soundwave [ prime ] (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
slenderbot) wrote2011-11-15 08:11 pm
slenderbot) wrote2011-11-15 08:11 pm
App for Singularity
Player Information ;
Your Nickname: Lainie
OOC Journal: gayistheway
Under 18? nope.avi
Email/IM: lainiepie[at]gmail[dot]com; literally nailed
Characters Played at Singularity: Black-One, Eric Northman, Isaac Clarke
Character Information ;
Name: Soundwave
Name of Canon: Transformers: Prime
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: canon
Reference: Soundwave at TFwiki and Soundwave at Teletaan 1
Canon Point: Episode 26, season 1. Specifically the point right after smacking down Airachnid and before managing to lock onto Megatron’s signal again.
Setting:
So, the original Transformers that most people are familiar with is an 80s monstrosity known as G1, which pretty much was just a clusterfuck of giant robots battling giant robots slapped together with a catchy theme song of, ACTION FIGURES. BUY OUR ACTION FIGURES. It worked well enough and established a lot of the lore that would carry on to the reboots, such as Cybertron and it’s inhabitants, the faction war, and energon.
Transformers: Prime is part of a new continuity dubbed the Aligned Continuity that contains other material such as the video game War for Cybertron and the novels, Exodus and Exiles. Unfortunately, even if they’re meant to all be part of the same continuity, the material often contradicts or confuses the timeline of events. For the purposes of consistency and making some damn sense out of it all, we’ll just go under the assumption that the TV series > all the other material until it’s sorted out.
Here’s a rundown on what’s consistent in the continuities. The real meat of the plot has to do with the planet Cybertron, a planet that’s inhabited by a sentient robotic race, helpfully named Cybertronians, just in case you forget that they’re from Cybertron. Cybertronians are about as humanized as you can get; they eat, they ‘sleep’, have relationships, entertainment and politics. Politics for any race generally results in bad news bears and war and unfortunately, even though they’re giant hulking robots, they’re no exception. The main rage issue on Cybertron was the fact that its society had a caste system. Obviously when you have thinking, feeling beings, the inability to choose what to be was going to result in some raised voices and a few pitchforks.
Enter Megatron. When he first started out, he was a gladiator that curbstomped other ‘bots for a living and also the entertainment of others. He had a data clerk buddy named Orion Pax, later to be known as Optimus Prime, and both of them were of the opinion the caste system sucked and needed some updating. Now, while they agreed that the caste system needed to go, somewhere along the line they had disagreements on how to go about changing it. Megatron, true to his gladiator role, decided the best way to go about it would be brute force. Orion Pax, on the other hand, was much more used to talking people’s heads off and decided that would be the better way.
So they had a falling out, some hurtful things were said, and they went their separate ways to form the Decepticons (lead by Megatron) and the Autobots (Optimus Prime’s bros). Civil war broke out between the two factions, leaving neutral parties nothing more than poor cannon fodder or left in crappy positions where they eventually had to choose anyway. Sucks to be impartial in Transformers-land.
In any case, somewhere along the line, Megatron gets his claws on something called ‘Dark energon’ or when he’s feeling especially goth, ‘The blood of unicron’. If we want to take War for Cybertron’s take on this into account, Megatron grabs it after figuratively stomping all over a neutral Starscream’s face, who had been guarding it with his sciencebro, Jetfire. Rather than being pummeled into scrap or worse, Starscream decides that Megatron’s got something going here and betrays Jetfire to the dark side. The continuity is kind of one huge mess though, so this is something to be taken with a grain of salt. In any case, Megatron gets Dark Energon.
Dark energon is an uncreative name for the substance that’s pretty much the opposite of energon. While energon is the resource that Cybertronians eat and also the name of the same fluid that flows through their ‘veins’ (I’m not kidding here, they say ‘veins’ in Prime, so I’m going with it), to make things more confusing, dark energon is pretty much just something that’s a big NO FUCK YOU to everything. Pretty much the continuity’s version of a wizard did it. In Prime, it can bring back dead Cybertronians as zombies. It can also get a living Cybertronian high and it’ll poison organics. It’s also responsible for Cybertron getting fucked to hell and back, leaving it essentially a dead planet.
