[audio]

[badboybikerbot]

[No video for you, kids. Gunmax isn't about to put his face all over some mystery space internet. You do get to listen to him complain, though.]

Oookay then, now that I'm pretty sure I'm not having some kind of sensory malfunction, I figured I oughta start getting information out of the locals. The creepy dudes in the robes already dropped what I assume are the basics on me, but there's gotta be more to this than "hi, welcome to the robot planet. You're stuck here forever, make yourself at home". I kind of had things to do back home. Important things. Things that didn't include being kidnapped by alien robots.

Anyway. It's probably a long shot, but if any Brave Police just happen to be hanging around here, shoot me a heads up. Oh, and if anyone happens to find a really big motorcycle, that's mine. Try not to mess with it, yeah?

[Nope not even dropping a name. What a courteous guy right. He grumbles something to himself before killing the feed.]

Comments

[Action] HE'LL LIVE

[badboybikerbot]

[Well this was embarrassing and completely shitty. Gunmax is just gonna sit there for a while, arms crossed and looking none too amused. Today is a disaster.]

Medics, why are they called medics? Aren't they mechanics?

[Action] \o/

[thankyou4myheart]

[The comments make him grin, remembering.]

  I had the exact same question when I first got here.  For Cybertronians, mechanics and engineers work on drones and down, any non-sentient, non-living machinery.  Their medics, their doctors, work on them.

  And us, while we're here.

[Action]

[badboybikerbot]

Huh. That's different. What kinda AI do these Cypertronian guys have, anyway? Obviously, they weren't built the same way we were.

[Action]

[thankyou4myheart]

No, they definitely weren't.  They have something called a spark, which . . . as nearly as I can understand it, is like a human's soul.  They have an actual lifeforce to them that pervades their whole body!   To the point that when one takes enough damage to kill him, his body loses all color and goes a flat grey.

  …it's a really strange sight.

[Action]

[badboybikerbot]

So... actual living machines? Geez, I almost feel like a poser now.

[he was about to make a comment on how crappy these guy's paint jobs must be or something, but that last comment Deckard makes really gets his attention. watching people die is kind of a big deal.]

How many times have you seen it?

[Action]

[thankyou4myheart]

[He pauses a moment to think about that.] 

  Three or four times?  We had a few corpses that McCrane and I investigated together some weeks back, when that pillar first showed up and started affecting people.   Made some of them crazy, and turned one into a . . . well, for lack of a better term, a vampire of sorts.  Energon vampire.  The worst was when the…vampire…[Yeah, there's a pause, because he KNOWS how ridiculous it sounds.] …got to a robot cat named Ravage.  Despite his name, he's the sweetest, most bouncy and upbeat person I've ever met.  Moreso even than Drill Boy.  [His expression pinches.]  Finding Ravage torn up and dead grey like that was . . . hard.

  [He drags a hand down his face as he realizes something Gunmax needs to know about that's going to sound just as – if not more – improbable than robot vampires.]

  And . . . yes, I talk about Ravage in present tense.  He's fine now.  The FirstForged . . . I don't know how they do it, but apparently when someone's been killed – Cybertronian, human…hell, apparently even one of us - they're able to try to . . . "catch" is the best way it's been described to me . . . catch the person's soul and restore it to their body.  No, I don't understand how they're able to do it.  No one else here seems to, either.

[Action]

[badboybikerbot]

[Gunmax stared at Deckard like he's grown a second head out of his ass throughout pretty much the entire explanation, because seriously. Robot vampires, raising the dead? This was some weird horror movie level shit.]

Okay. So does that mean that dying around here is no big deal? What's the catch? How do you know if it works on us?

[Action]

[thankyou4myheart]

It's still treated as a big deal.  There's still the whole experience of being killed, although . . . people apparently don't remember it.  They seem to lose all memory of the last however long.  Which I guess is a blessing in its way.  But there's no guarantee the Firstforged will manage to catch a soul, so the person could well stay dead.  And there may be other effects as well.  I don't know.  I don't think it's actually happened very often.  [rueful]  We were just "lucky" a few months ago…

  [His optics darken for a moment.]

