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Post by Sentinel Prime on Aug 17, 2010 10:33:08 GMT -5
Day 4, Event Horizon sickbay, semi-private.
A man's last bastion is his mind, though he may be wounded, sick, and disgraced.
Sentinel Prime is alone in the sickbay, still hooked up to the machines that are filtering his fluids. Even the medics have other things that need to be done, and he's in no danger of dying at the moment - but he will be, if he gets up and leaves before the dialysis is complete and new internal filters can be installed.
So he's stuck here, and his mind wanders, unfettered, though his body may be stuck here.
Sentinel Prime figures he should catch some shut-optic, but he just can't seem to lay himself to rest. He feels strung out on a wire, weak, diluted and deluded.
What dreams would come to him when the waking world is a nightmare?
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Post by Elita-1 on Aug 17, 2010 13:53:16 GMT -5
Elita-1 is still terribly worried about Sentinel Prime, more so now than she was before the crash. It isn't that he's grown up and away from her; that she understands. It's that he just seems so... broken. Something isn't right with his processor, she's sure of it.
What she's been contemplating the last few days isn't right. She knows this. Still, Elita has always been arrogant and given to acts of desperation when she feels trapped, and now is no exception. Why it is she that feels trapped by Sentinel's is something she can't quite voice.
She steps quietly into the room, the medbay door sliding closed behind her.
"Hey. You, um... want some company?"
She tries not to sound too hopeful.
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Aug 17, 2010 15:35:17 GMT -5
Sentinel Prime's processors are mostly fine! Maybe a little etched after that acid trip, but fine! He's just a product of his society. If only he could derive some wisdom from his sorrows, instead of hatred and paranoia.
He cringes when she enters. It's not her fault. She hasn't done anything yet. He can still himself that until his face is as blue as the rest of his helmet, and yet...
He sees her blue turning to violet, her cheery yellow to sultry gold, those tabs to spikes, and her optics, oh her optics, flashing red as lips part to reveal fangs.
So he cringes, and he replies, "Hey, babe."
Sentinel Prime may not be able to leave the medical berth, but he can always put his foot in his mouth.
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Post by Elita-1 on Aug 17, 2010 17:16:01 GMT -5
Elita sees him cringe, sees how he still tries to be his (almost) normal for her. At least, she chooses to take it as trying to be that way for her. In reality he is probably doing it for his own pride, and she knows this. It makes her feel a bit better to think he's doing it for her though.
She gives a wan sort of smile.
"Well, that's a better greeting than I got before!" she says cheerily, though the cheer is obviously false. She crosses over to his berth and sits down on a stool.
"Are you feeling any better?"
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Aug 17, 2010 21:21:56 GMT -5
"The doc says I'll pull through," Sentinel Prime answers, although that's not really what she asked.
A tiny, tiny piece of him wonder if this is some form of karmic payback, a backlash by Lady Luck against him for all the people he's stepped on along the way.
But nah, it couldn't be that. Could it?
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Post by Elita-1 on Aug 18, 2010 12:00:10 GMT -5
She quirks a browridge, the says, "That's not what I asked, you stubborn git."
"I know you'll pull through," Elita continues, "That isn't the same as feeling better.
She reaches over to try and cup Sentinel's chin. "Sentinel, I... I'm worried about you. Can you please try to put aside the bluff and bravado and be honest with me? Just for awhile?"
Elita smirks a bit, "There's no one to overhear the lapse, and I promise I won't tell."
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Aug 18, 2010 17:42:16 GMT -5
Sentinel Prime looks away, pulling away from her touch, and he admits quietly, "I can't look at you and not see her. And I know it's not your fault."
There. He said it, and Allspark condemn him for it. This is worse than thanking Optimus Prime after that Headmaster ordeal, he thinks, and he thought it couldn't get worse than that.
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Post by Elita-1 on Aug 18, 2010 18:31:46 GMT -5
Elita doesn't try to force him to look at her, but she can't keep the touch of pain off her face as her fingers slide away on empty air.
"I... can understand that."
She looks down at her hands, slightly surprised to see that they are now clenched in fists.
"I can. But- I can't not care about you, just because you think I'm going to flip out on you. I'm not her, Sentinel," Elita says as she looks up, "I'm not. I'm not going to be her."
"What can I do? Tell me how I can help."
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Aug 18, 2010 18:38:17 GMT -5
Sentinel Prime blurts, "Kill her," without thinking. It's what he'd like to do to Blackarachnia, anyway. Then he realises that he just asked Elita-1 to kill her future self.
Wow, Sentinel Prime, that was spectacularly tasteless and tactless, even for you, old boy, he thinks.
