Meet-n-Greet

[cityship]

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see a tall man in green armor and snake girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]

Comments

[derpjack-ftw.livejournal.com]

Wheeljack tensed at the mention of realities. He was well aware of the theories around quantum physics and parallel universes - he'd attended a seminar on those and related topics...forever ago, even assisted one of the speakers - but to talk to living proof of it . . . and it be his best friend, no less (o-or was he?) . . . it was a slap in the face. He looked out the window and not even the normally eager, inquisitive scientist in him could call up a reaction to the incredible sight and its even more incredible explanation.

'I don't claim to know how it works...' No, but Wheeljack could. He just didn't want to right then.

But then Ratchet looked back down at him with that easy, half-grin he knew so well. Point. Though how close was still a question.

'It's all right. I'd rather be beat up and with you than alone and dead . . . Whatever happens, I'm glad I met you. You're a good friend.'

"Heh, yeah . . . y-yeah, I guess so." He made himself straighten and meet the medic's optic, sincerity in his tone. Whatever Ratchet's experience of them, he wanted the other to know, to get, what his was. "You were the first real friend I ever had, an' you've always been my closest. I probably owe you pretty much everythin' I've ever gained, because you believed in me when no one else would, when even I didn't. We've been through . . . everythin' together."

Or had they? No . . . don't think like that! Think positive.

"Heh . . . guess this just means we've a lotta new stories ta share, yeah?"

[talks2stoplight.livejournal.com]

Some of Ratchet's humor faded as Wheeljack explained their history as he knew it. "Geeze, don't set the bar too high or anything," he quipped, feeling just a little uncomfortable hearing it all. It wasn't that he didn't believe in Wheeljack or hadn't been through the Pit and back with him... it wasn't even that he didn't consider the engineer his closest friend, but listening to it, he suddenly felt like he'd been entered into some kind of twisted competition. And even worse, that he was being held against not just an idea, but an idea of himself. As if just one or the other was bad enough on its own.

He couldn't help but wonder if he was going to measure up.

"Don't sell yourself so short," he said, keeping everything else carefully packed down where Wheeljack couldn't take it the wrong way. "You wouldn't have gotten anywhere if you weren't you." He gave his friend--he was still Wheeljack, so he refused to think of him as anything less--a warm smile, hoping to reassure him. "And you're still you. I don't care what world you came from."

And he believed that... or at least he wouldn't let himself believe anything else. He didn't need to finally see his best friend again only to toss him away just because he wasn't what he was expecting. "Got that right. You're gonna have to start with who it was that thought it was a good idea to impersonate Stunticons."

Icon's over-reacting....I don't really have a better one. 9,9 ...also? *edits forever* OTL

[derpjack-ftw.livejournal.com]

Wheeljack saw the shift in his- . . . in the medic's expression. Y-ya shouldn't'a said that. Ya shouldn't'a said anythin'. You idiot! If he's not-...doesn't matter if he looks an' sounds the same! He may not feel- He may not even know what you're talkin' about! Primus dammit. Now...now what do I do?

His hands went up, and he was talking before he'd fully formed what he wanted to say - it was a habit that went way back when something had gone wrong or he felt cornered or that he had done something wrong. "I-I mean . . . well, not that . . . you are your own person, of course. I mean, I'm familiar with quantum physics an' all that - did a composition on it once, an' was part of a seminar an' . . . I get how it works. I-I don't mean ta compar- ...I-I'm sorry. That's . . . that's not fair ta you." His hands and gaze dropped as he made himself stop babbling. "I'm sorry."

[talks2stoplight.livejournal.com]

"Hey-" he tried to cut into Wheeljack's sudden bout of babbling, his words bowling over everything else Ratchet had been trying to say. "Hey!"

He was pretty sure this was his fault- or maybe it was both of theirs and he just wanted to take the blame because it was easier that way- but listening to Wheeljack backpedal so fast Ratchet could practically hear the whirring, he was taken by a worry that this was just going to erode whatever relationship they had with each other out from under their own feet. Maybe he hadn't been as careful as he'd thought about keeping his feelings to himself; maybe he'd been too quick to panic; or maybe they were both over reacting. But he couldn't do this to his friend.

"What did I say?" he snapped, putting the edge on his words to force Wheeljack to pay attention. It had always worked before. "Don't apologize. And before you do, don't apologize for apologizing. Because I know you will, I don't care which world you come from." He toned softened then, having felt that his point was made. "Look, none of this is fair but I think considering the fact that there are alien space bugs devouring whole universes, maybe we should take what we can get."

He shoved his hand out suddenly, holding it front of Wheeljack as if daring him to take it. "Let's start over, okay? 'Cause I think this has really gone off the rails. Hello, I'm Ratchet and I come from Earth, year two thousand and nine."

[derpjack-ftw.livejournal.com]

Wheeljack flinched, the sharp tone effectively cutting off the last of anything else that might have wanted to tumble out. He started to apologize but then that cut off too, and the sudden, unbidden thought of he knows me too well was a comfort before it was a surprise to him.

