Seasons in the Ice Cage

[Lyzack]

Lyzack frowns thinly when Starscream mentions the dispute over lab space setting them back. Were the offenders beaten, she wonders?

She is not upset over the concept that she might have to put up more signs, though.

[Hellbender]

"Tarantulas and Blackarachnia? Or one of them and that new guy, Knock Out?" Hellbender asked, idly curious. MedSciEng was emphatically Not His Problem, and he did not envy Starscream the joy of dealing with egotistical mad scientists. Hmm, why not say so? A little buttering-up of his superior wouldn't hurt. "Ah don't envy you the job of keepin' that bucket of egos on track, sir."

[Starscream (Movie)]

"Tarantulas and Knock Out. And it is not my job to keep them in check, it is Blackarachnia's job. I just happened to be there at the time." Starscream wouldn't normally do courier duty himself, but they don't have all that many space-capable fliers, and flying around the poles can be tricky, apparently, due to magnetic fields. Also he wanted a chance to inspect the new base and call dibs on some nice quarters.

[Lyzack]

Why wouldn't Hellbender envy? Hellbender is powerful. Envy is natural for the powerful, as natural as throwing the weak to the floor and holding the tip of a dao to their throats until they beg for their lives.

Starscream has a sense of dignity to him, she observes. He knows what tasks are beneath him.

But she's pretty much just quiet as Hellbender and Starscream talk, and she does a decent impression of not being there at all.

[Hellbender]

"Fair enough," Hellbender replies. Blackarachnia he classes as one of the 'mad scientist bucket of egos', so he doesn't feel pity for her having to deal with her own kind.

Sadly, pinning screw-ups to the wall and tearing them a new one, no matter how enjoyable, is only a tiny part of an officer's job. In a competent military--and for all their foibles, both Megatron and Shockwave were competent at military conquest--what isn't logistics (read: paperwork) is 'leadership' (read: keeping a bunch of angry psychos pointed in the right direction and attacking). That's work. Besides, 'calibrating' a screw-up isn't that much fun for Hellbender--he's usually seriously torqued off at the screwball by that point. There are 'Cons who revel in their own rage, but Hellbender isn't one of them. He isn't thrilled and excited when he's angry--he's just angry.

In short, Hellbender does not envy Starscream the work required to competently lead the entire Decepticon force, while keeping the inevitable knives out of his back. Intrigue isn't one of Hellbender's strong points; he tries to avoid it.

[Starscream (Movie)]

Starscream does not currently lead the Decepticons, much to his chagrin. He's the one holding the knives at the moment.

"It's my job to make sure Blackarachnia and the other division heads get their jobs done," he adds. He feels the need to explain his previous statement.

He glances sidelong at the other jetformer and then transmits privately to Hellbender //Is she actually this normal¹?//



^{1. The Cybertronian word Starscream is using does not directly translate as 'normal.' A better translation would be 'One who is not psychotic, stupid, mindlessly destructive, obsessive, or otherwise a typical Decepticon.'}

[Lyzack]

Lyzack continues to be quiet and to pretend that she isn't there. She does, however, surreptitiously collect her cat and gathers the animal up in her arms.

Hellbender continues to seem suspiciously laid back to her.

Starscream seems, well, vaguely familiar, if she's honest. Now, where has she heard of a jetman stuck trying to herd cats? Hmm...

[Hellbender]

Lord Scourge, like Lord Megatron, seems to be loftily above it all; Hellbender suspects that Starscream is doing most of the work of keeping Ship and her Decepticons running on an even keel. His comment confirms that.

"Yes, sir." You're not a mere division commander peon, you're the exec, got your message, Hellbender thinks to himself.

Yes, Hellbender is suspiciously laid back; nothing has triggered his violent temper... yet. Lugnut did once, and Overlord did recently, and Slugslinger has gotten very close. Hellbender has to keep reminding himself that Slugslinger is a division commander and it's bad for discipline for senior officers to be seen trading punches and gunfire.

Hellbender replies on the private link, // Not really. She's too submissive; Ah'm guessing she was the weak sister among a bunch of the usual psychos back home, and keepin' her head down is how she survived. //

[Starscream (Movie)]

Starscream doesn't think of Hellbender as a peon. He thinks of Hellbender as a huge scary person who is slavishly loyal to someone other than himself. The other division commanders are terrifying in completely different ways, as is appropriate for Decepticons. It makes his spark swell with pride to think about it.

//Well, keep an optic on her. Make sure she doesn't snap and kill one of the usual psychos around here. Allspark knows at least one of them will take her reserve as a challenge and try to prod her until they get a response.//

[Lyzack]

If Lyzack knew they were talking about her, she would be ashamed of herself, if only because pretty much everything is an excuse to be ashamed of herself, in her book.

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