Starscream (Ties That Bind)

An unrepentant, manipulative schemer and a social chameleon with the gift of gab, Stefan Scavarro or ‘Starscream’ as he’s become known in the Decepticon ranks was never meant to rise above his station as a military-commissioned Cold Construct, but through wit, determination, and questionably-underhanded tactics, managed to claw his way up the political ladder and eventually, the Decepticon chain of command.

Most will tell you to never take his words at face value and to listen, and listen carefully, because he’ll tell you first and foremost that he doesn’t stoop so low as to lie to your face—-not outright anyway, no.

Despite all this, it would surprise people to find that everything he did to tear his way out of the box society had set for him, and behind every whispered threat, is the genuine desire to do good for those under his jurisdiction and to make a better world  than the one that created him.

He just knows from first-hand experience that not everyone has the privilege to do that from a position of playing by the rules and keeping their hands clean—-If the deck is stacked against you, you’d bloody your hands by  breaking the legs of the ones doing the stacking.

It’s complicated, he’s complicated, is what he’d say, and he’d leave it at that.

Early life
Stefan started out his life as a Cold Construct made for the Italian Air Force and was raised from childhood at a military academy. Here, he was trained to be a government asset—-taught to shoot, to fight, to fly in jet simulations.

It was a cutthroat environment, with young Cold Constructs who didn’t preform to expectations being pulled out of the academy to be ‘conditioned’, and his fear of seeing what they became when they came back—-emotionless, monotonous machines—pushed him to excel in what he did beyond his handlers’ expectations.

He learned to ignore pain and abuse as much as he could—-he would heal they said, and they were right; he healed faster than anyone else, and he prided himself in it.

He learned to read people to know who he had an ally in or who could be easily manipulated for him to benefit from—-everyone here was either someone he could use or a rival and he was hell-bent, in knowing that Cold Constructs like him were often expected to die on the field,  on getting through this ordeal in one piece.

Despite all this, he still couldn’t break away from the military chains until he found out that class exemptions existed as ‘gifts’ for those in the lower classes who rendered exemplary services to the government or someone of importance. However he knew that his superior had become too comfortable with his presence at their beck and call to let him go, and so began scheming to buy his freedom.

Forging a new destiny
He took action the next time he was on the field during a skirmish with insurgents at the border, deliberately sabotaging his superior’s intercom prior to taking flight so it would only page to him when they needed help and he laid in wait for them to be cornered by enemy forces.

At the most critical point, he swooped in to make the dramatic save and managed to save them when they were shot down.

While they were hospitalized for their injuries, he spoke to their wife and children, painting himself as a humble pilot whose only thought was of saving their captain during their skirmish.

As he expected, they became his advocates and combined with his superior’s sense of gratitude, he walked out of the Air Force base a free man at 20.

He enrolled in a night class at a community college, studying  political science part-time while working manual jobs in the day time to support his education, and it was in this period that he became involved in unions and working class movements. He felt a powerful sense of solidarity with their struggles and made it his mission to put his knowledge of people and politics to good use, by taking their fight to the Senate.

He decided to run as the district’s younger senator, riding on a wave of grassroots support as a charming, affable man in touch with people with a wining smile, and won enough votes, beating a government-favorite to represent them on the Senate floor. (This remains his the proudest moment in his life for a very long time)

A fox among wolves
At the Senate however, he faced pushback and classism  from the old vanguards who were career politicians taking umbrage with his youth, ‘lowly’ background and lack of polish. Here, he was a fox among wolves for the first time and he truly realized why it was so hard for changes to be made.

His first attempt to pass a bill to push for more rights for Cold Constructs failed miserably, but his earnest attempts to fight for a cause no one else would caught the attention of Senator Shockwave, who saw a kindred spirit and decided to take him under their wing.

With Senator Shockwave who was the first true benefactor he’s ever know, he found a noble, caring figure as beautiful inside, he thought, as they were out, and the two of them spent more and more time together doing legal research to introduce reforms and looking for legal loopholes to use to fight for the working class. At this point, he grew to love Shockwave although never admitted it to the man.

When the Decepticon movement began growing and two Senators who were openly supportive of their cause were murdered, which lead to whispers of corruption within the Senate traveling  around, he became Senator Shockwave’s trusted confidante and followed then man on the ground as they touched base with ‘Orion Pax’, a former cop now-dockworker who had been running an underground publication spreading Megatron’s samizdat writings ‘Towards Peace’ which was fostering a revolution around the world, and Megatron himself.

He formed a friendship with both and all four men began working together to uncover the depths of the Senate’s corruption, all while staying one step ahead of an increasingly-oppressive Clampdown.

Burn it all to the ground
When Megatron began resorting more and more to violence however, Shockwave and Orion Pax began distancing themselves from the man’s rhetoric and Starscream sought to follow them even as he took with him Megatron’s warnings that they had to ‘speak the Senate’s language’.

His uncertainty fired up into rage however when, during a mission which he couldn’t be part of due to his presence being required elsewhere, Shockwave surrendered to government agents to save the lives of Orion Pax and members of Shockwave’s institute.

In that moment he decried Orion Pax as weak and unwilling to do what it took to get the job done (he had made Orion promise prior to the mission that Orion would not leave Shockwave’s side) and went to Megatron’s side, seeking for a way to rescue  Shockwave and enact vengeance on the Senate for the full extent of their crimes.

If he was to speak the language of the Senate to the, he would make sure they were floored (in a pool of their own blood) by the time he was done with his soliloquy.

Personal life
Stefan's healing factor exceeds that of Morgan's, and would be attributed an an anomaly, making him a member of the Homo Prodigium class if he had revealed the extent of it to authorities. Wounds and damaged organs will take him a day to heal while bones will set on their own within three days to a week depending on size and severity. There is debate that this may make him functionally immortal, though no tests have been run on the matter to confirm this.

He is an Atheist.

He was the first pilot to ever test and use Senator Shockwave's prototype flight suit, which eventually became the standard flight suit for aerial dogfights during the war.

His hobbies include dancing, cooking, flying and studying the speeches of famous statesmen.