[Nexus RP] Blaster at the Embassy!

[soundwave_ascendant]

https://nexus-crossings.dreamwidth.org/206970.html?thread=21204602#cmt21204602

Ravage drives them out of the Plaza and up to the gate, which is being guarded by Clobber and Garboil--a deep green warmech with a single optic, and a cobalt blue condorlight, the same frametype as Laserbeak and Buzzsaw. She transforms, grabbing one boombox with each hand, and sets them down on the ground.

"At ease, you two," Ravage says. "Blaster's come up for a visit. He's not the Blaster from our universe."

Clobber relaxes visibly.

Ravage turns to Blaster. "Welcome," she says. "You're now in sovereign Destron territory, but you're welcome to spend the afternoon with us here."

They might be calling it an Embassy, but it qualifies as a good-sized base. However, there are some public buildings just outside the gate--it looks like they're building an inn or an oilhouse or something like that, and there's also a public office and a small library. Inside the gate, there are several residences surrounding the central building. There are also civilians inside the gate, including some juveniles, and a juvenile humanoid organic with purple skin. There's a scratching noise inside Soundwave's chest and he laughs. "Viridian, eject," he says, and she does, leaping down to go and join some of the other younger residents.

Soundwave turns to Blaster. "Well," he says, "if we're trying to make friends then I'd hope you wouldn't harm my cassettes, but most of them have other alt-modes now. To be quite honest, I was thinking of retiring the deck, but Viridian likes to rest in there. And Rosanna's a pop star, a singer; you'll like her. But we'll talk inside."

There is a throne room in the main hall of the main building, but beyond it, their private residence is modest, although they don't have to fetch their own energon--a bot who looks like a sanitation model brings the cubes, and a plate full of elaborate gelled energon treats.

"Thanks, Suckerpunch." Ravage grins and dismisses the other bot. "You have to try these gel pastilles, Soundwave makes them himself. He's been spoiling me for the past four million years."

Comments

[assaultingrocknroll]

Blaster shifts forms, and watches Viridian run off. As much as it looks like a base, it has the feel of, well as close to a home as Blaster's seen for Cybertronians for a while.

He follows his counterpart taking in the sights. "Okay, honestly this is more than I expected to ever see," He knew the war had to end sometime, but this... didn't feel like they were expecting a fight soon, could be the anti-violence field, which he would be willing to admit, was a nice feature.

"And just the thought of Soundwave cooking is, not what I ever pictured." Though he shouldn't say anything, if he had been able to go through with the plans he had without the war he probably would have been an artist, still living with his family. "And a Cassette as a pop star," He mused. "It would be a femmebot, the four I have, couldn't carry a tune if their lives depended on it. They've tried but, yeah I think the others begged Ratchet to remove their voice ships once and they stopped." He's pretty sure Ratchet wouldn't have actually done it... Well he hopes he wouldn't at least!

The 4 million year comment, makes him feel like he's freshly built, though he won't make any jokes about her looking good for such an old age. He'd like to keep his frame in one piece!

[soundwave_ascendant]

"You should see Sanctuary Station," Soundwave says. "This place is a refuge. The war with the Autobots is over for now. In order to make sure that it stays that way--among other things--Ravage and I are up against Galvatron for leadership of our own faction. We want to keep the peace. He doesn't. And Optimus is also making things difficult, though probably not in the way that you'd expect. It wasn't what we expected either."

He laughs at Blaster's comment regarding his cooking. "If you had any idea how many cassettes I've actually been responsible for, you wouldn't be surprised that I can make treats," he says, taking his mask off to drink his energon. His face is actually quite pretty.

Ravage is eating one of the treats with evident delight. Soundwave drapes his arm across the back of her chair, and rests his hand on her shoulder; she leans into him a little.

"How and why are mecha made into cassettes, or cassette carriers, in your universe?" Ravage asks quietly. "In ours, it was almost never something that anyone freely chose. We wouldn't have chosen it for ourselves. We didn't choose it for Viridian, whom Shockwave created using our CNA, or for any of the others that Soundwave has hosted. If you think about it, not one of us could exist if we didn't have more efficient methods of data storage. Our brain modules and internal memory banks are a lot more secure. I was a Senatorial Recorder, so I coped with it better than most. Later, we discovered that everyone else from my cohort had also been modified, even the ones who'd ended up becoming Autobots."

