DEATH awaits you with Great. Big. Nasty. Pointy. TEETH!
Title: The Nine Rings of Vos Interludes
A Transformers G1 Fanfic
Author: Sanjuno Shori Niko
Summary: Destiny, Fate - whatever you call it - your life is what you make of it.
Timeline: For the newbies, more fic is here.
.>'>=/=
(In which Destiny happens even to the best of us.)
Orion had been young when he first met her, both of them barely integrated with their final upgrades. Orion and Dion liked to watch the cyberhawks together, out on the plains of Iacon, just two no-longer younglings naturally progressing from friends to more. They would scatter energon treats on the ground and sit silently, fields muted to almost nothing. It was one such cycle, with Orion curled comfortably in Dion’s lap, when she appeared.
Well, ‘appeared’ is perhaps not the best word choice in this case, but Orion was - and still is - too much of a romantic to admit, as Dion does, that she had stumbled rather drunkenly over a pile of scrap, tumbled helmfirst down the incline, rolling aft over teakettle until she managed to slow herself down, and then promptly fell upon the energon treats the two mechs had put out for the cyberhawks, devouring the meagre portions like a starving turbowolf.
Orion and Dion - both completely disregarded by the femme - just sat there and stared.
She looked - well ‘feral’ was perhaps the politest way to put it - she was wild and slightly terrifying. Her colours were rather off-putting as well, pink and white gone grey with dust and wear - and really how morbid - but the scuffed, ragged condition of her plating showed that the pink colour was natural. Orion felt a bit bad for her - pink was not the luckiest of colours - but one could never help what one formatted as.
“Um, hello?” Orion ventured once the energon bits were all consumed, “Are you alright?”
The femme jerked, whirling to face the two mechs as her field flared and spiked in obvious panic. Orion frowned, her field was weak, so weak it was no wonder she had acted as she had. She must be starving.
“Here would you like some more to eat? You must be starving!” Orion held out one of the cubes that he and Dion had packed for lunch, feeling his friend shift underneath him. But Dion made no protest as Orion coaxed the skittish femme closer and gave her the energon meant for them.
Her optics were gold, rather than the more common Iaconian blue, and Dion was strongly reminded of the wild cyberhawks that his friend had gentled to hand. Orion looked at Dion once the femme was done eating, and Dion succumbed to the inevitable with good grace. Dion knew his own limits, and once Orion looked at him like that Dion knew that he would agree to whatever the other mech wanted.
So they took the pink femme home with them.
Cleaned up and fed, she was delicate and pretty, enough that she made the pink a statement, rather than it coming off as creepy. She was also painfully shy once the desperation of starvation wore off. It took a few megacycles for her to open up and even speak to them, but Dion was a quiet, dependable presence and one could not help but trust Orion. He was just that kind of mech. And so, gradually, they learned about one another, and learned to trust one another.
“I do not know what your name means.” The femme had said one cycle, staring at Dion as he renewed the protective wax coating on his plating that kept him from getting sick working the docks so close to the Rust Sea. When Orion looked at her questioningly, she explained, “You name - Orion Pax, the Pure Hunter of Peace - that I know. I do not know Dion.”
“I’m not surprised. It’s a word from Ancient Cybertronian that fell out of use a long time ago.” Dion said in amusement, “It means Speaker For The Ruler.”
“I see.” The femme had looked at them, sitting together with their polishing kits, and then had seated herself with them head held high as she picked up a cloth, “I am Ariel.”
“The Guarding Sylph.” Dion said, picking up her challenge with a grin, “It suits you.”
“Nice to meet you, Ariel.” Orion said with a brilliant smile.
After that breakthrough, it became more obvious that Ariel was badly damaged on an emotional level. At times, Dion thought it was only her pride and a perverse sense of determination that kept Ariel from letting herself go offline. But Ariel had a will to survive that was as much a part of her as Orion’s trusting nature was a part of him. Ariel’s stubbornness only became more apparent as she told them more of the story about how she came to stumble upon them out on the plains.
“I was raised in a government care centre for sparklings without creators.” Ariel had said out of nowhere one cycle, staring off into the distance, “I had two friends who meant the world to me. Aura and Boreas. Aura was a femme like me, and Boreas was a very shy mech. We did everything together - laugh, play, cry, grow - and as we grew older, we made plans to bond after our final upgrades.”
She went on, detailing to a horrified Dion and Orion how they had gone to their Centre’s administrator to tell him their decision, to justify all of them being upgraded together. In that same, distant voice, she spoke of how the mech had congratulated them and taken them in for the upgrade himself. They had woken up in a lab, where curious, blank faced mechs had slowly taken their newly adult selves apart.
“We knew most of them by name.” Ariel whispered, curing into the comfort offered freely by Orion and Dion, “They had raised us for as long as any of us could remember, but they still…”
Poor, shy Boreas had gone first. The mech’s coding ripped apart and spliced back together, each new permutation came with the same question, “Do you still feel drawn to them? Why?”
By the end, Boreas no longer remembered Ariel and Aura, as the scientists succeeded in warping his programming in such a way that he was now a femme, who no longer remembered anything of her life but pain. Soon after the reprogramming, she had died. Ariel’s femme friend had gone offline with her spark casing ripped open, the scientists poking and prodding and nodding to themselves when Ariel screamed at them when Aura’s voice gave out. Ariel had been forced to watch helplessly as her beloved friend’s spark guttered and went out.
“I don’t know why they did that to us, and I don’t care! They had no right! I hate them!” Ariel’s intakes hitched, “They expected me to die too! I heard them say it! But I won’t! Primus, it hurts to be without them, but I won’t give those rusted pitspawn the satisfaction!”
“Primus, Ariel.” Orion pulled her closer, stroking her back as she ranted, “How did you get away?”
“I don’t remember.” Ariel replied wearily, her face buried in Dion’s chest as she wedged herself even more firmly in between the two mechs, “I just - I felt them go offline. I knew they were dead, in my spark. I remember watching her go grey while they made notes and then… nothing. It’s like time stopped. The next thing I know I was wandering around outside Iacon, and then I found you two.”
Slowly - despite Ariel’s grief and loss, and despite Dion’s misgivings - it became obvious which direction their relationship was taking the three of them. Dion and Orion used their savings to purchase and ID chip for Ariel so that she could find work as a mostly-legal resident of Iacon. One of the first things she did with the credits she earned was to get a cosmetic reformat.
