[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

[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."