She takes a drink. "Rewind," she says, "was also a Senatorial Recorder. He was owned by Dominus Ambus, who made him his conjunx. I'm not sure how he ended up as a cassette. I'm not sure why no-one in the House of Ambus joined our faction. I would have been Soundwave's conjunx, but it was illegal at that time, both because I was somebody else's property, and also because I am a beastformer, a member of the disposable caste, and Soundwave, unlike Dominus Ambus, did not have the power to declare me alt-mode-exempt."

"I'd been cast out of House Kymatos," Soundwave says, carefully glancing away so as not to give his emotions away, even with his visor still on. "For literally being a glitch. Ravage saved me. I was almost completely nonfunctional when she took me in. My brother Shockwave was a Senator then; he made it possible for me to purchase her out of gratitude--but he had to arrange the transfer of Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, who would've taken the brunt of their owner's displeasure if we'd left them behind, and it wasn't in his power to exempt all three of them then."

[assaultingrocknroll]

Blaster gave a quizzical look at that. He's still not used to Optimus not wanting peace. That's all he wanted in the war, at least that's all the one he knows wants.

"If what you say is true I'll end up with more, not surprised, just... Honestly I didn't think I'd have any others than the initial 4," Though he's happy to know that he'll have others, he thinks of them more as his younger siblings than as kids.

"I don't remember much of it, I mean it's in the memory banks, but I think I blocked some of it out. Though the cassettes, were already cassettes when I found them, we were doing a search and rescue after Decepticons had hit a school, looking for survivors." He didn't blame them, the area was supposed to have been cleared out, they got a message only microseconds after the attack, that there were still students in the area, not all had been evacuated because of some mix up. "I was already a carrier when we found them so I agreed to try to help them." He reached over for his drink as he spoke.

"You know I never thought of those of you with beast modes as disposable. It's just harder to reel you in if you lean more into the beast form." He knew that from Steeljaw well enough, there were SEVERAL times that the two butted heads.

More that Blaster heard of his counterpart, and how he cared for those in his care, it made believe that he had been an enemy. Soundwave was one of the kinds of people he would have loved to hang out with if there hadn't been a war going on.

[soundwave_ascendant]

"Optimus has been through a lot," Soundwave says, which is the closest he'll ever come to defending his former friend. "I understand that Galvatron's betrayal has made him believe Earth needs to become a protectorate. Galvatron betrayed us, too. He has decided that since I refused to abandon my people and become one of his people, I must not be any better than Galvatron was, and he's forgetting that I have a conjunx who was never considered a person under the old laws. And he's not wrong that for a very long time, we didn't consider the humans to be fully sapient beings. But I don't think that sending Autobot colonists to Earth, or deciding to solve their social problems for them whether they like it or not, is going to result in real freedom for humanity. He's running an infiltration protocol, and he won't admit it even to himself."

"That's charitable of you, my love," Ravage observes quietly.

"Our personal reasons for despising the mech are exactly that," Soundwave tells her. "They won't matter much to anyone who isn't us."

"I'm glad to hear you never thought of us as disposables. But then...you can't avoid knowing we're people." Ravage shrugs, then grins. "Soundwave knows all about that problem," she says, but then her expression becomes more sober. "But you shouldn't have been able to reel people in at all, if they didn't want to be. It bothers me to hear that students had already been made into cassettes, unless that's a natural alt-mode in your universe. It isn't in ours. I choose to believe Viridian manifested it because of refractory coding in my CNA, but if I ever find out that Shockwave did it to her on purpose, I'll..."

Soundwave nods. "My brother's gone rogue."

[assaultingrocknroll]

That didn't sit right with Blaster. The Optimus he knew loved humans because they weren't bound by protocols like they were. "That doesn't sound like the Optimus I know at all. The country we were based out of had their issues, but they were trying to fix them. It was one of the things that he admired."

