childhood is throwin rocks at shit you shouldn't be throwin rocks at

[cammiflage]

Who: Cammi and, dare i say it, You?
Where: Around the Crater
When: Post-arrival (like ya do)
What: Taking a visit to the Crater first b/c it's a fuck off huge crater and that
s cool.
Warnings: N/A

This isn't where she wanted to be but Cammi was surprisingly alright with that because this was better than where she had been. Where she was before could only politely be described as the middle of nowhere in space. But hey, this looked like it was an entirely new kind of middle of nowhere in space! Hurray!

She wouldn't be bored here at least, not until she got done exploring that City she'd breezed through on the way to the Crater. It was big enough to be obviously awful to navigate around at her size, but empty looking enough that Cammi knew she would get bored of the lack of anything sooner or later. She'd caught a glimpse of some large things out of the corner of her eye, large enough to live in the buildings in the city, so at least this place wasn't going to be a total waste of time. But she didn't want to approach them just yet. Not until she had one hell of a high ground.

Eventually, Cammi found her way to the crater she'd seen far off in the distance from where she was dropped. Was it huge? Check. Crater-y? Check. Did it have weird alien stuff? Double Check. Maybe.

Whatever the rocks were, they were green and sort of vaguely luminescent, and anyone who watched television as much as she had would immediately think 'radioactive'. It didn't really bother her, even though she was only in a parka, but there was no way she was going to be able to scale down the side of this crater without some kind of equipment. She'd never had enough of a death wish to just go barreling into a crater full of possible radiation sickness anyway, but that didn't mean she wasn't gonna chuck a few of the plainer looking rocks around the rim's edge down this massive hole. It was basically a ravine anyway, so she was going to treat it like one.

Comments

[crabcake]

Clearly the best thing to do when you encounter a human throwing rocks into a crater - and what is up with all these humans he keeps stumbling upon? - is to promptly try and best them.

Okay, maybe not the best thing. But throwing a massive chunk of collapsed building over the human's head to crash its way down into the crater is definitely the most entertaining thing for him to do.

[cammiflage]

"What the hell?"

Cammi instinctively scrunches down and tucks herself into a small ball before she pops back up to watch the rock tumble down the crater's side. It's a fair reaction, considering all had been quiet before. She turns around as soon as she's stood up again and immediately stares at what is apparently a giant robot.

"Cool..."

[crabcake]

Well, that wasn't quite the reaction Rampage was hoping for. He thinks. Humans are annoyingly opaque to him without sparks for his to divine emotions from.

But while he would prefer 'fearsome', 'cool' is kind of satisfying too.

Walking closer to the human, he peers down - and down and down - at it and crosses his arms. "I find myself questioning your species' survival instincts."

[cammiflage]

Cammi's survival instinct tends to take knocks in the face of things that could overwhelmingly make her life more interesting. Call it a personal flaw or something along those lines. Whatever it is, it has her doing the exact opposite of running away.

"Yeah, I know right," she says. "How'd we even live long enough to come down from the trees."

Tagging along during the largest battles between the Kree and the Annihilation Wave left her with the sound knowledge that, when something wants to kill you, it kills you. She's not dead, so feels rather safe, despite the giant robot staring her down. She even stares right back at the same time she takes a few steps closer, reaches her hands out, curls into a first and knocks on plating like she would on a door.

"So is there someone in there, y'know..." She motions with her arms like someone clumsily operating a pair of stilts. "Or is that all you?"

[crabcake]

Rampage's optics widen as the little creature just up and knocks on him despite being a fraction of his size. He sounds more amused than irritated when he says, "You're awfully bold for something so small."

Then he reaches down and tries to catch her by the back of her coat, pinching it between to fingers, to raise her up to the level of his eyes. What a strange little mouse playing with so large a cat. If only he could sense what she was feeling.

"What you see is all that I am or ever will be."

[cammiflage]

"Call it compensati--What're you... Hey!"

