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Who: Disciple and OPEN
Where: Here, there, everywhere.
When: March 21-25th
What: Various shenanigans from Di adopting a mutant cat that seems to be made of silly putty, painting, and other things. Feel free to ping me on my journal if you want to plot :3
Warnings: None for now.

a. meet pudding

[Di was surprised it had taken her this long to get a pet. It was so simple to do here on Earth, and she was in a position now where she could reasonably do so. Returning to her home day after day, with no company made for a lonesome experience. With everything that had been happening she really could use someone to openly love, dote on, and cuddle with.

When she entered the animal shelter, Di quickly realized that limiting herself to just one cat would be one of the greatest tests of her will she had ever undergone.

After a couple hours of cooing over nearly every cat in the shelter Di walked out a very happy troll, with a new pet cat on her shoulders. A pet cat that looked more like a big lob of pink silly putty with eyes that was currently melting down her shoulder.

His name was Pudding and she was enjoying a day out in the park with him, perched beneath a tree with a picnic basket next to them.

((ooc; so an explanation. I've always wanted to get Di a cat like Choo-choo Bear from Something Positive. Pudding is similar in attitude and...substance and is the result of your run of the mill crazy mutation through tragic/scientific means. Feel free to be completely and utterly disgusted by him. Or love him. Or hate him on a sincere and personal level.))]

b. painting

[With a small source of personal income, Di now felt she could buy things she wished for without guilt. One of the first things she had invested in was some paints and canvases, and she had been painting nonstop since.

As it was a beautiful day, cooler than some of the recent ones, Di had decide to work outside. She had brought along her canvas bag with some finished paintings: the sight of both of Alternia's moons in a starry sky, the Signless, Psionic, and Dolorosa gathered around a campfire, the market place of one of the many rural villages they had passed in their journeys. There were other paintings as well, not pertaining to her home world: the first look of Earth she had glimpsed from space, the city at night with all its bright lights.

At the moment she was well into another painting, working with a tiny brush at painting the likeness of the Cybertronian she had recently encountered for a second time. Orion Pax was someone her heart went out to, and she hoped that soon all things would become clear for him.]

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[ Arcee's scouting out the city with her holomatter avatar when she sees the Alternian. She's since discovered there are a few trolls on this planet, but it's strange to see the Alternians here, mixed in with the humans. Cybertronians and Alternians have had a turbulent history together at best, and the idea that there are even a handful of them on Earth is a little strange. But stranger still is the painting she's working on -- it catches her attention immediately and she draws closer, watching Di work for a minute or two before she says anything. ]

Don't mean to interrupt, but -- would you mind telling me what you're painting?

[Di is nearly done with the painting, focusing on the moment on completing Orion's face. It was the eyes, as ever, that caused her the most difficulty but she was determined to get them right. In her mind she could see them as clearly as if he were standing in front of her, but the image dissipated when Arcee spoke.

She turned towards the human, clearly a bit out of sorts until she focused her sight on Arcee.]

Oh! This? It's a Cybertronian, an alien species.

You don't say.

[ Well, so much for discretion on this planet. That plus the rumors of Cybertronian sightings she's seen on the human data networks is starting to make all of the disguising and creeping around feel sort of unnecessary -- except the Decepticons are still a threat, and whoever was responsible for that AI. Arcee debates being honest with the Alternian, but given the turbulent history between their species and the fact that this one is a total stranger...she holds off. Her real body does start to make its way through the streets toward her avatar and Di, though. Never hurts to be prepared. ]

I think I've heard of them, actually, but I thought they were just...rumors. Is this one...a friend of yours?

I hadn't know about them until recently myself, but no, they are very much real. [It looks like she wants to add something else before she decides against it and turns to look at the painting as she considers Arcee's question.

In truth she and Orion hadn't really spoken that many times, but their most recent conversation had certainly made her feel connected to Orion in a way she wasn't with anyone else in her life right now.

So really, there was only a near negligible hesitance before she nodded, tone warm as she spoke.]

Yes, he is.

[ Maybe this is the friend Orion had mentioned, the one who had helped him get some medical care. Arcee doesn't want to snoop, exactly, but she has to find out a little more. She wants to be as appraised of the situation as possible. She steps in a little closer, examining the painting. She's talented, that's for sure. ]

Do you mind if I ask how you met?

[Now that gave Di reason to pause. She would never question the desire to learn, so had Arcee simply asked about Cybertronians in general she would have been happy to divulge what she knew. Her brow furrows and the smile fades a little.]

I'm sorry if I offend but why do you ask?

[ Arcee's starting to think that cautiously keeping things to herself might have been the wrong route to take with this. She could keep playing it safe, but that's not going to get her very far, and she thinks that the longer she tries to play dumb, the more suspicious she'll seem. And if Orion trusts her...

