thisavrou_log | you gotta live a little lighter gotta breathe a little deeper

you gotta live a little lighter gotta breathe a little deeper

Who: Ratchet and Starscream
When: Backdated to the middle of all the Rescuing last month
Where: Ratchet's quarters
What: Ratchet fixes Starscream's wing and Starscream shows his gratitude in Starscream-traditional fashion
Warnings: accidental robot death, panicking, general mayhem

Thank goodness the repairs on Starscream's wing are complete, if only because Ratchet won't have to hear him whining about it anymore. He works his way around as he welds, reattaching thin wires and sensors and headache-inducing multitude of connections to delicate flight panels that allow Starscream to stay airborne in alt mode. It is tedious, meticulous, stressful work even without Starscream craning his head over his shoulder to try to get a look and asking Ratchet how it's going what feels like every forty-five seconds. He reaches thin fingertips up and Ratchet takes the soldering iron away from Starscream's plating and transforms the appendage at the end of his wrist back into a hand to slap at them, his engine revving in a low growl.

"Will you knock it off? I'm starting to think I should have had you sedated."

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Starscream huffs like the mature adult that he is and faces forward, crossing his arms and trying his super hardest to sit still. He's twitchy, it's not easy okay.

"Okay, okay. It's just taking a while."

And he's impatient. Because he's Starscream.

"Yeah, because I have to reattach a whole chunk of your wing you broke off! What, you have a dental appointment crammed into your busy schedule after this or something? Just sit still."

Ratchet continues working as he complains, eyeing Starscream balefully, his hands still exceedingly careful against delicate plating.

Starscream just grunts and shuts up, letting Ratchet work in peace. Or at least the closest someone can get to peace when they're stuck being near Starscream. Amazingly, he manages to sit still too, but boy howdy is he ever going to bitch about something when Ratchet finishes. He hasn't decided on what yet, but it sure is going to be. Something.

Ratchet huffs as he finishes the last weld on Starscream's dermal plating, smoothing it down and shifting back to look, a little frown tugging down at his mouth. Certainly not his best work, but it's what he could do with the supplies on hand, and it should be functional. He takes the block off the nervecircuits on that section of wing and watches Starscream's face critically.

"It should still ache a little, but how's it feel other than that?"

Starscream winces once the feeling comes back to his wing, but aside from that he doesn't complain too much. He gives it a few seconds before he flexes his wings.

"Aside from that, it feels okay. Doesn't feel like the weight's off or anything."

"Too right it's not," Ratchet mutters before he lays hands on the extension again, testing panels, pressing careful thumbs along the weld and frowning a little thoughtfully.

"Right, you're cleared, then. Don't" he flicks the tip of the repaired wing just barely with a finger "knock this into anything for the next week or so, I mean it. You have to be extra careful with the fresh weld. And you have to be cleared by me before you even think of flying again."

"I wasn't going to."

Starscream rolls his eyes and shifts to hop off the slab, popping his elbow out to sort of nudge Ratchet out of the way. A nudge was all he'd intended, anyway, but his elbow had connected pretty solidly with Ratchet's chest piece. Oops, huh. He'd heard kind of a cracking sound, but didn't really see any damage. Ah well.

"Sorry. Anyway, I know better than to fly on a fresh weld. I'll check with you before I try any flying."

Ratchet feels Starscream's elbow connect with the front of his windscreen and his vents shudder to a halt as something gives sickeningly in his chassis, cracking open, agony lancing through every nervecircuit for a blinding white-hot moment. He barely catches himself with one hand against the edge of the berth as he slumps back, his knees buckling under him and his optics round with shock and pain, his lips parting soundlessly. Only his grip on the berth keeps him from crashing backwards--he tries to ease himself down with limited success, collapsing onto the floor as an agonized sound wrenches its way from his vocalizer, his brain struggling to kick into gear through the searing rake of pain radiating outward from the center of his chest.

