The Start of Something Interesting...

[lastonepercent]

The day was calm, with no recent Decepticon attacks, and none suspected to be incoming for some time.  The cons were too busy licking their wounds from the last battle, one that the Autobots had decidedly come out ahead on.  The celebrations had gone on long into the night and the recreation room was already a mess.

Thus, it was the perfect chance for a lone Autobot to slip casually outside.

Mirage had no shift currently scheduled, so he was free to spend his time as he pleased.  He certainly made no move to hide his departure, greeting his comrades in the halls on the way out, but the box in his hands remained unopened despite any passing curiosity.  It was quietly shifted into subspace before long, and  the former noble shifted into alt mode just as smoothly when he reached the doors.  Despite the completely inappropriate earthen race car mode, the mech had little trouble self-adjusting before driving off into the forest covering the mountain, for business unknown...

Comments

[cliffjumper]

Cliffjumper scowled at that and looked away with a shrug.

"Well, why the frag would it do anything?" Cliffjumper muttered, sinking slightly deeper into his seat again before he frowned, "and I dunno if morale is pointless, 'cause I could see it boost that just from... ya know... knowing you're trying even if it doesn't actually do something."

He wasn't completely stupid, and while he had assumed the worst because of his paranoia, it wasn't hard to see how others might not - might actually find it encouraging.

Cliffjumper still couldn't see how that raised energy would be able to do anything specific though.

[lastonepercent]

"...Why wouldn't it do something?" Mirage asked, equally boggled.

"I'm a priest, with all that entails, not simply a-a-" Uncurling from his comfortable spot in the chair, Mirage waved a hand with increasingly frenetic motions.

"-a morale cheerleader!" he finished with a huff.

[cliffjumper]

"Why should it?" Cliffjumper was, honestly, not trying to mock or challenge Mirage. He was just confused--- though the huffed end of Mirage's sputtering had Cliffjumper grinning.

"You'd look good as one, though," he said with a chuckle before he was thinking about what he was saying, and then bit his lower lip and looked away, caught between embarrassment and amusement.

Especially as the image that had popped into his processor when Mirage mentioned 'morale cheerleader' was the uniformed groups of girls who cheered on in sports.

[lastonepercent]

"-that is hardly the point. ...No matter how good I might look," Mirage sputtered lightly, leaning back in his seat with the faintest heating of his faceplates.

Well.

Well then.

Mirage coughed. "But yes, it should have an effect. It's what the power and energy is for, after all."

[cliffjumper]

Cliffjumper reset his vocaliser at Mirage's sputtering and felt his optics flare a little brighter. Sometimes, he thought, he might be better off without his vocaliser because then he wouldn't be able to say things like that so impulsively.

On the other hand, Mirage's reaction alone was worth it, really.

"Uhm," Cliffjumper didn't know what to say at first, so the first thing out was something of a inarticulate noise of vague agreement, before he managed to looked back at Mirage.

His optics were probably a bit brighter than normal still, though.

"All of 'em? Even just... those holiday ceremony things?"

[lastonepercent]

"Of course."

Mirage sniffed, stubbornly clinging to his dignity despite the ridiculous situation. He would not let Cliffjumper fluster him so.

"Now some, like the holiday events, are somewhat designed to promote a sense of well being - but that is with the energy itself, not with...lightshow cheerleading."

He managed a somewhat wry smirk.

"But yes, protective rites, defensive rituals, etc, are intended to have their stated effect."

[cliffjumper]

Wasn't it too late to not getting flustered, Mirage?

Cliffjumper tried very hard not to smirk at the sniff, but he failed, if only slightly and not spectacularly. Mirage's stiff-backed attempts at dignity were funny, but he also didn't need Mirage to actually get offended again.

"That was way more work than I thought priest ever did," Cliffjumper said with a grunt and a little frown, thinking it over, "kinda nice, though, that you'd do that, I guess."

Even if there was something vaguely creepy - however well-intentioned and useful - about being affected by something you didn't even know was there.

[lastonepercent]

"I should have known," Mirage made an amused sound, abandoning his embarrassment with a shake of his head.

"If we are doing it right, it is supposed to look easy. But it is never not work, even to the most devoted. It is hardly effortless. We do a great deal, even if it is mostly behind the scenes."

