(Untitled)

[not_your_gun]

Who: IDW!Megs, Kino, Mikaela, Glit
What: Megatron needs a makeover. Or, really, he needs to be repaired almost completely, and so is going to be in one place for a bit...and gets to talk with some humans he's been needing to speak to.
When: Following Magnum's fight with Ironhide and This Declaration.
Where: Swindle's shop, Zone 5
Notes: Separate

Comments

[not_your_gun]

So...Blackout had been right.

Kino had been quite prepared for this eventuality, and as he was led to the room she had secured for him he acknowledged that she was, perhaps, more of an asset than he'd originally surmised. This was twice that she had helped him, now.

The concern from her was unexpected, however, and he mentally compared it to the other queries he'd received about his health since posting on the network. He'd not considered that there were still creatures that would bother to care...sentiments like that he usually reserved for Autobots, and it was rather obvious that those would never be directed at a 'con. At least, not without significant high grade distortion.

"I've been worse, Kino." He allowed a smirk through gritted teeth, settling down into the medical berth, confirming that his own medic had arrived and been accommodated. "...though if I've judged you correctly...you've been prepared for this possibility for quite some time, now." Especially with how quickly she had managed it (not that he'd been particularly quick in arriving, what with the limp, but...it was worth noting nonetheless.)

[kinos_journal]

"Worse or not, that's a lot of damage. It'll be good to see you repaired properly. As for the shop" she shook her head, unwilling to claim credit for something she felt undeserved. "It's just the Swindles'" She tapped directions into her comm pad so that the berth would unlock and adjust to the mech sitting atop it. "They do a lot of emergency work on mechs, and I've watched some of it. It's not hard to understand, as long as I have someone help me with the heavier lifting and reaching things I can't get to." She sat on the counter once the bed - once the berth was set to Magnum's shape. There wasn't more she could do at the moment, it would be up to the medics. "And honestly... I'd been expecting something like this to happen sooner or later. It was a good idea to be prepared."

Running fingers through her hair, she sighed in frustration. "I actually thought it would be Mr Blackout here because of Mr Ironhide." She sounded less than enthused. "He... doesn't like to think, he just wants to react. Mr Ironhide, that is." She clarified with a smile that was entirely wry. "The war must have been terrible, but... I don't think that's an excuse for how he acts now. He's angry at everyone who isn't himself, and hurts people with it. He's a very poor hero."

[not_your_gun]

"...I could not agree more. It will be good to be functioning at peak capacity, again." And oh, he did enjoy moving, when everything was a harmonized system of smoothly turning mechanisms. He could really like a fight with a worthy opponent, when he had that confidence returned. "The fact that you were interested in helping us says a great deal, however. As does your...ability to thrive, in a world built for mechs ten times your size." He chuckled, and settled into the berth as it adjusted to him.

The chuckle turned into a laugh, however, at the mention of Ironhide. "...a poor Hero indeed. I would have thought the superior morale ground they've created for themselves would have been built upon solid foundations--not upon scraps. But..." The laughter died, sliding into a frown. "...it doesn't seem to be that way, does it. Autobots kill, as readily as we kill. Its all a matter of perspective." His optics turned to her.

"...which I ought to ask. What...your opinion is about them."

[kinos_journal]

"I'm a traveler." Kino answered as if that explained everything. "A traveler must be able to adapt to a new place, no matter how different. They can't change the place, it's not their place to judge." Her voice had the note of repetition, something she'd learned by heart years ago and not entirely over pleasant circumstances. "If I didn't know how to find my way, I wouldn't be a traveler."
Which wasn't to say it was easy, or that she wasn't beyond frustrated at being stuck here so often so completely out of her depth... but there was only so much you could do.

About Autobots. What did she think about Autobots?
"They're foolish." She finally decided on. "They think they are good because they are good, not because of their actions. They fight a war and think theirs is the only right side: I've seen many, many wars, and there is never only one right side. They think that you only lead to destroy everything, but if that was the case you wouldn't work so hard to make friends to find a way home. They say that Decepticons have no reasons for what they do. They call you cruel, evil, destructive, vindictive. Mr Will told me that Blackout wants to massacre or enslave all of humanity and that Mr Blackout is ruthless. They don't have 'perspective'. I listened to them all, but then I looked with my own eyes and what I see tells me that they're blind. They don't want to know that there might be good to the other side. It's easier for them to believe that you are all the same, all bad and evil and enjoy killing for no reason, so that they can justify what they do and make it 'good'. I think that's stupid. War is war, and both sides have reasons, good reasons, to fight and die and kill. They might not be good reasons to me, they might not be good reasons to the other side, but they are good reasons to themselves."

