Prompt #1
Title: Explanation (on the Way to Charr)
'Verse: G1
Characters: Starscream, Octane, Cyclonus
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 943
Summary: How Octane met Cyclonus, as told to Starscream toward the end of "Starscream's Ghost".
Time: 50 minutes. Ish.
So, this--body--I'm wearing. How did this travesty come to occupy my rightful place?!" Starscream brushed his hands over Cyclonus' body disgustedly.
They were on their way to Charr, and Octane was rather startled to discover that Starscream was actually asking him a question, rather than talking about himself. Almost as startled as he was to hear Starscream describe his rightful place as second in command, but he wasn't stupid enough to point that one out. "Cyc? Well, that's kind of a funny story, that--"
"Then get on with it!" Starscream turned around to glare.
"I'll get there, Stars! Just give me a chance!" Octane put up his hands appeasingly.
"And it's Starscream. Not Stars, not Screamy, not Babes, and certainly not Screamer. Got it?" Starscream pointed Cyclonus' laser at him.
Octane put up his gun. "Got it, Starscream! Lord Starsceam, maybe I should say?"
"Yes. Soon-to-be Leader of the Decepticons!" Starscream preened a bit. "And get on with talking about this...entity I am inhabiting. His databanks are--troublesome." He turned back around.
"Right. So, first I met him--you'd just died, right, I don't know if you were around in your current form yet?" Starscream, unusually, didn't seem inclined to answer this one, so Octane continued. "Anyway. Unicron was attacking, the Autobots were also attacking--and I'm rather impressed, frankly, I didn't expect them to be so underhanded--and, basically, we were getting our afts kicked."
"As was to be expected without my leadership!" said Starscream, right on cue.
"Yes, exactly." Octane doubted this, strongly, but it certainly wasn't worth arguing over. "Anyway, I was trying to keep myself out of the worst of it--delicate fuel tanks, you know how it goes--"
"Yes, you're a coward, we all know that, go on." Starscream made a gesture at him that would have threatened him with a null-ray, if he'd had one.
"Yes, exactly. Anyway--so I'm hiding behind buildings, trying to stay out of sight, trying to stay out of Unicron's line of fire--and suddenly there's this big purple guy, landing right behind me!" Octane shuttered. "Now, I've nothing against big and purple, another circumstance I'd'a totally hit that--in the sexy way, you know, not so much in the violent way, 'cause he looked like he could kick my aft without expending more than a drop of energon--"
"Nowhere near as good looking as my proper body. I'm going to have to fix this, and soon!" Starscream was contemplative for a moment, and then Octane got the threatened with invisible null-ray again. "Go on, go on!"
"Yeah, big and purple has nothing on red and white and blue!" Which was a lie, but Octane was perfectly happy to claim that whoever he was currently trying to get on the good side of was the most beautiful being he'd ever seen. "Anyway, I'd never even seen the guy before, but he had the Decepticon symbol and a buncha guys following him--some of them the Sweeps, or maybe Scourge and some Sweeps, not like you could really tell, and for me of course they were just a buncha blue guys I didn't know either--but Blitzy was there, too, so I figured he was somebody, anyway.
"Not that I had much time to think about it, really, 'cause there were a bunch of Autobots in front of me, and where the slag had they all come from? And big and purple and his Decepticons were behind me, and Cyclonus just waved his gun at me and yelled--big deep voice he's got, especially when you're not used to it--"
"And you're a coward. So you did what he said." Starscream turned around to sneer at him.
"Well, yeah. Didn't want to get shot. 'Sides, he seemed to know what he was doing. Turned out he didn't have a fragging clue, any more than the rest of us, and following him left us all starving on Charr until he picked up Galvatron--"
"Who should be dead by now!" Starscream's voice was a bit screechier than usual, on the topic of the mech who'd killed him. "So get on with telling me about the mech I'm wearing!"
"Anyway, yes. 'You carrying fuel?' he demanded. Answer was yes, of course, always am, so I looked up at him and said, 'Yessir.' Less likely to shoot me that way, I figured." Octane shrugged. "And yeah, we've covered the bit where I'm a coward already."
Starscream laughed, briefly.
"And the mech decided to believe me. Yelled that I should accompany them, they were goin' offworld to make a new start." Octane paused there, ruefully.
"And you did what he told you," Starscream said derisively.
"Yeah. No one seemed to have a better idea at that point." Octane was rather serious, suddenly. "Shockwave was gone, Megatron was gone, Galvatron was gone--you were gone--and we were a mess and so was Cybertron. Some big purple guy shows up with a gun, seems to know what he's doing--well. Seemed like as good an idea as any."
"Psh. No ambition, any of you!" Starscream struck a pose. "Under my leadership, the Decepticons will retake Cybertron and be great again! Even if I have to wear this unfortunate purple body to do it in."
"Well, I wouldn't call it unfortunate, exactly." Octane smirked, though Starscream was facing foward and couldn't see it currently. "I did say I'd totally 'face with it, if it weren't for the--unfortunate--personality programming that came with."
Starscream laughed at him, happily. "Hold off on that until we get to Charr. We've got a throne to claim!"
