[Accidental Video]

[treacherous_widow]

[CRACK

CRASH.

The sound of something breaking over takes everything before the video feed clicks on. Wherever the device is, it's showing a downward angle aimed at a berth far below the camera. All across the flat metallic surface is something glittering. Whatever it is continues to shine before something else in thrown into the mess.

A small mirror crashes down against the already broken shards of previous mirrors and shatters. A few others rain down from some unseen spot before it suddenly stops and for a moment everything is just silent. Then Blackarachnia comes into view hugging herself and just staring down at the mirror shards. When she  accidentally sees herself in one of the shards, she recoils and kicks it away and over the edge of her berth before shuddering.

Blackarachnia just couldn't stand looking at herself. She was terrifying.. hideous. Why the slag did she want this upgrade so bad!? Everyone else had to be as terrified as she was now that she looked like this, didn't they?

Suddenly she turns away from the mess of broken mirrors and seems to pull out a small jar from... somewhere. Inside of it is something glowing yellow. She just gazes at the crystal for a moment before walking off screen. The video times out seconds later.]

Comments

[nobody_number_8]

[The image of Axel on the screen is at a bit of an odd angle, as if he's not actually holding the communicator.]

You know, breaking a mirror is supposed to bring seven years bad luck.

[treacherous_widow]

W-what?

[A clawed hand quickly covers the screen before switching her part to audio]

I've never heard of that. Why would breaking mirrors bring bad luck?

[nobody_number_8]

I have no idea honestly. It's just one of those old superstitions, you know? Like walking under a ladder or having a black cat cross your path.

[treacherous_widow]

....If walking under a ladder was bad luck, then I'd be doomed. Where do organics think up these kinds of things.

[nobody_number_8]

No idea. I mean the mirror thing is kinda understandable, since mirrors were expensive back in the day and broken glass can be dangerous if you're not careful, but I'm not sure about the rest.

Don't you guys have any weird superstitions like that?

[megaton]

You've changed...

[How had he missed this before?]

[treacherous_widow]

I'm... not sure.

[treacherous_widow]

[When her response does come, she makes sure it's audio just so no one else has to deal with how terrifying she thinks she looks.]

Yeah, I have. It's... a new thing.

[nobody_number_8]

How can you not be sure if your own people have superstitions? I mean, you must've grown up around them, right? [Pause] OK, maybe 'growing up' isn't exactly the right way to put it, given the whole robot thing, but you know what I mean.

[treacherous_widow]

...I was brought online on a different planet and in a completely different time period. Slag, up until I ended up on this Cybertron, I've never even seen my home planet.

Not to mention they only things I know about my own people I've learned from the history tracks on both the Darksyde and the Axalon. So no, there hasn't been an opportunity to learn about any Cybertronian superstitions.

[loyalflier]

Is everything all right?

[Voice]

[treacherous_widow]

Y-yeah... I just...

The mirrors were bothering me.

[megaton]

You look taller.

Who did this to you?

[Where can he get some?]

[treacherous_widow]

T-taller? I.. might be. But, I'm still small compared to the bigger bots..

I.. did it to myself. It happened while I was comatose.

[Sorry, she doesn't have the means to repeat the process.]

[megaton]

Size isn't everything.

[No, actually it is. He remembers being stuck in the body of a ragdoll and never cares to repeat the experience.]

It's all in how you use it.

You don't seem particularly happy with your work, however.

[treacherous_widow]

I-I know.

[She's very aware of just how beneficial being small can be on a planet full of larger bots. It's been an advantage for her on more than one occasion.]

Its... been an adjustment.

[Voice]

[loyalflier]

Covering them up might have been preferable to breaking them.

[megaton]

Bulkhead mentioned that in his comatose state, he was able to return to his world...

Is that what happened to you?

[nobody_number_8]

[Welp, that wasn't quite what he was expecting...]

...Well, I guess I just proved that I can still put my foot in my mouth, even while insubstantial. Sorry.

Though by 'coming online', you mean you were born, or built, or... however you guys reproduce there, right? Or is this something else?

[Axel's clearly not sure how such a thing world work. Or if this means BA is a robot-baby.]

[treacherous_widow]

Yeah well, don't beat yourself up over it.

[Sigh]

What I meant was my protoform was brought online and a beast mode chosen for me. The programming and my spark were all there, it just needed the go ahead from the stasis pod to bring me online.

Before that, I was just a spark in a blank form. So, I guess... you could say that was when I was "born". Just, not in the sense you organics mean.

[treacherous_widow]

Yeah, it was.

Re: [Voice]

[treacherous_widow]

Maybe.

This was a more permanent solution.

[Voice]

[loyalflier]

Was it necessary to have a permanent solution?

[megaton]

...

If I could be so lucky.

...

[Really, why did everyone else get to go back?]

Does the new look come with any other upgrades?

[nobody_number_8]

Not sure if I could, under the circumstances, but thanks.

[As for the explanation, it explains some of what Axel was wondering about but not all.]

OK, but... you'd been up and alive before that, right? I mean, even if you don't remember it for whatever reason, were the protoforms in pods like yours all people that signed on for the trip and and were just turned into protoforms and put in the pods til they got where they were going to conserve resources or something?

Cause from way I understand it, protoforms are sort of like robot-babies, and if you weren't turned back into one somehow for the trip... Well, frankly just grabbing however many of them right after they were born, sticking them in pods, then launching them off into space aboard a ship to come online who-knows-where doesn't exactly sound like the brightest move.

[Axel finds himself rather disturbed by the second possibility, for reasons he can't quite understand. Obviously it would be something of a dick move on the part of the 'adult' robots, but if it works, it really shouldn't bother him, given that it's hardly something that concerns him. Maybe it's just a sign that his heart is coming back, like Sora said...]