"And I said that wrong. I meant on a battlefield. Ramhorn and Steeljaw don't always listen if one of us give a command, though, and I keep getting told I need to keep them in line, but really, it doesn't sit right with me since they are young. I don't know I've never compared notes with another set, we were too busy trying not to get killed."

"Though, I think I will refrain from bringing my Cassettes here, well unless it's an extreme emergency, I don't think it would sit well with them knowing that you aren't the enemy. Pretty sure they'd do some damage."

[dontpetmeibite]

"If they're young," Soundwave says with a frown, "you might actually need to find a way to keep them in line on the battlefield. Otherwise they may get themselves killed! Rumble and Frenzy can be impossible sometimes, but they're Megatron's creche-sibs, and when they take risks, they know they're doing it."

Ravage frowns. "There's an anti-violence field here," she says, "and it might do them good to know that Decepticons don't have to be their enemies. Right now you are fighting a war with our counterparts, but someday, I hope, there will be peace in your world, and everyone will need to get along."

[assaultingrocknroll]

"I do my best, trying to keep them from the worst of it. And I don't let them go alone. The four can keep up with those two at least. But Optimus mostly uses them as either security or messengers around base. Until he feels he can trust them with bigger assignments."

"I know there is, but could you see if they got confused and went up to my version of you, who doesn't speak mind you, or even Starscream trying to become friends with them? Until things settle a little there, I don't want to risk confusing them more."

[dontpetmeibite]

"Fair enough," Ravage says, "but do I not speak at all, or do I just not speak to people I have reason to believe are my enemies?"

"Viridian doesn't speak to anyone," Soundwave says, thinking, "but I'm a telepath, and she has ways of communicating; she sends text messages wirelessly, and she's inherited a measure of my talent. If you didn't speak, and all else remained mostly the same, I think we'd still have a relationship."

"Well," says Ravage, "you never thought I was stupid. If someone's enough of an idiot to think that I'm stupid because of the shape of my frame, I'm going to use that to my advantage. At least, that's what I used to do, before Megatron published my writings."

Then she frowns. "Viridian used to speak, and she might speak again. I accept that she doesn't speak now, but her physical injuries have all been repaired."

[assaultingrocknroll]

"I don't know. I mean it's not like anyone asks. We just know we do anything to you Megatron and Soundwave both go... ballistic. we have used that a few times as a distraction, to keep them from one of our operations. We also make sure to only contain, never harm. I insisted on that."

"You write? I wouldn't mind reading them some time, that is... if you wouldn't mind?"

"Trauma might be why she doesn't. I know Ramhorn didn't for the longest time. He's not quite a chatterbox, but when he wants to be heard he will make sure he's heard." He thought a moment. "Maybe, if I earn her trust I can try to help her? That is if you would like me to try." He was more than willing to earn the young bot's trust honestly, on her terms.

[dontpetmeibite]

"Trauma is why she doesn't," says Ravage. "But let me find out why she reacted badly to you before you attempt that. Your counterpart and I served on the Lost Light together, and I don't know him well, but he's got slag taste in friends. I don't think he had anything to do with the situation I found her in, because he was a good carrier. But if he did, I'm going to make sure that Rodimus and Megatron know about it."

"It sounds to me," Soundwave says, "like we probably are together in your universe. As frowned-upon as such relationships are in our own universe, because of the cassette-carrier relationship, we were together before she was a cassette and I was a carrier, and we weren't giving that up. And we are very close to Megatron. Ravage is his amica."

"My work's been published. You're welcome to read it," says Ravage. "It's mostly political essays and poetry. Some of it might make more sense if you read Megatron's writing along with it."

[assaultingrocknroll]

"I'm fully willing to let her come to me on her terms, just saying I'm willing to help out." He frowns at that though. "I thought I had great friends. Sounds like my counterpart may have a few crossed wires the more I hear about him."

"Might be, I just know my Soundwave is protective over Ravage and Laserbeak more than Rumble and Frenzy. Ravage more so. I thought it was just because Ravage is better at getting into places without being noticed."

