Do they even have champagne in airport bars?

Originally the designated escape point in In a Time of Zombies was Manchester airport. That eventually changed to the hospital (better location, especially being so close to MediaCityUK) and it just didn't feel believable that a hospital would have a bar. Though the few times I have visited hospitals would have definitely liked a cocktail. I liked the idea behind the scene though so it did get translated though I really did like this version the best.

~

She loved champagne.

Well. Not champagne itself, the sparkling wine from a specific region of France, but sparkling wine. If given her choice she really preferred one of the Spanish ones. I’m not sure why that was the case, she explained it to me once, something about how differences in soil and air and all that made a difference in taste and feel but that had been a lifetime ago. I never really was much for wine.

But staring at the liquers on the shelf at the town bar had brought Isa back to the front of my mind. Before the flight to England we’d had some time to kill so we had decided to toast our departure at the airport’s bar. I’d gotten my usual vodka and cranberry juice and she’d decided to switch things up from a champagne cocktail to a Chambord and champagne. Staring at the bottle of Chambord on the bar’s shelf, it perfectly at my eye level, I couldn’t help but think of her. And thus Isa’s tattered ghost had returned to me, this time sitting at the bar, head hung low and gazing emptily at a Chambord and champagne.

Any fear I once felt about the ghastly spirit of my dead friend was now gone. Now I just missed the comradery we’d shared in life.

I went around the bar, pulling out a glass and pouring in a bit of vodka and a bit of cranberry juice before returning to the other side of the bar, sitting on the stool next to Isa.

“I feel like this is some otherworldly hole in the wall. The bar at the end of the universe as it were.” I said. They weren’t the words which needed to be said. I knew what those were now but I didn’t quite want to let go of the last shred of my best friend I had left. “When I get on the other side of this all, not that I know what that will be, what the marker is, I want to toast to it. I can’t do it now. This isn’t a time of ‘cheers’ but I’m glad you haven’t completely abandoned me.

Horen Sie: Remnant of Perfection

Remnant does rule my mind sometimes so it shouldn't surprise anyone that it pops up in Horen Sie stuff occassionally. Some of these scenes make it in to later chapters but most never do whether because they have nowhere to be or because they are horrendously cheesy.

One Man’s Dream - Yanni

She exhaled, the night was cool and a welcome change from the heat the day was lousy with. Sitting on the dusty ground she couldn’t help but look at the stars that were thickly poured across the desolate desert’s sky. “Is that what space looks like?” She asked the Corvette next to her.

“No.”

She had expected him to tell her what space was like but he remained quiet and she turned her attentions back to the pitch black roadway in the valley below and the occasional faint streak across the light smattered sky.

“In space its like being in a completely empty world with no up nor down nor any other orientation. The stars and planets are so far they seem like mere visual sensor malfunctions.”

Messina pulled her jacket tighter around herself, colder from the warmly lit imaginings of space from science fiction novels being shown to be nothing more than a veneer thinner than the paper they had been printed on. The car showed no emotions. He simply continued to sit in his earthly disguise, pointed toward the valley and the old highway as if looking out through his dimmed headlights.

“But once you get close to something and feel the light that was once a pinprick... Its like gravity is beckoning you in, embracing you in colour so blindingly different from the immeasurable emptiness once you start planetfall. Even after hundreds and thousands of landings there is no happiness, no relief like final approach and the first scrapings of an atmosphere.”

“Is it disappointing when you land?”

“No. You have to enjoy every second because it is so fleeting and in a moment’s notice you’ll be in space once more.”

Button Up - Camphor

Messina was floating on her back in the cool water of the pool. She was smiling, it was absolutely perfect out here in the desert. She began to wonder if maybe she should move out this way when she finally retired. It would be worth it if she got to see such a beautiful corona again. “Hey Tracks, does the moon ever get a corona where you’re from?”

He had been dosing she realised and kind of felt bad. He stirred back to waking. “Hmm? No, but Cybertron doesn’t have a “moon” as your planet does, not one that is lit from behind by a star.”

“Really?”

“Mmhmm. You really have a lot of beautiful things here we didn’t.”

