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✘ tf: idw | starscream

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[Broadcasting perched on an outcropping over a lava flow, seemingly sounding unbothered by the misstep into a sideways universe--first rule of Decepticon Club is never let em know you're scared.]

So, this looks like Cybertron--actually, a lot like the one I just came from. But from my recon, it's either a time, a space, or a time and space displacement.

Little bee, are you here? [elaborating] I'm looking for an Autobot named Bumblebee. About this high--[indicates short, midchest height]--gold, kinda stout. I'll also accept Metalhawk, Wheeljack - Soundwave? How about Prowl, with my luck he's here. [Bueller?]

--For the rest of you, my name is Starscream. Maybe you've heard of me. [and he's smirking a little self-indulgently at the thought. No matter how dangerous or inconvenient it might be to be preknown in a brave new world, it's nice to be important.]

I'm here to help.

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[The response is a faint twist of Jetfire's lips; not quite able to keep the amusement hidden enough.]

You could always mention it to my... er, the Starscream from my reality, as he's here as well. You look... well, he's still in an altmode derived from Earth, but your colouration match. I'm sure he'd go on at length about our soft-sparked behaviours.

[If Jetfire recognized the behaviour or not, he didn't really react except to turn around, briefly - automatically, even - reaching out a hand to rest it on Starscream's shoulder and gently pressing in the direction they were facing.

Not so much pushing as guiding, and completely automatic, as he dropped his hand right after.]

Both, really. The Haven [a gesture behind them to indicate more than just Liege's temple] with the... ah, temples of our hosts is all the finished buildings there are... Hazard-wise...

[A shrug as they passed through the doorway, his expression somewhat distant.]

We had an attack a bit ago, beings unmarked and immediately hostile upon landing... There was some indications attacks such as these have happened before, and then there's the added possible hazards of a young Cybertron...

You forget who you're talking to. I know what Starscreams do best, and it isn't giving unbiased accounts. [it feels strange to diss himself in any capacity, and not very pleasant, but this Starscream is older and wiser and fancies that he understands his own shortcomings a little better than he used to.]

...Anyway, he calls me soft.

[he looks attentive, and gives an understanding nod about the "young Cybertron" part] Makes sense. Practically everything outside Iacon was a hazard, back home. [His optics blazed briefly as he took in the interior of the temple's entrance, venting quietly. Ruminating mentally over that touch and what it could mean--for the other Starscream, anyway.]

I owe you. For your help.

No, if anything, he'll exaggerate how utterly pathetic we are... That doesn't mean he'll necessarily lie about it.

[Really, "non-biased account" he would have thought to be a given and thus accounted for when asking any questions of Starscream. He's used to "translate" and thus doesn't really factor that part in.]

Doesn't surprise me. [Jetfire shakes his helm, because it really doesn't. Of course Starscream would prefer to see himself as the "best one" even if that wasn't something that could be reliably measured.]

I heard from Wheeljack what happened... [he frowns, and then shakes his helm again. Something still feels odd about that whole thing, but maybe it's merely what Wheeljack described had happened with the Matrix.

And the touch was partly because of a parallell familiarity... as well as Jetfire simply being somewhat physical.]

Owe me? [He pauses, infinitesmally, glancing down at Starscream before continuing to walk.] For this? Hardly.

[He wouldn't be considered "owed" for bigger, more substantial things, so this? Not really.]

I don't think it's pathetic to want to see our race survive--whichever badge you're wearing. My people had a mission that was worth serving. So did the Autobots, in my world. [But he's not cutting anyone any slack re; war atrocities. Except ~~totally~~ possibly himself.] But you fight for long enough and you'll lose whatever virtues you started fighting for.

Wheeljack's probably got some convoluted but accurate explanation for all this, yeah. [A flicker of unease at the thing about not owing. He doesn't like uneven accounting.]

I owe for your time and trouble, anyway. I can't ask for your trust, can I.

Survival? [Jetfire frowned, curious, since that choice of word was...] That's an... interesting way of phrasing it, or did the war start out because of a lack of energon in your universe?

[Considering what Starscream's saying, he doesn't think so, and while a war in the end does become about survival, especially if it goes on during millions of years, it was still a curious way of wording it.