"I will have to check it out while I am here."

[dontpetmeibite]

"Rumble and Frenzy cause a lot of their own problems," Soundwave says with some amusement. "Ravage lets me have it when I try to protect them from the natural consequences of their own bad behaviour. I'm protective of anyone under my command when they're taken captive, of course, but...I am more protective of Ravage than anyone else. She's very capable, and very dangerous, but she's not invulnerable. And she's my world. Someday, if you're very lucky, you'll feel that way about someone else."

Viridian comes into the room, padding cautiously over to her parents. She puts her paws on Soundwave's thigh and glances at the treats on the table; Soundwave grins, and feeds her one. She looks over at Blaster, cautiously, and sends a message to his comm.

You look like someone else. I met him once. He hates my mother and father. But he isn't one of the people who hurt me. I'll make sure that they know that. He told me some lies though. I hope he believed they were true.

She points to the Autobot mark on her shoulder. I was talked into this, but some of the things I was told weren't true. My parents say it doesn't matter, because I'm too young, but the MTOs were younger than me and they were constructed with badges on even before they came online. I don't know if I'm going to become a Decepticon like my parents. Right now, I suppose I'm not really a member of any faction.

[assaultingrocknroll]

"I don't know... I might still be too young." He smirks, "After all you have a few millennia on me, if not more." He does mean that in a good way, means they've had time to grow up.

Blaster's face showed surprise a moment as he gets the text. "I'm not like him, at least I hope that I am not like him, and I promise, even though your parents and I used to be enemies, it was only because we were slotted on different sides." He smiled at her faintly.

"No, you seem younger than my cassettes, they chose their allegiance, I would have taken them to a safe haven if they had wanted to stay away." He had tried honestly, but they had trusted him to keep them safe, so, he became their caretaker and guardian. "And if the war is over like your parents say, there should no longer be need of either faction." The words he spoke he sent to her in text as well, using the exact same wording. "I promise I will protect you like they do. I don't like the idea of young ones being harmed, of any race."

[dontpetmeibite]

"We were less than a century old when we met," Soundwave says fondly. "She saved my life, as I told you before. Love of this nature comes when it comes. Megatron has found it here, in the Nexus, with someone he would probably never have considered in his youth; an organic, though definitely not a human, although he can pass for one sometimes. So all that I can say is that it has nothing to do with age, and it certainly has nothing to do with how well you've behaved in the life you've been able to live when it finds you. But if I were to use our own case and Megatron's as data rather than anecdote...I might come up with the theory that sometimes it comes when most needed."

Viridian jumps up into Soundwave's lap. Telepathically, she says: You're so embarrassing, but I love you.

Ravage sighs. "I'd like it if there were no need for factions post war, but unfortunately, we need a multiple-state solution," she tells Blaster. "Sanctuary Station is the current capital of Destron. There is a portal here by which we travel back and forth, and we keep our young and ageing population here right now, because of the AVF, and because neither Galvatron nor Optimus even know that this place exists. But whatever code my daughter chooses to follow, she is my daughter--our daughter--and she will always be welcome in Destron. I just don't think dual citizenship will be an easy choice for her as an adult. But perhaps she will be even more of a peacemaker than her father has been."

Ravage leans back into Soundwave's arm and hugs their child, and Soundwave hugs both of them. "I've inherited the title of Vox Destron from Megatron. Soundwave has inherited the title of Lord Protector from Megatron. Megatron abdicated over a year ago and he chooses to live here; he goes back and forth sometimes, but less and less with every cycle. There's more to the story than that--there's more to all these stories than that, and I won't deny that each and every one of us has done terrible things, though the Autobots have also done terrible things. But we're trying to move forward now."

Viridian smiles crookedly at Blaster. If the other Blaster had been more like you I might have stayed with him. To be fair to him, he did try to protect me. He didn't know whose child I was, because I didn't know myself at that time. But I let myself be talked into working with the Office of the Tyrest Accord, because I may be very young, but I am very good at solving puzzles. Any puzzle. I became a detective, and that's how I ended up in the terrible place that Spinister and my mother found me in.

