Scene #9795: Intergalactic Boozehounds

Owner	Pose
Shockwave	Shockwave Macaddam's Oil House was bustling. It was the Cybertronian equivalent of Friday, and the majority of industrial workers from lower Iacon had taken the afternoon off to meet up and relax. Warm lights with the occasional neon kept the place well-illuminated. Larger berths for Cybertronians along with smaller ones for humanoids were set at odd angular architecture and heights. The bouncers at the door weren't paying much attention to who was coming or going until a certain large, purple, cycloptic 0.1% Point-One-Percenter showed up. One that hadn't been seen for innumerous cycles. At the threshold, the bouncers looked up at the singular yellow optic staring at them. "Sh-Shockwave?!" "Stand aside. I have social business within," he intoned to the pair. They glanced at each other, blue optics widening, before they swiftly got out of the way. Through he went, and the room went silent the moment his frame shadowed the entry. The hexagonal head swiveled until the owner - Macaddam himself - threw a metallic cup upside one of the waiters' heads, which bounced off with a clank. "Service! I don't give a good Primus-damn who walks in, they all get the same treatment!" A mini-con waiter, several units shorter, more humanoid-size, stared up the height and swallowed before asking, "..Table for..?" "Several. Accomodations for Cybertronian and organic humanoid," came the response. The mini-con showed him through, people parting instantly like the Rust Sea when Cyber-Moses walked through it, and finally settled into a berth that had cushioned hoverseats that could lift to speaking height without breaking one's neck to look up. There he waited for the others to arrive, his lack of facial structure giving away nothing.
Meresankh	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZksH2sIQdJ8 Meresankh's articulated throne marches through the door on its many mechanical legs. Atop it the queen lounges, though she couldn't look disinterested if she tried. Her excitement, to meet a returning Chevalier AND a fellow scientist, is evident from the little bouncy-leg she's doing as she lies there. The throne does its own little tippy-taps, inheriting the energy from its rider, as she casts her gaze about the room in search of her new acquaintances. On spotting Shockwave she gives an enthusiastic wave and her throne advances to the table, settling down atop one of the hovering platforms and lifting to conversation height. "I'm at the right table, yes? Shockwave? I am Queen Meresankh, monarch of Oryx." Noticing the stares of trepidation in the table's direction, Meresankh assumes everyone is afraid of her. "Fear not, people of Cybertron! I come to you in peace!" she proclaims as she sits up from her lounging position. Then, turning to Ru Li, "You must be the Ru Cheng god, yes?"
Rufus Shinra	Rufus arrives! Was he invited? Was he not invited? It doesn't matter much, because he's here. "Heyyy." Finger-guns, once he manages to find the right table. "Shockwave, right? Was expecting you to be taller. Ha ha ha." He alights smoothly into the hover chair, but he stands on it instead of sits on it, spinning it around so it's facing backward and putting one foot on the back (now front) of the chair to do a stupid pose as it rises - like he's an explorer posing at the front of a ship with one foot on the railing. "Rufus," he says, simply. "So what's your trick? Big gun?" He nods to the arm cannon. "It's nice. Do anything special?"
Ru Li	It's beautiful. Cybertron is beautiful. It's not beautiful in a classical way. No rolling hills, no glorious forests, no grand mountains with spilling waterfalls, no fields of flowers nor bright blue sky. It's beautiful in a way that Ru Li has never seen, but feels a great, distant melancholy for, the sort of beautiful that's chaotic and logical at the same time. It's admirable. It's sad and lost, an architecture of tomorrow rendered yesterday by endless brutality. Ru Li wanders a little bit through the massive edifices, lost in the taste, the feel, of the metal and wire. And more than that... The taste of divinity. The feel of godhood, of Maintainerhood, of something vaster and more powerful than Ru Li could ever, ever be, dancing in the burnt-out wires and the wretched structures. His fingers brush across a ruined building's exposed structure, and he simply listens to the planet's heartbeat, the pulsing of its mechanisms, and in it he hears something vaster. He is the last to arrive. He's in a mechanical mien, and could almost be mistaken for a Minicon were it not for the fact that the scanners of Maccadam's Old Oil House detected foreign flesh of a nature it's never seen before. He makes his way over to the table and simply hops up onto it. No need for a hoverchair. He's simply able to do that. He presses his metal fist into his metal hand and bows to everyone, politely. "I hope you will forgive me for arriving last. I was marveling at the wonders of this place. It is..." "...miraculous."
