Lady Stardust

Tommy barely acknowledges Soundwave but his eyes shift to the larger humanoid. His gaze comes with a mental intensity and focus that is nothing like the rest of the family.

The cats come first, leaving the porch slowly to investigate the newcomers, especially Soundwave. He may even be able to sense their connection to Newton, that he feels and sees what they do. When he was on Earth he never bound quite this tightly to his cats, but since his blindness he felt the void in his senses and used this to fill them.

After awhile, when he is satisfied he speaks to Soundwave. His mind is loud, and despite being open in the outdoors, it might feel like it is filling the space. {What are you?}

It's a question of curiosity but his mind is distant, aloof, and reserved. Some might even call it cold but for now it remains a gentle presence.

Laserbeak is very happy with all the attention. When she's working, it's her job to be silent and unnoticed and record what she sees, but she's actually something of an extravert within her family and with friends. She returns Aletayria's affection happily and continues to preen under Tom's admiration, happy that even though neither she nor Tom is natively a telepath, they can communicate just fine in the presence of Soundwave and Aletayria.

{I don't mind at all, personally, but some of my capabilities are classified. I can't do everything that larger mechs can do, because they wanted me to be able to do specific things very well. I don't mind being the way that I am, although some condorlights do. I was designed to be able to observe and record silently--like a drone, but with the intelligence to understand what things are important and seek them out specifically--to interrogate other machines, sapient or not--and given lasers with which to defend myself if discovered. But I also like to do other things. I like candy, but I shouldn't eat human candy because sugar is bad for my fuel tank. I like sparkly things to wear, play with and eat, and I like decorating with sparkly things. I made our friend Ben a jacket. Well, Ravage bought the jacket, but we decorated it with diamonds and amethysts. And I like having friends.}

Since Tom is respectful of her personhood and maintains an appropriate physical distance, she's happy to show off her laser turrets and the laser sight in her forehead, and stretch out her wings (which have additional solar panels in them for an extra energy boost when planetside) and flex her claws a little bit. She has her vanity, after all, and enjoys respectful admiration and curiosity about herself as much as any other being does.

All Cybertronian flightframes are considered notoriously vain; in her case, it's definitely true.

[LB is also completely disinterested in anything resembling sex or romance, and because of this disinterest, she experiences platonic affectionate contact as it's intended, though if touched along the wing struts, will explain that others of her kind might misconstrue that kind of attention.]

edited 2020-12-02 14:44 (UTC)

Ravage puts on a silver tiara with rubies and diamonds, and winds long strings of rubies around himself.

"I look forward to formally meeting Zayda," he says, and produces beads that match the crown Aletayria chose for her to adorn herself with. Apparently they are playing dress-up for now, and that's fun--he tosses LB one of her favourite tiaras and she catches it easily with a snap of her head.

He drinks some fizzed energon. Everything about this is nice. He rarely gets to see Soundwave open to the world and enjoying himself outside of their well-shielded bedroom. Even at Ziggy's concert, he didn't dare to uncover his sensory crest (which was probably all for the best) and seeing it exposed in front of others feels almost a little risque; when their relationship was more open, Soundwave was known to release his spike before he would even think of removing his helm. But that was a matter of trust, not sexual intimacy.

{You know, Aletayria, you're now one of the privileged few who knows exactly how pretty my husband is,} he thinks with deep amusement.

But then again, anyone who doesn't think that Soundwave can be cheeky hasn't noticed that the button to open his interface panel is clearly labelled "PLAY".

Soundwave does greet Zayda before shifting his attention. He is very much looking forward to seeing this child who will be so very much like he was once grow up amid a crowd of people who will love her for what she is and never fault her for what she can't be. And he wants her to know that whenever he's around, he'll be one of those people.

{I'm glad he has chosen to come out,} Soundwave tells Aletayria. {Solitary confinement is not good for the soul, even when self-imposed, but understandably, it is sometimes the safest option. That is difficult to return from.}

Soundwave likes the cats and allows them to sniff and rub up against him, and watches with amusement as Ravage plays with some of them in his lap.