More Than This - Charlie Hunter Quartet

She smiled and took his hand, he gently tugged her out of the chair she was sitting in and pulled her closer, hoping he didn’t mess up too badly, but he’d studied several videos from the internet, this dancing business couldn’t be all that hard. It was just a matter of minor movements flowing together and she easily let him take the lead. It was actually rather pleasant, it gave him a good yet subtle opportunity to study her more minute details. She had three freckles under her right eye and a small scar under her left ear which he barely noticed through the wafty scent of the jasmine stained air and her chilled and reedy perfume.

Hang in There Charlie - Sleep Station

We briefly leave Messina and Tracks to join Alexis and Starscream

“Hey Star?”

“What?”

“I got this feeling we ain’t going to come back.”

“We aren’t.”

“Well damn. You’re a gas tank half empty kind of guy.”

“Since when have I ever seemed the least bit optimistic and idiotic?”

“When we shot off into the night sky, you seemed optimistic then.”

“I was.”

Purify - Balligomingo

She sighed as she peeked over the edge of the deck from the top of the ladder. Noone. Perfect. Moving as stealthly as she could she slipped over to her plane, her partner in crime tonight. “Star, it’s a new moon, we’re going to touch the Milky Way tonight!” She pulled herself up fluidly and settled into the cockpit switching on the systems and turning them to night settings before using as little gas as possible to taxi her fighter to a more isolated tarmac before quickly taking off straight for the stars.

Seperated - Yoko Kanno

We rejoin Messina and Tracks.

She looked out the living room window to the garage which only had one Corvette residing in it at the moment. She couldn’t think of what it would be like when he really would be gone and not merely at the Autobot’s base. But she had to tell him, she knew she did. She just didn’t want to. But when she saw the lights flood the driveway and heard the low rumble of his engine she steeled herself, gripping her mug of tea tightly in the dark room. Taking a deep breath she watched as his headlights went out. She knew if she was going to do it she had to do it now or she would never find the courage to. And she doubted they would remain friends if she withheld this any longer.

Sycorax Encounter

The city complex stretched before them in the brilliantly shining waters. The moonlight bounced around on the surrounding ocean as they slowly began their descent.



Horen Sie: Battlefield

There is a writing challenge where you put your music player of choice on random and write whatever is inspired by the music that comes on. I have several running files for that, all of them named Horen Sie. I'm not sure why I went with German I just did. Maybe one of these days I'll do all those stories auf Deutsch! But I've gathered together the tidbits that are related to one another in single posts because they do build upon one another. But often they are interspersed with other stories and are just about never written in the order they get put in later.

A Final Prayer 1 (Sleep Station)

It was another hot night in Kaon, but he wasn’t sure if it was because of the season or if it was due to the fact that it was being decimated by an uprising of Gladiators. All he could think of as he hid among the buildings was that he hadn’t messaged his bonded lately. She had always wanted to visit Kaon.

The Tarmac at Munich

He looked around, it had gotten quiet. Silent. A battle field should never be silent. Where was the enemy? Where were they hiding? He looked around frantically.

Nothing.

He saw many of his comrades, fallen, and began to wonder if they all had fallen. If he was the only one left... then maybe the enemy had left thinking victory. Maybe if he crept off the field slowly, he could escape.

“Found you little rabbit.”

Highwind Takes to the Skies

She loved the rush of her first time out in a new world, using a brand new alt mode. She loved the feeling of the wind rushing over her in strange new ways in this form, and the “radio” offered such an array of different sounds and informational bits that she was sure she might overload trying to emulate the other vehicles around her and process all the data flowing over the shortwave frequencies. It was heaven though, this caressing atmosphere, this abundance of data waiting to be analysed, the hope that maybe she might find things here, find things to bring order to her heavily disjointed world. And if not, she at least had these beautiful feelings, these beautiful sounds.

My Darling (Sleep Station)

He did not have much energy left to him, he could feel himself fading as the they drained his life from him. He sent out an encoded message into the heavens and hoped she would find it somehow.

....

She cried. After all these orns, thousands upon millions of vorns, he had sent her a message. She cried as she listened. She cried because its timestamp was almost the same announcing his capture. She cried because he sounded so hopeless. She cried because she realized there was nothing left to her. Everything she had been searching for had just been shattered and confirmed dead.

