Carbombya

The grassy hills and savannas in the east, bordered by ancient volcanos and sprawling lava fields, are the only part of Carbombya not made up of barren desert. Until recently, the country depended on meager livestock herding and subsistence agriculture, but upon the discovery of a huge reserve of very high-grade oil beneath the shifting desert sands, things changed radically. The struggling democracy weathered multiple coup attempts by greedy neighbors and other interested foreigners before finally succumbing to the tender mercies of a home-grown dictator. There are no refugees from war torn Ethiopia being taken in as slave labor, not here under the enlightened rule of President-for-Life Abdul Fakkaddi!

Contents:

Trypticon <T>

Carbombyan Palace

Obvious exits: East <E> leads to Red Sea. West <W> leads to Nile River.Fly <Up> Chimera arrives from the Nile River to the west.

Chimera has arrived.

Fleet plummets from the sky in a fall that looks to be completely uncontrolled to the untrained eye. If someone were to look carefully, however, they might notice that his thrustors fire now and again to ensure that he falls straight down and doesn't drift off course. Then, before he can hit bottom, he brings his arms to his side and holds his legs out straight, a trapeze artist's twistie-twirl before bringing knees to chest for a quick tumble. Then, once he's again upright he straightens out, engages his antigravs and turns his bootjets on full force. The roar fills the area near Trypticon, attracting a good deal of attention to his rather showy but ultimately safe landing. Aaaah, free-fall. Gotta love it.Free fall can be fun. Just as long as you miss the ground. But that's what the antigravs are for. . .

And before anyone asks, yes, Chimera has been.. hiding. Not because she's done anything wrong (lately), but more along the lines of.. well. Paperwork. Avoiding getting injured. The usual. She's taken a break to sit on one of Tryppy's walls where she can catch a glimpse of the freefalling yellow one.

Fleet loves free fall, but he's not addicted! He can quit anytime he wants to!*coughcough*The yellow one looks around from where he landed and is able to spot Chimera, fellow (and more unwilling) student of the Sweeps. He doesn't view it as odd that he hasn't seen much of her... he will go for a good while without spotting her, after all. But since she is here, might as well chat. Fleet steps back into the air, this time employing no flash as he flies up to hover nearby the female.

Chimera is the odd one. Reluctant student that she is-- "Fleet." She says in a tone that could be a greeting, and could just as well be her reciting off something she's memorized. It's one of those odd days for the green seeker. "Having fun?"

Gee! Fleet would never have noticed that Chimera's runs rather on the odd side! But frankly, he's almost given up making sense of any of his regular associates anyway. He inclines his head politely. "Sure. On light limited duty, so I'm trying to make the best of my time off." Because we all know how much medics LOVE it when their patients do insane stunts like the one he just pulled!

Yeah. It's not like Kim doesn't have that neon sign behind her continually that says 'NOT RIGHT IN THE HEAD'. Actually, she's learning-- granted, a little slow at times. And right now is one of those times that she can use those sterling social skills. "Limited duty... and you can still do that. Very agile." A fraction of a smile curves Chimera's mouth, polite, at least. "I'd like to be able to fly like that."

Fleet studies Chimera thoughtfully for a moment. Granted, he's /officially/ on limited duty, but his systems have actually taken care of all his lingering damage. But still... what luck! Fleet was hoping to lead Chimera in this direction anyway! "Actually, in all honesty, I suspect you have more raw ability when it comes to that sort of thing... you lack both the training, and the instincts that a sky-built would have. But I feel quite confident you could learn to do things of that nature."

Chimera nods, "Having been... who I was-- there was no opportunity for me to learn to fly even a shuttle." She shrugs, and swings a leg, careful not to kick the wall too hard. Don't want to wake the sleeping giant, after all. "Always learned fast though." Just stubborn as hell-- else she would've been an Autobot.

Fleet doesn't press the matter of who she was, although... well, a Decepticon who doesn't fly in their alternate mode is common enough, but from the way she speaks and acts, he's come to be fairly certain that she couldn't fly as a robot, either, and that is fairly suspicious. The sky-built manages to shove his natural curiosity aside, however - she's given him no reason to believe that she's anything but a loyal (if somewhat odd) Decepticon now, whatever she may have been in the past. "Well, Chimera, /I/ don't know how to fly a shuttle. There's a considerable difference between flying a shuttle and... flying. You'll have to go to someone else to learn the first, but for the second... well, I've been assigned to teach you. I have no doubt you can learn fast, and like I said, the raw ability is certainly there. It's pointless for me to give you general combat training but this much, perhaps, I can help you with."