Tommy's mind is very big; it's as big as his own, which is very surprising. A pleasant surprise, in a way. Ravage's field and compassion are big enough to envelop Soundwave's mind, but he does not have telepathic faculties on his own.

{That's a very good question. I'm Cybertronian, but my sensory acuity and range deviates from the norm by at least five sigma, which is sometimes as much of a curse as a blessing. The best answer is probably: I'm Soundwave.}

edited 2020-12-02 17:03 (UTC)

Being around Antheans for so long Tom is used to physical contact, sometimes continuously, so he doesn't mind continuing to touch Laserbeak. While Tom is very affectionate he's also monogamous in an extreme sort of way that has been enhanced over time through the mental bond with his wife.

He smiles at the big bird. "A lot of my work is classified. I know what you mean."

He's listening and watching all the parts he's being shown carefully. His mind rolling through how something like this would be constructed, materials involved. She does get a laugh from him. "I've seen what sugar does in engines first hand."

Tom, as a teenager, may have done this to someone's car but he isn't talking. He keeps to the topic at hand though instead of revealing that he was a miscreant at one time before his love of space forced him to gain discipline. "You incorporate a lot of technology similar to what I work with when constructing manned vehicles."

Those words were carefully chosen to distinguish between the living thing before him and the inanimate objects he worked on. The solar panels are of specific interest. If there's no show of disapproval he will walk around her carefully to get a better look at them. "I've been working on solar power technology for several years now. Combining human technology with the Anthean scientific research I'm close to developing a panel that can collect power from moonlight or light reflected from a planetary surface."

Leaving the science for the moment because he honestly feels a little uncomfortable looking at her as a tech object he smiles. "My wife will tell you I have a sweet tooth too. What is candy like if not sugar based?"

The curiosity is back fully. After learning to live with one alien species Tom has lost all fear on first meeting any alien that seems reasonably friendly. It just leaves his naturally social and talkative personality.

Aletayria graciously takes the beads to wear over her dress. Though she knows the idea from watching human media, Antheans don't really play dress up. There's a childish delight to it that echos in her emotions.

Aletayria shakes her head at the thoughts if only because Tom has thought similar things now that he can show people what she looks like. It is endearing and that comes across her emotions. {My species has a distinct attraction to blue colors. He definitely fits many of or beauty aesthetics.} It's flatter but she asks tentatively. {His crest is like the concept of a third eye?}

She then turns her attention back to Soundwave. {He's never been very social. I've been trying to bring his wife here to see if it will help. They are both in so much pain. Their children didn't survive long enough to be evacuated from the planet.} Given what she had seen from this species, she could easily imagine they would understand the hurt involved.

edited 2020-12-03 12:55 (UTC)

He watches the cats interacting and takes in their assessment of the visitors. The truth of the matter is that Tommy can't see clearly what is out in the yard. The poor eyesight making him even more wary that he had been.

A long quiet pauses hangs while Tommy takes in the information and decides whether or not to respond. Some of the cats run back to him as he moves to descend the couple of stairs that separated the porch from the yard. His motions are slow, patient, and confident though he does have a property about his presence that makes him appear that he's always lost in thought. He's old even by his species' standards and it shows in how he moves.

{You are rare in your species?} Tommy's curiosity stemming from his own family being a rarity with so many having visions and strong minds. However, the offer of a name elicits a strong wave of uncertainty. Tommy didn't feel any connection to his Anthean name and his human name had been drawn out of a probability hat for lack of better description. Coming to a halt still mostly across the yard from where Soundwave, Ravage and Aletayria are congregated he finally offers. {Thomas Newton.}

{You shouldn't have too much trouble doing that. But light does lose some of its energy when reflected,} Laserbeak points out.

