Would it be too much to ask for TFO StarWaveWave headcanons?how do you think they first met? I'm all ears whatever opinion you have. I'm starved.
I was going to say maybe later since I'm very drained atm,then I realized anon you're right, you and I are both starved so here are some headcanons. A lot of my headcanons are actually pre-war/pre-Prime's murder, so I guess could be considered AU-ish because I am desperate for pre canon content of them.
• I like to think they were just acquaintances by the time they first met, Soundwave had been in the High Guard the longest, for the majority of his life actually he had been around the Primes after being taken in by them when the War escalated,he and Sentinel knew eachother at around the same time since Sentinel was but they weren't that close. Soundwave met Starscream first when the latter was a cadet, at the time they weren't really on speaking terms and Starscream was much closer to Sentinel in the beginning before their relationship got strained.
• Soundwave and Starscream started to actually interact as colleagues after Starscream's promotion, they happened to work with each other and while at times they got annoyed with how the other goes around with things, they did start to deliberately seek out eachother during meetings when Zeta Prime's speeches got too long, and when they talked about Sentinel behind his back. Soundwave isn't one to hold a grudge but he doesn't really like Sentinel much either and they got along because of that.
Plus Soundwave was Megatronus' favourite Guard and Starscream was Prima's, so they had additional opportunities where they were "stuck with eachother" so it became a begrudging but eventually amicable friendship.
• They met Shockwave after the latter was integrated into the High Guard to find a new start for himself, after he was rescued from being a Quintesson civilian hostage at one point and became the head scientist. He and Starscream met a while back before that when Shockwave played a role in helping civilian unrest during the war when the overworld cities were destroyed and refugees had to be escorted to Iacon which was moved underground.
• Starscream was the one who visited Shockwave's lab to ramble about things that some soldier did to annoy him and boast about how he made them do extra work,and other things, much to the latter's exasperation since he really wanted to be alone but he never did bring up anything mentioning Shockwave's trauma or anything to trigger it ,overtime it became a kind of habit between them Shockwave even let him join in on his experiments since Starscream always did want to be a scientist but decided his skills could be used elsewhere since it was wartime,he was pretty excited over it.
• Shockwave and Soundwave had a more normal meeting,they met eachother randomly in the hallway before Zeta Prime introduced them, then went on a mission together, they got along and just decided to start hanging out with eachother because they both thought the other was weird and intriguing.
•Eventually,they just started to choose to hang out together, and conveniently got assigned to missions together. Because the Primes also wanted them to get along Starscream caught on pretty fast because he was used to a lot of Prima's very very eccentric requests but somehow those involving his colleagues happened to be way too obvious, but Prima would always brush it under the rug. It was the same with Megatronus who was somehow even worse at acting than Prima, he'd conveniently nudge them to interact with eachother and even make vague comments here and there under the guise of casual conversation. That confused Soundwave.
•Alpha Trion ships them he's not even going to try to deny it as does almost the entire High Guard Thundercracker and Alpha Trion even wrote a fanfic about them during their casual writing sessions Thundercracker would visit Alpha Trion in the archives which was open to the public at that time to talk about his latest works and get feedback,
•Sentinel is pretty bitter about it because the three of them have the nerve to somehow grouping up and isolating him (to bitch about him too), and he doesn't get it, why?what did he do? They hate his guts 😭.
• They were pretty much Amica endurae by that point unofficially, Ravage thinks Soundwave's choices are highly questionable but hey if it's working out for you, that's fine I guess. (Going by IDW's dynamic for Soundwave and Ravage, Ravage was one of Megatronus Prime's aides who took in Soundwave because I thought it would be funny)
• They are not the most emotionally open people, Soundwave and Shockwave actually do talk about those things when they are alone but Starscream is very hard to get to open up, he'd rather stew in his own issues than admit help, he'd sooner notice their problems than notice his own. The Waves convinced the Primes to assign him to a therapist because there was no way he'd agree to go unless it's an order. Starscream knows it's them and he is not happy but he's not going to disobey an order, doesn't mean he won't make very passive aggressive comments to the therapist about them.
