POP goes the transformer [OPEN]

[forcowardice]

WHO: Fulcrum & YOU, GOOD CITIZEN.
WHERE: One of the many coffee shops in Heropa that are in no way shape or form Starbucks nope not at all.
WHEN: 9/14 onward!
WHAT: Fulcrum attempts to manage a superpower with varying degrees of failure. All failure. Everything is a failure. Things are exploding.
WARNINGS: N/A



Adjusting to the life of an organic, even if it's temporary, has been difficult.

Even just being displaced from his friends and crew has been enough to make him a little anxious. Fulcrum feels infinitely braver with the presence of Krok and the others. On his own, he's just a little coward trying to get by, but they inspire him to be better and to have courage, to stand up for them. He doesn't have that, not at all, and he's here alone.

The nice thing at least is how quick strangers have been to come in and assist him in his adjustments. Annie, Kotetsu, Tailgate, Metalhawk, Isaac, and many others have given him advice, help, and food to make sure he's on his feet. And sure, Breakdown meant well when he accidentally knocked Fulcrum out! That kind of kindness is not something he ever anticipate on getting, not quite like that. It was a little overwhelming, but important to him.

Maybe organics aren't quite the unevolved sentient meatbags he originally thought them to be, as it turns out.

For now, Fulcrum is still adjusting. It's probably for the best that abruptly his roommates went missing and now he had an entire apartment to himself; it honestly makes him feel less guilty with how he sleeps. On the other hand, it's been intensely lonely living on his own. Habitually, it seems lonely people pick up pets to keep them company, but Fulcrum isn't too sure, honestly, how he'd do with a pet.

Grimlock doesn't really count.

The different flavors that these human bodies can achieve has been fascinating. Fulcrum is still studying for a proper diet -- one cannot, apparently, survive purely on apple juice as he was initially led to believe -- and for now is contemplating his book as he takes careful sips from his coffee cup. Coffee by itself was a bit too bitter for his liking but he's had worse rations during his time in Styx as far as taste is concerned. Mochas are sweeter and remind him vaguely of a hot liquid version of the ice cream he had with Tailgate not long ago, so he's sticking to that for now.

A diet should be balanced. There are many things that need to be looked into for nutrients and those nutrients need to be acquired through a set of foods. Those foods can be found through meats, vegetables, fruit, and grains. However, allergies might occur. Oh, and to even describe where meat comes from! Fulcrum never really enjoyed the desperation that some Decepticons had in making organics into fuel; eating meat is right out.

This is entirely stressful! Fulcrum's going to have to plan carefully to make sure he gets everything he needs. But how does he know when he's allergic to something? How do humans live like this? Should he experiment and find out the hard way?

Just as Fulcrum picks up his neglected bagel, it occurs again. His anxieties are met and the bagel explodes in a splatter of crumbs and cream cheese.

Fulcrum squints and wipes off some cream cheese from his cheek. "Well, that's just great," he grumbles, trying to calm himself down.

Comments

[slingshots]

She'd been off in some corner, sort of half curled around a drink with one knee pulled to her chest, scrolling through the network. But it doesn't take much to catch her eye, and an exploding bagel? Yeah, that'd definitely do it. Carrie blinks, directing her full attention to the guy. The guy who... honestly, looks way too awkward not to be an imPort. Only people from totally different worlds can manage to look like that in a cafe.

So she hops up, beelines for the kiosk with the napkins, and solemnly deposits a few of them at Fulcrum's table in front of him without a word. Just your friendly neighborhood slightly-amused-looking teenager, here.

[forcowardice]

Not that he doesn't appreciate the little assistance, but honestly he looks down at the napkins warily. Mostly because he isn't sure what'll happen to them s soon as he touches them. Squinting suspiciously at the napkins, he tells the human, "Thanks."

No point in explaining, right? This kind of stuff probably happens all the time in this place.

Fulcrum hesitantly picks up a napkin.

It most definitely explodes in shreds of paper.

Fulcrum makes a frustrated whining noise.

[slingshots]

Oh, man. How could she possibly be expected not to be amused at that? She lets out a soft huff which could be a laugh, and leans against the table with chin in palm. This could be a little longer than the few seconds she'd initially prepared for.

"Give it a couple," she says, tone calm. "Focus on breathing, too."

