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Post by Swerve on Oct 10, 2007 14:00:46 GMT -5
Swerve just makes a noncommittal sound that isn't exactly a grunt and isn't quite a growl, either. He'll have to figure out if he wants to take that apology at face value, but it is an apology.
"What's t' learn?" he mutters after a pause to check a rubbish bin. It reeks worse than burned tires, but it doesn't blow up in his face. He moves on. "Other 'n what I already figured out…."
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Post by Kup on Oct 10, 2007 14:28:19 GMT -5
Kup continues strolling, pausing to look around, strolling, pausing to look around. "Well, without knowing what all you've already got figured out, I can't say, exactly, except that if you don't keep yourself open to learning, you'll never find out yourself."
Then a new voice comes over the radio. Maximal? What the hell is-
Kup stops short and stiffens, his expression darkening. Really, nothing like being told you're supposed to be extinct to ruin a mood, and with everything else going on, the mood wasn't the best to begin with.
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Post by Swerve on Oct 10, 2007 15:35:23 GMT -5
This would be the part where Swerve insists angrily that he doesn't want or need to learn any slagging more about this stupid planet. Velocitron is organic, too, but it's a dustball. This place has all this green stuff and things like the bird and the brown thing that Swerve nearly ran down weeks ago, after he first woke up next to that Optimus Prime. This place is just a bit much too much. He'll happily go back to his endless roads and deserts, and even the daily proverbial crapshoot that is the underground, rather than spend any more time here.
For someone who's switched out bodies fifteen times already in his life, Swerve is terribly resistant to change.
Swerve glances over at Kup when the oldtimer falls silent, wondering just what could've shut up his nigh-constant trap-flapping. It takes him half a second to connect that foreboding look with the talk on the radio. So where-ever it is this 'Maximal' thing comes from, there aren't any Autobots? Swerve is almost tempted to tell her she isn't missing anything, but she's apparently some new model in the line. Same product, different packaging. Just wait 'til he sees how different!
"Whatever," he says instead of both their dilemmas. Why should Kup care if this Maximal doesn't have any Autobots in her world or time or whatever it is? There weren't any Autobots on Velocitron until they decided to show up one day. At any rate, he's still around now, irritatingly enough for Swerve, but saying all that is something the racer doesn't think he's willing to manage. He just keeps looking for something bomb-like. Or suspicious. Or both.
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Post by Kup on Oct 10, 2007 16:57:53 GMT -5
It's probably a good thing Swerve only said 'whatever,' because at this point, the veteran is not listening to him, anyway. His hands clench into fists.
No Autobots since the end of the great war three hundred years ago...
...the war whose ending Omega Supreme had described to him earlier that day, the one that's only a couple of years in his future...
...and this... 'Maximal' is about from about three hundred years in the future.
It all fits together a bit too well, but how does he fit into this? He's lived long enough to know that the war doesn't end; it just goes into remission. He's been an Autobot all his life, for some seventeen or eighteen million years. He's labored, served, suffered, and even, effectively, been exiled for his faction. And he's the Chief of Security on Cybertron. Is there really any chance he'd stand for the replacement of his entire species? Especially if Galvatron is still out there?
So if this Airazor is from his future, either he's dead in less than a decade... or he's back in virtual exile.
The ancient Autobot raises his fists to about waist high, his face contorting into an expression of pure, unbridled rage, and he screams. The noise is one of primal, almost animalistic fury, a sound that no machine should be capable of making, and as Kup screams he swings his right fist into the building he had been standing near with all his force. One blow. Two. Three. And by that point, the metal building is no more, crumpled in on itself, ripped off its base and cast aside.
Kup stands there, frozen and silent as he attempts to draw reign on his temper. Finally, he lowers his arms and relaxes his hands. He looks down at the destruction he just wrecked for several long moments.
And then he grunts. "Hnh. Nothing explosive in there."
The veteran turns back towards base. "At this point, we're best off closing in on base, searching the area we skipped earlier," he tells the racer.
And now it's back to business. Duty calls, after all.
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Post by Swerve on Oct 10, 2007 18:22:40 GMT -5
It's a safe bet that few things can bring Swerve back down when he's going into yet another rage-driven fit and his temperature's climbing. So far, nothing on this planet has without Swerve actively making an effort to calm down. The roar that comes out of Kup, however, jars the racer so soundly that he spins and hauls out his cannon, nearly expecting the old Autobot to be lunging at him with a fist raised and ready to smash in his face. He's ready to dodge if he has to, and he's ready to call down a Cyber Key and open fire. He stops cold instead and stares, both jaw and arms going slack.
It isn't the violence of it that shocks Swerve out of his own anger. He's probably committed similar in the past. The scope of it, though… that's a building, not another mech. And that's Kup. Swerve has seen Kup tear up the road with his bare hands, but Kup was calm then, Swerve realises. The oldtimer has just demolished a building. With only three punches.
