elephant [OPEN]

[weapabilities]

Date & Time: Feb 6th, all day.
Location: Around the outskirts of the city.
Characters: Drift and YOU!
Summary: Finally bored with hiding, Drift takes a walkabout. Which means robot parkour!
Warnings: None, will update if needed.
Note: You can enter in from the given prose or write a setup and I can adjust/write into it. You can also post in your preferred format and I'll match!



Boredom and anxiety drive him out of the abandoned building he's made his temporary home for the time being. He hasn't felt comfortable going to his designated housing. Unsure if he'd fit or even be very well-received. At least he's starting to settle with the fact that most humans here aren't out to trap or kill him.

That's a new and exciting concept. Fortunately, it appears nobody has really seen a Cybertronian, save for that one fellow, who didn't much seem to care.

So he ventures out, unfolding from his vehicle mode to dart down the empty streets and look for anything useful. The information he'd been given... he isn't sure if he can trust it at all now. It doesn't bode well, either way. He's been thrown into this mess, and the talk of war.

War.

He'd not adjusted well. About as well as Rodimus or Atomizer or Whirl (Primus, Whirl...) to not having 'kill Decepticons' as the primary M.O. anymore.

He's not sure if he's relieved or depressed that he's back in the apparent thick of it again. But it's what he's good at. Killing. As much as the "Flaky Spiritualist" act sustained him on the Lost Light, he knows deep down it is just that. An act, even if he played the part so well that even he started believing it.

Drift vaults himself up onto a sturdy looking building, using it to reach a crumbling ledge of something taller. He climbs, scaling until he reaches some of the upper-rooftops.

"What am I going to do?" He asks the sword on his back, which maintains it's silence, as always.

"Am I here for a reason?"

Perhaps.

Or maybe it's just happenstance, just like Ratchet would tell him. But he pretends to have a purpose, and moves on.

Comments

[whatsupcroc]

"I have no idea," Collette confessed, wide-eyed and looking sideways at whatever kind of robot this was. She'd been hidden around the far side of this particular roof, having demorphed in order to survey the city with her human eyes and give herself some leeway to reset her morph clock. She'd been practicing carrying her stop watch while in eagle form, something she was better managing the longer she practiced.

What she hadn't expected was to find a talking robot up at around the same level. She laughed, waving at it. "But the Initiative sure thinks we are. Okay, I've got to ask -- who are you?"

[weapabilities]

Whirling around, Drift startles at the voice of another, twin blades instantly in his hands and standing at the ready. There's a long pause.

Oh. A human. Not terribly comforting but he's getting used to them not being a threat here. Go figure, the seventeen-foot-tall mech with the swords is afraid of a little human... but given what he's been through, you wouldn't blame him.

He simply shakes his head and sheaths both swords, standing up and looking down at her a bit sheepishly.

"Sorry I uh... I didn't see you there." His expression melts into something akin to nervousness.

"I'm Drift." Not that it explains much.

"Who are you?"

[whatsupcroc]

Collette admires those blades with all the presumption that she's not in immediate danger of being impaled. Had she been, it would have been highly unpleasant, if not immediately fatal.

But her fear on dangers here is completely skewed. If it pays off this time, may she remain so lucky in being trusting in the future. "Yeah, I was kind of ducked around the corner."

Leaning against the lip of the building, she grins. "Nice to meet you, Drift! I'm Collette. I'm one of the Transports, in case you were wondering about that."

A Transport in a tank-top and black, patched leggings, sitting meditatively on a rooftop.

[weapabilities]

A moment later, Drift seems to realize he's being rude and kneels to speak to her, peering a little curiously with those bright optics.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Collette," He nods politely, awkwardly offering his hand to shake... well. Probably better a finger, maybe.

"So you're stuck here too, then?"

[whatsupcroc]

She beams up at him, very solemnly -- then enthusiastically -- shaking his finger. "In Exsilium? Yeah, for around half a year now. I showed up in July of last year, and we're in February now."

More time has passed than she realized. It does nothing to dim her smile, or keep her curiosity from being less evident. "You arrived in the last few days? Woah. I've got to say, you are one big guy."

[weapabilities]

It gets a bashful smile out of him.

"Oh uh. You should see some other members of my species. I'm actually on the smallish side..."

Carefully, he leans back to sit down and cross his legs, fidgeting over a pebble stuck in the gears of his boot.

"So I guess I'm in this for the long run, it sounds like."

[whatsupcroc]

She watches him, engrossed in how he moves, how his parts interlink, on how amazingly awesome this is. "Oh," she says, coming out of her own headspace. "Yes and no! People sometimes go back home real fast. Other times, they're here for months. Some people have been here a year by now, you know how it goes."