The Impossible Planet (Dr Who)

After watching beautiful Kaon be destroyed, they were aware that the time to beat the Decepticons to the punch line had long since passed. The Decepticons were gaining power quickly while the Autobots were losing it. They vowed to do what they had to in order to stop this fatal power shift, but they still wished that it had never come to this point. Friends had joined the Decepticons, once comrades had abandoned them, many had been killed as well. Now Kaon lay in ruin and they could only fear that Iacon or some other city would be next. It was a horrible but likely next step, to break apart the system the larger and more influential cities would need to go first.



Transformers, As Told In Oral Tradition

For my storytelling class final we had to do a set of stories that had a theme and one had to be two minutes exactly. The first story was my two minute one and it took skill and a little bit of inspiration from Blurr to fit it in the time frame but I did it.

Kaon and the End of the Golden Age and Hope or What it Mean to be an Autobot

This time I’m going to share a story about a far off world. On the Planet of Cybertron there were many beautiful cities, especially at the peak of the Golden Age. But this isn’t a story about one of them. This is the story of Kaon and the End of the Golden Age.

Kaon wasn’t a city that was lauded for scientific achievement like Crystal City or artistic merit like Iacon. It was a workhorse of a city, where the planet’s smelting activities took place and generally if you lived there you wanted to leave there.

It was also the first to feel murmurs of discord. When the energy mines started running dry, where do you think the unemployed miners went and who suffered the first shortages? Kaon, of course.

And that’s where the trouble started. I bet you didn’t know that the first leader of the Decepticons used to be a miner and that everything started because not only were the miners the first to lose their jobs they were the first to be subjected to energy rationing. Despite the fact they handled energy all day they weren’t allowed a full share of it. The share they felt they deserved. They were only further insulted by getting no help to find other jobs once the mines did dry up. Most ended up in illegal sectors like the Gladiatorial games.

But the miners weren’t content to have things stay the same. At their head was Megatron, once a foreman in the mines he knew how to organize work. Or in this case revolts. And even though their numbers were few that group contained the most ruthless and most disenfranchised of ‘bots. In one night they rose up, taking everyone by surprise and razed the city before any manner of peace keeping force could be mustered. Kaon hadn’t been a bad city, but in one night all the average, well meaning citizens were gone. In one night Kaon became the first warzone in the Great War. The war between a small group of well trained and organized fighters and a larger but civilian based group which only wanted to stop the fighting and restore peace, wishing to return to their science and arts and other idles.

That was the night the Golden Age ended, never to be regained again but often dreamt of, especially by those who were alive to enjoy it.

This next story comes straight from the mouth of one of those Autobots who still dreams of those better days. Tracks is one of my closest friends and my favorite travelling buddy. Before the war he wasn’t exactly your ideal Autobot, living a life of leisure and social engagements and making sure his paint was scratch free and shined to perfection. But he felt a duty to join the Autobot cause and it was on his first assignment that he learned what it meant to be an Autobot. This is a story of Hope or What it Means to be an Autobot.

It was his first combat mission and it hadn’t gone well. In fact that is quite the understatement, everyone else in his unit was dead and he was only spared because he had been knocked unconscious. He regained consciousness, still sprawled out on the battlefield after the enemy had left only to discover that he could barely see anything, enough to know he was still alive but not enough to do him any other good.

And that was when he heard a voice. “Anyone still alive out here?” It called out.

“Yes!” He cried out. “Over here!”

And even though he couldn’t see who his savior was he could see the shape of someone standing over him.

“It must be your lucky day.” The stranger told him. “I’ll call in a medevac.”

Things were starting to look up. But that didn’t last.

The sound of a helicopter approaching was soon engulfed in the sound of an explosion.

“What was that?” Tracks asked.

“Nothing good.” The stranger said, pulling Tracks to stand. “Hope you can walk, we need to go.”

But Tracks couldn’t walk, at least not on his own. He was stuck leaning heavily on the unknown soldier, slowing them both down.

“Where are we going?” Tracks asked.

“To find cover, whatever took down the medi-evac may well be following after us and we need to get ready for ‘um.” And soon the stranger was hiding both of them in some rubble.

