red_diode_district | Everybody learns from *somebody*

Everybody learns from somebody

Passing the doors into the library, Megatron was pleased he had gotten the schedule correct as he saw who was sitting at the desk. If it had been completely necessary due to his own schedule, he'd have come here when he could. But since he didn't have to...

Ignoring the faint itch interfacing hadn't properly gotten rid off, Megatron approached the librarian at a lazy, casual walk. It was a pity he hadn't seen any signs at all that the surprisingly fine-lined truck-alted mech had the inclination he was looking for. Things would have been a lot easier (and, really, pleasing) if he had.

As it was, since there was no one left in the current arena circuit that he trusted with what he had to hand over, perhaps he would have to avail himself of one of the clubs. It made an irritable twitch slither down the treads on his shoulders, the thought that he'd have to do that.

It was ages since he'd had to go to an open venue like that to simply get his needs properly taken care of.

And he really would have preferred the librarian. Orion Pax - it hadn't taken anything to find out the designation when to found the schedule - was witty, somehow diplomatically argumentative and didn't give in if he knew he was right or wanted to stand for his opinion, actually had some smarts to go with said use of words and Megatron wanted to know more.

More, and more personally (most of the earlier he'd simply learned over the few times he'd been in the library when the mech was, but hadn't actually approached him). So this time, he decided to actually use the librarian's assistance in what he was looking for... and perhaps get something more out of it.

"Excuse me?"

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"I guess I must," Megatron said, smirk now showing fang and he leaned in to give a little nibble to the base of Orion's audial, since his hand at the tire hadn't been shrugged off, "since I fear that you'll beat be into stasis-lock otherwise so you'll be left to work in peace."

Chuckling, he straightened back up, but kept his hand at the base of the wheel and cast a glance down the corridor again.

"I think that it'd be interesting, if you'd be able to interpret enough to get another possible explanation out of that glyph. It seems important, after all. No other is given space around it like that, are they?"

"Go-oood," Orion's grunt turned into a groan, and he gave Megatron a swat as he pulled away.

"I just might. I don't need to be distracted while working on something like this."

An audial twitch, and Orion gave Megatron a final glance over his shoulder. "After, however..." He grinned.

"But for now, this is too important and exciting - if we weren't trying to be stealthy, this sort of find could be a career maker. I don't understand why they're hiding it down here..."

Well. Maybe he did. If it told as much history as he suspected...

"Being able to work under pressure and distractions is a very good ability to have, Orion," Megatron said with a wide, pleased smirk, engine rumbling slightly deeper even after Orion's groan quieted.

Then he shrugged, snorting heavily even as his engine stayed with its deeper, softer idling.

"I think you do. And unfortunately, this can't be your career breakthrough, even if we weren't trying to be stealthy. Since they're obviously presenting a history which does not include these underground parts, as they're forbidden to be explored..." trailing off, he tilted his helm, an upper optic ridge quirked.

Orion huffed a rude engine noise Megatron's direction at the comment about 'distractions', field going more and more grumbly as the larger mech continued.

"Yes, yes, I know. It doesn't mean I won't complain about it." He made a shooing gesture. "Go on, go poke around and discover some other groundbreaking lost history I can't write a thesis on. I'll be right here for a while. Just don't... fall in a hole or something."

"Who says I haven't already found something, and am only waiting for you to be done here so I can show you?" Megatron said, his optic ridge still hiked up to disappear under the edge of his helm, amusement clear through his field.

But he did wander off a bit down the corridor, once again following the etchings and trying to see what Orion was, or maybe some pattern he hadn't seen before.

"Though if you wrote that thesis, I'd read it. I'm sure it would be good enough to sweep cybertronian academia off its collective feet." Something which he didn't doubt; Orion had a knack for writing - and oration, when he could get over his shyness about taking up space.

"Oh, you better not-!" Orion sputtered, nearly rising to leave the wall mural to chase after Megatron. But he resisted, engine grumbling, settling on shaking his datapad at Megatron's back before turning back to focus on the wall.

"Flattery will get you no where at this point!" He called back. It was a lie, of course. His engine grumbling toned down a notch with a flicker of warm pleasure. But really, it wasn't the time.

He had a wall to translate, and it was easy enough to loose himself in the familiar process.

"I have been here before, Orion," Megatron said with a smirk that was probably audible in his voice. Really, there were many things he wished he'd get the chance to show Orion, and some of them weren't even here, underground under Iacon, but rather back in Kaon.

Whether that would get the chance to happen, though, was more uncertain, though he did hope it would.

"But concentrate on that wall to begin with. If nothing else I'm sure we can find time to come back later. None of this is going to disappear." It was, after all, difficult to move these things, and Megatron knew of more than once entrance to these deeper areas after you got underground.

