Trinkets 2/?

[gilded_orchid]

Title: Trinkets 2/?
By: gilded_orchid
Rating: PG
Universe: G1/Alignment-verse AU
Characters: Prowl, Jazz, Smokescreen, Mirage, Soundwave, varying OCs (because I can only justify so many cameos without it becoming a serious stretch...) Offhand mention of Mixmaster, lurking Blaster.
Content: Pre-war AU, melodramatic artistic hissy-fits, hacked-off authority figures, more city-scaping, bots behaving badly. The prompts involved with this are counterpoint and indigo. See the A/N at the end of this for a more thorough accounting of WTF.
Wordcount: 4000
Note: LJ is still being dumb. I'll fix the formatting later.



Everyone knew of the much vaunted Harmonium, Cybertron's largest (and grandest) opera house and concert hall, but few Cybertronians outside of the Tri-Torus states were ever afforded an opportunity to see it for themselves. Prowl was from Praxus, Protihex's sister-state, as was Smokescreen, and neither of them had ever had the opportunity to see it for themselves before the current Revels either. Prowl rather wished he had; if only because he wouldn't now be standing on the stairs--marble stairs carved to mimic pages of sheet music-- and gawking like a starving mech suddenly presented with Primus' personal cache of energon.

Situated as the focal point of Protihex's northern regions, the Harmonium dominated the area's skyline. The Harmonium itself was a marble palace that easily rivaled the Temple of the Primes for intricate beauty. Each of the Harmonium's massive walls were covered in delicate etchings--the sheet music of every guild member's master-piece they had heard--and a grand blue, silver, and black crystal mosaic depicting a spiraling musical stave erupting from between an ornate hammer and anvil dominated the central (and of course largest) window.

They hadn't even reached the Harmonium itself, though. They were still on the grand stairs leading up to the opera hall, and Prowl switched from gawking at the Harmonium to gawking at the arches that lined the path before him. The Grand Melodic Spiral...

Thirteen sweeping arches covered in individually crafted marble tiles seemed to gleam--no doubt due to crystals and rare gems that had been ground into the tile--in the night sky, and ornate chimes carved to resemble musical clefs hung from each keystone. There was no breeze now, but it was rumored that when the wind blew in the right direction, the chimes played a ringing canon that was likened unto the striking melody of hammer and anvil that once echoed out of Solus Prime's Forge.

"We call it "Solus' Requiem".

Prowl turned slightly to meet the visored gaze of the mech behind him. "Oh?"

The rich vocal harmonics of the dark blue mech were overlaid with a sort of reverent melancholy as he continued to speak. "Cybertronians learned melody from the ringing of their mistress' Anvil, developed harmony from the thrum of her Bellows. Those we forged together and called song, and she delighted in them." The mech gently brushed one of the tiled arches, then continued to recite what was obviously a treasured myth among Protihexan. "Solus Prime died far from Protihex, so we, her devoted Choragus, constructed this pathway in hopes that the song of her home will reach her and sooth her spark, wherever it might rest."

Thus the Tributes, artistic offerings from each of Protihex's founding guilds crafted in memory of Solus Prime.

"Fact: Thus the Tributes."

He hadn't said that out loud. Prowl paused his descent down the Melodic Spiral and met that quiet agreement with a suspicious frown at the mech that now gazed up at him with perfectly smooth features. "Telepath?" Prowl murmured curiously. He'd heard rumors of mechs possessing the ability, but had never encountered one until now.

"Untrained, but yes. You think loudly enough that it sounds like normal speech to me. You may call me Soundwave, a Savant of guild Choragus."

//Say, weren't you supposed to be heading inside? Away from me and my research?//

Prowl scowled as his brother began his approach, a spring in his gait and door panels tilted up at a jaunty angle. //You are *not* a researcher. You *have* a function already, Smokescreen, and it's not as a cultural researcher. When I get enough evidence to probe you acquired that assignment license illegally, I will delight in handing you over to the Council.//

//Save yourself the trouble, mech. I won't even see the shadow of a jail.//

//Mechs like you are the reason malcontents like Megatron gain followings, you know. But rest assured, I don't intend to see you put in jail. The Council, however, will revoke your license, and then I'm going to personally drag you back to the Praxian senate hall and chain you to your desk. There are about five metacycles worth of accounting forms for you to process.//

Smokescreen's horror filtered along their bond before he slammed his end of it closed after a disgruntled flick of his door panels. Stepping in front of Prowl, Smokescreen flashed his most winning grin at the newcomer.

