[backdated] Like some Kid N Play video

[knightoflight]

Who: The Cybertronians and anyone else who might be nosy as to what all the large robots are doing together because why not.
What: Sharing resources houseparty?
When: Shortly after the robot network post excitement
Where Green 6, aka Wing's Swingin' Bachelor Pad

After Drift's post, Wing realized that as a knight, he had a mission, to help his people come together and find a way to coexist. Or else.  And Drift had mentioned that they should pool resources.  So, after double-checking with Drift, Wing sent a small message to each of the Cybertronians on the station to please meet him, this evening, in his quarters.

He wished food wasn't such a consideration here, because he felt bad not being able to lay out a spread of food for hospitality.  Maybe they would all bring their own?  He can hope. He has his few flight grade fuel rations on a table, just as, well, something.

As it is, he has soft music and subdued lighting, hoping they might defuse any, well, interpersonal tensions. 

He stood by the door to greet his guests, with a silent prayer to the whole Guiding Hand, that this went well. 

((OOC: This is a general robot shindig meet and greet and hopefully not punch each other.  Feel free to post a header for your character for others to tag into--anywhere in Wing's quarters or the hallway or whatever; mess with his stereo, steal his towels, show up early, fashionably late, whatever you want!  And of course, non-Cybertronian partycrashers welcome!)) 

Comments

[rodders]

Something in his face twitches at the mention of Zeta Prime, mouth twisting unpleasantly. "Zeta was stopped. Megatron wasn't." He hasn't forgotten Nyon. He'll never forget Nyon. "It is, yeah. But he says he stood trial and somehow he's still here with an Autobrand? How's that supposed to work out for everyone, except poorly."

There's no way this is going to end well as far as he's concerned.

[knightoflight]

"And that is how both sides always viewed it: stopping one mech. Not solving the problems that caused the mech to act." Like the injustice that had been, at one point, at the base of Megatron's speeches.

[rodders]

If anything, Rodimus doesn't feel like getting a lecture from someone he doesn't even know. His frown deepens, gaze locked on a point that's anywhere but near Wing. "Kinda hard to stomp on injustice when you're trying to keep someone from taking over." And not everyone decided that overthrowing the corrupt government and installing oneself as leader was the right thing to do, alright.

Sometimes you've just got to throw bombs at the man.

[knightoflight]

"The ones in power, that I remember, didn't shy away from violence themselves. Rather than hear out Megatron's followers' objections, they tried extermination. Neither side was right. And when we left, the planet was paying a price. How does one get victory from ashes?" Sorry, he's all about lecturing people about the war. A few million years in the echo chamber of Crystal City have made him pretty confident about this.

[rodders]

"The ones in power weren't the Autobots that rose up later, so you can stop acting like we're completely to blame for it. You know, the good guys." Seriously, Wing. He doesn't understand why this is so hard or why the other is insisting on dragging this out. "And that's what I'm supposed to be doing - finding the Knights so they can come back and we can have our Golden Age again."

He's too young to remember the bad parts of it, or the results of it, or anything that might actually indicate that a Golden Age was far more trouble than it's worth. He just knows that it's something everyone thought of fondly, that everyone wants to go back to, because it has nothing to do with war. They were great, the greatest. He wants that back for everyone.

[knightoflight]

"But they used the same methods: violence to match violence, and the planet became a conflagration. A new force that took the same role against the Senate's enemies." Just a change of roster, really, and the planet had paid the price.

"Your quest is on hold, while you're here." As is everything, Wing thought. "But if you truly want a Golden Age, truly want peace, you can practice it here."

[rodders]

"Right, because the Decepticons would have thrown down their guns the moment we did instead of killing us." Yeah. That wasn't likely to happen at all - not even at the very beginning. "I'm not trying to kill him, aren't I? But if he makes one wrong move, if something happens to anyone here--" Then he knows who's responsible. He won't let people die just because some white mech decided that they should put four million years of war behind them without even a hint of apprehension about it being Megatron.

He shifts, scowling more when it suddenly dawns on Rodimus where he's seen the sort of mechs that Wing reminds him so strongly of.

"You're from the Circle of Light, right? Dai Atlas' group."

[knightoflight]

"Well...no." Don't ruin his flowery talk with reality, Rodimus. "But you've seen what meeting force with force has done to all of you. All of us."

"If something happens to anyone here, the rest of us need to come together and decide what should be done." Groupwork: who doesn't love it?

But the next question takes him flatfooted. "...you know Dai Atlas? You've seen him?" He wants to ask if he's alive but, well, he can't make the words come out of his mouth.

[rodders]

Maybe Rodimus would have seen what it did to people if he'd actually experienced something other than fighting. But it's really all he's known - from his days as an insurgent against Zeta to the millions of years spent among the Autobots. Peace is a novelty, and don't get him wrong, it's one he likes. But it's still not something he knows. "Yeah, it's kept Megatron from winning and taking over."

He doesn't like it, and scowls more because of it. "At least we'll know who's at fault." Which is all he can say to that; he already misses his ship and the fact he was captain of it.