Only a few moments after they had hid did the sound of others became audible and soon their enemy announced themselves.

“Make this easy on yourselves, surrender now and we’ll make it quick.”

Now, part of the war effort is of course propaganda where the worst of the worst and their villainous deed are shown. The voice that had called out, looking for prey was one Tracks knew though he’d never met the owner before. Every fresh recruit knew it. It was the voice of the leader of the Predacons, one of the most elite and feared teams the enemy had. Countless battles left hundreds of Autobots dead and those five terrors walking away without so much as a scratch.

“Guess we know why both our teams are dead.” Tracks said.

“Yup.” The stranger replied.

“This is really bad isn’t it?”

“Yup.”

“Do you have a plan?”

“Yup.”

“Care to share it?”

“Of course, you’re part of it. You’re gonna go pick a fight with them.”

“What?!” Tracks baulked, “I’m barely functioning and they’re legendary! Are you crazy?”

“We’re in a tight spot, we can’t outrun them so we got to try and work together and fight ‘em. You with me?”

And Tracks? Well they were in a tight spot. So he went out and hurled insults at those ferocious fighters, catching them offgaurd with his brazenness. He was scared out of his wits, unable to see and standing alone and shouting not so nice things at five of the meanest creatures to ever have processing units booted up. But he wasn’t alone. In the time he had surprised the Predacons and amused them the ‘bot who’s name he didn’t know had snuck up behind them. Tracks wasn’t able to see the fight that went on but he heard it and it sounded fierce. Like a transmission quitting while downshifting on the freeway. And before Tracks’ new it, someone had grabbed him and was running as quick as they could manage. “Still got two more on our tails.” The stranger said, more calm than Tracks had ever been his whole life.

And right as the stranger ducked to the ground, pulling Tracks with them, the brazen voice of the leader of the Predacons filled the area. “I have to admit, Autobot, I am surprised. I can’t think of the last time someone took out a Predacon, let alone three. You have my respect. But I am out of patience. And you are out of places to hide.”

“How are you holding up?” The stranger asked Tracks, his voice but a whisper.

“We’re stranded and trapped with no hope of survival! All the stunts and tricks have been for nothing because one on one they’ve got us beat! We’re never going to-“

“Enough!” Said the stranger, his anger almost palpable. “That team on the medi-evac, my friends, gave their lives to rescue you and protect a way of life! Don’t you dare say they died for nothing! When we put on this Autobot badge we made a promise. A promise to ourselves, a promise to our people, a promise to every other Autobot past, present and future! We don’t give up, we don’t lose hope. Now you’re going to pick a direction and start walking and get out of here.”

“But what about you?”

“I’m going to hold them off. I always did want to go out with style.”

And that was when it all made sense, in that moment, even though Tracks couldn’t see he who was speaking or where he was he could see clearer than ever before. Putting your life on the line for your team, doing whatever it took to protect life, that was what it meant to be an Autobot.

And he knew what he had to do. So Tracks jumped out from their cover, running the direction he’d heard the voice of the Predacon leader come from and rammed into him. The Predacon leader threw him off easily and laughed at his attempt but Tracks was the one to stay smiling. He figured that would be plenty of time for the unnamed Autobot to do something and from the sound of things, the great struggle and fight that rang through the air, his comrade in arms had taken the opportunity given and used it successfully.

And then the next sound Tracks heard, going in and out of consciousness again, was the sound of a helicopter fading in from the background and he could hear other friendly sounding voices. Another medi-evac. They were going to make it home after all. And as he was being carried to the hospital he asked for the one who had saved him but he was already gone. So he asked for his name.

But one of the medics who was helping to carry him chuckled and said. “He wanted us to tell you the he was just an Autobot, just like you are, and never forget what that means.”

And that is why Tracks is always happy to share this story with others. We’ve all seen terrible times, awful things, and have plenty of chances to drop it all and walk away. But we don’t. Even us humans who haven’t seen intergalactic war, we keep on and try and do what is right and don’t lose hope. And as long as we stay true to that we’re good people, good Autobots, and we’re never truly defeated.

