Who Is Bulwark?

Log Title: Who Is Bulwark? Characters: Scales, Windblade Location: Nevada Desert/Off-Duty Lounge - Autobot City Date: August 21, 2018 TP: Non-TP Summary: Windblade asks about Valvolux, and Scales is happy to share what she knows. As logged by  Scales Log session starting at 20:50:33 on Tuesday, 21 August 2018.

Scales stirs awake from her catnap out in the desert, noticing that all the nice, warm sunshine is gone for the day. Awww. She yawns and stretches and looks around.

Windblade sits not too far away, looking out over Autobot City with a bit of a wistful expression. She doesn't seem to notice the little dragon yet, as she seems lost in her own thoughts.

Scales ohs! There's the Cityspeaker. She bounds over. "Hi! Whatcha up to?"

Windblade blinks, then smiles over at Scales, "Oh, just thinking... I guess it's just sinking in how close I came to never seeing Metroplex again." She shakes her head, "Guess I'm just feeling a touch maudlin tonight. How are you doing?"

Scales grins. "Good! I got lots of sunshine today, an' I always feel better after a good sunbathe. A lot of the time I go sit with Snarl for 'em, but he's been patrolling around a lot more since we saw those Cobra guys."

Windblade hrms, "Have to admit, I'm not too familiar with these Cobra people... guessing they're the humans version of 'you are being deceived'."

Scales nods. "Yeah. They wanna conquer and rule stuff. I wish it were easier to help out to stop 'em, but when we get involved, lots of -other- people get mad at us for it."

Windblade nods, "Worried that if we start interfering, we won't know when to stop." She frowns, "Still, wish they'd be able to trust us a bit, but I can understand why they don't."

Scales nods. "Yeah. We work with the Joes a little, I think. Spike would know more about that."

Windblade hrms, "Funny, he's never really talked about it to me... but then I guess I haven't seen him too much since I got back." She shrugs a little at that.

Scales sits. "Well, I was spending mosta my time with the Dinobots for a while, there. An' then stuff happened on Cybertron over in Valvolux an' they needed medics an' I was free, so I ended up there for weeks."

Windblade nods, "Yes, Valvolux..." Even though she wasn't responsible for what happened, Megatron's manipulation of her still rings in her spark as she winces, then looks over at Scales, "What was it like there? I didn't see much of it before I got captured."

Scales hmms. "Bein' bunkered down isn't a lotta fun. We got a lot of people out before things got really bad, but there were still plenty of locals who stayed an' then got hurt. 'm glad we found Bulwark- from the sound of it, he took care of Overlord, an' then he went around putting out fires after the explosion. I was kind of workin' on Dust Devil when the big fight went down, so I missed it an' just got to see the injured."

Windblade hrms. "So, who is Bulwark anyway? I kept hearing him mentioned, but I hadn't actually had a chance to meet him." She glances curiously at the dragon, tilting her head.

Scales ohs! "We found him in a stasis pod way under Valvolux! He's normally a pretty normal lookin' guy, but he turns into a great, big dragon. I mean BIG dragon." She holds her paws out, which is entirely inadequate to measure such a statement. "He's also got this digging mode that tears through rocks and spits out ingots if there's ore, which is pretty cool. He said he designed and built a bunch of the stuff we found under Valvolux.. and in Valvolux, too."

Windblade shakes her head, "So he's... /that/ ancient?" She sounds remarkably impressed, "I almost wonder if he knew of the Primes." Sure, there's Optimus, but that's not quite the same thing.

Scales nods. "When we went to open up the room he was in, the lock was.. well, it was unlocked with a really old song. Imager knew it. And before it actually opened, the walls all lit up and changed into these reliefs that showed the Primes. I hadta ask for the details, 'cause I didn't really know it all that well, but apparently it was the story of Solus Prime getting betrayed by Megatronus and then sacrificing herself to make the well of Allsparks. It was really amazing! If y'wanna see the footage I recorded, I c'n show you on a monitor inside sometime."

Windblade gasps quietly at the mention of Solus, and nods, "I'd... I'd like that, yes." She smiles, "All Cityspeakers are dedicated to Solus, so seeing anything of her would be... well, special."

Scales beams. "Anytime! Bulwark's kind of.. slippery ta talk to. Like, he'll answer only half of what y'ask a lotta the time, like he doesn't wanna talk about stuff. But from what we can figure, he's MET at least some o'them. An he made the room he was in, and the room with the lock. An' the titan-sized repair bay."

Windblade nods, "Titan-sized... well, that seems to be something that Solus would have used, since she was the First of us." She hmms, "I think next time I'm on Cybertron I'd like to speak with him."

Scales nods. "He shouldn't be too hard to find. He says Valvolux is 'his' city, so he isn't interested in leaving it." She gets up. "Y'wanna go find a monitor so I c'n show ya that lock?"

Windblade rises to her feet and smiles at Scales, "I'd like that, Scales. Lead the way." She gestures back towards Autobot City.

You enter Autobot City...

