re_alignment_logs | [Closed] Just a little conversation

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[Closed] Just a little conversation

WHO: Optimus and Elita
WHERE: Optimus' room in Prima's temple.
WHEN: Around now/perhaps backdated a little to last night.
WHAT: Talking about people who are gone and perhaps some sparring.
WARNINGS: None.

It was time to admit Grimlock was most probably gone. Either completely, or into the Badlands. In any case, the result at present was the same; the mech was no longer in the Haven. She wasn't... sure what to think. Or feel about it either.

He was "just" an alternate, and he hadn't been in the Haven for too long, but still, Grimlock had been... Very, very similar to the one she knew and counted as one of her most important people. She needed to clear her processor, and naturally, here the first two that came to mind was Optimus or Ambulon...

And since Optimus was the one who seemed to have a more similar experience, it was in front of his door she stood at the moment. Earlier than they'd decided on, but she didn't think Optimus would mind, really.

So after a brief moment of standing in front of the door and gathering her thoughts, Elita sent out a ping to alert the Prime that she was there.

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It only takes Optimus a moment to answer the door. Not weighed down by such heavy thoughts like Elita, he simply had to set his rifle and cleaning-kit aside, opening the door with a pleased expression when he saw who was on the other side.

"Elita! Good to see you."

He stepped back from the doorway, gesturing her inside.

"Come in. What brings you on by?"

No matter the thoughts on her processor, Elita smiled easily when Optimus greeted her and slid inside past him with a flick of her 'wings'.

"Partly to offer a sparring, but mostly..." Pausing, Elita turned around, optics slightly dim. "I'm reasonably sure Grimlock isn't in the Haven any more." Saying it out loud made it feel more real than it had before, and Elita frowned, shaking her helm.

She'd probably keep looking for a while longer if there was nothing else to do, but her more practical side said that with the time elapsed the chance Grimlock might still be here, or alive, was... vanishingly small.

"You've dealt with this before, haven't you? With people important to you disappearing..." another pause as Elita smiled, a small dry one. "Or appearing, alternates or not."

"Oh." Optimus frowned in turn, good mood quickly turning to concern. "He's entirely gone, then?"

He knew Elita surely would have looked if she was coming to him for reassurance, but he still had to ask. With a resigned sigh, Optimus nodded.

"Unfortunately, more times than I care to count, at this point." He reached out, gently resting a hand on her shoulder in sympathy.

"It never really gets any easier."

"As certain as we ever can be, it seems so yes." She paused, frowning, and laid a hand on the one on her shoulder. "I'll probably continue looking a bit, but by now..? I'm not going to unreasonably hold to the belief that he isn't, especially as it's not safe to look where he might have gone."

The Badlands. She might sometimes take risks, but she would respect the influence of that. She knew what Unicron could do, after all.

"I'm sorry to bring it up, it's simply..." The smile on her lips was somewhat half-hearted, and she used their now-intertwined hands to give a questioning pull and a glance back towards the couch. "More the fact that the Grimlock I knew... is a close friend. I doubt it'll get any easier no matter if that's the case though, you're right." She's unsure why she feels as... unsettled as she does.

Optimus nodded in grim agreement, understanding the implications immediately.

"In these cases, it is unfortunate that that is the best we can offer them. Searching blindly would likely only force you to share his fate, if that is indeed what happened. I will certainly keep my sensors tuned for him as well, in the event that he is merely lost or unable to comm."

Doubtful, they both surely knew. But if it made her feel better in the slightest increment, it would be worth it.

"Don't be sorry, though. You have nothing to be sorry for." His hand tightened, squeezing her armor reassuringly.

"If he was anything like the friend you knew from your home, the loss feels just as strong."

He would know. Her resemblance to the Elita he once knew...made things hard.

"Thank you." Elita smiled and sat down, nodding in agreement. Indeed, it certainly didn't make things any easier, even if the differences - though they'd seemed to be mostly about history and his reality's course of history - stood out all the sharper.

"Perhaps I don't, but you're the one that has to deal with it most..." She wasn't going to touch on her similarity - physical or otherwise - to the Elita he knew more than that, but it needed to be, well, acknowledged.

"It sort of does, yes." In a very brief pause, her free hand briefly rested against her chestplates. "I'm not sure right now if I would have preferred he was nothing like the Grimlock I know, or if that would simply have made things... harder, in a way. Magnus was... odd." She doesn't mean it rudely, and the smile is slightyly lopsided.

Just the truth, from her point of view, given the differences.

"That doesn't mean your loss is any less than my own."