"Starscream." His voice is too shocked to sound accusing and he stares up at Starscream with helpless optics, his whole body starting to shake. "What--?"

Starscream just watches, dumbfounded for a second before half diving for the medic while he goes down.

"Ratchet? Ra-Ratchet what is happening!? What happened!? I barely touched you!" Right? He'd just bumped him with his elbow! The worst he'd expected was what, a cracked windshield or something?

He didn't know if he should try getting Ratchet onto the berth or just leave him still or what, but considering Starscream felt a Starscream-panic coming on he ended up just leaving Ratchet on the floor while he fumbled with his MID. He should probably call someone, right? But who the hell was he going to call, Ratchet was the fucking medic. HMM CONUNDRUM.

"H-help," Ratchet chokes before his vocalizer cascades into useless half-processed sound data, his optics flickering wildly as his brain module finally kicks back into gear. His hand finds Starscream's, clamping down on his fingers over his MID as he rallies and pulls as hard as he can, which isn't very.

"Help me up," he manages, pulling so he can prop himself back against Starscream, half-sitting up and still half-slumped back. He pops his chassis unceremoniously and tries not to move too much as he stares down, feeling all the fuel left in his tanks turn to cold sludge.

"It's glass," he says, his voice shocked soft through the static in his throat. He reaches up with a hand that actually shakes as he picks a piece out of the mess that's barely holding together around his spark chamber, holding it up and making a soft sound before he lets his arm fall back to his side again. His optics dim for a moment before a hand snakes up and he manages to close it hard on Starscream's wrist again, his grip surprisingly strong as his eyes flare back on, wide and intent up on Starscream's face.

"Not your fault," he says raggedly, his voice almost fierce for all it wavers like a poorly-tuned radio, sharp through the strange static in his vocalizer. "Nothing to be done. Not your fault."

Edited 2016-08-03 02:02 (UTC)

Starscream helps Ratchet sit up, staring in some kind of... shock or horror or something along those lines when Ratchet plucks glass out of his spark chamber. His shattered glass spark chamber that Starscream accidentally smashed with his elbow. Literally he's just staring with his mouth open while his brain tries to catch up with all of this ridiculous bullshit that is suddenly happening and what is his life.

Ratchet latching onto his wrist snaps him out of it. Mostly. Now he's just staring at Ratchet's face instead and part of him is shocked that Ratchet isn't straight up blaming him for this. He's so surprised that it completely catches him off guard, to the point where he actually feels kind of bad about it. It's a really weird feeling and he doesn't think he likes it, but he'd worry about all that shit later.

"Nothing to be-- There has to be something, this is... This is... what- What even is this!?"

Ratchet how can you be so calm about this good lord.

"No," he rasps, shaking his helm slightly and still moving as little as possible, staring in fascination at the guilt on Starscream's face. "Chamber's breached. That's it. Not even Pharma could--" His vocalizer fuzzes out as the shivering blue light spilling from his chassis pulses and wavers, a brief spasm of pain wracking him. But Pharma's not even here, and Ratchet could see the cracks in the clear glass surrounding his spark, sheared cleanly along the short, neat scalpel marks Pharma had left on the casing before he'd put Ratchet's body back on and taken Ambulon apart. He shudders and immediately regrets it, feeling the ragged glass shift in his chest, agony radiating out.

His spark is oscillating now, flaring and flickering, less and less bright every time. Ratchet forces his grip to tighten on Starscream's wrist, squeezing briefly.

"Going to come back. S'how it works here, right?" His optics dim, his grip loosening slightly. "Need to follow up on that wing, make sure you haven't..."

The light gutters out, and Ratchet goes still.

Starscream had watched a lot of people die over the years. A lot of them were people he himself had killed. Hell, some of them he'd even considered "friends" at the time. This was probably the first time, at least in a very long time, that someone dying in front of him had bothered him. Much less someone dying in his arms and insisting it wasn't his fault. He didn't even particularly like Ratchet, but here he was feeling absolutely horrible for what he'd done to him.

