Who is this sassy lost child. Screamer has his work cut out for him here. Just practicing comic layout. Anyway here is my first attempt at illustrating my upcoming fic Emptiness Machine.
(Based off of that one scene in Toy Story with Buzz and Jessie where she does that backflip and it makes his wings flip up I love that scene it’s so cute.)
Emptiness Machine
Author notes: thanks again for being patient with me. Still going through it but here is the chapter I was most excited for 🙊 (also I don’t know how actual welding works just go with it.) enjoy!
The setting sun cast long eerie shadows before Starscream moved visibly again. You had settled yourself about ten yards away from his kneeling form. He just sat there motionless. Every once in a while you’d see a wing twitch, hear a muffled murmur from him. Other than these small signs of life, he was utterly still, seemingly made of stone. You hadn’t announced yourself and it was easy enough to sneak up close to him when he first landed. You’d had ample time to study his frame. From the looks of it, he’d suffered a great deal. Could have been from the battle, but after he ran off into the smoke you hadn’t seen him again. You wondered who, besides Optimus, had the strength to deal such wounds.
A wound in his side was covered by a familiar energon patch. It’s light pulsing indicated it was still working on drawing the nanites closer to the injury. This meant the patch had been applied not too long ago. His wing hung at an odd angle at his back. Your optics focused on the crude welding job and you winced. It looked as if someone had done it with a non dominant hand. Were the Decepticon medics that terrible at welding jobs? You look down at your own chest plate and the welds, still fresh, that adorned it. No they were neat and clean. This looked as if he’d done it himself. Though that would be foolish wouldn’t it? Isn’t that dangerous?
The more you looked at him, the more you wondered what the hell happened to him. There was scraped paint along several dents that looked like it could have come from the hallways of the Nemesis. You leaned forward a bit trying to see better.
A quick slip of your servo on the damp trunk of a tree suddenly unbalanced you. The sudden movement made a sickening crunch that echoed off the clear water. The next few clicks reminded you exactly why Starscream was second in command of the entire Decepticon army. As soon as the sound reached his audials, he’d spun around and taken several steps in your direction. His posture was that of a mech who was immediately ready to take on a serious threat. Frame stiff and weapons powering up as he raised them. The dual null ray blasters mounted on his forearms were trained in the direction of the sound. His optics narrowed as he scanned the thick vegetation that hid your crouching form.
“Show yourself!” He spat, stalking forward a few paces.
You don’t make a move but instead call out to him from your prone position. “You look worse for ware. The Autobots give you a run for your money?”
Recognition flashed in his optics and his blasters lowered just a fraction. He hadn’t quite pinned down exactly where you were yet. In the waning light you could make out the faint glow of his biolights. Yours would soon make you visible amongst the foliage. It was better to stand up now and reveal yourself before he had a chance to find you. You moved, rustling the fallen leaves beneath you. There was a risk associated with trusting him not to blow your helm off. With the care he and the communications officer had shown you, there was a sense that he would hear you out.
“Listen. I’m going to stand up now. You know I don’t possess weapons on my frame. I’m unarmed.” You say clear enough to be heard.
Rolling from your back onto your belly, you slowly get to your peds. Palms out to show you don’t have anything with which to fight back. His optics found and trained you with a cold stare.
“Is it a habit of yours to patrol unarmed? Those damn fools can’t even train a proper army.” He grumbled almost quiet enough that you didn’t hear.
He vented in exasperation, though he didn’t lower his weapons as you stepped out from behind the foliage that had previously hidden you. You shook a ped to get rid of the loose leaves that covered it. The damp smell of moss and loam covered your frame and you were suddenly glad for the fact that your mech was an earthier color. Disguising the smears of earth from your clumsiness earlier. Your optics fell on his damaged wing once more. It trembled slightly as he tried to hold it at the same height as his uninjured one.
“Did one of us do that to you?” You asked, gesturing with your chin towards his injured wing.
“As if an Autobot could inflict such injures on me.” He scoffed and flicked his uninjured wing in annoyance.
Though he quickly realized his error in ruling out the Autobots as the source of his injures. That left only one mech who could have inflicted those injuries. You slowly reach up to flick your visor out of the way, exposing your golden optics. The battle mask you usually wore retracted, allowing him to see the serious expression on your faceplate. His optics widened ever so slightly. He didn’t know what to expect when he saw what was under that mask but it wasn’t something that was as close to a real Cybertronian femme as he had seen in eons.
Cybertronian femmes were rare during the war, most of them fled off world and met horrible fates or disappeared without a trace. The rest joined the Autobot cause, with a few frighteningly unstable exceptions. His gaze lingered on the frown that was set in the malleable metal mesh of your faceplate. How the humans were able to come up with technology like this was beyond him. Though it sent an uncomfortable shiver up his spinal strut. It was unnerving. He started when you finally spoke again.
“Then it must have been Megatron. I’m not deaf. I heard him threaten you.” Speaking so boldly was also a risk but you had to know. Something about the way he held himself. The way he had tried to get you away from that awful scientist back on the Nemesis. You felt like you owed him your life. An uncomfortable feeling when it came from the enemy.