“The gold optics were too obvious.” Ariel said regretfully, touching her reflection as Dion and Orion stood next to her. Pale blue optics - sharp as gold - flickered as she looked up and tried to smile, “But at least now we all match!”
As a triad, their bonded just seemed like a formality, their connection already strong even without it. It was not something they questioned, but simply took for fact. Even Dion, with his ingrained scepticism, had nothing to say against it.
One cycle, Orion had simply grabbed them both and dragged them into their shared berth.
“Come on, let’s do it.” Orion had whispered, sprawled out over them both with sweetly pleading optics and wicked, seductive hands, “Let’s bond. The three of us together.”
Ariel was no better able to deny Orion his wishes as Dion was. They had bonded then, in a haze of pleasure and whispered vows of eternal love and devotion.
“They asked us once, after they first brought us in to the lab, why we loved one another. I told them, our love wasn’t something we chose, it was just something that was. When we couldn’t give them a better answer, they started experimenting.” Ariel shared quietly, expression pensive as she lay sprawled exhausted with her mechs on the berth. She turned to both her mates - her mates! The thought made them all giddy with shared joy - Ariel paused and smiled, “But I made a choice to love you both. I’ll miss them, I think I always will, and sometimes I may wonder what life with them would have been like. It aches sometimes, the places in my spark where they used to be. But you two make me whole in a new way. When I’m with you two, it’s like I don’t need wings to fly.”
Ariel, Dion had discovered without much surprise and a large amount of resignation, shared Orion’s strange fascination with the sky and the beings that dwelled in it. It had been strange, on that day when they died together, to feel Ariel’s confused outrage when the grey gun-former had flown down from above. Ariel’s pride was a sensitive thing - it had kept her alive when all she wanted to do was die - being shot and buried and rescued had done a number on it.
Orion - Optimus - seemed to have an instinctive understanding of why Elita was so upset by the events that led to their resurrections. It was not until Magnus had seen real flyers - seen the Seekers - that he had understood as well. Like the cyberhawks that had brought their triad together, the Seekers were meant to fly, to own the sky. Beautiful, sleek, deadly - in root mode or alt they were made for flight with clean lines and aerodynamic curves - so right in the air that by contrast, seeing the other Decepticon’s in the air next to the Seekers felt wrong. Through their bond, Optimus and Magnus could feel Elita’s fury - but she understood where it came from no better than they.
With the power he held as Prime, Optimus did what he could to uncover more of Elita’s past. There was little enough to find - less even than that, once the Decepticons had razed and slaughtered their way through Senate and Council’s alike. Ironically, they encountered fewer obstacles in obtaining the information they sought with the government gone. A hidden datatrack here, a datapad that missed destruction there, records dug up from salvaged databases. Slowly, painstakingly, the triad pieced together a spotty picture of just how corrupt their beloved government had been.
“I never thought I’d want to thank the Decepticons for anything.” Magnus said lowly, “But I’m glad they got rid of those parasitic pitspawn before I found out about them, or I might have forgotten my oaths as an Autobot.”
“They kept us for our powers.” Elita said softly, pain in her spark. It explained so much, why it hurt her so to lose Boreas and Aura - her trinemates! Lost! - Elita’s optics were dim as she put the pad she was reading down and looking up at Magnus when he lay a comforting hand on her shoulder, “That’s why they hurt us. They wanted me to use my power, and I did, and it’s how I got away.”
“We’re lucky you did.” Optimus stared moodily at the files, then shut off his consol with a sigh, “Raids on Vos, kidnapped sparklings, secret labs and experimentation - Primus, no wonder the Seekers joined Megatron. He must have seemed the lesser of two evils.”
“Optimus…” Elita said, uncomfortable with the thought that she… her origins may lie with the Seekers. If it became known that Optimus Prime’s bondmate was of Seeker make… disaster was putting it mildly, Elita cycled a sigh, “What do we do?”
“There’s nothing we can do.” Optimus said regretfully, taking her hand, but his gaze as he looked at Elita and Magnus was clear and strong, “We will fight, and we will win, because Megatron cannot be allowed to succeed. But… but if there is ever a chance that the Seekers can be redeemed, or swayed to our side…”
“We’ll take it.” Magnus said in understanding - to take a spark born to fly and force it into a groundbound frame, what Elita had gone through, that she had even survived such torture let alone with her mind intact was a miracle - Magnus would never allow it to happen again while it was in his power to prevent it.
“We’ll save them.” Elita whispered fiercely, fisting her hands. She was the last of a broken trine, and the Seeker’s may never accept her for living where they died, but they were her people, and she would see that they - nor anyone - ever suffered such depredations again!
“Yes.” Optimus said - agreeing with more than just the spoken words - and squared his shoulders in determination, “Because freedom is the right of everyone.”
(Word Count: 2259)
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Not quite "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings", but he's still young. He'll get there eventually! ^_^ This is for all the people who were wondering how Optimus was going to react to the Seeker's defection. Extrapolate from this point and make your best guess. XD I'm really going to be quite amused if this part of the fic surprises people. After all, Optimus has always had a bit of a boy-crush on flying tech. Mwaha.
It's a two-fer kind of day today folks. I have a few random TF Bunnies that I want to keep for myself, and thus won't be putting up on the tf_bunny_farm, but I wanted to share them anyway. Explainations of the bunnies come with a small scene that was the original bite. That's how I keep focused BTW. I've discovered that if I let the bunny bite and write it one scene, then it will leave me alone until I'm damn well ready to deal with it. XD
1. Working Title: "The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend" Bunny is thus: Instead of Cybertron shutting down after the loss of the Ark crew, the Cons and Bots left behind decide to call a cease-fire just long enough to find a steady energon supply. However, in the process they discover or are discovered by a race they call the “Devourers”. Think of them as a mix between the Vox and Sharkicons, they eat energy. Specifically they eat spark energy. A Neutral camp is found decimated, but the only survivor manages to give the Cybertronian forces a warning. In the mean time, the Earth-side forces are gradually starting to get so used to each other that the ‘war’ is more of a game. Eventually Megatron just spends a good cycle or two ranting at Optimus Prime about the reasons why he started the war and what the Decepticon cause is all about and why the Autobots are right utter bastards for fighting against them. On his part, Optimus Prime still has a thing for the flying tech, and seeing as how the war has gone on so long that the old government is dead, meaning that Optimus Prime and/or Megatron are the highest authorities for the Cybertronian race, so Optimus Prime offers to make a treaty with Megatron. By this point, the two sides have pretty much the same attitude, since shared experiences and constant exposure to one another has softened the Cons and hardened the Bots. Megatron and Optimus Prime make nice with one another (both are pretty sick of being away from their significant others as well.) Plans are made to get serious about gathering energy and getting back to Cybertron. Without the constant sabotage going on, both spaceships are quickly repaired and their sparked bases (Fortress Maximus and Trypticon) are made mobile/space worthy as well.
