|
Post by Kup on Oct 16, 2007 22:48:00 GMT -5
OOC: This thread begins after the Vote thread, and after Room Assignments have been posted.
Through the aid of Holi, Kup has cornered the wily Wheelie! He sits with the two smaller robots in a more out of the way corner of the under-reconstruction base, his stylus and 'notepad' once more in hand. Strangely, he's probably more nervous for this interview than he's been for any of the others, but the gulf between himself and Wheelie hurts. Now it's time to try to find a way to bridge that...
"You lads might have heard this already, but I've been going around, questioning everyone, trying to get a handle on what kind of skills and abilities and advantages we got going for us here. I want you both to know, though, that this isn't just a one way interview. If either of you have any questions for me, any at all, I'd like you to go ahead and ask them."
And then Kup turns his direction directly to Wheelie. "And Wheelie... I've been thinking about your situation. We... we will find another way to deal with the... the complications that you being here presents, all right. I will not ask you to go back to Quintessa." Where before Kup had simply told Wheelie to that in an attempt to calm him down, now the elder, who has had more time to think things over, is speaking the truth. He really has sat down and thought about things. "But I'd like it if you could at least give me the chance to explain why I had said that to begin with, all right?"
|
|
Wheelie
Rookie
Can't sleep. Sharkticons will eat me.
Posts: 191
|
Post by Wheelie on Oct 16, 2007 23:07:39 GMT -5
Wheelie has managed not to look for an escape route from his current situation. By the current scale of things, that constitutes a significant improvement from before.
"Wheelie will listen, while old 'bot talks. But if he doesn't like what he hears, then he'll start to walk."
|
|
Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
|
Post by Holi on Oct 17, 2007 0:05:10 GMT -5
Holi, from his seat beside Wheelie and his feet dangling just above the floor, nods at Kup's offer.
"Yes, sir," he says quietly. He subsides, though, falling quiet and growing still, when Kup turns and addresses Wheelie for a while. He takes the opportunity to listen instead; he doesn't know too very much about his orange friend just yet – there hasn't been much chatting between them just yet with so much else going on around the base at any and all times – and this seems as fine a chance as any to learn.
That and he'll be doing plenty of talking on his own once prompted.
|
|
|
Post by Kup on Oct 17, 2007 8:55:13 GMT -5
Kup's faintly sad, faintly tired expression remains intact as Wheelie and Holi answer, and he gives a single brief nod.
"Well, I'll go first this time. Because Wheelie, you have a right to know this." He puts his metal notepad down on a box that's in front of him, serving as table, and says a timestamp, one that's only a short time after Wheelie's. Then he continues, "2005. We were still recovering from the attack on Autobot City and the death of Optimus Prime when we got word that Cybertron's moons were under attack. We didn't know by what at the time, but it wouldn't bee too long before we had a name to go with the attacker: Unicron." Kup searches Wheelie's expression for recognition. The Quintessons had with them a survivor from another world Unicron had destroyed when Kup and Hot Rod had been taken prisoner... perhaps there had been others?
|
|
Wheelie
Rookie
Can't sleep. Sharkticons will eat me.
Posts: 191
|
Post by Wheelie on Oct 17, 2007 22:32:04 GMT -5
Wheelie nods. "Quintessons not like strangers! For all who come, there's many dangers! Five-heads feed to the sharks, whether they walk, jump, swim, or bark! Don't know the name Unicron, sounds like some spacey moron!"
He looks rather upset. "Couldn't save any, it's really quite sad... Should have tried harder... Does that make me bad?"
|
|
Grimlock
Major
There's no crying in Basebrawl!
Posts: 637
|
Post by Grimlock on Oct 18, 2007 12:06:45 GMT -5
Passing by in dino-mode, Grimlock overhears Wheelie and steps over to the area. The Dinobot commander feels an impending need to interject! "Wheelie not bad! Wheelie help me Grimlock and other Dinobots save Kup and Hot Rod from Quintessons! Then Wheelie find all of us ship to get off planet!" There's a bit of enthusiastic emoting with his dino-arms going on as well, since Grimlock's mouth is only good for flapping.
...and gnashing stuff, but that's not useful at the moment.
|
|
Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
|
Post by Holi on Oct 18, 2007 15:50:28 GMT -5
Holi doesn't quite understand all the specifics of Wheelie's situation the way Kup and Grimlock do, but he knows he can agree wholeheartedly with the big Dinobot (though maybe next time, Grimlock could try not to startle him? Please?). Once he recovers from his mild case of fright at Grimlock's abrupt appearance, Holi gives his friend a reassuring smile and gently pats his shoulder.
"You aren't bad, Wheelie," he says with bright certainty. "I'm sure you tried your best to help, and that's more than enough." Proclaims the little bot who seems to always find his own best efforts still somehow lacking. But he understands how it is to feel too small and too frightened to do much of anything, maybe a little too well, even if he can't forgive himself as easily as he can forgive the Minibot.
|
|
|
Post by Kup on Oct 18, 2007 17:28:25 GMT -5
Kup glances back over his shoulder at Grimlock's arrival. Well, there's the super, super, super abridged version of what the veteran was trying to tell Wheelie. He turns back to the orange Minibot and smiles gently, nodding in agreement with the others. "You're not bad, Wheelie. You were just in a very bad situation."
He leans back. "Unicron was... is... was..." damn it. He has no idea which one applies here, if either! "a giant Transformer, capable of turning into a planet himself. He traveled through the universe consuming everything in his path, and when we heard about him, he was heading to our home world, to Cybertron. The Decepticons attacked us even before we could take off, and hounded us on the way there, until at last they damaged us bad enough that we were forced to crash into Quintessa!" Kup's subdued tone is slowly replaced by his more excited, story-telling mode. He demonstrates the crash using the table as Quintessa and his stylus for the ship.
