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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Apr 15, 2007 19:07:59 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron has to work to keep his jaw from dropping at how casually Long Haul turns his back on them. Xaaron may be unarmed, but Long Haul doesn't have any reason to know that particular fact. For all Long Haul knows, Emirate Xaaron could have a fusion cannon tucked away. Long Haul may be bugged or booby-trapped in some way, but Xaaron is quite certain that he is no conscious enemy.
To Emirate Xaaron, the Constructicons were a group built on Earth when the Matrix was put to perverse use by Shockwave. They certainly weren't alive back then in his timeline. Perceptor seems to show recognition, however. Perhaps Long Haul and Perceptor are from closer timelines than his own. He says nothing on that particular matter, as Long Haul already thinks he's crazy, and not in the, 'Foolish Autobot, you are crazy to rebel against us still!' sense to which Xaaron is accustomed.
Emirate Xaaron is quite relieved that no one has directly asked him what he alternate mode is. It's a long, messy tale, and it is not one that he cares to tell, especially to a stranger. He paces around to look Long Haul in the optic band and suggests coyly, "Long Haul, if you wouldn't mind, might you transform and carry us in your truck bed? I think that, of all of us, your skills are most suitable to the task." Lay it on like flattery, like it is the only logical choice, and really, it is. "I doubt that splitting up would be advisable. The locals or wildlife might be unfriendly, and if we are here, Decepticons may have also arrived in the area. Staying in a group will be safer. It is this prospect of danger that makes me urge haste."
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Post by Long Haul on Apr 15, 2007 19:20:18 GMT -5
Long Haul takes a startled step back as Xaaron walks around and steps in front of him. "WHAT?!" he shouts, irritated. "Y'only just met me, and already you wanna ride me?" It figures. It just figures. He meets two complete strangers in the middle of a blamed desert on some alien planet, and right off the bat someone's asking him to carry something. "Why can't you t-" he stops suddenly. "Oh, microscope." Then he grunts and gestures to Xaaron. "An' I s'pose yer useless too, huh?" he growls before shaking his head slightly as he tilts it back, a motion that seems to scream "eye-roll" despite no eyes.
"Well, that just figures," he growls as he steps back a bit more, giving himself room to transform (he grows considerably larger as a dump-truck, oddly enough). "Still, guess it ain't right to leave the two crazy people out inna middle of nowhere. Outta at least go lookin' for the edges of nowhere." His engine starts, and he shouts over it in tones of afterthought, "Hey, would onna you crazy people mind tossin' a handful of that black dirt stuff in my bed while yer at it?"
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Post by Perceptor on Apr 15, 2007 20:39:41 GMT -5
"My thanks, Long Haul," Perceptor replies graciously as the mech in question transforms. "I have some limited molecular analysis of the soil and rock formations from this location that you are welcome to, as well," he offers as he obligingly gathers the requested sample for the green mech.
As he settles to a seat, he scans the horizon, noting the change in landscape quite some distance away that Long Haul had noted as well. At the very least, the distant foliage will provide some cover, both from the elements, and from protential enemies.
"Xaaron, you spoke of Unicron prepared to attack Cybertron. When are you from in your reality?" Perceptor asks thoughtfully.
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Apr 15, 2007 20:46:43 GMT -5
Ignoring the crude remark, Emirate Xaaron is quite content to be labeled as useless by Long Haul. People often associate useless with harmless, and he would be happy to be thought of as harmless for the time being. If danger comes, he'll harden up, but the only barbs he really has are in his tongue.
He smiles and says, tone very polite, "Thank you very much, Long Haul." Xaaron doesn't think that Long Haul is worried enough about the Decepticon danger, but he assumes that the Decepticons were a non-issue for Long Haul. Perhaps they will continue to be a non-issue, but Emirate Xaaron is too much a cynic to believe that pretty idea. He knows what glitter can hide. Him, for one thing.
Emirate Xaaron gingerly climbs into the dump truck's bed and inquires, idly curious, "Ah, why do you want the dirt, anyway?" But he cannot avoid answering Perceptor's question. At least he has avoided any talk of his alternate form. He answers, and the date is in Cybertronian years, not Terran ones, but it puts Unicron's attack... in the 90s. The early 90s, at that.
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Post by Long Haul on Apr 15, 2007 21:01:15 GMT -5
"Eh," Long Haul answers Xaaron as the Cybertronian-styled dump truck begins to roll in the general direction of southeast, although he has to occasionally adjust his path to deal with some of the taller out-croppings. "Sample. Mixmaster or Scavenger might be interested in 'em. Well, the Scrounge will, if Mixmaster in't." He rolls forward silently for awhile, then explains, "Those're two of my workmates, y'know." He's still not too sure of this whole 'famous' business. "Well, not just my workmates. S'far as I'm concerned, they're somma the most important folks inna universe."
