[ti]Ep 3.5[/ti]On Your Left [Closed | Blurr]

[James Porter]

Week 2 Day 6

Omega Outpost, somewhere within the corridors of the base. 

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Several days had passed now since Porter’s introduction onto Omega Outpost and to say that it had been the strangest experience of his life was an understatement. Even after joining NEST, he never imagined he’d actually meet the aliens that the task force he was in was formed to counter or at least work with. The whole affair still confused Porter, even after having it explained to him. Before arriving at Omega Outpost, the operations he had been involved with up to that point were all against some well trained and well equipped terrorist organisation that seemed to be able to be everywhere. It got to the point where the idea of the aliens not existing and this being some strange cover up to take down a shadowy terrorist group being a very credible idea. Or at least it could be in his mind.

In the end, the part about them not existing didn’t turn out to be true. The rest more or less was.

Having spent several days at the outpost already, Porter had been able to somewhat establish himself. Being given a room for him to set up shop in, a brief tour around the base followed by the usual rules and regulations that you get bombarded with when stepping onto any military base. However this time, he was given a few more extra rules for his own safety and due to the irregularity of his current deployment. This meant that he had to use catwalks whenever he could so he could avoid getting stepped on and make way for the Autobots.

However, that rule would not be abided by the Englishman as he departed from his room to carry out his morning run. Since as far as he knew, the catwalks only seemed to be in the main area of the base and not the corridors Porter would be using for his run. Morning runs were an activity he did more less once every two days to keep up his own and the military fitness standards. For him, it was a matter of pride and keeping himself in perfect condition so that he could carry out his job perfectly. Porter had left his room dressed in a simple dark brown t-shirt, black sports shorts, white running socks and black running shoes. With the only device being equipped on him was a simple black watch.

Once he was in the hallways, Porter spent a good ten minutes or so warming up followed by him spending an extra five minutes starting off his run on a slow job. Steadily increasing the speed of it over time as he ensured his body was in the right state for a good run. Once those five minutes of jogging time were up, Porter broke out into a run as the man began his exercise proper. Making sure to keep himself on the right hand side of the hallway so if any of the bots came driving by or walking through then his chances of getting crushed or hit would at least be lowered.

Was running in a hallway that large robot aliens often use a good idea? Probably not. But did Porter really want to go outside and run in the desert? Definitely not. He'd rather deal with whatever risks there are inside then ending up as shrivelled, dehydrated husk of a human being if he stepped foot outside. 

[Blurr]

Leaning up against the side of the wall was not what Blurr wanted to be doing, but he needed a break. Usually he never needed one, especially during his workout routine, but today? That had to change.

The cyan mech glanced down and carefully brushed his digits against the mid section of his torso where a deep, decently sized dent rested. Moving around excessively was painful, and Blurr was starting to realize that it had been making his damage feel worse… Too bad his adrenaline had no longer been coursing through his systems to numb the pain.

With a soft exvent, Blurr pushed himself away from the wall slowly and lowered his servo from the dent. He’d just have to take it easy today, one day without doing his full routine shouldn’t be an issue, after all he only does it to keep himself entertained and to help quiet that hyperactive demon inside of him. Hopefully by tomorrow his self repairing systems took care of most of the underlying damage. Having to go a few days with low activity was bound to make him extremely restless.

Blurr convinced himself that he needed to take today to rest up, finding something else to do shouldn’t be a huge issue, perhaps he could even go see if there were any mission he could—

The Wrecker then suddenly froze in place as he watched a human run past him in the connecting hall, immediately pulling him from his thoughts, as well disregard everything he just convinced himself to not do.

Blurr grew fascinated, and suddenly inspired. Seeing something so small sprint past triggered the longing to run himself. He wasted no time to step towards that connecting hall and peered around it, ignoring his protesting pain.

“Hey wait-!” he called out, his bright blue optics looking down at the human in awe. Blurr had yet to meet the other humans of the base, other than Cassandra. “-Where are you off to so fast?”

[James Porter]

Porter didn’t want to get into a scenario on this run where he’d have to stop. He’s always been a man that wants to get his workouts over and done with no real interruption from others as he finds that puts him off. Preventing him from getting the workout finished in a timely manner. As he ran along the side of the corridor, the man kept himself at a fairly steady pace. After a set amount of paces he would break out into a sprint to see far he could go and after a set amount of steps he’d then slow down to his previous running speed.

During the run, the human had been making sure to memorise the hallways and corridors he was navigating through. Keeping an eye out for signs or anything of note to help make a note of them in his mind and remember which way goes where. He could only imagine how easy it would be to get lost in this maze within the mountain.

Not too long after he had started, Porter ran into a dilemma as the corridor split into two. The current corridor heading straight on while the other split off towards the right. Along with that, the man noticed a large blue figure which he assumed was one of the Autobots was coming down the corridor that went to the right which gave Porter an easy answer for where he should go next. Giving the Autobot a quick glance, Porter offered the bot a token nod before continuing on his way as he continued to go straight on. Whether or not that Autobot had noticed Porter wasn’t something he had bothered to check nor did he want to risk doing so. Getting crushed wasn’t on his agenda.