REVISIONS
Which leads us to the main plotline of Prime. After all this fuckery on Cybertron, the Decepticons and Autobots end up on planet Earth. It’s not because they particularly like the squishies there -- well, the Autobots do -- but rather the fact that Earth is ripe with resources. And apparently just has energon deposits sitting around, that humans never noticed before. Go figure. In this search for resources, the Decepticons float around on their warship, Nemesis. The Nemesis itself is rather massive and gives the Decepticons a military advantage over the Autobots. For one, while the Autobots number about a handful, the Nemesis is chock full of hundreds of little nameless grunts to man the ship and use as canon fodder in episodes. They explain away why people haven't noticed a giant freaking alien ship floating around by saying that it uses roboadvanced cloaking technology.
Giant alien robots aren't exactly inconspicuous, which pretty much ties into the whole reason why they scanned alt-modes to begin with. Nobody is going to question that random sports car hanging out there in the middle of Antartica, after all. Never. Either way, people were bound to find out about them eventually, which leads up into the Autobot's situation. While Decepticons get their cool ship, the Autobots hang out in a secret facility in Nevada with their troupe of meatbag pets. The government pretty much cracked down on them super fast as soon as they figured out they existed and ferreted them away, which they neglect to explain well in the series and just kinda throw you on in there. Run down basically is that the American government knows about the existence of giant robots and gave them an old missile base to hang out in. As for the meatbag pets, pretty much they got accidentally seen by some kids and under some Autobot code they have to protect them. Now they let them come and go from their base and in the case of Miko, they let her fuck everything up BUT IT'S OKAY. IT'S NOT HER FAULT.
The formula of the show is pretty cut and dry, for the most part. Decepticons go do something, Autobots step in to go save the day. For most of the first season, Megatron was out of commission so the actual leading and scheming fell to Starscream’s shoulders. He didn’t exactly let the fact that Megatron could pop in at any time keep him down-- nope, in a regular Starscream fashion, he kept trying to think of ways to kill him. For reals. It’s Soundwave’s full time job to keep Starscream in line while the bossman is away, since everyone knows about the Seeker’s ambitions.
Somewhere along the line they introduce a sinister anti-government group that goes by the name MECH. MECH, surprise surprise, wants to create their own vision of the world by the application of new technologies. Most of the episodes revolving around MECH involves them being pretty much horrible to both Autobots and Decepticons, viewing them as just walking, talking weapons that they can dissect to possibly learn a thing or two about making new lasers or nukes or whatever the hell they want. MECH also pretty much is composed of a bunch of human canon fodder, and even though they don't explicitly say these people are croaking, it's kinda hard for a squishy human to survive a helicopter explosion in mid-flight. Soundwave himself never really gets a run in with MECH or involves himself with them, mostly because Megatron doesn't really give a fuck about them.
Towards the end of the season, Starscream has pretty much flounced off and some political turmoil is going on in the Decepticon ranks, especially in regards to Dark Energon. Since Dark Energon is always to blame. Soundwave, of course, pretty much sticks by the Nemesis and keeps the others in line still, otherwise everyone will be claiming that they’re Lord Astroglide now or something. In any case, it turns out that planet Earth itself is actually Unicron. Unicron is pretty much best described as ROBOT DEVIL. While Primus is about the equivalent of Cybetrtonian God, Unicron is his opposite and is obsessed with destruction. So, after being defeated by the Thirteen Primes, Unicron drifted around space sleeping and eventually pulled a Bender and became covered in minerals and debris that became Earth.
In other words, the Earth's core is a giant robot. Since Megatron was a huge junkie for this guy's body fluids, he pretty much had some psychic mind meld going on. In the last couple episodes of the season, he teamed up with the Autobots to go on an adventure to put Unicron back to sleep so they won't all die.
Because nothing like impending doom to speed along a truce.
Personality:
Soundwave in Transformers: Prime is pretty much the Anti-Starscream by design. While the former Air Commander is talkative, cowardly, and untrustworthy, Soundwave is silent, intimidating, and extremely loyal.
Once Soundwave held the rank of second-in-command, and although the rank is no longer his to hold, he’s still one of Megatron’s most trusted lieutenants. Far more than his other treacherous seconds, at least, as the task of keeping Megatron’s troops faithful and focused was given to him. Soundwave is described as the ‘eyes and ears of the Decepticons’, a fitting description as the infiltration and surveillance specialist hears and sees even the slightest bit of unrest or disloyalty. He takes his job very seriously, almost mindlessly. Really, it’s probably more true that he just has unwavering faith in his leader to the point that any bit of insanity wasn’t going to phase him.
