[Video]

[weapabilities]

[ Oh look! It's Drift, your neighborhood giant robot. He looks pretty banged up, plating scraped and paint chipped in spots. More over, he doesn't look like his usual aggressively serene self. He glowers at the screen, downright dour, optics glowing coldly from under his helm. ]

I'm back.

Sorry to anyone I've been tutoring on swordplay.

Lessons are cancelled until further notice.

I'll be working on my house if anyone needs me.

[ His mouth draw into a tight line before he switches the video off. ]

Comments

[weapabilities]

Autobots. Heh- I know. There's a story behind the whole "Decepticon" thing, actually.

[ He gives her a dubious smile. ]

I'll try to keep that in mind. But I'm still going to try my best.

[whatsupcroc]

I'll try my best, too. To not be someone you have to worry about so much.

( Though with him bringing it up... )

So... why exactly are they called the Decepticons? Or Autobots!

[weapabilities]

S'all I could ask for.

Oh uh. Heh.

[ He rubs a finger up one of his finials. ]

Mmmm. Well, the Autobots were kind of already a thing. But the Decepticons came out because a long time ago, our government was very corrupt. The Decepticons were originally revolutionaries.

They chose that name in reference to the phrase "You are being deceived". It was a political commentary.

[ He winces, yeah could he make that sound any more lame? ]

[whatsupcroc]

How'd they go from revolutionaries to... genocidal soldiers?

[weapabilities]

Ah. At first, the situation required some measure of. Brutality. That's why they picked me up in the first place.

When you fight a war for millions of years, sometimes you forget what you're fighting about and "acceptable loss" is a phrase that gets used more and more. Eventually people stop asking.

People get messed up. Ideas get messed up.

[whatsupcroc]

Caesar's said that before. That there's no such thing as an acceptable loss.

( She'd needed to hear that back then; it'd made some things more okay in her head. She feels it's important to remember now. )

Straightening yourself out, and ideas out again, that's important, too. Remembering what it was you really found important in the first place. Like the freedom to ski! Or bungee jump, or toss frisbees in a park.

[weapabilities]

Yeah... my friend Wing. He helped me do it once. I think I probably need fixing again, though. I mean. Reminding, you know?

[ He chuckles, pausing after. ]

I don't know what any of those things are.

[whatsupcroc]

Drift... have I got some things to tell you! ( She grins. ) Wanna hear about all those things you don't know?

[weapabilities]

... Yes. Yes I do.

[whatsupcroc]

( She proceeds to tell him, in great enthusiastic detail, about bungee jumping. At some point, it turns into a discussion on the merits of spelunking, similar to, but still different from, BASE jumping. Which only starts to get into human flight!

Collette can talk forever, until her throat is dry and she coughs because she's talked herself to that point of dryness. )

Oh boy, do I ever need some water...!

[weapabilities]

[ He listens with rapt attention. Quiet, wide glowing eyes set on Collette the whole time. He thinks to himself, these are all things that seem like something Rodimus would enjoy doing. When she finally slows, he just smiles and picks her up. ]

Don't have any human-sized cups but I did get the water working.

[ Carefully he moves her over near the water basin where he turns on the spigot, holding her near it. ]

Thank you for telling me all that.

[ It's really nice to have his mind on something else. ]

[whatsupcroc]

( She finds this almost novel, cupping her hands together and reaching out to get well and properly splashed before she collects anything like some water in her hands. She brings her cupped hands to her face, taking a sip -- wrinkling her nose, because it doesn't taste fantastic. )

You're welcome! I love talking about this stuff. How old are these pipes?

[weapabilities]

I like listening. It's all just so far from what I know. And I'm really not sure. We cleaned them out though, at least as well as we could.

[ He pulls her away when he's sure she's done, moving to sit back down and place her nearly in his lap. ]

You know, I never thought I'd become such good friends with an organic. It's nice that people aren't afraid of me here, anyways.

[whatsupcroc]

I bet people are, but it doesn't stop them from wanting to know more about you. There're lots of scary, amazing things in the universe! Something we don't know or don't recognize shouldn't hold us back from wanting to learn more.

( And should not have the gut instinct to kill, because it was different. LE NO!!! )

[weapabilities]

Yeah. I mean, I guess I couldn't blame someone though. I've been out there, and there's a lot of scary, amazing things that are also very deadly.

I should tell you about the Goraxian Space Eels, sometime.

[ You're not helping, Drift. ]

[whatsupcroc]

Goraxion whats? How do eels survive in space?

[weapabilities]

Well, they're called eels, but what they really are is sentient photons! Really aggressive. Territorial.

[whatsupcroc]

What're photons?

[weapabilities]

Light particles.

[whatsupcroc]

They're aggressive, angry light particles? Woah... I bet they look cool! Sounds real scary, though, how do you stop light particles?

[weapabilities]

Yeah... oh they look cool until you see them really up close.

Annnd the short answer is you don't. You just kind of run.

[whatsupcroc]

Anyway to hide from them?

[weapabilities]

If you're lucky. They're nasty.

[whatsupcroc]

You know, somewhere out there I bet there's something nice that likes to invade and run up to others and give them surprise hugs or gifts or something, not just death.

( Said with a nod and the attempt to restrain her amused smile. )

[weapabilities]

Hmm. Hmm, you know not in my experience. Even the most seemingly innocent planets have their dark underbelly. And I'm talking places like Cuddlex and Lovetopia of the Benevolon sector. I'm talking breeding haemoslaves to fight the Antigod. Nice on the outside but wow. Yikes.

I mean things you wouldn't expect...

Oh and don't even ask about Giggleopolis. Jeez.

[ Yes, these are canonly real places in the Transformers universe... ]

Ahaha... I guess that sounds pretty dismal. But uhm. As far as nice creatures who do nice things. I suppose I've documented at least one right here on this planet.

[ He smiles. Looking at you Collette. ]