Nexus. Blue's Bar. A Meeting of Opposites

[lumina-mechnics.livejournal.com]

It was another late night for Random, another recharge-less night. It was on these nights that he got off his berth and walked down to the Engineering Labs to work on some unfinished project leftover from the day--or at least that's what he told whichever mech found him recharging in the lab one of those times when he was unable to make it back to his quarters.

As usual he had managed to pass through the quiet halls without being approached by the nightshift. If Red Alert heard that, he'd freak. However, when he opened the door to the lab and walked in, he found himself in a place that he didn't recognize as either Wheeljack's lab or the Ark.

At first he wondered if he'd missed a memo, like one saying "Wheeljack's working on something in his lab, ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK," and searched over his memory banks to find such of a memo as he glanced around the bar to prevent extra thinking. When he doesn't immediately find a memo, his 'oh great, just what I needed' attitude began to fade to outright panic. Before it spread too far, however, something in his mind made a connection between "bar"--which this place obviously was--and "Nexus."

Hmm. Maybe . . . ? He began to take his processors off of finding the memo and to set them to the task of thoroughly searching the bar for anyone he's seen before in the Nexus . . .

Comments

[random_xtras]

It's late here too, so the bar's closed and seemingly empty. But over in the darkest corner a pair of blue optics are bent over a book on a table, and there's the scratching of a pen on paper.

[lumina-mechnics.livejournal.com]

Not stylus on datapad? *ducks*

Now that his mind wasn't really occupied with finding the memo anymore, he realized how empty this place really was. It wasn't encouraging. However, he finds the blue optics somewhat encouraging, but if this really was the Nexus--which by itself never ceased to shock and surprise him--he couldn't trust them completely.

Well, if he had his gu-- . . . Wow, he actually did have his gun on him. Oh yeah, from earlier when he--and he forgot to--Right.

Glancing around, he gingerly navigates the bar to where the two blue optics are located and hopes this wasn't going to turn out similar to the way the last major incident in Wheeljack's Lab in the dark had occurred. Man, he didn't even want to think about that time. Ugh!

"Erm, hi. Is this Blue's?" And if it wasn't was he either going to panic, try his PINpoint or both while he screamed his head off at the same time.

[random_xtras]

"He and Blue live upstairs." She pats him on the shoulder, and then heads to the bar to get herself a drink. "And he was created for the job, less than a week ago, so of course he's effective. You want a cube?"

[lumina-mechnics.livejournal.com]

"That would also explain it."

Created one day, work the next. Such was the life of a Transformer.

"Uh, yeah, sure. Mid, please."

[random_xtras]

"I don't understand it either. And her trying to explain only made it worse." She shakes her head and frowns, then closes her book with the pen inside and sets it beside her on the seat as she looks at him. "How did you wind up here at this time of the night?"

[lumina-mechnics.livejournal.com]

"I was trying to walk into one of the Engineering Labs back home and end up here instead." He takes a drink. "I can only assume that I landed up at this time of night because back home it's about this time of night. Though why my reality and the Nexus are both the same now of all times is beyond me." The last he says into his cube.

[random_xtras]

"I helped her build Keg's protoform, too." She rolls her optics. "I don't see what the big fuss is anyway. It's not like I'm keeping customers standing by living here, and I'm bringing money in to the bar, too."

[lumina-mechnics.livejournal.com]

"She's just worried about you." He takes another drink and realizes his cube's almost empty. "When organics get older, inactivity tends to act like a catalyst for the aging process. Once they decided not to do some physical activity and don't do it for a long enough time, they usually can't do it again because the muscles they would've used for that activity have wasted away. . . . If that somehow applies to 'bots as well, I don't know." He doesn't see that many older mechs in his reality.

[random_xtras]

"What's on your mind, kid?" She stuffs the book and the magazine back under the seat, then looks at him with one brow plate lifted.

[lumina-mechnics.livejournal.com]

What wasn't on his mind? He sighed, keeping his gaze on his cube, and moved his finger around the edges again. Well--Hmm. He shuttered his optics and sighed again, finger pausing in its tracing. Wanting to think brought him here, and thinking he was but . . . he couldn't possibly explain it all to her.