As he prepared to do another small sprint, the human found himself interrupted from his run as the voice echoed down the hallway. Any plan to sprint now put aside. For a moment he hoped that maybe he was addressing someone else however the following question that followed made it clear that the Autobot was addressing him.

With much reluctance, Porter slowed down and went into a light jog. Not intending to come to a full stop. If the hulking mass of metal wanted to talk then he could easily catch up to water with ease. He twisted himself round, jogging backwards as he looked at the blue head peeking around the corner. Porter gave him a courteous smile in greetings followed by a wave. Not wanting to show his irritation at having to halt most of his progress.

“Nowhere in particular. Just out on my morning run. I don’t plan to stop until I’m done so if you want to talk then I hope you can run-well…for your case you wouldn't need to run. So, if you can walk and talk at the same time then feel free to come along.” When he replied, Porter made sure to do so in a raised voice but it wasn’t laced with any negative emotions. He had no idea how good hearing was for these machines and while the distance between the both of them could easily be covered in mere seconds for the Cybertronian by simply walking. Meanwhile for Porter it would take much longer compared to blue titan.

[Blurr]

With curious, bright cyan optics, Blurr watched as the small figure of the human continued to shrink as he moved further down the hall. Though, his fancy footwork to spin round and respond to Blurr was rather impressive to the mech. Jogging backwards like that isn’t something most can do. He’d even think it was harder for humans, though clearly he was proven wrong in this instance.

That swirl of inspiration only grew into the desire to take up that human’s invitation. The way he spoke so confidently was inspiring, and fortunately, walking and talking was something Blurr was… incredibly skilled in.

Despite not wanting to exercise due to his injury was something he couldn’t help but ignore. His need and desire to move was far too strong, and sure, it was irresponsible… but this couldn't have been so bad, right? It’s not like he’d have to put in much effort to keep up with the human.

With a single step of hesitation, Blurr had to quickly make the final decision to follow the human as he watched him grow even smaller the further he got.

Ah, what the scrap…

Blurr placed a servo over his injury and moved forward in a speed walk, just to close the distance between him and the human. Instantly a surge of pain throbbed through his cables under the dent on his plating, but he was able to bite his glossa through the pain. Blurr quickly caught up to the human and slowed down to a slower walk, less movement caused the pain to be much more bearable.

With a glance down, and a grin down to the other, Blurr let out a soft chuckle.

“Walk and talk? That's so much easier for me than you may think.”

Blurr made sure to keep his distance on the other side of the hall from the human, giving him the space he needed. The Wrecker didn't want to make him uncomfortable.

“So, you run? Do you do this every day?” He mused with curiosity, not daring to hide the fact that he was portraying that he knew a lot about the topic at hand.

His pain settled and although not forgotten, he could at least do this without it being painful, however he was sure to keep his servo covering the dent.

[James Porter]

A few more seconds had gone by after Porter had given the blue alien the offer before the man spun back round again. His feet doing some fancy footwork as if he was performing an about turn on a march. Not even slowing himself down to ensure he didn’t miss a single move on the turn which suggests he had enough experience and good coordination with his feet to pull off such a stunt. It certainly had been ingrained in his head from both his drill and fitness training.

Porter had no doubts the big guy would decide to tag along. From what he’d been told during his briefing and the few people he’d met so far, the off world visitors were for the most part friendly or at least curious.

So he continued along with his jog. Keeping a constant and steady pace as he trotted down the hallways. Oblivious to the fact that poor Blurr wasn’t able to catch up to the small human as quickly as he thought. Knowledge about the blue speedster’s injury that prevented quick movements having not been relayed to him. If he had known, Porter would have slowed down or halted altogether.

The possibility of something not being right with Blurr did pop into Porter’s mind as the distance had grown between the two the human heard no loud thumps of metal meeting the floor or any form of movement. Had the offer he fired at the alien been denied? Did he offend the guy in some way? It’s not like Porter had any real knowledge about the culture of these robots.

A ludicrous idea he thought, a nervous chuckle vented from him as he let that idea of somehow having offended the Autobot sit in his mind.

Only with the reverberating sound of his metal feet that echoed towards him did the Englishman put those thoughts to the side. With the distance between the two having been closed in record speeds, Porter had prepared to move himself a little more to the right and hug the wall a little more. Not knowing where the Autobot would appear.

Thankfully he didn’t really need to as Blurr had taken up position on the left side of the passageway. A considerate move that the human appreciated.

“Thought you weren’t going to join me for a moment. I’d be staggered if you somehow couldn’t do that if I am being brutally honest with you.”

A glance was thrown towards Blurr. Porter bowed his head in a nod towards the robot and went as far as to meet his grin for a few seconds before redirecting his focus back into running.

“Not everyday no. I go at least four or five times a week. The days where I don't run are for me to rest. Maybe I’ll do one extra day of training if I know I’m being deployed to a combat zone so I can ensure I’m in good shape.”

