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

ARRIVAL

[re_alignedmods]

About an hour or so after the last person awakens, there's a flash of light in the near distance.

Then another, at another angle. And another.

Seven in total, ringing the central heap. It takes less than a minute for them to all appear, and it's soon clear that it's /not/ just flashes of light. There's actual figures there, of various sizes and shapes - though even from a distance, most seem quite...well.

Large. Even by Cybertronian standards.

[primianpolarity]

When his Acolyte had first come up to him, Prima had all but dismissed him out of hand. He had just finished a commune with Primus, and was tired - such took much of his own energy, even with the various devices he had to focus it and ease the way. The most he wanted now was a refuel, perhaps-

-at least, until the Acolyte had dutifully reported that there had been a far larger fall through the Lambda, and that the others had all gathered it up in the Junk Heap as they had been directed, but it was unclear on a prior order and requested clarification - the Marked Ones were included in that as well, correct, overriding the previous directive to bring them to the Haven...?

Prima had gone still for a good few seconds, stunned...but within minutes, the call had gone out to the others. Leaving the Acolyte with orders to prepare, he spacebridged the distance to the Junk Heap, arriving in a crouch before drawing himself up to his full height.

There was movement there. And while the Acolytes were simple, they were rarely outright wrong - there were those who bore Glyphs, here. Marked as allies, Prima only briefly regarded his fellow Firstforged before beginning to approach, his only hesitation where he put his feet in the unstable mass of junk.

[mccrane]

McCrane had been doing plenty of investigating on his own terms.

With Gunmax and without him, he had noted at least four different glyphs, all on arms. He had noted the presence of humans, and the presence of other robots which did not appear to be terrestrial in origin. He had noted that they were most definitely, definitely not on Earth.

He had noted the junk, and how half of it did not seem to be actual 'junk' at all.

And now, he had finally noted the thing he had been waiting to see for a great, long while. These were robots without glyphs. These were the robots who had brought them there.

The communication he received from Gunmax was returned, glad to know that the motorcycle detective would be careful in his exploration. McCrane, also, intended to be careful.

He also intended to get answers.

His shotgun still in hand but not actively aimed for once, he approached the being which was nearest enough to him...and pulled out his badge, instead.

"This is the Brave Police," he began, knowing Deckerd's speech by heart and feeling that it was his duty to give the spiel in his commander's absence. "For unlawful kidnapping, you are under arrest."

[ichooseboth]

When the seven figures appeared, Optimus was briefly torn. Which should he approach first? None of them seemed hostile, despite their greater size. They were strange Cybertronians, on a strange Cybertron. Logically, they should have the answers he sought.

Slowly, Optimus approached the one that had appeared first; the one that shone the brightest, and oddly at that. It was just a feeling, but one he had long ago learned to listen to. Hopefully he wasn't making some diplomatical error with his choice.

He stared up at the great mech, nodding shallowly in greeting.

"Excuse me. Pardon the...abruptness, but do you happen to know what is going on here?"

[trionicpolarity]

He should have known this was coming.

The worst part about the lambda, he had always felt, was that it blocked that which he should have been able to see. He had never known that the first Refugees were going to arrive. He had never known that the first Refugees were going to be lost to them, either.

And now, he had not known that Refugees were going to return.

As the keeper of knowledge, he felt he should have.

However, there was nothing to be done about it now. He was glad, in a way, to have the company again. He was glad to find others who could contribute to the history of Cybertron. He was glad, and he was also worried.

History could repeat itself so easily.

This time, however, at least he knew--he knew what to expect. That was his purview.

He appeared at the edges of the junk-yard, and immediately he strode forward to see what he could find. They were going to need information to proceed, and Alpha Trion was adept at finding information.

//I have brought the Link Devices,// He informed his brethren, prepared. //When your acolytes arrive, they may obtain any extras they need from me. This looks bigger than our previous batches.//

[surrenderedspark]

Finally. Someone who looks like--

Well.

Someone who might know what's going n. Prowl watches him for a time, before he even thinks of approaching. He makes no disguise of his observation; merely stands atop one of the piles of trash and detritus, and watches.

He'll see what the Firstforged will do, with his acolytes, and the, and only then, will Prowl act.

[rotafortunae]

Figures on the horizon. Friend or foe? That's the question. And, captors, or fellow prisoners?

Friend or foe?

He drew a card. Upright, so... friend. Or, at least, not currently hostile. And... which card.

The Magician.

