Everybody learns from *somebody*

[lordmegatron]

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?"

Comments

[lordmegatron]

"Ah, even the learned mech complaining that fewer words could do in the place of more?" Megatron laughed, well-aware that Orion was hardly pretentious and was exactly the type to choose as few, but effective, words as possible to convey what he wanted.

If anything, Megatron was the sort of orator who liked words... but he was also perfectly capable of adjusting the level of his speech to the audience.

"I think..." he added after a moment, optics dimming in near-predatory anticipation, "that we will find something in here. Unless those who put whatever might be kept in the reliquary took those items away themselves."

Considering the way had been clear for him down to the statues and the golden disc had been there for unknown megavorns, Megatron didn't doubt something that was being kept behind a locked door would be far more likely to still be in place.

[ichooseboth]

"It happens," agreed Orion blandly, casting a brief, sly glance over his shoulder. "Except in my research papers, of course."

He shook his head. "Id' say don't get your hopes up too high just yet, Megatron...but I think so, too."

He'd rather not expect too much...but really, being optimistic was in his nature. He couldn't stay pessimistic, especially in the face of what wonders they had already found. The hallway was long - noticeably so, probably to create an aura of importance right before such an important room. There was another set of doors, more impressive and grander than the last. It was unknown if they were actually locked or not - Orion tried them, and they opened easily at his touch. He only spared Megatron a brief glance, excitement thrumming through his line and making his field brighten.

"Alright... Here we go."

He pushed the doors wide open.

[lordmegatron]

Megatron stared and then burst out laughing, shaking his helm.

"Of course."

Following along, Megatron didn't pay much attention to the increasingly grander surroundings; he could tell the reason for the design of the corridor, and while it was something he'd have used himself, it didn't really have an effect on him.

When the doors slid apart at Orion's touch, however, Megatron could admit to the low, buzzing anticipation that suddenly crawled along his circuits as they stepped through.

The room beyond was gold and crystal, circular with tiered stairs down into a depressed center.

Around the room, seemingly at random and within shimmering force fields, hovered thirteen... items.

Pure surprise and excitement made Megatron tighten his grip on Orion's arm, and his engine revved once before he ruthlessly squashed it.

[ichooseboth]

"Oh."

Orion froze in the doorway, blocking the way and unable to go on. Even barely felt Megatron clutching at his arm. Frozen, jaw dropping, his field collapsed into an stunned, excited jangle.

"Oh my god."

Even unable to bring himself to move, Orion's optics could see enough.

"...Thirteen? ...Thirteen."

He was almost afraid to step inside; afraid to wake the dream or dispel the illusions on the room.

[lordmegatron]

Megatron almost laughed at Orion's exclamation. It was very fitting, really.

"Indeed," he said instead after a moment of silent staring, optics glittering ruby within the crimson light. This find could mean everything. "Interesting that there's thirteen of them and not twelve..." he murmured, optics darting between them.

"Move, Orion," he added quietly, softly, but gave Orion a firm push to hopefully move him forward into the room and out of the doorway. He wanted to explore. See if those forcefields were merely to keep the items floating in the air, or if they were impenetrable and thus would leave the items inviolable.

can't rmemeber if he actually called Trion, Trion or A3 so. TRANSLATION ERRORS?? IF I;M WRONG LOL

[ichooseboth]

"You would think so," Orion murmured, voice lax with shock and awe. The significance of having thirteen shining displays - instead of the customary twelve - hinted at a answer to all sorts of rumors and legends...

Hinted. He'd have to examine them...

Breaking into a wide, blissful grin, Orion surged forward at last, brushing off Megatron's shrug and stumbling toward the nearest shielded display. Conveniently enough, it was a book of some sort; a positively ancient looking, yet nearly pristine notation pad. Ignoring the force field to all up press his face against the item as closely as he could get, Orion was forced to pause a moment, to translate the small plaque.

"...second age, differing style from the book itself; obviously added much later; 'The Causal Tome of...A3.'"

