re_alignment_logs | Questions, Questions [CLOSED]

Knocking might be the polite thing to do, but in this case it is thankfully unnecessary.

The locks on the giant-sized door barring Barricade's way chirp in acknowledgement when he draws close enough, before sliding back and away. The round door rolls open, vanishing into the wall, releasing a wave of heat and a distant smell of both magma and raw energon.

Beyond it, is a truly massive workshop, though it hardly resembles one in the conventional sense. Half-finished designs and prototypes litter the surfaces in a sort of organized chaos; impossibly complex, multi-dimensional blueprint holograms floating above various surfaces flicker offline in the distance.

::I did invite you. You do not have to wait there all day.:: She pings in him from a distance, just barely visible in front of the glow of a small forge.

::...And do not touch anything.::

Solus Prime will know if you do.

His plating flares up slightly as the door rolls out of the way, eventually flattening back out... in time for the wave of heat to hit. His systems immediately cycle to disperse the extra warmth.

::I wouldn't touch someone else's projects.:: Poking them is rude, especially when they're organized in a way he doesn't understand and half-finished to boot. Besides, he's not even sure he could reach them to touch them anyway. Looking, though. He folds his hands behind his back as he walks in, optics swiftly picking over each item as he moves in. The blueprints he only sees for a brief moment, but they remind him of work he's done.

He hasn't since anything like them since Convoy happened into his life.

::I see that you have been busy.:: No wonder he had such a difficult time locating her.

No one item looks like another, though many seem to have earlier, discarded versions laying in their shadows. Despite the apparent 'youth' of both the unmade Cybertron and it's First caretakers, the tools and items Solus Prime makes are sufficiently advanced enough to surpass most tech that would come later.

It is effectively a trove of lost treasure, one that has not yet been lost.

::Smart mech,:: she acknowledges, though the Prime makes no move to step away from whatever she is working on until Barricade draws closer. It appears to be something rather intricate, but given her height and the speed her hands and various tools move across it, the spindly item is rather hard to make out.

::I am always busy. It is what I do.:: Solus sounds almost amused - she does enjoy her work. Once the smaller mech draws close enough to be heard properly, she gives him a faint nod of acknowledgement without glancing away from her work.

"So. You have your questions. Ask them."

Edited 2013-01-10 10:40 (UTC)

He's fairly certain he could spend forever here and still not be able to see everything, let alone actually understand it. Though, Primes being beyond him isn't exactly something unusual. Neither is the mysterious behavior. It's all par for the course.

Barricade shifts up on his feet, trying to get a longer look at whatever Solus is working on. He can't help a little curiosity, even if he promised to keep his claws to himself.

Besides, it's not often he sees FirstForged doing something constructive... hard on them as he is.

He stops at the nod, considering what to lead with.

"Not all of them are just mine; McCrane wanted me to ask you about the decision to release Overlord. Though I would like to know why this... symbol on my arm is bigger than it was." The two most relevant questions first, inflection as formal as he gets for people that aren't his Megatron.

The device, which Solus eventually sets aside after some final adjustments and a long, silent pause, appears to be some sort of complicated sensory apparatus. The 'how' and the 'for what' are left as a mystery that Solus is apparently in no hurry to resolve, even as she turns and leans casually against her work station.

"The first question is simple enough. It was not my decision. Or really, anyone else's aside from Megatronus' himself. As one of my brother's marked, this 'Overlord' falls under Megatronus' jurisdiction. If he is not satisfied with the punishment as it is carried out, then it will not stand."

She shrugs casually.

"A crazed murderer he may be, but sitting him in a cell is far from useful."

Barricade straightens slightly as she focuses attention on him, flicking his wings slightly. "Believe me, I get it. Others... they're looking for whatever answers they can find, and since I needed to speak with you anyway." It kills two birds with one stone for everyone involved. He isn't looking forward to explaining to McCrane Solus's thoughts on the mech's release.

Whether it really matters to him or not.

"And since we're supposedly here to help you folks and all. With... whatever." He's not entirely clear on the what even now. Even his planet hadn't required mechs to construct it, it just happened. "He's not much help locked up. But I could see the police force getting frustrated if this keeps happening. Some of them are practically inconsolable over this instance."