{There are many things that taste sweet that aren't sugar. We need minerals and metals to build up our bodies, and my favourite treat is made from curly copper shavings infused with ethylene glycol, which of course is a coolant. You could properly make them with propylene glycol, which wouldn't poison a human...but I don't think you're supposed to eat copper, either.}

Ravage grins. {I think of it as a signal booster, or maybe a satellite dish. He'll use it when he's working to try and find things that are faint, or far, far away, or to broaden the spectra of what he perceives. Also it is a means of making him make pretty noises, but only I'm allowed to do that.}

He takes a palette of coloured powders and draws on his face in silver and red, lining his eyes in both colours and drawing lines over his cheeks and above his eyes where his vibrissae are; after a moment, they pop free like whiskers, shining brightly.

{Do you ever use things like this when you feel like royalty? I'm not sure if this would be toxic to anyone else.}

He looks up into Soundwave's eyes, and when his spouse smiles at him and nods, he paints silver around Soundwave's eyes, then kisses the tip of his nose.

{We brought energon, so that you wouldn't feel like you shouldn't eat or drink if you want something. Unless you still want to go out, and we're just getting ready for that?} he asks Aletayria.

Soundwave is happy to let Ravage paint him. It reminds him a bit of days he would not consider 'happier', but definitely 'simpler'. He would never want to go back to those days, because he spent way too much time wondering if he'd be alive at the same time tomorrow, but there was definitely a greater focus in the present moment, rather than the past and the future and all of the steps in between. He felt very alive then, because everything was still new, and the world was so dangerous.

{The crest is all the things that Ravage said,} he tells Aletayria, {and sometimes it's nice just to let it unfurl and breathe, but it's often unsafe to do that.}

Soundwave understands exactly what Aletayria is getting at, but something seems not quite right. {He is barricaded, so I can't be sure. But his pain feels different from that of a broken spark-bond. I would not form a barrier quite so impenetrable if I believed that Ravage were still alive, or ...still Ravage.}

At the same time, via the magic of parallel processing, he has not completely diverted his attention away from Thomas. {Hello, Thomas. I'm very rare. I'm the only one of me that has ever existed, so far as I know. But because the ability that gives me most of my power can also make me incredibly weak, there may have been others. If so, they were likely destroyed when they began to manifest. I would not have survived if my mate and my brother hadn't decided I should.}

"Little energy is better than none. A panel that can do both will give more continuous energy." Tom was a science geek, always.

"No, we can't eat copper but you're right about toxins sometimes being sweet." Tom shakes his head. "Though, I think we have similar desserts. with citrus twists instead of carbon shaving."

A smile flutters through her expression. {It sounds more like our concept of a third eye. We don't let ours become visible but Ziggy does occasionally. The gold he wears on his forehead outlines its position.}

She watches as Ravage decorates Soundwave. It reminds her so much of her own child that there is a wave of love that comes through. {It's more common among humans though we wear it for important events and used to during war. Among our people we use cloth for the same.] Aletayria hears her cousin in her mind talking about cultural exchange. That was always Tommy's way to think of culture. {Wait here for a minute.}

She disappears into the house and a few moments comes back with long sheet of rusty red fabric with brilliant turquoise patterning. The fabric is shear, shimmers, and weighs almost nothing but is incredibly durable and designed to withstand the high winds, blowing sand and cold of Anthea. She offers it to Ravage. {This is what we'd use. Everyone develops their own taste in color, pattern and how it is wrapped. It's so unique you can tell us apart if you learn them.}

She nods to the concept of going out. {We can but I'm enjoying having company here too.}

She sighs at Soundwave. {He thought his failure caused us all to die, including his family. It's only one of many traumas Earth leveraged on him.}

When they start talking about what they do Tommy gently gives his cousin a mental push. Though the Nexus is different there is enough here to consider this a first contact situation. His old life, before the war, comes back when this was what he did. The first contact with humans long ago was playing over in his mind.

