Three Ring Circus

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Ah, sight seeing. This she could nearly relate to. War left little time to enjoy menial pleasures unless one tried to find the beauty in the road ahead of them. Which Wildfire had been able to do while on runs by herself. At times the loneliest stretch of highway had offered the loveliest of vistas to bask in. But those moments were so far in between that they seemed a forgotten memory. It was hard to remember the lovely, untouched bastion of her planet when the memory of the war torn planet felt seared into her hard memory.

This planet, however, was different.

"Ah, I-" She cringed and her holo's eyes widened at the solid thunk against her frame. That hadn't hurt. How could it? But for a moment, she could have sworn there was legs attached to the organic mass that rolled over her hood and windshield. It was fortunate the human was inside safe and sound. She had read something about head injuries being an unfortunate problem his kind suffered from. Really, the human body was complex but terribly put together.

"I'm...lost." The soft words eased from her holo before she thought to stop herself. Was it a lie? No, she was without her kind and on an alien planet that offered nothing in relation to her own. She had been lost for quite some time. Even before planet fall. In the presence of another, even if borderline intelligent, was a painful reminder of the lost time spent wandering and looking. Space was beautiful but it was vast and choking in its splendor.

"I must have taken a wrong turn," she murmured and twitched her shoulders in a shrug. "An older rig like this doesn't have fancy navigational systems." It was true. Her frame was old and she didn't have the flashier abilities of the younger models. Even in her glory days she was still outdated tech. Sturdy but severely lacking at times.

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For a long moment, Lukas stared out her window into the storm, in the direction the thunking object had disappeared before he refocused on the woman. Hearing a trucker mention being lost was a new one on him. Rig-drivers tended to be the least likely to get misplaced of any traveling sorts that he knew. Though the explanation that she did not have much if anything in the way of a navigation or GPS system made that make sense. Huh. Perhaps she just liked doing things old-school rather than relying on technology to get around.

"Lost? Well that is unfortunate, though other than the storm there are less pretty places to get lost I suppose... Where were you trying to go?" As he spoke he fished his phone out of a pocket. Unfortunately, the storm was making the signal poor, so he doubted he would be able to bring up a map properly until it passed.

He was hiding in her truck from the weather, he could at least help her get back on her way once it was safe to travel again. Granted, they may have to pick some cacti or small animals out of the rig's chassis not to mention several heaps of sand before they could even get moving.

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This planet...certainly had some charm. And while the weather was impressive, it wasn't nearly as terrifying as her home world's idea of a storm. The rain on this planet was downright generous in comparison. Anyone with a moderate amount of upkeep in their frame would be fine. Unlike the acid rains she was used to.

"Unfortunately, finding my way isn't going to be so easy." And now she was going into trickier territory. How to explain her problem without giving away...her situation? She couldn't very well tell him she was alien to his planet. Humans over reacted so easily to the least little outside disturbance. Or they went into full denial.

"I am looking for associates of mine. Unfortunately, I have no way of finding them without..." She had almost made the mistake of saying 'trouble.' The last thing she needed was the human thinking she was on the wrong side of their laws. While more attention might get her closer to finding her kind, she doubted it would help matters by involving humans in a ongoing war. "...without a way to call them or receive their calls. I'm afraid we haven't spoken to one another in a long time. It's a bit like trying to find something in the dark."

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"Or in a sandstorm."

He, personally would likely be more weirded out by the idea of sitting -inside- an alien than the idea of the alien itself. After the initial shock and awe, anyway. Followed up by likely a number of seemingly idiotic questions, and some moderate poking before he remembered his manners and that such things were generally considered rude.

"Well, that is a bit of a pickle." Honestly, Lukas was not quite certain what to tell her. Lost by her own words, not sure apparently where she was going anyhow, and looking for some "associates" (he noted she did not call them friends, which made the whole thing a bit more curious), and not at all sure how to find them.

She was getting more and more interesting by the moment.

"In that case, it seems just about like your options are pick a direction and hope you run into them." Lukas commented with a touch of humor, followed by a moment of thought as he tried to come up with any suggestions that might actually be useful.

"Do you know any specifics about these people? Legal names, prior residences, old phone numbers. At times, if you have information like that, an internet search can bring up further details to point you in the right direction..." Of course, he had no idea that they were not exactly talking about legal terrestrial individuals here.

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"Yes. A sandstorm." She shifted her holoform's attention to the storm outside once more. The gesture was purely for show. She didn't need to look when she could feel every ping of sand and that stick that smacked solidly against her side panel. But humans had an obsession with seeing and believing. And often they didn't fully believe even when they saw something odd with their own two eyes. It would have been....odd of her to keep her attention strictly on him. 

