(no subject)

[comeonguess]

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."

 

Comments

[comeonguess]

“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.

[damn_yourself_early]

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

[comeonguess]

“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.”

[damn_yourself_early]

"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!"

[comeonguess]

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…”

[damn_yourself_early]

"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."

[comeonguess]

((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."

[damn_yourself_early]

((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."

[comeonguess]

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

[damn_yourself_early]

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

[comeonguess]

"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."

[damn_yourself_early]

"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."

[comeonguess]

"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."

[damn_yourself_early]

"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...

[comeonguess]

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.

[damn_yourself_early]

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."

[comeonguess]

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!"

[damn_yourself_early]

"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?"

[comeonguess]

Pipes squeaks and claps; it's possible that little wiggle thing he's doing is a dance. "I'm gonna be such a hero oh my gosh!"

Oh. Right. Back to the story. "Uh. We got in a few fights, I got the plague, watched some movies...there was a sparkeater? Um. Quantum things happened with the ship an' I don't really understand any of that, so uh...yeah. Oh, at one point, I fell out of the ship..."

[damn_yourself_early]

"Oh no! How did you get back in?" Such adventures! Loki is rapt, chin in hand as he listens.

[comeonguess]

Nobody has ever listened to him like this. It kind of takes him off guard. "Oh. Uh. Some guys from the ship came down to the planet surface and picked us up. It's sure more than you expect from a launch, you know? All flying through space and such."

[damn_yourself_early]

"You fell all the way to a planet?" Loki asks, wide-eyed. "Wooooooow. Did it hurt? What planet was it? Were there natives? Were they friendly?" Details, Pipes, details! The young scion of Asgard craves dem deets!

[comeonguess]

"Well, technically a planetoid, so hardly a planet..." He pauses. That doesn't sound really impressive. "I mean. Yes. All the way to a planet! It hurt a bit, but some guys burnt to death, so I guess I can't complain, right? I dunno if there were natives, I was rather unconscious most of the time. Hoist said we looked like comets!"

[damn_yourself_early]

Loki gives a sympathetic wince. "Burning to death, falling like a star. It sounds like a scintillating trip--not that I'm anxious to take it, myself, mind you, but I couldn't resist a play on 'scintillate.'"

[comeonguess]

Pipes doesn't get the joke, but he laughs anyway. "Haha, uh. Yeah. Anyway. They rounded us up and took us all back to the ship and then it turned out it was all cos of some warp drive thing that blew a hole in the ship and also, fused my friend to the engine."