a. In this ‘verse, Galvatron is Megatron’s creation (yes, Megs is his mommy) and Cyclonus spends a lot of time running around screaming/sighing/crying Galvatron’s name like a dockside whore. Scourge is their babysitter. Springer has a huge crush on Hot Rod, but Ultra Magnus keeps getting in the way. Springer thinks that Ultra Magnus is after Hot Rod for himself, but Ultra Magnus just wants that stupid Wreaker to stay away from his sparkling.
b. In this following scene, Springer managed to convince Hot Rod to confront Ultra Magnus in the hopes of driving a wedge between them. It should be noted that Springer has the perverse desire to poke the command element with sharp sticks just to see how they react. This often comes around to bite him in the aft. (Arcee finds this all hilarious BTW.)
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“Why are you always like this?’ Hot Rod demanded as he looked at his commander pleadingly, his arms flailing around to express his frustration, “Why are you always… testing me! Or being overprotective or meddling or something! What makes me so special? Why do you always treat me differently than the others? I’m a soldier too!”
“Hot Rod…” Ultra Magnus looked deeply regretful, and the Autobot commander sighed, shuttering his optics as he clenched his fists, optics flickering back online as he stared at Hot Rod with an honestly pained expression, “Hot Rod… I don’t know what to tell you.”
“The truth!” Hot Rod lost his anger when Ultra Magnus winced and the flame coloured mech paused for a moment, taking in the defeated slump of wide shoulders, speaking more gently, but stilled pressed on, “Please. Tell me the truth. Do you not trust me? Am I not good enough?”
“No. Nothing at all like that… alright.” Ultra Magnus looked at Hot Rod with a wistful, resigned expression, “It’s something you get from your spark-bearer I suppose, that ability to make me do things I’d really rather not.”
“What?” Hot Rod had imagined many things being said during this confrontation, but not something like this, “You - you knew my Carrier? Who…”
“Yes. I knew him intimately.” Ultra Magnus steeled himself and looked at Hot Rod squarely, “Hot Rod, I never meant to tell you this. It would have been dangerous - deadly - if the knowledge I am about to reveal had gotten out while we were still at war with the Decepticons. It’s still dangerous information, but it’s unlikely that the Devourers could do anything with it. Still, don’t tell anyone unless you trust them completely. In fact, if they don’t find out accidentally through sparkmerge they are not to be told at all. Understand? Promise me this.”
Hot Rod blinked, embarrassment over his commanding officer making even oblique references to his interfacing life fading as worry began to take root. Hot Rod hurried to reassure Ultra Magnus, “I promise! I’d never do anything to endanger the Autobots.”
“… That’s what I’m worried about. You’re far too much like your Formatter for my peace of mind.” Ultra Magnus cycled a sigh, recognizing Hot Rod’s impatient twitching as a sign that he had better start talking, “Hot Rod, I’m your Genitor, and your Formatter as my lover and dearest friend.”
“… You’re my…” Stunned by the news, Hot Rod gaped at Ultra Magnus, trying to distract himself from a nervous breakdown by picking at the details, “Who… what was my Formatter’s name? Who were they?”
“It’s… painful for me to say… his name. To think about it.” Ultra Magnus looked tired and haunted as he watched Hot Rod’s reaction to his words, “… My Orion was lost with the Ark.”
“… Oh.” Hot Rod looked away, uncomfortable seeing the intensely private Ultra Magnus expressing his pain so openly. Hot Rod knew that he himself was too shocked by the information on his creators to feel much of anything right now. Hot Rod figured that would change - and change drastically - once the news really sunk in, “I’m sorry… I shouldn’t push. It must have been awful, losing him.”
“It’s fine, Hot Rod. I came to terms with it long ago.” Ultra Magnus hesitated, and then continued, “You deserve to know… there’s still some hope. I never felt the bond break, and neither have any of the others who had bondmates on the Ark. There’s still a chance - a small one, but it’s there… they might come back yet.”
“But there’s no telling when.” Hot Rod cycled a sigh, then spent a long moment just looking at Ultra Magnus, fitting this new information around his concept of the mech. It was… surprisingly easy to think of him in the role of Hot Rod’s creator. Ultra Magnus had always been there, on the edges of Hot Rod’s life. What Hot Rod had taken for lack of faith in his abilities was really worry for his safety.
“No.” Ultra Magnus said softly, resigned to the fact long before this, “The only certainty I have is that I’ll know when he dies by the breaking of the bond.”
Hot Rod winced at the morbid thought. No wonder the Commander was so gloomy all of the time, with that sort of thing hanging over him every day, “So, uh… where do we go from here?”
Ultra Magnus shrugged, “That… is your decision to make Hot Rod. I gave up my right to be your creator when I choose to keep you safe rather than keep you with me.”
“Ultra Magnus…” Hot Rod saw the defeat in the other mechs optics and wanted it gone, “Can I call you Tor?”
Ultra Magnus looked surprised, then a smile - a real one, the first truly happy expression Hot Rod had ever seen on the mech’s face - it lightened the harshness on Ultra Magnus’ face, carved there by war and stress, and revealed the Commander for the truly attractive mech he was.
“Only when we’re both off duty.” Ultra Magnus said, relief and a quiet joy lighting his optics.
Hot Rod grinned back. It was good to have family.
