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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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Maybe looking to you isn't the right answer, then. Maybe we can all decide what we want for ourselves; no demagogues.

[Which you fell for too, back before the war, if Drift remembers the story.]

No. No we don't. We do just fine.

Right, and if they decide what they want is to rip you a new waste disposal unit?

Then they die. [A shrug.] I can defend myself, without belonging to a faction.

So you're willing to kill mechs I could have persuaded to behave in unnecessary fights. Drift. Think about this.

You're making a false dichotomy, Starscream.

It's not 'either they rally around you' or 'anarchy'. There's a middle way, one that keeps power spread evenly over all of us, instead of one mech [Sorry for the pointed look but you're asking for it] claiming more than his share.

[just shakes his head slowly.] When did I say anyone was "rallying around me", exactly? I said I'd mediate. That's not ruling, and your bias is showing. If you'd rather kill mechs I want to talk to, I'm not the one ruining a shot at a war-free Cybertron.

Relax.

Because, to have any chance of getting them to listen, to mediate, you need to have some power. To give them something or to take something away.

It's simple logic, Starscream, not a character assassination.

[Really, your paranoia gives you away.]

Nope. They know me, they know the kind of thing I value, and they know I'll look out for their interests, if I can. That much I proved on Cybertron, while you were off on your quest--but you weren't there to see it, so I get why you're not on the same page as I am.

[he smiles--more patient.] I know you have the best intentions, but you're not exactly politically minded.

Starscream. [Drift is trying to be patient.] If they 'know you', what do they know you for? What is 'Starscream' to them? They know your history. And even if they forgive it, they know what Starscream is to them. It may be wrong, it may be unfair for them to hold another universe's mech with your name against you, but it will happen.

That's really sweet. But I can take care of myself, Drift. Decepticon representative, remember?

I remember.

I remember a lot from back then.

Now what's that supposed to mean?

Let me put it this way.

What have you learned from the past?

Not to repeat it.

What about you.

Is that all?

Sorry, I'm not getting on my knees to beg forgiveness from you.

Why would you?

I'm just saying, there's more to learn from history about what NOT to do. What about what TO do?

[Stop acting like you know him, Starscream. Every assumption you make undermines any confidence he might have in your ability to actually do what you're promising.]

I'm going to do what needs doing. [He's not at all bothered from second to second, despite the intermittent frustrations.] I can take it from Bee. He never switched sides.

But you should understand.

That's what I'm afraid of.

Starscream, haven't you considered what that line of thinking did to us? ALL of us?

[Including Bumblebee, making him blind to anything other than his Autobrand.]

Look. I don't think we really, fundamentally, completely disagree on the important aspects of this "argument". And I don't think you actually are a hypocrite, or I'd probably have hung up on you twenty minutes ago. I mean it. I want to work with you on this.

Caution? I can understand your caution. It makes sense. I was dangerous--I hurt a lot of people.

But so did you.

[And his tone is level, a just the facts ma'am tone.]

So can you process why I'm not really impressed with your third degree?

[Drift shakes his head.] You're not seeing my point. You're still making this personal. About you. About me.

I want it to be about...Cybertron. I'm not attacking you. Your cheap shots about my past are just that. Misfires. Misaimed.

[And things he's heard a thousand times before. Hypocrite? You don't even have the right, but he's not going to defend himself. You have the right to be wrong.]

[For once in his life (okay not the first time, but certainly up there) Starscream is being completely honest. He does want better for the Cybertronians, he doesn't think Drift is a hypocrite, and he is trying to reach some mutual understanding.

But because he's Starscream, the way he's going about it is not the most evenhanded.]

They're not cheap shots. I'm expecting a little empathy from someone who stood in my place.

And I don't need your permission to do what's best for Cybertron, for anyone else. If you don't let me talk before you start killing Decepticons, for example, there's going to be trouble. But it doesn't have to come to that. Believe me.

You didn't stand in my place, though. I don't mean to cheapen it, but it's not a comparison, what you did, what I did. At all.

It's different. Not better, not worse, just different. It doesn't mean I understand you, it doesn't mean you understand me. Please try to see that.

I have no power to give you permission to do anything. That's my point. NO ONE here has power over another here. No one should.

Someone who's made some pretty bad mistakes, then. [also adding, immediately] Just like me. I served my cause the best way I knew--but it was a war and war is awful, and some of the things I did I'm not proud of.

I'm not saying I do understand you, I'm just saying with your checkered past, the idea that mechs can change? That should probably appeal.

Is this just peer-to-peer, or are you including the FirstForged?

But you're....[He shakes his head. Never mind. It's not worth it. Starscream is almost deliberately not getting the point. Drift has learned the hard way, with Bumblebee, that sometimes it's better to just stop trying when the other is determined not to hear you. One of the hardest lessons Drift's had to learn is when not to fight.]

Mechs have to want to change. You can't force it. [That's all he'll say.]

And the First Forged are equals among themselves. I wouldn't try to compete with them.

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