Graves lowered his brows and thought for a second. “Ya know… I was thinking… well, ‘elevated’ kinda means ‘enlightened’ or something, so I thought it’d make sense if… if I said school was… well, I didn’t do a whole lot of learning there, so I…”
He appears to be going on a downward mental spiral.
Conjoint nodded, noting the spiral and actively enjoying the process. He thoughtfully rested his hand on his chin, crouched down in front of Graves, as if this was the most intellectual statement ever made on Cybertron.
The bot opened a small compartment in their forearm and retrieved the necessary credits.
“Thank you.”
They said with a nod, before walking out.
@meepinater
Recognizing that he was both the largest, and probably heaviest bot on either team, Low-Tide decided to wait for someone else to make the first move.
“I’ve been using the festival to do a few roadside shows. Mostly to hand out promotional fliers, but the donations are nice too. Most of them have even gone over pretty well.”
Niko replied happily.
“I dropped out of highschool personally.”
Niko added.
“Not to say I was bad at it or anything. Most of my grades were pretty alright. But it just wasn’t taking me anywhere you know? So I dropped out, got a guitar, got a robot, and went out into the starts.”
“Fascinating.”
Axis said.
“Well it’s a pleasure to meet you Jade Dragon. You know I used to be a warrior myself. A gladiator back on Eukaris. Those days are far behind me granted, but I still have many of my old skills.”
Meanwhile Maximus noticed the other two as they approached. He eagerly waved to them with a massive gauntlet clad hand.
“Hey! Zipline, Cargo! It’s been a while!”
He said excitedly.
Tokamak did a brief look at the patrolling peacekeepers around the area.
“But I doubt the authorities would appreciate it. Especially without something keep the crowds safe. Though with this many gathered, I’m sure there’s a race or game of some kind going on around here somewhere. Just haven’t found it yet.”
Kitai lies down on the table.“Will the needles hurt?” He asked.
Stonefist laughed, though his laughter sounded more like a rumbling rockslide then an expression of merriment.
“By the rate today is going, I’d bet my energon on that!”
Aralysa looked around the busy room. It was full of familiar as well as alien faces, all of them either drinking or conversing with their friends. She sighed happily, and with that, she finished her drink.
“Well, we better get going now. Stonefist hasn’t been in Iacon in quite a long time, and I’m eager to show him around.” the Hecatan transformer remarked.
And there’s the perfectly-timed buzzkill.
Of course, half of this didn’t make any sense to Conjoint. Grades, height, school taking you anywhere - was it by force or willingly? And since it didn’t for Niko, was that the intended goal? But even though the cat-Human had insisted he wasn’t Human, he was not only familiar with the concept, but had fully partaken in it to his dissatisfaction.
“Well,” Conjoint smacked his hands together. “I think I’ve learned more today than I have in the last fifteen years. Which definitely wasn’t what I anticipated when coming here.”
Zip and Cargo
“Sir Maximus, Lady Axis Prime!” Cargo greets as he dives into a kneel, not noticing the latter being preoccupied.
Zipline stumbles to kneel after him after dropping himself onto the ground.
Graves
“That’s the usual path of things,” Graves says, scratching the stubble on his chin. “Either that, or a very early mid-life crisis.” He looks at the cat ears skeptically once more. “Either are entirely possible.”
“Or that third option.” Conjoint attempted to whisper, with one hand aside his mouth.
Jade Dragon smiled, “It is a pleasure to meet you as well, my prime. Before you go may I request a word of your wisdom? You and the heroes ventured far into space and were able to defeat the dark heralds, is there anything you could pass along that you learned from that time? I am an eager study, so please forgive me of any unintentional rudeness”
“I’ll need to see that for myself,” says Jethro.
“It was a pleasure talking with you both,” Maccadam says. “Enjoy the festivities, now.”
“You’re right I do,” Maccadam says proudly, turning his attention back to Machina. “Want to see for yourself?”
The shopkeep lets the robot leave without another word. The ancient towers he had spoken of loomed all around them, supporting the rest of the multi-layered city between them. Even the arcologies of Avalon Prime seemed small in comparison to them.
“Not at all,” Headcase assures him. “Now, if you’re ready, just relax and- well, think good thoughts.”
“It’s a big city,” the other cybertronian says.
“Well, it’s been nice talking with you two,” says the human, “but the night’s dragging on. I don’t know how it is for cybertronians, but most humans usually like to sleep around this time.”
“Any you make would make this old bot happy.” Machina stated, “And yes I would very much like to see for myself.”
