capitalh | it's the sunday morning after

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it's the sunday morning after

Who: Sollux and Knock Out
Where: THE CONQUEST
When: After the dance off.
What: Things are tense around the base so Sollux and Knock Out let off steam with Engex. And maplesyrup.
Warnings: Booze, drinking, gay.

Sollux comes into the medibay as soon as he can after Megatron is done being treated and out of sight. Not because he needs treatment, but because the usual combination of mystery and boredom has him wanting to attempt gossip with Knock Out immediately because who could even wreck Megatron that badly?

Besides Sollux, anyway.

"KO..." he calls conspiratorily, with the sort of expression on his face that reads like a excited/nervous kind of 'wow did you just see that?'

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Yes, Sollux, he saw that, he was only the one working on Megatron the whole time.

Megatron had been in a right state when he'd returned to the warship with Soundwave, and Knock Out doesn't think he's ever seen the Decepticon warlord quite so simultaneously injured and enraged. Megatron spent the entire time in the medibay alternately staring in furiously brooding silence and engaging in some truly tiresome monologuing to the room at large (that is, to Knock Out). Knock Out, by turn, had spent the entire time being pants-shittingly (so to speak) terrified and wishing Megatron would just shut up.

So it's a slightly harried and agitated Knock Out who glances up to see Sollux entering the medibay, his optics flashing a little in alarm. He'd decided he really needed a drink after that, and Sollux has wandered in just as Knock Out's rooting around in a secure storage compartment for a flask of good old homemade Decepticon moonshine. (Pilfering valuable resources to make booze? You bet.)

"In or out, Gemini, but close the door either way," Knock Out says snappishly, pulling out a faintly glowing flask, but for once it's not really directed at Sollux. He looks a little rattled and more than a little paranoid. Seeing Megatron in a state like that never bodes well for the rest of them. "Was there something you needed?"

Obviously Sollux chooses to come in because there is no way he's turning down that offer. Some of that baffled enthusiasm fades off immediately upon seeying how stressed Knock Out is about things - this is seeming more and more fucked up.

"No," Sollux says, his ears raised and alert. "I just saw Megatron being a total disaster area and it seemed like you would probably know something about it." He pauses, furrowing his brow. "You okay dude?"

Edited 2014-08-28 16:56 (UTC)

"I'm fine," Knock Out says, a little sharply, but he does relax visibly once the door is sealed. He doesn't seem all that bothered by Sollux's company, not as much as he'd used to before, and he gestures to the room at large, inviting Sollux to take a seat pretty much wherever. "Lord Megatron, on the other hand..."

But rather than finishing that sentence, he just makes a face, digging through a cabinet to locate a glass -- and then apparently gives up and just grabs a clean beaker off his worktable, pouring himself a healthy dose of the home-brewed high grade. It's not triple-filtered engex by any stretch of the imagination, but it'll get the job done.

"I'd watch your step around here from now on," he finally adds, his voice suddenly low, giving Sollux a sidelong glance. It's a much more charitable piece of advice than he'd have been inclined to give Sollux a few months ago, but then, things have...changed, haven't they. Little by little. He takes a sip from the beaker -- the stuff burns all the way down to his fuel tanks, but that's about as expected. He shudders a little all the same. "Things have just taken a very nasty turn for the Decepticons, and I don't expect Megatron's going to make this ship a pleasant place for anyone for some time."

Well fuck. This is a lot more serious than Sollux had initially imagined. Knock Out can sound plaintive about having to do work at the best of times, but this isn't just being disinterested. He seemed actually kind of...scared.

The turn towards the serious comes in an obvious change in Sollux's demeanour. The idea of a commander getting pissed and making everyone else pay for it is not unfamiliar to his world view at all. That is the sort of thing that can easily result in subordinates dying.

Sollux stares at Knock Out for a few moments, and then folds back his ears.

"Yeah but...do you know what actually went down?" Sollux has developed a sort of respect for Megatron, vicariously off of Breakdown if nothing else. The idea of him becoming a double sided sword is unnerving.

"Well, if I didn't before, I certainly have a clear picture now, thanks to all of Megatron's relentless monologuing."

