There are too ideas goin' round in my head, and what better place to place them than here

Contains: Humanized transformers, M-rated chapters (swearing and scandals and sex), some slight OOC-ness, an OC, and influences from G1 and Prime. Features mostly Decepticons, but some chapters will focus on the Autobots as well

Characters Focuses: Starscream, Ratchet, Ultra Magnus, the Seeker family

Visitor Notice

Perfectly manicured nails dug into the packet, kneading reflexively in ire. Disbelief, initially indignant before mutating into ugly scorn, twisted his coldly handsome features into a scowl. Dark eyes darted from side to side, glancing with well-honed aloofness to his neighbors, sneaking peeks at their opened, vulnerable packets before returning to his own.

There was no mistake in the ownership; printed clearly at the top was his own name, written in the red ink he so favored. Teeth ground together before chewing in the inside of his cheek, thoughtful. The young man reclined in his seat and began to flip through the pages intently, feigning disinterest as his insides broiled. Purple marks, rare as they were, sent a wave of shock through him upon sight. By the time he reached the end of the packet, a total of five corrections had been written.

"Honestly, I don't know much about Shakespeare, but from the looks of these, you're all a bunch of idiots or a colony of slugs." Their substitute stretched his arms above his head, tattoos rippling as his muscles flexed. He sat back down in his chair, letting his feet lounge on Blitzwing's desk. Lockdown's eyes glinted as he spoke. "The only two of you that got decent marks were Starscream and Soundwave."

Soundwave! Starscream allowed a smirk to pass over his face as he swiveled, taking a casual glance around until he saw the red glasses staring back at him. Soundwave, unremarkable as he was, was always easy to spot in a crowd.

Starscream made eye contact (or so he hoped) and jerked his head, eyes trailing down to Soundwave's folder before rising again. Getting the message, Soundwave lifted his folder off the desk, presenting Starscream with a clear, upside-down view of the cover page. Through the glasses and turtleneck sweater, Starscream swore he was smirking.

Starscream's face twisted into contempt as he shot Soundwave a cool glance before righting himself at his desk. As Lockdown continued to humiliate the class, barring the two Honors students, Starscream let his eyes wander to the clock before fixing themselves outside the window, thoughts focused elsewhere.

Eventually, Lockdown let the class go, their usual confidence beaten a good twenty percent lower, diving still as the substitute teacher shouted insults out the door. Starscream pushed him way out of the classroom, angrily shoving the folder into his bag. He would deal with that when he reached home.

His room was a long ways away. Private shuttle service was down for the week (courtesy of a band of sophomores who would not be missed), forcing Starscream to walk to each class. It wasn't the activity he necessarily found distasteful—it was the time lost that made him irate, and the lack of privacy. Walking, simply put, made him look sociable. He had neither the time nor the patience for idle chatter, which happened frequently when he journeyed on foot.

Cold air bit at the Seeker's exposed skin, turning his cheeks a slight pink. The chill November weather was not uncommon for this time of year, though the weatherman had predicted sixty degrees and sun. Instead, a scattered armada of grey clouds hung low overhead, allowing only patches of sunlight through. Leaves rustled as the wind pushed them along the cement sidewalks, and Starscream pulled his maroon jacket closer to him, eyes glaring behind his black bangs to deter any fool who thought to get in his way.

The school's clock tower rang out three times, causing a flurry of activity for students who had to run to class. Other passed by Starscream in scarves and jackets, laughing amiably while sipping their coffee or hot chocolate, exclaiming some nonsense about a new book or movie, or some hot guy they saw at soccer practice. Starascream huffed when they described him, paying no attention to the Seeker behind them—it wasn't like he could deny Skywarp's attractiveness, as that would be like insulting himself, but obviously they were blind to the flailing limbs, juvenile name-calling, and frequent nosebleeds that just about summed up his brother. Oh, not to mention the hooked nose that among all the Seeker children, Starscream seemed to be the only one fortunate enough to escape.

