Blackstar is just stopping by to drop something off for Auspex when he is suddenly assailed by something... very very wrong. It makes his whole essence shudder in the same way that hearing about that Machine of Drath's made everything feel wrong.
Blackstar shifts fully out of sight and moves to the door of the sanctuary to peer out cautiously. The sight of the dull silver mech standing some distance off staring up at the sanctuary makes Blackstar's metaphorical hackles stand on end. He waits cautiously just within the door, waiting to see what this... mech... does.
The presence in the sanctuary dislikes and distrusts him, but it isn't trying to actively discourage him. Not yet.
Then again, perhaps they have different definitions of active discouragement.
Sideways ambles down the road towards the shrine. The presence becomes more apparant, more cloying, settling around him like mud or quicksand. It slows him to an almost directionless drift, his blue optics fading into darkness as he mentally clears a path to the sanctuary.
Very strong. Primus is very strong in this reality.
He stops just in front of the entrance to the temple, optics dark. Primus's presence feels like a pressure on him, not crushing but heavily oppressive. He is not wanted here, and he will need to prepare himself to actively step into the house of the god.
Blackstar doesn't know who this mech is, but everything about him is setting Blackstar on edge something fierce. Watching him seems to almost struggle to walk the last bit to the door of Auspex's sanctuary just increases that shuddering, crawling sense of foreboding... creepiness.
Blackstar backs off out of sight and concentrates on making himself fully visible before stepping forward to the doorway again.
"Can I help you?" he asks in a low growl, his very demeanor anything but welcoming.
Something just keeps telling him to get this mech as far away as possible, and keep him away. Blackstar has taken to listening to those odd sensations these days. He watches the other mech warily, wishing he had thought to tuck a real weapon in his subspace pocket for occassions like this.
His voice is light and friendly, and his optics are pure, honest Autobot-blue. Proudly displayed on his doors are Autobrands.
"I'd heard there was a servant of Primus here," he comments, seeming to ignore the Deceptisigils Blackstar wears. He'd noted the blending of the two factions on this world, subtle though it was.
Of course, the incorporeal dead are another matter entirely from the locals.
A little while later, the skies above Auspex's Cybertron... are not, in fact, filled with the scream of jet engines operating at full speed. The Eurofighter that approaches the priestess' sanctuary is invisible, and any giveaway sounds that would tell of his flight are muted save for the barest whisper on the wind. He would only be spotted if someone happened to be performing a non-standard-visual scan of the sky.
Said Eurofighter's own sensor sweeps, however, are busy scouring the ground below. It doesn't take him that long before he reaches the temple, circling a few times overhead while he looks for any sign of Blackstar. Finding none around the temple's immediate vicinity he extends his loop and circles over a wider area.
There. Out on a cliff top, in amongst the hills surrounding the temple.
The Eurofighter banks and circles back round, only risking fading back into visibility once he's gotten closer. The gray jet unfolds into a Seeker, and Echoshift lands on the cliff top.
Blackstar is drifting in the pain again. It's become his whole world once more, all he is allowed to be aware of and so he doesn't notice Echoshift fade into sight right away. He doesn't even notice the other transform and land for several long moments.
Spectral optics are dim, and even Blackstar's normally transparent form looks... thinner than usual. Less tangible than even his spectral form is usually given to appearing. He lays in an untidy sprawl, like carelessly discarded debris, a sinister black stake of cold iron spiked through the memory of where his laser-core once resided and hard into Cybetron's surface itself, holding him in place. He's unarmed, his guns lying not far off and the twisted shear of the mountings attest to the violence with which they were removed. His expression is twisted into a mask of fierce pain, a tight agony that speaks of being battered despite the lack of any other outward signs of trauma
( ... )
Echoshift hasn't moved from where he landed earlier. He stares numbly at the scene before him, optics just a little too bright and more or less rooted to the spot when Blackstar actually turns his head and looks him.
It is a bit... unsettling. Or so he admits privately to himself.
He takes a few steps closer.
"Can't you just... I dunno, ghost-teleport away from it or something?" he asks, finally getting his vocalizer to work and eyeing the nasty-looking spike of cold metal pinning Blackstar to the floor.
Under normal circumstances, Blackstar would likely have had a few choice words and a couple of rude gestures that would have gotten him banned from any number of midpoint fueling station for Echoshift's question. Unfortunately, things haven't been normal - for Blackstar's given value of normal - since that spark-crawling Autobot had showed up.
He whimpers softly, wishing he were free to throw something at the Eurofighter, wishing he had his guns, anything. He doesn't however, and is acutely aware that there's precious little he can do. Without even realizing that he's doing it, he instinctively reaches out for his Commander as well. Starscream would understand where Shifter does not, and Blackstar is in too much pain to deny the impulse to try and protect the embodied ghost any longer.
