Smooth Talk

Smooth Talk, more commonly known by the ironic moniker of “Saint,” is a Decepticon within the Transformers Animated Universe. He is one of the few ground based Decepticons with an Earth Challenger 2 tank as his alternate mode. His primary function is that of heavy ground support, though in the past he has served as a terrorist, rabble-rouser, and Decepticon propagandist. He prefers hand-to-hand combat and favors a dagger and a bowie knife, but he is also armed with a harpoon, explosive darts, and a La Tene sword, having taken a fondness for Gaelic/Irish culture during his time on Earth. His hands transform into a pick axe and drill, respectively, remnants from his days as a commercial miner.

Saint is known for three things: his speeches, his bad temper, and his constant drinking (and more recently, a penchant for cygars). His temper is even worse when he’s hungover, which is also almost constant. His volatile personality makes it difficult for him to work in a team, and his excessive drinking and resulting withdrawal make him a liability out in the field. However, when he is in working condition, he excels at what he does – it’s only a matter of getting him to stop drinking long enough to perform. Saint is almost as good as Megatron in the speech department, his strength in converting the average working class bot with his simpler vocabulary and appealing lower-class accent and demeanor, though as of late Saint has had no one to speak to.

History
Smooth Talk began life as an orphan living in the streets of Iacon. From the beginning, he had to be tough as nails, cunning, and resourceful in order to survive. He joined one of the many “family” gangs, and quickly learned how to fight in order to defend what little fuel and shelter they had access to. As he grew older, however, he began to help and nurture the younger bots instead of driving them away. It was this paternal side that drove him to find work instead of continuing a life of begging and stealing. He found a job with a local newspad stand, and worked there until young adulthood. It was there that he developed a talent for spinning stories from reciting so many headlines and seeing countless articles’ pictures. His aptitude for story telling even earned him his name, Smooth Talk. Though his tall-tales were ridiculously grandiose and often silly, they entertained the younglings within his family gang and occasionally earned him a credit or two from passersby. It was by sheer luck that an Autotrooper stopped to listen to one of Smooth Talk’s tales, and recognizing a spark of potential in the young bot, offered Smooth Talk a position within the Autotrooper ranks. Smooth Talk’s life would be forever changed.

At first, Smooth Talk made an excellent Autotrooper. He finally learned how to read and write in the trooper academy, and it was discovered that, while he was more than a little rough around the edges, had a good processor in him. On duty, he knew the ins and outs of Iacon like the back of his hand, and knew how to talk to the locals in order to gain their trust and gather information. Off duty, though after a shaky start adjusting to civilized life, he slowly gathered a following of sorts, and became very popular among the other Autotroopers. After several years, Smooth Talk was even given a squadron to lead, and for a time his squadron held the record for the most criminals caught and best performance. But then, things turned sour when a new chief was elected who wanted to purge the city of the slums, the poor, and especially the high number of orphans on the streets. The Autotrooper task force became divided between those loyal to the new chief, and those who followed Smooth Talk and the old chief’s more charitable beliefs. The conflict reached its climax when the chief lead a force into the city with one mission: destroy the slums and exterminate the poor and orphans who lived there. He was met by Smooth Talk and his squadron, and a vicious firefight broke out. It ended with the chief’s death. Realizing what he had done, Smooth Talk and his remaining followers fled underground.

Word of the incident rapidly spread through the underground, and Smooth Talk found himself being hailed by a new name: Saint. However, the attention and praise was completely unwanted by the bot. The death of the chief and the punishment he knew was waiting for him tortured Smooth Talk day in and day out. He knew it was the honorable thing to turn himself in, but he vehemently disagreed with everything the chief had stood for. Deep down, though, he was simply too cowardly to face his deeds and death. Smooth Talk fell into a deep depression, and turned to high grade to try and forget. Since he held no job, however, he soon fell into debt. Drunk out of his mind and powerless to stop him, the owner of the bar’s bouncers took him to an off-planet mining company to repay his debt, and threatened death if Smooth Talk did not repay the owner within the stellar cycle.

