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OPEN |
Who: Shockwave and YOU, unfortunately
Where: Around
When: Oh man who cares.
What: Cracks knuckles despite only having one working hand - it's time for Science.
Warnings: Shockwave. Will update as needed.
( a ) city
The laboratory was stopgap; very much a work in progress with antiquated equipment identified after the sheets of dust and debris were pulled back revealing something, well, altogether underwhelming. Shockwave had worked in greater want for his nigh impossible standards met in the past, but he felt the simplicity that ruled his life now more challenge than before. All because he was presented with the rather disturbing mystery to be opened up and examined: What, in his absence, could have so thoroughly salted the earth. Reverse engineering the apocalypse certainly seemed like a task he could accomplish given time.
Shockwave needed to work - too many questions to be answered, and after Emma carved that much-needed stricture into his brow he was...spurred to begin anew with greater purpose. The bare bones of what he surmised to be a university research lab would have to suffice. For now.
Prodding the nerve endings of the network, now more noticed by the outside world than a ripple in a greater reservoir, he examined the footprints left behind by the minds behind it, amused with how rudimentary it was. Impressed that even existed at all. A Beowulf cluster suddenly superseded all other priorities; something closed and close to the chest away from prying eyes. In the matter of hours all useable hardware had been cannibalized with the stripped parts left out the front doors out into a narrow alleyway between the lab and desolate campus like bones spat out at the mouth of a monsters' cave. The afterthought of his mess a warning written loud and clear: Stay Away.
( b ) wildcard
( pick your own adventure; finding holo avatar Shockwave in somewhere too small for his regular old purplesaurus rex self or any other feasible random encounter )
Where: Around
When: Oh man who cares.
What: Cracks knuckles despite only having one working hand - it's time for Science.
Warnings: Shockwave. Will update as needed.
( a ) city
The laboratory was stopgap; very much a work in progress with antiquated equipment identified after the sheets of dust and debris were pulled back revealing something, well, altogether underwhelming. Shockwave had worked in greater want for his nigh impossible standards met in the past, but he felt the simplicity that ruled his life now more challenge than before. All because he was presented with the rather disturbing mystery to be opened up and examined: What, in his absence, could have so thoroughly salted the earth. Reverse engineering the apocalypse certainly seemed like a task he could accomplish given time.
Shockwave needed to work - too many questions to be answered, and after Emma carved that much-needed stricture into his brow he was...spurred to begin anew with greater purpose. The bare bones of what he surmised to be a university research lab would have to suffice. For now.
Prodding the nerve endings of the network, now more noticed by the outside world than a ripple in a greater reservoir, he examined the footprints left behind by the minds behind it, amused with how rudimentary it was. Impressed that even existed at all. A Beowulf cluster suddenly superseded all other priorities; something closed and close to the chest away from prying eyes. In the matter of hours all useable hardware had been cannibalized with the stripped parts left out the front doors out into a narrow alleyway between the lab and desolate campus like bones spat out at the mouth of a monsters' cave. The afterthought of his mess a warning written loud and clear: Stay Away.
( b ) wildcard
( pick your own adventure; finding holo avatar Shockwave in somewhere too small for his regular old purplesaurus rex self or any other feasible random encounter )
no subject
"Then it's your decision, Shockwave. To decide who you were and are now. Either way, I won't change my opinion of you. You have always been Shockwave to me, even now. Even during the four million years we tried to end each other's life."
...He'll stop there. Because wow that got awkward ONTO THE CURRENT MISSION.
"You're correct. We have humans and other organic beings making residence here. We need to make sure they're taken care of too, perhaps even before us." Because they know Cybertron's atmosphere. They're used to it.
Organic life? Might not adapt so well long term.
no subject
Sharp and sudden, a wire bin roll file with broken wheel rocked and fell over; rolled blueprints spilling over when Shockwave slammed the flat of his hand on his desk. A harsh noise only matched by the flaring heat in his voice rising and falling like a slowly suffocating flame. To think they both used to be well-known for their tempers.
Shockwave stiffened up again and coolly replied, "Cybertron itself is changing. We must adapt."
no subject
Deep down, the anger was freeing, to know that something was at least affecting the other, instead of the dead apathy he'd heard for so long. Emotion meant life, and Shockwave for the first time in four million years was living. If he had to take the brunt of some anger, he would gladly do so.
More than gladly for him.
