re_alignment | [Video] - the garden in Alpha Trion's quadrant

[locked to Starscream (audio)]

[This part of the message comes a fair bit earlier than the rest, given that it's made the moment Jetfire's actually back on Cybertron and in the Haven, and thus... well, capable of even sending it out.]

Starscream... I'm sorry.

[He has to start somewhere, even if this will, obviously, not be enough.][/locked]

[While it's mostly a view of Jetfire, it's obvious he's standing near the garden in Alpha Trion's quadrant, looking slightly... pinched.]

While intending to perform a scan of the Lambda which would've hopefully given us more information to work with potentially getting back where we belong, the modifications I'd been fitted with had a bit of a... er, conflict, with some of my own systems.

I ended up elsewhere in the galaxy, and given the planet I landed on, I took some time to perform a few basic inquiries.

[The view tilts, sweeps down and shows an eclectic bunch of containers (made of one empty cube and two boxes made of rock obviously carved with lasers), one of which contained... well, nothing more exciting than dirt. The other two, however, were filled to the brim with nearly violently pink, oblong fruits - those of you from Earth and familiar with American football might recognise the shape. Scale was of course hard to tell, but they were probably the size of an adult human's head.]

With the limited knowledge I have of what's necessary nutrients for at least humans, and what's poisonous, as far as I can determine, they're edible. [He can't guarantee taste, though, not that Jetfire thought of that at all.] Someone with more knowledge than I may want to investigate further to make absolutely sure, however.

[The view shifts back to Jetfire as he moves his arm with the sceen away from the ground and the containers.]

I need to stress that you need to be very careful when handling the fruit; breaking the skin in any way will cause the up to four seeds within to start to germinate very quickly, so we need to figure out how to keep the seeds inert until they're needed, because the fruits will produce more seed than necessary to feed our current organic population...

The plant created by the seed will grow to bearing fruit and die within four days, so as you can understand, a steady, quick supply of fruit will not be an issue and does require some care in how many seeds are planted.

[He glances down at the ground, then back up, a frown growing from his flat, pinched expression.]

I'll answer questions as you might have them, but I would prefer to not have to be involved further with this.

[No, he's not going to elaborate too deeply into why. Suffice to say he doesn't like plants now. At all.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ah, that it can. [He nods, then frowns again. Really, he should've been patient, asked if there was some other way he could've gotten the mods and waited to make a probe that could be launched, but... that still didn't seem like the most effective method to gain what they wanted and needed.]

Er... the offer's appreciated, but given that what's needed is probably to see if the issue is a conflict with the modifications, changes and technology I have added and invented myself into my frame, I would prefer to do the initial analysis and any further changes or adjustments myself.

[He glances away, briefly. He's hardly going to give up all his specs to someone else, especially given that he's modified a large part of his systems and frame himself.]

If that's not where the issue is, however, and it's within the mod itself, I'd certainly welcome input.

[No it's okay Jetfire, really. No one wants a creepy Shockwave hand feeling around in their circuits. Not to mention that they don't really know each other.]

There's a few particularly long seconds of silence as he keeps a close watch on the little motions of his body language, particularly the breaking of eye contact - they could be quite telling. In the end, however, he just quietly nods, not bothering to push it any further.]

I understand.

[He was satisfied with just receiving the results at the end, which is what he was ultimately aiming for. He didn't feel Jetfire needed any further explanation in that regard.]

[Definitely not! Neither in his circuits, or Shockwave knowing every single part of him. That's sort of an uncomfortable thought.]

Mmm... how about this; I'll do my analysis to make sure the issue with the mods is its interaction with my frame, and if it isn't, I'll send on the mod schematic and we can compare information later?

[If it was his own mods making problems, Shockwave would simply get the schematics Liege had handed him and could do what he wished... since then they did work as intended, and Jetfire would have to solve his own problems.]

[He seemed to accept those terms, save for one thing.]

If the issue is the former?

[It was an honest question, even if it seemed a bit expectant. He knew Jetfire didn't owe him anything, really, but still wanted some clarity on what the large jet was planning to do.]

I'd prefer to go over any adjustments regarding my own frame alone, truly.

[Dryly said, before he continues.]

I should probably question Liege on how freely I can treat these schematics either way, as well.

[Given that he's certainly planned on offering them to Starscream when he's sure what the issue is, or isn't, and it wouldn't be a clever idea to antagonise the Firstforged.]

[So a definite 'Maybe'. If Shockwave had a face, the slight annoyance at the uncertainty might have just barely flicked through(He really wants those specs dammit). As it was, there is just a blank pause.]

I see.

[Fair enough, Jetfire. He won't push any further. For now.]

When do you estimate your analysis will be complete?

[Definitely a definite "maybe". Sorry Shockwave.]

As long as nothing else appears and disrupts the process... no more than a deca-cycle, I'd surmise, though that would be given there's nothing major wrong somewhere.