we lived in another world

[proxysearch]

CHARACTERS: OPEN TO ALL
LOCATION: Passengers' Quarters, one of the common rooms.
WARNINGS: Possible language? (Anything else will be added later.
SUMMARY: Meet-and-greet for all of the new passengers so they can figure out names and what to do.

Comments

Open-

[whatanovelty]

Kroton wandered into the room as quietly as a seven-foot-tall, silver man with a bo-staff magnetized to his back can be. He'll be looking around, hoping that he might spot Izzy waving from across the way. ...No such luck. Yet.

He's also trying to put faces to voices, as he's been mostly-quietly observing the network since he figured out his communication device.

[babbletechno]

He was tall and looked robotic.

Heatwave was gearing up to head around and meet everyone trying to cram themselves into corners, but his mission was derailed when he caught sight of the silver man.

After a second's pause he gathered himself up and wandered over, offering a smile. "Hello. So they don't take away everyone's mechanical parts, I take it? That's good to know."

[whatanovelty]

He nods in reply, but before before answering properly, he takes a brief moment to remember the robot he talked to earlier, who had apparently been changed upon his arrival to this ship. "Seems I'm the lucky one out," he shrugs.

[babbletechno]

"Seems that way," Heatwave agreed cheerfully. "What's your designation? I am Heatwave."

[whatanovelty]

"I am called Kroton." He eased his posture, standing more humanly, and less like a cybernetic statue. "What were you before you woke up here?"

[babbletechno]

Heatwave relaxed with Kroton, perking up at the positive reception. "Cybertronian, Kroton. Robotic organism from the planet Cybertron, and a Weapons and System Designer for the Decepticons. You?"

[whatanovelty]

"Sounds impressive!" While's he's not exactly proud to say it, he goes on anyway. "Cyberman, with the rank of Junior Cyberleader, from the planet Telos."

"Before I found out that I had a mind of my own, anyway," he adds. "Since then, I've been on my own."

[babbletechno]

"Not very. It was necessary."

Kroton's following words cause Heatwave to frown. "Were you not supposed to have a mind in the first place?"

[whatanovelty]

Kroton nods. He knows all too well about necessity, as he briefly explains, "No. Cybermen are made to have no emotion, and free thought was replaced by logic. I was as cold as the metal on my body before I malfunctioned."

[babbletechno]

"That's," Heatwave starts, then stops, stiff. His smile is completely gone. "Why would anyone create someone like that?"

Weapons, he answers himself almost immediately. Slaves. The same way his race started, in many, many different universes that hadn't forgotten their origin. But he doesn't know that. The part of him that rebels strongly against the idea of tampering with programming, against that exact kind of thing that would lead to Cybertronian Cybermen, against the idea of wasting energon on a wasted life, twists solid in his gut.

[whatanovelty]

"For survival."

We will surivive. If the Cybermen had anything close to a battle cry, that would have been it. The sensation is nothing new, unlike some of the other emotions that still manage to take him by surprise, but the same disgusted feeling wrenches through him.

"At any cost."

[babbletechno]

"That's not right," Heatwave says immediately, darkly. He's part of the guardian of his species' life source, after all. That kind of thing is personal, even if he doesn't remember why.

Almost immediately he's relaxing again, though, shifting closer to Kroton. "So did you leave them or did they leave you when they found out you had an actual ember now?"

[whatanovelty]

Kroton's all in agreement with you, Heatwave. That's why he risked his newly discovered 'life' that day to save the humans that his faction were mercilessly terrorizing. That's why he fought against his own kind. None of it was right.

"I left them. I was not like them."

[babbletechno]

"And you've been alone since?"

Because that wouldn't do. That wouldn't do at all. Everyone needs a place to belong.

[whatanovelty]

"I tried to be," he starts. "But there's still a few corners of the universe that don't know what I am."

Like yours, perhaps? The Doctor did sort of start to explain the thing about different realities and such, but... sometimes it's hard to disregard logic.

"What about your people? The Cybertronians? You aren't like us, are you?"

[babbletechno]

Keep talking about trying to be alone, Kroton, and Heatwave will adopt you as an honorary Decepticon comrade, and comrades don't get to hide by themselves.

"We're a machine race, long-lived by human standards. We create each other and haven't had contact with any organic race until recently, but-"

Heatwave pauses, then sighs and continues, torn between sheepishness and something dark. "I guess we aren't exactly a good example of anything. We've been fighting a civil war for nearly six million years, give or take a few thousand, and we - my faction - only barely kept the Autobots from taking Earth for its resources."

"We have free will, though. Choice, even if sometimes that doesn't have the best outcome." He grins suddenly. "Emotions. I've never heard of Cybermen, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were one or two Cybertronians like that throughout history."