His lip twitched and he refused to answer. Instead choosing to deflect the question with one of his own. “What the scrap are you doing out here in the woods alone. You were in bad shape when I last saw you.” His voice was harsh and there was a staticky edge to it. Perhaps a nervous tell.
“I could ask the same of you. I thought Decepticons didn’t venture to the surface. Something about it being ‘contaminated by the native life’ or something.” You almost smiled at the affronted look he gave you.
As if he, the second in command of the Decepticon army would be scared of a few squishy humans. Slowly, you reach into a compartment on your side that contained a field medical kit. Inside you knew you had at least a couple of welding rods and a field welding torch.
“If you want, I could help you with the welding on your wing. You are still leaking energon. It couldn’t have felt good to fly like that.”
Extending your servo with the tools, you try to look as sympathetic as possible. “You helped me. I’m still functioning because of you and I owe you for that.” You splay your free servo over the chest of your mech. Over the tiny body hidden inside.
He looked at you with a mix of disgust and offense at the mere thought of your human made servos on his wing. He sputtered trying to get the words out for a moment. His vocalizer betraying him. You held up a hand and that silenced him surprisingly. “Please let me do this. We’d be even. They have no idea you tried to help me.”
Starscream’s curiosity was the only thing that made him slowly close his intake and nod. His denta set as he slowly lowered his weapons. He knew he wouldn’t be able to make the flight back to the nemesis without help. This was the first time in quite awhile anyone had asked to help him outright. It had been even longer since he allowed anyone to help him without lashing out. You smile and gesture for him to follow you to a fallen tree not too far along the edge of the water. There was just enough daylight left that you could probably get most of the welding done before the sun set.
“No tricks human. Even with that machine you are soft. I won’t hesitate to offline a femme.” He growled as he begrudgingly settled himself down on the tree.
You notice him watching your every move, frame tense as if he expected you to take that torch and use it for more sinister purposes. You vent softly and move around behind him to look at his wing. This close to him, you feel a staticky tingle that runs through seemingly every energon line of your frame. You shudder. You could feel his agitation, fear, and apprehension. But there was a hint of something else there. A feeling you couldn’t quite place. Something akin to curiosity. You shake your helm and try to focus on assessing the damage.
There were a few gaps in his weld lines that still leaked a bit of energon. You knew the mesh beneath contains many pain receptors. It was shredded at the joint and the tender mesh exposed. You cringed as you ran your optics over the crumpled mess. Of course he’d tried to fix it himself if Megatron was the one who did this to him. He’d probably done it to humiliate him. Reaching out a careful servo you go to brush a digit along one of the weld lines. As soon as your digit makes contact he flinches. His other wing twitching and you feel a wave of embarrassment and rage through his EM field.
“I don’t have all night Autobot are you going to get on with it or not!” He snapped trying to hide the fact that he’d had such a dramatic reaction to the contact.
You bite back a stinging retort and reach into the container at your side for a welding rod. You realize with a feeling of dread that you don’t have any nerve dampeners on you. Nothing like an EM pulse emitter that could nullify the pain being caused by the fresh welds. You chew your lip for a moment and speak. “I don’t have anything to help with the pain. Will you be alright?”
He doesn’t respond. Only nodding, giving you to go ahead to continue. You take a deep vent in. If he had done this earlier on his own, he must not have had anything to numb the pain then either. Bracing yourself with one ped on the ground and the other against the fallen tree, you place one servo between his wings and use the other to unset the welds he’d placed. Flicking down your visor against the blinding torch, you set to work. Once you began, he made no sound to indicate he was in pain.
Only the groan of strained metal could be heard as he clenched his fists against the white hot flame of the torch. You worked quickly, wanting this to be over just as much as he probably did. After unsetting the welds, you worked quickly to right them once again. This time taking care to align the joint properly and seal any severed lines. His uninjured wing trembled a couple times but otherwise he remained still.
Once you had finished you stood upright and flicked your visor back up to look at your work. It wasn’t as good as a medic could have done but you were the best in your class at field medicine. These welds would hold and his wing was on straight this time. You cross your arms over your chassis, proud of your work. “All finished. And the sun hasn’t even set yet.”
Pastel pinks and oranges had begun to fill the watercolor sky. Still he didn’t move. You cocked your head to the side suddenly concerned. Reaching out a servo you rest it in the middle of his back between his wings and feel him lean ever so slightly into that touch before he catches himself. Flinching abruptly away he stands and whirls on you. “You’ve already touched me enough insect. I’m fine.”
His EM field flared with that unidentifiable emotion once again. You stepped back palms up to show you didn’t mean to overstep. “Sorry didn’t mean to.” You mumble not knowing what exactly you were apologizing for. You had comforted Bee in a similar way once when he was seriously injured after a fight. The little scout seemed grateful for the gesture and you thought he might need something like that as well. Clearly not. You huffed out an annoyed vent. So much for him being grateful. At least you had made it through the entire process without him using those twin null rays to blast you back to the state you were born in.
He wouldn’t look you in the optics. His pride probably so thoroughly squashed for the day that he couldn’t possibly take another embarrassment.