Someone Has Been Prowling In My Sanctuary...primus_seeressApril 21 2007, 03:58:15 UTC
*An unsuspecting Auspex enjoys the short walk between the Nexus point, and her sanctuary. It's always a joy to return to Cybertron after being elsewhere, and once again feeling the presence of her god in the very ground beneath her feet. She offers a brief prayer of thanks, for the simple things that mean so much.
As she comes within sight of the temple, however, an unnerving sense of... discord comes upon her, increasing as she approaches. Nothing looks out of place: the hills and the plains are undisturbed, the sanctuary stands, quietly solemn and anonymous as always... yet she can't lose this feeling, that something is wrong, or... perhaps an echo of something that was wrong...
She is wary as she comes closer, reaching with esoteric senses, conferring with Primus. The ground resonates with the memory of a dark, thoroughly revolting presence. She feels echoes of great pain, anger, fear... here?? At the very doorstep of her sanctuary
( ... )
Re: Someone Has Been Prowling In My Sanctuary...primus_seeressApril 21 2007, 03:59:35 UTC
The zambonis -- one or more of them, anyway -- seem to remember quite a bit about what happened when they were taken from Snowcat and Demolishor. Given the favorable look to the first drawing, and the apparently contested presence of the seeker in the last, Blackstar has not been seen as 'bad' by at least one of the sparklets... and Blackstar must have been in contact with them, to have obtained a copy of the drawings. Normally, that would be a pleasant relief -- it would do much to buoy his hope, after the incident with the zambonis denouncing him in the Nexus, if one of them has befriended him -- but she's beginning to piece together the puzzle, and she doesn't like it. Not at all.
Blackstar had been here, to offer the drawings as an apology and a reassurance, both. But something corrupted has visited here as well, prowled her sanctuary, and put a warden in the threshold to keep spirits out... There was pain out there, though whose, she does not know... the 'something' may have had Cybertronian origins, and it could belong to
( ... )
Re: Someone Has Been Prowling In My Sanctuary...attair_al_fadaApril 21 2007, 22:26:37 UTC
The other reply to Auspex's hail doesn't belong to Blackstar, either.
// Echoshift, Auspex... Starscream here. We just arrived in response to a certain distress call. // There's a tone of caution to his voice.
"Sky, you get a fix on those transmissions?" Starscream asks the huge white mech beside him.
"That I did. Echoshift is over there, atop a cliff, and Auspex is just a bit down the path from us. That white blotch over there would be her," Skyfire points out with unobtrusive gestures of his hand--no raising of arms to point, just one finger pointing from his hand held close to his waist.
"Good," says Starscream. There's something rather fierce in his optics and feral smile.
(( Auspex, Starscream & Skyfire are just up the path at your Nexus zone-in point ))
When the small party arrives back at the temple (after Auspex glances at the door and back at Skyfire, deciding that yes, he can indeed fit through, in some form or fashion), Auspex leads the way straight through the sanctuary (looking up once to frown at the largest mosaic, and the tingle of Chaos it bears at the moment), to the halls in the back.
These are the living quarters, the supply rooms and the like, and the rooms for refugees. She indicates one of the latter, a modestly furnished generic living space, stepping aside to let them bring Blackstar into the room.
By the time the short flight ends, Starscream is still cradling Blackstar in his arms in a manner that, to an outside observer, could look caring, though it's not affection that caused him to exercise such care, merely the thought that it would complicate matters to have to scoop up the battered ghost from the floor of Skyfire's hold.
Starscream follows Auspex's lead, carrying Blackstar into the room she pointed out, and sets him down on the berth he finds inside, making sure that the ghost is - not comfortable, as that word is entirely not applicable to Blackstar's current situation, but lying in a position that doesn't appear to twist his mangled limbs.
As Starscream had approached the doorway to the sanctuary, Blackstar had almost flinched, remembering the ward wall that the Autobot had placed upon the structure to bar him. Something has happened to the ward, however; he can no longer see nor feel it, and both he and Starscream are able to pass beyond the confines without difficulty
( ... )
Echoshift steps out of Skyfire's hold and follows the others into the sanctuary. The interior of the building is very different from its relatively unremarkable outward appearance. Unlike Blackstar, Echoshift hasn't been to Auspex's temple before. He now hesitates a little, just inside of the doorway, slowing the pace of his steps so that he can take a good look at the surroundings. Cream-white walls bordered by gold and crowned by a ceiling of the same color; in the middle of the large room, a table with its statuette centerpiece; the intricately constructed mosaics adorning the walls, now marred by the taint of Chaos but still managing to appear strangely beautiful
( ... )
Starscream takes the spectral weapons carefully from Auspex and studies them intently. "Well done, priestess!"
