Fic at last
Jun. 18th, 2007 09:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
koilungfish12/6/07 - 1269 words on "Odd Roses"
13/6/07 - 17/6/07 - Ill
18/6/07 - Pride's Prison
"So, how long have you been sexually obsessed with this Divisional Commander?"
"What?" Megatron howled, voice weakening to a hollow croak as the needles in his fuel-lines force-fed him pink tranquilizers. A spasm of rage and the urge to kill fired him for a second before the weight of seventy thousand tons of decayed uranium reminded him that he was welded into the wall.
Headshrinker glanced up at his shout. "Denial is very unhealthy. These fits of temper you experience are undoubtedly due to your repression of your in-built instincts."
Megatron wanted to crush the Autobot's psychiatrist's carefully expressionless face, or as much as the tranquilizers would let him want. But each minute of this 'counselling' is a minute without the heavy tranquilizers, a minute with at least some of my faculties unimpaired, a minute in which to plan, he thought. He silently cursed the circumstances, weather and tactical ingenuity of general Sphaleros, all of which has conspired to land him in captivity. And where are my troops? What have they done with my warriors? He was reeled back from his wandering thoughts by a look from Headshrinker.
"Is there anything you want to say?" he asked.
I am going to kill you, Megatron thought. In a tone of voice layered with extra wooziness, he said "I feel ... strange."
"That will be the repressed desire you feel for - err - Starscream."
Megatron didn't take the bait. Feigning trauma and misery was one thing, but letting Autobots record him confessing feelings for Starscream? Never. "My vision keeps swirling."
Headshrinker frowned at him, remonstration in his lowered brow and dimmed optics. "Attempting to feign sickness in hopes of a reduction of your tranquilizers will not work. You are not experiencing optic malfunction and these scanners prove it." He patted the massive bank of scanners beside him, each of which was plugged into some part of Megatron's body that the warlord would prefer untouched.
Idiot, Megatron thought. Can't you recognize stalling when you see it? He wondered if Headshrinker was better than he looked, if the drugs were distorting his perceptions so much he was misjudging the psychiatrist, if he was being played for a fool.
"Now, shall we continue?" Headshrinker asked. Megatron grunted and twitched his head to his left, the closest he could get to a shrug. "Tell me about Starscream."
"He's a ruthless, ambitious, venomous cut-throat," Megatron said. The plain and simple truth was no loss of secrecy. "I barely know him." Let's see if you know your history.
"I see," Headshrinker said, staring at the floor. He was sitting at the other end of the scanners, turned sideways to Megatron, carefully avoiding optic contact unless to provoke speech. Megatron couldn't help but consider it a foolish position to take in the presence of an enemy, even an immobilized one. "I understand from your records that he was stationed with you on the Isle of Atalan for quiet some time, just after you conquered Hermeun."
"As an adjutant. There were dozens of them," Megatron replied slowly.
"There were rumours about yourself and him," Headshrinker said almost coyly, crossing his legs. "I believe he was kidnapped over the matter."
"Rumours and lies," Megatron said, restraining himself from snapping.
"You're very quick to insist that," Headshrinker said, nodding his head gently. "Yet you freely admit you find him an admirable being, a shining example of many martial virtues. I believe you've been praised him in some of your speeches."
"Not specifically him," Megatron said, frowning slightly as he tried to remember if he had praised Starscream.
"You enjoy spending time in his company," Headshrinker insisted, leaning slightly towards Megatron, his voice rising in gentle suggestion.
"Not particularly," Megatron said, trying to sound uninterested.
"Yet you do spend a lot of time with him."
"No," Megatron snapped, patience wearing too thin to sustain the illusion of docility, and immediately regretted it.
Headshrinker smiled kindly, clasping his hands over his knee. "There's nothing wrong with admitting that you do spend time with him. He's been your adjutant and your Vice-Emirate."
So you do know your history, Megatron thought.
"He rescued you from Hexavis, yet you claim you barely know him," Headshrinker continued lightly. "Why did you refuse to promote him for saving you?"
"If he wants promotion, let him earn it," Megatron snapped. This is getting tiresome.