Rufus Shinra	> "...miraculous." "I'll say!" agrees Rufus for all the wrong reasons, as he endeavors to steer his hoverchair over to slap Ru Li on the back, and then gaze out and around at all of the oversized patrons. "So speaking about wonders and miracles, what's the Cybertron equivalent of wearing a wedding ring? Just so, you know, someone knows what approach to use," he asides to Shockwave.
Shockwave	At the approach of Meresankh on her throne, which it climbed upon one of the hovering platforms with its spidery little tapping legs, Shockwave turned his hexagonal faceplate with its cycloptic optic upon her. A cursory examination of passive viewing without deep scanning beams told him well enough regarding her synthetic existence. Well. Pseudo-synthetic. About as much as his own was pseudo-synthetic. "Correct," he intoned in that not-quite-natural register. "Queen Meresankh, it is agreeable to .. place a face to the name." When she announces to the room that she comes in peace, he does not interject, nor can he really give away how amusing it is, since... no face. At the approach of Rufus Shinra, Shockwave's optic flares a moment. He partially Wonders if it is the same Rufus Shinra from when he had been previously active, but the question of his identity and to confirm it was enough to tell him that it isn't. At the query about his cannon, he lifted his left arm and placed it on the table's illuminated surface. There was no hand. Just the barrel. "I am fully capable of emitting particle waves of varying scales, intensities, and frequencies, to include electromagnetic pulses. The nuclear reactor housed within my frame supplements my energon output," he states matter-of-factly. "And you, Rufus." Shockwave leans a bit over the table, curiously. "Any tricks?" The scanners at Macaddam's pick up foreign organic flesh, but the outer shell of the mechanical mien of Ru Li presentes a curved, humanoid Cybertronian. The unassuming mini-con waiters just gawk. When Ru Li hops up onto the table with Shockwave 'measuring dick' with his cannon, so to speak, only because Rufus wants to see it, he leans back again and looks at the polite bowing entity, that singular cyclopean optic almost glitching as he struggles to hold back his analysis scanners. "Welcome to Cybertron," he intones to everyone at the table. "If you desire refreshments, Macaddam's has a variety of beverages available, possibly including compatible fuel, Your Majesty," he indicates to Meresankh. Then, he looks back to Ru Li, his hexagonal head tilting slightly. "Divinity incarnate. Fascinating." His head swivels, catches the attention of the owner behind the bar. All it took was one look. Macaddam quickly shoos wait staff over to the table to start taking orders. Back to Rufus, Shockwave's optic winks out rapidly, as if 'blinking'. "...I am uncertain."
Ru Li	Rufus whacks him on the back. It's probably not the first time Rufus has whacked metal on the back. He laughs, awkwardly. "Yes. It tastes of history. Feels of...something ancient and wise and powerful. I don't think I can fully explain it." "Um, yes! I am, as I have said, Ru Li Cheng, ninth of nine Ru Cheng gods of Yinghua." He looks up at the Transformer with no small amount of awe, though it's hard to tell since his metallic mien doesn't really...show that. He stares at the single eye for a long moment before he lowers his head in respect. "I...understand you to be a hero. One who has never abandoned his principles or broken his word. I am honored to meet you."
Shockwave	Shockwave watched the interactions between Rufus and Ru Li before focusing on the deity for a moment. "Query: Explain the Ru Cheng gods of Yinghua. The origin and essence of your divinity. My curiosity is considerable, given that I expended millions of years with an atheistic subroutine of beliefs, until I brushed against the Infraspace, which is categorically considered the synthetic afterlife where all chronological entities that have transmuted from mortality into a death-state reside on a plane of pure information, resulting in my desire to study its existence, mode of access, and interactability." The term 'hero' has Shockwave lean back in the berth, his optic unblinking. "My principles are the continuation of the Cybertronian species by exiting the cycle of mortality with the creation of infinite or self-regenerating resources. I do not give my word easily." His right hand lifts to the upper angular plating of his torso and gives a light tap to the old Decepticon emblem. "'Hero' may not be an acceptable adjective, however." But, he does not state why. Finally, a couple of mini-con waiters are at the table with digital tablets and stylus asking, "So, what's yer poison, champs?"