She hesitates a moment, hovering, and drops her voice. ]

He's...a friend. Sorry, I...might have exaggerated my ignorance there. You're the friend who helped him out, aren't you?

[Di set her brush down and turned to face Arcee once more, giving her, her full attention now.

She was grateful that the other woman had decided to be honest (or at the very least, more honest). The caution and omission was not something Di would hold against her, considering she felt similarly wary of talking to about Orion to anyone. The guy had enough on his plate as it was without her adding to it by giving him unwanted attention. Next time it struck her fancy to paint him, she'd remember to keep it inside.]

I did get him in contact with someone who could help with some injuries he had.

[Orion had never mentioned any human friends before, but that could very well be it just had simply not come up. Their discussion had been pretty focused. As Di looked Arcee over she couldn't help but feel there was something strange about her. Not wrong, no, just off and she couldn't quite place why.]

[ Arcee's relieved to confirm that this in fact the friend Orion had mentioned. He hadn't mentioned she was Alternian...then again, Orion's memories are too far back to know anything about the Alternian Empire, or the conflicts Cybertron's had with them in the past. She relaxes visibly, nodding, looking somewhat comforted by that. ]

He mentioned that you'd found someone to help him. Thank you for that.

[ She pauses, looking at Di curiously. She's still not sure if she should disclose the truth about her own species. ]

I guess I was just a little surprised. I didn't think most Alternians would go out of their way to help a Cybertronian.

[This person had the right of it. Generally speaking an Alternian would not go out of their way to help any other species. Hell, they seemed to have difficulty enough helping their own kind.]

Well, our relationship with them in the past may not be all that great, but I don't see why that can't change.

[Wait. No. Let her amend that. There was a definite reason why it couldn't change. At least not on a large scale.]

Well. I suppose it wouldn't because of our...Empress, but I've never been particularly supportive of her.

[ Di is just full of surprises. That's actually pretty comforting to hear; the Alternian Empress has given Cybertron no shortage of trouble, and she's even allied with the Decepticons once or twice. Doesn't really put her in Arcee's good book. ]

Is that why you're here -- on Earth? I didn't expect to find Alternians here, but it seems like there's a handful of you scattered around.

That's right, more or less. [She dips her fingertips in a small can of water she has, then wipes her hands free of paint and water with a towel before holding a hand out to shake.]

I'm Magdal. Are you also not from Earth? [Arcee's wording seemed to imply as much, and perhaps that was why something seemed different about her. Di still hadn't been able to pinpoint exactly what it was that seemed unusual]

[ Magdal. She'll have to remember that. Anyone who went out of their way to help Orion is someone Arcee wants to keep in mind.

She hesitates, debating with herself for a moment, but it's not as though the presence of Cybertronians on this planet is a secret to this Alternian, and her sympathies don't lie with the Condesce. And more than that, Arcee can't see the benefit in lying to her. She nods, keeping her voice at a discreet volume. Mostly, she just doesn't want to say too much in public. ]

This isn't my real body -- just an avatar. I'm Cybertronian as well. [ She takes Di's hand and shakes it, her grip firm. ] My name is Arcee.

[With that small revelation dropped, Di's mind is blown away.]

An avatar? [She can divine what Arcee means by that, even if she has never seen holographic images before. What she finds astounding is the fact that this avatar is solid. It's also with this new information, and Arcee being a little closer that it finally hits her. This person has no scent. It seems so obvious now that she thought about it but usually she fixated on how people did smell, not how they didn't.]

That's incredible. [Her pupils seem to grow much larger than usual and her hair ruffled a little as her ears stood up in excitement. She gave Arcee’s hand a gentle, experimental squeeze before she finally remembered herself and quickly let go, embarrassed]

Er, sorry. [It was only then when Arcee’s name finally sunk in and she realized who this must be.] Arcee? Of the Autobots? [The name was one she had only recently acquired from Legion. Small city, indeed.]

[ Magdal's fascination at her avatar is...kind of endearing, in a way. Arcee can definitely see how she and Orion could have become friendly, at least. ]

It's all right. [ She really doesn't mind the touch, honestly -- if anything, she's just glad that Magdal doesn't seem to be angry that she'd pretended to be human. ]

The Autobots, yes. I'm guessing Orion mentioned something?

We did talk about the situation. [Di couldn't really fault anyone for being disguised. It's not as if she were upfront with everyone about who she was either. In any case Arcee had dropped the pretense rather quickly so she saw little reason to hold a grudge.