•They do occasionally live in a shared apartment for tax reasons, but different beds since they aren't really tactile people unless it's an awfully hard day,their expressions of adoration are more gestures, my interpretation of them is very queerplatonic tbh. But that's just me.
• They argue about anything and everything, they're like an old married couple by how much they argue over the most ridiculous things, they've saved eachother's life more than once during war, it's just a very odd dynamic their strengths do work well when paired, and they do generally get along really well- when they are not arguing over who's turn it is to make dinner or who's strategy or suggestion is the most superior during war meetings.
• The day the Primes died the three were stationed on the city's outer posts, Shockwave had his suspicions but no one believed him,once they received the distress signal by Alpha Trion,almost immediately after they got ambushed by Quintesson ships, Starscream took Skywarp to check the coordinates of the signal and walked in on Sentinel taking out Megatronus cog. Skywarp dragged him out of there before he killed himself by attacking Sentinel, he was barely able to tell Soundwave, Shockwave and the rest of the HG before ordering them to evacuate. It was also when his yellow/blue(undecided) eyes turned red/orange for the first time that was when Shockwave asked him what happened? Soundwave already knew he'd read his mind......and he hated what he heard.
•I like to think while not completely unrecognizable by the time they were in the High Guard they were very drastically different from how they were in the movie, Soundwave was more emotionally open and while he's not proud of it he does use his telepathy on his comrades even without their knowledge at times,something he never used to do unless necessary because he blames himself for being unable to see through Sentinel's intentions even while working so close to him. Shockwave's anxieties were not that intense that was mostly the result of being constantly on the run and the past 50 cycles he's constantly on the analysis of everything wrong that could possibly happen as the surface is very dangerous and having Quintessons and Sentinel tracking them did not help, Starscream was already pretty closed off by the time he initially joined the HG, it took Prima, Skywarp, Thundercracker to get him to start opening up,his paranoia after Sentinel's betrayal intensified as he sees it as a personal failure, I like to think he was pretty reasonable back then and was geniunely a good leader he started to spiral during the exile, most of them did.
•They don't have the heart to really comfort eachother the way they want to because they are all depressed and messed up. They wanted the war to end so bad only to be thrust in another war and then another one(the latter was technically their own choice though when they sided with Megatron but it's still sad).
• If any of them are trying to comfort eachother it's Soundwave, and it's done very subtly. Because he knows Starscream would just get annoyed and lash out or Shockwave may have another emotional break, I like to think the other two do try in their own way but they fall short most of the time.
• Soundwave met Laserbeak when the latter nearly tried to claw out Starscream's eyes when they had to evacuate one of their bases after being compromised and decided "I'm adopting you". Laserbeak deliberately gets on Shockwave and Starscream's nerves but they can't really do anything but complain since Soundwave actually likes him, Rumble and Frenzy come afterwards when the Autobot/Decepticon war actually begins, they are their weird adoptive children.
• Their relationship does get more strained as the war escalates and their differing relationship with Megatron, Soundwave's loyalty, Shockwave's mostly neutrality and starting to lean more on logic as an anchor, and Starscream eventually growing to dislike Megatron. This puts them at odds, and there's a sense of betrayal when they aren't on the same page. At times they do even hate eachother. After the war eventually ends...they need therapy and recounselling to work on their issues, but it got better over time.
• Shockwave did try to fix Starscream's voice after the movie at the latters request but was really only able to fix the pitch a little it's still damaged but it's adjusted so the pitch isn't that noticable unless he's yelling- which he unfortunately does a lot, they did assure him it's not that bad. He gets annoyed at their horrible attempt at comfort but weirdly appreciates it.
• They have their own merch back when they were HG, it was eventually forgotten over time but Starscream is never living it down that he not only voted for himself but he and Shockwave both anonymously voted for Soundwave, they all voted for eachother without the other annoying in different catogaries in a fan poll. They don't bring it up much but it's a funny topic Skywarp and Thundercracker bring up at times before being yelled at to shut up.
