What is lost can't be found [open]

[4_toteachus]

WHO: Four and everyone
WHERE: Junkpile
WHEN: Today
WHAT: Four searches for his family.
WARNINGS: Sad stitchpunk.

Everytime he heard something familiar, he felt hope. The longer and longer it took him to find the source, he felt the hope begin to die. This happened so many times that the tiny stitchpunk was emotionally exhausted by the time he flopped over a coffee can.

Day in and day out Four has searched for them. It was maddening how he would hear their small footsteps or hear their voices among the junk, but never be able to find them. It was like a terrible nightmare, where the faster and harder you try to catch something, the farther and farther away it got. Four couldn't give up though, not now not ever. His family had been everything to him, and he knew that they wouldn't give up if he was the one who was lost. Deep down inside it felt as if the soul fragment he had was twisting around until every movement he made felt painful. It hurt so much to love and miss them.

1 to protect us...
2 to inspire us...
3 to define us...
4 to teach us...
5 to guide us...
6 to lead us...
7 to defend us...
8 to guard us...
9 to save us.

He repeated this in his head until it gave him strength to stand up again to continue his search. They all had a purpose, they were together for a reason. They couldn't be separated now... Even though it hurt to do it, he knew they were still out there, somewhere.

Four was so tired...

Comments

[4_toteachus]

No he wasn't alright, but his feelings weren't important right now. What was important was the familiar robot approaching him. Despite the great weight in his chest, he managed to jump up and watch the robot with an expression of awe and excitement. It was his favourite information partner!

The vibrations caused the coffee can he was perched on to topple over, causing him to jump lightly to the ground. A few months ago, the sight of a Cybertronian leaning over him would have caused him to panic and run. Now, however, he scurried a couple steps closer. His own curiosity was almost blinding.

[angleofscience]

If Jetfire was a bit more... proficient at reading emotions/body language, it'd probably have been easier to tell how unsettled Four was. As it was, while he could tell that while something might be off, not exactly how bad it was.

Further, despite his attempts to be careful, there was a limit to how little he could affect his surroundings, which was made obvious when Four's seat toppled. At least the stitchpunk was all right.

Smiling faintly, Jetfire carefully sat down, folding his legs in front of him and reached out a hand, though with the size, he wondered if Four would be able to get up on his hand by himself...

"I apologize for nearly tipping you over... Even careful, I suppose at some point you can't just help but affect your surroundings."

[4_toteachus]

Four was becoming more and more used to having people reach for him, and stayed still as Jetfire sat down. The moment the hand was in reach, Four walked up to it and placed both hands on the smooth metallic surface. His eyes flickered several times as he was, once again, awed by the sheer size of this titan.

Getting on top of the hand wasn't much of a challenge, with the aid of the coffee can and a stick he found lying around. Stitchpunks were nothing if not resourceful. Four stood fearlessly on the center of Jetfire's hand. He looked up at him with an excited expression as he raised both arms in an 'up' motion that many human babies use.

He wanted to examine Jetfire's face, to see his eyes up close.

[angleofscience]

Waiting until Four was more secure and in his hand, Jetfire chuckled and did as wordlessly asked; at least Four was small enough there was no risk of his falling off his hand even if he stumbled around a bit.

It was... Interesting, to be interacting with something as tiny as this and intelligent; at this size, organic as well as mechanical, intelligence and sentience wasn't usually something that happened.

Compared to a human who might be slightly more uncomfortable and have hard to focus on something held up close to their face, Jetfire didn't have any issue with this, guessing how high Four wanted to go by pausing at moments and let the stitchpunk gesture for higher if he wanted to.

Up close, it was obvious his optics were covered by something similar to glass, though it'd be harder to tell whether the blue light came from behind, or was part of the glass itself... probably a little bit of both. Behind, the workings of the optics themselves could vaguely be seen.

[4_toteachus]

Four was instantly captivated by the eyes, they were incredible in every way imaginable. Having never been one to be shy about personal space, Four instantly got close and started exploring the mech's face with his tiny hands. It looked so human-like! With his nose and his lips. He decided that he'd get to those in a minute, right now he wanted to examine the optics.