The way he goes about it is creepy to say the least. He’ll stalk targets of interest and hijack whatever technological peripherals that might be useful. The consumption of data is much more than a job to him, it’s his entire lifestyle. Probably even a hobby. He’s extremely brilliant; much more than what would be expected of a former gladiator. He knows how to utilize his resources to both manipulate others and further the Decepticon’s plans.
The other Decepticons have learned to be wary of Soundwave, and in some cases, fear him. Certainly it isn’t because he’s an aggressive, temperamental brute like their leader. In most cases, he’ll just observe transgressions until the time was right to act. His still, quiet presence is usually enough to quell talk of rebellion; his handy ability to record and ferret away information to report back to their master was certainly reason enough to be on the best behavior around him. When that fails, he won’t hesitate to use his immense strength and combat skill. Sometimes, an example just needs to be made.
One thing that is immediately noticeable about the Decepticon is that he’s almost completely silent, choosing to speak only in the words of others. He takes recordings of others, ranging from private conversations to bits from radio broadcasts, to communicate for him. He wasn’t always mute, however, and it’s not the result of any kind of injury or malfunction. Instead, Soundwave is mute by choice. He long lost the use for his own voice, preoccupying himself instead with the observation of others. The fact that he chooses not to speak says more about him than any long winded speech could; his loyalty and his task of data collection has pretty much consumed whatever little bit of personality he had.
Sometime between the war on Cybertron and their subsequent relocation on Earth, Soundwave deleted his emotions to process information quicker, which explains much of his... Soundwaveness. Lacking emotions gives him the advantage of being better able to focus on the missions he’s assigned, as well as the ability to spy on both allies and enemies alike without bias. However, it’s unlikely that all his emotions are completely deleted. The Soundwave of the past had a somewhat sarcastic characteristic about him that still lingers in him, even if he’s complete silent. His body language communicates for him. His designed a language of pointing, looming, and arm motions gives off the feeling of passive-aggressiveness and irritated insistence. A missing Megatron, infected by Dark Energon, spurs the surveillance expert into a flurry of action, desperately searching the radar for him, his typing frantic. And when Airachnid attempts to suggest abandoning their leader, Soundwave reacts with a burst of aggression, as if the very idea infuriated him. After dealing with her, he slides right back into the cool indifference expected of him.
So, maybe he’s deleted his emotions, but he’s left enough to care about Megatron and his directives.
Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitation Suggestions:
As a Cybertronian, Soundwave has the ability to morph between two forms: robot mode and vehicle mode. His main form is his robot form while his vehicle form is a shape that he scanned to better blend in on Earth. He can transform easily between the two forms and quickly enough that he can be in flight in his aerial mode within mere seconds. He’s designed to be a swift, stealthy flier.
Like Megatron, Soundwave is toted to have once been a gladiator as well and is said to have almost bested Megatron in combat once. Considering the brutality of the Cybertronian arena and the fact that Megatron is a fucking monster when it comes to strength, that’s saying a lot about Soundwave’s combat capabilities. He displayed this once in a scene where he laid smackdown on Airachnid, easily deflecting her blows and beating her to yielding within moments.
Soundwave excels in surveillance. It’s his job to stalk people and he records pretty much everything he hears. Combine that with the fact that he also has a radar inside his helm that allows him to scan areas for data such as energon deposits, as well as allowing him to pick up transmissions from all around the world. As such, he’s also great for blending in and remaining unseen, which is convenient for him, since the more paranoid he makes the other Decepticons, the better he can keep them in line.
He’s a fantastic hacker, utilizing tentacles that come from a compartment in his check to jack straight into computer systems. These tentacles have the bonus of being prehensile and can also grip objects like hands. It has a bunch of smaller, wiggly wires (tentacles) inside which writhe about at the end of each tentacle, as if the whole glowy prehensile chestsnakes weren't creepy enough already.
Lastly, Soundwave has a section of his chest that comes off and transforms into his minicon companion, Laserbeak. Laserbeak is a type of minimech known as a Deployer, which just as the namesake suggests, Soundwaves pretty much deploys them to do whatever. So far in Prime, Laserbeak hasn’t exactly shown any signs of sentience and pretty much is more like a smaller, flying, laser shooting weapon. Soundwave's used Laserbeak on a few occasions to spy on others or in one occasion, capture a human, so the minicon is at least useful as a surveillance aid.