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c. Yes, this means that Hot Rod is Optimus’ sparkling. Please note however how cunningly Ultra Magnus avoids revealing this little fact to Hot Rod. I’m also thinking about playing with the idea that triad’s are seen as a Con thing, so that’s why Ultra Magnus hid his bond to Elita One and Optimus Prime, which they formed while they were still Dion, Ariel and Orion Pax. I’ve got a rather epic idea about sparklings in the “not from Vector Sigma” sense are something of a - not taboo - but not something you flaunt either. Kind of like how teenage or unmarried pregnancies happen, and while it’s not an evil thing you don’t go flaunting it either.
d. Aside from this, I have a few large dramatic scenes wherein the crews of the Ark and Nemesis make their triumphant return just in time to rout the Devourers away from Cybertron. Fortress Maximus and Trypticon are horrifically impressive, while the sheer number of combiners the returning crews bring back with them make the mechs stationed on Cybertron boggle. (Ratchet, Wheeljack and Perceptor are fragging breeding machines.) Some more cute scenes about reintegrating the two (or four) forces. There’s a nice scene with the Con Air Force tackle-pouncing their Air Commander and a rather funny one where Starscream makes fun of Megatron’s gun fetish.
“I do not have a fetish!”
“Yes you do! Soundwave picked up on that little fantasy involving the trigger guard kibble!”
“STARSCREAM!”
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The above bunny kinda took one look at my Rings'bunny and showed its throat. Rings'bunny promptly took what bits of Enemy'bunny that best suited its purpose. *sighs* I'm sure that those who are paying attention can guess what that means. *shakes head* Ah well, it gave me a new plotline to explore in Rings'verse anyway, so it's no big deal.
2. Working Title: "Starscream's Ultimate Revenge." Bunny is thus: Starscream’s ghost, having travelled through time once already to possess Waspinator during the Beast Wars, decides to try one last time to stick it to Megatron. The only problem is, by this point Starscream has come to the conclusion that the Decepticons need Megatron… Or at least a Megatron. Then Starscream remembers something Megatron had once said in passing; “True torture would be an eternity of listening to Prime’s lectures and your laughter!” So back in time Starscream goes - way, way back - and starts haunting Megatron from the very beginning. By the time Megatron goes from being a miner to being a gladiator, Starscream’s ghost is a fixture in his life. Using his knowledge of the mechs who could or will be important in the future, Starscream arranges things to keep Megatron from going power-hungry by sticking him with a pre-matrix Orion Pax, who has been in training as a Priest of Primus under the urgings of a spectral Starscream. By the time Sentinel Prime falls, it’s Megatron’s Decepticon rebels and Optimus’ small but devoted cadre of Autobots against the forces of the corrupt government. In essence, Starscream prevents the Megatron he hated from ever existing and gets loads of satisfaction from it.
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“I said ‘no’ Megatron!” Optimus Prime said firmly, staring down the Warlord with no-nonsense determination.
Megatron’s optics blinked as he drew back in surprise. He was used to the cheerful, soft-spoken Orion Pax, who had never so much as raised his voice before in Megatron’s hearing. But this large mech glowering at the silver gladiator from behind his battlemask appeared unmovable, and a capable leader in his own right.
“I know you dislike violence.” Megatron said in a conciliatory tone after he got over his shock, “But we need to show the Senate that we’re serious. Until we do, we will be unable to gather recruits in the numbers we need to succeed!”
“I know that Megatron, but there is a fine line between being a freedom fighter and being a terrorist! You asked me to keep you from crossing that line, and I promised you that I would not allow you to lose sight of our true goals!” Optimus said right back, getting into the Warlord’s face, “I’m your priest! And by Primus I’ll keep you from going conquest crazy even if I have to sit on you and force-feed you the Covenant until you choke on the Holy Writ! Don’t think I won’t!”
Flabbergasted, Megatron stared at his ordained counterpart; the red face of Primus seeming to emanate the same stern disapproval as the mech is was branded on. The rest of the war council was quietly staying out of it, though Elita-One and Ultra Magnus - who had previously been known to the rebels as Ariel and Dion - stood at the new Prime’s back and frowned at Megatron with sad, disappointed faces.
“I fail to see how this is funny.” The Decepticon Leader growled in the direction of the disembodied hysterics his the corner behind his seat, “This is all your fault.”
Starscream’s ghost just giggled louder in glee. This was the best revenge ever!
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a. Starscream also eventually manages to get his body back by merging with his past self. In fact, he manages to pass of his ghostly wanderings as a Sigma talent, which prevents anyone from questioning him too closely. Starscream plays up his disorientation and the fact that he’s been traumatized by sensory deprivation and critically low energon levels. As a ghost, Starscream has managed to save and/or improve the lives of many of the Cons and Bots, making him one of the single most loved mechs in either army. The rebels are, in fact, rather fanatic about their ‘guardian angel’ especially since Starscream has realised that playing the ‘cute and innocent’ card gets him more attention and leeway than being a screechy traitor. Plus, for those of you wondering, ghost!Starscream scares the beejeezus out of several Senate guardsmechs when he walks off with the Matrix right through a disabler wall.
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And in addition to all the ficsation, I had to take my little sister to the hospital yesterday for some sort of infection in her throat - may be strep, may be something else - but the end result was me sitting for 7+ hours with company who, wonder of wonders, couldn't talk! Which resulted in me drawing a self-gratifying self-insert comic purely for my own amusement. It's rather obviously set in an AU Ani'verse, and I'm thinking of continuing with it.
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Please ignore the fact that Starscream looks an awful lot like his G1 incarnation, I didn't have any Ani!Scream refs and G1!Screamer is the only one I can draw from memory. Now this comic won't have any set update schedual, it's really more of a "when I feel like it/have nothing better to do/must sit in one place for hours on end" kind of thing. That being said, does anyone want to volunteer themselves as a character? The premise is that using Starscreams "creation codes" and an all-spark fragment, evil guy whose name I always forget - the one who took over Sumdac Robotics - was trying to produce war android things. (We're lab grown podpeople or he had us kidnapped or sommat.) Starscream's spark is hanging around the lab since he's kinda attatched to his body but can't get back inside it. Ghost!Screamers haunting is what woke up the first Seeker SARI unit. Who yes, is me. XD
My name, in Cybertronian, would be "One Who Brings Victory To The People", translated back into english it's "Winbringer". I'll be accepting character volunteers, scripts and guest artists for... however long it takes me to get tired of this thing. XD The whole purpose it to ressurect Starscream and basically have fun. It's pure crack. Anyone want to play with me? ~♥
And as always, dragons!