Unfortunately for her (but maybe fortunately for Rampage), her coat has a very easy to pinch hood on the back. While she twists around to try and pull it out from his grip when she's on the ground, it's a different story once she's in the air. For security's sake, she wraps it tighter around herself and zips it up.

Part of her is scared of falling. Just because her new robot friend doesn't intend to kill her on purpose, doesn't mean it can't do it by accident. She will, however, take that comment to mean that there's no one piloting in there. So... Giant robot aliens. Extra cool.

"Alright. So is there a name for all you are and will ever be, or what?"

[crabcake]

Horns twitching with amusement even as he narrows his optics, Rampage eyes the little human dangling between his thumb and forefinger, turning her slightly this way and that.

Honestly, if they're going to cover their soft squishy bodies in something, he doesn't get why that don't use armor instead of wrappings even softer and squishier than they are.

Aliens, man.

"Are all humans this inquisitive?" Between this one and the scientist all his human encounters have involved a lot of questions. Still, after a pause he adds, "I'm Rampage."

[cammiflage]

"I think it's a toss-up usually. Curiosity and complete terror. Depends on the person."

Dangling is really all she can do at the moment with the way he's holding her. Cammi kicks her feet a little, thankful that she's at least tied her boots on tight. She looks a little closer at him once he says his name and nods like it's satisfying.

"Yeah, alright. That's pretty badass. But do you live up to it or what?" Then, as an afterthought, adds, "I'm Cammi, by the way."

[crabcake]

Well, it's clear that this one took the 'curiosity' trait over the 'complete terror' one.

Turning, Rampage takes a few steps then sets Cammi down on top of a crumbling bit of waist-high wall. Which still puts it at a height above which a human could easily jump.

"That depends. Do you consider mass-slaughter and the destruction of multiple outposts a suitable rampage?"

Because honestly, that's why he named himself that.

[cammiflage]

It's a relief to no longer be held in the air by her hood, even if she's way too far off the ground to jump down and make a quick getaway. Even the climb down looks like something that would take a while, so she takes a seat at an edge of the crumbling wall that looks suitably sturdy.

"Yeah, that'd do it." She nods, and thinks for a second. 'Have you ever killed someone?' was going to be her next question, but that one has already been answered.

"So'd you do all this for a reason, or was it just for kicks?"

[crabcake]

"I was angry," Rampage says in what may be the understatement of the century. "And then I discovered that it felt very good."

Leaning against the wall next to the human, he gives it a sidelong look. It doesn't seem frightened, but is it just hiding it? Plenty of people try to hide their emotions in the outside, but as long as they have a spark those feelings on the inside are plain as day to him.

Stupid sparkless humans and their silent emotions.

Well, if Cammi is going to be curious, he's going to return the favour. "Are you afraid?"

[cammiflage]

Well if that doesn't sound a little lunatic, nothing does really. Cammi doesn't blanch at that, only takes it in with a quizzical sort of face. Asking him what he was angry about is natural progression, but she's not sure she wants to get that invested in his probably tragic backstory just yet.

She's not really sure how to answer what he asks. It's not a new question, but it's never been one that hasn't made her shrug and walk away before. The latter isn't an option where she is now, but Cammi does shrug.

"I figure if you wanted to kill me, I'd probably be dead. You know..." She takes one of her hands and smacks it into the other. "Squish."

[crabcake]

Rampage laughs at that, a loud harsh cackle. "Yes, I suppose your kind are rather... Soft."

He reaches out to press gently on Cammi's head. It might be one of the hardest parts of the human body, but against tons of metal it might as well be so much paper.

"I could just be playing with you, though," he says conversationally. "Like a turbo-fox with a glitch mouse before it snaps it up in one bite."

Really, he is playing with her in a sense. Just not in preparation of murdering her.

[cammiflage]

She cringes, not because of the tone sound but because of how loud it is to her ears. She doesn't stop even when Rampage is done laughing, because the pressure on her head is pretty uncomfortable. Cammi ducks her head lower and swats at his finger for all the good it does her, which is none at all.

