InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "dry your eyes mate!"

Mikaela Banes (gotinthecar) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2009-06-14 01:39:00

Entry tags:

!closed

WHO: Mikaela Banes and Starscream
WHAT: Talking. And probably no small amount of confusion.
WHEN: Early evening; not long after this.
WHERE: Their apartment (#210A)
RATING: TBD
STATUS: In Progress

To say that Mikaela was annoyed would be a gross understatement. The thought of having to share anything, especially an apartment, with someone who was by all accounts and purposes a complete and utter enemy, was something that she did not want to do. However, instead of packing her things and finding somewhere else to call a temporary home until she returned to her real one, Mikaela was instead at said apartment waiting for her new roommate to show up. Because while she was certainly annoyed, she was even more confused and curious. Firstly because, well, Starscream hated Megatron. That was a sentence Mikaela could scarcely wrap her brain around, especially when it was followed by the concept that the Decepticon was now a human.

So she was waiting, having gotten home from work a little over twenty minutes ago. Changed into a simple tank top and pair of jogging pants, Mikaela had just padded barefoot in search of a slice of the pizza she'd bought for dinner when she heard someone at the front door. Her stomach tightened slightly and her gaze slid, almost of their own accord, to the block of knives resting on the nearby counter.

No, she thought to herself with a shake of her head. Something weird is going on. Figure it out. Hear what he has to say. And with a calming exhale, the young woman snagged a piece of pizza and her whiteboard (this not talking while having to figure this out was going to be fun) and headed to the foyer in time for the door to open.

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starscreamingly
2009-06-14 11:52 am UTC (link)

The man that entered looked to be in his mid-twenties. Average height, with tanned skin and wavy black hair that fell to his shoulders.. and strangely enough, bright, almost glowing crimson eyes. If one looked closely enough, the iris had the same artificial appearance as did the Autobots' gaze, but it was a lot harder to tell when they were in miniature like that. Also, if his hair had been pulled back, it would have been apparent that there were data-ports set into the back of his neck, seemingly wired directly into his nervous system.. but that was something that wasn't immediately obvious. Dressed in dark-coloured pants and a shirt and jacket that mirrored his colours when he was in his real body (shades of red and black), he was obviously uncomfortable in the human form. There was something that seemed a little awkward and on the verge of hysteria in the way he carried himself.

Humans thought so slowly. Without the constant stream of data, things were felt so much differently. It was.. it was strange, and oddly frightening.

And they'd taken his wings. Primus. What was he going to do?

He paused, greeting her with a nod, closing the door carefully behind himself and turning to look at her, hands searching out the tiny PDA and typing something up with a scowl at the primitive process. He then crossed the room and offered to show it to her: I do not know how you know my name. You seem to be older than Alexis, so I do not believe you would be acquainted with her. A pause, and he tilted his head, birdlike, before drawing the PDA back to add an afterthought. Besides, they have always been discreet before.

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gotinthecar
2009-06-14 12:30 pm UTC (link)

Leaning lightly against the wall so as not to just start nervously pacing at the sight of someone who was clearly human yet still somehow seemed not, Mikaela eyed him as he approached. When he pulled out his PDA, she glanced down at the words. Her brow furrowed a bit as she read.

Talk about getting directly to the point. Raising her gaze to meet his, she set down her pizza and held up her whiteboard with a hint of a grin. Quickly, she wrote:

Discreet went out the window when the Decepticons - you included - wiped out half of Miracle City. That's when Sam killed Megatron. And I don't know any Alexis.

She handed him the whiteboard and marker - definitely more efficient than her typing it out on a PDA - and took a bite of her pizza. Glancing down at the piece she glanced to Starscream. With a muted sigh only evident by the rise and fall of her shoulders, she shook the pizza lightly and motioned to it, before pointing to him with a questioning stare. A crude, but effective way of simply asking, Want some?

Sometimes, Mikaela really hated being a 'good' person.

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starscreamingly
2009-06-14 12:36 pm UTC (link)

That never happened, the dark-haired man wrote quickly, handwriting slanting and sharp, eyebrows arching over the vivid eyes. Thus far, we-- A pause, expression turning uncertain, before he began again, wiping out the 'we', --the Decepticons have been keeping operations from the human populace. Those three children are the only humans really aware of our presence on the planet. Something very strange was going on. How could their histories be so very different?

Maybe she really was from the future. If that was the case.. he'd failed in some degree, at least. But.. no, she'd never heard of Unicron, and even if they had defeated him, it was something the inhabitants of Earth would have noticed.

