re_alignment | [Video][Broadcasting from the Junk Pile]

Entry tags:

brave police: j-decker | mccrane

[Video][Broadcasting from the Junk Pile]

[McCrane has managed to collect a large number of basic building supplies, most of which he has amassed on and in the back of his alt mode. The video is from within his cab, driving, the occasional bounce showing some of the steel beams he has piled on top.]

With fuel no longer being a problem for myself or my companions, we have the time for other pursuits.

[Having the time to not slowly die was an enjoyable experience, he'd found.]

Although I will be assisting my team in building our headquarters, I wanted to offer my services to anyone else who may need a machine familiar with construction. I can provide architectural schematics, advice, and supplies.

I can also lift...just about anything.

[He is a crane. It's what he can do.]

[Locked to Prime!Scream, though probably not securely.]

Your list was...exhaustive. Nevertheless, I think you might be interested in these:

[The camera changes to show the pieces of a number of specific tools that Starscream was looking for sitting on McCrane's front seat. They aren't full tools, but with a little help they could be jury-rigged to be.]

[Sitting next to the tool-bits is a pile of datapads, collected specifically for...]

[Locked to Ani!Scream, though probably not securely.]

[The camera opens on the pile of datapads in his front cab-seat, sitting next to a number of pieces of cybertronian-looking tools.]

Hopefully one of these will do.

[Because McCrane can't actually tell what is on them.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He didn't mention anything like that...

[But that doesn't mean someone wouldn't. And... may explain why Drift had gone out of his way to confront the others.]

[He doesn't answer right away. Or for a good minute or two.]

Even though I'm not one of you? And even though your members don't trust me?

[Gunmax had made that last point very clear.]

We were having an unusual conversation. [Because really, self-sacrifice isn't a normal topic. It's somewhat of an extrapolation from that conversation, too, but McCrane has no doubts. Drift would do almost anything to atone for his sins.]

...

[When there's silence, he's worried he's offended. When there's an answer, he finds himself physically untensing his gears. He only knows of Kagerou through Shadowmaru, and that information is sketchy, at best. What he is familiar with is new mechs coming to the team.]

You wouldn't be the first. It can be hard to accept someone unknown. [Especially when they're Gunmax.]

It can be harder to be alone, though. [He missed Build Team sometimes. So much.] And you were built to be a police unit, same as us. We could use someone with your skills.

Are there normal conversations, in this place?

[Because he's getting the feeling there aren't.]

[He's nothing like his other half. That much he knows... how is he supposed to 'fit in' among those Shadowmaru was supposed to be perfect for? And he was always far more introverted than the other.]

Not the first? How many of you are there?

[He goes quiet again.]

No. I was built as a prototype. Different than you. Do you mean me to be a replacement for Shadowmaru... in his absence...?

[Oh wow. Those... are extremely difficult words to say.]

I spent an afternoon explaining combustion engines. That is as close as I've come. [He smiles, just a little, amending his earlier thoughts. This mech was definitely not Shadowmaru, for as similar as they first sounded, and that wasn't bad.]

When I left Earth, there were eight of us. Four on Build Team, Three to form Duke Fire's Max Canon mode, and Shadowmaru. [Who had, in a way, always been the odd one out. Never, ever useless, though. They owed so much to him.]

[The question almost catches him off guard, because of that.]

No! No, of course not. You would be welcome, even if he were here. I could put in a perch, right next to his den... [He trails off.] Just in case.

... Why would those be something that needed explaining?

[Even he knows what a combustion engine is -- and when the extremely sheltered ninjabot knows, but the living machines don't, that's saying something.]

Eight. So many of you. [And so many names he doesn't recognize. 'Max Cannon' what now.]

I see. [Another lengthy pause. He's not entirely sure how to respond. And thus... doesn't. For a while.]

I... I will consider it. I'm not about to be released for a while... I think. [At least, if he understood the engineer -- Ratchet -- correctly.]

[But then--] Just in case? [It's difficult to deny how hopeful that came out.] How often do new arrivals happen? Where do they happen?

Because we run on gasoline, the Cybertronians run on energon, and the two are not compatible. [He has the burn marks, still, all across his back to prove it.] It was some time before a solution was found.

[Which reminds him.]

You will need to get your engine converted. [If you haven't done so, already. Being 'released' was a familiar word in that regard.] Have you met Ratchet?

[A consideration is not an outright no, which is enough to make McCrane happy for now. Whether Kagerou takes them up on the offer or not is his decision, and McCrane will respect it--he just didn't want Kagerou to feel unwelcome. He nods.]

You arrived while I was offline. I'm...not sure, beyond that. We've been here for two months, now, and there have been two groups. I woke in the junk pile.

Was it the same, for you?

They mentioned there was no gasoline here. I... didn't see how it was possible.

[And thus nearly starved himself, in addition to meeting Prism. His first run as a 'bot on his own hasn't gone so well.]

He found me, yes. He has attached a generator... for now. He said the rest could wait until ... that it could wait.

[He's not entirely comfortable disclosing Recent Events to everyone just yet.]

Two in two months. That isn't promising. [A pause.] No. It was in a structure. A temple, I was told.

I'll keep looking for some for you, in the meantime. Until you've decided what you want to do. [He's out in the junkyard enough, and he's used to looking for the barrels and cans.]

It is, and it isn't. I'd prefer there be some left on earth, to protect it, but I also...

...

I also miss the Build Team. [There. He said it. It feels weird to say it.] We've been told we can return when the Lambda is fixed, but I don't know how long that will be.

I know what I want to do. The same thing I have always wanted to do. [A beat.] I want to live.

[More silence. He's a little glad this isn't a video feed. His expression can't be seen, that way.]