Meresankh	"Yes. It tastes of history." Meresankh nods, thinking she grasps the fullness of Ru Li's appreciation. "Indeed, I've only had time to brush up on this Cybertron's history a little but it's got quite a pedigree." When Shockwave inquires as to the nature of Ru Li's divinity, Meresankh properly turns her gaze to the Yinghua god. Her eyes hum, imperceptible to most ears but probably not inaudible to Ru Li's divine attention for detail, as she performs a full scan of his pseudomechanical physiology. "Fascinating... Yes, do tell us! What is it to be a god, in Yinghua?" The queen orders a platter of little glowing energon cubes. Finger food! "My body is self-sustaining," she says, "so I do not need sustenance - but that simple makes any consumable a luxury. These are good! Fresher than the supply I had at my welcoming-to-the-Commonwealth celebration." She also doesn't have a mouth - she's consuming them by using her scepter to catalyze the energon and absorb the resulting emissions.
Ru Li	"Ah...I see. You think when I say 'hero' I mean 'good person.'" Ru Li shakes his head. "I don't. A lot of people out in the multiverse seem to believe that. Plenty of people are 'good people' who sacrifice to help others." "A hero is someone who keeps their word no matter what. A hero is someone who, no matter what the world says, refuses to kneel before it. A hero is someone who does not give excuses for failing - they simply accept that they have failed and try again and again and again." Ru Li points at the Decepticon symbol. "Whatever that may mean to anyone else, to me, it means you are a hero. You may be an evil hero, or a just hero, or a rebellious hero, or a proud hero, or anything else, but the fact that you chose a cause you believed in strongly enough to burn it into your very flesh - if you will pardon the phrase - means that you are a hero." Suddenly, the machine-face...blushes? It turns a very light gold. "Ah. Y-yes, I apologize. I...get carried away in my admiration." Ru Li sits down. He tilts his head at the Mini-Con. "Some oil, if you please? I do not think you have the means to sanctify it properly but it will not do me any damage in the meantime. Perhaps a mild case of indigestion." He's joking. He can drink it fine. Then he takes a deep (and unnecessary) breath. It's weird to see a mechanical chest rise and fall, especially since he hadn't done so up until this point. "First I must explain to you the Engine of Heaven." Ru Li opens his hand. An old-style wooden brush appears, with a long sword-blade (hastily) attached to the other side of it. He holds up the brush. "This is an object that exists. It is observable. The forces acting upon it are observable." He drops the brush. It falls to the table. "We can observe gravity, and light, and air friction, and the release of potential energy into kinetic energy with our naked eye." Ru Li holds out his hand. The brush leaps back up into it. "But we cannot, here, observe the fundamental elements of your world that create these forces. We cannot observe what generates gravity - I do not mean the movement of the planets but the underpinning." Ru Li waves the brush in the air. It vanishes. "In the world I come from, we can. It is called the Engine of Heaven. It is vaster than anything you can imagine. I cannot describe it accurately - only that it is titanic." Ru Li glances over at Rufus. "I...believe you took some pictures during your visit with the Emperor, yes? It would be much easier to show them, and I do not have such pictures."
Rufus Shinra	If there was another Rufus Shinra - well, it's a huge multiverse, so there probably is more than one Rufus Shinra out there even today. But this one's definitely younger. At least, definitely not twenty years older? Anyway. Getting a giant robot girlfriend/boyfriend/otherfriend can wait, he supposes. "Nuclear! The other white meat. I dig it." Finger guns. "You'll have to show me the whole range of the spectrum, sometime. I know a couple bars that have built-in firing ranges." "And sure!" He pulls out a handful of coins from a pocket, rolls them around his fingers, makes them disappear, and then pulls one out from behind Ru Li's ear (or closest ear analogue). "Tah dah. I can do a sharpshooting stage show too, but I don't think the clientele here would like it much," Rufus says. "They seem a bit on edge. So coins it is." "As for drink orders..." he says, turning to address the mini-cons. There's an art to multiversal bar hopping, and while he's not (yet) a master, Rufus has put some time and effort towards getting what he wants. "I want the most 'here' drink you've got that won't also immediately kill me. Like if there's a grade of top-shelf oil that's not immediately fatal for human consumption? Energy sauce or whatever that won't vaporize me on contact? An order of that, plus two parts vodka, straight up, put a tiny umbrella in it." "Oh and an order of nachos." The subject of heroes comes up. "The world needs more heroes. You shouldn't turn the label down if it's offered. Things just sort of..." He makes a vague motion. "Tend towards an equilibrium of stagnation without people to stir shit up, and the best shit-stirrers are heroes by a mile." > "I...believe you took some pictures during your visit with the Emperor, yes?" "Oh, sure. Let me pull those from cloud storage," says Rufus, pulling his phone out.
