We are a literate, intermediate to advanced AU Transformers RPG Based off of the first season of TFP with dashes of other incarnations sprinkled here or there. Characters from any continuity are welcome however must be restyled to match the TFPrime universe.
Active, with ongoing plotlines, we are always willing to integrate new characters into storylines once incorporated into the setting.
Coming to the Nemesis Starscream went right to his lab. Being the Second in Command had many benefits and one was the ability to have a lab even if not much was done. Starscream walked there and went in. The lab was not big, Starscream did not use the place enough to have the biggest and Shockwave could be very persuasive. Creepy glitch.
The lab was still a good size and had a whole wall of different type cages. There were not many that had creatures in them. Starscream dropped Soledad in one with glass walls and dirt and trees that had been placed in had very different ways from nature, on the ground half under and at 45 degree angles. The dirt had no grass growing only the dead remands of it. There could be a house, shed or it seemed was a type of shelter but the move to the cage make it brake and fall most apart.
The other side of the lab from the cages was a work table with data pads here and there with tubes and minor lab equipment. To the left on the wall was something like a board to put notes on, a large data with figures and equations as well as minor notes thought up while working on the equations. The fall wall or to the right of the cage wall was more table space and more data pads, these more of the kind that would be books not notebooks. The room looked like a bomb had gone off but on a closer look there was order to the chaos, if not a clear order. Starscream however knew the place of everything, it being his lab.
The pile of dirt (dirt? Really?) was not a soft place to land on. Soledad scrambled to her feet, hitching up her backpack on her shoulders to rub her tailbone.
Looking around at her new surroundings, she could see why Starscream needed an education - and why he had trouble keeping humans alive. The guy simply had no idea how organic structures worked. The trees were at wacky angles and either dying or dead. The grass was dead. And that shack - Soledad wasn't going near it, even to go to the bathroom. It looked like it would collapse at any moment.
"Okay," she said, even though she wasn't sure Starscream could hear her through the glass. "So clearly you need a remedial course in human living environments."
Stopping and looking back to the cage, his wings dancing with his earlier thoughts. Starscream went over the place with the human. He looked in and tapped the glass a few times. “Did you say something?”
Starscream was unsure of the fact if he had heard the human or if he just heard someone else walking I the hall. He had been thinking of what to do next, he was Second in Command he had a lot to get done! But hearing a squick like sound pulled him from his thoughts. The human breed seemed to be strong over all but at times Starscream could not guess how they ever lived as long as they had.
Suddenly Soledad understood far too well why they put those signs up at aquariums asking patrons Please Don't Tap the Glass. She clapped her hands over her ears with a grunt.
"Did I...? Yeah. Yeah I did." Rubbing her temples, Soledad glared up at Starscream. "I see why you need me to teach you. You have no damn idea how organic things work, do you? Not trees and not humans." She stomped up to one of the trees, lying almost flat in the dirt pile. "See this? This is the root part of the tree. This is where they get their nutrients, and it's also how they stand up. Meaning this part needs to be in the soil - and by soil, I do not mean a loose pile of dirt like this." She went to the crown of the tree and closed her hand around the nearest branch. Twigs snapped off in her hand with a dry, dusty series of cracks. "That's why this tree is dead."
Prickly anger-fear-irritation ran through her skin, making it come over goosebumps. I won't dry up and die like this, she promised herself. Even if I have to kick his shiny metal behind to make him understand.
After tapping the glass Starscream saw that the human held her audio receptors. Seemed tapping should only be done when the human was being an annoyance. Good to know for later use. Starscream would have rolled his optics or the equivalent if he could. “As you humans say no sh! Sherlock.”
Starscream heard what she said but only half understood. “Why only the one end, why not either? And the tree is dead? How do you know it is dead?” Starscream was too involved in the learning to hear the tone the human used. A good thing as a squished human was never good for the human.
"Why not either end? Seriously?" Soledad ran a hand through her hair, exasperated. "Try walking on your head, see how well that works. Look." She opened her other hand, showing him the broken twigs. "See how dry and brittle these are? See how the bark on them flakes right off? That's how you know it's dead. These trees are nothing but firewood now."
