VIDEO

[rodders]

( This is Rodimus. This is Rodimus doing his best not to look panicked. He is calm, he is grace, he is awesome and not at all freaking out about the fact that someone has gone missing. )

Has anyone seen Drift? He hasn't been home in days and I've looked for him. Really looked, okay, and I can't find him at all. ( He remembers what happened last time, alright. ) So uh, if you find him tell him to stop meditating or whatever spiritual thing he's doing. Seriously. Drift, if you can hear this, knock it off.

( You'd think he'd learn his lesson after leaving increasingly agitated messages on his personal comm while Drift was bleeding out before. But it's the bit before that makes him snap into a less together, more pissed expression. )

Tarn. If I find that you so much laid a hand on Drift I'm gonna burn you to a crisp.

( The fact that Rodimus is small and breakable compared to Tarn's everything is clearly not a problem. He means it, Tarn, he'll find a way. )

Comments

[video]

[asafepairofhands]

Looked where, and how far?

[Ratchet's voice is tightly controlled, almost crisp over the video feed, but there's a hollow sick look in his optics, his tanks rolling. He knows he's not exactly in much shape to mount a rescue mission, not in the condition he's in, and the idea of waiting around for someone else to bring Drift back is almost unbearable right now.]

How many days?

[video]

[rodders]

Everywhere, Ratchet. I've driven as far as it'll let me go in most directions and I can't even find tire tracks or anything.

( He's trying not to sound as worried as he is, and mostly failing. )

Three? Maybe four.

[asafepairofhands]

I see. [That's well and truly missing, then.] And do you have any further useful information, or are you just intent on sending everyone who gives a damn and hasn't disappeared into spark failure with this uselessly general announcement?

[That isn't fair and Ratchet knows it. He controls his temper and the fear fraying it with a tremendous exertion of will, cycling his vents very slowly.]

Can you try to organize a search party? As soon as possible, perhaps, since he's already been missing several days? ...I can prep a slab in the medibay just in case.

[rodders]

I'm trying to get some. ( He snaps back, defensive. Drift's treatment at the hand of Tarn is something still fresh in his mind, and god forbid Drift be dead. ) I could wander around asking every bot I saw if they've seen him but this is easiest. And more people'll know this way, plus it's harder to ignore.

( Rodimus can't lose him again. For a third time. He just can't. )

Yeah. Yeah I'll ask anyone who replies who can. We'll find him.

( We have to goes unsaid. )

[asafepairofhands]

Yeah. ...yeah, all right.

[Suddenly, Ratchet just sounds extremely tired, his optics flickering as he looks away, his jaw tightening slowly.]

We will. He can't have gone far. I have a patient here that needs close monitoring, but it's not like I'll be much use in a search anyway. I'll spread the word around the clinic, see if Megatron can go looking. The Decepticons are more likely to tell him if they've seen Drift than anybody.

[rodders]

( Rodimus doesn't want to let Megatron go searching for Drift, but it's Drift, and he'd be foolish to turn down the extra help when it means life or death for his fr-- for Drift. )

Thanks, Ratchet. That'll-- hopefully someone'll have caught a glimpse of him or something.