"I am Smokescreen, and this is my brother--"

"Observation: Soundwave knows who both of you are."

Soundwave's visor flashed merrily at the startled looks he received.

Understand: "Everyone in Choragus knows about the mech that intends to lay claim to their Alpha Maestro, and *your* name has been making its rounds as well, Smokescreen. I believe your "research" has led you to work your way through five guilds as of this most current Revel."

"One must take pride in one's function, after all." Smokescreen replied, utterly unrepentant. "I find myself curious about your voice. Your harmonics are so rich."

"You register my sub-vocals? Smokescreen studies music too?"

Smokescreen shook his head remorsefully. "Sadly, no. I've always wished to learn, though. Are you a good teacher? I wish to do some research about this field."

Soundwave remained expressionless for a long moment, and just when Smokescreen began to fear (and Prowl to celebrate) that his perfect approach was about to finally fail, Soundwave extended an arm with a mischievous smirk. "Soundwave: superior."

Prowl made a disgusted noise and began to ascend the Melodic Spiral towards. At least Jazz gave *real* lessons.


The Harmonium's exterior was ornate, no doubt, but the interior of the concert hall was grander than even the Iaconian Senate Chambers. Large chandeliers made of mixed blue and purple crystals hung from the ceiling, which was covered in a large mural depicting the Triumph of Solus Prime.

The white lights within the chandelier refracted off of the blue and purple crystals to cast an indigo tint throughout the halls of the Harmonium, while the floor was covered in patterned white and indigo marble. Exhibits of old opera costumes and set pieces lined the walls, and bots strolled the elegant hallways, examining the displays, or mingling with other attendees in the social galleries.

Prowl passed a few such rooms as he made his way towards the auditorium itself, where Choragus' Tribute was scheduled to be performed in less than a joor. He had barely walked past the latest gallery when an aristocratic voice cut through the din of the crowd.

"Ah! Poacher! So good to see you again!"

Prowl glanced over at the source of the taunt, and braced himself for the next round of verbal jousting as caught sight of Lord Mirage. He was flanked on either side by a mech he recognized to be Savant Tracks of guild Incandesca, and an orange mech--Blaster, one of Jazz's personal students, if Smokescreen's information was to be taken as accurate.

"Prowl, Lord Mirage. My name is Prowl."

"Oh! I am so sorry Lord Marshall. I'm just dreadful about names." Mirage didn't even bother to attempt to look sincere.

Prowl scoffed inwardly. Dreadful indeed.

"Mirage, stop tormenting the poor mech. No doubt he has enough trouble keeping a leash on that lecher that despoiled my apprentice!"

Mirage waved Tracks’ complaint away. “Oh give it a rest, Tracks! We all know that your precious little protégé was despoiled a long time ago—by you, as a matter of fact! You’re just angry he passed you over for someone else.”

“To be fair, Mirage? We all know you’re not really at enmity with Prowl. You’re just milking the gossip for all it’s worth. Which, incidentally, isn’t much anymore. “

“What?!” Prowl and Mirage glanced at each other at their combined outburst before Mirage whirled back to face Blaster.

“Spill!”

“Well, apparently guild Vivant is in the middle of a little civil war at the moment, and it became public earlier this mega-cycle when an argument between the guild master and his Second erupted on the streets.

“’Quite a pretty little mess it was, too. Mixmaster flung a bottle of vintage Hexian Gray at Shooter’s head.”

They all turned as the Alpha Maestro himself walked up, a smile on his face as he whistled a jaunty tune.

“Tracks, Mirage, Blaster. Prowl.”

Jazz’s expression turned sly as he focused on his would-be suitor.

In the deca-cycle that had passed, Prowl had attended three different Tributes with Jazz (and Tracks and Mirage, because Tracks never left Mirage’s side, and Mirage was never away from Jazz for long), and had presented three courting gifts after his first, all of which Jazz accepted, but the mech had not deigned to display any of them.

Undeterred, Prowl had been slowly pressing his case, and he was sure that any megacycle now, he would achieve his goal.

“Good to see you again, Meister. Liar—“

“Ligier.” Mirage grumped, good-naturedly accepting Prowl’s dig at his teasing name-mangling.

“So sorry, Mirage.”

“Oh, both of you stop!” Tracks muttered, pulling a micro-cube of ultra-grade out of his subspace. “We’re looking forward to the Tribute, Alpha Maestro.”

