OPENING LOG: Awakening

[re_alignedmods]

WHO: Everybody!
WHERE: The Junk Pile.
WHEN: Right here, right now.
WHAT: Game opening! Our Heroes find themselves in a strange place not of their own world, however familiar (or not) it may be.

---

Consciousness is slow, and a struggle to obtain. The moments before darkness are hazy enough; a great vertigo, a twisting, and then, falling. Falling for what seemed like forever. And when you are finally aware of your surroundings, it is most decidedly not where you came from.

Instead, you are now in what appears to be a wasteland. A wasteland...of junk. Debris as far as you can see, heaped in mini-mountains that offer only so good of a view of the world around you. Perhaps in the distance, you can make out some flatter land, perhaps you can just make out what looks like a crevice - but it's difficult at best. The light here is all wrong, the two greatest sources being a white line in the alien sky that doesn't so much give off light as simply have it - and something in the south that glows like a setting sun.

You may or may not notice it at first, but you, too, have something alien - something on your arm, more likely than not. A marking that glows softly, but offers no clue as to how it got there - no pain, no sensitivity. It's simply there, as you are here.

So.

Now what?

((OOC: This is it, you guys! Have a blast! Please remember to keep everything under the first thread for now; we'll be adding the Firstforged in in a little bit...

OKAY There is now a second thread to post in! Feel free to make new threads there to react to the arrival of the Firstforged, or respond directly to the Firstforged themselves.))

Comments

[maxicpolarity]

Carefully--very, very carefully, with the practiced skill of one who was used to dealing with sensitive and deadly substances on a daily basis--he raised his finger upward, eager to get as close a look as possible. His lenses could focus down to very minuscule amounts, but there was something to be said about lighting, and detail, and trying to get a good image when what one was trying to focus on was moving about.

He did catch a flash of a number...a four?...on the chest of the small creature, and wondered at it. He had marked subjects similarly, in the past.

"Well, then...number four." He said, choosing to use that as a designation until it revealed otherwise. "There must be something that you want?" He could, he knew, look for himself...but that talent of his wasn't foolproof yet, and it would be easier to try if the creature was already thinking about what it desired.

Many of the old Refugees had desired to return home. It had been an excellent motivating factor in rendering their assistance. Surely, if this creature was truly sentient, it would have something he could similarly use.

[4_toteachus]

The monster used his name, and Four offered the tiniest of smiles, and a small, shy wave. He didn't like being up this high, or being so close to such a creature, but there wasn't anything he could do about it now. All that was left was to go forward with his investigations.

He moved quickly across the monster's palm until he was on the other side, much closer to Liege's face. His eyes flicker as he commits the entire face to memory. The nose shape, the facial shape, the eye shape, the texture of the monster's skin, the head design, even his voice he stored away. Everything he remembered he would never forget, and he would remember every second of this encounter from now until he died.

At the question, he did the first thing that came to mind: He pointed at Liege again. He wanted information, and Liege was the only one who can give it to him.

[maxicpolarity]

Liege took the wave to mean that, more than an identifier, the number four was its name. That was useful, if simplistic.

What was not simplistic was the creature itself. Simple scans revealed a somewhat complex interior of clockwork parts, obviously hand-made but surprisingly durable. Where it was getting its sentience was beyond Liege's imagining, as it didn't seem to have a processor, but...

It was learning, nevertheless. And it understood him.

"Me?" Liege asked, surprised. "Or something from me?" For the first time, he wondered what on Cybertron something like this would eat. It wouldn't be much, whatever it was.

[4_toteachus]

In the back of Four's mind he was still extremely worried about his brother and his family, but he was sure that he would find Three soon, and he would share this experience with him when he did! To emphasize his interest in Liege himself, the stitchpunk pointed up at him again, this time tilting his from side to side.

Four's ability to give answers was very limited, and this did not bother him too much. Still, it would be nice to find a way to communicate with this massive being without having to mime everything to him, Four wasn't used to needing to communicate with others besides his brother.

[maxicpolarity]

Well, this was different. Normally, they were able to understand every language.

Not having a language made that somewhat...difficult.

Liege was also relatively sure that even their smallest communications devices would absolutely dwarf this creature.

"Very well. I shall talk about myself, and you may stop me by shaking your head if you don't wish to hear more. In exchange...I would like to do an examination of you. Is this acceptable?"

He was going to need to get some smaller tools.

Oh, and...perhaps this would work.

"Do you write?"

[4_toteachus]

Unaware of the communicator problem, Four continued to watch Liege carefully, recording every movement the giant made. The conditions made him hesitate slightly, but he quickly nodded his head. This was merely an exchange of information right? This was something he did all the time with Three.

The second question he answered with a nod, he could write! Did the giant wish to communicate through written word?

[maxicpolarity]

Oh, yes, the giant wished to communicate through written word.

First, however, you are going to get poked with one of his other talons, very gently. It might still feel like a wall hitting you, but at least it is a slow wall.

"My name is Liege," he began, shortening it considerably for the time being. "I am one of thirteen lifeforms indigenous to this world. It is our job to protect it, and to build on it, and to prepare it for our creator to return to it and inhabit it."

He was definitely going to need smaller tools.