He's seen what happens in situations like this. It hadn't been going well even before he'd left the station, and it probably got worse after that. Barricade doesn't want to see that again.

Solus waves a hand, gesturing up toward the surface.

"Unfortunate that their work was wasted, but it was only to be expected. Your laws our not our own. They should continue to build up this 'council' I have been hearing rumblings about, so a standard might be reached. Megatronus is hardly going to allow judgement to be passed on one of his own marked if he does not have even some peripheral say in it, by way of another of his marked. Nor would most of us, though I will not speak for them."

She certainly wouldn't allow it.

"Of course, your police force can be reassured that murder is not to be tolerated. It is a waste of life and resources, and no one of us wants to see any glyphed being killed."

She straightens up, gaze focusing of Barricade and his own mark.

"Which brings us to your question." She faintly smiles.

"I'll let them know, if they haven't figured it out yet." Not that he's willing to agree that it's his police force. He's only concerned with staying out their way, really, whatever they happen to ask him to do. Barricade had been in that world for long enough, and while he was good at it... he had to get out of it. There was no way he could keep doing it.

He twists his arm forward and looks at his glyph shortly after Solus's attention goes to it.

"Yes. Noticed it when I was... away from the Haven. Is this normal?" Should he be concerned about it growing out of control or something? What's the diagnosis on quasi-mystical marks anyway?

"Good. Do let them know."

Solus nods in agreement, before giving him a look that contains a hint of smug pride as she leans in to examine the mark.

"...Indeed. It is quite normal in this situation, and nothing to be concerned about. It has grown because the strength of your...alignment, of sorts, to me has grown. It grants you a boon."

She'll just wait to tell you what it is until after she sees how you react. Some of you are so touchy.

He stays still to let her examine the mark, noting that smugness. This is something that's happened before and she apparently knows the progression of things.

"Well if this... alignment starts feeling like a... a symbiont-host connection, I'm afraid I'll have to be concerned. I don't have the best track record with them." Which is probably phrasing it kindly, really. He only brings it up because McCrane had asked him about it and he was a little fearful of what that meant. Still, his curiosity overrides things a touch. "A boon. This isn't going to be like McCrane's over-the-shoulder flashlight, is it? Because I still have functioning headlights."

"Of course not!"

Solus made a face, as close to sputtering in indignation as she ever got.

"I can imagine why you might jump to such a conclusion, but no. In the end, this connection is only beneficial. And it is certainly more useful than a flashlight." If a simple 'flashlight' was all that her brother's gift truly was.

"Prima's gifts involve Light. Both literally, as I am am sure you have noticed, and more...metaphorically. Hence McCrane and his 'flashlight'. Mine, however, lie in other areas. As do your own. Which is why my mark found it's way to you in the first place."

Her smile returned, slowly.

"So I would rather hope you find noticeably more efficient self-repair systems a far more acceptable boon than a 'flashlight'."

Barricade can't help but chortle a little. Hah, made you make a face!

And he does like how stuck on his (rather crude) shorthand for McCrane's boon she is. It surely got him the reaction he'd been hoping for; he'll take the little victories of occasionally surprising a FirstForged, whether it's with wit or an apparent lack of it.

Though the mention of what said boon actually might be makes his wings perk up, flicking lightly. "Considering how often I normally end up trashed, I certainly couldn't complain." And the less time he spent on a berth in the medbay, the better. He's a decidedly antsy patient.

"Suppose it make sense how many medics are in your temple, then."

He practically can't swing a flail without accidentally swatting one... and he trusts approximately none of them with his repairs. Possibly because he's the only one that knows his dimension well enough to do the repairs.

"Something like that, yes." Her face twists for a moment, debating between displeasure at being caught out so uncomposed, and her own wry amusement. Thankfully, amusement wins out.

"But yes, I imagine it will help. Do not expect miracles, as it is still only a minor boon. But it will assist with the efficiency and ease of the small things, and could keep you from the edge in a tight situation."

