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."

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"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."

((It's alright, I understand that these things happen.))

"Great!" Loki claps. "Something to look forward to. And in the meantime, you can tell me about your home, and I can tell you stories about all sorts of things."

"I do like stories. What d'you want to know? Everybody I've ever met already lived there." His eyes squinch a little.

"Well, what's it called? Where is it? What does it look like? How's the weather? Just... everything!"

"Wellll...it's called Cyberton. I'm from Pescus Hex, which I've already mentioned," he answers, a grin in his voice. "Um. We've been at war for a very, very long time. Or we had been. It's over now. The planet's pretty much...well...dead. At this point. Everything has to be brought in for anyone to live on it. But some do. Most have left, though a lot came back once the war ended. New Iacon is the biggest city, if you live anywhere, you live there. The weather's...alright? I suppose? We don't get snow, unfortunately...have you ever seen snow? I've seen it, it's amazing."

"I've seen lots of snow," Loki confirms. "In Niflheim it snows all the time--literally all the time. There are people made of ice there, who herd glaciers." But, that's a tangent, and Loki returns to the present. "I'm sorry your world died."

"Wiiiicked," Pipes answers, sounding rather awed by the idea snow all the time and ice people and wow. But yes, the present. "...oh. Um. It's okay, I guess. It's been that way for most of my life, so..." He shrugs. "When our ship finds the Knights of Cybertron, they'll fix it all anyway."

"Knights?" Oh, look at Loki perk up (as if he weren't already pretty perky). This is starting to have a familiar feel about it. A blighted land, a search for the well-hidden remedy, a hope of renewal...

That's awfully perky.

Pipes nods solemnly. "That's what our mission was, to find the Knights. Some people say they're just a myth, but they're real. And when the Lost Light finds 'em, they're gonna come back to Cybertron and everything's gonna be good again." It's all a pretty classic, almost cliche situation. But with robots.

Is it awful? Or is it delightful? For Loki is a god of manifold joys, even if many are acquired tastes. "Speaking as a myth, I can assure you mythical things are real. Sometimes especially real."

Click. "You're on a quest!" he exclaims, giving a jump and a wave of his arms. "Ooh! And you said you were killed, or nearly, just before you came here? Maybe this is the part where you travel to the underworld and return with spoo~ooky secret wisdom from beyond? I love that part."

Perhaps a bit of both...?

Pipes pulls in a little gasp and waves his arms as well. "D'you think so? That'd mean I've been important all along and nobody even knew it!"

"Oh, that's classic!" Loki crows, clapping. "This is going to be such a great story! You're going to find out just amazing things here!"

But back to the story: "So--your world is dead, the people suffer, you and your friends are on a quest for the Knights who can fix it... then what happened?"