Sorry that this response is so late, but finals. You sent me the ask about writing more Octane fic (ZOMG) and so I had to share more of my ideas and answer some of yours. Sorry to my followers for talking about this again. (And, youknow, more Octane fic might cause more Octane art.)
WARNING : OCTANE (OC) TALK
No worries, finals on my end too. (Do you know how to do a cut on a reblog?)
Doctoring fits Octane, I think. XD I was already thinking KO and Octane would be close, and with BD too (seriously, they’ll be his totally awesome uncles), so I like the thought of KO teaching Octane the medic’s ways. And that snippet you have of Knock Out’s exasperation over Octane’s “THROW DARK ENERGON AT IT” response (great character detail/quirk/flaw by the way) has me wanting more teacher!KO. ‘Cause that interaction/role for his character would be interesting.
Now you make me feel even more psychic, because when again trying to figure out how Octane can come to exist, I realized there is a wild card there—Megatron’s dark energon. And now you remind me of Starscream’s, because at first I was thinking Octane was essentially conceived after Megatron injected himself with Dark Energon, but before he went into a coma. But you just have it so much detailed, AND I’M SO GLAD YOU WENT THERE.
Octane still doesn’t strike me as a Sue though, more like an interesting new kind of character that can bring new dynamics to the Decepticons, etc. I’m a bit confused though on this bit—are you saying he can like telepathically control other machines within range?
And ohman, way to hit my angst/dark fic buttons with the Unicron possession thing…if I went there, it would be ultimately all right in the end, Octane would be unpossessed and Unicron knocked back out. I just would love to see the fallout of that, like Starscream losing his shit and pretty much ‘NO ONE TOUCH HIM, WE ARE FIXING HIM, ANYONE WHO TRIES A ‘MERCY KILL’ DIES.’ Papawolf/Mamabear!Starscream gets super scary in my head.
Though now I think I figured out my fic timeline. Starscream’s in space looking for Thundercracker/Skywarp/SkyfireJetfireWhateverfire, he’s been feeling…strange, physically, chalks it up to the fact that he declared himself freakin’ Unaligned…. And then the deal with Unicron happens on Earth, Starscream’s seized by a very weird, uncomfortable instinct to fly the hell back to Earth right now, and he does. By the time he arrives, Unicron’s knocked out again, but Starscream’s still off, he lands in a cave and his spark chamber opens and…out pops Octane. Cue a very confused Starscream.
So I suppose when Starscream and Octane rejoin Nemesis, Orion’s there, and I just see Orion and Octane getting along with each other like a house on fire—okay, I’m not sure that’s the best simile, but they’d get along well. Though Orion would still occasionally stare at him and Megatron as if they have two heads, since he still has trouble really comprehending that his old friend Megatronus had a sparkling.
Hee, I get spoilers. XD
Thanks for that clarification/food for thought. Though I realize I left something out: I think of Starscream as a perfectionist, and passionate in his own way. I see him as thinking anything worth doing/forced to do, might as well give it your all and do it as perfectly as possible. So I was more thinking him more wanting to be the ideal/perfect parent is (initially) more an expansion on his perfectionism. ‘Stuck with a sparkling? Fine, gonna raise the hell out of him, as well as possible.’ And even then, come to think of it, I don’t see that as ‘want’ after all, as more of ‘need/instinct’—Starscream needs to do any task set before him 101%, it’s like one of his first instincts. I agree with and like your wording, that it’s also more Starscream simply didn’t know how to be a parent, he ends up finding the ideal/best techniques while simply trying to figure out the how, and that sticks. I think when Starscream reaches his parenting limits, Octane will be old enough where that’s not so damaging, though Starscream will always be Papawolf/Mamabear with his safety.
I so agree that Knock Out and Breakdown are Starscream’s parental role models. They’re so ridiculously domestic and sweet for the Decepticons, it’s great. Like you said somewhere, that’s the Decepticon equivalent to romantic fluff. But I still have trouble wrapping my head around Tracks already existing, I can’t even imagine an explanation for his current whereabouts. I’m more inclined to think that Tracks will eventually show up, that he’s born eventually. I…have this ridiculous desire for fic where KO and BD have a serious talk about having sparklings together, can they do it during a war, or should they try after, if there’s an after—and there’s that damnable ‘if,’ shouldn’t they just do it now? With Octane around they’re leaning more toward having a go at it, though they consider looking after Octane a good test case to see how they would do as procreator and progenitor. SERIOUSLY THOUGH, KNOCK OUT AND BREAKDOWN WILL BE OCTANE’S CRAZY AWESOME UNCLES.
Ohman, I have been wondering how Megatron would interact with Octane. Yeah, I wasn’t seeing Megatron exactly melting. It’s gonna be so interesting, ‘cause I think I can still see Octane carrying around that heroworship for the father he’s never met before.
Nice Megatron/Starscream meta, on how they are and their future. And this?: ‘ooh cool down your unbridled passion is getting too hot in here.’ …I can actually see Knock Out saying that. What can I say, I’d love to work that line in after those other lines as their equivalent to affection, because they’re so good.
So, I guess some of my spoilers for what I was thinking for the immediate next Octane fic, before getting into Nemesis interaction and such: You know how you said Octane’s the worst decepticon? I was hit by something else that would make him the worst decepticon, but wasn’t sure since—but then you actually had the comic with that line. And Octane starting out with a bright, “I made a new friend today!” So, I want to bite the bullet and have Octane make his own human friend. Specifically, her: http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Sierra%27s_friend Who’s actually shown up in the show with like no dialogue really and still unnamed. And it’d be more like, field trip gone awry, she ends up stranded in Starscream’s cave, and meets baby Octane—like, literally baby Octane, not long after he gets that toy in the first fic and he’s still just babbling and crawling around, wings unready for flight. I just find the idea of an adolescent human interacting with a baby Transformer interesting and too cute, especially the idea if she ends up feeling like she has to look after an infant/child literally quite larger than her. Anyway, the girl manages to stay out of Starscream’s sight (who would so kill her dead, doesn’t want witnesses), and eventually manages to get Octane to carry her out of the cave. So she leaves, and flashforward to when Octane’s a little older and more self-aware, and he sees this blonde girl, and is like “I KNOW YOU, YOU LOOK FAMILIAR.” Literally the girl’s first words upon seeing him are, “You got bigger—” and Octane is like, “Ha, we have met before!” And so they end up bonding. I find it interesting that Octane would like learning about humans from a human—he’s got the research the Nemesis has access to, the observations, etc., but it’s just different learning about the culture/race from an actual member of it. And whether or not there is one other sparkling around at that moment, Octane still finds it kinda nice to talk to someone outside of the Nemesis/home. And the girl is still able to get past ’freakin’ huge robot’ to understand that he’s the equivalent to a human kid, and finds it hard to refuse a huge robot who’s also just a little kid.
There will be no words for Stascream’s fury. Don’t even think about Megatron.