"I wouldn't taste that great. Way too scrawny. What do you eat anyway?"

[crabcake]

Rampage gives a low chuckle and withdraws his hand, crossing his arms.

"You do look awfully stringy," he says, making a show of seriously contemplating the issue. "And hardly a mouthful."

"What does I eat?" His horns and mandibles twist in an alien grin, and he answers, "Torment."

[cammiflage]

Cammi shrugs in response to his almost-critique, almost as if saying 'Well, what can ya do?'. He's completely right, and his opinion works in her favor and agrees with her own, so why would she protest it.

She does give him a bit of a flat look though, when he delivers that line. She knows what he means but chooses to take it more literally because it's more interesting to.

"You can't eat torment," she says, making a vague hand gesture. "It's an verb or something."

[crabcake]

Rampage cracks up again at that. This human is actually pretty entertaining.

"And yet it's still so tasty!" he crows. But he sort of likes Cammi now, so he'll give her a proper answer. "We consume energon."

[cammiflage]

Cammi rolls her eyes and cringes down, covering her ears at the sudden shout. Once he's done with his shouting, she uncovers her ears in time to hear his final answer.

"Yeah... I don't know what that is."

[crabcake]

Rampage notices the human shying away from his volume, but he doesn't really care. It's kind of funny and he's not about to turn his vocalizer down a notch just for her benefit.

He waves a hand down at the gently glowing green crystals. "Those are unrefined energon."

[cammiflage]

"That stuff?"

Her first thought probably shouldn't be 'I want that', but it is and that doesn't surprise her. It's something interesting and maybe it will even come in handy at some point.

"Is it toxic? To people like me, I mean. Obviously it's not to you guys."

[crabcake]

"I haven't the slightest idea," Rampage answers, then gives Cammi a sidelong look. "Would you like to find out?"

Clearly the best way to find things out is to try them and see if you die. Advice from the immortal guy.

[cammiflage]

Cammi stares at Rampage, then stares at the crater. Then she shrugs and nods her head.


"Yeah, sure. It's not like I have anything better to do," she says. It's possible that it could kill her, but radiation poisoning basically takes forever to actually kill someone. She's probably got it already, given him little protection she had in space with Drax. Really, there's nothing to lose.

[crabcake]

Another bark of laughter. What an entertaining human! Honestly, he can't argue with doing things because you have nothing better to do. That's why he does most of the things he does.

"Then lets go see." Rampage reaches out to grab Cammi by her coat again so he can carry down into the crater.

[cammiflage]

"Oh," she starts as he pinches her by her hood again, "we're doing it like this again."

She sighs like it's the world's most inconvenient thing to be carted around by her hood, then zips it all the way up to the neck again.

"I mean, I was hoping for something a little less likely to end with me ripping my jacket and falling to my death, but sure, we could go with this. Down into the probably radioactive crater we go."

[crabcake]

Rampage stares at the human for a moment and rolls his optics. Reaching up with his other hand, he slowly curls massive fingers around her then releases her coat, holding her in much the same way a human child might hold an action figure. He's admittedly quite gentle about it. No broken bones anyway.

"Is that better?" he asks as he continues the descent into the crater. His tone makes it clear that he doubts this method of carrying her is any more comfortable. And also that he doesn't particularly care if it isn't.

[cammiflage]

This does less to make her feel safe and more to make her feel like some kind of plaything, but whatever. It's way more secure than before, even if it's not comfortable. Complaining is pointless, since she got what she wanted.

"It's fine. Pretty whatever. Just try not to drop me, since I'd probably die."

It'd kinda suck, not even scratching the surface of this place before biting it.

[crabcake]

"Don't worry," Rampage 'reassures' her. "I have a very strong grip."

He briefly considers tightening his fist slightly to prove the point, but decides he doesn't trust his fine motor control enough to manage 'mild discomfort' rather than 'popped human'.

The trouble with fragile playthings he supposes.

It doesn't take long to reach a cluster of energon and Rampage sets Cammi down before sitting back and relaxing to watch what she does.