gay robot problems

[thanksoptimus]

Who: Orion Pax and Starscream, and later Megatron.
Where: The space boat.
When: While Megatron is out talking to Baelhaet.
What: Orion is getting restless and Starscream is getting annoyed.
Warnings: Robots.

Normally, Orion would be extremely hesitant to wander the ship without explicit permission. After all, he's been the one locking himself in his room lately, more than anybody else. But with Megatron off on other business...he feels like this may be an opportunity to speak of his issues covertly.

With Megatron out, he suspects that Commander Starscream must still be in. He isn't in any of the obvious places, and so he finds himself approaching some of the more obscure storage locations.

He considers calling, but the idea is nebulously off putting. So, instead he just moves in closer, listening for sounds of other robotic life.

Comments

POST BAELMEETING

[bigfuckinggun]

Megatron is not in a good mood.

Of course, he hasn't been in a good mood since he arrived on Earth, but he's absolutely fuming right now. He lands outside his half-wrecked battleship as if he's trying to take out his wrath on the sand beneath his feet, and if the ship were fully staffed he'd be aggressively hauling underlings out of his way as he stormed through the corridors.

He didn't send Starscream any kind of summons in advance. He was going to find him himself. And woe betide anyone else who got in his way.

[thanksoptimus]

Orion isn't really prepared in advance.

He'd worked himself up to try to deal with this as soon as Megatron got back, not having any clear idea of what his old friend had actually been out doing. But when he peeks into the hall at the sound of familiar footsteps, he is alarmed at what he sees, and he freezes there, any potential words dying prematurely.

It's not that he's never seen Megatron angry before. He's seen it plenty of times. But it was different than this - he'd been angry about injustice, or passionate about ideals. This is just...he isn't sure.

It seems foreign, and it scares him in a way he wasn't expecting.

"...Are you alright?" he says abruptly, just about regretting it the same instant he's spoken.

[bigfuckinggun]

Megatron stops abruptly, his scowl actually intensifying for a moment when he's interrupted before he realises who it is, and, with some difficulty, forces his expression into something less actively furious.

"Orion," he says, rather curtly. "Why are you not in your quarters?"

[thanksoptimus]

He doesn't flinch, but only because he's not the sort of person that has many tells. His frown deepens, though, as he settles into his place more firmly. He's always been able to reason with him before, in his way.

"I had been hoping to speak with you," he says, the simplest way to express it and the phrase he'd been keeping in mind for the last hour or so. "There is...much I don't understand about the way things are now. And I fear that the others on this ship have run out of answers for me."

[bigfuckinggun]

His optics narrow. This is far from an ideal time for this conversation – but he doesn't want to give Orion more time to stew in uncertainty over whatever it is that's worrying him. The last thing he needs is for the ex-Prime to start seeking his own answers instead of simply asking. The idea of putting him in stasis is beginning to seem appealing...

Megatron lets out a heavy vent, forcing himself to relax a little and let go of some of the pent up rage in his cannon. Punishing Starscream can wait a little longer.

"... Of course." He doesn't sound quite as open as he'd like, though, still itching to put a hole through someone. "You must still have many unanswered questions. If there is anything I can help to explain..."

[thanksoptimus]

This doesn't seem like an ideal time to talk about this kind of thing at all. And, with a sinking feeling in his spark, he realizes that it's almost certain that Megatron doesn't care about the answer as much as Orion does anymore. There's been too much time in between, that much is obvious.

"There...might be," he starts, and that is probably the first warning that these may not be the exact probing questions Megatron is expecting. "It's been...a very long time, from your perspective. I'm sure that you have moved on, but...for me, it has only been a matter of days..."

He trails off, and then falls silent, choosing his words carefully.

"I don't know who I am to you, now."

[bigfuckinggun]

Megatron stares at him in shock. He has no answer prepared for this. Indeed, he's been avoiding spending too much time around Orion Pax for this very reason. To be confronted with it directly...

Orion is right – this is the least ideal time he could possibly have asked – but it's hard to imagine there could have been an ideal time at all. It's with a similarly sinking feeling that Megatron realises the best he can do, for once, may be to tell Orion the truth.

He casts a quick scan up and down the corridor – this is not a conversation he wants overheard. When he looks back at Orion, his expression is solemn; distant.

"Neither do I."

[thanksoptimus]

It's a better answer than it could have been. At least he can be sure that, with Megatron showing uncertainty, it's very unlikely that he is being dishonest. If Megatron is still anything like he was on Cybertron, that wasn't a weakness in conviction he would make up.

