robothell | Tarn and the very bad no good terrible week

Who: Tarn and Drift and Tarn and You
Where: The city center
When: A few days after the Rodimus incident
What: Tarn has an unfortunate run in with some new friends
Warnings: Tarn. Violence to come

Tarn has had bad days before. Occasionally his latest victim would get a good punch in, perhaps they were particularly good at eluding himself and his team, or they managed to temporarily escape. Maybe the pet decided to gnaw on a particularly important set of data pads. Or Vos decided to poach parts from one of the cleaning drones. Again.

Any of that is a walk in the park compared to the viciously terrible week Tarn has had. So far he has been transported to an alternate Cybertron without his consent. He has been harassed by Autobots, burned, shot at, disrespected,; but really, the proverbial cherry on top of the whole mess, was the incident with Megatron. The founder of the Decepticons, the mech he has sacrificed his identity, his name, his very life to serving, turned traitorous. Betraying his own faction and trading his own badge for an Autobrand. Honestly, Tarn is having a difficult time even wrapping his mind around the whole thing. One thing is for certain though...he is angry and on the hunt for someone to take his aggression out on.

He has been prowling the city ruins for hours, stopping every few minutes to transform a few times, just to take the edge off. He can feel his T-cog grinding more and more with every transformation. He is familiar with the sensation and the knowledge that the cog probably wont last him the month only adds to his every growing ire.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Starscream has been making himself as scarce as possible, between the huge amount of Autobots here and Dreadwing lurking around somewhere waiting to fucking murder him.

It's honestly a surprise when he not only sees what is REALLY OBVIOUSLY another Decepticon, but also one that he doesn't recognize. In his timeline, it's been ages since he tried to sling any authority over other members of the cause, or even interacted with any Decepticons aside from Megatron. He's honestly not sure how to approach this mystery bot (who appears to be in a right foul mood).

Obviously he needs to introduce himself. If all else fails, he can pull rank on this guy. And if all else really fails... well, if there's one thing Starscream is confident in, it's his ability to run the fuck away when there's a real threat.

"You there!" he barks at Tarn, puffing his chest out so his badge is proudly on display pointing one talon in the other bot's direction. His optics narrow suspiciously. "You wear the same brand as I, yet I do not recognize you. What's your name and rank?"

Another Decepticon. Tarn turns to address the stranger, straightening up to give him a sort of up and down appraising look. It seems as if a strong breeze could tear him apart. Or so Tarn thinks.

He can tell this will be an infuriating meeting just by the jet's posture. From what he gathered from Dreadwing, Tarn has an inkling of who this may be.

"Tarn. Commander of the Decepticon Justice Division." He takes a step forward, head held high. "And yourself?"

Hey he may be spindly, but he's sturdier than he looks. He has to be, considering the beatings he's taken over the years.

"Hmm. I've never heard of that division before... which means you're probably not from the same world that I am, so I'll give you a pass this once for not recognizing me," he huffs, rubbing his considerably sized chin thoughtfully and narrowing his eyes.

"You have the great honor of addressing Starscream, Air Commander, and First Lieutenant and Second in Command to Lord Megatron," the seeker proclaims proudly, puffing up to full height again.

Decepticon rankings where he comes from make absolutely zero goddamn sense.

The enormous eye roll that Tarn gives while listening to Starscream prattle on, and puff up like some ridiculous prized bird, is certainly something to behold. He supposes he should be polite; the air commander does technically have the advantage of rank. But in the scheme of things this Starscream's position means nothing. Its not as if Tarn expects an alliance from him or even the alternate Megatron.

Whats the worst that Starscream could do anyway? Elbow him with his ridiculous pointy elbow? He is positive that he could crush him with one hand.

Tarn makes a noise of acknowledgement.

"Ah. Yes. I have heard as much from Dreadwing."

Ah. Fuck.

He'd be angrier about the eye roll, but it takes a good deal of effort for Starscream to keep from flinching. Of course Dreadwing would get to this mystery decepticon first, that's just the kind of luck he's been having lately.