"Everything and nothing."

[random_xtras]

"Energon in a cheap inert base that our shells can use for self repair systems." She sets her own still mostly full cube down and wipes her mouth on the back of her hand. "A young organic who comes through here calls them 'Transformer popcorn'."

[lumina-mechnics.livejournal.com]

He continues to look at the treats with an raised optic as he moves the bowl into the center of the table and eases himself into the booth.

"That's what I'd thought. Mech, haven't see these things in forever." He takes one of the treats and pops it into his mouth.

[random_xtras]

She starts at his touch, and turns to look at him, fear clear in her optics.

Then she turns back as Blue slides into the booth across from them, her spark lurching at the grave look on her cheerful friend's face.

For her part, Blue looks from Arcee to Random, and then down at her hands. "Kia was a newspark that stayed with you for awhile before she went to live with Elita and her team. As far as we could tell Kia was from your reality. You found her one day in the Nexus and brought her home."

Arcee frowns. "So, if she's living with Elita and her crew, why don't I ever see her?"

"Because she's... not." Blue squares her jaw. "A few weeks before you... 'went on holiday'... her spark failed, and she went back to being just a car."

"What... and nobody told me?" Arcee's shaking slightly.

"'Cee, you were there when it happened."

[lumina-mechnics.livejournal.com]

He manages a small, if somewhat strained smile, conveying reassurance he himself lacked, and removes his hand as Blue sits down.

While the conversation still appears safe, Random takes the bite that allows him to access the Sunrise's liquid center and starts to drink it slowly, his other drink and the energon pellets forgotten.

When the bomb is dropped, there's no explosion of liquid from his end. Instead, he becomes as still as a stone statue for several moments. After which, he finishes his drink as slowly as before, his hands trembling only as begins to eat the empty husk of his Sunrise.

[random_xtras]

"Are you alright?" Her voice is gentle.

[lumina-mechnics.livejournal.com]

There was one of those blasted three-word questions--The answers were almost always too complex to explain to anyone, stranger or friend.

He gives the contents of the cube a little swish. " . . . I think I will be . . . Don't know how organics do it . . ." He takes a long drink from his cube and sets it down on the table.

[random_xtras]

Blue returns to the table, her head turned toward the kitchen. "I hate feeling helpless like this."

[lumina-mechnics.livejournal.com]

"She just needs some time alone." I hope. He takes a bite of his second Sunrise, trying to focus more on its flavor than he had on the last.

[random_xtras]

"It was in your bodylanguage, though." Her voice continues kind, though a little absent as she checks on Arcee again.

[lumina-mechnics.livejournal.com]

He shakes his head in denial. "I think you need to get your body language reader checked."

[random_xtras]

"So watching one's best friend fight against falling apart, while mourning for a little spark that never had a chance, and being reminded of my now non-existent reality is nothing." She shakes her head as she gets up, then turns and walks toward the kitchen herself.

[lumina-mechnics.livejournal.com]

"No, that is not nothing. But physical appearances are and are certainly not worth dying for."

[random_xtras]

"Okay." He steps back and turns to Random. "It's safe."

We can just imagine how most realities' Red Alert would react.

[lumina-mechnics.livejournal.com]

Dude. He just stuck his hand in a universe he's unfamiliar with!

"Thanks. Red'd kill for someone as thorough and dedicated to security as you." And he honestly means that. Except for the killing part. That's something he has learned from humans.

He turns his head towards the kitchen, watching the doorway in more contemplation.

"You saw an arm sticking out of a portal situated in the door of Wheeljack's lab and YOU DIDN'T REPORT IT?!?!?!?!?!?

[random_xtras]

Keg frowns deeply at that, his newness finally apparent in the unhappy look in his optics.

[lumina-mechnics.livejournal.com]

"Sad but true, kid," says the pessimist.

[random_xtras]

The blue femme shrugs. "She's my friend, and I wish she were my sister. I and Keg will stand by her through whatever happens."

[lumina-mechnics.livejournal.com]

"Good. . . . She needs friends like that." No sarcasm here, just honesty.

[random_xtras]

And Blue watches as the portal closes and Keg rearms the security, then settles back to guard her family as one part of it guards her.