"That's understandable, to say the least," he says, feeling himself becoming more reserved in response to his own emotional stress, not wanting to allow the chance of saying something ridiculous. "More importantly, I think, is the question of whether that is something you...still have any desire of finding out."

He glances up at him, solemnly.

"You were...are...one of my dearest friends. And I only wish to make things right."

[bigfuckinggun]

This is just getting progressively worse – it's everything Megatron has been doing his level best to avoid having to deal with ever since Orion stepped on board his ship.

Even as he feels Orion's words like a great, dull weight pulling on his spark, in the back of his mind he's thinking what a grand opportunity it could be, to secure his greatest enemy's unwitting devotion, to use that devotion to obliterate the morale of those who will inevitably rise to take Optimus Prime's place...

But he fears that would be a lie that even he could not maintain.

Megatron is rarely the first to break eye contact with anyone, but he looks away now.

"These are difficult times, Orion – now more than ever. Surely you understand it is hardly appropriate – constructive – to prioritise such concerns..."

[thanksoptimus]

It's a reasonably gentle rejection if that's what it is - and honestly, he thinks it would be self centered and over-optimistic to think of it more positively. At worst it is a quiet handwaving to darker emotions, and at his center he just hopes that that is not the case.

But, if it's a parting, at least it seems that it can be on peaceful terms. To wake one day and to have lost so much so quickly...the pain of his situation finally begins to sink into his frame. They'd had so many ideas, so many hopes - and now all he can see is the ruins of failure already millenia behind him.

At times he's lamented his own reserved demeanor - he recalls being jealous of how Megatronus had expressed himself, always so vivid and unashamed. But right now he's relieved that things slip easily beneath the surface, though the hurt does show on his face, it does not leave these feelings of despair so exposed.

"Of course," he says, glancing downward. "I never meant to make it a priority."

[bigfuckinggun]

Although Orion Pax has always been restrained, he was less so than he would be as Optimus Prime; and although much time has passed, Megatron knows him well enough to see what reaction does make it to the surface for what it really means.

He has had a very, very long time to steel himself against being emotionally affected by anything Optimus says or does. But the disapproval of the Prime who was given what should have rightfully been his, who was his opposite number in all matters, was rather easier to scorn than this, the earnest sadness of someone who trusts him and believes in him and whom – once – he deeply cared for.

It infuriates him.

"Of course not," he says, in a tone rather more clipped than usual. "And of course it is only to be expected that this should... concern you. But as the situation stands... it must not." It's almost an order.

[thanksoptimus]

It doesn't work that way, even Orion knows that much. The sentiment is clear though - regardless of what is going on inwardly, this isn't a topic to be broached now, or quite possibly ever.

It shouldn't be surprising that, after all this time, Megatron has no particular interest in working things out in a deeper sense, but it still comes as a shock to Orion's system. He suddenly feels extremely alone.

"I...understand," he says, trying to remain composed. "I won't concern myself with it again."

[bigfuckinggun]

For a fleeting moment Megatron feels compelled to suggest that perhaps contemplation could be spared for this subject once this is over – but of course when this is over Orion will have been used for the Forge and disposed of, his usefulness having come to an end; when this is over the power of the Matrix will be Megatron's, the Autobots eradicated, and he will be supreme ruler of all he surveys.

Even if Orion were to be spared his inevitable fate, he would never approve.

So Megatron just nods, curt – as if he, for once, is holding something back.

"If you will excuse me," he says, "I have other matters to attend to."

[starscheme]

A summons isn't really necessary when you can hear Megatron's huge metal hooves stomping from all the way across the ship like a death knell. And to an old hand like Starscream, he knows immediately that it's not the sound of the usual confident, measured strides that his master normally walked about with. That was the sound of several tons of rage with a gun arm barreling its way toward him.

Starscream is still hovering around the storage bay of the ship when he hears it, organizing the meager amount of supplies they had collectively gathered. Panic seizes his spark and he practically drops the datapad he's using, entirely unsure of how to react. Does he face the threat head on? Does he try to hide and wait things out until Megatron has had a few minutes to collect himself? The conundrum has the normally jumpy mech positively wound up to snapping point, and he skitters back and forth across the room between the door and a conveniently inconspicuous corner like a nervous insect, unable to commit to a course of action.

[bigfuckinggun]

As it turns out, Megatron doesn't find him immediately. But while he seems more subdued than he was before, it quickly becomes clear he's no less angry – merely angry in a different way.

"Starscream..."

It's not the furious roar he was working up to when he landed, but a low, dangerous growl; whatever he's intending to take out on his second in command is, it would seem, deeper than the simple incensed frustration he was nurturing on his flight back from Mintaka Industries.