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A Transformers G1 Fanfic
Author: Sanjuno Shori Niko
Summary: Destiny, Fate - whatever you call it - your life is what you make of it.
Timeline: For the newbies, more fic is here.
.>'>=/=
(In which Destiny happens even to the best of us.)
Orion had been young when he first met her, both of them barely integrated with their final upgrades. Orion and Dion liked to watch the cyberhawks together, out on the plains of Iacon, just two no-longer younglings naturally progressing from friends to more. They would scatter energon treats on the ground and sit silently, fields muted to almost nothing. It was one such cycle, with Orion curled comfortably in Dion’s lap, when she appeared.
Well, ‘appeared’ is perhaps not the best word choice in this case, but Orion was - and still is - too much of a romantic to admit, as Dion does, that she had stumbled rather drunkenly over a pile of scrap, tumbled helmfirst down the incline, rolling aft over teakettle until she managed to slow herself down, and then promptly fell upon the energon treats the two mechs had put out for the cyberhawks, devouring the meagre portions like a starving turbowolf.
Orion and Dion - both completely disregarded by the femme - just sat there and stared.
She looked - well ‘feral’ was perhaps the politest way to put it - she was wild and slightly terrifying. Her colours were rather off-putting as well, pink and white gone grey with dust and wear - and really how morbid - but the scuffed, ragged condition of her plating showed that the pink colour was natural. Orion felt a bit bad for her - pink was not the luckiest of colours - but one could never help what one formatted as.
“Um, hello?” Orion ventured once the energon bits were all consumed, “Are you alright?”
The femme jerked, whirling to face the two mechs as her field flared and spiked in obvious panic. Orion frowned, her field was weak, so weak it was no wonder she had acted as she had. She must be starving.
“Here would you like some more to eat? You must be starving!” Orion held out one of the cubes that he and Dion had packed for lunch, feeling his friend shift underneath him. But Dion made no protest as Orion coaxed the skittish femme closer and gave her the energon meant for them.
Her optics were gold, rather than the more common Iaconian blue, and Dion was strongly reminded of the wild cyberhawks that his friend had gentled to hand. Orion looked at Dion once the femme was done eating, and Dion succumbed to the inevitable with good grace. Dion knew his own limits, and once Orion looked at him like that Dion knew that he would agree to whatever the other mech wanted.
So they took the pink femme home with them.
Cleaned up and fed, she was delicate and pretty, enough that she made the pink a statement, rather than it coming off as creepy. She was also painfully shy once the desperation of starvation wore off. It took a few megacycles for her to open up and even speak to them, but Dion was a quiet, dependable presence and one could not help but trust Orion. He was just that kind of mech. And so, gradually, they learned about one another, and learned to trust one another.
“I do not know what your name means.” The femme had said one cycle, staring at Dion as he renewed the protective wax coating on his plating that kept him from getting sick working the docks so close to the Rust Sea. When Orion looked at her questioningly, she explained, “You name - Orion Pax, the Pure Hunter of Peace - that I know. I do not know Dion.”
“I’m not surprised. It’s a word from Ancient Cybertronian that fell out of use a long time ago.” Dion said in amusement, “It means Speaker For The Ruler.”
“I see.” The femme had looked at them, sitting together with their polishing kits, and then had seated herself with them head held high as she picked up a cloth, “I am Ariel.”
“The Guarding Sylph.” Dion said, picking up her challenge with a grin, “It suits you.”
“Nice to meet you, Ariel.” Orion said with a brilliant smile.
After that breakthrough, it became more obvious that Ariel was badly damaged on an emotional level. At times, Dion thought it was only her pride and a perverse sense of determination that kept Ariel from letting herself go offline. But Ariel had a will to survive that was as much a part of her as Orion’s trusting nature was a part of him. Ariel’s stubbornness only became more apparent as she told them more of the story about how she came to stumble upon them out on the plains.
“I was raised in a government care centre for sparklings without creators.” Ariel had said out of nowhere one cycle, staring off into the distance, “I had two friends who meant the world to me. Aura and Boreas. Aura was a femme like me, and Boreas was a very shy mech. We did everything together - laugh, play, cry, grow - and as we grew older, we made plans to bond after our final upgrades.”
She went on, detailing to a horrified Dion and Orion how they had gone to their Centre’s administrator to tell him their decision, to justify all of them being upgraded together. In that same, distant voice, she spoke of how the mech had congratulated them and taken them in for the upgrade himself. They had woken up in a lab, where curious, blank faced mechs had slowly taken their newly adult selves apart.
“We knew most of them by name.” Ariel whispered, curing into the comfort offered freely by Orion and Dion, “They had raised us for as long as any of us could remember, but they still…”
Poor, shy Boreas had gone first. The mech’s coding ripped apart and spliced back together, each new permutation came with the same question, “Do you still feel drawn to them? Why?”
By the end, Boreas no longer remembered Ariel and Aura, as the scientists succeeded in warping his programming in such a way that he was now a femme, who no longer remembered anything of her life but pain. Soon after the reprogramming, she had died. Ariel’s femme friend had gone offline with her spark casing ripped open, the scientists poking and prodding and nodding to themselves when Ariel screamed at them when Aura’s voice gave out. Ariel had been forced to watch helplessly as her beloved friend’s spark guttered and went out.
“I don’t know why they did that to us, and I don’t care! They had no right! I hate them!” Ariel’s intakes hitched, “They expected me to die too! I heard them say it! But I won’t! Primus, it hurts to be without them, but I won’t give those rusted pitspawn the satisfaction!”
“Primus, Ariel.” Orion pulled her closer, stroking her back as she ranted, “How did you get away?”
“I don’t remember.” Ariel replied wearily, her face buried in Dion’s chest as she wedged herself even more firmly in between the two mechs, “I just - I felt them go offline. I knew they were dead, in my spark. I remember watching her go grey while they made notes and then… nothing. It’s like time stopped. The next thing I know I was wandering around outside Iacon, and then I found you two.”
Slowly - despite Ariel’s grief and loss, and despite Dion’s misgivings - it became obvious which direction their relationship was taking the three of them. Dion and Orion used their savings to purchase and ID chip for Ariel so that she could find work as a mostly-legal resident of Iacon. One of the first things she did with the credits she earned was to get a cosmetic reformat.
