Megatron smiled. "Mastery is, in and of itself, a powerful pleasure. Once your body has learned what to do, the action just flows through you, and it feels sometimes as though you succeed without effort. But I was a gladiator. Sadly, kill or be killed are far too often the only choices some people are given." His expression softens. "I am sorry that happened to you. It's happened to most of my friends. I knew nothing of privilege when I was young and all the education I have had, I sought on my own, and mostly learned on the fly. This is true of most of my friends; both Ravage and I were created as slaves, though Soundwave came from a family of privilege."
He thinks for a moment. "You mentioned shapeshifting. All of my people can change their shapes, but this is because of the way we are put together. There are only certain shapes that we can assume. To acquire a new alternate mode, one must either have one's spark transferred into the body of someone who has moved into a different body, or chosen to die; or go through exquisitely painful surgical procedures while conscious--which I have done. I can become a tank. With the use of matter displacement technology, I can also become a gun. But I cannot become a truck, or a jet, or a tree, or a bird. The components that make up my body, when shifted into a different configuration, can take the form of a tank."
Megatron stands up and points out the tank gun on his back, and the treads concealed in his upper arms and lower legs. "I fold myself into the other shape," he explains. "My transformation is more technically complex than most because I do make use of interdimensional pockets and mass displacement. But in its simplest form, Cybertronian transformation depends upon having body parts shaped in such a way that they can be folded in and out, latched together and separated, to take on the form of another object. If you look very closely at any of us, you can see clues as to what other forms we might be able to assume. I should, however, caution you that for many of us, this is a sensitive subject. Under the rule of the Functionalists, your alternate mode dictated the choices, opportunities and resources available to you, and changing it was difficult and/or illegal. This is no longer the case in many places, in large part because of the revolt that I led, and that Ravage and Soundwave helped me to lead."
He sits back down. "We can all capture images with our optics. Ravage is particularly adept at processing and editing images because one of his original functions was to record things. When he projects images, they are normally things he has actually seen. He does it in much the same way that humans use machines to record and project images. I don't know if you have ever seen that--the humans of the Earth I know have 'television' and 'movies' and 'video recording'. That is what Ravage was doing. He projects images from his optics--his eyes."
Loki listens to Megatron's history with somber attention. It's a harsh background to come from, and he has no doubt the details would only make it a darker story still. The overall impression he's getting thus far is of a sort of warrior-poet, no doubt extremely dangerous in his own right, but also a powerfully sympathetic figure to both the culture Loki comes from and to his own proclivities.
The word of compassion directed to him is a surprise, and something in his expression flickers. He reminds himself this person doesn't know the entirety of his story or the enormity of what he did, but regardless, it's a kindness freely offered. "...thank you," he says slowly, after a moment. "It's a complicated tale, but perhaps we'll have time for long stories sooner or later."
He smiles a little then. "Arguably, any shapeshifter is able to shift because of the way they are put together. I think I understand what you mean, though. I cannot take any shape I choose. I have set patterns that mean something to me personally; those I can take at will. I can freely alter any secondary sexual characteristics in this form or my smaller, more humanlike one. I'm also comfortable as a snake, or a mare. Less often, I'm a wolf or spider. I can create other forms, but for them to become as much second nature as the body I wear now, it takes a long, long while to make them my own. I can make up the difference with illusion, though, and I'm able to disguise myself as other people or animals."
He's fascinated, frankly, by the glimpse of treads and gun, and only barely manages to restrain himself from staring longer than would be polite. "It's funny, isn't it," he murmurs, "how a society can fall into such a nonsensical hierarchy and then cling to it like it's the only truth in the universe. It wasn't quite so rigid for us, I don't think, but the magic I learned and loved as a child was considered inappropriate for a man to pursue, particularly a prince of the realm. Deceptive and unbefitting a warrior."
His inclination is to sympathize with the revolt Megatron references, but he opts not to be effusive with praise or curiosity, merely nodding cautious approval.
"It sounds a bit like a hologram, the way you describe Ravage's ability," he says, understanding.
"When I project images, it's a magical illusion. Usually it's the mere bending of light to trick eyes that see in the spectrum humans and Asgardians do, but I've learned to build in more complexity as I've grown older, including wider ranges of light and the illusions of sound and scent."
He's quiet for a moment, thinking, then asks, "I would ask you what it is that Ravage and his companions seek here, in the Nexus, but perhaps that's a question better saved for him."
