Clouds are the spark of the sky
Jul. 6th, 2012 04:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silberstreifBeta: none
Continuity: Could be any; pre-war
Characters: Starscream, Skyfire
Rating: PG
Prompt: Prompt #1 - Clouds
Warnings: none
Summary: Clouds are the spark of the sky... so, what if there aren't any?
The spark of the sky
Of course he knew everything about them. What they were, the many many variants they came in, how wind, gravity, density or even the different kinds of dust and pollution affected them. He had studied them for nearly a vorn, always amazed that they were seemingly so very different from planet to planet. If they existed on said planet.
Some harboured life, some were a central part to their planet's system, be it organic or not, some simply were. Some came in only one colour, most common white or yellow, but that was by no means a rule as some showed every colour that existed and some were invisible but to the most sophisticated scanners.
Some floated high, so very high, in the sky that they touched the cold space and were always raining and creating their own always changing system. Some were hugging the dirt like a grounder, too dense to leave it and hiding whole worlds behind their veil.
Yes, he had studied them, he knew them.
So, he really should know better that to stare like a besotted sparkling at the white, fluffy, floating cloud in front of him. But she (and the cloud was a she, no question about it) was beautiful, ethereal, and a part of his spark lost himself to the miracle of such a simple, and though so very very complex thing.
A chuckle from Skyfire across the commlines woke him. "Starscream? Have you finished your very very thorough scans of the cloud?"
"Those scans are necessary! We have to document everything."
"But you're finished, right? Then we can finally start the fun part – flying through it!"
The shuttle sped into the white cloud with surprising speed and delighted laughter. Starscream blinked, than snorted and followed him.
And as the cloud softly caressed his wings with lovingly cool touches, he felt himself relax and starting to smile. This was what he was made for, this dance with the wind and cloud and the rain. How had he missed this during all his studies? How come that he hadn't even longed for this feeling of joy and peace before?
He felt a pang of sadness as he remembered the cold cloudless sky on Cybertron that hadn't seen a change in many hundred vorns, since long before of Starscream's creation. He had loved the freedom of flying in it, but now... he suddenly understood that Cybertron's sky was missing its living, ever changing spark and had become empty.
He wondered, what system and cycle had vanished with the clouds or if they simply had been. He wondered if they had been white or red or green. He wondered, if turning the sky's essence into the energon that fuelled the Golden Age, had been worth it.
Then he turned, twisted around and started to play with the cloud and the wind and Skyfire, forgetting everything else and just being free in the gentle embrace of the sky.
(As he flew again through the lifeless and bleak sky on Cybertron, he mourned. The emptiness that once promised freedom now only held the whispers of a dying planet.)
Continuity: Could be any; pre-war
Characters: Starscream, Skyfire
Rating: PG
Prompt: Prompt #1 - Clouds
Warnings: none
Summary: Clouds are the spark of the sky... so, what if there aren't any?
The spark of the sky
Of course he knew everything about them. What they were, the many many variants they came in, how wind, gravity, density or even the different kinds of dust and pollution affected them. He had studied them for nearly a vorn, always amazed that they were seemingly so very different from planet to planet. If they existed on said planet.
Some harboured life, some were a central part to their planet's system, be it organic or not, some simply were. Some came in only one colour, most common white or yellow, but that was by no means a rule as some showed every colour that existed and some were invisible but to the most sophisticated scanners.
Some floated high, so very high, in the sky that they touched the cold space and were always raining and creating their own always changing system. Some were hugging the dirt like a grounder, too dense to leave it and hiding whole worlds behind their veil.
Yes, he had studied them, he knew them.
So, he really should know better that to stare like a besotted sparkling at the white, fluffy, floating cloud in front of him. But she (and the cloud was a she, no question about it) was beautiful, ethereal, and a part of his spark lost himself to the miracle of such a simple, and though so very very complex thing.
A chuckle from Skyfire across the commlines woke him. "Starscream? Have you finished your very very thorough scans of the cloud?"
"Those scans are necessary! We have to document everything."
"But you're finished, right? Then we can finally start the fun part – flying through it!"
The shuttle sped into the white cloud with surprising speed and delighted laughter. Starscream blinked, than snorted and followed him.
And as the cloud softly caressed his wings with lovingly cool touches, he felt himself relax and starting to smile. This was what he was made for, this dance with the wind and cloud and the rain. How had he missed this during all his studies? How come that he hadn't even longed for this feeling of joy and peace before?
He felt a pang of sadness as he remembered the cold cloudless sky on Cybertron that hadn't seen a change in many hundred vorns, since long before of Starscream's creation. He had loved the freedom of flying in it, but now... he suddenly understood that Cybertron's sky was missing its living, ever changing spark and had become empty.
He wondered, what system and cycle had vanished with the clouds or if they simply had been. He wondered if they had been white or red or green. He wondered, if turning the sky's essence into the energon that fuelled the Golden Age, had been worth it.
Then he turned, twisted around and started to play with the cloud and the wind and Skyfire, forgetting everything else and just being free in the gentle embrace of the sky.
(As he flew again through the lifeless and bleak sky on Cybertron, he mourned. The emptiness that once promised freedom now only held the whispers of a dying planet.)
~silber
Note: Not exactly happy, but for... 30minutes? Not too bad.
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no subject
Date: 2012-07-06 07:49 pm (UTC)I love the start, the lightness of it all, and then how it turns bleak with the comparison to Cybertron's dead sky. Still, that he can fly elsewhere through the sky and its clouds, leaves us hoping.