Still, he could at least record the pattern of light flashes that this creature's optics made, and store them for later. "However, what I wish to do is stop the Lambda tear," he pointed toward the rip in the heavens, "From continuing to deposit foreigners like yourself onto my planet, so that I can continue exploring among the stars."

Unable to do more than gently poke at Four for the moment, Liege deposited him down on top of a dusty table, hoping that would work for a surface to write on.
"Now. Tell me about you."

[4_toteachus]

Four shuffled nervously as he was poked by the giant, definitely not comfortable with this. But he made a promise, and an exchange of information should be fair, she he tried to stay still while Liege examined him. Liege... what a noble sounding name. Liege was often defined as having the right to feudal allegiance or service, it was interesting that this should be his name.

What Liege said was not easy to understand. The idea of being on another planet was simply beyond his comprehension... at first. Four was designed to be open-minded, and existed to absorb information, not judge it. The Lambda tear caught his interest, and he glanced up to where Liege was pointing. Was that how they got here? The robots too? The opportunities to learn more about other cultures and worlds was an exciting one, and he suddenly wanted to get started. First he needed to find his brother.

Whoops, and suddenly he was on a table. Okay, he could deal with this.

Tell him? How about he showed him?

Four's eyes click and whirr, and suddenly there was a black and white projection cast over the tabletop.

The first thing to show was an elderly old man with a tired face, yet a look of determination in his eyes. The still image flickered away to a moving picture showing a marching procession with a waving man standing proudly above the crowd as they cheered for their saviour. A picture of a very odd looking machine appears, only to be quickly replaced by an image of a newspaper clipping stating that the "Fabrication Machine" was a new way to peace. That quickly went away to be replaced with a picture of different machines with single eyes.

Four showed Liege the many newspapers he had gathered over the years. The Chancellor had declared war on struggling countries and had conquered them. He demanded the Fabrication Machine to make more and more machines of war, and eventually the Fabrication Machine snapped. The Newspaper headlines that Four was now showing Liege were alarming, telling everyone that the machines had turned against them, and that they were losing the battle against the machines. Everyone believed that this was the Scientist's fault for creating them, and the Scientist was disowned.

More pictures of war, carnage, and death are shown, this time shown from a low angle, as if Four himself had witnessed these...

Four stopped for a moment, tired out by this. Projecting was by no means an easy thing to do. Give him a moment, he'll get back to it.

[maxicpolarity]

Liege was expecting writing.

When writing wasn't what he received, however, he couldn't have been more pleased. The communications issue that he'd been fearing, it turned out, wasn't so much of an issue at all, and he leaned over to watch the small projections with interest.

The scenes weren't unfamiliar.

He knew of war.

He knew, even, a little bit about how wars started, about how a species desires could outweigh the value of another's lives. This seemed similar to that.

However, he wasn't exactly sure where Four fit into this story.

"This is your world?"

[4_toteachus]

Four nodded. This was his world, the one that had existed right before his creation. He only got to witness the very end of human civilization, and it made him feel sad. It was time he moved onto the next part. This time there were excerpts from the Scientist's diary.

"This is all my fault.

I can't stop thinking it. A fool like me deserves no forgiveness.

I am a catalyst for destruction. Pain. Suffering. I am the reason why mankind finds itself in the middle of the worst battles since the Great World War. This era of Machines holds the potential to devastate the infrastructure of entire societies. I put us here.

For what? A damned experiment? For the Chancellor?"

Another one appears.

"The mayhem continues. The Fabrication Machine is producing new death-dealing machines faster than they can be deployed into the field. They crowd the streets; sweep the fields of the countryside, and travel across expansive oceans. Their negotiation tactics are simple: kill as many people possible, as quickly as possible, and return to the Fabrication Machine.

And so, in this time of insanity, I am driven by my visions. Friends, I am modifying the device, the Talisman, to become something greater. I will create again, and this time I will do it right."

"The inky sky and echoes of mortar explosions are an unnerving backdrop for research.

I didn’t realize how much time had passed since my toymaking days… how my fingers lack the precision of motion they once did. But the dexterity I’ve lost has been replaced by an incomparable urgency.

Not the kind of urgency I endured from the Chancellor while developing the B.R.A.I.N. No, this is about something so much bigger. I had it all wrong before. It’s strange how tragedy brings everything into focus.

If only I had more time, but the first one is almost complete. Must keep working."

After that, Four slowly begins to show Liege everyone. One, Two, Three and himself, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, and finally Nine. When he stops, he collapses, unable to take the strain of projecting any more. He had never pushed beyond the edge of his endurance before...

[maxicpolarity]

Well, now.

What a fascinating talent for a small creature to have.

It became obvious as the story progressed that 4 was man-made, but it did surprise him how alive the tiny robot seemed, for all that...especially given the somewhat shoddy construction.

It was solid, at least.

Solid enough that he heard the audible thunk of its body hitting the table when he fell. Briefly worried, Liege reached with his talon to give number Four a poke, sliding the tip of his finger just underneath him? it? to prop him up.

"So you've been through more than a small adventure," he noted, mostly to himself. "Tell me, is there something that you need to eat to recuperate?"

The tiny body was warm. That still surprised him.