ROBOTS? ROBOTS.

Hello!

At the moment, Stultus is currently being rewritten. I’ve been sitting on an update that properly addresses the circumstances that led me to backtracking and starting over but the gist is that I was unhappy with the way the story was faring. It felt so rushed and there were several plot holes and character inconsistencies that were bothering me and when I ended up losing the notes I’d written out for the story, it kind of all came to a halt.

Honestly, I’d debated just leaving everything and calling it a day but I’m honestly really attached to the Stultus verse and therefore decided to restart instead. I’m taking my time to draft out a storyline that’s more cohesive, flows more smoothly and which, I hope, will do justice to the characters and stories I’d planned out for them.

I understand that many enjoyed the old story and I keep every comment and kudos I got near and dear to my heart!

I LOVE them. 💖💖💖

ABSO-FREAKING-LUTELY.

30. Why does it work (or not work) between them?

(Why It Works)

Jazz and Soundwave’s relationship works for one particular reason: they’re compatible opposites. Lots of bots talk away the “whole opposites attract” discussion and claim it a myth and in most cases, it totally is. But there are times where it is absolutely necessary like in this particular case.

Where Soundwave is calm and reserved, Jazz is a storm of open excitement. A master of words and the bearer of unspeakable amounts of charisma, Jazz is unafraid to tackle situation requiring a social aspect. Bots who flock to him tend to be the same as him and though he enjoys the interaction, he finds himself overwhelmed and Soundwave is there to tether him back with his tranquil personality. In return, Jazz teaches Soundwave how to step out of the shadows and interact with bots in ways that do not involve blackmail or intimidation.

Soundwave was created with the purpose to nurture and care and Jazz, though unwilling to admit it, is perhaps the one mech in most desperate need of having someone take care of him. Too long he’s spent eons looking over his shoulder and caring for others and Soundwave is the only mech with the strength and loyalty to make him feel safe enough to recharge without a knife curled tightly around his hand. Inn turn, Jazz offers the same services to Soundwave and helps him realize that all that makes him good isn’t his programming but who he is.

Plus, they’re totally each other’s type. Jazz goes for the strong tall quiet types because of their mysteriousness and Soundwave loves having a smaller ball of energy to wrap up in his arms and shower with quiet affection.

(Why It Doesn’t)

Jazz and Soundwave’s relationship came to fruition as a result of the war. It’s a consequence of violence and without the war, they probably never would have crossed paths at all during their lives. 

What is now a loving relationship began as an intemperate rivalry in which both took a morbid fascination in seeing other fail and fall. Torture was a sadistic game of cat and mouse, of tested limits and though neither is fully aware, most of their trauma was often a direct causation of their infatuation with the other.

It was luck that affection and respect managed to bloom between them. In another life, perhaps even in this one if the war hadn’t ended, they could have ended up being each other’s demise.

As a result of the war and their meeting, they’re both scarred by the events that they’ve gone through and no matter how happy they manage to be, no matter how many eons they spent living a nice domestic little life with the cassettes and younglings and luxurious commodities, they will always carry the wounds of their experiences.

There will always be the threat that one day the nightmares and terrible memories will prove too much and the presence of the other won’t be enough to lull them back. Maybe they might even end up hurting one another unintentionally.

16. When the zombie apocalypse comes, how do they cope together?

They’re the old married couple that have become absolute legends among the survivors. Nomadic, sparsely seen and swooping in last minute to save any lost souls in need of saving.

Both of them are a combination of skill, tech and espionage who have survival narrowed down a combination of skill, luck and a deadly precise algorithm. When hope for a solution comes up, they’re the ones that everyone turns to help bring it to fruition.

Jazz and Soundwave have got a soft spot for adopting strays, particularly younglings or kiddos who’ll have zero hope if they don’t take them in, and they train them up to go out into the doomed world and do some good.