“The gold optics were too obvious.” Ariel said regretfully, touching her reflection as Dion and Orion stood next to her. Pale blue optics - sharp as gold - flickered as she looked up and tried to smile, “But at least now we all match!”
As a triad, their bonded just seemed like a formality, their connection already strong even without it. It was not something they questioned, but simply took for fact. Even Dion, with his ingrained scepticism, had nothing to say against it.
One cycle, Orion had simply grabbed them both and dragged them into their shared berth.
“Come on, let’s do it.” Orion had whispered, sprawled out over them both with sweetly pleading optics and wicked, seductive hands, “Let’s bond. The three of us together.”
Ariel was no better able to deny Orion his wishes as Dion was. They had bonded then, in a haze of pleasure and whispered vows of eternal love and devotion.
“They asked us once, after they first brought us in to the lab, why we loved one another. I told them, our love wasn’t something we chose, it was just something that was. When we couldn’t give them a better answer, they started experimenting.” Ariel shared quietly, expression pensive as she lay sprawled exhausted with her mechs on the berth. She turned to both her mates - her mates! The thought made them all giddy with shared joy - Ariel paused and smiled, “But I made a choice to love you both. I’ll miss them, I think I always will, and sometimes I may wonder what life with them would have been like. It aches sometimes, the places in my spark where they used to be. But you two make me whole in a new way. When I’m with you two, it’s like I don’t need wings to fly.”
Ariel, Dion had discovered without much surprise and a large amount of resignation, shared Orion’s strange fascination with the sky and the beings that dwelled in it. It had been strange, on that day when they died together, to feel Ariel’s confused outrage when the grey gun-former had flown down from above. Ariel’s pride was a sensitive thing - it had kept her alive when all she wanted to do was die - being shot and buried and rescued had done a number on it.
Orion - Optimus - seemed to have an instinctive understanding of why Elita was so upset by the events that led to their resurrections. It was not until Magnus had seen real flyers - seen the Seekers - that he had understood as well. Like the cyberhawks that had brought their triad together, the Seekers were meant to fly, to own the sky. Beautiful, sleek, deadly - in root mode or alt they were made for flight with clean lines and aerodynamic curves - so right in the air that by contrast, seeing the other Decepticon’s in the air next to the Seekers felt wrong. Through their bond, Optimus and Magnus could feel Elita’s fury - but she understood where it came from no better than they.
With the power he held as Prime, Optimus did what he could to uncover more of Elita’s past. There was little enough to find - less even than that, once the Decepticons had razed and slaughtered their way through Senate and Council’s alike. Ironically, they encountered fewer obstacles in obtaining the information they sought with the government gone. A hidden datatrack here, a datapad that missed destruction there, records dug up from salvaged databases. Slowly, painstakingly, the triad pieced together a spotty picture of just how corrupt their beloved government had been.
“I never thought I’d want to thank the Decepticons for anything.” Magnus said lowly, “But I’m glad they got rid of those parasitic pitspawn before I found out about them, or I might have forgotten my oaths as an Autobot.”
“They kept us for our powers.” Elita said softly, pain in her spark. It explained so much, why it hurt her so to lose Boreas and Aura - her trinemates! Lost! - Elita’s optics were dim as she put the pad she was reading down and looking up at Magnus when he lay a comforting hand on her shoulder, “That’s why they hurt us. They wanted me to use my power, and I did, and it’s how I got away.”
“We’re lucky you did.” Optimus stared moodily at the files, then shut off his consol with a sigh, “Raids on Vos, kidnapped sparklings, secret labs and experimentation - Primus, no wonder the Seekers joined Megatron. He must have seemed the lesser of two evils.”
“Optimus…” Elita said, uncomfortable with the thought that she… her origins may lie with the Seekers. If it became known that Optimus Prime’s bondmate was of Seeker make… disaster was putting it mildly, Elita cycled a sigh, “What do we do?”
“There’s nothing we can do.” Optimus said regretfully, taking her hand, but his gaze as he looked at Elita and Magnus was clear and strong, “We will fight, and we will win, because Megatron cannot be allowed to succeed. But… but if there is ever a chance that the Seekers can be redeemed, or swayed to our side…”
“We’ll take it.” Magnus said in understanding - to take a spark born to fly and force it into a groundbound frame, what Elita had gone through, that she had even survived such torture let alone with her mind intact was a miracle - Magnus would never allow it to happen again while it was in his power to prevent it.
“We’ll save them.” Elita whispered fiercely, fisting her hands. She was the last of a broken trine, and the Seeker’s may never accept her for living where they died, but they were her people, and she would see that they - nor anyone - ever suffered such depredations again!
“Yes.” Optimus said - agreeing with more than just the spoken words - and squared his shoulders in determination, “Because freedom is the right of everyone.”
(Word Count: 2259)
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Not quite "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings", but he's still young. He'll get there eventually! ^_^ This is for all the people who were wondering how Optimus was going to react to the Seeker's defection. Extrapolate from this point and make your best guess. XD I'm really going to be quite amused if this part of the fic surprises people. After all, Optimus has always had a bit of a boy-crush on flying tech. Mwaha.
It's a two-fer kind of day today folks. I have a few random TF Bunnies that I want to keep for myself, and thus won't be putting up on the tf_bunny_farm, but I wanted to share them anyway. Explainations of the bunnies come with a small scene that was the original bite. That's how I keep focused BTW. I've discovered that if I let the bunny bite and write it one scene, then it will leave me alone until I'm damn well ready to deal with it. XD
1. Working Title: "The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend" Bunny is thus: Instead of Cybertron shutting down after the loss of the Ark crew, the Cons and Bots left behind decide to call a cease-fire just long enough to find a steady energon supply. However, in the process they discover or are discovered by a race they call the “Devourers”. Think of them as a mix between the Vox and Sharkicons, they eat energy. Specifically they eat spark energy. A Neutral camp is found decimated, but the only survivor manages to give the Cybertronian forces a warning. In the mean time, the Earth-side forces are gradually starting to get so used to each other that the ‘war’ is more of a game. Eventually Megatron just spends a good cycle or two ranting at Optimus Prime about the reasons why he started the war and what the Decepticon cause is all about and why the Autobots are right utter bastards for fighting against them. On his part, Optimus Prime still has a thing for the flying tech, and seeing as how the war has gone on so long that the old government is dead, meaning that Optimus Prime and/or Megatron are the highest authorities for the Cybertronian race, so Optimus Prime offers to make a treaty with Megatron. By this point, the two sides have pretty much the same attitude, since shared experiences and constant exposure to one another has softened the Cons and hardened the Bots. Megatron and Optimus Prime make nice with one another (both are pretty sick of being away from their significant others as well.) Plans are made to get serious about gathering energy and getting back to Cybertron. Without the constant sabotage going on, both spaceships are quickly repaired and their sparked bases (Fortress Maximus and Trypticon) are made mobile/space worthy as well.
