nexus_crossings | Taking Flight

Taking Flight

Ben's been hard at work lately, between preparations for winter, managing supplies, and working on a special project. He's standing beside the ship he got from Misfire a while back, now painted, windows refitted, and fully repaired. It looks like a solid ship now that it's back in order. Now that it's fixed, he's proud of all his hard work. It's not a model from his world, but it's close enough that he's been able to learn how it works.

This thing's more of a shuttle than a ship, small and sleek, but enough to get the job done, It doesn't feel finished yet, he's decided. Something's missing, and he still has work to do. Maybe he'll feel out the Nexus for ideas.

He finds a spot in the industrial area where he lands the shuttle, standing beside it. Yes, it has a solid start, but it could use something to make it even better.

"I'm almost done," he asks someone who stops by, "but I think it's still missing a final touch. Of course I'm open to suggestions..."

Then there's a sound of fluttering. There's something with him - a small bird Pokémon perches on Ben's shoulder, one eye open. She watches anyone who approaches closely, but doesn't move. The Rookidee seems tired, staying close to him and nuzzling the side of his face.

"On another note, does anyone want to meet Morrigan? I met her in the Wilds, and she followed me home. Suppose she's joining the family, then." Morrigan makes a chirping sound. Ben smiles faintly. "If anyone has any tips on raising Pokémon, I'd love to hear them."

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"I'm not sure what pokemons are, but I wouldn't mind meeting more of them, I think."

Hiroki then whistles a little at the strange, hm, bird? Curious whether it'll react in any way.

"Don't know much about them, either. They live in the Wilds - might bump into them if you visit and you're lucky."

Morrigan turns her head and makes a trilling noise in greeting.

"Good to see you again, Hiroki. I hope you're doing well since we talked last."

"I am, thanks."

"Don't tell my boyfriend, he'd think I should've asked him, but I had Allura check whether I really don't have a bond with Honerva anymore, and yeah, I don't, so I'm really happy."

Hiroki looks closer at Morrigan.

"Cute."

Edited 2020-10-23 16:49 (UTC)

"You can pet her. She's shy, but she doesn't bite."

Ben invites Hiroki to touch the Rookidee.

"It's good that you're cut off from her. I don't know if she's still here or not - wouldn't be surprised if she was, I've been told she's persistent if nothing else - so be careful."

The reason he's keeping his distance is because he was asked to.

"I'll be careful, for sure. Thank you."

He hesitates, then says, "Ben, if you ever want to see the Lions of Voltron, two have arrived. Allura's and Keith's. With Keith, who's going to help against Honerva, of course, if need be, too."

"I can also show you my robot, Atlas, if you want. It's a bit like Voltron, though bigger."

"Can I really pet this pokemon?"

Edited 2020-10-23 17:13 (UTC)

"Good. Even if we can't find a more permanent solution to the problem, having support from your world might help keep her from trying anything big. People coming to the Nexus who don't have good intentions is always a risk here, unfortunately."

Ben considers Hiroki's offer, then nods slowly.

"I'll visit the Lions sometime. Don't believe I've ever seen one. You have my help, as well. And Rey's. I have no intention of being used as a laboratory animal."

"Good. I don't really know what Force is - maybe you could explain sometime - but I know Honerva shouldn't get her hands and her darkness on that, whatever it is."

Hiroki crouches down and finally gently pets the Pokemon.

"I can promise you that if she decides to try anything smart with Rey, Cal, or I, she'll be lucky if she lives to regret it. But I won't worry about that just yet. Hopefully the Lions will make it clear she can't get away with that kind of thing here."

Morrigan closes her eyes as she's touched. "Some Pokemon change form if they're raised well. You'll see what she turns into."

"Yeah. She doesn't have resources here in Nexus, Honerva that is, so that makes her less dangerous, here, I've just realised."

Another thing he's just realised is that Ben likely wouldn't know Honerva if he saw her, even. Right.

"If you want, I can show you what the witch looks like. From my memories. Just in case."

"Change forms? These little animals?"

He grins.

"That's amazing. I'm sure you care for her well, so, can't wait to see."

