video - this is stupid

[knaval]

Uh-- is this working? Hello?

[the screen picture is perfectly showing riptide's panicked expression.]

I have absolutely no idea-- uh. My name is Riptide! I was with the crew of the Moira, but now I have no idea where I am. Crazy, right? I think I passed out? I have no idea. Anyway, this is a call for help! I've been approached by people and-- it's awful! I need an extraction immediately!

[he groans dramatically.]

They want me to get a job! [he was recommended to get a job.] A job! Like-- like being employed somewhere! Being paid to have responsibilities! I think one of them even said I can buy a-- a place to live?! I... I need to sit down. I have literally been tortured before and I've never, at this exact moment, been more uncomfortable in my entire life!

Comments

[knaval]

Hey, I'm there now! We could totally meet up!

[warandpeace]

I'll let you pick where. You're more familiar with places comfortable to you.

[Size matters, and all.]

[knaval]

I have been conscious for about half a day, so I dunno. Somewhere with... grass?

[warandpeace]

I didn't realize it had been that soon.

We can do this later. You go adjust to your surroundings and catch up with people you lost track of. That's important first. Then we can agree to meet in a couple of days.

[knaval]

Cybertronians do everything faster!

[that's a lie. they take forever to mature and learn things properly.]

I'm already fine!

[warandpeace]

I knew Cyclonus so I'm not sure I can believe that.

[Old men stuck in their ways and all.]

[knaval]

He's a special case. A special, possibly zombie case.

[warandpeace]

He was having that zombie issue for a while, wasn't he? I wish I knew how things turned out at home for him.

[knaval]

[riptide is quiet for a long while.]

private

Not great. Because of me.

private forever.

[warandpeace]

What do you mean?

Re: private forever.

[knaval]

In the future. Apparently I take part in a mutiny that he's on the other side of. We leave them for dead at the hands of the DJD.

I don't know if he survived but if you're his friend you deserve to know.

[warandpeace]

Why did you mutiny?

He was really struggling with wanting the war to be over. He even encouraged me to help prevent more on my Earth.

[knaval]

It... it's complicated. I don't even fully know the reasons myself, because it hasn't happened for me yet. From what I can gather, though, we just... couldn't forgive Megatron.

[warandpeace]

I get what it's like to not be able to forgive someone. I've been there. There are people I could have never forgiven, no matter what people said about being the bigger person or the hate weighing me down. But you should have left if it would have taken out other people with him.

Or should leave. I had this time travel mess.

[knaval]

I--I know. I've known about it since I arrived, but I didn't think there would be more than just Megatron taken down. I never would've agreed to it if I'd known my friends were going to be put in that situation.

[riptide feels a weird sense of... rightness, with kaz being angry at him. he deserves it.]

[warandpeace]

Your men should always be the most important thing to you. If he wasn't your soldier, the rest of them were your brothers in arms.

I hope you're treating them like that here.

[It's not exactly appropriate anger. It's something buried, from that past that he keeps falling back on because even revenge never gave him closure for it (but that revenge had felt so damn good).]

[knaval]

I know. I fought along side them for millions of years.

[he sighs a little defeated.]

I guess I'm just... not the person I thought I was.

[warandpeace]

[Kaz grunts a little at that. He can't judge. Not really.]

No. Probably not.

But I started out as a different guy. Turned into the asshole I am now. I used to be pretty decent. [He really misses the person he was, before everything went bad.] But I've always tried to keep in mind I wanted my men to be safe.

[knaval]

Yeah... I get the feeling whatever happened I was just thinking about myself.

[warandpeace]

Maybe you're both that guy and the man you think you are. Who knows. I guess every one of us has a shitty side. The guy you hated obviously had sides to him he didn't give a shit damn for the longest time.

[knaval]

He did, Megatron almost caused us to go extinct and only just now cares.

But...

That doesn't mean my friends and Cyclonus deserved to be brought down with him.

[warandpeace]

I really liked Cyclonus. For being a big metal guy, he was actually pretty gentle with me. Not a lot of people had been that for a while. It was a welcome relief at the time. He made me reconsider my reactions to metal gears. Hell, I trusted him with a weapon I wouldn't have trusted to anyone else.

I just wish that he didn't leave with that ahead of him. [Not that Miller's fate is much better. He wants badly to avoid it. He doesn't know that he'll be able to.]

[knaval]

Yeah he's... he's a real good guy. I'm sorry.

[warandpeace]

I wish-

Hell... I wish we could remember each other. [His greatest dread about this place.] I kind of hate that he won't know I put a lot of confidence in him.

You said "zombie". Was he still mostly him?

[knaval]

He was, yeah. He just-- had a rough time.

[riptide is very cleary very ashamed of all this.]

I'm just... I'm really sorry.