"You seem very determined to drive Starscream down," Headshrinker said in the same hinting tones. "When he was your adjutant, at the first suggestion intimacy between you, you posted him to the furthest corner of Hermeun. After he served you as Vice-Emirate, you sacked him. You've known him since, oh, just before the War started, and yet ... you ..."
Megatron heard Headshrinker's speech slow down, his voice descend from gentle baiting into quiet horror. You think I started the War because I'm refusing to admit I'm attracted to Starscream? You fool!
Headshrinker was still staring silently at the floor, mental optics fixed on the appalling thought of Megatron turning to destruction and genocide rather than admit love for another being, when the heavily reinforced door opened without warning. Sphaleros strode in, all military bearing and rigid pride, taking up a position of command by standing in the middle of the room. Headshrinker stood to reluctant attention, managing a limp salute and a feeble "Hail Sphaleron."
"Hail Sphaleron. As you were," Sphaleros said, fixing Headshinker with a glare of disapproval.
Unscrew you, Headshrinker thought, refusing to suggest defensiveness by folding his arms no matter how much he wanted to, I'm a civilian.
"Development with the prisoner?" Sphaleros asked. He was deliberately standing with his back to Megatron.
It bothered Headshrinker that the general would go out of his way to so deliberately insult the Decepticon commander, and even more so that he would research how to deliberately insult him as well. "I believe that the prisoner," whose name Sphaleros had forbidden spoken or written down, for fear the Decepticons would discover where their lost commander was, "is suffering logic disjunction on account of repression of his hardwired urges towards peace, compassion and gentle feelings."
"Huh," said Sphaleros. "Prognosis?"
"Given time, I think I can lead him to the realization that it is not only possible but even permissible for him to feel love, tenderness and happiness," Headshrinker said quietly. And I'm blasted if I'm going to let you know I think that it would be a good thing, you warmongering psychotic. You should be welded up next to him.
Sphaleros humphed again. "And when you're finished, he'll work for us?"
He'd be more inclined to work with us if you'd stop threatening him with that pain box! "Probably," Headshrinker said gently, shrugging and opening his hands. "Curing a logic disjunction can have extreme effects. He may wish to embrace his newfound capacity for compassion." Perhaps so far as becoming a pacifist. That would be ... well, it would make life awkward for the Autobot High Command.
"Hngh," Sphaleros went, and turned his back on the psychiatrist.
After I've finished with Megatron, Headshrinker thought at the general's back, I'm going to cure you.
Megatron kept silent as Sphaleros talked down to the psychiatrist. He was fed up with Sphaleros' pain box, more fed up than he was with the tranquilizers. There was nothing to be gained from defiance. At least not right now.
Sphaleros turned to face him at last. "I see you haven't escaped."
"No," Megatron said, keeping his voice thick and sluggish. Even if Headshrinker wasn't completely fooled by his imitation of drugged tractability, Sphaleros apparently was.
"And you haven't been rescued."
"No."
"And you haven't killed yourself."
"No." Why on Cybertron would I do that?
Sphaleros smiled, as much as the grill-strips across his face would allow. "So much for the great Decepticon warlord."
Have you forgotten I've ravaged two-thirds of this planet? Megatron wondered. And what have you done with my troops?
Sphaleros came closer, looking coolly into Megatron's face. "You thought you'd get away from me. You thought you'd ruin Sphaleron and escape with the spoils."
No, I thought I'd conquer this planet and leave. I didn't intend to leave anyone alive to escape from. "Sphaleron?" He spoke as if feebly confused.
"Oh yes, you wouldn't have heard." Sphaleros' yellow optics glowed with pleasure. "I've renamed the planet after myself. After all, since I not only saved it from your predation but also command it, it seems only fitting there should be some memorial to my greatness."
"Yes," Megatron slurred. The fool's gone mad with power! What a stroke of luck.
"You agree?" Sphaleros said, trying to keep the delight out of his quick reply but not managing entirely.
"You defeated me," Megatron said thickly, seeing the dismay on Headshrinker's face. "You must be a great general."
"Of course." Sphaleros glanced over his shoulder. "Is the prisoner on truth serum?"
"Yes," Headshrinker said feebly. "But we're not sure if it works or not."
"Huh." Sphaleros turned back to Megatron, studying him with a suggestion of a smirk. "Let's test it, shall we?"
"We did, it -" Headshrinker started.