"I am always curious to interact with beings that bear similarities to my biological kin. My shapeshifting is hereditary, an innate ability, though I have enhanced it by learning other magics. Frost Giants are organic creatures, but--" he holds out his arms as if to display the runic lines on his hands. "they are most definitely extremophiles, and built unlike most other humanoid races. And aside from my alternates, I have had no one to consult about that. A piece of my identity is missing."
"I've made my own identity," Megatron says. "Most of us don't have parents, in the human sense of the word. Our sparks come from the Allspark and up through sacred ground, and are placed into protoforms made of sentio metallico, which are placed in frames. I had an unofficial mentor, Terminus, whom I deeply loved, but no father and certainly no mother. Sometimes you'll meet people who claim to be siblings, but they're either people who were created as a set, like Ravage and Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, or people who were taken into wealthy households and mentored together, like Soundwave and his brother Shockwave, whom you haven't met.
"The point I was trying to make, however badly, is that I don't know any magic, really. When Ravage and I were lovers we once tried a spell from an old book, but nothing happened. All the components of the other things that I can become are contained within me. And yes, we can project holograms. We can project holographic avatars of ourselves as well."
"I'll share what insights I can with you. But I've never had a mother or a father or a brother or a sister or a child. I've had to make my own identity. And everything that I can do, so far as I know, is purely material. Magic, on Cybertron, has never worked for people like Ravage, or me." He shrugs. "I loathe stupid hierarchies as much as you do."
After a moment's thought, he gives a response to the other question. "I don't know exactly what Ravage and Soundwave are up to here. But as someone who loves them, even if things are difficult between us now, and has been a friend and a lover to both of them, while I obviously can't claim to be impartial...I don't believe they are here to exploit or conquer."
That, too, is such a Lucifer sort of thing to say, a smile flickers across Loki's lips. As much as he asserts his own independence, he can only aspire to that level of confidence.
"I was raised by the ancestral enemies of my biological kin. Disguised so well I did not know, myself, that I was not one of them. Discovering that I was adopted from a different species, one I was raised to think of as evil, savage monsters, was a shock I was not prepared to handle."
"Family is to a certain extent what you make of it, even to those of us born from the bodies of our own species. But it's as tricky to deny genetics as it is to deny Fate, and often it results in backlash."
He nods. "I do understand, and I appreciate the clarity. I would still be pleased to continue to compare notes, inasmuch as you're willing to do so."
It says something about Megatron and his temperament, Loki thinks, that he's willing to answer the implied question in plainspoken language, without taking offense. It also says something about Ravage and Soundwave. "After speaking to Ravage, I rather thought not," he says with a smile. "But I've made it my business to keep an eye on some of the more powerful entities that arrive here. When I can."
He frowns a little, because one of said entities is still eluding him and he's grouchy about it, but that's not Megatron's fault. "Besides," he adds, "learning, and knowing things, is its own reward."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
He thinks for a moment. "You mentioned shapeshifting. All of my people can change their shapes, but this is because of the way we are put together. There are only certain shapes that we can assume. To acquire a new alternate mode, one must either have one's spark transferred into the body of someone who has moved into a different body, or chosen to die; or go through exquisitely painful surgical procedures while conscious--which I have done. I can become a tank. With the use of matter displacement technology, I can also become a gun. But I cannot become a truck, or a jet, or a tree, or a bird. The components that make up my body, when shifted into a different configuration, can take the form of a tank."
Megatron stands up and points out the tank gun on his back, and the treads concealed in his upper arms and lower legs. "I fold myself into the other shape," he explains. "My transformation is more technically complex than most because I do make use of interdimensional pockets and mass displacement. But in its simplest form, Cybertronian transformation depends upon having body parts shaped in such a way that they can be folded in and out, latched together and separated, to take on the form of another object. If you look very closely at any of us, you can see clues as to what other forms we might be able to assume. I should, however, caution you that for many of us, this is a sensitive subject. Under the rule of the Functionalists, your alternate mode dictated the choices, opportunities and resources available to you, and changing it was difficult and/or illegal. This is no longer the case in many places, in large part because of the revolt that I led, and that Ravage and Soundwave helped me to lead."