They were so alive! Four reached out and placed a hand flat against the optic, not considering that it may or may not be uncomfortable to the robot it belonged to. He's not sure why, but seeing the life glowing behind these alien eyes makes him feel... happy. As if a questioned had been answered somehow.

Up those close Jetfire could probably see that Four was not made out of the most sophisticated equipment: His eyes are made of tiny spyglasses, hands are made out of copper, and his entire body itself happens to be a left-handed gardening glove. On the surface he could very well be a ragdoll stitched together for someone's granddaughter.

His expression, however, is one of intense curiosity. There are so many things here he wants to know.

[angleofscience]

Luckily, while there were some sensors to register that something was up against the surface of his optics, as there was no damage being done, all that was registered was the pressure, temperature and resistance put on the surface, not any sort of actual discomfort.

Four's exploration didn't pose enough of a danger to produce anything but factual feedback, unlike a human's (or other organic's) eyes, which were a lot more sensitive and vulnerable to influence.

The material was smooth, and unless he held still or kept himself balanced, it was frictionless enough Four's hands would slip around.

Jetfire took in the details of what the stitchpunk seemed to be made of with curiosity - he didn't at first recognize what Four's body consisted of, but having been around humans for a while prior to coming here, it didn't take long to reconstruct what it had been, and it seemed...

Like a very curious mix of more hardy materials and softer ones, sophisticated or not.

"Were the materials used for you intentionally chosen, or do you know if that was what was at hand?" Jetfire murmured, keeping his voice low especially now that Four was as close as he was, changing not just pitch but volume to affect the materials of the stitchpunk as little as possible.

Whenever Four got to the "nose" there'd be no nostrils; the nasal ridge was flat and smooth, but close enough and one could feel or see slight unevenness in the structure.

[4_toteachus]

Four actually played around with the frictionless surface. He'd place his hand on Jetfire's eye, and try to keep it as still as possible as he applied some pressure to it. His face would take on an expression of childish glee when his hand ended up sliding away from him, as if this game was the most fun he has had in a very long time. Yes he still wanted to learn all he could about Cybertronians... but experience has taught him that there was always time to play.

Oh, he was asked a question! Four stopped his fooling around long enough to shrug. He suspected that it was a little of both. The Scientist used the best of what he could find. But Four didn't like to leave questions like that unanswered, so he pointed at his left hand with his right. The Scientist used what he had at hand.

[angleofscience]

It was probably a good thing then that while Jetfire could feel it, there was no discomfort associated with the sensation, even if he had to abort the action that popped up, demanding the "obstructing items" be removed from his optics.

And despite the reply being wordless, it wasn't particularly hard to figure out. Nodding, slowly and carefully so as to not dislodge Four too much or make him slip, Jetfire glanced over Four again, considering the materials he was made of...

"How do you move? Would it be all right to scan you?" Because that might cut down on some questions... or add more.

[4_toteachus]

Scan him? Well, that certainly sounded like an interesting idea. Four wasn't sure what Jetfire was hoping to find, his insides were mostly cogs and gears, all made out of toy parts. Jetfire might notice during his scans that Four didn't have an obvious power source, though Four had told him before that he was a part of a human soul.

He shrugged and nodded, giving Jetfire permission to go ahead and do his scans.

[angleofscience]

Drawing back his hand from his faceplates some distance, Jetfire frowned thoughtfully while he raised up his right arm level with the hand Four was on. There wouldn't really be any visual proof of the scan having taken place, and Four would certainly not feel it - partly because he wasn't made out of sensitive organic material like flesh.

And while he might not have found anything amazing, the fact that there was just cogs and gears and no distinctive/obvious power source was interesting in itself. Being able to see how everything was structured and what it was made out of easily made it worth it for Jetfire.

"That's a very elegant construction, for having to use what he had on hand." Jetfire looks up from... Well, he'd been reviewing the results on his HUD, which meant his optics, but obviously that hadn't been visible to Four.