Autobot Interim: Explorin'!

[Arcee]

"Just your regular run of the mill warrior," Arcee answers Jazz. "But I'm a better shot than most."

She transforms as well as they pull up. Too small for her too. Definitely have to be Holi, or maybe the little orange guy, Wheelie.

"You're right," she agrees. "Kind of strange, actually. From the stories I've heard from Kup, most species are closer to our size than this. Why bring us here if everything's too small?"

[Jazz]

"Overclocked? Wazzat?" Is that like... just full of beans, and going nonstop until you drop? Jazz sounds as though he's puzzled that anyone would even ask that question. "I'm ok, Long Haul."

"Sounds like you're more'n just a run of the mill." Jazz gives a shrug, and a smile to Arcee, once he transforms. "I dunno why. Why -here- anyhow. I ain't heard of it-- language looks funny-- an' there's other questions t'ask as well. Like, why us? Why were we chosen t' come here? I can think of 'bout a hundred things I need t'do, startin' with wipin' the smug look offa Megatron's face."
And he's studying the patterns. They're pretty neat. Blue is a good color. Silver is even better.
But Jazz isn't small enough to fit through the door. Darnit. "Prolly should get onna the small ones t'look inside. Though it'll probably end up bein' traffic control headquarters, an' nothin' we really need t'worry about."

Jazz pokes at one of the antennae experimentally. He's a little frustrated with not being able to read the script right now.
Patience with others is a strong suit. Patience in finding things out for himself... not necessarily.

[Long Haul]

The antennae gives slightly, but when Jazz removes his finger it returns to its normal shape.

Long Haul shrugs about the discussion of scale. "Never been off Cybertron before this, but... seems like most folks on it were built so's folks... about the same scale as what would fit in here... can enter us. S'lotta weird things, but some of them, I never had to leave home for."

Long Haul steps back. "Erm, I think if you're planning on going after any Megatron fellow, you might want to think of a different plan of attack next time, y'know? Maybe talk to some of the other folks from your reality? They might know something that can help you."

He sighs. "We'll have to mark this down to look at later, or something." He updates his internal maps, and looks around. "Wonder if there's anything else useful around here..."

[Arcee]

"Only other world I've ever been on is Earth," Arcee says. "The people there are about this size, give or take."

Still, it's a curious question Long Haul raises. Just why did they all have passenger compartments? True, many were a part of their disguises, but even back on Cybertron, it just seemed like standard practice that they would have room for a small driver. It was almost enough to make her wonder more about where they came from. They were mechanical beings, after all. Someone had to have built the first.

[Jazz]

Jazz gives the antenna another couple of pokes before leaving it alone.
Interesting material. Probably be fun to play with for a little while...

"Been to a coupla places. Didn't get t'see much of Earth though." The reason that Jazz has a passenger compartment is he's scanned an Earth vehicle. That's all!
And there's the Jazz giving the tower a cursory look, walking around it to see how the designs flow before poking at the door that he's too big to fit in.

"Haven't got th'chance to talk t'anyone that I know yet, Long Haul. Bumblebee prolly couldn't tell me nothin' I didn't already know though-- He's about one Earth cycle behind me."

What a difference a day makes.... twenty four little hours.... (And the song is stuck... please get it out... please...)

"I just did what I had t'do. If I gotta meet him again, I'll bring a bigger gun. Mebe somethin' with a little more concentration on the nitro. Wonder if I could nab somma what those little guys were usin', and mix it in--"

Lost in thought for a microsecond. A rarity-- however, it's a design question that Jazz could improve upon what he already has, just in case... After all, the normal combination obviously didn't work...
But first, however, there's finding out what's going where he is, before he can work on getting back to where he was.

Nope. Phrases like that aren't going to make him dizzy.

"So. " Jazz peers around the circular grassy knoll, looking for the closest buildings. "Y'see any buildings that look like they've got markings on 'em?"

[Long Haul]

Long Haul nods. "Yeah... lotta people been to Earth, from a lotta different realities. Never heard of the place before I got here, but it... sounds like no matter what the reality, we're just... we're just sure to get wrapped up in them down the road."

He steps back from the tower, and begins walking around, examining the area. "Lotsa buildings got markings on them, but none what I can read." And a scan around the area, which does seem to contain some fairly important looking buildings - government, perhaps? - will show Long Haul to be correct. Markings are fairly common, though they're not on every building.

[Arcee]

Arcee looks around as well, committing what she can to memory. Nothing she recognizes and she couldn't translate the symbols if her life depended on it.

Still... "What do you think those markings mean?" she asks. "A warning? Directions? The local version of "Eat at Joe's?""