"Well and good, but I've no idea who you mean, of course," he murmured, twirling it between his fingers. He flicked it out, let it hover in the air... pointing towards that one.

"Being frank with me for once? That's convenient." Of course, in the end, it was all nonsense, random chance. Luck. But he'd always been lucky.

He slowed as he approached. This... creature? Person? Was colossal, bigger even than some of the largest Heartless he'd seen, and he'd encountered some behemoths in his time.

"Right," he says, slowly. "Either you're another refugee, or you're from this place. I've a wager on which one it is... and that wager says you're likely the one to know which world this is."

[maxicpolarity]

Liege decided that he would have been significantly more pleased about this entire situation if he hadn't been in the middle of trying to fuse carbon to electrum.

He liked electrum. It had incredible properties for magnifying the particular wavelengths associated with physical energy--lasers, for instance--and under the right conditions could even reflect said energy. The problem he'd been running into was that he couldn't get it to bond to anything, which meant he couldn't apply it, long term, to something useful like a shield.

This aggravated him.

It aggravated him greatly, but he'd been close to getting it to like carbon, which liked basically everything else, and if he could get it to like carbon....

Well.

He could have.

Except that there were Refugees to rescue.

Any other day he would have been excited. As it was, today, he wore a significant scowl, certain that any Refugee worth their metal would have found a way to his lair by now, or could live a few more days on the pile without his interference. He'd come...but he'd come out of curiosity and obligation more than out of desire.

Desire, he felt, could come later.

After carbon.

For now, all he wanted was to gather what was his and take it back where it belonged.

This wasn't going to be pleasant, but it was still going to be done.

[4_toteachus]

These giant monsters made of metal...

They were everywhere.

Four feared them instantly, and he had done everything he could to avoid any contact with them. Machines were programmed to do damage, and destroy everything, they couldn't be trusted, and Four wasn't about to risk anything to approach one. He wondered if they were the reason why he was here, and why he couldn't find his brother no matter how hard he looked. Did they take his family? They could of, the last machine he met killed most of his kind off. Four's observations were that Machines were mostly made to cause destruction, and did not have any other purposes.

This one robot he stumbled across was bigger than anything he had ever seen. Four had a very active imagination, but he couldn't believe that anything that size could even exist. He didn't know why he was here, or why he didn't just turn around and run off, he had his brother to find after all.

Still... if this machine was that big, and he was only seven inches tall... he could stand to get a better look at him from a different angle before leaving. Hoping that the monster didn't see him, he practically crawled from one chunk of metal to the next, trying to get a good glimpse of him from the front.

Please don't see him.

[angleofscience]

If Jetfire had known what the Firstforged had been doing before coming here, he might actually have agreed that they could have waited... There were six others to answer questions, right?

Either way, Jetfire didn't know and had been all set to - after getting Starscream or at least informing him what he was intending to do - leave the immediate area of and around the junk pile to explore further when the flashes of light heralded the appearance more cybertronians.

Question was, was this how all of those who'd landed in the junk pile had arrived, or did these individuals belong here? If the latter, it was another evidence in favour of this actually being (a) Cybertron.

Currently, however, Jetfire had other things to concentrate on, as he'd had to angle away and fly backwards to not fly into the one that had appeared in his direct flightpath. So now he hovered in the air only a short distance away, wondering if they were all combiners, or similar to the Omega Guardians; the size was about correct for at least one of them (as Omega Supreme himself was an... exception).

But there was the fact of a lack of similarity - though this being in all probability a different dimension, similarity wasn't required, surely. This of course necessitated that they belonged here and even if they did, they might not be the same, or similar as, the guardians.

But in that case, what were they?

... And if they belonged, might there be explanations? Hopefully more... ah, logical than what they'd been given in the Keep. And considering his, Starscream's and the others' arrival... It was quite clear that at least "Lord Deior's" explanation had been a lie.

(He was rather relieved by that, actually, despite the fact of a certain possible future reality for him if so.)

[darthmalgus]

Darth Malgus found the planet to be strange. His connection to the force felt like a distant echo ...

Which he did not like at all. It was still there, just not as it should be.

And neither had been his lightsaber, or the respirator that helped him breathe normally. It was mostly the missing lightsaber that infuriated him.

His possessions were gone. Others were in the area, but all he felt were lingering senses of confusion. No answers. They would provide him no help.

