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WHO: Invisible!Skyfire and YOU
WHERE: The junk pile
WHEN: After the Pillar expedition
WHAT: Skyfire came back in one piece, but invisible. And now he's trying to fix that.

It was a long shot, Skyfire was quite aware of that. But it was the only more or less decent idea he had. Nobody could see him, nobody could hear him, and that made getting help from someone else quite difficult. He had considered making a text post to the network, of course. And then he realized that even if someone offered to help, there wasn't much they could do at all, in his situation.

So here he was now, digging through the junk pile and trying to find something remotely useful. Or at least something that sparked a better idea.

It didn't even occur to him that he was making it look like all kind of things were moving on their own and floating around.

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Skyfire stepped back, startled, when he saw his friend just disappear and reappear like that. Well. That looked like a rather annoying side effect, too. Granted, given that they had gone and messed with the Pillar, things could have been much worse. They probably should consider themselves lucky.

But that didn't make it any less bothersome.

Only touch. He hesitated for a moment, and then other the most frustrating bit of news. When I take readings, they say I'm not here.

Putting aside the annoyance of having his moving interrupted every now and then with a "helpful" teleport a small distance away, Jetfire's optics flickered in surprise at the text appearing on the screen, then narrowed.

"Curious... Some form of... er, phase-shift, maybe?" Idly, he performed a quick scan of his own and, indeed, there was nothing in the results that indicated there was another cybertronian nearby. "Something that would put the larger part of your mass and energy in a phase slightly above or below this one, but not completely removed from it, or completely unable to... ah, affect it, hence your ability to influence things by touch?"

He nodded absently, and only then realized just how pointless that gesture was. This whole situation was making him feel quite silly. Having to communicate only through the link when Jetfire was right there was more than a little annoying.

It's the soundest theory. Unfortunately, I don't know how to fix it.

It was rather frustrating on Jetfire's end as well, if not to the same degree since he wasn't directly affected. But being unable to have something to properly focus on when he knew Skyfire was right there was... strange.

"States of energy isn't a field I have been involved in either unfortunately, even less quatum states," Jetfire said with a static sigh and a shake of his helm. "What have you tried so far?"

Better start somewhere easy, right?

I tried to take readings of wherever I am instead of myself. Didn't work. The instruments seem to only read the phase they are currently in.

Truth be told, he hadn't tried much else so far, embarrassing as it was to admit it. This wasn't his area of study at all. Looking around the junkpile had given him a few ideas, at least.

I was thinking perhaps I could try to somehow attach myself to the usual phase. I have some effect on it after all.

"Curious... one would think your equipment would be able to pick something up, whether that is merely residual energy or light wavelengths from whatever phase you've ended up in, or from this phase..." A pause as Jetfire frowns, folding his arms over his chestplates while still keeping his screen visible and accessible.

"Of course, given the... ah origin of both our current states, expecting equipment to act normally, or be capable of normal interaction with the surroudnings, may be too much to ask. What were you considering on trying? If I can help, I will, of course."

Frustrating and potentially fruitless or not, Jetfire's interest is piqued... and he does want to help his friend.

Jetfire was right, of course. Expecting any kind of logic in these conditions was too much to ask. But Skyfire wasn't about to try things at random, either. By now he did have same vague semblance of a plan.

The problem was, explaining it somehow managed to make it sound both silly and embarrassing. Still, he had to at least try.

Since I can't take readings on myself, but I can touch things, I was thinking perhaps _you_ could try to take readings if there is some kind of physical contact.

Which probably wouldn't help bring him back to the correct phase, at least not by itself, even if it worked. Then again... it'd be a start.

"I think we should definitely try it." Glancing up from the screen in the direction of where he was pretty sure Skyfire was, Jetfire hummed throughtfully. "You're hoping that, while you're touching something, there might be some form of connection between your location or phase and this one?"

Shifting, Jetfire held out his left hand with a small smile.

