Much Needed Support

[rungout]

WHO: Rung, Open!
WHERE: At his office in Alpha Trion's quadrant.
WHEN A few days after the Glyphless stuff went down.
WHAT: He knows that a lot of people may need his help right now, so he's spending a lot of time at his office.
WARNINGS: Um...well..who knows what might come up?


Considering everything that had been going on, Rung had decided that he was going to put in even more time at his office than he usually did. It only seemed right, all things considered, and he wanted to be able to help anyone and everyone that needed it. Sure they could very easily just contact him over the comm but something a little more personal seemed like a good idea.

Sometimes it was more comforting to, it just depended on the individual.

He had stepped out for a bit of a break from the office scenery, even if he was extremely use to it, spending a few minutes down by the lake's edge before making his way back inside. The therapist was honestly very glad he had taken the suggestion of setting up an office here because the quadrant was nothing short of gorgeous and very therapeutic in a way. There was a calm atmosphere that would be good for his patients and he wanted to make sure his office was just as calming and comforting of an atmosphere as possible; that sort of thing had always been his main goal after all.

The therapist made his way into his office to settle in, his thoughts briefly going to a few individuals that he'd spoken to as of late--like Fort Max, Ultra Magnus, and Whirl--the latter making him wince just a bit.

Not his best approach ever...

Rung shook his head a bit, optics dimming for a moment before he nudged those thoughts aside, collecting himself as he leaned back in his seat to start organizing some new data, wanting to have everything properly sorted for everyone he spoke to, just in case.

Comments

[winged_knight]

Wing had been thinking about this a great deal over the past few weeks.

Since the time of his breaking, when his former self--naive and sheltered--had been consumed by the war and the Circle has saved him, he'd always had guidance. Elders by way of Axe and Dai Altas to go to when he felt lost or uncertain.

It's the first time in several millennium that he has no elders he trusts to be a sounding board for his troubled thoughts, his searching questions. Vector Prime has filled this role for him on a few occasions, but that is not a source of counsel one just idly seeks.

Wing needs someone to talk to, someone who doesn't look to him for guidance or have expectations of him.

And in the wake of Drift's death and subsequent return, he needs it now more than ever.

Which brings him here, to Alpha Trion's quadrant. His approach is over the lake as is his habit, as quiet and slow as a jet can, wanting to be a part of the serenity rather than disturb it. And in truth the high pitch of his engines is more like a keen than a roar, elegant to match the rest of him. He makes a graceful curve towards the shore, letting a wingtip graze the surface, the spray creating shifting rainbows against his white chassis.

He spots Rung near the shoreline, surprisingly out of his office, though given the scenery perhaps it's not the surprising. He touches down gently nearby. Wing nods a greeting, offering a small smile to the therapist.

"Rung. I...hope I'm not intruding?"

[rungout]

Pausing mid-sip of the cube he was about to partake in, Rung lowered the object as he offered Wing a small smile in return.

"Not at all, Wing. It's good to see you," he said in greeting, a worried look seeping into his optics. He knew that things had been hard for the other, anyone that had seen Wing's last video over the comm would be a fool not to realize that, but at least the other seemed to be getting around again; seemed to be doing better than that last transmission.

"How are you?" Rung asked, cradling the cube in both hands as he turned to face Wing more, no longer focused on the lake since there was something--or in this case someone--far more important in his presence.

[winged_knight]

It's true that Wing's been through a lot recently, something that is telling in the way his smile never seems to last on a his face, lacking its usual radiance.

"It's good to see you as well." He nods. "I'm...better than I was." A carefully constructed truth. Just about anything was better than mourning your beloved, but Drift's return had brought about new concerns and rekindled old ones.

"If...you have some time to chat?" He'd never take up the therapist's time if there were other already in need, and he imagined there were many after recent events.

[rungout]

"Of course," Rung said without hesitation, turning and motioning for the other to follow him back inside his office. "I'm glad you're doing better at least, by the way. You had me quite worried." He glanced back at the other as he headed up the steps, pushing the door open to motion Wing inside first.

"My office is straight back. We can talk in there," the therapist said as he stepped to the side of Wing, motioning him back with a soft smile.

[winged_knight]

"My thanks." He follows along with the therapist towards the front doors. "Ah-ha, I am better, yes." Wing nods his thanks as he passes through the door, waiting for Rung to join him. 

