red_diode_district | a million points of light ascending to the sky

a million points of light ascending to the sky

It's been a long time, even by their standards.

Centuries to millennium to eons- the remains of the Firstforged all trudging along, all in their own ways. As far as Vector Prime knows, he's one of if not the only one still attempting to follow his original purpose, even if he did spend ages within a private dimension trying to hide from it all. The worlds. Its people.

His own past.

But once again absorbed in to the timestreams, one again charting the course, the ebb and flow of time- here he finds curiosity, then alarm, then all the more reason to seek out one of the few he believes is still out there. Still alive.

Still themselves, most importantly.

Vector Prime lands on the metallic platform, gazing up at the sanctuary that his sibling has made for themselves. It looks old; ancient by anyone's standards but his own. Even so, it is not without some reverence that he steps forwards, wings folding behind him as he ventures through the entrance.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She stares for a long, long moment, eyeing the alien greeting blankly. Only the single, long-sought word breaks her stillness, frame twitching in his direction.

"...Brother."

It is relief and chiding and anger all at once, and her fists clench around the handle of her still-grasped hammer, dangling at her side.

"It has been too long."

It is far more rebuke than greeting, and she strides forward with a purpose.

Wings flatten in a far more natural gesture, insomuch as one unconsciously trying to shrink their visage. Certain aspects of Vector have never changed, and they include his reaction to such a tone coming from one he considers a true equal.

He doesn't try to make an excuse. Instead, he lets his hands fall to his side, cycling his systems before speaking.

"I have been...lax...in certain obligations, while burying myself in others."

Red optics come to land on the hammer, then move back towards Solus' face in wariness.

"'Lax'" she quotes back at him, in tones of disbelief. She stalks forward, faster than Vector retreats, and comes within striking distance.

"You always have had a gift for understatement, Brother."

She looks violently tempted to take a swing at him, and very nearly does-

It is only the reminder of the last time one of their number did violence to another - her chest still aches at times, and Prima is a wound that will never heal - that stays her hand.

Instead of swinging her Forge, she claws out, strong fingers latching onto a forearm and refusing to let go.

The contact makes her anger crumble and her frame - everything but the grip - goes limp.

"Brother. You fool." Relief and affection instead of anger, and she leans in, frames touching.

Solus' temper, when roused, is formidable; for a few nanoseconds that stretch an eternity, Vector fears he has brought it upon himself and braces himself to simply take it. If- this is what he must endure-

-and then she does the complete opposite. He blinks in surprise, looking down...and then lets out a soft, rattling sound as he reaches to touch her own forearm. His blunter fingers do not dig in as hers do, but it is a strong grip- and his optics dim as he leans forwards, touching helm to helm.

"Forgive me," he murmurs, voice soft and hesitant. "Or but know that I did not mean to wrong you with my isolation, though it is clear I have."

Acknowledgement and apology in one as he lowers himself, slowly, to his knees. In all the long passings of time, he had both feared and hoped for what would happen if he ever saw one of his siblings again- and though he has spoken with Trion, Solus had always been one he could never bring himself to return to. Whatever the reason, whatever the excuse...

It pales, now, as he soaks in her presence.

"You did."

It's easy to admit, bitter though it is.

"You have, you great fool," she repeats, wording the insult like it is his name - and indeed, she had taken to calling him and the absent others similar and worse names, over the millennium .

"Running off, leaving those of us left to worry and loneliness. Selfish."

Fingers dig in harder, not releasing his limb even as he kneels. She is half tempted to haul him to his feet, one sibling bowing to another ringing wrong to her- but it is a small enough recompense for her ages of abandonment.

"Alpha Trion. Alchemist. Quintus. Even Amalgamous and fragments of Nexus - all I have spoken to before you. What excuse have you?"

Vector winces, both from the sting of words and from the sting of claws. It is indeed a great wrong he's done to her - them - and he makes a mental note to make some time to at least see the others.

"None, in truth." None that would sate either of them, at least. He looks up now, remaining at a kneel, some actual sheepishness leaking through to his face.

