goshdarnspam | THAT 10 YEARS LATER MEME D:

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The bus driver gives a nod to the ticket and closes the doors behind the woman, adjusting his red, tinted sunglasses on his nose.

The rest of the bus is almost eerily empty as it trundles away from the curb, the rather large man behind the wheel jostling with each bump they cross. The sun passes through the windows and the long shadows of the separations move across the floor like bars.

The man himself looked like an awkward sort. Long auburn hair pulled back into a high ponytail, and a loud hawaiian shirt ruffles slightly in the breeze gusting in from the air conditioner. He wears pressed khaki pants and a pair of red Converse. As if to match his almost laughable appearance, a small hula girl hood ornament shakes her hips as they make their way down the road.

After a while, the driver smiles back at his only passenger.

"Y'mind music?"

Starscream himself was wearing a bright red formal vest over a white shirt, with pale grey pants. A pair of red sunglasses sat on top of his head, and he wore blue Converse. Even when he was trying to be completely human, he couldn't help but wear his colors. At least no one had noticed his strange choices.

Yet, anyway.

He almost didn't hear the driver ask him the question.

"No, not at all," he said, absently, chin in hand, staring out of the window at the passing buildings.

"Mmm." The driver smiles and switches on the radio. It crackles to life with the distant, underwater sound of something old.

Picking up a bottle of water and opening it.

"So what brings a nice-looking girl like you all the way out here?" He asks quietly, smiling.

Time goes by, so slowly.
And time, can do so much.
Are you still mi-inneeee

The radio squeals with static in places.

"You look like you have something on your mind."

He didn't smile, still looking out of the window. The song was actually ever so slightly disturbing with that static.

But there was something about the driver's voice which was strangely soothing. He closed his eyes, leaning against the back of his seat, enjoying the sun.

"I'm going south. DC. I have a job interview, looking to be a senate intern. If I'm lucky."

He paused.

"I might look into working for the Bureau. Not sure yet."

He shook his head at the last question. "No, I'm just tired. It's been a long week, and I still have to get back in time so I don't miss any of my classes..."

"Wow! Such ambition. You're so young, too." The driver muses.

"Good to see a young woman running out and doing something with her future rather than falling for the first man who she falls for. Don't give up. I'm sure you'll do well in whatever you try."

He doesn't turn around, but merely gives a soft hum of approval.

"Are you hungry? I have a few snacks here if you want. Since you're my only passenger, I don't mind sharing."

He smiled a little at that.

"I'm nothing if not ambitious," he responded. "And I don't fall in love easily."

"Oh, I'm starving!" he said, leaning over the back of the seat. He wasn't as hungry now as he'd been in his own body - this one was, after all, only human - but he'd forgotten to eat lunch before he'd left. "What do you have?"

The driver gives a deep peel of laughter.

"Well, whoever you do end up with will be lucky to have such a strong-minded woman." He turns slightly, pushing up his sunglasses with one finger.

"Oh a few things, just take whatever you want." He passes back a small backpack full of an assortment of snacks. Jalapeno chips, soda, juice, trail mix, and even some pineapple slices in a small plastic container.

Jalapeneo chips, his very favorite. He took the bag and a bottle of juice. He paused, however, at the pineapple slices. He didn't take any, but a shadow seemed to pass over his face.

"Thank you," he said, opening the bag.

He tried to think of something else to say. The bus was so empty, and too silent. He had become accustomed to a home full of music...

Yet he couldn't think of much to say. Not as Claire, anyway.

Well... he was just a bus driver. So long as he didn't blow his cover, what was the harm of a Little small talk?

"I don't think I'm ever going to end up with anyone," he said. "The only person I ever cared about…"

He looked back out the window.

"He's gone now."

"Not a worry, love." The driver waves a dismissive hand and adjusts his glasses again.

Listening as the woman speaks, he falls into silence for a moment, leaning back in his seat and resting his hands on the wheel. It's a straight-shot most of the way. Open road.

"Sorry to hear that. Whoever he was, he must've been a fool for letting a stunning, intelligent person such as yourself slip away."

There's a pregnant pause as he shifts in his seat.

"What was he like?"

So he's a little curious.

"He didn't let me slip away," he sighed, closing his eyes. "I lost him. As for what he was like, he was..."

He paused, almost tasting the memories. Hearing that other voice.

"... very silly," he said, finally. "He had a terrible habit of always thinking the best of people. It got him in trouble more than once..."

He smirked, just a little. "Mostly with me."

In that moment he looked very much unlike Claire. The effect was nothing like his human self, but as if the Cybertronian he was at spark was somehow shining through. For once, Claire's fading voice was completely quiet in the back of his head, just listening to him. It lent an odd clarity of memory, everything perfectly his own.

