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Entry tags:
step one: stop fighting robots
Who: Verity and OPENish
Where: Autobot Clinic
When: Noooow??
What: The fallout of this
Warnings: Injuries, TBD.
[ Once she shook loose from Arcee, Verity bagged out. She was not inclined to trust anyone let alone someone closely associated with Prowl, on good terms or not, but she trusted Arcee to run interference long enough for her to clear out of there. Running away happened to be one of Verity's talents and one she took immediate advantage of when the opportunity presented itself. ]
Shit - shit.
[ Burning rubber screeched on the metal floor of the clinic followed by a loud crash when a disoriented Verity slammed into a nearby steel utility table; spilling all kinds of equipment onto the floor. The clinic was dark - of course it was, everyone was off getting stupid at that party at the forum. Verity swore louder as she staggered up and waved her arm wildly in front of a motion sensor near the doorframe that brought the lights back on.
I fucked up, was all Verity could think while stumbling through the clinic wildly searching for anything that looked human friendly. ]
Enough people on this rock they should have painkillers or someth- hnng.
[ Verity stopped near a minicon sized gurney. She pulled herself up and once she was sitting felt the full force of what a little scuffle with something rip snorting pissed off and over thirty feet tall did. The plates of her armor retracted back until she was down to her clothes. Stomach rolling as she took rapid shallow breaths close to hyperventilating, pulling her shirt up to find angry red and purple bruising covering her entire right side. She cringed, looking down to see the inflamed mess that was her foot that twisted awkwardly at the ankle.
Winded, Verity collapsed on her back. Leaving her armor in pieces around her on the ground as she tried to steady her breathing. ]
Where: Autobot Clinic
When: Noooow??
What: The fallout of this
Warnings: Injuries, TBD.
[ Once she shook loose from Arcee, Verity bagged out. She was not inclined to trust anyone let alone someone closely associated with Prowl, on good terms or not, but she trusted Arcee to run interference long enough for her to clear out of there. Running away happened to be one of Verity's talents and one she took immediate advantage of when the opportunity presented itself. ]
Shit - shit.
[ Burning rubber screeched on the metal floor of the clinic followed by a loud crash when a disoriented Verity slammed into a nearby steel utility table; spilling all kinds of equipment onto the floor. The clinic was dark - of course it was, everyone was off getting stupid at that party at the forum. Verity swore louder as she staggered up and waved her arm wildly in front of a motion sensor near the doorframe that brought the lights back on.
I fucked up, was all Verity could think while stumbling through the clinic wildly searching for anything that looked human friendly. ]
Enough people on this rock they should have painkillers or someth- hnng.
[ Verity stopped near a minicon sized gurney. She pulled herself up and once she was sitting felt the full force of what a little scuffle with something rip snorting pissed off and over thirty feet tall did. The plates of her armor retracted back until she was down to her clothes. Stomach rolling as she took rapid shallow breaths close to hyperventilating, pulling her shirt up to find angry red and purple bruising covering her entire right side. She cringed, looking down to see the inflamed mess that was her foot that twisted awkwardly at the ankle.
Winded, Verity collapsed on her back. Leaving her armor in pieces around her on the ground as she tried to steady her breathing. ]
no subject
[ The news coming out of Cybertron - 'their' Cybertron, not this sad abandoned thing, wasn't all good. Sure, the war was over and Megatron was apparently committed to the Autobot brand on his chest - but the transitional period was one big rough patch with its own casualties. Verity sees the tension coming off Bumblebee like warning lights and doesn't press. ]
Yeah, I hear he's around. Trouble?
[ Only one person short of wearing a Decepticon brand could suck all the joy out of a conversation, and that was Prowl. Verity reasoned not to be forthcoming with the details of their fight, even to Bee, but she worried all the same. And speaking of brands.. ]
You're, uh, missing a little something there, Bee...
[ Verity motions to her chest where on Bumblebee there should be a familiar red mark where a scratched up patch of nothing stood like a scar on his yellow frame. ]
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[ because Prowl had become such an ass it was hard to discern his true self from the one under Decepticon control. it's something Bee still feels bad about. he'd explain that, but Verity is gesturing to his chest.
Bumblebee doesn't have to look to understand. he doesn't want to talk about that either. not in length. how do you tell someone that you died? Verity has had enough loss in her life. she doesn't need to mourn another.
so he shrugs. ]
It's not missing. A former Decepticon decided to wear it instead.
[ three guesses as to who. ]
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[ Because Prowl. ]
What?
