Meanwhile, elsewhere...

[0ut_of_sight]

*The Decepticons' old underwater base had been rather quiet as of late. With the truce in place, everyone seemed to prefer hanging around in Autobot City or some other such location. For his part, Echoshift saw no reason to leave behind a perfectly good set of personal quarters and go through the bother of moving all his assorted belongings to an

Comments

[stupidityinblue]

Duskwing wanders back into Command Central, remembering just before he enters to look presentable--that is, non-transparent. He has a notion stuck in his head, about his quarters--forgetting that (a) he's dead, and doesn't need quarters, (b) he was transferred off-base nearly 20 years ago, and isn't assigned quarters here anymore, and (c) he's dead, and really, really isn't assigned quarters anywhere anymore.

...which is to say, he's haunting the base in his own unique way.

"Hey! Echoshift! Snowcat says you're in charge here, and that I'm not assigned a berth at all if I've been away. So I should talk to you about my quarters. I want my old quarters back."

(( looped from down here ))

Re: You forget to pay the light bill?

[stupidityinblue]

Duskwing gives Echoshift one of his blank stares.

"Whaddaya mean, where was I? I gotta start giving you position reports now? Close enough to be here, okay."

Re: You forget to pay the light bill?

[0ut_of_sight]

No, I'm just trying to work out how you got here so quick. *pause* You're not a teleporter, are you?

Anyway, what I was originally gonna ask you about is this. *holds the datapad out to him and points to the latter part of the file on the screen. It's Duskwing's file, which he'd downloaded from the console in the command center earlier* It's trying to tell me you don't exist. *looks at him* So either I'm seeing things, or there's a mistake on this file. You gonna tell me which one it is?

Re: You forget to pay the light bill?

[stupidityinblue]

Duskwing frowns like he's trying to figure something out.

"Sometimes. To some people," he finally says. Then he looks at the file.

"You can't read," Duskwing points at the last line. "It says I'm dead, not that I don't exist." His finger strays up half a page. "Hey, who put that discipline report in there? That slagging afthead! That fight was Rumble's fault, not mine!"

Re: You forget to pay the light bill?

[0ut_of_sight]

I can read fine. Dead, don't exist... *shrugs* Same thing. The point is it means you're not supposed to be here, but you are. *and it doesn't make any sense, so I'm hoping you might be able to shed a little light on the matter and explain it to me* *ignores his comment about the discipline report. Is trying to stay on topic here, after all*

Re: You forget to pay the light bill?

[stupidityinblue]

Duskwing backs up a few steps and scowls rather angrily at Echoshift. The mist in the corridor beyond seems to thicken, and the chill becomes more noticeable.

"Not the same," he snarls. "If something doesn't exist, it just isn't. If someone is killed, they aren't alive anymore, but they still exist".

Re: You forget to pay the light bill?

[0ut_of_sight]

*blinks at that, apparently trying to digest what Duskwing's just said. He can't resist a glance around as the mist seems to thicken and the temperature decreases noticably though*

*there are several moments of silence. Eventually, Echoshift manages to put most of his thoughts into a worded sentence, and voice it*

*carefully:* You're... not disagreeing with what's on this datapad. *it doesn't quite sound like a statement, but neither does it quite sound like a question. And yet, it might have been intended to be both*

Dead files

[stupidityinblue]

Duskwing steps forward and grabs the datapad Echoshift has been waving at him. He stares at it for a few minutes, scrolling through it at random.

"I disagree with some of the stuff that's in the discipline section, but that's not what you're askin'," he says. "An' this one's incomplete. You don't have the Cybertron record. 'Course, that probably went away with Darkmount. An' it wouldn't tell you anything that would disagree with this record, anyway. Just more particulars 'bout the 1987 entry."

Duskwing hands the datapad back to Echoshift.

"Nope. Not disagreeing."

Re: Dead files

[0ut_of_sight]

*Echoshift glances down at the datapad as if to give himself something else to look at for a while. When he looks back up again, Duskwing is still there*

*more silence*

*in the same tone of voice as before, with a bit of Okay, so let me get this straight thrown in too this time:* You're trying to tell me that I'm now talking to someone who got killed... about twenty years ago...?

Re: Dead files

[stupidityinblue]

Duskwing tilts his head slightly.

"I ain't trying to tell you anything. You're trying to tell yourself something's not so." He smirks at Echoshift and slowly fades away into the mist and gloom, turning transparent, translucent and finally invisible.

Re: Dead files

[0ut_of_sight]

*stunned silence at the sentence, then starts as Duskwing disappears, backing up a step and abruptly fading out of view himself in instinctive response. Knowing that he himself would show up on the right kind of scan, Echoshift switches to senses other than visual and attempts to locate Duskwing*

*the corridor continues to remain unoccupied in appearance, save for himself and any lingering mist. Almost cautiously, he allows himself to become visible again*

Duskwing?

*the corridor regards him in return, silent and empty. If the other Seeker was still around he didn't seem about to reappear just yet. Echoshift glances down at the datapad in his hand again and wavers on what to do next. Eventually he seems to come to a decision and starts to head back towards the command center, occassionally pausing to turn and take another look back down the corridor until he rounds the next corner*

Re: Dead files

[stupidityinblue]

Duskwing, who has simply stepped back into what some traditions call 'the spirit realm'1, watches Echoshift turn perfectly transparent. Duskwing stares at the invisible Seeker; how does he do that?

As Echoshift heads back up the corridor, the lights return to normal behind him. The ones alongside him and ahead begin to dim...

1. Spirit Realm, Spirit Plane, Astral Plane, Otherworld, Faerie...

Re: Dead files

[0ut_of_sight]

*eyes the lights that begin to dim, hesitating halfway back up the corridor. Glances behind him and notes that the lights there have gone back to normal. Frowns*

*hmm...*

*...oh, whatever*

*headshakes a little and continues back up the corridor, heading for the command center*

Re: Dead files

[toughguytruck]

*stops breaking things for a moment* //Are you messing with the lights again? It's starting to get annoying.//

Re: Dead files

[0ut_of_sight]

//Nah, I'm not actually. I haven't been 'messing with the lights' since when the power went out everywhere that one time.//

Re: Dead files

[toughguytruck]

//Then come down here and fix the lights so they'll stop flickering.//