Wait a tick, though.

"Who's Cal?"

"Show me. I want to see what she looks like - not to pick a fight, but so I can tip people off that I saw her."

Ben doesn't know the best way to fight her, and doesn't want to challenge her alone.

"She probably wants to be discreet here, though I don't know if she's aware more people are on to her. If we can't kick her out, we might be able to keep her in check. If there was a way to monitor her activities here...after all, she might not have immediate access to what she wants but the Nexus may provide."

He moves on, explaining who Cal is.

"Cal Kestis is a good friend of mine. Another Force-user."

"Sure!"

He concentrates, and then, even know Hiroki wouldn't say he's telepathic, apparently he is, a little?

Ben might see a few disjointed memories, they're not Hiroki's, nor Shiro's. Ben might guess or not, but they're hers.

He then shakes his head, and pictures and sends this. From Hiroki's own memory now.

"That's her. This is what she looks like. Well, seeing as she's an Altean, she can look like anything she wants to, just ask Allura or Romelle, but that's how she'll usually look, now, anyway."

"I see, so Cal's like you and Rey. I see. I wonder if he could help, too, if anything happens."

Hey, that's some decent craftsmanship right there. Tony Stark walked over towards the shuttle and examined it near up close, making note of all the details involved in making such a piece of engineering. Lowering his shades down so he could get a better look the engineer was in his element. Who who build such a ship? The answer was closer than he thought.

"Nice ship there, pal. Did you build this? Because if you did that's some serious work there."

The little bird fluttering on the guy's shoulder was new. Was it some kind of pet? It wasn't quite a crow. A parrot? Nope. Not that either. It seemed friendly enough though. Morrigan? Was that the name of the bird?

"Poke-what? Sorry, I'm no good with Nexus lingo. What's a Poke-thingy? I'm interested in your ship though. I sort of dabble in building things myself. Suits, pneumatic arms. That sort of thing. Never a ship though."

"Build it? No - I don't know who built it. It was given to me by Misfire. Knowing him, it could have come from anywhere. The model isn't one from my home galaxy, though." Ben's not really an expert on spaceships that aren't from his part of the multiverse, though he's figured this one out, more or less. The way it works is more-or-less the same.

Ben looks over to Morrigan, who's examining the newcomer closely.

"Pokémon. I don't know too much about them, either, but apparently they live out in the Wilds. They're animals, far as I can tell, intelligent ones. There are a few of them who chose people in the Nexus to live with, and I figure I'm one of them now."

The industrial area is one of the few not-Wild areas a mech of Misfire's size can casually take a stroll through without constant fear of things being underfoot. He still has to be a LITTLE careful of course, but he's not as constantly on edge as he is near the more urbanized areas.

"Hey look at that!" he whistles lowly crouching down to get a closer look, "You got her all fixed up and nice. You did good!"

"Misfire!" Ben visibly brightens on seeing the Cybertronian. "I was wondering if you'd be coming by. I'm happy to hear you like it."

"It's been a while. A lot's happened since then - I met a few of your friends. I joined the Decepticons. That, and I found something you might want to see. I took it with me because I figured you might be coming along." Ben jerks his head in the direction of the ship. "Bit of a story behind it, too."

"Hello you two," Ravage says cheerfully. (He might be wearing a red flower crown...yes, he's definitely got roses on his head.) "Is that the ship you told me about?"

"That's the one." Ben's smile grows when he sees his friend come by, turning for a moment as he's about to enter the ship. "Hello, Ravage - nice to see you come by. I was hoping I'd get to show you this someday."

"Enough about the ship already!" he exclaims, despite there being, well, relatively LITTLE discussion about ship. His focus was on certain other things here! Important things. New(?) developments?

"What's this 'bout you joining the 'Cons? What'd you find? Is a present? Is it for me?" He rambles off and if he actually needed to breathe he might actually be a little breathless by this point.

"And s'up Rav," he nods in belated greeting, "Sweet organic foliage you've got. Smells nice."

"Thanks." Ravage looks the ship over. It is a very human-sized ship, but it has been fixed up quite prettily. "I was given a lot of flowers earlier today, and we ended up making crowns out of them, because they smell amazing."