  And it does apparently work on us.  According to Power Joe . . . it worked on Drill Boy.

[Action]

[badboybikerbot]

What? Hold it, you didn't say Drill Boy was here!

[That doesn't mean he hadn't been here before, which definitely brought up some unpleasant implications. The look on Deckard's face was less than reassuring. It didn't take a genius to figure it out.]

Deckard. Did something happen?

[Action] Apparently it's "How many times can we break Gunmax's brain" Day. XD;;;

[thankyou4myheart]

…

  [Oh right . . . he hadn't mentioned Drill Boy earlier.  Because the young driller wasn't here anymore.  He leans over, face in his hands –he wasn't built to deal with all of this.  How has McCrane kept it together for as long as he has!?]

  A lot of something's have happened, Gunmax.  Drill Boy's not here anymore.  He . . . he disappeared a few weeks ago.  Same way you and I have in the past.  People blame the Badlands but no one knows for sure.  It just . . . happens.  Supposedly.

  [He makes himself sit back up, meeting Gunmax's gaze.]

  It was a few months before I got here.  Power Joe told me about it.   He and Drill Boy, and McCrane, and Kagerou, and a bunch of others went after this powerful Cybertronian named Tarn.   By all accounts, it took a pretty large strike force to take down him and his accomplice.  A few people were killed in the fight before they was finally apprehended.  Drill Boy was one of them.  Power Joe could tell you more about it than I can.  Apparently, it was really upsetting, though.

  [Fortunately or not, Deckard…can't quite relate.  He's thankful that he's never had to go through that –yet? –never having lost any of his men before.  He…knows that Gunmax probably can, though . . . since he and the others had to go through the loss of Deckard himself that one time . . . ]

[Action] It's okay man he probably wasn't using it anyway

[badboybikerbot]

[Deckard's body language was speaking volumes right now. Even if it had just been a brief display of 'totally had enough of this shit', Gunmax could tell that captain boyscout over here was taking things pretty hard. Not that he could really blame him. Hearing that Drill Boy of all people had been killed and then vanished mysteriously wasn't exactly easy to swallow, but Deckard always seemed to have this way of bouncing back even after the shittiest situations.

Frankly, he wasn't looking too bouncy right now.

It was times like this Gunmax wished he was better at dealing with people, at being reassuring... or something. He was silent for a moment, deciding he wouldn't be able to really say anything reassuring while he was still trying to come to terms with this information himself, but he did reach up and give Deckard's shoulder a squeeze. It was something, at least.]

Nah. I don't think I'll bother Power Joe about it.

[Action] LMFAO choked on /not/ laughing aloud at work! XD

[thankyou4myheart]

[Most times, he genuinely bounces.  Other times, it's a façade for the sake of his team's morale.  Even now, he's working on that façade.  He'll be okay, though…he really will.]

  [Still, the hand on his shoulder gets a small grin as he covers it with his own.]

  Yeah, probably best.  Anyway, the medic should be here any minute.  How are you holding up?

[Action] MY BAD :)

[badboybikerbot]

[That was a little better. Gunmax wasn't entirely convinced, but he wasn't the kind of guy to nag people about their feelings and crap.]

Tch, I'll make it. Runnin' out of gas isn't the end of the world.

[Action] If I asphyxiate at work, I'm blaming you. XD

[thankyou4myheart]

[That earns a low chuckle.]

  True, but I'd rather you not have the joy of knowing what that feels like anyway.

  [He sits back, rubbing the back of his neck.]