His troubled expression smoothed again at the apparent question, and he glanced up in confusion. He cleared his throat soundlessly, flushing a bit despite himself. I am not certain. The scent of it was strange, though oddly pleasant, and the desire it caused him was both like and unlike times when his energon levels were low. So-- perhaps that was human hunger. Below, he added: I think so.

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gotinthecar
2009-06-14 12:53 pm UTC (link)

Mikaela took the whiteboard, read what he'd written, and gave a nod of her head. Motioning for him to follow, she wrote as she led him into the kitchen. By the time she'd reached the box of pizza, she was finished and handed it to him to read.

Sam and I were some of the only ones who knew, where I'm from. Until Megatron went after the All Spark in Miracle City. There were a few errant lines where the marker had brushed while she thought and, beneath them:

I think we're from two alternate realities. Different timelines or whatever, but similar? A couple of others have things like that going on here too.

While he read, Mikaela busied herself with grabbing him a plate and a couple pieces of pizza. She set it down in front of him at the counter he was standing near before going in search of something to drink for them both while taking another bite of her own piece.

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starscreamingly
2009-06-14 02:10 pm UTC (link)

That made more sense, strangely enough, than the notion of Mikaela being from the future. In fact, Starscream was almost relieved the more he thought about it. He most certainly hadn't helped to destroy a city, and he hadn't planned on it. .. The children would never forgive him, for one thing, and Primus blast it all, he kind of liked the fleshy little things. They'd given him a chance when the Autobots hadn't been able to, and he would always be grateful for it, and he would always be sorry that he'd returned to the Decepticons. But.. he didn't belong with the Autobots, and someone needed to try to convince Megatron that the only way they'd survive Unicron was through putting aside the war.

It makes sense, he wrote belatedly, and wiped it out again with his sleeve, glancing distastefully down at the colour marring his fingertips. And then, seeming to consider something, he slowly began to write again, finally turning the board toward her. I need computer parts. Preferably more advanced than what humans normally use, though at this point I'll take anything I can get. Do you know where I can find anything like that?

He released the board to her, then, and picked up the slice of pizza with a wary expression. Humans ate-- it was how they sustained themselves. So.. he would have to eat like any other human.

This was ridiculous.

Taking a bite, he chewed slowly and swallowed, the taste too sharp and overwhelming on his tongue. How did humans manage it?

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gotinthecar
2009-06-14 02:33 pm UTC (link)

Mikaela felt something churn in her gut as she read his words. Going still - the piece of pizza halfway to her mouth - she slowly set it back down on the plate and wrote out a reply.

Why? She stared at the word for a few seconds, glanced to Starscream, then marked it out and instead wrote something else entirely.

I'll see what I can come up with. Why do you need them? There. That wasn't quite as distrustful sounding. Not that she trusted him entirely, but as of yet he'd given her no reason to think he was going to try to kill her just for the simple fact that he could. So she didn't want to come across as too on-edge. She could give him a chance.

With a mental shrug and another bite of her pizza, she handed him back the whiteboard.

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starscreamingly
2009-06-14 03:03 pm UTC (link)

Heaving a silent sigh, Starscream took the board back and began writing. When he was done, he turned it back toward the young woman. Communicating the way humans do is inefficient, and if I have the ability to do so in a better way, I should take it. It's the scientist in me. He hadn't admitted that in a long time-- even his fellow Decepticons didn't know what he'd once been. It was a testament to how disturbed he was by his situation that he would say it now.

Hesitating, he lifted his hair away from the base of his neck, turning his head to allow Mikaela to see the tiny data-ports. The human brain, of course, wasn't as suited to direct interfacing with computers as his own normally was, but if he'd wound up in a body with the ability to do so, damned if he wasn't going to take it.

Letting his hair fall again, he glanced back up at the human woman with arched brows, the expression obviously asking her if that was explanation enough.

[ooc; And what's funny about this is that I'm sitting in the same room as Capt White, who is the guy that was in Transformers. I want so badly to be like "CAPT WHITE, GUESS WHAT I'M RPING RIGHT NOW :D :D"]

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gotinthecar
2009-06-15 01:02 am UTC (link)

Mikaela took a moment to fully pause and consider what he'd written. It seemed to just want an easier way to communicate. It went directly against anything she knew about the Decepticons, really, but he was claiming to be a scientist. Was that true?

She glanced up from the whiteboard in time to see the data-ports. Blinking, she looked back to his face and gave a nod. Erasing what he'd written, she responded with, I know a few people who might be able to help.

She showed him what she'd written, then added almost as an afterthought, I doubt it's going to be quite the level of technology you're used to though. Because let's face it. If something like that existed in Colligo, they would be out of this place. Or at least have their voices back. Or something.

