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Post by Kup on May 23, 2008 21:25:44 GMT -5
Kup walks closer to the mouth of the tunnel, leaving the triage and evacuation point a little ways behind him. He summons his musket from subspace and leans against one side of the tunnel, absently examining his weapon, although if one looks closely at him they can see that he continually keeps his head in such a way that he can still see in the direction that new arrivals or intruders would be coming from. He might glance at Prime, or towards the top of the tunnel, or at his gun, but not matter what, the path that leads to the entrance is always in his field of vision somehow.
'Sigma, but this Optimus is a fresh-paint! Rodimus, as young as he was when he became Prime, had still been involved in the war for some four million years. This kid acts as though he's never seen mass combat before! Eager enough, though.
To the young Prime, he says, "I figure we'll start with you telling me a bit about yourself, maybe about your Cybertron. That'll give me some context so's I know how to go about explaining things to you."
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Optimus Prime
Minor
Oh yeah? Well I don't know what that means!
Posts: 383
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Post by Optimus Prime on May 23, 2008 22:11:20 GMT -5
Optimus had transformed after everyone was unloaded from him and followed behind Kup, his Axe unextended in his hand.
If Kup waves for him to stop to explain something, he'll stop. Otherwise he'll just keep talking. "Okay. Well, I attended the Cybertronian academy, but... didn't complete my training. I've been heading a crew of four in our shuttle, fixing space bridges, when we came across the All Spark. It wasn't long before Megatron showed up--and he was the first Decepticon I'd ever seen--but he was destroyed. We ended up in stasis lock over the planet earth in the city of New Detroit. This happened in the human calendar cycle of <insert year of TF: Animated's main storyline here>."
"Cybertron has been peaceful for four million cycles. I hadn't even so much as seen a Decepticon before we found the All Spark."
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Post by Kup on May 23, 2008 23:26:39 GMT -5
Kup listens, optics widening at the peace business. He mutters faintly, "Explains a bit," then nods for Optimus to continue. As he mentions the All Spark the second time, however, Kup raises a finger.
"Actually, that's one of the things we ask about... what you might call our check-list for sorting realities. Not all of them have something called an 'All Spark,' and not all of us have a physical body part called a 'spark,' but a lot of folks seem to. Seems like in some realities, the All Spark's associated with the Matrix, and in some it's associated with Vector Sigma, and sometimes it's just, well, by itself, I guess. Like I said, we don't have one."
Kup examines Optimus Prime. "I don't suppose either of those other things, Vector Sigma or the Matrix, ring any bells with you?"
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Optimus Prime
Minor
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Post by Optimus Prime on May 24, 2008 0:38:48 GMT -5
"No, neither of those things." Optimus says. "I wouldn't know what they are, but the All Spark is the source of Cybertronian life. The Autobots hid it to keep the Decepticons from us. Ratchet--my ship's doctor--says that the All Spark found us, not the other way around. It's a glowing ball of energy that is kept in an orange container."
Optimus continues. "Something happened when we arrived on earth. A local human named Sari Sumdac had a swipe key of hers upgraded by the All Spark. We had nearly lost one of our own until her key not only stabilized him but brought him back to full operational status. In addition to Prowl owing her his sustained operational status, she's... also become our friend." And then, matter-of-factly, Optimus adds, "Organics are not as bad as people would have you believe. I don't think I've met a human that spews corrosive acids like people say."
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Post by Kup on May 24, 2008 1:20:17 GMT -5
Funny. Optimus has never heard of a 'Matrix,' and yet 'glowing ball of energy kept in an orange container' isn't a bad description. But then, the sizes are just a... bit different.
Kup laughs as the young Prime decides to reassure him concerning organics. "Well, that depends on the organic!" he answers. "Humans generally don't, no, but then you get to the Amphibiods of Kyrisac Seven..." he shakes his head. "Boy, those were a nasty bunch," he mutters. "Very territorial."
He shakes his head and comes back to the topic at-hand, though the amusement is still clear in his tone. "I'd be a bit curious to hear what 'people' would have me believe organics are bad, especially when you consider plenty of organics are people, too. I'm something over fifteen million years old,1 lad, and a good chunk of that time was spent wandering around the galaxy. I know there's good and bad and dangerous and benign organics, just like anything else. Now, I don't suppose you've got any idea why 'people' would have the folks in your reality believing they're bad, would you?"
This... smacks of something that Kup's not liking the sound of at all.
1 Given the Deadzone G1 timeline and Kup's in-game approved background, he's actually somewhere between 16-18 million, but who's counting?
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Optimus Prime
Minor
Oh yeah? Well I don't know what that means!
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Post by Optimus Prime on May 24, 2008 1:40:21 GMT -5
At the mention of Kup's age, Optimus' optics flicker in surprise. Despite being part of a race that's been around for over ten billion years, 15 million is certainly up there.
"The humans have a term of phrase to describe it. An old, uh, female spouse's tale? The first organics I met fit the stereotype pretty well..." That memory takes Prime to a dark place. His tone brightens up quickly as he changes the topic. "It seems as if we're not the only Cybertronians to travel to Earth. There was a law enforcement vehicle that could have come from earth, although that was a Decepticon, and some of the people I saw just then could have been human vehicles too."
