tenthtimeisthecharm | (no subject)

[Oh? This was unexpected, but not alarming, except in the sense of wondering what she herself had done wrong now? Skywarp had always seemed reasonable to her, even if they disagreed, so Velocity shrugged and dictated her response]

My hab for write now, room XXX. Aye will see you soon, then?

fine

[not long later, skywarp is there. she looms a bit over lottie when the door is answered simply for the size difference rather than actually attempting to be intimidating, and shoves a bottle of energon wine into her hands.]

You better have glasses.

[Velocity reaches out automatically to take what's been handed to her, and it takes a second for her to realize that this probably means she isn't in trouble. Probably. Then she nods with a quick, mostly genuine smile and turns back into her hab, assuming Skywarp will follow]

You don't mind sparkly glasses, do you? All my good ones are um. Broken.

[There are obvious signs that Velocity has been isolating in here and she is making a concentrated effort to avoid making eye contact with the trash basket full of broken glass, but it's clean enough. The glasses she retrieves are, indeed, double walled and filled with liquid glitter that shifts when she moves to generously fill each one. She then moves to her small table and sits one on each side with the bottle in the middle before she sits]

[Velocity starts to open her mouth to ask a question before hesitating and instead sipping the wine. It was good, and she hums appreciation]

[Velocity has returned to hiding in her hab suite and mostly letting her messages go unanswered, but this one she can't ignore (or try to). She tugs her datapad closer and dictates her reply into it]

Hello, Optimus. I'm, um. [Her voxcoder clicks and clicks for a few seconds as she struggles with keeping her voice level] I'm fine, it's fine. I don't need anything. You don't need to worry. Day or two, and I'll be right as acid rain.

If she recognises these signs from the many people she's known through the war who struggled for one reason or another, Skywarp doesn't comment. In fact, she doesn't care at all. She gives the bin a kick as she goes past, not enough to send it flying, but enough to rattle the broken glass in it.

For once, she has no comment and just sits down in the slightly too small chair and grabs the bottle to take a good chug.

Finally: "This fucking ship, whatever-your-name-is! What the hell is wrong with it and everyone on it?"

[he frowns at the answer. it's not entirely not what he expected.]

Ah... well, I simply wanted to see how you were doing. Donnie's words seemed to harm you deeper than you were willing to let on.

[This is answered by silence at first, before the audio picks up the quiet shift of metal against metal]

He- he wasn't being mean on purpose, I think. He didn't know. So it's okay. I'll get over it. But thank you for checking in on me.

Well, problems in communication famously never go away if you leave them and assume what the other meant, so I would recommend speaking with him to get you both on the same page.

[he says this very cheerfully, like the strong implication is go and do that immediately.]

Velocity winced at the rattle of glass, but didn't look away. She was surprised at where Skywarp was going with this, but wasn't offended at Skywarp not knowing her name. People had always found reasons to leave her behind before, at least this seemed to be genuine.

"People have been talking with you on the network," Velocity said slowly, hazarding a guess as to what all of this was about. "But not the way you wanted, maybe? So what did you want, instead?"

[Velocity winces, then crosses her arms and averts her gaze from somebody who isn't even there]

I know I should. I will. Just, um. Just not right now. I think I upset him, and he should be able to decompress from that for um. For a while. A nonspecific span of time.

It's already been a couple of days! There's no time like the present. [somehow he sounds even more cheerful. this is not sounding all that optional anymore.] If you leave it too long, then it would be awkward to bring up, wouldn't it?

[Oh. Oh, was Optimus implying that this was in fact kind of an order? Velocity squirms, then again at the idea of it being even more awkward to do. Oh no]

...Would it be really horrendously awkward if it was tomorrow? Or- or maybe I can write up a text that's timed to go off randomly and I don't have to think about it, it'll just happen. Like acid rain.

[well, no one can say he didn't try to be subtle.]

Go and do it now, Velocity.

But-!

[A short silence, as Velocity stands with a reluctant sigh]

...All right. Composing a message to let him know I'd like to meet.

Excellent! I'm very proud of you, Velocity. Taking the first step is always the hardest. I'll be here if you need me.

[that might've sounded completely condescending from anyone else, but as usual, this optimus and his ability to be so spark-rendingly sincere and hopeful about everything doesn't fully give it that angle.]

"No, it's not that. I don't care about arguing with a bunch of idiots on the network. None of that is important." She says, leaning back, expression scrunching up. But, but she is here, she has taken up Velocity's offer (even if she never got her name). There's a reason. That part of it sank in.

Skywarp bites her lower lip for a moment, then throws back her glass.

"Okay. Okay. Can I admit something really bad that I need to get off my chestplate before I explode or something? I don't care if you judge me or whatever."