Jazz smiled, pride plain on his face. “As am I. This will be the first Revel that I haven’t had to compose the Tribute, and it’s been a blessed relief. Two of my Savants submitted it to me, and I must say that it is one smooth tune! I think you’ll all be pleased with the performance!”

Mirage swiped the cube from Tracks, who let out an indignant squawk behind him. “Well, Harmonium always—“

"Alpha Maestro! Alpha Maestro!"

“I can’t seem to catch a break, today.” Jazz murmured ruefully.

An excitable young mech flung himself down at his guild leader's feet, ready to fritz any second. "We're finished, Alpha Maestro! Ruined!"

The small group was startled by the sudden interruption, but Jazz, long accustomed to the histrionics a musician was capable of especially before an important performance, passed the score he'd been working on over to Mirage and reached down to pull the acolyte back to his feet. Enough melodrama occurred on the Harmonium's stage without it seeping into everyday life. "And why are we ruined, Polyphony?"

"The Tribute piece, Alpha Maestro! We can't perform it!"

A few heads whipped their way at that pronouncement from the nosier bots in the area, but they quickly made themselves scarce at quelling glares from both Mirage and Tracks.

Jazz, drawing upon deep reserves of patience that every guild master needed to get through the cycles, merely shook his head. A lesser mech would have panicked at that same pronunciation. "Why can't it be performed?"

"Downbeat is with the medics, along with a good third of the performing ensemble, Alpha Maestro!" Polyphony wrung his hands, clearly envisioning the uproar and scandal that was going to erupt. "We have no conductor, our soloists are down, and we don't have enough parts to perform the song!"

"Why are they at the medics?"
"Can’t Blaster do it?"

Jazz held up a hand as Mirage and Tracks blurted their questions at the same time. "Quiet, both of you. From the beginning, Polyphony."

The burgundy and gold mech nodded, pulling himself together. "The energon was tainted, Alpha Maestro. Downbeat insisted that we all fuel before the performance, but those that drank suffered processor lags and then crashed entirely."

Prowl frowned. Processor lags and crashes? That only occurred when a mech sustained traumatic physical damage or poisons were introduced to the energon tank...certainly no fights had occurred, so who would poison musicians?

"And then you took them to the medics?" Mirage asked, no doubt recording every moment of the budding scandal to feed back to the gossip network.

"And officially report this incident?! Primus, no!" Polyphony turned to Mirage with an appalled look."I might well as started screaming the situation from the senate floor than go through public channels." Polyphony looked back at Jazz proudly. "I sent for two of our medics. Canon and Arpeggia both swear that it will take at least 3 joors before they come back online, much less are ready to perform."

"The energon was tainted, you say? Did the medics say with what?"

Polyphony seemed to wilt at Prowl's question. "I...well...that is to say...I don't properly know, Lord Marshall."

Right. Prowl's optics dimmed in open suspicion. Any rookie would have automatically known Polyphony was hiding the truth, especially given that he'd avoided going through normal channels. Social backlash or no, when a large group of bots suffered a serious health problem--especially with something like a crash--the first thing any sane mech did was get a medic, any medic, as quickly as possible.

A quick glance at Jazz showed that the Alpha Maestro was not fooled, and one hand clenched and unclenched slowly as he glared at the younger acolyte. This apparently was not the first time Jazz had dealt with an issue like this. "Where are they now?"

"The blue salon, Alpha Maestro."

Jazz nodded sharply, striding off in the direction that Polyphony had appeared from, a dark aura of malice radiating from his field. Mirage and Prowl were on his heels, followed by Tracks, who reached out and all but dragged Polyphony down the hall after them.

A group of mechs and femmes were clustered outside the blue salon when they finally reached it, whispering and transmitting conversations that no doubt centered on the sorry sight that waited behind closed doors. One look at their guild master's stormy visage had them quickly stepping aside--but still within eavesdropping distance--and the small group swept into the room.

Prowl grimaced as he gazed about the room. Decorated in regal blues and purples, the blue salon would normally have been just as elegantly decorated as the rest of the Harmonium, but the effect was ruined by 8 mechs sprawled across the floor, out cold, while the remaining 7 were busy yelling at each other and the two medics who were trying to frantically treat the down performers.

As a whole, they turned towards the door, and a very interesting silence--one Prowl swore had been birthed from the cold vacuum of space itself--fell over the room.

