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Post by Mirage on Mar 16, 2008 14:58:04 GMT -5
Mirage actually laughs at the Emirate’s question, “Hardly,” leading him a few steps away from the crowd. “I’ve never been one who believes in exclusivity, and I am unaware of any potential jealous admirers.” There is perhaps just a touch of regret in his tone at the last. “Likewise, I do hope I’ll not have to worry about Swerve? If he’s like his counterpart, I would really hate to deal with that temper.” Mirage asked Xaaron to dance; of course he intends to lead! Mirage places his right hand on Xaaron’s back just under the left shoulder, then takes Xaaron’s right hand in his left. “As much as I enjoy the waltz, much of what Firebolt is playing is 4/4 meter, and it will be easier to keep step with a trot. If you are amiable, that is?” Provided the Emirate answers in the affirmative, Mirage will step into the signature slow-slow-quick-quick of the foxtrot, starting with a simple forward basic, trying to get a feel for the music, the floor, and his partner. The Emirate might notice the smoothness and grace with which Mirage executes the moves, his posture and ease in a setting where the Mirage that Emirate Xaaron knows would be stiff an uncomfortable. OOC: For the interested, Mirage is using the quicker American Foxtrot pace. Want to learn see the moves? www.ballroomdancers.com/Dances/
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Emirate Xaaron-3
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Ate you alive since you were a child/That's when the monster first appeared in you
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Post by Emirate Xaaron-3 on Mar 16, 2008 17:07:23 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron should probably look shocked and appalled at Mirage's comment about exclusivity and the lack thereof. He doesn't. He laughs nervously and replies, "Temper? I do not think Swerve possesses one." He's never seen what his Rodimus Prime can make Swerve, and he wouldn't care to know. He's idealised Swerve in his mind. The reality would crush him. "I do not think he possesses the other drive, either."
Emirate Xaaron is just a wee bit disappointed, too, although such a pure thought does play into his happy little mental image. It's just that such mental images exist to be corrupted, even as reality remains inviolate.
He agrees, "Certainly." More dancing styles lead to less order overall. He's fine with that, even if it'll annoy Slingshot.
Emirate Xaaron is rusty and a bit awkward, grappling with his issues as he is, but he does remember the steps. It's a little boggling just how smooth Mirage is at this. Of course, for him, it must just be like yesterday.
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Post by Mirage on Mar 16, 2008 18:35:45 GMT -5
Well, Xaaron isn't terrible at the dance at least. A bit clunky, but that is to expected all things considered. It hadn't been just yesterday that Mirage had been gliding across the floor at a ball, an endless string of partners waiting in the wings, but those days were not long gone for the spy. Mirage feels a touch of sympathy for the Emirate, to have fallen so low, but then, perhaps such niceties had not been to the Emirate's- either Emirate's- tastes and he missed them not.
The floor is getting busy, and the basic steps have moved them along the edge of the crowd. Given how well Xaaron is following, Mirage tries adding a hesitation turn to the right, avoiding the gathering of jets and turning more into the press of dancers.
Mirage has been making a point of trying to look into Xaaron's face, even as he pays attention to their surroundings. It's the look of the courtier, politely heated, warm, one that says to his partner, You are attractive, engaging, and oh, so lucky to have caught my attention. It is not that Mirage entertains any desires for the Emirate, not at all. But such a look, in such a situation, is as much a part of Mirage as his haughtiness.
A thought occurs, and Mirage asks, "If I may be so bold, you seemed quite upset by your counterpart dancing with Pee-Dee. May I ask why?"
Another turn, this time to the left to avoid another dancer.
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Emirate Xaaron-3
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Ate you alive since you were a child/That's when the monster first appeared in you
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Post by Emirate Xaaron-3 on Mar 16, 2008 19:16:55 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron liked the time before the war. He put on a face for the public, and he had a measure of power over his own life. Then, in private, he could enjoy the company of the skeletons in his closet. Emirate Xaaron was a very different person then, not scarred in body and mind. He looked forward the final revels, not the ultimate end.
