re_alignment | [video]

Wait a second.

Wait.

I've seen armor like yours before. Is this a human thing?

RIG armour is very common for engineers, miners and security guards in my universe - so yes.

Uh, I'm assuming someone else has been here before then?

[he really hopes it was not someone he ~~knows~~ knew; like kendra or hammond]

A 'female' of your species, yes. Went by the name of Vandal...sound familiar?

She was an engineer, so that fits the bill. I suppose if you work with machines it doesn't hurt to look like one, does it?

[Though he strongly suspects that if he ever went to earth, he wouldn't make himself a human suit.]

No. I take it she's gone the same way everyone else has, then? [that's a shame, isaac would've quite liked to meet someone who understands the necromorph bullshit he's been through]

Well, the suits are designed more for practicality than their looks. If the things is gonna stop me getting killed by a malfunctioning piece of machinery then I don't care what it looks like.

Although I don't quite understand the medical functions. It pumps me full of painkillers then I don't even realise what state I'm in until I see a reflection of the spinal augmentation in the red. Weird design.

I've been trying not to think about it. It makes me feel a liiittle too paranoid that everyone will up and vanish one day and I'll be left alone.

[Not that he'd ever tell anyone, but waking up without his memory had felt like that, and he didn't care to go through it again.]

Oh, I get that. It was a fad to fight without pain sensors on for a while in the Second Great war...but after seeing how twisted and unrepairable mechs were coming out of it, the fad died down. Sometimes its good to know whats wrong with you.

...

We.

We sort of took a morbid turn there, didn't we.

I don't blame you. [because there was that one time he passed out in a spaceship after escaping the ishimura and woke up in a straight jacket]

Yeah, we did. Sorry about that. But your question - yes; it's a human thing that I'm going to be incredibly ethnocentric about and assume only really exists in my universe.

[he coughs awkwardly and rubs the back of his head]

Uh, sorry about Vandal.

[Ouch. Alright. Lets be slightly-screwed-up-in-our-experiences buddies then. We can even have meta-text conversations, like this one, which are oddly in canon for Skids.]

Well, I can't blame you for wanting to wear it. It sounds like it's got its uses, and I haven't seen any armor upgrade stores here so we'll have to take what we can get. Being an engineer makes that even easier, I'd bet.

...

Are you an engineer?

[Vandal was.]

[indeed! it's surprising with how many organics and non-organics on this planet isaac can empathize with because of similar experiences. i mean, uh. isaac is surprised. no-one else.]

Yeah, I am. I've been trying to get the basics of this Cybertronian technology so I can actually make a claim to my previous title of tech expert and not feel like a liar but it's been... challenging, so far.

As for the RIG, the basic model should be enough. I did have an old one I upgraded to better suit my own needs but I, ah, lost it.

Lemme guess...you haven't had volunteers lining up to let you see their insides?

[On the other hand, he's been willing to be experimented on already. There are plenty of good medics on hand if something went badly, and there was a certain excitement in trying something new.]

You lost it? [He glances in the general direction of the junk pile.] That...might be a problem. Was it important?

Understandably, seeing as digging through the innards of something I'm not familiar with would be the same as trying to fly through an asteroid field blindfolded. I'm hoping to get some tips from the resident medics when they have a few seconds free - who knows, maybe I'll end up working in the medbay!

As for the previous RIG, for the situation I was in? Yes. Now? I think I can live without it. Plus it was an older model and this one I have now is slightly newer, so I'm not complaining - thank you, though.

[he retracts his helmet for the first time since the storm started - for no reason other than talking to skids has calmed him down a bit. yay, making friends!]

Enough about me - what about you? If- if you don't mind me asking.

Edited 2013-10-28 23:52 (UTC)

Tips from the medics sounds like a good place to start...and if you ever just want to see what is what, know you've got a willing test subject.

I recommend Ambulon. He's not the best out there, but he works hard and has a nice bedside manner and none of that medic arrogance.

[He should know. He's the expert on arrogance...unless you're talking to Hot Rod. Skids can only be an apprentice to arrogance when 'Rodimus Prime' is around.]

Skids. Zoning Committee, Ex-Diplomatic Corps, local jack-of-all-trades. Is that an expression?

Either way, I guess you could say I fill in the gaps. If something needs to be done and no one knows how to do it? I'll manage.

One way or another.

What should I be calling you, engineer?

[he's quite taken aback at that offer] Again, thank you for the generosity but it might be quite a long time before I take you up on it. In the meantime, I'll give Ambulon a ping and see if he's interested in helping me poke around in the innards of one of his friends.

It certainly is, and a very useful skill set to have. Oh - and my name is Isaac. What's yours? Jack?

[that was a very bad dad joke, isaac]

I think I won't find it hard to like a mech...er. Wait. To like a human who can be patient enough to get things right before starting them.

