"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..."
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Date: 2021-05-27 15:43 (UTC)"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."