[Jazz]

Guess who might be able to decode it eventually?
Maybe. Maybe not. Still--

"Entrance. Exit. Danger. Don't step on the grass." Jazz says with such sincerity, pointing at various signs. Random signs.
A second later, he grins, "I dunno yet. Gotta figure out the keys b'fore I can unlock it. S'why I'm lookin' for the similarities in the script. Can't read a book without knowin' your glyphs first. Matchin' 'em up is a step in that direction. If there was a place that had somethin' more familiar t'read, it'd be a better way to crack it."
What's crackin' Jazz?
A code.
Yeah. That's right. It's a code. His processors are jumping at the thought of a new puzzle to play with. It'll keep him from getting bored...
Besides. Jazz really does hate not knowing things.

Like where the little 'bots room is.

[Long Haul]

The Constructiobot stares at Jazz when he points out the signs, and goes, "Really?" Then he slumps his shoulders in a disappointed manner when he finds out Jazz was kidding. "Oh. Well, I guess if you need more, like, stuff to look at, we should start looking."

Long Haul takes several steps towards the nearest building, then stops. "Problem is, these may be important sorta buildings to be lookin' into, but... everything's so small. We may be better off going on to see if this place has got a dock area, or some such. Better odds with finding a place we can actually fit into, y'know?"

[Arcee]

"Or at least a garage," Arcee adds, her sides shaking as she tries very hard--and ultimately unsuccessfully--not to laugh at Jazz's joke. "Swerve and I found one of those on our way in to meet everyone."

He reminds her of the Jazz of her world very much, in word and mannerisms. She wonders, briefly, if any of the others back home even know that she's gone. Or worse, if any of them even care.

She brushes those thoughts aside. Now was neither the time nor place, and being weepy was not her style.

[Jazz]

Of course they'd notice and care that Arcee was gone!
How could they not care about the absence of the delicate pink figure of one of the rare femmes who was not only lovely to look at, but could also kick their afts if they tried something funny?
And who else would put up with Springer and Hot Rod anyhow?

... then again, who would notice if Jazz.. wait. No. It'd be quiet. They'd notice. They just might be relieved.
And Jazz can't read thoughts, so he can't read the melencholy that he can't quite get into himself. Especially not with a mystery and an entire planet to explore in front of him.
But Arcee's Jazz could probably stand still for longer than this one can.
"That might be a good place t'start. Docks an' garages." Jazz admits, grinning at Arcee. She laughed at his joke. Yay! "Not like there're gonna be huge examples of text outside. For all we know, we could be lookin' at an ad for the latest entertainment system."
Jazz peers at the symbols on the tower again, committing them to memory. Hey. If something is similar elsewhere, maybe it'll have the same function. And if it's a place he can get into, maybe he'll be able to get an idea of what this one is for.
One last poke at that antenna and he's looking to the others.

"So which way d'you think'd be best? First day in the city an' all that-- an' I'm up fer playin' tourist." Long Haul has a better idea of layouts, and Arcee has been here before. Jazz likes exploring, but if either of them has an idea of someplace that'll get him more info faster... so much the better.

[Long Haul]

Long Haul points. Further down in the same direction they had been going. "Down this way, I'd say. We'll want to steer more or less towards the river, and stick to the main roads. There's an area where the zoo butts right up against the river, though, and we'll have to either transform to walk that section, or go around."

And with that, the dump truck transforms and starts puttering in the direction indicated. Putter putter putter. Still a pokey thing.

[Arcee]

Well, Blurr probably would, but only because, in turn, they were the only people who could put up with him.

Arcee transforms and follows after Long Haul. "Didn't think to map it when I was going through here... Else I'd have a better idea of where that was."

[Jazz]

Don't forget about Daniel! Daniel would miss Arcee!

Jazz follows the pointing. The Zoo? Hm. Familiar. And then...
"Right!" Jazz says, "Let's go then!"
And off he goes. Of course, Jazz is going to have to circle back a half dozen times. And as he does each and every time, he's going to be babbling about something to do with the signs he's seeing on the sides of the roadway.

Or maybe the view of the river.
Or the way the road is rough in a spot up there, that Long Haul should look out for. And that curve over there.
Yep. He's pointing out a few sights along the way as well.
It's like having a tour guide that doesn't know where he's going, other than 'That way', and still determined to narrate the trip. But he's so enthusiastic about it!

[Long Haul]

Long Haul is a construction vehicle. He handles rough roads just fine. Hell, he handles no roads just fine!

Arcee might appreciate the heads up, though.

Eventually the group gets to the area where the zoo butts up against the river, as Long Haul had predicted. This area of the zoo is actually out of sight of the arrival point (and good thing, too, given Grimlock's likely reaction to Long Haul), and Long Haul transforms. He tries, briefly, to clamber over the barrier, but he's not an agile mechanoid, and eventually just pushes his way through, destroying the wall in front of him easily. He turns to the others and shrugs.

"If the folks what live here end up wanting this place back, we'll see about fixing it. If not, and we end up stuck here awhile, we're gonna have to adapt it to our use, anyway."