Then he remembers what he's here for, clears his vocalizer, and continues, attempting to keep the story short. "And then... yeah. Hot Rod and I got captures by the Quintessons. You met Grimlock and his Dinobots. You lead them to us, and we were able to escape and turn the Sharkticons against the Quintessons. You were also the one who lead us to the ship we needed to escape with. Eventually, we made it back to Cybertron, and Hot Rod, after being transformed into Rodimus Prime, destroyed Unicron."
Kup smiles down at Wheelie, although there's still a bit of cautious searching in his optics. "You not only saved us, your actions let us save Cybertron and every other planet Unicron would have destroyed after that. So... not bad, Wheelie. Not bad at all."
|
|
Wheelie
Rookie
Can't sleep. Sharkticons will eat me.
Posts: 191
|
Post by Wheelie on Oct 18, 2007 21:45:05 GMT -5
Wheelie manages not to jump out of his seat at the arrival of Grimlock, and instead gives the significantly larger Autobot a smile.
And then everything Kup said worked its way through his CPU. Even though he'd been told it before, hearing it again, and hearing bits of it from Grimlock prove to be a bit much for Wheelie. "Wheelie not zero, Wheelie big hero?"
The shock of so much resting on him is enough to make the minibot pass out.
|
|
Grimlock
Major
There's no crying in Basebrawl!
Posts: 637
|
Post by Grimlock on Oct 19, 2007 15:10:48 GMT -5
Grimlock nods to Kup, and to Wheelie. "Yes! Big hero! Big he--"
...
Grimlock looks at Kup, confusedly. "Why Wheelie fall asleep?"
|
|
Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
|
Post by Holi on Oct 20, 2007 19:15:45 GMT -5
A Transformer that turns into a whole planet? That's… that's too big. Much too big for Holi to even begin to imagine. Incomprehensibly big. He's had enough of a time adjusting to Omega Supreme! And to think, just one Autobot – the Rodimus Prime on the radio? – destroyed it.
But he couldn't have done it without Wheelie!
"See?" Holi gleefully adds, turning to the Minibot with a grin. "We told you–" Said Minibot is looking unwell, however… and tipping over, passed out. The Micromaster's jaw drops and he moves quickly to support his friend lest Wheelie fall right off their shared seat. Really, though, he can't blame Wheelie. "Sorry, Kup, sir," he says on his friend's behalf, giving the elder Autobot an abashed smile.
|
|
|
Post by Kup on Oct 20, 2007 19:33:11 GMT -5
Well, the Rodimus Prime on the radio destroyed a Unicron, but that isn't the Rodimus Prime Kup was speaking of.
The veteran has, in fact, been abnormally quiet on the radio since Prime's spoken up. It's become quickly obvious that this isn't the Rodimus he knows, and he finds himself strangely... unnerved by the situation. Meeting an alternate Mirage was odd, but he's never been very close to Mirage to begin with. Folks like Bumblebee and Jazz are so different in appearance from their namesakes that it's easy to view them with a level of detachment.
But Rodimus? Hot Rod, and then Rodimus Prime, has been one of Kup's closest friends and protégés for a couple hundred years now. Kup has taken great pleasure in watching Hot Rod's maturation and the fulfillment of his potential. Omega Supreme's news that Rodimus will shortly be reverted - that Kup may, indeed, have already seen his own Rodimus Prime for the very last, even should he return to his own reality - was disheartening enough. And now the veteran will soon meet a new and different Rodimus Prime, one with the same voice as his young friend and leader, and Kup... doesn't know what to think. So he's put it out of his mind, and is concentrating instead on work.
Kup's optics widen as Wheelie passes out, and he drops his stylus and the metal sheet to shift over and support Wheelie, to indeed cradle him. He gives a brief nod towards Holi and says gently, "That's all right, Holi. Not your fault," then checks on Wheelie. "Wheelie, lad, are you all right? It's okay, Wheelie... things are all right. You're with friends..."
|
|
Wheelie
Rookie
Can't sleep. Sharkticons will eat me.
Posts: 191
|
Post by Wheelie on Oct 20, 2007 23:10:52 GMT -5
Wheelie comes back on-line after a second. "Oh, what a tizzy! What you said made Wheelie dizzy! But if what Kup says is true, and it must be, then no more hiding for this Wheelie! No more cringing, no more running away. When old 'bots around, he still not stray!"
He pulls himself back up into a sitting position. "Wheelie played the fool before today, but now, you see, he's on his way!"
|
|
Grimlock
Major
There's no crying in Basebrawl!
Posts: 637
|
Post by Grimlock on Oct 21, 2007 7:05:57 GMT -5
Grimlock would grin if he could, as he's quite relieved that Wheelie's alright. Leaning forward, he noses in toward the Mini-Bot. "Good, Wheelie okay!"
|
|
Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
|
Post by Holi on Oct 21, 2007 23:31:20 GMT -5
Holi can't seem to wipe the smile from his face. It looks like there won't be any more big problems between Kup and Wheelie, and for that, the Micromaster is infinitely grateful and relieved. Even if he isn't sure how much he did to help, Holi is glad all the same.
His smile wavers a little as he tears his gaze from his friend and looks up at the elder Autobot, his curiosity rearing its head now that concern has been satisfied.
"Kup, sir," he ventures, "Wheelie mentioned the Quintessons before, and that they're very bad, but… um… who are they?"
|
|