Perhaps while his answer wasn’t exactly answered, the predacon found himself curiously wandering down the streets. He foudn himself in the host of onlookers, an audience of a music performer. Argyros Asrar stoped an listened, the melodies performed quite pleasing to his ears.
“Finally… a blasted day off,” the cloaked bot muttered, “Soundrange is probably disappointed that he couldn’t make it here… that or he’s experimenting again… I do hope he doesn’t go too wild with his inventions. I swear he’s been spending more and more time in the lab lately.”
Windstripe sighed, “Could be worse, but if I’m being honest here the reply he sent could mean anything.”
(The reply was the two words 'Not coming.')
Windstripe made his way deeper into the festivities, wandering closer to where there was an array of vendors. His eyes darting back and forth between different technologies that were on sale.
XM-333 tentatively edged towards the cube, keeping his optic focused on the other team.
“I’ll be sure to do that. Always nice to swing by here and get some drinks.” Aralysa said. Stonefist grunted in agreement.
“I’ll be sure to remember Maccadam the next time I’m in Iacon.” he rumbled. With that, the two Cybertronians left their drink cups on the bar and headed back outside, where the crowds seemed to have thinned no less than before. Aralysa grinned, and gestured across the cityscape.
“Well where would you like to go first?” she said.
“Hmmm, I don’t know, let’s just start walking.” he replied gruffly, and started moving forward, with Aralysa following behind him.
The Cube shoots up into the air, its surfaces coming alight with a red glow. Immediately, it rams into the referee, knocking him over- though not doing any real harm to the bot, fortunately.
“In that case…”
Maccadam pulls a canister from behind the bar, and pours some of its contents into a glass for Machina. The fluid was pink, it bubbled and frothed, and blue sparks occasionally erupted from it. It was certainly a bizarre concoction.
“I’ve been working on this one here for about a century,” he says. “Now that it’s safe to expose to air, I think it’s ready for public testing.”
Windstripe sees devices and gadgets from many civilizations on display, ranging from personal computers and appliances to powered exosuits and starship mods. There is nothing here that would be unexpected or especially dangerous.
XM-333 lunges towards the cube, stretching out a hand to try and grab it before it darted away.
Niko’s ears flattened again, moreso out of annoyance this time. Though he still waited to see where this was going.
“Come on guys, you don’t need to be so formal. We’re friends aren’t we?”
Maximus said cheerfully.
Axis pondered for a moment before giving her answer, putting some real thought into her response.
“The best advice I can give is… Trust. Yes, trust. In the heat of battle, you need to be able to have complete faith in your allies. Trusting that they’ll fight to keep you safe every bit as you fight for them. But not only that, you need to put some trust in fait. When the Matrix of Leadership chose me to become Prime, it was the last thing I wanted. At the time all I wished was to return to my simple life on Eukaris and pretend none of this crazy adventure ever happened. But fait had far different plans for me, and so here I am. Life will take you in directions you may never expect, and you need to trust that things will eventually work out for the best.”
Low-Tide followed after the cube, traveling at a brisk jog rather than anything resembling a run.
The lonesome blue-green and yellow robot walked out of the parts shop and out into the streets of Iacon. They walked towards the closest tower, not paying complete attention to where they were going. Eventually running right into a red-feathered bird-bot.
“Oh, excuse me.”
Axis said politely, a bit startled by the sudden encounter.
“Whatever. Just get out of my way.”
The robot said impatiently.
Maximus stepped in between the two.
“Watch it pal. Do you have any idea who you’re talking to?”
The predacon said aggressively.
“I don’t know and to be honest I don’t care. I got places to be, so get out of my way.”
“That sounds like it’s more your problem than ours.”
Maximus said, taking a step closer.
“Darling please. Let’s not make a scene.”
Axis urged.
Two huge laser cannons rotated from the robot’s back and over their shoulders.
“How about you get out of my way before I make it your problem!”
At the sign of aggression Maximus acted on instinct. He reeled one massive fist back and punched the robot in the face. The bot stumbled backwards. Small bursts of sparks flew from their neck and their optics flickered. After a short moment, their head rolled backwards and off their shoulders. Tumbling off their body and crashing on to the ground behind them.
Maximus stepped back, immediately regretting the force he had used.
Barrage looked around a bit more than he had previously and saw that there was, as it happened, a decent amount of diversity in the crowd. Roaster seemed to be correct in their assessment that there was there was many a thing to learn.
“You may very well be correct.”
XM-333 is able to grab hold of the Cube first, but the device struggles against their grip. Its jets shoot out tiny lances of fire as it tries to escape.
“Ok then.” Kitai starts thinking back to when he simply lived with the miners. Certainly not the most comfortable life,but there were good times.