ROTB Optimus Prime's Inbox

[incandescent_matrix]

"Let us not waste time better spent elsewhere. Leave your message and we will return to it."

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Re: the most normal action

[incandescent_matrix]

Optimus was seething quietly the entire trip back to the R2. Fear and guilt at what he had almost allowed to happen (and guilt at forgetting the loss of all those he had failed, including poor Bumblebee, if only for a few hours...) and not happen, which had been topped by the ultimate in such choices...

He wasn't surprised at all to be confronted after they had arrived and been left alone, merely lifting his head. "And punishing a war crime with assault is better?" Optimus ground out, immediately stepping closer to glare up at Megatron.

"That horror had surrendered. Did you truly expect me to be thrilled about how you chose to resolve the situation? A congratulations, perhaps an energon cake made in your name. I thought you would have left such notions behind with this farce of a peace treaty."

[areaman]

"A war crime," He repeats very slowly, clearly incredulous to an almost enraged degree. "Do you think that was true surrender?"

He looks Optimus up and down, the same way he did when they'd first 'met', though far more scathing.

"You think after what it did to Rodimus, after it took your memories, that it was doing anything but pathetically scrabbling for survival? It would have taken more the second our backs were turned. Do you think I've never done the same?"

[incandescent_matrix]

"I believe that if you were not extended that same mercy more than once, we would not be having this conversation." He matched that scathing dressing down with a snort and a glowering stare of his own.

"I will not argue the necessity of a solution to protect Rodimus and those others we came there to defend. I will," he frowned, bringing his face as close as he could, pushing away the mention of his own memories with an audible snarl, "argue against deciding for all of us that mercy has no place on the battlefield."

[areaman]

"And yet you are entirely prepared to allow their memories to be held hostage!" He snaps suddenly, shoving Optimus back. "Because of your obsessive need to have the moral high ground?! Rodimus did not even know his own name."

Megatron's fists clench for a moment and it seems he's genuinely considering smacking the Prime.

"Just because you were happier released from your burden without them. Fine then! I committed the war crime! Take me to Ultra Magnus and insist on a trial!"

[incandescent_matrix]

And just like that, the anger began to drain out of him. He was exhausted and in pain and not long ago he had barely retained the memory of his own name, too, but mostly he knew that this was not a battle he would be winning. Or maybe should have fought in the first place.

"...I will not be doing either of those things," he said, conceding the victory to Megatron on this by sinking back just enough to no longer be bristling forward, plates arrayed outward threateningly.

He certainly wasn't going to tell Megatron that he had only carried through with this conversation at all out of self interest, that he knew that it easily could have and would have been him if Megatron hadn't been so fast on his feet, and that that answer didn't trouble him nearly as much as it should've.

"I felt that it needed to be argued by at least one person who had been there," he said at last. "If you only fight for your convictions when it is convenient for you, the only person that it will benefit is yourself." He sighed, and scrubbed a hand down his face. "There. I agree the necessity of it. Are you satisfied?"

[areaman]

It's clear where the conviction and will to do all that he did during the war came from, in how Megatron doesn't back down. He's just as drained and a lot less hurt but no part of him seems willing to give into it as Optimus is.

"Not convenient to go through with it, is it?" he says hatefully, moving back as his optics narrow. He will at least make it clear that even if he wants to smack the insufferable Prime, he won't. Not now. Maybe later. Probably later. "It's your own psyche you're dragging through barbed wire, looking to justify and find reason and blame behind everything. Sometimes action simply needs to be taken. Not that you damn Primes could understand that, given how you'll break your own spinal strut to make everything your own fault."

He doesn't say it out loud, but he definitely considers his Optimus separate from that. He's perfect, obviously.

[incandescent_matrix]

Optimus looked back at Megatron, his optics dimming and then brightening again. After the briefest pause, he slid back his face mask and stepped right back into Megatron's space to snarl wordlessly.

'What would be the point of continuing to debate this with you?' he almost bit out, but instead he whirled to bring up a fist and slam it into the hanger bay wall. It wasn't even anger anymore that had him do it, or at least not mostly. Megatron was right, and he hated it.

"What do you expect me to say to you?" He demanded, withdrawing his fist without looking back at him and lowering it back to his side. "I would've thought you would be pleased to hear that the battle is done, your enemy driven back. You are incapable of letting anything go, yourself."

