No one knows what lies behind their masquerade~ [OPEN]

[dontasktrix]

WHO: Slipstream dontasktrix (disguised as Starscream) and You.
WHAT: Slipstream found that her hacked masquerade mask worked and disguised herself as Starscream, only to learn she was unable to turn it off. Now she's stuck looking like Starscream and has no idea when the mask will fail.
WHERE: public areas of Zone 7
WHEN: Backdated to between the 4th and

Comments

[dontasktrix]

Slipstream had offered to meet her fellow clones, as Starscream, before she realized the mask could not be switched on and off. So, now, rather than duck out of a room, like some superhero with a secret identity, to return with another appearance, she had to make excuses for why only she or Starscream could appear.

She entered the (probably unlicensed) dive, strutting about in her best impression of Starscream. With all his agility, and slender frame, he somehow took up a disproportionate amount of space when he moved. It was probably that Thundercracker part, which she thankfully lacked. This effort to draw attention to herself was more difficult, every moment that she considered she did it out of necessity, rather than mere humor.

She spotted Dirge in his booth and sashayed over, because for all that Starscream didn't have her frame, exactly, he tended, in her view, to draw attention to his assets, when he moved.

"My Dear, Dirge. you are looking..." She made a hammy over-acted frown. "brightly colored as ever." Slag, but Starscream was a pain in the gearshaft!

She slipped into the seat opposite. "You would take the seat facing the door." Starscream would want it, primarily so he could be seen, Slipstream wanted it so she could view paths of egress, as Skywarp might, or Starscream, when he was being more cowardly, than egotistical.

[endless_avarice]

Dirge looked up at Starscream's approach, signaled by the stirring of the other patrons when he practically danced his way across the room. The clone watched his creator's hips, wondering if they'd always had that much sway.

"Yes. And you're looking very....alive," he replied, claws digging into the table a bit. They had the same body, but he tended to use his in a more threatening manner instead of attention getting. It made sense- Starscream's greed was nothing if not aggressive.

"I'd take your seat too if I could," the clone remarked, staring hard at the menu now. Picking things was difficult. He just wanted to order everything. It would be so much easier if these places just had one thing on the menu- then it would be feasible to ask for it all.

[dontasktrix]

"It's like I said: got my old body back," Slipstream told him. She glanced at the menu on the table. What was Starscream's favorite drink, again? She'd gotten uncomfortably over-charged during that masquerade party, sticking to what she thought Starscream would order.

"You're, understandably, still upset about that whole plot to steal your spark." Slipstream knew she had to be careful here. She had been there when Starscream died, though not in the room at the same time as Dirge. She hadn't wanted to get too close, knowing Starscream was likely to attempt to take another AllSpark fragment. So, she didn't really know what Starscream had said to Dirge, if anything.

"Let me make things up to you?"

[endless_avarice]

"A pity," Dirge answered, one side of his mouth lifting in an impish grin. There were a few things he would have liked to do had he found Starscream in a frail human body.

"Fragment. Not spark." A sore spot there- thank you, creator for reminding me of my lack of one. Dirge touched his chest and scowled. Settling on whatever looked like it would have the biggest portion, the teal jet flipped the menu aside. Starscream would probably just order a drink. A concentrated one.

"And how do you propose to do that exactly?" He could start by paying for this little get together. Or holding Magnum down so that he could shove his talons into a vital component.

[dontasktrix]

Spark! How had she made a slip like that? Probably trying to think to hard about Starscream and his stupid body!

"Did I say 'spark'?" Slipstream asked, still with vocalizer adjusted to sound more like Starscream. She tried to play it off, but she knew Dirge was upset. She'd made a misstep.

She waved over a server, before continuing. "Why do you think your shard of the AllSpark is lesser to a spark? It is the same- Better! It's the blasted AllSpark!" Only an incredibly powerful, ancient, highly-sought sacred object. "And you have a piece of it inside you. How is an ordinary spark better?"

Slipstream sighed as the server arrived. "My companion here will have one of everything. Just bring me...whatever is your strongest drink."

Slipstream looked to Dirge. "I need a drink after listening to that woman nag all day!" That sounded like something Starscream would say about her. "Now, what do you think I can do to make amends?"

[endless_avarice]

Dirge's optics narrowed, wondering how Strscream could be so flippant about things that were of the utmost importance to him. Then again, had he ever really had respect for anyone?

"Of course you would say that. You've had a chance to have a spark and a fragment. I've never been complete. Immortality, yes- it is nice, but I want more than that. I want what you have," Dirge explained, reaching out to tap at Starscream's cockpit.

"To be whole. Not just a part." He quirked a brow at the other jet ordering for him. Was he going to pay for all that then? The clone leaned back and considered his last question.

"Help me get revenge on Magnum. You're the one who had him kill me- I like the irony of turning it around. Its perfect."

[dontasktrix]

It was frustrating, having to listen Dirge tell 'Starscream' he didn't understand about having had only a fragment of the AllSpark, instead of a spark. Slipstream knew, and she still didn't understand Dirge's particular want for one...other than to acknowledge that Dirge wanted pretty much everything.

"Firstly," She said in her Starscream voice, "It is because your dear maker has known the feeling of being sustained by a piece of the AllSpark, as well as a spark, that he can give an informed opinion. And, secondly, you seem to confuse completeness with possession of a common spark." She made a flourish of talons. "You do not require a spark to be complete. That can come to you - to all you clones - if you allow yourselves to grow."