She dropped the twigs and rubbed her palm on her pants. "Trees need sunlight and air to survive as much as they need nutrients from the soil. That's what the other end of the tree is for. On a living tree, those branches would be covered in green leaves that collect sunlight and carbon dioxide, and convert them into oxygen and energy." Thank you, elementary school science class. You never knew when you might have to explain this stuff to a giant robot. "Hence why it needs to be out of the dirt-" she pointed down- "and up in the air-" she pointed up- "and preferably? Outside, not in a spaceship."
Not that the spaceship thing wasn't cool, but be damned if she was going to say that to him.
"Which brings me," she continued, crossing her arms, "to the other thing. This little Diorama of Fail you've got going on here? Not gonna cut it. Humans don't live in the dirt. We've spent thousands of years getting away from the dirt. Humans live in houses." She made a dismissive gesture at the shack, or whatever it was, in the corner. "That thing doesn't count, by the way, it's liable to fall down any second. My environment needs to be clean, it needs to be comfortable, I need a constant supply of fresh, clean water, and I'm going to need some privacy for washing myself and going to the bathroom. Oh, that reminds me, you'll have to install some plumbing to wash away my waste products."
If it sounded like a lot - well, too bad. Starscream was the one who wanted a pet. It was his responsibility to be a proper caretaker.
As Soledad talked Starscream leaned in and put his servo in the place to take one of the other trees. Holding it in one servo and moving it around in the servo with the other one. Starscream looked close at it, studying it and comparing what Soledad said with what he saw.
The whole time Starscream’s wings danced and flowed, making a look of visual thought process. High the thought was good but confused and deep as well; low the confusion took over and there was no understanding, back and close to the frame worry over what the information meant. It did make since what she said. Now if only Starscream could get the sun the tree needed. Well a light for sure could be found like sunlight.
As the conversation changed to dirt Starscream again reached in and hold some and study it.
The talk of the house, shed, whatever was met with loss of understanding. The wings and look on the faceplate flat. Like the place should be find and easy to use. As he crossed what Soledad said he found an interesting fact. “What about camping? You humans don’t need running water then, I can get you a lake/pond water place and I will change your dirt too. But plumbing? Too much trouble I will study you as you die. I have found each human dies different so far. I can add to that data.”
And it was about that moment when Steve arrived to give his report on the state of the latest drone ripped apart by Megatron. Saying that the Vehicon was in a ‘good mood’ would have been a gross misstatement in light of the last few months of unmitigated terror and abuse on the part of their commanding officer. The technician had been up most of the night and the previous night, too racked by the nerve of his unit’s communal anxiety to fall into recharge so when he walked in and caught the tail end of the conversation, it was understandable that he thought he was glitching for a moment. The air commander had a human in a wall cage. A human. On the Nemesis.
The worst thing about Starscream in command was not, in particular, that he was so terrible at it so much as the Seeker had this annoying tendency to get sidetracked by… things. Steve had not been online for as long as the commanding officers on this boat so it was hard to say why exactly Megatron kept Starscream on despite what everyone perceived to be blatantly obvious ambition to usurp command. Steve liked to think that Megatron kept the Seeker in a command position just to stop him getting bored and doing this kind of thing. The things that were the direct result of the mech going ‘What if…’ then finishing the damn thought.
“Commander Starscream,” said Steve, eyeing the boxed human warily. “I have those reports you wanted on the state of the drone troopers. I’ve sectioned of three potential sentients. Shockwave has signed off on them but at this rate we’ll dip into our reserve frames within the next few months. Chief Medical Officer, Knockout, has been disassembling the… spent drone frame for spare parts but he’s worried we’re going to… run out.” Steve kept his voice carefully neutral. “The troops would rather not give up on the potentials.” And feed them to the fragging maniac to keep him at bay. “They may wake up.”
He's like a five-year-old sociopath with a magnifying glass, Soledad realized. He's not interested in learning anything. He just wants to watch me die.
Suddenly the sole human aboard the Nemesis felt very small, and very cold, and very alone.
The intrusion of another mechanical being - this one didn't even have a face! - distracted Starscream, breaking the spell that froze Soledad where she was. She retreated, climbing into the branches of the dead tree to huddle there. She curled up, knees to her chest, and dug the heels of her hands against her eyes.
