There&#39;s a Starman

She doesn't mind the telepathic contact and opens to it and lets her surface emotions filter in with it. The words are slightly jumbled as she adjusts to another species' mind. Each mind has a cadence and each species a way. There's a pause before she answers.

{Yes, our child wrote it for my husband and I.} Her eyes drop down to the animal formed being but she understands. Body isn't as important as she would have thought a few decades ago. {I'm sorry you have experienced the pain of being apart.} She easily projects to both of them. It's a conversation after all and if they are partners they they are both open to hear.

{I'm Anthean. I think we are similar in mind. We share thoughts and emotions when we are with our own.}

She hopes he doesn't mind but a gentle hand comes to his wrist. Her body light to the point of feeling like nothing due to her slim build and hollow bones but her skin is cold, compared to humans. {I wouldn't wish anyone to endure this kind of separation.}

Her other hand comes to her stomach. Though she doesn't use the word "newspark" it is clear that this is a word for this species' babies. She understands it as a new spark of life which is correct to her mind even if the word is unknown.

{She's like her sibling on stage. The blending between my species and humans makes a mind that is very sensitive and strong. She will not be born for several more months but she can hear you and your mind.}

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Ravage feels a lot better, particularly now that he's in contact with this calm, sweet being and the newspark, too. He can't initiate telepathy but he's learned to formulate his thoughts so that Soundwave (and Ben for that matter) can hear them.

{Being apart makes us crazy, and sometimes we aren't good people when we're not together. It was terrible, but now it's over. You are very kind to come to us when this has to be hard for you, too. Thank you.}

The tiny sparklet is enchanting, and Ravage is mostly able to banish any and all painful thoughts whatsoever just by taking joy in her presence.

{Hello small one.}

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{Ravage: is right. It was kind of you to come to us.} Soundwave is thinking a bit more clearly now. {Your son's music is brilliant. But we have been separated by war too many times, and too long, and I am afraid I got caught up in those memories. I am sorry that you have also had this experience. Long separations between spark-bound lovers are painful and dangerous.}

He is touched by the presence of the child. {So adorable, you are,} he tells the spark.

He smiles at the woman, even though he sees her better through his third eye than in normal light. She is very like Ravage in that she is golden and warm and full of sparklight, but she is far more calm and peaceful by nature than Ravage is.

{Among my people, I am the only one...like this. In my youth I was an outcast because of it. I knew Ravage when I saw her, the first time. Ravage saved my life, helped me find a way to survive. Our culture is very warlike. I was constantly deluged in data from many sources, and unable to ignore the pain that surrounded me. I think I would have died.

It would be nice to have a friend who understands.}

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{Due to how our ships travel I spent nearly a thousand years without him while he experienced only five years. Even without the Universe, his Earth's humans ....} Her mental words trail off but there's fear and anguish there. Terror and sorrow for people in her family. {I can't live on his Earth and he is getting too old for space travel now. Our child brought us here so we can live out the rest of his life together.}

There was a special kind of pain to be immortal and fall in love with someone who will die but she wouldn't trade her husband for anything or anyone.

Zayda reaches out toward the mental voices. The touch gentle like any child reaching out for something new. There's even a hint of what might be a happy giggle if she were more developed.

Aletayria squeezes his wrist a little and sighs. {My people were like that centuries ago, warlike and destructive. We murdered the other two sentient races and destroyed our homeworld before learning to be different. We have chosen peace since then though it won't repair the damage we've already done.}

Along with the words, if Soundwave is paying attention he might catch glimpse of Aletayria's memories as a young child surrounded by desert while accompanying her mother to look for and collect the last living things on her planet. To save the last of life there from dying away.

{I live here usually. You are both welcome to find us if you need a place to be understood. My family has many species among our members and friends.}

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Soundwave aches for her a little--he can't imagine what it would be like if Ravage had only a century, or less than that, left to live. And he knows he wouldn't choose anyone else even if that were the case.

