[video]

[knightoflight]

[Wing is standing outside the hospital--obviously, because he's far too big to fit inside. He has several long black chars on his white armor, and a few dents where he's taken rounds.  ]

[The biggest injury, though, is to his honor. He was trying to protect the hospital, but the Authorities...did not see to care.]

[He's standing by one of the low, ramshackle buildings when he speaks.]

I owe...everyone...an apology. I was trying to help. I thought I could minimize the damage, and protect the Hospital.

[He cycles a vent of air, like a sigh. He doesn't need to say this next part, but he does. He needs to admit it.]

I was wrong.  This?  [He gestures toward the crumbling walls, the jagged glass still hanging in rickety window frames,] is my fault.

I would like the opportunity to make up for it.

[It's up to them, now, if they'll have him.]

Comments

[video]

[springs_eternal]

[There doesn't seem to be anyone looking back through the video feed, just a clear, open sky and, along with the sound of a crisp breeze, a familiar voice.]

Tsk, Brother Wing...you are far too hard on yourself.

I was only just at the hospital, and the structure is still quite sound. I believe that without your assistance, there would be little left but rubble.

Take heart! Know that your efforts saved lives.~

[video]

[knightoflight]

[He's waiting to hear blame. He deserves it. So he's a bit...taken off guard by the other's gentle kindness.]

I should have done better.

I didn't imagine they'd shoot at their own kind simply to get at me.

[Drift had been right, in Crystal City, accusing him of being naive. He'd seen so little of the world, even his world.]

[furhat]

This was war. War has losses. What is there to apologize for?

[Despite the collar, Alucard seemed in a somewhat okay mood. And, yes, she believed what she had said.]

[knightoflight]

Because I caused losses among noncombatants.

This may be war, but it is not everyone's war.

[furhat]

Guilt. [The lips of the vampire slightly quivered, with amusement, probably. She had caused collateral herself, after all - and while she did not like humans dying, she believed that sometimes, it happened regardless of what one did.]

It is the nature of war to devour these that seek to avoid it alongside these that seek it. Collateral cannot be avoided, it is inevitable.

[She pointed at him (well, forward, really) with her gloved hand]

The real question is: Have your actions saved more than inactivity would have?

[knightoflight]

It is inevitable in war, yes. But this is not a war, is it? This is naked aggression, one-sided.

[He blinks.] That...I don't know.

[Action, if that's okay? :) ]

[catchingflies]

[There's a very short little dude with messy hair, ratty jeans, and very wide eyes staring at you, Wing. He doesn't care about your guilt, really. He cares that you are a huge robot and you are talking.]

Whoah. That's so cool, yo.

[He leaps his way up to the top of said crumbling wall that Wing was bemoaning, to get a better look.]

[Action, is perfect ]

[knightoflight]

....cool?

[Wing looks down, and then up. And then up. He...didn't know humans could do that.]

This destruction? But people were likely hurt during it.

[Action then!]

[catchingflies]

[Humans can't. Todd is quite happily not human, or so he's been told. He looks confused for a second, then looks down on the rubble he's perched on, realizing what Wing is talking about.]

What, that? Naw, I was talkin' 'bout you. You really talkin' and stuff?

[Nevermind that he's obviously talking and stuff, Todd is still kind of expecting a trick of some sort. Robots aren't people, right?]

[Action ]

[knightoflight]

Me?

[Well, at least this one isn't afraid of him.]

Yes. I am talking. And...stuff.

[He tilts his head.]

You're new, I take it? I'm Wing.

[catchingflies]

[He leans back a little from the attention-- not afraid, no, but a bit wary of things like laser eyes and stuff.]

Uh, yeah. Tolansky, hi.

[He waves a little, feeling kind of dumb.]

Kinda new. Just woke up at that ship thing, like, yesterday. Did I miss somethin' big? I mean, this place is a mess, yo.

[knightoflight]

[There are no laser optics. Wing is a pacifist. Despite the three swords. It's...a little complicated.]

I wish we met under different circumstances, Tolansky.

[He frowns, but not at the newcomer.]

