The Problem of Choice

Ayotzinco

Time travel. Somehow, you've done it, for you find yourself in a place of ancient power in the modern world. True, it is overgrown with flora and crumbling, but you can still feel the mystery and age seeping from the very air here. Even the scattered tourists and peddlers can't shake the feeling from you. A pervading silence rings in your head, every rock and mound seems to live as a ziggurat rises before you...

Laserbeak is on the ground in the brush new some of the ruins partially grown over by plants, with his head in a hole squawking, which sounds rather muffled as a result of his head half way in a hole.

Hinder says, "NO! No! I don't want to ... be different. I don't want to wake up and be someone else."

Laserbeak squawks, <"Then we need to make sure his nice weapon hasn’t affected you!">

A pair of little red optics peers out of the darkness of the alcove at the ostrich-like Laserbeak. "What? Nice isn't a weapon! That's just...it doesn't make any sense."

Fairway leaves Autobot territory after having completed his last guard shift of the week. Out of rotation, he now has a little time to himself. He wanders, idly looking in the direction of the Decepticon fortifications, entertaining the idea of spying but hesitant to actually begin. Hearing the muffled sounds of what he thinks is speech, he cautiously approaches their source.

"Neither does disobeying orders that were no orders there to disobey!" Laserbeak snaps back.

Laserbeak sticks his head farther into the hole so has looking at her optic to optic. <"You like him! That’s what it is!"> Laserbeak says.

Hinder snaps at Laserbeak's beak again, not TRYING to bite him, just trying to get him to back off. "NO! I don't even know what 'like' is!"

Laserbeak holds his ground err beak and continues, <"Well you are doing it with that Autobot">

Fairway crouches behind the crumbling remains of a Toltec. The voice his hears is raised in anger. He's relatively certain that there are no Autobots in this position. It's best to proceed with caution. He leans out from behind the towering rubble, trying to better make out what's being said. It occurs to him that he's only hearing one side of a conversation.

Hinder snaps at Laserbeak again. "Doing what? Liking? How can I do something when I don't know what it is?"

Laserbeak thinks for a moment, <"You don’t need to know something to do it.">

Hinder is silent for a moment at that. "So I can get punished for something I don't even know? I can ... wake up as someone else?"

Fairway simply can't draw any recognizable words from the sounds he hears. He stands and casts a quick glance over his shoulder, not sure what to do. After a few slow steps closer to the sounds, which he imagines are as loud as an Ig-Yac's despite the great care he takes to move silently, he is at last able to make out the headless form of Laserbeak! The Decepticon appears to have his head in a hole, no doubt assaulting one of Blaster's tape-bots. He rushes forward and attempts to scoop Laser beak up by grabbing him under his wings.

Combat: Fairway misses Laserbeak with his Grab attack!

Hinder says, "Nonono! I'm not changed. Buzzy is! Now he won't be Buzzy anymore."

There is a sudden rush of wing over and just above Laserbeak and he shoots his head out and half way up through the hole. What was it?!! He sees that arc of hands and arms - robotic just miss him and with a squawk of <"Under attack!!"> to Hinder he blasts into the sky and banks around to see -- Fairway! Just the Autobot they were talking about. He fires quickly before he's had a chance to fully line up his shot but he fires none the less.

Combat: Laserbeak misses Fairway with his Grab attack!

Under attack? She EEEKS! Once for good measure, seeing the unfriendly feet in front of her hidey spot the moment Laserbeak is up and away. Then, as it's ingrained nearly as deeply as "Obey your commanders", she darts out to protect her sibling. She doesn't bother to see who the feet belong to; she just aims to bite at the most vulnerable spot she can find.

Hinder succeeds in grasping Fairway, throwing him off-balance.

Fairway missed Laserbeak, but recovers fairly quickly - quickly enough to avoid getting blasted, but just barely. He reaches back to draw his weapon, but is taken by surprise by a weasel bite! He stumbles in a most undignified way and eventually drops straight onto his skidplate.

Combat: Laserbeak sets his defense level to Guarded.

Laserbeak sees the Autobot fall on his skidplate but isn’t sure he was the one that caused it. The Condor swings back around and lines up for another shot when he catches a glint of white at one of the Autobot's feet. It was Hinder. Did she just really bite him? He ponders and takes another shot as he flies by but makes sure he misses. He wants to see just what Hinder does.

Combat: Laserbeak strikes Fairway with his (Grab) attack!

Hinder hasn't let go of Laserbeak's attacker yet, using every bit of strength in her little jaws to chomp down on the sensitive linkages and such she's got between her teeth then adding insult to injury by twisting her head and tugging, much like Riki Tiki Tavi fighting a cobra.