Ru Li	"I will, however, make the attempt. Imagine that the tectonics of this planet are present, but the gears - the literal gears - that make them turn are visible. Imagine that condensation is identical to what it is here, but you can see the very literal metal gears that gather the water in the air and form clouds, the actions that create condensation and not merely the condensation itself. We can see the vast lines that carry the clouds to where they need to be, to dump coolant where the Engine needs it." Ru Li spreads his arms. "We can observe the point where our planet connects to our sun, because it is physical, and we can observe the other planets' gear-links as well. We can see not only gravity but its underpinning." "This is not metaphorical. I must underline that. The Engine is visible at all times. It is not something only gods can see. All Yinghuan technology - what we call theotechnology, or High Technology - is based upon its study." Ru Li taps his chest. "And the gods were made, four hundred years ago, from study of its servants. We call those servants Maintainers - they are alien and vast, mechanical and flesh, and they work to repair the Engine where it's damaged, and perhaps fill other roles." Ru Li sets his arms back to his sides. "So, to imitate those divine entities, four hundred years ago, ninety-nine gods were made to maintain the Empire, at the order of the Emperor. The crumbling bureaucracy and inefficiency was replaced by ninety-nine of us who could handle aspects that would ordinarily take thousands, if not hundreds of thousands."
Shockwave	The mini-con yells out, "Plate of Cubicles, a flagon o' Jumper-Juice, and--" The mini-con looks at Shockwave. Shockwave looks back. "Right... uh.. and a Jumbo-Jonker!" When Rufus orders, the mini-con hollers at Macaddam, "And a jar of We-Ski with a side o' Starch-n-Lactose!" The We-Ski is Cybertron's version of whiskey. A jar of it. It glows. Pink. The drinks and nachos are served on trays, and another mini-con drags over a huge case of energon with a cable-connector. Shockwave grabs the cable and a port along his lower torso opens for him to connect it. He doesn't drink. He can't. No face, no mouth. He just .. consumes. Meanwhile, he listens, watches the display of the brush-and-blade, and tilts his head at Rufus for a moment about the coins. Teleportation? Was there an energy signature? Or was it all chicanery?! Nevertheless, Shockwave's optic follows. He is about to say something, but Ru Li continues, so he politely Waits. After the end of the explanation, Shockwave sits quiet as the energon hums through the conduit into his port. Finally, he speaks... "What you describe is the formula of everything, the underlying mechanism of propagation of universal forces. Through my creation of various ores derived from energon, I have manipulated time, traveled through it, manipulated gravity, cognition, regeneration, death as an antithesis of positive lifeforce, and more. What you speak of is precisely the mechanism of all, as I no longer view scientific disciplines as separate and apart. All are connected, all are emergent, all are generated by the single formula that created the topology of the cosmos." Shockwave leans forward and his optic gleams a moment. "You observe this ... back-end of universal mechanics. Do you know its origin or how it is executed?" As Rufus shows images, Shockwave's head turns to look upon them. The machinery and their purposes are easily understood, for they differ little to Cybertron's underbelly mechanisms, but there is still no evidence to the force behind them. Turning his head, his optic lands on Meresankh. "Your observations, Your Majesty?" the voice intones.