[ She leaned forward as if taking a closer look would suss out exactly what had happened, and coming up short. ]
A former Decepti- [ And then it clicked. ]
You've kidding me. [ Her voice was thin somewhere between disbelief and outrage on Bumblebee's behalf. ] Which Megatron just up and decided that was an okay thing to do? My nurse, or the bigger one that quit the field? Because if the former even I could probably twist his arm to cough it up.
This is bullshit. Those things can't be hard to find.
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[ because Prowl. his strongest asset just happens to be the bane of their existence lately.
but as Verity talks, it's clear that she misunderstands the situation. now Bee's not sure about it himself - Megatron had appeared sincere when they spoke, but who really knows? Bumblebee just hopes that maybe Megatron wearing his badge will spur the guy to actually find himself again. live up to what it means and all of that. ]
It's not the younger one, Verity. I guess he changed sides after dealing with Shockwave.
[ ironically? Bee doesn't have the full story. he's been filled in on a lot of things, but not the intimate details of that. ]
If it's really causing him to do some spark-searching, then I really don't mind. [ a pause and Bee leans closer to Verity. ] Too much, anyway. I still don't know what to think of it. What's the proper emotional response to a guy you've been fighting since forever taking your badge as his own? Touched by the fact I must've left an impression or weirded out? 'Cause I'm not sure.
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[ When someone tries to draw the infinite universe into a singular never ending point and you hear about it secondhand. It's really best to just smile and nod. Shockwave wasn't their problem right now so she'd take it all for what it was. ]
People are people. Not launching pads for someone else's navel gazing.
[ Verity sniffed at Bumblebee's half-hearted attempt to find the hand he had been dealt acceptable. Not when she thought it was all bullshit. Now they had all but put their heads together, speaking in hushed voices. Someone could be listening. Someone usually was. ]
They say the war's over but frankly I'm balked by the decided lack of any kind of official response. As if everyone just unanimously quits the field and last one out hits the lights.
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[ that year and a half trying to lead had taught him that the hard way. Bumblebee considers Optimus a very good friend and a great commander. but he doubt the guy has the capacity to actually unite Cybertronians. til all are one? not likely.
but he tries, bless him.
anyway, Bee grins at Verity's response. he knows what she's getting at, really. political moves are... yeah. ]
I want to think that he means it. Before I was - [ and cutting himself off ]. Before Shockwave was dealt with, he actually listened to what I had to say and, maybe reluctantly, let those words reach hm. Maybe I'm being optimistic, but I have to be. I started to make some of the mistakes he did early on.
[ just throwing that out there. Bumblebee had started making questionable choices. isolating himself. becoming someone he really wasn't. that's how it starts, right? so maybe it's not just a hope that Megatron can find that part of himself again, but Bee too.
he probably SHOULDN'T make the next comment, but it kind of has to be said. ]
You know, you sound a little like Prowl. Is the war over? Yes, it really is. No one is out in space trying to defend a planet nor are there others working to cyberform one. Are the Decepticons finished? Probably not. Will there still be fighting? Definitely. We've known war for longer than some of us have even lived. I don't think we remember how to do anything else but fight.
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[ Expression slack and tone dropping several degrees in warmth to coolly neutral. Verity isn't offended by the comparison she had drawn for her a few times now. So much as she is chilled down the spine looking down the possibility that she and Prowl actually were cut from the same cloth. Bee and her had said it themselves - were they really even insulting the guy?
Maybe it just rubbed her the wrong way when her wounds were still fresh. ]
Alright, fair. I'm not going to try and navigate the warp and weft of something four million years in the making that came to a hault because a couple people drew lots and both side came out tied. Optimus meanwhile has his moral compass rusted in place where he still wants to see the good in people.
Good for him, but the fighting hasn't stopped here where our population is so small we're just a large bar fight if better armed.
[ She sighs and the tension in her shoulders goes with it. ]
Maybe I'm just worried you still got burned in the interim. I've always liked bugs. So maybe I'm just biased.
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Yeah, he does. I think that's what makes him a good person at spark. His is far stronger than anyone I know. He's seen so much and yet remains hopeful.
But it doesn't exactly help us right now. Because you're one hundred percent right, Verity. We could really do something here and what are we presently doing about it? Still falling into the slag that killed our home in the first place.
[ he shrugs his shoulders. it is what it is. the burden of leadership is no longer his to bear. probably better that way.
