NOVA STORM'S BEST AND GREATEST INBOX

[binary_runaway]

Hey, hi, this is Nova Storm! You found me but you also really super didn't, haha! Do the thing so I can do the other thing back, okay?

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Audio

[binary_runaway]

[Nova had been all set to volunteer for the party going straight to Antlers' inner sanctum, but this message from Skywarp brings her quite literally stuttering to a halt]

I- But- Wuh? Wubuhwuh? They need me, Warp, that isn't fair! It's- I-

...

Okay. Okay, yeah. Cause it's you asking, I'll stay.

Re: Audio

[telepro]

There's a good reason. I promise I'm not just trying to rain on your parade.

[skywarp tries to sound amused as she says that, but just ends up sounding incredibly weary in a way she hasn't for a long time.

it's not long before the zapping sound of her teleporting echoes outside their door, and it whooshes open. she clomps in and immediately goes to sit on her berth, pulling her legs up to sit crossed beneath her.]

I'd normally be right there with you going to saw off his arms or whatever, but I don't think we should this time. Nova... [she looks away and griefguiltanxiety worms into their bond, like a creeping mold.] He's already done something to you. You just don't remember because he made you forget.

[binary_runaway]

What? Pfft. No, no he didn't.

[But it comes out weak and uncertain, and tainted with something wordless and cold and paralyzing, and even though Nova doesn't even realize that's what it is, that it's why her wings shiver and tilt down, the energy rushing through her fuel lines is in fact fear building towards something big and mindlessly awful.]

[She reached out to clutch at Skywarp's hands to ground herself]

...What happened, Warp? What'd he do?

[telepro]

[she grips nova's hands, those emotions within her only becoming more tangled.]

He stabbed you, and I think he did something to make you stop feeling certain things. I don't know what or why, but you've been acting really different and I can feel it when you do! [she tugs her sister closer, concern and love flooding the bond.] It's not your fault you've been acting like that, but we can work it out! I don't know how, but...

[she looks away, finally, light strands starting to leak down her face from both optics overheating.]

Nova... he killed you, then did that to you when you came out the bridge again. I couldn't find you quick enough.

[binary_runaway]

[Nova Storm can only look back at her twin for a second or two, as one thought after another tumbles through her processor]

He... he killed me? And then he-

[She pushes herself back to her feet and paces. Begins to stomp, and to turn and shriek wordlessly at the walls before whirling back around]

We ought to be able to do something, though! He's right there! He's right there, and he made you miserable and- and he-

[Her shoulders hunched]

He went and broke my head the exact same way I said Rock was gonna get broken, only this time it isn't war that did it, it was him! I thought we were finally finding somewhere good, and-

[She tilted to lean against Warp with a heavy bump]

Why does it always have to happen?

[telepro]

[skywarp says nothing as nova gets her anger out. it's not all that different from how she's been responding to things when it gets overwhelming and this is overwhelming, to be told that she's been told. skywarp had no idea when she was going to do this, but this is certainly earlier than... well, no point going down that petrorabbit hole.

what's going to happen if the memories of a traumatic death and some torture come back? skywarp's wings flutter with uncertainty-- she has no desire to really go to any of the starscreams or other seekers here, but it might get to a point where she has no choice.

she doesn't bother trying to stop the light strands flowing, because she needs that.]

Your head isn't broken. [she says firmly, optical ridges pinching.] It's Megatrons doing their Megatron thing and ruining everything for everyone they get close to.

[speaking of horrible megatrons, actually...]

...I kinda mentioned what he did to you to Traitortron. I figured he's so obsessed with his dumb little redemption arc he might go and throw himself into the line of fire and blow the idiot up again, so there's that.

[binary_runaway]

Nova Storm didn't agree that she wasn't broken --that if she hadn't been from the very beginning, war had certainly picked up the slack-- but she didn't say anything about that. There was still so much she didn't know about why he'd done that to her, what had she done since arriving here that was so bad the creep had decided it was worth murdering and torturing her and fucking up her emotions over, but maybe it hadn't needed to be anything at all. Maybe she'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time while in the company of the worst possible person.

