False Jumpstarts

[Tessan Toov]

Day 11. Event Horizon hallway. After escaping from "You Did What!?". Open.

Twin Twist has been debriefed, repaired, and released from quarantine, and he's feeling just a bit miserable about himself, and he can't really explain why. Sure, having the Wrecker-Technobot Civil War made perfect sense when he was right there, but after talking to Rodimus Prime and Springer, he's not sure it actually made any sense.

He's grabbed a map of the ship and downloaded it, and he's off to go find Topspin now, he supposes. Twin Twist wonders if Topspin, like Arcee and Springer, will look different.

There's also that weird matter that Springer was going on about. Twin Twist doesn't understand what was up with that.

He could just radio Topspin, but he's not his Topspin, so maybe he won't even want to see Twin Twist, anyway. Twin Twist scowls at his reflection in the floor, idly trying to decide how many RPM he'd need to spin up to tear into it.

[Topspin]

Topspin is wandering the ship, looking for Twin Twist now that they don't have to go liberate him from the enemy, guns blazing. (There went his plans for the day.) Sure, this whole dimension-pulling thing and the circumstances surrounding them are weird, but he refuses to allow them to be complicated. Things are what they are, nothing more, nothing less, it's people getting their circuits blown every which way that makes matters more muddled and confused than they have to be. Ignore the things that don't matter, deal with the ones that do.

There's a dozen important reasons why he shouldn't just throw this out of an airlock and hope it burns up somewhere, but the one he keeps coming back to is that still feels like he owes it to Twin Twist. It may not be the one he knows...but he deserves better than that. He matters.

He rounds a corner and can't help but smirk inwardly when he finds him. He knows that look, even if the one it belongs to is just a bit different. "Not sure, but it's safe to say that Command'd appreciate it if you didn't find out." he says by way of greeting.

[Tessan Toov]

Twin Twist looks puzzled, as he often does, looking Topspin over. He gets closer, but not too close, sniffing. He mutters to himself. "Gunsmoke. You look right. You even smell right. You're just... not him."

Twin Twist takes a step back, and then, as an afterthought, he holds out his hand and offers, "I'm Twin Twist. Just not the Twin Twist you know. I'm the Twin Twist Rodimus Prime will know, in the future. So does this give you a headache, too, or is this just me?"

[Topspin]

There are very subtle differences, but it's otherwise a spitting image of his brother. He isn't put off when this Twin Twist gets in closer, but when he mentions not being his, he can't help but think of his own Twin Twist in kind. Broken, bleeding, and begging. That there's a mirror standing in front of him, healthy and whole, seems like a sick joke. Yeah. Likewise."

He tries to will the thought to the back of his mind, so he can focus on the hear and now. He's not angry with this Twin Twist, it's not his fault. Topspin eyes the hand for a moment. Eh, it was as good an introduction as any. "Topspin." he says taking it. "I'm from Springer's universe. And yeah, one and a half." With all that's happened in a matter of hours, he is not a fan of this dimension. But Long Haul seems to fan him. What.

"But we're going to have to make the most of it." It's not like they have a choice in the matter.

[Tessan Toov]

The biggest difference is where the drills go.

Twin Twist explains, "Now, Springer was saying something else that also gave me a headache. That when I get hurt, you'll feel it sometimes? And maybe vice versa?"

He's making a boggling face, like this doesn't make much sense to him at all.

"Like we're... Duocons or something? Anyway."

Twin Twist shrugs and reaches down for his wrist. He mentally undoes the latches that keep his wrist attached and seals the fluid lines, but he doesn't disconnect the sensor nets, so that this will hurt like he just tore off his hand, but it won't do much damage, and it won't need repairs, just not stressing it for a while. Twin Twist does not want to be in the medbay again so soon!

Then he tears off his hand, looks down at the stump, and asks, "Did you feel that?"

[Topspin]

"Yeah, it's called Vicarious Perception, but that's how it works, essentially." Topspin doesn't know what a Duocon is, but he can hazard a guess as to what Twin Twist is implying. The name makes him wonder, though.

His "brow" quirks with curiosity when Twin Twist starts to fiddle with his hand. "What're you--AURGH." He grits his teeth as his hand is suddenly squeezing the wrist opposite, arm going ramrod straight as it seizes with white hot pain. Of all the half-clocked--Topspin levels an angry glare at Twin Twist. Moments pass, and he flexes his hand as the pain fades, more out of a habit than of any real use as his expression melts into something a little more neutral as his anger leaves.

"Hey, Twin Twist," he says with casual concern holding out his own palm up, "Let me see your hand for a second. I think one of your arrays might be malaligned." Topspin is a medic, sort of, he knows what he's talking about, and only wants the best for his fellow Autobots. This one especially.