Fairway rolls around, momentarily distracted by Hinder's chomping on his subtalar servomotors. He shakes his leg and reaches down to try and grab Hinder gently by the head and hold her still. "Hind-" he's in the process of shouting when he's hit in the free hand by Laserbeak's blast. "Ah! Primus!" He shakes his burned hand and looks at Laserbeak with an expression of annoyance that may have seemed comical under other circumstances. "Decepticon buzzard," he snarls. He pulls his rifle, stills struggling to shake Hinder loose. "Come down here and fight like you have some bearings."

Ohno, Laserbeak isn't falling for that one. He banks back up and then suddenly lands on a tree branch and just looks down at him. What's he up to now?

Hinder is still in full 'protect sibling' mode, so when she sees a hand with a rifle in it she lets go of the mouthful of foot/ankle servos and with a hiss launches herself at the hand, intending to bite the attached wrist and make the rifle fall to the ground.

Hinder succeeds in grasping Fairway, throwing him off-balance.

Fairway drops his rifle and Hinder bites his wrist. He presses his upper and lower dental manifolds together in an expression of pain and frustration. He's certainly now that this isn't incidental - he sees Hinder's attacks as malicious. He flexes his wrist and tries to put his hand around Hinder's body. With his free hand, he tries to pinch behind her head and make her release her jaws. He knows where the mechanism is that makes her mandibles work; if he wanted he could squeeze hard enough to crack that tiny mechanism and leave Hinder unable to bit anything until she's been repaired. He doesn't do this, though. "Hinder!" He shouts.

Combat: Fairway misses Hinder with his Grab attack!

Hinder flinches in a startle when her name is shouted and she lets go of the wrist, tumbling gracelessly to the ground. She's back on her feet almost instantly, though, practically hopping with agitated energy and hissing out huffs of heated air rapidly as she looks around for the mech that was attacking Laserbeak. Beaky: tree, safe. Autobot: standing there empty-handed. Where'd the attacker go?

Laserbeak sits there and watches. She seems calm now but he gives a small squawk her way to let her know has fine. He just watches now.

Fairway holds his hand. First it was blasted by Laserbeak, and then it was mauled by a robo-weasel! He frowns, seeing clearly the repairs he'll have to do to bring its motor function back to full capacity. He looks up at Laserbeak and then down at Hinder, standing with his weight on his left leg. "What's going on here?" He asks. He doesn't immediately pick up his rifle, but he makes a mental note of exactly where it is, preparing to scoop it up and start firing if the situation escalates. "You've got no Sweep with you now, eh? You can't drag me away by yourselves!"

Hinder looks up at Fairway, still hissing to try and cool her systems. Wait. Damaged hand, favoring one foot...HE was attacking Laserbeak? NOT NICE! "You tried to hurt Beaky! Not nice!"

Fairway looks confused and angry. "What?" Should he attempt to justify his actions to the little ankle biter? An Autobot attacking a Decepticon is not exactly a novel thing. "My view of the scene was obscured when I arrived. I heard agitated sounds, saw your comrade here with his beaked head in a hole, and had to assume that he was on the offensive - as you did, Small One!" Fairway looks from Laserbeak to Hinder with his arms out, questioning.

Hinder says, "But...no attacking siblings. Protect siblings."

Laserbeak clears his voice synth and speaks normal which is rather hard for him. "WaS QquestIoNing HeR...BoUt YOuu" "ShE LiKes HoLes...WhaT Can ISay..."

Fairway is struck dumb. He's shocked, embarrassed, and suddenly guilty, though he can't place why. "Questioning. . ." Is he really trying going to try and reason with Laserbeak? "It looked more like you were bullying her." He should be grabbing his gun.

Laserbeak shakes his head quckly, "nO..I WanTeD to KnOe whY yoU twO geT alOng. Why?"

Hinder is still standing tensely in front of Fairway, though her nervous shuffling is slowly sidling her to stand between him and Laserbeak. At least the hissing has all but stopped. "What does 'like' mean?"

Fairway folds his arms across his chest. This has got to be a trap. He activates his visor and scans the forest, but is unable to detect any energon signatures besides his own and the two Decepticons' who, against all logic, are now apparently asking him for a lesson in friendship! "I am an Autobot," he explains, "I do not regard sentient life with the desire to dominate. All are equal." He looks from Laserbeak to Hinder. "Or, at least, all should be treated that way. This is our creed. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings."

