[video]

[majorlyugh]

[As the video comes on, Major's leaning in a bit close, trying to get his comm to stand on its end, but the thing keeps sliding over at varying speeds. He sighs, eventually picking the thing up and holding it out with his arm extended.

He offers a shrug as an explanation.]

I'm - never sure if I'm supposed to like, greet people when I start one of these? Well, to be on the safe side ... hey! How are you? I'm doing all right, thanks.

Okay, now that's out of the way, I have two questions for the folks here. .. They are completely unrelated, but of sort of equal importance. [He's walking under some trees that are out-of-shot, but the sunlight pouring through the canopies are sun-dappling Major's face as he moves.]

One: I'm a millenial so I'm pretty good with technology, but - these things sort of elude me a little bit. Is there a way for me to like .. go anon on this thing? Or change my name? Or just use a different one entirely? Or do I have to use my actual name on the network?

Two: Does anyone know if there's a copy of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark lying around? Could be a VHS, for all I care, so long as there's a VCR, too. But I'm not picky; could be anything, just as long as it's watchable!

If you're still listening, thanks! And if you have answers to my questions, I owe you a drink or something!

Comments

[video]

[majorlyugh]

I, uh. Yeah, I think so? But who knows, brains are weird. I could be remembering incorrectly.

Tailgate. Never heard it as a name, only a verb before. Nice to meet you! I'm Major.

[video] - Sorry for delay had convention crunch. Also I need icons again so have human ones

[itcanwait]

What are they like? The other race.

Major, never heard it other than a rank before. [He shrugs a little.] We all have names like that. There's another 'bot here called Riptide and I have a friend called Swerve. Rewind, Rung uh...loads more.

no worries!

[majorlyugh]

Umm. Pretty awesome. There was a cartoon as a kid that I watched all the time, called Transformers - more than meets the eye! [He quietly sings the tagline, because he can't help it.] There were only like, four seasons of it, though. And a movie. They started coming out with new movies when I was last, uh. Home.

[He lets out a bit of a laugh.] Yeah, the Transformers I'm talking about all had names like that! Wheeljack, Ironhide, Sunstreaker, Skids. What an unfortunate name for Skids.

[itcanwait]

Movies? That sounds cool!

[And then his optics look as though they just switch off, but it's really just a long blink as he processes those names.]

Sorry my hearing my be on the fritz, did you say Skids? I know an autobot by that name. Blue? What-what other kind of names was there?

[majorlyugh]

Yeah, Skids. Uh - let me think. You're asking me to tap into information I haven't accessed in like, almost thirty years.

Trailbreaker .. Mirage, Hound, Bluestreak, uh ... Tracks? Hoist, Inferno. There are more, but I can't remember them.

[itcanwait]

[30 years makes him laugh. It was almost sad that humans didn't live for very long. Almost a blink and you'll miss it life.]

I...I know some of those names. I don't get it. Mirage opened a bar on my ship...

Do you know the name Ratchet? Rodimus?

[majorlyugh]

Ratchet. Ratchet. Yeah, I think so! Grey and red? Autobot medic?

Rodimus .. I don't recognize? But it reminds me of Hot Rod?

[itcanwait]

[He fumbles a little with the phone, this human was talking about people he knew, but as a franchise? Movies? Transformers?]

That...that was his name before. Do you know the name Cyclonus?

sorry tailgate!

[majorlyugh]

Cyclonus .. Cyclonus. Uh. Is he .. like, blue and grey? A Decepticon?

YESSSS perfect response!

[itcanwait]

D-Decep-He's not a Decepticon! And he's purple. [Well, at least in his world he is purple and...not a Decepticon.]

It's his face that makes people think that he's one, isn't it?

LOLOL

[majorlyugh]

... I ... don't know. I mean, like I said, it's been like 30 years since I've watched it all, but I'm .. pretty sure? he was a decepticon? in the original cartoon?

Don't talk shit about his husbanddd

[itcanwait]

But there's no original cartoon, we're real?

[He stops a moment.]

Unless a human made a cartoon about us with limited information?

[He shakes his head.]

If he shows up here, don't let him hear you say that. He's too nice to be one.

[majorlyugh]

... I, uh.

[He gives a very slow-to-form shrug.] Maybe. I mean, I definitely watched the cartoon as a kid .. so .. it might be what you said - humans being dumb, that sort of thing. We're good at that.

Yeah, no, of course not.

[itcanwait]

I've noticed. We're not exactly a super smart race either.

[He brightens up though.]

I mean, it's pretty cool though. To have a cartoon?

[majorlyugh]

Dude, it's super cool to have a cartoon. And it was great! One of my favorite things from my childhood, to be honest.

[itcanwait]

Really? I wonder if this world has it. But I...don't think I'd actually watch it...

[majorlyugh]

It'd probably be weird, right? To watch yourself in something you didn't even know they were making?

[itcanwait]

Super weird. Plus I'd pick out all the things that are wrong. Rodimus doesn't look like that. Cyclonus has a deeper voice and an accent to it. I'm taller than that. Blah blah.

[majorlyugh]

Could be kinda fun, though.

[itcanwait]

Ooh make it a drinking game!

[majorlyugh]

I'd die in the first like, five minutes probably, from alcohol poisoning. Unless the nanites somehow prevent that?

[itcanwait]

I don't actually know about that. But hey, if you did die, you'll at least come back?

And I'd do it as a human too, just to actually feel something from it.