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Post by Mirage on Aug 20, 2011 14:15:19 GMT -5
"Stubborn...," Mirage starts, then the spy sighs and shrugs. From subspace, Mirage pulls a soft cloth with which he tries to gently clean the fluid away from Magnus's self-inflicted wound.
"I did. My apology is sincere, Magnus. You were right. I should not have attempted to train with you when I was in such a state."
Mirage's lips quirk in a half-smile. "I must wonder if stubbornness is a reality specific trait for us."
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Aug 23, 2011 20:05:16 GMT -5
The attention to his fractured forehead garners little more from Magnus than a flicker of his optics. The light pressure Mirage applies doesn't really do anything to worsen the pain; it's barely there. Magnus simply sighs and slumps a little further, wasted by exertions and a sudden enervating rush of catharsis.
"I don't know about that," he murmurs pensively, looking at his hands. "But…." Dented, scratched, two fingers broken, scoured of their original white paint and smeared with a myriad of other colours caught in the scrapes. There are more such marks along his forearms, orange and red bright on his blue between lurid droplets of energon and coolant. One gauntlet has split along a seam, the leading edge of it crumpled from the sheer force of the blows he's been inflicting on these hapless holograms. He'd like to say he doesn't remember how much better he felt for the release of his tension, but he does. It's still fresh in his mind; he enjoyed beating the life out of innocent "people". But that doesn't worry him very much.
That he has to make himself care worries him. He looks up from his hands to Mirage, worn and feeling every last astrosecond of his age.
"But… this," he says very, very quietly, full of shame and revulsion. He stops there.
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Post by Mirage on Aug 26, 2011 22:33:47 GMT -5
"This," Mirage repeats softly, "is not entirely of your own doing." Mirage does not absolve Ultra Magnus of all blame. He can't. Mirage may not be a soldier, but he knows what he was created to be. He also knows that what his brother shied away from, Ultra Magnus actively sought.
"That said, you are a warrior, Magnus." Mirage continues to carefully dab at that false wound. "There is no shame in reveling in your function."
"A fact which I have been learning myself of late," he continues dryly, "Not all my hunting scenarios focus on hapless creatures."
Mirage sits back, giving the Wrecker the chance to physically retreat if he wishes it. He balances the arm holding the cloth across his knee as he watches Magnus.
"Sentinel spoke well of you to me, a time or two. Before...," he trails off. Before all of this.
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Sept 4, 2011 10:26:43 GMT -5
Magnus gives Mirage a hard, ragged look, hands trembling. This isn't his function, he wants to say. His function is to be a soldier; to serve the government, answer to his commanders, protect those who can't do so for themselves against the threats that outmatch them. Ah, but he's already failed in that, and more than once. Still, his function is not to destroy and maim in rage.
No, he thinks privately. It isn't that he wants to destroy. He wants to crush anything opposing him and the Autobots. He wants to grind it underfoot and conquer it. And he isn't meant for that, he's sure. He never was.
"You… spoke to Sentinel Prime?" he croaks instead. He cycles his visual cluster slowly, bemused.
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Post by Mirage on Sept 4, 2011 22:52:58 GMT -5
"Mmmm, no. I said he spoke to me," Mirage corrects, shrugging one shoulder as he shifts position a bit, "Prior to my choosing faction, I was... quite the hotly recruited commodity. Sentinel visited me a few times, before. I'll admit I never looked forward to the meetings."
He reaches out and tries to take one of Magnus's hands. "But he did speak well of your abilities."
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Sept 11, 2011 9:01:27 GMT -5
So stunned is Magnus at the idea that his long-ago commander lauded his virtues to a potential recruit that he puts up no resistance when Mirage clasps his battered, broken hand. He can hardly imagine Sentinel Prime even remembering his name among the many other soldiers he trained, let alone singling him out as someone to praise.
"…Me?" is all he manages to rasp, none of his many questions coming to his lips despite the way they boil up in his mind.
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Post by Mirage on Sept 14, 2011 21:00:39 GMT -5
Mirage shrugs again. "Yes. Is it so odd? You were fairly quick to distinguish yourself, if I recall. Your grasp of tactics was better than some of those more studied, I think he said? It was some time ago, and again, it was said in passing."
"But Magnus, I didn't come here to talk about such things. I would start over with you, if you would let me."
Mirage tries to look Ultra Magnus in the optics, his expression schooled to careful neutrality.
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Sept 19, 2011 18:15:52 GMT -5
It's still somewhat beyond Magnus's imagination that he earned any such praise. Many have commended his abilities over the aeons, but he has never thought he deserved a word of it. And certainly not from Sentinel Prime. That Mirage is so nonchalant about this very serious subject makes Magnus uneasy, so rather than Mirage continuing to insist on it, Magnus leaves it be and offers no further demurrals.
"…Would you, then," he says in a rather flat tone. Not forbidding, not cold nor angry, but weary.
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Post by Mirage on Sept 22, 2011 22:41:29 GMT -5
Mirage's fingers slide over the broken hand clasped between his, an attempt to soothe himself and Magnus at the same time."
"Do I ask too much?"
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Nov 6, 2011 10:44:51 GMT -5
"I… don't know," is Magnus's honest answer. Mirage seems sincere, but Magnus is not in the best mental state. He doesn't want to say no outright, either. It isn't – shouldn't be – too much to ask. It should be a simple thing, easily done. But he remembers how like Shockwave it was and that… is infuriating. And Magnus is nothing if not stubborn and consistent in that.
He grimaces at the flashes of pain he knows is simulated, ignited down his arm by Mirage's attempts to comfort. Then he stifles them and, superstructure groaning, armour creaking where the damage has altered the fit and it shifts, he sits up in preparation to shove himself to his feet.
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Post by Mirage on Nov 10, 2011 12:17:13 GMT -5
Mirage's hand falls away as Ultra Magnus answers. It's a valid answer, certainly truthful and understandable- but Mirage had better hopes. He shouldn't have such hopes, but Mirage as always had such good luck with these types of reconciliations. Or did, before coming to this place.
Perhaps he should stop hoping. But he's lost... a lot in the past several days. Losses he'd been trying very hard not to think of as losses. Where would he be, if he stopped hoping?
"Very well," he says softly, again back to that very neutral tone he so often uses. He stands and moves toward the exit, pausing in the doorway and speaking without turning, "Good cycle, Ultra Magnus."
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Nov 13, 2011 0:50:58 GMT -5
Mirage came at the wrong time to ask, thinks Magnus as he watches the other Autobot over his shoulder. Just as he insisted on sparring at the wrong time – for himself, not for Magnus. He has questionable timing for someone with such social airs.
But he did try….
"I don't think," Magnus murmurs, "that it's too much." He looks around, at the battered bodies, at the one survivor cowering in the corner. There's still fluid dripping from his hands. "But… it's too much right now."
OOC: Headed for a wrap/fade?
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Post by Mirage on Nov 13, 2011 16:35:25 GMT -5
Some habits are hard to set aside, and Mirage is used to the right time being the best time for him. He doesn't stop and think always if his timing is good for others. He is still a selfish mech, and likely always will be.
"Perhaps... we might revisit this later," Mirage says, faint hope again coloring his words. "If you ever wish to do so, you have my frequency, I believe."
Mirage will catch any parting remarks, and then be out of thread.
Yar, looks like. Thankee!
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