[ INTRO LOG #2 ]

[robotsatan]

You don't know how you got here. One minute you were walking, sleeping, maybe dead -- then you're here, your feet suddenly carrying you down an empty street. Where's here?

Any Cybertronian would recognize this as their home planet, Cybertron, but it's not a Cybertron they've ever known. It has all the familiar hallmarks, but none of the specifics -- the city isn't one anyone here could identify, and even at a glance it's obvious that no one's set foot on the planet's surface in hundreds of years. The city and its surrounding areas all bear the marks of devastating war, of dust and rust collected over centuries. With other people relatively scarce, there's plenty to explore. In fact, if you start walking, you'll find that your feet may just carry you in one particular direction.

Despite its obvious ruin and aeons-long abandonment, the city and surrounding areas do bear some signs of recent habitation. There's a small but growing population of other people, Cybertronian and otherwise, and there's evidence of their presence -- areas of the city that have been cleaned up for use, intact rooms in ruins of buildings where people have set up to live, a few terminals here and there that have been restored to power.

A) The crater.
On one edge of the city is a massive crater left by some wartime weapon that seems to have taken out a large chunk of the surrounding metropolitan area. At the center of the crater it's broken through the surface of the terrain to reveal what looks like it might be a promising energon deposit. There is some strange but native vegetation growing around the edges, too, that no Cybertronian would be able to identify -- small, metallic, brittle-looking sprouts that bear a curiously organic-looking fruit of some kind that doesn't look like it's intended for consumption by any natives of the planet. In one rocky nook of the crater, light catches on the surface of a pool of water, which seems strangely out of place on Cybertron. On closer inspection, it seems that somehow an underground water source has formed a spring in the crater.

B) The center of the city.
If you follow where your feet seem to want to carry you, you'll find yourself in the middle of the ruined city. It seems that the center of the city was once home to a massive forum, and some of the pillars and structures still stand. At the very center of the forum is a massive, elaborately constructed fountain, although it has now long since run dry of whatever used to fill it. One of the low, inner walls of the forum has a terminal embedded in its surface, although it looks curiously ancient, out of place with the rest of the city, and unlike the rest of the technology still left around, there doesn't seem to be any way to power it on or operate it. There are a few scattered pools of water and a few of the strange metallic plants in the city, too, but they're not quite as plentiful as in the crater.

The planet was obviously once home to a massive network of communication relays, but those have all been long since destroyed. However, a few enterprising transplants have worked together to set up a working local network, which can be accessed via any one of the public terminals, any built-in comms systems your character might have (audio only), or a handheld device produced by one of the people who set up the network.

Comments

[rodders]

"Uh. Brainstorm? Time travel." He's lost it, too, and grins sheepishly - but winningly, somehow - up at her. "C'mon, Magnus. I've been here for a while. Most everyone's here too. We've got this."

They've got this even more now that she's here, his other point in the trinity that is him, Drift, and her. That's what's important here.

[smallandincharge]

Magnus gives Rodimus an odd look. Not harsh, just... odd. "Yes, it seems that you often do 'got this', somehow. I'll never quite understand how you manage it."
Ultra Magnus vents another sigh, as she contemplates the ruined landscape. "So. How about you try and tell me where, exactly, 'here' is?"

[rodders]

Rodimus shrugs, feeling as if this falls into the category of things Magnus says along with the stuff about how she doesn't think she has that 'whatever it is' that makes him him. Magnus doesn't ever give herself enough credit as far as Rodimus is concerned.

"Cybertron, just not our Cybertron." Ah yes, that's very clear, Rodimus. "The energon is green."

[smallandincharge]

"Well, yes, I had assumed as much --" Magnus breaks off. "The energon is what?" She stares at Rodimus in disbelief. "How is that remotely -- how could Brainstorm have -- is it all curdled, or -- what does that even mean?"

[rodders]

He shrugs. "It's just green. Tastes the same. I guess, it's not like we've got a choice."

Drink green energon or starve. Rodimus knows which one he'd rather do.

[smallandincharge]

"But, you don't understand," Ultra Magnus protests weakly. "The color of unrefined energon comes from its fundamental chemical properties - how it refracts light on an atomic level. It can't just... be green, it has to become green, or be made green, or -- something! That's how energon works! That's how the universe works!" Magnus is looking legitimately distressed at this point.

[rodders]

"Hey, hey," he says, putting a comforting hand on her arm in an attempt to calm her down. "Don't think about it to much, Magnus."

It's always been a problem for her, he knows, but he can do his duty to get her to stop.

[smallandincharge]

Ultra Magnus turns to look at Rodimus for a long moment. Then she abruptly crumples into a sitting position on the ground with a thunderous clang, face resting in her hands. "I just want things to make... sense. Why is that always so much to ask?"

[rodders]

"C'mon Magnus, it's not that bad."

It is. It is that bad, Rodimus, you can't see it because every day of your life is like this.

[smallandincharge]

"-- and the endless optimism!" Ultra Magnus exclaims, abruptly turning the conversation back by two minutes. "I don't know how you manage that, either. Keeping your chin up for the sake of the troops is one thing, but you always manage to be so --" Magnus gestures vaguely with one hand in Rodimus' direction, in a gesture that somehow seems to encompass all of his Rodimus-ness -- but then her arm slumps back down again in silent defeat, her face still pressed into her other hand.

[rodders]

"Hey," he says, tone more sincere now than he was a second ago - although he always means what he says a good chunk of the time. His grip curls on her arm, smile still in place like it always is. "That's because it's my job. Just like yours is to be overly organized and clean things obsessively."

Another flash of a grin as he pulls his hand away. "And anyway, I think everyone would think you'd been Shadowplayed if you started acting cheerful and smiling at everyone."

[smallandincharge]

Ultra Magnus turns sharply to face Rodimus. "Do you think that's a concern? If so, I'll have to redouble my efforts to clamp down on any expressions of 'good cheer' - it would have a disastrous effect both on morale and on general trust in high command if rumors started going around that --" She pauses mid sentence, finger still raised, and then tilts her head slightly. "That was a... joke, wasn't it."

[rodders]

Rodimus laughs at that, grinning widely. Oh, Magnus. Please never change - he'd probably not know what to do without you. Or at least make even more dangerous decisions without someone who's going to try her best to do damage control. But still, losing Magnus twice was still awful and he has no desire to repeat that experience.

"See, now you're catching on!" Soon you'll be making jokes of your own, Magnus. Or at least jokes that people other than Rung will hear.

[smallandincharge]

Magnus doesn't quite smile, but her face softens around the edges, and she synthesizes a noise that might be the beginnings of a laugh. "Hm. Well, I suppose I've made your point for you, haven't I." She pushes herself back to her feet, but as she does so, something in the distance catches her eye. She stands there for a moment, staring at the horizon, lost in thought. "I suppose we all do have a role to fill, a part to play," she says, more to herself than to Rodimus. "But no one can choose it for us - we must choose it for ourselves."
Then she turns back to Rodimus, and looks him dead in the eye. "So. Captain. Where to next?"