Pausing in the middle of a rather easy, familiar line "-the Primes joined, together in loyalty, if not ideals, training and learning in the name of their Creator-" to fling a pointing finger over his shoulder.

"Not what I meant," he huffed. "Finding new things now without me is totally forbidden. Showing me things you have already found before is completely different."

It made perfect sense.

"You're going to have to explain that one, Orion," Megatron said, trying to smother his amusement and not really concerned that he failed. An Orion so caught up in his excitement over new, mysterious old findings was an extremely adorable Orion.

And amusingly prickly, as well.

"And considering it's easy to get lost in here, I'm not going to go out of my way to go explore and leave you behind." Mostly because while he didn't care about himself, he wasn't about to let Orion get lost somewhere.

"Which part?" Orion grumbled back, throwing Megatron a quick, teasing field-flick from across the room.

"I'm going to be right here, after all. Just don't get lost without me and we'll be fine." He didn't even bother to glance back, already distracted but the next translations. Voice fading out, he scooched forward across the floor, heedless of the scuff marks he was doubtlessly leaving on his knees.

"...huh. That's...Not. Hn. That can't be right."

Megatron might have answered and elaborated 'which part' it was, but, even smirking in amusement over Orion not moving while he went exploring, but Orion's sudden confusion and his voice trailing away pushed any such thoughts away.

"What is it? What'd you find?"

He strode back to stand beside Orion where he knelt on the floor, arms crossed over his chestplating and optics narrowed. This sounded like something that he definitely wanted to hear.

"Well. These lines don't entirely make sense?"

Scooting forward again with a rough sound of stone against his knees, Orion practically pressed himself up against the wall in his confused determination.

"There is that glyph again, see here? But the context is all off. See over here?"

He pointed over to a glyph even the most obtuse of newspark knew - the simple glyph of Primus had remained largely static and unchanging for most of known Cybertronian history. It wasn't hard, when it was a stylized silhouette of the planet itself, with constant but currently unknown glyphing in the middle.

"It's being used in parallel with the glyph of Primus."

"Hm." Kneeling down himself, Megatron traced a finger first over the glyph for Primus, and then the unknown one, tapping the wall.

"What about the context around them?" Maybe it meant something that the glyphs were being used parallel to each other, or maybe it was the context that was important?

Something tickled in the back of his mind, thoughts of the things he'd found out on his excursions, something about purpose, and Megatron frowned at the two glyphs.

"Well..."

Orion cleared his vocalizer, trying to overcome the sudden strange reluctance that curled in his processor. Speaking of his thought process out loud was generally very helpful when it came to puzzling out the worst of the translations, but...

He did not usually feel dread while translating. He cast a wary glance around the dark cavern, as though that was actually the source of the feeling, before continuing.

"It's making reference to the First Primes and their preparations for their original duties to Primus. Their skills and 'defining' purpose comes up - referenced before, but always unspecified - before that damned glyph comes up."

Orion rolled his tense shoulders in a wary shrug.

"It thought it might mean they were being trained for defense - the 'calamity' mentioned in the previous writings? But the context. It's very, very clear."

A pause, as Orion cleared a bit of static from his throat, a chill working it's way up his struts that had nothing to do with the cold ground.

"Very clear. And in the first tense. In a equal standing with Primus. It's...being used for...in reference to a person?"

A God.

"This one." Megatron tapped the offending glyph, feeling a similar chill to Orion. But as it crawled through him it simply made him more aware, sparking the sort of readiness present during arena fights.

There was nothing to fight down here, though, and he didn't look around like Orion did.

Something still tugged at the back of his mind, and some noise echoed through the corridor quietly. Probably just shifting metal.

"Whatever those duties were, they probably had to do with this one," Megatron said, once again tapping the glyph separated from the others, not using anything more defining than 'this one', and not quite sure why, except that...

That what?

Whatever this being was, this god was, if the catastrophes described earlier could reliably be connected to it (his sense of battle-readiness twitched again, alert), would it mean the Thirteen's purpose was theirs as well?

"I would imagine so."

Unlike Megatron. Orion jerked at the not-so-distant sound, audial nubs twitching in the direction of the corridor.

"-though there are many different ways it could mean. Are you sure we're alone down here?" he asked, in something close to a panicked whisper. The revelation - ominous as much as it was groundbreaking - was making him jumpy. If there was anything the government would want to hide down here, this had to be on the list.

Noticing Orion's sudden twitchiness, Megatron tilted his helm, listening... But whatever might have made the noise was conspicuously silent for now. If anything had made that noise.