Deciding that not being anywhere near the fuming Alpha Maestro was the better part of valor, Prowl made his way towards the dispenser at the far end of the room. Time to investigate, or at least pretend to be too busy to get drawn into that brewing slag-storm. .

"Do you require anything? Prowl glanced over at the two mechs who had appeared by his side. He'd no quarrel with Tracks, nor was he worried about Mirage anymore, now knowing that Mirage was more interested in giving him a hard time than actually being malicious, but it was unusual for mechs of their stature to offer to assist anyone unless it was a bot of higher ranking. He wasn't.

Reading his surprise, Mirage shrugged ruefully. "Helping you means that we don't have to be over there."

"You could have left the room."

"True, but he's still in front of the door."

"There is that...help me remove the lid from this dispenser."

Tracks and Mirage eagerly leapt to the task.

Polyphony fled Jazz's side, moving to the back of the group of performers.

"Symptoms?"

The medics shared a glance before standing up. "It's a lag induced processor crash, Alpha Maestro. If we flush their tanks, they'll be perfectly fine within a joor. They--" Arpeggia gestured at the group of bots who now looked as if they longed to join their comrades on the floor--are the lucky ones, and managed to metabolize the additives."

"Additives?" Jazz's voice was a malicious purr as he glanced over at his performers. It was Harmonium's dirty little secret: bots desperate to enhance their performance or seeking a bit of quick inspiration often laced their energon with additives. It had been such a prevalent issue that the first thing Jazz had done upon assuming the title of Alpha Maestro was clean out every trace of energon additives in the guild, and issue a decree of what was, and wasn't, acceptable.

If his suspicions were correct, this was one of the banned substances.

"Arpeggia? Canon? You are going to tell me that beta-blockers aren't involved, and you sorry lot--" Jazz pointed angrily at the remaining ensemble--- "are going to tell me that you didn't know what you were imbibing."

No one had the struts to lie to the Alpha Maestro’s face, especially when he was in as dark a mood as this, so they said nothing. Silence settled over the room--this one fresh from the Slag Pits themselves--and Jazz growled lowly. "I distinctly recall banning beta-blockers from this guild."

Across the room, Prowl paused in his analysis. "Why are they banned?"

Mirage's fans whirred in a robotic sigh. "Beta blockers drop energon pressure, slow the engine, and in a high enough dose can even shut down some processors in the CPU, which in turn means that a bot's playing quality grows exponentially under their effects."

"But they're not illegal..."

"Legality doesn't enter into this. Jazz hates beta-blockers. The proper creation method is intensely difficult and results vary wildly from bot to bot. IF it works as intended, you can count yourself as lucky. Normally, you either underdose and suffer no harm--which is why that lot there is still standing--or you overdose, and freeze up your CPU, sometimes permanently. Jazz has lost more than a few mechs to them, and he believes that any performer that has to result to enhancers isn't a true artist at all."

Prowl nodded somberly, darting a quick glance down at his chemo-analyzer. Of course it would be positive for beta-blockers. "Who wants to tell him?"

Tracks scoffed. "He already knows. Why do you think he's so torqued off right now?"

Across the room, Jazz finished haranguing the group. "Congratulations, you idiotic fraggers! Because of your stupidity, you've jeopardized our Tribute and our guild’s reputation! You violated a direct edict, acted against the guild's best interest, and compromised yourselves as artists! By rights, by rights, I should throw your sorry afts out of my guild."

Someone whimpered fearfully.

Protihex was a city comprised entirely of different guilds, and where status was determined on the rest of Cybertron by birth and caste, Protihex was unique in that one's guild and rank within it determined status. Being cast out of the guild--especially when one was so far past the age of acquiring a new trade--was a fatal blow.

Guildless, as they were called, did not survive in Protihex.

The Guildless were social pariahs that had no rights, no income, and no future. They were below servants, who had their own hierarchy within the guild they served, and even the youngest acolytes, who were awarded some status and rights just by being part of a guild. Most Guildless either ended up committing suicide, or, for those determined to eke out a living elsewhere, left the city all together. Those that left rarely found work. Being cast out of Protihex was a stigma that tended to hamper employment within the private sector, and the government was not going to assign a job to anyone that A: had that kind of mark on their record, and B: hadn’t actually performed their caste function for any significant amount of time. That left three options, none of which were appealing to any sane being: slow starvation on the streets, taking up work in the mines, or going to the gladiatorial rings. All three resulted in death sooner than later anyway.

