Timetravel TarnGlitch interactions can have such delicious flavours. Thinking of them and giggling, like
- Damus who was a midcaste intellectual class, went though the Cybertronian equivalent of studying humanities in university, had the assurance of a 'respectable' future only to have it ripped out of him when he messed up his control over his powers just once in presence of unfriendly company.
- newly empurataed Glitch who is slowly losing his sense of self, justice and optimism that he thought he had, but is still not quite there yet in the my-govt-needs-to-be-exterminated scale. So when he sees Tarn and learns of his future he gets a lot of mixed feelings. He's always wanted to stand tall and be looked up at (both literally and metaphorically), to not hide himself away in lies, and also feel useful. On the other hand, violence - He understands it's need but ouch, he has to be the one to inflict violence??
- Tarn who is upset because he's late in saving himself, again. Tarn who is losing his conviction of the Cause, Tarn who has been abandoned by his god and is losing the beliefs that kept him going in the millennias of war. Tarn who sees the almost-forgotten, disgusting (Tarn's words not mine) face that used to be his, and realizes he doesn't hate it as much anymore.
Tarn who instead of just taking a peek at his past self, brings Glitch back with himself to his present, to the war, for reasons he doesn't know, or doesnt acknowledge even to himself.
Glitch who sees Tarn kill and torture without blinking an eye. Glitch who learns of the Cause, and finds himself enchanted. Tarn who sees himself falling in love again, with a violence he once thought as righteous.
Tarn who kills a deception, not a traitor, a loyal decepticon who leered at Glitch's, his, empurataed face, and doesn't find an ounce of guilt in having killed someone loyal to the Cause.
Tarn who sees Glitch read through his collection of Megatron's essays and poetry and add to Tarn's own annotations in the margins of Towards Peace, and finds himself looking again and again at garish orange claws and the blinking singular optic.
Glitch who finds himself protected, not with friends and laws that washes away in front of the Council, but with blunt violence that spills energon on the floor but keeps him safe.
And Glitch suddenly finds purple to be a colour far more attractive than he's ever thought.
Anyway uh this post was sponsored entirely be TarnGlitch/Damus selfcest towards the end of the war where Tarn goes back in past for Reasons and brings Glitch back who I've again goes so so horny for Meg's writings and they both are weird and horny about each other's past and future selves.