Still in some kind of post-accidentally-killing-a-dude shock, Starscream shifts so he can lay Ratchet out on the floor, closing up his spark chamber before sitting back against the side of the berth. He's still for a while, just staring between Ratchet and the nearest wall before finally finding words again.

"...Ooooh, the Autobots are going to kill me."

There we go that's more like Starscream.

"They're going to do more than kill you."

Guess who opened the door to the room at just that exact moment? Starscream stares at his alternate and then Ratchet. He's not exactly sure what his feelings are seeing the media's body -- which is giving off no life signs to his scans.

Stepping inside he shuts the door behind him effectively placing himself as a large obstacle between the other Starscream and his other escape from what he's done.

"I almost can't wait to see exactly how bad their reaction will be. Ohh. Who should I call first to tell about it? Here, I'll give you first pick."

Another look and Starscream folds his arms across his chest. This is going to be good.

Okay wow the only way this could have possibly gotten worse is this right here. FIRST of all why the FUCK doesn't Ratchet lock his door.

SECOND of all, Starscream looks positively mortified for about three seconds before jumping off the floor and half lunging at Starscream 2. He was Not Having this, no sir.

"Oh no, you're not going to mention this to anyone. This was an accident! He'll be back in a week and this is all going to blow over quietly, and you're not going to say anything. Understand?"

Go on and lunge at him. Starscream doesn't move. In fact, his expression shifts to a very smug smirk. The panic radiating off his alternate is simply brilliant. He's going to enjoy this so much.

"Oh? Am I? Because I think I might have a few Autobots on speed dial right now. So you better start giving me a good reason why I should keep my mouth shut. After all, the enjoyment I'll get watching them rip you from limb to limb might be a little too much to resist."

Starscream's first instinct is to threaten bodily harm or y'know death and the like, but seeing as he was already going to be in over his head if word of this got out, he'd probably be even worse off if he tried to cover up an accidental death with a deliberate murder. Even if it was his double.

After a few tense seconds of being all up in Sceamy's face trying to think up some good threats or bribes, Starscream groans dramatically, spins around, tosses his hands up and paces around the room a bit before circling back around to doubleStarscream.

"I don't have anything to offer you, so-- just, what do you want? We can work something out."

Being out-Starscream'd by another Starscream is, hands down, one of the most ridiculous, horrible, humiliating moments of Stasrcream's life and he is going to hate the shit out of himself later for this, but what other choice does he have? Aside from explosions.

This is exactly what Starscream was counting on, though if he had to he was fully prepared to just blast his alternate's head off. (Slight exaggeration maybe). He watches the other Starscream's body language closely. The similarities between them were fascinating to watch and at the same time, he wondered if he was exactly this ridiculous. He hoped not. Otherwise he may have to re-evaluate himself and his life choices.

With another smirk he brought up a finger, pointing it at Starscream.

"Indeed we can. And what I want is simple. All you have to do is make a public announcement about your incompetence. Tell everyone you've realized you're not fit to rule anything. Do that and I won't say a word."

Of anything Starscream could ever have asked for, this is the one thing he really wanted right at this very moment. To bring his alternate down to such a level that stepping over his broken body wouldn't even be worth it.

Starscream just stares for a moment, half baffled and half talking himself down from a huge blow up. While somewhat impressed by the audacity of this motherfucker, Starscream wonders briefly if he himself ever seems like this much of an unbearable, vicious asshole. Getting a taste of his own medicine isn't really fun.

"You're positively brutal. Now, I see exactly what you're doing, but that simply isn't going to work. Not because I'm unwilling, but because as soon as I were to make an announcement like that, everyone would immediately become suspicious because it would be completely off the wall for me. Suspicion leads to questions, questions lead to investigations. Investigations lead to answers. See where I'm going with this?"

