You sit there and stare at the computer, trying your best to figure out what to do for your thesis

Hallo, hola, ciao, hello. I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to read this little dare. Actually the dare was posting it here, since that takes me out of my comfort zone a few miles. A friend of mine wasn't too happy about the lack of character explanation in the live action movie and thus came to me with the request. Then of course the dare.

There were some stipulations to said dare:

Story must be in 2nd person. You are the main character. (Though as I do not know you personally, you will be an amalgam of a bunch of people I know.) – I know the policy Fan Fiction sets, but this is not like the "Find Your Fate" series. I am telling you what you are doing. Sorry, you don't get to choose.

Must be in the present tense.

I am not to refer to the Cybertronians as their Alternate forms – you can thank a friend of mine for that after she ranted to me how annoying it was to see the kids making out on Bumblebee at the end of the live action movie. Not a discussion I would wish on anyone.

Not allowed to refer to any of them as male/female.

As much as possible, they must exhibit the characteristics of their original packaging descriptions. (Although this is true, I delved into the cartoon, comics, books, etc…because I enjoy how some characters are represented.) This was mainly requested due to the lack of character development for the Transformers in the live action movie.

Many of the situations were either requests, or are based on something that has happened to me personally. All of the stipulations were requested too.

The entirety of this story is to be posted at one time, that way I actually finish it.

The usual disclaimers apply: I do not, in any way, own the rights to the characters invented by the company Takara or the company Hasbro. Though I hear Hasbro's stock has increased slightly in the past few months.

I also have no ownership of people who may be real, (such as voice actors), or the movies or books that may be mentioned in the story.

I am rating this story M to be safe as what I personally would consider M might differ from what this site considers M.

I also dedicate this story to Emily, as she introduced me to this website, and when she was still with us, would read me the stories off of this site. (Until I found out some of them should not be read by seven year old children. )

The aforementioned disclaimers are for the entire story. I will not be repeating them.

On To The Story : Enjoy

Thesis

You sit there and stare at the computer, trying your best to figure out what to do for your thesis. Your Professor has given you the assignment of studying another culture up close and personal and writing your dissertation on the differences between theirs and the one you had grown up in. Oh the choices were endless! What an exciting thing to write about, but who to write about?

You decide to do a search of the Internet, find out who you want to study. You hope if you take a trip to some exotic location, you can write it off as a tax deduction as part of schooling for your Doctorate.

Daydreaming, your mind wanders back to your freshman year and how hard it was to decide to major in Sociology. The Anthropology classes you had taken and the biology classes you had loaded up on. How fun that had been, you miss that almost care-free attitude you had those first few semesters. Now, unfortunately, it's time to get down to business.

"You need to concentrate." You scold yourself, putting a question into the "Ask Jeeves" web site, hoping to get some information back that would actually be relevant. Of course you are wrong. There are over 100 sites that pop up on the computer screen before you.

Sighing in frustration, you close the Internet and spit out, "That doesn't help me you stupid piece of hardware!" Then you sigh again, "I know, I know, a computer is only as smart as the person running it."

You roll your eyes and head downstairs to the den where all of your old papers and notes are located. No one ever said you weren't a pack rat. At least you don't collect garbage or animals, like those people you have read about in the news.

Plopping yourself down on the chair next to your shelves, you start pulling out your old papers. One for your biology 1 class, one for your world history class, one for your public speaking class. Then as you reach up to pull another one, something flutters to the ground.

You reach down and pick it up. "I remember this one." You say to yourself, remembering how much fun that particular economics class had been. Then your eyes glance over the writers of the paper. This one was written by you and a friend you occasionally kept in touch with. Carly Witwicky, if memory serves.

Then you have an epiphany. She was friends with that Alien race from that planet! You are not able to recall who they are, but you know they are still on Earth, you occasionally see them in the news. Of course! What better culture to study than one that isn't from your home planet?

Dropping the papers on the floor, you stumble your way back up to the room with your computer and access your e-mail account. Carly's name is still in the address book, so you select it and send off a message, which is almost instantly replied to.

Shortly an instant messenger box pops up with Carly saying Hi to you.

You reply back, almost instantly, "Hi Carly. It's been a long time."

"It has, how are you doing?" She replies.

"I'm fine, you?"

"Great, you should see Daniel now, he's getting so big."

"Can't wait to see him, listen, are you still friends with those Alien beings?"

"You mean the Autobots? Yes."

"How many strings would I need to pull to speak with a few of them for my Doctoral Thesis?"

"None, you'd just have to come on out, they're pretty open to talking with anyone."

You are excited now, and while you are messaging her back, you are also booking a red-eye flight out to Portland.

"I didn't know you were going for your Doctorate, congratulations." She says back to you.

"I am. I just enjoy learning and I've got to learn about a culture and compare them to the culture I grew up in."

"Well, meeting the Autobots will certainly be an eye opener for you. Their ways are so different than ours."

"I just booked a flight that'll get in about 4:50 am tomorrow morning. Would you mind meeting me at the airport and taking me to see them?"

"You already booked a flight?" You can hear her saying this with mild surprise. You were never one to put things off until the last minute.

"Yeah, I know it's early, but that's the only time I can come in tomorrow."

"No problems with the time, although Daniel will be with me."

"Don't worry, I like kids. Haven't had time to have any of my own, but I still like kids."

"If it were anyone else contacting me, I'd say no, but I'll see you tomorrow, bright and early."

Smiling you reply back. "Thanks Carly. I owe you one."

"I expect you to donate the Nobel Peace Prize money to the Autobot cause, when you win."

You laugh and thank Carly again before signing off. Then you run upstairs to pack a couple days worth of clothes and enough tapes to record your conversations. Nobel Peace Prize aside, this is going to be fun.

It takes only a few hours before you are packed and standing in the airport. You quickly do a quick check for tapes and then board the plane. Before you know it, the plane has taken off and although you are awake, the time flies.

Soon the captain announces your descent. Soon you will be meeting the Autobots. You can hardly wait.

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