no one mourns the wicked

[thanksoptimus]

Who: Optimus Prime and AUTOBOTS
Where: The Autobot campground.
When: The evening/night after the dance off.
What: Orion Pax has been restored to his past and future self. Optimus Prime is NOT HAPPY. Also, very very tired.
Warnings: Injuries, intense robot ass devastation. Angry dad. Angry mom.

Optimus Prime, unlike Orion Pax, leaves no time for argument or complaint. After he's finished dealing with Megatron, he orders the Autobots to roll out, provided assistance to injured comrades where necessary. He takes no assistance for himself.

Which is stupid, because after days of starvation and torture and minus the burst of power from the Matrix he was utilizing just before, he is extremely fucked up. It's less obvious that he's on his last legs than it might be with some bots, but he is very injured and trying hard to pretend that he isn't. He drives back to base by his own means, and doesn't speak but to give the occasional order until they are there.

He wants everyone safe and tended to and organized, and he needs to have a talk with just about everyone on the team, and besides that he needs to catch up with everything he hadn't been paying attention to as Orion Pax...he doesn't see how he could possibly take a rest quite yet, there is too much stuff to do, and if he made it this far he can make it a little bit father.

More than tired, though, he is angry. He's angry at Megatron, angry at some of his team, and angry at himself. He doesn't pause to talk to anyone once they get back to camp, and immediately starts to ineffectually try to organize things with as few words as possible.

[Feel free to tag in as someone at any point in this, including later in the night or the next day. He will probably pass out in the medibay within the hour, though. Either that or Ratchet will get him.]

Comments

[thanksoptimus]

Optimus doesn't know exactly where this is coming from, but more importantly he feels that it is irrelevant to the current situation. Arcee has hardly been making anyone her canon fodder - Rodimus projecting his distrust onto her is no more appropriate than anything else.

He finds the first part irritating, but largely unmoving. If Rodimus things that he is unaware of the things that happen in his army, he is misinformed. The avoidance of collateral has always been one of his most central concerns.

But he doesn't end up arguing that point, because of the fact that that last remark catches his completely off guard. His optics widen like he's been struck, before narrowing again critically.

...And then he just stares at him, his gaze absolutely piercing. There is a note of disbelief, but mostly there is just this supreme bitterness that consumes him now, an age old wound with freshly leaked blood.

There is a certain violence to his silence that seems to imply that if Rodimus allows him enough time to choose his words, he will most likely regret it.

[worstprime]

Rodimus is a little off-put by this unexpectedly intense reaction, but his statement stands, and he says nothing, glaring back at Optimus silently.

[thanksoptimus]

And then...well, it's not much like it seemed like it is going to be.

In the past, it could be genuinely ambiguous as to whether or not Optimus Prime had any kind of interior personal life, or interests outside of being a Prime and the commander of the Autobots. Nothing is ever about him. It's about the war, and what is wise, and what is decent, and in balancing all three of those things the best he can. He doesn't laugh, he doesn't cry, he doesn't do anything but work for the cause except in the rarest of moments.

He's been fine that way - content, almost - for thousands of years. And now he has no idea what to do when nothing feels fine anymore at all.

When his anger finally starts to fade, there isn't anything beneath it anymore. All there is is raw hurt - humiliation - and a complete lack of defense. He stares at Rodimus for a few more moments with that hollowed out, fragile expression, and then he just lays back down on his berth, turning his helm to look away from the other bot. It is tired, and it is resigned.

It takes a few more moments for him to finally speak, and when he does, his voice reflects that expression. It's quiet, and it holds firm, but it's empty.

"You are restricted to the medibay until further notice. Your sentence will be given once the issue has been fully accessed."

[worstprime]

This isn't the reaction that Rodimus was expecting at all, although it makes more sense than the intense and uncharacteristic anger brewing just a moment before. Optimus seems to shut down, and Rodimus feels his spark drop like a cold weight.

"Optimus...I...." Damn it. He puts his head in his hands; this isn't what he'd meant to happen. He'd gotten reactionary, gotten defensive and now...well, he's never seen Optimus like this before. He feels sick with guilt, and even that makes him feel guilty because it's ultimately a self-serving emotion. He wishes desperately that he could be somewhere else.

[thanksoptimus]

Optimus doesn't respond to that, nor does he say anything else for some time. Instead, he just allows himself to lay there, blankly staring into the middle distance ahead of him, reflecting dully on the pains that are currently ravaging his spark.

He can't even be truly angry anymore.