He grinned.

"Glad someone can come to appreciate it, at least."

[cliffjumper]

"Well, kinda slagging hard not to since I saw that stuff back on the Ark," Cliffjumper said with a roll of his optics, but not even being reminded of that awkward... thing the ceremony and the preparations had been before it and everything had been darkened his mood.

He was feeling pretty okay about everything... for the moment, anyway.

"Do people who ain't priests ever figure out..." Cliffjumper paused, frowning as he thought it over, "not all the work, just that you can actually... affect things? I mean, obviously Prime knows and probably some of the 'Cons as well, but maybe that's just assumption..."

Then Cliffjumper huffed and shook his helm sharply.

"Nevermind, I dunno where I was going with that."

[lastonepercent]

"As I would have hoped, Mirage huffed. He would have thought Cliffjumper might have noticed the outside effects on the Ark as well, but apparently not.

"Some people assume we can, of course. Some know it - and some expect us to be able to do more than we actually can."

Mirage sighed, recalling frantic, unattainable demands in the ages before the war.

"But in general? Most autobots don't even know about the priest portion of my job, much less how much power I have over certain limited areas.

[cliffjumper]

No, he hadn't noticed, but probably because he hadn't gone looking after the ceremony he'd had to be part of - of course, Cliffjumper honestly didn't know how to look, either, beyond simply being bombarded with it.

"More? Like what? Conjure up wealth or sparks to someone's exact specification without having to go through the official channels?" Cliffjumper said with a snort, shaking his helm...

But then realised that if either of those things, especially the latter was even remotely possible, that'd be kind of scary.

"... So what is possible to do, anyway?" Cliffjumper asked after a little hesitation. He wasn't sure he wanted to know, but on the other hand...

[lastonepercent]

"Oh, this and that," Mirage replied, automatically coy. Then he sighed, rolling his shoulders dramatically.

"Some of what they expected of us, yes. Ridiculous things, to things one should never ask for."

He grimaced, making a rude gesture toward the sky and the long-dead.

"A priest is a conduit, not a commander."

[cliffjumper]

Cliffjumper huffed at little at Mirage's coyness, but even as annoyed as it made him, it was kind of... cute, too, in a way. Pushing that thought away, Cliffjumper just listened... and then snickered at the gesture, not something he'd expect Mirage to do.

"Yeah, I guess," frowning, Cliffjumper thought it over and then looked to Mirage again, "though, uh... if you've, ya know, worked to work up all that energy or whatever, shouldn't you be able to do whatever you want with it?"

Within reason. If it actually was possible to, say, create or channel newsparks in such a way, specified to someone's wishes, Cliffjumper didn't think that was particularly reasonable.

It actually sounded kind of terrifying, really.

[lastonepercent]

"And that," Mirage said, sadly triumphant, "is exactly why we do not like to share our ways with anyone outside the priesthood."

He leaned back in his chair, all limbs and angles as he shook his head.

"There are rules. Limits. Both for safety and morally-inclined reasons. Breaking those...have nasty consequences."

[cliffjumper]

"... I guess," Cliffjumper repeated with a roll of his optics, even if it didn't seem exactly fair. But, on the other hand... you could probably do some damage if it was possible to do more than what Mirage had explicitly told him or the things he knew were involved with this sort of power, so it did make sense.

"Just 'cause ya can do something doesn't mean you should do it?" Cliffjumper tilted his helm and yeah... he did agree. Then he flickered his optics in confusion.

"Consequences? Like... actual, not from anyone else 'cause they saw what ya did, but rather as a... uh, reflexive reaction in response to what you did, consequences?"

[lastonepercent]

"Mmm. Both." Mirage grinned wryly.

"Those who are found by the Priesthood to break the rules...well. We dealt with such things internally," he said, expression hinting on feral.

"But there are tales of those who, hidden above reproach or censor for too long, broke the unwritten rules too wantonly, too vastly, and well. Primus has ways of making his wrath known."

[cliffjumper]

Staring at that expression, Cliffjumper almost shivered. Almost, but he kept control of it, because like slag was he going to tremble in front of Mirage, whatever the circumstances!

