OPEN POST • ALL-PURPOSE TEXTING MEME

[notanybunny]

for your TFLNs, overflows and general texting shenanigans

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[forceshadowed]

have you ever felt like
you’ve wasted your entire life
on a wrong decision

[vosseeker]

No.

[ There's a long pause before an additional message comes through. ]

Although I did make one decision which very nearly undid everything I'd worked for.

[forceshadowed]

[ She’d scoffed at his first response, because that was so like Scream to rub to her face that they were the better, superior species. Of course he didn’t make bad decisions.

Until his next message comes in, which manages to make Jane smile faintly. ]

for a second there i thought you could do no wrong
which is kind of not fair
how do you get to be BAMFs while we humans are weak and pathetic
anyway
what happened?

[ Fine. She’ll be second best. Shouldn’t be too bad being second best to a Cybertronian. ]

[vosseeker]

Perhaps we simply live long enough to outlast our mistakes.

[ The thing with the Cybertronian war was that it was vast enough, and spanned so very, very long, that all the main players' names became known throughout the galaxy, if only by reference. Starscream's was among them; the cunning (or conniving) Second in Command of the Decepticon forces almost since the war's beginning. His name had become synonymous with treachery, even among species never involved in the war. But one thing that had never been questioned was what side he'd aligned with, so it might be with some understandable confusion that his next message reaches her. ]

I left the Decepticons and attempted a brief stint as a Neutral. It did not go particularly well.

[ A failed alliance with MECH, robbed of his t-cog, scrounging for leftover energon... not his brightest days. ]

[forceshadowed]

can i ask how old you are or would that be rude on so many levels
i'm guessing the answer would once more prove how weak and frail humans are but
it is what it is

[ She mulls over the information he's shared, pursing her lips as she thought about how much that echoed her own situation. A stint with the First Order that wasn't going well. ]

why did you leave?
would you have done it again or is it one of those mistakes that you've regretted your whole life

[ Even as she asks, she's considering her own answers. She left the Jedi because she'd believed in her brother, felt as betrayed as he did, refused to leave his side out of loyalty -- and perhaps a hint of fear. But the longer she's remained in the First Order, the more she regrets that decision. Ah, the failings of youth. She was only how old back then, nineteen? ]

[vosseeker]

Between six and seven million years old. Why would that be rude?

[ Humans were so touchy about the strangest things. ]

Lord Megatron decided that I had failed him too often and attempted to kill me. Leaving seemed somewhat prudent in light of that at the time, so yes... I'd probably do it again in the same situation, given the alternative.

But my decisions immediately following - in hindsight - seem rather short-sighted. Those I would certainly reconsider.

[forceshadowed]

nevermind

[ Yep, definitely a human thing. They really had a lot of growing up to do as a species. ]

funny, the supreme leader tried to kill me too

but you returned anyway?
even after he tried to kill you?

[ Sounds familiar. ]

[vosseeker]

I acquired substantial leverage to return with that ensured my safety.

[ Well, ensured might have been a stretch... one could never truly predict Megatron's moods. But highly incentivized, that was the best he could get, and his gamble had paid off. ]

The Decepticons were where I belonged.

[ And now they were disbanded. So, too, were the Autobots by technicality, but it was hard to think of it like that with the way the war ended. ]

What does this have to do with not going flying?

[forceshadowed]

[ That gives her pause. Where does she belong? She'd followed Ben all those years ago because she'd believed in her brother, but she's never felt at home in the First Order. But she can't imagine herself going back to the Resistance, either.

Strangely, she feels more at home with the Cybertronians these days. ]

i don't feel like flying
some days i feel like a major screw up and this is one of those days
i regret

[ Whoops, she's sent that too fast. ]

some of my decisions sucked
that's all

[vosseeker]

[ Starscream doesn't understand not feeling like flying, but he's a Seeker. His desire to be airborne is literally written in his core programming, spark-deep. He had thought that Jane, as a pilot, understood that to some small degree, even if she wouldn't feel it as strongly as he did. ]

You're still alive. You can make new decisions.