He glances over at Ben. "I keep explaining why we're Decepticons, and people keep wanting to be Decepticons, even after I tell them that we lost the war. We have Ben, Kyp, Predaking, and Terrible Dactyl, who is thinking of changing his name, which I endorse. Megatron is going to say 'I told you so' a lot the next time I see him. But it's not like I'm going to say, 'No, you can't come with us and use the Force to help us whack Galvatron.'"

Ravage grins at Ben, who really is fast becoming one of his favourite people.

"I haven't met half of those people," Ben says, "but I trust your judgement on them. There are a couple stories to tell. This is the first one." He comes out of the ship carrying something that looks a little like a strange sort of gun.

He flashes a grin back to Ravage before clearing his throat.

"There were a clan of space pirates called Eliksni who invaded the Nexus a couple winters back - insect-looking creatures with armor and four arms. Scavengers who are after technology and scrap. You've probably never seen one, they live in the Wilds and mostly keep to themselves. One of them dropped this, and I figured it's mine now." Ben shows the repaired matter encrypter to Misfire. "It's a matter encrypter - you can store things on it, turn physical objects into data. This one was broken, which explains why they dropped it."

Edited 2020-10-25 02:50 (UTC)

"Four arms, huh?" he scratches his chin. There had been those little scampery guys he'd traded with when he had his yard sale going. They hadn't seemed too bad though. Some fine business associates. Or something. But that train of thought is dropped as Ben describes the encrypter.

"That's fragging WILD mate!" his optics widen as he imagines the possibilities, "Can it do the opposite? Turn data into something psychical? Can it encrypt a meme?"

Edited 2020-10-25 03:08 (UTC)

"Aren't memes already encrypted? I mean, they're data." Ravage thinks about it. "Show us how it works. And if you fixed it...do you think we could make more of them?"

"You saw one? I keep away from Eliksni. They're not too fond of humans as a rule and I'd like to keep my head on my shoulders." Ben raises an eyebrow slightly. "But you aren't human or on their territory, so it makes sense that they wouldn't attack you. I'd guess they were attracted to that scrap heap you had."

Ben starts working the gun, looking for an object to use for a demonstration.

"That's the bad news. It's not as easy as making more of them, unfortunately. This one's got a bit of a quirk to it that means it might be a little too unreliable to use as a tool. The Nexus got to it in some way after it broke. If you encrypt an object, it'll spit out something else of equal value. I'll need something to use as an example, if you see anything in the area."

Edited 2020-10-25 03:30 (UTC)

"You know what I mean Ravage! The physical manifestation of memes... just think of the possibilities..." he could certainly think of a whole bunch of situations that would be useful in. Like every day. It'd be great! En not just Cybertronian memes! Earth-human memes too! They were great at that. Some of the universe's greatest shit posters...

He blinks out of his fantasy to catch that statement. A demonstration...! Yes.

"You need something? Hmmm..." he mentally rifles through his personally subspace and then pulls out a box of rust sticks, "probably wanna do something not too valuable at first, ya? Will one of these work?"

He shakes one of the faintly glowing sticks out of the box and holds it out. Small for him but it's a little bigger then your standard size pool noodle. He also offers the box to Ravage because despite RUMORS he is a gentlemech (occasionally) and you always offer your snacks to friends for sharing.

"Don't mind if I do, thanks!" Ravage takes a stick and nibbles delicately at the tip of it. Misfire always has good snacks, even when they're in a completely different universe, and this is his favourite flavour.

Ben carefully aims the encrypter at the stick Misfire's holding up. It's difficult to miss, being the size of a pool noodle and big by human standards. He fires it, and the noodle disappears in an instant.

One half of the job done. He sets a password.

When he puts in the sequence needed to decrypt the object, a large hot dog approximately the size of the noodle appears in Misfire's hand in the stick's place. Makes sense that it produced food in the place of food.

"I'd like to have that as a snack to go with your sticks, seeing as you still owe me one," Ben says with a laugh, "but that hot dog's too big to fit anywhere, let alone inside me. At least not comfortably."