He has always been bad at hiding his thoughts from his kin. From the Children, perhaps, but his own family?

"But...I will ensure that such a failure does not repeat itself."

That, at least, he can do. Or make every effort to.

She vents heavily at his confession, both angered and exasperated by the lack of excuses. There are few things he could have said that would have been worthy - and none that would have alleviated her sense of abandonment.

"You will, damn it all." Solus hissed, before giving in and dragging him upward, shouldering the jet's heavy bulk. The clawed grip relaxes, but only to make it easier to embrace him.

Erp.

It's- a somewhat awkward new position, but he didn't resist, holding to his line of non-defense as the best defense he could have. He was wrong, she was right, and- now there's an embrace.

Which he only hesitated a few moments before shakily returning.

"I will," he affirmed, dimming his optics briefly before relighting them to look at her. "I only ask your patience for an old stubborn fool."

He sighed, then, resting a hand on her shoulder to squeeze lightly as he chanced a look around.

"You seem to have remained productive."

Solus soaks in that contact, vast dignity be damned. They were brought online together, and it has become painfully obvious in the past ages that they were meant to be a social race. This lonely isolation has not been good for any of them.

"Fool, yes, but 'old'?" she scoffs, releasing Vector with a final, half-threatening squeeze in return.

"You are barely older than I."

She steps back, but barely enough to keep their limbs from entangling- firmly within arms-reach, fields well enmeshed and attempting to sync. She gestures lightly out toward the room, former pride in her work dulled over the years but still present.

"Of course I have. I never ceased. What have you been doing?"

"I feel old," Vector maintains, shaking his head just a bit. "After all those years..."

It feels like only recently did he step back out in to the world at large, as opposed to simply watching it. It's so long that he's almost forgotten the feel of another's field- a fellow Prime's field- twining with his, and for a few moments he's quiet, systems drawing on upon routines they haven't touched in ages as his tentatively links back.

It's not from unwillingness; only unfamiliarity.

"As of late," he finally says, "attempting to do more than just tend to reality. I am finding it...difficult, at times."

He stayed shut in his metaphorical room, absorbed in his 'duties' so deeply for so long- raising his head to really look at everything was overwhelming, at first.

Solus frowns at Vector, stepping back far enough to look him up and down, as though his wariness might be visible as wear and tear on his ageless frame.

"Have you spent more time tending to time than yourself, Brother? "

Given her tone, there was another 'fool' coming his way.

At that, a frown, and the first real sign of any defensiveness he's had since arriving. His faults to his family is one thing, but that?

"There is always work to do, and few mistakes can be tolerated."

He's had to make time to come here, and even then- it is for a reason.

"Of course there is. We all have our tasks."

She nods solemnly, sighing at his defensiveness. Solus may have continued her tasks, but Vector's old work ethic was as tiresome as ever.

"But I have learned that we should not forget to live, either."

She's being a bit of a hypocrite - she has lost her self in her work for millennium at a time - but she's certainly not going to tell him that. It is a sibling's prerogative to worry.

Duty first- that much hasn't changed. Arguably it will never change, not anytime soon at least.

"I spent enough time doing the bare minimum that I can do no less than give my everything to my work, Sister." He pauses, then, making a bit of a face. "It...may be in part because of this that I did not come to see you sooner."

That's likely the closest he'll probably come to admitting he's overworked himself.

Solus snorts inelegantly. "I feel that your 'bare minimum' is enough to give most beings processor failure."

She leans back in and gives him a 'prod' with her field, motioning him further into her area of work.

"But I am not surprised. Are you going to come further in and relax at little, or are you only going to stay long enough to deal with the 'real' reason you've dragged yourself away from your work?"

This is nearing outright bullying.

With a huff, Vector steps further in, his poise returning now that he's made his initial 'confession' and regained his footing. His wings are still down, suggesting lingering discomfort, but this particular subject is one he feels quite strongly about.

"Am I so transparent, then?"

Any annoyance is directed mostly at himself. He was trying to make it a little less obvious...

