Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
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Plan B
Jun 16, 2012 21:48:15 GMT -5
Post by Shanodin on Jun 16, 2012 21:48:15 GMT -5
Quirking a brow, Shanodin looks from Elly to the pamphlet and back again. She brings a hand up and rubs her temple, a long-suffering smile on her face.
"My dear, dear guardian. You have just described Primus to a 'T.' We all suffer at His whims and were created to die in his stead. Ask Rodimus, or the Emirate and they will agree; Primus will get no Father's Day cards from either of them, I assure you."
"You would blame this world for my situation, when the blame lies in the Primus of my own reality. I could have been made a normal human, but... I would never have recovered myself, Sentinel. I am certain of that. The complete loss of something resembling that bond would have been the death of me."
She waves a hand, indicating the grove. "They are very, very young, and like all children they cling to their mother, fear the loss of her. They would attack any that would threaten her, or take her from them. I realize that you do not understand this, Sentinel, that you might never. This is not the trap you view it to be."
The dryad looks up at Elly with true caring and gratitude, "But I am glad you came, Sentinel. My mind is clearer than it has been since the change. Also, I have missed you."
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Plan B
Jun 16, 2012 22:09:02 GMT -5
Post by Sentinel Prime on Jun 16, 2012 22:09:02 GMT -5
"I wasn't," Elly says firmly, "My reality has no Primus," echoing the insistence of Derrick Wyatt. Before she knows what she's saying, she has said, "And any father that creates his children to die doesn't deserve their loyalty."
Elly pauses and looks away, rubbing the back of her head. She has said as much before in so many words, has she not? With regard to the Twins. It took this reality to make her see that. Elly shakes her head and points out, "That's a disingenuous line of argument. If Primus steals your car, and then Planet Earth steals the car, too, Primus is not at fault for Planet Earth stealing the car. They're both at fault for separate instances of theft. Planet Earth didn't have to do this to you or me or any of us, but it did."
Elly has two new grudges to hold, but that's fine. She's good at grudges, and for all that Optimus is the one with axe, she's great at grinding axes. Elly crosses her arms stubbornly and insists, "You aren't their mother. They belong to someone else, who has forced you to babysit. Don't forget that."
Her kitten-heeled foot scuffs in the dirt at Shanodin's last. "I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to get back, sir. This sack of flesh is defective, and your captors don't like me."
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
|
Plan B
Jun 26, 2012 11:52:40 GMT -5
Post by Shanodin on Jun 26, 2012 11:52:40 GMT -5
"You are a dead thing walking, Sentinel. Life will forever look on you with fear and loathing as something which does not belong," the dryad says, no small amount of sadness in her tone.
Shanodin rises and tries to take one Elly's hands in one of hers. With her other hand, the dryad tries to smooth back the sickly woman's hair.
"But you will always be welcome as my friend."
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Plan B
Jun 26, 2012 12:24:50 GMT -5
Post by Sentinel Prime on Jun 26, 2012 12:24:50 GMT -5
Hair smoothed, Elly looks down at the hand on her her own and quirks a smug smirk that does not fit on her pale, fine-featured face. She says cockily, "Forever? I don't think so. Get this body changed back to an Autobot, and... Elita-1 is just one AllSpark away from living again."
No one ever did tell Sentinel Prime that Elita-1 killed her. Kup and Optimus didn't correct Sentinel Prime when she supposed that an alien must have got her.
Still, on the day that broke them all, Sentinel offered to stay behind to hold the line so that Optimus and Elita-1 could escape, taking his chances alone. He weighed their lives, and he decided that Optimus and Elita-1's lives were worth more than his own.
Optimus decided differently when they met again, and it is this difference of opinion that has taken so long to forgive.
If Sentinel Prime knew the truth of how she died, would she be so keen to give Elita-1 another shot at life and simply fade away herself?
"It's a shame Optimus had Jetfire smelt my body." It's amazingly twisted on multiple levels, is what it is. "They say in my own timestream, Optimus died and came back on account of the AllSpark. We could have gone three-for. But all I am is a download caught in the buffer, and while I am, I intend to make the most of it. Keep yourself safe, sir."
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
|
Plan B
Jul 2, 2012 21:48:28 GMT -5
Post by Shanodin on Jul 2, 2012 21:48:28 GMT -5
When Elly talks about bringing Elita-1 back from the dead, the dryad visibly starts.