"And hopefully I'll be able to feel you touching me, otherwise the phase difference might be even greater than it appears to be... or your ability to interact with your surroundings is less... er, apparent, than it seems." Which would be another lovely (no sarcasm here, no sir) bit of evidence for the Badlands and Lambda not obeying proper scientific and natural laws.

That's what I hope will happen, yes. It's worth a try. He was, however, already bracing himself for disappointment. This place made very little sense - and this was coming from someone who had seen plenty of weird things back home. It was much too frustrating.

Here I go.

It felt a little silly to warn him, but it did have a couple of purposes. If Jetfire could in fact feel the contact, then this could make it slightly less startling. And if he couldn't, then he'd know for sure that this was the case. So, without wasting any more time, Skyfire simply took hold of his friend's hand and waited for a reaction.

Jetfire, for his part, was trying to keep any sensors he had trained on the hand he held out, but the result was both... what he'd expected and not.

Because while he couldn't feel a single thing, and his sensors insisted there was nothing there, if he gently closed his hand there was... resistance.

And yet every single sense he has insisted there was nothing there at all.

"... I think this might be one of the oddest occurences so far." Shaking his helm, Jetfire tightened his grip a little just to make sure there was still something hand-shaped there, regardless of what his senors were saying. "Since pressure, tactile, temperature and electromagnetic sensors are all registering nothing, but there's obviously resistance."

He really should have expected it to make no sense. Skyfire allowed himself a moment to sigh in frustration and run a hand over his faceplates, before he focused on doing something useful again. Namely, explaining his side of the situation.

My sensors do register all of that. Apart from, of course, the visual data.

It made no sense at all.

"Shape left to be picked up while every other measure seems to have been removed... Doesn't make sense at all." Frowning and resisting the grimace that wanted to slip away from him, Jetfire turned the hand in his grip over and shook his helm.

"It's... almost like a partly-failed subspace incident. Instead of mass being put away, everything else has been, beyond the fact that you're still... ah, here." The smile was small and brief as he narrowed his optics.

"Since this doesn't make sense, I would surmise there would be no use in investigating the subspace angle despite that it makes the most sense... er, somewhat, anyway." That's not a frustrated sigh at all, no sir.

Oh, he understood the frustration, trust him. It wasn't just the fact that it made no scientific sense - he could live with that, after having spent so much time in this place. Or, at least, he could deal with being stuck in a place where the rules were different than what he was used to.

No, the real problem here was that if they couldn't understand what was going on, then they couldn't do anything about it. And that applied to both of them. Jetfire's glitch wasn't getting any closer to being fixed either.

It looks like we can only hope these effects are temporary.

He didn't really want to admit that they might have to simply ride this out without trying to do something about it, but on the other hand Skyfire was right.

"... You may be right," Jetfire said with a sigh and a slow shake of his helm. "Though I'd hoped that wouldn't be the conclusion."

Suspected it, yes, but hoped it wouldn't be.

"I hope you are still fuelled enough? And if not, hopefully you can still consume energon in this state."

I still have enough fuel for some time. I'm trying to conserve energy, in any case.

He didn't see any reason why he wouldn't be able to refuel, but... well, they'd just been reminded that they couldn't expect things to make sense. It was better not to risk it just in case. Sadly, that also meant he was stuck walking for the time being.

"Unless you aren't finished here, would you like company back to either your room, or the lab?" He smiled a little, despite the fact that it still feels decidely odd to talk to someone he can't see.

But since Skyfire is here, there's no reason to act any different from if he could see him. Anything else would be rather rude, after all.

He honestly appreciated, too. Skyfire was sure that it must feel quite awkward to be in that position.

I think my room might be the best idea. An invisible giant shuttle in the lab didn't sound so great after all. You really wouldn't mind?

"... Perhaps you might be right," Jetfire said as he actually started to think about the ramifications of having somebody invisible in the lab and who couldn't make themselves visible if they wanted to for the moment.