Again, Long Haul falls silent for a moment before something occurs to him. "So, uhm, ain't saying I'm convinced or anything, but assumin' you two ain't nuts after all, your saying those Decepticons start causing pretty serious troubles, after all? Always thought somma them reports seemed blown outta proportion myself, but if that's true, maybe I oughta, dunno, look into travelin' with a caravan or something. Scrapper suggested something like that, when we first started hearin' stuff about the attacks - I'm on the road by myself a lot, y'know - but I thought he was just being a wuss, like normal." Another pause, and then the transport adds, "Scrapper, he's another onna my 'mates, by the way."
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Post by Perceptor on Apr 15, 2007 21:26:58 GMT -5
"I am familiar with your 'workmates', Long Haul," Perceptor replies. "As Xaaron stated... the work and skills of your team are well known. On Cybertron, and beyond."
Though Perceptor is careful to keep his tone generally light, he is no more an actor than Long Haul is. Xaaron will likely note the oddly sad shadow to the scientist's expression which he tries to cover by peering out over the unrelentingly black - and bleak - landscape.
"If our two realities are convergent, Long Haul, then, yes. 'Serious troubles' loom. I... I hope for your sake that your Cybertron has a more peaceful future in store. The war on my Cybertron has raged for many millions of years, in one fashion or another," he explains sadly.
"As for our realities, Xaaron... It was a decade later before Unicron attacked my Cybertron. Perhaps, if there is time and opportunity, we might compare the distant histories of our respective realities to determine where the divergence occurred."
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Apr 15, 2007 21:35:16 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron leans back against one of the side-walls of Long Haul's truck bed and puts his hands back to grip along the rim. The land may be fairly flat, but there is still a risk of a bump knocking him out, especially when they get to greener lands. He tries to remember. Green means... plant life, right? His xenobotany classes were so very long ago.
At Perceptor's comment, Xaaron says, "Certainly, as soon as reach a secured area." For one thing, he knows that the Constructicons did not exist when they did in the timeline that Long Haul and Perceptor seem to share. That puts the divergence back at least nine million years ago. Given that Perceptor has no idea who Xaaron is, the divergence has to go back farther still, to before Perceptor's creation.
Sounding more than a little sorrowful and envious, he muses, "A decade. I would have killed to have a decade to prepare for that monster's arrival." It's not going to do much to cheer Perceptor, though, and Xaaron muses if perhaps he ought to work on morale a bit.
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Post by Long Haul on Apr 15, 2007 21:47:42 GMT -5
"Hnh," Long Haul grunts as he rolls forward. "Yuh, sorry. Havin' a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea of being famous. I mean, you work in the right fields, you've heard of Scrapper or Hook or maybe even Mixmaster, but we loggies and transports, ain't nothing we do that's really that inneresting, even to ourselves."
He falls silent for awhile as he rolls forward, listening to the others. Tonal inflections, strains of sadness, those are lost unless they're very blatant, as social interaction has never been Long Haul's specialty, but as Xaaron bemoans his lack of time, Long Haul speaks up again. "Whelp, one thing I gotta say for travel, it gives you a lotta time to think. 'Course, you spend enough time traveling and you're all thought out until all you got left to think is, 'Gee, travel's boring,' but until we get that far, might as well put the time to good use, right? I mean, sure, the immediate problems more immediate, but we're doin' what we can about that already. Might as well start goin' over ways you might get yourself outta your mess when you get back, right?"
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Post by Perceptor on Apr 15, 2007 22:01:15 GMT -5
"More than nine millions years have elapsed between your time and my own, Long Haul," Perceptor replies, a wry tone entering his voice. "A great many things become possible with the passage of such a length of time."
"As for Unicron," Perceptor observes, fixing Xaaron with another thoughtful look, "as I stated, in my reality, it was the Matrix that turned the tide. Little else could be done, save to retreat."
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Apr 15, 2007 22:07:20 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron snaps, "I know what we need, Long Haul! The Matrix. And it's lost in space." Because Optimus Prime was an utter idiot and got himself killed over a video game and the rest of the Autobots were even dumber and shot his body, with the Matrix, into space. However, that's moronic enough that Xaaron doesn't even want to talk about it. "Four teams were dispatched to find it. And they did. A Decepticon called Thunderwing, however, found it first, and the Matrix accepted him as its bearer." No accounting for taste. "In the struggle to defeat him, Thunderwing's body and the Matrix were lost in space. Again. Before I arrived here, I was attempting to reawaken Primus, as a last-ditch attempt to stop Unicron." He lets go of the rim to cover his face with his hands and curls in on himself.
Okay, Xaaron, old boy. This is really not helping spirits. Forcing some cheer into his tone, he suggests, "Perhaps it would be possible for me to return at a time before the Matrix is lost and prevent my present from ever happening, if the method of our arrival here can be reverse-engineered and time-adjusted." He looks to Perceptor, "For you as well. Think of all the lives that could be saved."