This Soundwave has the ability to absorb sonic booms. However, he an only absorb so many before they really start to take their toll on him.
Inventory:
Giant robots don’t have pockets, so Soundwave’s not exactly carrying anything around inside him. The only thing he has on him is Laserbeak, but then again, the minicon is kinda part of his chest.
Appearance:
Soundwave is a Transformer, which if the name wasn’t obvious enough, he can transform between two different forms. Soundwave’s normal form is more humanoid in appearance (or at least, humanoid shaped), although obviously robotic. Let’s also note that he’s very big. Soundwave himself had to get on his knees to look through a warehouse sliding garage door.
In his robotic form, Soundwave appears vastly alien. He most of the time he no face to emote with and instead has a screen that displays various forms of data or sound patterns. Only recent developments revealed he does indeed have a face, but by the time Prime takes place, he no longer uses it. His arms are much longer than most of the other Cybertronians, extending to about his knees, and his fingers are long and spiderlike. His legs are double jointed and bird-like, the heel of his foot able to bend like a bird claw.
Soundwave’s vehicle mode is much more simple. As he’s a ‘bot that prefers to take the stealthy approach, his chosen vehicle form is an aircraft similar to the unmanned aerial vehicle, General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper.
Age: Never explicitly stated, but Transformers tend to live for millions of years. So. He’s an adult, at least.
OC/AU Justification ;
If AU, How is Your Version Different From Canon, and How Will That Come Across?
If OC, Did You Run Your Character Through a Mary-Sue Litmus Test?
And What Did You Score?
Samples ;
Log Sample:
How undignified it had been to come to in a pile of scrap. It wasn’t the bits of rusted metal or the torn nylon sticking to his his arm joints that had urged the Cybertronian into an agitated state though; it was the sheer fact that he rarely ever went into stasis unless his systems had reached their processing limit and he especially wouldn’t have at such a critical moment where Megatron’s recovery hung in the balance. He had only needed to stand, the screech of a thousand forgotten cell phones and toaster ovens crunching under his foot, to make the quick assessment that no, he was not where he should be anymore. Where he was mattered little in the face of the fact he could not carry out his directive.
Information usually comes easily when sought out, but he had it virtually handed to him. “Welcome to Sacrosanct. Please watch your step!” the automated AI recording had chirped cheerfully at him. He had paused before his venture into the chemical shower, extending a few spidery fingers to pass through the hologram curiously. The image broke around the fingers like oil in water, regrouping back into a solid image as they passed through. Humanoid in appearance. Soundwave searched his databases for evidence of human technology capable of holography like this.
NO MATCHES FOUND
`--Sacrosanct.` He played back, using the AI’s own voice, his own underlying it.
After the showers had decontaminated him and washed smears of oil and litter from his chassis, Soundwave set to work. He was almost always working-- his entire personality, his purpose, revolved around his desire to adhere to his directive. The station itself proved to be a treasure trove of technology, ripe with information, just waiting to be downloaded. He wasn’t gentle with the systems, though he could have been. His tentacles, snaked from his chest, had jammed into an access panel with more force than what would have been immediately necessary as if a glimmer of frustration still lingered in him.
Now, Soundwave’s attention was focused on crawling through the various data networks available on the station, attacking whatever firewall he ran into in his relentless pursuit for information on the station itself, and more importantly, the current inhabitants. He was looking for one individual in particular-- any trace of a name, possibly a video --but what he came across instead... intrigued him. Or at least, it made him pause, cycle back, analyze a little deeper. Cybertronians, most with knowledge of events that had never transpired for him.
Soundwave readjusted, perching in a position that was more comfortable on his hinges and joints to hold for a long time. He pulled up what he could, studying clips of these others moving about the station, zooming in on the differences in their frames for study. Certainly, if he was going to be here a while, he might as well keep up a hobby. Besides, it had always been his job to survey and study both allies and enemies alike. It’s just a matter of deciding if these... other Cybertronians were one or the other.
Network Sample:
TEXT AND AUDIO
//playback mode initialized
load audio_files?
`I have come for Megatron, and him alone--` [ It’s Optimus Prime’s voice; a slight robotic, monotone whisper can be heard behind it. ]
`--I've had a hell of a good time digging through everything, but to be completely honest? I'm a little disappointed.` [ Tony Stark’s voice now, with the same whisper behind it. ]
//playback end
QUERY: What is the possibility to influence the rift towards the selection of certain individuals.