Anyhow, I wasn't even really angry with you. Seeing things and people that remind me of the past make me feel angry or scared sometimes for no good reason. I can't help it, but that's why I like the Nexus.

[assaultingrocknroll]

Blaster thought back on that a moment. He had met someone who had...

"I think I met them, dark haired, had children with him..." He tucks that in the back of his mind for now.

"I'm sure enough time it will happen, and," He looked at Veridian, "I'm sure if she's anything like her parents, she's going to be a force to deal with when she sets her mind to it." Was that admitting he respected his counterpart? Yes, Blaster knew they were enemies, but that didn't mean he couldn't respect Soundwave, after all he had, in his world, had the ear of his faction's leader, and his respect. Though honestly he always thought Soundwave was more of Megatron's second in command anyway, and Starscream was Megatron's court jester.

Blaster heard her and nodded. "Well, I hope we can be friends, and if you get angry, I won't blame you."

[soundwave_ascendant]

"Forgive me," Soundwave says, "but you do know I can read surface thoughts? I always wondered if you couldn't do the same, to some extent. Anyhow, I don't know how you guessed it, but yes, the person you're thinking of is Megatron's conjunx in all but name. Unless you saw them together? It's impossible not to see them as a couple when they're together. He uses mass-displacement to make himself only a little bigger than most of the humans here. I would think it must be uncomfortable, but then again, I have never been able to transform into something as small as a handgun."

He laughs, softly. "And you may be right about the other thing. It makes me feel better to think so, anyway. Because he never did command anything but the air force. Certainly I never let him take over completely when Megatron was incapacitated. If I had, he'd have surely been killed."

"Our Starscream is a puzzle," Ravage says quietly, stroking Viridian's ears. "As I said before, he was a trusted friend to us once. And then he became a fragging idiot. But in the interregnum, following Megatron's abdication, he's been surprisingly and effectively supportive of us. He's not even a Decepticon any more; he's the elected ruler of Cybertron, and he actually does try to rule fairly, and I don't know whether he meant it when he said he shouldn't have tried to murder me, or whether he just doesn't want Galvatron running the faction, but either way, he's been a help that I never expected."

Viridian makes an odd little noise, like she's trying to clear her throat, and Soundwave chuckles. "Yes," he says, "there's that Starscream, too. We have a ghost of some other Starscream haunting this place. He has a lot of opinions on interior decoration, and for some reason, he thinks there were no female Decepticons in his universe. Is that true in your universe? Ravage does not always identify as female, but I can't imagine the faction without people like Ravage and Acid Storm, or Strika and Slipstream and Howlback and Esmeral, who are simply just femmes."

Viridian leans into her parents, but she smiles at Blaster. We can be friends. Just don't ever lie to me. Maybe they thought it was true, but the Autobots who found me told me in Shockwave's laboratory told me that I didn't have a family. Which was believable, because most cougaraiders are cold-constructed and all of us are experimental. So I believed them. I didn't like Shockwave very much, so I believed what they told me. And the people who captured me later were also Decepticons. But then my mother and her friends came and rescued me, and they were also Decepticons too, and I knew she had to be my mother, because I'd seen pictures of her in some records in Shockwave's lab. Then I knew that a lot of the things that people had said to me couldn't be true. And now I'm not sure what I believe at all. Do you think it's true that Optimus Prime, who knew my parents when they were young, was really able to look at me and not see them in me?

[assaultingrocknroll]

I try to block out the surface thoughts Blaster retorted in thought not bothering to keep it to just SOundwave, so Viridian if she caught it could laugh at the retort.

"I don't know, we still have smaller forms than most of our teammates," Though Soundwave had a point. A handgun was smaller than a boombox.

He chuckled. "So Court Jester will stay in the list then." At least for his Starscream, though he stops as he looks at them. "You're, not kidding are you? I mean..." He shakes his head a moment.

"I'm not sure on the Decepticon side, I know that there probably were though, I mean we had a few on the Autobot side, and we always seemed to have counterparts on your side, so... I always thought there were some. Always thought there were more that didn't choose a side though, after all there were camps where there were young, I just always assumed more Femmes were in the camps caring for them. I know it's... as the humans would say old fashioned thinking."