He avoided most of the others, paying them no attention as he searched for something that would provide a clue. His frustrations pulled inward and gave him focus -- it aided him without his respirator, but even his rage would not help him breathe forever.

When the large figure appeared, he did not move, or so much as flinch. He stared almost curiously, his scarred face tilting downward slightly.

"Intriguing," his words came out almost raspy, though there was no outward indication of anything else.

He said nothing more, there was no need.

[like_a_bossbot]

He was no closer to finding answers than when he'd first woken.

He wasn't about to halt his intakes, waiting for Starscream to come through; the Decepticon only ever had his own interests in mind, and wasn't the type to put much stock in teamwork. A quick scan of his own memory files had yielded next to nothing, aside from the convenient gap when his arrival would have occurred. Scanners indicated that this wasn't Earth, but outside of that...

It was about that point that he'd spotted the distant flashes.

His attention snapped back to reality in that instant, scrambling up one of the mounds of old scrap to get a better vantage point. It was difficult to tell much from a distance, but they were certainly larger than any 'bot Optimus had ever seen. His mind called back to the massive Omega Sentinels from the history vids; from what he'd read, they'd possessed personal transwarp technology, which could have explained their sudden appearance. But... their frames were all wrong.

Not only that, but these 'bots were still conscious. Perhaps he was completely off track, but... he and Starscream hadn't been. If they were still aware and functional, did that mean that they'd come here intentionally?

There was only one way to find out.

Optimus swallowed his reservations, moving to approach one of the titanic arrivals. He'd long since sheathed his weapon, hands open in a gesture of peace - not that he'd be much of a threat to them anyway.

"Excuse me?"

AwakenNnnnnope. Just 5 more minutes, Mum. Give or take 2 weeks.

[my_own_trope]

Starscream clearly wasn't in Kansas anymore. Nor was he anywhere that remotely looked like the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. In fact, he kind of looked like he'd been tossed in the trash because wow, there was a lot of crap lying around him... and on top of him... and awkwardly lodged in some places he'd rather things not be lodged in...

But that wasn't even the worst of it. He was naked. And for a robot that spent the majority of his life without clothing, this was a biblically uncomfortable realisation. Where had his armour gone? He'd won it mostly fair and square, and he hadn't taken on that blowhard Optimus Prime and Megatron's new favourite lieutenant for nothing!

Without his Tcog or any allies or good luck he needed that armour. Who cared how, why, when, and where he was. His first order of business was covering up his new-found modesty (see: constant awareness of how delicate he actually is) with some fancy metal duds. Soon as, you know, he found it from among these mountains of junk. Pushing himself up, and dislodging something from his thigh joint, he looked around suspiciously. His internal navigation suite was coming back in error, and that wasn't really the greatest sign. But then neither was being anywhere without his kidney, and he could deal.

Spying what looked like a quarter of a hull from a wrecked ship half buried in the garbage, Starscream's priorities changed. He didn't recognise the build as anything remotely human, and that meant there was a chance it was Cybertronian; that in turn meant that maybe, if his stars had finally aligned, maybe the vessel had run on energon. And just maybe there would be some left in a reserve tank.

He was so hungry.

Scrambling over, and squeezing himself into an opening that was barely large enough, Starscream demonstrated two things:
A) his ability to make good on his very lean frame and make like a dormouse into a tiny hole in the wall and
B) his complete disregard for how precarious a mountain of haphazardly piled trash probably was.

Soon as Starscream was fully inside whatever he'd climbed into, the entire (portion of a) ship gave a metallic groan. And oh. Right. Gravity. And mass. And all that equilibrium business.

"Scrap."

Starscream, the ship, a good half of the mountain of miscellany it had been sticking out of made some loud noises together, and then as a whole, toppled over, reburying everything. Including one very irritated, and still very hungry Seeker.

So really, absolutely nothing was accomplished here except the rearranging of unwanted detritus. And Liege, buddy, maybe you should just go home and back to the sweet embrace of your pal Carbon. It's probably be for the best if you did let this one refugee find his way to your lair all on his own...

And hey, don't worry. This isn't the first time Starscream's had to dig himself out of a cave in.

[youhavebeenswindled]

Swindle was finally taking a break from rooting through the junk and gathering up items of interest. He supposed he should try to find out exactly where he was, and what he was even doing here. That right there was sure to be an interesting answer! Now if only he knew who to get it from.

He spotted the giant on the horizon, and made a quick beeline towards him. Liege's size didn't bother him, nor did the slightly forbidding air that he gave off. Swindle was used to travelling into dangerous areas, and he often found that they were worth the trouble.