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starscreamingly
2009-06-15 02:21 pm UTC (link)

I'll manage with what I can get, the Decepticon-turned-human wrote back immediately, pleased with her response. If he could get even a few minor things, he could start doing some research and try to figure out what had happened. Cautiously, he admitted his hopes, writing a line below his first. I may be able to rig something more suitable if I have the parts to do so.

He offered the board back to her, seeming to hunch down in on himself as he attempted another bite of the pizza. --He'd handled it all fairly well so far, but to be honest, Starscream was a lot closer to sheer hysteria than he was letting on. He'd gone from a robotic body with a completely digital brain into a body made of flesh, blood, and bone, where the constant hum of a datastream was gone. His body was too sensitive, his sense of smell and taste and touch too strong, too pure. It was, in a word, terrifying.

And his wings, oh, Primus, his wings.

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gotinthecar
2009-06-15 10:10 pm UTC (link)

She wasn't supposed to be doing this. She wasn't supposed to be feeling sorry for him. That wasn't the way this was meant to work. She was just supposed to hear him out, lie about how sorry she was that he was stuck as a human, then find somewhere else to live. Immediately. Instead, however, Mikaela found herself wanting to somehow make it better for him even if she knew there was no way short of putting him back in his own body that she could do that. And not only did she have no clue how to put him back in his own body, truth be told she wasn't positive she'd do it even if she did know how. After all, what would keep him from just flattening the entire city because he could?

Still, watching as he did his best to eat the pizza, she could tell that he wasn't nearly as calm as he seemed. She had no idea just how close to hysteria he was, of course, but she could only imagine how he must be feeling to be trapped as a human of all things. Not even any of the Autobots, she was willing to bet, would handle it much better and they didn't have some unnatural, deep-seeded hatred like the Decepticons did.

Not fair, some part of her mind pointed out. He isn't the same Starscream you know. Not exactly.

Doing her best to keep that fact in mind, she gave him a sympathetic smile as she wrote upon the whiteboard, There are some people here, from a few centuries ahead of this one. They're probably our best shot. If not we'll raid every computer store in the city. Showing him what she'd written, Mikaela hesitated before adding, In the meantime, if you need something besides that, just let me know.

It was an olive branch, to be certain, along with a silent decision that she wasn't going to move out after all. As she showed it to him, Mikaela realized part of her was half-expecting him to be insulted or something. Old habits, she figured, were going to die pretty hard.

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starscreamingly
2009-06-15 10:31 pm UTC (link)

For a moment, Starscream was preparing himself to be offended. After all, it wasn't that he was helpless-- he was just a little.. lost. And definitely confused and upset and overwhelmed. But then he shook himself, reminded unpleasantly that he was reacting that way because of millions and millions of years acting as Megatron's punching bag, where he'd had to broadcast his superiority to the others or risk being ousted. He was so tired of constantly watching his back, over-defensive and prideful and oh-so-suspicious.

He was just tired.

And anyway, this Mikaela was a single human who obviously hated Megatron as much as he did, and she seemed.. genuine. She wasn't Alexis, of course, but that didn't make her bad.

After a long pause, he hesitantly nodded, writing two words on the board below hers: Thank you. He was grateful, and anyway, it couldn't hurt his reputation to express that once in a while, especially to the person he was apparently going to be living with.

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gotinthecar
2009-06-15 11:05 pm UTC (link)

For a long moment, Mikaela worried that her initial thought had been right. He was going to get insulted. Already she could feel her own defenses rising, prepared to stick up for herself and her offer of help no matter what might be said, or done. Yet it all turned out to be for naught and, at those two simple words, Mikaela felt herself very nearly dumbstruck... with no small amount of guilt to go with it.

You're welcome, she wrote back, and considered the subject closed for the time being. Already she was thinking about what he'd asked, and wondering whether it would be better to contact Captain Kirk directly or go straight to the members of his crew that Mikaela knew for a fact would be able to help. Ultimately she opted to go to the Captain, first. There was something to be said for a chain of command and, while she was hardly what some might consider capable of uniformity, she did understand that there was a hierarchy for a reason.

Finishing her first piece of pizza, Mikaela took notice of how much Starscream had eaten. Part of her wondered if he didn't like it, and another part figured it probably had more to do with him just not being used to eating food like a human. Still, she reached for the whiteboard once again and wrote, If you don't like the taste, we can find you something else to eat?

She was pretty sure he wouldn't know whether he liked the taste or not, but it felt right to offer him something else if he'd prefer it.

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