He follows along with the hesitation turn. In a way, he dances as if his life depended on it. At times, it has. The way Mirage is looking at him makes him rather uncomfortable. He's seen it before; of course he has, but that was before his fall. He's too broken to be that person now.
Still, it demands a return, and - oh, he has a question to answer. Emirate Xaaron may as well. As long as Mirage is dancing with him, he's not somewhere out there setting up the gun. He replies quietly, "Pee-Dee, my Pee-Dee, was interested in me in a way that I did not enjoy. I was startled to see that my alternate would actually seek out the company of his own Pee-Dee."
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Post by Mirage on Mar 16, 2008 20:12:02 GMT -5
Mirage sweeps Xaaron into a box turn followed by a promenade, and they end nearer perhaps to the ruckus with Nightbeat and Pee-Dee than the Emirate might find comfortable. For a bit, Mirage sticks to a side sway, considering Xaaron's answer.
"This Pee-Dee is, perhaps, difficult to understand at times, but overall a decent sort. Fun for a bit of verbal sparring, too, if she holds back on the Terran culture references. And not unattractive. I am not surprised Xaaron was dancing with her."
Mirage adds another turn, heading more toward Perceptor's crowd, as he continues, "I realize that it must be difficult for you, all things considered, but we really aren't like those others you know. Swerve has carefully sidestepped giving any details about our counterparts; the boy1 is entirely too worried about giving offense, I think. But his reactions often betray an idea of what they are like."
slow-slow-quick-quick. slow-slow-quick-quick
OOC: Mirage and Swerve are actually close in age, and both Mirage and Mirage's player is aware of this. However, Swerve-3 registers as much younger in Mirage's perceptions.
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Emirate Xaaron-3
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Ate you alive since you were a child/That's when the monster first appeared in you
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Post by Emirate Xaaron-3 on Mar 16, 2008 20:41:37 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron isn't happy to be near the ruckus, but he also isn't happy to be nearing Perceptor. Of course, one might point out that he really isn't happy to be dancing with Mirage, either. However, seeing himself dented from a brief scuffle is worrying for obvious reasons, as is how his other self gets along with that other Pee-Dee.
Perceptor? Emirate Xaaron has a history with Perceptor.
He comments to Mirage, "I can't speak for Swerve, but I personally worry that if I say too much, some of you may get ideas. Innocence and purity can be corrupted. You are different, yes, but the similarities aren't always merely physical. My Mirage, he has your, ah, confidence." A less polite Autobot would call it arrogance, to be uncharitable.
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Post by Mirage on Mar 16, 2008 21:24:23 GMT -5
Mirage goes back to the side sway, as the move has the benefit of being simple, and not taking them in any direction.
"Hrm, you have a valid and understandable concern, though there are few here that I think you need worry about in that regard. Most of them can not fathom the idea of a version of themselves which is not, for lack of a better term, 'good'."
"I, for one, would not consider anyone here innocent or pure, however." No, not even Holi, "Naive, perhaps. The very fact that we are fighting a war amongst our own takes us all firmly out of the category of 'innocent'."
"However, have you considered that by not being more forthcoming, you are putting not just us, but yourself at risk? You talk of fearing our corruption, as if you worry for our well-being, when in reality it is your own plating you seek to protect from the possibility that we might be tempted to do you harm. Yet you impair our ability to protect you by your silence."
Mirage pulls Xaaron closer and murmurs, "It is a circular arguement, I think," before attempting to spin the Emirate out and back in again.
"What is your Mirage like, then?"
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Emirate Xaaron-3
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Ate you alive since you were a child/That's when the monster first appeared in you
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Post by Emirate Xaaron-3 on Mar 16, 2008 21:41:12 GMT -5
"Few," Emirate Xaaron repeats. "How reassuring."
