Motormaster
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Not the Nicest Guy You Know
Posts: 127
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Post by Motormaster on May 29, 2008 20:34:52 GMT -5
This takes place a good number of hours before Override appears.
In the depths of the lush forest that covers the eastern seaboard of this continent, a temple of silver arches spreads out in joyful celebration of the life and beauty that surrounds it.
Sprawled on the dais, at the foot of the altar itself, a black and grey truck'former stirs. He's a large Transformer, perhaps as tall as Scourge. The comparision to the black Decepticon Prime isn't all unwarranted, as this mech is also of similar build though radically different transformation. In fact, his feet are composed of his glossy black truck-cab, while the rest of his body is formed of a dark gunmetal grey metal. Designs in black and purple cover him, framing the Deceptisigil in the center of his chest.
With a groan, he sits up, then turns his head to face various points in the clearing. His optics are not on, but a high-pitched chirping can be heard very faintly.
"What the hell?"
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Post by Lynn Deanna Payne on May 29, 2008 21:04:39 GMT -5
Bambi is not terribly fast. She can reach about 45 mph if she runs flat out, but she misses all the important details if she does. Her meandering has brought her to the outskirts of the temple.
From her perspective, the temple is right up her alley. Of course, there could be angry natives at any turn (the Autobots neglected to mention their absence to her), a pit trap, javelins, or...
...annoying high-pitched chirps. A dog whistle may summon dogs, but aside from chronological implausibility, there is a reason why no one has ever tried to make a dromaeosaurid whistle.
Bambi claps her forepaws over her audios and hollers, "It not Hell - it a temple! No one ever tell you be quiet in holy place?"
He's speaking her language, and based off preliminary analysis of roadsigns, that makes it rather likely that he's not native and instead another misplaced man.
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Motormaster
Rookie
Not the Nicest Guy You Know
Posts: 127
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Post by Motormaster on May 29, 2008 21:31:01 GMT -5
"No, they didn't tell me to be quiet, because gods like noise! It makes 'em feel loved." Motormaster's head swings around towards the call, and the big truck stands up. Radar pings gently, reflecting off the arches and the stones, and gently outlining the small dromaeosaurid.
Ah, there's the little lady. "Who're you? This your post?"
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Post by Lynn Deanna Payne on May 29, 2008 21:46:49 GMT -5
This strange new Transformer has just fed her a tantalizing bit of cultural evidence, and it just makes the huntress hungrier. She steps forward, drawing nearer, but not too close.
That symbol... she's seen it on the news. Those Autobots told her that the ones with those symbols would hurt her, but she can't help but try to push her luck, especially when such interesting comments are made.
She replies, putting a hand on her chest over her Autobot symbol, "Me Bambi. Me no have post. Me... freelance. You?"
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Motormaster
Rookie
Not the Nicest Guy You Know
Posts: 127
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Post by Motormaster on May 29, 2008 22:03:48 GMT -5
"Motormaster. On Cannonball's1 squad. We were just passing through the asteroid belt of a solar system a few moments ago..." He tilts his head up towards the sky, sending out a stronger radar pulse at it. But there are hardly clouds and definitely no ships up there, so he turns his attention back to the little lady.
"How's being freelance work?"
Privately, he radios Calamity. No response. He quickly cycles through the medic and the idiot ninja, but neither of those answer either. He considerschecking for the captain, but frankly, if the other three didn't answer, no reason to assume Cannonball would either.
"I don't like this," he mutters.
---
1. Mention of Ani Cannonball done with Adminimus permission.
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Post by Lynn Deanna Payne on May 30, 2008 21:43:43 GMT -5
Space is interesting. Bambi would love to travel it... in a slightly more conscious fashion than she evidently did a few days ago. of course, the things found in space tends to be a bit more interesting to her than space itself. Dusty old rocks and dirty comets just doesn't do it for her, but a forgotten moon with a lost civilization...
One part naive, one part cocksure, she replies, "Me get together with team, we work, we maybe work again if it work out. If not?" She shrugs.
Optics. His don't glow. She hasn't seen many of her kind. Maybe that's normal in a certain percentage of the population. However, he hasn't made a comment on the symbol she wears, let alone drawn a gun.
Some wouldn't dare fate further, but this is a Dinobot.
A very clever Dinobot who thinks she may understand those high-pitched pings that she keeps hearing emanate from Motormaster. Blinder than a bat but with a bat's echolocation?
She scratches her snout and comments, "Situation confusing. Me not really sure what going on. Me on planet called Earth - and then me here."
What happened in between? Details, details.
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Motormaster
Rookie
Not the Nicest Guy You Know
Posts: 127
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Post by Motormaster on May 31, 2008 18:43:26 GMT -5
Space is full of things that will be interesting right back at you. Motormaster'll take dusty old rocks and dirty comets over the civilization of a lost moon any day of the week. There are symbols he has never seen but which gave Calamity nightmares and made the ninja write on the walls. There are things he has sensed because what shielded his crewmates meant nothing to him.
Put him on the ground against a Jinxian Bandersnatch, and he'll be happier than walking through abandoned rooms in ancient places.
Motormaster reaches out, as if to run two fingers up the first spine of her feather-crest. "What kind of work does a little lady like you do? Your profile resembles more of an alien lifeform than an alien vehicle."
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Post by Lynn Deanna Payne on May 31, 2008 19:13:59 GMT -5
It's not a wind-up for a punch or a chop, so Bambi doesn't sway her head. If he turns out to have a joy-buzzer in his hand, well, shame on her.
