robothell | [ INTRO LOG ]

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[ INTRO LOG ]

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 no one in sight -- right at first, anyway -- 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.

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, with the bits and pieces left behind and a few determined minds, it wouldn't be too hard to build a working, if rudimentary, one...

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Someone is watching you, Nightbeat.

Someone hiding in that foliage you're poking. Someone in the shape of a bird. More or less.

He doesn't understand what's going on here. Where he's been taken, why he's here. Where Shadowmaru has gone... nothing makes sense and he's feeling more antsy than ever. He was supposed to be safe. Be free. Instead, he's been apparently abducted.

His hand tightens on his weapons.

Just a little closer... then he'll get his answers.

To his fortune, Nightbeat was incredibly perceptive. He gets the feeling that someone is watching him very early on, although he doesn't let onto it until they make the first move.

When he moves closer, Nightbeat takes the humorous approach, although keeping the briefcase close to him in case he needs to use it as a weapon.

Because...well, that'll go over nicely.

"Do you really want to use those?"

His head jerks back, his grip tightening on the chain and sickle in his grasp. His wings begin to slowly mantle up, like the hair bristling on a cornered animal.

"If I have to," he says, managing, just barely, to keep his voice calm. Neutral. "Who are you?"

And where are they. But the first question seems more important, for now.

"What makes you think you have to?" There's a friendly smile, turning his gaze back to the plants. "I'm not exactly making threats."

"Nightbeat. My name. You asked for it."

He taps a finger to his chin, studying Kagerou for a moment. Something's obviously on his mind, and his eyes under that visor dart back and forth as he looks the robot over.

"You're not Cybertronian, are you?"

"I don't know you," he answers, flatly. His wings bristle, trying to make himself look larger. "You could be Brave Police. You could be here for me."

And damn if "Nightbeat" didn't sound like a name the commissioner would have come up with. He stays back, but doesn't put his weapons away.

"No. What's that?"

If that was going to intimidate Nightbeat, Kagerou would have to try a little harder. Being dead kind of has that effect on you. But he'll tuck the briefcase under an arm, putting both his hands up.

"I'm not armed. There's nothing to worry about."

A smile.

"A race of beings that look...pretty similar to you. Not exact, there's definitely some differences, but to a novice, pretty similar."

"Now how about you put those weapons down and tell me about this Brave Police?"

"You don't have to be armed to be dangerous."

That much he knew from training Shadowmaru alone. The other BP could do harm with just his hands, if he had to. No way of knowing if this odd unit was the same.

He shook his head.

"I'm not putting them away. How do I know you aren't lying? That you aren't one of their other models, sent after me now?"

"If I was, I'm probably the worst one they've ever made. Because I mistook a plant for you."

His head tilts, to the foliage he was recently studying.

"And I'd have to now who you are, wouldn't I?"

"You... what? How did you do that?"

He doesn't look anything like a plant. How could anyone reasonably intelligent mistake him for one? That was just...

That was stupid.

"You could know. You could be lying."

"My point exactly. Either I'm not looking for you, or I'm incredibly incompetent."

He smiles.

"I'd like to go with the former, though."

"... If you think I'm a plant, then I don't know if it's really the former."

Sorry, Nightbeat. Kagerou can be incredibly blunt sometimes. The problem with being a child.

...

Brains aren't too strong in your family, are they Kagerou.

"Nevermind. Point is, if I was looking for you don't you think I'd have done something by now?

Aside from the obvious 'I just met you'."

No, they were made for beauty not brains. Except Shadowmaru does actual detective work at least twice, which puts him ahead of most of the others -- BUT ANYWAY.

"I don't..."

He shifts his weight, backward a bit. He doesn't know how to proceed. How does he... interact...?

"I don't know."

For the last time turning into a dog and using a nose that shouldn't be able to pick up a scent isn't real detective work. But Nightbeat sees Kagerou's confusion and smiles friendly.

"Let's try this."

He holds out a hand, slowly.

"Hi, my name's Nightbeat. And you are?"

Don't ever say that to Kagerou's face, he will be gravely offended. The friendly smile, though, he doesn't know what to do with.

He looks down at the hand.

Then up at the robot.

His own hand lifts, awkwardly mimicking the other robot.

"Kagerou."

And Nightbeat'll take the extra initiative, clasping onto the robots hand and giving it a firm shake.

"Nice to meet you, Kagerou."

And then, almost as fast as that happened, his attention turns back to the fruit. "Now if only I could figure out THIS mystery.'

He almost pulls back when his hand is grasped. His body tenses, ready to dart away the instant trouble shows.

But it doesn't. His hand is just... waggled around for some reason.

"What are you -- "

And then the topic changes. "What mystery?"

He lets go as quickly as he grabs it, because Kagerou ASKED, and that's grounds for completely getting into the REAL topic at hand. The plants.

He bends down again, putting a finger under one of the leaves of the plants, looking up.

"These aren't Cybertronian native, I don't think. And yet here they are. They're almost suspiciously organic. Almost EARTH-like."

He looks at the plants, and then at the robot before him. Several times. He really couldn't look more skeptical if he tried.

"They're just plants."

And that's where you're wrong, Kagerou, and he's certainly going to tell you why.

"An accurate assumption. But here's the kicker--I've never seen them on this planet. They're surprisingly organic in nature, which is something Cybertron lacks.

So the question is...how, and why are they here?"

"... Why does it lack plants?"

Kagerou, no. That's not the important question here.

...

Did you seriously just ask that.

"Well, do you eat plants or use them to breathe? Us either."

Yes, yes he did.

He makes a face, having the good grace to look slightly embarrassed.

"Human beings do..." And don't you have humans, Nightbeat?

Oh right...he's not dealing with a Cybertronian. It's slightly a point in Kagerou's favor, he'll probably get little to no confustion.

"True, true, you're right on that, but...Cybertron doesn't really HAVE humans."

"Then... who made you?"

Because clearly, he's talking to another AI, right? Not a living robot. That's just absurd, isn't it?

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