Though, she pondered to herself, not exactly too strange. He was a stranger who had crawled into her domicile on wheels. Any normal being (alien or not) would be a bit wary of the intrusion. Perhaps she should have put on more of a fuss. Really sold the mistrust and paranoia. But...Wildfire really wasn't one for theatrics. Nor was her acting skills all that strong. She had reacted as truthfully as she could have. A mild surprise and nothing more. It was hard to feel shocked after several thousands of years.

"I had been doing exactly that before this derailment. Aimless wandering is not as relaxing as the commercials would have you believe." It was in her opinion that human's lied a lot through their marketing. An odd way to sell something but a universal truth: a peddler was a peddler on any planet.

The human asked some fairly decent questions. She hadn't bothered to search the human's datanet too extensively. It was chock full of distracting, tasteless things. But she had sort of followed rumors of strange sightings to this area. There was no way of knowing if that was her kind skulking about, the enemy, or just...other aliens. It could happen.

"I'm afraid I've exhausted all of my means beyond this one. I was hoping to get lucky. Perhaps if I took out an ad or...tried to call attention in a larger way..." She frowned, not liking the thought at all. Her whole life had been geared around being low key. The idea of putting herself in the limelight made her field prickle with unease. 

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If he had not been as distracted by the storm, and the general awareness of his own mortality that came with having found shelter just before being caught out in a dangerous storm, Lukas may have been a touch more observant that this entire situation was a touch odd.

Then again, he was sitting in a rig that could put Mad Max to shame. Odd was almost a given.

He was aware though, of the almost evasive and round-bout way she spoke about these associates. Just enough detail to make him aware she was looking for someone, but not enough substance to give him any clues about who they were or what they did.

Such meant that she was quite possibly involved in business that he was much better off not getting involved in, and that not asking too many questions was likely wise. To each their own, he supposed. Not as if he had not encountered some colorful individuals in his time traveling with the circus. Carnies were a special breed of sketchy unto their own, let him tell you!

"it depends on the intent behind the aimless wandering, I suspect," Lukas commented idily, taking a momentary pause to study the storm outside the windows. It seemed to be waning a tad. "If you are wandering for the self-exploration and adventure of following your own path, that is one thing. Wandering, as you are, hunting for the proverbial needle in the haystack while blindfolded would be understandably less cathartic. Hopefully you will find your way where you need to be, or find someone who can point you at where you need to go."

He sat and thought for a moment, before directing his attention back to her, offering another thought.

"Do you know any places where these associates of yours last were, or last might have been seen? If such is something you can establish, you could visit and ask around locally to see if anyone knows where they have gone."

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Where and when was the last time she'd seen another Autobot? That question had her holoform's eyes squinting in thought. So long. So very long. Her last memory was trying to cobble together dwindling supplies on her own, making the run through a deserted landscape of war torn land and finding the base demolished. It had been a punch to her spark, losing the last remaining team mates she'd ever known. The mine had been all but tapped out and she'd had nothing to turn to. She wasn't exactly recruited in any special field. She'd been a fuel hauler. 

The last few encounters with her own kind had been with enemies. She'd rather not remember those instances. Brief and bloody as they were. When she'd been left with nothing to follow or have, she'd found violence and hatred from the Decepticons. 

"...It has been too long to for that. I will have to start from scratch, I'm afraid." Again, the thought of making a grand gesture was there. Scratching out her faction symbol into the landscape and letting an errant satellite pick it up. The only issue there being who would respond first. She didn't have the reserves or energy to fight unless she was forced to. 

"But enough of my woes." She mentally shook herself out of her endless thoughts. "The weather seems to be turning. Are you still adamant about walking or would you like a lift? It's the least I could do." She wasn't sure what for, honestly. She'd given him shelter, after all. But he was the first being she'd held a conversation with in quite awhile. It was a wonder her vox still worked.

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"Drat."

Ah well, it had been a hopeful thought. He did wish her all the best luck in finding those she was searching for, even if it sounded as if she had quite the task ahead of her in doing so.

He wandered in the hunt for something more to life than just finding work to pay the bills and taxes. She wandered hunting those who might as well have been ghosts. Sometimes, wandering was just more pleasing than being rooted down in the daily drudgery, no matter what reason behind it.

Though, with her offer, he decided his wandering on foot was on a few mile hiatus given the sketchy weather around even as the dust storm blew over. "...If you would not mind. If I were closer still to the hotel, I would walk and cease making an inconvenience of myself, but walking and risking being caught in more bad weather could be unwise. "

Perhaps he could offer to buy her a coffee in the little diner attached to the motel. She had let him clamber into her truck, after all and not die of fleshy erosion in the storm.