"Am I a better general than Optimus Prime?" Sphaleros asked, interrupting his psychiatrist.
"Yes," Megatron said, loading his voice with dullness.
"A superior leader to him?" The general's shoulders tightened, he leaned closer.
"Yes," Megatron said, unfocussed gaze drifting across Sphaleros' face.
"I defeated you. Optimus Prime has not. True?"
"Yes." Megatron nodded, as far as he could.
"That makes me superior to Optimus Prime."
"Yes." Megatron tipped his head as far to the right as he could, letting it loll limply. "A far greater general. A greater leader."
Sphaleros' optics tightened. "More deserving of the Matrix than that over-promoted under-educated Tagon-built hick hiding on Cybertron?"
Megatron smiled with idiot serenity. "Absolutely."
Sphaleros' optics narrowed with quiet pride. He pulled his shoulders back a little, straightened his back a bit more. "Excellent." He gave Megatron a considering look. "You must be having a good effect on him, psychiatrist. Keep up the good work." The general turned to leave. "I'm sure you'll be able to bring him over to our side soon enough. With his strategic knowledge and experience, he'll be a key component in our battle plan once he's pacified."
"We've been invaded again?" Headshrinker asked, aghast.
"Not this time," Sphaleros said, and Megatron caught a glimpse of a tight smirk on the general's face. "We'll be doing the invading next time." A thought caught him as he was opening the door. "Oh, I'm having the prisoner removed tomorrow afternoon. Temporarily."
"What for?" Headshrinker asked. "Where's he going?"
"Outside, for the ceremony. I want to show all of Sphaleron why I deserve my new title." The general fairly glowed with pride. "From tomorrow onwards, you shall address me as Sphaleros Prime."
13/6/07 - 17/6/07 - Ill
18/6/07 - Pride's Prison
"So, how long have you been sexually obsessed with this Divisional Commander?"
"What?" Megatron howled, voice weakening to a hollow croak as the needles in his fuel-lines force-fed him pink tranquilizers. A spasm of rage and the urge to kill fired him for a second before the weight of seventy thousand tons of decayed uranium reminded him that he was welded into the wall.
Headshrinker glanced up at his shout. "Denial is very unhealthy. These fits of temper you experience are undoubtedly due to your repression of your in-built instincts."
Megatron wanted to crush the Autobot's psychiatrist's carefully expressionless face, or as much as the tranquilizers would let him want. But each minute of this 'counselling' is a minute without the heavy tranquilizers, a minute with at least some of my faculties unimpaired, a minute in which to plan, he thought. He silently cursed the circumstances, weather and tactical ingenuity of general Sphaleros, all of which has conspired to land him in captivity. And where are my troops? What have they done with my warriors? He was reeled back from his wandering thoughts by a look from Headshrinker.
"Is there anything you want to say?" he asked.
I am going to kill you, Megatron thought. In a tone of voice layered with extra wooziness, he said "I feel ... strange."
"That will be the repressed desire you feel for - err - Starscream."
Megatron didn't take the bait. Feigning trauma and misery was one thing, but letting Autobots record him confessing feelings for Starscream? Never. "My vision keeps swirling."
Headshrinker frowned at him, remonstration in his lowered brow and dimmed optics. "Attempting to feign sickness in hopes of a reduction of your tranquilizers will not work. You are not experiencing optic malfunction and these scanners prove it." He patted the massive bank of scanners beside him, each of which was plugged into some part of Megatron's body that the warlord would prefer untouched.
Idiot, Megatron thought. Can't you recognize stalling when you see it? He wondered if Headshrinker was better than he looked, if the drugs were distorting his perceptions so much he was misjudging the psychiatrist, if he was being played for a fool.
"Now, shall we continue?" Headshrinker asked. Megatron grunted and twitched his head to his left, the closest he could get to a shrug. "Tell me about Starscream."
"He's a ruthless, ambitious, venomous cut-throat," Megatron said. The plain and simple truth was no loss of secrecy. "I barely know him." Let's see if you know your history.
"I see," Headshrinker said, staring at the floor. He was sitting at the other end of the scanners, turned sideways to Megatron, carefully avoiding optic contact unless to provoke speech. Megatron couldn't help but consider it a foolish position to take in the presence of an enemy, even an immobilized one. "I understand from your records that he was stationed with you on the Isle of Atalan for quiet some time, just after you conquered Hermeun."