Laserbeak clicks his beak, "BuT DeCeptiCons aRE SupeRior!"

"Beaky says I 'like' you. What does that mean? How do I know 'like' so I don't get punished by Soundwave and wake up as someone else?" Her questions probably make no sense to Fairway, but they're weighing heavily on her mind and she's unsettled enough to just blurt them out at him.

If Laserbeak had hands he'd be facepalming right about now. He just lowers his head with a slight shake of it like 'no no no'. All he does now is study the Autobot for his reaction.

Fairway takes up his orator stance. "And yet this conflict continues. If either side were truly superior to the other," he says to Laserbeak in measured tones, "one side would have won by now. Do you not see that this war ended millions of years ago in stalemate?" He doubts that Laserbeak is really the philosophical sort. Turning now to Hinder, he says, "Do you feel no fondness for anyone? For your siblings? For Soundwave?" He lowers his voice just a bit. "For me? That is what is meant by 'like'." Can she understand this? Is this a concept any creature of Soundwave's can comprehend? Fairway seriously doubts that Soundwave is capable of liking anyone.

Laserbeak shifts his hold on the branch and thinks for a moment on the Fairway's words. He is saying that the Autobots are as superior as the Decepticons which is why this war won't end. His keen hearing picks up what the Autobot says to Hinder, "She LiKes You, YeS...and YoU aRe sayIng boTh SiDeS arE eQuEl?"

Hinder falls silent, not sure how to answer Fairway's questions and not sure if Laserbeak's reply on her behalf is even true or not.

Fairway nods. "Autobots, Decepticons, neither side has the might to crush the other. If not equal, we are at least evenly matched. Our war is one of ideas, and military supremacy alone can never end it." He sets about trying some small repairs on his hand. "Whether Hinder likes or dislikes anyone should be for her to decide," he says, believing that he knows full well how his fellow Autobots would view his having any kind of non-combative relationship with a Decepticon. "Did you intend for her to be mindwiped? What if her thoughts do not come only from computation or mechanical processes? Shall you extinguish her spark as well?"

Hinder stares at Fairway, having to access various remote databases to find the meanings of some of the terms he used. And she doesn't like what some of them mean. But he's asking Laserbeak if that's what will be done to her, just like she asked -- in much simpler terms. She backs away from the Autobot a few more steps, on the off-chance that mere proximity is enough to condemn her to the fate he's described.

"ShE doEs NoT UnDerStaNd iT." Laserbeak replies to Fairways comment that it’s up to her to decide. The rest of his words are a bit alarming and then about why this war won't end are somehow disturbing him but one thing at a time, "I do NoT knOw WhAt SoUndWave wOuLD do to Her..." But he does have a good idea and yes, it would probably include a mind wipe but he doesn’t say that. And he's not sure what /his/ own opinions on it are at this point either.

Fairway rubs his hands together. "I think it suffices to say that he would not coddle her or encourage her independent thought," he says. He realizes that he's completing a broad circle here, connecting thoughts he's previously discussed with Bitbucket as well as Hinder herself. "We were appliances once - mindless devices serving at the pleasure of the Quintessons. We are no longer so. It is only because we attained sentience and fought to claim our independence that any of us exist today. Hinder may not understand everything I'm saying, but she can attain understanding, and she shall, because she is Cybertronian - just as I am and as Megatron was." He thinks a bit. "Built on Earth, perhaps, but a child of Primus nonetheless because of her spark. And, as such, she is not designed to remain subservient for long."

Except for that hardwired directive: Obey your commanders. Hinder isn't even aware that it's hardwired, just that someone tells her to do something, and she does it. No questioning, no reluctance, no resentment...it's as if it were her own idea to do whatever is asked of her. Then again, she has yet to be ordered to do something very much against her currently established personality traits. She does have to look up 'subservient', though, and she doesn't really like the tone of that word either.

Laserbeak is quiet for a while then finally says quietly enough so his speaking voice isn’t so modulated, "I don't think this will end well once Soundwave finds out..."

Fairway shakes his head, unsure not only how to get through to Laserbeak but also whether or not it's a waste of time to try. He looks to Hinder. "Do you know what you want, Hinder? Do you know what 'want' is?"

Hinder tilts her head at Fairway. Want she understands. But no one had ever asked her that before, well, short of asking her what manner of energon she'd prefer to consume. She glances up and back at Laserbeak, then at Fairway again. Backed up until she's a hunched little ball, she considers for a moment before finally saying, "I want to not wake up as someone else. I want to wake up as me."