[starscheme]

Starscream tries not to wilt underneath that furious gaze, with mixed success. As Megatron enters he has his back to the door, and he turns around and does his level best to stand at attention as if he isn't fully aware of the warlord's dangerously foul mood. His hands wring nervously though, and he can't stop blinking, optics flitting about nervously.

"Lord Megatron! You have returned! I, ah... I'm assuming that your journey wasn't quite as successful as either of us had hoped it would be..."

[bigfuckinggun]

While Starscream can't look straight at him, Megatron's gaze is fixed on him, unrelenting.

"You traded the formula to the humans," he says, incredulous, "in exchange for emergency surgery?"

[starscheme]

"I-- Ah. Yes." He instinctively takes one half step back, optics wide in what he hopes is an innocent expression. "Did I forget to mention that part, it really must have slipped my mind while I was trying to fill you in on the important details of who exactly you were dealing with, which seemed a great deal more important than the circumstances of the trade itself..."

[bigfuckinggun]

"You gave this treacherous human scientist," Megatron continues, paying no attention to what Starscream's saying and if anything speaking over him, "the opportunity not only to synthesise artificial energon – a precious resource he now refuses share – but to intimately familiarise himself with Cybertronian anatomy? Breakdown's failure was bad enough, but at least, given the choice, he would have prevented it! Do you think at all before you act, Starscream?"

[starscheme]

"Lord Megatron, please, I would have never taken such an action if I thought there had been any other choice! Consider the situation from my point of view at the time," he whines, positively shrinking with fear. "Alone, stranded on an alien planet, trapped in vehicular mode? I had no idea at the time that there were any other Cybertronians on the planet, let alone a medic! My hand was forced by circumstance!"

[bigfuckinggun]

"Your hand was forced by your own self-interest!" Megatron snarls, leaning aggressively over his cowering lieutenant. "Was it really necessary to offer this worthless organic life form a limitless energon supply in addition to a valuable, dangerous insight into the inner workings of an alien species?" He doesn't wait for a reply, as he early considers the answer self-evident – he just grabs Starscream in one hand and lifts him to eye level, and says in a quiet growl, "Give me one reason I should allow you to live."

[starscheme]

"You wouldn't-- You can't--" Starscream's voice cracks, his body completely rigid with fear. "Mercy, Lord Megatron, I beg you, you can't condemn me for simply doing what was necessary to survive!! I... I can still correct my mistake, help you retrieve the completed formula!"

It was a helpless and vague shot in the dark, but it was the only service of value he really had left to offer at this point. He certainly could help do that, but whether Megatron deemed his assistance at all necessary or useful was, at this point, out of his hands.

[bigfuckinggun]

"Correcting your mistake is the least I expect," snaps Megatron, fangs bared. "Coincidentally, I also expect you to keep an eye on our prisoner, rather than allowing him to wander the corridors of my battleship unchecked to harass me with petty questions!"

[starscheme]

Starscream thinks that maybe if Megatron didn't want the prisoner wandering around, he should have just put him in stasis to begin with and not even given him the chance. However, bringing that up at the moment doesn't exactly seem prudent.

He's also notably curious about how that conversation must have gone, but inquiring about that isn't a smart idea either.

At any rate, if Megatron was giving him further orders, perhaps he wasn't about to die after all. Probably. "O-of course Lord Megatron, I am yours to command!" he stutters out, making a meager attempt at a placating smile. Distressed as he is though, brows knit together with concern and the corners of his mouth twitching, it just looks pained.

[bigfuckinggun]

His lip curls in disgust – while Starscream's open terror is somewhat cathartic, his pathetic grovelling only makes Megatron angrier. His grip briefly tightens, and then he lets him go with a growl. This isn't what he wants, and he doesn't know what is.

Trashing Starscream would probably help, but both supplies and troops are too limited to put him in the medical bay – especially when an assault on Baelheit needs to be launched at the earliest convenience, Megatron can't afford to go without the two out of three underlings he'd be missing with Starscream recovering and Knock Out having to work harder than usual to repair him with substandard equipment and supplies.

But, frustrating as it is, the situation lets him tell himself that he'd be fine if he could just beat the shit out of someone. And for now that's better than having to face up to any deeper discomfort.

He takes a step forward, bringing one foot down, heavily, just shy of crushing Starscream as he leans over him.

"Count yourself lucky that I need this mistake corrected as swiftly as possible," he growls, "and do not fail me – if you do manage to prove your worthlessness once and for all, I would welcome the opportunity to destroy you."