Jazz was quiet a long while, mulling over the fate of the ensemble. “This is not the first time Downbeat and I have been over this. Since this is the product of his machinations, he will bear the brunt of the punishment.” He glanced over at Polyphony. “Where did he get the beta blockers from?”

“......Soundwave, Alpha Maestro.”

Prowl froze. Always, always, Smokescreen managed to find a way to cause problems for him. Swearing to throttle his brother on sight, Prowl frantically reached out for Smokescreen through their bond, warning him to make himself scarce.

Jazz’s features clouded over with rage. “Where. Is. He?”

“G-gone, Alpha Maestro. He left to run an errand. He was picking up a package.” Polyphony didn’t need to add what the package contained; they all knew.

“All of you are on probation for the next five vorns. One slip up and you are done.” Jazz looked down at the bots on the floor. “Canon, get some servants in here to help you get these louts to the infirmary“

Canon bowed quickly and scampered away.

“Arpeggia? Get a group of servants to clean out Downbeat and Soundwave’s rooms. They are hereby expelled from this guild.”

Startled gasps from both inside and outside the room greeted the pronouncement, but Jazz shut any would-be protests down with a glare. “Understand, bots, I will not be tolerating anymore of these incidents. You are artists, and you will perform on the strength of your skills, and not with performance enhancers. Starting immediately, if I see you using them, buying them, looking to long at them? You are out of here. Now get moving.”

The room emptied, and Jazz gave a disdainful kick to Downbeat’s side. “Blaster!”

“Alpha Maestro?” Blaster had been the smart one, Prowl mused as Jazz’s apprentice popped his head in the room, having remained quiet and out of sight behind the door, not daring to enter in.

“How much time do we have left?”

“….two cycles, give or take.”

“… You’ll be on Percussion this time, along with Claves. I want Fugue, Riff, Nocturne, and Modal on Strings, and Treble on keyboard. Meet me in the gold room.”

Blaster bowed quickly and dashed off, ordering his guild mates to assist locating the bots in question.

Jazz glanced over at them, his gaze hardening. “No one, no one outside the guild needs to know what happened here.”

They nodded and Jazz’s mood seemed to lighten. “Mirage, my sheet music?”

“The Counterpoint Partita?”

Jazz nodded.

“That’s next year’s Tribute! It’s not even finished!”

Jazz grinned, producing a thin sliver of indigo crystal—a conductor’s baton—with a flourish. “I’m improvising! See you all after the Tribute.”


A/N: So, I went with pretension subtlety on this one. I took the non-musical definition of counterpoint --any element that is juxtaposed and contrasted with another—and used it as the major theme of this little installment, setting it against the indigo theme. I set the blue portion of the indigo theme --trust/truthfulness—in contrast, and used the purple portion of indigo—authority/royalty—as a literary interpretation of musical counterpoint. The Tribute served as the cantus firmus—the melody that the contrapuntal parts are set against—and the major themes of the story against each other. So that gives us a counterpoint of trust/truthfulness, vs deceit, stability (Jazz & Co) vs. instability, and authority vs. rebellion. All of these parts go against each other and act against the cantus firmus, but at the same time each carry their own melody/story. That gives us a first species counterpoint: all the different melodies/notes/storylines sound simultaneously (i.e. get dumped into the same installment) all while pursuing their own melodies/story developments.

Did I think about this way too much? Oh yeah.

Did I stretch the prompts? Yeah, kinda. =_=

Oh well, next prompt is a direct continuation of this, and not nearly as convoluted. ^_^;;

Comments

[thepheonixqueen.livejournal.com]

Lovely job! Poor Jazz! His guild is gonna be paying for this for awhile, I suspect.

Wonderful job on the descriptions of the harmonium, it made it come alive for me and the details you provided were esquisite.

Bravo! Bravo!

[gilded-orchid.livejournal.com]

Oh man, "paying for this" is putting it nicely. Why do you think so few musicians are left by the time things come to a head and war breaks out? Hint: It wasn't Megatron. :p

I'm glad you were able to get a clear feel of the architecture--it was a fun concept to indulge. ^__^

Thanks!

[fianna9.livejournal.com]

I loved it. The shock and amusement with the change of gossip was great, and the drama was well done. I loved how Mirage and Tracks were not wanting to attract Jazz's anger. I kinda hope Smokescreen doesn't get any deeper, but I'm eager to see what Soundwave is up to and how it will all play out. You've done a great job so far, and I'm enjoying the ride.

