In which we discover Decepticons don't teach Robert's Rules of Order.

[sword_redemption]

Who: Drift and hopefully others
What: After the latest wave of mysterious disappearances, it's time to start throwing in theories.
Where: Near where the Rec Center is, which is as close to neutral territory as Drift can figure.
When: After Ultra Magnus's pep talk.
Warnings: none?

Drift does one last sweep of the area. Not that he's expecting to find much in the way of danger. It was mostly nervous energy. He's not a leader. He knows he's not a leader. That was Rodimus's role. Or Optimus Prime's. Not his. The last time he was a leader, he was Deadlock and his leadership skills....were pretty questionable. And violent.

But they need to talk, and the Link is not a safe place. Hopefully, this is. They need to find out about this Unicron, how this Calling happens, what they can do to prevent it...if anything.

He's lit a small bonfire in the center of the place, figuring at least it'll be a site for mourning. In all their haste, they haven't really done that as a community.

((Subthreads below, feel free to mingle/threadjack/etc.))

Comments

THE BONFIRE

[sword_redemption]

[Comment under this to mingle around the bonfire]

[winged_knight]

Wing kneels, close enough to the bonfire that it warms his plating and fills is optical field. The dancing of the flames is oddly soothing, beautiful and terrible, life-death-rebirth all in one. But mostly the mesmerizing dance consumes his focus and lets him block out all the inner noise: fear, worry, grief and the desperate scrape for hope.

It's cleansing in that way, and the longer he sits the more his frame loosens, his pinions lifting and wings rustling.

Re: THE BONFIRE

[has_guts]

Ginrai's here, currently linked to his Transector, and thus looking an awful lot like an Optimus Prime. But he lacks some of Prime's confidence in his actions and movements. He's clearly still a bit overwhelmed by all these giant robot-peoples.

MEETING: Unicronny things

[sword_redemption]

"Our enemy, apparently, if the FirstForged are to be believed, is this Unicron. He exists in Wreck-Gar's world. Anyone else's? We need to know all we can."

OKAY I'll start.

[sword_redemption]

"We didn't have a Unicron--that I know of." He shrugged: he hardly knew everything. "But we did have something like this, an elder god thing trying to come in and take over our world. He lived in a dead universe, which started bleeding into our own in the Benzuli Expanse."

Ancient history, he thinks, and everyone from his world would know it.

"At the end of the war, I guess, in a way the end of the war, this god was crossing over, or trying to. It wanted to corrupt our whole universe, through the core of Cybertron. And it tried to get me." Another shrug. "I could feel it, reaching into me, trying to take me over. And it did, or nearly. I had to fight it to stop from killing my friends."

There's more, but he's suddenly aware of all the words he's spilled so far.

Re: OKAY I'll start.

[raceme]

Blurr listened quietly, as still as he could ever be. He frowned slightly but didn't interrupt until Drift was done.

Do you know why he chose you?

Re: OKAY I'll start.

[idle_time]

Wreck-Gar ran his fingers through his beard as he listened to Drift's story. Very strange. Very strange indeed.

"A 'dead' universe?" he asked.

[sword_redemption]

"He, uh, he didn't really choose, not like that. Everyone who was a Decepticon felt it. The Autobots didn't."

Uh, yeah, let's gloss over thinking about that, okay? MOVING ON.

"That's what they called it. Some sort of spatial disturbance. Those who crossed over onto our side didn't last long. And not many who went there ever returned." So, for lack of a better word, yeah, 'dead'.

[idle_time]

A frown. "Fascinating, Captain," Wreck-Gar said.

"Unicron never tried to claim he was a control the horizontal and vertical god, not that I know of. But hard to think of what else something that big at no additional cost might be."

[wreckandrotors]

So what's your Unicron like?

[Because everyone has one, right?]

[raceme]

Oh we DON'T know for sure if he's real or not we just hear stories...I think he might be real though.

[winged_knight]

"What do we know of this Unicron?" It still amazed Wing that the mythology--no--the theology, here was so different than his own universe. Were their creation myths wrong? Or could things vary that much between universes?

He's of course familiar with the ancient histories, and though the rest of what Drift has to say about the end of the war is dismaying, everything after 'it tried to get me' makes his optics go a little wide. "That sounds..." Absolutely horrible. "...a little like the Calling? I mean, haven't people been told that if they find their friends who've been lost, they...might not be them anymore. They might be hostile?"

[A gulp, because yeah that's eerily familiar. Wing casts Drift a sympathetic look. He suddenly has a new layer of respect for the other mech, knowing he's endured, fought and won against something so terrible.]

[sword_redemption]

"All I know is what Wreck-Gar's said. They had one and he was defeated by the Matrix of Leadership." Whiiiiiich they don't have right now.