Mirage spins him around even as he spins his argument. Does the spy do that on purpose, or is he just naturally blessed with a talent for physical metaphors? In a small voice, he ventures, "I haven't asked you to protect me. I don't expect you to, really, but if you want to, I can't stop you."
Emirate Xaaron simply acquiesces to the treatment of being kept under watch by a guard, of not being free to go, as indeed he has acquiesced to dance with Mirage. He may have little power over his life, but when given even a little bit, he doesn't take it, as if he wouldn't know what to do with it. He limits himself, afraid of what might be done to him is he disagrees, but he looks over at the other Emirate Xaaron, and it isn't just what others might do to him that scares him. Emirate Xaaron fears what he might do, if only he had a spine.
He knows how to destroy a world. It isn't that hard, really. He could carry out his Master's work on his own and make this world a match for its sister planet.
Shaking off his thoughts, Emirate Xaaron replies to Mirage, "He is a street rat who has risen above his roots. He is Rodimus Prime's faithful hound. Not nearly as loquacious as you are - a good hound is not heard and better still if not seen."
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Post by Mirage on Mar 16, 2008 23:00:24 GMT -5
"A street rat? No wonder you were so surprised I knew the waltz. It is truly only found at high society occasions."
Mirage ponders on what Xaaron has said as he moved back into the forward step. Him, a hound, killing and fetching at another's bidding? The thought make Mirage cringe inwardly, and the courtier's mask drops for just a moment. Not because he can not conceive of such a thing, but because he can. In the midst of war, Mirage has clung to the trappings of civility tightly, because he really is a hunter in his spark. He enjoys the hunt, and even the kill; he just refuses to let himself enjoy it in such context.
"You did not ask, yet you brought your own problems down upon our head. Even if you and Swerve had managed to escape our notice, we would still have been affected. And even less prepared."
"I would say that if you did not wish to be protected, you would not be, but I would be lying. It seems ingrained in most Autobot's programming to protect those who can not protect themselves."
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Emirate Xaaron-3
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Ate you alive since you were a child/That's when the monster first appeared in you
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Post by Emirate Xaaron-3 on Mar 17, 2008 8:07:06 GMT -5
Has this Rodimus Prime too trapped Unicron? He couldn't just ask Rodimus Prime to let Unicron go. Still, somehow tricking him into it might be even easier than setting up the required chain reaction.
It's a very good thing that Emirate Xaaron is criminally unmotivated to do anything but save his own skin.
To that end, Emirate Xaaron does notice when the mask drops for that tiny time. (Speaking of Tiny, what is that accursed junkyard dog of a dragon up to?) See, this is what Emirate Xaaron was afraid of, not that the differences would be so vast as for these Autobots to be unable to understand his own Autobots, but that they would know them as intimately as the other side of the mirror, only a reflection away.
He dismisses, talking simply because it keeps his mind off what he's actually doing, "You forget. I am your prisoner, here. The cage is gilded and roomy, but it is a cage all the same. You speak of fighting my people, and I have no doubt that you and yours will. You are like our Decepticons, after a fashion. You would have me betray my people for... what, exactly? For your sake? For the sake for your comrades? For sheer, pure spite? My people will certainly kill me, if they find me, but it does not make them any less mine."
Emirate Xaaron deserves them, really. They are his punishment for his personal failings.
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Post by Mirage on Mar 17, 2008 10:29:43 GMT -5
"They will kill you, perhaps, and you may not care. Perhaps you wish to die; I do not know you well enough to make such an observation. But you ran, or let yourself be persuaded to do so, and actions have consequences."
"Your own continued existence may be of no importance, but what of the one who risked so much to save your hide? Is he not at just as much a risk now for disobeying your Prime? Would you so willingly cast him aside?"
Mirage's tone has not changed one whit, nor has his mask, that momentary slip forgotten, and his movements continue to be fluid and smooth. But there is an edge there, now. He has spent enough time around Swerve to understand the Emirate's importance to the constable; that Xaaron might think so little of Swerve in return irks the spy.