//Human mortality being what it is, they have a much greater obsession than we do with probing the boundaries of death and what lies beyond.// Starscream replies to his counterpart. There's something uncertain in the tone of the next thought from Starscream. //The worst of what was done to Blackstar... I have seen that procedure described in a book, the Kitab al-Azif. Though compiled and transcribed by humans in one of their languages, the knowledge is not of human origin. The mindset of the author is too alien to that short-lived race.//
Starscream lays the ghostly laser cannon alongside Blackstar's arms. "Now let's see about getting you repaired. You missed out on the happy fun time that was our marooning on Earth, but back before Shockwave got the space bridge operational and Megatron got his precious Constructicons back--I was the main repair technician for the entire Earth force. Rather fortunate for them that I was
Now Starscream is concerned. //We should talk about this when there's time on our journey,// he replies.
The other Starscream's mention of his repair experience is met with, "Funny, so was I. Along with Soundwave, but people didn't like being repaired by him for some strange reason." Starscream's inflection and smirk convey the idea of distrust towards Soundwave without outright speaking of it.
Blackstar had hoped that Starscream might have some recognition of the weapon that had bound him long enough for the Autobot to... He shudders. But Starscream's rather vehement and vocal reaction is a little more recognition than Blackstar had been expecting... and much more than he finds comfortable. Insofar as anything about this entire slagging mess could be considered with any level of comfort at all, that is.
Human lore. Human powers did this. Blackstar hasn't had much to do with the humans yet, but this requires a significant readjustment of perceptions if their powers are capable of affecting him this significantly.
It is, perhaps then, a good thing that he is not privy to Starscream's comments about the ritual used on him. It would be the height of adding insult to injury for Blackstar to know that this very ritual had been detailed in the very book he'd accquired for Starscream from Mindbender's properties
( ... )
Echoshift remains where he is, arms folded across his chest and standing just off to one side; but still close enough that he can see what's going on. He's not unobservant enough that he isn't able to guess there's a conversation going on somewhere that he's not privy to, and part of him can't help but feel annoyed at that. He didn't ask to be dragged into this whole mess, and he's already wondered whether it wouldn't have been better if he'd simply stayed at Terradessa-1. But now that he had been dragged in and now that he was involved... was it really so much to ask just to be clued in on what the slag was going on?
The half-puzzled, half-frustrated frown on his face deepens as he attempts to follow what is happening.
Comments 177
Blackstar shifts fully out of sight and moves to the door of the sanctuary to peer out cautiously. The sight of the dull silver mech standing some distance off staring up at the sanctuary makes Blackstar's metaphorical hackles stand on end. He waits cautiously just within the door, waiting to see what this... mech... does.
Reply
Then again, perhaps they have different definitions of active discouragement.
Sideways ambles down the road towards the shrine. The presence becomes more apparant, more cloying, settling around him like mud or quicksand. It slows him to an almost directionless drift, his blue optics fading into darkness as he mentally clears a path to the sanctuary.
Very strong. Primus is very strong in this reality.
He stops just in front of the entrance to the temple, optics dark. Primus's presence feels like a pressure on him, not crushing but heavily oppressive. He is not wanted here, and he will need to prepare himself to actively step into the house of the god.
Reply
Blackstar backs off out of sight and concentrates on making himself fully visible before stepping forward to the doorway again.
"Can I help you?" he asks in a low growl, his very demeanor anything but welcoming.
Something just keeps telling him to get this mech as far away as possible, and keep him away. Blackstar has taken to listening to those odd sensations these days. He watches the other mech warily, wishing he had thought to tuck a real weapon in his subspace pocket for occassions like this.
Reply
His voice is light and friendly, and his optics are pure, honest Autobot-blue. Proudly displayed on his doors are Autobrands.
"I'd heard there was a servant of Primus here," he comments, seeming to ignore the Deceptisigils Blackstar wears. He'd noted the blending of the two factions on this world, subtle though it was.
Of course, the incorporeal dead are another matter entirely from the locals.
Reply
Said Eurofighter's own sensor sweeps, however, are busy scouring the ground below. It doesn't take him that long before he reaches the temple, circling a few times overhead while he looks for any sign of Blackstar. Finding none around the temple's immediate vicinity he extends his loop and circles over a wider area.
There. Out on a cliff top, in amongst the hills surrounding the temple.
The Eurofighter banks and circles back round, only risking fading back into visibility once he's gotten closer. The gray jet unfolds into a Seeker, and Echoshift lands on the cliff top.