"Shockwave--" He doesn't know what he's going to say. Anything he could possibly add would fail in both delivery and comparison to what Shockwave's probably feeling. "That's the nature of our race. We will adapt."
A hand goes out to that shoulder. A daring move, reaching towards him so suddenly. But he knows Shockwave, and if he had to take a blast from him to prove that, he would.
"It's what we're best at."
no subject
Shockwave nearly said it only for too many obstructions holdover from an eternity riding out the ceaseless, deadening indifference that had for long defined him holding Shockwave back from voice even minor discomforts. Something about the way Optimus held him as though he would shatter at any moment or even combust with his gaze alone turned his insides to knots. Anger was the quickest, most immediate emotion for him to latch onto and he wanted to hate this more than he already did. Only he was coming up short, and staring down the rather frightening prospect that he couldn't navigate this one on logic and bursts of fury alone this time around.
"You must be busy with your wayward Autobots." Shockwave said, a guarded way of giving Optimus an out as his large yellow eye drifted to an empty wall and his shoulder slumped as if the hand over it weighed a great deal more than it did. "Enough that watching me calculate the logistics of treated water within city limits is hardly worth your time."
The room grew quiet again and Shockwave realized that after a life isolating himself the sudden shift to recognizing the inherent abnormality of being cut off from all low risk social interaction made something as simple as attempts to reconnect feel futile. Like beating his fists against the walls of a vacuous, empty space for none to hear. He still doesn't want to look passed the blank wall in the far corner.
"It's...strange." Shockwave wanted to say it was 'funny' but that word felt beyond him, "Too many years playing consigliere and ad hoc medic between radical attempts at reshaping the universe itself and engineering a stable water treatment plant is taking up all my time. Something to be said there for the ills of excessive specialization."
no subject
"I'm busy with my wayward friends, no matter what faction they aligned to," he softly states, trying to catch a glimpse of that yellow optic trying to avoid his gaze. "And it's the same with you--I want to know if you are alright--if you need my help."
Now or in the future.
But the silence was louder than any shout, any exclamation could sound in the room, and it made Optimus's plating uneasy. Conversation was so easy for them many years ago. Now they were like acquaintences again, scoping for safe topics.
"Perhaps it's time you allowed yourself room to breathe, as humans would say."
no subject
The blank space between the corners of the wall stopped drawing him in, away. When he looks back his eye hooks into and latches onto Optimus in an unwavering gaze.
"I've been breathing in empty spaces for the last four million years." His hand slowly eases up until it closes around Optimus's wrist. "In that endless space it's suffocating."
no subject
Slowly, his hand grips the other's wrist, just like his is being held.
"I'm here, Shockwave. The universe has a plan for me, and until I find out what that is, I'm here."
no subject
"Don't-" Voice heavy with the strain of each infliction a flicker in the yellow light as plates shifted around his shoulders and the rolling friction under Optimus's gentle grasp ignited. "Do this to yourself again."
no subject
"I won't let you suffocate."
no subject
There were a few shared red letter days between them but the nonspecific response was not without intent; he dwelled nowadays perhaps as much as Optimus forced himself to when it came to revisiting old mistakes. Mistakes was a charitable word and they had been in no short supply of either regret or more comfortable words they used to distance themselves.
"We're no longer helpless." Shockwave watches as his fingers slip through hands that anchored him there for however loose the actual grip was and where his palm splays open on the dented and cracking chestplate he knew if he cracked open he'd see his own marred handiwork that survived a life time. "Simply tired."
no subject
"Tired is a good word for it." His voice is even softer, every sentence more like a suggestion than a statement.
"But we can't rest just yet."
no subject
Knees dip forward, the back of his legs knocking softly against the side of the desk as even the weight of Optimus standing tall over him was almost palpable. Shockwave notes his hand hadn't moved yet he didn't feel compelled to rectify this. It sends pangs pulsing deep in his chest like a freshly healed t-cog shifting constantly as it heals. Nostalgia.
"Yet you and I will, at either our best or worst depending on the perspective, would never be accused of idleness."
no subject
Stagnant in itself.
"But I don't think the planet would want that either. So maybe this new world is our mission now."
no subject
There had always been that fine line that could fissure into a gulf between involvement out of a simple altruistism and forcing change on the unwilling. Optimus may not have the cleanest hands himself, but something should be said for his unwavering dedication and near reverence for where that line was drawn. Shockwave would have liked to say the same, but that empty space dug into that chestplate was all the reminder he needed that he himself had been without fault. So much time between then and the postive outcome dimmed his normally pragmatic sense of perspective.