Nice trick, btw - I first thought the POV would be Skyfire's (he seems the type for daydreaming ^.^), but it's even more beautiful when one realizes it is Starscreams! :)
Now I really want to watch "Laputa" again, with the clouds hiding the castle in the sky! I was sooo disappointed when I learned in school that clouds are gathered water molecules and not fluffy T-T
no subject
Date: 2012-07-07 02:36 am (UTC)The comment about using the clouds for energon is intriguing, what gave you the idea?
no subject
Date: 2012-07-07 10:24 am (UTC)The idea, well, in nearly every TF universe it had been said that Cybertron was barren, that there was no energy to be found on the planet anymore. And I wondered, how do you get to that state? On earth we can create energy through the wind, rivers, sunlight, and I'm sure that as an advanced alien race they had the technology to do the same. So, what happened? I wanted a better scenario than 'they lost their sun', because that happened during the war (I think), but the energy problems were known long before that.
My theory: To suck a planet dry you don't only need to mine everything, you have to take all the energy out of the atmosphere and the whole planet system, too. After a time, they simply became so efficient with their technologies that they sucked out every drop of energy created, before it could join the planet's system. Consequence: No wind, no clouds anymore, their sky is literally empty.
Kinda deep for a tf_speedwriting prompt and the energy idea was around for much longer than the prompt, but I'm happy that I could write it finally down. ^^
no subject
Date: 2012-07-07 10:30 am (UTC)Thanks for the praise. :) The idea that the clouds and the wind had been turned into energy was around much longer (if you want the reason, I explained them in a comment below). But I admit, it was supposed to be nice and fluffy and all about the excitement of seeing the first cloud ever!! - but Starscream just said: No, I'm not a sparkling and the moment I wrote the word sparkling the whole story turned around.
Hehe, yes, I love Skyfire and his soft and ncie daydreaming side, but with Starscream... it simply gets another dimension, because this was the first time that Starscream thought: Mmh, maybe not all is right on my home planet.
*laugh* Really? I think my mother explained it to me when he was... 4 or so, too curious for my own good. I tried to get for years why so often there are pictures with people or towns sitting on clouds... XD
no subject
Date: 2012-07-07 11:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-07 04:22 pm (UTC)Yeah, I read the comment and it makes absolute sense that they went that way - one could even argue that we humans are not far from doing the same; what a horrible thought! °-°
I like how it turned away from the pure excitement to Starscream being more contemplative and mourning what is lost to him. It gives him more depth and it makes sense that, for an adult, such happiness at the small things can't last, because we know how fleeting everything is.
RL example: We had SO beautiful rainbows here, three days ago, but I was the only one who even looked and my mum even said it's not her (or my) first one, so why so excited? *sigh* Seriously, I don't want to ever 'fully' grow up if it means that I will lose such little, precious things...
I was weird that way, at least until I went to first class: I wouldn't believe my parents when they explained something to me if it didn't fit my own world-view °-° So I only bought it when my teacher said the same LOL
no subject
Date: 2012-07-15 12:21 pm (UTC)Fleeting as a cloud, as the wind... ;)
I love every time the weather gives us something special. When I manage to get up early enough to see the sunrise, I will happy the whole day. One should treasure such things.
... *lol* you must have driven your parents insane. :)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-16 08:18 am (UTC)I think so, too. Did you see that meteorite shower that went down, I don't know - maybe three weeks ago? Or an aurora, because of the sunstorm we had this WE? I wasn't lucky enough :(
Very much so; the word I was most described with was precocious and my granny said that she would one day write a book with all the hilarious stuff I said :)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-18 03:20 pm (UTC)Nope, I didn't. We had clouds... :( And we had clouds when those polar lights should come. Argh.
*laugh* My mum said I was stubborn, headstrong, and knew what I wanted. And I got what I wanted. XD
no subject
Date: 2012-07-18 07:51 pm (UTC)Was the same here! In recent weeks, I was more pushed home by the wind or had to nearly surf across puddles; it was raining as if someone up there was pulling the plug of a whole swimming pool °_0 Where's the summer?!
I did mostly too ;) But more because I was a spoiled only child LOL
no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 04:58 pm (UTC)Today, it's here! :D Summer time! ^^
Weren't we all, in some way spoiled?
no subject
Date: 2012-07-20 08:39 am (UTC)... where? *looks around* I only see dense blankets of clouds, and I had to run away from showers of sleet and bucket loads of rain and feared that I would get fried by lightning T-T
Sure. But my father is a control-freak with perfectionist ambitions and to him, only people who work are worth anything - so my mother had to compensate. It's complicated.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-22 01:42 pm (UTC)*blue sky* *a few white fluffy clouds* *sun* *free time* I'll go to buy an ice now... ;)
Nice combi to ahve as a father. Can't be easy. Hope your mother takes it well.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 12:16 pm (UTC)*licks her ice-cream* We finally got a bit of summer here as well; Wednesday we'll have 30° - which is already too much for me T-T
As well as someone can without the money needed to get a divorce ^-^" Again, it's complicated.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 01:37 pm (UTC)I saw it today too. *sigh* Summer is summer, and that means hot.
Sounds not exactly great. :/ But I know complicated. My family is the same.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-25 11:34 am (UTC)*g* Then it seems as if we have an awful lot in common ;)