Log Title: An Unknown Answer Characters: Eaglebeast, Goth, Kitakaze Solon, Deathsaurus Location: Goth's Lab - Acropolis - North Altihex Date: November 25th, 2021 TP: Liege Maximo TP Summary: Goth gets his awnser to his nightmares... But the awnser he gives, Is it really what everyone wants? As logged by: Goth - Thursday, November 25th, 2021, 1 AM
Goth's Lab - Acropolis - North Altihex
Goth is laying in his pillow nest, looking up at the ceiling, he's rested some thanks to Backblast, but he was eventually going need to go into RMM sleep.. face that dream again. Unfortunately depression has settled into the bats mind once more, more so then normal thanks to the lack of sleep and well.. how was he different then Backblast? Was he just not trying hard enough? Was he that far irredeemable? He'd close his optics and let out a sigh as he rolled over.
Deathsaurus is watching over Goth, seeing how he handles his nightmares. He spends a lot of time in Goth's lab, trying to figure out how to stop these nightmares.
Although he's still pretending to be worried about the completion of his power armor, it might finally dawn on Goth that Solon has been dropping in more often specifically to check on the condition of his "Oji" Goth. Solon lands outside the lab on the back of Eaglebeast and hops off, quietly entering the lock code and sticking his head inside, hair falling to cover both eyes. "Oji-sensei?" he calls out softly.
Goth's ear flicks as he hears the child enter and opens his optics to look over. "Ah... yes, I'm here, worry not." He'd huff, shifting to sit up and nodded over to Des. "Father is here as well." He'd add as he let the lights come on. Deathsaurus opens a crimson optic. The kaiju raises his head. "Ah. Hello, Salon, Eaglebeast. Coming to check on your oji?" he asks.
Solon grins in relief, coming fully into the lab, with Eaglebeast following. "Hai, Otosan," he answers Deathsaurus with a smile. "Konbanwa." Solon immediately makes his way towards Goth's pillow nest.
Eaglebeast, showing more loyalty, flies up and over and lands on Deathsaurus' shoulder, fluffing out his metal wings.
A small smile comes to Goth's face, as he nods in greetings to the boy, he leans down to lie on his chassis, much like a cat and crosses his arms. "How fare you today?" he asks, trying to.. well hide away the topic of his issues for a later date.
Deathsaurus reaches to stroke Eaglebeast in greetings. "Did you eat today?" he asks. "How are the nightmares?"
"I'm OK," Solon replies. "How are YOU?" he asks, stubbornly refusing to be drawn off topic. "Did you learn anything from recording your dreams and the Autobots?" He glances at Deathsaurus, and then back at Goth. "Why are the Autobots' ghosts backing off and yours aren't? It is because you're small and weak in comparison to him?" He quiets so Goth can answer the questions from Deathsaurus.
Goth pauses to think about that, had he? Yes? No? Maybe.. Then again if he had to think about it, the answer was likely no. Goth sighs. "Not yet.. and So far, quite given what Backblast gave me to use." Goth awnsers before his optics track back to Solon and rubs at his temples.
"...I do not know, it seems to be something even /they/ can't figure out." Goth scoffs at the notion its due to him being weak. "Perhaps its.. merely due to me not being born here." Yeah, yeah that maybe the odd factor.. maybe, still it was SOMETHING he could latch onto. Deathsaurus pauses. "The Autobots ghosts are backing off? Interesting. I wonder why that is."
Solon nods, frowning thoughtfully. He looks at Deathsaurus. "There has to be a reason..." He turns back to Goth. "Your ghosts - how are they different from the Autobot's? I'm still learning to distinguish between types of Transformers," he admits. Glancing back at Deathsaurus, he adds, "I mostly know Destrons from Death Zone."
"He means in regards to Backblast's dream." Goth reminds Deathsaurus. Goth then looks to Solon and hems.
"Originally they started out as.. mainly standard formers, but now they've taken on the forms of many, cybertronian, eukrian, Decepticon and Autobot..Standard and Beast.. " Goth frowns. "Those I've loved, and lost, patients I could not save, all very personal." He'd hem in thought. "Poking and prying at.. truamadic thoughts."
Deathsaurus sighs. "And how is it different than Backblasts. Maybe..you need to face them head on. The dreams seem to thrive and grow on your fears."
