(Untitled)

[twoeyesonthesky]

The Bar's sense of time and the Landlord's sense of doors have never entirely agreed with Quinn. Doors tend to open for him at the worst possible moments; the restroom, or the rooms upstairs, or any other room not the main bar tends to hold him out of time for days or even weeks at a stretch before returning him to the main flow. His world being

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[autocommander]

Huh. Someone's put an odd statue up out there, along the path down to the lake. It's humanoid, and appears to be looking up at the trees.

...or not, as it turns to look at Quinn. "Oh, I apologize." A couple of drops of water, from a shower that passed a little bit ago, drip off the machine, as it steps off the path.

[twoeyesonthesky]

Blink. Blink.

"Nothing to be sorry for," Quinn manages; that took him by surprise. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

There's a pause.

"Don't think I've seen you around here before. My name's Quinn."

[autocommander]

"I shouldn't have been on the path." The statue offers its - his, with that voice, at least - hand in a gesture that is both familiar and strange - the strangeness being that a robot is doing it.

"I am Optimus Prime. A pleasure to meet you, Quinn."

Should Quinn take the offered hand, it is actually a bit warmer than the air - there's no chill.

[twoeyesonthesky]

Quinn takes the offered hand reflexively, and only thinks about the strange later. Around here, there's not a lot of point to being shocked. Everything is an experience unlike the world he's always known.

"The same here," Quinn says. "Ah- nice armour..."

At least, he's pretty sure it's armour. It's not as if they had droids that size in Star Wars, right? He'd remember that. On the other hand, there's something about the neck that doesn't quite look like there could be a human one underneath- and anyway, that hand isn't exactly gauntleted.

"... or not. That's actually you, innit," he says slowly.

[autocommander]

"Yes. I'm an independent, humanoid, intelligent machine lifeform." He doesn't seem offended, or annoyed. If anything, it's more of a 'yeah, I get a lot of that.

The hand isn't crushed or broken - the grip is just as strong as it needs to be firm without painful.

"I was just looking at the trees. I didn't mean to disturb anyone."

[twoeyesonthesky]

"No worries," says Quinn. "I was doing about the same. We haven't got any where I come from." He nods towards the forest. "Not for a long time, I'm afraid. Since I was a boy."

[autocommander]

"That's most unfortunate. I find that trees give me a great deal of insight into how humans regard me and my comrades. While I am here, something the Bar does cause me to be about one-fifth my normal height. More insight. It's very interesting to think about it."

Prime is about seven feet tall or so. Quinn is smart and can do the math.

"What happened to your world?" He also has the ability to make someone feel like their problems are intensely important to him, and he regards Quinn with that right now.

[twoeyesonthesky]

Yes. Yes he can. The icon is indicative of the look on his face at the moment the calculation comes back.

"Huh? Oh..." Quinn shakes himself out of his math-induced 'bzuh?' moment. "Well, it was... it was Earth, at the start of the twenty-first century. I'm guessing you'd know Earth if you've dealt with humans at all, unless you're from the Galactic Republic." When he gets an indication of 'no', he continues. "Turned out that my world had dragons on it. In it, really. Hibernating all over the planet, almost in some sort of stasis or something. The first one woke up when I was twelve, and it started waking up the others, and they started breeding."

"They eat ash, and they're mostly bulletproof. Between them and everything the militaries did to bring them down, we lost most of civilisation and nature both in the space of less than twenty years."

[autocommander]

This is Optimus Prime looking horrified. We don't have an icon for it, so you'll have to imagine it for yourself.

"No, no, my comrades, the Autobots, reside on Earth now. Our world was completely destroyed by a conflict within our people, and we are homeless nomads. Others of our race brought our war to Earth, and we stay there, fighting to protect humans. One of my comrades, Ironhide, is hunting a cunning enemy who remains on Earth." He shakes his head. "One of my fears is that we might accidentally cause such a scope of disaster as has come to your world."

[twoeyesonthesky]

"For your sake I hope not," says Quinn. "As of this morning, I can only vouch for-" He pauses, looks down at his hands, and starts counting by rapidly touching thumb to each fingertip in sequence over and over. "Two hundred and twenty human beings still being alive anywhere. At least you lot're trying, though. I don't know that anyone who fought the dragons really thought things through. They used nukes."

And more, and there were terrorists and guerrilla fighters who took advantage of the situation, and all sorts of movements cropped up in the shadow of the dragons' wings- but Quinn never found out about most of those, and it all amounts to the same thing in the end anyway. Ashes.

[autocommander]

"That's terrible." It's a sense of finality, of a world just dead. "I wish there was something I could do to help. It sounds like the sort of situation that Ironhide would actually appreciate - that level of destruction, and returning it in kind."

[twoeyesonthesky]

Quinn exhales. "I'll tell you," he says, "if there were some way... We've had a visit from some Americans, see. Soldiers. Their leader'd figured out the dragons' weakness- their eyes don't work well at dusk. Daylight or night, but not during magic hour. They'd killed enough dragons to cut a few open, and they'd figured out there's only a few males in the world. They were on their way to London to kill one of the males when they found us, only they lost about half their number and their leader on the way to the city. That's why I'm here, now- they're at our gates again. The thing in London's vengeful as hell. The last time anyone approached the city, it tracked them back to their fortress and destroyed everything. If we don't do something fast, the thing in London's going to come looking for us."

[autocommander]

Prime's eyes narrow.

"Then you'll get something. If nothing else, you'll have me."

Prime's right arm makes a series of mechanical sounds, and then turns into a large gun. "If you can wait a brief time, I can see if Ironhide is back, and see about bringing him through, and then both of us going through."

[twoeyesonthesky]

Quinn's had a lot of luck with the people's he's met at Milliways.

He'd never imagined a stroke of luck like this.

"I can wait," he manages when he can speak again. "Not like time's passing back home while I'm here."

[autocommander]

"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings - freedom from fear, freedom from random violence, freedom from the threat of being extinguished. That is one of my core beliefs. I can offer no less to people threatened so terribly. I will be back as soon as I can."

And Prime runs for the door with an unseemly haste for someone who has that sort of gravitas to his bearing. The Door swings open of its own accord, and Prime goes through.