"I'll try not to." He's silent a moment at that. "I have heard many things today that I didn't think that the Optimus Prime I know would do. I wish I could tell you. I really wish I could tell you if it is true or not." He really wished he could tell her what she needed to know.

[soundwave_ascendant]

Don't we all, Soundwave thinks back, loud enough that his wife as well as his daughter hears it and laughs.

"Just remember you never had to deal with the surface thoughts of Buzzsaw, Rumble and Frenzy," Soundwave says aloud with deep amusement.

"What do you mean, camps?" Ravage is very confused. "We didn't have those, at least not that I knew of, not on Cybertron anyway. And you never did say how people become cassettes in your world. If you don't know you can say so, I just want to know, if you do, because the only juvenile cassette I know about is this one. And...it's actually very sweet when she sleeps in her father's chest. Are people really born that way?"

I won't get mad at you if you tell me something that isn't true because you didn't know any better, Viridian tells Blaster. Everyone makes mistakes. There's a big difference between a mistake and a lie.

[assaultingrocknroll]

"You know... I honestly don't envy you on that." He leaned back a little at that.

"They weren't on Cybertron." He closed his optics a moment. "I don't know about the cassettes, I just know originally, I wasn't going to be a carrier. Slag, I didn't even want to be an officer." He rubbed his arm, a nervous tick he had picked up from the humans, "Though I know that the ones I have, yeah they were students, but I'm pretty sure it was a specialized school. All I know is we heard the distress and I went with a few others, all we could risk, to get them. Cosmo, Kup, and I found it mostly destroyed." He frowned. "I just wish we had gotten there sooner, maybe we could have saved more than eight students. The ruins, Kup searched, couldn't find any other data, so at first we had thought that it was some sort of set up, but Megatron wouldn't have been that cold. At least none of us could believe they set things up to slip a plant in our ranks. At least not a child." He looked at them. "I mean he did some dirty stuff before, but I think there was an unwritten law that we all agreed not to cross."

"I'm glad you realize that Viridian."

[soundwave_ascendant]

"You shouldn't," said Ravage. The twins' voices came floating through an open window, cheerfully discussing something they found incredibly amusing involving Starscream. Soundwave's entire frame tightened for a moment, before they heard Howlback say firmly that there would not be any further experimentation in that direction until Starscream had made a full report to Lord Soundwave.

Ravage patted her conjunx's hand. "What was that you said about giving my sister a raise?"

Viridian giggled.

I make mistakes too, she told Blaster. That's how I got caught but it's okay because my momma found me.

"Cosmos?" Soundwave asked quietly. "I'm glad he's all right in your world. He's still an Autobot, but he lives in Sanctuary."

Ravage snorted. "Yeah, because he's hoping we're going to break up," she said wryly, but without any malice. "Relax, there's a few more people we're trying to get him set up with. We'll find him a husband of his own, give it time. We've got Misfire and Esmeral on the case."

Viridian giggled again. He's been a lot better about that since he learned about me. I make big sad eyes at him everytime he thinks anything rude about my mother.

[assaultingrocknroll]

Blaster had tensed hearing the voices as well, but for a different reason. Though he managed to remember that there was an anti-violence field. And that here, he wasn't in enemy territory.

Blaster flashed Veridian a grin at that. The version of her I know is good at finding things too, as well as people.

That bit of news had Blaster chuckle a little. "Glad to know he's okay here. HE refused to join us on Earth, always said the planet's gravity made him feel funny so didn't want to risk it."

[soundwave_ascendant]

"Ah is that why Sanctuary hasn't got full gravity?" Ravage teased her conjunx.

Soundwave laughed. "No, it's because of the resource cost," he said, and leaned over to kiss her lightly.

"Cosmos has a crush on me," he admitted to Blaster. "It's usually funny. But sometimes it's just damned annoying. He's very sweet, and it's difficult just to shut him down."

"Funny how I never have any trouble with that," Ravage said with a snort.