Still, others found it highly attractive, at least judging by the pair of giggling girls hogging the sidewalk who refused to move any faster than a snail despite Starscream's impatient coughs and clicking of his boots. He swore one of them glanced over her shoulder and simply didn't budge. He was about to snarl for them to get the pit-fragged hell out of his way when a flash of red and honking horn sped by him. The girls practically swooned as a hand flashed out the driver's window to wave. It at least sped the girls up, hoping to catch him at the next stop sign on campus, though Starscream still scoffed at the theatrics.

Fifteen minutes and no make-up smeared traffic jams later, Starscream finally unlocked the door to his room and threw his backpack to the ground, going to the nearest cabinet and breaking open a bottle of wine. He didn't plan on getting wasted, at least not this early, but he needed something tasteful and belonging to the upper class to calm his nerves. It was only after he finished his first glass that he picked up the offensive paper and scowled with disbelief. A purple A-, all the more offensive because it must have come from the sanest portion of Professor Blitzwing's mind, was printed neatly in the top center of the paper. A vain twitched in Starscream's forehead. How the hell did Soundwave manage a perfect A?

The answer was probably that he spent so much time in his room, fiddling around with computers, that he learned it through sheer boredom. Though it made Starscream's life appear far more glamorous by comparison, it didn't ease the public humiliation. Starscream scowled again and poured himself another glass of wine.

By the time he had stopped pacing around his kitchen, the clock read four and there was a knock at the door. Muttering, Starscream squinted through the peephole before yanking the door open, glaring up at his semi-older brother. "What do you want?" he demanded brusquely, neither inviting him nor taking his hand off the door.

Thundercracker glared right back and just said, "She's here for a special dinner, and she wants to see you."

"She wants to see me?!"

The white-haired man sighed, smoothing his aged hands over his patriotic suit as he waited patiently for his employee and friend to listen to what he had to say. It wasn't easy. Upon seeing her the day before, the man before him had dropped his lunch tray, unable to do anything except flee into the crowd of students before she could spot him. Ultra Magnus had found him later in his office, after passing the young Prime looking dejected in the hallway. "He won't tell me anything, sir," the Prime had reported. "I thought he was going to be sick for a while; he kept rubbing his chest and his head, but I think it's more emotional than physical."

"I have no doubt that it is," Ultra Magnus had replied, placing a hand on the Prime's shoulder. "Let me handle this one. Go back to your tutoring, and get a good night's sleep. There's a big game coming up."

Ultra Magnus took a breath and tried again. "It's been four years since that day, and almost three since you left her there without a word, not even a note or telephone call. I know it sounds hard to believe, but I am not at all surprised that she remembers you, nor that she wants to speak to you. You're all she has."

The other man shook his head, fists clenched in his lap. "You don't understand, sir. I can't…I can't just face her again and ask her how she's been doing, sorry that I left her but I couldn't handle the pain of it. That I still can't." There was a pause before he burst out, "Why did you hire her in the first place? It's not you didn't not know!"

"I believe she would benefit from our community far more than her old workplace," Ultra Magnus replied evenly. "All of her old students had graduated, and many of the staff members had been replaced. Here, she has a chance to build a new life, not try to salvage what remains."

Except for me, was what the man wanted to say, but instead he scratched his stubbly chin and muttered under his breath.

"For better or worse, she will remain here. She already seems to be thriving, and we have access to some of the best medical care in the area. We can help her, Ratchet."

Ratchet nodded and stood up, bracing his hands on his creaky knees before drawing himself up to his full height. "With all due respect, I think I've helped her enough," he said before limping out the door. Ultra Magnus let him go without comment, but once the pristine office door closed behind the old coach, he frowned and rubbed his forehead. The knowledge of what was to come didn't make the meeting any less distressing.

"What do you mean she's visiting?" Starscream snapped, jaw tightening into a grim frown. "She never visits. The hag can hardly survive a walk down a flight of stairs."

"Then she probably used the elevator." You idiot did not need to be said. The condescending scorn practically hummed off Thundercracker. "We're all to attend dinner with her, so dress up and get your pale ass over there."

