You aren't normally drawn to old music players, not when you have a phone that has all the music you could need on it, but when you stumbled across a chunky blue and white cassette player with a strange purple insignia on the glass where you assume the cassettes go, you could have sworn it was calling out to you.

Before you knew it, you'd brought it and were bringing it home with you, along with a few old cassette tapes.

The thing has to be over 40 years old, but looks like new, and when you try to find a label to figure out what company made it, there's nothing.

So probably a custom-made cassette player. Maybe. To be honest, you don't really care.

Unbeknownst to you, the cassette player you brought is a Cybertronian in his alt mode. Or, more accurately, stuck in his alt mode.

Soundwave had gotten stuck in his cassette player alt mode several decades ago, and much to his chagrin, has changed human 'owners' multiple times over the past years.

Although documenting the humans had been enough to pass the time for a bit, Soundwave is thoroughly sick of humans.

Being touched by their grubby organic hands, being forced to play their usually horrible music, but most of all, being separated from his cassette bots and the Decepticon cause for so long.

His outlier ability to read minds is at least good for spying, and the only thing keeping the Decepticon Spymaster sane is the fact that he's used to being on stakeouts.

Each day is more and more torturous, but at least you placed him in the sun.

It's the little things.