Viridian didn't talk out loud, but she was at least beginning to laugh out loud. She is good at finding things.

She shrugs.

I hope the other you didn't know where I came from, who Shockwave used to make me from. I am very lucky to have creators who truly love each other. I know that the Decepticons have done a lot of bad things and I know that things have been bad for them up until recently, but I still wish I'd been with them since I was kindled. They have a way of making people feel safe. A lot like the Prime did, when I met him, even if he did go crazy. Except there's two of them, and it's the way they love each other.

An undersized Seeker--probably another juvenile--knocked on the kitchen door frame. "Viridian, come out and play lob ball?" Her eyes widened, and her wings fluttered with alarm, when she saw Blaster's badge.

"Everything's all right, Silverwing," Soundwave said, and nodded to Viridian, who jumped down to follow the seekerlet.

Ravage nodded. "This Blaster is an alternate. Remember, we told you about those on your first day here--about being careful around people you think you know when you're not on the grounds? But in Blaster's case it's a good thing."

Silverwing nodded, and flashed Blaster a nervous smile. "Silverwing of Rash Action," she said after a moment.

[assaultingrocknroll]

Blaster chuckled at that. "On my world, he's always been a little strange, but mostly a recluse. Took me ages to get him to warm up to me at all, and that's just a buddy relationship."

Blaster was about to respond to Viridian when the small seeker peeked in.

"Hello Silverwing." He smiled at her. "And honest I'm harmless to young bots." This was true, he hated the idea of little bots getting hurt.

[soundwave_ascendant]

"Hi," said Silverwing. Her plating was a little dinged up; she liked to fly, like every other Seeker, and she also liked to run, climb things, jump, and go everywhere, and falling didn't bother her unless she landed wrong. She and Viridian had been learning parkour from Minoru and Howlback, and they and Lotor had a plot to get Drill Boy to finally explain all the soccer stuff he kept talking about.

"You're from another universe?" she asked. "Like that ghost Starscream...? who thinks femmes can't be Decepticons? I told him femmes can be anything they want. I mean the only difference between a femme and a mech who isn't a femme is just how they feel inside, and sometimes the way they want their chassis to look. Although I don't know any Seeker that wants to be bulky, or any warframe that wants to be thin."

She shrugged and looked down at Viridian, who smiled.

"Our Blaster really hates the Decepticons. But our Starscream is King of Cybertron. And...I'm still gonna be faster than him when we're older!"

[assaultingrocknroll]

He nodded to her. "Yes. And I know in my world there aren't many femme Decepticons, but well Starscream is an idiot, the femmes on the Autobot side from my experience, usually are the ones that keep us Autobots from forgetting our goal." He smiled. "Seekers need to be small and nimble, you are usually the first scouts."

"I know that on my world, they're the enemy, but I don't think it's really hate, it's just, we've been fighting for so long. Though Soundwave here, if... Things were different back home, I think we might have been good friends."

He laughed heartedly at her bravado. "I hope you fly circles around him. Someone needs to. Maybe it will help knock his ego down some."

[silverseeker]

Silverwing giggled. "That'll be fun if it works," she said, but then her expression grew more sombre. "I hope the war is really, truly over soon. I'm having fun here. But I miss my parents on Sanctuary Station. I understand why all us kids were sent here, but we all feel like that."

She looked up at Soundwave. "But I know you're gonna kick old Galvatron's big blocky aft right into the sun!" she said, with all the trust of a child.

[assaultingrocknroll]

"When it happens I'll help hold the victory party how's that?" He nodded. "For now you're safe, I'm sure that's the biggest thing your parents are worried about. I know it's probably closer to being over for Soundwave here than it is for me." He gave a sad smile. "Though I promise, as long as I can here, I'll help keep you and the other kids safe. That is as long as you and the others here trust me." He glanced up at Soundwave to let him know that that promise wasn't only for the kids. "And I will work hard to earn that trust, I'm not asking you to trust me from the start."

"And I'm sure Soundwave could easily handle Galvatron. He's a force to recon with on my world too." Blaster would help bolster the kids' faith in their protector, since being there, he had seen how the others trusted Soundwave, and wouldn't want to frighten the kids.