"As an adjutant. There were dozens of them," Megatron replied slowly.
"There were rumours about yourself and him," Headshrinker said almost coyly, crossing his legs. "I believe he was kidnapped over the matter."
"Rumours and lies," Megatron said, restraining himself from snapping.
"You're very quick to insist that," Headshrinker said, nodding his head gently. "Yet you freely admit you find him an admirable being, a shining example of many martial virtues. I believe you've been praised him in some of your speeches."
"Not specifically him," Megatron said, frowning slightly as he tried to remember if he had praised Starscream.
"You enjoy spending time in his company," Headshrinker insisted, leaning slightly towards Megatron, his voice rising in gentle suggestion.
"Not particularly," Megatron said, trying to sound uninterested.
"Yet you do spend a lot of time with him."
"No," Megatron snapped, patience wearing too thin to sustain the illusion of docility, and immediately regretted it.
Headshrinker smiled kindly, clasping his hands over his knee. "There's nothing wrong with admitting that you do spend time with him. He's been your adjutant and your Vice-Emirate."
So you do know your history, Megatron thought.
"He rescued you from Hexavis, yet you claim you barely know him," Headshrinker continued lightly. "Why did you refuse to promote him for saving you?"
"If he wants promotion, let him earn it," Megatron snapped. This is getting tiresome.
"You seem very determined to drive Starscream down," Headshrinker said in the same hinting tones. "When he was your adjutant, at the first suggestion intimacy between you, you posted him to the furthest corner of Hermeun. After he served you as Vice-Emirate, you sacked him. You've known him since, oh, just before the War started, and yet ... you ..."
Megatron heard Headshrinker's speech slow down, his voice descend from gentle baiting into quiet horror. You think I started the War because I'm refusing to admit I'm attracted to Starscream? You fool!
Headshrinker was still staring silently at the floor, mental optics fixed on the appalling thought of Megatron turning to destruction and genocide rather than admit love for another being, when the heavily reinforced door opened without warning. Sphaleros strode in, all military bearing and rigid pride, taking up a position of command by standing in the middle of the room. Headshrinker stood to reluctant attention, managing a limp salute and a feeble "Hail Sphaleron."
"Hail Sphaleron. As you were," Sphaleros said, fixing Headshinker with a glare of disapproval.
Unscrew you, Headshrinker thought, refusing to suggest defensiveness by folding his arms no matter how much he wanted to, I'm a civilian.
"Development with the prisoner?" Sphaleros asked. He was deliberately standing with his back to Megatron.
It bothered Headshrinker that the general would go out of his way to so deliberately insult the Decepticon commander, and even more so that he would research how to deliberately insult him as well. "I believe that the prisoner," whose name Sphaleros had forbidden spoken or written down, for fear the Decepticons would discover where their lost commander was, "is suffering logic disjunction on account of repression of his hardwired urges towards peace, compassion and gentle feelings."
"Huh," said Sphaleros. "Prognosis?"
"Given time, I think I can lead him to the realization that it is not only possible but even permissible for him to feel love, tenderness and happiness," Headshrinker said quietly. And I'm blasted if I'm going to let you know I think that it would be a good thing, you warmongering psychotic. You should be welded up next to him.
Sphaleros humphed again. "And when you're finished, he'll work for us?"
He'd be more inclined to work with us if you'd stop threatening him with that pain box! "Probably," Headshrinker said gently, shrugging and opening his hands. "Curing a logic disjunction can have extreme effects. He may wish to embrace his newfound capacity for compassion." Perhaps so far as becoming a pacifist. That would be ... well, it would make life awkward for the Autobot High Command.
"Hngh," Sphaleros went, and turned his back on the psychiatrist.
After I've finished with Megatron, Headshrinker thought at the general's back, I'm going to cure you.
Megatron kept silent as Sphaleros talked down to the psychiatrist. He was fed up with Sphaleros' pain box, more fed up than he was with the tranquilizers. There was nothing to be gained from defiance. At least not right now.
Sphaleros turned to face him at last. "I see you haven't escaped."