"Yes, we place restrictions upon you both. We have little choice in that matter at the moment. And yes, they are your people, for good or ill, and I can understand and could even admire that philosophy under different circumstances. You claimed you wish to save them from within, and perhaps you did try."
Another box step, another turn, "But they are not your people. They are a mish-mash of Autobots from a sampling of realities, and if your group is like this one, there are precious few who knew you previous."
Mirage quiets, then attempts to move the conversation back to its beginnings, "Your Pee-Dee, then, was not the upstanding police office our own is, if she made a hobby of tormenting you."
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Emirate Xaaron-3
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Post by Emirate Xaaron-3 on Mar 17, 2008 10:52:49 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron cringes, as if Mirage had gutted him, here and now, but he makes the steps. His voice is broken, cracked through with static, and he insists, "I-I couldn't. Not him. He doesn't deserve." He pauses in his incoherent babbling and looks skyward, looking to the skies to save him. He looks back at Mirage, quite abashed, coughs, and excuses, "Please, pardon me. Swerve deserves to live and a better life than he has. Do you honestly think that group could stop my Prime and his troops? Could they give Swerve what he deserves? I can't say I'll believe you if you say they can, but Swerve would be enough and the only reason for me to assist."
Emirate Xaaron neither confirms nor denies if he wants to die. He does, just not right now.
Emirate Xaaron sighs and comments, "Pee-Dee is crooked. If you buy her, she'll stay bought, but you have to have something she wants."
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Post by Mirage on Mar 17, 2008 18:11:01 GMT -5
Mirage looks down at the Emirate, and his expression softens a bit. "You care for him." A statement, not a question. "That is a good thing. He would die for you without a second thought, I think."
With a sigh, Mirage continues the dance, gliding the two of them across the floor. After awhile he continues, "I can not promise that we can stop your Prime and his group. I can not promise that Swerve would survive the encounter. I am no seer."
His tone barely changes, but there is steel running through it as he says, "But if your people come for us we will fight, and I can promise that we will do all within our power to stop them or know the reason why. And if we do stop them, or drive them from this world, I am certain we could find a place for Swerve, if he so desired."
Mirage smiles, and just like that the mood lightens, "Though I think two Swerve of such different extremes of temperament might be more than one reality can handle."
Tilting his head, Mirage regards the Emirate, "Not the most satisfying of answers, perhaps, yet it is an honest one. Does it suffice? Would you be willing to assist us to give him such a chance?"
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Emirate Xaaron-3
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Ate you alive since you were a child/That's when the monster first appeared in you
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Post by Emirate Xaaron-3 on Mar 17, 2008 21:33:35 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron stifles another cringe, but Mirage, in so close as he is, would see that slight tremor to his frame. He murmurs, "I don't deserve Swerve. I'd die if he died for me."
He might find himself some motivation before he died, however. Enough to make this pitiful dirt ball a funeral pyre for the Velocitronian. Why did he let Swerve get to him so? He should care about himself and himself alone, when the cards are down. Yet, Swerve is the first good Autobot Emirate Xaaron knew in a very, very long time, and that was all it took.
Emirate Xaaron nods numbly and replies, "For Swerve. What do you want to know? I don't know security codes or radio frequencies - any that I did know, they would have changed."
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Post by Mirage on Mar 17, 2008 22:18:22 GMT -5
Mirage slows the pace of the dance at Xaaron's slight twinge, then glides to a stop. He looks down at the Emirate, and his look holds not the triumph that might be expected, but apology, and perhaps a touch of regret.
"This...is not what I intended when I asked you to the floor. I am glad you are willing to offer what information you can, but...," Mirage sighs and shakes his head, "I am not the one you should speak to on such things. Would you be willing to confer with our command at a later date?"
That slight smile returns to Mirage's face, "I have my own curiosities, of course, and if you're willing to answer my questions we can continue our tour of the floor, or find our own corner to claim. But if not, or you've had your fill of dancing, then I can take you back to him."
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