Edited 2020-10-25 05:01 (UTC)

Now many cybertronians, even those who are pretty okay with organics, might get a little freaked out or disgusted over suddenly discovering themselves holding a giant tube of finely ground flesh paste. Misfire, however, is not most mechs. His optics widen a bit an he stares at the pink meat cylinder for a good long moment.

"This..." he sounds... afraid? awed? "Is awesome! I'm so gonna poke someone with this..." he squints at it, lips turning down into a frown, "Wait... this is what I owe you? According to my scans this probably shouldn't go inside anyone big or small. It's just... Mate you'd probably get a more nutritious lunch out of... anything really."

"So it's not actually human food?" Ravage cocks his head to one side. "Too bad--that could've done for a few meals at that size." He's seen what Ben can put away, but has no sense of what humans are normally supposed to eat to compare with. He has currently eaten about a third of his rust stick.

"Well, that's the end of my theory. I thought if it turned Cybertronian food into human food when a human was holding it, it might turn human food into Cybertronian food if I took a shot at something human-edible. Like, maybe it had a sense of who was using it."

"It is human food, just not especially healthy human food. Misfire's right, technically." Ben cautiously pokes the hot dog. "This is big enough that it would take me a week to get through. I think your experiment's still worth testing, Ravage, if we can find some human food to test it on."

He cautiously takes a large bite out of the hot dog, chews, and swallows. "Doesn't - ulp - taste unusual. For all intents and purposes, this is an ordinary hot dog, just enormous. That's the Nexus for you. It's worth a few more tests to see if there are any patterns as to what it spits out."

He's still looking pretty dubious even after watching Ben take a bite with no apparent ill effects. Immediate ones at least. But who is he to judge? He's eaten some pretty strange things before.

"So if I'm interpreting what you two are suggesting correctly... then I think we need to figure out what the most delicious human food in the Nexus is... and zap THAT!"

And that... sounds amazing.

He also shoves his new giant hot dog (with one bite taken out of it) into his subspace. For undoubtedly nefarious purposes later.

"I have no idea what the most delicious human food in the Nexus is," says Ravage, looking at Ben in confusion. "Any thoughts?"

"It's hard to choose. Lord of the Fries makes a delicious Gluttony burger, Yaya's has some tasty Greek food, the Crossroads Cafe makes some fine muffins..." Ben thinks, considering the options. "It's subjective, I figure."

Aal doesn't generaly hang out in the area. But there's some things she'd been trying to plan or find stuff out about espically before winter.

The spaceship catches her eye. She twitches her nose and at least decides to see whose it is. After all, not every captain was like the Jims or the lovely Marnier.

Her ears perk up under her hood a little as she tilts her head to the right in a slight canine manner and rubs her chin in thought. "Mmh, are ya gonna..add a hood ornament or something like that?" She asks softly. "I mean it's not like a sailing ship I understand." So not like it needed a figure head..but. She adds quickly to clarify her thought process but it..was kinda like a car/rv right?

She blinks at the wee birdie. The world which housed StoryBrooke Maine had several of the games so she knew what they were in a way before she got here. But she'd not run into one yet herself.

And a wild..She shook her head wryly, well technically not wild. But still. She grins a little. "Well, that's a lovely name I must say." She murmurs approvingly. She had a fondness for the Celtic things due to her mum's side of the family. "Ello there." She murmurs her tone going soft and warmer as her ears slightly shift and fur under her hood. The pointed tips lightly bumping it up a little.

"My name's Ben. I don't believe we've met." The young man nods slightly. "I live near the industrial area, but I visit the Wilds sometimes. I don't usually do well with crowds. I've been trying to socialize more, though. Most of my time's been spent stocking up for the winter."

The Pokemon chirps, looking at the stranger and hopping a little closer.

"It's the name of a goddess from the world of one of my close friends. Galahad, if you've met him."

Aal nods, "Nice to met you and not as yet." She murmurs warmly. "Most folks call me Ash." She replies in kind. She listens raptly and nods with a slight tilt of her head to the right. She coughs wryly in sympathy, "I know how that can be..It's easier if it's..a smaller or least a group of folks ya know tis true." She murmurs in understanding.

