[open] There's serious metal fatigue in all the load-bearing members...

[quantumechanic]

Who: Nautica, various TFP Decepticons, anyone else
Where: Around the city
When: Anytime after people are more or less settled
What: The planet's only appropriately-scaled engineer fixes things, makes friends with Decepticons
Warnings: My tendency to technobabble but probably no blood nvm megatron threw her into a wall

Nautica was keeping busy. Cybertronians were tough species, sure, but even they needed to power up sometimes--oftentimes, in the case of certain mechs who couldn't seem to stop punching each other--and that energon from the crater, while blessedly plentiful, wasn't going to refine itself. The process was a little outside her area of expertise, but the theory was straightforward, and her phenomenal breadth of reading and memory (with the occasional call to Brainstorm or Shockwave to double check the finer points) were up to the challenge.

Between that and the various side trips to assist the less technically adept (or the more technically adept, in the case of Brainstorm's communications network project) she didn't have a lot of downtime--and Nautica was fine with that. She preferred not to think too much about the extremely depressing larger picture. Optimus and Megatron would want answers soon enough, but she didn't have any to give them, so she threw herself into doing what she could. She was easy to run into around the city, working on getting a small energon refining facility up and running, repairing vital infrastructure, or just making less vital infrastructure more livable. And certainly not worrying about never seeing her friends again.

Comments

[quantumechanic]

Oh, Dreadwing, if you only knew. Her brand of foolishness was utterly unique.

"I like Optimus just fine, but it was actually Metroplex I was aligning with." Leave it to Nautica to focus on an irrelevant factual detail rather than the glaring faction mismatch. It mattered a lot to her.

[quantumechanic]

Sufficiently perfect ignorance looked a lot like courage, it turned out. Nautica continued to look waaaaay up at Sixshot, calm and quite unaware of how frightened she really ought to be.

"I can understand the boredom," she said, spreading her hands in a conciliatory gesture, "but maybe you could limit the destruction to buildings that are already beyond repair? We don't have a lot of intact structures to work with."

[quantumechanic]

Everyone had friends, Starscream, come on. She wrote that off as exaggeration, since he seemed prone to it.

Likewise, even Nautica didn't entirely buy his poor-little-me act, but she made a better audience for it than most, and she nodded in sympathy. "Yeah, I've noticed that people here are really confrontational. We're all understandably jumpy, but everyone I've talked to has been fine once they calmed down."

Her altmode was not, in fact, a Care Bear, but possibly only because Hasbro doesn't have that license.

[loyaltyandhonor]

"Is that name meant to have some meaning to me or my kind? Because if so you are sadly mistaken."
Dreadwing had never heard of anyone by the name Metroplex, autobot or otherwise. If they were worthy of mention in the same breath as the name of Optimus, surely he would be known even to the Decepticons.

"Regardless of your personal allegiance, as long as you wear that badge and the war rages on, it is unwise to cross paths with a Decepticon." Which, he technically wasn't anymore, a concept he was still coming to terms with.

[phase6kindofbot]

He hadn't been bored. That didn't seem terribly important to mention though, so Sixshot doesn't bother to.

He stares at the little stranger impassively for a few moments longer before answering.

"I will."

Obedience was nothing new for Sixshot.

[quantumechanic]

"Great, thank you!" Nautica smiled, and managed not to pat one of his enormous claws. He seemed a bit standoffish.

"My name's Nautica, by the way."

Totally trying to make friends with the giant Decepticon dog.

[quantumechanic]

Nautica's eyes narrowed as she looked at Dreadwing with an entirely unthreatening frown, more puzzled than upset. How did he not know who Metroplex was--

"Oh. This is some alternate universe stuff." Her annoyance evaporated instantly. Just a misunderstanding! "The war is over where I'm from." And therefore Decepticons were no threat, QED.

There was also the minor issue of Nautica having no functional sense of self preservation, but as far as she was concerned, that wasn't a problem. Or even something she was aware of.

[phase6kindofbot]

Petting his paws would have garnered Nautica a rather confused and possibly rather displeased look.

Admittedly, not a terribly big change from the current state of things.

"Sixshot," he offers in return. She could well try and befriend him, but he's not going to do much to help her along with that, unfortunately.

[deceptionshark]

This was not your usual Autobot reaction, and for a moment Megatron is a little thrown. He recovers, naturally, and smiles as graciously as his mouth full of pointed teeth will allow. Was the Autobot playing games with him? Maybe. This conversation hasn't even started and already he's quite intrigued.