Verity can still make Bee grin. she's here. alive. MOSTLY okay. that's good enough for now. so what if he got burned. he kind of asked for it. ]
You can be biased for me all you want. Primus knows I haven't got a lot of good friends left. Maybe I can convince Ratch to finish patching me up and doodling a badge.
no subject
[ Verity doesn't tense up and pats Bumblebee reassuringly on the arm. Maybe Ratchet had her used to physical reassurance now, or simply she did like Bee and saw him as friend. Occam's Razor cut through the barriers that made tête-à-tête difficult. ]
Not a bad stopgap. Draw a smiley face on it and I'll even ask him or maybe even Impactor to tattoo the brand on my other shoulder or something. Somewhere easy to see.
[ At first she sounds like she turned the comment into a lighthearted - until now she actually thought about it. ]
Or I should to Optimus.
Thing is - I do want to fight. Even if I have to upgrade my armor enough times to fund a new cyberformed planet. Thing is even five years ago I thought about it, and there's only two ways to go out for me now. Dead in fifty years which isn't even a blip on your radar, or a smoking crater where I lost a game of tag with an ion blaster.
War or not I still want to fight. I don't connect well with other humans, never did - moreso now, and even though I'm not made of tougher stuff at least I chose to. No one put a gun in my hand and watered down data packets about a planet I never hope to see the moment I woke up. Roadbuster? He's big enough not to stand tippy toe with Magnus, but he couldn't even read the documents telling him he was an Autobot. MTOs don't after the luxury of choosing sides like I still do.
[ Verity laughed despite herself. ]
Shit, now I'm the one naval gazing.
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Bumblebee does fall silent when she starts to talk. if Verity thinks that Bee is against it - ]
If you want to fight, then fight. [ shrugs. ] But know that there's a time to fight and then there's a time to lay down arms. You've got to know how to balance it.
[ after all, it had been Bumblebee that said that they need to defy Prowl's orders and go to that abandoned base with the humans. Bee never has thought of them as a weak race or unworthy to fight alongside. ]
Didn't one of your presidents say "speak softly but carry a big stick?"
[ meaning he totally thinks it's okay for Verity to want to fight - but when it's appropriate to. ]
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[ Maybe not the point you were trying to make, Verity but curb your pedantic need to get a word in edgewise. ]
I can play nice.
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No, you really can't. [ Verity is the fieriest out of the humans they had encountered. ] But that's fine, you being you.
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War over officially or not, conflict in and if itself doesn't exclusive involve willing participants. Were that the case you and I would never have met.
[ Even if she was grateful instead of bitter, Verity remembers clearly how Earth coldly transitioned from peripheral to a primary theater of war. ]
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[ because Bee has encountered plenty of different races. he's made plenty of friends too. ]
Well. Besides kick Sentinel and Zeta out of Primacy.
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[ Verity was speaking in hyperbole, but no Cybertronian ever had to go unwanted through an uncaring foster system. Enough that homelessness and hitchhiking seemed and preferable alternative. ]
Sentinel...Zeta...
[ Her brow furrows, drawing up half-remembered names from old texts. ]
Zeta was Optimus's predecessor and Sentinel was the dumb muscle, right? Just one more reason a title like Prime leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth.
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[ Bee gets shot at. a lot. his little frame is still lucky to be standing.
however, he nods at Verity's recognition of those names. he also agrees about the whole Prime thing. ]
You can see why our people, upon being called home, were weary of Optimus. It doesn't matter how noble the guy's spark was... The people don't trust Primes. It's unfair, really. Sentinel was bad, but he wasn't as batshit as Zeta.
[ after all, Bee did work under Sentinel for a while. ]
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[ Again, not that she was bitter. ]
Read something about Zeta being the fulcrum for rights for the Disposable slave caste and so on. You know; history has a way of introducing the worst tyrants with the most admirable intentions.
I'm familiar enough with Megatron's edict that I'd like to believe it's happened enough in one lifetime. That Optimus can do better.
no subject
[ just in case she wanted to see them all again. Bee would like to think so, but you never know. ]
Zeta had been a good guy at one point. Optimus, as Orion, vouched for him and everything. He, just like Megatron, kind of lost the vision. He basically created an energon sucking weapon to try to get rid of the Decepticons. It just drained it from people too.
[ that had been... way too extreme. Bee doesn't understand how it happens. but then again maybe leadership and having such things on someone's shoulder just chips away at the spark. slowly. like rust. ]
As for Optimus... Yes. He could. I think that the people need to realize that first. He needs to as well.