This is the second time the Authorities have attacked us since I've been here.

[He muses.]

But before that, there were also dinosaurs.

[catchingflies]

Dinosaurs? Really, man?

[Todd isn't sure he believes that-- but then again, talking robots. So he just snorts and gives his head a quick shake.]

This I gotta see sometime. But who're those Authority guys? They like cops, er somethin'?

[Great, somebody new to try and avoid? Not like he isn't used to it, but still. Kind of annoying.]

[knightoflight]

That's what the other humans called them. [He sounds unsure now. ] They were large and unintelligent.

The Authorities? I suppose they think they are. They fought a war here, long ago, and poisoned the planet. They retreated to their domes and the Old City, and us, are all that's left of their war.

[catchingflies]

Heh, there's a lotta things that're big an' unintelligent.

[Like Fred Dukes, the Blob. Todd snickers at that one. It's sure easier than trying to make sense of the rest of it, laughing at one of his friends. Or, ya know, whatever they were.]

Sounds like a weird kinda place. That's got talkin' robots and dinosaurs. They got, uh, school or anythin', too?

[If he's found a world without school, at least that's better than home! Though the lack of power is kind of annoying.]

[knightoflight]

[He laughs.] This is true. But the humans called them dinosaurs.

[School?] Not that I've heard of. But perhaps they simply don't tell me. There are many things in the Old City I simply can't access.

[Being two stories tall and all that.]

Do you miss school? We could find someone?

Audio

[golden_retriever]

Hey. Wing. Remember me, Eliot? [ Eliot remembers you, robot guy. ]

How's this your fault?

video

[knightoflight]

Eliot. Yes.

You're looking...much better.

[With the not bleeding and everything.]

[He sighs.] I was trying to draw them away from here. But we ended up fighting....here. This, [He touches a series of bulletholes in the wall next to him] was them firing at me.

Perma Audio

[golden_retriever]

[ How would Wing know he wasn't bleeding? That was only his voice. Regardless, that wasn't what Eliot cared about.

He had been in war, gone through enough fighting to know the guilt some soldiers took into themselves. ]

Look, the fault's theirs. Not yours. Did you tell them to shoot there? Did you destroy the place yourself? You didn't, alright? Sounds to me you tried your best and things got bad 'fore you could lead'em away.

*FACEPALM* bc Wing's player is a moron at times?

[knightoflight]

I tried.

But it wasn't good enough.

[This is hard for him to take: he's studied fighting all his life, but his actual experience is...three battles, two of them here.]

We all have those days *patpat*

[golden_retriever]

No, it wasn't. And your bein' there didn't help lure them away. [ Eliot didn't mince words sometimes and he wasn't the best at pep talks either. ]

But that doesn't mean it was your fault.

If you gotta blame someone, blame the ones who did this, don't start takin' the blame onto yourself. That's what I'm sayin'.

[knightoflight]

It didn't. No. But I couldn't let them attack the hospital. There were innocents. Injured. And medical supplies.

...why would they target such a place? It's beyond reason.

[He really doesn't understand that. That's not how war is supposed to work!]

[golden_retriever]

That's precisely why they target the hospital. It's got medical supplies, it gives support and keeps us goin'.

If you're tryin' to wipe out the other side fast and dirty, you don't do it by hittin' their fighters. You hit them where they hurt and make sure their fighters can't get healed. Then you go after the fighters.

[knightoflight]

But....

[Yeah, sorry. His little robot mind is blown. So much for superior robot logic.]

But we're not even 'enemies' and that's...that's not right. [It's an obvious, perhaps weakly worded thing to say, but he can't even begin to describe how it makes him feel. They'd left Cybertron for a similar reason.]

It shouldn't be allowed.

[golden_retriever]

Seriously? They come here, wipe out half the people, go around shootin' and killin', and you don't think they're enemies?

Listen up, they are going to kill you... [ A moment of consideration for the creature he was talking to. ] —Take you apart, or whatever they do to a robot— and it's best you don't think they're to be reasoned with.

I've seen types like that, alright, and they aren't lookin' to make friends with the inferior natives.