It's really, really not difficult to guess what the issue here is. Powers, right? Crazy.

[forcowardice]

Granted, he can see how it might be kind of funny, but at the same time he's still kind of embarrassed. He sinks in his seat a little bit.

"Okay. Okay." Closing his eyes, Fulcrum breathes in through his nose, then exhales. Try to be calm. It seems like the anxiety is what's making things explode in his hands.

Cautiously, he takes a napkin before he rubs his face with it.

"Um. Thanks."

[slingshots]

She offers a smile, pleased (and a little surprised) that it actually worked. But she's practiced pretty hard with her own new power, so maybe she's actually onto something, here.

"No sweat." She points a lazy finger generally face-ward on herself, indicating right cheek. "You got a little... still there."

[forcowardice]

A little embarrassed, he takes the napkin and dabs at the indicated spot. This is a good step in the right direction to get himself in control of these powers, but still. He wishes he didn't have them and would rather just be in his own body again.

"Have you been doing this powers thing for awhile?"

[slingshots]

"Sure." Not at all. Almost 4 months doesn't count for much in a world where some people have had their powers from birth — she keeps that to herself. Everything's relative, right? She leans comfortably against his table, apparently having invited herself here for more than just a passing comment.

"You, though, no chance you're not a new show, trying out powers for the first time. Am I right?"

[tooscience]

It's not everyday a dinosaur in a suit, tie and hat walks into a coffee shop. Of course it's probably not everyday that someone explodes the bagel their eating ether. Certainly it was a day of oddities. Or maybe it was just a day that those hipster playwrights would finally get some inspiration.

Dr. Dinosaur had ordered himself a coffee, spouting things along to the lines of BEHOLD AN ORDINARY CIVILIAN and YES I AM A NORMAL HUMAN, when the bagel exploding happened. He was a genius, clearly no one could see through his disguise.

Bagel exploding was certainly a cause to stop screaming and pay attention though. Pay attention and point.

"EXPLODING MAMMAL!"

[forcowardice]

Up until this point, he was content to do his best an ignore the dinosaur guy. Despite all the shouting.

Now there's this.

Fulcrum could be annoyed, but instead he just has to ask, "What's with the clothes? Do dinosaurs wear that stuff usually?"

[tooscience]

H'ssssk squints, eying Fulcrum as though he's just offended his existence or possibly called his ultimate disguise stupid. Probably the later.

"This is the look of an ordinary businessman!" he caws, pausing a moment to get his coffee.

His suit was genius, and had worked countless times before! This mammal was just dumb, and didn't know anything about business. That was obvious enough though, what with him exploding food. You didn't explode food unless you were trying to kill someone in a super unexpected surprise attack!

"Why are you exploding, mammal? Did you offend the food workers?"

[forcowardice]

"Right. Of course." Nope, Fulcrum isn't quite buying it. At all. This is the (kind of adorable) dinosaur guy that was on the network, not an ordinary human.

He convinces himself to refrain from any desires to pat him on the nose. It's probably condescending or whatever. Even if it is an organic.

"No, no! I'm just not in control of my powers yet."

[tooscience]

"Powers to control food," he rumbles as he eyes the other. The mammal could just be dumb - which mammal wasn't - but if he was telling the truth then that could potentially be useful. At a later date.

If he was just a dumb mammal then the food workers would finish him off. They were vicious creatures, those food workers.

"Or powers to blow up food?"

[forcowardice]

"I don't control food! That's just-- that'd be too stupid," Fulcrum grumbles, folding his arms as he leans back in his seat. Talking to a somewhat intelligent dinosaur that's not a Dynobot.

"I can blow up items with my hands, but I have to touch them. But I can't figure out how they're controlled, exactly."

[crabcake]

Rampage was trying to enjoy his sandwich in peace. Honestly, he's still adjusting to the sheer variety of foods humans had himself, but he found he wasn't particularly picky, as long as it had meat in it. The more meat the better. His sandwich had a disappointingly low other food-to-meat ratio, but it was reasonably palatable all the same.

He had just raised the sandwich to take another bite of his sandwich, when suddenly something splatters against his cheek. Very slowly, the sandwich is placed on the tabletop, and he reaches up to wipe the offending substance from his face. He eyes his finger critically.

Cream cheese.

