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

[sword_redemption]

"I said get back!" Wing might remember the rougher tone in Drift's voice. He wouldn't sound so upset if he didn't know Wing's life depended on this.

If anyone didn't deserve to die for Drift's mistakes, it was Wing.

Because Wing had already done that.

Why Wing was here--wherever here was--was another issue Drift wasn't ready to deal with. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. Sorry, but melting from the inside is kind of distracting.

"I don't need help. I'm beyond it. But you need to take her," he rolled his shoulder, in a gesture that to him meant Annie, "some place safe."

[winged_knight]

Wing twitched at Drift's words but held his ground just at the end of weapon reach. The roll of the shoulder drew his attention to the small organic clinging there, shying away, her body language full of distress. He brought forth a warm smile for her, nodding a greeting.

Before Wing could speak he received a ping from Drift over their private channel. It was just a data packet with a note, You'll need this. Like the other organic he'd encountered earlier, apparently this one did not know their language. He installed the provided language pack and switched to the recommended English.

That task complete he readdressed the issue at hand, Drift's words still ringing in his audials.

"Beyond help?" Wing shook his head, his voice steely and sharpened by emotion. "I won't accept that. And besides...It's not like you to go so quietly Drift." It was an accusation, clear and simple.

Wing knew where this was going and he wouldn't allow it. If Drift wasn't going to accept help then the knight would just have to find a different way. It was their usual game, vying to see who could be more stubborn, but this time Wing did not like the pieces in play. The options were few. One had to get creative.

"You're right that she needs safety, and I will provide it, with a condition." Wing paused, sparing a sympathetic look for the small female clinging to Great Sword, who's name he didn't even yet know. He turned back to Drift, audial fins and ailerons once slicked close to his body in distress now rose in challenge.

"You're on your feet, you're still able, and there's a medic who needs help. He also appears to have early stages of this plague so you are no danger to him. He was recently attacked, has no hands and cannot defend himself. He also seems to think he can come up with a cure for this thing." Wing's stance, both verbal and physical was firm, resolute, commanding. "It's in his and your best interests if you go to him." Wing digitally pushed the medic's coordinates over their link so there'd be no further excuse.

"Do this, and I will take your ward to safely."

((bit of planned hand waving here to fix a language issue))

[sword_redemption]

If Drift had had any doubts that this was really Wing, if he'd thought it was some hallucination or impostor, the jet's words laid them to rest. The same attitude, the same 'I know what you need better than you do' tone.

He switched to English. It's not fair to have left Annie hanging for so long, without knowing what was going on.

"You don't set conditions on another's safety, Wing." That's what Lockdown had done, after all. Drift doesn't deal well with emotional blackmail. "And you don't understand. I'm trying to make sure you don't get this." There's a hint of something almost like desperation: being the cause of Wing's death--twice--would be too much.

"I'll find your medic." He tips forward, raising one hand so that Annie can step off. The movement's jerky, lurching forward and then stopping himself abruptly--the rust has been at work on his balance and motor control systems.

"Just take her. And go."

[clay_doll]

The sudden change to English language perks the girl up, lifting her head away from the hilt of the sword as she can now actually grasp the exchange between the two through more than the body language of the newly arrived mech. Although the first two words she hears in her own language are quite distressing, the possibility of help that shortly follows eases her worry about Drift. From the sounds of it though, convincing him to seek that assistance requires using her as a bargaining piece.

As Drift leans forward and brings up his hand to his shoulder for her, Annie latches herself tighter to the hilt of the Great Sword reflexively in response to the jerky motion. Even when he stills though, she hesitates.

Waking here in this strange place, she had clung to the very first bot she met. She had followed him to avoid being alone, and he had allowed her to stay with him and remain safe. It was more than she deserved under the false pretense that she was even real, let alone worth protecting as he had done for her without complaint. Yet regardless of her own status, she liked being close to him, and it had been hard to ignore the selfish desire to stay with Drift and take comfort that she had only briefly ever experienced in her life before arriving here.