Ru Li	Ru Li gestures at the picture. "You are looking at the back-end of universal mechanics. You are looking at how it is executed. It is a rudimentary picture, and so it cannot convey everything, but..." The Yinghuan god shrugs. "This is...just what he was able to take pictures of. This spreads across, and through, and beyond, the whole of our world. Even our sun is connected to the Engine, as I said." "There is no origin," Ru Li says, almost...frustrated? "There is no origin because there needs to be no origin. Nothing created the Engine. That is a barbarian heresy, that something needs to have made it. The Engine simply is." He shuffles a bit and takes his cup of oil. The cup goes up to a very small aperture along the bottom of the mechanical face (his face is actually quite similar to several popular Cybertronian faceplate styles), and he sips it politely, one hand underneath it, one hand around it. "Yinghua's theotechnology is based on its study and its replication. We have made airships that fly by bringing clouds together. We have made trains that run by building gears similar to the ones that influence gravity and sending them along tracks."
Meresankh	"In the world I come from, we can. It is called the Engine of Heaven." Meresankh perks up at the mention of an engine. "I see, I see." Eyeing the pictures, she nods as she considers the sight of it. "Quite a construction! Theotechnology, hmm... I shall have to visit sometime to see what I make of it all." At the name-drop of the 'Maintainers', her eyes narrow. "And these Maintainers, do they speak? What do they say as to the Engine's purpose and origin, or their own?" "That is a barbarian heresy, that something needs to have made it. The Engine simply is." Skeptical, Meresankh leans forward and steeples her fingers, elbows resting on the table. "Who taught you this?"
Ru Li	Ru Li's mechanical eyes flicker off and then on. "What do you mean, 'who taught me this'?" "Do you not find it supremely arrogant to assume that someone must have made your universe? That someone must have hand-crafted the physics of your universe?" "That is why it is considered a barbarian heresy. Because it is...self-centered. It assumes that the Engine must have been made by someone, and that the universe cannot exist without an active hand in its creation." "The Maintainers do not speak to us. They are vast and alien, and their only purpose is repairing it, as far as we can tell. Other than...the one who fell, but that is a different, and uncomfortable, story, and I do not wish to speak of it, save that it is why no god of Yinghua will ever take the Throne."
Shockwave	Shockwave interjects with clean logic, "The query was not 'who' made it. The query was of its origin. Just as Big Bang theories suggest a cyclical universal expansion, followed by contraction into a singularity, and explosive expansion afterwards."
Ru Li	Ru Li's face turns a bit golden as some of his coolant flushes in. "Oh. Yes. I apologize." "The theory goes that it has always been, and will always be. We do not have an...origin point, I suppose. The common belief is that the Engine simply decided at some point that it wished to have a voice, and to have a voice it would need a world, and to have a world it would need more, and so it..." He gestures. "...used the mechanisms to assemble the physics that would cause planets to form, and ecosystems, and...so on, and so forth. All so that humans could eventually be formed to contemplate it and study it and understand it." "And...thus...hear it."
Rufus Shinra	Whiskey-like that's glowing is perfect. Rufus takes a big chug recklessly, but then simply sips at it after that. "Have you tried to talk to them? The maintainers," Rufus pipes in. "Maybe like, write a nice note, fold it up, stick it in the gears somewhere for them to find." "But heretics, right. Um." He takes another drink. "It's been a couple years. What exactly do they do, besides spread heresy? Do they try to take apart the engine? Build more of it?"
Ru Li	Ru Li looks at Rufus strangely. "...all of Yinghua technology is based on building replications of the Engine. That is not heresy - that is simply our high science." "They just...spread heresy. Beliefs can be like poison to an empire as easily as medicine. Differing ideas can be learned from, but something so fundamentally different that it cannot accept any alternative is..." "...well, when it clashes with something else that cannot accept any alternative, it leads to conflict. Disorder. Maybe worse." "For example, let us say that there are people who believe that electricity is bad and dangerous and should not be used. That is incompatible with your countries, yes? Because it would lead to destabilization." "Or take Shockwave's own situation. The rulers were unwilling to accept something existed that they did not like, and had to destroy it. It is not compatible. That is binary. Yes, or no." "The Clockmaker heresy cannot exist in Yinghua because it is fundamentally incompatible with our cultural pillars."
Meresankh	"I mean, who taught you this. It's always worth challenging one's presumptions about the world. Especially if those presumptions come from someone else, with their own motives. If my people had not been able to do so, we would still be slaves." As for the Maintainers, "I see. Vast, alien, inscrutable of purpose. Why do you consider them allies? They are like bees, perhaps, and you a florist - there is shared purpose, but they may yet have their sting."