They’ve got a small safehouse in Iacon, in one of the fortified monuments that towers into the sky and have developed an underground system that allows them to venture out and look for supplies without drawing the attention of any zombiebots (and lead them away if they ever slip up, which isn’t very often).

Every orn they wake up and greet the other with soft kisses and whispered murmurs of “I love you” because they understand that every day is a gift. Being badasses hasn’t stopped them from being sappy with one another and they always liked to cue up some old readings, play some board games, talk or interface when time allows them.

There’s nothing but impeccable trust between them when they’re in danger zones and have a pact where if one of them dies, the other will continue living in order to search for a cure or to help those in need.

All in all, they manage to do well in an apocalypse on their own. It’s when they start looking out for others that things get a little more complicated but they’re more than willing to do so.

18. When they fight, how do they make up?

Depends. If it’s a small little dispute, they usually allow the other to relax then go out for a drink to talk things through. Usually ends with soft kisses and the two of them settling down to watch a movie with the cassettes or turning in early to spoon each other into recharge.

When it’s a heated argument about something fundamental, something important, the make up is usually more intense. They clutch each other tightly in a hug, muttering the other’s antics and then, as is typical when emotions are running high, it is culimanted in a pretty intense bout of interfacing. The desperate kind that a couple overloads can’t seem to sate and they’re kissing and telling each other that they love them until they’re running on empty and tangled in a sticky heated heap of limbs on their messy berth.

11. What do they hide from one another?

As bonded mechs, it’s difficult to keep things hiddenn from one another but given the fact that they’re both war veterans struggling with various traumas, they’ve learned to give each other space when it comes to certain matters.

(Jazz)

Jazz, for example, is very particular about his past. Not because it’s marred by unspeakable horrors or anything of the short, however. Many low caste bots who were down on their luck and living off the dust of their backs and very many became pleasurebots to keep themselves from deactivation.

Jazz was no different. He sold his frame to more mechs than he could count and by the time he joined the Autobots, he’d wracked up a tally that ranged in the thousands. Some were nobodies, others were high caste bots that’d promised death if he ever dared mention their names and few were regulars that’d had the decency to learn his name.

He's not ashamed of it but the thing that seperates his experience from others is that he enjoyed it. It taught him everything he knows. How to read bots, recognize their tics, motives and anticipate their reactions. It taught him how to control other bots with something as simple as the sound of his voice or the movement of his hips. It taught him the dangerous art of subtlety.

He’d made mistakes more than once and very nearly paid the ultimate price for it but there were a few rare occasions where he’d met bots that taught him that there was still some semblance of good in the world.

Unfortunately, Jazz isn’t very adept at putting this into words and he’s seen more than enough pity and disgust in the optics of his former lovers to ever want to bother explaining why his past doesn’t haunt him as much as it does Drift, for example.

He knows Soundwave won’t judge. That he won’t offer pity or disgust or attempt to rectify what most consider a faulty belief. But Jazz isn’t ready to divulge it just yet. Maybe some eon, he’ll be ready and Soundwave will be there to listen.

(Soundwave)

Soundwave’s never been one to hide things. In fact, he believes that the basis of a relationship is trust and complete openness. It’s how he’s dealt with his relationship with his symbionts and how he managed to survive eons in his position among the Decepticons.

But Soundwave has slowly grown to understand that there are particular aspects that are best left unspoken. Soundwave has various things he hides from Jazz: his fear of inadequacy, fear of oblivion, lack of belief in Primus, etc. But it’s ultimately his ever present affection for Megatron that he’s been loathe to ever mention.

Soundwave knows that his love for Megatron pales in comparison to the one he bears for Jazz and even if Megatron one day decided to pledge himself to Soundwave, he’d sooner turn his back on him than betray the bond he forged with Jazz.

But it will always hurt to see Megatron showcasing genuine affection for his own lovers, especially those who’d never offered him a smidge of the respect or attention that he deserves, when he’d glossed completely over Soundwave without so much as a second glance.