Swerve doesn't follow Kup. He instead stares warily after the oldtimer, weapon lowered, body tense. It doesn't escape him that Kup could've done much worse to him during that 'interview' than just knock him down. It also occurs to him that Kup could easily still do something like that should the fit ever take him.
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Post by Kup on Oct 10, 2007 19:44:53 GMT -5
As wrapped up as he is in his own thoughts, it takes Kup a moment to realize he's not being followed. When he does, he stops walking and looks around, then back, to see what the hold-up is.
Swerve's stance, Swerve's stare, the drawn weapon all speak volumes. Kup winces. He looks over to the building he just demolished, then back at Swerve, expression worn threadbare-tired, hints of pain, sorrow, and shame showing around the frayed edges. Finally, he sighs.
"I'm... I'm sorry you had to see that." Those words are, of course, woefully inadequate, and Kup knows it. After that, Swerve deserves an explanation. The veteran cycles air once more, his left hand going to his hip, his right gesturing absently as he speaks. The whole time he talks, however, he holds Swerve's gaze with his weary optics.
"I'm... something a bit over seventeen million years old, Swerve. And that whole time, from the moment I was built, I've been an Autobot. There wasn't always a war, and sometimes I was more or less alone because of it, but I've always known that somewhere out there, there were others. That the faction... the faction was. And that's been a part of me." The gesturing hand balls into a fist, not a tight clench, but loosely, as though he were holding something precious against his chest. "It's what I am, Swerve, down to every chip, every diode, every solder run. It's how I define myself. And..."
The hand loosens and opens, and Kup finally drops his gaze. He grasps for words, and as he does he moves his hand as though trying to pluck them from the air. How can he explain something like this? Finally, though, his optics widen, his mouth opens, and he looks back up.
"Like... like... you define yourself as a racer, right? Just... just... try to imagine, Swerve, finding out that in maybe ten years time... in that time, not only might you not be a racer anymore... but there may be no more races." Kup drops both hands to his side, as though they were suddenly weighted. "Gone," he finishes softly.
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Post by Swerve on Oct 11, 2007 14:59:46 GMT -5
Swerve wants to scoff at the comparison. Of course there will still be races in ten years, he wants to say. Of course he'll still be a racer. The thought of a Velocitron without racing is positively absurd.
He can't say that, though, because the thought really isn't that far-fetched. In fact, Kup has no idea just how well Swerve understands the comparison. He's had racing taken away from him before with no way of knowing when or even if he could ever have it back; he has indeed been stripped of everything that defined him. It's an experience he never wants to repeat. He doesn't like how close to home the words hit, or the faint sympathetic pang rattling around inside. He doesn't like it at all and there's no hiding that in the frown that slides in to replace his thunderstruck stare.
"…Velocitron will always have racing," he mutters, something about his tone humble, even as he shunts his weapon back into subspace. He's sure of that much, whether or not he'll still be able to call himself a racer in a decade and mean it to his very last circuit. That uncertainty of his own fate is why he avoids looking at Kup as he strides past him.
He won't argue now over heading back. The kid's safe, but that's worth a handful of sheared-off bolts if someone else gets blown to pieces.
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Post by Kup on Oct 11, 2007 16:56:38 GMT -5
Kup nods faintly at Swerve's comment about Velocitron and racing. He would have thought the same about Cybertron and Autobots. After all, there were still Autobots on Cybertron when Kup was away during the Golden Age... they were just of the less trouble making sort.
Except...
...for awhile there, just before 2005, there weren't Autobots on Cybertron. Oh, they were on the moons, and they were on Earth, but they weren't on Cybertron.
The veteran walks back, and he smirks faintly. Airazor's news is still not good, of course. But... just because she doesn't think there are any Autobots left doesn't mean there are no Autobots left. They may not be on Cybertron, no. But there will always be Autobots. If it takes all that Kup is, if he has to expand every last electron in every circuit of his body to do it, the Veteran will make sure of that.
"Hnh," he says softly as he nears the base and resumes the search. "Gonna have to remember to stop and think things through while we're here," he observes softly. "I mean, you throw things together like they're being thrown together now, I'm bound to learn a few things that're unsettling... temper tantrums like that aren't gonna do me any good in figuring out what I need to do about those things."
He mostly seems to be talking to himself, but he's also listening to himself. He had, after all, apologized to Swerve over having had to witness his anger. But like Kup just told Firebolt, 'sorries' are all well and good, but learning from your mistakes are better.
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Post by Swerve on Oct 12, 2007 13:33:11 GMT -5
There's really nothing for Swerve to say, so he mostly ignores Kup's rambling and keeps looking around for something that might be a bomb. He makes a point of not looking up when his search disturbs more birds, so he misses the riot of their jewel-bright plumage as they take to the air. But staring at birds got him laughed at once already – even if Kup apologised for it – and he isn't about to make the same mistake again. He just moves onward.
Probably not the sort of 'learning from one's mistakes' that Kup had in mind.
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Post by Kup on Oct 12, 2007 19:53:35 GMT -5
Not really, but Kup's pretty used to people who take his advice at moments he'd rather they didn't. Hot Rod was wretched for listening to him at the moments Kup wanted it least.
