milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Snowball is outside, pruning a slightly overgrown bush with his teeth. He snaps the twigs off neatly, putting them into a small pile.

After a while he stops and pushes at his mouth with his trotter, having got a sharp piece of stick between his teeth.

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Pain and frustration attract Predacons.

Okay, not really. Terrorsaur just happens to be in the area. Quite a few yards above, the roar of his jets turning to a faint rumble as he hovers, Terrorsaur looks down at Snowball.

Snowball is distracted, and doesn't notice. The stick is spiky and painful, and he's already starting to bleed. He blurs briefly as he attempts turning human to dislodge it, but gives a squeal and turns back when he discovers that smaller teeth with the same stick results in more pain.

A smile and a chuckle from the robot.

"Need some help?" he calls down.

Snowball glances up.

"Not unless you have a toothpick among that lot, but thank you for the offer."

"Just metal in this form," the robot replies, now cheerful at the thought of prolonged suffering.

Snowball breaks off a second branch and tries to use it to dislodge the first part.

"Ow. Bother."

Terrorsaur lowers himself to the ground a few yards away. (Not among the flowers, thankfully.)

"Maybe you should shift? You got hands there," he comments idly.

"Can't, it makes my mouth smaller. Besides, I haven't mastered the digits yet. Although..."

He thinks for a moment, then tries to shift just one hand. It takes a couple of attempts, but then he manages. But he can't grip the stick.

Shifting part of yourself? Eeeeeewwww, that's so gross! But wait....

"Met someone else that could shift part of herself. Said she could become a wolf. She sure had big claws."

"Ah yes, I have heard of such things."

He pushes the stick with his finger and dislodges it, with a few drops of blood.

"Phew, that's better."

"She called herself a werewolf - or a shapeshifter. Doesn't have the ring of the word Transformer."

There's some disappointment that Snowball is not in agony.

Snowball notices this.

"You're making unusually polite conversation Terrorsaur. Are you lonely or just sadistic?"

Annoyed, "You don't know me."

He's both.

"Yes I do. You're Terrorsaur, and you're normally rude and annoying. Did you get a new personality?"

"Sometimes I want to talk to people, all right?" he grumbles. "And if you say anything about it to anyone I'll blast you apart."

"You'll murder me will you? Charming."

He doesn't seem overly concerned.

"Why would I want to say anything? What's so terrible about wanting to talk to people?"

"Well, it-- you know...." He glares at his feet.

Snowball sighs.

"Why don't you sit down comrade." he says more gently, pushing the hand back into a trotter.

"What is troubling you?"

The robot does not take the offer to sit down.

"If I were a good Predacon, I would've slagged anyone who crossed me!" Terrorsaur blurts out. "Or I would've found some other way to take power."

"Someone has hurt you? Who?"

"Huh? Well, yeah, actually-- but the point is that I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing!"

He rubs the back of his head and continues in a more thoughtful tone. "I'm used to clawing my way to the top. But there's no top here. Just...a buncha people."

Snowball nods.

"I understand. You are homesick? A being existing, without plan or future, indefinitely here. Like me."

Terrorsaur looks down at Snowball. Perhaps with a bit more understanding, but he looks off into the middle-distance quickly enough.

"Future," he repeats, with a snort of cold laughter. "My whole life was about the future. The bots I'd beat, the power I'd get, the faction I'd lead, the glory--

"I'm sick of there just being a buncha people. But...what else is there?"

"You with bots and I with animals. Our futures were not so different. I was a pig with a dream Terrorsaur."

He looks up. "There is the outside world. One that will probably kill me if I go back to it. I don't know about yours."

"Huh. Yeah. So, what happened to you again?" he asks curiously. He has only vague memories of what Snowball's situation is.