re_alignment | [Video - Evening] Lights amongst the dark

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[Video - Evening] Lights amongst the dark

[The camera clicks on, and two very different Primes appear. Solus Prime is kneeling down, examining what appears to be a large, metal container as she speaks with Liege, who watches on. A moment goes by before she gives the comm, held in unmoving acolyte hands, a glance.]

-Prima's Touch was a clever addition. It will be interesting to see if his boon will help them survive the wilds more readily- Ah, very good.

[She stands, dusting off her hands with the faintest of pleased smirks.]

In the interests of continuing our work, we have elected to make this next experimental addition for improving Cybertron a bit more...visible.

[She turns a bit somber, optics softening.]

It also happens that it has been an entire solar cycle since you all have started arriving here once more. Roughly. Perhaps that is not a cause for celebration for many of you, but it is still a significant occasion to be honored.

[She gestures to her brother, who rises the lid so she can reach into the container and pulls out...what seems to be a handful of light. In actuality, it is what appears to be little glowing robobugs. They skitter across her plating, varied in design quirks but largely resembling a cross between rotor-laden dragonflies and moths with delicate metallic wiring.]

[Liege reaches out, picking one up in-between his claws and examining it closely--it might be obvious to all who were present for it that these definitely have a relationship to Jetfire's glowbugs.]

It would be best if you left them alone to do their job. They are perfectly harmless. However, they are designed to seek out raw resources and other sources of energy, so following their glow could be quite...lucrative. Consider it something of a treasure hunt, if you will.

Among a plethora of other functions. They should also be able to give us more information about the boundaries and composition of the badlands, once they depart the Haven. Until then...perhaps some enjoyment can be found in their display.

[Solus shrugs faintly, before lifting the lid holding back the swarm and vanishes in the midst of the glowing rush of tiny wings.]

...

[For those not watching the communicators or happen to be outside...from the top of Prima's glowing tower, a different sort of light slowly emerges, and seems to balloon out. The cloud gets larger and larger, like glowing smoke, before breaking up and fanning out in all directions and lighting up the sky.

For the next week, the swarm of Pixels will flock around the Haven, highlighting various, previously unknown energon pools, crystals, and even some nice finds in the junkyard. Solus Prime will be releasing a new batch each night, adding to the swarm until they eventually depart, en mass, for parts unknown.]

[Note: Those who reply to this message with an in-character action of following the pixels will be rewarded with a small item! Be creative in specifying where and how, and see what treasure awaits...]

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[It actually doesn't take much strength to free the sunken item. It is small enough to fit in her hand, and both it and the drowning pixel are pulled free from the silt successfully.

The pixel is limp in Kay's hand, glow gone dim but not out completely; it seems like it may recover, if given time.

The item, once the water and muck are cleared away, seems to be an incredibly ornate, very old, very complicated pocket watch, complete with a brass chain. It has multiple faces and dials, and while it's conventional twelve-hour face is water logged and at a stop, others miraculously still seem to be working.

...Though they aren't exactly easy to understand. Some seem to go by a different time scale, counting out time in thirty-two or fifty-eight hours; some don't seem to be reading numbers at all. One is even plotting out the phases and alignments of two different moons and a binary star system. If Kay looks closely, she might notice that each clock face is marked with tiny pictures of different planets...]

[The pixels land eagerly enough, both on the box and Flonne's offered hand. They have no fear of people, and are actually attracted to the electrical fields of living things, so they have no problems with lingering. They crawl gently around her hand and arm, lights blinking on and off slowly.]

[Solus snorts.]

Hn. Megatronus aside, here I was thinking you wanted to govern yourselves as much as possible.

[The cellar seems to be an old food storage cache, long since ransacked. Old, earth-style crates and energon cubes alike, all empty and covered in dust. Most of the remaining items are broken, spoiled, or old and dry. A single, faintly glowing cube remains, which some of the pixels have latched on to. The rest of them, however...

They seem to have found a hidden stash of expensive looking bottles tucked away in one of the collapsing niches in the wall. The cracked ones sure do smell like liquor. The pixels don't seem to know what to do with it, hovering around the slowly increasing spill uncertainly.]

[Jetfire falls silent as well, because yes... these would be former Refugees, wouldn't they? He'd completely glossed over them as anything but evidence that some care had to be taken.

... Oops.]

Ah. I, er... apologise. These would be a few of the earlier Refugees?

