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Title: Tonight We Dine PCs: Shockwave, Chimera, Overclock, Dragotron Location: Kolkular / Edge of the Rust Sea Date: 29 April 2015 TP1: Autocracy TP2: Tangled Webs Summary: Dragotron and Chimera have a nice chat and go to dinner. |
Shockwave is not too haughty to clean up after himself, apparently. He's fastidiously cleaning the repair facility after what looks like a big job done recently; there are little heaps of metal shavings scattered around the floor, fluid pools and so on. Shockwave is picking up bolts and other small ferrous debris with an electromagnetic broom at the moment. It looks like a metal detector combined with a leaf blower.
The doors open wide. WIDE. They have to, considering who and what is passing through them.
With a deep throaty rumble like the warning growl of a lion, a massive Cybertronian reptile saunters into the room. He tucks wings to his back and ducks his crested head down to slither sinuously into the room.
His teeth part just enough to let him sense and taste the air, his exterior illumination casting a bright golden glow amid the rough, light-eating patches of black that is his base armoring. He seems to be looking for something.
Shockwave records and considers the new visitor, while continuing in his methodical sweeping.
Defeat can leave one feeling bitter and even ashamed. But Chimera felt nothing of the sort, even during her last moments before the darkness came spilling in and unconciousness took her. In fact, she felt.. glad. Megatron defeated her in single combat with nothing but his bare hands, a feat that earned him her utmost respect and loyalty. It didn't hurt that Dragotron was on his side, either.
Laying upon a medical bed now, the femme is just beginning to stir from her slumber. "Nnh.." Wounds have been cleaned and repaired, though one optic remains missing for now as well as her snapped horn. With a grunt she slowly sits up, a hand to her head as she sulks forward and grumbles. "That mech's got a tough head.." A comment on what finally did her in, but her thoughts wander as she catches sight of Shockwave, staring at the odd empurata for a few moments before Dragotron makes his way into the medbay. "Dragotron.. I wasn't expecting anyone to visit." Because who would?
- Clan-clack, clan-clack, clan-clack...*
The sound of claws scratching on flooring are a foreign sound that's grown more common in recent cycles, with beastformers and Insecticons both swelling Decepticon ranks in the wake of Nyon's destruction. Both, in this case, are what walk in, slowly and carefully, behind the enormous reptile. Part Cybertronian hound and part scorpion, her red lenses sweep the room until she picks up the distinctive ticking of Shockwave's frame. Chimera gets more than a passing glance - what is *that* doing here? - but she's not the purpose of this visit.
For the moment, Overclock hangs back and lets the monstrously large Primordial mark its territory first.
Dragotron stalks over to Chimera and sits on his rounds near her bedside, curling his bladed tail around his haunches. He lowers his head down to mere inches from hers, and a gutteral hissing rasp emanates from his fangs.
~Speak you the old tongue?~
Shockwave ejects the collected shavings into a funnel-shaped waste metal recycling disposal in the wall and hangs up the broom on its charging hooks. He crosses to Chimera, tilting his eye down at her briefly to assess her current state, now that she's rebooted from earlier inactivity.
It's a good thing Dragotron is here and Chimera is less than a hundred percent, lest the femme go after Overclock the moment she sees her. But the insectihound only earns a low growl from the depths of Chimera's chest, a threat to keep well away from her. Single optic then meets Shockwave's unblinking one, squinting slightly and pressing lips thin. "Am I going to be released anytime soon? I hate sitting around.." Especially in medbays.
But the worry of leaving fades away when Dragotron approaches and sits at her bedside, the femme not shrinking back in the least when he leans in. Audials perk, however, at the raspy hiss he speaks to her with and optic glows a tad brighter as she replies in kind in the beastial speech.
~I do. What has happened after all these years, Dragotron? This age is.. confusing..~
~I do not know. The Great One lies sleeping, dormant for countless vorns. I am still... uncertain. Groggy. As if I had been in stasis lock too long.~
Dragotron turns to Shockwave and chuffs at him, flipping the tip of his tail.
Shockwave picks up a small box from the counter behind Chimera's slab and takes out a shiny new eye, removing the shrinkwrap deftly with his thumb as he palms it. He sets it aside and turns back to Chimera, presses a switch on the side of the slab which pins her in place electromagnetically so that his workspace is held still, and with a surprisingly quick movement for his bulk, seizes her damaged eye, rotates it sixty-five degrees to the unlocked position, and snaps it out.
Swivelling back towards the counter to deposit the damaged eye, Shockwave takes up a small vacuum to extract the glass left in the socket when the original was hurt. "You will experience a period of blurred or double vision for some hours after the installation due to the time required for firmware matching," Shockwave's voice intones. "Do not rely on the injured side for precision work or estimation of distances until the effect passes."