I refuse to die. I absolutely refuse to die, she thought furiously, though her heart feared she was only deluding herself.
After looking at the human a while longer Starscream was about to ask her something when the Vehicon came in. turning to look at him Starscream was about to tell the Vehicon to leave and come back later when he talked of the reports. Starscream enjoyed those reports very much. They were a show of how far Megatron was going deeper into madness.
As such once Starscream heard what the Vehicon had the Seeker’s wings shifted in happiness and he went right over to get the data pads. Reading them and making his new plans of how to take over control of the Decepticons. The human already had been forgotten with this change in action.
Starscream was only half hearing the Vehicon and was about to dismiss him when an idea came to Starscream. The Vehicons and drones were becoming more aware. Maybe Starscream could use this to his gain, getting basic ground troops to his side. “I will talk to Shockwave, change the deal to work better for the ones who might wake up.”
Steve ex-vented slowly, EMF flickering though he tried to keep the relief and gratitude from his field. “Thank you, Commander.” He glanced toward the ball of human rocking in its cage. He hesitated, then, “Err, if you like, Commander, I could divert one of my patrols to have them pick up supplies for the, uh, human specimen.” Pet? Guest? Thing? Whatever it was, the human seemed to become a compact orb of despair over its fate with Starscream, but if the commander wanted the little thing to stay alive for study, then it would be a very small thing to do him this favor and keep the officer happy. Anything to get Megatron away from the others.
“The other Vehicons know what kinds of foods humans like. We could… order a variety… if that is a subject of your study?”
In her 'compact orb of despair,' Soledad tilted her head. The robot calling Starscream "commander" was offering to get her food? At least someone had some basic empathy around here, maybe... I might actually survive this.
"I want McDonalds," she said into her hands, just to see how the newcomer would react. "No tomatoes."
Post by starscream on Mar 11, 2012 16:42:54 GMT -5
Starscream was shocked with pleasure to know it seemed this idea was going off well, and with no planning. Starscream nodded to acknowledge the Vehicon, his processor now working on how to talk to the strange and creepy mech. Shockwave was a hard one to have a conversation with and not end up part of an experiment. The plans against Megatron and the human half forgotten by the Seeker until being brought up by Vehicon.
The Seeker’s servos danced a moment as he thought. It seemed every time his thoughts became fast and with many layers the servos danced and weaved. The wings did the same but with a more graceful look. “That would be a welcome idea. I might get to keep the human for more than a mega-cycle. Who knows what I can learn in the extra time!” Starscream’s optics glowed with the joy of the thought, his science nature coming out for a moment. “I will need to know what foods are being given to her as the study is more a general of what humans need and want.”
Starscream turned back to the human when she spoke again “What are McDonalds and tomatoes?”
Steve stared. He didn’t mean to but when you spent all your time surrounded by media junkies addicted to human entertainment, Youtube, the internet, social media, and more it was hard to remember that to the higher ups such details as the minutia of human culture were lost on them as items of non-importance. Like the migration habits of birds might be inconsequential to humans, so were humans inconsequential, in general, to the Nemesis officers. So the idea of someone not knowing what Macdonalds was stunned Steve for only a moment, but it did stun him.
“Umm… Commander, MacDonalds is a fast food restaurant chain and tomatoes are a type of indigenous fruit… except in the USA. Where it’s considered a vegetable via court order despite its botanical classification as a fruit.” A pause. “If you need me to make a report of what we feed the human I can… do that?” Another pause, then. “The human is specifying a meal order. Do you want me to pick up the requested item?”
He listened! Soledad suppressed the urge to bounce - that might have been more than the dead wood under her could handle. She did, however, look up to bestow a smile she didn't feel on the faceless newcomer - if she had to suck up to someone to survive, she'd rather suck up to him than Starscream.
"Not an order," she said. "A request. Do you mind? I know you're a busy... whatever you are."
There were certain similarities in build between Starscream and her maybe-caretaker, now that she looked. Same species, different subspecies, maybe. Besides the face thing, they were different colors, and the hands were definitely different. Then again, machine people can rebuild themselves to look like whatever they want, I guess. It'd be interesting to see more of these guys.