Drift hadn't heard that about those who had been Called. He frowns. "But I'm the same...." His voice trails off. Or was he? He'd had a moment of truth, in a sense, and come out of it determined to leave the war behind.

[winged_knight]

"I know the Creation Story mentions that Primus had an opposite...but in the version I've heard he--it?--is not named." He frowns, because he rather wishes he'd done more research into the ancient texts while he had the chance. "The Circle put more emphasis on the Knights and the Hand, admittedly."

"....we don't even know if a Matrix exists here." Wing supposes they could ask though.

"But you didn't succumb fully?" It's mostly a confirmation, because Wing imagines Drift wouldn't be here if he had. It's a chilling thought, the implications of Drift's tale. He's still fully processing it.

[sword_redemption]

Drift hadn't heard that story: then again, not much time for superstition in the gutters. "These First Forged aren't the Hand, though, not that I can see."

"We may have one. If Optimus...," he shrugs. Drift hasn't been able to ask the Autobot leader. "But then there's no guarantee ours would work on anything here."

"No. I, uh, stopped myself." He really doesn't want to go into details.

BECAUSE EVERYONE NEEDS A STARSCREAM

[aerospacecommander]

Starscream had landed a little after the others arrived -- you know, being fashionably late and all. But he did catch the whole Unicron thing.

"Unicron sounds vaguely familiar."

He wasn't sure why though. Maybe it had been some of his fanatical clone's ramblings.

"But it sounds like everyone is going to need me anyway. I am the chosen one after all."

That is honestly the only part of Sunstorm's babbling that he even paid attention to.

YES WE DO

[sword_redemption]

"Vaguely?" That's better than nothing, Drift supposed.

"You're the chosen one? For what?" He's not sarcastic or dubious...yet. Right now, anything is useful information.

EXCELLENT

[aerospacecommander]

It wasn't like he paid attention much to any of the talks about ancient things. He was a scientist, he didn't believe in any of that.

Which is what made his next statement rather ironic.

"Whatever Sunstorm was rambling about -- some grand mission or slag like that. He had several screws loose, but he was also on to something. He lead me to an ancient Cybertronian seal on Earth. As to what that was all about ..." he shrugged before continuing, "I don't know. I never got to investigate."

He then straightened up and folded his arms across his chest in a rather smug-like fashion.

"However -- on another note, he couldn't open it without me."

[sword_redemption]

"An ancient seal." It is hard--for a klik--to imagine Starscream as an instrument of destiny. Then again, it was hard to imagine himself that way. "I'm not sure we'd have that seal here. Or what would be behind it. Could it be Unicron?" It makes a sort of sense, Drift figures: an emprisoned evil deity reaching out through preternatural means? Makes sense.

"So, what are you offering to do to help?"

Poke Drift.

[sword_redemption]

[C'mon it's fun! Drift will be floating around this meeting, because he knows not only is he not a leader, he's not much for ideas. Except floaty happy mystical ones, which he'll sprinkle at will. But if you want to poke/harass the host directly, you can catch him wandering around here.]

[vandalization]

So Vandal has been longering around, mostly quiet because she has no fucking clue what the hell a Unicron is and not really any say about what even goes down. But sitting around watching the big robots talk is nice in a weird way.

And she can drink.

And harass her favorite robot. The big pointy white one with the dork complex. Which is exactly what she is about to do.

[sword_redemption]

Drift's doing yet another loop of the meeting: he's trying to do more listening than talking, so he can actually get some news to report. It's a difficult thing to expect mechs to work together--old grudges, if nothing else, kept some away, he was sure. Still, something good had to come of this.

He saw Vandal, on the outskirts of the crowd, and his posture relaxes. Her, at least, he doesn't need to be on guard against. "Good to see you."

[vandalization]

"Hey!" She's relieved when he comes her way, rolling to her feet and meandering over to him.

"How's my favorite samurai today?" She says teasingly, thumping him on the knee with one hand, "Coming up if you don't mind."

Wordlessly, she scales him, easily. It's become a habit, climbing them. At least the friendly ones like Drift. She ends up sitting on his shoulders, arms draped over his finials.

"Quite the function you've thrown together."

[sword_redemption]

"Think I'm your...only...samurai?" Unless there's something she's not telling him.

"I don't mind." Not that he could stop her: before he's even got the words out she's climbing him like a ladder. He'd never considered his anatomy for human-scaling purposes, but apparently he was eminently climbable.

"I'm trying. I'm no good at this. But this Unicron thing must be important, mostly because, well, they tried to hide it from us."

[vandalization]

"Well, even if you weren't, you'd still be my favorite." She tweaks the tip of his left finial jokingly.

"I think you're onto something. Honestly it's all Greek to me, but I'm trying to kinda follow along here. I've never been good with theories. More of a in-front-of-your-face-problem-solver kinda person myself. But I think you really have something here."