#devcon

(Devcon concept art is by @darija-morgan )

Devcon is a very aggressive, Decepticon-hating Aerialbot. He is also super bigoted and mean to beast-bots too. So he is very bothersome for the reader who is playing as Predaking! He attacks us for no reason or just insults us!

Devcon has trauma from Decepticons. I won't focus on that right now but because so many Seekers became Decepticons, he thinks that jet-bots are intrinsically evil. Jets and beasts are equally evil in his eyes. When he calls us bloodthirsty monsters, he actually thinks he is one too.

But in the pattern of Autobot Seekers, Devcon overcompensates to prove he is a good Autobot. To him, Autobots are the most moral, so the more Autobot he acts, the more moral he is.

We don't know he actually hates himself for being a jet until one chapter in Monstrous Heart:

The jets of Cybertron saved the world but he doesn't believe they deserve to be thanked. In fact, the world would be better without jets or beasts, he thinks.

However... Devcon is discovered to not just be a jet. He is a triple-changer: a jet and a beast.

He does not want anyone to know about his beast form because of how ashamed he was made to feel about it. Devcon reveals that when he was young, he had surgery to hide his beastly features. He was forced to conform "for his own good". Beasts were lower castes normally while Seekers were higher. Adults thought they were doing him a favour, letting him just be a Seeker. Other young Seekers would have made fun of him too or feared him.

Instead of anyone fighting discrimination, they buried what was different about Devcon deep inside him. He can still transform into beast-mode but he never does except in emergencies (it is a two-headed wingless beast with his legs becoming the heads and necks). He is so ashamed of that form. They really made him feel that it was so bad that society couldn't look at him for how he was made.

This could be related to in different ways. It can be a story about being intersex, about being transgender or queer in any way, about being biracial, about being neurodivergent... This is a story about difference being crushed, shamed, and hidden because society demanded conformity. They performed surgery on Devon, convincing him it was for his own good and that he would be safer and happier. It devastated his self-image. He was made to hate himself and anyone like himself.

Haha same! As much as I love writing Jazzprowl and Sunnyblue, all these asks about Smokescreen have made me realise how I too have been overlooking the often ignored middle Datsun brother lol. Which is a shame because I do think he is a really interesting character!

I've come across Smokescreen x Ricochet as a side pairing a lot in fics which I don't mind.

I saw a fic once where Smokescreen and Bluestreak were twins dating Sideswipe and Sunstreaker respectively. And in that fic Prowl and Barricade were also twins, with Prowl dating Jazz and Barricade dating Ricochet. Which was a fun concept lol!

However my favourite Smokescreen ship has got to be Devscreen!

As I mentioned in one of my previous asks, I like to headcanon Smokescreen as the stereotypically overlooked middle brother between Prowl and Bluestreak. And I think part of what appeals to Smokescreen about Devcon, (aside from the fact that he is a bounty hunter bad boy with a spark of gold) is that Devcon is seperate from the Autobots so he doesn't see Smokescreen as a screw up or the Datsuns less middle brother, Devcon just sees him as his own person. So Smokescreen is able to share more of himself with Devcon than he would with the other Autobots who he isn't as close too as he tends to hide behind a layer of charm and swindle them out of their shanix. And whilst Devcon might see Smokescreen as a bit full of hot air at first, he quickly comes around, being impressed with Smokescreen's quick thinking and ability to act under pressure whilst undercover. I think there's also the conflict there too in that Devcon maybe offers for Smokescreen to join him as a bounty hunter but Smokescreen can't leave his brothers or duty to the Autobot. Devcon might not fully understand that as he'd rather have the freedom to be in charge of his own destiny, but he does respect Smokescreen's decision. So whilst they want to be together, ultimately they can't. 😭