great work in it!

____________________________________

Rattrap snickered. Dinobot, who’d developed an almost pavlovian response to the sound, glared down at him. “And what could it be that you find so humorous, vermin?”

Rattrap rolled his eyes, picking up a vibrant blue feather and spinning it in his fingers. “Didn’t know ya cared so much about your appearance, that’s all! Gotta look good when you’re monologuing about yourself to yourself?”

“Quiet, you mangy little rodent! I suppose you would prefer if I coated myself in filth like you,” Dinobot growled as the feathers along his spine stood on end.

“I clean myself all the time, I just don’t use my mouth for it-” he transformed and raised his arms, flashing a mocking smile as he said, “look, hands! Remember ’em?”

“That’s it!” Dinobot’s nostrils flared, flashing his claws and-

“Both of you, stop!” Optimus barked – literally barked, baring his fangs as he slammed a fist down between the two.

...They stopped.

[minimus-ambus]

Doop Week continues!

Day 2: Past/Future – “Shh, shh, you’re alright.”

[minimus-ambus]

Doop Week is here, and so is my first drabble!!! Go read it if you like Dinobot, Dinobot II, flower themes n symbolism, and Being Sad

Day 1: Flowers – Dinobot II doesn’t ask questions.

[minimus-ambus]

New chapter, wahoo

Day 4: Trust/Betrayal – It sounded like an explosion that just kept going.

[minimus-ambus]

glittering blue

Commission for @seaquestions! Always love writin some soundmags UwU

In the Golden Age, Iacon glittered. It sparkled as it reflected the stars up above and shone blindingly bright under the full force of the sun, flawless in its facets like a diamond. 

This is how Magnus remembered it – Soundwave only remembered how it hurt his optics. 

But neither of their memories mattered anymore, did they? Iacon splintered like a gem cut by fumbling, foolhardy hands, and they still felt the slivers of glass deep in their frames. And even then, did they really want to recreate that Iacon? For all its glitter and light, at the end of the day a diamond is just a rock, and it is no good for breaking windows. Soundwave never wanted that. A million years ago, he had burned to break that glass city apart. 

Now, he noted with a bittersweet tinge as he walked alongside Ultra Magnus past crews in the midst of their construction work, messengers speeding by, and bots simply out on a stroll in the late evening, he was picking the fragments from his body and building something back up. 

“Soundwave?” 

Soundwave tilted his head up with an inquisitive “hm?” 

Magnus smiled at him – an expression that came to his face so easily and immediately that it made something sweeten inside him. “What do you think of the hospital plans? You probably got the report on this as well already, but I was wondering about your opinion on the disagreement.” 

Soundwave had to stop for a moment. Hospital plans? He thought he had read those, but last night had been a bit… busy. 

He had been trying to work though the mountains of memos and paperwork on his kitchen table when he had gotten a call from Cyclonus. He’d been able to guess the cause the second he had picked up and heard a crash in the background behind Cyclonus’s fretful tone. He hurried over to the small plaza to find Galvatron in a rage, lashing out blindly at anyone who dared stray too close to him. There were a few Autobots in the vicinity, and Soundwave was displeased to notice their hands on their weapons – it was a good thing he arrived when he did. He had leveled a sharp glare at those autobots, sighing internally in relief when they left shortly. 

Many bots had struggled to adjust to a life free of constant combat (and for that Soundwave could not blame them), but out of them all, Galvatron had it nearly the worst. He reacted at the drop of a coin, fluctuating between triumphant joy and paranoid fury, and whenever Soundwave saw him like this he cursed Unicron bitterly for twisting his mind into seeing any touch as a hostile one. Cyclonus had tried to explain what had triggered Galvatron’s panic, but Soundwave couldn’t quite remember it now through the sleep-deprived fog. He had simply reached out, slowly, gently, with his mind, and brushed against Galvatron’s. 

Galvatron jumped at the touch, but Soundwave didn’t say anything – he posed no orders or questions, but simply stayed, hovering there next to his consciousness, nonjudgemental, undemanding. 

It took an hour or two, but bit by bit, Galvatron had latched onto the cool, steady aura beside him and followed its example. He might have even followed it too well; as Cyclonus took his hand to lead him back to his room, his optics had begun to dim, and Soundwave had checked his internal chronometer to realize it was nearly morning and he wasn’t yet done with his paperwork. Needless to say, he hadn’t gotten much rest.

Now, he wracked his sleep-addled processor for some kind of detail about a hospital, but couldn’t come up with a thing. Sheepishly, he looked up at Magnus. “I… do not quite remember the terms of this disagreement. I apologize.” 