"Megatron, yes, but not the Megatron you know, undoubtedly." He nods thoughtfully to himself. "Tell me, what kind of world do you live in that an Autobot can address me so casually? Surely you know that I could kill you if I so desired."

[quantumechanic]

Unused to self-satisfied, scenery-chewing Megatron, Nautica recoiled a little, taken aback yet still not really fearful. Who just out and says that? Gosh.

"Where I'm from, he's my commanding officer." Things had gotten weird in her universe, though she wasn't in a position to realize how weird, given that she herself was the source of some of that weirdness. "...He's good at it."

Hadn't picked up anyone by the head and hurled them across the room even when they really deserved it!

[loyaltyandhonor]

That earns her a long, cold stare. He wasn't sure which sounded more baffling, the fact they were supposedly in an alternate universe, or that she came from a reality where the war had ended. Even with their minimal numbers and forces on Earth, the Autobots and Decepticons had been at a stalemate long before he arrived, it did not seem likely to change so dramatically so soon. Though, upon consideration, Starscream had admitted to trapping Skyquake in an alternate reality, perhaps the latter point was not so farfetched after all.

He slowly lowered his cannon, watching suspiciously for any duplicity. As nonthreatening as she seemed, and though Dreadwing had no doubt he could handle this bot unarmed, he was not about to let his guard down completely.

"In your war, which side stood victorious at the end of the conflict?"

[deceptionshark]

Megatron made it a point to simply say what was on his mind when talking to new people. Well, okay that wasn't true, it only applied to certain situations where speaking his mind might benefit him. That this situation probably wasn't the right situation was neither here nor there. Bottom line is; Megatron did what he felt like whenever he felt like it.

Anyway.

He gave a thoughtful "Hmm", as if carefully considering her words and implications. Physically, his body language said a lot more than two seconds of sound did. His fingers twitched, almost in anticipation, and his wide, sharp-toothed grin was still unnervingly stuck on his face. This little Autobot was hardly a threat, so he remained relaxed and deceptively casual.

"He wouldn't happen to be here, now would he?" His optics glowed brighter with amusement.

[quantumechanic]

The most threatening thing about Nautica was her wrench, and that was only because Brainstorm had been alone in his lab with it for a long time.

"Autobots." She was at least socially adept enough to realize this was probably going to be an awkward conversation, and had the grace not to be smug about it. That would have been rude, and besides, she didn't have any strong feelings about the war.

"But everything is enough of a mess that 'victorious' might not be the right word, and Starscream did get elected to rule Cybertron, so there's that. He renounced his affiliation to do it, though." It was obvious that Nautica knew nothing about Starscream, since she managed to pass on that tidbit of information without her lip curling in disgust.

[starscheme]

"Well that's all well and good for most bots I'm sure, but I hardly believe jumpiness is what is causing Dreadwing to behave in such a violent manner. " he says rather waspishly, then pauses before whimpering pathetically, giving Nautica the woobie eyes: "He's sworn a solemn oath to tear out my spark with his bare hands if he ever gets the chance! For no good reason either, if you ask me! Megatron has long since forgiven me, I don't understand why he can't just bury the hatchet too!"

A brief tirade too late, he suddenly picks up on something that she said just before. "Wait! Wait…" Starscream levels a finger at her, waggling it a bit while he tries to articulate his latest idea. "You… The way you spoke before. It sounded as if you are with a group…?"

Okay she didn't really but he's just full of wishful thinking right now.

[quantumechanic]

"Uh." Even Nautica couldn't miss how unnerving this particular Megatron was being, and despite not yet rising to the level of fear, her unease grew more apparent as her optics dropped away from his, fixing on the Decepticon logo on his chest. Being literally tackled by a different Megatron had been less unsettling than this.

"He's...around somewhere." Nautica made a vague, abortive gesture towards the rest of the city, her hand falling quickly to her side again, and she started toying nervously with her wrench.

[deceptionshark]

"Describe him to me." Megatron's voice was as pleasant as ever. He enjoyed the tiny, nervous gestures she was showing. It wasn't quite fear, not yet, but they were getting there. They were edging ever closer to that moment of clarity, and he was prepared to react to it. Poor, poor Autobot. She had been so nice to talk to so far, Megatron even considered taking it easy on her.