And those are my two stories, one of bleakness and one of hope on a world so very far from our own. Though human eyes have never seen Kaon or any part of Cybertron you’ve heard about its history, its inhabitants. You’ve heard of that world and no matter what happens in that war, if the whole of that all were to be destroyed a tiny part would live on in each of you and would never truly be dead.

The Feeling of Leaving

I swear one of these will be cheery one day. This was inspired by Evelyn's abduction in the Transformers fanfic Juxtaposition which I wholeheartedly recommend.

~

She sat there, on a table far too big for her own world, all alone. It had all started to click into place, become real. She had been disconnected from human society, not of her own desire but because of her use to these metal men.

For my own good. That was what they said. It was for my own good.

In her hands was her cell phone. While she was disconnected it was not. It had called out, announcing a text message. It had been her mom, asking whether she was bringing dessert or the wine for dinner that night. Staring at the screen which no longer illuminated itself to show the message she felt so very empty.

What am I supposed to say?

The tears worked their way up, slowly clamping her throat closed as they clawed their way up from the dark pit inside herself that her soul had sunk to.

“Mama, what am I supposed to tell you?”

“You speak as if your mother can hear you.”

With a quick sniffle to keep the oncoming sobs under wraps she tried her best to compose herself. “I just got a text message from my mother. I’ve still got signal in my cell phone right now and the longer I wait the less likely a reply will actually make it back and I can’t just leave without a goodbye.”

Her phone started ringing then, the screen showing it was her mother calling. She could no longer keep her sorrow in check. With a strangled, choked out sob she felt her tight control on her brave facade dissolve. She pulled her knees close to her chest, wrapping herself into a compact form with her vibrating cell phone having fallen next to her.

“I’m sorry, mama. I’m sorry.” She said before the sobs were too strong to speak.

Eyepatch v.2

This is a redo of the previous scene since at that point in the story where that scene would be, Velocity would be back to not speaking.

~

She stared at his face, the curiosity of the imperfection so blantantly worn by her beloved perfectionist too much for her to look away.

“What in the world are you staring at?” He finally asked.

She leaned forward, extending a delicate finger to trace the wrent in his facial plating.

He seemed a bit off put by the action, his optic darting anywhere but on her. “Oh that.”

She sat back in a more normal posture, still looking at him, her gaze begging him to elaborate on the origin of the mar.

“Ratchet is without a proper medical station here so delicate and precise repairs such as what my facial plating requires is currently beyond our means. To be honest I’ve become thankful that he was at least able to repair the optic and get that back into working order.”

The way she cocked her head to the side asked him to go further. She wanted to know the origin of the mark as well as the details for its continued existence.

He expelled the exhaust from his system in a heavy sigh. “There was an explosion on one of the missions, a piece of shrapnel did it.” He was embarrassed. It was obvious, from his slightly hunched posture and the almost pout that had taken over his bottom lip plate.

Velocity leaned up on her knees, carefully maneuvering herself so she could lightly press her lips to the scar. She had no words for him, she had no way to say how she thought no less of him even though such a grievous looking wound was more from an accident than a battle but she wanted to convey that still. She ran the back of her fingers down the side of his face, repeating the action in what she hoped he recognized as a comforting gesture to match the gentle smile that pulled at her facial plates.

And soon a very tiny smile pulled at his facial plating too and his posture relaxed.

He didn’t have the words to thank her but then again he didn’t need them. She knew from the peace that radiated from his spark which was so close to hers. She knew from the contentment and ease which she could feel at the edge of her consciousness.

And she was happy that for a brief moment she was able to provide the comfort and peace and reassurance he so often provided to her.

Eyepatch

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, Tracks, what happened to your face?”

Tracks looked over to her, not putting down the box of scrap he was carrying. “What in the world do you mean?”

Velocity put down the box she was carrying so she could trace a line over her optic and down her face. “What caused that one?”

“A rather excitable Audi. Never caught his name, cut him in half before I got a chance to ask. I’m just glad Ratchet was able to my optic back into working order.”

“That scar doesn’t look half bad on you.” Velocity said, picking up the box once more. “Makes you look a little more rugged. A little more tough.”

“It’s still an imperfection on my once flawless visage.”