a. In this ‘verse, Galvatron is Megatron’s creation (yes, Megs is his mommy) and Cyclonus spends a lot of time running around screaming/sighing/crying Galvatron’s name like a dockside whore. Scourge is their babysitter. Springer has a huge crush on Hot Rod, but Ultra Magnus keeps getting in the way. Springer thinks that Ultra Magnus is after Hot Rod for himself, but Ultra Magnus just wants that stupid Wreaker to stay away from his sparkling.
b. In this following scene, Springer managed to convince Hot Rod to confront Ultra Magnus in the hopes of driving a wedge between them. It should be noted that Springer has the perverse desire to poke the command element with sharp sticks just to see how they react. This often comes around to bite him in the aft. (Arcee finds this all hilarious BTW.)
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“Why are you always like this?’ Hot Rod demanded as he looked at his commander pleadingly, his arms flailing around to express his frustration, “Why are you always… testing me! Or being overprotective or meddling or something! What makes me so special? Why do you always treat me differently than the others? I’m a soldier too!”
“Hot Rod…” Ultra Magnus looked deeply regretful, and the Autobot commander sighed, shuttering his optics as he clenched his fists, optics flickering back online as he stared at Hot Rod with an honestly pained expression, “Hot Rod… I don’t know what to tell you.”
“The truth!” Hot Rod lost his anger when Ultra Magnus winced and the flame coloured mech paused for a moment, taking in the defeated slump of wide shoulders, speaking more gently, but stilled pressed on, “Please. Tell me the truth. Do you not trust me? Am I not good enough?”
“No. Nothing at all like that… alright.” Ultra Magnus looked at Hot Rod with a wistful, resigned expression, “It’s something you get from your spark-bearer I suppose, that ability to make me do things I’d really rather not.”
“What?” Hot Rod had imagined many things being said during this confrontation, but not something like this, “You - you knew my Carrier? Who…”
“Yes. I knew him intimately.” Ultra Magnus steeled himself and looked at Hot Rod squarely, “Hot Rod, I never meant to tell you this. It would have been dangerous - deadly - if the knowledge I am about to reveal had gotten out while we were still at war with the Decepticons. It’s still dangerous information, but it’s unlikely that the Devourers could do anything with it. Still, don’t tell anyone unless you trust them completely. In fact, if they don’t find out accidentally through sparkmerge they are not to be told at all. Understand? Promise me this.”
Hot Rod blinked, embarrassment over his commanding officer making even oblique references to his interfacing life fading as worry began to take root. Hot Rod hurried to reassure Ultra Magnus, “I promise! I’d never do anything to endanger the Autobots.”
“… That’s what I’m worried about. You’re far too much like your Formatter for my peace of mind.” Ultra Magnus cycled a sigh, recognizing Hot Rod’s impatient twitching as a sign that he had better start talking, “Hot Rod, I’m your Genitor, and your Formatter as my lover and dearest friend.”
“… You’re my…” Stunned by the news, Hot Rod gaped at Ultra Magnus, trying to distract himself from a nervous breakdown by picking at the details, “Who… what was my Formatter’s name? Who were they?”
“It’s… painful for me to say… his name. To think about it.” Ultra Magnus looked tired and haunted as he watched Hot Rod’s reaction to his words, “… My Orion was lost with the Ark.”
“… Oh.” Hot Rod looked away, uncomfortable seeing the intensely private Ultra Magnus expressing his pain so openly. Hot Rod knew that he himself was too shocked by the information on his creators to feel much of anything right now. Hot Rod figured that would change - and change drastically - once the news really sunk in, “I’m sorry… I shouldn’t push. It must have been awful, losing him.”
“It’s fine, Hot Rod. I came to terms with it long ago.” Ultra Magnus hesitated, and then continued, “You deserve to know… there’s still some hope. I never felt the bond break, and neither have any of the others who had bondmates on the Ark. There’s still a chance - a small one, but it’s there… they might come back yet.”
“But there’s no telling when.” Hot Rod cycled a sigh, then spent a long moment just looking at Ultra Magnus, fitting this new information around his concept of the mech. It was… surprisingly easy to think of him in the role of Hot Rod’s creator. Ultra Magnus had always been there, on the edges of Hot Rod’s life. What Hot Rod had taken for lack of faith in his abilities was really worry for his safety.
“No.” Ultra Magnus said softly, resigned to the fact long before this, “The only certainty I have is that I’ll know when he dies by the breaking of the bond.”
Hot Rod winced at the morbid thought. No wonder the Commander was so gloomy all of the time, with that sort of thing hanging over him every day, “So, uh… where do we go from here?”
Ultra Magnus shrugged, “That… is your decision to make Hot Rod. I gave up my right to be your creator when I choose to keep you safe rather than keep you with me.”
“Ultra Magnus…” Hot Rod saw the defeat in the other mechs optics and wanted it gone, “Can I call you Tor?”
Ultra Magnus looked surprised, then a smile - a real one, the first truly happy expression Hot Rod had ever seen on the mech’s face - it lightened the harshness on Ultra Magnus’ face, carved there by war and stress, and revealed the Commander for the truly attractive mech he was.
“Only when we’re both off duty.” Ultra Magnus said, relief and a quiet joy lighting his optics.
Hot Rod grinned back. It was good to have family.