[There were days he had patience, himself, and days he didn't. It always worked out, one way or another.]

Skids. Yeah, it could be better, but it really is my name. We've got a guy called 'Jack' already...but it has a wheel in front of it. [He taps one of his shoulder wheels.] You could say we take our designations very literally.

[he shrugs slightly] A name's a name.

Better than the annoying habit humans have of going through phases of everyone calling their kids the same thing - I was once on a crew with three Michaels. All of which were pretty annoying.

Yeah, that doesn't happen with us. Easier to change our names than to try and differentiate...but, of course, all the good names are taken.

Whose glyph do you have, anyhow?

Solus Prime. I've been told it- uh, she is quite the forger. Appropriate, really.

What about you? I don't really... know anything about the others.

[there's thirteen, right? someone has not been doing their research]

Oh, do you like to build things?

[Because Skids can't say he isn't interested himself.]

Nexus. [He points to the blue glyph that matches his paint color.] Pretty amiable, if I've heard right...though the craters around his temple worry me. Prima leads, and Liege Maximo does machines.
Then there's Megatronus, who is the precursor to the worst thing that ever happened to Cybertron.

...Alpha Trion has libraries, cats, and a lake.

[He's listing them off on his fingers.]

Vector flies, and you know Solus. There are others, too, but my creation mythology doesn't match up so I'm not sure who they are.

I am an engineer.

[isaac rubs his face. with both hands because oh my god] Precursor to- ...cats?

Dare I ask what your creation mythology is? Cause, the popular one back in my universe - Unitology - is basically all about convergence of the human spirit after death or some equally contemptible bullshit.

[oops there's that potentially morbid turn again]

The hands-on kind and not the theoretical kind, I get it.

[He knows the feeling--it's pretty confusing here.]

You...

You had to ask me of all people, didn't you?

Well.

My personal belief is that there's nothing. We live, we die, and it doesn't matter.

But before...? Well. We have a sort of similar creation mythology to this world. There's a Primus and he has either children or...pieces of himself it's complicated but anyhow, the different pieces represented different aspects of our physiology, and together everything worked in harmony. The idea was that...

Well.

Was that if we were harmonious, ourselves, we'd get to join back again when our lives ended. That's one theory.

I, uh. Forgot that not everyone is comfortable talking about this kind of stuff. Sorry.

[then again - religion never was something of interest to isaac beyond his hatred of unitology. although to be fair, it's a little bit different when sentient giant robots are concerned. maybe he did get a bit ahead of himself]

I have to say; I'm both surprised that Cybertronians even have religion and ashamed that I'm so close-minded when it comes to other races.

[he sighs] Humans always think we're alone in the universe and all that shit - but I'm starting to think it's more likely everyone else is just avoiding us.

It's okay. Really, it is. I would have loved to go into details with you at one point in time, but I was a lot younger then, and a lot more...exuberant.

[Lets go with that.]

As a member of the diplomatic corps, I've dealt with my fair share of alien species and their 'religions.' Given that most organic races have some difficulty accepting that machines have souls, I guess you could say I'm pretty used to it.

On the other hand, if I really wanted to I could open myself up and take a look at my soul, so it never really mattered what anyone else thought.

...

Don't tell me humans in your world also started an intergalactic war that makes every other species uncomfortable?

[Because Skids knows why Transformers are ostracized...it would kind of be nice to meet another race that was, too.]

[he nods vaguely. god knows isaac wouldn't try to make skids elaborate on something that clearly makes him uncomfortable]

That's a good attitude to have. As long as you know what you have, then who gives a fuck about anyone else's ignorance?

[probably not the best thing to say to skids but HEYO]

Not that I'm aware of. We've spread out over our own solar system and a few others but so far the only alien life we've encountered are the Markers. Which turn people into mindless zombies. I have no doubt we'd be fully capable of starting one, though. Humans tend to be pugnacious like that.

Exactly. At least, so long as anyone isn't trying to pull my spark out. That's blasphemy in plenty of non-religious ways.

[He can't help it, its nice when someone compliments his attitude.]

Not to intrude but...

You don't. Sound. Very happy to be human.

I, uh. A lot of things happened in the last four years. Things that make it a little bit hard not to be a tiny bit misanthropic. Things like being rescued from a small drifting craft then waking up in a straight jacket with someone shining a light in my face and asking why I hate humanity.

[woops got a bit carried away there]

You know, just the little things.

...

[Wow. Who knew that incidents like that happened to more than one person in a given radius?]

That is.

Remarkably similar to how I was found.

It does make one sort of question why we're doing what we're doing.

If we're stuck here, though...I don't think you'll have to worry about humanity. You'll end up being the father of an entirely new race, and you can make up your own rules.

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cec_engineer - 2013-11-13 13:40 (UTC) - Expand

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skidaddle - 2013-11-19 02:38 (UTC) - Expand