Advice From Sarge

[Sentinel Prime]

Day 26, Event Horizon training room (not the holo room), open

- - -

Sentinel Prime feels dead tired. He feels dead tired most of the time. It's a normal state of being for him. He just has extra emotionally tired sauce on top of the physical exhaustion. Sentinel Prime didn't want to stand those duties. He doesn't want to be here practising his shield. He wants to go to his room, find Skyfire and Ultra Magnus gone, curl up on his berth, and weep, and the thing that really scares him is that he's not even sure if he could if he tried, if he'd feel anything at all if he let himself go.

Shield practise won't do itself, though, so he soldiers on. Sentinel Prime holds his shield up to the light, checking the edges, watching how it cuts the light. The shield does most of its damage because of the energy spikes, but the actual metal edges of the shield are sharp, too, sharp like a fighter jet's wing and for the same reasons, sharp enough to slice through the air. He doesn't have minions here, no one to foist off maintenance duty on, so Sentinel Prime checks his shield himself, taking it seriously, because that Skyboom Shield has saved his life so many times it isn't even funny. He finds a little nick, and he pulls out a whetstone to grind it out.

He glances over at the targets set up, with their killzones marked, and then over at the training weapons. Maybe Sentinel Prime should learn to use a gun someday. What if someone hands him a gun and expects him to shoot down a chandelier or something? He'll stick with the shield for now, though. Protoform steps, one thing at a time.

[Kup]

Kup, meanwhile, has been keeping himself busy, though perhaps not as busy as Sentinel has been keeping himself. That, and foisting off duties on other people is currently one of his duties. At the moment, he's a lot more cleaned up than normal, as if returning from the sort of event where he's expected to be presentable, and he's studying over something on a datapad even as he strides into the room.

Once he enters, however, he tucks the thing into subspace, a clear visual cue to demonstrate that yes, he is paying attention. He is, perhaps, a bit tempted to ask whether or not Sentinel's been getting his rest cycles in, but he refrains - Sentinel asked him here for some reason, and best not to distract from it so soon.

"H'lo, lad? What's the problem, then?"

[Sentinel Prime]

Sentinel Prime got his rest! Most of it. Because Ultra Magnus and Skyfire were huge meanies who made him defragment instead of reading about alien tactics.

He snaps to attention at once, saluting and saying respectfully, "Sir." His shield and whetstone go into subspace.

Kup looks... dolled up, for Kup. How interesting!

[Kup]

Kup returns the salute quickly but casually, a lifer's salute, though he slouches a bit more than usual when it's done.

"At ease," he answers, then adding, a bit of a grumble, "Can't wait until we've get this hunk of scrap back on its way." You don't generally salute in a ship underway.

He doesn't add anything else, he just studies Sentinel, waiting for the blue Autobot to give his explanations.

[Sentinel Prime]

Sentinel Prime likes protocol just a bit more than is healthy, except when he ignores how it applies to him. He drops the salute and pulls back out his shield and whetstone to work out that nick in the rim. Sentinel Prime already warned Kup that he was going to be working on his shield skills while he talked; hopefully Kup won't think he's being too rude.

He explains, "I told you I was a drill sergeant, right?" Kup had said that he might have Sentinel Prime do some drills. He was not thrilled by that idea then. Now? He'd run them gladly, if only for a change from all the mind-numbing boredom, the terror in the biosphere, the wretchedness that is his part-time job... and, of course, the excuse to yell at people.

Deciding that the nick is properly ground out, Sentinel Prime puts away the whetstone, checks the balance on the shield, and then flings it at a jet-shaped target, aiming it at a wing root. "I ran into one of my old cadets today, sir."

The shield slams home. "He's on the other side of the fence now."

[Kup]

Kup winces at Sentinel's words, and straightens up again.

(It's entirely possible that Sentinel has also reminded Kup that Kup meant to put the Prime on the training rotation, but that's not really the issue right now.)

"Aw, lad, that's rough when that happens," he says sympathetically. "I've had it happen... a couple of times myself. Not often, thankfully, but even once is way more than enough. How... bad is it?"

Because really, there's, 'Gone to the other side to become a run of the mill Decepticon,' and there's 'Gone to the other side to go out of your way to torture you and your friends and make them suffer in as horrible of manners possible' and then there's 'Gone to the other side to commit atrocities on uninvolved innocents.' There are levels of evil among the Decepticons. Different... aspects of evil, one might even say.

[Sentinel Prime]

Sentinel Prime is visibly relieved when Kup says he's had students defect. He was worried about even admitting that much failure on his own part, but if he didn't talk to someone, the thoughts would just rattle through his head, through empty processors that he doesn't use for emotion anymore. Oh, also, he supposes it could get other Autobots into trouble, not knowing, but that's not as important as Sentinel Prime's own piece of mind. So he had to talk to someone. There are Autobots here to whom Sentinel Prime is closer, but there was only one of which he could think who could really, truly relate.

