He will pretend he did not hear that, so he does not have to pretend to not blush.bymycalculationAugust 12 2010, 16:35:39 UTC
There's pain...
And he's familiar with the concept. Familiar, enough, to recognize it when he sees it on the barely-recognizable half-mech before him. Familiar enough to crouch...to reach out, and touch the odd texture of Starscream's face.
The answer seems to satisfy him, though, even if his own eyes well up briefly with sadness, and he just nods.
It's all that he can do.
"They...are...all broken, here."
He's looking up, now, to the nose of the plane that's dwarfing the sky, to the rust eating away at the bolts and edges that constantly ebbed and flowed but never seemed to make its way through. Perpetual death, unending.
And one lost spark--surrendered but unyielding.
Conflict.
Balance.
Despair.
"...even you."
He shook his head, letting those blue eyes fall back down to red ones.
"But I remember."
"Some things."
Cities, skies, filled with jets and empty. Worlds like this one. Worlds not like this one.
Bright red, and white, and blue.
His hand came to rest on Starscream's cheek, and stayed there, and he rested on his knees at last.
Re: He will pretend he did not hear that, so he does not have to pretend to not blush.loltraitorlolAugust 13 2010, 04:03:39 UTC
He reaches up to touch that hand, and... cries. Not hard. Not loudly. Just a few stray tears, wandering down his cheeks.
When was the last time he cried? And how simple an action. He doesn't remember the first time, but he does remember not understanding what his body was doing at the time, and being enraged. His optics were leaking, slaggit, and he was in distress and this was not the time for this sort of thing to be happening.
But here and now, it came somehow as a relief.
"Don't leave again," he says. "Not again, please."
Ice. Ice, and calling. Calling, calling; and the darker changes afterward. Standing alone in the halls of Crystal City and knowing. And then everything changing.
There are things he wants to remember. That... isn't one of them. Or, he's not sure, now. It's part of who he is.
And yet with this one here, this pale skyship, he's... not sure what he wants to remember, anymore. And what he wants to forget.
[*pretends this is G1 Skyfire. Uh. Even though I call him Jetfire.*]bymycalculationAugust 13 2010, 17:36:44 UTC
Jetfire did not understand it.
Something was wrong with Starscream--some product of this construct and these bodies, of the reality within the surreality...and he did not know what to do. It was discordant. It was wrong.
And so he wiped away the tears as they came, unaware as he did so of how his own eyes glossed over in the unfairness of it all.
It was...not...supposed to be this way.
But just remembering himself here was hard. Just keeping aware that this was not how the world was...was hard. It did not have to be fair--it just had to be logical, and memory was logical...
But memory was fleeting, and here there were winds that whipped through even the mind.
Even so.
Starscream should not cry.
"I came here for you. I will not leave. Not without you."
His hand moves from the cheek, both of them wrapping under the grass around the other's arms and tugging, gently, until Starscream was resting in his lap. He didn't have to tug hard--the jet still felt light, to him.
He still felt smaller.
"I remember the University. I remember countless hours of pouring over galactic charts, arguing the best routes to take, the best planets for collecting samples...the utter cold of deep space and years of drifting, surrounded by the beauty of the stars. I remember the ice...and I remember who woke me from it, in the end..."
His own eyes closed, his hand finding rest on top of Starscream's hand.
[*makes this some kind of hybrid G1 continuity whatever*]loltraitorlolAugust 14 2010, 04:09:53 UTC
"Change."
He rested, laying there.
"I did. I... remember."
Ice, and thawing ice, and screaming at - who? Megatron. He remembers that name. He remembers hate. and wanting. And then betrayal and despair. And he remembers.
And I hurt you because I did not know better, because I thought you'd betrayed me and I was so wrapped up in me, all the time me and in my goal. So single minded I pursued it; this glorious vision of Cybertron with thousands worshipping at my feet...
"I forgot you."
I forgot me. What I was. Ambitious, but not... not like that. I'm sorry. Can't say it, but I am. won't admit it to myself, but I am.
"I can't change back."