Orion nearly fell on the force field.

Let's go with A3 as a probably deliberate misdirection!

[lordmegatron]

Drawing up close to Orion and trying not to laugh at the way he was basically behaving like a newspark in front of something exciting, Megatron was certainly... ah, interested.

"So that means someone, probably several someones, have been down here, but everything has been kept untouched," Megatron said slowly, rubbing his chin as he eyed the book.

It didn't hold much interest to him, and while he certainly wanted to usher Orion onwards, he'd let him gush over this for a bit.

"Though maybe because no one has known how to get through the forcefields rather than anything else," he added with a dry grin.

Sounds good!

[ichooseboth]

"Undoubtedly," Orion agreed, voice still hushed from his remaining awe.

"This was clearly a fairly public display chamber; someone's way of bragging about their priceless collection. Though I'm not sure-" he paused, peering under and around the relic, perplexed when he didn't seem to find what he was looking for. "But I'm not sure where the power source for such a thing is even coming from."

He reached out, fingers reaching tantalizingly close to the field in yearning, but not yet daring to touch and risk the shock.

"Perhaps a small, localized power-warp within the field? I admit, I am not well-versed in security measures-"

A small twitch as he glanced back over his shoulder for Megatron's opinion was all it took; a fingertip passed close enough for the field for a small jolt of static to arc over and hit metal.

The field cut out, vanishing from around the book completely. Optics widening to almost comical proportions, Orion abruptly went silent.

"...um."

[lordmegatron]

Optic ridges rising up under the edge of his helm when Orion touched the thing and the forcefield disappeared, Megatron surged forward, catching the thing before it fell to the ground and held it out to Orion without looking it over.

He could be good.

"Or it's the room itself that's powering the forcefield, perhaps, though whatever you did doesn't seem to have disrupted any of the other ones," Megatron said, glancing around the room, wondering if it was Orion, and if he could open all of these, or if... maybe...

[ichooseboth]

Optics still wide, Orion accepted the book with careful fingers. He glanced between the book, Megatron, and the various other, untouched force fields.

"Ah. Right..."

He turned back to the book, a tentative, half-scared grin slipping over his face.

"...Honestly, I shouldn't even be touching it like this..." But he still turned it over in his hands. It appeared to still have power - powered by the force field, perhaps? But functional, after so long?

He couldn't help but attempt to page through it, immediately enthralled.

[lordmegatron]

Raising an optic ridge, Megatron cocked his helm.

"Why not? Just touching it is, obviously, not detrimental. If it had some sort of guards or locks, something would've happened by now," he pointed out dryly as he turned away, knowing that he wouldn't be able to read (if there was anything to read) and that Orion would let him know if he could.

Instead he walked a few steps to the left, behind them, to a forcefield within which a strange claw-looking weapon hovered, with part of the handle being constructed so that your own hand would be scraped by the backwards-pointing claws.

He couldn't read the plaque, but Orion could probably enlighten him when he could be torn away from the book. So Megatron reached a hand out, pressing it against the forcefield... nothing happened.

It was half expected, half disappointing. But that still left eleven others to try, and for Orion to do the same too.

"Anything interesting?" he asked as he slowly drifted towards another forcefield-encased item.

[ichooseboth]

"No, I mean... It's so old. Touching it could have damaged it."

Luckily, it had not, so far at least. The book was surprisingly sturdy, with little signs of wear or damage. If it weren't for the glyphs on the casing, and the fact that it simply...felt old. Well. Orion would have assumed it was a simple forgery.

"Aha... I can't even read it."

Contrary to the words, Orion was beaming>, unable to tear his gaze away from the book.

"The glyphs are the oldest I've ever seen. There are....roots of late first age in them, but... If this is really A3's book, well. Then this is the root language. We've only ever found scraps of it before now. I'll...have to work on a translation."

He was already looking forward to the challenge.

[lordmegatron]

"Too late, if so," Megatron said with a shrug, walking slowly around the next forcefield. Within it was a metalworking item - he was sure, by the looks of it, that it could be used for more than one task.