"But even with that he wasn't... he wasn't weak," he said. "Hell, he was one of the strongest people I knew. And he was so very intelligent. I could talk to him for hours about so many things. Probably a good thing, we used to go on these long road trips together. He'd talk about suns and geology and I'd tell him he was stupid and that we needed to focus on where we were going, but really I didn't mind as much as I always said I did."

Why was he saying so much? He didn't know. It was like something inside that he had to just get out, something coiled up inside him and twisting.

Edited 2009-10-23 07:52 (UTC)

The driver simply laughs again and tips his head into the fading sun. Watching other cars slowly pass themas they drive.

"You think so highly of him. I'm terribly sorry you two had to be separated, love. Sometimes those things happen for the better, though."

Off in the distance, the city rises into view.

"You know, it's like the song. You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need!" He pauses thoughtfully, "I don't remember the rest of the song but I suppose that's the important line."

The driver has known for some time now.

"You like music?"

"I don't... I think he is someone I needed, though," he said, softly, almost too quietly for the driver to hear. "I needed..."

Someone to keep my processor straight.

Washington DC is slightly flat, the buildings low to the ground, no taller than two stories for the most part; yet they seem to loom overhead somehow, stark grey facades of concrete. The traffic here is horrible, and so they get a little stuck for a bit. Still... they're getting closer.

"I already told you," he laughs, a little. "I do like music. Particularly techno. Something with a beat... trance is alright too."

"Hm." The man wiggles the radio slightly and manages to pick up on some old dance music.

"Not quite techno or trance... wish this thing had a CD or an MP3 player. This thing is a little obsolete. Only a tape deck, though I guess that kind of gives it a bit of charisma." He chirps cheerfully.

A long stretch passes as traffic clogs the streets and the going is slow. Only the soft music thrums some generic beat.

"You'll get along, Sparky. You keep your chin up and everything will be alright. Y'know in my younger days I wish I had someone to say that to me. It's hard out there, especially alone, but you just gotta keep living for yourself. A smart man once said 'Aim for the moon, because even if you miss, you'll land amongst the stars', and you know what? I always liked the stars."

He lapses into silence, closing his eyes and listening to the beat.

"Heh. Tape decks are anything but charismatic," he replied. "But they are very reliable."

There's his stop. He steps down the stairs and onto the pavement when he hears that.

He turned around, his eyes wide. That voice...? No, it can't be... no, there's no way. But...

But that phrase, I...

"Do I... do I know you, sir?"

The driver pauses long enough for Starscream to step down onto the platform, before he slowly takes off the sunglasses.

Years show in his face, creases and lines under his eyes mark the time that has passed in this human body...

But it is unmistakably Skyfire.

"You'll do alright, love. I don't go a day without thinking of you. You were always on my mind."

The doors hiss and begin to slide closed.

"You're the love of my life. I'm only sorry I can't hold you now. Be safe. Live your life, Stars. You'll always be loved." A quiet snap marks the doors locking into place and the bus roars to life, slowly pulling away from the curb.

He still has enough of his wits about him to keep from speaking the words out loud.

Skyfire? he mouths.

He wants to scream it. He wants to screech it out loud, he wants to cry out for him and he can't.

He can't because saying that name will utterly ruin everything he has done.

So he says it silently, mouthing the word, pounding against the glass as the bus starts to pull away.

"No, no, please, don't leave!" he yells, walking, then running alongside the bus. "Please! No, you don't know how long I've looked, how long I've wanted to see you I thought you were dead, again, no, please, god, don't leave me!"

Sky, my open sky, wide and welcome my sky, oh Primus don't go again, Skyfire please...

But the bus picks up speed and he starts running faster, feet pounding on the pavement as he goes, duffel bag banging into his side.

"Stop! STOP! PLEASE, CHARLIE, NO, DON'T GO, GOD PLEASE JUST... just... no..."

He slows down as the bus pulls away, just standing on the curb, feeling stupid, feeling like an utter protoform, Primus why are you being so emotional, you are a leader of Decepticons, you are not this, shut up and stop...

He blames Claire, because at the back of his mind even she's sobbing, and it's like something horrible out of a video, he sinks to his knees on the dirty sidewalk.

"Please..."

... why did I post this when it's out of context and doesn't show how UTTERLY INSANE Starscream's been for the past ten years it seems so weird GDIT TEN YEARS OF CHARDEV ajfaljfldjflsdajfldsajflsdj

WELL

I LIKED IT

THAT 10 YEARS LATER MEME D:

SKYFIRE (who was ob. jolta in the original)

STARSCREAM

SKYFIRE god this gets schmoopy I should have just left this in the musebox orz

STARSCREAM

SKYFIRE

STARSCREAM watch anon raep me for this somewhere D:

SKYFIRE

STARSCREAM

SKYFIRE why am I still awake?

STARSCREAM

SKAIFURRRR

STARSCREAM

SKYFIRE

STARSCREAM

SKYFIRE

Starscream

ITS OVER

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