"...Fine. I have my memories returned, and they are still dead. I would have wanted the battle to go differently in many ways. Does this please you? Or shall I lie facedown on the deck and beat it into the floor for you?"

[deceptamom]

The youths have snuck off to try and enter the medbay covertly like little weirdos, Nickel could care less about that. She's too tired. She does at least makes sure Rodimus gets escorted up there so he doesn't arrive in even more pieces then he already is, even if she's honestly too exhausted to deal with the intensive surgery he undoubtedly needs herself.

It's as she's heating up a special blend of Energon tea that she realizes a couple of the idiots aren't accounted for yet. She looks forlornly at the fuel heater.

Well. It'll take a few minutes to get to the temperature she likes anyways. Let's start in the ship hanger and make sure they haven't fallen over due to injuries more serious then she thought.

They have not fallen over. Nickel wishes they did. She doesn't even hesitate before she grabs the end of the hose that's used for power washing shuttles that come back in. She doesn't hesitate before aiming it at the both of them. And she certainly doesn't hesitate in immediately cranking the dial up to max.

"Both of you cringe clowns shut UP!" she hollers, voice astoundingly loud for her small size, "You're both filthy and in need of repair, the fleshy NEWBUILDS have more sense then the two of you!! Don't make me call security to haul both your worthless afts out of here!"

[areaman]

Megatron, who was about to say something that would probably undoubtedly have ended this little educated discussion between two rational adults in fisticuffs, immediately makes a very undignified noise as the water jet hits him in the face full tilt. It forces him back a few steps and he growls, shaking it off and taking the brunt of the stream until she moves it onto Optimus. Hey, at least his stupid face is real clean now.

Cringe clown, though. Deep cut.

He gives Nickel a very hateful scowl that extremely likely does absolutely nothing to stop her rampage.

"See to the idiot Prime!" He grumbles, shaking some of the water off like a dog. "I'm fine, that creature barely touched me!"

[incandescent_matrix]

Optimus's initial instinct was to huff out a very petty and self satisfied bark of a laugh that barely even resembled one. He then proceeded to shoot Nickel a glare at the interruption, only to then immediately take the hose to his own face.

He may have deserved that.

He staggered back a few steps but didn't bother attempting to shield his face with one hand or his mask, and instead stood there and took it like was undoubtedly intended.

As the water lowered, the only thing that kept him from snarling something undeserved at Nickel was the goodwill she had built up during that entire misadventure. He still glowered, but aimed it down at her feet instead of her face. He knew she was right, which was the infuriating thing.

"I can at minimum be trusted to do what is necessary to not be a burden," he huffed. "I will make my way there soon enough."

[deceptamom]

Nickel twists the knob to cut the water. She's still holding the end of the hose though. It's a threat. It's a promise. Just give her an excuse.

"No you both need medical aid and you're both marching up to the medbay Now. Not 'Soon enough'. Now," the look she gives them is one she might give a pair of unruly children. She is tired. She wants to sit down and have her tea. But by Prion she will not allow idiots to be idiots.

"You are BOTH figures people look to as leaders, commanders. You WILL set a good example for the people who see you as such and do the responsible thing and go to the Medbay, both to see to your injuries and to look into the condition of your team!" there is no room in her tone for argument, and her voice is loud enough for a mech ten times her size, "Need I remind you both that Rodimus's spark is hanging out of his chassis? And you two are both down here bickering like sparklings less then a decade old!"

[areaman]

It says how annoyed Megatron is with Optimus that he doesn't bother with any petty comment about who started it or who continued it or how stupid anyone's face is. He glares at Nickel, too, only relenting when she mentions Rodimus.

"Fine," he says simply, then looks back to Nickel after another long, hard look at Optimus. "Do you want a lift back to the medibay?"

[incandescent_matrix]

Optimus shot Megatron a similar look before nodding to acknowledge the truth of what Nickel was saying.

"Understood. You are of course correct. I will head there now and check in on his status," he said, moving right past Megatron without pausing, clearly understanding the message that the invitation had not included him.

Oh no.

How tragic, to not spend time around one of the most aggravating and aggravatingly correct bots he had ever had the misfortune to meet.