"Lemme guess, this is, as humans would put it, your neck of the woods?" He remarked to Liege casually, as if this happened everyday. It would be stupid to throw caution completely out the window, so Swindle stopped far enough away so that he could run off if things turned nasty.

[organ_pharming]

Pharma lay amidst the junk, staring up at the sky and waiting for death to claim him. Why had he been brought here- been given this second chance- if just to die under an alien sun? It was not what he deserved. He'd planned everything so carefully, so expertly. Ratchet had been a problem, but Pharma had sincerely believed he could outwit him. And he had- in the end, the other medic had merely gotten lucky.

"Died handless in a junk pile. That is really going to ruin my spotless reputation," he sighed.

/posts this correctly, whups

[vectorianpolarity]

They were back.

Perhaps not the Lost, but Vector had been convinced that there would be no more Refugees, and that they had failed in their duty to safeguard them and to cleanse the Badlands - perhaps not a final failure, not by any means, but enough to lower his spirits as he sought a way to recover. He had been so convinced that there was yet a way for them to push forwards, to recover that which had been stolen from them, but this-

-if nothing else, if nothing else, they had to arrive first and ensure that what Refugees were there would be safe from the Badlands' call. In the center of the Haven, surely they were as protected as they could be when not in the care of he or his brothers, but...they had been wrong before, on that matter.

And Vector Prime was determined not to be wrong again.

He arrived high in the air, transforming and beginning a flyover. His curiosity could wait, for now, as peaked as it was; his vantage point gave him the opportunity for reconnaissance, and he was going to take advantage of it.

//I'll try and neutralize any threats.// he called through their communications. //It's possible some beasts came through as well.//

[sword_redemption]

Drift stops as the comm reaches him. For a moment, he doesn't move, long enough for droplets of rust to patter down from his chin, streaking his legs.

//I am a threat. You need to stay away. Keep everyone away.//

[herodecoded]

What was this? It seemed he was built with a communicator as well as branded. Whoever they were, they had knowledge. But what or who they worked for remained to be seen.

//State the nature of these beasts as well as your own.//

[raceme]

He was bigger than any other mech Blurr have seen before, even bigger than Omega Supreme. Blurr was slightly startled when the communication reached his processor and the glyph in his arm shinned. He could tell an authority figure when he saw one.

Blurr didn't try to run away, he just keep a safe distance from the bigger Cybertronian but otherwise not moving. It was important to observe before try any sort of reckless action and the blue mech hopped that he was fast enough to put some distance between them if it was necessary.

[solianpolarity]

The timing was fortunate for Solus, if not for her brothers. She had been in her workshop, testing her latest shipment of ores for purity and strength; nothing too extensive or consuming. The news was...surprising, shocking even for the old memories it pulled up, but certainly not unwelcome. Sending her eager Acolytes to prepare, she too spacebridged to the base of the Lambda.

Something crunched under her feet; thankfully nothing alive. Solus gazed down at the large group, scattered across the junk heap. Impressive in number. Time and trial would tell if they had potential in other ways.

//Come brothers. We should greet our guests, if only to assuage their fears.//

Slowly, she started across the vast mound, mindful of it's ever-shifting nature and her own great size to approach those she could sense with her own mark. Clearly she would have to search the pile of galactic scrap more often. There was more than just interesting sentients arriving here.

Another time, perhaps.

[nexicpolarity]

There was something to be said about mixed reactions to the return of the Refugees. A lot of things, actually. Surprise, pleasure, trepidation, worry-

Nexus said none of these. Upon arriving at the Junk Heap, he surveyed the scene, glanced up briefly as he caught a brother flying overhead, and decided to take matters in to his own hands. There was another thing to be said about first impressions, too, no?

While his siblings made their own slow pace, he stood still, cupping his hands around his mouth to magnify his shout;

"BAH WEEP GRANAH WEEP NINI BONG!"

Nothing wrong with putting that saying to the test, after all.

[engrishdetective]

The light was the first thing to catch his eye. He gives a brief message to McCrane, informing his fellow detective that he's off to investigate -- and that, yes, he will be careful. They can't afford to be too headstrong here.

After parking Gunbike, he more or less assures Noisy Boy that he's welcome to come back if he so chooses. However, to approach these giants...

Might not be the best idea, but then, Gunmax has been known for being the reckless one.

