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Who: Megatron & Sollux
Where: THE CONQUEST (this is regrettably the name of Megatron's ship)
When: Around now, some time in the days following the collapse of Scary Jail
What: Sollux's ongoing quest to hassle every robot and/or Harry & Quix's ongoing quest for CR on every plausible axis
Warnings: rude kids evil overlords dim lighting

Megatron has been long unused to managing with so few underlings as he has here. If the Conquest was flight-capable, the skeleton crew of Decepticons on Earth would be scarcely enough to keep it in the air – as is, he's left to do far more things himself than he'd prefer.

Currently he's examining the damaged ship's logs for records that will help him ensure the cloaking field stays online, neither of which is anything he'd usually consider doing himself – but Starscream is laid up in the med bay, which in turn is keeping Knock Out busy, and Breakdown is on shift scouring for evidence of the missing Orion Pax. And that's it. There's no one else to pick from. It's almost enough to make him contemplate sending for reinforcements – but of course the fewer Decepticons know what he's up to here, the better...

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Megatron relishes that resentment. He sees in it the same anger that birthed the Decepticons, the crucible in which his own destiny was forged. He does not smile, though, as Gemini speaks. He nods, slowly, instead, and says, "I understand it is not dissimilar to the fate reserved for those like myself under Cybertron's old rule – but there are always fools who hope they can buy their way into favour with those who despise them." Now he does smile: "I am glad you are not among them."

He furrows his brow at that, but because he's curious instead of angry. His ears lift, betraying the urgency of his interest and they turn forward attentively. He makes a weird clicking sound, with no immediate lingual purpose.

"I don't actually know a ton about Cybertron's rule," he says. "If the Decepticons ever did anything to overturn it, the Empire sure as hell didn't put it in the history books. They kind of try to avoid that kind of thing."

He allows himself a short, knowing laugh. "Of course. No doubt they would not want you following our example..." He draws himself up a little, obviously about to launch into something. "Before our war, Cybertron was ruled by a corrupt government, and its people poisoned by an unjust caste system – I myself was little more than a nameless slave, and the same was true of countless others ground under the merciless heel of those who profited by our exploitation – until we rose up against our oppressors..." Megatron's optics narrow. Having grown somewhat distant as he reminisces, he now looks back at Gemini with a deep frown on his face.

"We destroyed the old order at a great cost, and the war still rages. But the order was destroyed, and it can never be rebuilt."

There's still something slightly distant about him, for all that he welcomed the opportunity to talk about this. Orion Pax's recent presence has had some impact on how Megatron finds he is thinking about his own past, and it is proving a little uncomfortable.

Sollux doesn't know Megatron well enough to pick up on that distance - but even if he did, he's too distracted with the idea of the actual story to think of it much. Ever since first seeing Megatron, he's been generally impressed by the bots power and confidence, and having a story like that attached to it - one where the now leader of the Decepticons used to be someone like him, doomed to a meaningless life in a society built for other people...

It makes him more than a little emotional. It shows on his face, too - something like hope mixed with a sense of betrayal.

"Trolls tried to do that once," he says. "It didn't really go anywhere."

Seeing that it's possible elsewhere just makes that fact all the more depressing.

"Only once?" Megatron hums consideringly. He's never heard anything about Alternian uprisings, but he doesn't imagine the Empire's rulers broadcast their struggles with the lower classes. "Perhaps the right time has simply yet to come – the right leader yet to emerge..."

"Once that I ever heard of," he says, frowning. "But, like, I doubt that information is exactly open for public speculation. The stuff I know about is seditious as shit already."

He thinks about that last thing he said, wondering about Karkat. That's what he's supposed to do, right? Be some kind of leader for the revolutionary movements already out there?

But what good is it going to do if everything is exactly the same?

"That was pretty different from what it sounds like you did, though. Have you ever heard of the Sufferer?"

"The Sufferer...?" The name is unfamiliar except as far as the units that make it up, in Alternian, follow the pattern for a troll's title. He shakes his huge metal head. "I have not."

"He was the guy that started the one revolution I've heard of," he says. "He's got a whole religion centered around him now, even though it's really quiet and totally illegal to even know who he is. He was basically this troll from the very bottom of the castes who preached about equality and compassion between trolls. Really zen bullshit."

Megatron was with you up until 'compassion' there, little buddy.

"Compassion alone cannot bring justice," he says. Obviously he is an expert here. "And compassion for those you are attempting to defy can only be a hindrance."

Edited 2014-05-15 22:34 (UTC)

For good or will, those words do seem to resound with him. His ears push down as he glances away.

"Yeah, I guess," he says. "My ancestor was a part of that movement apparently and he just got completely fucked for his trouble, so I'm not super interested in trying the same thing again, anyway."

"Your ancestor?" He eyes the Alternian with some interest. "No... I would imagine not. But do you seek to simply avoid the fate of your predecessor... or do you desire revenge?"

"I want to kill the people that make this shit happen," he says, frankly. His claws press into the skin of his palms. "On both planets. I don't even really know this guy so I can't avenge him, but I can do it for myself. Because staying home wouldn't have gotten me any better."