Your Nickname: Lainie
OOC Journal: gayistheway
Under 18? nope.avi
Email/IM: lainiepie[at]gmail[dot]com; literally nailed
Characters Played at Singularity: Black-One, Eric Northman, Isaac Clarke
Character Information ;
Name: Soundwave
Name of Canon: Transformers: Prime
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: canon
Reference: Soundwave at TFwiki and Soundwave at Teletaan 1
Canon Point: Episode 26, season 1. Specifically the point right after smacking down Airachnid and before managing to lock onto Megatron’s signal again.
Setting:
So, the original Transformers that most people are familiar with is an 80s monstrosity known as G1, which pretty much was just a clusterfuck of giant robots battling giant robots slapped together with a catchy theme song of, ACTION FIGURES. BUY OUR ACTION FIGURES. It worked well enough and established a lot of the lore that would carry on to the reboots, such as Cybertron and it’s inhabitants, the faction war, and energon.
Transformers: Prime is part of a new continuity dubbed the Aligned Continuity that contains other material such as the video game War for Cybertron and the novels, Exodus and Exiles. Unfortunately, even if they’re meant to all be part of the same continuity, the material often contradicts or confuses the timeline of events. For the purposes of consistency and making some damn sense out of it all, we’ll just go under the assumption that the TV series > all the other material until it’s sorted out.
Here’s a rundown on what’s consistent in the continuities. The real meat of the plot has to do with the planet Cybertron, a planet that’s inhabited by a sentient robotic race, helpfully named Cybertronians, just in case you forget that they’re from Cybertron. Cybertronians are about as humanized as you can get; they eat, they ‘sleep’, have relationships, entertainment and politics. Politics for any race generally results in bad news bears and war and unfortunately, even though they’re giant hulking robots, they’re no exception. The main rage issue on Cybertron was the fact that its society had a caste system. Obviously when you have thinking, feeling beings, the inability to choose what to be was going to result in some raised voices and a few pitchforks.
Enter Megatron. When he first started out, he was a gladiator that curbstomped other ‘bots for a living and also the entertainment of others. He had a data clerk buddy named Orion Pax, later to be known as Optimus Prime, and both of them were of the opinion the caste system sucked and needed some updating. Now, while they agreed that the caste system needed to go, somewhere along the line they had disagreements on how to go about changing it. Megatron, true to his gladiator role, decided the best way to go about it would be brute force. Orion Pax, on the other hand, was much more used to talking people’s heads off and decided that would be the better way.
So they had a falling out, some hurtful things were said, and they went their separate ways to form the Decepticons (lead by Megatron) and the Autobots (Optimus Prime’s bros). Civil war broke out between the two factions, leaving neutral parties nothing more than poor cannon fodder or left in crappy positions where they eventually had to choose anyway. Sucks to be impartial in Transformers-land.
In any case, somewhere along the line, Megatron gets his claws on something called ‘Dark energon’ or when he’s feeling especially goth, ‘The blood of unicron’. If we want to take War for Cybertron’s take on this into account, Megatron grabs it after figuratively stomping all over a neutral Starscream’s face, who had been guarding it with his sciencebro, Jetfire. Rather than being pummeled into scrap or worse, Starscream decides that Megatron’s got something going here and betrays Jetfire to the dark side. The continuity is kind of one huge mess though, so this is something to be taken with a grain of salt. In any case, Megatron gets Dark Energon.
Dark energon is an uncreative name for the substance that’s pretty much the opposite of energon. While energon is the resource that Cybertronians eat and also the name of the same fluid that flows through their ‘veins’ (I’m not kidding here, they say ‘veins’ in Prime, so I’m going with it), to make things more confusing, dark energon is pretty much just something that’s a big NO FUCK YOU to everything. Pretty much the continuity’s version of a wizard did it. In Prime, it can bring back dead Cybertronians as zombies. It can also get a living Cybertronian high and it’ll poison organics. It’s also responsible for Cybertron getting fucked to hell and back, leaving it essentially a dead planet.
