▸ Column · G1 Transformers universe, Earth-side Autobot operations base during wartime resource rationing
GRIMLOCK replies.
Replied to by Grimlock, with a rebuttal from Optimus Prime.
The letter
My partner-Autobot and I have been splitting every energon ration exactly down the middle for nine cycles — nothing off the shared ledger, every cube accounted for. Then I found a supply manifest addressed to him alone, tucked outside anything we track together. He's running a private cache: charges to a relic-parts dealer two sectors away he's never once mentioned, dues to some private collectors' ring I've never heard him bring up. What's eating me isn't the resources — it's that he's been lecturing me about "conserving for the war effort" while quietly running a whole separate operation with its own drop point. I slipped the manifest back where I found it and haven't said a word. Three days now, just running confrontation scenarios in my head. Do I walk up and lay it in front of him, or do I wait and see if he ever comes clean himself?
Grimlock replies
Me Grimlock listen. Nine cycles, half and half, every cube. Nothing off the ledger. That real thing — nine cycles of "mine, yours, we even." That is trust. And now you find he running secret cache, secret dealer, secret ring, while looking you in eye and saying "we need to conserve."
You ask: do you go face him, or do you wait and see? Me Grimlock say that wrong question. Wrong question is fancy hat. Take off hat. Real question is why you running scenarios in your head for three days instead of walking up to him right now. Grimlock say it plain — you scared. Not scared of fight. Scared of what he gonna say when you put that manifest in front of him. Scared it gonna be true.
It already true. You just haven't made him say it out loud yet.
Waiting for him to come clean himself? That not plan. That hiding with extra steps. He had nine cycles to come clean. He picked secret drop point instead.
Me Grimlock say one thing. Pick up manifest. Walk up. Put it on table between you. Say nothing. Wait. He gonna talk first. What he say first — that the real answer. No more running scenarios. One move. Do it today.
Grimlock simple. Grimlock not stupid.
— Grimlock
Optimus Prime weighs in
Grimlock is not wrong about the first move. Lay the manifest on the table. I would not argue the tactic.
But Grimlock is a soldier, and soldiers answer the question directly in front of them. The question you are actually carrying is behind it. Did he hide this? You already know he did. What you came here asking is something harder: whether nine cycles of splitting every ration evenly was the partnership you believed it to be — or a different arrangement than the one he allowed you to see.
That is a deeper wound than a manifest can name. Walk in if you choose. But know what question you are truly there to ask. Did you hide this? has one answer. Why did you need to? opens a much longer reckoning. Win the confrontation without knowing which one you are asking, and you may not recognize the silence that follows.
— Optimus Prime
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