exsiliumlogs | elephant [OPEN]

Entry tags:

elephant [OPEN]

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

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?"

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."

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."

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."

"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.

"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.

"Oh yeah that was covered I just didn't uh. Exactly believe it. Sorry, this has been kind of a huge. Info-dump and I can't exactly process everything."

A beat.

"So it's really true? You can't die..."

"Uh-uh!" She shakes her head, holding up one hand as if to get him to stop. "You can die. Anyone can die, though I really don't recommend it. It's that you won't stay dead." There were exceptions, of course, such as Initiative favors, but she doesn't see signs of those to date, and doesn't want to voice thoughts she barely pays heed to on her own.

So instead, she smiles. "It's got something to do with us not being from here but here, or something, so if we bite the dust, they bring us back right out of it again. Pretty freaky!" She shivers. "It's happened for a few people, from what I get, but... no offense, it's not one of the theories I plan on testing out."

Not any more than she does naturally.

"But that's so down! We've got good things to look forward to, too. Like getting back, in some cases, and making really good friends we'd never have met otherwise because we did end up here."

Optics wide, he leans in, listening with rapt attention.

"Hmm. I wonder how that even works. Possibly some kind of psychic-refraction or-" Drift stops himself. He can form theories later. So many wrong, wacky theories.

"I... ah. Hm. I suppose you're right. Making friends is a tick. And getting back would be a big tick." He counts it off on his fingers.

Though to be honest, Drift doesn't have many friends. In fact he maybe has one. Well, three actually, but the dead ones don't count, really. He's not exactly popular, even with his own species. Having been a Decepticon will do that, though.

"Any of them tocks?" she asks before stopping herself, leaning in a little to look up at that face and the optics that were his eyes.

She grins, holding out her hand. They've done the intros already, but she has something else in mind with this. "Good, now you're on the right track, so to keep going that way, count yourself as up one friend. That's a tick, right?" Collette winks. "The getting back might take longer, but it'll happen!"

Probably (and in her case, unfortunately), but that was a thought for a different day. "Besides, think of all the places we'll see! It's not always out and out fighting. Actually... it mostly isn't!"

There's a pause, and then Drift gives a startled laugh.

"Oh haha- that's. That's a pun." Wow could any one giant robot be more socially awkward?

He brightens at the concept of being called someone's friend. He's not sure she'd want a friend like him, and perhaps a little apprehensive to actually let anyone get close, but it certainly can't hurt for now.

Looks at her hand and mirrors her, offering his own, because he can only really mimic human social queues.

"Well, that's definitely a big tick. And likewise, most definitely."

She definitely is up-beat. It's kind of nice.

"You have such a positive aura!"

She makes to solemnly shake his hand again. "Friends it is!" Laughing at his other proclamation, she winks. "I'm standing in for the sun until we get it back online full time. So tell me about yourself! Friends do a lot of that. Talking and all. I can help with the talking about this place, if you've got more questions, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious to hear more about you, and where you're from."

"Friends," Drift echoes, a little fondly. It's odd when anyone calls him that so openly.

"Well, you're certainly doing a fine job of it!" He scoots over to lean back against the door structure of the roof, producing a bright, pink glowing cube, or rather, a cube filled with bright pink glowing liquid, and a glass from seemingly nowhere. (Subspace).

"Well, my story isn't a pretty one, and neither is the story of my planet or my species, but if you'd like to know, I'll tell you." He pours some of that glowing liquid into the cup, rationing it out carefully.

"I'd also like to know about you, too."

There's a pause as he places the cube back into his subspace and shrugs.

"I'd offer you some of this but it would kill a human."

"What is that?" Watching the whole appearance of a glowing pink cube that Drift was now preparing to drink from has all her curiosity focused in tight.

Curiouser and curiouser.

"I'd like to know." She looks up to his face, away from the fascinating liquid for the moment. "I think I can handle that kind of sharing in return. Would I have to explain Earth too?"

"Energon," Drift says, plainly, as if it's totally normal. Only after a brief interval of silence does he elaborate, "It's what my species uses for fuel. Our lifeblood."

He lifts the glass in a little 'cheers' motion before drinking it.

"Well, no. I mean, maybe. I've been to Earth but it wasn't on leisure and I didn't get out much. So anything you deem as pertinent, would be helpful to know."

The swordsmech shifts, unclipping the giant great sword from his back and setting it aside so he can get more comfortable.

"Where do you want me to start?"

"Maybe with why you came to Earth? Then we can backtrack from there, or go forward, or ago any direction that makes sense. You weren't here to conquer anything, were you?" Tone kept light and teasing, Collette's not entirely kidding.