REVISIONS
Which leads us to the main plotline of Prime. After all this fuckery on Cybertron, the Decepticons and Autobots end up on planet Earth. It’s not because they particularly like the squishies there -- well, the Autobots do -- but rather the fact that Earth is ripe with resources. And apparently just has energon deposits sitting around, that humans never noticed before. Go figure. In this search for resources, the Decepticons float around on their warship, Nemesis. The Nemesis itself is rather massive and gives the Decepticons a military advantage over the Autobots. For one, while the Autobots number about a handful, the Nemesis is chock full of hundreds of little nameless grunts to man the ship and use as canon fodder in episodes. They explain away why people haven't noticed a giant freaking alien ship floating around by saying that it uses roboadvanced cloaking technology.
Giant alien robots aren't exactly inconspicuous, which pretty much ties into the whole reason why they scanned alt-modes to begin with. Nobody is going to question that random sports car hanging out there in the middle of Antartica, after all. Never. Either way, people were bound to find out about them eventually, which leads up into the Autobot's situation. While Decepticons get their cool ship, the Autobots hang out in a secret facility in Nevada with their troupe of meatbag pets. The government pretty much cracked down on them super fast as soon as they figured out they existed and ferreted them away, which they neglect to explain well in the series and just kinda throw you on in there. Run down basically is that the American government knows about the existence of giant robots and gave them an old missile base to hang out in. As for the meatbag pets, pretty much they got accidentally seen by some kids and under some Autobot code they have to protect them. Now they let them come and go from their base and in the case of Miko, they let her fuck everything up BUT IT'S OKAY. IT'S NOT HER FAULT.
The formula of the show is pretty cut and dry, for the most part. Decepticons go do something, Autobots step in to go save the day. For most of the first season, Megatron was out of commission so the actual leading and scheming fell to Starscream’s shoulders. He didn’t exactly let the fact that Megatron could pop in at any time keep him down-- nope, in a regular Starscream fashion, he kept trying to think of ways to kill him. For reals. It’s Soundwave’s full time job to keep Starscream in line while the bossman is away, since everyone knows about the Seeker’s ambitions.
Somewhere along the line they introduce a sinister anti-government group that goes by the name MECH. MECH, surprise surprise, wants to create their own vision of the world by the application of new technologies. Most of the episodes revolving around MECH involves them being pretty much horrible to both Autobots and Decepticons, viewing them as just walking, talking weapons that they can dissect to possibly learn a thing or two about making new lasers or nukes or whatever the hell they want. MECH also pretty much is composed of a bunch of human canon fodder, and even though they don't explicitly say these people are croaking, it's kinda hard for a squishy human to survive a helicopter explosion in mid-flight. Soundwave himself never really gets a run in with MECH or involves himself with them, mostly because Megatron doesn't really give a fuck about them.
Towards the end of the season, Starscream has pretty much flounced off and some political turmoil is going on in the Decepticon ranks, especially in regards to Dark Energon. Since Dark Energon is always to blame. Soundwave, of course, pretty much sticks by the Nemesis and keeps the others in line still, otherwise everyone will be claiming that they’re Lord Astroglide now or something. In any case, it turns out that planet Earth itself is actually Unicron. Unicron is pretty much best described as ROBOT DEVIL. While Primus is about the equivalent of Cybetrtonian God, Unicron is his opposite and is obsessed with destruction. So, after being defeated by the Thirteen Primes, Unicron drifted around space sleeping and eventually pulled a Bender and became covered in minerals and debris that became Earth.
In other words, the Earth's core is a giant robot. Since Megatron was a huge junkie for this guy's body fluids, he pretty much had some psychic mind meld going on. In the last couple episodes of the season, he teamed up with the Autobots to go on an adventure to put Unicron back to sleep so they won't all die.
Because nothing like impending doom to speed along a truce.
Personality:
Soundwave in Transformers: Prime is pretty much the Anti-Starscream by design. While the former Air Commander is talkative, cowardly, and untrustworthy, Soundwave is silent, intimidating, and extremely loyal.
Once Soundwave held the rank of second-in-command, and although the rank is no longer his to hold, he’s still one of Megatron’s most trusted lieutenants. Far more than his other treacherous seconds, at least, as the task of keeping Megatron’s troops faithful and focused was given to him. Soundwave is described as the ‘eyes and ears of the Decepticons’, a fitting description as the infiltration and surveillance specialist hears and sees even the slightest bit of unrest or disloyalty. He takes his job very seriously, almost mindlessly. Really, it’s probably more true that he just has unwavering faith in his leader to the point that any bit of insanity wasn’t going to phase him.
