Optimus Prime
Minor
Caution: Hero makes wide right turns.
Posts: 385
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Post by Optimus Prime on Apr 30, 2011 21:13:23 GMT -5
Optimus Prime is noogied! (It's super effective.) He's struck speechless for a moment. Rodimus Prime is first in line to be Magnus around here and he just grabbed him around the neck and rubbed his servo over his helmet. "I'll, uh, just call you Rodimus then. There's a Rodimus Prime in my reality, you know," he says, hoping to change the subject away from further noogies.
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Post by Rodimus Prime on Apr 30, 2011 21:52:56 GMT -5
Rodimus nods. "Yeah. When Sentinel first got here, he thought I was him. Apparently our voices are about the same, but I'm taller which... isn't too surprising, really." Rodimus frowns and tilts his head, remembering something. "Said something about... Cosmic Rust, actually." He grimaces. After all, he only just got out of medical from the same problem.
He rubs the back of his head. "Guess I should have paid more attention."
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Optimus Prime
Minor
Caution: Hero makes wide right turns.
Posts: 385
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Post by Optimus Prime on May 2, 2011 16:40:00 GMT -5
"He was trained by Kup Minor." Optimus frowns. "The cosmic rust would have to have been after when I was pulled from, I think." The irony of both Rodimii having been felled by the same toxin (from the same Decepticon) is not lost on him.
"I know a lot of the realities have weird coincidences like that. You think we'll see a lot more of that here?" He doesn't particularly want to have to fight G1 Megatron and shove him out an airlock or something.
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Post by Rodimus Prime on May 2, 2011 21:52:44 GMT -5
Rodimus sighs. "Probably. It's like..." he tilts his head down and looks at his hand, which he absently opens and closes, as if reaching for words. "It's like... the more times an event gets repeated across realities, the more force it seems to have. I think... I think that's part of why the note comparing we tend to do makes sense. Because there are patterns, and if we can watch for them..."
He lowers his hand and shakes his head. "I don't know. I'm... not sure we can prevent them, but maybe if we're more prepared...? But on the other hand, it's not like we can be prepared for everything."
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Optimus Prime
Minor
Caution: Hero makes wide right turns.
Posts: 385
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Post by Optimus Prime on May 3, 2011 20:49:52 GMT -5
"That makes sense, I suppose. More sense than assuming it's all just coincidence, anyway." Optimus frowns. "You think we should be more prepared above and beyond our normal combat-readiness? Like, Long Haul should get special training in how to resist mental attacks, and I should get anti-fusion cannon armor?"
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Post by Rodimus Prime on May 3, 2011 21:59:21 GMT -5
Rodimus winces at the thought, and considers. "As far as I know, there's no specific anti-fusion cannon armor, but... it might not hurt to do what preps we can, based on time, resources, that sort of thing." He crosses his arms in front of himself and shakes his head. "Getting Long Haul mental training might not be a bad idea, anyway. The Decepticons still have another Constructicon," who still exists, despite not being played, "and even if we're not talking cross-reality patterns, he's going to be a pretty big target. It is... possible to train for that sort of thing, to an extent, but it's not... pleasant. It would be his choice."
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Optimus Prime
Minor
Caution: Hero makes wide right turns.
Posts: 385
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Post by Optimus Prime on May 4, 2011 20:43:31 GMT -5
"They have at least one other Constructicon. They could have full sets from three different realities by now for all we know." It's unlikely, but possible. They just better hope they don't have to worry about the giant-even-for-a-combiner pyramid-eating Bayverse Devastator.
Optimus sighs. "I hate to say this, but . . . I almost wish I hadn't captured Hook. That he'd gotten away or that I'd . . . killed him. It'd be simpler. I know that sounds horrible. But I guess it's just as bad that it sounds horrible to me because we're supposed to be soldiers and I'm supposed to be Optimus Prime and be some Decepticon-killing warbot but I just don't know if I can do that and what if I can't kill an enemy combatant when my friends' lives are in danger and-" All of this comes rushing out of the young Prime before he can stop himself. Rodimus just inspires confidence, it seems.
"Sorry," he says, robo-coughing and looking in the general direction of his feet. That totally wasn't what this conversation was supposed to be about. Great, now he feels like he's a cadet again. No, now he feels like he's Mayday as a cadet.
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Post by Rodimus Prime on May 4, 2011 22:35:11 GMT -5
"No, no, don't be sorry!" Rodimus protests, reaching to put a hand on Optimus's shoulder if allowed. He gives the other Prime a wry, sympathetic smile and observes dryly, "I guess we both know what it's like to live in Optimus Prime's shadow."
The smile remains, but grows sadder. "To... tell you the truth, Optimus, I envy you. I envy not knowing whether I could take another life." He pulls his hand back, looking at his own palm. "I... was built for war. I'm not proud of that, but that's the way it is, what I am. It... was even easy, back when I was Hot Rod."
He lowers his hand and lifts his head to once more look at Optimus. "You made the best choice you could in the situation. So far, you've consistently done your best to do the most right thing you could. That's what's important, and it's why I believe, why I'm certain that you'll keep doing just that. Not because your name is Optimus, not because of who you look like. Because of what you've done so far here."