When Chimera musters a growl in her direction, Overclock smiles, palpably, and swishes her tail to show off her own good health. There is something nice about seeing the Primordial on her back for once, even if it's not the Insecticon's doing.
Daring to move closer now, she steps around to be more on Shockwave's side than Dragotron's and rises as she transforms into her taller, bipedal form. The Insecticon's red visor looks at the more mammoth robot, sizing up its intention to do her harm, before drifting down to watch the medical procedure in progress. With entertainment like this, Overclock is happy to wait.
Dragotron hisses, looking back and forth between Chimera, Shockwave and Overclock. His tail lashes a little more.
~I have sensed others since awakening and have met fake kin who steal our forms. I have also sensed something.. familiar in the city they call Harmonex. We must go and see-- Ergh!~
Chimera is cut off when the electromagnet activates and pulls her back against the medical slab, completely immobilizing her. Shockwave's quick, autonomous removal of her optic draws a startled, shrieking yowl from the femme, body trying its hardest to move even an inch as he goes about cleaning out the socket. "Rrgh! This is why I hate healers!" Fanged mouth snaps uselessly at the air to get at his fingers and an uncomfortable, threatening hiss passes her lips.
Shockwave sets the vacuum aside in turn once the glass is cleaned away. He examines the socket briefly but the damage was superficial and thankfully limited to the eye itself. The new one is taken up and set into place with a smooth, rapid motion, twisted and locked in. Shockwave switches off the slab controls, the buzzing of the electromagnetic restraints fading. "You are sufficiently functional to resume service," he informs Chimera, and goes to put the damaged eye in the component recovery bin, where interns will later collect it for disassembly and recovery of any still working parts prior to recycling.
Overclock looks up to Dragotron again, aware of his presence but not yet repelled by it. Chimera's struggle draws an honest, light-hearted laugh from the Insecticon as she watches. "You're not very comfortable like that, are you?"
"Shockwave, once you are finished, I have information you may like," she offers to the former senator.
Dragotron bellows at Shockwave, as if distressed by Chimera's outburst and blaming the monoptic scientist for causing the pain.
Shockwave turns back from depositing the damaged eye in the bin (after replacing it in a small box and labelling the box with Chimera's eye type and socket size, as well as which side's eye it was, of course. He doesn't visibly react to Dragotron. Presumably he hears it, of course. Shockwave just doesn't seem to react to much that doesn't directly require his input. This goes as far as small talk, bedside manner, responding to any communication which isn't inquisitive. "Proceed," he informs Overclock.
Chimera's claws are raking small lines in the table as the scientist replaces the optic with a fresh one, another displeased groan rising from her until he finishes and releases her. On instinct she immediately scrambles from the table, rubbing furiously at the new optic from the odd sensation of it activating and trying to adjust to her visual preferences.
"Rrgh.. Damn healers.." She huffs and squints at Shockwave, part of him still blurry. "But.. thank you. I guess I'll have to come back later for my horn." Because she sure as the pit isn't sticking around here any longer, expecially with Overclock here. "As for you.." She turns to the other femme, glowering at her. "I'll deal with you later, /bug/.." With that said she gives a knowing look to Dragotron, transforms to her beast mode, and shakes her mane out before padding quick out the medbay doors. It would be best to speak with him where she won't have people digging in her optic sockets.
Overclock's panels bristle at the booming voice and Dragotron once more gains her attention, but it's Shockwave's call to answer. There's a twitch of 'get the scrap out of here' in the Insecticon's EMF at having a disgruntled Primordial in her immediate vicinity, but it's fought down. The perks of being a Self-Aware, the bug no longer slave to her instincts.
"Of course," she agrees mirthfully to Chimera, further amused rather than put off by her manners. Pausing for a few moments, she gives the beasts a chance to leave before addressing Shockwave again. Not everything she's about to say is meant for wandering ears.
Shockwave's lack of reaction to Dragotron inspires something of puzzlement. This... doesn't happen. Smaller creatures don't just -not cower in fear-. WHAT IS THIS SORCERY. The beast tilts his head to one side, before slinking over to the purple mech and sniffing him inquisitively. Is it alive? It -smells- alive. He reaches a clawed foreleg up, prepared to bat at Shockwave like an uneasy cat--
And then Chimera speaks and turns to leave, staying his hand. Literally. Dragotron raises his head as the other primordial exits the medical facilities, and, reluctantly, looking back and forth between her and Shockwave, he places his foot back on the floor.
CLEARLY nothing left of interest here, nossir, and with a twitch of his tail, he decides to exit, stage left, even.
--
Chimera left the medbay with haste and didn't stop, quick to leave the base completely and keep going until she came to the very edge of Kaon's border just before the beginnings of the Rust Sea. Venting faintly, the beast stops atop an eroded overhang flaked with rust and transforms back into her base mode to stare out over the expanse of dunes. Assuming Dragotron followed her, Chimera looks back to him when he joins her and frowns, concerned.
