( OPEN ) the problem with history

[tomemyoutliers]

who: senator shockwave & YOU (and also a guest appearance by optimus prime)

where: his lab. also the forum at night.
when: sometime. probably.
what: shockwave does things he shouldn’t.
warnings: nope!



i.

Shockwave is most often found in his lab, various remains of half started projects with the minimal resources they have available scattered around the area. His most precious and pressing project is the holographic map of the city and surrounding area - as far as he’d managed to get out of the city before being pulled back by some unknown compulsion. If he cannot map the entire planet, then he’ll make what he does know as detailed as possible; there’s notes about soil composition and guesses as to what the ruins were, if they’re too far destroyed to tell from looking. It remains constantly on, the projection spinning in the middle of his lab for lack of anywhere else to put it.

His other main project, however, is something he’s not willing to share. It’s a half formed idea, born of a failed project he had so much hope in a million or so years ago. But he only works on it in spurts, grabbing a seemingly random datapad out of the stacks he’s managed to accumulate to jot down a few notes before moving on with other work.

Most days find him in a good mood as well, and today is no different, although he is looking very intently at a datapad, occasionally looking up at what appear to be cans of various colors of paint. A literal vanity project, if you will. But he’s more than happy to be disturbed by whoever or whatever comes to his door.

ii. closed to optimus prime

"Meet me at the forum tonight. Around eight. - Shockwave"

He’d thought it was a clear enough message to Optimus that needed no followup. Optimus would come, as he always did when Shockwave requested his presence. Although here it was different - there was no need to plot to overthrow the government, and the lack of one both amused and bothered him. Everyone seemed to know their place, worked in the organization they were familiar with. Military procedure, defaulting to the chain of command.

As a civilian, Shockwave found little comfort in that, even if Optimus was heading the faction Shockwave would have joined when pressed. But at the same time there was a sliver of realization that his work could be his own, as it was back on Cybertron, with no need for him to answer to anyone if anyone questioned him. Regardless, the focus here was not his relief in the freedom to do as he pleased, but meeting Optimus. Valeria’s conversation still stuck in his head: Whatever's involved in initiating a romantic relationship for your species, you should do it to Optimus. Simple enough, and something Shockwave certainly didn’t have any objections to, the question was Optimus, as it always was.

But he wasn’t going to find out if the other bot returned at least his physical attraction - if not emotional - by sitting around in his lab. So inviting the other for a simple nighttime stroll it is - now he simply had to wait for the other to show.

Shockwave had waited for Optimus any number of times in his life, what was one more?

Comments

[tomemyoutliers]

Yeah, fat chance, Sentinel.

"You know," he says, incredibly smug at the first look of Proteus' Prime since their unfortunate earlier encounter, "I think you've seen better days."

[staygoldponybot]

"Haven't we all?" he says, nonplussed.

"This isn't really the time to be concerned about repaints."

Though Sentinel would happily murder a guy for a buff and polish.