Tommy listens quietly while observing them. His eyes barely move from Soundwave. The Anthean's eyes move to Tom and the very corner of his lips turn down. {You're like our hybrids. They've been hunted when discovered.}

Soundwave might pick up on the imagine in Tommy's mind, one he got From Aletayria. It's the moment Tom punched Aletayria's fatehr in the mouth for refusing to help Ziggy because he was a hybrid. The memory is strong, even if it isn't his.

Laserbeak grins. {More energy is always better,} she agrees. {Can you fly with anything here? We could go flying together.}

{I'd rather stay here. Look how much fun Soundwave's having just not being all cooped up in his own head.}

Ravage grins and takes the fabric. {Can I? Show me how. I don't understand why you'd hide the third eye among yourselves, is it rude and messy and dangerous, like having your interface panels open when they're not in use? It isn't rude at all for him to show his crest, it's just that he's already so sensitive.}

Soundwave grins at Tommy and then at Tom. {Deceitful, greedy, bloody-minded rulers never like having people around who can see through their lies. I'm glad Tom did that. Everyone who needs help should get it.}

Aletayria's comment distresses him, though he doesn't let it show on his face. He wouldn't want Tommy, who is clearly impossibly strong to have survived such pain, to think that he pities him. {If I thought Ravi had died, and I managed to live, there wouldn't be much of me left. I saw an alternate of me like that in the Nexus. He terrified Ravi.}

There's instant child like joy at the mention of flying. "I have an F22-Raptor in the back. I'd need a few minutes to change into flight gear."

He pets her head again provided she shows no sign of refusal. "Do you want to see it?"

{I agree.} She didn't need to look at Tom to feel the surge of excitement related to flying. Maybe a bird was the best type of friend for him?

{It's not actually an eye but a space where we are sensitive and our mental abilities coalesce. It's an intimate touch regulated to lovers and family, including found family.} She explains. {If you have sensors in your hands, I can show you.}

She wasn't sure whether to call them hands or paws because of Ravage's form but hands seemed to impart more respect in some way. She then turns to the fabric and helps Ravage spread out the fabric.

[Usually Anthean women place the fabric so that it accentuates the body parts they want to be noticed. You'd wrap to frame those parts with the fabric.}

She looks between the fabric and the Decepticon. {I usually wear mine to show off my eyes, and now my hair though my species doesn't have hair.}

She turns to Soundwave and puts a gentle hand on his forearm. {I have a ship out to bring her to me. It's a surprise for him, perhaps at the celebration for Zayda so the pain is not so acute.}

edited 2020-12-05 00:53 (UTC)

Tommy wonders how much he should say. His own Xenophobia crashed hard into Tom's presence being acceptable. It also conflicted with his affection or whatever he had for Mary Lou.

It takes a moment before he turns his attention from Tom back to Soundwave. Deep beneath the surface there's anxiety but he's still calm and impassive in appearance. {Antheans view Humans as inferior and suitable only for pets. We were an advanced civilization and visited them when the species was an infant.}

Tommy is very slowly getting closer to the others but it's slow progress. {It's especially offensive now that we're rare since the belief is that hybrids are sterile though none have tried to breed. Aletayria's father was disgusted by the hybrid and refused to help it survive.}

And Tom had showed his human aggression in response. Tommy has a pleased feeling inside at the idea of what they considered an animal putting the man in the medical facilities and in his place. However that fades.

{When the governments still existed they wished there were more like me.}

Laserbeak leans into the petting.

"Yes go!" she actually says aloud when Tom thinks of the Raptor, doing a little birdy bounce on her toes and spreading out her wings. {Looks like jetling--seekerspark! And you can see how I fly!}

{It's so much fun to see them having fun too,} Ravage says, grinning. The sight of Tom and Laserbeak rushing off to do aerial mischief is endearing, and his little sister can always use more friends. And Soundwave just sitting outside, under the stars, completely open to everyone around him and enjoying the mental closeness is utterly precious.