~I do not like this new world. So much has changed and it is all so hectic. ..But in a way it feels familiar. This civil war, it.. is as if history is repeating.~
~ I don't care for it either. I am still struggling to understand their chattering, stilted speech. The caretaker who awakened me assured me that I would come to understand in time, and to look after this 'Megatron' and heed him until I could fully recover myself.~
Dragotron's bulky mass parks itself near Chimera, settling down next to her to look over the rust sea.
~It isn't all that difficult if you share minds with someone.~ An admission that earns a grunt from Chimera. ~But it is still puzzling that you aren't as you used to be. Can you even change forms?~ The femme looks to him beside her with worry and rests a hand upon draconic neck. ~As for this Megatron... I believe he is worthy. He is strong, yet knows exactly when to use that strength and when to use his words.~
~I have been in stasis lock since before the coming of what these creatures call the Great Cataclysm.~ Dragotron says this as if it explains everything - which it likely does. Imagine being asleep for 11 million years - you'd have one hell of a hangover too. Not. Enough. Coffee. Ever.
~I will not share my mind at this time. I have no need for the gates of others in my head, and I will not compromise the Self with the data of others.~ Short answer: Not now, have a stasis hangover. ~You speak their language: What does this Megatron want?~
Chimera snorts. ~As have I, though I was awakened 20,000 years ago out of pure chance by some bumbling mech. Since then I have simply been observing from afar as they delve further into this war.~ His refusal to share minds is met with a slight narrow of her optics, but she understands. ~So be it, though my offers stands.~
Stepping away, Chimera moves to the edge of the overhang and sits, her tail swaying lazily at her backside. ~Megatron.. He wants equality, as far as I've gathered. An end to the tyrants who hold his people back and leave them in squalor. Perhaps there is revenge in it, too.. But he is a conqueror, I can sense it. This will become so much bigger than I'm sure all of them imagined.~
~Equality.~ He chuffs at it, as if this is beneath him, as if he knows far, far better than to strive for such an insane and ill-advised goal. ~Do you know then, Chimera -- was this Megatron forged a king?~
Chimera's audials flick back slightly at his question. It's a difficult one to answer, seeing as Dragotron is her king and Mortilus her god. ~I..~ She hesitates, thinking. ~I do not know, but I believe he will rise to become one. Even his spark smell bright, so I don't believe history will forget him so easily. He is not Mortilus and he is not you, but.. I am curious to see where he goes.~
She sighs and shakes her head, looking over her shoulder to Dragotron. ~Before, you mentioned a caretaker that awakened you. Do you remember anything about them? It would take someone great to bring you back..~
Dragotron stands and steps into the sands, turning to face Chimera rather than sit beside her. His wings partially unfurl. ~Only slaves and prey cry out for equality. If he were forged a king he would know better than to weigh the foolish in the wise as equal. I will observe him, but if he was not shaped by the gods as a king from his forging, he has no right to grasp such power. He was not -born- for it. The world suffers and trembles under the rulership of slave-kings.~
These are bold and even treasonous words, but Dragotron does not care. Treason is something that subordinates must worry over, and he is none of that. ~I will watch over this Megatron and learn from him for now. We shall see what he is made of. As to your question about the caretaker - it is the spider that served our dark Father from the times of creation~.
Chimera agrees with Dragotron, coming from the same age of thinking as him, but Megatron has intrigued her so far. ~We shall see. There is something about him I am curious about. Maybe he'll success, or maybe he'll fall, only time will tell. In the meantime, I believe he will be able to help further our goals. First, I think we should visit Harmonex, like I said. Something continues to pull me towards it..~ What, she isn't sure, but it's strong and old as she.
Then Dragotron speaks of his caretaker and Chimera has to do a double take. ~..Tarantulas.. He's awake as well?~ Once the shock begins to wear off, a curl of her lip takes its place. ~Hn.. I'm glad to hear he's alive, but I was never fond of him. His machinations.. bother me.~ She was built a warrior, so anything scientific just doesn't feel right to her. ~Still, it would be good to see him again.~
~Indeed,~ Dragotron agrees, leaping into the air, strong downdrafts from the beating of his wings kicking up wind and rust. ~For now however... I have been in stasis too long. We should hunt and grow strong. The number of prey roaming freely staggers the definition of bounty.~
It's been a while since Chimera genuinely smiled, but now her face lights with excitement. Too long has it been since she joined her kin in the hunt, so she is quick to accept. Standing, the femme transforms to her bestial form and answers him with a hungry roar, leaping from the overhang and sprinting off across the ground in the wake of her leader. Today, they feast.