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| An Unexpected Glitch; Closed for Damus and Skids | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: 6 Aug 2016, 01:01 PM (163 Views) | |
| Skids | 7 Aug 2016, 05:12 PM Post #16 |
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try to teach me a thing or two
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"Well, just us and Trailcutter," Skids admitted. "I've kept an audial open for any word from Windcharger, but it's been a while since anyone's heard from him. The war's over, so he might have returned to Cybertron with the others, but I don't really know. Last time I was there, I didn't want to stay." The thought occurred to him that maybe Damus didn't know about the end of the war. There were a lot of Cybertronians that either didn't know or didn't care and just wanted to keep on fighting. Skids couldn't guess what Damus had been doing and he didn't want to pry too much when it was already fairly clear that this mech was not the same as the one that had been at Grindcore. Who knew what differences there were between their lives and the timelines they were living before? "You, ah, did get the same message about the war being over, right?" |
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| Catawampus | 7 Aug 2016, 05:22 PM Post #17 |
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So much panic, so little time!
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"I haven't heard from him for a bit either," Damus admitted, still a little stunned as Skids pulled him along. There wasn't any resistance. "We kind of...parted ways didn't we. All of us, I mean." As for the war thing, that was even more confusing. "Er...no. Nobody's...heard or said anything as far as I know. Not that I'm really in the know, but this would be kind of important, right?" Damus was more or less babbling now, but--given the circumstances--babbling seemed a pretty logical response. |
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| Skids | 7 Aug 2016, 05:40 PM Post #18 |
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try to teach me a thing or two
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Skids gave a nod, leading the way through the districts and towards the edge of the town where the Lost Light was. They could transform to vehicle mode to make the trip faster and easier, but Skids would have to let go of Damus for that to happen and he had no intention of that, to be perfectly honest. Part of him - an illogical part - was half-afraid that if he let go, if he looked away, Damus would disappear and he'd be left with nothing but bittersweet memories. "I'm sorry," he told Damus. "We should have kept in touch. All of us. We were inseparable at the academy, but as soon as the war started...Roller disappeared, I left, Trailcutter joined Optimus. I never knew where you'd gone." He shook his head, not willing to dwell on the painful memories. "But yeah. The war's been over for a couple of years. We've all got a chance to start over now." Starting over was good for so many of them. Skids had thought that starting over would be hard when he'd first joined the Lost Light, but he'd settled in with the rest of the crew easily, earning his place among them and making friends along the way. Damus could have that chance now, too. "I think you'd like the Lost Light," he told Damus. "We're kind of on a quest to look for the Knights of Cybertron, but it's been a lot more than just a quest for some of us. It's a new life. A second chance for a lot of us. If you want to join us, I'd be glad to help you settle in." |
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| Catawampus | 7 Aug 2016, 06:01 PM Post #19 |
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So much panic, so little time!
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Given the circumstances, it was probably best Damus not drive. It was likely he'd zone out and end up running right into something. He also naturally had bad depth perception, but that was beside the point. Of course, he was also trying to figure out the fact that he'd--somewhat tacitly--agreed to join a strange crew, with only Skids' word that the Senator and Trailcutter were on board. His word was pretty believable, but he was just going on something much smaller than an actual recommendation. But at least there was Skids, right? "If...if you say so.I'll...I'll join." There was still that niggling fear, though. The fear that he'd end up as 'the one with the claws.' It was probably a good thing he was going somewhere with more than one crew member who'd been an empurata victim. But, well, he didn't know that. Yet. |
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| Skids | 7 Aug 2016, 07:06 PM Post #20 |
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try to teach me a thing or two
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Skids couldn't help the wide smile on his face - probably the most genuine smile he'd given since his spark spasm - when Damus said he'd join the crew. He knew he was probably pushing his own agenda a little, still didn't know what the other mech had been doing before they ran into each other, but given that this was very likely another case of parallel timelines, whatever Damus had been doing before, it wasn't something in this timeline. Skids couldn't let the other mech wander through this universe on his own. "You won't regret it. We'll catch up with Shockwave and Trailcutter and I'll introduce you to the crew. I think you'll fit in with the rest of us just fine." Skids paused, his own excitement and gladness at having Damus back causing his spark to pulse, a little painfully. He brought his free hand up and placed it over his chest, feeling the warmth of his spark under his hand. "I'm just...really glad I ran into you." |
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| Catawampus | 7 Aug 2016, 07:16 PM Post #21 |
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So much panic, so little time!