The way he goes about it is creepy to say the least. He’ll stalk targets of interest and hijack whatever technological peripherals that might be useful. The consumption of data is much more than a job to him, it’s his entire lifestyle. Probably even a hobby. He’s extremely brilliant; much more than what would be expected of a former gladiator. He knows how to utilize his resources to both manipulate others and further the Decepticon’s plans.
The other Decepticons have learned to be wary of Soundwave, and in some cases, fear him. Certainly it isn’t because he’s an aggressive, temperamental brute like their leader. In most cases, he’ll just observe transgressions until the time was right to act. His still, quiet presence is usually enough to quell talk of rebellion; his handy ability to record and ferret away information to report back to their master was certainly reason enough to be on the best behavior around him. When that fails, he won’t hesitate to use his immense strength and combat skill. Sometimes, an example just needs to be made.
One thing that is immediately noticeable about the Decepticon is that he’s almost completely silent, choosing to speak only in the words of others. He takes recordings of others, ranging from private conversations to bits from radio broadcasts, to communicate for him. He wasn’t always mute, however, and it’s not the result of any kind of injury or malfunction. Instead, Soundwave is mute by choice. He long lost the use for his own voice, preoccupying himself instead with the observation of others. The fact that he chooses not to speak says more about him than any long winded speech could; his loyalty and his task of data collection has pretty much consumed whatever little bit of personality he had.
Sometime between the war on Cybertron and their subsequent relocation on Earth, Soundwave deleted his emotions to process information quicker, which explains much of his... Soundwaveness. Lacking emotions gives him the advantage of being better able to focus on the missions he’s assigned, as well as the ability to spy on both allies and enemies alike without bias. However, it’s unlikely that all his emotions are completely deleted. The Soundwave of the past had a somewhat sarcastic characteristic about him that still lingers in him, even if he’s complete silent. His body language communicates for him. His designed a language of pointing, looming, and arm motions gives off the feeling of passive-aggressiveness and irritated insistence. A missing Megatron, infected by Dark Energon, spurs the surveillance expert into a flurry of action, desperately searching the radar for him, his typing frantic. And when Airachnid attempts to suggest abandoning their leader, Soundwave reacts with a burst of aggression, as if the very idea infuriated him. After dealing with her, he slides right back into the cool indifference expected of him.
So, maybe he’s deleted his emotions, but he’s left enough to care about Megatron and his directives.
Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitation Suggestions:
As a Cybertronian, Soundwave has the ability to morph between two forms: robot mode and vehicle mode. His main form is his robot form while his vehicle form is a shape that he scanned to better blend in on Earth. He can transform easily between the two forms and quickly enough that he can be in flight in his aerial mode within mere seconds. He’s designed to be a swift, stealthy flier.
Like Megatron, Soundwave is toted to have once been a gladiator as well and is said to have almost bested Megatron in combat once. Considering the brutality of the Cybertronian arena and the fact that Megatron is a fucking monster when it comes to strength, that’s saying a lot about Soundwave’s combat capabilities. He displayed this once in a scene where he laid smackdown on Airachnid, easily deflecting her blows and beating her to yielding within moments.
Soundwave excels in surveillance. It’s his job to stalk people and he records pretty much everything he hears. Combine that with the fact that he also has a radar inside his helm that allows him to scan areas for data such as energon deposits, as well as allowing him to pick up transmissions from all around the world. As such, he’s also great for blending in and remaining unseen, which is convenient for him, since the more paranoid he makes the other Decepticons, the better he can keep them in line.
He’s a fantastic hacker, utilizing tentacles that come from a compartment in his check to jack straight into computer systems. These tentacles have the bonus of being prehensile and can also grip objects like hands. It has a bunch of smaller, wiggly wires (tentacles) inside which writhe about at the end of each tentacle, as if the whole glowy prehensile chestsnakes weren't creepy enough already.
Lastly, Soundwave has a section of his chest that comes off and transforms into his minicon companion, Laserbeak. Laserbeak is a type of minimech known as a Deployer, which just as the namesake suggests, Soundwaves pretty much deploys them to do whatever. So far in Prime, Laserbeak hasn’t exactly shown any signs of sentience and pretty much is more like a smaller, flying, laser shooting weapon. Soundwave's used Laserbeak on a few occasions to spy on others or in one occasion, capture a human, so the minicon is at least useful as a surveillance aid.