Collette shrugs her shoulders. "Better to think like you're here for the long-haul. Don't let it get you down! It's kind of an exciting opportunity, if you ask me."

[weapabilities]

"Hmm," Drift sighs into his hand, tapping a finger against his lips, "I suppose. I should not get my hopes up."

He's needed on the Lost Light. At least he's trying to convince himself of that. Would Rodimus miss him? Would Perceptor? Would anybody?

"Opportunity to what? Possibly get yourself offlined in a fight you have nothing to do with?" Bitter? Him? No.

[whatsupcroc]

"No one got around to explaining the part where we're not technically allowed to die? Not for long, anyway." Collette canted her head to the side, watching Drift closely.

[oncearanger]

Billy's searching the skies for a sign that their vortex cannon might be working when something even better catches his eyes. A walking, talking robot? A picture of Alpha flashes through Billy's mind, but he's never seen one quite like this. Absolutely fascinating.

Excited, Billy approaches with a friendly wave. "Hey! I don't think I've seen you before."

[weapabilities]

Drift turns, finials cutting an art in the air as he swivels to face the direction of the voice. He hops down from his perch, and throws up a hand in an almost nervous gesture of greeting.

"Uh. Hello. Yes, I'm new."

[oncearanger]

Billy takes it in stride, quickly pocketing his hands and smiling up. There are so many questions he wants to ask, but he's still conscious of how rude they could be. Better to start slow. "Well...welcome, though I know this isn't the greatest place to be welcomed to. How are you settling in?"

[weapabilities]

There's a brief, worried look that flashes across his face at the question.

"Uh. Well I guess." Not well at all. He's scared, alone and hungry.

"Thank you, though. Uh. Oh. Right. I'm Drift."

[oncearanger]

Billy is surprised---something's not quite right, but he's never been an expert at reading facial expressions. He just decides to be careful here, toning down the enthusiasm.

"I'm Billy. It's nice to meet you. And...wow, I can't say I've ever met anyone quite like you before."

[weapabilities]

"That's probably for the best, actually." More than half his species would have stepped on this guy without a second thought. All of the Decepticons.

Some Autobots, too.

"But ah. It's a pleasure to meet you." He offers a small smile, and a handshake as he kneels to be more on-level, even if his hands are probably awkwardly huge.

[oncearanger]

Billy snorted. He wasn't afraid of giant robots, he adored them. But talking to one? Perfect.

He awkwardly pats the offered arm. "I didn't think the transporter looked that big," he joked. "But welcome anyway. Have the streets been a problem?"

So many objects built for people. Fairly short clearance heights.

[weapabilities]

The swordsmech gives a nervous little sound of amusement.

"Oh, well. Sort of. I mean, not terribly. I get around okay in my alt-mode, but I'm kind of waiting for the moment when I run over a bit of broken glass and pop a tire."

[redheadcarrier]

"You don't have to stay in your stupid robot the entire time, you know!"

There's a shout from somewhere down on the street. Asuka stands there, looking bored (and trying to contain her jealousy, which she's failing at).

"How come they let you keep your machine?"

[weapabilities]

Wow that's.

Offensive. Drift frowns, turning towards the shout. Stupid robot? Well, he may be foolish at times, but he's certainly not stupid. At least he'd like to think.

"Excuse me? I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about."

[redheadcarrier]

Asuka shields her eyes from the rain for a moment and scowls. Was this guy a total moron? Of course, Asuka thinks most people are morons, so don't take it to heart, Drift.

"Your suit or whatever! You're a pilot, right?"

[weapabilities]

The white mech shakes his head until it dawns on him.

Oh. She must think he's a human in a suit.

"Uh, no. Sorry. I'm not a human, my species just looks like this." This one definitely has a pushy way about her...

[redheadcarrier]

"What?" Asuka draws it out into a long exclamation of amazement, "No way! Someone had to have built you! Or your a suit! There's no such thing as mechanical life!"

Pushy is putting it mildly.

[weapabilities]

"No, my species is an entirely self-sustaining one. Nobody made us, I mean unless you count Primus, but we were all made in his image, so..."

Pay no attention to his spiritual nonsense.

"Either way, I can assure you I am not made by any human hand. My species can think and feel, just like you."

[redheadcarrier]

"That's impossible!"

Asuka doesn't sound completely convinced. Or convinced at all, really. She sets her hands on her hips, trying to puzzle this one out.

"Hey, come down here so I can get a closer look at you!"

Stupid robots.

[weapabilities]

"No, it's quite possible." Humans. Always thinking they're the be-all-end-all of the universe.

Drift frowns a frown that looks perhaps closer to a sulk.

"Say please."

Stupid humans.