Swerve may not stop to watch the birds, but Kup does so. Maybe he's doing so on purpose, to emphasize a point? Maybe his mood is just turning. Then he gets back to searching. "We should be about done soon," he observes conversationally.
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Post by Swerve on Oct 13, 2007 3:34:03 GMT -5
Looking in a completely different direction means Swerve misses Kup's turn at bird-watching. If he knew, he'd decide he wasn't missing anything anyway, so in the end, the effect is probably much the same. He only just glances sort of toward the oldtimer when Kup starts talking again and looks away before making any sort of eye contact.
"Good," he grumbles, deciding against kicking the tiny pillar near his foot. Nudging it elicited a thin arc of water from the metal fixture atop it, but it didn't explode. Good enough. That decided, he keeps moving in a roughly straight line back toward the base. His path becomes slightly more convoluted only when he has to bypass large grassy patches, since his first go at walking across one finds the softness of the ground underfoot to his disliking. Just feels way too weird, that stuff.
He may have to get used to it at some point – in a way, he hopes he never does – but he refuses to make that point now.
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Post by Kup on Oct 13, 2007 12:44:38 GMT -5
Kup shakes his head, but doesn't say anything just yet. It's only been a couple of weeks, and while they're all having to adapt quickly to an unfamiliar situation, pushing too hard is liable to break something. Despite the obvious anger and anti-social tendencies, Swerve really does seem to be making an effort to carry his weight. It's a start point - and only a start point - but the veteran's dealt with worse. He'll just have to be patient.
On the other hand, maybe tomorrow they'll all just be suddenly zapped back where they came from and it'll all be moot, anyway.
The veteran smiles grimly over the news on the radio. So these... Maximals know of both a Vector Sigma and a Primus? The Primus reference makes it probably not his future, anyway, but Kup decides against relaxing entirely. There are, after all, a lot of parallels between, say, his own universe and Xaaron's. Both had the Ark leaving Cybertron and crashing on Earth four million years before, with much the same crew. Both had that crew waking up on Earth in the mid '80's. While he may not have glimpsed the future, he's now glimpsed a future... one he doesn't entirely approve of.
A lot of work to be done back home, that's for sure.
Kup finishes searching his section, then turns to Swerve. "That's about it for us. Care to go into base, start checking it out from the bottom up?" Kup intends to go in, anyway, but he wants Swerve to know that he does have a choice. And Kup, for his part, is interesting in seeing what the other chooses.
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Post by Swerve on Oct 13, 2007 20:55:27 GMT -5
"…Might as well finish what I started," mutters the racer, more to himself than in answer to Kup but certainly loud enough for the old Autobot to hear if he's listening at all. Swerve may not be overly pleased that he's constantly being thrown into things and dragged into working on teams, but he isn't about to let that get in the way of possibly wrecking that lousy Decepticon's plan. If it turns out there isn't a single bomb anywhere around here, well, all the more motivation to pound 'Hardwire' into a pile of junk parts.
Swerve pauses to check one more thing before his stride picks up and he heads toward the entrance in earnest. He's at the slight disadvantage of having spent much of his time out on scavenging hunts, so he probably wouldn't recognise something out of place if he saw it, but he isn't about to admit that.
"Not much point savin' the kid if somebody else goes and gets blasted, right?" he says instead, echoing his own earlier thoughts.
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Post by Kup on Oct 13, 2007 22:17:38 GMT -5
Kup dips his head in a nod, then allows, "Well, not pointless, exactly. Only one person blowing up is better than two people blowing up. But no one blowing up tops all." He pauses as he enters the parking garage, reminding himself that they really need to get a proper door on this thing. Once inside, he adds, "Well, Decepticons blowing up would be pretty good, actually."
Inside, generally speaking, every other floor has been removed to allow the Autobots to stand up, although the ramps and necessary supports remain. Repair, where Perceptor, Bluestreak, and Holi are, is about midway up. Down here, the first floor hasn't been converted for much yet beyond a general holding area for the supplies being used in the rebuilding effort. The downside of that, of course, is that it's always a big mess, and always looks recently disturbed, but still, it makes no sense to search the city and then ignore the base.
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Post by Swerve on Oct 14, 2007 15:54:01 GMT -5
Swerve can agree wholly with the idea of blowing up Decepticons.
"Starting with the slag-sucker responsible for this mess," he mutters venomously; he'll do his best to make good on his earlier promise – he may be the only one who sees it that way – over the radio. He tries to set those thoughts aside for now, though, before he can start working himself toward an overheat all over again, and casts a baleful look at the disarray of material and supplies they get to pick through in search of a bomb that might not even be there.
Probably isn't at the rate things are going, he amends privately. He stops and cautiously shifts aside a stack of trimmed metal sheets to peer behind it. He really does miss most of his tools, he realises as he glances at the neatly-cut edges of the sheets. Maybe he should start trying to put together some replacements.
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