Hopefully, when the time comes, there will be something small that he will be able to do to help, although they all know how unbearable that grief will be.

He also can't help feeling bitterly sorry for all the destruction he's been part of, on Cybertron, on Earth, and on many other worlds. Aletayria saving the life on her homeworld touches his spark.

{I'm glad this place exists so you can be safe together, and happy. It's been a refuge for us, in other ways. I'll be happy to visit you here, and to have you visit where we live. We are normally much bigger than we are right now--well, Ravage is not, but when he stands on his back legs and shifts bipedal, he seems to be.

...I want my people to change. If we don't, this peace may not last.}

He's more than willing to reach back to Zayda encouragingly. It's wonderful, seeing a child with these abilities being welcomed and wanted and brought into a world that's prepared for her.

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She feels sympathy for the bitterness that he feels. She knows it, especially being born just as the biosphere started to collapse. Sometimes she hates her people for it and others she doesn't.

She nods. {My child's well, the person he is looking to bond to, is the spirit companion of a giant mechanized being.} They were different but the Atlas was its own being with its own spirit. There wasn't an easy way to explain this. {Many of my people are xenophobic but I like seeing the variety of life.}

That is probably part of what made her a good scientist. {I hope your people find peace that lasts. I'm hoping my child can do the same for humans, help them find a road to peace.}

Zayda feels the mind come closer and grabs on like a baby instinctively taking hold of a finger. There are unformed questions in the mind but the question in the emotions is a relatively clear what are you?

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{My people tend toward xenophobia as well, even among ourselves we can be cruel to those who appear to be different. I myself was guilty of it, even after the way we were treated for falling in love across caste and form and function. But I have changed, and I hope that more of us can. As far as I am concerned all that matters now is sapience...and the variety of life is beautiful.}

Soundwave is feeling much better now. A few minutes ago he had been almost regretting his decision to unmask and open up, but now he is very glad that he did.

To Zayda he sends, very quietly: {Friend.} She's too little to understand the difference between mechanoid and organic life, but the important thing is that he is willing to be a friend to her. Soundwave has a great love for smaller and more vulnerable creatures.

If it hadn't been for the war he might well have raised a small army of sparklings; since that wasn't possible, he and Ravage have been taking care of the smallest and most eccentric Decepticons since the war began, finding purposes and work for all the people who did not fit into the military hierarchy.

Edited Date: 2020-11-16 01:12 am (UTC)

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Ravage is content mostly to listen, but there is one thing that he wants to say. {We are working to become the leaders in our faction, in the hope that we can make peace with the other factions, once only those who care about what they can take for themselves lose their power.}

Well, two things. {And I cannot thank you enough for reaching out to my husband in this moment. I am Ravage. He is Soundwave.}

He can't reach out to the baby himself, but he aligns himself with Soundwave in so doing. He will also be friends.

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{It's something we share. I was xenophobic toward humans even after meeting Tom. It took my father refusing to help me because Tom was involved that let me see it in myself.}

She looks to Ravage now that she can sense the difference clearly between the minds. New species take some time. {My husband does covert things to change the direction of human technology but it's not safe for any action in the open. My child is under threat. Humans have tried to kill him for wanting more love and peace in their species and they still don't know he's half alien.}

When introductions start happening she reaches out gently to tug at Tom's mind. An older human comes walking over, well dressed and starting to gray, but his smile and eyes have all the mischief of a school boy.

{I'm Aletayria. This is my husband Major Tom Jones.} Usually she wouldn't include military rank but for a war like people maybe that would be important.

Tom is not telepathic but it is possible that Soundwave will pick up on the fact that there is a permanent link between his mind and Aletyaria and his mind is open to hearing and letting his thoughts be known. Tom offers his hand to Soundwave. It's a human gesture but well meaning. However, when Aletayria tells him that Ravage is his wife, Tom stares for a second. His mind filling up with how to greet a humanoid with paws. Though a brief and humorous thought passes that patting her on the head would be a bad choice.