Fitness is a key part of Porter’s life and something he takes very seriously. Only missing out on a run unless it’s something important such as being on operations in the field, injuries and things like that.

Blurr’s tone made the robot sound in a very curious mood. Making Porter think the guy hadn’t seen a human run before from how he reacted to the smaller being when they stumbled upon each other in the hallway. “What about you? Do you run often?”

[Blurr]

Now beside the smaller human, little effort was needed to keep up with him. Blurr’s long strides covered enough ground to maintain an equal speed to stay at the human’s pace. He listened to him as he explained his schedule… it made sense that he didn’t do this every day. After all, his body was… like… at least three times smaller than his own. However, sometimes possibly six out of seven days of daily running was impressive, especially for a smaller, fleshy being.

Wait, did he say combat?

Blurr glanced down at the human and expected him and his stature, right yes… Earth’s military. Blurr knew that there were some human military personnel here on the base. Cassandra, another human here, mentioned something about that before.

It was probably disturbing to see what human combat looked like. They seem like they could be easily hurt… Well, Blurr could, too. Though he was sure he could take more of a hit than them. It was sad to imagine how human warfare looked with all their little bodies exploding on impact-

Blurr shook his helm. What a graphic thought, he didn't want to imagine it.

The speedster tuned back into the conversation once the human asked him a question, one that perhaps at one point in his life would have offended him.

“Yeah, I do. I always have.” Blurr stated quickly. “Every day I take walks around the base at least twice. I have to, otherwise I have a lot of excess energy build up and it makes me super antsy among other things that make me feel like absolute slag. Though I actually was a racer before our war back home.” He added before pausing a second to flash the human a smile.

“You’re the first living thing in this base I’ve seen run who was actually able to hold a conversation. Your Earthling insects hold a very one-sided engagement, but anyways, to say the least you caught my attention. You have a decent running form so I figured you were a Human runner or something.”

[James Porter]

As the two continued to chat, Porter tried to balance his attention between his jog and the conversation that had occurred. Talking while running just wasn’t something Porter did all that often as the man found it hard to keep himself on track with whatever goal he had set out for with his run without accidentally ignoring the conversation and vice versa. While he didn’t intend to try and beat any of his times, it was almost certain that he wouldn’t be doing that today as he needed his full attention on running to break those times. Not that it was an issue, as long as Porter didn’t lag behind and got a fairly decent average time then he’d consider his morning run a relative success.

By now he had started to feel the rising heat as he propelled his body forwards. His well toned muscles worked harder and harder as he pushed ever onwards on. A factor that caused Porter’s breath intake to increase as he tried to get more precious oxygen that his body craved so desperately into his system.

Porter did catch a glimpse of Blurr when the robot shook its head but the Lance Corporal decided against asking or mentioning anything about it. If it was anything important then he had a feeling Blurr would clue him in. A part of Porter was curious. Blurr was a runner as well and he wondered if there was a reason for it. Having thoughts like ‘Did these robots have to do physical activities to keep some components of their body in working order similar to how humans need to stay healthy through fitness?’. To him at least it didn’t seem like such an outlandish concept. But there was the possibility that Blurr just ran because he enjoyed it.

From how Blurr described himself, Porter guessed that the guy didn’t like sitting around at all. It seemed he was one of those people that just went around doing things to blow off energy which wasn’t a bad thing. Everyone had their own quirks after all. In fact, the Englishman found it rather amusing simply because to him at least, it was odd to hear such a thing coming from a tall robot. Reinforcing the idea that these guys are fully sentient beings like Humans.

“That’s fair enough. Always good to be doing or finding something to do with your day when you haven’t got much else to do. For Humans at least it's health for us to do that.” Porter said with increased speed. Attempting to get his words out while trying to stay focused on managing his breath. “You’re a racer? Neat. What sort of racing did you do?”

At least that answered one of his initiation questions then. Makes sense that this guy likes to move about a lot if he’s a racer.

A laboured laugh left the man as Blurr complimented him. If only he knew that the Englishman wasn’t having an easy time trying to keep up a conversation in this current scenario. Perhaps he wasn’t the only one who wasn’t good at talking while running. If Porter thought he’d get a break from laughing then he was wrong as Blurr said something else that the Human could do nothing but burst out with joy again. Had Blurr not been informed about how Humanity was the only living creature native to Earth that talked? It seemed not.

As Porter began to talk again, he found himself having to halt several times between sentences to breathe for a few seconds so that he could take on more oxygen. “I’m surprised--nobody has--told you this yet--Blurr. But insects don’t--talk. Only things--here that do are--Humans.”

Blurr wasn’t wrong. Porter was a Human runner. Just not in the sense of doing it for a sport. The blue robot's compliment did earn him a smile in thanks from the smaller human down below.

“Cheers--big guy. Appreciate--the--compliment. I--am a soldier--so--you--aren’t wrong about--me being a--human--runner!”