If only he...
Shockwave stepped away and half turned towards a running monitor on the desk.
"I want to show you something."
no subject
Sometimes he just didn't know anymore. But he kept going, because in the end...that's all he knew how to do.
Those eyes flick up, though, looking at Shockwave both bright and inquisitive. "What is it?"
1/2
Beneath their feet something came to life with the oscillating whirr of vents pouring open as an aperture under the dark glass that made up for a large part of the floor peels apart like a slowly opening eye. A beam of blue light shoots up and connects from floor to ceiling then fans out into a cubed space that nearly covers the entirety of the room save for where Shockwave is standing but domed over Optimus. The entire lab illuminated in a pale blue that shifts and flows like light on a waters' surface.
Within the space of the holographic cube at the base of it lines of code begin to build into rudimentary, pixelated shapes that begin to take on more increasingly complex dimensions and structures. In an instant - Cybertron, whole and perfect is a living model no taller than ankle height. In place of the Grand Imperium fragile looking silver spires shoot up around a complex aqueduct that runs through the city like veins weaving and flowing around the domed aerial academy and Trion Square. Iacon reimagined as a techno-organic polity that glimmers like beautiful mirage it is.
no subject
Shockwave inched forward his outline becoming more defined the closer he moved against the frail surface tension of being so close to the edges of the light box. The tips of his fingers broke through the blue wall; the light parting as if he stuck his hands through a waterfall. The pale purple of his fingers shifted to white, then his forearm turned the same color the further he moved in. The ends of his elbow fanned out to a more jet-like conformation bright green in color.
Two eyes the same glowing spark blue that surrounded them were level with Optimus. Two hands at his sides, smoother without the cracks and dents of age. One mouth curled into a smile that waxed and waned in its melancholy as the light box seamlessly turned a monster into a ghost. One face fade away like two pictures with double exposure bled back into one.
Shockwave - who Shockwave used to be walked over Iacon; the city quivered and broke apart into static in his wake. Two hands rose from where they hung limp at his sides slowly, slowly. Two hands splayed their fingers open over Optimus's forearms the physical contact emitting a dull glow that pulsed and ebbed as hands ran down to rest against the others palms.
"I've waited so long to do that..."
Optics dimmed closed with a heavy exhale. Shockwave had removed nervecircuits in his hands and wrists years ago to expedite his work and remove something so uncontrolled as pain and touch. A brief burst of affection followed by four million years of an endless nothing, and Shockwave couldn't physically feel this. But he knew Optimus could.
no subject
His blue eyes soften at meeting the other's, knowing full well that this wasn't the past being corrected. It was sad, but a kind of sadness that Optimus would let into his spark. Ratchet would say that pain is necessary to feel happiness. Maybe this was what he meant by that.
Looking at a ghost, something so real that he could touch it. But the ghost touches him, instead, eyes slowly tracing down to where they connected, seeing the light. That ache in his spark slowly returning.
"I knew."
There's more to that. Optimus, for as well as he spoke, still had trouble finding words sometimes.
"I knew you could be who you were. This light show...it's certainly spectacular. But your efforts to make it....that's what proves that I'm right. That you've been here this whole time."
And there's the happiness in the pain.
no subject
Knowing that this was all the optics tricking the brain module into believing physical touch was possible. All an illusion until you've convinced yourself otherwise when the reality becomes too painful.
"I never left."
Shockwave had told Emma when she was in his mind: The hard truth at the heart of it all was that Shadowplay, the empurata, all of it - it never had really broken him. It just cut out anything worth breaking. A sad reminder that this had always been him in there. The smitten young senator flirting with agitators or the frigid scientist reducing lives to a cold calculus. When one resurfaces the other never really goes away.
"Just once." Shockwave says thickly as he leans forward; a hairsbreadth knowing that any closer and the hard light projection would be unable to create a convincing enough lie. The crown of his forehead rests gingerly against Optimus's and once more, just above a whisper. "Just this once."
no subject
A trick of the optics wasn't so bad...it was more than what reality had ever given him.
Something in his system hitches as he feels Shockwave move closer, his forehead slowly looming towards his. Those eyes flick down, looking at how his friend had once been, drinking it in. Because if this was an illusion, he wanted to be fooled for as long as possible.
"This once." he repeats, voice as soft as it's ever been.