"I'm sorry for concerning everyone. That wasn't my intent. Well, ah, not quite in that way..." He lets out a rueful chuff of air. His processor chews fitfully on the notion as they make their way back to Rung's office, something he's been doing regarding a great many things of late.

[rungout]

"We worry because we care about you, Wing," Rung said with a small smile to the other, leading him back to the office and motioning him inside. "Please, have a seat, make yourself comfortable...though I know this place is still rather drab," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck a bit as he closed the door then moved over to his desk.

He sank down into his seat and scooted close, resting his arms on top of the desk, head tilting.

"So what did you want to talk about, Wing?"

[winged_knight]

That makes him smile, and though he imagines it to be true, hearing it is nice. "Thank you. Well, hopefully it, uh, won't happen again." Especially not the bit about Drift dying.

He takes a seat opposite the therapist, glancing about the room. True, it could use a bit more personality, but in his experience that was only solved by digging through the Junk Pile. And he's pretty certain Rung has better things to do than that.

"Ah, well..." This was a delicate, compound subject in too many directions for Wing's comfort. But then that's why it had taken him this long to deal with it. Which was too long. "I guess it's easiest to get straight to crux of the problem right? I'd...have to start with my arrival here. Which, uh, followed very shortly after an event that was, ostensibly, my death."

He was kind of trying to play it down while at the same time not dismissing it entirely. He might have failed.

[rungout]

The smile Rung was wearing slowly faded into a thoughtful look as Wing started to speak, the therapist becoming rather attentive now to every little thing going on. (Body language was one of the most important things to watch after all.)

"I see," he murmured when the other spoke of dying and then arriving here, the therapist feeling bad for the other but, at the same time, Haven was a bit of a second chance then wasn't it? "You can start wherever you like, Wing. Take all the time you need."

His tone was encouraging, Rung wanting to the other to talk about this but at his own pace because the therapist had to wonder just how much Wing had allowed himself to think about any of it.

[winged_knight]

It's pretty amazing how easy it is to talk to Rung. It's not that Wing minds opening up, it's that he doesn't like burdening people. But not only is this Rung's function, but the therapist truly seems to enjoy it. 

It makes him settle back into the chair more. He still has his usual easy grace, but there's a tightness in his frame, tense, as if holding too much weight for too long. The white finned helm turns, his gaze going out the window. He doesn't need time to remember, more, time to prepare.

"It was a battle," he begins, "one I'd entered wiling to sacrifice my life for its cause, one that I would have fought alone if Axe, Drift, and several of the other Knights hadn't joined me."

"I gained the attention of the enemy's leader, but unfortunately...my skill failed me and I. Lost. His spear pierced my spark chamber. I...still remember it. Vividly. I dream of it still...sometimes. Like my memory trying to purge something it can't."

He realizes then that his hand's moved over his chassis again. He closes the clutching fingers into a steadier fist and lowers it back into his lap, cycling a calming vent.

"Before I could see the Afterspark, the Lambda pulled me here."

[rungout]

In a way, their stories are sort of similar. Both were pulled here, to Haven, right after a traumatic event had happened to them. Rung wasn't sure if he had truly died when he'd been shot but he could at least understand what that sort of thing could do to a bot. Wing had accepted his fate but fate had other plans for him and placed him here instead.

The therapist was fairly certain that didn't count as resting in peace. At all. Especially if nightmares of the event still haunted the warrior.

"...You were never really allowed closure then," he murmured, optics dim as he watched the other. "Which would explain, I suppose, the memories haunting you the way they do."

Whoop, whoop! Using all the creepy icons! :D

[winged_knight]

Sometimes Wing wonders if it was supposed to be that way all along, if he was meant to be here, if he had new purpose here. It begs a great many questions and challenges his faith in strange ways that he still struggles with. But that's an entirely separate issue...

"No, not really," he replies, his brow furrowing pensively under his helm. "How do you get closure on something like that?"

He shakes his bowed helm, "It was certain. I felt it, the lance of white-hot pain, searing agony around my core, then a shattering, like shards of my very being pulled apart and flung in every direction..." He shudders, visibly, his frame tightening with the resurgence of the memory, the shadow of pain, before he can marshal control of it again.

It took him a long while to piece it together, what it all meant. But he had plenty of opportunity to review the events and recognize them for what they were: the puncture of the chamber, the innermost energon igniting, the spark exploding from the gaping wound...