Soundwave dedicated his life and Spark to Megatron, loved and accepted him at his worst; forgave him when he was unforgivable and supported him when noone else would. He loved Megatron and Megatron never loved him.

And Soundwave still carries that pain with him to this day. Like Jazz, he hopes to divulge this one day and he’s hopeful that the day will come when he can do so without breaking apart.

29. Why do they fall a little bit more in love?

They fall a bit more in love every single day. When they wake up from memory influxes that remind them of the war and all they’d lost and see the other peacefully recharging, holding onto them as if they were afraid that they’d disappear. The smell of each other’s wax is the other’s favorite aroma and it makes their sparks spin a little faster. 

The gentle murmurs that are exchanged to calm each other down when the memories of violence and death overtake their processor that slowly bring them back to reality.

It’s the soft touches: a hand on a shoulder, a pat on the cheek, the gentle pinch of one’s chin between the other’s thumb and forefinger. The soft caresses, full of kindness and adoration, that soothe the sting of unseen wounds.

The heat of one another during interfacing, the soft moans and whispered words of love that remind them that they’re each other’s world.

They fall a bit more in love each day because they constantly remind one another that life can be good and that they are more than deserving of the happiness and desire to continue living that they bring about in each other. They’re compatible, imperfect, spontaneous, calm, joyful, absolutely made for one another.

It’s contradicting, Soundwave would say, and words are too limited to truly encompass the why of all that they are.

8. What do they like in bed?

Simple. ;)

They’re both fans of soft imported textile-mesh berth sheets and a plethora of pillows, in as many different sizes since you can never have too many pillows.

But in reference to the more...risque endeavors that occur in a berth, they’re a bit different but not as much as one might think. Soundwave has a particular liking for being flat on his back, hands fisted into the soft sheets while Jazz rides his spike to blissful oblivion. He gets off on power plays, the slow teasing kind that leave one breathless and wanting, and noone has more control (or knows him best) than Jazz.

On the other hand, Jazz is a fan of a bit more rough handling. Having someone bigger and stronger than him draped over his back, caging him in as he sees stars is ultimately what gets his fans spinning the fastest and makes him overload the strongest. He loves the prickle of pain that accompanies whenever Soundwave’s fingers dig into his hips, the mix of pleasure/pain of oversensitivity, the rush of cyberdrenaline that courses through him when Soundwave’s hands wrap around his delicate struts and squeeze.

But in the end, they’re huge fans of post-overload snuggling. Of those gentle kisses they trade that are soft and slow, with their glossas tangling lazily around one another and lips pressing insistently until they’re forced to pull back and gulp in some fresh air. They trace each other’s frame in a way that’s almost revering and hold onto one another long after they’ve both fallen into recharge, blissfully spent and content with simply being in one another’s arms.

9. What is the most embarrassing thing they have done in front of each other?

9. What is the most embarrassing thing they have done in front of each other?

(Jazz)

He’d been trying to learn to sing Kirin J Callinan’s “Big Enough” on the downlow for several eons. He’d gotten everything down but the screaming Jimmy Barnes solo, which he’d refused to practice due to being in close quarters with other mechs during the war. So when he and Soundwave got hitched and they had a large apartment to themselves, he took the liberty to sing more when alone.

Unfortunately, he forgot to err on the side of caution and Soundwave walked in on him in the middle of his screaming cowboy rendition. Jazz couldn’t look Soundwave straight in the optic for a couple orns.

(Soundwave)

When Rumble and Frenzy realized that the Boss had a crush on Jazz, and that it was a mutual one at that, they’d researched human customs of wooing a potential conjunx. One of the things they researched was serenading and it was due to their insistence that Jazz found himself on the receiving end of Soundwave singing him a self-composed rap about how pretty his headlights were.

28. Why do they get jealous?

Jazz and Soundwave are not inherently jealous mechs; they’re both deadly efficient at being independent and they see their relationship less as a “we’ve found our other half” and more along the lines of “this is the bot I want as my companion for the rest of my life”.

