re_alignment | [Broadcast--outside of a cave at bleak sunset][actionspam welcome]

[It has been a lunar cycle since he found himself mysteriously resurrected for the second? third? time, and Megatron has spent most of it feeling odd. He refused to take residence in any of the Firstforged's temples, and had returned to his cave in the mountain where the base of his trans-dimensional space bridge had been built...]

[...and then he hadn't known what to do. Every time he'd attempted to return to his universe he'd been shunted onto a different path. Should he try it again, to go home and resume his war? Or was it time for something new?]

Fear.

[He starts, looking off towards the setting sun.]

Fear is something I have heard much about. Fear of the Badlands. Fear of loosing one's friends, lovers, allies, and close connections. Fear of each other. Fear of the Firstforged.

I propose it is time to do something about that fear.

[He wasn't giving up on his space-bridge. Not yet. For now, however, he was going to focus his power on a different task.]

I have decided to embark upon a quest. From what I have been told, the Firstforged have been far from forthcoming on information about this world, about their adversaries, and about our place within it.

I cannot tolerate being left ignorant. Anyone who has information about the badlands, the Firstforged, or their own, personal fears...

[He laughs.]

You are welcome to join me. I'll be leaving to fight my way as close to the badlands as I can get in three days.

I'll share what I learn with those who do the same.

[Megatron closes with coordinates to his cave--an invitation to come speak with him in private before he goes.]

[LOCKED TO DECEPTICONS]

I don't care what your previous universe is. If you bore the mark or went through the ceremony, I want to hear from you. Now. Tell me who your Firstforged is.

[LOCKED TO TARN]

I have a proposal.

[LOCKED TO VEN]

Are you free tomorrow?

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And you don't trust any of us, either.

[He frowns.] It's not like I could forget.

[Neither, both. It's...complicated, okay?]

It doesn't change anything.

[He considers for a moment--and then does something he rarely does. He speaks the truth.]

No.

[There is a sigh.]

I have difficulty trusting, and you...more than anyone else...might understand why. You and I walked similar paths, once--and for me, that was not long ago.

However, I am serious about abolishing this threat. If I cannot return home to finish what I started...then perhaps Wing is right.

Perhaps it is time to begin something new.

And yet you ask us to trust you, go out alone with you.

With Megatron.

[Not that he suspects Megatron's forgotten his own name, but to remind him of what most people feel when they hear the name.]

What threat are you abolishing? There's nothing good in the badlands, nothing you can find out there that will solve anything.

[Only things you can bring back that can hurt people here. Which Megatron might not care about, but Drift does.]

I don't think Wing would intend this.

I can't believe we'll accomplish nothing.

I intend to gather information about the badlands--find what is controlling them, if anything, and what they contain, if anything. If such a trip has already been attempted...

Then knowing about that might help.

[He likes hearing his name from you. Its good to use HIS name here, instead of always having to be Magnum.]

We have to start somewhere.

What did it take, for him to change you? A word? A gentle caress? A month? Two?

If all I am risking in this venture is myself, then so be it. I will still go.

We've tried. Others, here before you have gone to the badlands.

You think--with what happened to you before--that you're going to be safe?

[Drift hadn't been immune, especially not after he died.]

You don't risk yourself. You could kill anyone who goes with you.

[The way Rodimus had killed him.]

Wing did nothing but show me the truth of what you'd become.

Perhaps. I won't know until I've seen it myself.

Unless you're willing to tell me more about the trips taken before mine?

[He'll listen. He'll give you that.]

The danger is evident. Let those who come worry about their fate.

He has shown me similar. As have you. As has Tarn.

I can't speak for anyone but myself. But you can feel it out there, getting into you, under your skin, affecting your thoughts. There's no defense against that, no armor, nothing that can stop it.

[His voice changes, from concern to a stiff sort of anger. ]

Don't put me in the same category as Tarn.

[Broadcast--outside of a cave at bleak sunset][actionspam welcome]

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