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capitalh2014-05-12 01:46 pm
WHAT YEAR IS IT!?!?
Where: Variable, the Decepticon Base and the Mojave/California wilderness generally.
When: March 18th and beyond.
What: Starscream wakes up from his visit to Scary Jail and has a lot of personal bullshit on top of probably a pretty angry boss to deal with. Then he goes energon scouting. Reluctantly.
Warnings: Some medical talk in the setup, discussion of SCARY JAIL TORTURE, probably some gay. Okay definitely some gay.
[Options 1 and 2, CLOSED TO THOSE WHO COULD FEASIBLY BE AT THE 'CON BASE]
It's a few days before he regains proper consciousness.
Starscream’s last encounter with the AI and put him completely down for the count. He failed to escape, of course. It hadn’t been for a lack of trying, in fact he had come painfully close on his last try, but then he got caught and at that point he just didn’t have the energy left in him to put up enough of a fight. He’d gotten another good zap and then his internals went into automatic shutdown, an involuntary emergency defense mechanism designed to divert all of his remaining energon to prolonging the life of his spark for as long as possible.
Help did finally come, as he had predicted before passing out from Energon depletion, but he certainly wasn’t awake to witness it. Fortunately it came from (relatively) friendly forces and not humans as he had feared and Orion Pax had suggested. So he’d been carted back to the Decepticon base, completely dead to the world.
When it came down to it, his symptoms were fairly straight forward. Energon starvation was easy enough to fix; a few transfusions and he would be back up to acceptable levels, though their limited resources meant that he was only just hovering above what was strictly necessary. Starscream has a vague recollection of hazily waking up a few times, confused and enraged and swatting weakly with his one good arm, desperate to get his claws on what he assumed to be the antagonizing AI, but those moments were few and far between and he can’t even remember what put him back out again. The real problem was the implant; it hadn’t taken long to locate and remove, of course, but the procedure had required him to preferably be unconscious, so perhaps it was a blessing he was in such a bad way.
Once the offending piece had been removed though and he was no longer starving to death, it is only another 12 hours or so before he opens his optics for what feels like the first time in ages. It’s slow coming at first, and then the situation hits him with a sudden, startling clarity.
He bolts upright, snarling and digging his talons into the berth he is laid out on, optics wide with panic.
----
[HERE'S OPTION 2]
It doesn’t take Starscream long to get up and moving around after that. What’s notable is the manner in which he seems to be skulking around the ship. It’s not in his usual, scheming, swaggering kind of skulking. He seems almost dejected, likely troubled by the thorough ass kicking and pathetic state in which he was retrieved in. Of course he’s not going to admit any of this out loud, because he’s an emotionally constipated piece of shit, but it’s easy enough to infer. Beyond that he just seems to be in a particularly foul mood, and oddly unwilling to go back outside the relative safety of the ship unless directly ordered to do so.
----
Sometimes he has to go outside though; without a complete formula there’s still naturally occurring energon that needs to be gathered and recon to be done. Those who know what they’re looking for might spot a fighter jet zipping around where it doesn’t belong. He’s carefully cloaked from showing up as an obvious threat on scanners, but those with the know-how can easily tell that he is at least Cybertronian, and can therefore potentially engage him. Those without the know-how might be lucky enough to catch him in robot mode, digging around in the wilderness (desert, forest, whatever floats your boat) for supplies to bring back to the Decepticon base.
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"Yeah, I went in and out of all three of those fucking things, it was pretty shithive maggots in there. And I say that coming from a place of experience on things being shithive."
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He grimaces slightly, looking bored with this conversation, but he's apparently resigned to having anyway it since he continues on with that train of thought. He turns his side to Sollux, frowning haughtily and perking his wings up in a rather hollow display of pride. “It wouldn't have been any problem for me to handle if I hadn't been already worn down from a previous fight, believe me. I would have utterly wrecked the damn place myself.”
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He shivers a little and tries to focus on Starscream instead.
"You're the lieutenant, right?" he asks, moving right along.
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Huh.
"Holy shit, you and Megatron are like the guys then, aren't you? Like, in charge of every goddamn Decepticon? What the hell."
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He works quickly to cover for that though, expression brightening visibly. "How very perceptive of you. Yes, you could say we run the whole operation... Megatron has the final say of course, but he doesn't dare make a decision final without a second opinion from yours truly."
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"I didn't know any of the stuff going on here was such a big deal," he comments.
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"As long as you aren't destroying the planet, we're cool," Sollux says, managing to keep himself from rolling his eyes at all the posturing. "I need it for stuff."
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"Knock Out is very keen on making them pay for what they've done... I can't say I don't agree with him, but..." the real problem was that they didn't have the resources to make an assault on a probably well guarded facility like that, but it probably wasn't wise to tell an Alternian that. "Lord Megatron has bigger plans that take priority."
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"Well, that's what BD and I are working on. It's going to happen sooner or later, even if Megatron doesn't want to get involved. My Matesprit spent a whole solar cycle wrecking their shit, hell if I'm going to let her show me up."
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He was more than perfectly okay with the idea of maiming humans in retribution, for the hubris of daring to touch another Cybertronian, but so much could go wrong when their forces were this vulnerable and under-supplied.
"You realize that this sort of thing has a tendency to lead back to us, yes? The Decepticons cannot afford to draw such negative attention to themselves. One blunder and they'll start actively hunting down Cybertronian and Alternian alike in an attempt to eliminate any threat to their own activities."
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He's almost offended.
"When I make a move I'm personally going to make it fucking count instead of just making a stupid mess. And here's the thing...TRIDENT is going to be after you guys whether you do anything or not just because of what you are. I'm just intending on being prepared to give them a taste of their own grub paste."
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"Let me re-emphasize: I take no issue with the two of you exacting revenge on the worms. I would gladly join you in it, even, if circumstances allow. As long as you aren't preparing to go busting down their doors within the next few weeks, then I can abide that. Breakdown can be... overzealous, and you are hardly more than a stranger to me at this point, so you must understand my trepidation. Make your plans, but I would appreciate a bit of warning before you make your move, at least."
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At least, mostly. Depending on how reasonable this Starscream guy can be.
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If he's allowed to be anyway.
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"Yeah, okay, fine. Just let me know if there's anything I can do around here to help out, I'm bored out of my thinkpan."
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