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Post by Kup on May 24, 2008 17:22:28 GMT -5
Kup nods. Old Spouse's Tale? Sounds about right.
Kup spends less time worrying about human idioms than a lot of other Autobots do, it should be noted.
"Actually, a lot of these folks have been to Earth. You'll find that there are some themes that seem pretty common in reality to reality, and Earth figuring heavily in our conflict is one of 'em. I think we've only got two realities where we can't confirm Earth involvement."
"The conflict itself is another common thread, though it's not active in the time period everyone's been pulled from. Usually Autobots verses Decepticons, sometimes Maximals verses Predacons, and in one case Autobots verses Predacons." Kup shifts position and raises his right hand, palm up, in a casual motion as he continues to explain. "You'll find you weren't quite right when you said we're all Autobots here. We aren't. That bitty guy I introduced you to, Makeshift, he's something called a 'Mini-Con.' He sides with us because the Decepticons in his universe are prone to using his kind as slaves and power batteries.
"There's also Maximals, small sized Transformers from the future of a universe kinda similar to mine. They say they're our descendants. Their alt modes are, erm, organic-ish. Kinda faked organic, or something. Rattrap tells me that's only for their off-world explorers. We rescued one of their type, Airazor, when we picked up Grimlock, but considering the condition she was in, I'm not surprised you didn't notice the difference. Botanica, who's from a bit further along their reality, is even weirder. Full organic-machine integration with her, instead of just wearin' it as another mode." Kup's tone conveys considerable distaste for the idea. He snorts. "Apparently they got their whole damned Cybertron reformatted that way, whether the locals wanted it or not."
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Optimus Prime
Minor
Oh yeah? Well I don't know what that means!
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Post by Optimus Prime on May 24, 2008 17:49:39 GMT -5
"...huh. I would never have figured that Transformers had such a strong bond to that planet." Not that it's a bad place or anything. Optimus was enjoying his fresh start on things there. "Some Cybertrons are organic, some don't even have Autobots or Decepticons, and yet Earth is pretty much standard for nearly all of us?"
"So that's where we come from. What do we know about how we got here? I just.. woke up. Is that normal?"
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Post by Kup on May 24, 2008 18:23:43 GMT -5
Kup dips his head, nodding once in agreement. "Pretty much, yeah. With most of us, we remember what was happening before, and we remember waking up here, and don't remember how it went from one to another. There's only certain areas on this planet where folks wake up, though, that zoo being one of them."
He finishes checking over his musket, opens his hands, and lets it go back into subspace. Even though he's standing guard, he doesn't keep it out, secure in his ability to resummon it at a moment's notice.
"This is the third planet in the Gillanan system. Visited some time ago, nice place. Put together a pretty good circus. As you've probably noticed, it's an organic world and was inhabited by a species advanced enough to build cities. I say 'was' because they were also advanced enough for space travel, and the locals all took off some time before we even first arrived here."
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Optimus Prime
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Oh yeah? Well I don't know what that means!
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Post by Optimus Prime on May 25, 2008 0:46:42 GMT -5
Optimus looks down at his own axe, slowly swivelling it in his hands from left to right.
"Do... we know what drove them away?"
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Post by Kup on May 25, 2008 10:26:26 GMT -5
Kup nods, idly tapping his right hand against the wall he's leaned against. "As a matter of fact, we do. Y'see, the Gillanan system I remember had two inhabited planets: the third one, an organic world, and the fourth, a mechanized world. "
For a moment, he takes the focus of his gaze from up-tunnel to look almost directly at Optimus Prime. "Shortly after we got here, we found an asteroid field where the fourth planet should have been, and even then, not nearly enough of it."
He looks away again. "Sometime after that, someone manages to trigger one of their final news broadcasts. The fourth planet in this system was literally eaten by an entity called Unicron. A planetformer that several of us have had to deal with in our home realities. In mine he's been defeated, in others he's still a menace. In this one... well, some time before we got here he wandered through, ate the forth planet, and these guys evacuated, maybe thinking they gonna be next."
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Optimus Prime
Minor
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Post by Optimus Prime on May 25, 2008 15:11:13 GMT -5
"..."
Optimus has no idea what to say. His jaw works, but nothing comes out.
"It ate... a planet."
That's one way of saying "We do not have a Unicron in our reality."
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Post by Kup on May 25, 2008 19:09:14 GMT -5
Kup dips his head and nods. "Yup." He pushes away from the tunnel wall and takes a few steps, still watching for new arrivals. "We have a copy of that final transmission, but I can't play it right here."
He looks at Optimus. "Wouldn't if I could, either. A playback like that... needs to wait for when people aren't worried about whether or not they're going to make it through the next five minutes."
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Optimus Prime
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Post by Optimus Prime on May 26, 2008 2:15:13 GMT -5
Optimus nods grimly. "Of course. But still."
An awkward silence passes.
"Fifteen million cycles, huh? I guess someone doesn't get that old without a couple of sectors full of stories on the old hard drive.."
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Post by Kup on May 26, 2008 13:17:10 GMT -5
Kup throws back his head and laughs hard. When finished, he's still grinning. "A couple, yes," he says. His grin turns lopsided as he turns back towards Optimus Prime. "So why do you ask? Got an interest in stories?"
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