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Poor Damus was just trying to swallow this all. Skids was still alive. Trailcutter was with him. The Senator wasn't dead (or worse). It was a lot to take in, especially considering his crisis. He still seemed a little off-kilter from everything hitting at once. Unfortunately or not, he'd always been keen to try and fall into step with someone. It was better than going on alone, at any rate. He wished he could add 'fitting in be damned' to that sentence, but that'd be a lie. But if it was fitting in with Skids, was that so much of a bad thing? Skids, inadvertently, startled him out of his reverie (it was probably a good thing he was being led along--literally). To his credit, he didn't jump. "I know it's...probably not worth much in comparison. But," he pulled in air through his vents and let it out slowly, "Me too." It wasn't getting his hands back, but--hey--he'd take what he could get right now. And this was a pretty good 'settle' option, if he did say so! |
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| Skids | 7 Aug 2016, 09:31 PM Post #22 |
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try to teach me a thing or two
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"Damus, you have no idea how much it's worth," Skids told him, looking to the other mech. His hand clutched slightly at his chassis as his spark gave another pulse, but it passed after a moment. It didn't feel bad, just as though his spark was finally starting to heal. He wondered if that was because he was happy to see his friend. "Hello, Skids. I have a favor to ask." Skids shook his head, trying to dispel the image of Tarn from his mind. "I thought you were gone forever. It's...a miracle I found you again. I know we didn't really part on good terms - I mean, I just left you and the others. I didn't even say good-bye." He'd abandoned his friends, run off from mechs he'd considered family after their world had fallen apart. "But there's a chance to make up for it now. If you need anything, I'll be there for you." |
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| Catawampus | 8 Aug 2016, 04:58 AM Post #23 |
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So much panic, so little time!
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Though still somewhat bemused and trailing along, Damus noticed that Skids--at least in comparison to what he remembered--was acting a little odd. He'd been following along meekly ever since Skids had (with very little effort) started leading him away, but now he held on to Skids's arm in return. "Are you okay? I mean...outside of the leaving thing. I don't really care." Yes he did, he did a lot, but it had since been rationalized and stored away somewhere--and had been replaced with more pressing issues. "You did what you thought you had to, and...and I did what I thought I had to and it just happened to be in two different places." Though he suspected Skids had been a little more successful than he had in return. |
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| Skids | 8 Aug 2016, 10:30 AM Post #24 |
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try to teach me a thing or two
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Skids hesitated at the question because, no, he wasn't okay. He hadn't been okay in days - years, really; even before, when he'd had no memory of his past, he hadn't been okay. There'd been too many questions he'd dwelt on, too many missing moments for him to be at peace as he'd been on Luna 1. Sunder's attack on his mind had torn open wounds and those wounds had festered until the night at "Visages" had revealed how deep they really were. Okay was something that Skids had not been in a long time. "I will be," he finally answered. He had the support of his friends on the Lost Light. He had Shockwave's support as they suffered knowing the damage they'd both caused in regards to Grindcore. Now, he also had Damus back and, though he knew things were different for both of them, they could start over. "No matter what our reasons, the different places we ended up, we still crossed paths this time." He absently tightened his hold on Damus' arm, still half-convinced that the other mech would disappear any moment now. "Of all the things I've done, leaving you behind was one of the worst." |
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| Catawampus | 8 Aug 2016, 01:05 PM Post #25 |
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So much panic, so little time!
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Damus was...still a little struck. He'd always considered Skids a friend--an actual friend. In any case, more than just a comrade (or classmate, depending on how you looked at it). Damus, for his part...didn't really consider himself a good friend. He was always so caught up in his own head that he wasn't very good at making sure he made time to take care of friends in turn. Not that he'd had many of them. Not since the whole face and hands thing. So, really, he more than a little shocked that he'd made that much of an impression. On anyone. Not as a person, anyway. But, here he was. Skids was clinging to him, and he was clinging to Skids. This was a thing that was actually happening. "I...I didn't realize..." was all he managed to get out. |
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| Skids | 8 Aug 2016, 02:11 PM Post #26 |
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try to teach me a thing or two
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"You wouldn't have." It wasn't a comment to imply that Damus had never seen what he'd meant to Skids - and the other outliers - but rather, it implied that Skids' own failure to communicate was at fault. Back at the academy, he'd been much more focused on his studies, starstruck with the Senator, and unsure of how to open up to the other outliers, despite their commonality. Even among the outliers, he'd seemed different, his ability much more internal than Trailcutter's force fields and Damus' ability to disrupt electronics. He hadn't known how to fit in with them, trying to be open while hiding most of his feelings under the surface. Feelings like the admiration he'd had for the mech beside him, the strength Damus had to keep going after the empurata he'd been forced to undergo. He'd never told Damus and let the feelings go dormant for years after he'd left. When he'd heard Damus' voice at Grindcore, those feelings had resurfaced only to be burned to cinders with the mechs in the incinerator. It felt now like those feelings were beginning to rise from the ashes, like the phoenix of human mythology. Could he let himself rekindle his feelings after Grindcore? This wasn't the same Damus who'd become Tarn, the mech that had torn Skids' faith from him and destroyed a part of him along with it. Skids' experiences were his own and he couldn't push those experiences on Damus - he couldn't let Damus find out about Tarn, not just yet. "I should have been a better friend," Skids went on. "Maybe we wouldn't have drifted so far apart after the Senator was arrested. We didn't have much except the other outliers after the Academy burned down. I should have stayed. Maybe you wouldn't have..." Red optics flashed behind the purple mask as Tarn laughed. "I thought you might want to see the results of your handiwork." "...ended up here." |
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| Catawampus | 8 Aug 2016, 06:23 PM Post #27 |
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So much panic, so little time!