Ru Li	"We...do not consider them allies. They do not bother us. We do not bother them. They go about their work beyond us, and do not communicate with us, and we do not interfere with their work." Ru Li shrugs. "Would you interfere with the bees making honey just to try and see if they can understand you?" Ru Li shrugs again. "The Empire. It is our doctrine and our belief, and I share it. I have had four hundred years in an empty palace doing nothing but paperwork to contemplate it, to challenge it, to think on it, to debate it within myself." A little bit bitterly, he says, "I had very little to do but imagine."
Shockwave	Shockwave does not interfere with the conversation for several exchanges. Instead, he observes, listens. Finally, he intones, "What Queen Meresankh speaks of, Divine Ru Li Cheng, is the fundamental curiosity of not accepting all that is presented as within a closed system. That there is always something more to learn, that there is always something beyond the limitations." He tilts his head downward. From his optic, a beam illuminates the surface of the table with a holographic display. The display shows a macrocosmic mapping of galactic standards, then zooms outwardly to show multiple galaxies, then further to the edges of galactic existence into a void of nothingness. "Take the universe for instance. Where does it end? Does it have a barrier? If it is constantly expanding, are we capable of traveling with sufficient velocity to reach that expanding edge? If so, what lies beyond it? What exists outside of one universe or the other? What exists beyond the edges of the Multiverse? To quote Earth mythology - are there Lovecraftian entities that do not register on what we consider to be fundamental reality? Are there entities of chaos, where entropy has spread beyond informational cohesion, yet some form of propagating consciousness exists? Does any of this relate to the intra-universal mechanisms? Does gravity, space, and time cease to have meaning beyond such borders?" Shockwave was basically presenting a thought-experiment to test the god's convictions.
Ru Li	Ru Li looks deeply uncomfortable at the notion of entities of chaos where entropy has spread being cohesion and yet consciousness exists. His shifting says it all - yes of course there are, and he knows that for a fact, and that's the thing he mentioned earlier about one of the Maintainers going renegade that he doesn't want to talk about. Finally, though, he says with a bit of an apologetic tone, "I don't know. I would like very much to know. I didn't get to read full summaries of the scientific advances of the Empire - only funding paperwork. But whenever I read it, I made up stories in my head about what they might find out." He finishes off his oil. "I do not know how far the Engine stretches. I do not know where it stops, or if it even does. I..." Again, a flush of gold. "I...occasionally...imagined...walking along one of the rows of gears, on, and on, and on, and on, until I reached another star and another world, and was the first there." Then he plays it off with a laugh. "...but I used to imagine walking down the street, outside my palace, so...I suppose I have a very active imagination."
Rufus Shinra	"That's, ugh." Rufus stuffs a nacho into his mouth, and doesn't quite wait to finish eating before he continues. > "For example, let us say that there are people who believe that electricity is bad and dangerous and should not be used. That is incompatible with your countries, yes? Because it would lead to destabilization." "Yeah, there are! And they do something about it! They go and they sabotage machinery and set bombs and take over newscasts and do a whole bunch of other stuff." He makes it sound almost like it's admirable. " Meanwhile, if the 'heretics' aren't doing anything more interesting than just talking, why bother? I think I'm actually with the empire on this?" > I...occasionally...imagined...walking along one of the rows of gears, on, and on, and on, and on, until I reached another star and another world, and be the first there." "Yeah?" Rufus sits up. "Do you want to?"
Ru Li	"...it would take a very, very, very, very, very long time," Ru Li says to Rufus, "And while I would survive it, I do not know that anyone else could aside from entities like Shockwave, nor that I would not simply outlive all of the people I care about on my way."
Shockwave	Shockwave listens and just considers a moment. The holographic display switches off, the beam receding to his optic. He looks at Rufus a moment, perhaps with an admirable consideration. "The quantum signatures of the gears presented and explained seem to be cohesive manifestations of wave-particle dynamics in a structured format. Walking along one may not go anywhere without proper guidance as an intricately divine being such as Ru Li is, connected to its system. If any one of the rest of us attempted such a walk, we may just walk in place until the end of our days, while the gear beneath us spins and the world flows, but we are fundamentally anchored."