  Listen, I know I've dropped a ton of things on you all at once, and I'm sure you've got a lot of questions.  I'll answer them the best I can.  Things aren't . . . terrible here, though.  Unlike back home, our time is largely our own.  There's not a whole lot to do, but there are things.  And friends to make.  There are. . . some difficult individuals here, no worse than back home, but most everyone here are good people.  I've enjoyed getting to know them.

[Action] I will take full credit

[badboybikerbot]

[and there goes Deckard with the whole trying to be reassuring thing. Gunmax was still skeptical as all hell about this whole situation. It was probably for the best that his visor hid half his face, since he wasn't doing much else to mask how he felt. He remained quiet for a moment, just studying Deckard's face before shrugging.]

If you say so. If you say it isn't terrible, then I'll give it a chance.

[He's never regretted trusting Deckard before, no reason not to trust him now, right?]

[Action] XDDD

[thankyou4myheart]

[He nods with a small, if slightly rueful, grin.]

Make the best of things. That's about all we can do. Things can get terrible, but . . . they go in waves, like back home. Things are quiet now. [The grin gets /definitely/ wry.] Hopefully you'll have more time to settle in than I did before the floor drops out from under us again.

[Yes, he's joking. Mostly.]


((ooc: handwave a medic's visit? Wrap up and start something new "now"? =3 I'm good for anything.))

[Action] 8U

[badboybikerbot]

Don't say things like that. You'll totally jinx it.

[TOTALLY NOT JOKING. well ok mostly not joking. he gives Deckard's shoulder a playful shove.]

((ooc: totally down for handwaving a medic visit and starting something new or whatevs, I TOO am good for anything))

GODMODS LIKE A BOSS – aka let me know if you want me to edit anything. 8D

[thankyou4myheart]

[Deckard shifts with the shove, his grin turning sheepish. Shortly after, a medic arrives and…well, too difficult to do the conversion here, so Gunmax gets a ride back to Solus's temple. Deckard is shooed out for the operation, which is invasive - and potentially painful - enough that Gunmax is shut down for the duration. He's just rebooting as Deckard's finally allowed back into the room, stepping over to the side of the berth.]

Hey, how are you feeling?

IT IS PERFECT

[badboybikerbot]

[Gunmax just lays there for a minute, staring at the ceiling and groaning. Yeah that's all the reply Deckard gets for a minute.]

8D

[thankyou4myheart]

[Deckard gives him a wry, sympathetic grin.]

  Wait till you try the energon for the first time.

  [It definitely took getting used to, even WITH the conversion.]

[badboybikerbot]

[Gunmax just frowns and sits up, looking completely unamused.]

Why. Is it horrible? You're not making this sound very good.

[thankyou4myheart]

[Deckard offers a hand to help him up and shakes his head.]

  Not terrible.  It's just . . . really different.  It'll take some getting used to.  It's not just a fluid we run on that we can create a form of energy from.   As I understand it, it's actually a type of energy itself, in a liquid form.

  [He pulls out his gas can from the compartment on his hip, opposite his holster, then finds an empty cube-shaped container in one of the nearby cabinets.  There's a wry grin on his face as he pours some of the gas can's contents into the clear, open-top cube.]

  And it glows.

  [Which indeed it does, softly but visibly.  It's also a hot, neon pink.  Bon appetit?]

[badboybikerbot]

[Gunmax glares at the cube of goop before looking at Deckard like a kid that doesn't want to eat his vegetables.]

Ugh, great. That's not gonna make me radioactive or anything, is it?

[thankyou4myheart]

[Deckard can't help a chuckle at the face he's getting.  He shakes his head as he offers the cube.]
  Not that I'm aware of.  It's safe.  Just that it's unlike anything we had back on Earth.

[badboybikerbot]

Fine, fine, but if I start glowing or something, I'm blaming you.

[Gunmax takes the cube and eyes it warily for a second. DOWN THE HATCH.

Then he sits and just waits for a few seconds, like he expects to burst into flames or explode or something]

...Well okay, maybe that wasn't too bad.