'Verse: G1
Characters: Starscream, Octane, Cyclonus
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 943
Summary: How Octane met Cyclonus, as told to Starscream toward the end of "Starscream's Ghost".
Time: 50 minutes. Ish.
So, this--body--I'm wearing. How did this travesty come to occupy my rightful place?!" Starscream brushed his hands over Cyclonus' body disgustedly.
They were on their way to Charr, and Octane was rather startled to discover that Starscream was actually asking him a question, rather than talking about himself. Almost as startled as he was to hear Starscream describe his rightful place as second in command, but he wasn't stupid enough to point that one out. "Cyc? Well, that's kind of a funny story, that--"
"Then get on with it!" Starscream turned around to glare.
"I'll get there, Stars! Just give me a chance!" Octane put up his hands appeasingly.
"And it's Starscream. Not Stars, not Screamy, not Babes, and certainly not Screamer. Got it?" Starscream pointed Cyclonus' laser at him.
Octane put up his gun. "Got it, Starscream! Lord Starsceam, maybe I should say?"
"Yes. Soon-to-be Leader of the Decepticons!" Starscream preened a bit. "And get on with talking about this...entity I am inhabiting. His databanks are--troublesome." He turned back around.
"Right. So, first I met him--you'd just died, right, I don't know if you were around in your current form yet?" Starscream, unusually, didn't seem inclined to answer this one, so Octane continued. "Anyway. Unicron was attacking, the Autobots were also attacking--and I'm rather impressed, frankly, I didn't expect them to be so underhanded--and, basically, we were getting our afts kicked."
"As was to be expected without my leadership!" said Starscream, right on cue.
"Yes, exactly." Octane doubted this, strongly, but it certainly wasn't worth arguing over. "Anyway, I was trying to keep myself out of the worst of it--delicate fuel tanks, you know how it goes--"
"Yes, you're a coward, we all know that, go on." Starscream made a gesture at him that would have threatened him with a null-ray, if he'd had one.
"Yes, exactly. Anyway--so I'm hiding behind buildings, trying to stay out of sight, trying to stay out of Unicron's line of fire--and suddenly there's this big purple guy, landing right behind me!" Octane shuttered. "Now, I've nothing against big and purple, another circumstance I'd'a totally hit that--in the sexy way, you know, not so much in the violent way, 'cause he looked like he could kick my aft without expending more than a drop of energon--"
"Nowhere near as good looking as my proper body. I'm going to have to fix this, and soon!" Starscream was contemplative for a moment, and then Octane got the threatened with invisible null-ray again. "Go on, go on!"
"Yeah, big and purple has nothing on red and white and blue!" Which was a lie, but Octane was perfectly happy to claim that whoever he was currently trying to get on the good side of was the most beautiful being he'd ever seen. "Anyway, I'd never even seen the guy before, but he had the Decepticon symbol and a buncha guys following him--some of them the Sweeps, or maybe Scourge and some Sweeps, not like you could really tell, and for me of course they were just a buncha blue guys I didn't know either--but Blitzy was there, too, so I figured he was somebody, anyway.
"Not that I had much time to think about it, really, 'cause there were a bunch of Autobots in front of me, and where the slag had they all come from? And big and purple and his Decepticons were behind me, and Cyclonus just waved his gun at me and yelled--big deep voice he's got, especially when you're not used to it--"
"And you're a coward. So you did what he said." Starscream turned around to sneer at him.
"Well, yeah. Didn't want to get shot. 'Sides, he seemed to know what he was doing. Turned out he didn't have a fragging clue, any more than the rest of us, and following him left us all starving on Charr until he picked up Galvatron--"
"Who should be dead by now!" Starscream's voice was a bit screechier than usual, on the topic of the mech who'd killed him. "So get on with telling me about the mech I'm wearing!"
"Anyway, yes. 'You carrying fuel?' he demanded. Answer was yes, of course, always am, so I looked up at him and said, 'Yessir.' Less likely to shoot me that way, I figured." Octane shrugged. "And yeah, we've covered the bit where I'm a coward already."
Starscream laughed, briefly.
"And the mech decided to believe me. Yelled that I should accompany them, they were goin' offworld to make a new start." Octane paused there, ruefully.
"And you did what he told you," Starscream said derisively.
"Yeah. No one seemed to have a better idea at that point." Octane was rather serious, suddenly. "Shockwave was gone, Megatron was gone, Galvatron was gone--you were gone--and we were a mess and so was Cybertron. Some big purple guy shows up with a gun, seems to know what he's doing--well. Seemed like as good an idea as any."
"Psh. No ambition, any of you!" Starscream struck a pose. "Under my leadership, the Decepticons will retake Cybertron and be great again! Even if I have to wear this unfortunate purple body to do it in."
"Well, I wouldn't call it unfortunate, exactly." Octane smirked, though Starscream was facing foward and couldn't see it currently. "I did say I'd totally 'face with it, if it weren't for the--unfortunate--personality programming that came with."
Starscream laughed at him, happily. "Hold off on that until we get to Charr. We've got a throne to claim!"