re_alignment | [Video -> Text] [Transmission Originating From: Vectorian Sector]

Entry tags:

✘ real steel | noisy boy

[Video -> Text] [Transmission Originating From: Vectorian Sector]

[The video is only on for a few moments - long enough to show a purple bot with wide shoulders, a samurai helmet, and glowing yellow optics - before shutting off. After that is a burst of text.]

Many of you exceed WRB height restrictions. You also violate a number of other WRB regulations, including illegal use of weapons and possession non-standard upgrades.

I am not where I should be.

[He would just like to let you all know YOU ARE SO ILLEGAL. SO. ILLEGAL now down to a few extra messages-]

If anyone happens to see Charlie Kenton I would like to be informed. He is a human with short, dark hair and brown eyes. He also has a son, Max. I do not wish them to be alone with unfamiliar bots if they come here.

Gunmax. Thank you for the ride, when we arrived. It was kind of you.

To the bot with the fins on his head: My name is Noisy Boy. 'Soundwave' is a terrible name.

And there was a red and white bot. I apologize if I fightened you somehow.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

My opinion can't be valid, because it's not based on your experience.

In my world, mechs fought in an Arena, kind of like your 'boxing'. Until someone died. Some did it for 'glory'. Most did it because...they had nowhere else to turn.

Our war was started by an ex-Arena fighter.

I don't think yours is the same.

[So, his opinion is likely not the same.]

[He nods. Still, it wouldn't hurt to ask around. Death by starvation is a terrible thing.]

....and you want to make your 'operator' happy. [He's putting the pieces together. There's an implied 'why?' in there.]

Bots have been destroyed in matches before, but that is mostly in Underground bouts. We can be repaired after even those matches.

We would not start a war, however.

[They can't, really. Save one of them, they can't fight without an operator. At least Noisy Boy can't.]

Of course. Why would I not? They built us for boxing. To win. [Now he is getting a bit confused.]

Sometimes, my kind can't. Sometimes we're dead and stay dead.

[Gasket, even before the war. And Wing...Wing had died.]

Wouldn't you? What if your operator wanted you to fight outside your arenas? What if he wanted you to commit a crime?

Would you?

[How far does that loyalty go?]

They built you, but that doesn't mean they own you. Not your thoughts, your feelings, at least. Those are yours.

I cannot. It is forbidden by my programming. As well, those are illegal actions that are strictly prohibited by my programming.

[Tak Mashido didn't build no criminal.]

No, they cannot. But we were built for a purpose that I am happy to fulfill.

[He can be bought and sold, which he knows and accepts, but that doesn't change who he is.]

What's forbidden? You can only hit one of your own kind?

[Drift doesn't like the idea of that, either. ]

But that raises the question. We don't have your 'boxing' here. So....what's your purpose now?

I can only be entered into a match with other boxing bots when not training or sparring. And I cannot commit moves deemed illegal by the WRB, or crimes deemed illegal by countries with league matches.

[His programming is pretty tightly-bound in regulations.

And that last question is... awful for Noisy Boy to consider. He doesn't like the idea of not being able to box.]

Then I do not have a purpose.

....how do you fight with so many rules?

[Illegal this and illegal that. Really, it makes the Autobot Code seem reasonable.]

Nonsense.

That means you get to find a new purpose. Maybe a better one.

With punches aimed at the upper torso and head, until one bot is knocked out or five rounds have passed. But I wonder, how can others fight with so few rules?

[This is why he never understands Underground boxing. So much kicking.]

You make it sound as though it is a privilege.

It does not feel that way.

[Yeah, uh, wow. That's...possibly the most inefficient fighting Drift's ever heard.]

A lot faster and uglier, apparently.

[Five 'rounds' however long those are, is too long.]

But we don't fight for entertainment.

[He's still not sure how he feels about that.]

Privileges don't always turn out to be easy. Besides, your league isn't here. What do you intend to do? Just...sit until you run out of charge?

The goal usually is not to tear each other apart, my way.

We are too costly an investment for that.

[Otherwise you end up with a $13.1 million pile of scrap.]

Without my handler I am not certain what I can do. They direct my actions.

[Except here. Another point that disturbs him, really. It's not just being alone, it's being without some kind of direction.]

[Well, here's a question Drift feels dumb for not asking earlier.]

Does it hurt, though? [It has to--how else do you decide when to stop getting up?]