At least you have that to look forward to. Your return... and seeing your team again.

["At least you didn't make a promise to keep you apart" goes unsaid, but the implication is likely there.]

Then you'll need the surgery. [He sighs.] Though I know that doesn't make the decision any easier. [None of them had wanted to get it. It made them more alien, somehow.]

...

I'm sorry. [His voice is softer, because he's aware he tripped into territory that isn't comfortable.] About everything. There was so much we didn't know...

Did Deckerd tell you what happened, after you left?

I know. I will when I am able.

[He's already made up his mind. It's just a matter of being deemed capable of it.]

And didn't bother to listen to. You just chased me. Pursued me. It... [Air cycles.] Your leader has made it clear it won't happen here. Why discuss it?

[Silence.]

No... I'd... only just begun to take off. When I arrived here. [More silence, and, slightly more panic as a terrible thought occurs.]

It -- Shadowmaru. He's all right, isn't he?

[Why else would he need to know something about what happened after his departure?]

Because it is something I regret. [His voice is level, even though it's something that weighs heavy on him. It must have been worse for Deckerd, and for Shadowmaru especially, but it had still been a mistake and he hated that they'd made it.] That you didn't have the options we had. [That you don't have a team to go back to.]

[...except...]

What?

No!

I...[Wait.] I mean yes. Shadowmaru, he was fine when I left. He's been fine.

It was just... [How to say this.]

It was difficult for him. After your death.

You regret your mistake. You regret not listening, even when I told you I only wanted to be left alone... taking my options from me.

I see.

[He doesn't mean it to come out as accusing as it does, but. Social interaction was never his strong suit.]

Good, I...

[After your death.]

Wh...

[No.]

[No, there must be some mistake.]

[It ... that's all it was. It's a mistake.]

... That's a mistake.

That's not right. He let me go. He told me to go -- live as you see fit.

I was leaving. I'd promised.

Why would you do it? Why?

[He's not even aware he's spoken out loud. This is that distressing.]

Yes. [McCrane only nods, because it's true. Caustic as it is, it's true. He just never thought he'd get a chance to talk to Kagerou, or apologize, or offer to make it right, or...screw it up royally, like this.]

...

[So Deckerd hadn't said.]

He kept his promise, Kagerou. He let you leave.

But you...

[It hadn't worked out the way any of them had thought it would.] You weren't given the chance to keep your promise. You were captured by Excellent company, and reprogrammed.

[And once more, he's glad this isn't a video feed.]

[This way, there's no way to see the way he claps his hands over his head, or the way he starts shaking.]

No--!

No!

[Maybe if he shouts loudly enough, denies it strongly enough, it won't be true.]

Please!

[He... doesn't even know why he says it. Maybe this is a faulty data stream. Something.]

[This can't be real.]

[McCrane is glad for the lack of video, too. He doesn't enjoy hearing you in pain.]

[All he can do is wince, and wish that he knew the right words to say.]

No one should have to be reprogrammed.

[Especially after what they'd gone through with the Cheiftains, he believed this all the more.] I wish we could have stopped it.

But it's -- too late, isn't it?

It's too late.

[Metal scrapes. He's drawn himself up in as small a ball as possible, even folded his wings around himself.]

[He wants so badly to go back -- back to the way things were when there was nothing to worry about but the two of them... ]

-- He told me to live. I couldn't even ... I'll never see...

[His voice trails off. Even though he'd promised, there was always the chance of... and now there's nothing.]

[The sudden sense of loss and loneliness is so sharp it's physically painful.]

[McCrane is quiet, guessing at the sounds of metal scraping but not having to guess at the pain. There were times when Shadowmaru grew quiet or distant, even now, and they'd known what he was thinking about.

Hearing it from the other end?

This was worse. Shadowmaru, at least, had all of them to help.]

[However, for right now, Kagerou wasn't completely on his own. As...ineffective of a welcoming committee as they were, Kagerou still had he, and Deckerd, and Gunmax.]

No. [He spoke, firmly, because he believed what he was going to say next.] It isn't too late.

Maybe it was, for us, but if you're here, then you're still you. You can still keep your promise, and you can still live.

None of us will let anyone reprogram you, if there is anything that we can do to stop it.

[There's a moment in which he wants to shout at him -- that yes, it is too late, because he's here, not there, where he wants to be. Where the very reason for his existence is.]

[But shouting, yelling, making noise and causing more problems... what did it achieve? Even back there, it was all for nothing. All the smashing and the hostage-taking, it apparently didn't matter in the end.]

[He doesn't answer.]

[Not until he's sure he can say something other than what he really wants to say -- more blame and simple shouting because there just isn't any other way to grieve. He can't cry, after all.]

This... wasn't what he told me to do... I didn't choose this. He told me to--

[Air cycles.]

I have to live. Here. I don't have a choice.

Do I?

[McCrane wants to understand, but he hasn't been where you are. All he knows is Build Team, and his feelings for them since he's been gone, and how he's been working constantly to not think about it. It's close enough for him to have an inkling, and to imagine that tenfold.]

None of us were given a choice on coming here, but what we do, now? While we are here?

That is something like a choice. [He'd be helping to build places for a while, and then he'd be able to be a police robot, once more. It wasn't what he wanted to be doing, but it wasn't bad.]

When we return, we'll have different choices...

[When they returned, they'd go back to the way things were. All of them.]

[Except...]

[What was there for Kagerou to do?]

Kagerou, maybe you can come back with us.

[Video][Broadcasting from the Junk Pile]

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[private | voice] Oh my god Kagerou you poor baby. ;-;

[private | voice] his life is suffering

[private | voice] /hugs him forever

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