"Oh you've met Dreadwing, have you?" the jet says silkily, trying to cover up the alarm in his voice. "And I'm sure he put his best effort into smearing my reputation as much as possible."

He makes a face, drawing himself up again. "Dreadwing is a filthy traitor to our cause, and he has a personal vendetta against me, as if that weren't enough; I urge you to disregard anything he may have told you. The fact that he is here at all is inexcusable. In the time that I came from, Megatron had long since put him to death with his own hands. Or, fusion cannon, to be more accurate."

Tarn looks less the impressed, staring levelly at Starscream.

"Hm, well, strangely enough you seem to fitting the exact description that he gave me."

Tarn and Starscream have never seen eye to eye. He doesn't expect this one to be any different.

Starscream frowns, having more and more difficulty in keeping the full-on indignant scowl off of his face by the minute. "You do realize that not only did just insult a commanding officer, but did so in tandem with openly agreeing with the ideals of a known traitor and enemy to the Decepticon cause," he growls softly, a threatening edge creeping into his tone. He sounds a lot more confident than he actually feels.

"Since... I can't imagine that Dreadwing had anything positive to say about me."

Edited 2015-02-14 03:18 (UTC)

"You are not my superior, Starscream. Not even in my own universe," Tarn clenches his fist at the slight threat creeping into Starscream's voice. He takes a step forward, his hulking mass displaying its own intimidation.

"You are a coward and a manipulator. Slandering Dreadwing's name for your own selfish purpose."

Starscream is subsequently so taken aback and so furious that he literally starts to tremble with rage where he's standing. "Slandering!?" he sputters.

"Everything that I just said is irrevocably the truth, and you are a poor officer of justice indeed, if you would take the word of the convicted as law simply because you happened to speak to him first," the jet hisses. "Dreadwing disobeyed a direct order from Megatron in such a situation where our glorious leader was forced to dispose of him right then and there. He shouldn't even be alive, but this universe is apparently sadistic enough to have brought him here from an earlier timeline when his demise had yet to happen. These are facts, not opinion!"

He doesn't even remember what the purpose of engaging Tarn was anymore, he's just so offended that he told the truth for once and still no one believes him.

You're Starscream . Of course he's not going to believe you. However, he is interested on what he has to say about Dreadwing.

Tarn crosses his arms, glaring down at the jet. He is going to ignore that comment about his reliability.

"Megatron has proven to not have his priorities straight in my universe, why should I believe that it is any different in yours."

The jet opens and closes his mouth helplessly for a moment and rolls his eyes to glance off to the side, wincing. When he finds his voice again it creaks in at an impossibly high pitch before his words follow.

"To be fair... the Megatron in our world is arguably in a similar position. However, at the time of the incident in question, he was decidedly not."

Starscream taps his talons together nervously. "I had recently returned to the Nemesis after an extended absence, something that Dreadwing took issue with. He did not have the stomach for many of the more morally questionable experiments which we were utilizing in our fight against the Autobots, and he tried to terminate me for it. Megatron did order him to stand down, but in the end Dreadwing made his choice, and it ended with his receiving a rather large hole in his torso."

Tarn immediately latches on to the admission that Starscream makes regarding Megatron. His eyes narrow behind the mask. Disappointing. Truly.

"Yes, of course."

He moves to storm away, turning his back on Starscream. Next time he sees Dreadwing he will have to address these claims, however unfounded they probably are.

"I appreciate your concern, Starscream. I will take this into consideration."

Normally Starscream would take issue with someone so rudely turning their back on him in the middle of conversation, and he has so many questions for this strange Decepticon, too- such as, consideration for what- but for once, he has the good sense to realize that he probably just narrowly dodged a bullet talking with this guy.

"Yes... er... My pleasure, Tarn."

Yeah he's going to go ahead and fly away now.

Tarn and the very bad no good terrible week

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