Awww. He'll find out eventually. Chimera shrugs, "I figured knowing how to fly a shuttle would help-- got to know something about lift and speed. Not the same as actually flying, but still." She's something of a fanatically loyal Decepticon right now. Loyal to Arachnae, anyhow. "So..." Kim waits a moment, "training can overcome lack of instinct?"

"Well, that's what the Sweeps tell me, anyhow," Fleet chuckles as he steps onto the wall itself. Having just flown back from New Crystal City, it is probably time to start conserving fuel. "But we can't be sure unless we try. At the very least, though, training can overcome lack of training, and instinct can only take you so far, anyway."

Chimera nods at some memory of long ago and far away. Instinct. Instinct can be wrong anyhow. "I will.. do my best." Heck. Maybe one day she'll fly circles around all the others-- but then again, she could be delusional.

Fleet nods once and then turns to look off to the horizon. "The Empire may ask more of you than that, but I never will, Chimera. Even so, it won't be easy at time." He turns his head towards the other while still keeping his body directed towards the wall edge. "You can be very stubborn. You can use that stubbornness to resist learning, or you can use it to keep trying when things get hard... that'll be up to you."

Chimera looks faintly disturbed. "... you think I'm resisting learning?" Well. She's disturbed anyhow. Same diff. "I had to fight to exist-- why would I give up now?" Other than the realization that she's a failed experiment, a dark copy.

Fleet turns his head back towards the horizon. "Not now, you don't seem to be, but you certainly were at the beginning. And you know, you can battle to exist... and still refuse to grow once that fight is won. After all, growth is always change, and becoming something new in large ways or small ways... and to do that, you have to leave something old beyond. Maybe only a small piece, maybe something major. After a person's fought so hard to be who they are, the idea of willingly letting that go to move onto something different can be... daunting." As he talks, his voice becomes increasingly distant, his gaze more and more unfocused, as he muses over what this means for him as well. There is a moment's silence after the final period, and then Fleet himself shivers. Daunting, indeed!

Chimera pulls her feet up, and wraps an arm around her legs. "But how?" she asks, quietly for once. "I have enough missing pieces as it is." Maybe the Quintessons did her a favor by letting her know that she was the copy. Or maybe they just made things worse. "I'm not the same, and yet, I am." Her gaze is distracted as well. Congratulations. You apparantly found her in one of the relatively subdued and reasonable states. If only it would last.

A soft chuckle issues from Fleet's vocalizer. "Well, if there's an easy way to do it, I'll let you know once I find it." He shakes his head and tilts his optics further up towards the bright burning stars of the desert night. "It was a lot simpler when I was a factory fresh... there was less of myself to let go of. It was easier to not to notice the part of learning that meant losing, and to only see the gain. But now there's so much of me. The thing is... it is learning. It is growth. There is nothing to be left behind that won't be replaced with something else, something, perhaps, bigger. It will mean some change, some loss..." and now Fleet's voice becomes whisper hushed, "but in the end, there will be more than there is now."

Chimera shakes her head. "I almost wish I had that. Factory fresh. . ." She frowns, "I'm not sure that it would make a difference though. I would be someone else if it was."

Fleet finally sits down next to Chimera and dangles his feet over the side. "Right," he answers. "That... we won't spend too much time worrying about that. Acknowledge it, yes, because it's what makes you who you are today which, in turn, determines what the next steps can be. But you could go mad spending all your time wondering about what might have been had you started some other way, and that would get you no where." The true-built turns to look directly at the other. "Learning calls for change, and change leads to loss... but everything you are now will still be there in some way or another. It leaves its mark." He looks back up. "The only other way is... what? To wipe it all away and start fresh? Like the Sweeps? But that's not what's being asked of us. Not now. Not today."

Chimera doesn't appear to look towards the other. He might be right-- "What if I am already mad..." Almost a whisper, "Perhaps it would be better to sweep it all away." Nah. She's not /crazy/ crazy. Just unstable. "I want to learn. But I'm not sure I can change."

"Well, you'll never know if you don't at least try," the other murmurs back.