. . . he does know me . . . an' I know him. I do know 'im, his mannerism an' everythin'. If he isn't as close, or wasn't or whatever, maybe...maybe we still can be. In any case, Ratchet was making a clear and obvious effort, and he wasn't going to lose anything Ratchet was willing to offer him, whatever that may be, just because of his own stupid insecurities.

There was only the barest of hesitation before Wheeljack took that hand, his grip firm. "Heh . . . Wheeljack, Earth, year nineteen eighty-six. Pleased ta meetcha." His tone sobered - he was not going to second-guess himself, second-guess them. He let out a steadying puff of air through his vents. "Really pleased ta meet you. ...thanks, Ratch."

And he remembered that he'd been given a request - that rewind/replay reflex in the back of his processor was just as good now as it'd ever been. Yeah . . . if nothing else they could make a sort of almost game of this, even. "Hey, tell ya what, though - I'll tell ya all about the Stunticons, you tell me your memories on how we met, yeah?" That was one of the two most influential things that had happened in his life - he couldn't help being curious, at the very least.

[talks2stoplight.livejournal.com]

It wasn't that Ratchet was withholding information from Wheeljack on purpose- he certainly had no want to keep the other Autobot in the dark as to their friendship, but spilling out what he was feeling just wasn't something he was accustomed to doing. He knew that he might have to do it anyway eventually, but that time certainly wouldn't come when they were out on the obs deck surrounded by everyone and the kitchen sink.

At least Wheeljack's handshake was strong and he seemed more relaxed, his own return greeting getting a genuinely happy smile from Ratchet. The question that came next was considered thoughtfully for a moment, the medics arms crossing back over his chest loosely. "Primus, that was a long time ago," he muttered, scraping the old memories back up after so long. "It was at the old university in Gygax. You were a frequent visitor to the medical wing right up until the Decepticons leveled the place. We just kinda fell in together during the confusion, I guess." The exact memories had lost bits and pieces over the ages and even when they were fresh, they'd never been extremely clear but there was still enough left over to give Wheeljack what he asked for.

[derpjack-ftw.livejournal.com]

Over the sixty-thousand vorns of waking experience Wheeljack had, many of the details had been lost to him as well, but certain words and phrases - the things that had jumped out at him even back then - he remembered with surprising clarity, even through the pain, the exhaustion, the terror. The details didn't matter; it was what they had both gained out of it all that did.

He'd not been aware of how tense he still was, despite the decision not to doubt them anymore, until the rest of it drained out at Ratchet's answer. He nodded, a big grin perceivable in his tone and the brightness of his optics. "You were gonna 'quarantine' me in the student lounge until . . . how'd ya put it? My urges to creatively slag myself subsided, or somethin' like that?" He snickered, shaking his head. He could look back now and marvel or just find amusement in it. "I still dunno how we managed ta make it through all that. We shoulda been terminated, like, six times over." He sobered again, though his tone was still light, and nodded again. "So . . . our probability contention - um, the point where our paths diverged - is somewhere later than that. Huh." As fascinating as he was starting to find this, he couldn't deny the relief he felt at that as well.

He looked around the room. "There somewhere we can go an' sit down ta talk? Heh, I'm thinkin' this'll take a whil-...oh, n-no, wait." He frowned as the earlier part of their conversation came back to him. "You've got a medical emergency goin' on right now. You got somethin' you need ta get back to?" He couldn't deny a feeling of disappointment, but . . . the health of others most definitely came first.

[talks2stoplight.livejournal.com]

The grin that spread across Ratchet's face practically lit up his entire expression. Did they really have that slagpit of an experience in common? He'd never been so relieved to have the memories of that terrible day than he was now. "Until your instructor's urges to slag you subsided," he corrected with a laugh. It didn't make sense to him, how they could share some memories, but not others, but at least Wheeljack seemed to understand it and he was welcome to ponder it all he liked. Ratchet just shrugged a little with an absent 'guess so'.

The mention of the current emergency brought him straight back down, however and his expression cooled at the reminder. "Yeah, I shouldn't be away for much longer, but I'm glad I came out here. Are you gonna be okay?"

[derpjack-ftw.livejournal.com]

Wheeljack ducked sheepishly, his optics still bright as he rubbed the side edge of a vocal flange - a reflexive gesture of embarrassment. "Y-yeah, that too." The comment came out a chuckle. The joy on his best friend's face - this was his best friend, even if their exact experiences and their paths diverged a little (or a lot) at some point in their considerably long pasts - was a delight to see, warming his spark alongside his own joy and relief.

At the question, he nodded firmly. Ratchet, his best friend, was here. Whatever else happened, whatever else was their new reality, he had at least that one grounding wire. That, truly, was all - and the best - he could ask for.

"Yeah, Ratch. I'll be fine. You go do whatcha need ta do. We can talk some more later. If there's anything - anything - I can do ta help, lemme know. Otherwise, just gimme a call when things settle down again, okay?" He held up the comm ring.