Reply
Spectral optics are dim, and even Blackstar's normally transparent form looks... thinner than usual. Less tangible than even his spectral form is usually given to appearing. He lays in an untidy sprawl, like carelessly discarded debris, a sinister black stake of cold iron spiked through the memory of where his laser-core once resided and hard into Cybetron's surface itself, holding him in place. He's unarmed, his guns lying not far off and the twisted shear of the mountings attest to the violence with which they were removed. His expression is twisted into a mask of fierce pain, a tight agony that speaks of being battered despite the lack of any other outward signs of trauma ( ... )
Reply
It is a bit... unsettling. Or so he admits privately to himself.
He takes a few steps closer.
"Can't you just... I dunno, ghost-teleport away from it or something?" he asks, finally getting his vocalizer to work and eyeing the nasty-looking spike of cold metal pinning Blackstar to the floor.
Reply
He whimpers softly, wishing he were free to throw something at the Eurofighter, wishing he had his guns, anything. He doesn't however, and is acutely aware that there's precious little he can do. Without even realizing that he's doing it, he instinctively reaches out for his Commander as well. Starscream would understand where Shifter does not, and Blackstar is in too much pain to deny the impulse to try and protect the embodied ghost any longer.
...out... can't.... caught... please out...
Reply
As she comes within sight of the temple, however, an unnerving sense of... discord comes upon her, increasing as she approaches. Nothing looks out of place: the hills and the plains are undisturbed, the sanctuary stands, quietly solemn and anonymous as always... yet she can't lose this feeling, that something is wrong, or... perhaps an echo of something that was wrong...
She is wary as she comes closer, reaching with esoteric senses, conferring with Primus. The ground resonates with the memory of a dark, thoroughly revolting presence. She feels echoes of great pain, anger, fear... here?? At the very doorstep of her sanctuary ( ... )
Reply
Blackstar had been here, to offer the drawings as an apology and a reassurance, both. But something corrupted has visited here as well, prowled her sanctuary, and put a warden in the threshold to keep spirits out... There was pain out there, though whose, she does not know... the 'something' may have had Cybertronian origins, and it could belong to ( ... )
Reply
//...'Spex?//
Out on the cliff top, Echoshift stands up from his crouch and looks towards the temple.
//'Spex, it's Shifter. Where are you? What happened?//
Reply
// Echoshift, Auspex... Starscream here. We just arrived in response to a certain distress call. // There's a tone of caution to his voice.
"Sky, you get a fix on those transmissions?" Starscream asks the huge white mech beside him.
"That I did. Echoshift is over there, atop a cliff, and Auspex is just a bit down the path from us. That white blotch over there would be her," Skyfire points out with unobtrusive gestures of his hand--no raising of arms to point, just one finger pointing from his hand held close to his waist.
"Good," says Starscream. There's something rather fierce in his optics and feral smile.
(( Auspex, Starscream & Skyfire are just up the path at your Nexus zone-in point ))
Reply
These are the living quarters, the supply rooms and the like, and the rooms for refugees. She indicates one of the latter, a modestly furnished generic living space, stepping aside to let them bring Blackstar into the room.
Reply
Starscream follows Auspex's lead, carrying Blackstar into the room she pointed out, and sets him down on the berth he finds inside, making sure that the ghost is - not comfortable, as that word is entirely not applicable to Blackstar's current situation, but lying in a position that doesn't appear to twist his mangled limbs.
Reply
Reply
Reply
//Human mortality being what it is, they have a much greater obsession than we do with probing the boundaries of death and what lies beyond.// Starscream replies to his counterpart. There's something uncertain in the tone of the next thought from Starscream. //The worst of what was done to Blackstar... I have seen that procedure described in a book, the Kitab al-Azif. Though compiled and transcribed by humans in one of their languages, the knowledge is not of human origin. The mindset of the author is too alien to that short-lived race.//
Starscream lays the ghostly laser cannon alongside Blackstar's arms. "Now let's see about getting you repaired. You missed out on the happy fun time that was our marooning on Earth, but back before Shockwave got the space bridge operational and Megatron got his precious Constructicons back--I was the main repair technician for the entire Earth force. Rather fortunate for them that I was
Reply
The other Starscream's mention of his repair experience is met with, "Funny, so was I. Along with Soundwave, but people didn't like being repaired by him for some strange reason." Starscream's inflection and smirk convey the idea of distrust towards Soundwave without outright speaking of it.
Reply
Human lore. Human powers did this. Blackstar hasn't had much to do with the humans yet, but this requires a significant readjustment of perceptions if their powers are capable of affecting him this significantly.
It is, perhaps then, a good thing that he is not privy to Starscream's comments about the ritual used on him. It would be the height of adding insult to injury for Blackstar to know that this very ritual had been detailed in the very book he'd accquired for Starscream from Mindbender's properties ( ... )
Reply
The half-puzzled, half-frustrated frown on his face deepens as he attempts to follow what is happening.
Reply
Leave a comment