Smooth Talk hated every minute at the mining facility. His once gruff but kind attitude was gone, replaced by bitterness and total hatred for both his situation, and himself. He barely managed to pay off his debt to the bar owner in time, as he picked fights so often and so brutal he was more often in the medical bay than in the shafts. His drinking habit turned into a full blown addiction, and he was forced to continue mining in order to pay for his addiction. The bots around him grew disgusted of his behavior and hated him, furthering Smooth Talk’s self hatred. That is, until something finally snapped in Smooth Talk. The huge amount of high grade he had consumed finally damaged his systems beyond automatic repair, and he became delirious while on shift. Unable to process what was going on around him or control his impulses, one of the carts carrying mined energon up to the surface tipped over, completely crushing his left leg. Smooth Talk could not afford a full replacement, and was forced to have a peg leg fitted instead. Weaker without a leg, Smooth Talk was fired from the mining facility.

He returned to the underground, but could not seek out his allies – his funds gone, he could no longer feed his high grade addiction and went through a painful detox that almost killed him. Smooth Talk’s misery was not entirely in vain, however. During the detox process, he experienced vivid hallucinations that changed him. He never spoke of what he saw to anyone, but upon his return to the underground, many swore he had been visited by the spirit of the Allspark. He at last embraced his title of Saint, and rallied his old allies and other poor refuges to aid in his cause: to rid Iacon of its corrupt Autobot leaders and to give them a second chance at life.

Saint’s activities soon attracted both wanted and unwanted attention. In an effort to thwart him, an Autotrooper disguised as a civilian tricked Saint into following him alone, and then lead Saint into an ambush. Saint escaped with his life, but only just; his face had been mutilated in the fight, and he almost bled to death. One of his old squadron gave him a patch up job, but as Saint was now a wanted criminal, he had to live with a destroyed face for many years. During that time, he donned a salvaged mask and visor.

Soon after his brush with death, his speeches and rallies drew the attention of Megatron himself. Saint was perfectly positioned to carry out the Decepticon lord’s latest plan: destroy the new government building that was still in construction on opening day when all of the Autobot senators would be present. Megatron sent an emissary to Saint promising him a steady income, protection, and a place within the Decepticon ranks. Saint quickly agreed to join, and as part of the plan, got a job within the construction company working on the government building. Everything went flawlessly – on opening day, Saint set off explosives he had hidden throughout the building during its construction, killing a large number of senators. However, there was a hidden cost Saint had not bargained on: what remained of his old squadron had been hired, unknown to him, by the same construction company, and were killed in the building’s collapse. Saint finally united with Megatron to receive his Deceptibrand, but with a heavy spark.

Saint’s Decepticon career started off badly. He relapsed into depression and drinking, and what popularity he had earned by his past deeds was destroyed by his bad temper. To get him out from underfoot, he was practically banished to a team infamous for having the very dregs of the Decepticon army, and the very worst track record: Team Kalis. Remarkably, Saint’s life began to turn around while on the team. Its leader, Aphelion, saw past Saint’s drinking addiction, seemingly violent nature, and even his disfigured face. A tentative and shaky friendship was born, which over many years and through many hardships, slowly turned to love. The pair turned Team Kalis’s track record around to make it one of the most deadly and efficient teams in the Decepticon army. Though Megatron dispersed the team because of resource shortages, Aphelion and Saint remained inseparable.

Connections
Saint is the conjunx endura of the flyer Aphelion, and the former makes it obvious. He is extremely protective of his partner, to the point of possessiveness. Saint will kill anyone who threatens Aphelion with zero hesitation. If a bot crosses Aphelion, they cross Saint as well, and he will not be happy.

Twitter Roleplay
Saint's IC Twitter handle is @DamnedSaint.

Saint still enjoys a night of drinking, and did not join the main cast on Earth until recently. His most recent exploits include participating in a devastating raid on the Neutral base, resulting in the death of Flamewar’s Shattered Glass counterpart, and roughing up Wind Slash in a second confrontation within Detroit.

With the apparent disappearance of his conjunx endura, Aphelion, Saint's loyalty to Megatron has faltered, and his mental state is poor. He has returned to binge drinking, and in a particularly nasty bought, got himself too drunk to defend himself against the Autobots, who took him prisoner. He revealed privy information to the Autobots while still drunk and hinted that he may defect in the future, but the consequent withdrawal he suffered from his binging has delayed the Autobots from pressing him further.