The biker hops off and makes his approach, placing his hands onto his hips. "So, let's see here," he comments, keeping the language to Japanese, "are you titans just as lost as the rest of us, or do we have you to thank for this lovely vacation? Not good taste, as far as vacations go, I have to say."

No one specifically is being addressed, but he'll take any one of them.

[megatronicpolarity]

It wasn't unusual for Megatronus to keep his brethren waiting when their summons didn't suit his own schedule; particularly when Prima was the one issuing them, and particularly when it called them to the accumulated heaps of junk beneath the Lambda.

He had better things to do with his time than to play scavenger. Digging valuable items out of the rest of the trash in the junk pile was what they had the Acolytes for, and any creature that couldn't crawl out of the debris field on its own wouldn't last long on the planet. Not without a great deal of attention and special care.

Megatronus coddled no one.

Then again, if the Acolytes were right and weren't simply confusing oddly-shaped piles of garbage for refugees - did he have absolute trust in their leader's judgement, and did he trust Liege not to abscond with the choicest of those incoming?

Not long after he'd considered those questions, a light bloomed at the northern border of the junk pile and a heavy, metallic sound resonated across the area. Megatronus looked down from the sturdier pile he'd landed atop and sure enough, he spotted smaller forms moving around below. He began to make his way over.

Time to see which of them were worth the effort.

Firstforged, if you pls give KO and BD a few tags alone to reunite that would be great.

[automobile_enthusiast]

This place was enough to give a mech a processor ache. The seemingly endless hills and valleys of junk, the low light, and the pulsing white distortion in the sky were strange enough. The other mechs, the strange Cybertronians, the people here were even stranger...

The glowing marks that couldn't be abraded off went past strange and straight into unacceptable.

And just when he'd thought he couldn't process one more unexplainable happening, the junk over yonder had lit up with bright flashes of light, and a moment later he'd seen the silhouette of a jet, a big one, in the sky overhead. Something was apparently going on. There was a part of him that wanted to stay away, far away, but he knew he needed information. He had to check it out. So he started to trudge in the direction of the disturbance, of the giant jet in the air and the towering figures he could catch occasional glimpses of.

It was a tiring walk on an injured leg, though, and that made him even more hesitant to get in close to something (or somethings) that might potentially be a threat to him. Eventually he gave up on walking and scaled the highest pile of junk he could find, hoping the vantage would afford enough answers that he could slink away again.

He didn't think he was up for another strange encounter today, after all.

Re: ARRIVAL

[not_halfbaked]

It occurred to Korra she may never have been so alone before. Figures that particular insecurity would come back to haunt her and grow like 100 times worse. Because this was no corner of Air Temple Island where the others were still there, this was a foreign land and no one knew where she was. Korra had never felt so cut off from Naga, Spirits, was Naga still waiting for her? No, surely Tenzin found her by now, and surely Tenzin let Asami and Bolin and Mako and all those innocent people out of jail by now....

Korra continued stalking ahead. She couldn't help it, she missed Knock Out, even that other Wing guy. The company had been nice. Vastly preferable to being alone right now. At least Knock Out had been sorta charming, but maybe Korra's head was so messed up, she would've jumped at any civil or kind contact. But no, he'd been nice.

The girl jerked at the sudden light, her hands flying up and blocking her face. Slowly she lowered her arms. There were figures in the light. Large ones. Very large ones. Taller than Knock Out and Wing.

Korra was filled with a blinding fear, and the sense of how small she really was in this new world. Her first instinct was to go the opposite direction. But...she'd been wandering aimlessly. She had found nothing more besides Knock Out and Wing. The girl thought she might as well try checking out this very intimidating sight.

The girl continued walking forward, lighting up a flame of fire in her one of her hands, just in case. She had her bending still, she reminded herself, she had her bending--

What if she didn't have her bending? The thought struck Korra. She would feel even less safe here, feel even smaller, every strange creature would seem even larger.... That was her and huge creatures, and she was already getting unnerved. What if nonbenders were here? Is this...could this be how nonbenders felt with benders? No bender outsized them like this, but benders would always be able to summon fire or flame or water, while a nonbender could not. And not every nonbender was as well trained as the Equalists in combat. It was--no, bending wasn't like that, but...but she had always been born with bending. Did nonbenders ever get this paranoid?

Korra shook herself, and continued marching toward the figures. Granted, if there was cover, she would take it, and try to observe the figures up close in silence before making any other moves. That was the super hopeful option.