Magnus blinked, but his surprise at Soundwave being unprepared was quickly overtaken by an understanding smile (Soundwave felt his spark melt just a little more). “No need. I can go over it, if you would like?” After receiving a nod, he started talking in that adorably formal ‘meeting’ tone of his. “The crux of it is which building should be chosen to house the hospital. One location – I believe it may have been a hospital originally before the war – is located closer to the most populous section of the city, and has a good layout for our needs. However, there are some stability concerns about the structure, and it’s a bit smaller than we would have hoped for. The other option looks to have been an office – it has more open space, which is helpful considering the amount of patients they may have, but it’s farther away from the bulk of the population.”

Magnus waited for a response, cocking his head when none came. “...Soundwave?”

Soundwave, who hadn’t moved, flashed his visor once. “I am thinking.”

“Ah. Of course,” Magnus nodded promptly and looked back up. 

“...Primary concern is accessibility. First location would be the best option for this, and funds can be allocated towards stabilization. Internal walls could be knocked down to create larger space, which could be better managed alongside stabilization efforts.”

Magnus grinned – so openly and brightly it almost looked wrong on his face. “I agree completely. Would you mind if I noted your advice on my report?”

“Mm.”

Magnus paused. He then realized that Soundwave had started leaning on him some time in the last few minutes, and that his visor was quite dim. Lowering his voice as to not bother him, he said, “Er- Soundwave? Do you want to sit down somewhere?”

“Mmno, just need a moment,” Soundwave replied in a distinctly drowsy tone. 

Magnus huffed a soft sigh. “Alright. Take as long as you need.” 

Iacon didn’t glitter like he remembered. Most of the glass had blown out, the steel warped and blackened, the towers fallen down long ago. The sun had dipped below the horizon just far enough that the world had turned blue, and the half-repaired ruins cast long shadows over the streets. Standing there, Soundwave a warmth against his side, Magnus could see some lights glimmering on in a few windows, little glowing pockets in the great blue-black hollows of Iacon. It was gigantic, and cold, and lonely, and-

Ah. Soundwave was asleep. 

Magnus sighed, and gently roused him – just enough so they could both transform and let Soundwave sit inside his cabin of his alt mode as he slowly trundled home, the hum of his engine lulling him to sleep once more.

[minimus-ambus]

Day 6: AU - Dinobot prided himself on being unshakeable.

This one is especially cute... it has... baby monky >:)

[minimus-ambus]

It almost hurts, to feel it. Dinobot doesn’t realize he’s crying until Optimus is wiping a tear from his cheek with his thumb. So faintly, he feels a swell of embarrassment at the back of his mind, but it barely has a moment to live before a rush of color envelops it, soothes it out of existence.

Dinobot chokes- his hand clutches Optimus’s where their fingers are interlaced. Optimus smiles up at him. He feels the color in his mind- smooth but firm, kind, so lovely and blue, blue, blue, blue....

More tears roll down his face, and beyond the blinding glow of their sparks together, he can see Optimus crying too. He murmurs something: “I know, I know.” Optimus reaches up, kisses him so gently he thinks he has never been this soft until now. Never allowed himself to be.

Optimus’s spark bleeds love into his. Dinobot bleeds back.

[minimus-ambus]

5 minibots in a group chat, what will they do

[minimus-ambus]

Day 3: Home/Cybertron – “Foolish...”

[minimus-ambus]

he is

anyways the new autobot city help agency hurt me bad so i wrote something

credit to @bonnyearl for inspiring me with her wonderful wonderful fic!!!

do NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE NEW CHAPTER. GO READ IT NOW. 

And, that isn’t quite right.

It doesn’t click in his head – the pieces are suddenly wrong, so when he tries to force them together they just make an awkward thunk. Like jamming a key into a lock that doesn’t match.

His trial is- soon. He knows that to be a fact. A true statement. An absolute. It will be a fair trial, because Optimus has promised this, and Minimus will make sure of it. 

He hears it thunk at the back of his mind again.

Minimus is convicted of no crimes. Perhaps he has committed some, because really, who has ever come out of this war with no blood on their hands or weights on their shoulders. But he is a good person. He does good things. He cares about people. He will live a better life once Megatron is dead.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. 

That’s really quite an annoying sound. It’s making it hard to clean up. Minimus would have hated the mess. Would have. No. Would. Wrong tense. Minimus hates that. Right, yes. 

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. 