Granted, he knows that messing with time is general a bad idea. However, when it looks like the end of the world, bad ideas look an awful lot better than they usually do.
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Post by Long Haul on Apr 15, 2007 22:15:48 GMT -5
Long Haul takes Xaaron snapping at him well, perhaps surprisingly so, and his voice is almost cheerful as he says to his rider, "Ah! So your already seein' why I hate traveling! Wears on the nerves, fast!" His voice remains cheerful as he adds, "And yell at me again, I'm dumpin' your aft out and you're walkin'. Well, okay, I won't make you walk, but you're gonna have to climb back in."
There's a jarring bump, as Long Haul doesn't particularly pay attention to anything that's small enough for him to plow right over, and the transporter observes, "Sounds like this Primus guy must be a sound sleeper, if he's sleepin' right through someone trying' to eat his planet."
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Post by Perceptor on Apr 15, 2007 22:26:05 GMT -5
Perceptor eyes Xaaron in confusion. The Autobot Matrix of Leadership accepted a Decepticon as a bearer? He stares out across the lanscape pensively again, murmuring only, "It bears consideration."
For a few moments, Perceptor tries to imagine a Cybertron without Megatron. A cybertron where the warlord had not rallied the Decpepticons to his banner and initiated aeons of conflict and war. The jarring bump shatters his concentration, however, and he shakes off such speculative thoughts.
"Who is Primus?" he finally asks, turning back to Xaaron.
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Apr 16, 2007 8:04:53 GMT -5
And his thoughts drift from stopping Unicron alone to going back in time and putting the proverbial hemlock in Megatron's drink before he ever rises to power. The trick would be to not implicate himself.
Since he had let go of his grip to cover his face and sulk, Emirate Xaaron is nearly knocked out of the dump truck when Long Haul jostles over the bump. He grabs on at the back, and his feet scrape the dirt. After a moment, he levers himself back in and makes a point of holding on a little more tightly.
Perhaps that near-fall knocked some sense into him, because he sighs and offers, "My sincerest apologies, Long Haul. I should not have lost my composure like that. It was unacceptable of me."
He nearly loses his composure again at Long Haul's careless comment about Primus being a 'sound sleeper'. This time, however, Emirate Xaaron exercises his sense of restraint. In reverent tones, he explains, "Primus is the living god who inhabits Cybertron. He went into dormancy aeons ago, that Unicron would not be able to locate him. We hoped that, perhaps, he could combat his ancient enemy if awakened, but... but... you mean to say that you have never heard of Primus?"
There is something deeply disturbed in Emirate Xaaron's face, voice, and body language. The thought is nearly unthinkable to him, like hearing of a fish that has never known water. Even the atheists knew of Primus, even if they did not acknowledge his divinity!
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Post by Long Haul on Apr 16, 2007 8:44:29 GMT -5
Long Haul continues to rumble forward. Rumble-rumble-rumble. Xaaron's tone of voice seems to imply that this "Primus" guy is something that everyone knows about, that that's a given, but Perceptor doesn't seem to know, either. Maybe Xaaron's part of a small enclave of wackos in a remote part of Cybertron or something?
"Nope," the transport answers matter-of-factly enough. "Never heard of no gods living in Cybertron. Granted, there's a lotta weird stuff down in them tunnels and stuff what that we've lost track of over the years, could be a god or whatever tucked away somewhere, but I never heard of it."
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Post by Perceptor on Apr 16, 2007 14:31:26 GMT -5
"Hmm... Intriguing," Perceptor observes. "I suspect the divergence in our continuums occurred much more distant than previously anticipated. There are no references to any Primus entity, even in the most distant archives that I had ever achieved access to. Unicron, also, was unknown until his abrupt appearance immediately preceding his attack."
Perceptor hunkers down further in Long Haul's bed to avoid being nearly dumped out as Xaaron had been - rather quick mech, Xaaron is. Perceptor hadn't even had a chance to lean over to help haul him back in before Xaaron had righted himself. Perceptor files that away in his ever-growing store of observations.
"This divergence disturbs you."
Obvious, that, at least from Xaaron's reaction. Perceptor hopes, however, to urge further explanation from the strange mech. Perhaps the key to their presence here, and thus the key to returning to their proper places and times, lies in where and when each of them was taken from.
Or, perhaps not. At the moment, however, with nothing but effectively featureless parched black soil and a slowly growing green blot on the horizon, there is little else to contemplate except the current, and alarming, lack of fuel, materials, and resources. There is nothing in their vicinity at the moment that can aid that situation, and the distant change in biomass offers no clues yet to even begin hypothesizing any solutions. Better to examine what information he does have access to, than allow himself, and the others, to possibly dwell on the potential direness of their situation.
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