(Untitled)

[niko_tesla]

The door opens to a breeze of warm, salty Key West air

Comments

[prob_japanese]

.... that's new. Bumblebee's seen a lot of humans do a lot of things in his time on Earth, but that's not one of them. That's worth leaving alt mode for.

Nikky might just hear a couple of electronic alarms and the sound of metal sliding over metal from the direction of the normally well-concealed elevator to the garage. Bumblebee's just gotten back from sending Carburetor home, so the 5'2" yellow-and-chrome mech is here by himself today.

[niko_tesla]

Nikky cocks his head in the direction of the noise and blinks when he notices the robotic creature. Definitely an irresistible curiosity. He diverts in that direction and nods a greeting.

"Good day, sir," he says politely.

[prob_japanese]

"Hi there!" chirps Bumblebee, insofar as anyone who's loaded a file of Peter Gabriel's voice at the start of one of his songs can be said to be chirping. In his own voice, which is considerably more rusty-sounding and crackly, he says, "That was an interesting trick just now."

[niko_tesla]

"Thank you," Nikola replies graciously. "Just something I like to do when I'm thinking. You are quite interesting yourself. If you don't mind my asking, are you fully mechanical, or do you integrate organic components as well?"

[prob_japanese]

"Fully mechanical, sir. All the life on my original world is machine life." Bumblebee might smile if he had the face for it. "My designation in human terms is Bumblebee. Have you been to Milliways before?"

[niko_tesla]

"Many years ago, by my personal timeline. You may call me Nikky," he replies with another nod. "But I am curious about your other statement. All the life on your world is machine life. You were not constructed by any organic species, but evolved completely mechanically?"

[prob_japanese]

"'Evolved' is... probably not the right word," says Bumblebee. "The first machines on Cybertron came to awareness in the presence of another device whose origin they didn't know, but which turned out to be capable of granting life and thought to other machines once they were built. We owe our existence to that Cube, wherever it came from and however it was made."

[niko_tesla]

"Fascinating! A device capable of granting sentience to inorganic machines. But, if you were not aware previous to this Cube's influence, how did you come to be on the planet at all?"

[prob_japanese]

"The first Thirteen say that it forged their forms into being itself before granting them life," says Bumblebee. "Or at least they believed it did. Even they were never entirely sure."

[niko_tesla]

Nikky nods. "Unfortunately, that is often the way with origins. And the saddest part is that you may never know for certain."

[prob_japanese]

Bumblebee dips his head in acknowledgment. "We've kept records since that time, usually very good ones, but it's just not the same."

[niko_tesla]

"Very true," he agrees. "But you are living on Earth now? I only ask because it does appear that you are comprised of parts of an early 21st century Earth automobile."

[prob_japanese]

Bumblebee nods. "I am," he says. "What you see is local camouflage, not what I'm actually built from. My people can configure ourselves to match other machines of the same approximate size and mass- I happened to scan such a vehicle. Normally I'm a lot bigger," he adds. "The Bar affects most of us from Cybertron so that we don't tower over everything else."

[niko_tesla]

Nikky's impressed. "You can actually adjust your shape to resemble other things? The level of articulation involved in such a thing is almost boggling."

[prob_japanese]

"Oh yes. Nearly all of us can," Bumblebee says. "Transformation science is one of our oldest technologies."

[niko_tesla]

"How fascinating! You are full of surprises, friend Bumblebee."

Don't be surprised if he asks to study you. It's a compliment. Really.