Slipstream ignored the request about Magnum, for the moment. She just nodded to show she - Starscream - had heard, and let Dirge think on her argument. Neither she nor Starscream could just give Dirge a spark, but she might help Dirge grow, they way Starscream had begun, when he was here.

[endless_avarice]

Dirge felt his dentals grind together as Starscream essentially debunked his entire theory on wholeness. He didn't need a spark? He'd heard it said before, but it still didn't make much sense. Could a broken shard really regrow its missing parts? Wouldn't it make more sense to glue the needed bits on?

But he had to admit... his assumption that a spark would be what brought him completeness was not based in any experience or knowledge. If Starscream said that he could do it without one... it stood to reason that he might be right. If only because his creator had lived so long and done so many things.

"Why should I believe you?" the clone said quietly, red optics peering accusingly from under the black helm. "You might just be saying that so I will never be whole. You've never cared about it before- why now?"

[dontasktrix]

Slipstream didn't know in the sense that she had experimented and recorded results, but the argument she was putting in Starscream's mouth seemed logical to her.

"Aaah..." She started, trying to buy time to clarify her thoughts. She could see Dirge was irritated. Again, things weren't going to her plan, but if there was one thing she had from their creator, it was his ability to weadle his way out of predicaments; to escape to fight again. Maybe she didn't quite have Sunstorm level sycophancy; it made her sick to be that flattering, but she could take on changing moods and opinions, like a change in airflow. It was all just riding out turbulence until things were smooth again.

"I guess I see how you would have that idea, that because you clones started out with different aspects of my personality - so says your sister - that you were somehow lesser or incomplete. But, ask yourself, did Daddy-dear lose any of his traits by so generously giving you all pieces of the AllSpark fragment sustaining his very own life."

Slipstream just looked at Dirge expectantly, waiting to see if he could accept this logic.

[endless_avarice]

Dirge actually paused to consider that. Starscream was, at last, attempting to speak his language- and he found it easier if he didn't have to translate everyone's logic into his own. Especially since their weren't equivalents sometimes.

"No... I suppose not. Which means... we're still fragments but..." he struggled with it for a few seconds more before continuing. "Not just... pieces torn off of you?"

[dontasktrix]

How to even explain this?

"I'm not a smegging Priest of that Primus cult! I can't exactly explain the metaphysical workings of our revered life-giving artifact!" Slipstream made some flail-y gesture.

The server approached with the first of their meal: a tray of various beverages and appetizers, most of them for Dirge.

Slipstream waited for the server to place the containers, then leave, before continuing. "Think of it rather like crystal formations that grow in Cybertronian gardens, here. The larger growth still retains it's nature and beauty, and continues to grow. And that shard, given the right conditions shares in that nature and beauty and has the same ability to grow."

Slipstream lifted the one drink that was hers, some mixture of energon and oil, and took a large gulp. Her optics flared, as the energizing fluid entered her system. In her experience, strong drinks could give her surges, a problem she didn't think Starscream had.

"So...you understand. You clones started out with small fragments of the AllSpark, imprinted with your brilliant creator's personality, but those small fragments are no less AllSpark. And you have no less life, or potential for growth."

Slipstream took a smaller sip from her drink. "You just need time to bloom into your own garden."

[phobiaphob]

Skywarp had of course chickened out on the meeting at the last minute and opted to stay at the casino. All the bravado he might have shown when he spoke with Starscream had clearly left him when the meeting became a real event instead of just talk.

Dirge had been gone for awhile now and the longer he was gone the more scared Skywarp became till finally he opened a comm channel to his brother.

"D-dirge? E-everything okay?" He asked into the comm hoping his brother was in fact okay.

(ooc: If you guys would prefer me bring Skywarp in some other way I would be okay with deleting this and doing something else. And sorry I'm late to the game.)

[endless_avarice]

Dirge sat up a little straighter in his chair as Skywarp's voice filtered over his private comm. He glanced at Starscream briefly before texting his brother back.

::I'm fine, mostly. You know how it is with him. He doesn't understand us clones. Or even really want to.::

[phobiaphob]

Skywarp uncurled from his ball and thought a moment before replying to his brother.

"If he doesn't want to understand then he wants to u-use us again... right? I can't say I understand him either... should I come? J-just in case?"

Sure, he was scared. But Dirge was his brother and he shouldn't have let him go alone in the first place.

[endless_avarice]

Dirge's next reply took a little longer to transmit, as he was busy continuing his conversation with their mutual creator.

::I'm not sure. That's what I thought originally... I don't know. He's confusing me!::

The teal clone really hated not ever being able to get the upper hand when it came to speaking with his template. He knew why, but it didn't make it any less irritating.

::No, don't come. I will decide if whatever he is offering is a good deal or not.::

[phobiaphob]

Skywarp took a moment to think over this, he didn't want to add to his brothers confusion and he knew what it was like dealing with Starscream.

"He's always confused me. H-he doesn't think of us. He only thinks of himself and what he wants... but those processor games he plays..."

He wasn't to sure what was going on there. He also didn't like the idea of his brother alone with Starscream. But he had played his role as the coward so now he was stuck waiting. He would do it though because Dirge looked out for him and kept him safe. So he would listen to his brother.

"Okay. But if you need me you know I'll come."