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Truth be told, Damus had been completely in the dark. There had been a fondness there, of course, but nothing beyond friendship. It was hard to think of anything else when his time at the academy had largely been a series of headaches and brain scans. And well, nobody wanted to be with someone like him; nobody who didn't have a kink, anyway. That had been the vast majority of his encounters, anyway. Damus didn't have any reason to suspect, well, feelings from anyone else. He hadn't realized then--being a bit blind to it, and losing it in the background of everything happening at the JAAT--and he seemed just as clueless now. Even if he wasn't trying to be. And, to be honest, his head was spinning as it was. So, he kept hold of Skids's arm, initial quest since forgotten in the wake of everything. Damus watched the ground for the longest time as they walked. "You were a good friend though," he replied eventually. "I think...you're probably the best friend I've ever had. I never...I mean, even before, I was never good with social stuff. Never came easy, I guess. But you...never seemed to mind it. Or anything else." It was a wonder he was talking about this at all--much less out in public in front of strangers--but Skids had knocked him a little off balance. |
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| Skids | 9 Aug 2016, 09:54 AM Post #28 |
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try to teach me a thing or two
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"I didn't mind it." Skids had never really thought about the social skills that Damus did or did not have. Of all the outliers, Damus had always been the quiet one of them and Skids had liked that in contrast to Trailcutter and Windcharger. Perhaps that's why he'd spent more time around Damus than he had with the others. The two of them could study together without Windcharger trying to lift one of them or Trailcutter testing out his forcefields on them. "I liked being around you. I liked you." He'd let Damus decide what "liked" meant. They'd only ever been classmates, teammates, brothers-in-arms. The friendship they'd had came with being close in the sense that outliers were rare and hard to find. Damus had been at the Academy long before Skids had enrolled and when the Senator realized his outlier abilities, Skids was the newest in the group, making Damus his senior by all accounts. He'd looked up to the other mech, admired him, and - - well, that was still left unspoken. He'd dropped a few hints in the past, but none that had been taken up. Focusing less on the past, Skids noted they'd left the district and, just over the edge of the city, he could see the Lost Light. He brought his free hand to Damus' arm to get his attention and gestured towards the ship. "That's the Lost Light. We've got everything you could want on board. Rec room, two bars, practice room...about 250 crew, give or take." |
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| Catawampus | 9 Aug 2016, 04:32 PM Post #29 |
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So much panic, so little time!
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Judging from the expression--or the posture, rather--even he didn't know what to make of that. Nobody liked him--not like that, anyway. Whether or not he'd unconsciously sabotaged any attempts at romance remained to be said (though he'd probably hardly be the first). Either way, Damus continued with his somewhat thunderstruck look, thoughts still in whirl over everything. Though it remained to be said that he was still holding on tightly to his Skids... "...that's not a ship. That's a small planet..." he managed to comment, finally looking up from the ground. |
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| Skids | 9 Aug 2016, 07:20 PM Post #30 |
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try to teach me a thing or two
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Letting the subject of the past go for the time being - since they had plenty of time to talk about the past later - Skids focused on the Lost Light, laughing at Damus' response to the size of the ship. "It just looks big," he told the other mech. He started to tug Damus along again. "It's actually not that big. I mean, okay, I've been on the ship for a couple years almost and still haven't seen all of it. A lot of it, but I've been busy sorting myself out after...well, a few missions went bad." Skids had noticed, throughout the walk, that Damus hadn't let go of him or made him let go and he took that as a good sign. He offered the other mech a friendly smile. "Hey, since you're thinking you'll join us, you want to room with me? My last roommate kind of got arrested, so there's room." |
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