[soundwave_ascendant]

Soundwave smiled at her. As much as he hated violence, he knew that was probably just about what would have to be done to stop Galvatron.

"I will," he said. "Or Ravage will. Ravage enjoys kicking aft a great deal, after all."

He smiled at Blaster. "I think she's mostly disappointed because our own Starscream is substantially less of an idiot than the one that inhabits these walls. But that is probably why he still has a body."

[assaultingrocknroll]

Blaster chuckled at SOundwave's words. "And it's why I am determined to stay on Ravege's good side. I like my paint job." He was trying to lighten the mood a little.

"I'm still not sure what to think of that, since mine is really a moron. Though I really wonder how much of that he plays up to try to weasel to Megatron's side."

[soundwave_ascendant]

"I would appreciate your assistance with the victory party," Soundwave said, and gave Blaster a meaningful look, with an empathic assurance that he understood and accepted the offer. "I have been jamming with some of the local musicians and spinning vinyl at parties hereabout, and I have missed that greatly. I will have to find a way to make time for it when we return to Sanctuary permanently and I leave someone else in charge of the Embassy--though I will always visit. I don't know who that will be. I'd make Megatron do it as penance, but unfortunately, I can't. Anyhow, I recall that the Blaster in my world wasn't half bad at that sort of thing, even if he did spend a lot of his time on the air blathering about politics I had no use for whatsoever. Are you?"

Ravage chuckled. "That would be a good revenge," she said, shaking her head. "Megatron's a better mech than he's ever been before but he certainly put us all through some misery and he owes us for having to clean up his mess!" She shrugged. "Starscream...in our universe...well, he used to be an aft and frankly he still is. But after Megatron abdicated and Soundwave and I became conjunx endurae, and he became ruler of Cybertron...a lot of things changed between me and him, because none of the things he and I had been rivals for mattered to either of us any more, and he started supporting me. Against Prime, and Fort Max, in particular. He helped me out in a few tough situations when I wasn't at all expecting him to. It was absolutely beneficial to him to do so, mind you, but that's still a huge improvement--he used to be willing to cut off his own nose to spite his face when it came to old grudges. I'd say more about that over a glass of high-grade sometime, but...not right now. It's not late enough and I'm not tipsy enough to discuss all that."

She looked sidewise at her daughter and Silverwing. There was a lot they didn't need to know about the previous relationships between herself, and Megatron, and Starscream. She wasn't trying to hide it and she'd answer any questions honestly if they heard something about it, but...it wasn't a thing she was going to bring up. Not after the difficult conversation they'd already had to have about Optimus Prime.

Viridian snorted.

Ravage leaned over to stroke her daughter's ears.

"You're right of course," Silverwing finally said. "But I do trust you. I do because Soundwave does. And he'd know. It's true that Ravage enjoys beating aft more than Soundwave does, but Soundwave knows just about everything, especially about people."

A faint energon flush bloomed over the derma of Soundwave's cheeks, and since they'd been eating snacks, Blaster and everyone else there could see it. "I do work very hard at that," Soundwave said, "but I don't violate people's privacy if I can avoid it, Silverwing. And...neither should you, Viridian." He knew his daughter had been eavesdropping on her mother's thoughts.

Viridian laughed softly.

[assaultingrocknroll]

"I've met a few of them, interesting humans." Honestly he loved the jam session he had with one earlier. "It's been a while since I've DJ'd more than for a kid's party." Hey Daniel's birthday party had been a blast though! At least no one complained about the music. Grimlock destroying the cake with his tail... Well okay that may have been on Blaster, at least slightly, since he had been playing the music that had made the Dinobot dance.

"Noted, I'll be sure to ask you when the time is better, and when there are not young ones around, so we would not have to keep things clean word wise."

Blaster laughed a little at Silverwing's words. It wasn't a cruel laugh, just a small outburst. His Soundwave only knew as much as he did because of his cassettes, he had a feeling that this one was the same way to some extent, but wasn't going to say it. "He is a better judge of character than the one on my world at least."