"No," Megatron said, keeping his voice thick and sluggish. Even if Headshrinker wasn't completely fooled by his imitation of drugged tractability, Sphaleros apparently was.
"And you haven't been rescued."
"No."
"And you haven't killed yourself."
"No." Why on Cybertron would I do that?
Sphaleros smiled, as much as the grill-strips across his face would allow. "So much for the great Decepticon warlord."
Have you forgotten I've ravaged two-thirds of this planet? Megatron wondered. And what have you done with my troops?
Sphaleros came closer, looking coolly into Megatron's face. "You thought you'd get away from me. You thought you'd ruin Sphaleron and escape with the spoils."
No, I thought I'd conquer this planet and leave. I didn't intend to leave anyone alive to escape from. "Sphaleron?" He spoke as if feebly confused.
"Oh yes, you wouldn't have heard." Sphaleros' yellow optics glowed with pleasure. "I've renamed the planet after myself. After all, since I not only saved it from your predation but also command it, it seems only fitting there should be some memorial to my greatness."
"Yes," Megatron slurred. The fool's gone mad with power! What a stroke of luck.
"You agree?" Sphaleros said, trying to keep the delight out of his quick reply but not managing entirely.
"You defeated me," Megatron said thickly, seeing the dismay on Headshrinker's face. "You must be a great general."
"Of course." Sphaleros glanced over his shoulder. "Is the prisoner on truth serum?"
"Yes," Headshrinker said feebly. "But we're not sure if it works or not."
"Huh." Sphaleros turned back to Megatron, studying him with a suggestion of a smirk. "Let's test it, shall we?"
"We did, it -" Headshrinker started.
"Am I a better general than Optimus Prime?" Sphaleros asked, interrupting his psychiatrist.
"Yes," Megatron said, loading his voice with dullness.
"A superior leader to him?" The general's shoulders tightened, he leaned closer.
"Yes," Megatron said, unfocussed gaze drifting across Sphaleros' face.
"I defeated you. Optimus Prime has not. True?"
"Yes." Megatron nodded, as far as he could.
"That makes me superior to Optimus Prime."
"Yes." Megatron tipped his head as far to the right as he could, letting it loll limply. "A far greater general. A greater leader."
Sphaleros' optics tightened. "More deserving of the Matrix than that over-promoted under-educated Tagon-built hick hiding on Cybertron?"
Megatron smiled with idiot serenity. "Absolutely."
Sphaleros' optics narrowed with quiet pride. He pulled his shoulders back a little, straightened his back a bit more. "Excellent." He gave Megatron a considering look. "You must be having a good effect on him, psychiatrist. Keep up the good work." The general turned to leave. "I'm sure you'll be able to bring him over to our side soon enough. With his strategic knowledge and experience, he'll be a key component in our battle plan once he's pacified."
"We've been invaded again?" Headshrinker asked, aghast.
"Not this time," Sphaleros said, and Megatron caught a glimpse of a tight smirk on the general's face. "We'll be doing the invading next time." A thought caught him as he was opening the door. "Oh, I'm having the prisoner removed tomorrow afternoon. Temporarily."
"What for?" Headshrinker asked. "Where's he going?"
"Outside, for the ceremony. I want to show all of Sphaleron why I deserve my new title." The general fairly glowed with pride. "From tomorrow onwards, you shall address me as Sphaleros Prime."
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no subject
Date: 2007-06-19 12:11 am (UTC)I really hope Megatron got to do something really, really painful to both of these idiots, btw.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-19 11:21 am (UTC)And since when wouldn't he?
no subject
Date: 2007-06-19 12:03 pm (UTC)Oh, good. ^_^
no subject
Date: 2007-06-19 01:00 pm (UTC)Well, it wouldn't be Megatron if he didn't do horrible things to people who annoy him, would he?
no subject
Date: 2007-06-19 01:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-19 03:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-19 04:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-22 09:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-22 11:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-20 11:12 pm (UTC)And I expect he will.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-20 11:24 pm (UTC)See the next post.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-19 03:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-19 03:39 pm (UTC)Yes, Sphaleros totally ruined that session, since he had to show off how wonderful he was at the expense of everyone and everything else. Sphaleros is the one who needs the psychiatrist.
By the end of the scene, Headshrinker doesn't seem to know which of the two he likes less.