Annie wants to stay with Drift, but more than that, she wants him to be freed of the disease he named as 'Red Rust'. If she could help that process, she would do it.

Very slowly with her form a little shaky, she uncrosses her ankles to step one foot to his shoulder, then loosens her arms to bring her other leg around with her. The slope of his shoulder with Drift leaning forward is difficult to get her footing on though, so after placing her second foot down tentatively, she releases her grip with her arms only to slide that short distance and stumble step into his waiting hand.

Managing to catch her balance without needing to use her arms in the motion, Annie turns to face towards Drift to ask in her quiet voice, "...you'll be careful, right? A-and you'll get better?"

[winged_knight]

He didn't refute Drift's words. Wing's conditions might be more self motivated than he was ready to admit, but he also feared the time it would take to be more imploring, time Drift might not have. Wing had already faced risk of exposure once, and he was willing to face it again to take a non-combatant to safety. If that also meant addressing the risk to Drift's own life sooner, then all the better.

"I know." It was Wing's only reply, but there were so many words waiting behind it.

The edge in the other swordmech's voice tugged at him. Flashes of his conversation with Slipstream about other universes flickered past. Though familiar they seemed to be, he did not know this Drift; what he'd done and seen, how he saw the world, who Wing had been to him. But one thing rang true. The reality of Wing's previous fate looked back at him as light winked off the blue gem in the Great Sword rising over Drift's shoulders. He knew that sword like he knew his own hand.

Something rattled in a small hollow place within him, one that'd been there since he'd awoken here, and he stifled a shiver.

Drift's ward was speaking, and though Wing couldn't hear her words, her concern was still evident. It touched him and his expression softened.

"I want you both to be safe. I will see to that with the best of my ability." His words were still firm, but with an air of compassion. "I already run some risk of infection from earlier, this way I can try to help you both."

Wing turned to the small organic, a young girl apparently. He knelt in an effort to be less imposing. "I know this asks you to place trust in a stranger. You are quite brave." The knight smiled at her, his optics warm and friendly. "I am Wing, and with your permission, I will fly you to safety."

[sword_redemption]

There's a lot he wanted to say to Wing. But...not with witnesses. And not while he's leaking. He's already standing in a puddle. And not when it hits him, likely just as it's hitting Wing--this might not be Wing. Not his Wing. His Wing was dead, ages ago, living only in a phantom recess of Drift's memory, a memory he only visited with caution and regret.

Maybe this was someone else. Another world's Wing.

Did it matter?

Maybe.

"Don't worry about me," he murmurs to Annie. He was going to say 'I'll be fine' but he's not a liar. He doesn't want to promise things he can't keep. "But I will be careful."

"Already exposed." Well, that complicates things. Because that meant Wing could be contagious too. They could have an epidemic on their hands, the Red Rust sweeping through all of their kind.

Drift had destroyed worlds before. He really didn't want to again.

No. Wait. Never mind. He shakes his head. "Tell me. Did you get any of this on you?" He gestures to the streaks of red, oozing down his legs. Please say no, please say no, please say no.

[clay_doll]

The reassurance from Drift that he would at least be careful and the added words from Wing that he would look after them both were enough to soothe and eliminate her hesitation. It was one thing to know that a cure to the sickness was possible, but another entirely to have a promise to try to follow that route through...especially considering the infectious nature of illnesses as she understands them. As long as Wing made certain Drift followed through, she would accept it.

As Wing kneels down to speak to her, Annie focuses towards him fully to listen. Rather stunned by the notion that she is brave in any way, Annie shakes her head faintly to deny it. Drift knows the mech and trusts in him enough to give her to him when he's thus far guarded her so well, so she has no reason to suspect Wing as being any sort of threat to her. Still, she listens on without interruption, and introduces herself in return, "I'm Annie..." only to then realize what he said completely.

...I will fly you to safety.

In a rush, that anxiety returns as her lips tighten together and her form seems to pull inwards, "...f-fly?" She has never been flying before, and with no explicit memories from her father, she has no way to reference what to expect.