Solon's frown deepens, and under his thick hair, his young brow furrows. "And you think someone is doing this on *purpose*?" he asks incredulously. "Like, mining your memories for traumatic events and then using them against you? That's terrible! Who could even do that?" He looks to Deathsaurus as if maybe he'd know.
"Its a theory, given the only possible theory we have at the moment." Goth huffs, tapping at his helm. "As we honestly have no other clues at the moment that would factor in, like being at the same place at the same time, where there could be gasses, or the like." Goth huffs.
"...I don't know." He says to Deathsaurus. "I feel.. that wont work." Goth says darkly.
Deathsaurus murmurs. "Wont know until we try. Try dreaming that Im there at your side. I'll kick the dream demons aft."
Solon nods at the theory, but frowns at Goth's rejection of Deathsaurus's idea. "Why not?" he demands. "Have you TRIED? You have to stand up to them!" he insists, making a small, bony fist. "You're a Destron now! We don't take these things lying down! We fight!" He glances again at Deathsaurus and adds an enthusiastic "Yeah!"
Goth's ears fallback, he's unsure of this, fact he's pretty sure the next time he faces those dreams, he /wont/ wake up, or if he does it wont be pretty. He however sighs and rubs at his temples. "Alright.. I can make an attempt, but I'll have my drone hooked up to have you ensure it doesn't go south." goth says, pointing to Des.
Deathsaurus nods "Of course. We are Destrons. Together, we cant fail."
"Don't worry," Solon says seriously, leaning forward a little for emphasis. "We'll watch carefully, and if it starts to go bad, we'll wake you up!" He starts to climb some of Goth's equipment to get a better view of what's going on. He nods in agreement with Deathsaurus's optimistic assessment. "You can do it!" the announces enthusiastically.
Goth gives a nervuse smile as he gets his drone out, but mentally, he's worried so, as he hooks the drone to his computer, he makes sure that something will activate if.. things happen, before he attached the drone to the familiar port on the back his helm and moves to his pillow nest. "Right... Right..." He says softly, knowing full well Des wasn't.. always right, and it rubbing off on Solon was just going to add fuel to the fire.
Deathsaurus nods "Solon is right. We'll wake you up if theres any issues. Besides. I'll be there to help. What can defeat me?" what indeed.
Solon nods in agreement with his dad, and then quiets, watching intently to see what Goth dreams.
Goth gives Des a flat, knowing look as he knows fairly well there are some things that can, he knows, he's had to fix Des after them, but he huffs and lies his head down to try and fall into sleep, RMM sleep at this point since he's without the sedative's that would force a dreamless sleep...Soon, he's there and the video feed on his computer pops up, as well as a number of outputs, reading his spark hertz, energon levels, etc.
As he drifts off, Goth finds himself back in a Decepticon medlab, although it's more of an amalgamation of several he's worked in rather than any specific one. There is a Decepticon laid out on the table in front of him, his chest open and spark exposed. The body is cut and burned... and to Goth's trained optics, some of these wounds were sustained AFTER he was brought in from battle.
Goth looks down at the Con and rolls his optics. Clearly not lucid yet. "Honestly, can they not make my work harder for me?" he'd sigh as he goes to pick up his tools to get to work.
Deathsaurus watches over Goth as he sleeps, tilting his head curiously at the dreams.
The Con on the table suddenly opens its optics wide, although they are still dark. He reaches out and grabs Goth's arm. "You failed us!" he gasps, black oil running from the corner of this mouth. "You failed all of us!" A low moaning fills the room, and the souls of the dead once again start rising from the floor... all people Goth has lost in his waking life.
Goth's fur fluffs out and his ears fall back, eyes growing wide in a bit of a panic, before he snarls in anger. "What? No I did everything I could! What makes you think I--" He'd stop seeing the rest of the dead starting to raise. "What do you want?" He snarls as he starts to step away, but is grabbed and starts attempting to pull away.
As Goth becomes more focused in his dream, so do his ghastly tormentors. Moving ever closer, they moan in overlapping groans, "Join us, Goth..."
"Come with us, into the Pit..."
"Let us share with you the secrets of the Underworld...."
"Mastery over Death, Goth... there are the secrets we share..."
Finely, that's the whole of it, right?.. Right? "And the price?" he asks quickly before he's quickly overcome by a paralyzing panic, feeling like he can't properly ex-vent.
The nearest undead Decepticon grins widely, the stench of decay rolling off him in waves. "Forever will you be marked by death, Goth," the walking corpse chuckles. "But you such as you, what will be the change?" His laugh deepens, and with his fellow zombies, he surrounds Goth, grabbing onto his limbs and fur...