The moment Twin Twist's hand, well, changes hands, there is a blur of movement and a very loud THWACK[/b] echoes out as Topspin hits him upside the head with it, hard enough to register, but not enough to damage it.

"There," he says, managing to sound both dry and clinical, "I think it's fixed." He never said which array and where. "Your logic centers should be functioning properly, now." He holds out Twin Twist's clue-by-four hand for him to take back.

Yes, Twin Twist. He felt that.

__________________________________

OOC: Posing of and hitting Twin Twist with his own hand was done with permission.

[Tessan Toov]

Twin Twist doesn't give any thought to handing Topspin his hand. He just does it. Like most Transformers in his reality, his hands are designed to come on and off, and he can even pour out his own energon via his hand stump if he needs to give someone a quick snack or do some blood brothers rite. This is perfectly legit. Don't look at him funny like that.

Then Topspin backhands Twin Twist with his own hand. Ow. Twin Twist stares at Topspin dumbly for a long, long moment, speechless. Then, wordlessly, he takes his hand back and latches it back on. It's still achy, because he tore some sensor lines, but all the motor connections seem fine as he flexes his digits one by one, checking. Finally, he clenches the hand into a fist as one last check, and he looks back up at Topspin, head tilted. His expression seems to say, What.

Then, Twin Twist pulls out his map of the ship and says, very loudly, "I'm going to go find my rack."

[Topspin]

At the expression, Topspin folds his arms and explains, "Twin Twist, when you find out that you will share pain with someone sometimes, and have experienced said sharing of pain, the first thing you do not do in response is try to induce more pain." Seriously.

[Tessan Toov]

"Just wanted to make sure it... works?" 'Works' is probably not the right terminology for a perceptual dysfunction. Twin Twist gives a helpless look at Topspin and then shrugs. "I mean, what if you were picking up someone else's pain, not mine?"

He glares down at his map and mutters sullenly, "Primus, the next time you get your head blown off by Galvatron is going to be such a pain. Wait. Not you-you. The other you. Do you do getting your head blown by Galvatron?" He looks back up at Topspin questioningly.

Twin Twist reads aloud, "Okay, so, Room 17, with... Arcee. Oh, frag me." He covers his face with his hands.

[Topspin]

"Except Springer and Rodimus probably mentioned both instances where we felt each other's pain, right? That kind of narrows the focus down a bit." To, y'know, just the both of them. "I don't know why we have a branched spark, since you didn't have one with your own Topspin, but I've been living with this ever since I've been sparked." he points out.

"Trust me. It works."

Topspin has half a mind to say that he prefers less suicidal pasttimes, but instead says, "...if I ever got my head blown off, I wouldn't be here. And if it was by Galvatron, there wouldn't even be a head left." It'd be dust. Made of death.

Topspin frowns in consideration at Twin Twist's apparent distress. "Arcee? Who's he?"

[Tessan Toov]

"Yeah, well, I don't have a spark," Twin Twist notes, slightly irritably. He's finally gotten it down that sparks are Required Equipment for some Transformers, sort of like a brain module, except some of them also have brain modules.

He starts walking down towards to the barracks, finger on the map. Sometimes, he reaches out and taps on the walls, listening to the echoes. Twin Twist reassures Topspin, "You braced yourself. You were fine." Hence why Topspin was around in the year 2510 in Twin Twist's timeline. The Topspin in Emirate Xaaron's timeline didn't brace himself, so he died. "Other you."

Then, Twin Twist corrects, "She. Arcee is a woman. Back on July 15, 1995, Earth reckoning, Autobot command had a female Autobot built to torque off the Feminists. I dunno what Feminists are. I'm hoping a Decepticon special team. Anyway, in my reality, her and Springer are really... close. Uhm. Like." Primus, talking about feelings and junk is difficult. Busting heads is easy. "Dating? So now I have to worry that Arcee's Springer will show up and punch my lights out for looking at her funny. If she has her own Springer. She might not. This one is different than my Arcee. Different hood geometry." Twin Twist holds out his hands in front of his chest, gesturing.

[Topspin]

Say what. "You don't--how is this even working, then?!" he asks, sputtering. Kup asked him what he had when he got here, and it didn't take a genius to figure out why once he knew what was going on, but it never occurred to him that Twin Twist wouldn't have a spark. It just seemed like a given!

Topspin walks alongside Twin Twist, sometimes glancing at Twin Twist's map. Eh, it wasn't bad, but he'd definitely do a couple things differently. "He braced himself so he lived through having his head blown off?" There seems to be a disconnect between what Twin Twist is saying, and what Topspin is understanding. Uh, a bigger one. "Wait, you can survive that?" he asks, clearly impressed. That is both way awesome and not entirely fair.