"...Really? So what's supposed to have happened for them?" Whether he believed it or not, Cliffjumper sure was interested either way.

[lastonepercent]

"Hmm. Well, the rumors of spontaneous mechanical combustion came from somewhere, after all," Mirage laughed, only half teasing; he didn't want to scare the mech too badly, after all.

"But honestly? They tend to meet poor fates, generally in the most deviously karmatic way possible, if they don't simply... vanish entirely."

[cliffjumper]

If Mirage was trying not to scare CLiffjumper, he'd failed. Not that the minibot wasn't doing his best to pretend he wasn't unsettled, but that didn't take away the fact that he most certainly was.

"... you ain't just yanking my wires, are ya?" Staring narrowly across the room at Mirage, Cliffjumper scowled, arms crossed over his chestplates. He wasn't sure he believed all that, but on the other hand he had asked... And while he was pretty sure Mirage was perfectly capable of having him on (from a sense of revenge, if nothing else), he didn't think that was what was going on currently.

So... that probably meant the stories he mentioned either were true, or he believed them to be. Which was... scary unsettling.

[lastonepercent]

"No, I'm not." Mirage smiled half apologetically, largely unrepentant. If frightening Cliffjumper just a little kept him from making foolish mistakes with whatever bits of priestly lore he learned during this endeavor, it would be worth it.

Both for his sake, and for others.

"There are only a few confirmed cases, of course. But enough circumstantial evidence to back up others to make it a very viable result."

[cliffjumper]

Well, Mirage had certainly succeeded in his goal.

"Creepy," Cliffjumper muttered and tightened his arms a little where they were still crossed over his chestplating. He wasn't, exactly, superstitious, but Mirage was being serious enough that the part of him that... almost... (okay, actually) was certainly was feeling twitchy.

"... so, is there any other things, ya know, in general, people don't usually believe in that's actually or probably true?" The question spilled out before he'd thought about it, but Cliffjumper didn't regret it.

Well, no more than the little squirming part inside that was already on edge, but if that was true, what else could be?

[lastonepercent]

"Well yes. It is supposed to be unsettling - it defeats the purpose if it is not."

Mirage gave Cliffjumper a long, searching stare. Did he really, really want to know? He was clearly disturbed enough as it was... Finally, he shrugged.

"Probably. You might have to ask for specific instances though. Things I know as 'true' might not register as rumor - and I surely do not know all rumors that lack any truth."

[cliffjumper]

Cliffjumper just huffed at that, once again wondering if Mirage was just having him on, but something told him that no, Mirage wasn't. So that still left something existing that was pretty terrifying to think of, and not in a way that could be rectified.

"Didn't really have any in mind... just, ya know... remembered there's always these things people say sometimes, even if they don't believe 'em?" Gesturing with a hand loosely, Cliffjumper shrugged and stared at the floor.

"... really hope they won't want us to do too much stupid stuff... Especially not any slagging thing like you'd feel right at home with," Cliffjumper said, changing the topic mostly because he was tired of feeling unsettled.

Not that thinking about possible high-class parties or whatever was much better, if in a very different way.

[lastonepercent]

"Oh, I'm sure they will have us do things that will keep us both on the edge of our struts," he laughed, giving the red mech a shrug. They still had some time left - the conversation was getting interesting enough to delay a little longer.

Especially when it came to regional superstition. Something the Towers themselves were not immune to, of course, but no way to know for sure what Cliffjumper was actually referring to.

"You're going to have to give me examples, Cliffjumper. Vanishing t-cogs? Rust walkers? Spark ghosts? Circuit watchers? I've heard a number of stores, but I doubt I've heard them all."

[cliffjumper]

Shifting in his seat, Cliffjumper huffed, looked out of the window, and then back to Mirage.

"... Like spark ghosts, yeah. And, ya know... stupid stuff like destined spark mates, or bein' able to use more than the one ability some people get through the power chip rectifier... slag like that."

He hoped Mirage wouldn't laugh about the mention of spark mates. Not that he believed in that, or anything, but he was embarrassed just mentioning it. He had to admit he was curious about the tales of those who either had no power of the spark mediated through their power chip rectifier at all still being capable of using abilities like they did, or someone having more than one.