Oh, right. Rodimus shifts uncomfortably, one hand going to rub the back of his helm. Wing must not have heard the news, which strikes him as weird, but he can go with it. "Uh, no. Not exactly. More like we rescued the Circle of Light from Tyrest on Luna 1 before you all up and left to go find--" Ugh. "Thunderclash."

[knightoflight]

"From winning the ruins of Cybertron." He doesn't seem to think that's much of a prize. "And I thought I saw an Autobot brand on Megatron?" This is all so confusing.

"Rescued? They weren't on Theophany? But...what about Crystal City?" Well, there goes his composure.

[rodders]

"Seriously? Try the entire galaxy, because I doubt he would have been satisfied with just Cybertron." Oh. Right. The Autobrand. "He ripped it off Bumblebee's corpse." That's a thing and he's not buying this sudden change in heart - not because he doesn't give people second chances or think they deserve redemption, but because it's Megatron. He can't explain it differently than that.


"Rescued! On account of the fact that Tyrest destroyed Crystal City and kidnapped them all to Luna 1. Which we also found, by the way, in case you missed that part."

[knightoflight]

"The Senate had its own imperial ambitions, Rodimus." Dai Atlas hadn't spared them, over the long years of exile, many of the details. "The Autobots were defending a Senate with an agenda just as corrupt, if a little less violent." Which, well, violence is no good, but corruption is worse.

"He what?!?" Uh, yeah, well, pretend he didn't squeak there at the end. But that...off a corpse. "After he killed him?" And Megatron had seemed so...nice.

But the hits just keep on coming. "Crystal City's destroyed? Why.....," No, Wing, there has to be a reason why Drift didn't tell you. "Does Drift know?"

[rodders]

He shakes his head at that, hands clenching into fists. "Optimus wasn't the Senate, wasn't Zeta. I didn't join the Autobots to defend the New Senate or Zeta, and if you think for one second that when the war really began that's what we stood for? Then you don't know anything about us." So Wing should just stop, as far as Rodimus is concerned.

But then they're talking about Megatron, and Rodimus' desire to sulk about that overcomes his kneejerk reaction to separate the Autobots he joined from the ones he threw bombs at. "No, Shockwave killed him. Guess he finally snapped and decided that destroying the universe was a great thing to do? I wasn't there for that part."

'Does Drift know?' Well, part of it. "Yeah, he was there when we tried to find you guys the first time."

[knightoflight]

"But he made no move to stop them, after he interrupted the Senate. We'd had such hopes for him, then." His methods--carrying the body of an injured copter--had been a bit crude, but it had taken courage and character.

"OH. I....think I am missing a lot of pieces here." Shockwave--he remembers the Senator, and the public spectacle of the empurata, but he couldn't make that add up to...this.

"He was. I see." And he doesn't want to be seeing it.

[rodders]

Well now Rodimus knows why Optimus was so glad to have seen the Circle leave, 'cult' or not. "Yeah, I can see where you really helped him out."

As for the missing pieces-- "Uh. You do know who Shockwave was, right? Purple guy, gun for an arm, does things according to logic? Decepticon?" Work with him, Wing, he's trying.

"Right. So we probably rescued you while we were at it, right? Before you all decided to go off to find Thunderclash and not join my crew." Sorry about exiling Drift, Wing. He didn't want to, he wasn't going to, but Drift insisted and, well, Rodimus didn't know what to do with that. It's not as if Drift did things that Rodimus didn't want him to on a regular basis, but that's because Drift agrees with him.

Doesn't he?

[knightoflight]

"We chose not to assist the Senate, who had participated in the genocides at Nyon and other places. And Dai Atlas said there was also the matter of, well, his contamination by Shockwave." It feels like gossip about things long dead, but what can he do? Dai Atlas had been friends with Shockwave...to a point. And then it ended, abruptly.

"I can't imagine Dai Atlas would not want to search for the Knights of Cybertron, though." It had been his passion, for centuries. It seemed odd he'd miss any opportunity to indulge it. "Did you..by chance...say anything to upset him?" Because he's still alive, right?

[rodders]

His hands clench further at that, because 'participated in the genocides at Nyon' is a really detached way of describing that. Wing can probably see his face darken, a hint of regret and guilt in his expression. "Don't-" He vents harshly. "Did you ever think that maybe by doing something about it, you could have prevented them to begin with?" Oh yes, this is personal. "Old Senate, New Senate - whichever it was. You could have done something instead of standing aside and keeping out of it just because Optimus talked to someone."

That doesn't exactly make you any better as far as Rodimus is concerned.

"Did I--? Well, Whirl probably did because it's Whirl. Kinda hard to join a quest when you're dead, though." 'God Map', yeah, Rodimus remembers that was part of Drift's whole reasoning to go find the Circle at the onset once they'd become kind of... distracted from their main route. "Cyclonus said Star Saber killed him."

[knightoflight]

"We helped as we could. But we didn't know everything, where to help. The news vids were run by the Senate. You remember how they spun the stories of any resistance." All they'd known is they weren't getting the real truth.