How quickly things return back to normal?

"Only a little."

But Solus still smiles, reaching out to rest a well-worn hand on Vector's shoulder.

"It may have been an age, but you are still the same brother I remember."

Despite her own bitterness at the long absence, her tone is fond.

Vector sighs nonetheless, reaching up to rub his helm. Even so, there's the barest hint of a smile there, rueful as it is.

He may as well get it out.

"I was hoping to plead a creation from you." There, he's admitted it. "A favor. I...suppose...the least I could do is entertain you for the time it takes for you to...consider such a request."

Oh, look. He just found an excuse to stay longer.

Solus' hand falls from Vector's shoulder, voice turning to ice.

"First contact and visit in eons, and it is only because you want me to make you something."

She pulls away, shunting the hurt away in favor of eyeing Vector with dangerously narrowed optics- before striding off without a word.

...it is worth noting the grip she has on her hammer haft is tight enough to creak.

That was not how he expected that to go. He's not sure how he expected it differently- but it was. And rather than simply take it-

"It was a catalyst for me to come, Solus-!"

He takes a step forward, then another, uncertain as to how far he should try and follow.

"And...I thought it best that I admit as much now, rather than stay as I plan to do regardless and have you think I was deliberately trying to deceive-!"

How quickly things return to normal, indeed.

"Yes. Entertain me so I might make something you desire." She calls back without looking, striding past the forge she had been working at when he arrived.

The item is too delicate for her current wrath.

She expected some crisis; word from one of their siblings or Lord.

To be visited only to be asked to build...

It is not the same, not at all; but it brings unpleasant memories of Megatronus' deception and use of her to the forefront of her thoughts, in ways that she has not recalled in millennia.

She pauses abruptly at a workbench, shoulders hunched; she still trusts him enough to leave her back to him, at least.

"...If I had not some skill you wished to make use of, would you see fit to ignore my existence for another eon or five?"

"...I never ignored."

The words are quiet, strained, and accompanied by a grimace. Vector's wings are lowered behind him, but this isn't so much the intimidation of before as- guilt? No. Distress, unease, certainly. He has chosen the wrong path to take, to address this, and can only try to correct the course.

"Even at my most reclusive, my memories were what kept me company, though I could not then bear to have them be anything more than that, after...everything that happened." He pauses, wanting to wring his hands- but still, ever still, settling for looking down at the floor.

"Some have been easier to speak with than others, because my duties overlapped with theirs in a manner that made it simpler to begin once again."

Alpha Trion, with his full immersion with those who came after.

Nexus Prime...though he had lost memory of whom he truly was.

"I had thought...the device to serve as an excuse to at least try, and even if you said no, it would have been...good...to see you again. Without it...I do not know how I would have come."

"No, you never forgot!"

Solus slams her hammer down against the workbench, whirling in place to direct a furious glare her brother's way.

"Honoring your 'memories' does nothing for those left ignored!"

Even his later words do little to help; furious and hurt, her armor bristles, spines of her alt raising in subconscious defense.

"You even required an excuse to see me. The excuse of my work. Have I nothing of worth to offer but the sum of my constructs?"

Vector startles a bit at the slam, reflexively looking up- wings going absolutely still under her verbal onslaught. There's a slight grimace to his expression, as well, despite his attempts to mask it; a chagrined distress that's only so well hidden.

What can he say to that, but the truth, as he has been, and hope that it at least tempers her rage?

"You are so much more than that- and how am I, who has cut themselves off for so long, to venture towards it once again after turning my back?"

His hands do not so much clench as curl before him, displaying his frustration.

"How am I to dare act as though nothing has happened when, in fact, that nothing is what has created this rift? What am I to rely on than the most base of memories, of function- you, as a master crafter, and I, as a meager warrior in desperate need of tools to serve my own purpose, and then hope that through this we can once again move past such simplicity?"

Because he doesn't know.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

a million points of light ascending to the sky

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

SHIT SHIT ABORT

DANGER DANGER

no subject

no subject

no subject