Philosophy In A Teacup



Shiftlock has been told to find herself quarters.

She doesn't WANT quarters.

This means she's wandering around Autubot City, trying to obey the letter of the law, but not the spirit of it.

 Shiftlock says, "So I need to find some quarters. Hmm."

And while she's doing this she'll convienently run into Tailgate, who has just wandered out of his own hab suite in search of the very person he happens encounter on his way out! He's carrying a shiny metal box that's been tied up neatly with a old leather strap. When he sees Shiftlock, he runs to greet her, holding the box up proudly. "Shiftlock! I was looking for you! I.. I heard you got in! Congratulations! I have a.. house warming gift for you!"

Oh hey, it's Tailgate! ADORABLE PRESENCE DETECTED. PROTECTIVE MODE ENGAGED.

She's a little taken aback when she's presented with a gift of any kind, because she's never in her life been given anything that wasn't necessary to survival or completing a mission. To be frank, no one apart from her old cell gave a flying bag of scrap about her, ever.

So it is with obvious surprise that she takes the box, looking at it. "... Th-thank you," she murmurs, this time the one to be shy and effacing, uncertain what to say.

 Air Raid says, "The barracks in Metroplex are decent, or maybe the Ark if you dig retro. There's also bases on Cybertron but I imagine you'll want to be stationed here on Earth..."

 Shiftlock says, "I wonder if there's any garages."

The minibot beams. "You're welcome! I hope you like it." Tailgate pauses. "Are you going to open it now?" he asks inquisitively, watching wide opticked.

"Should I?" Shiftlock asks softly. "I mean, do you want me to? I've never gotten a gift before."

Tailgate shuffles forward a little, placing his hands behind his back and looking down at the ground bashfully. "Weeeell," he says, "Only if you want to. But.. I think you'll really like it, so you should open it now," he adds quickly, looking excited.

"Well, all right," the femme says. She pulls at the leather scrap ribbon to open the metal box. What is the toy surprise inside?

The surprise isn't actually a toy, it's quite useful actually. It's a harpoon grappling hook, the kind that will pierce walls or other apparatuses that don't have protrusions to latch onto. Tailgate looks a little anxious. "Do.. do you like it?!"

"This is... wow. This is actually really great," Shift says, reaching in to examine the device. "I don't know what to say, Tailgate. This is... this is really kind of you. I mean, you didn't have to do this, but you did... I think my engine hitched."

Tailgate just turns a little amber, flattered by the compliment. "Oh, it's not a problem at all! I'd heard that Magnus wanted us to make you feel welcome here at the base, and nothing says, well, welcome, like a gift! I'm glad you like it! Someone actually just tossed it into the scrap pile without noticing that it was still functional. It just needed a little polishing and lubricating." His optics brighten. "I was wondering, I didn't know if you knew the base well, if you'd like a tour I'd be more than willing! Also, did you get assigned quarters yet?"

Someone else might take umbrage in finding out that their gift was basically fished out of the trash, but Shiftlock doesn't care at all. She is painfully familiar with doing without, and any sort of gift is accepted with mountains of gratitude. "Well," she says, looking a bit disheartened. "I don't really *want* to have quarters with everyone else. It's too.... " she tries to find the word.

"... I guess I'd have to explain where I came from for it to make sense. If you don't mind me talking, I'd be happy to take a tour of the place."

"Oh of course not!" Tailgate says cheerfully, "Only if you don't feel like sharing, which if you don't, I completely understand!" He clasps his hands together, optics shining happily. "Okay then! Where should we start? I guess we could take a look around the barracks, if you don't mind!"

"I'm at your disposal, Mr. Tailgate," Shiftlock grins. "I don't mind sharing information about myself, if it helps you make sense of some of my weirdness."

"Okay," he says, "Well, first of all, how'd you end up factionless? I mean, when the war broke out, it was kinda like everyone had to decide." Tailgate pauses. "What's it like, though, being totally on your own?"

He trots down the hallway, towards the barracks.

"This is where a lot of the bots here at the base stay. My hab suite is just down the hall to the left~!"

Shiftlock follows along, trying to memorize locations and places on the base. "Well, most of us in Crystal City didn't pick a side. Some were afraid to, some couldn't decide which side was right, but others had a very specific reason for avoiding war, and until recently, I agreed with them."