Knowing her identity did, however, cause her to feel a bit awkward. It was the first Cybertronian that she had met who was involved in the warring factions (to her knowledge, in any case). Everything she knew about the Autobots, about the Decepticons, about Cybertron and its history she all knew from Orion. It almost felt mythological in a way, and to meet someone who was a part of it felt very surreal.]

Your name I got from Legion.

[ Legion? Well, that explains it. Legion seems to have a subroutine in every pie around here, so to speak. Arcee's not all that surprised -- although she's a little ruffled. She supposes it might have been a double standard to ask Legion to keep her identity a secret, since discretion is the name of the game here, but they've helped the Autobots out a lot just by leading them to Orion when he'd been kidnapped. ]

The...situation. Right. [ She smiles faintly, albeit ruefully. ] You mean the situation where Orion doesn't know who to trust to tell the truth?

[Di watched Arcee studiously. It was a strange feeling. In this situation the only emotional investment she had was Orion. Especially considering that she did not know the truth, the factions of the Autobots and Decepticons could only mean so much to her at this point in time. She truly had not idea how she was supposed to regard any of the actors involved in this.

While her instinct was to sympathize with Arcee, she could very easily be someone just trying to manipulate the situation to return Orion to the Warlord the Decepticons said he had been.]

Yes, that situation.

[ And now Arcee looks faintly uncomfortable, because she knows what kind of position that puts both her and Magdal in. Awkward. ]

Look, I'm not here to try to convince you one way or another which of us Orion --or you -- should trust. I know that anything I say about it is more or less suspect. I just wanted to...thank you. For helping him.

[Arcee sounds sincere. Especially if that's all she wants to say, but Di can't help but still keep her defenses up. She gives a nod of acknowledgment.]

You're welcome. I would like to hear your side of things though. The more I know, the more I can try and give him an unbiased opinion on the facts.

[Whether Arcee spoke the truth or not, more information would help them see what lines up and what doesn't]

[ Arcee looks at her hesitantly, an eyebrow raised. ]

You do? You want biased information?

[ Even though Arcee knows Megatron was lying and she's not, it's impossible for her to speak without bias. But at least she never said anything that wasn't untrue. ]

I do. I'm not saying I'm necessarily going to believe everything you say, but biased information is still better than no information.

[Particularly for her, there were still a lot of things she didn't understand simply because she was not Cybertronian.]

I guess I see your point.

[ Arcee hesitates still, but her avatar shrugs. What does she have to lose? It's not like Di doesn't already know a lot -- that there are Cybertronians on Earth, for instance. ]

It's...a long story. I have records I could send you, if you're really that curious. But the short of it is that Megatron and Orion were once friends, a long, long time ago. They were revolutionaries, I guess you could say -- there was a lot of injustice in our society, a caste system. They wanted change, and they were working together to achieve that change. And then Orion received the Matrix of Leadership -- the artifact that made him Optimus Prime -- and...long story short, Megatron went off in a bad way. He turned away from his ideals, turned to tyranny and war mongering.

[ She tries to keep her voice level, but her hands clench into fists and she sighs. ]

There are no innocent parties in a war, I know that. But the atrocities Megatron's committed...the Decepticons aren't revolutionaries, they're cruel. And now Megatron's taken the Matrix from Orion -- I don't know how -- and he's lied to Orion, tried to make it sound like the Autobots are some kind of oppressive regime. But we've followed Optimus Prime all this time, and I know you don't know Optimus, but...he wasn't all that different from Orion, in the end. There's a reason Orion was chosen as the next bearer of the Matrix.

[There was a small amount there that Di felt confident was factual. Orion had told her about how things were on Cybertron, how and he Megatronus--Megatron, had been friends. They worked together to try and make things better and had been received by the Council who decided to give Orion the Matrix.

The whole thing with Optimus and Orion was strange to her. She had simply thought that was a title Orion had taken on, just as she had once cast aside her birth name of Magdal for the title of Disciple. The way Arcee spoke about them, however, made it seem as if they were somewhat different entities and that didn't sit very well with Di for personal reasons.

Her own feelings on that, however, were irrelevant.]

When exactly was the Matrix taken from Orion? [Di had been hoping to hear something about how the Matrix had been taken from him. Figuring out if it was in fact gone was important and Di felt it would lead them to the truth. Arcee may not know how it was taken from him(or claim to not) but getting a tentative time frame was a starting point.]

All I have is a time frame. [ The avatar's shoulders slacken, and Arcee sighs heavily. ] But it was pretty recent. Some months back, Optimus left our outpost to take care of another threat. I don't know exactly how things went down -- Orion doesn't remember, and I don't trust Megatron to give me an accurate account, if any -- but somewhere along the way, Megatron managed to get his hands on the Matrix. I don't know how, but he did. My best guess is that it was in the last couple of months. Whenever Orion's current memories begin.