Knock Out rolls his optics viciously, his voice heavy with sarcasm, but he keeps his voice furtively low, because now that Soundwave's on the ship, he knows he can't speak too freely. Holy shit does he hate Soundwave hanging around.

"I won't bore you with the details, but the short of it is that our dear leader and his loyal communications officer got into a scuffle with the Autobots and needless to say, it didn't end well." He pauses to swig back the entire contents of the beaker, his optics flickering for a second while the home-made tankrot settles into his lines. "And as of the end of that little skirmish, we've lost, oh, only about every tactical advantage we ever had."

Sollux is kind of assuming that Knock Out is just drinking regular energon - or he was, until the optic thing that just happened. Is this some kind of special drink? Do robots have booze?

"So what, they fuck it up and now it's your problem?" It's not a statement made in disbelief - it's more of a display of annoyance at something he can easily see happening. He hesitates a moment. "Are you guys in danger here, now?"

The only Autobot he's met is Rodimus and he didn't seem very threatening, but...

"We're at war. There's always danger."

Knock Out shrugs, pouring himself another glass. He can feel it spreading through his lines, now, and he smiles slightly, his optics brightening. "But now that the Autobots have the Forge and the Matrix of Leadership again, it means they've also got Optimus Prime back." He laughs, though not very cheerfully, taking another heavy swig. "No more innocent, hesitant Orion Pax. No, now we have to contend with the Prime. Not just any Autobot could have so thoroughly thrashed Megatron, you know."

"I meant more danger," Sollux drawls, "but okay."

He floats over closer to where Knock Out is...enjoying whatever he is enjoying there. He crosses his arms over his chest. The names he's throwing around are confusing him.

"...Optimus Prime is the other leader guy, right? Was Orion Pax filling in or something?"

Your weird robot horseshit.

The home-brewed high grade is slowly settling in, Knock Out's optics taking on a slightly fuzzy glow that leaves faint halos of red around them. He purses his lips slightly, leaning back against an exam table as he swirls the high grade in the glass almost thoughtfully.

"In a manner of speaking," he says, shrugging, "but it's more complicated than that. Prime isn't a name, you know -- it's a title. The Prime is the bearer of the Leadership of Matrix."

He pauses to sip from the beaker again. He looks almost bored, as if Sollux could have picked a decidedly more captivating topic, but somehow his voice lacks the usual flippancy, not dripping with sarcasm. Seems like he considers it important enough for Sollux to know right now to give it to him straight. There aren't many people he'll do that courtesy for.

"The Matrix is an old Cybertronian artifact, and a very powerful one. Supposedly it houses the wisdom of all the Primes to come before it -- it's all very steeped in mysticism, so take it as you will -- at any rate, let's just say the Matrix and the Primes have been a...cornerstone of our society for some time. An institution, if you will. Not just any bot can bear the Matrix -- you have to be worthy, whatever that means. And when you take the Matrix...mmm, well. It changes you. Accessing all that wisdom and knowledge, interfacing with that kind of power, it has to."

Whatever Knock Out's personal opinions about the specifics of the Matrix or the Primacy that comes with it, it's clear he believes in the thing's power. It's impossible not to, not when you've been witness to Orion Pax and Optimus Prime both.

"Orion Pax is merely the bot who became Optimus Prime when he received the Matrix -- and the one he reverted to when Megatron robbed him of it."

Wow that was a bit more forthcoming than usual. Sollux just watches and listens, thinking about the mechanics of all these dubious robot cultural items. He wonders if the Matrix has disembodied robot minds in it, that would be fucked up.

"Oh, so, Megatron accidentally let Orion take it back and then he levelled back up to Optimus Prime and kicked his ass. Cool." As 'cool' as it is though, Sollux is frowning thoughtfully. "I guess that's what happens when you get caught riding dirty."

Sollux pauses though, honestly looking a little bit troubled.

"...Does this have anything to do with that Rodimus guy?"

Yeah, that's basically how it happened -- Knock Out confirms with a nod and a wave of his hand. He shrugs at Sollux's question, though, actually chuckling a little. "Rodimus? The worst Autobot spy in the entire history of the war? Primus, no. At least not at first, anyway. From what I could gather, Megatron tried to use him to force Orion's hand -- we see how well that went." Knock Out's smile goes sardonic and he laughs again. "How lucky for Rodimus."