"We were thinking forward, to what war would bring, and how it would affect us and our planet, and the longer the war went on, the more we felt we were right. It's just... destructive. It takes away everything and gives nothing back. Nothing is ever created in war, only destroyed, used up, or ruined. Just look at what happened to Cybertron. The war sure as heck didn't leave it the way it found it."

"Some of us were worried that if we picked sides, it would change us. The horrors we'd see, the people we'd lose, the pain we'd suffer, would leave us with mental injuries we'd never recover from. In time... we'd all just be like Decepticons. Or Wreckers. How can you return to a normal civilization at the end of millions of years of war when everyone's just a broken, insane wreck?"

Tailgate nods slowly, listening respectfully. "Well I see where you're coming from, I don't like fighting either. But the enemy succeeds when the good guys don't do anything. You're right, though, to an extent. I never would have expected the war to end up so horribly--for both sides. There's no use regretting things we can't change, though." He tilts his helm to one side. "What made you change your mind, anyway?"

"Well, for one thing, the Decepticons took away our right to remain neutral, and thus, our greatest freedom," Shiftlock said. "I know I'm tough enough to take what war throws at me and still keep my wits around me.... the other Resistance fighters? Probably not so much. Some of them are just civilians that got labelled the wrong way. They're scared, they don't know how to fight, their world is shattered."

"I decided that I would take all that hell on me, so that they would have a chance to return to an undisturbed, peaceful life. I gave up my freedom, so they could have the greatest freedom of all: The right to not be made to choose."

Tailgate looks thoughtful. "..... would you say that if someone else more able and willing to become an Autobot in your place for the Resistance fighters, would you still choose to become one?" he asks.

Abruptly, he stops. "This is my hab suite, right here!" he states, pointing to a small door on their right. ".. would you like to come in? Just for a little bit?"

"No," Shiftlock confesses, stopping with Tailgate. "I did it because it's the right thing to do. Because I want to protect things that can't protect themselves. I'm never gonna be normal, now, so it's an easy sacrifice," she smiles.

At the invitation to enter Tailgate's hab suite, she nods. "Sure... Is it okay for me to be in there?" she questions. She doesn't want to get in trouble.

"Oh, alright! I think you're a very admirable soldier, Shiftlock. I can't speak for how well you fight, since I haven't really seen you in combat, but your spark is very noble!" he adds. "And of course it's alright! It's my hab suite, so I call the shots." Tailgate opens the door to the suite, and enters in, but Shiftlock will have to duck because the doorway was clearly made for a minibot.

Shiftlock has been in tight, small places before (she prefers them), and as such, doesn't get clocked entering the suite.

The hab suite is extremely cluttered, but at the same time, it's organized. It's fairly large--clearly it wasn't called a suite for nothing, the little minibot has more than ample living space. He's filled it up with.. stuff, though. The walls are lined with shelves that are full of human conventional devices. Many of these devices are decorated with little blue flowers, some dead, others fresh and each one has a name painted a bit sloppily on the side or somewhere else on it.

Tailgate is busily tidying the room, when she enters, he mutters incomprehensibly to himself and pulls up a chair for her to sit on. It's minibot sized, but he doesn't seem to be aware of that. "Sorry it's a little messy right now," he huffs, straightening a stack of toasters.

Shiftlock chuckles, having a seat. "Oh that's fine. You should have seen my old home. You wanna talk messy? I lived in a rubble pile."

You will no longer hear messages on channel .

"Well this must be quite a change for you," Tailgate says, "Are you sure you don't want quarters, thought? I mean, after living in a rubble pile..." He looks around, tidying up here and there. "Oh, and did you want anything to drink?"

Oh why don't you just knock the poor femme over with a feather, Tailgate! Shiftlock looks shocked. "You'd... share rations with me?" she asks.

"Huh? Rations? Look, around here, nobody really has apportioned amounts of energon." Tailgate pauses. "Which, if you ask me, might not be a good thing for some mechs. But if you're thirsty, I keep some high grade around. Are you?" he asks her inquisitively.

Shiftlock just stares in total incredulity. "... I have to get used to this."