And Starscream's harsh cynism, applying it to both sides makes Jetfire wonder how much is exaggeration, and where it comes from. ~~You'll have to excuse him, but your world is a lot grimmer than his.~~]

And perhaps that would be the end result... but I haven't seen that happen yet.

[A shrug.]

He wasn't overly interested in discussing it, but I'm... vaguely familiar with planetary reformatting, if only by situational similarity to an event at home. [Which he had, really, only heard of when Bumblebee and Ratchet updated him on the situation.]

Not so much trouble, but if you insist.

[And he can't presicely hide the brief, dry smile at the mention of trust. That may be the issue, especially with his own Starscream. Trailing a hand over the crystalline walls as they walk, he's definitely carefully choosing which corridors to take...

While he's planning to go into the fractal corridors, he wasn't doing that now... and would do it alone.]

As far as I'm aware, you can choose whatever room you wish. I believe the area that is Liege's would be pretty noticeably locked.

I'm talking postwar. [a pause] But it's not like the mechs who'd become the Decepticon forces were having an easy time of surviving prewar, either. Apartheid and caste will do that.

[he's not pulling any punches re: the sordid history of Cybertron, falling into step naturally behind Jetfire with aplomb, now that he's decided it's not some hideous trap of any kind.]

I'm going to want to speak with him sooner or later.

It was... what? [That? Genuine surprise because no... The Council might have been questionable - uncertain how much, even - but there really hadn't been anything like that in Jetfire's universe.]

It seems the differences are quite... large, despite all the similarities.

[Not just design similarities, since several events seem to line up pretty similar... if, apparently, completely differently.]

You might have more luck trying to contact him over the Link, but he doesn't seem... mm, unapproachable.

[Technically, anyway. Jetfire does keep sort of pausing to let Starscream catch up and walk beside him. No reason to be walking behind him, now is there?]

[He stops as Jetfire stops like, the third time, and opens his hands innocently. ] Is there a reason you don't want me on your aft?

Not really, though I see no reason for you to have to walk behind me when we're having a conversation.

[Honestly Starscream, what is the reason for that? They're not going to be attacked in here. ~~and even if they were, Jetfire would probably be inclined to at least make sure no one got injured~~.]

You take bigger strides, it makes sense. [He blinks up at Jetfire, the picture of Seeker innocence. Which really isn't saying much.]

So where's your room, for reference? In case I need something.

[He's not really buying it, at all, though the slight tilt of his helm and the dry expression could perhaps just be due to being faced with "innocence" from Starscream.]

I'm used to match strides to whomever I'm walking with... Anything else would be rude.

[He's also specifically used to match pace with (in this instance his own, but it sort of carries over) Starscream... or even slow down to let him go first.]

Ah... Up on the third floor, half around the mountain from the main entrance. There's a balcony close by that gives easy entrance and exit from the air.

I don't mind. [But he's not going to come right out and demand to be allowed to walk behind.]

...Sounds nice. There's a real danger in getting too comfortable here.

[He just shakes his helm, but if Starscream wants to walk behind him, he'll not insist. He's trusted (perhaps foolishly) in tenser situations.]

Er... Perhaps, though considering the recent attack from the lambda, espescially as we didn't get all of them... [Giving Starscream a questioning look, Jetfire starts walking again, this time just "ignoring" Starscream staying behind him.]

And I think almost all of us present on Cybertron currently aren't in any actual danger of getting too comfortable, if for nothing else that while we're home, we aren't home.

The FirstForged taking care of us, all this energon, no real faction tension besides the odd mech stuck in the past... [he hasn't heard about the Sharkticons yet.]

It's probably important that I get back to democratically ruling Cybertron sooner or later, you're right. I'll let the real scientific geniuses work on that.

The energon being abundant ought to be a natural state and not a cause for being considered getting "too relaxed". [Jetfire shrugs.]

And while it's certainly preferable to see at least a toning-down of the faction tensions, for some, those are still very much present business, and while we could hope we'd all be able to not perpetuate old patterns...

Sooner, rather than later, I'd surmise, but it won't be a particularly easy thing if it's not to be left to chance at all, but put under our knowing and exact control. There are quite a few factors that need to be taken into account to even make a possible dimension-piercing space bridge workable for the variation of dimensions we have present already.

[Calculating the number of separate universes within several different multiverses, even with the possible help of such formidable individuals as their hosts would... be complicated and slow, at best. And that was just to start with.]

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