Ep 05. "Tomorrow come today." Open

"Bluestreak?"

Having hit a bit of a snag in his work, Rhinox had elected to take a brief walk around the base. Hopefully, he thought, the change of scenery would reset some thought processes and he could attack the problem with fresh optics. He'd expected to run across the occasional patrol, perhaps, or one of the human children being driven home, but the young sniper didn't look like ou was on duty, just sitting on the bare ground watching the sunrise.

...It was a nice sunrise, well worth watching, but Rhinox wondered if Bluestreak was really seeing it.

This slagging war. What are we, that we drag our young ones into it?

Rhinox paused a respectful distance back, not wanting to startle the mech. "Mind if I join you?" he asked.

Rhinox sat down carefully beside hir, lowering his weight gently to the stone. "Taking a break," he explained, leaning back on his hands to admire the rosy light of Earth's dawn over the desert.

"Yes, Cybertron had a sun before the war. Actually, it was a yellow dwarf, like this one." He waved a hand at the peeking sun. "I had a solar recharge station, and I used to go up to the roof and lay out in it when the sun was high."

Rhinox smiled, despite the pang of guilt in his spark from the youngling's eagerness. "I hardly know where to start. I was stationed in one of the science and engineering enclaves before the war - we tried to stay informed about what was going on in the outside world, but truthfully we were pretty insular. The development of new methods and technologies were our only interest."

He wondered, sometimes, if they'd been foolish to be that way, as if the problems gripping Cybertron were only storms passing over their enclave dome. But even if they'd ventured out of their shelter, it wouldn't have stopped the war.

"It was actually my commander - well, he wasn't my commander then - who dragged me out into daylight, almost literally speaking. He'd come to us to commission some work for his upcoming exploration mission, and I was tapped to work with him. When it came time to choose a crew, I all but fell over myself to volunteer." Rhinox chuckled. "I still remember how miffed my enclave leader was."

Jazz was liking the base. It wasn't too crowded, had lots of room to move around, privacy if you needed it, but yet had more than enough mechs that there was always someone off-duty to hang out with. Friendly someones, too. He was still (gladly) getting used to that.

Still getting used to the planet, too. The planetary rotations were constantly shorter than he was expecting, for some reason. Still, he couldn't complain. The combination of Earth's orbit and rotation and atmosphere meant that the sun rising and setting was a gorgeous event. Sunstreaker had dragged him outside for a few, but Jazz found the desert produced the most spectacular he'd seen in long vorns. If he was up and about, he made it a point to peek outside to see what the sky was doing.

This particular morning, he was investigating some of the upper layers of the base, toward the top of the mesa. Instead of heading down and out when his chronometer pinged him with a reminder about sunrise, he headed up, to one of the hatches that gave access to the top of the mesa. There were several, but the one closest to him was small by Cybertronian standards, making him contort and clamp his plating down like he was wiggling through too-small ductwork.

The hatch opened on the rougher side of the mesa, among a few tenacious boulders that hadn't yet been worn away by time and wind. Jazz popped his head out and grinned, leaning on the outside rock to watch the glow of the sun coming up over the horizon in a vibrant wash of purple/orange/pink.

His audials twitched at the sound of Cybertronian voices. Jazz froze for the split-klik it took to recognize Bluestreak's voice and Rhinox's. They must, he realized, be out of sight on the other end of the mesa, near one of the larger access hatches.

Jazz was many things. But one of his defining attributes, spark-deep and irrepressible, was curiosity. Against the 'Cons, this made him an excellent spy and information-gatherer. Amongst the 'Bots...well, it made him the universe's worst busybody, who thought nothing of eavesdropping shamelessly.

He didn't want to interrupt their conversation, anyway. He felt like he'd been monopolizing Blue and 'Hide ever since he'd gotten here.

Jazz settled in, smiling sadly as Blue asked Rhinox about Cybertron before the war.

Jazz couldn't remember Cybertron's sun, either.

Bluestreak was so wrapped up in listening to Rhinox's stories ou didn't even register Jazz right away. Turning just a little in the others direction and wiggling hir door wings to let him know ou knows before returning hir attention to Rhinox.

"I'd like to see something like that some day."

The little sniper leaned agianst the larger mech. For support, for the sheer comfort of being about to reach out and touch another.

"There's a lot of things I want to see one day."

Bluestreak let off a soft sigh as Rhinox pulled hir close. A hum of contentment/thanks/affection. Ou decided firmly then and there that ou liked Rhinox and might just take him up on that offer if that promising "Someday" Ever came.

"I'd like that. We can bring anyone we want to too. I bet Bee would like to come."

Bumblebee. That was a mech Bluestreak was worried about.

Bluestreak moved a little closer to Rhinox. Seeking some reassurance. Bluestreak was really worried about Bee. Ou'd been told that he would be fine but the fact that he'd been infected at all and no one knew how or why was what distressed Bluestreak most.

"He's still out. I was going to go see him soon. After the sunrise, It always makes be feel better you know? Like no matter what the universe will keep going."