Then, his features set, and he decides to stand behind his words, rather than back-pedalling and wheedling, like he usually does. He says again, "Kill her and... Oil Slick, I think it is. The man all but slaughtered Team Athenia, anyway."
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Post by Elita-1 on Aug 21, 2010 11:55:00 GMT -5
Elita starts, at first taken aback by Sentinel's request that his tormentors die. Death and war are still such alien things to her.
She purses her lips in a frown, ready to counter that their deaths wouldn't fix anything, but she pauses. If it really is some future twisted version of herself that did this to Sentinel, Elita... has to admit that Blackarachnia deserves to die.
"All right. If opportunity presents."
"What else? What can I do now?
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Aug 21, 2010 12:14:39 GMT -5
Sentinel Prime looks rather taken aback by Elita-1's reaction. He was expecting to be slapped, her to start weeping, or her to just storm out on him. So he just looks at her for a moment with a blank sort of 'guh' look on his face, like back when was in Autoboot Camp and Kup caught him in the energon depot.
Good friends will help you hide the bodies.
Wow.
Elita-1 really is a friend then, isn't she? If Sentinel Prime wasn't sure why Perceptor and Springer were being nice to him, he really doesn't understand Elita-1 at all. He just told her to go kill herself! His optics narrow with his natural suspicion and paranoia.
Sentinel Prime struggles to figure out what to say, and he settles on, "I, uh... well. Make sure the Twins don't do anything stupid?"
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Post by Elita-1 on Aug 22, 2010 19:13:35 GMT -5
"Psht, as if those two would listen to me," Elita says with a smile and slight toss of her head, "Really, no one much listens to me, which is a... much needed reality check. I suppose I'm still too used to just bossing you and Optimus around."
She runs one finger idly along the berth's edge. She cuts her optics up, trying to follow the various lines into Sentinel's body, making note of any open panels.
"I mean, I can try to treat them like I do you two, but somehow I doubt that would achieve the desired results."
Plus, they're like kids. Optimus and Sentinel... aren't kids, and Elita treats them the way she does for a specific reason to get a specific result. Treating the twins like that would be kind gross.
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Aug 22, 2010 19:43:06 GMT -5
"Oh, come on!" Sentinel Prime insists. "Don't tell me that you're a one-trick cyberhorse. Where's my woman of a thousand powers? I'm sure you can figure out some way to ride shotgun on those two." More quietly. "They came for me. They're good kids. Better than I've told them."
Perhaps he should feel jealous over that suggestion, but he just can't bring himself to be. Elita's a friend, that's for sure, but he just can't bring himself to be interested in her the way he once was while her dark shadow prowls the recesses of his mind. Maybe someday, if he didn't feel so slagging old all the time. Sure, it'd be weird if Elita-1 hooked up with one or both of the Twins, but the Twins have finished Autoboot Camp and are blooded Elite Guardsmen, and Elita-1's a cadet, so they're... about the same age? Pistons, but that's weird to contemplate.
"...though you might get some funny results if you try downloading their powers," he realises, contemplating it all.
Sentinel Prime has open panels in his biceps area.
He isn't quite looking at her, and he misses where she's looking and what she's doing.
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Post by Elita-1 on Aug 23, 2010 9:25:55 GMT -5
Elita-1 would not be happy to know that she's being classed in the same age bracket as the twins by Sentinel. So what if the numbers say they are? She's leagues older than them emotionally, right?
Or so she tells herself.
She does look rather thoughtful at Sentinel's suggestion, however. "Hrmm, yeah, I'm not sure what downloading from one of them would do. Would I copy their flight, their special powers, or their ability to combine? Technically, I should be able to pull and adapt the coding for all three, but... the logistics behind combining eludes me. It would require a temporary rerouting and reconfiguring of my entire transform sequence and-"
She cuts off and smiles down at Sentinel, "Sorry. I know you aren't too keen on listening to technical jargon. Being stuck in here with Perceptor for so long has to be driving you more nutty than you already are." The words are good-natured, as is her smile, and she tries to pat Sentinel lightly on the bicep. Her fingers will remain there, if allowed.
"I miss you terribly, you know. Miss you both," she murmurs softly, an odd tone of resignation in her voice.
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Aug 23, 2010 9:35:55 GMT -5
Well. Elita-1 doesn't go around telling people that their faces are looking 'zackly', so that is at least a point toward her emotional maturity.
His optics glaze over a bit as Elita-1 goes into technobabble land. Must. Resist. Urge. To. Defragment. He does, however, snap out of it to bristle, "I am not nutty! Magnus's Hammer, woman!"
He glares at her, but affronted as he is, he hasn't quite yet noticed where her hand has ended up.
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