"As far as I know, we should be yes." But he was frowning. "If there's anything else down here, it's not something I've met before."

Standing up, he clapped Orion on his shoulder.

"Want to look at that wall more or continue on?"

Noises or not, even if there was something down here with them, Megatron was confident he'd be able to handle it.

"...we can move on. For now. I'll want to come back later, but... Just let me get a complete scan." Casting another wary glance around, Orion got back to his feet and held the translation device back from the wall relief. A soft buzz, and the lasercam on the device was scanning the wall as Orion slowly walked the breadth of it.

"I can translate more thoroughly later-" something it was taking a great deal of restraint to manage- "I just don't want to pass by without a record."

And he would download a copy to his own internal storage as well, just in case.

"We're coming back this way unless something really unforeseen happens," Megatron said, waving a hand in dismissal, "since we came in this way, and while I don't mind exploring, it's safer and easier to get out the same way you get in."

But he was pleased Orion wouldn't need to stay right here to do the translation, both because they didn't have all the time in the world and wouldn't see much by stopping here, and also because he had wanted to show Orion more than just this.

Even if Orion had liked this very much.

He walked down to the end of the etchings, waiting for Orion to finish his recording and catch up with him before he started walking, now with one hand ready to pull out his sword out of subspace if it was needed to.

"...Right then," Orion grumbled dryly. He didn't want to know what Megatron considered 'unforseen' Finishing up with the scan in good time. The light of the scanner flickered out only a few moments later, data safe and sound on the device.

"Well. We better get moving." Clutching the scanner (and socketing the device with on of his own cables to download,) Orion nodded in Megatron's direction...even if his audials remained tilted and turned up, listing for further noise.

He really, really did not want to leave the find behind them, but for now he would tolerate it.

"This wall has been here for the last several ten thousands of years, at the least, it's not going to go away anytime soon, Orion," Megatron said, dryly amused, and held out a hand for the mech.

It was more than just a few ten thousands of years, they both knew that, but, details.

The corridor, curving slightly downwards as they walked away from the etchings was still lit by that same indistinct golden light, and for now it was quiet.

Too quiet, in Megatron's opinion. Usually there were quiet shifting of metal heard down here, the natural settling of differences between differently heated metal, or a mech shifting to set their armour in place.

"Tell me if you see something you want to check, Orion," he said and glanced over at the shorter mech, "I know what I want to show you, but I might not have noticed everything there is to see here."

Which was partly why he'd taken Orion here to show him this.

Orion gave Megatron an incredulous glance as he finished up, striding over to his side.

"Right. When we get out of here, remind me to tell you about the original Prime Grand Library, the First Hall of Records, and the Codex Mechanix Archive, and why they all don't exist any more."

He may have accepted the offered palm, but he waggled the scanner up toward Megatron's chest plates with his free hand, brows furrowed and field thick with determination.

"Data and records can vanish in less than a day. I won't be taking anything down here for granted like I'll be able to return at any time. It might not be here to come back to."

Megatron hummed, absolutely undaunted by Orion's scolding, though he dipped his helm in acknowledgement.

"Of course. But all of those disappeared because people willed them to. The only thing that has been done so far about this, if the people responsible even know about these deeper parts, is restrict access to the underground in certain places."

Of course, they probably knew. These etchings and the other things Megatron had found down here were probably the explicit reason for the 'forbidden zones' for the 'safety of the pubic'.

But they hadn't tried to destroy this, and it was perfectly possible, as Megatron well knew, to get underground with only a bit of ingenuity and exploring.

You could even end up in places like this by accident.

"Societal disasters are as bad as natural disasters when it comes to the loss of data and knowledge," Orion said, grimly acknowledging Megatrons' point. "But still. Not taking chances. The people responsible for keeping this place hidden could well decide it is not worth the risk of keeping it intact."

He bristled at the very idea, field fluctuating.

"Anyway. Show me something else - though if it is as groundbreaking as the last one, I might not survive the trip," he managed a laugh.

"I would hope you do," Megatron chuckled, rubbing his thumb over the metal of Orion's hand, "as I would be very disappointed if you offlined from this. Though I suppose you would, at least, offline happy."

He put a little weight into the word and let his grin sharpen a bit, implicating what he was actually talking about... even if Orion no doubt could offline happily from all this hidden information.

"But, I'm not sure if what I'm showing you next will be as interesting as the wall. But even if it isn't, we may find other things."

THe corridor curved around, nearly whimsically as they walked, the walls having stopped being flat and straight and instead undulating gently, composed of cables twined together instead of flat metal plates.

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whoops kinda forgot part of what I was hinting at lol

pfft happens TIME TO MAKE NEW HINTS!!

YES

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