"You… Have festivals?" Gavin finally pierced the silence with a quiet, questioning remark.
Cyclonus made a sharp clicking noise, his quills half-flaring open in a lazy, but obviously irritated motion.
"They have nothing to do with YOU" He hissed.
"Oh, um, fair 'nough" Gavin squeaked quietly, wondering if coming back to this room was the right thing to do.
He should've stayed and washed properly rather than wipe water over his face and leave.
At least he wasn't being killed.
"Don't know of any human festivals, I mean I can't think of any, I can only think of music festivals…"
Cyclonus shut him up with a noise comparable to a snort despite not having a nose to snort with, the noise sounding far louder than it was in the dominating 'emptiness' the room seemed to hold.
"W…" There was a small battle for dominance between emotions and common sense.
Emotions were angry and his instinctive and immediate reaction was to be mad and yell, fight and stand his ground.
Common sense pointed out he was at a serious disadvantage and only had a wooden implement to defend himself with.
"Well, I'm sure there's PLENTY OF FUCKING PLACES TO CHUCK ME OFF BEFORE YOU GET BACK RIGHT!?" The sentence burst into a shout before Gavin could grapple his urge to fight back into submission "You're going home right? Just dump me off on the way! You can go back to skulking about on your ship or crawling around with your weird-ass buddies! I wouldn't want to meet more sleazeball salesmen or mafia-moose-bosses or whatever-the-fuck that guy's deal is anyway!"
Cyclonus's shoulders arched as his lip curled his eyes went dark as his gaze stayed furiously ahead of him as if mustering the power to bore a hole through the ship.
Even if they weren't facing each other the curled, snarled lip was enough to make Gavin horribly aware that his teeth were comparable to daggers and the lone human wondered if now was the time he could magically learn he had shrinking powers and escape.
The fact Cyclonus didn't make a noise as he curled and sneered only made it worse, like a crushing sense of danger, like a coiled predatory spring.
"I'm not going home" He snorted, standing up he shoved the chair he was on roughly sending it spinning as he stalked towards the door storming out.
It left Gavin clutching at his chest as if searching for the puncture wound he must've got or whatever other kind of fatal laceration left on him, he must've been struck.
Surely there was no way he got away with that.
He must've been hit, he had to have been.
The dry fabric of his sweater scrunched up beneath his hand and no wet sensation seeped from anywhere it should've been.
Well, nothing that wasn't a decent layer of panic-sweat anyway.
The common sense part of his brain promptly lost another battle as Gavin grinned.
He technically 'won' that one. He could stand his ground, he won't back down, good, even if he died, fuck it, he'll go out the way he always wanted!
Fighting others.
Being eaten or getting thrown away, he guessed he was at least going to make a show of it.
If they were really his two options that is.
Get it over and done with, rip the plaster off the cut and it won't hurt as much as a slow peel.
Still clutching the bat Gavin hopped off the chair, the nerves, the tension, it all rippled through him.
It made his heart feel like a balloon almost full of water wibbling and wobbling in his chest.
It was an uneasy feeling yet it was mixed with the minor exhilaration of, well, everything.
The corridor was empty, but there was a distinct trail of angry muttering and clattering chunks of metal to follow. The sound rose from the lower level, only getting louder and louder as Gavin followed it.
The source was the same room Cyclonus had 'preened' himself in before the whole strange orange fiasco only he wasn't prepping himself in front of the mirror he was shifting something around, thumping angrily as he went.
Cyclonus appeared to be shifting some kind of altar about, there was a metal table like base, with a smaller secondary table jutting out from it like a step. It had a dark magenta cloth draped across it but it was small enough that it was not interrupted by the small candle holders on the table. A pair on the bigger, main part of the table, and a smaller pair on the lower portion.
Or at least they looked like candle holders to Gavin, small metal dishes with a small sharp spike in the middle.
The main part of the table, however, was thick and strong, a part of it looked like a strange pair of clamps like it was designed to hold something heavy.
He might've been on his hands and knees but Cyclonus slammed something to the ground, snapping Gavin's attention away from the table-altar he had set up and back to him.
He was leaning over a large stone square.
Thick and with a purple tint around the edges like tiny cracks of colour Cyclonus heaved the slab up and with another loud slam he practically rammed the thing into the altar's 'clamps'.
Curiosity finally eclipsed all confrontationalism from his mind and Gavin shuffled closer to the altar, the image on the stone drawing all attention. He was stopped from really advancing when Cyclonus made a sharp trill warning away from getting closer.
The stone tablet was decorated with an image of a… Dinosaur…
An actual Dinosaur…
The beast was depicted with stars around its head and waves… or flames… around its feet.
The creature itself had a notable crest upon its head and was depicted with many sharp pointed lines with small decorative lines within it, it reminded Gavin a lot of old, old oooold pictures of gods and the like. Maybe a little like those Aztec pictures he'd seen but different.
Regardless it was still an image of a -like creature.
A that was presented upon an altar…
Presumably to be worshipped…
A Dinosaur…
"It's a Dinosaur…" Gavin finally blurted out.
"THAT is Trypticon!" Cyclonus hissed at him, quills half-risen in a defensive gesture.
"You're having a festival over this… Trypticon Dinosaur?" Gavin stood still squinting at the tablet as if it'd come to life.