{The little one is Zayda.} She was reaching out toward Soundwave but when dad gets into the range of her telepathic ability she turns away for his presence. It isn't negative more like a toddler turning to run off to a parent from someone other person.

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Ravage offers a forepaw politely, and Tom can see that it's more like a hand than a foot.

{Perhaps someday you may pat me on the head, but we don't know each other well enough yet,} Ravage sends with amusement. {I have a bipedal form, but it's still more felinoid than not, and I'm too tall on my back legs to fit in here easily; Soundwave had to use a matter displacer to enter this place.}

She (for the moment--it was he, earlier, and how pleasant it is that Aletayria doesn't need to be told any more than Soundwave does) is linked in through Soundwave in much the same way Tom is with Aletayria. She is also purring softly, now that everyone's reasonably happy again.

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Soundwave took Tom's hand and shook it, and was briefly concerned but pleased that Tom knew better than to touch Ravage's head. He finds it adorable that the child seeks out her progenitor. Of course she would.

{Humans are also a warlike species,} Soundwave acknowledges. {With very little technology compared to that of my people, they acquitted themselves surprisingly well in our war. In our universe, they were protected by the enemies of my faction, until the war mercifully ended. We are trying to achieve peace with them now. I'm interested in your thoughts on the matter,} he tells Tom. {But...why would they want to kill Ziggy? He's a powerful performer, but...}

Of course, he remembers, Megatron was once a miner who happened to be also a poet--not someone the government should have seen as a threat; but when they chose to see him that way, they certainly made him one.

Edited Date: 2020-11-16 05:10 am (UTC)

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hellomajortom

Tom doesn't hesitate to shake whatever hand is offered. Living among aliens has taught him to go along with some odd gestures and strange body parts for that matter. Tom gets the message through Aletayria and laughs.

"I didn't mean to think it outside of self humor. I've met one of your kind before, I think." Tom mentions because maybe they are the same species. Maybe not since there are plenty of human looking beings in this room that are definitely not humans. It's hard to say.

{They've tortured our people, my cousin, when he came to help both of our people.} Aletayria tells Soundwave but the emotions are more telling, pain and worry. He may even get pieces of memories Aletayria has gotten from Tommy. The unwilling medical procedures they did on him especially the moment when they blinded him, partially to humans but for an Anthean it took most of his sight. There's a lot of distress in the woman about humans.

"It's complicated." Tom tells them. "My son has visions and saw the point when Earth would be beyond recovering. He came to try and sway people but they're not ready to hear what he has to say. I could only imagine what they'd do to him if they discovered he was an alien. They're not ready for that either." Tom has a lot to say and that he thinks on the subject. It isn't in his words but the jumble of his thoughts that Soundwave could detect through his connection to his wife.

"Different, all the ways he's different, isn't acceptable on my Earth." The fatherly worry is there but also an aggressive determination to protect and help his child.

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Soundwave nods. He's recovered enough to find words again, though he sends his thoughts and feelings along with them, to all four of them.

"This is also a concern of mine with respect to Earth. Cybertron also destroyed most of its biosphere, but this took more than one billion years of unending war. The humans have managed to do it in two centuries. I've learned to care for humans now that I understand that humans are fully sapient, but there are other species on Earth I like more; species I think could be sapient, too, some day, if the humans don't kill them all.

"I don't know what our Earthers would do if they received a visionary, but I am not sure they'd be better."

He ex-vents softly. "I'm glad to see that Ziggy has survived and overcome as much of this as was possible. I hope this is also true of your cousin. I do not always love my special abilities; in fact, I wear protective gear when I have to be among lots of people at once when they're not unified, as they are here. But I would not want them taken from me. For all the trouble they've caused me, they got me thrown out of the caste that was oppressing everyone else, they allowed me to become undeceived, they've allowed me to help my cause...and they showed me who Ravage was in the moment I first saw her."