If you got caught up in thinking that only shitty people deserved shitty things to happen to them and the best people deserved sunshine and turbobunnies, there was only way for that thinking to go, and that was a dark place. A place where you felt it was okay to do what that aft had done to her. To them.

She never wanted that to happen to her. To either of them.

So she just furrowed her optic ridges and pressed her face into Skywarp's shoulder. "He's not ours, anymore," she muttered, "if he ever really was. Someone who was really ours would never have-" A sigh, and bringing up her arms to hug her sister tight. "He gave up the right to know anything about us when he decided convenience was better than accountability. We're more than that. Deserve more. But... if it'll get him pointed at the other one... Okay. Yeah, okay. That's worth giving up a little bit for."

She was quiet for moment, wings flicking unhappily. "You were dealing with that bullshit all on your own. And I said all that dumb scrap about you feeling guilty..." Her face twisted, guiltguiltangershame, and she shifted to their twin language of biolights and body language and wordless, subvocal noises because speaking out loud suddenly seemed to feel too large and intimidating while also feeling like it would never be adequate for everything roiling inside of her.

'You're other me. Remember when we were newbuilds, and I just called you that? Me? What hurts one of us hurts the other, and I messed it up. I died, and you must've had to- But I'm here now. And I won't leave you alone again. Will not.'

[telepro]

"No, he's not, but he's still useful in that way," she says, resting her head on Nova Storm's when she presses her face into her shoulder. Skywarp means it-- her feelings on Megatron are not simple, but she thinks it would be stupid not to use what they can of him. If they are going to be reduced to problems that need to be solved to make things easier for everyone else on Earth, then he can suffer the same fate. "I should've told you why. I just didn't know when it would've been the right time..."

Skywarp almost takes a moment too long to actually comprehend what's being said to her in their language-- her mind is spinning around in too many directions before it's focused back in.

"It's not your fault you died, it's whoever let that Megatron run around and do whatever he wants," she clarifies again, because even if it's going to be difficult to get that through, Skywarp wants to make it clear she doesn't actually blame Nova Storm for any of it. No blame is coming through in her spark. She only looks away at a pinch of pain through their bond because-- yeah, she did have to feel it. That she can't deny or downplay or make excuses for. She felt Nova die. Felt her suffer when she was stabbed. "What do we do, then?"

[binary_runaway]

Nova Storm turned what had been said over and over in her processor. She felt that pain, because of course she did, and made a small, unhappy noise.

The feelings she sent back were as close to calm as she could, along with beginning to hum a soothing, wordless noise she and Warp had made to each other sib e they were brand new idiots, areas of battle seasoned idiots.

Fake it 'til you make it.

'We do what we always do. If we can't escape or fix a situation, we adapt, right? Find out the limits of what he did and turn it into something we can use to go further and faster, or... At least compensate for it. And then we plan how to make him hurt, right back.'

[telepro]

I have many-legged-mechs with me, she confesses finally, no word for arachnamech quite existing in their little lexicon. I've been reprogramming them to work for us. It should be a little bit of extra protection-- Man-droid is good for that.

Which is, not a compliment to the man. She's already considered what to do with him if he shows up-- mostly using his own mechs on him. His precious little henchmen, going for his neck. Beautiful.

I don't want to smother you. But will you let me help when I know you need it, even if you don't know because of what he did?

[binary_runaway]

Nova Storm stiffened, surprise and dismay briefly flooding through their bond before it settles into acceptance and affection and probably other A words Nova chose not to linger on at the moment.

Yes. Just remind me I said so if I get snappy. I don't want you feeling the bad stuff any more than I want to experience that bad stuff. Shove some of the many-legged right up the port in his aft, to start with.

[telepro]

Remember their energon wires could hold traitor-tron. They'll be useful.

She huffs out a sigh, shifting to probably lay her head on her sister's shoulder. Skywarp is very tired from all this, and cannot imagine how it must be for Nova, even wit their degree of shared emotions.

Just-- stay away for a while. I know you wanna run after him, so do I, but he's not worth it. You're more important to me than whatever that Megatron thinks he means to anyone.