There's too much broken. And too much hate. He lays there, his eyes closed, but at least he is not alone. He smiles, because here and now, he feels... not lost. Comfortable.
But then again...
Cannot change my nature. Have to fight. Have to go. Have to keep going. But perhaps.
He opens his eyes again. Right now, they are red, and shine like dying suns.
And he's familiar with the concept. Familiar, enough, to recognize it when he sees it on the barely-recognizable half-mech before him. Familiar enough to crouch...to reach out, and touch the odd texture of Starscream's face.
The answer seems to satisfy him, though, even if his own eyes well up briefly with sadness, and he just nods.
It's all that he can do.
"They...are...all broken, here."
He's looking up, now, to the nose of the plane that's dwarfing the sky, to the rust eating away at the bolts and edges that constantly ebbed and flowed but never seemed to make its way through. Perpetual death, unending.
And one lost spark--surrendered but unyielding.
Conflict.
Balance.
Despair.
"...even you."
He shook his head, letting those blue eyes fall back down to red ones.
"But I remember."
"Some things."
Cities, skies, filled with jets and empty. Worlds like this one. Worlds not like this one.
Bright red, and white, and blue.
His hand came to rest on Starscream's cheek, and stayed there, and he rested on his knees at last.
Reply
When was the last time he cried? And how simple an action. He doesn't remember the first time, but he does remember not understanding what his body was doing at the time, and being enraged. His optics were leaking, slaggit, and he was in distress and this was not the time for this sort of thing to be happening.
But here and now, it came somehow as a relief.
"Don't leave again," he says. "Not again, please."
Ice. Ice, and calling. Calling, calling; and the darker changes afterward. Standing alone in the halls of Crystal City and knowing. And then everything changing.
There are things he wants to remember. That... isn't one of them. Or, he's not sure, now. It's part of who he is.
And yet with this one here, this pale skyship, he's... not sure what he wants to remember, anymore. And what he wants to forget.
For now he clings to that hand, and he asks.
"What do you remember?"
Reply
Something was wrong with Starscream--some product of this construct and these bodies, of the reality within the surreality...and he did not know what to do. It was discordant. It was wrong.
And so he wiped away the tears as they came, unaware as he did so of how his own eyes glossed over in the unfairness of it all.
It was...not...supposed to be this way.
But just remembering himself here was hard. Just keeping aware that this was not how the world was...was hard. It did not have to be fair--it just had to be logical, and memory was logical...
But memory was fleeting, and here there were winds that whipped through even the mind.
Even so.
Starscream should not cry.
"I came here for you. I will not leave. Not without you."
His hand moves from the cheek, both of them wrapping under the grass around the other's arms and tugging, gently, until Starscream was resting in his lap. He didn't have to tug hard--the jet still felt light, to him.
He still felt smaller.
"I remember the University. I remember countless hours of pouring over galactic charts, arguing the best routes to take, the best planets for collecting samples...the utter cold of deep space and years of drifting, surrounded by the beauty of the stars. I remember the ice...and I remember who woke me from it, in the end..."
His own eyes closed, his hand finding rest on top of Starscream's hand.
"I remember how you changed."
Reply
He rested, laying there.
"I did. I... remember."
Ice, and thawing ice, and screaming at - who? Megatron. He remembers that name. He remembers hate. and wanting. And then betrayal and despair. And he remembers.
And I hurt you because I did not know better, because I thought you'd betrayed me and I was so wrapped up in me, all the time me and in my goal. So single minded I pursued it; this glorious vision of Cybertron with thousands worshipping at my feet...
"I forgot you."
I forgot me. What I was. Ambitious, but not... not like that. I'm sorry. Can't say it, but I am. won't admit it to myself, but I am.
"I can't change back."
There's too much broken. And too much hate. He lays there, his eyes closed, but at least he is not alone. He smiles, because here and now, he feels... not lost. Comfortable.
But then again...
Cannot change my nature. Have to fight. Have to go. Have to keep going. But perhaps.
He opens his eyes again. Right now, they are red, and shine like dying suns.
"Tell me your name."
Reply
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