Edited Date: 2020-11-16 06:11 pm (UTC)

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"We are the same species," Ravage confirms. "Our sparks rise from the hot spots on Cybertron and are seated in bodies that our people create. The story of why I look like this and he does not is a long and convoluted one; but I could have chosen to become like him, and I did not. I too have abilities others of my kind do not."

Ravage looks up at Soundwave with adoration, briefly. "I also knew when I met him that he was my mate, even though I didn't have words for it, then, or even understand what it meant."

Edited Date: 2020-11-16 06:14 pm (UTC)

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hellomajortom

"We had five years when my child arrived. He's been on Earth two years now." As much as Tom tried to remain hopeful it was disheartening.

Aletayria sympathizes. "Our war was eight thousand years, at least. I was born near the end of it but my cousin Thomas was born before it started." The thoughts surrounding the name clearly mark the person she speaks about as the person humans tortured. "It is something our people share. Mine still see humans as barely more than pets or animals."

Of course she didn't given her partner. She thought highly of Tom's intellect and especially his courage.

"Thomas does what he can but the damage to his eyes is permanent. I understand what you mean." Aletayria agrees. "We have some parts of our mental and physical nature that make us vulnerable but together they make us who we are."

Tom is listening too but his thoughts are a bit scattered over many topics. "Ziggy has a similar problem. I have to watch who is around him because he gets caught up in other people's feelings easily. I couldn't imagine how someone with similar abilities would survive, mentally, in a war."

There was a misunderstanding of what he meant but he is still glad for the information. "I mean I've met another person from your species, I think."

Ravage's explanation gets a bright and affectionate laugh from Tom. "I know what you mean. I went through a wild chain of emotions when I met her. She looked different then, less human."

Aletayria rolls her eyes at him but it is affection between the two of them. "He thought I was scary and ugly for months."

There's a sense in their emotions that coming together was difficult for them for so many reasons. It had been from mindset to physical differences that made things awkward.

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"It was difficult for us for other reasons." Ravage smiles a little sadly, deliberately not going into the mental imagery. "I was considered property at that time, and even if I had been free, I would not have been considered a fit mate for someone of Soundwave's original caste. A plaything, maybe, if I hadn't belonged to someone else. And I didn't want to be a plaything anymore; I'd never wanted that. I wanted to be loved, but it scared me.

"The abuses of the powerful in our society at that time were the reason we became part of the movement that started our war. It was intended at the time to be a revolution. For a while, that's what it was. It lasted longer than 8000 years. We're trying to make sure that the peace we have now becomes real peace, and not just another eye in the storm."

Edited Date: 2020-11-16 07:22 pm (UTC)

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"You haven't met the other Soundwave, have you? He frightened Ravage terribly. He had a Ravage, but she died. He's purple, and he has no face. We think that the Senate did by them the things they tried to do to us." Soundwave frowns.

"I'm going to hope you mean Misfire, when you say you've met another of our species. He works for me and is a dear friend of both of ours."

Edited Date: 2020-11-16 07:17 pm (UTC)

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"I'm sorry." Though she hasn't moved the desire to hug and comfort the other female is loud in her thoughts and emotions. "Humans are seen that way by some of my people, but we once treated our own kind badly. Thomas was forced to learn how to kill people with his mind when he was young. He won't mention it but he's a poet with a love of learning about cultures. War wasn't the place for him."

Tom nods. "Yes, Misfire. I've talked to him a few times." Tom pauses and glances at Aletayria and then furrows his brows. "You're a species? I'm sorry. I'd rather learn what to call you by than guess. I've worked with a lot of human cultures and know how important that can be."

Tom's only curious and it's an honest human struggle with other species when coming from a world that hasn't really met any.

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Soundwave conveys Aletayria's welcome to Ravage along with her thoughts, and then makes room so Ravage can sit between him and Aletayria, and be hugged by them both.

"Ravage is also a poet," he says, smiling, before answering Tom's question.