"Hmmm, I'm sure you'll figure it out shortly," he said with a grin from under the edge of his helm, trailing his fingers over the resistant energy field slowly. "What about that one?"

He pointed over to the one he'd first tried to touch, the strange, and impressively clawed, weapon.

[ichooseboth]

"Unfortunately true, but thankfully not an issue," Orion corrected, trying to fight the urge to be snippy. If it had been an issue...

He tore his gaze away from the holopages of the book. An ancient relic in his hands...or several others locked away nearby to focus on. Choices.

"Hmm... I can't be sure without examining it closer-" he didn't seem terribly inclined to move away from the book's previous resting place just yet- "But I would guess a weapon of Onyx Prime? It looks...brutal enough."

[lordmegatron]

Humming, Megatron looked back to it, nodding slowly. He'd had that thought, but been uncertain; while he'd certainly learned more about the Twelve (or Thirteen, in some accounts) when he started to dig into their past, he was hardly an expert.

"And you would need to sacrifice to wield it. Seems like that would fit Onyx," he said slowly, optics dimming. Wondering what that clawed weapon could do, what the necessary sacrifice would allow one to do with it.

But he couldn't get to it, despite that he certainly wanted to. And yet, he wasn't frustrated, not yet; some part of him was certain that he could get to at least one of the items in this room.

It was a... curious sensation.

[ichooseboth]

"It certainly does," Orion said, making a face. Reluctantly, he carefully tucked the precious book away at his side, rising up to follow after Megatron's path.

"Definitely Onyx," he confirmed quietly, giving the nameplate and the back-curving blades a lingering glance.

'...Well. Worth a shot, I suppose.' He thought. Then, steeling himself with a deep vent, Orion carefully pressed a fingertip to the field protecting it.

"Ow!"

And only got a shock for his trouble.

"...I'm not sure if I'm relieved or just confused." And slightly disappointed, but he wouldn't mention that part out loud.

[lordmegatron]

"I... am intrigued," Megatron said after a moment, optic ridge arched high up under the edge of his helm, "since it looks like you might only be able to open some of these... or only one."

Making a slow circuit of the room and not touching any of the other forefields, Megatron looked them over - they all looked the same, so he doubted that the first one had been malfunctioning in any way.

"The question is why... and which, if any further of these, you can open." And if he could open any of them as well. He had, by now, more than just a vague hope that maybe he could.

"I can't say I'm surprised you were capable of removing the forcefield around A3's artifact, however," Megatron added with a grin.

[ichooseboth]

"Or it was just a fluke and the field was already unstable," Orion said doubtfully. He really didn't think he had some sort of 'magic touch' - Megatron was clearly developing some strange theories. And he was going along with it.

Oh well. It didn't hurt to check. Much.

"I'll still try, even if I think it is a silly idea." He said as he continued on down the line, eying what was one of Solus' less-impressive tools, according to the plaque. Another brief touch yielded similar results, though Orion was able to withhold his grunt of pain.

[lordmegatron]

"I don't think you need to touch the field by much, Orion," Megatron said, shaking his helm; he himself already had, of course, and not felt anything, but maybe it was a difference in build and purpose. He did possess stronger plating, even if he had just as many sensory nodes.

"And it's only a silly idea if we've gone through the whole room and gotten no results, though I would think it rather odd if only one forcefield mechanism out of these were malfunctioning," Megatron said over his shoulder as he came back to his previous position and turned to the next forcefield.

Within, a curious piece of crystal - perhaps some form of energon - floated, giving no easy indication of who it might have belonged to. Even more interestingly, nearly opposite from it, within its own forcefield, hovered a similar, if differently shaped, piece of energon.

The top of it was rounded and tipped with spikes - the other one seemed to end more in a blade.

It was impossible to know if that actually indicated some sort of use of these two seemingly complementary pieces or was just how the crystals had formed naturally.

"Over here, Orion."

