nexus_sages | (no subject)

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Until he joined the crew of the Lost Light, Pipes had only ever been on Cybertron and space stations. And so, he joined up to see the universe, and have adventures, and make friends. He was very eager, very enthusiastic, very excited to be on his way.

Unfortunately, most people don't really like being around someone who's very eager, very enthusiastic, and very excited. Most people find that very annoying. So the making friends thing didn't really pan out all that well.

And as for adventures...mostly, he got hurt. He got shot and sick and hurt. Which...are sort like adventures. Maybe? At least he got to see some of the universe. He also got to see a lot of the medibay.

Then he saw the bottom of Overlord's foot. A few times, actually.

And then? Then, well. Then he died.

And that's where we come in...

A small mech wanders into the Nexus...well, he's small by Cybertronian standards. To the average humanoid, sixteen feet is possibly not that small. It's funny how that works, isn't it?

He looks around, optics bewildered behind their visor shield. "Um," he says after a moment, fingers twisting together with soft metallic whirs. "Um, is this the Afterspark? Cos...this is not at all what I was picturing."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nope, he doesn't get the reference at all. So he just says "Cooooool" as he peers at the phone, and leaves it at that.

"That means I need to know your name! So I can name my first one after you!"

There's that grin again. "I'm Loki. Loki Laufeyson, and pleased to meet you!"

Oh, the grin. It makes Pipes’ optics squinch into happy crescents. “Pleased to meet you too, Loki! I’m...wait. Guess! Guess what my name is!”

((Sorry for the delayed reply.))

A guessing game? Loki's eyes light up with delight before he settles into a pose of contemplation, one arm crossed over his chest to support the other at the elbow, whose hand cradles his chin. "Hmm. I'll admit, I don't know your people's naming conventions, so I hope I don't say anything offensive. I'm going to make my first guess... Wheels?"

((Ah! No, don't worry about it!))

...wow. Nobody has ever wanted to play along before, usually he just gets blown off. He blinks a few times before he can even answer. "That's...uh. That's actually not a bad guess! You're on the right track. Two more guesses, think, um, higher up?" Like his arms, maybe?

He presented Kid Loki with a game--of course he played along! And that his guess wasn't far off merits a delighted laugh. "Higher up? Higher up. O~kaaaay..." His gaze sweeps back and forth, working its way up, until he hazards: "Fffffffender?"

The guess merits a delighted laugh from Pipes. "Fender? What kinda name is Fender?" Says the guy whose name is 'Pipes'...

"There's a guy named Fender who makes guitars," the boy points out plaintively.

"...what's a guitar?" the bot answers, still clearly amused.

"It's a musical instrument," Loki explains. "Six strings you pluck to make sounds. Do your people have music?"

"Well sure, we've got music. Nothing with any strings though..." He's not even sure how that would work. "And you have one more guess!"

"I'd like to hear that, sometime." Loki is already imagining giant robot Daft Punk something. But! Back to guessing. Cupping his chin in his hand, he paces as he thinks out loud, walking a circle around the Cybertronian. "One more guess. Hmm. Not wheels, something higher, not fender... something higher, you're named for some distinctive part of yourself. So what's distinctive? You've got the red light-up eyes, are those normal for your people or remarkable? Not sure. You've got--what are those on your arms? Some kind of big tubes? What are they for? And then, hmm. Someone looks at you, the first place they'll look, naturally, is your face. So where is your face? It's behind a mask."

He snaps his fingers and grins. "Mask! Is that it?"

"Well, my eyes are pretty normal, though red is kinda rare in my faction..." Which isn't at all relevant because Loki has guessed Mask. "Oh, nice try! But no. You almost had it, too! Pipes. My name is Pipes of Pescus Hex." He holds his arms up to demonstrate. "See? Pipes."

"I've seen some pesky hexes in my day, too," Loki quips, before extending a hand in greeting, grinning broadly. "It's a pleasure to meet you, mister Pipes."

"So... there are factions?"

He giggles, which is ridiculous for a giant robot to be doing, but there you go. "Pesky hex, that's a good one..." Then Loki's hand is shook very carefully. "Pleased to meet you too."

"Well, technically, there were factions, cos the war's over now. But everybody still knows who's the goodies and who's the baddies, y'know?"

Loki grins along with the handshake, delighted to have a joke appreciated.

"There are always factions," Loki points out with a bit of a sigh, "even in peacetime. It's so hard to get anyone to think you've stopped being bad, some of them won't even believe it if you've died first."

“I was never bad. Just for the record. If you were talking about me, on account of the dying and everything. I hardly even ever shot anyone.”

"Oh, no," Loki assures Pipes, "I was talking about me. The old Loki was very bad. Terrible, even--God of Evil bad. Then he sacrificed himself to save everyone for reasons of his own, and here I am, making up for his bad reputation."

“Oh! Oh,” he frowns. “Just cos you were bad…he was bad...that doesn’t mean that you’re bad. You seem like a perfectly nice guy. You...you’re like Drift! He was awful, like one of the worst Decepticons of all of ‘em. Then he was nice! He even saved me once. So that’s like you, and you’re nice.” And that's that, as far as he's concerned.

Loki smiles again. "It's nice to have someone understand. Maybe you could introduce me to this friend of yours, sometime."

“Ohhh man, he’s so cool, Loki. He’s got all these swords and stuff, right? And talks all philosophic-ish.” He wiggles his fingers to demonstrate the...philosophic-ishness. “He’s probably one of my best friends. He was even gonna fix me up with somebody.”

"The fixing sounds like a good idea, if you just got hurt," Loki muses, mock-innoccently. "And I do enjoy philosophy." With a clap, he grins, concluding, "can't wait to meet him!"

He blinks a few times and then giggles again. “Noooo, ‘fix up’ as in, like, you know. Dating and sparkmates and the like…” He’s sincerely hoping Loki is kidding, because he’s sure not up to explaining such things. “And it was later, after I’d been hurt, we were having drinks and he thought I’d be good with Tailgate, though turns out he already had a thing for some other guy and...yeah.” He’s rambling. “....uh. If I can figure out a way, you should absolutely meet him. Drift, I mean. Maybe Tailgate, he’s pretty nice too…”

"I was making a joke," Loki explains patiently, suppressing a grin. Well, suppressing more of a grin. "I'd be happy to meet all your friends."

((ohhh my god, I'm so sorry I disappeared, if you don't want to do this anymore, I will totally understand.))

He blinks a few times and straightens up. "...right. Of course you were. I knew you were joking." Mostly. He mostly knew. "When I figure out how to get back...or...figure out how to get them here...I dunno, whichever, you will absolutely meet them."