Thankfully, in the next moment, Drift asks regarding the red liquid. Twisting back around to look to him and see the gesture towards the streaks on his legs, she processes the question with only slight difficulty before she starts to look herself over. Checking her hands first, she feels along her sleeves with her hands, then gives herself a visual scan from her chest down to her feet, and even twists at the middle to look down the backs of her legs.

Nothing feels wet, and nothing appears to be the right color to match it, "...I-I don't think so."

[winged_knight]

Wing thought it unlikely he'd gotten close enough to the medic to come in contact with the substance, but he couldn't say the same for the nearby environment and checked the bottom of his footplates regardless.

"It seems not. His condition is not nearly as...advanced as yours is." Wing wanted to ask how much time, assuming Drift knew, but he also didn't want the answer to steal away his hope. "Is that the only way this plague is transmitted?"

He had to hope so.

Wing only smiles as Annie shakes her head, and notes her uncertainty at the notion of flying. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Annie. I assure you I've been flying for a very long time." It might boggle her mind to know exactly how long, but let's not get into that just yet. "I would go by foot, but I think we can both agree that haste is required here?" His gaze flickered to Drift as he spoke, but otherwise he focused on Annie, his voice gentle. "I'll keep to my slowest speed and not make any abrupt movements. Think you can handle that?"

Though his voice was gentle and patient, the wing panels on his back gave a restless twitch.

[sword_redemption]

Drift doesn't need anyone looking after him. He's managed fine for the last few million years. He'd started in the gutters as a 'wasted spark' and that had never left him.

"All right," he says, blandly. His objections would be overruled, he realizes. And the longer they stood here talking, the greater chance Wing would be infected. He's exposed him long enough already, too long.

Besides, he isn't the important one. He was going to die, anyway. What matters is a) getting Annie to safety, b) getting Annie away before he died, and c) getting Wing out of here.

This isn't the gutters, but Drift has learned more than a few tricks about disappearing.

"It's all right, Annie. You can trust him."

((ooc: skippable))

[clay_doll]

The mere idea of flying is terrifying to Annie, and so after listening to both Wing and Drift provide her with assurances that it would be a careful ride, she looks downwards to consider. She has no doubt in her that she would not be physically kept safe by Wing, but it is hard to quell fear of an unknown.

Taking in a deeper breath to steady herself, she lifts her head and nods her head once firmly with a bob of her dark hair as she resolves herself to going willingly without further fuss. She had to do it for Drift, and as Wing had pointed out, making haste would be in Drift's best interest.

Annie looks to Drift, waiting for him to lower her down so that she could step off his servo, and once he does, she crouches to then sit herself on the side of his servo with hands on either side of her hips. From there, legs together, she slides over the side and pulls one hand away. The other hand lingers behind, pressed against his palm, and with one more look up to Drift with a silent plea to be safe, she draws away from him to turn and walk to Wing.

[winged_knight]

It pains him, this scenario. He feels entirely inadequate to address it satisfactorily. He can only hope he's chosen the best course.

"I'll take that as a yes, then."

Wing turns to Annie. The degree of devotion Drift has engendered in this young girl is touching. Wing feels a sad smile touch his face, born out of pride. He doesn't know if this Drift shares the same history Wing does, but if it was at all similar, then the former Decepticon had come a very long way.

Wing has a smile for Annie when she arrives at his side. "See, you're braver than you give yourself credit for."

He straightens, with one last look Drift's way.

He's tempted to linger. He's tempted to do a great many things. Instead he nods once, not in any way a goodbye, and says "Just hang on. Please?"

And with the same natural grace Wing has always displayed, he leaps and reveals his altmode in a whirl of shifting metal, the sleek jet's anti-grav field coming to rest just off the ground near Annie. A panel, like a stylized canopy near the nose, slides open. It reveals a storage compartment of a size that should accommodate girl. He regrets that it's not a properly cushy cockpit, he'll have to do something about that later, but it's space enough to sit safely and still see out.