Kup it was.

Sentinel Prime retrieves his shield, ducking and weaving a bit under imagined fire. Ideally, it would have bounced back to him, not thereby leaving him without a shield and running to grab it back. He returns to his starting point and takes aim again. He says awkwardly, "It's complicated."

"So Ultra Magnus sends me another class of numb nodes and laser brains. Seemed like the worst one yet. Anyway, one of the bots on the squad was always screwing up, what was his name... Botch? Blunder? Bungle? Aaahh-h, I don't remember, doesn't matter anyway." He waves his hand dismissively.

"He thought there was a traitor in the class, a serious allegation. One of the better students in the class, Wasp, he had really good aim and rolled with the right crowd, was found with some incriminating evidence on him. Seemed like Butterball was right about the traitor. Cliffjumper and I took Wasp off to the stockade."

"Bubblebobble was wrong. There was a traitor in the class, but he got off scott-free and ended up the head of Autobot Intelligence. Longarm Prime. I'll know what to do with him when I get home." Sentinel Prime lets the shield fly at the jet target and this time it does bounce, but not back at Sentinel Prime. He has to run and weave again to retrieve it.

"But Wasp... Wasp got stuck in the stockade for a thousand stellar-cycles, until he escaped, and my crew got assigned to hunt him down. That's what I was doing, sir, when I got dumped here. I was hunting Wasp."

Sentinel Prime grabs his shield back up and finishes, "Today, the doors were too fast on the train, and when it dropped me off, it was at a station that was closed for repairs, nothing in or out. On the walk back, I ran into Wasp...inator, with a Decepticon symbol on his collar like how do you do."

Kup may get the idea that Sentinel Prime's past is a ludicrous string of tragedies. That's about true, but it's also about par for the course. That's Animated: everyone has horrible trauma here.

[Kup]

Kup listens to Sentinel's tale, frowning at the details. 'Botch'? Wait a minute, don't Autobots in their reality get their names from their drill sergeants?

Sentinel named someone Botch?

Kup would ask about this, but then Sentinel continues into much graver matters, causing the Autobot head of security to raise his brow-ridges. "Wait... so you're telling me that your head of Intelligence back home is a Decepticon?!" That's bad. That's real bad. But... "I guess that's not the point here," he mutters, then rubs his chin. "So you're sayin' this guy was falsely accused of treason, but now's gone and made it real. Sounds like he's got reason to be bitter, but..."

"So, there any chance he doesn't really get what he's signed up for? That he's just going with them 'cos they're not the Autobots, and doesn't realize what sorts of things he'll eventually have to be doing for the 'Cons?"

[Sentinel Prime]

Sentinel Prime named someone Bumblebee, but he doesn't have a very good memory.

He says quietly, "Uhm. Yes. Longarm Prime's a traitor." However, Sentinel Prime eagerly seizes on the conversation shift so he doesn't have to talk about that much longer. "Yeah. That's about the long and short of it, he was falsely accused, we locked him up, and he got loose and made it real, but it's... uh... weirder than that. I mean, before he defected, he assaulted Bumblebee and tried to steal his identity. They used to wear the same body shell, 65356-9292-346. Bumblebee, hmm..." He rubs his chin and thinks for a moment, then shakes his head.

Sentinel Prime flings the shield again. It hits on target and comes bouncing back. He neatly catches it and continues, "He somehow got himself turned into a techno-organic mons... er... being like Blackarachnia. Said it was an upgrade. He's huge now and turns into a flying... insect... thing. I didn't engage him in combat, I know the current operating procedure here, but he followed me around and kept bugging me. I told him we knew he was innocent, that Longarm had framed him, that maybe Botanica could help him with his... er... condition, and that we'd take him back if he really wanted."

Autobots here are saps like that. Sentinel Prime bounces the shield off the target again. "I told him that symbol he was wearing meant he'd do unto others. He said he wants me to answer for my actions - I was just following protocol!" The shield comes flying back at him over his head, and only a quick spin around lets him catch it before it slams into the wall behind him.

[Kup]

Kup fixes Sentinel with a very hard look.

"Watch that sort of thinking, Sentinel," he says, voice cold serious. "There's a lot of atrocities in the galaxy that've been justified with 'I was following orders' and its relatives. Keep that in mind."

Then his optics dim as he lifts his right hand to his chin, his left arm crossing in front of his chest to grab the other elbow. "But for this..." he starts, voice just above a murmur, "Sounds like the evidence was there. False evidence, but it woulda been enough to at least justify an investigation, maybe a trial..."

He looks up. Come to think of it, these are things that were not part of Sentinel's story so far. "There... was a full investigation, wasn't there?"

[Sentinel Prime]

OOC: "Autoboot Camp" doesn't show a full inquest and trial. However, both Optimus and Sentinel were court martialed, so it is reasonable to assume that Wasp had a court martial, as well. If Waspinator's player disagrees, well... Sentinel Prime a) canonically has trouble remembering stuff correctly sometimes and b) is also a lying liar who lies.