This Soundwave has the ability to absorb sonic booms. However, he an only absorb so many before they really start to take their toll on him.
Inventory:
Giant robots don’t have pockets, so Soundwave’s not exactly carrying anything around inside him. The only thing he has on him is Laserbeak, but then again, the minicon is kinda part of his chest.
Appearance:
Soundwave is a Transformer, which if the name wasn’t obvious enough, he can transform between two different forms. Soundwave’s normal form is more humanoid in appearance (or at least, humanoid shaped), although obviously robotic. Let’s also note that he’s very big. Soundwave himself had to get on his knees to look through a warehouse sliding garage door.
In his robotic form, Soundwave appears vastly alien. He most of the time he no face to emote with and instead has a screen that displays various forms of data or sound patterns. Only recent developments revealed he does indeed have a face, but by the time Prime takes place, he no longer uses it. His arms are much longer than most of the other Cybertronians, extending to about his knees, and his fingers are long and spiderlike. His legs are double jointed and bird-like, the heel of his foot able to bend like a bird claw.
Soundwave’s vehicle mode is much more simple. As he’s a ‘bot that prefers to take the stealthy approach, his chosen vehicle form is an aircraft similar to the unmanned aerial vehicle, General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper.
Age: Never explicitly stated, but Transformers tend to live for millions of years. So. He’s an adult, at least.
OC/AU Justification ;
If OC, Did You Run Your Character Through a Mary-Sue Litmus Test?
And What Did You Score?
Samples ;
Log Sample:
How undignified it had been to come to in a pile of scrap. It wasn’t the bits of rusted metal or the torn nylon sticking to his his arm joints that had urged the Cybertronian into an agitated state though; it was the sheer fact that he rarely ever went into stasis unless his systems had reached their processing limit and he especially wouldn’t have at such a critical moment where Megatron’s recovery hung in the balance. He had only needed to stand, the screech of a thousand forgotten cell phones and toaster ovens crunching under his foot, to make the quick assessment that no, he was not where he should be anymore. Where he was mattered little in the face of the fact he could not carry out his directive.
Information usually comes easily when sought out, but he had it virtually handed to him. “Welcome to Sacrosanct. Please watch your step!” the automated AI recording had chirped cheerfully at him. He had paused before his venture into the chemical shower, extending a few spidery fingers to pass through the hologram curiously. The image broke around the fingers like oil in water, regrouping back into a solid image as they passed through. Humanoid in appearance. Soundwave searched his databases for evidence of human technology capable of holography like this.
`--Sacrosanct.` He played back, using the AI’s own voice, his own underlying it.
After the showers had decontaminated him and washed smears of oil and litter from his chassis, Soundwave set to work. He was almost always working-- his entire personality, his purpose, revolved around his desire to adhere to his directive. The station itself proved to be a treasure trove of technology, ripe with information, just waiting to be downloaded. He wasn’t gentle with the systems, though he could have been. His tentacles, snaked from his chest, had jammed into an access panel with more force than what would have been immediately necessary as if a glimmer of frustration still lingered in him.
Now, Soundwave’s attention was focused on crawling through the various data networks available on the station, attacking whatever firewall he ran into in his relentless pursuit for information on the station itself, and more importantly, the current inhabitants. He was looking for one individual in particular-- any trace of a name, possibly a video --but what he came across instead... intrigued him. Or at least, it made him pause, cycle back, analyze a little deeper. Cybertronians, most with knowledge of events that had never transpired for him.
Soundwave readjusted, perching in a position that was more comfortable on his hinges and joints to hold for a long time. He pulled up what he could, studying clips of these others moving about the station, zooming in on the differences in their frames for study. Certainly, if he was going to be here a while, he might as well keep up a hobby. Besides, it had always been his job to survey and study both allies and enemies alike. It’s just a matter of deciding if these... other Cybertronians were one or the other.
Network Sample:
TEXT AND AUDIO
//playback mode initialized
load audio_files?
`I have come for Megatron, and him alone--` [ It’s Optimus Prime’s voice; a slight robotic, monotone whisper can be heard behind it. ]
`--I've had a hell of a good time digging through everything, but to be completely honest? I'm a little disappointed.` [ Tony Stark’s voice now, with the same whisper behind it. ]
//playback end
QUERY: What is the possibility to influence the rift towards the selection of certain individuals.