A beat.

"It's not about a murder. No laws were broken, so don't worry about that."

Velocity was already nodding. "Whatever it is, it's better getting to say it to somebody. Knock Out used to tell me these things sort of... boil if you keep them locked in your spark."

She was well aware of the irony considering how very closely she'd been holding things to her chest lately, but that wasn't under discussion right now.

"Besides," she said with a weak attempt at a joke, "you brought me something that tastes good. That deserves at least few minutes of my time, right?"

"Yeah, I guess. I don't need more weird spark feels," she grouses. Then opens her mouth, then stops. Opens it again. Growls and teleports out her seat and across the room, then back. "Why is this so stupid hard!"

It takes some more effort before finally - and it's not wholly clear why she's even struggling so much with getting this out - "I feel guilty going flying now! Ever since Nova had her wings taken off her it just makes me feel really garbage and stupid and guilty and I hate it!"

Oh. Oh, that did sound stupid hard.

Velocity didn't respond right away, knowing very well that the things she said off the cuff could be annoying or not come across well. And this mattered. It was important.

"You're twins. Of course you're upset. Why do you think how you feel about it is stupid? Just because it happened more directly to her doesn't mean it isn't awful for you, too."

Velocity frowned, and topped off Skywarp's glittery cup. "Keep going though, if you want to. What else do you need to say about it?"

"Because it hasn't happened to me. Evidently wherever I was when it went down was all warm and safe and not with my sister!"

Skywarp is in an odd spot where she feels horrible about what's happened, but despite her words doesn't fully blame herself for it. She's always been very in the moment, and thus finds it difficult to understand something that's happened Nova but not for her. It wasn't an issue before, when it had already happened for her but not Nova... she's not an unintelligent mech, but this whole timeline weirdness is new for a lot of them.

"I don't want to talk about it. I want to just shove it back down where I can ignore it and then take it out on someone like Moron Prime and his hideous face."

She leans back in the chair, kicking her boots up and pushing back on the back two legs.

"You look like scrap, by the way. Super disheveled. It's not not doing it for me? You wanna make out?"

[Velocity squints at the roster of available characters, which she notices does not come with any sort of list of statistics such as what he described. She looks at him again, bewildered]

How do you know? It doesn't say. And there has to be, doesn't there? A choice that's best. But I don't know which one you'll pick or which one will compensate for the advantages I also don't don't know about the one you'll pick.

[She frowns uncertainly, but based on aesthetics alone she is already leaning away from the green racer and towards a heavier built one rendered in shades of grey that reminds her of Megatron, but what if that is the wrong choice? What if Riptide is wrong?]

There's a lot of characters and potential combinations, too. I don't think there will be enough time to run through all the possibilities...

[She wavers still further, then very hesitantly presses the button, selecting the grey racer]

This one?

Velocity opened her mouth to respond to Skywarp saying she didn't want to think about something by relating it to her own experiences, then let out a startled, beeping squeak.

"Um? Should I say thank you? Or thank you for noticing, maybe? It's-" She cycled her optics further but couldn't think of a compelling reason not to, and Skywarp was pretty? Those were the main criteria for deciding on whether you wanted to kiss someone you'd barely interacted with before, right?

"Sure, that would be nice."

She then paused, reciprocation Lottie, and added hurriedly, "You look very nice, too!" She tried to think of the things people generally said were attractive, which she only agreed with about people after she'd gotten to truly know them and feel affection for them, so... "Your um, everything? Your paint is very shiny and I like your hands?"

Is this the overthinking olympics? I don't remember signing up. [he says with a snort.] You kind of find out as you play, though I guess it also applies to what the cars can do in real life?

[he points at one that's bright pink.] See how that looks like Rodimus a bit? He's quick because he's a bit smaller, but the bigger ones are slower cause they have more weight.

[instead of answering, he just leans across and taps her controller to lock the choice in and start the game, though he does vaguely wonder if she actually even wants to play or is just uncomfortably indulging him. she knows she can just say if she doesn't want to play, right?]

Yes! Ooooh, they put you near the start line! I never understood why they were staggered like that, but that means you get a good chance to stay up front!

"Heh. Nice."

She leans back as Velocity speaks, evidently finding it quite endearing from her expression.

"Medic with a hand thing, huh? That makes sense," Skywarp lifts a big hand up and wiggles her fingers suggestively. "Alright, up on the table. Let's do this, if you're into it."

[ laying on Velocity’s night stand is a yellow beaded rubber ducky bracelet. Looking at it just makes you kind of happy and reminds you of friends who have your back. ]

(( The rubber duck bracelet is useable once during an event to reroll a social crit fail by reminding you that there are friends who have your back. ))

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Duckstribution