Main Entrance - Autobot City

As you enter the main entrance of Autobot City, a few Autobot guards stop you and check your entrance pass, after they see you have the correct credentials, they wave you on. The inside of Metroplex is ENORMOUS, it seems as if it could go on forever. The walls are completely made of steel and there are computer terminals and intercoms located at strategic places along the way. Straight ahead is a corridor leading towards the heart of the city, and the exit lies opposite of it. Leading off to the side is a long tunnel that rises upwards towards the Landing Pad where aircraft of all types land and take off as visitors and military personal alike arrive and depart from the city.

You go to Off Duty Lounge - Residential Complex - Autobot City.

Off Duty Lounge - Residential Complex - Autobot City

The Autobot lounge is a stark contrast to the business-first attitude of the rest of Autobot City. Several comfortable couches in both human and Transformer sizes all face a big screen television - small for a Transformer, of course. Several tables are organized in a fashion that both talks of a serious nature of these of fun and games. On one of the tables rests the infamous lego set. A small computer terminal rests on the wall by the door in case of any emergency.

Scales bounds inside and messes around with the TV for a bit, managing to hook herself up to it somehow. She turns it on and takes a moment to go through her recorded footage, selecting the right one. It takes a moment to pull it up.

The screen comes on, showing a large room with an equally large door, all blank. << Imager murmurs softly, "Its something from the first age, even before the Empyrean Suite was etched to sheet by Operatius...I only learned the first part of this one...." She plays as she shifts side to side, concentrating, "Originem Fabla...'Story's Start', it was the first part of 'Solus' Repose' This seems like the refrain from later in...."

She plays further, then says in a firm voice. "Even if there is nothing else down here. This....is a treasure." She plays, and one of the walls begins to suffuce with light. The whole panel illuminating in the darkness. As the metal's luminescence increases edging and patterns appear until there is only a darkened square in the middle. Ancient glyphs decorate a small portion by the darkened square. And from behind the wall there is a bit of scraping that can be heard. Every now and then a soft bang and then more scraping, muffled by the thickness of the metal panel against the wall. >>

Windblade sits down in a proper sized chair, watching intently as she leans forward a bit, trying to take in every last detail of the video.

The recording continues, every detail crisp, a given as it was recorded by a tape after all. << The tune is haunting, melancholy, and beautiful- the space echoing and amplfying Imager's perfomance as she plays. Portion of the walls begin to light up, revealing scenes of Solus Prime through her life, forging the artifacts of the Primes, scenes of her with the other Primes (some of which feature Megatronus quite prominently), and others that eventually lead to one showing the her fatal wounding at the hands of Megatronus.

All the walls are glowing now with these scenes, and all the while Typhoon has been watching the power level in the door climbing and climbing until it too finally shines. As with the walls the featureless door changes to depict Solus' ultimate sacrifice as she was returned to the core of Cybertron.

The middle portion of the door fills in last, showing the Well of Allsparks. When the last note of the tune echoes to silence there is the sound of machinery coming to life within the door and a seam appearing that bifurcates the Well of Allsparks. >>

Windblade shakes her head, entranced by the images, "That's... wow. I really should go there myself, just to see it." Her voice is soft, as she sounds rather reverent towards the images that are showing there.

Scales ends the recording and spends a little time disconnecting. "It was really amazing to have it all around," she says quietly. "After all the other stuff that happened, it was... nice."

Windblade nods, "I can only imagine... on Caminus, we dedicated ourselves to Solus, the Mistress of Flame..." She absently touches the markings just below her eyes, "That's what these are, all Cityspeakers wear the mark of Solus."

Scales shakes off her mood to peer at Windblade's face. "Oh! So that's why you painted Banshee, then."

Windblade smiles a bit, "Yes, exactly. To be a Cityspeaker is a sacred duty, it transcends the War." She hrms, "Though I'd be lying if I wasn't concerned about what I did. But Trypticon... they tortured him, he's far older and wiser than most would think, but it's buried under so much pain and rage..." She sighs, actually pitying the kaiju-Titan from the sounds of it.

Scales hums. "I don't think a lotta them are happy. Decepticons, I mean. I guess maybe some of them just really like beating people up? But y'gotta wonder if they just.. don't know anythin' else. They're not just mean to us- they're mean to each other."

Windblade nods, "You are being deceived... that's what they tell themselves. But in truth, they only deceive themselves. Like Starscream." She sighs, a sad expression on her face, "They lose themselves in their self-delusions when they could be so much more."

Scales flops on one of the human sized couches, which happens to be more her size than the ones for the larger transformers. "Have you seen one of the Earth shows here called My Little Pony?"

Windblade tilts her head, "No... I don't believe I have." She smiles a little at Scales, "That's a show you like?"

Scales nods. "It's pretty good! I mean, it's a kid's show, so sometimes it's a bit obvious, but that's not a bad thing alla time." She turns on the TV and searches for the program.

Log session ending at 23:55:40 on Tuesday, 21 August 2018.