He sits back down. "We can all capture images with our optics. Ravage is particularly adept at processing and editing images because one of his original functions was to record things. When he projects images, they are normally things he has actually seen. He does it in much the same way that humans use machines to record and project images. I don't know if you have ever seen that--the humans of the Earth I know have 'television' and 'movies' and 'video recording'. That is what Ravage was doing. He projects images from his optics--his eyes."
no subject
The word of compassion directed to him is a surprise, and something in his expression flickers. He reminds himself this person doesn't know the entirety of his story or the enormity of what he did, but regardless, it's a kindness freely offered. "...thank you," he says slowly, after a moment. "It's a complicated tale, but perhaps we'll have time for long stories sooner or later."
He smiles a little then. "Arguably, any shapeshifter is able to shift because of the way they are put together. I think I understand what you mean, though. I cannot take any shape I choose. I have set patterns that mean something to me personally; those I can take at will. I can freely alter any secondary sexual characteristics in this form or my smaller, more humanlike one. I'm also comfortable as a snake, or a mare. Less often, I'm a wolf or spider. I can create other forms, but for them to become as much second nature as the body I wear now, it takes a long, long while to make them my own. I can make up the difference with illusion, though, and I'm able to disguise myself as other people or animals."
He's fascinated, frankly, by the glimpse of treads and gun, and only barely manages to restrain himself from staring longer than would be polite. "It's funny, isn't it," he murmurs, "how a society can fall into such a nonsensical hierarchy and then cling to it like it's the only truth in the universe. It wasn't quite so rigid for us, I don't think, but the magic I learned and loved as a child was considered inappropriate for a man to pursue, particularly a prince of the realm. Deceptive and unbefitting a warrior."
His inclination is to sympathize with the revolt Megatron references, but he opts not to be effusive with praise or curiosity, merely nodding cautious approval.
"It sounds a bit like a hologram, the way you describe Ravage's ability," he says, understanding.
"When I project images, it's a magical illusion. Usually it's the mere bending of light to trick eyes that see in the spectrum humans and Asgardians do, but I've learned to build in more complexity as I've grown older, including wider ranges of light and the illusions of sound and scent."
He's quiet for a moment, thinking, then asks, "I would ask you what it is that Ravage and his companions seek here, in the Nexus, but perhaps that's a question better saved for him."
"I am always curious to interact with beings that bear similarities to my biological kin. My shapeshifting is hereditary, an innate ability, though I have enhanced it by learning other magics. Frost Giants are organic creatures, but--" he holds out his arms as if to display the runic lines on his hands. "they are most definitely extremophiles, and built unlike most other humanoid races. And aside from my alternates, I have had no one to consult about that. A piece of my identity is missing."
no subject
"The point I was trying to make, however badly, is that I don't know any magic, really. When Ravage and I were lovers we once tried a spell from an old book, but nothing happened. All the components of the other things that I can become are contained within me. And yes, we can project holograms. We can project holographic avatars of ourselves as well."
Megatron projects his human avatar briefly into the room.
"I'll share what insights I can with you. But I've never had a mother or a father or a brother or a sister or a child. I've had to make my own identity. And everything that I can do, so far as I know, is purely material. Magic, on Cybertron, has never worked for people like Ravage, or me." He shrugs. "I loathe stupid hierarchies as much as you do."
After a moment's thought, he gives a response to the other question. "I don't know exactly what Ravage and Soundwave are up to here. But as someone who loves them, even if things are difficult between us now, and has been a friend and a lover to both of them, while I obviously can't claim to be impartial...I don't believe they are here to exploit or conquer."
no subject
"I was raised by the ancestral enemies of my biological kin. Disguised so well I did not know, myself, that I was not one of them. Discovering that I was adopted from a different species, one I was raised to think of as evil, savage monsters, was a shock I was not prepared to handle."
"Family is to a certain extent what you make of it, even to those of us born from the bodies of our own species. But it's as tricky to deny genetics as it is to deny Fate, and often it results in backlash."
He nods. "I do understand, and I appreciate the clarity. I would still be pleased to continue to compare notes, inasmuch as you're willing to do so."
It says something about Megatron and his temperament, Loki thinks, that he's willing to answer the implied question in plainspoken language, without taking offense. It also says something about Ravage and Soundwave. "After speaking to Ravage, I rather thought not," he says with a smile. "But I've made it my business to keep an eye on some of the more powerful entities that arrive here. When I can."
He frowns a little, because one of said entities is still eluding him and he's grouchy about it, but that's not Megatron's fault. "Besides," he adds, "learning, and knowing things, is its own reward."