"And no, not at all." Jetfire smiled, shaking his helm. "I have nothing that is on a time-sensitive schedule that would need to be looked after at the moment, and besides that..."

He trailed off, shrugging briefly. Being able to see Skyfire or not didn't affect his enjoyment of his company, after all.

"I would never mind spending time with a friend, even if we're not currently engaged in labwork." And walking wouldn't hurt him, even if it would take a while. Talking of walking, however... "Though we'll see how long this takes given my... er, situation as well."

Sigh.

Edited 2014-02-05 12:05 (UTC)

Ah, of course. There was that other tiny detail too. It was almost easy to forget about Jetfire's glitch, until it happened all of a sudden.

Yes, this was definitely a day for walking.

That's all right. We're in no rush.

"... I suppose that's true, even if it'll be an exercise in patience," Jetfire said with a slight twitch of his mouth and then sighed. "At least, I suppose, it'll be less disorienting and less of a chance of anything going... ah, terribly wrong if I am walking instead of flying."

He didn't, quite sound embarrassed at that, but yes, there'd been a couple awkward near-accidents when the glitch had activated while he was flying.

"Do we... er, remain in contact while we walk back to your room, or simply walk beside each other?" Either would be awkward as the other, really, but in different ways.

Edited 2014-02-09 23:34 (UTC)

Skyfire couldn't blame him for being embarrassed. He felt much the same himself, especially considering what he was about to answer. It was more than a little awkward, but... it couldn't be avoided. One of them was invisible and the other one changed position unexpectedly.

They weren't going to avoid this.

It's probably safer to stay in contact.

Ah, well. At least they weren't going to be seen like this.

Starscream actually was out randomly flying and not purposely stalking Jetfire when he spotted him around the junkpile. He circled high overhead and briefly wondered what the idiot was doing. It was probably something stupid either way.

Jetfire appeared to be talking to himself, and while Starscream usually expected the larger jet to be socially weird, it never had gotten quite that far before.

So he circled around again and transformed, fully prepared to land in an overly dramatic fashion. Unfortunately, he came down right in the spot where the invisible Skyfire stood. Starscream didn't even have a chance to open his mouth -- rather the sound heard could be described as a completely awkward crashing sound and some muffled noises.

"You might be---" The sudden roar of jet engines descended fast had Jetfire cut himself off and look up.

That, unfortunately, didn't give him enough time to disengage from Skyfire in time to step away from Starscream.

Or push Skyfire away.

Or anything of the things that could've led to avoiding what happened, since even if Starscream was only about half Skyfire's height, he was still heavy and coming at speed.

So when Starscream came down on Skyfire, he dragged him down, of course, and since Skyfire and Jetfire were still holding hands...

Jetfire lost his balance, stumbling forward and down but managing to catch himself on his hands before he'd completely collapsed on top of the pile they'd suddenly created.

"Starscream!"

He'll ask how Skyfire was in a moment, this was just a bit disorienting.

And awkward.

"... ow."

It wasn't very eloquent, but no one could hear Skyfire complain, anyway. Small blessings. Now, the problem - the rest of the problem - was the fact that Starscream clearly had no idea that he had landed on someone else. Which meant that trying to stand up, or even getting into a slightly more comfortable position, wasn't going to be easy.

Unless he didn't care about simply dropping Starscream as he stood, but... that just wasn't Skyfire's style.

So the only good option, for the moment, was texting Jetfire again. Given the situation he kept it short and to the point.

Please tell him.

It was probably a good thing that neither Starscream could not see how exactly he landed on Skyfire. Because that would have been even more awkward.

And Starscream probably would have commented and made it worse.

Instead he made several grumbling noises before moving to push himself back to his feet ... Well he almost got to that point, but after his vision stabilized and he found that he was floating off the ground on what appeared to be very hard and uncomfortable air ...

"What is going on?! What did you do?!"

He tried to scrambled up but he was caught between a rock and a hard place. Or rather right between Skyfire and Jetfire.