"Nothing's been more certain in my life." Calmer now, he cycles a vent, like a rough sigh. "Yet here I am."

;-; Wing bb

[rungout]

"Resting in peace. I suppose it just depends on what you believe happens to us in the end," Rung replied, shrugging some in a thoughtful way because there were a lot of theories and ideals. He didn't want to assume anything when it came to others.

He goes quiet again as the other starts to speak again, optics dimming with sad sort of worry directed at Wing. As much as his last few memories of home haunted him...

They were nothing like that Wing was describing.

"I'm not sure what powers are at work in this place, why we're pulled here when we are...I can't begin to give reasoning to it because I don't know if there is any yet," Rung admitted softly, after a long stretch of silence. "Do you regret getting a second chance here?"

[winged_knight]

"I believe as most followers of Primus do." Or at least he always had. A great many things have been called into question thanks to this place a plethora of theology with so many variables discordant with his knowledge that it nearly boggles him. As Drift had put it, what do you do when you have so much faith but are uncertain where to put it?

"I don't understand it either. But, I'm trying." It's the way that he is. When questions like this are posed, there's almost always a reason. Maybe the answer isn't it, maybe it's just the journey to achieve it, but regardless there's lessons to be learned.

"No! no--" He quick to negate the last question. "Certainly not. It's a boon that I..." He flashes a smile touched by so many emotions, "It's unexpected is all. It's given me a chance to purse things I...didn't, before." This time smile is definitely broader and brighter.

[rungout]

Rung nodded a bit, tucking that little note into his file on Wing, gaze softening once more on the other mech.

"That's all any of us can do, as difficult as it may seem at times," he agreed, Rung himself still not really sure what this place was all about and the why to it but, well, he was just thankful he was alive.

The others response to the last question he asked has the therapist smiling a bit himself, those visible emotions and the brighter, broader smile definitely a good sign. It meant that Wing still had good to hold onto despite the nightmares plaguing him.

"Good, that is what second chances are for after all," he said with a bit of a nod, the smile fading after a moment as the contemplative look returns. "Why do you think those memories are still haunting you, Wing?"

[winged_knight]

"The Circle of Light is perhaps more devout than most Cybertronian believers, but it's granted me sanctuary and guidance unlike any other...group in our history." A soft but sad smile, "I miss my fellows..."

But that's not really why he's here, though it is a pervading thought in his processor more and more of late.

"I will. As long as there's hope, there is will to put behind it, and I will never stop trying." It's not just a statement but a commitment, and an old one by the sounds of it.

"I'm not sure honestly. I don't want to question the miracle of my return...but at the same time questioning is important to me. Blind belief has fouled my course before." He shakes his helm, the flight panels on his back rustling fitfully. "I'm troubled by my failure in battle. It...shouldn't have happened. I think I've discovered the issue, the weak points, and have been training to correct it, but...it hasn't been enough I guess."

He coughs through his vents, hands finding each other in his lap.

"But beyond all that... This...experience has made me very...ah, protective." He lays a hand on his chassis over the spark chamber, thumb rubbing pensively against the white metal angles. "It, ah, makes certain activities difficult." Or impossible, really.

[rungout]

"Everyone falters and makes mistakes, Wing. It doesn't mean that you've failed or haven't been trained properly. No one individual can be ready for everything that life has to throw at us," Rung objected softly, understanding where the other was coming from but not a fan of that general mindset. It could drive a mech insane trying to find that level of perfection in everything and Rung didn't want to see that happen to the other.

"Protective?" he repeated, an understanding look appearing at the movements of the other before his optics flickered. "...I'm assuming you are referring to intimacy with others?"

[winged_knight]

"That's true, yes." He sighs, somewhat at a loss but also musing over a solution. It's not the first time he's heard that guidance, in fact it's advice he's even given out himself before. Both following it is a more different thing. Especially when failure means death.

"Sometimes...well, often I guess, I feel like I have to set an example." He also feels like there expectations of him, a higher level of behavior that he has to adhere to.

"Um..." He stares at his hands, not uncomfortable with intimacy as a subject in general, but more his own...inability. "Yes. I think there's someone I'd finally like to share that with and, well, I, um...can't exactly."

He looks downcast, like a like a flier that's been waiting for the weather to turn good, anticipating a spectacular flight, only to realize he's not allowed to fly once the sun comes out.