"Optimus did nothing but make matters worse, a faction almost indivisible from the Senate." Which was exactly why the Circle had had to stay back: they didn't want to pick sides. Simply save lives.

"....dead? He's dead?" The news strikes him like a blow. Since the beginning, Dai Atlas had been a steady, massive presence in his life, in all their lives: his resources, his knowledge had gotten them where they were. If Rodimus wanted to cause Wing pain in retaliation, he's certainly aimed true.

[rodders]

"I don't need to remember the stories something I was a part of." His voice rises in anger - he knows, logically, what Wing is saying. But logic has never really factored into anything Rodimus has done. So why start? "You could have helped anywhere! Asked anyone on the street and they could have told you what we needed - not to fight but to survive. Optimus - he saw what was right eventually, he turned against Zeta. While all you did was act like you were too good for getting involved? No wonder Prime doesn't like you."

Sometimes saving lives requires picking a side, though, and sometimes it doesn't matter what you do - people still die. But Rodimus could at least say he did something to make sure no one else had to burn their own cities to the ground. No, he was sick of seeing things burn.

Never on purpose. He's not the vindictive sort, just childish and incapable of watching what he says. "Yeah." His face falls slightly, and one hand rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. "I don't know much - I just read the report." For once. Because he's trying now, he really is. Magnus would have been proud after he'd sat down on the floor out of shock.

[knightoflight]

"We did help! We did what we could, but when we saw that the war was going to destroy everything we were, everything we had, we tried to save what was left. It was too little. It was too late. But because of us, our science, our knowledge, has survived." He chafed under not being able to help, himself, but Dai Atlas had been adamant. And possibly deluded that the Senate would rein Zeta Prime in.

"Is that supposed to hurt, that a leader of half of the genocide doesn't like those of us who refused to be crushed under the juggernaut of your war?" Sorry, but Wing doesn't care.

And he's being reckless and close to anger, but the news of Dai Atlas's death has shaken him. "Report. I can...only hope he died bravely."

[rodders]

"No," a shake of Rodimus' head. "If you wanted to help you would have stayed. You would have done something, because I sure as hell didn't see any of you helping when Nyon was starving. Before-- before Zeta." He doesn't even care about fighting now - he remembers the gnaw of hunger in his tanks, he remembers being forgotten and left because no one cared and he remembers everyone who died because of him. But he did something - he tried to do something.

'Leader of half the genocide'. What the hell, Wing. "Except he was defending us from the Decepticons? You know, the guys trying to kill us? And anyway, he's still Prime. I thought that would mean something to you." On account of being obsessed with traditions or whatever. He thinks Drift respects Prime, and the whole 'part of the Guiding Hand' has to mean something too, with the Matrix.

"Uh, I guess? You'd have to ask Cyclonus or Whirl - they're the ones that actually saw it."

[knightoflight]

"Did anyone know how insane Zeta was before Nyon?" Wing hadn't. Maybe he was naive, even moreso back then. But he knew he wasn't the only one who had been taken by surprise at Zeta...trying to kill his own citizens to power a weapon. "Did you?" It's less a challenge than it might sound: he knows the Circle's intelligence had been flawed.

"He was siding with mechs like Sentinel and Zeta, Rodimus. When did he even try to make peace? When did he ask to speak to Megatron?" He shakes his head. "Who would want to be Prime? Who would claim that title, after the legacy of mechs like Zeta and Sentinel?" Wing clearly has opinions as to who would.

[rodders]

"I did!" He can't help shouting, temper still rising. "Because I saw it before it got that bad, I saw my friends suffer and I did something about it, because I knew. I knew Optimus would see how bad it was and change." He didn't know at that time he'd become Prime - no one could have guessed that. But he knew that if Orion Pax had seen what was going on, had understood why the insurgents had been fighting Zeta-- that he'd come around.

The last few questions take Rodimus by surprise, however, but he has an answer ready for that. He always has, and while he'd told Optimus it only recently, he'll tell Wing it too if that's what it takes. "He would. Because Optimus - Optimus makes it mean something that isn't the legacy of those Primes. And he does it because no one else can, because everyone else is like you, who'd rather think about it as a tarnished title instead of attempting to be everything good and noble. Well, not me. Never me."

His hero worship is, quite frankly, ridiculous.

[knightoflight]

"I...I'm sorry." What else can he say to that? "I thought we did the best we could." He trusted Dai Atlas's guidance blindly back then, only later realizing that the former Senator had had his own blindnesses. "We thought...we thought it was all we could do. We knew it wasn't enough. It could never be enough."

What could have been, other than stopping the war before it started?

"Maybe we need a new way, at least here. Maybe we shouldn't have any Prime at all, but all of us, equals."

[rodders]

Wing's admittance effectively rips the wind from Rodimus' sails, and he has to take a second or two to recover. "You could have stayed." It's more muttered than anything else, and he scowls - not at Wing but at some other point in the way, above the other bot.

"Well it's not like he's here, is he?" Which means that Rodimus fully expects Prime to be Prime if he shows up. Right before he has words with him about Megatron.