Equivalent Exchange [Prompt Response]
[ooc: you can tell who didn't go to botcon and didn't buy a new game, right? ICly this will be set after previous posts (even if they currently have unresolved threads). Also, I honestly couldn't decide the format for this, so I guess she could be saying this out loud somewhere.]
TFA Slipstream
I do not know if it is notable that I have had several relationships based on a kind of equivalent exchange, when Decepticon culture is so normally based on unequal relationships of one dominating another. I do not count my relationships with my brother clones in this, because I think that 'kinship' is a special case.
I would list Blackarachnia as one of these peers. She is another Decepticon, and another femme. She is older, and more experienced, but we cannot say that Starscream or Megatron favored one of us over the other, such that one has obviously higher rank. It's more true that we both went our own way, and only served the faction leadership when it was to our advantage. When we have met, we have not fought, but shared information. For all that Decepticons can be, we are peers.
I do think that Decepticons can be peers with each other. Perhaps not often, or permanently, but for a time. I think of it like a contest, like other Decepticon relations, yet one that ends in a draw.
After I came here, I met Vortex. Most of our interactions were based on exchange of information. It was - maybe is - a relationship of mutual exchange. Give and take of intel, like revealing one's hand in a game of chance. You show me yours; I'll show you mine. I had to reveal some of my secrets and data on my verse, but in exchange, I learned a lot about the other verses. He even went so far as to defend my worth before others...but he was mad at the time. Still, in return, I kept his confidence and did not betray him when given the opportunity.
My association with Lockdown began the same way. It's a little different, given he's not a Decepticon, but it's still an exchange between equals. I think, vying for control of a situation and frequently switching between lead and follow is nearly the same as having one definitive contest that ends in drawn. The ratio is the same.
He came to me for information, showed me what he had, in good faith, but maybe with a little suspicion. I told him what I knew about symbols, and what I didn't know. Straight business deal: exchange of information.
But then, it became a personal exchange. Like showing each other scars and swapping stories of how each was acquired, except with wounded sparks...such as they are. Both spurned by mechs who died in Detroit, showed up in Nexusville alive, and then gave their own affections to another. It seemed logical to give each other our companionship meanwhile, in a mutual agreement to help the other recover from those wounds.
So, we're dating; but what is dating, if not a series of tests between peers? Dancing, sight seeing, movies, dinner, mountain hiking. It is very much about equivalent exchange: lead, follow; top, bottom; give, take; my place, your place. You show me yours; I'll show you mine.
We never know, until the test, until called to show a hand, what we will get or how things measure-up. An unexpected ace might win a hand, but the next lose to a wild card. And in the end, the game can end tied.
I admit, I like how things are. No declarations of love. Just two partners in a mutually beneficial arrangement, testing each other, even as we tend to each other's needs. So far, whether we are engaged in witty banter, or actually in a physical struggle, there has been no clear winner. I think we're pretty evenly matched.
TFA Slipstream
I do not know if it is notable that I have had several relationships based on a kind of equivalent exchange, when Decepticon culture is so normally based on unequal relationships of one dominating another. I do not count my relationships with my brother clones in this, because I think that 'kinship' is a special case.
I would list Blackarachnia as one of these peers. She is another Decepticon, and another femme. She is older, and more experienced, but we cannot say that Starscream or Megatron favored one of us over the other, such that one has obviously higher rank. It's more true that we both went our own way, and only served the faction leadership when it was to our advantage. When we have met, we have not fought, but shared information. For all that Decepticons can be, we are peers.
I do think that Decepticons can be peers with each other. Perhaps not often, or permanently, but for a time. I think of it like a contest, like other Decepticon relations, yet one that ends in a draw.
After I came here, I met Vortex. Most of our interactions were based on exchange of information. It was - maybe is - a relationship of mutual exchange. Give and take of intel, like revealing one's hand in a game of chance. You show me yours; I'll show you mine. I had to reveal some of my secrets and data on my verse, but in exchange, I learned a lot about the other verses. He even went so far as to defend my worth before others...but he was mad at the time. Still, in return, I kept his confidence and did not betray him when given the opportunity.
My association with Lockdown began the same way. It's a little different, given he's not a Decepticon, but it's still an exchange between equals. I think, vying for control of a situation and frequently switching between lead and follow is nearly the same as having one definitive contest that ends in drawn. The ratio is the same.
He came to me for information, showed me what he had, in good faith, but maybe with a little suspicion. I told him what I knew about symbols, and what I didn't know. Straight business deal: exchange of information.
But then, it became a personal exchange. Like showing each other scars and swapping stories of how each was acquired, except with wounded sparks...such as they are. Both spurned by mechs who died in Detroit, showed up in Nexusville alive, and then gave their own affections to another. It seemed logical to give each other our companionship meanwhile, in a mutual agreement to help the other recover from those wounds.
So, we're dating; but what is dating, if not a series of tests between peers? Dancing, sight seeing, movies, dinner, mountain hiking. It is very much about equivalent exchange: lead, follow; top, bottom; give, take; my place, your place. You show me yours; I'll show you mine.
We never know, until the test, until called to show a hand, what we will get or how things measure-up. An unexpected ace might win a hand, but the next lose to a wild card. And in the end, the game can end tied.
I admit, I like how things are. No declarations of love. Just two partners in a mutually beneficial arrangement, testing each other, even as we tend to each other's needs. So far, whether we are engaged in witty banter, or actually in a physical struggle, there has been no clear winner. I think we're pretty evenly matched.