He drains the beaker again -- dude means business, clearly -- and reaches for the flask, but this time he gives Sollux a sidelong glance and smirks as he pours himself another. "I'd offer, but I'm almost certain it'd kill you."

"God that guy was such a jackass," Sollux growls. Of course, the biggest jackassery was not leaving when Sollux fucking told him too, but he guesses that is out of his hands now, and sure isn't bringing it up to the other Decepticons. He lived, though, apparently. So that's sort of something.

He blinks at the flask for a moment and then he realizes what these behaviour map to directly.

"KO, are you getting drunk?"

Rodimus was totally a jackass, but Knock Out kind of enjoyed messing with him. That was a good time. Real pity he escaped, though.

"I can drink in my own medibay if I want to," Knock Out says hotly, maybe a little moreso than usual, because now his optics are over-bright, humming with light as the high grade settles in his systems. "You'd want to drink too if you'd just had to deal with that. Besides," he adds as a smirk lights up across his face, "you didn't think only organics could do intoxication, did you? Cybertronians have their vices too, you know."

"Nice," is all Sollux says to that, the word accompanied by an extended trill in his native tongue. Apparently he was not judging when he asked that question. He pauses for a moment and then an excited realization comes across his face. "Oh man just a second I've got a thing for this."

He zip out of the door without waiting for further comment. It only takes him about thirty seconds to fly to his room, find what he needs, and then fly back. He's holding what appears to be a container of authentic maple syrup.

Knock Out gives the bottle of maple syrup an arch look -- he has no idea what it is, just know it's some kind of Earth food. He looks at the bottle, then at Sollux.

"And what's that, some kind of organic intoxicant? It's an awfully drab color."

"Human intoxicants don't even work on Alternians, but this is like a condiment or some shit," Sollux says proudly. "It works almost as good as Alternian liquor even though it tastes super weird."

He opens the cap and squirts some of the syrupy substance into his mouth. Even if he wasn't drinking it for the explicit purposes of getting drunk, goopy stuff is pretty much right up a troll's alley.

Knock Out watches Sollux squirt maple syrup into his mouth with a look of abject disgust, then keeps on drinking. At least the Decepticon moonshine is starting to settle comfortably in his lines, giving his optics a somehow softer, fuzzier glow, but still plenty bright.

"Charming," he drawls, raising his beaker in a mock toast.

It's hard to toast a bottle of syrup but Sollux does his best. Then he's just right back to business, though. 'Business'.

"So, then...what are you going to do, though?" Sollux could just leave, or avoid the meat of the situation, because he isn't really part of the hierarchy. Knock Out, though...he's pretty damn central to the whole thing.

"Well, whatever it is, I'm not going to disclose it to you, here," Knock Out says with a pointed glance at the door. Soundwave is everywhere, somehow, and as far as Knock Out's concerned, he's always listening. Even under the effects of high grade, he's cautious.

"I think what happens next," he continues, rather carefully, as he hauls himself onto the edge of a medical berth to sit, "depends entirely on what Lord Megatron does next."

Sollux's glance follows Knock Out's, and it only takes a couple moments for him to understand. Right. Those sort of plans. He eats a little more syrup with a knowing look.

"Right. Cool." He glances away. "Well. I'm still backing you guys, so...whatever."

"Not as interested in following Megatron's lead, are you?" Knock Out gives him an arch look, but he doesn't look displeased -- he just grins and sips at his drink, his posture giving way to something substantially more relaxed than he usually looks sober. "Well, I can't complain about having you around. Breakdown likes you, for some reason, and at any rate, we still haven't settled our scores with TRIDENT yet."

"Yeah man," Sollux drawls, getting just a little bit slurred from the syrup in his system. "When are we going to do that, even? This whole thing has been kind of dragging its ass."

"I'm working on it," Knock Out says with a huff, his systems warm with high grade. He hasn't said anything to anyone but Breakdown about his particular...affliction, but the longer it goes on the harder it's becoming to hide it. "We're not quite ready yet. There are still a few things to take care of -- to make sure we're prepared."

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