She places one forepaw on her chest and flings another out, explaining, "Me field researcher. Archaeology and palaeontology. Me not car or truck. Me Bambiraptor feinbergi. It extinct species from Earth." She tilts her head to one side. Fair is fair, so she inquires, "Where you from? What you turn into? You soldier?"
She seems to have discovered Decepticonus laidbackicus. Of course, if he is blind the way she's thinking that he must be, that would explain quite a bit. Bambi can use this.
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Motormaster
Rookie
Not the Nicest Guy You Know
Posts: 127
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Post by Motormaster on May 31, 2008 19:41:21 GMT -5
He doesn't. He just runs his fingers up her crest, skips along behind them to touch each of the two feathers behind, then pulls his hand back. She's hard metal, a bit warm from the heat radiation of the local star. Not a flinch from him being so near her optics either.
Archaeology and palaeontology? His expression shifts as he racks his brains to remember whatever the medic said about various scientific disciplines. Archaeology, he's heard that one before... Science of old stuff! Palearontology is a different science involving old things that aren't around any more... Biological life of the moving kind, he was pretty sure.
Wait, she turned into one of the things she studied? Guess she was a really in-depth field researcher.
"Where I'm from don't much matter anymore, since it was a glowing cinder when I left it. Now I'm a loyal member of the Decepticon Empire, same as any other 'former. Turn into an armed cargo-hauler. Soldier, hauler, doer of things that can't be done. How come you talk like that?"
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Post by Lynn Deanna Payne on May 31, 2008 20:03:03 GMT -5
Bambi makes a quiet noise a bit like a trill.
Palaeontology also involves the study of dead plants! And tracks. And coprolites.
Bambi taps the side of her head, the side on which Motormaster is not, and explains, sounding a little annoyed and defensive, "Me have speech defect. Me write fine."
See no evil, meet speak no evil. So where did do no evil go?
Ah, so he's implying that the Decepticons vaped his native world? Not exactly her people, then, if she reads that right. So much knowledge lost... but she has better not be too hasty. Bambi inquires, "Anyone else on world or just you?"
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Motormaster
Rookie
Not the Nicest Guy You Know
Posts: 127
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Post by Motormaster on May 31, 2008 20:09:21 GMT -5
"Only Transformer that came to life there and lived until the Decepticons arrived," Motormaster rumbles, anger stirring down in the depths. The fingers of his left hand flex, almost clench, but this is old news now.
It hurt once. Then he made everyone else hurt for what had happened, and it was time to let it go. Gnnngh. He needs his book.
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Post by Lynn Deanna Payne on May 31, 2008 20:33:11 GMT -5
See? It's no so black and white now. It never is.
Bambi looks away and says softly, "me sorry." More loudly, with anger in her voice, she adds, "Earth ruled by hu-mans. Some Transformers work with them. Me have brothers, once, but not now. They smelt them." Her claws twitch, and her tail lashes unhappily.
She'd like to say that she'd take it up in a court of law, but there's not a court on law on Earth that recognises her as alive, let alone as possessing any legal rights. Bambi has contemplated revenge sometimes, for she is a wrathful sort, and in nobler frames of mind, she has contemplated trying to rectify the injustice done.
Historically, there are only three ways of getting something done. The first is violence. She's good at violence, but she knows that she could not stand against all the Autobots and humans. The second is nonviolent protest. That only work well if one has numbers, which Bambi does not have. The third is just waiting for the tide to change. So she waits.
Can she call the Decepticons wrong for choosing violence? Not with so little data to go on. Ever one must seek to understand all the nuances of the situation before passing judgement. "Decepticons come for you? Natives try to stop them?"
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Motormaster
Rookie
Not the Nicest Guy You Know
Posts: 127
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Post by Motormaster on Jun 1, 2008 16:16:45 GMT -5
Motormaster shrugs. It's a massive roll of his shoulders, almost exaggerated from the body language Bambi might be familiar with. "Debt's paid and settled. Life for life."
His engine rumbles as she speaks of her brothers being smelted, and he reaches out to pick her up and pull her close so the vibrations from his engine can run through her and soothe the hurt. "Then we'll burn the world as a funeral pyre. No returning to the sea for any of 'em."
"Decepticons came for the Allspark. Always do, always will. The Pridani couldn't tell 'em what happened to it - it'd left after it brought us to life. Decepticons found me, I could tell 'em. After they taught me how to be among other people."
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Manhandling of Bambi done with player permission.
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Post by Lynn Deanna Payne on Jun 2, 2008 13:16:13 GMT -5
Bambi supposes that he must be overly-expressive due to his blindness.
She squeaks like a baby bird when picked up, and she squirms in his arms. When she ascertains that he just wishes to hold her, not to crush her or snap her neck, she settles down.
Burn all of Earth just because of what happened to her brothers? Nonono. Bambi shakes her head, optics narrowing, and she insists, "But it not all their fault. Just fault of him Sumdac and him, uhm, Optimus." That might be a bad name to mention around a Decepticon, especially one who is holding her. She's not sure. "Rest not involved."
"What this Allspark?"
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Motormaster
Rookie
Not the Nicest Guy You Know
Posts: 127
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Post by Motormaster on Jun 4, 2008 13:20:29 GMT -5
"Not involved?" Motormaster rumbles. "They knew and they didn't lift a finger to help. They deserve the fire."
What is on Earth that she wants to protect it? There still must be something there for her, even after all its people has destroyed. Once he finds out what it is, he'll make sure it's gotten so she doesn't need to protect the place anymore, and then torch the planet.
"Allspark? Allspark's what makes new Transformers. Gives us life. Makes us different from AIs."
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