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“Oh I’ll play some Sims to wind down.”
“THIS IS SO STRESSFUL,” I say after playing a five person household with two adults, two children and a toddler (a vampire and her lady-in-waiting as the adults, the former with two kids [technically three but the eldest was disowned and moved out a while back] and the latter with one), but it’s cool, I caved and turned everyone’s free will off. Now the control freak me can enjoy absolutely nothing happening without me making it happen.
But anyway! Lemme show you a thing!
The more he saw of the young mech, the more Megatron began to rewrite his existing opinion of him. Oh, he was still haughty and hateful, arrogant (and somewhat justified, if he were being truthful), utterly and scornfully self-absorbed…but he was also…incredibly…gentle.
Not in word or deed–he had felt too deeply the strength behind those hands and the bite of his tongue to ever suggest that Sunstreaker was soft, but there were details about him that implicated something beneath that steel veneer he maintained. If neither gentle nor soft, then…something beautiful. Something that required tending.
He wasn’t sure–not without confirmation–but he thought he had caught the first glimpse of what it was that Sideswipe saw in his brother.
From here. Do you know why I love this? First, ‘cause it’s Megatron’s appraisal of Sunstreaker. Megatron’s, who’s written by an entirely different person than Sunstreaker, who’s formed his opinion mostly entirely based on IC interaction alone
And got it pretty much spot on.
I’m not the only one super pumped by that, am I?! I mean, how cool is that! These people, we, have rpd together for so long that our characters know each other well enough to describe each other! With minimal OOC involvement to explain that level of familiarity!
I think it’s beautiful! Just imagine the kind of history required for that, especially with characters that aren’t really that forthcoming, like Megs and Sunstreaker both.
The second thing is just the fact that this is so spot on, despite how contradictory it might seem. Haughty, hateful, arrogant, self-absorbed, “steel veneer”, and yet?
Something like gentle or soft. Something beautiful underneath all that.
And I am fawning over the skill Nyf has had to have been able to write all that into a single character, in a manner that other characters and their muns are able to pick up on it, but only after literal years of rping together, because it’s so subtle and written so patiently and in such a long-term manner that you’ve had to read their writing for a long, long time to get enough clues to piece it together.
All those years, all those threads and interactions, culminate into moments like this where Megatron has finally, finally played the long game long enough that he gets a peek of what else Sunstreaker has to offer.
And even in that moment of vulnerability, Sunstreaker doesn’t stop being Sunstreaker. He doesn’t suddenly turn into an insecure, scared little thing who would’ve just faked his confidence all along. He doesn’t turn meek. From Sunny’s posts:
“Not something of an artist,” he nevertheless growled, spirited as a tempest even in his confusion, “I am an artist.”
Megatron’s servo was turning around his, so carefully, talons slipping underneath his servo so carefully, cradling it with Megatron’s attention upon it as if it was something special, [and] it was, because he was, all of him was - Sunstreaker’s vents hitched when Megatron brushed his thumb against it, too gentle.
“Murals,” he whispered.
“I preferred to paint murals, where everyone could see them and not have to pay for the privilege of viewing them.”
Sunstreaker’s vents fluttered through a nervous gust of air as he glanced around, feeling every glance and stare prickle at his plating until he wanted nothing more than to disappear to the solitude of their home, far from every look that appraised his appearance and found it to be worth his weight in gold.
But he would not have changed a thing. His spark surged with pride the same it shied under the attention, loving and hating the spotlight he was always under by virtue of his nature.
Megatron stroked his servo again and Sunstreaker nearly jolted, but the fresh shyness did not prevent an old fire from lighting behind his eyes, stoking their soft candlelight into an inferno.
Sunstreaker dropped his helm, as if ashamed of his outburst. When he continued, it was far more quietly, but with an affection to his tone that still spoke volumes of the passion he had for the topic.
Gentle is the exact word I would use for this change in Sunstreaker’s demeanor, and yet he’s still spirited, he’s proud, he’s opinionated, he’s temperamental, he’s passionate. Shy, too, but that doesn’t force him into the backseat. It doesn’t stop him. He’s not diffident.
The only reason he ever was in the backseat was because he preferred it and was happy to allow Sideswipe’s vivacity to be what grabbed everyone’s attention. If he hadn’t allowed it, Sideswipe wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it.
Sunstreaker has such a strength of character and quiet intensity to him. The things this woman has done with that character take my breath away, and these are the kind of reasons why I’m very likely to always consider Nyf’s characterization of Sunstreaker to be the ultimate one. I love it to death, and it’s the reason why I love Sunstreaker- wonderful, complicated, messed up but so deep Sunstreaker- to death.
I’m just? Fangirling so hard I’m sorry.