He chuckles. "Sure will have to, 'cause all Autobots deserve this treatment," Tailgate says amiably, while he pours her a mug of high grade and places it on a saucer. Then he takes a few of those blue flowers and arranges them around the mug before handing it to her. He sits down across from her and rests his helm on his hands, elbows bearing down on his knees. "Does it taste okay? I don't usually get visitors, it might be a little old..."

Shiftlock looks at the mug in her hands, and her expression is inscrutable.

"Tailgate... do you know what my first fuel was?" she asks, getting quiet.

Tailgate inches forward, optics wide. "Oh.. uh..I dunno! Was it high grade?" He asks, leaning towards her with wide optics.

"... I had to exsanguinate a corpse," Shiftlock mutters, still staring at the mug.

Tailgate's faceplates fell, and he looks away. But he doesn't seem disappointed or shocked. In fact, he just seems ashamed. He gets up and pours himself a mug of high grade. "Don't feel bad," he says softly, "Back before war the officially broke out, I probably did the same to about twenty a day. Corpses, I mean. Energon was so scarce.. it--it was how most of the mechs who worked at the junkyard made credits." His optics were dim.

"Being an Empty meant no one cared - in fact, most of the time you'd get kicked or beaten just for being in the wrong place or the wrong time. I don't know why I was made or what I was supposed to do. The creation factory said I was defective, so the mechs there tried to smelt me. I managed to get away and hide, but... after that? I was on my own," Shiftlock explains. "That's why it's so hard for me to be around all these other 'bots. Old programming doesn't delete itself easily. I keep expecting them to drive me off."

"That's awful! No one should be treated like that! Not even empties. If I had been there, I wouldn't have let it happen! I'm sorry you had to endure that," Tailgate says sincerely. "Everybody's equal in my optics," he says quietly. "And I'll never drive you away. I promise." Suddenly he stands up, as if having remembered something abruptly. "Oh! I was going to show you something. I like this hab suite because it has roof access!" he adds. Fetching a large pole with a hook on it, he heads over to the back of the room and unlatches the porthole on the ceiling, The door flops open with a creak, and a ladder attached to the inside of the door drops down. Tailgate begins climbing upward. "C'mon! It's not that scary, even though it's high up!"

"I'm glad you think that, Tailgate, but if I hadn't endured the hardships I did, there would be a lot of dead Crystal Sentinels that are presently alive. I survived, and I taught them how to survive. I want to be able to pass that knowledge onto others," Shidtlock explains.

Well, so much for drinks! Tailgate's more excited than a squirrel after its first shot of double expresso. She gets up, setting the drink on the chair, and goes to the ladder. "Hope I can fit!"

"No worries! I'm.. " He looks down. "I'm sure you'll fit!" But in all honesty no one has ever tried to enter the porthole except him. It's decent size though. "I don't know if there's any protocol regarding roof access or what, but I come up here all the time to stargaze," he rambles excitedly. 'I've been doing some research on human constellations, and have already memorized a few!" he says proudly. But to her surprise, Tailgate pulls up the ladder once he reaches roof. "You ought try out that new grappling hook!" he calls down to her.

"I want to look it over and finish getting it cleaned first," Shiftlock says. She tries to follow Tailgate up - looks like she just might be able to do that.

She pauses at the edge of the portal though, as if uncertain whether or not she wants to be exposed to the open sky.

Tailgate crouches at the edge of the portal, optics wide and bright. "Come on, what are you waiting for? It's amazing out here!" He extends a hand to her. "Do you trust me?"

That's a very poigniant question.

"It's not that I don't trust you. It's that I don't trust... the open," Shiftlock says.

Tailgate looks a little sad. "There's no one out here, I promise." He pauses. "But if you don't want to, that's alright, I'll just have to show you another time."

Mustering her courage, Shiftlock comes out of the portal, and sits very, very close to Tailgate, as if he were protecting her from the big bad Seeker-ridden sky.

"So you say you know these constellations... can you tell me about them?"

It's nothing huge... but it's a start.

Tailgate takes her hand very gently, in a friendly manner, of course if she wants to be protected he's all about that! "Well, you see that one," he says, while pointing, "that's the Big Dipper, and the Little Dipper is over there, and just over there is Orion...." And he goes on, as the last of the sun's rays disappear beneath the horizon and moon becomes visible...