Oh, this women thing again. Topspin knows of and has met some female aliens, but he's going to have to get used to having them in his own species. "Wait, were you macking on her? Man, that's not cool if you knew she was taken." Topspin might not have females (that he knows of) where he comes from, but he certainly knows the Rules of Engagement. Of course, it could all just have been a misunderstanding. This was Twin Twist; it was more than possible. Besides, he'll give Twin Twist more credit than that, if not for her sake, than for his Springer's. "Maybe she just took something you said or did the wrong way?" he suggests. "What did you say, anyway?"

When Twin Twist makes a gesture, Topspin tilts his head slightly. "Does she have a bomb rack in there, or something? That's one Hell of a crumplezone."

[Tessan Toov]

"I have a brain module," Twin Twist states rather firmly. "Don't listen to my Whirl if he says I don't. But just a brain module. That's all."

He tries to hand the map off to Topspin, since Topspin keeps looking at it, and he's going to need his hands free in a moment, anyway. "Sometimes. Depends if we're surprised or not. Just give me a moment here-" Twin Twist pauses a moment in his walking and leans against the wall, keying up a whole set of mental commands to disconnect nerve endings. "-there, got it."

He reaches up, and his head comes off in his hands, painlessly. Twin Twist feels pretty stupid standing around headless, though, so he puts his head back on his shoulders. He stretches a bit, cracking his neck and making sure everything's aligned again. Finally, the implications catch up with him, and he frowns, poking a finger at Topspin's chest. "Wait, you mean you can't? Firefrackers. I'm gonna have to keep a close optic on you."

Topspin is a fragile flower who must be kept under glass.

Twin Twist makes a face, holds up his hands, and protests, "And no, slotting no! Arcee's all blah blah blah know it all. Guess Springer needs his hit of nagging or something." Since Emirate Xaaron is dead and all. "Yeah, I wondered if this Arcee had pop-out missiles or machine-guns put in, because seriously, Springer would dig that, but no, I guess she's just built differently than my Arcee."

[Topspin]

"I won't listen to your Whirl if he says you don't. Wrecker's Honour." Topspin repeats, hand raised. "I know better," he adds, nodding solemnly. Whether that's knowing for sure that Twin Twist does or doesn't have one is left up to interpretation.

Topspin takes the map without a fuss, but when Twin Twist pulls his own head off, Topspin's spark skips a pulse and he flinches, jaw dropping, just a little bit. He is more than used to gore, but that doesn't mean he's okay with seeing a head that looks exactly like his brothers separated from his body. He must admit, though that that's handy. ...Mildly disturbing, sure, but handy. He quickly gets over his surprise and moves to bat at Twin Twist's finger, wearing a frown of his own (one that he makes sure is deeper than Twin Twist's). "No, I can't, and I've made it this far without being able to. Don't get your drills bent out of shape." Granted, he's also supposed to be dead right now, but he just won't mention that. What Twin Twist doesn't know can't...be used as ammunition.

"Maybe it's just reinforced armour, who knows. Anyway, two things." he raises a finger "First: Do you know what her function is?" Another, "Second: How torqued was she? These are both very important things to ask yourself." Topspin is, for the most part, a friendly guy, but he's not friends with everyone and he's not afraid to tell them as much or where they can shove it if he needs to. He's also not an idiot. He's often (but not always) of the mind that people fall into three categories: people you can't piss off without facing certain terrible repercussions, people you can piss off with potential (also terrible) repercussions, and people you can piss off whose potential repercussions fall into tolerable margins. The danger lies when one confuses the third category for the first or second in the worst way. "She's not a medic, is she?" he asks warily, not at all playing this up. Nope. "Never a good idea to torque off someone who might end up fixing you. Anyway, you might want to do something about this, Twin Twist." he says just a little gravely.

"She knows where you sleep."

[Tessan Toov]

"What kind of weird Wreckers have honour?" Twin Twist asks, making a skeptical face. Honour would get in the way of ambushes and tricking the enemy with facsimile constructs, duh.

His finger is batted away, and he pays it no mind. Twin Twist points out, "They're diamond drills. They don't bend easily. Anyway. Don't think I won't watch you. If I don't, that's the moment you'll try to solo Bombshell, Blitzwing, Dirge, and Ramjet all at once. I'm not having that on my watch!" He squints.

Twin Twist explains, "Arcee's a warrior, specialises in sharpshooting and anti-vehicular combat." In his reality, anyway. "I think I torqued off Oracle, too. She's an Autobot Seeker woman, and that's kind of confusing."

Oracle, who is rooming with Topspin.

"Maybe also Prowl. He's a ninja. I mistook him for a woman. He's not. I'm not worried about any of them. Just don't want some Springer getting angry at me."