Laserbeak squawks, <"You can't hide any of this from Soundwave....">

Fairway nods. He finds that he can't manage a smile. Impulses are exploding through his CPU, telling him that he is a fool for fraternizing with Decepticons and that it won't be long before Laserbeak fires some kind of paralyzing blast. They can't drag him away, but if he is unable to move they can certainly disassemble him and carry him to their base piece by piece. "And what do you mean," he asks Hinder, almost certain that she won't understand the question, "when you say 'me'?"

Hinder looks up at Fairway, her expression one of 'Uh, DUH.' While the answer in her head might be verbose and eloquent, what she says is as usual much simpler and more childlike. "I mean me. Not you, not Beaky. Me."

Laserbeak just watches them. He can understand a fair bit of this but has also not sure he wants to understand it. It makes other thoughts come into being and ones has not sure he wants to dwell on. For many decavorns he has always known his role in this war and his role regarding Soundwave but now these words are making him think about it and has not sure he likes what’s coming to mind. This Autobot is dangerous.

Fairway looks up at Laserbeak. Beaky? For some reason, the concept of Decepticons having nicknames for one another seems absurd to him. He crouches to get closer to Hinder's level, but he watches the condor closely. Against his better judgment, he throws out some neuroscience. "You know the difference between what you want and what Beaky wants right now, don't you? Your consciousness is just beginning to coalesce, but you are on the verge of having a very clear definition of what you mean by 'I' - a definition which will transcend what your optic sensors tell you." He looks to Laserbeak again. "She fears for herself. Protect siblings, yes? If you really believe in what your master’s decrees, you are capable of trying to engender loyalty with words. Surely it isn't necessary to erase her individuality."

Laserbeak replies, ""I understand what you are saying but I can not control what our creator does. Nor can any of us block out experience memories from him..."

Hinder tries to cringe back even further from Fairway, but she's already backed up against a chunk of stone and practically standing with her front paws on her back feet as it is.

Fairway stands, worried that he is frightening Hinder, and wipes his hands together. "You would know that better than I, Decepticon," he says to Laserbeak. Then, to Hinder. "You can wake up as you and not someone else. You can return to your creator and risk losing yourself entirely. Believe it or not, Small One the choice is /yours/ to make." He puts his hands on his hips and looks back to Laserbeak. "Maybe this is why she likes me," he says, "if indeed she does. Because I encourage her instead of terrorizing her." His voice is calm; he is not chiding.

Laserbeak frowns. He doesn’t feel he terrorized her, he was just being himself. "I have not terrorized her." he says voicing that thought to the Autobot.

Hinder looks up and back at Laserbeak again. There's no accusation or contradiction in her look, just a simple acceptance of his words. He wasn't terrorizing her. It was his words about Buzzsaw that sent her into this identity-crisis panic, not the way he delivered them. Well, so she believes. Because he said so. She considers Fairway for another moment, then relaxes her cornered pose by quickly turning in place to lie down in a tightly curled ball, her tail over her nose but her little maraschino optics still looking up at the Autobot.

Fairway was a philosopher of some renown on Cybertron, and has been involved in many discussions with mechs who either refused to budge on a particular subject or were so deeply involved in their own beliefs as to be blinded to their own capacity to doubt. That being so, he knows when to back away. Soon, Hinder will reach fertile ground - if she is allowed to retain her personality, that is. And Laserbeak may have spent so much time in Soundwave's service as to be impossible to convince. He lets his last words flow. "Hinder, you want to be yourself. You can be yourself with me, as an Autobot. But as a Decepticon you will always be simply an extension of Soundwave's will, disallowed to have a will of your own."

Hinder doesn't answer Fairway, though her gaze shifts up to Laserbeak. Even without her elder sibling's words, she knows the Autobot is treading in VERY dangerous territory. And moreover, she can't even begin to imagine just up and leaving Soundwave and her siblings. Simply can't. So the suggestion left hanging in the air is even more unnerving to her. She curls up even more tightly, as if trying to hide from it.

Laserbeak has fallen silent, the look on his face unreadable right now.

Fairway is finished. He's spent too much time here talking philosophy with the enemy. The Decepticons' moral stance is repellent to him, and no amount of compassion he may feel for one of them can eclipse his moral outrage - not to mention the pain and anger he felt when he saw Crystal City, his home, fall to Megatron's Constructicons. "All choose, Little One," he says, "Remember?" He turns to Laserbeak then, his words carrying twice the meaning. "All ... choose." He begins to back away, his hands up. He activates a magnetic panel on his shoulder and draws the scram rifle up to the ground to attach to his chassis.