Your handler [He's not sure he likes that term much better than 'operator',] isn't here. You get to decide for yourself.

You might decide you like it.

Sometimes. Not always. The impacts are often more jarring than anything. [Save for the last match he was in. Having one's arm torn off and leaking fluid is... unpleasant.]

[He pauses, for a few moments, before sending the next burst.]

The other bots that you knew, that fought for entertainment. If they had others that directed them, as I do.

Did they find what you speak of as easy as you make it sound?

[Well, after his close encounter with Braid's thug, Drift can certainly weigh in on 'unpleasant'.]

You must really trust your 'operator'. [He's trying to imagine what it would be like to have your whole body turned over, exposed to pain and danger, to someone else. ]

[It's not a good thought.]

It's not easy. But that's the point. Like your boxing--any fight worth winning is a fight.

[He's so sorry about that. He really doesn't like bots being taken apart. It's kind of uncivilized.]

I do. None of them have given me sufficient reason not to. [They've all brought him out of his fights in one piece... and the one that didn't repaired him. Save for that instance, his faith is pretty unwavering.]

Perhaps. But I was not designed to function completely independently.

[It's all right. Drift was pretty uncivilized himself at the time. Wages of Sin and all that.]

That's good to hear. That they took care of you, too. [He nods. He's not going to let his old cynicism ruin your trust. But you are secretly on his 'keep an optic on' list. In case you trust the wrong person.]

But the whole point is, we're not just our function. We're more than that. We're more than just some assigned purpose, some programmed function.

Of course. They repair me and fix my paint after my matches. [His handlers have been good to him, which is why he trusts them. The people here, though... he's not sure how much he could trust so many rule-breakers. Even if they're outside the WRB.]

I mean that I was not designed to physically function on my own. I do not have hands or a voice.

[If there was a tone that could be put to those words, it would probably be 'hesitant'.]

That's...uh...decent of them. [Sure, get you into fights that you can't really fight, it seems the least they could do is, you know, repair what they got you into?]

[How do you say 'you're being exploited, stick it to The Man' in a way the other could understand?]

[No hands, though?] I know someone with no hands. He's here, too. I'm taking care of him. [Pharma is so very, very grateful, too!] Until we find someone to make him new hands.

I can ask about some for you, too?

You still do not approve. [Hey now, he hasn't won all but two of his matches just because of his handlers. He's got mad skill.]

[Considering he doesn't feel like he's being exploited that might be a bit difficult.]

The last one that noticed reacted poorly, so it might be good if I acquired them. Though. I have never had them before. I did not need them.

You don't need my approval, though.

That's the whole point. You should do what is right for you. Not your handler, not some stranger you just met.

[But give Drift an A for tactful effort? Okay, maybe a B.]

Reacted 'poorly'?

[Drift shrugs, casually.] Adaptation. It's why my kind do. And while you're here, you might as well try the idea out.

I do not do things for strangers. And my handlers' wishes and mine coincide.

I enjoy boxing, regardless of the feelings of spectators or those here I attempt to explain it to. It is what I was made to do.

[He likes his fights, and the crowds... and the winning isn't too bad either, really.]

It is, perhaps, an understatement. [But he isn't entirely sure how to articulate the whole thing since it had startled him at the time.]

That sounds like something my brother Zeus would be better at.

To win? Is that the wish?

[He shakes his head.]

I wanted to win. I wanted to win more than anything. And so I didn't look at what I was doing to try to win.

And things went too far.

[He frowns.] So? Because someone may be better at you than something isn't a reason to not try.

Besides. You're the one who was brought here.

Yes, I like winning. And the cheer of the crowd. But my programming prevents me from going too far.

[And if the crowd enjoys the match... he can forgive himself for losing. Accept that sometimes he'll lose.]

It will not prevent me from trying. But I do not know how to start.

I wish I knew why I was the one brought here. [He wishes he knew how to get home, too, but he doubts he'll ever know.]

Does everyone have that programming? That prevents it from going too far?

[Because it would only take one, lacking that, to destroy everything.]

You have started. You're talking to others. Maybe you're thinking. No one said it was comfortable or easy.

None of us knows. But we can only answer that by moving forward.

League bots do; any permanent destruction is usually accidental. The Underground is different.

[He is not the biggest fan of the Underground, if only because of their lack of rules and fair play.]

My bouts are not always easy, either.

And you fight....? [League or underground?]

I didn't mean to imply they were. Just that this is a different kind of fight.

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