Metaphorically poking someone to watch them squirm is just kind of what he does, really. Hopefully she will (eventually) get used to Barricade's quirks.

"The miracle would be me not getting hurt, promise. But I'm hardly going to complain about getting a bit of assistance in the repair department." It's the kind of thing he likes to hear. And the little things can be the hardest for him to get to, anyway.

"Good. That is all there is to explain, for now."

Something secretive slips into her gaze, and she smiles her faint, appraising smile.

"If you continue on as you have, it may well go further on in your favor."

She gestures idly to the side of him, to a small tray of small (for her) cubes, that glow far more brightly than usual. ...Were those there before? Unlikely.

"Feel free to partake, or store some 'for the road'." She was pleased enough with how the meeting had gone to share some of her good stock, like a proper host.

"I do, however, have a question for you before you go."

Barricade's wings flick up a little bit at that look and smile. McCrane said that Prima mentioned something along those lines, but hearing it from the source is... different.

He starts a bit when he notices the cubes, brow ridges quirking up. Okay, he does not remember those being there before. And those are a lot shinier than normal.

"Ah, thank you." He cautiously picks up a cube - definitely sized for someone a lot bigger than he is - and looks back up to her.

"A question?" All Spark only knows what... but Solus answered his questions, so he might as well return the favor. "All right. What is it?"

"Indeed."

She gives him a brief chance to drink - or not - before she continues.

"While the timing was not the best for a long conversation, you once mentioned something that intrigued me. Something about a device you called a 'solar harvester', I believe?"

She quirks an optic ridge, but there is neither condemnation nor inappropriate intrigue in her question. Merely curiosity.

Barricade waits to drink... until after he hears the inquiry. He takes a brief swig before responding.

"I remember." He remembers not enjoying that conversation particularly - or what happened after - and he'd almost forgotten that he mentioned that thing. "Yeah. It was this artifact, left over from the time of the Primes. Did exactly what it said - it harvested solar energy - just... not in a way you'd expect. There's a pretty long story behind that, too."

A long, awful, awkward story, but he leaves out two of those adjectives. If Solus wants to hear it, he'll talk and let her decide.

Her Primes? Or the tiny, 'Matrix-bound' ones her brothers described?

"Hm. For energon, I assume?"

It wasn't hard to catch all the references made to energon shortages by the various (often hungry) Marked that poured in from various Cybertrons of the future. A harvester for any sort of energy would be the logical solution.

"It sounds like a story I might wish to hear. Tell me of these Primes, and what they crafted."

Be it useful...or cautionary.

Edited 2013-03-13 08:16 (UTC)

"In a roundabout way, yes."

Now that part had been a lot of science he never understood... because really? He couldn't. He wasn't there.

"All right. Well, have to go all the way back. In the beginning, there was this cube... the All Spark. It landed on what would be Cybertron and, to my knowledge, made the Primes to help it terraform the planet into what we knew. The Primes were... vastly powerful and had much more intricate designs than the rest of us did, but the majority couldn't transform in those days."

They didn't really have mystical powers, for the most part, which is part of why the FirstForged perplex Barricade as much as they do.

"But there was a problem. The Cube could only make so much energon; it needed solar energy to make more, and had crash-landed on a planet too far from any sun to leech the energy passively. So once the planet was finished, it tasked the Primes with getting it that energon, and made the first of us that could shift into vehicle modes, to help them find suns to... well. Harvest."

Can Solus see where this is headed yet?

An interesting beginning, but the stories of the Allspark were often varied from world to world, where it existed at all. Along with other versions of her brothers and herself, perhaps?

Interesting.

But yes. She did see where the story was heading. Though she still had to ask, if only to confirm.

"So they went to these stars. And how much did they harvest from them?"

Given the dire tone, she's going to guess 'the entire thing'.

"Everything. Sure you could guess that, though." His dimension doesn't exactly go for 'middle of the road' if they can help it. All or nothing, all the way. As if his tone disguised the answer anyway.