Then he smiles faintly and crouches, lowering his head to bring himself down to the smaller Autobot's eye level. "And Optimus... my reality's Optimus Prime never wanted to be a 'Decepticon-killing warbot,' either. Believe me. This is something I know better than anyone else here."
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Optimus Prime
Minor
Caution: Hero makes wide right turns.
Posts: 385
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Post by Optimus Prime on May 5, 2011 21:17:41 GMT -5
Optimus Prime lets Rodimus Prime put a hand on his shoulder. "Thanks, Rodimus," he says.
"We're all just trying to do what's right, though, aren't we? It's what seperates us from the Decepticons. We just have different defenitions of right and different ways of going about it." Optimus is thinking about Sentinel Prime, with his rules and regulations. What are laws if not an external moral compass?
"It's not that I want to be!" Optimus insists defensively. "I just worry I might not be able to if I have to. Mentally, not physically. Physically is a different problem all together," he says, making a face.
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Post by Rodimus Prime on May 6, 2011 21:23:30 GMT -5
Rodimus's lips twist into a faint frown and he shakes his head. "No, it... would be easy to think that, but that isn't what separates us from the Decepticons. There are Decepticons who do what they do because it fits their definition of 'right.' Usually the difference that keeps coming up is whether it's acceptable to put Transformer 'right' over every other species' 'right.'" He sighs and lifts his right hand in casual gesture as he straightens back up. "I actually think Shockwave wants to... save the universe, more or less. By enforcing 'ultimate order' on it." He lowers his hand and shakes his head. "So it's more complicated than that."
He looks down at Optimus and considers. "Optimus, you... probably will keep worrying about that until a situation comes up that settles it one way or another. Nothing I can say will stop prevent that. It's natural. The best I can do is remind you that if you let it eat you up too much, you're just going to end up hurting yourself and those around you in other ways. Accept the worry and move on. If you're lucky, you'll always be able to worry about that," because if Optimus is lucky enough, he will never be in a situation that settles the matter. Rodimus smiles sadly, faintly, and his head shakes an almost imperceptive negative. "I'm afraid I wouldn't count on that, though."
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Optimus Prime
Minor
Caution: Hero makes wide right turns.
Posts: 385
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Post by Optimus Prime on May 7, 2011 20:50:17 GMT -5
"Order is all well and good, but you have to balance it with freedom. It's no good for everyone to be perfectly safe if they're miserable," Optimus opines. He sighs. "I suppose no-one just wakes up in the morning and decides to conquer the universe for no reason. In my universe, the Decepticon movement started because they wanted to turn Cybertron into a mobile war world." Optimus is not entirely sure why they wanted to do this.
"Thanks. I hope so too, but I guess it is pretty unrealistic. Though we've done pretty good so far!"
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Post by Rodimus Prime on May 8, 2011 21:17:14 GMT -5
Rodimus grins faintly as Optimus talks about balancing order with freedom. That was, more or less, the point he'd been trying to make, after all. He purses his lips and tilts his head at the young Prime's next tidbit, however.
"You know, I'm pretty sure Megatron used to want to do the same to Cybertron in our universe. Though Megatron spending any amount of time on Cybertron at all is kind of before my time!" Sure, the Decepticons had completely taken Cybertron right before the attack on Autobot City, but that's at most a few years time against the millions of years Hot Rod had spent on a Megatron-free (but Decepticon-dominated) Cybertron before that.
He then gives a slight nod of his head. "I.. guess we have." Then he rubs the back of his head. "Really, the severe casualty rate here is a lot lower than I'm used to in general, on both sides."
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Optimus Prime
Minor
Caution: Hero makes wide right turns.
Posts: 385
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Post by Optimus Prime on May 9, 2011 18:58:46 GMT -5
"That's another one of those weird constants, I guess," Optimus theorizes. Seriously, why can't Megatron just build a Death Star like normal evil overlords?
He nods. "Not that I'm complaining, but I've studied the history of my reality's Great War and . . . well, it was much more oil-soaked than here." If he's honest with himself, he'll admit that he was already trying to emotionally distance himself from Rodimus when he heard that he'd gotten a direct hit of Cosmic Rust. No point getting attached to a dead mechanism, after all.
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Post by Rodimus Prime on May 9, 2011 23:08:07 GMT -5
Rodimus would forgive the emotional distancing, but he is, at this point, very much a live mechanoid.
Rodimus nods, a faint, almost puzzled frown pulling at his lips as he considers this. "Yeah, I'm not complaining, either. Well, not for our side, anyway." He grimaces. "It's not that I want the Decepticons dead, but I worry about the kind of damage they can do when alive and loose, and this... whatever seems to be applying to both sides."
Seriously. Rodimus can't remember the last time he's gone a stretch this long without killing someone.
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Optimus Prime
Minor
Caution: Hero makes wide right turns.
Posts: 385
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Post by Optimus Prime on May 11, 2011 17:23:28 GMT -5
Luckily, there is nothing to forgive. Optimus aborted his emotional distancing when he learned Rodimus Prime was going to be alright.
"It's like the 'bot said, 'No glitch ever won a war by dying for his faction. He won it by making the other poor, dumb, glitch die for his faction," he observes.
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