[gilded-orchid.livejournal.com]

To be fair, does anyone really want to attract that kind of anger? The "nice ones" always snap hardest, if not quickest. As for Soundwave...I'm by no means done with him. :) Thanks so much!

[whitefirebird.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Start of true intrigue I see. Wonderful work. Looking forward to the next segment!

BTW: do you find this story is writing itself?

[gilded-orchid.livejournal.com]

Hah! Writing itself? More like forcibly possessing all of my thought processes and demanding attention. I had all these notes I worked up for the prompts back in August, and I've maybe used...two of them. This deranged little tale is obviously captain of its own fate =_=;;

Well, I'm enjoying the ride, at least, and I'm glad you are too! Thanks!

[bluebirdsoaring.livejournal.com]

What an amazing place Jazz lives in!! Why would anyone mess with drugs and risk being thrown out?? I did have to giggle about the beta blockers though. I fear Smokey is getting in way over his head! Glad Prowl is there to help Jazz out...he's knocking heads!!

Going forward with next year's music for the win!!

[gilded-orchid.livejournal.com]

Smokey is so hosed and doesn't even know it yet. It'll be interesting to see what happens because *I* don't even know how he's going to come out on top yet. =_=

Might as well use the music--why go down without a fight? ^_^

Thanks for the read!

[purajo.livejournal.com]

Stretch the prompts? I'd forgotten all about the prompts XD

This is captivating, and I'm looking forward to see where this goes. Plus angry!Jazz is always a bonus since he rarely ever gets righteously fragged off.

[gilded-orchid.livejournal.com]

Oh man, it's getting to the point that I'm writing the story is writing itself, and I look at it and go, "oh crap, prompts!" and try to make it actually meet standards.

I'm glad you're enjoying the story so much!

(Angry!Jazz is fun, because you *know* he's gonna get creative about things...)

[purajo.livejournal.com]

Hehehe... and when he gets creative, things tend to go BOOM in the most spectacular of ways...

In-control!Jazz is also fun to write cos he's got this crazy determination.

[wicked3659.livejournal.com]

Very interesting, I do love how they were all avoiding Jazz and his ire ^_^;; I like how you interpreted the prompts, this is what the challenge is about, thinking outside the box :3

Nicely done!! Looking forward to more.

[gilded-orchid.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I was sitting there going, "Huh...how would Jazz's entourage calm him down?" Then common sense kicked in and informed me that no rational being would even bother--just cut their losses,make for the hills and lay low until it was safe.

I will say it's been fun playing around with the prompts...I'll eventually come at one of these straight.

Maybe.

Hopefully...

Thanks for the comment, and I'm glad you're enjoying it!

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

Oh, beautiful. And now I'm really curious how Jazz's improvisation will sound, if normally he prepares a Tribute over one year before that.
And Soundwave... oh, Sounwave. :/ You've really ruined your life here...

[gilded-orchid.livejournal.com]

Oh Soundwave, you great daft moron....I got my hands on the Alignment-verse novels, and in them
(highlight because I don't know if it's a spoiler still, so playing it safe) he's a gladiator when he encounters Megatron, apparently. and all I could think was, "Soundwave!? How does *that* happen?" Then the deranged plot!bunny spawned some friends, and I ended up with the above scenario. It's a pre-war AU, but I want to set this up to eventually go into wartime, so I had to account for Soundwave's past somehow...

I'm glad you enjoyed it, and thanks so much!

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

I haven't read it yet, but I was spoilered a long time ago... ^.^ It's great that you are taking the war in consideration. It makes the story much more real.
And Soundwave... well, somehow he always remains the mysterious Decepticon in the continuities, right? I love reading about him.

[thalanee.livejournal.com]

I love you way you build this world, it's really coming alive in my head. I can almost literally see it.

Smokescreen made me laugh, he really has no shame at all. And angry Jazz was just great, especially the part where they want to get out of the room, but Jazz is between them and the door XD

I'm really looking forward to more of this!

[sideslip-tf.livejournal.com]

Sorry it has taken a bit for me to read this. I love it! The details are amazing and I enjoy Jazz's character.

[mmouse15.livejournal.com]

This is amazing. Yes, you thought about it, and yes, it shows, and wow, what a great story!

[kkcliffy.livejournal.com]

I soooo want to see the Harmonium! It sounds like the most beautiful building possible and as a musician, I am drawn to anything that has such a musical theme. Also, go Jazz on handling that little fiasco!