whoops heres another one [open]

[babyboombox]

Who: soundwave but a baby this time. also u
Where: in the city, anywhere that looks like it could have been a seedy back alley
When: nnnnow?
What: tiny soundwave is not equipped to deal with this
Warnings: none so far

(please use they/them pronouns for this soundwave, ty!)

[ Waking up in an unfamiliar city without any warning would be bad enough for this baby, but Soundwave can tell basically immediately that Ravage, Laserbeak, and Buzzsaw are nowhere to be found, and this tips their anxiety levels right over the Initiate Shutdown threshold. It also temporarily destroys all the self-control re: their brain powers that they've been learning, and while this city is relatively underpopulated, the way that everyone's stuck here means that there are enough minds around to overwhelm them if it keeps up.

They'll be wandering around the city center, calling for Ravage & the birds and getting increasingly anxious about it. This progresses fairly quickly into sensory shutdown, at which point Soundwave will curl up against a wall and not move until it passes.

You can come in before or after this happens :) ]

Comments

[aminerproblem]

[Megatron's first response to seeing another Cybertronian in distress is to eject the handheld scanner he'd carried with him. Finally managing to get stable results on the thing meant he could move on from checking vitals with the electrical and touch sensors in his hands. Very frustrating. Time consuming as well. And they weren't particularly sensitive beyond average.]

[He bends to one knee in front of Soundwave's curled form. Strange. He's sure he'd met them earlier. Still, no time to dawdle. It'd be difficult to check their optic response with a visor, so he begins to scan.]

Can you hear me?

[Megatron's expression is puzzled - the scanner is reporting back regular body activity save for the brain module. There was a litany of unusual spikes and wobbles in the readings, things he certainly wasn't trained for. Maybe he should get Soundwave back to the clinic.]

[babyboombox]

[The scan prickles intrusively at Soundwave's processor, and they curl up a little tighter as Megatron speaks; it's not a positive response, but it's something.

Through the cacophony of mental noise and too-loud sensory data, they realize distantly that this one is a medic. It's been a long, long time since Soundwave has had anything approaching adequate medical care, long enough that their malnourished state and various untreated minor injuries have become baseline. Ravage had warned them about street medics, barely worth the name, and Soundwave struggles to isolate Megatron's processor from the others. It comes as a relief to find no ill intent in Megatron's mind; Soundwave may not be in any state to actively cooperate yet, but for once they'd like to try.]

[aminerproblem]

[Megatron is tentative at Soundwave retreats further, going down on one knee and retracting the scanner to minimize any threat he might seem to pose.]

[The ex-miner's mind is steady and stubborn. First and forefront in his thoughts is the concern for Soundwave's sorry physical state. He was all too familiar with untreated wear and tear from lack of available medical care. Manual class weren't particularly well tended to.]

[Beneath it all sat the fire that motivated him. The desire to equalize their planet was still very much alive and burning. Although a little placated by the less exploitative state of things here, seeing another person suffering like he did reminds him of the unjust world he came from. He carefully puts a hand on Soundwave's shoulder.]

I'm not here to hurt you. I can take you to a clinic to look at your condition.

[babyboombox]

[Soundwave flinches slightly, on instinct, but doesn't pull away. The steady pitch of Megatron's processor is grounding in a way that Soundwave hadn't anticipated another Cybertronian's mind could be, between the strength of his conviction and his genuine concern, and they latch onto it. In their anticipation, Soundwave works up the coordination to cover Megatron's hand with their own, and taps out the chirolingual sign that prefaces speech. They're making a wide assumption, but vocal speech is still beyond them.]

Yes. Thank you.

[aminerproblem]

[He feels that familiar tap, and receives Soundwave's brief, but informative message. It'd probably be too much to ask the bot to get to their feet if they could barely communicate, so Megatron's fingers gently form a reply back-]

I'm going to carry you there.

[-and moves his hands; one under Soundwave's knees, and the other to their back.]

[babyboombox]

[This is absolutely not what Soundwave was expecting; they try to relax into the hold, clinging to the impression of Megatron's mind as safe, but this kind of contact is so foreign to them that they end up going stiff instead, hands held awkwardly in front of their torso.

They're not objecting, they just... don't know what to do. Should they be doing anything?]

[aminerproblem]

[Megatron rises to his feet as soon as he gets a good hold on Soundwave. It wouldn't be the first time he has found himself a de facto ambulance.]

[Soundwave seemed a little calmer, but Megatron moves forward nonetheless, girp gentle as he breaks into a quiet jog towards the clinic. As long as this didn't deteriorate into an emergency, his priority would get to finding a berth for Soundwave to lay on until Ratchet could take a proper look at their anomalous brain activity.]

[babyboombox]

[Soundwave stays perfectly still during the whole trip, optics locked awkwardly on their knees and arms curled up against their chest plate. Being carried is... strange, but the points of contact between their frame and Megatron's serve to ground them further, allowing the worst of the mental clamor to pass by the time they get to the clinic.]