A triumphant smirk camped over Starscream's face. "What are you now, her little messenger boy? How many dogs did you have to run away from?"

"Shut up. I wasn't about to send 'Warp over here, and Sunstorm's busy entertaining her." They both snorted at the notion. Driving her and her ridiculous scooter up the wall was more realistic. "And it's not like Thrust or Ramjet were around."

"Well, what about Slipstream?"

"Like she's invited."

"What?" Starscream screeched. "How come she gets to worm out of this one? The hag hates me too!"

"Stop acting like Thrust; she hates all of us and you know it. Just get ready and meet in the Presidential Dining Hall by six."

Two hours later found six of the seven Seeker children in their best suits and ties, waiting outside the grand doors to Megatron's personal dining room to be entertained with possibly the worst supper of their lives. Skywarp's overwhelming fear outweighed that of all five siblings, grating the nerves of his triplet-siblings, which was hardly helped by Ramjet's incessant insistence of how much fun he was having and how he was sure grandmother would be in a most excellent mood.

Starscream bit his tongue through it all, determined to make it through the night without incident or complaint. When the butlers finally admitted them, the siblings walked in an orderly line of eldest to youngest, Thundercracker stepping up to fill the roll of an absent Slipstream. Their grandmother merely nodded her consent, and he filed off to the right, taking a seat at the lavishly decorated table. Starscream stiffly approached her and knelt, taking a weathered hand and kissing the wretched thing, murmuring, "Grandmother, I'm delighted to see you again."

"And what a greater delight it would be if you kept that despicable tongue inside your head," she countered, snatching her hand away from him. "Get out of my sight, or this generous dinner will be wasted."

Starscream kept his face vaguely disinterested, biting said tongue for a moment before bowing his head once and making his leave, sitting next to Thundercracker. Skywarp scampered over soon afterwards, though Starscream knew her words to him wouldn't have been half as biting. Skywarp, meek, cowardly, sniffling Skywarp could outrank Starscream at any point, he knew, and she knew he did. Of course the youngest triplet was unaware of this hierarchy, because the stage was always centered around Starscream, for better or worse, but Starscream understood the inner workings of their sophisticated, savage culture.

Still, if he closed his eyes and ignored the voices very intently, Starscream could pretend that the dinner was enjoyable. The food itself, from Megatron's personal kitchens, was undeniably heavenly, but Starscream would have settled for a three-star restaurant if it took him away from the others. From her. Every remark went back to him, every success of Thundercracker or Sunstorm was grated against his nose, until finally Starscream snapped that he was the only other one in his class who passed their latest test.

"Oh, and did you score at the top? Or was the C- good enough for you?"

Starscream immediately saw his mistake, and knew that if he lied, she would suspect, because she always suspected, and then she would take that suspicion and excavate a chasm in the arctic with it, and bring it back to him with hell on her heels. Between grit teeth he told her that it was an A-, and he had placed second to Soundwave.

"You call that a success? You couldn't outrank a mute, a freak, a boy who collects strays so he…" She rambled on and on, and Starscream inwardly hoped that she would choke on an olive and just die already, and for once it looked as though Thundercracker agreed. But he took it all without another word, sipping his wine and praying for something to happen. For all he cared, the building could catch on fire. However, as it normally did, the universe bent to the will of Grandmother, and it was long past nine when she dismissed them, letting Sunstorm kiss her hand, terrorizing Skywarp one final time, and wishing Thundercracker the best of luck with his soccer tournament on Saturday. Starscream nearly rolled his eyes before he caught himself, but somehow she still managed to find one last fault before he gave her a poisonous smile and wished her a safe drive home, letting Megatron's golden doors slam in her wrinkled face.

Alright, I know this was a short chapter, but I think I've gotten all I can out of it. By the way, this story has very little intention in regards to plot so far. Some chapters will be funny, some will be sweet and fluffy, and others will be dark and horrific. I have some arcs that have definite definition, but otherwise it's a lot of "A Day in the Life Of" all the Transformers cast.