|
Post by Long Haul on Jun 3, 2007 12:29:14 GMT -5
"Ah, right, gotcha," Long Haul answers easily enough as he rumbles forward. Once you're far enough out of your depth, it stops mattering whether you're in by a thousand miles, or ten thousand. "But, erm... if Omega Supreme was going to vanish if I went back and changed things, shouldn't be already be vanished now? I mean... I'm here. Don't that change things?"
How does Devastator form without his crotch?
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 3, 2007 13:44:56 GMT -5
Solution: Devastator wears crotchless pants.
Emirate Xaaron mulls it over and says, "I'm not entirely sure. Wasn't really my area of study when I was into that sort of thing. It does seem that certain people who would have existed in what was going to be the future ended up not existing due to time travel to change the past. So the past can be changed, and it does impact the future. In my timeline, the monster Unicron arrived too soon partly due to meddling with time." Emirate Xaaron frowns and growls.
"But I wasn't saying he'd vanish, just that if you had already succeeded in changing your past in our future, then Omega Supreme shouldn't be out to kill you. Either time travel doesn't work that way, or you don't succeed."
Nothing like temporal physics to pass the time.
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on Jun 3, 2007 13:53:11 GMT -5
Long Haul falls silent for a good long while. Mostly because it takes him rather a long time to work out Xaaron says, and even then, he still isn't sure he's got it.
"Maybe... maybe... maybe that's not really my Omega Supreme after all? Just one... just one like it, or who was like it?" Perhaps he's just deluding himself, but Long Haul just can't accept that the task he's set for himself is doomed for failure. Yes, he wants to help this Omega Supreme... but he also wants to see that his Omega Supreme never becomes the frightening, emotionally damaged robot he's been hearing over the broadband.
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 3, 2007 14:46:08 GMT -5
"Let's think of time as a road," Emirate Xaaron suggests. They're both ground-based vehicles, so perhaps the metaphor will help. "Let us imagine a simple, straight one-way road with a speed limit. The normal, every-day type of thing is to just drive along it at the speed limit. However, some people travel backwards along the road, against the law, and cause trouble as they do so. This is like travelling backwards in time - it breaks the laws of the universe and generally causes a mess. It is also possible to drive forward but break the speed limit and thereby arrive wherever you'd be early. This is like travelling into the future, which also breaks the laws of the universe, even as the speed limit is broken. Now, what if the road isn't simple and straight? What if it forks? This Omega Supreme could be your Omega Supreme, and so could a dozen, a hundred, or infinity of other Omega Supremes. For every one that you save, there could be an infinity of infinities of others that you fail. However, if the road does not fork, and the universes are instead like parallel routes that never branch, then he is not your Omega Supreme."
He pauses and then adds, "But the real fun begins if the roads intersect each other."
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on Jun 3, 2007 15:05:14 GMT -5
This is really confusing. Really, really confusing. Long Haul wishes he had Scrapper or Hook here to handle the heavy thinking for him...
Okay. Maybe Hook is a bad idea. But Long Haul still wishes he was here.
"Erm... so what happens when you travel slower then the speed limit?" Long Haul asks. He's a dump truck! Dump trucks are slow! He also seems to latching on totally the wrong point in the metaphor.
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on Jun 3, 2007 15:26:22 GMT -5
This is really confusing. Really, really confusing. Long Haul wishes he had Scrapper or Hook here to handle the heavy thinking for him...
Okay. Maybe Hook is a bad idea. But Long Haul still wishes he was here.
"Erm... so what happens when you travel slower then the speed limit?" Long Haul asks. He's a dump truck! Dump trucks are slow! He also seems to latching on totally the wrong point in the metaphor.
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 3, 2007 15:39:01 GMT -5
"If you travel slower than the speed limit, then you have slowed time down," Emirate Xaaron answers. Presumably, this makes you either Elita-1, Neo, or the Shrike. "But that's not really my point. My point is that just because he's from a bad future doesn't mean he's not your Omega Supreme, or rather, that he would not have been your Omega Supreme if you hadn't ended up here."
The dragonet then turns its attention from the random little bugs and snaps at Xaaron, prompting the Emirate to whine, "Long Haul, it's trying to bite me again!"
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on Jun 3, 2007 16:36:55 GMT -5
Long Haul tries to digest what Emirate Xaaron is saying and... totally fails. So he decides to move ahead and do what he was going to do anyway: try to patch things up with Omega Supreme. Try to fix Hook. Try to get home. Any or all of the above, depending on which opportunities present themselves.
"Well, it's tied down, ain't it?" Long Haul asks. "I mean, that was part of the point of tying it down, right? So you can stay out of its reach, right?"
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 3, 2007 17:42:09 GMT -5
"The dragon is... is stretchy," Emirate Xaaron sulks. "And your bed isn't that big."
He scoots over, out of dragon range, and grumbles, "It's looking at me."
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on Jun 3, 2007 17:49:24 GMT -5
"Oh, for the-" Long Haul starts, and then breaks off. "Well, if you'd stop looking at it, you wouldn't be able to tell it was lookin' at you!"
First Xaaron wants to eat the dragon, then the dragon wants to eat Xaaron, and now they're looking at each other, and the dragon is stretchy.
"Don't make me pull over!" Long Haul threatens.
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 3, 2007 22:52:20 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron sighs and takes up actually paying attention to watching again, although he cannot shake the feeling that he's going to sputter out of recharge one day to find the heavy weight of a dragon on top of him, jaws open wide. He points out, tone sly, "Pull over? But you're the one who wants to see Omega Supreme."
And perhaps there's a rocket trail in the lavender-blue sky, when Xaaron looks forward.
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on Jun 3, 2007 23:05:32 GMT -5
"That's why I don't wantcha to make me pull over," Long Haul answers in a 'I couldn't possibly be more reasonable' sort of tone.
Long Haul, too, spots the trail. "Looks like we'll be there soon enough, anyways," he says, voice soft.
OOC: Me next post will probably be cross-posted to the Tourist Beach Arrival Thread.
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 4, 2007 7:58:20 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron leans back a bit and stares forward at that trail. He is a fellow who appreciates a well-made plan. He does not have one now. For the moment, Emirate Xaaron is improvising. Trying to anticipate possible courses of action is going to be nearly impossible, but he tries it anyway. It's something to do.
Then he looks back. It would not do to allow an ambush from the rear while he's worried about trouble at their destination.
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on Jun 4, 2007 8:07:13 GMT -5
The sky overhead darkens with the gathering of clouds, but the Cybertronian dump truck continues unheeding along the beach side road. Out in the distance, to the north, the fall of rain can be spotted further out from the beach, but the storm is on the move; it will be a wet reunion. Shortly, Xaaron and Long Haul can see the distant structure of Omega Supreme's rocket-and-base mode, and soon after, Omega Supreme and those in his area should be able to see them: a lime green Cybertronian dump truck with deep purple windows and the Autobot emblem proudly emblazoned on its front grill. In its bed are two folded dragon wings; tied to one wing a small silver dragon which has given up on snapping at Xaaron and is instead gnawing (uselessly) at its bonds. Also in its bed is the small, golden form of Xaaron himself.
"Here goes nothing," Long Haul murmurs, a bit nervously.
OOC: Cross-posted to the Tourist Beach Arrival thread. This thread is being locked, and RP will continue there.
|
|