re_alignment | [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

Much longer than I've been alive, if you're like the other Cybertronians I have met. [It was an awe-some concept to behold, that age.] I'll take any help that you can offer. [He doesn't know what to offer, in return, but he suspects that there will be a bartering system in place before long.]

Ah...! [That's a pleasant surprise.] Like Deckerd. What precinct? [Look you're about to be his new best buddy. You can build and you're a policeman? He's sold.]

Loneliness is never pleasant to learn. [But it did define them, in a way. Their ability to feel it.] Was the war that bad?

I am. Well, as far as age, anyway. There aren't many here I bear resemblance to in other ways. [Just two, in fact - three if you count Driller.] And in that case, I'm definitely willing to help. [Really, he's just glad to be doing something useful with his hands again.]

Ah. Cybertronian Defense Force, originally - worked kind of like the police and military all together. Far as Earth, I have tags for Tranquility, California PD, but I didn't stick around there f'r long. [It became too dangerous once the Autobots hooked up with the military.]

It's not, but... if you c'n make it through, you're stronger for it. [The last question gets a short chuckle out of him.] The space station wasn't so bad, really - insane AIs and rampant robot-hatred aside - but the war... eh, no one that I'd bring here from that is still alive.

I...wouldn't know. [Since this is audio.] But at least in your vehicle mode, there is one robot who looks like you. [Which would be Deckerd...though you talking about 'California' reminds him more of Gunmax, especially with that accent you have. Not that Gunmax has an accent, unless you call spewing random words in another language an accent.]

Is that what you prefer to do?

...

[Stronger, for being alone? He thinks you might have that backward...but at the same time, if everyone you cared about has died, maybe you'd know more than he would.] I'm sorry. It sounds like you've had it rough.

Heh. Your friend Deckerd right? I've met him. Sweet kid. [If he seemed a little high-strung... and had a problem with energon for now.]

Eh, it's what I was good at. Fighting and enforcing were kinda my thing.

[Well, stronger in that he knows how to handle it, at least. Being without his companions is still a downer. There's a groan as his armor shifts in a shrug.] That's how wars usually are; rough.

[There's a moment of silence.]

...

I'm...sorry, I've just never heard him called that. He's older than me. [His brain, you broke it.]

And if you could do anything, then what? Would you fight?

[He hears that shift of armor, and is more curious what you look like.] We've never had to deal with an all-out war.

Was it worth it?

[Barricade chuckles.]

Oh gosh, you're adorable, McCrane. [Like a kitten that doesn't understand paper bags.]

Been doing a lot of 'anything' lately. Little bit of fighting, little bit of repairing, little bit of construction. Just wanna be relevant, really.

[Oh, that's always a difficult question to answer, for him.] There was a time when it might've been worth it.

But that was a long time ago.

I...don't know if that is accurate, but I appreciate the intent. [He really has no idea what to say, but is going to assume you mean well.]

With this small of a population, there should be no trouble standing out.

[And that confirms it for him. No one who has survived through the war seems to feel that the fighting was worth what they'd been fighting for, for one reason or another.] Still. I am glad there is no reason for war, here.

You took that surprisingly well, you know. [Usually they're more flustered. He's not sure what this says about you.]

You'd be shocked, I'm sure. Had t'take up a new profession the last place I was to manage it, and the giant robots there were... very few.

[Barricade is pretty sure that he wasn't supposed to survive it at all... and that he didn't want to. He just happened to have friends that wanted him to live.] So am I. Heard enough stories about how other Cybertrons ended up that I'm glad one's still. Alive.

Is there a way I ought to take it? [He wants to know! For the future.]

[Taking up a new profession doesn't sound...right...for someone in the middle of a war, however. McCrane's police intuition is nagging at him on this one.] On the space station. Was there a lull in the fighting?

Granted, this one seems alive because it is...new. [A new world. It was somewhat exciting, because they were new robots. At least here they were learning at the same rate as everyone else.] I wonder how much it's alright for us to change about it.

No, no. No particular way; 's all up to you, really. [He just really enjoys gauging reactions.]

There was. We had peace of a sort on the station, like we do here, and we had too many medics, mechanics, and engineers f'r there to be much call for me.

Still, the living is the important part for me. [He hadn't seen his own Cybertron in so long... and Axiom Nexus... hadn't felt right, really. This is different.] I couldn't say. But they keep goin' on about how we're free to help them build it, so I'm guessing they don't have many limits.

You're very easy-going. I appreciate that. [Meet his team sometime. Then you'll understand.]

So you were lucky, in a way. In a strange way?

[He doesn't know how to classify it, but he's glad for those who were able to escape the war. Working to build a war seems like a much more valuable use of time.]
And if you could build anything, what would it be?

Mm, you just haven't caught me on the things I get high-strung over. Glad you like it, though~ [It's easier to get into people's good-graces this way.]

Suppose I was lucky. Had a chance to try my hand at a few new things.

Build anything? No limits? [Oh, you just have to give him the hard questions, don't you. He'd never really even considered it before; he thought he'd die with his planet. But it's been months since that happened...] An arena. F'r all contests of skill, not just for fighting.

I see. So what should I be avoiding talking about, then? [Just in case.]

...

[He thinks your idea isn't a bad one, though, and the way he goes quiet indicates how he is thinking about that, especially given what he's just been talking about with Noisy Boy.] That should happen. [It's all he says, for now.]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Most of it's private issues. [His increasingly long list of lost partners mostly. And his habit of overworking himself.]

[That pause gets him curious... and slightly worried, he'll admit. It was just something he'd been mulling over around here. So many warriors here with nothing to do but annoy each other, and the gladiatorial arenas in Axiom seemed to do some good.] Maybe so. With the folks around here, might not be a bad thing. Could take a lot of work, though.

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