::Very much so. How is it manifesting for you?::
My looord Megatron~ Happy Sunday! Stab anything nice today?
His voice is still slightly cracked. He winces when he hears it.
“Not exactly.”
Slag. He sighs, rubbing at his throat.
“Because I had my own encounter as well.”
Oh now I’m DEFINITELY coming over.
“…Please do.” He’ll get his vocodor fixed in the morning. For now, he needs this more.
My looord Megatron~ Happy Sunday! Stab anything nice today?
His voice is still slightly cracked. He winces when he hears it.
“Not exactly.”
OOh that sounds rough…
Need me to come over? I figured out what the deal was with the bad clone, too!
“…A device that was projecting a realtime holomatter simulation?” It sounds a little better when he speaks slowly. Perhaps Singer should look at it.
At this rate, he’ll end up making the medbay his private quarters.
Wha- how’d you guess?! Toothless ate a component out of it and it broke!
… wait why do you sound like you’ve been eating cygars?
Slag. He sighs, rubbing at his throat.
“Because I had my own encounter as well.”
My looord Megatron~ Happy Sunday! Stab anything nice today?
His voice is still slightly cracked. He winces when he hears it.
“Not exactly.”
OOh that sounds rough…
Need me to come over? I figured out what the deal was with the bad clone, too!
“…A device that was projecting a realtime holomatter simulation?” It sounds a little better when he speaks slowly. Perhaps Singer should look at it.
At this rate, he’ll end up making the medbay his private quarters.
My looord Megatron~ Happy Sunday! Stab anything nice today?
His voice is still slightly cracked. He winces when he hears it.
“Not exactly.”
The Soundwave in front of him backed away, his optics wide with shock and bright rage. Still there was no feeling from him. “Aren’t real? Don’t mock me like that! I am only realizing that ny alternate was right about you…” That stung particularly hard, but only caused Megatron to advance further, raising his sword to Soundwave’s helm.
“So tell that to me as you always have,” he challenged. “Fill my mind with your fury and disappointment if that is what you think of me!” Megatron’s arm shook, waiting for the onslaught of telepathy, but it never came. Soundwave only looked at him with disdain.
“You don’t deserve my mind. I don’t want to touch yours ever again.”
In a single motion, Megatron’s sword withdrew and his cannon whirred to life, firing as fast as he could. The blast hit Soundwave’s chest dead-on, leaving a smoldering hole through Laserbeak and out the other side. His frame crumpled, uncovered face dim and unfocused.
Megatron stood over him, blaster trained on the Thing playing at being his conjunx but it didn’t move or change form, still and smoking on the floor. Megatron too, was frozen.
What have I done?
::Lord Megatron, we’ve located a projectile on top of the ship. It doesn’t seem to be explosive but it’s emitting a frequency we can’t lock onto.::
Megatron took a moment to comprehend the voice. It sounded too normal for what had just transpired. He almost shuts off his comm before the soldier chimes in again. ::…Orders, sir? How should we proceed?:: His voice is scratched, even harsher than normal when he replies.
::Block the frequency and destroy the device. At once.:: Please. Please let this be the cause. Please don’t let him have to stare at the wound where he had so carefully placed Soundwave’s life force weeks ago spark and blacken as it cools…
After a few moments, the image of Soundwave flickers and blinks out of existence. Megatron falls to his knees, face in his servos as he vents hard, trying to control his shaking. It wasn’t real. It can’t be real…
But he’ll never know for sure until Soundwave wakes up.
::What’s this I hear about you having hallucinations?::
::I’m not having hallucinations, but I am seeing a ghost. And- I can’t let you in. Don’t come here, Megatron. Please.::
Smokescreen’s still standing besides the rusting Optimus, his flakes of paint scatted across the floor. His optics were much more purple than before, sure, but Smokescreen barely noticed that with everything else going on.
Plus- he didn’t need Megatron to see the Decepticon insignia that seems stuck to his plating, with the paint around it scratched off, but not the insignia.
A ghost that Megatron isn’t being allowed to see.
I wonder who that could be, he thought with a roll of his optics.
He doesn’t wait before bridging to Smokescreen’s location, sighing heavily to see the image of Optimus in shambles. What a cheap trick.
“Spirits aren’t real, Smokescreen, and neither is he.”
It takes him a second to react, maybe due to having been awake for a couple of days, but Smokescreen’s quick to go after Megatron, trying to push him out of his quarters. Optimus is rusting, and rusting, but is well enough to point a blaster towards Megatron. The feeling of Optimus shaking his head in disapproval of Smokescreen almost goes unnoticed, even.
“I guess you don’t remember the time Optimus possessed you? I’m not sure he’s real, but it doesn’t matter! There’s something going on, I don’t want him to hurt you. And I don’t want to lose him again. Even if he’s like this. Megatron please, please, just go. I’m fine. I’m fine.”
“I do remember and it doesn’t matter. Specters don’t just appear like this, it isn’t true! And if he really is Optimus-” Megatron steps forward, letting Optimus’ blaster ‘tink’ against his plating while he wraps a servo around his throat.
“Then he had better start speaking.”
( Bee points at the “spirit” Optimus. ) Stabbed that.
…Good. Stab it more.
::What’s this I hear about you having hallucinations?::
::I’m not having hallucinations, but I am seeing a ghost. And- I can’t let you in. Don’t come here, Megatron. Please.::
Smokescreen’s still standing besides the rusting Optimus, his flakes of paint scatted across the floor. His optics were much more purple than before, sure, but Smokescreen barely noticed that with everything else going on.
Plus- he didn’t need Megatron to see the Decepticon insignia that seems stuck to his plating, with the paint around it scratched off, but not the insignia.
A ghost that Megatron isn’t being allowed to see.
I wonder who that could be, he thought with a roll of his optics.
He doesn’t wait before bridging to Smokescreen’s location, sighing heavily to see the image of Optimus in shambles. What a cheap trick.
“Spirits aren’t real, Smokescreen, and neither is he.”
Megatron has brought over some of his sweeter spoils from his time away. He supposed they’re enough like candy to pass for Halloween treats. “Bumblebee? I’ve brought us a drink.”
(The Bumblebee that answers the door is lively and smirking devilishly… compared to the tired, shrinking Bumblebee that’s at his back.) “HEY LOOK, it’s Megatron here for pity hangouts! Guess Rung wasn’t available today, huh?”
(Bee looks ashamed, and the devilish Bumblebee shoves him back in the house and leaves the door open.) “Come in, come in! He can prattle on about his pets for a couple hours until you get bored and go home!”
Just like that, the joviality is gone. He can see Bumblebee visibly deflate, back to the posture he’d first had when Megatron had opened the door, back to those distant, hopeless optics. He glares.
“It’s still here, isn’t it?”
(There’s an audible squeal of terror and a pop as it disappears.)
I don’t think it’ll ever leave…
With a sneer, Megatron gets up and stands in the center of the room, waiting and watching for it to appear again.
“It was not here before, so something must be manifesting it. Something that can be destroyed.”
Megatron's back up 