She realized she'd been rambling on and blushed, looking at her feet, embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I just have been listening to everything and and everyone and I... I don't think I like them very much, even if they say they're the 'good' people and you say you're 'bad'. I think they are wrong."

[not_your_gun]

Megatron was stunned, and listened in quiet acknowledgment to the small human relating back to him much of what he already knew and had come to terms with, himself, but had never thought to extol to another.
And...several new points besides. She'd had the opportunity to speak with Autobots without their preconceived notions already clouding their conversations...much the way he had been able to speak with Ironhide, for a brief time.

...and she had noticed it, too.

He could not help but crack a pleased smirk.

"...you're an intelligent girl, Kino. Do you think Blackout is ruthless? That I am evil?" He rested a hand on the edge of the bed.

[kinos_journal]

She was still embarrassed about her tirade, but was glad Magnum had taken it well. "No. I think Blackout can be ruthless, if he needs to be, but that doesn't make him a bad person. Sometimes you can't show pity: that doesn't mean you always don't. And how can I think you are evil? You are working hard to find a way to get us home, and made the chance to help available to everyone, even if they were Autobots." She shook her head - she'd gotten the job in the shop as an easy way to speak to people, to find a way to get herself and Hermes home, and there was nothing. It was beyond frustrating. "Do you know no one else has done that? Everyone else is just waiting for their visas, or for your plan to work, or are settling in. If they have their own plans, they keep them to themselves. We want to go home, Mr Magnum. I don't think I'm very happy with everything that happened in the riots, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't do it again, if it meant we would get what we need. Does that make me evil? I don't think so. I can't think you're evil then, if I do the same thing and think it was justified."

She met his optics strongly, shoulders set and square. "Does that make sense? I'm sorry, I just keep talking, but I haven't really had anyone to... listen, I suppose." She blushed a darker red. "I'm delaying your repairs." Now she felt incredibly guilty, considering how much pain Magnum must have been in, and she was telling him things he certainly already knew. It was unlike her... but it had been so long since she'd had a receptive ear that seemed like it was really listening: not judging or correcting or ignoring, not warning or trying to enforce other ideas or views onto her. It was hard to restrain herself.

[not_your_gun]

He was, actually, stunned this time. "...no one else? Truly?" But when running through the lists he'd been compiling, he...could see that she was right. The Autobots complained. The Decepticons broke a few kneecaps. ...but without the Primes and Megatrons, they all made due.

And that, of course, was precisely why such leaders were illegal.

So amusing, that the Nexus weeded out the ones best trained for solving problems...but probably because the solutions were not often the ones the transtechs wished to hear.

"Primus, Kino, why would you apologize?" He smirked and rested. "You've given me something new to be considering...and it sounds like people talk to you, besides." There was a chuckle, then. "Which is probably why no one takes the time to listen. Us mechs think our problems are larger than yours are, simply because you are so...small. But you and Mikaela..."

...had much he could exploit.

"Have hidden depths."

[kinos_journal]

Kino nodded, face set and serious. "No one else. I took the job with the Swindles because it would let me hear lots of people and listen to lots of gossip; Shops in my world were always the place to hear things, and everyone said the Swindles' was the best." She spread her hands wide, showing empty palms. "No one tries anything at all, once they come here. I suppose I can see why, considering how hard it would be, but still..." She trailed off - hard it might be, but it would be worth it, wouldn't it, to leave and be free?

"I'm going to keep trying, so I want to keep helping you." Her gaze hardened slightly. "But I don't want to have what happened last time happen again. Not with so many people getting hurt, when I didn't know it was going to happen - at least not that badly. Next time, if there is a next time, I want to know. Everything. So that I can make a good decision and be responsible for it." She had been so... angry at it all...

But it was good Magnum thought she was... more than just a 'squishy'. It was a hard point of view to find, in the Nexus. Many people were willing to humor her but... well, it was one of the ways she had so much gossip, after all. Larger mechs just didn't think she was capable of much at all - including listening to a conversation while working on something.

[not_your_gun]

"...then you'll keep listening, won't you, Kino? In case there is anyone else with a plan that's feasible...Or with skills that I should know about..." Mikaela read every post...but Kino saw those who never posted. Saw machinery, even, that wouldn't post but might still be useful.

The intensity of her glare did manage to cease his thinking for a moment, though admittedly he had to try quite hard not to laugh at the absurdity of her standing up to him. He managed, one way or another, with a simple smile and a slight inclination of his head. "Kino, I shall answer any question that you ask."