"They had their rules, though, as far as the suns they destroyed to feed the Cube. No stars from systems supporting sentient life. Just... one of them disagreed with the rule. Formed the first version of the Decepticons and turned against the rest. 'And forever after he was known as the Fallen', as it goes. The ones that weren't slaughtered killed themselves, to seal away the Matrix - the key to the last solar harvester in existence. The Fallen was also sealed away, in a tomb buried on Cybertron."

Which he admits is probably par for the course in some ways, in most universes. Aside from the whole 'destruction of suns' part, that is. But after that is where it gets tricky.

"Two Primes survived. A scientist, Sentinel Prime, and the youngest of them, Optimus."

"I could indeed."

And it is a grim picture. Probably not her brothers then, though the stories of Matrices and the 'The Fallen' have been told to them before, from many worlds. And oft ignored as unrelated to them.

Perhaps unwisely.

Solus makes a face, pausing for a moment as she tries to picture such a powerful construct. It could be made, easily so if she were so inclined. But there was hardly any cause to make such a destructive device. They had energy aplenty. But her curiosity around it was largely settled.

"Unfortunate that this device was so abused, and your Primes betrayed. But only two survivors? And what of this cube?"

"We've had poor luck, with Primes."

Which is why he doesn't them a whit even when he's stuck in other dimensions. There have been too many instances of Primes nearly getting him, his species, his planet, or all three destroyed.

"Only two Primes that survived; some of the other Cybertronians survived, as well. As for the All Spark... without a steady supply of solar energy, its energon production dropped off. The survivors of the war and what few hatchlings they produced split into clans and started warring over the little energon that was left."

"So it seems."

Solus vented a quiet sigh. 'Poor luck' indeed. Such fates seemed to afflict far too many worlds.

"Your tale is a unfortunate one, Barricade. I am saddened to hear of it. I assume this war lingers on without respite?"

And to think, he hasn't even gotten to the worst parts.

"Not that one. Sentinel Prime, with help from his charges Optimus and Megatron, figured out a way to pull a star to Cybertron. The proximity was just close enough to get the Allspark to produce more energon. Most of the clans united. I was hatched on a sunlit world in golden times."

His plating shivers a bit, rattling against itself. "But when the Science Division dug up the Fallen's sarcophagus and Lord High Protector Megatron of the Defense Forces took an unnatural curiosity in it..." Barricade lets it trail off. There's your war without respite, Solus.

Always with the Fallen, in this world.

And she isn't even going to ask about Barricade being 'hatched'. Another time, perhaps.

"Unfortunate, that those times did not last. This 'unnatural curiosity' led the Fallen's release, and to your current war?"

To say he doesn't know as much as he should about hatchlings is a terrible understatement, really. But he's used to it coming up when he talks about his dimension.

Barricade nods shortly. "I can only assume so. That and... we had an encroachment around the same time. Invaders showed up and attacked us, presumably to get the Cube. Lord Megatron used the unease of potential further attacks to get most of the Defense Force - the Deceptions after - on his side. Then he sent us after the Science Division - what became the core of the Autobots. We'd been fighting ever since."

"And so, your war."

Solus slowly nodded. Such a dark tale, one that seemed to end poorly. She would share some of this with Alpha Trion - he would surely find it a grim curiosity.

"Thank you for answering my questions despite the subject matter, Barricade. I will ask no more of your time if you have no further questions yourself."

"Exactly."

The details that Barricade had, anyway, dug out of reports and idle gossip from the early days. And his own recollections of the invaders and the start of the 'Cons.

"If it helps keep someone else from making our mistakes, the telling at least has some value. And that part of the subject is long-past." It didn't hurt the way later things did. Barricade shakes his head. "I asked you the only two I have at the moment. If any more come up I'll contact you, and I hope you'll do the same in return."

If it's anything he can help with, anyway.

"A commendable attitude."

Another nod, and she gestures to the remaining stack of cubes.

"Agreed. I will contact you if I need anything further - feel free to take another before you leave."

Then she turns, already going back to her hammer and forge. A clear dismissal, but she trusts him enough for Barricade to show himself out.

Questions, Questions [CLOSED]

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Well that only took like four months. :V