He stops at the bedroom. 

They had woken, one day, after they had taken away the book barrier that divided the berth space between them, close to each other. Too close. It happened to be Minimus who woke up first. He had stiffened, and grown hot with embarrassment, and attempted to stealthily slip out of Megatron’s arms. Standing up he had thanked primus Megatron was a deep sleeper. 

(Minimus knew that Megatron jolted awake at the slightest sound. Megatron, who had wisely kept his optics very dim and his engine low, tried not to confirm this fact. But he had laid there, after Minimus had left, staring at the far wall and imagining the faint warmth of the metal next to him. He had promised to himself he wouldn’t think about it again, and he hadn’t.)

He is breaking his promises. He sits on the edge on the berth and ghosts his hand over where Minimus had lay, just to see-… 

The one time he had ever been close to Megatron, and it was barely his choice – more the whims of a sleep-addled mind. Cybertronians are naturally social creatures. After millions of years they seek touch still.

He had kissed Minimus’s cheek that morning. It had started an ache in his chest, but- he had heard a faint sigh just as he left the room. It was a sweet sort of ache. 

He comes back and sees a spot of energon on the floor he had missed. And suddenly, the thunk, thunk, thunk echoes louder until it’s a hammer beating at the front of his skull, pressing up behind his eyes, a pounding headache that won’t- oh. Haha. A pounding headache. Like a hammer, pounding. He should remember that, for Minimus. 

Something tears itself from his throat like a fleeing animal as he throws the table against the wall and it splinters. For a second, in the crash of sound, he is the self he used to be – roaring at the world, waiting for it to tremble and fall like he knew it to. 

But he has given up his anger, and now there is nothing left. He folds down on himself. He doesn’t cry, but his vents wheeze, sharp and harsh and horrible like he has a hole in his chest. 

His trial is soon. It will be fair. Optimus promised. Minimus will ensure it. He’s going to die. He’s going to die soon, and it will be fair. Minimus will make sure. Minimus will move on. Minimus will be alright. The statements loop back on themselves. He’s boiling. He’s drowning again. He’s ready for this. He’s the one who’s supposed to die. He is. He is. 

He stays like that, crouched on the floor, for three minutes. 

Then, he stands and picks up the fragments of the table. He remembers to catch the spot of energon on the floor, too, and when he wipes it away it’s like it was never there.

[minimus-ambus]

Or or! 22, Soundmags

things you said after it was over

“Ultra Magnus: not used to peace.”

Magnus actually startled when Soundwave spoke up, quickly smoothing out his expression and glancing to the Decepticon beside him. Magnus was by no means an unobservant mech, but Soundwave had a strange way of walking right by his personal alarms that flared up if anyone got as much as within 5 feet of him. Something about him—it failed to trigger the alarms he had set up about himself through millennia of war. Magnus wasn’t quite sure how to handle that. He wasn’t quite sure how to handle Soundwave.

Magnus cleared his throat. “....I suppose you’re right.” He turned back to look over the neutral Autobot-Decepticon camp. So far, no major skirmishes had broken out, which had been an odd relief for him—less trouble was good, but less trouble meant less for him to actually do.

Soundwave didn’t push him to elaborate. He simply nodded, and silently gazed forward. A long minute passed. “....Soundwave: not very used to it either.”

Magnus blinked. He looked to Soundwave, but the mech’s face was unreadable. Yet, something felt a little more... open. As if he had tentatively lowered a barrier around his spark, watching warily to see what could happen while maintaining the same stoic facade.

“Oh,” Magnus said. He didn’t quite think he had thought it through enough to say anything else beyond that.

He just shuffled a step closer to Soundwave. It was enough.

[minimus-ambus]

for the writing meme, maybe minimegs and 17?

things you said that i wish you hadn’t

God, where do you begin?

Some days Minimus wished he hadn’t spoken to Megatron at all in the years he had been co-captain of their ship. He probably could have avoided him, if he bended the rules a bit—but Minimus on principle never bent the rules.

You can only bend someone so far before they break, you know.

Some days he wished Megatron hadn’t replied to his memos. “Noted, with thanks.” It was frankly rather pathetic of him, that all it took for Minimus to- to bear his spark was to be thanked. Stupid.

Some days he wished Megatron hadn’t called him Minimus, or spoken to him like he wasn’t just the one who ruined everyone’s fun, or discussed law with him, or- or- or-

Damn it.

“Were you expecting someone else?”

Some days he wished he had never heard that terrible, lovely voice through his comm.

It would have hurt so much less that way.