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c. Yes, this means that Hot Rod is Optimus’ sparkling. Please note however how cunningly Ultra Magnus avoids revealing this little fact to Hot Rod. I’m also thinking about playing with the idea that triad’s are seen as a Con thing, so that’s why Ultra Magnus hid his bond to Elita One and Optimus Prime, which they formed while they were still Dion, Ariel and Orion Pax. I’ve got a rather epic idea about sparklings in the “not from Vector Sigma” sense are something of a - not taboo - but not something you flaunt either. Kind of like how teenage or unmarried pregnancies happen, and while it’s not an evil thing you don’t go flaunting it either.
d. Aside from this, I have a few large dramatic scenes wherein the crews of the Ark and Nemesis make their triumphant return just in time to rout the Devourers away from Cybertron. Fortress Maximus and Trypticon are horrifically impressive, while the sheer number of combiners the returning crews bring back with them make the mechs stationed on Cybertron boggle. (Ratchet, Wheeljack and Perceptor are fragging breeding machines.) Some more cute scenes about reintegrating the two (or four) forces. There’s a nice scene with the Con Air Force tackle-pouncing their Air Commander and a rather funny one where Starscream makes fun of Megatron’s gun fetish.
“I do not have a fetish!”
“Yes you do! Soundwave picked up on that little fantasy involving the trigger guard kibble!”
“STARSCREAM!”
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The above bunny kinda took one look at my Rings'bunny and showed its throat. Rings'bunny promptly took what bits of Enemy'bunny that best suited its purpose. *sighs* I'm sure that those who are paying attention can guess what that means. *shakes head* Ah well, it gave me a new plotline to explore in Rings'verse anyway, so it's no big deal.
2. Working Title: "Starscream's Ultimate Revenge." Bunny is thus: Starscream’s ghost, having travelled through time once already to possess Waspinator during the Beast Wars, decides to try one last time to stick it to Megatron. The only problem is, by this point Starscream has come to the conclusion that the Decepticons need Megatron… Or at least a Megatron. Then Starscream remembers something Megatron had once said in passing; “True torture would be an eternity of listening to Prime’s lectures and your laughter!” So back in time Starscream goes - way, way back - and starts haunting Megatron from the very beginning. By the time Megatron goes from being a miner to being a gladiator, Starscream’s ghost is a fixture in his life. Using his knowledge of the mechs who could or will be important in the future, Starscream arranges things to keep Megatron from going power-hungry by sticking him with a pre-matrix Orion Pax, who has been in training as a Priest of Primus under the urgings of a spectral Starscream. By the time Sentinel Prime falls, it’s Megatron’s Decepticon rebels and Optimus’ small but devoted cadre of Autobots against the forces of the corrupt government. In essence, Starscream prevents the Megatron he hated from ever existing and gets loads of satisfaction from it.
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“I said ‘no’ Megatron!” Optimus Prime said firmly, staring down the Warlord with no-nonsense determination.
Megatron’s optics blinked as he drew back in surprise. He was used to the cheerful, soft-spoken Orion Pax, who had never so much as raised his voice before in Megatron’s hearing. But this large mech glowering at the silver gladiator from behind his battlemask appeared unmovable, and a capable leader in his own right.
“I know you dislike violence.” Megatron said in a conciliatory tone after he got over his shock, “But we need to show the Senate that we’re serious. Until we do, we will be unable to gather recruits in the numbers we need to succeed!”
“I know that Megatron, but there is a fine line between being a freedom fighter and being a terrorist! You asked me to keep you from crossing that line, and I promised you that I would not allow you to lose sight of our true goals!” Optimus said right back, getting into the Warlord’s face, “I’m your priest! And by Primus I’ll keep you from going conquest crazy even if I have to sit on you and force-feed you the Covenant until you choke on the Holy Writ! Don’t think I won’t!”
Flabbergasted, Megatron stared at his ordained counterpart; the red face of Primus seeming to emanate the same stern disapproval as the mech is was branded on. The rest of the war council was quietly staying out of it, though Elita-One and Ultra Magnus - who had previously been known to the rebels as Ariel and Dion - stood at the new Prime’s back and frowned at Megatron with sad, disappointed faces.
“I fail to see how this is funny.” The Decepticon Leader growled in the direction of the disembodied hysterics his the corner behind his seat, “This is all your fault.”
Starscream’s ghost just giggled louder in glee. This was the best revenge ever!
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a. Starscream also eventually manages to get his body back by merging with his past self. In fact, he manages to pass of his ghostly wanderings as a Sigma talent, which prevents anyone from questioning him too closely. Starscream plays up his disorientation and the fact that he’s been traumatized by sensory deprivation and critically low energon levels. As a ghost, Starscream has managed to save and/or improve the lives of many of the Cons and Bots, making him one of the single most loved mechs in either army. The rebels are, in fact, rather fanatic about their ‘guardian angel’ especially since Starscream has realised that playing the ‘cute and innocent’ card gets him more attention and leeway than being a screechy traitor. Plus, for those of you wondering, ghost!Starscream scares the beejeezus out of several Senate guardsmechs when he walks off with the Matrix right through a disabler wall.
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And in addition to all the ficsation, I had to take my little sister to the hospital yesterday for some sort of infection in her throat - may be strep, may be something else - but the end result was me sitting for 7+ hours with company who, wonder of wonders, couldn't talk! Which resulted in me drawing a self-gratifying self-insert comic purely for my own amusement. It's rather obviously set in an AU Ani'verse, and I'm thinking of continuing with it.
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Please ignore the fact that Starscream looks an awful lot like his G1 incarnation, I didn't have any Ani!Scream refs and G1!Screamer is the only one I can draw from memory. Now this comic won't have any set update schedual, it's really more of a "when I feel like it/have nothing better to do/must sit in one place for hours on end" kind of thing. That being said, does anyone want to volunteer themselves as a character? The premise is that using Starscreams "creation codes" and an all-spark fragment, evil guy whose name I always forget - the one who took over Sumdac Robotics - was trying to produce war android things. (We're lab grown podpeople or he had us kidnapped or sommat.) Starscream's spark is hanging around the lab since he's kinda attatched to his body but can't get back inside it. Ghost!Screamers haunting is what woke up the first Seeker SARI unit. Who yes, is me. XD
My name, in Cybertronian, would be "One Who Brings Victory To The People", translated back into english it's "Winbringer". I'll be accepting character volunteers, scripts and guest artists for... however long it takes me to get tired of this thing. XD The whole purpose it to ressurect Starscream and basically have fun. It's pure crack. Anyone want to play with me? ~♥
And as always, dragons!
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