"You would give up your life for her, even after-"
Shanodin stops herself from completing the thought. What if no one told Sentinel? Oh, Ash and Thorn damn them for a lot of spineless cowards if they didn't! This should not fall to her.
She steps back and gestures back the way Elly came. "You will have safe passage back when you choose to go, and you will have aid with your burden."
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Plan B
Jul 2, 2012 22:05:17 GMT -5
Post by Sentinel Prime on Jul 2, 2012 22:05:17 GMT -5
"You've said it yourself. This isn't a life," Elly points out, too reasonably, "And yeah, I know she becomes Blackarachnia, but well... she hasn't yet. And I know she... broke my emotions against my will." She rubs the back of her head and looks away. "That's pretty inexcusable. I... may have told her that I wanted her to go to a different reality when we're all done here because I never wanted to see her again, but I swear to you, that wasn't a euphemism for, 'I want you to die'!"
Elly actually looks haunted by that last admission.
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
|
Plan B
Jul 16, 2012 21:44:42 GMT -5
Post by Shanodin on Jul 16, 2012 21:44:42 GMT -5
"Wait... what?"
Shanodin turns back to Elly, a look of horror on her face.
"What are you saying? You told me you had that done on purpose!"
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Plan B
Jul 16, 2012 21:59:30 GMT -5
Post by Sentinel Prime on Jul 16, 2012 21:59:30 GMT -5
Elly has a brief 'buh' moment, and then she remembers that pretty much no one knows that bit about Elita-1. Oh bother. She rubs the back of her head, eyes glancing sidelong, and she looks sheepish. Then Elly twiddles her fingers together. She says slowly, "Ah, well, ma'am... that would be because I'm a liar, you see."
This is really awkward!
"I covered for her. Optimus would have done the same, I'm sure."
Elly is very sure! Optimus covered for all sorts of things for Sentinel Prime, even when he didn't have to. Sentinel Prime was always expecting Optimus to use it for blackmail leverage or something, but he never did. He never stated any terms or demands. Looking back, now that Elly is a bit wiser, Optimus was probably just hoping that if he was nice to Sentinel Prime, Sentinel Prime would forgive him and be his friend again and stop being such a rampaging skidplate, but Optimus couldn't say, 'Hey, I covered for you to make you like me again.' Sentinel Prime was so contrary that he would have just hated Optimus more out of spite.
However, that particular Optimus is in her home reality. This Optimus hasn't done most of those things. Elly finally gets over herself and her spite enough to be able to thank her Optimus, and he isn't here.
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
|
Plan B
Jul 21, 2012 23:07:11 GMT -5
Post by Shanodin on Jul 21, 2012 23:07:11 GMT -5
Shanodin is angry. Not at Elly, because she does understand why Elly lied to her. No, the dryad is furious that someone who claimed to be an Autobot would do something so terrible, so thoughtless, and to someone she claimed to care for....
Of course, Elita-1 wasn't really meant to be an Autobot, now was she?
"Sentinel Prime, you listen to me and listen well. Whatever you may think or feel for her, that girl does not deserve yet another chance at the life she squandered. You died because of her, not once but twice."
"You may stand against the natural order as a thing which should not be, but you deserve this chance at life much more than she ever will."
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Plan B
Jul 25, 2012 9:29:09 GMT -5
Post by Sentinel Prime on Jul 25, 2012 9:29:09 GMT -5
If Shanodin is angry, Elly is furious. She was friends with Optimus, and she hated him for a thousand years for picking her over Elita-1. Why should the situation with Shanodin be any different?
Her hands clench into fists, and Elly seethes, "You don't get to choose who dies. That's not your right. You only get to choose who you're going to try to save - and I've made my choice already."
Elly attempts to storm out out of the garden.
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
|
Plan B
Jul 29, 2012 21:08:41 GMT -5
Post by Shanodin on Jul 29, 2012 21:08:41 GMT -5
Shanodin does not try to stop Elly as the she tries to leave. Even the green gives the living dead girl a wide berth at Shanodin’s urgings, vines curling away and limbs bending at ways contrary to the wind, all to make Elly’s passage easier.
The dryad does call out one last comment, however, “Go ask Optimus how you died, Sentinel.” A beat. “That’s an order from a superior officer.”
Looks like a good place to end?
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