"If we're not in certain realms my husband and I have a flat not far from the plaza at the moment." She murmurs, after all, no harm in trying to gather intel from some of the other causal like. They were looking for a bigger place or somewhere they could build eventually. Though certain events had given them pause.

"Ah.. yes good idea..you never know.." She trails off a little , her tone low as she glances about. Yes, best not to perhaps bring things up where certain beings could hear if they had any inclination to be petty or in some other foul mood this year. She softly clears her thoart. "Ahem."

She smiles a little warmer at this her eyes brightening. "Oh..ello." She murmurs warmly and crouches a little trying to look as non-threatening as possible some critters didn't mind her canineness, others did probably more from instinct than anything. She was never one to snarl or bite first literally or figuratively. She tries a soft little melodic whistly tune of 'hello friend' in songbird.

"Ah I heard..of..both and not as yet..Nice to know though." She informs him sincerely. Especially if she ran into anyone else they knew mutually. It had been kinda quiet lately but the holidays were coming up. She'd been doing her best to try and make more friends or least acquaintances and allies.

She sighs softly and looked a mite wistful, Trying to not get her hopes up or grin like a giddy loon. Though knowing her luck she'd literally run into one of the Creme de la creme of the Knights of The Round Table and make a right fool of herself. Some Healer she was turning out to be. {Sorry Gran.} She mentally sent out apologetically into the atmosphere.

"It's best to be respectful toward the spirits. I've met two of them." Ben has the impression that the seasonal spirits are more than a little spooky, and ask strange questions of people, but that they're not beings you want angry at you. It's the same with angels, though he's found that most of the angels feel more human, for lack of a better term. "Winter and Spring. I don't know who the Fall spirit is."

The Rookidee makes a chirping noise, looking up at Ash.

"You can try petting her, if you like." Ben's glad he still wears thick sleeves, with those claws poking into his arm. It's not painful, but he can definitely feel it. Morrigan makes a sound imitating Ash's songbird call. "Yes. There's a chance she might not stay so small."

"Aye." She nods softly in agreement, "Oh, same..though I've not met Spring yet." She murmurs and looks a little pleased about being able to help with this at least. "Oh, that would be Hazel," He face softens and looks wistful. "Not seen her in a while though." She murmurs softly and informingly.

She smiles softly and chirps back warmly.

"Oh thank ya kindly. " She murmurs and gently reaches her palm out for the bird to see, her lips twitch. "Oh do ya need a leather glove or something?" She asks warmly. "Ah I see." She murmurs and rubs her chin in thought.

Loki first looks at the bird, then at the ship, not sure which one to ask about, first, but he's already curious.

"Hey, there."

"Who are you?"

Ben knows a Loki when he sees one, but they're all distinct from one another.

Loki hasn't met Ben before, and while he knows there are other Lokis in Nexus, he'd be flattered that being Loki is such a recognisable feature, if he knew. Possibly.

"Loki Odinson. Pleased to meet you-"

Whoever the stranger is.

"Is this some kind of vehicle? Doesn't really look like a ship."

Laserbeak has been watching Misfire and Ravage talk to Ben about the ship and play with their weird food gun that turned a perfectly good rust stick into something nasty and meaty. This is frankly kind of boring and she bets the tiny bird who is on Ben's shoulder is also bored, so she whistles and trills to it.

{Hey you-do you talk-come fly?}

The Rookidee turns to face LB, blinking slowly.

Ben looks to follow the voice, turning to see Laserbeak. He gives her a smile in greeting, letting Morrigan approach. "Hello, LB. You want to play with Morrigan? She doesn't understand Cybertronian, but I can give her the general sense of what you're saying."

{If she wants to play?}

LB tries just making friendly bird noises. But she is a much bigger bird than Morrigan is and she is a little worried that she might be scary.

Morrigan gives a small, bobbing nod.

"I think she does want to play with you - she's not easy to scare." Ben allows the Rookidee to get a closer look at LB.

Laserbeak trills at the little bird.

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Taking Flight

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