{As far as the third-eye, only if you want to show me,} Ravage says gently, handling the fabric with reverence. {I do have sensory nodes in my palms and fingertips, under the claws. But only if you want to show me. We met very recently, if you think of us as family, I'm very honoured.}

He looks down at the fabric. {It's really okay, for me to put this on?} Watching her to make sure that she really doesn't mind--it's a personal thing after all--he winds it around his hips, where he likes to wear strings of beads sometimes, like a loose, short kilt, with the long end trailing up over his shoulder like a cape, then spreads the beads out over it, adding a string of turquoise ones.

It's not as feminine a look as one might think, but it makes him look like a dancer. {If you'd like to see a wild cybercat dance, I can show you,} Ravage suggests impishly. {Soundwave can play the music.}

Soundwave is paying attention to all of his conversations, but at the same time, there is no way he is not watching Ravage wind that drapery around his hips and shoulders, fiddling with his beads, because that is a sight to behold, and yes, if Aletayria wants to see that cat dance of his, Soundwave will never, ever get tired of watching it.

"I absolutely can," Soundwave says out loud. "You look spectacular," he tells Ravage. It's kind of funny, he thinks. Humans wear clothes all the time and it's supposed to be sexy when they take them off. Although Cybertronians keep their intimate parts hidden away for safety behind strong panels, they only wear capes, drapes and jewellery on special occasions, and just as Aletayria said, use it to call attention to the parts of their bodies they want people to look at.

He smiles at Aletayria, a little wryly.

{Have you considered that as wonderful a surprise as his wife coming back will be, it might be a little difficult for them to have their reunion in front of us all, when they've been apart so long and she won't know so many of us?} Soundwave suggests, as gently as possible.

{They're your family and I know you know them better than I do. But when I came back to Ravage after being locked in my alt-mode on Earth for all those years, all I wanted in those first few days was just to be alone with him and bury myself in his field and his spark.}

Meanwhile he's carrying on this conversation with Tommy, who is not supposed to know about the surprise. It's a good thing he used to be a Decepticon spymaster.

{That's the thing about governments. They're scared of people with power until they remember how useful we are.} Soundwave sighs, thinking about Shockwave. {When we first saw Earth there were no humans there, only their precursors. It took us a very long time to acknowledge humans as sapients, too. And even though Ravi is just as intelligent and sapient and wise and creative as any of my people, they thought less of him as well, because of the way he was made. So when I was cast out of my family, and my brother couldn't stop them, he was the only one of them who was grateful to Ravi for putting me back together. He supported our revolution and they broke him for it. I wish you could have met him when he was still himself. Tom's reaction reminds me of the way Shockwave reacted when he found out how people were treating my Ravi.}

"I'll be right back." Tom disappears in the house and comes back out about 10 minutes later dressed in full gear. He'd need it. He gives Laserbeak another pat to encourage her to join him.

Aletayria watches him taxi the jet out on to the street in front of the house wide eyed and shaking her head. Of course he was going to use any excuse to get into the air.

It takes some time before he is ready and can get airborne, counting on the bird to follow. He does switch his comm system to broad range send and receive. If it is a spy drone it should be on one of the bandwidths or at least beable to monitor and adjust to his signal.

{It is good that we can bring each other happiness and security.} All of them. Even as wary as Thomas was, she could see his curiosity.

She contemplates the idea of sharing her mind and then nods. {In the honor of friendship I would be willing to but you'll be in my mind while we are connected. I'm sure Soundwave will watch over us.}

She would not pressure either way but Tom taught her long ago that sometimes you have to just jump into things to bridge between species. That and she didn't think any harm would come to her from the interaction.

She places her hand on the fabric now wrapped around Ravage. {Keep it. It suits you and I can make more.}

Her attention comes back to Soundwave though her eyes divert briefly to Thomas. {The large group is why I would do it. He will come out when there are one or two but it takes effort for him to be in large groups. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't hide in my ship for most of the day.} She pauses and adds very quietly. {I also suspect that a birthing rite will remind him of his own children. He doesn't need to weather that alone. If she isn't here, I'm afraid he will try to.}