"And where are my manners! Please forgive me, I have not yet asked for your name!" His hand lightly touched his chest and he gave it a dramatic flourish, accompanied by a polite bow.

[quantumechanic]

"It's fine, really. I'm Nautica." Though the motivation was lacking, Megatron was following the outward forms of courtesy. There were rules for that, and her reply absolving him of his faux pas came without thinking, her entire bearing less uncertain for a moment.

Right up until social autopilot was no use anymore, and the nervousness returned full force. "He, uh. Looks a lot like you, but...less spiky." She reached up to touch her shoulder in the spot where Megatron's plating started to curve upward on his own. In a species with as much physical variation as theirs had, the two Megatrons did strongly resemble each other, enough that their identity was obvious even across universes.

Leaving out the Autobrand wasn't intentional. Nautica was just that flustered.

[deceptionshark]

His smile vanished. The answer was less than what he was expecting, and he was most definitely displeased. There's three whole seconds of silence before Megatron speaks up again, his tone still light and civil.

"Is that all, Nautica?" He said the name slowly, as if relishing every syllable. "I was hoping to hear something of his... character." There was no obvious sign of warning, but Nautica better not give a dissatisfactory answer a second time.

[loyaltyandhonor]

Nautica may not have much experience with Starscream, but the repulsive look on Dreadwing's face shows that he clearly as some opinions about that particular bot.

"What misguided souls would willingly follow that coward?!"

The Autobots win and THAT is who is chosen to lead Cybertron? He was starting to suspect everyone in her universe had a screw loose. Dreadwing had heard enough of the seeker's brief command of the Decepticons. Starscream in command on a planet was nightmarish proposal.

[quantumechanic]

Nautica stared at Megatron in stricken bafflement for his entire long pause, too unfamiliar with power plays--and in this case, the threat of violence--to realize why she felt like she should be running.

"Sorry," she ventured, confused and unsure if that was the appropriate response. It came out almost a question, but she went on without waiting for whatever answer she might have been expecting.

"He's--I don't know him well. Very widely-read." Because of course that was the first thing Nautica had noticed. "Reserved. Experienced as a commander. Much more patient than I was expecting, but he doesn't suffer fools gladly, either. He spends most of his downtime in his cabin, and we--the crew--don't disturb him if we can help it. I think he's tired. From the war, I mean." That was more observant than Nautica usually managed to be, but the Megatron she knew was nothing like the murderous tyrant described in his war crimes trial. It wasn't a hard conclusion to draw.

[quantumechanic]

In Nautica's defense, their Starscream was really good at pretending not to be a horrible opportunist with no ethics, and the vehemence of Dreadwing's disgust surprised her. He wasn't necessarily wrong in his assessment of the tightness of their various fasteners, though.

"From what I understand the unaffiliated carried the vote. I wasn't there for it." She shrugged, not overly concerned with Cybertronian politics. "Is he really that bad? I mean, he was second-in-command of a whole faction for the entire war. He can't be incompetent."

[quantumechanic]

Resurrecting his brother as a zombie was kinda personal, Starscream.

"Uh." Starscream's abrupt shift from monologuing about his miserable existence to an actual relevant question caught her by surprise and it took her a moment to catch up to the topic change as she reviewed whether she'd said anything that implied she was with a group.

Nope.

"I didn't say anything like that, but some of my crewmates are here, and the Autobots as a whole could count as a group, I guess." She tapped the Autobrand at the base of her throat. "Are you looking to defect?"

It seemed to be the done thing for Decepticon High Command lately.

[quantumechanic]

Nautica was only mostly oblivious, thank you very much, hence no touching.

"Nice to meet you, Sixshot." Even after he'd provided his name, her smile didn't so much as flicker. His hypothesis that she had no idea who she was talking to continued to gather experimental support.

[phase6kindofbot]

There hasn't been a person in the history of ever who had told him it was 'nice' to meet him. It was such a peculiar thing that Sixshot could do little more than stare some more.

After a moment, he abruptly decides this was a little too surreal for his tastes and stands.

"You should probably ask your friends about Phase Sixers," he says over his shoulders as he turns to leave. "They should have warned you about that a bit after you got the badge."

[deceptionshark]

That was better.

"And how," he said delicately, "would he react if, say, one of his Autobot pets were to become grievously injured?" This is a very important question. Perhaps more important than all the other ones. A smile was creeping back onto his scarred face, and his fingers twitched again. He hadn't moved from his spot, but somehow he seemed to be looming over her worse than before.