“There. We are even.” Were the only words he spoke as he whirled around and stalked off. Transforming and taking off over the lake a few paces down. He wasn’t trailing that awful black smoke anymore and his wing seemed to be holding. You hadn’t realized just how stiff you’d been holding your posture as you finally relax. His alt mode disappeared on the horizon, not knowing just how close he had come to discovering the Autobot base.
Alright so here is another fanart inspired by @revelboo and her fic True Romance featuring the seeker trine. I am a HUGE fan of her writing so go check her out. I posted both the sketch and the colored version because I wasn’t sure how I felt about the color. Still teaching myself procreate. Anyway enjoy! Starscream doesn’t know how to relax
IDW Starscream X Reader
Rating 18+ (TW blood, mentions of death, Starscream is silly doesn’t know anything about humans)
Starscream unclenches his fist where he had slammed it on the desk next to you. His optics dart to the tiny hand reaching out for him. Desperation and pain etched in your features. It was like his servos started moving on their own towards your hunched figure. He slowly, carefully wrapped his hand around behind you letting you rest against it. His optics widen in surprise as you lean your little fragile body into him. He can feel your tiny heartbeat, weak at the moment, against his palm.
Everything is just noise and color. The throbbing in your head is the only thing keeping you conscious. It was warm and dark but now it feels as if you’ve been placed on a freezing cold glass surface. Reaching towards the heat once more, you try to speak but only a pained groan slips from your chest. Your head swam as you tried to sit up and look around. Clearly you weren’t at a hospital yet and that alarmed you. Half broken thoughts spilled into your brain as you reached out for something. Anything to grasp to keep you in this reality. In your half conscious state you feel something warm and gentle press against your back grounding you in your panic. Leaning gratefully into it you lose consciousness once more, the color draining from your face.
Gently, Starscream lifts you to rest against his chassis alongside his canopy. After you reached for him he figured out what you were searching for was warmth. But there was still a huge problem. The human is still leaking that awful deep red liquid from the gash on its processor. Impatient, he paced the length of the room, just holding you to him as he tried to figure out what to do with you. He couldn’t fix it. He knew nothing about humans and it was clear that his first interaction with one had ended as all things do with him. Whatever he touches ends up dead or suffering. He vents trying not to think about how many things he’s tried to keep and lost. Stopping to examine you leaned against his chest plate, he makes up his mind. Alarm ringing through his frame as he examines your lifeless and slowly greying form. He’ll take you to your own kind. They can fix this. He opens his canopy and places you gently inside. Once more trying his best not to jostle you as moves down the hallway for a third time that night. He transforms and takes off as fast as he can towards the town.
~3 weeks later~
Your alarm wakes you early on a Saturday morning. It had been awhile since your accident and still no one was able to tell you exactly what happened to you. Fire fighters had discovered you outside of a remote fire station at the base of the mountain. That station was located about twenty miles from the lake. The lake was the last place you remember being conscious. You became the talk of the town. People everywhere wanted to know what exactly had happened on that night. You keep hearing over and over that you are lucky to be alive at all. After a moment, you run a cautious hand over the place on your forehead where you received nine stitches, grimacing as the pain still lingered. So many unanswered questions roll through your mind as you get ready. Today was the day you’d go back to that lake. You needed answers and the only way to get them was to go yourself.
After dropping you off, Starscream hovered in the air above the station. He needed to make absolute sure the humans inside took you in. If only to keep the pathetic thing off of his conscience. He kept telling himself that he didn’t really care about the pitiful little creature. But his thoughts kept straying to the way you reached out for him. That utter dependence on him and his complete lack of knowledge took him off guard. He can’t help himself. Every single night since then he keeps coming back to that lake. If only to be away from it all. But a small part of him hopes he’ll see you alive and well. He didn’t want to admit how desperately he wanted to feel needed again.
I came across your mecha au and I’m honestly so captured!! Like this fits, I could actually image something like this happening in the transformers universe. Thank you for making this and I hope to see what else you create, (I say as I’m going over to read your other works) :33
*eats your ask like a delicious meal*
YALL DONT KNOW HOW MUCH YOUR ENCOURAGEMENT MEANS TO ME RN THANK YOU SO MUCH
Chapter 7 should be out by the end of tonight 🥰 I have been getting a lot of asks about if the title Emptiness Machine came from the song by Linkin Park and yes…absolutely it did 😂😅 I don’t have plans to continue Rendezvous at the moment but I might in the future!
I’m a proud freak.
How about lil valentines cards of some loved robots?! 👀 these will be available only this weekend at Melb Kaicon but if I have any left over, I might stick them in future etsy orders 😊
getting huge Evangelion vibes from your fic
Ooooo that’s a new one! I’ve never actually seen that anime but it’s certainly on my list. I’ve watched a number of anime titles but not this one yet!
My inspiration for Emptiness Machine came from a combo of the AVATAR movies and of course Pacific Rim.
Do you find this to be true?
reblog to give warm bread to your mutuals
me when
Artist and amateur writer Star Wars and Transformers fanLevel 25 🎀She/Her
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