GAME: Goth FAILS an AGILITY roll of Very High difficulty.
The hells could that mean? Forever marked by death? His mind was quickly trying to parse this, buy the smell makes him flinch away, and derails his thoughts, and coughs. "What the frag does that mean?!" He snaps, trying to struggle to get away, trying to bring his free hand forward and take a swing with his elongated claw... and Misses like the cursed champ he is, optics narrowing.
Deathsaurus continues to watch "Just a dream, Goth...remember. It is just a dream."
Dream-Goth slashes at the dead, but his claws seem to just go right through them. Their grip on him, however, feels real as ever. "Infinite knowledge, for the cost of your soul," one moans.
"A bargain at twice the price," one titters.
"You won't miss it - we promise!" one of the dead laughs. By Onyx Prime, it might have been better when they were quiet...
A dream? A dream... That's right, that's what this was, but even then, he can't find himself able to escape.
In the waking world, his spark hertz starts fluctuating heavily, he physically rolls over and starts violently coughing. spitting up energon and black filthy oil.
In the dream, Goth's ears fall back and he snarls. Wasn't his soul already forfeit? doomed to damnation due to his actions of the past? He knits his ridges, and gives a sardonic, panicked laugh.
"My soul already belongs to a god of death." He says almost in a frenzied panic. Even if he'd only ever /pretended/ to be a death god, Khamsin still owned it, did they know that? maybe not, but hay, it could work.
In the waking world, Solon tenses, ready to jump down and wake Goth if the vision gets any worse.
In Goth's dream, the undead chuckle, but their grip on Dream-Goth loosens. "You reject our gift, then?" one asks.
"You do not wish our forbidden knowledge?" another chuckles teasingly.
GAME: Goth FAILS a COURAGE roll of Very High difficulty.
GAME: Goth PASSES an INTELLIGENCE roll of Extreme difficulty.
He Has a /choice?/ That was the first he ever heard of that, then again it didn't really FEEL like it with how he was being pulled unwillingly into this pit, he doesn't want to lose his life, or his soul if it was even there to be saved, he felt it was already damned.
"What do I gain? and don't say forbidden knowledge, that could be anything, like the inner workings of a aliens buttox." He snarks. "I..." he hesitates.
In the waking world, his backup safety net goes off, and starts sending out Morse code message.
Goth takes a vent. "Do I honestly have a choice in this situation? Clearly have me rather well bound." He states seriously. "I feel regardless of my answer, I think it leads to the same ending, doesn't it?" he asks.
- <irc.dal.net> <<Underwood>> ... --- ...
The dead release their hold on Goth, and as a one step back away from him. "If you reject our offer," one of the spirits tells Goth, releasing his tuft of fur.
"We will leave you, never to visit again," another says, letting go of his arm.
"If you change your mind, however, you have to only ask," a third grins, half its face missing from some long-ago horrific injury.
- <<Broadband>> Goth says, "... --- ..."
GAME: Goth FAILS an INTELLIGENCE roll of Extreme difficulty.
- <<Decepticon>> Acting Intel CO Floodlight says, "Interesting. I'm picking up an SOS from the trai-- er, Destron ally, Goth."
Released finely! He'd take a heavy vent. He side optics these spooks, fur still puffed, snarling lightly. If he says yes he's damned, if he doesn't, is he still damned? Probably.
Then depression then starts to seep in, making a bad situation, worse, reminding him.. he's been abandoned, save for two, maybe three, who stick by his side... Looking down at his hand he huffs out.
"...I ask merely, to keep my mind and my sanity."
GAME: Goth PASSES an INTELLIGENCE roll of Extreme difficulty.
The dead chuckle in unison. "Do you truly still have both with which to bargain?"
"Think about what we offer, and what you're willing to give. We will return... when you ask for us."
The last of the dead release Goth and start to sink into the floor. As the room itself starts to fade, Goth spots one last shadowy silhouette in the corner, of a blocky mech with a glowing optic band and some sort of cylinder on his shoulder. It is just watching, LISTENING.... before fading away as well.
Its like breaking from a fever, he's allowed to rest finely, his spark hertz stabilize and.. what ever caused him to cough up the energon and oil has stopped and he finely rests.
GAME: Goth FAILS a TECHNICAL roll of Extreme difficulty.