[ichooseboth]

"Hmm?"

Orion turned from his perusal of the next item - a tiny thing, vaguely sphere-shaped, that looked sized about right for minicon hands - following Megatron's gaze to the oddly-matched pair of items. He didn't even pause to glance back down at the plaque, approaching after only a strange moment of disorientation.

Orion was closer to the spiked crystal, but instead passed it up to step up next to the bladed one. He felt...intrigued. He'd never admit to feeling drawn to it or any such nonsense, but...

He really was.

"...'Twelve'. Something belonging to the twelfth Prime. Supposedly. The translation has always been a little contested, but..."

Trying to suppress the strange feeling, Orion, trailed off, giving the spiked artifact's plate a glance- and frowned, lips moving silently as he attempted to retranslate again.

"...What." A shiver crawled up his back plates.

[lordmegatron]

Eyeing Orion and how he sort of veered off towards the more distant forcefield and the crystal within, Megatron 'hm'ed quietly and raised an optic ridge. It was... curious. Orion's sudden confusion after turning around and glancing at the other plaque, however, was even more so.

"Something interesting?" Megatron asked, stepping around the forcefield - he almost touched it but kept his hands at his sides for now - to have a look at the plaque, but of course he couldn't read it.

[ichooseboth]

Ignoring Megatron for a moment, Orion spun sharply on his heel, glancing around the room and pointedly recounting the stations that held relics. Including the one held in his storage, the number obviously hadn't changed.

"Ah..."

It was still thirteen. Thirteen. The sheer number of theories and religious ideologies this room could prove or disprove was staggering. And that wasn't even the most disconcerting part.

"This..."

Staring between the relic's name plate and Megatron didn't do much to help the growing shiver and sense of vertigo. It seemed like he'd done nothing but lose his usual eloquence since they had arrived down there; jaw working, it took Orion a moment to get the words out.

"It. Looks like someone tried to scratch out the glyphs? But, as best as I can tell..."

Just say it.

"'Weapon of The Fallen One, Me- Megatronus Prime'."

[lordmegatron]

Staring while Orion seemed to work himself up over... whatever it was he'd read, Megatron crossed his arms over his chestplates, helm cocked. Waited, though not very graciously, one leg twitching just slightly with the need to tap on the floor.

And then, finally, Orion spoke. His first comment made Megatron want to snort - he knew enough myths to have figured out that the simple fact that there were thirteen items in this place was... damning enough, for some stances.

But that was all.

Then Orion continued, and Megatron stilled.

Frowned.

... Interesting.

Frowned, and then grinned sharply.

"Indeed? That's a... curious name, isn't it?" Then he turned on his heel and put his hand to the forcefueld - and it dissolved with a muted crackle when he'd barely touched it, letting the crystal fall into his hand.

A second it lay there, and then it melted, sliding into cracks and gaps with a sensation of liquid fire. Megatron gritted his teeth and didn't move.

[ichooseboth]

Orion was not impressed by Megatron's lackluster response. Not that he had time to complain, what with Megatron shoving his hand right through the field and claiming the object without trouble-

Only for it to melt.

"Megatron!" Orion cried out in alarm, jerking forward to seize the mech's wrist, as though he could somehow stop what had clearly already slid deep into Megatron's plating.

[lordmegatron]

Grimacing, he flexed his hand in Orion's grip. His hand, which was most definitely empty. He felt a tingling crackle of... tension in his hand, running from the surface all the way to his spark chamber.

"It's all right," he said, staring hard down at his hand and feeling the tension slowly build, trying to push towards... what. At the edge of his vision in his HUD, a few commands flickered by as something that hadn't even asked for access to his systems installed.

"I feel fine." And he did, though there were a few worrying side-effects - running a scan didn't result in anything new being noted. It was as if whatever had just installed hadn't just been, had always been there, was supposed to be there.

Which was interesting, Megatron had to admit, but he'd like to know what it was.

The tension tickled in the gears and cables of his right hand and he flexed it again.