"Our species is properly called 'Cybertronians'. We come from a planet called Cybertron. Misfire, Ravage, and I are part of the Decepticon faction, which is opposed to oppression and lies. So are all the other Cybertronians I've met in the Nexus so far, and a lot of them actually came here withus--but Misfire was, I believe, the first. Our culture--Decepticon, or Destron culture--is currently in flux, but Ravi and I are attempting to turn it around. Autobot culture is very different from ours; we have to make peace, but it is going to be difficult."

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Ravage is glad to be loved on, but she makes it clear in her mind to Aletayria that her experiences of abuse are in the distant past and she is now a very happy wife; and that after when Soundwave opened his mind to her and shared his spark with her, she knew she would always be safe with him. That notwithstanding, being in the warmth between her lifelong lover's mind and her new friend's mind is extremely soothing.

"Soundwave is correct. I am a poet. Thomas and I might like to see each other's work? I am sorry he was so badly misused. Though lately a lot of my work has been political. We are trying to reach all the people in our faction who still believe in its hopes, and also to make peace with the rest of Cybertron."

Edited Date: 2020-11-18 07:06 am (UTC)

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Aletayria is always open to comforting others. It was one of the reasons so many here called her mother, whether they were hers or not. She is glad to sense that the torment was long in the past. The idea of being safe with a partner surges a wave of contented love from the Anthean, one strong enough that Tom smiles though he is focused on Soundwave.

"I don't think he has shared any of his poetry with anyone for many years. He's hard to get close to but it's worth it if you can. Thomas is very old and very wise."

Tom had broken off from the other two to give Soundwave his undivided attention. He listens and can't help the disappointed sigh. "I'm caught in the middle of something like that, I think. Antheans and Humans need to find peace or I don't think either species is going to survive. There's a lot of fear and hostility. I can only think it would be the same between two divergent factions of the same species."

He is trying not to put human ideals on aliens, something his wife proved was necessary over and over, but sometimes that was difficult.

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"I can only try," Ravage says, leaning back between Aletayria and Soundwave. "It's up to Thomas if he wants to be friends, but I will let him know that I'm open to that." She smiles and gives Aletayria a little side-hug, snuggling up against her husband as if she wishes she could pull them all into an embrace. "I could send him a copy of my manuscript, but it's in our language, not English..."

Edited Date: 2020-12-03 06:36 pm (UTC)

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"It's very distressing, isn't it? People will fight over rooms in a burning house, when they could simply stop and put out the fire and find that there's room enough for them all. But I will figure something out, even if I have to be devious. Sometimes, for pity's sake, nothing else works."

He blinks, a catlike gesture, the source of which is obvious. "You're a good man. You'll do what you can, and there's always here. It bothers me sometimes, how much less Cybertron comes to mean to me here. I love our base on Io, but there are many creatures on Earth I'd prefer to save, too."

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"I hope you do. Just give him more time than others. He learns languages very quickly. I'm sure he could learn." She shakes her head, hugging Ravage. "Your body form might give you an advantage. I think he trusts cats more than humanoids at this point."

Tom nods leaning into Aletayria's other side due to the emotions coming through. He needs to be close to her. "I can't blame the Antheans. Every one of their species we've run into over the millennia humans have tortured to insanity or death, usually both."

That fact disturbed Tom. He understood fear, even imprisoning an unknown, but the torture and vivisection was ...even after all this time he didn't have words for what he thought of it. Nothing seemed dark and sad enough.

"I hold out hope for my son." He tells Soundwave. "If more people will start listening. I considered bringing the remaining Anthean's here but 300 Xenophobic aliens with incredibly strong minds and a culture where mindreading is just part of a conversation it's the best idea."

Tom wished that was possible but he seriously doubted many of the people here would be happy about it and he really didn't think a compound somewhere was an answer wither. "I still think about it but I'm not ready to abandon Earth and I don't think they're ready to stop looking for a new home."

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