Very slowly, Rampage turns to stare at Fulcrum, the man incriminatingly covered in yet more cream cheese. He stares harder, as if willing Fulcrum's head to follow the bagel's example.

[forcowardice]

The moment Fulcrum and Rampage's eyes meet, there's a moment of silence. The entire shop almost seems to go dead quiet as Fulcrum realizes just the slowly developing anger in this man's eyes. He doesn't know him, but he knows that the guy looks ready to bust some heads if he really, really feels inclined.

Slowly, Fulcrum just sinks in his chair, silently hoping that he'll find a way to disappear under the table so that he can escape this man's look. That'd be ideal.

[crabcake]

Rampage pushes back from his table with a screech of chair on floor. Ever so slowly his rises to his full height, then proceeds to move to loom over Fulcrum's table, reaching out to place one large hand on it. Never once does he break his gaze.

[forcowardice]

Oh hell. Fulcrum sinks further into his chair, almost practically hiding under the table at this point. Nervously, he stares up at the enormous guy looming over him.

"S-sorry! Sorry, it was an accident!" he squeaks out in a tiny voice.

[crabcake]

Glaring for a moment longer, Rampage suddenly yanks a seat out from Fulcrum's table and settles down in it.

"You're an Import," he states. "The Cybertronian."

[forcowardice]

When the chair is pulled out so suddenly, Fulcrum gives out a muffled yelp, startled. He swallows, anxious as he watches the much, much bigger guy from across the table.

"Yeah. Yeah, that's me. I'm Fulcrum."

[darkpants_warmfeeling]

Jacob's timing is excellent today. He walks into not-Starbucks to grab a coffee just in time to catch the bagel fireworks, along with a speck of cream cheese which manages to fly through the air and land on his nose the moment the door is closing behind him.

He wipes off the cheese, then looks around the shop for a sign of what the heck is happening. The employees and other customers are all desperately trying to act as though nothing weird is happening, perhaps reasoning that if they don't acknowledge the exploding bagels, they don't exist. In Jacob's Galaxy, this is known as the 'Citadel Council Approach.'

Jacob is not a fan of the Citadel Council Approach. He spots the apparent epicentre of the blasting bagels from the halo of crumbs and other debris surrounding Fulcrum, and heads over with a sympathetic look on his face. "Let me guess," he says. "Power problems?"

[forcowardice]

For a moment, Fulcrum just looks at his own hands in exasperation. He knew based on the summaries that he has the ability, but its development has come about abruptly and with some setbacks, clearly. The technician doesn't even really know what to do with himself at first. Touching seems like a pretty bad idea right now.

He glances up at the man approaching, then shrugs his shoulders sheepishly.

"That among other things. I have... legitimately not idea what I'm doing."

[darkpants_warmfeeling]

The poor guy looks so lost and hapless that Jacob is just drawn to help. He steps forward, hand outstretched in greeting. Then he recalls that this ImPort makes things explode, and that he's having serious power control issues. Jacob lowers his hand and just... nods in greeting, instead.

"It's never easy, especially when you're new. Maybe I can help you out. I'm Jacob Taylor, I've been here a few months."

[forcowardice]

The hand earns a wry look, but he can see where Jacob is trying to be friendly. Fortunately, he doesn't reach out to touch anything or, well, anyone.

"Fulcrum. I haven't been here that long. I'm usually not even all that fleshy, honestly." He shrugs his shoulders helplessly. "So everyone else is kind of an expert in comparison to me when it comes to all of this stuff."

[darkpants_warmfeeling]

"Not that fleshy, huh." Jacob folds his arms. He has never heard that phrase before, not in this context, but he has spent enough time in THE FUTURE to guess at what it means. "You telling me you used to be a machine, or something similar?"

His voice drops a degree or two in warmth on that last question. He's still willing to help a confused new ImPort, but... Jacob's version of the Galaxy has had very mixed experiences with synthetic intelligences, and Jacob himself has been there on the front lines for some of the worst of it.

[forcowardice]

There's a tiny huff from Fulcrum, his fingers curling but not able to really hold onto anything right now. He can note the change in tone; dealing with people is something he's used to. Human body language is still something he's picking up, but he's picking up on the vocal inclinations.

"I'm telling you I used to be a fully sentient inorganic lifeform," Fulcrum says flatly. "I take a bit of offense at machine. Kind of gives it a drone-like impression."