[At least there's some small relief in that, and the pixels, when he notices their brightened glow, get a grimace as he changes the jetpack's settings to let him fly upwards again.]

Yeah, yeah, you just do that. Ain't gonna help me.

[With a huff, he starts to ascend; not an exceedingly useful trip, but if nothing else if he's chased by something he'll know where to lead them and hope they succumb before him... or, if he gets some more protection he could probably get a piece or two...

Not that he's sure what he would do with pure energon crystals; he's not knowledgeable in the refining and processing of that into liquid such. Though small pieces could work as substitute bombs...]

[Well shoot, she got him there.]

I don't think some people realize that.

[Talk about bizarre. It was like a human settlement just appeared out of nowhere. Some of the items he saw were of Cybertonian origin, of course.

But the bottles...those were definitely not Cybertonian. Albert reached between the pixels, opening a bottle and taking an experimental sip. Yep. Sure smelled like liquor.]

...let me ask: have people been here before?

[Strelok half-crouches, startled as the pixels dash towards the exit. He eventually pulls and flicks on his flashlight. Nothing is coming after him, obviously, so he has a little time to look around. Nothing really interesting... Except that plant. He stares at it a little bit, confused.
Huh. Very active plant, that one.

And big. Looks like it could use a re-potting, too. Maybe a more steady food supply than trying to chew on pixels and whatever is in the area. Strelok positions himself in between the plant and the pixels, swinging his pack around. He's found a couple energon goodies in the Junk Pile... if he can just find them in his pack...

Ah. There they are.

He nabs them out, offering one to the plant.] You are scaring the bugs, I think.

Frenzy obediently follows, growing more eager by the second. In fact, he's so excited, he doesn't even notice or pay mind to the little guys now perching on his helm. The ones on his hands momentarily distract him and he curses; stop to catch them, or continue following? Frenzy might lose them if he stopped...

So, he just grabs a couple in one hand and keeps running. He might have accidentally crushed them, but dead or alive, doesn't matter. Once they arrive at their destination, Frenzy will put them in the jar and collect his bounty.

[Kay sighs in relief, glad to see that the pixel is at least safe. Maybe some time to dry'll be good for it. She places it in her other hand, the one she didn't stick into the gunk, while she inspects the item with her other hand.

She's not entirely sure what it is, exactly, stating 'a watch' would be too obvious. This is some kind of super-watch. One that knew different times of...planets?

Her eyes widen as she turns it over, studying it. from the back, and then to the front again.]

Whoa...I need to show this to Mr. Trion.

[Meanwhile, in prison, Starscream was DEFINITELY not spazzing out. Not even a little bit. And certainly not because HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN OUT THERE DOING THE THING THAT EVERY SEEKER-WANNABE WOULD BE GETTING ALL UP INTO.

It wasn't fair. And given that he'd also been left relatively alone (since everyone else was out following the yellow ~~brick~~ glowing road), Starscream was free to angrily monologue without interruption to his usual captive audience: The Air.]

I should be the one out there securing new resources for the glory of Liege Maximo! I'm an Energon Seeker! It's what I do! NO ONE has my experience, and I've YET to see another seeker as specialised for the task as I.

They should release me for my skills alone! For the PRIVILEGE of working with a seeker with my accomplishments. But noooo...

[He scratches at the floor angrily, sending up sparks.]

They'd much rather let these... these... amateurs bungle around pretending they know the first thing about asset search and recovery.

[Starscream's grandiose hand gestures settle down as he pouts, mumbling something to himself that sounds kinda like:] --and half wouldn't even know a raw energon deposit if they had to wade through an ocean of the stuff.

[A few days ago Tarn had seen the First Forged video. He'd declined responding because he really saw no point, and hadn't gone off to follow the insects since he had neither the interest nor the time (micromanaging a small group of lost boys was hardly a part-time gig). The glowbugs had hung around though, and each time Tarn saw a group of them, either in the distance or in stray clumps, his curiosity would grow a little more.

Today he found himself with both time and company; the perfect combination for a little sightseeing.

Sending Blackarachnia a ping, Tarn let her know her date was here to pick her up.]

I, uh, sorry. Wasn't thinking.

[In his defense, he was a little distracted.]

It's just, well, I kind of found something.

Uh. Nothing dangerous.

[It had been a few days since Blackarachnia had followed her own trail of mechanical glow bugs and she was still running tests on the results. In fact, she had just finished one of those tests when a certain tall dark and creepy Decepticon pinged her.