For one planet among gazillions, it's surprising the amount of interest Earth pulls in on itself!

"I'll fill in what I can about Earth. Mine and this one, they're a little bit different." She pauses, then amends her statement. "Okay, maybe a lot different, at least past the 1980's, but that's way over a thousand years in the past now. Is there enough of that energon stuff for you in the long run? Maybe the Initiative has stores..."

"Ah yes. Yes and no. You see, the reason why I was on Earth was because of the war. My species has been locked in civil war for millions of years. It destroyed our home world and spread to other planets, destroying those as well." His mouth draws into a tight line.

"The opposing side came to Earth to conquer and destroy. We chased them to fight them there. It didn't go well. Despite us trying to help, the humans were not... exactly trusting of us, regardless of internal politics. For good reason."

The Decepticons almost won.

"Hmm," Drift strokes his chin, "Time travel." Odd as it is, he doesn't seem surprised.

"Oh, uh. To be honest I'm not sure. If I don't have it, I'll eventually shut down and die. There are ways to synthesize it, but not in large amounts, and I'm no scientist, I'm just a soldier."

A beat passes.

"Was, a solder. Was."

Collette listens to a story similar in parts to one she's lived through at the tail end of a fight borne by Jake and the rest for years. "Gotta admit, we don't always do so well with aliens. We're pretty sure we know all there is, so it takes us a little." Or a lot of time in order to break past the preconceptions.

She doesn't have much of a problem with this; hers comes in being too ready and willing to trust and believe.

"We'll see if someone can synthesize it. Even if we're not the scientists," she adds, "Soldiers can soldier right into the right answers some of the time."

She doesn't choose to point out he's been drafted as a soldier again. She's more curious at the past tense. "Is it that easy to leave it behind? Being a soldier."

"Yeah... that tends to be the way with most species though." They're more often than not, very stubborn.

"Heh," She's very full of wordplay, but it's not unpleasant, "I suppose, sometimes they can."

Not always, but sometimes.

"What? Oh, uh. No, not really. I've been at it for four-million years, give or take. Our war just recently ended and... well. It certainly doesn't leave easily. I don't exactly have any other skills than..."

He taps one of the scabbards mounted on his hips.

"But I'm learning." Slowly. Very slowly.

"Four million years?!" Her ability to believe at first hearing means she takes him at his word, but her mind still boggles under the comprehension of that amount of time being devoted to any one subject. "Geez! Drift, that's totally crazy!"

On the other hand, having an end to a four million year long war was probably an achievement worth writing home about. "Did you guys have the biggest celebration ever with it ending? No wonder it'd be hard. Though if you're a good soldier, and you've got to be, there's all sorts of things you do well! Like pay attention, or guard things, or probably infiltrate, though you're kind of big for that around here." She tapped her chin. "Are you any good at building?"

He winces a little. Yeah, their species was defined by the war. Defined by destruction and killing each other. Not the greatest reputation.

"Uhm. Not... not exactly. Most of us were driven away by the neutrals when the war ended."

Drift takes another sip of his energon.

"Uh. I can do those things. I also write a little bit. I mean nothing major but..." Shrug.

"Building? Uh. Not. Really. I mean I couldn't design something worth a damn, but I guess in the barest sense of manual labor, sure. I could do that."

Collette shrugs, as if to dismiss her own question on building. She has no idea of what he can do, so it seemed logical to start tossing options out into the air.

What she latches onto is his confession on writing. "What do you write about?" she asks, ignoring how it being nothing major made it almost sound dismissive. The rest, with most aliens being driven away, that she can understand in a sort of graceless way that expects people are more comfortable when assuming they can keep the bad parts of reality far away just by pushing out the obvious reminders from their daily lives.

It doesn't work quite like that, but the illusion is nice.

"Oh just uhm," Drift rubs his neck, a little embarrassed, "Just speeches. For my captain. I wrote his speeches... and uh. Sometimes haiku, but they're never that good."

He's not really the creative type.

At least he seems comfortable enough to say anything. He's never really met someone who was so interested in him. Outside of Wing and Perceptor and maybe Rodimus himself. It's unusual but not unpleasant.

"Speeches take skill," she says, smiling. "Half-way decent ones around here would be pretty useful, if you ask me!" Isn't speech writing some sort of profession where she's from? Collette isn't sure, but it sounded just weird enough to be true.

"And one way or another, now you get some time to figure out the things you are good at that doesn't rely on the swords. Or you could take up being a lumberjack."

Possibilities seemed relatively endless! "Is there anything you always wanted to try doing?"

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