However, they’re not completely immune to the influence of the green eyed monster.

(Soundwave)

Soundwave feels it on occasion when he sees Jazz intermingling with other mechs, open and happy as he engages in witty banter with his conversation partners eagerly returning the attention. Soundwave lacks the charisma to be a part of Jazz’s social circles so he watches from a distance and even though he trusts Jazz completely, it still hurts to see how easily other mechs are able to keep up with Jazz’s repertoire while Soundwave struggles to understand the simple basis of humor and double entendres. Most of these mechs see their social harmony with the sabotuer as a sign of compatibility and more than once a few have tried to get into Jazz’s berth.

But it’s not the sight of mechs trying to cop a feel that makes Soundwave see green, it’s seeing a mech get a genuine laugh out of Jazz. Because try as he might, Soundwave won’t ever be able to be as smooth-talking as his conjunx or those he keeps in his company. He won’t be able to read a room and drop a joke that gets everyone rolling on their back and crying tears of coolant from laughing so hard. He won’t be able to change who he is.

And Soundwave’s new enough at relationships and understanding his emotions that this doubt will fester up to the point that he will worry constantly that in a couple eons, Jazz will perhaps end up realizing that Soundwave simply isn’t enough for him.

Of course, Jazz is always there at the end of the orn to remind him that those fears are unfounded and that Soundwave would always be more than enough for him.

(Jazz)

Jazz’s jealousy derives from a much less personal point of interest. He’s a master when it comes to emotions, his SpecOps days having taught him how to detect, understand and control his own conflicting feelings. As a result, he’s able to discern where he stands socially and with Soundwave.

Even if Soundwave doesn’t constantly shower him with gifts and words of affection on a daily basis, Jazz knows that he’s the center of the telepath’s universe and the occasional whispered “I love you” and warm hug in private holds more meaning than any frivolous gifting ever could.

However, the lack of public affection leaves their relationship open to scrutiny and more than a couple bots have chalked it up to a sordid affair, muddled by rumors and propelled by hot gossip. Some mechs, as a result, take it upon themselves to prove certain things regarding the two of them, more particularly Soundwave.

The telepath never dabbled in interface and that earned him a reputation of being nothing more than a drone. So when it becomes public knowledge that he’s fragging the Autobot’s infamous sabotuer, the rumor mill finds itself intrigued.

Some mechs believe Soundwave lacks an interfacing array and so many have tried to “seduce” the telepath to see if the rumor is true and Jazz has been made privy to more than a few of those clumsy endeavors. He watches with an amused air as Soundwave struggles to ward them off but when the attempts become annoyingly persistent, Jazz is unable to remain a spectator and he intervenes.

Jazz knows those mechs advances won’t ever be reciprocated, Soundwave is the epitome of loyalty, but it burns him up that anyone would dare come after what is so obviously his. Soundwave is his and the fact that other mechs don’t respect that spurns him into risque displays of public affection that is unbecoming of someone of his position of authority.

Based off of this!

Chapters: 1/1

Fandom: Transformers - All Media Types, The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers Generation One

Rating: E

Warnings: Major Character Death

Relationships: Jazz/Soundwave, Background Optimus Prime/Shockwave, Minor or Background Relationships

Additional Tags: Angst, Hurt/No Comfort, Infidelity, Emotional Infidelity, Sticky Interfacing, Sad Ending, Emotional Manipulation, Forced Relationship, Fragging For Peace, Canon-Typical Violence, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Murder, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat

Synopsis: When the threat of extinction brings the war to an end, Soundwave and Jazz find themselves brought unwillingly into each other's personal lives. There's a demand for intimacy, for love, in the name of peace and they are left with no choice but to comply.

But old secrets and bitter lies have a way resurfacing when least expected and the fragile harmony they built together finds itself shattering in the most painful way possible.

Neither, unfortunately, is eager to pick up the pieces.