"The festival is in its honor, yes" Cyclonus sounded indignant, he'd taken to dusting off the tablet and altar.
"Is it religious?" The thought just tumbled out of Gavin's mouth, it made sense as a question in his head, the altar was a bit… fancy and he couldn't think of other reasons to hold a festival in honor of a Dinosaur.
The question seemed to freeze Cyclonus, he rolled back on his knees and sat there staring at the altar as if actually processing the question.
"That… word isn't quite translated well… like, worshipping?" He still did not look at Gavin but he cocked his head in confusion.
"Yeah, pretty much, I dunno, wasn't into it really" Gavin shrugged, suddenly acutely aware he had no idea how else to explain the concept. No one had really taught him about it, he didn't pay attention if they did and he was not raised with it as part of his life.
It kind of existed in some odd bubble he was no part of.
"Yes"
"What?" Gavin readjusted himself to focus on the alien again, rather than rake his brain for any way to explain religion to an alien.
"We do… worship him" Cyclonus finally seemed to side-eye him, the bright red of his iris seemed to flash lightly compared to the rest of his dull-coloured eye "But not… like… worship-worship…"
Oh great, even he seemed confused about how to communicate this crap.
"How? I mean… How do you worship a dino… Uh, this Trypticon?" Curiosity had smothered all confrontationalism and was now pummelling the remains of it in an overly dramatic way as Gavin genuinely wanted to hear this.
"The great beast is an important figure to Decepticons! Uh, primarily us, but still important! He is strong and powerful… We, ah, worship… for his protection in battle?" Cyclonus was back on his feet and squinted at nothing as if the words he was trying to say were laid out before him and he was trying to pick out the best, most appropriate ones.
"So, it's like a God to you? This great beast, like great in size or what?" Gavin wanted to step a bit closer to the altar but he could still hear the indignant trilling sound Cyclonus made earlier.
"God… God…. God… uuhf, no no no, not God, lower than that but high up" The word hit a realisation and he figured it out "He is an icon for us! We Decepticons are proud of it and our traditions!"
"So like my earlier question, how do you worship this?" Gavin rolled his shoulders a bit in an exaggerated 'I don't know' motion.
"We give honor to it! The great beast Trypticon is A symbol of power! Legends go as far to state he was the one who set fire to the sky and gave us the stars! With his might, he destroyed a blightful monster and the miasma of despair it brought upon us!"
Gavin stood back a little or at least leaned back, he wasn't expecting a sudden ramble about this thing.
The image on the tablet did seem to depict some smoke coming from its face.
Did they really have a legend that some big dinosaur breathed fire into space and made stars?
Hold on, Big-ass fire-breathing dinosaur?
Fought a monster too?
Gavin frowned a little and managed to bring himself to get back in the word-train that was spilling out of Cyclonus.
"Our ancestors gave offerings for its protection! It taught us the value of our strength and power! Our leader's throne is decorated with his image, heh, the more superstitious of those believed he had been blessed directly by Trypticon for his feats and power to take control!"
"Uh," Gavin tried to get his mind back into gear completely "So you believed it made stars, by like breathing fire?"
"Oh no, not now we don't, not really, we know what stars are" He huffed "It was just how the ancient not-space worthy ancestors of our kind explained them!"
"Yet you believe your leader was blessed by it?" Gavin couldn't lie, he felt some irritation bubble up at the snappy response.
"We still pay respects to our culture!" Cyclonus hissed a definite streak of irritation or anger peeking through "He is important to us! We hold this festival in his honor! For strength and power in battle! And with such strength and power, it seemed fitting that Megatron be decorated with his mark, regardless of if you think it's real or not."
"Right so what exactly does one have to do for people to think you've been blessed by a giant fire-breathing dinosaur?" Gavin crossed his arms feeling a bit more amused by this whole notion now, the motion he made was slightly awkward with the bat in his hand but he still managed.
"Well… Megatron chewed someone's head off in battle" Cyclonus stated matter-of-factly.
"You fucking WHAT?" Gavin spluttered.
It was not what he expected to hear.
Not at all.
"He ripped off the old king's head with his teeth and became leader!" Cyclonus grinned, showing off his 'daggers' again, somehow he seemed to be greatly enjoying the shock this caused his 'guest'.
"And THAT is something blessed by THAT!?"The bat was dropped to the floor as Gavin's hands waved around like drunk flies before vaguely gesturing at the depiction of Trypticon.
"Well, yeah. Did you not hear me say we worship him for strength and protection in battle?" His smile had faded but it was still a large, proud smirk.
"You pray to a dinosaur for strength in battle, and you all follow the rule of a nut job that bit off your old leader's head!?"
"Yes"
"Fucking hell… That's wild…"
"Like I said, culture, he's important to us" Cyclonus suddenly became cold and stony faced as he sharply turned away, kneeling before the altar he brushed away at the four small 'dishes' on it.
Fiddling about with something unseen he pulled at the spikes in the centre of each dish and they hummed to life with a blue light that flickered almost like real candles.
The big purple, horned crab-like alien knelt before an altar for a big-ass fire-breathing dinosaur…
"So... Trypticon's a bit like an alien Godzilla then?" Gavin clicked.