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

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.

When you return. When all of you go back. All of you have choices--

[It comes out hotter, angrier than he means it to. He's never felt like this before, never felt so desperate and alone.]

[Never hurt like this before.]

[It's difficult to control, difficult not to lash out from pure inexperience. But he does manage, in the end, to check himself. To try and yank the veneer of calm back down again.]

Go back... How does that --?

Do you even know if it's possible?

[McCrane flinches, glad that Kagerou cannot see.] I'm sorry. [It's all he can say.] But I'll do what I can to fix it.

To find a way to make it possible.

Would you want that, if we can?

[How is that even a question?]

I want to do as he told me to. I want to live.

I want to...

[... to see him once more. Just once.]

I've already said what it is I want to do. Knowing that... you should already have your answer.

That is confirmation enough for me. [He nods, and makes a few notes for extra supplies to pick up.]

I will talk to the Firstforged about the Lambda, and I'll build that perch, as promised.

It will be there for you, if that becomes something you want.

...

So will we.

[He remembers when Gunmax was having difficulty acclimatizing. Kagerou was...about as far from Gunmax as he could be, but despite that, they all came from the same mold. None of them enjoyed being alone, forever.]

...

[But you aren't him.]

[How does he rely on other people. How is that even a thing that's possible.]

[There's more silence. While he tries to figure out an answer to that.]

When it's possible for me to make a choice of where to go next... when I can leave... I will give you an answer.

Is that... acceptable?

[It's more than acceptable, and so McCrane smiles.] It is.

Thank you, for giving us this chance. I hope we can get to know you better, before any decisions have to be made?

If that is what you want.

[He'll try. He can't make any assurances he'll be good at this, but he'll try.]

[Video][Broadcasting from the Junk Pile]

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

[private | voice] his life is suffering

[private | voice] /hugs him forever

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