To say she was amused was an understatement. So she wrapped up her little project and slipped into her beast mode. It wasn't long before she was approaching Tarn. Hopefully he knew to look up because a certain spider might be clinging to the ceiling of the entrance of her firstforged's temple.]

Finally decide to pay me a visit huh~? I was beginning you had forgotten about little ole me.

It would be hard to forget someone as intriguingly talented as yourself.

[Looking up with a slight tip of his head, the comparatively enormous Tarn raises a hand and offers a perch should she choose to drop down.]

With recent environmental developments, I thought an excursion was in order, and given the nature of the insects now found everywhere, I could think of no better company to investigate with, than a spider.

[He laughs a little.] Hey no worries, better than the alternative.

[Wing is just as distracted really.]

Oh...? [PERK] Like what?

[The gear doesn't budge in the least, the entire thing lodged deeply in the rock. If Blurr wants to remove it, he'll have to cut either the metal or the rock itself.

And on the off-chance that Blurr backtracks along the path, to try and find the source...the trail vanishes into nothing, the source of the cog long-since moved or too long-lost to be easily found. Whatever story is behind the path of the errant gear, it's not going to be found out here.]

[Solus may have chuckled at the sputtering. Maybe.]

I certainly did not slip in any humor-programming. ...And 'wine fountains'?

[She sounds rather perplexed by the very notion.]

I cannot say that it sounds useful in the slightest.

[Solus ponders the image for a few moments, oblivious to the catastrophic effects the circuit boosters had on the pixels themselves.]

Other than their obvious direct-download potential, I cannot really hazard a guess without closer examination.

[It seems recreational, processor-frying drugs are not yet all the rage on this infant Cybertron.]

...Indeed. All had been seemingly Lost with the rest, but it seems these unfortunates met a somewhat different fate in the process.

As for the crystals... I had been lead to believe that we had eradicated all sources of that unfortunate mineral from the area, aside from a 'small' sample for scientific study.

I suppose these are the remnants.

['Small sample' her aft.]

[That certainly gets it's attention.

The glowing pistil-circuits around it's bulb 'head' twitch when the energon goodies are exposed, and the plant turns to 'look' in Strelok's direction. The jaws click together, eager for fuel but confused by the huge heat signature put off by the human.]

[The Prime sighs over the line.]

Of course. It should be readily clear at this point, as we have mentioned so in the past.

[Not just any liquor. Good liquor, that has managed to age well despite what may not be the best of conditions. A pity about the cracked ones, though a few intact bottles remain...]

Of course not.

[She sounds rather amused.

The pixels meanwhile, still linger readily enough to be followed, if C-3PO chooses to proceed. Most seem to head toward the junkyard, while others venture out into the unlit dark between temples.

This is, of course, not counting the ones that are quickly coating his metal surface.]

The pixels shriek when crushed, the nearest clouds of bugs fleeing at the subsonic cry of fear/warning, the ones previously climbing on the cassette included.

That's...probably not the best way to catch or follow them, Frenzy.

Thankfully for him, other trails remain to follow in the distance, dotting the heaps of space junk with glowing lights. All he needs to do is pick a pile, and start digging. A smallish heap to the left seems to have the brightest glow...

Unharmed, the swatted bugs still eventually take the hint and keep their distance, though a few of the more oblivious ones still manage to touch down in the good doctor's hair.

Fortunately for McCoy, the least adventurous path is the one giving the quickest results.

The trail is a little rough, given the mounds of junk, but the pixels filter out to the various piles readily enough. Some piles glow more brightly than others, especially the lumpy one just past what may just be a space-outhouse, and the pile that leans a bit too steeply to be entirely stable.

Choose wisely...

[The pixel wiggles it's antennae curiously; it does not answer, of course, but seems to settle in for the ride.

Walking along the path is certainly the long way to go about it, but it is not completely devoid of features. Even if they are mostly long worn down.

The pixels pause over remnants of the past as their seek their destination; lost buttons and bottlecaps, and the remains of an old wooden signpost or two. The organic material doesn't seem to last long here.

Eventually, the path splits; and curiously, so does the cloud of pixels. Right or left; northeast or northwest?]

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[Video - Evening] Lights amongst the dark

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Hope these late tags are okay. orz

Couple days later, Tarn and Blackarachnia [Action]

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Re: Couple days later, Tarn and Blackarachnia [Action]

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