Optimus readily followed and sat down on the couch next to her, never pulling his fingers away from Elita's own. He gave her hand a brief squeeze.

"Perhaps it could have been either way? When they leave it still hurts, but seeing someone so like the one you know in appearance or tone, who turns out to be entirely different can hurt in it's own way as well."

He managed a light chuckle, despite his own sadness.

"That Magnus was from my own world. Were they terribly different then?"

The contact was welcomed - not just because of the support, but because of who it was... despite their little awkward dance that still cropped up. Sometimes it was rather surprising he'd stayed besides that, since she didn't have the associations he did.

"No, of course not... thank you." Tilting her helm slightly towards Optimus, Elita dipped it in a nod. "It was strange, yes... I still wish I'd gotten to know that Magnus better, but I'm sort of... relieved, Grimlock was pretty much as I know him." Petty, perhaps, but if he'd been different she'd still probably have tried.

Then she grinned, pausing for a moment to give Optimus a thoughtful look before she unwound a cable and offered it to him.

"Kind of yes. Grim called him 'little Prime'. And I think this might show you what I mean..." If Optimus took the cable, he'd get a brief clip of an assault on a group of Decepticons, with Magnus concpisiously shouting the rather snappy line of 'Autbots, let's wreck this party!'.

Optimus nodded. "It's not a bad thing, to be relieved. We want people to act familiar, even if they may or may not remember us the same way."

His wry smile make it obvious that he wasn't exactly talking about Elita alone. But even so, Optimus only hesitated for a moment before accepting the cable and jacking in.

Then, he laughed out loud.

"Well then. That is one noticeable difference!" He shook his helm, offering her the cable back. He would have offered her a return memory, but since she had already seen 'his' Magnus in all his stuffy-action, it wasn't necessary. Seeing Magnus as a white version of himself was amusing as well.

"I can see what you mean by 'odd', if that was the usual behavior of your own Magnus."

"Precisely," she said, chuckling a little and honestly glad it wasn't just her he meant... because, they both knew people otherwise, and yes, it made sense what he said. Who wouldn't want someone to act familiar, even if they weren't?

She grinned when he finally plugged in and saw what she'd meant, his amusement byouing her mood significantly.

"Oh, it is. While he's obviously a bit more collected when not rushing helm-first into combat, he's not as strict as your Magnus. I don't think Grim would like him much, otherwise, or would've tolerated him on the Graviton, even less as a co-commander." Elita snorted, shaking her helm and leaned forward towards Optimus a little, more for playful effect than that it was any true 'secret'.

"He doesn't like Prime much, so I think Magnus was surprised when he was invited on board to be apart of the crew."

Still smiling at Elita's gesture, Optimus made a bit of a face at Grimlock of all people making 'co-commander'.

"Well. That is one thing the Grimlock of your world and mine have in common. Grimlock and I...do not get along in the slightest." His engine gave a little involuntary rev at the reminder. 'Not getting along' was a very severe understatement.

"Though I imagine of anyone could handle working with Grimlock, it would be an Ultra Magnus with the sense of good humor and fighting spirit yours seems to have."

Technically he was even the senior commander, giving that it was his idea, his ship, and his crew. Nowadays, though, especially with Grimlock having left (temporarily) to help Optimus on Earth, Magnus was as much the commander as him.

"Doesn't surprise me. Is he similar to the one that was here?" She pauses, and can't help a little grin as she uses the single greatest understatement in the history of everything: "A little... brash?"

Leaning back in her seat, rolling up the cable and then slotting it back in its place, the glow of Elita's optics softened in thought and longing both.

"He does rather well. At least well enough to not mind the nickname too much," she said with a dry chuckle, shaking her helm slowly. She missed them.

"'Brash' is a...suitable description." Optimus laughed, leaning close enough to give Elita a joking nudge, just as aware of the polite understatement.

"I imagine it wouldn't end well, if you Magnus couldn't handle a little immature nicknaming on Grimlock's part."

Especially given how many other, worse things the 'brash' Dynobot could do.

Despite her briefly dimming mood, laughter slips out of her at that, edging close to something like a giggle before she snorts, collecting herself. There's still a slight smile on her faceplates, however.

"As suitable as calling the Decepticons merely 'cruel', but it will do." Her grin briefly widens and she shakes her helm, amused, leaning in slightly towards Optimus again. It's mostly an unconscious move, though for that probably all the more honest.

"Probably not. I think it's kind of cute. I'm not sure if he even is the younger one of the two of them, however."

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[Closed] Just a little conversation

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