- - -

Sentinel Prime shrinks under Kup's look, and he tries something a bit more complex than just bouncing his shield - he slings it into a target to the left of him, watches it ricochet into a second target, and then goes chasing after it as it doesn't go flying back where he expects it to. He protests, "A lot of atrocities have happened when people didn't follow orders, too, sir!"

"Blast it, one of my best friends became a Decepticon freak because Optimus and I left her for dead," Sentinel Prime says softly, kneeling to pick up his shield, not looking at Kup. "If I'd followed orders, none of that would have happened."

Therein lies the crux of a lot of Sentinel Prime's problems.

Sentinel Prime straightens and says stiffly, "Of course Wasp had a court martial."

[Kup]

So when Sentinel didn't follow orders, his friend became a technorganic Decepticon monster, and when Sentinel did follow orders, his student became a technorganic Decepticon monster.

Kup considers Sentinel's words and gives a faint nod, saying softly, "Yeah, I think I'm seeing part of the problem."

The problem, of course, being that no matter what Sentinel Prime does, he is doomed to create technorganic Decepticon monsters.

Or something.

"It's, erm, worth keeping in mind, though, that by the laws of quite a few cultures, 'I was following orders' isn't considered sufficient defense when used in court." So in other words, the laws are out to screw you if you follow the wrong laws. He pulls the hand that had been rubbing the chin to the back of his head and sighs. "But... learning what's right and what's wrong beyond laws is... it's something that takes time. Best you can do is look at your own mistakes, learn from them... and learn from the mistakes other folks are willing to share."

He lowers his arm. "That's all really beside the point at hand. Okay, so... you arrested him, and he was convicted in a courtmartial. Don't know how your guys' justice system works... who has the burden of proof, that sort of thing, though the fact is, even in systems designed to protect the innocent as much as possible, wrongful convictions happen. That ain't much of a comfort to the one convicted, though, and right now, you're here as the primary representative of a system that did him wrong. You offered restitution... erm... did you offer restitution?" Just saying, 'We'll take you back and proclaim your innocence' isn't quite the same as saying, 'We'll try to find some way to make it up to you, as much as we can,' after all.

[Sentinel Prime]

"I would have been in the stockade, too, if I hadn't turned Wasp in when Butterfly broke the news," Sentinel Prime sulks. "That wouldn't have done anyone any good."

Okay, Optimus would have had a good laugh when he heard about it.

He holds his shield up, looking over at a different target, and half covers his face with the shield. Sentinel Prime protests, "I told him I'd talk to Ultra Magnus and that he'd be pardoned in no time, if we were back in our home reality."

Not that Sentinel Prime actually believes that would happen. In "The Elite Guard", Ultra Magnus was the one who gave the order to keep organics out and to decontaminate Optimus's crew. Given Ultra Magnus's track record of sampling data from Starscream without Starscream's consent, he'd probably have Perceptor, Wheeljack, and Red Alert take Waspinator apart to find out what makes him tick.

"Here? I don't have any authority here to offer him restitution." Sentinel Prime slams the shield into one target, watches it bounce, and nimbly catches it on the rebound.

[Kup]

"Look, I'm not saying you did wrong in arrestin' him," Kup clarifies, holding up his right hand. "I was just giving a... more general warning about followin' orders too blindly." Then he lowers his arm and leans slightly to the left, thinking. "All things considered, it's not exactly in my best interests to be suggestin' you never follow orders, after all."

"And... all right, you might not. But I do. I can be overruled, sure, but I'm figuring Xaaron and Rodimus would be good with a chance to rob the 'Cons of a body. That said... it's a pretty moot point if he won't take you up on the offer. And if he won't take you up on the offer, then at the end of the day..." Kup sighs. "Until that happens... unless that happens, at the end of the day, we have to treat him like just another 'Con."

[Sentinel Prime]

Sentinel Prime smirks back at Kup when Kup notes that Sentinel Prime never following orders would not be in Kup's interests. he gets a bit fancy with the shield, bouncing it off the target to the left into the target to the right, then to the target in the middle, and finally back to him, but he put more power behind the throw to get that many bounces, and it comes back at him fast and hard. Sentinel Prime catches it, but the sharp rim cuts into the palm of his hand, shallowly, before he gets a safer grip on it. He winces, but he absolutely refuses to cry out in front of Kup or show any more pain than that blasted wince. Sentinel Prime's had worse cuts during shield drills, anyway.

He says slowly, "So if I run into him again, I tell him that my commanding officer, Kup, would like to offer restitution for his wrongful suffering, if he wants to come back? Otherwise, thwart nefarious deeds as per usual operating procedure?"

Sentinel Prime does another fling, just into the target and back, and he catches it right this time.