He's actually quite put off about the notion of having to knock himself down like that. It's happened so many times in the past, just the idea of being rendered powerless again has him shaken up. To his credit, he's pretty good at masking his discomfort, but goddamn boi ain't having a good day.

Had Starscream agreed so easily, he would have been slightly disappointed. While he did not care for his alternate in the slightest, giving up so soon made the situation less fun. Starscream wished to get all the enjoyment he can out of it as there is not much else to do on the ship (that he feels like doing at least).

The response gets a grin in return like Starscream expected him to say that in the first place.

The funny thing is, both of them despise the idea of being rendered powerless. In fact, that is actually one of Starscream's greatest fears having been trapped and defenseless in the past. In a twisted sort of sense it gave him the insight of exactly where to push, though he also knows that if the same were to happen to him, it'd be terrible. A small part might feel bad at what he's doing, but Starscream is too over the edge to care.

"Then make something up if anyone asks questions. Tell them you lost a bet. Tell them we had a race and I won and this was my trophy. That way I still get what I want and you don't have to worry about any suspicion."

Starscream rubs at his chin, weighing his options now that he knows he has a little room to be flexible.

"That's doable. Annoying, but I can work with it. I can't help but wonder why that's what you want, and not something practical."

"Because there's absolutely nothing you can give me that I can't get myself. Other than that. Besides practical is never as much fun as things like this. So you better get to it before my finger slips."

Starscream actually might decide he has to stand right there when the other Starscream gives his speech just so he can't get out of it.

"Oh, I plan to, don't you worry."

He even starts booping away at him MID to start recording, but he stops suddenly like he's just remembered something kind of big, and motions to poor, dead Ratchet.

"Ah, one minute. Since you're here, why don't you give me a hand hiding this body? You look a little sturdier than I am, I don't think I could drag him too far on my own, at least not without risking someone catching me. I'll owe you something else, of course. I wouldn't expect you to work for free."

Oh. Nice try. Starscream gives him credit for even trying that. But instead of verbally saying anything at first he just laughs. Oh boy does he laugh.

"If you think what I asked for before is harsh then you really don't want to know what I'll make you do for that one. Because like I'd give you an opportunity to pin this around like it's my doing. Oh no. That might work on someone else, but you'll have to try a little harder."

Damn well that hadn't really worked.

"I suppose you're not as dimwitted as you look. When you word it that way though, I can't help but be curious about what else your disturbing little mind can cook up."

And since other Starscream is no help whatsoever, this here Starscream is going to peek out the door. Gotta see if the coast is clear and all that good shit.

"And yet you are. Go figure."

He watches the Starscream act all paranoid like. Boy he's afraid of getting caught, isn't he? Starscream should just make that worse by coming up right behind him. Very close behind him.

"But if you really want to know, it involve your declaration of love to Megatron plus a bit more action. But maybe you're into that."

Hey man he just wants to make sure he has a clear shot between here and his own room. He's trying to find a hiding place for the very dead Ratchet body. Or something.

He was going to whip around and yell at horrible Starscream for having such a creepy, fucked up imagination, but ends up running into him instead since he decided to get right up on him.

"What is with you!? Do you not understand the concept of personal space!?"

Edited 2016-08-11 22:54 (UTC)

"No. But anyway, I'll you what. I help you out a bit more," he folds his arms across his chest but doesn't move away.

"I'll go make sure the coast is clear and you can do what you need to do. And I've changed my mind about the message: oh you'll still have to do it. Just not now and here in your pathetically panicked state. I'll call you later then."

He pushes to go past Starscream and out the door, or rather right through him just to see if his alternate will move out of the way or not.

"Oh and don't think you'll get out off the hook at my postponing the date. I have this entire thing recorded." He taps on the side of his head before making his way out the door to leave his alternate wondering if what he said is true or not.

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you gotta live a little lighter gotta breathe a little deeper

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