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Post by Starfighter on Sept 23, 2007 11:43:52 GMT -5
Starfighter nods quickly to agree with Skystrike's comment, still mildly fixated on 'zomg Thundercracker'.
"I, um...I'll go see if I can find any readers for this." He gently sets his bundle down onto the ground again and peers inside the building for anything tech-looking.
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Sky-byte
Minor
Worst Luck Ever
Posts: 334
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Post by Sky-byte on Sept 23, 2007 18:35:16 GMT -5
Sky-byte quickly snatches the book offered by Thundercracker. Honestly, do these Decepticons know anything? There's a plethora of information about this planet's inhabitants to be found within these fragile pages. By studying about them, one can find the innate weaknesses and strengths of the species. Knowledge can be power!
...but how useful that'd be if said inhabitants are missing from the planet is unclear.
Bah, there's more to life than blowing things up. That's probably why Sky-byte isn't a Decepticon. Predacons are so much more refined. This is what's running through Sky-byte's mind as he rummages through Starfighter's dropped bundle, stuffing away as many books as he can into subspace. He doesn't pause to think about how bad this would be if he ever happened into a battle. Reach into subspace for a weapon--pull out a book. Terrifying weapon isn't it?
"Ah yes, readers. It would be useful to hear the language as it's meant to be spoken."
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Thundercracker
Minor
Accomodatus the Obliging, Costumer Extraordinaire
Maybe they should just move my berth to repair bay and have done with it...
Posts: 259
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Post by Thundercracker on Sept 23, 2007 19:19:24 GMT -5
"I'm aware of that, Skystrike," Thundercracker replies. "I'm just trying to think of the long-term. I doubt any of us want to be stuck here for the rest of our lives, after all." Besides, he wants to use the information Dead End gave him. If they can turn the ill-fated attack on Autobot City in the Decepticon's favor, or focus their energies on this Unicron menace and how to counter it...
"Let us know if you find anything useful, Starfighter," he tells the other Seeker. "Maybe these books can tell us something useful about the natives -- such as if they had any knowledge of these disturbances in time and reality."
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Post by Needlenose on Sept 24, 2007 12:49:31 GMT -5
Needlenose has orders to help Hook, but right now Hook is doing other things and he got a new set of orders, anyway. He gots to do interviews! But to do interviews, he has to find peoples.
The non-transforming Transformer meanders into the general area. He's been meandering about town in general, but now he's finally found some people. He scans the area - Thundercracker, he doesn't need to talk to. But everyone else is game!
He approaches the group, a faint spring to his step as he walks, antennae perked high to relay his cheerful mood, and greets the group with a friendly wave and a, "Hey, guys." His organics are once more holstered (he had let them out while working on base plans) in case he runs into Skyfire.
He looks over what they're doing. "Ah, books! Good thinking! Find anything useful?"
Needlenose has a fondness for xenocultures that's relatively unusual in a Decepticon.
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Wreckage
Major
One of the Quiet Ones
Posts: 554
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Post by Wreckage on Sept 24, 2007 16:03:12 GMT -5
Wreckage has no pressing desire to remain here much longer, true. There, he will agree with Thundercracker. He still questions the usefulness of looking through these texts – chance though there may be that the missing natives left behind salient information in their records, there still remains the chance that they left nothing – but such things have never been for him to fully understand. He knows his limitations. It would be foolish of him if he did not.
He stops that line of thought at Needlenose's approach and gives the not-jet a quick, wary once-over. Wreckage is unaccustomed to such… cheery demeanour and it puzzles him somewhat. At length, he settles for a neutral nod in greeting. Needlenose is without those tiny creatures that usually accompany him. Odd.
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Post by Skystrike/Skylar Stringers on Sept 24, 2007 17:45:02 GMT -5
Skystrike peered at Thundercracker for a moment before simply answering, “No.” There was nothing here for her and there were far too many other seekers for her to be comfortable, so really, trying to stay here was the last thing on her list. She’d rather go back to the filthy city ruins and familiar faces rather than stay here, on the strange and unpredictable organic world with a group of strangers she didn’t trust. She didn’t say that though, nor did she bother adding any more, simply contenting herself with watching them and planning out where she was going next. Thundercracker was here to play supervisor now after all.
At Needlenose’s entrance, the seeker simply gave him a decidedly odd look at the sudden increase in local levels of cheeriness before saying a curt greeting. Another one to add to the deciphering ‘team’ perhaps? He certainly seemed to be interested in the books, although less so than Sky-byte had been.
“Nothing useful yet,” Skystrike answered.
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Post by Starfighter on Sept 25, 2007 15:26:32 GMT -5
Great, more people. Starfighter ducks his head and keeps digging through the piles of strange objects.
"I think, actually, I just did." He comes out with a small round device, about a fingerswidth wide and about the size of the palm of his hand. To anyone familiar with current levels of human technological progress, it might resemble a CD player devoid of buttons or screen.
"It might read one of these." And he holds up a disc that's about the same size. "Just need to figure out how to work it and open it."
Of course, for all he knows it's a bomb.
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Sky-byte
Minor
Worst Luck Ever
Posts: 334
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Post by Sky-byte on Sept 25, 2007 17:47:43 GMT -5
Well, if Death-on-Legs's question has already been answered, Sky-byte won't add anymore to it. Though, Needlenose's arrival does trigger a sour expression marring Sky-byte's handsome features. The arrival of someone he knows he can’t boss around. Troublesome.
The object Starfighter brings out garners an appreciative sound. “I recognize that!” Or at least, he thinks he does. He’s seen humans walking down the street bobbing and mouthing strangely whilst carrying devices that look similar in shape to the object Starfighter holds. It took a bit of spying and plain old internet investigation for him to finally realize that no; there was nothing wrong with the little organics. They were just showing appreciation in a very odd way (says the shark who sings praise-filled ditties about himself).
“Does that not look like a CD player?”
He forgets that in the cases of some of the others, portable CD players might not even have existed at the time.
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Thundercracker
Minor
Accomodatus the Obliging, Costumer Extraordinaire
Maybe they should just move my berth to repair bay and have done with it...
Posts: 259
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Post by Thundercracker on Sept 25, 2007 22:03:59 GMT -5
Thundercracker really doesn't consider himself a supervisor -- a leadership position is never something he's craved. He just saw a gathering and decided to check things out. The only reason he pushes for everyone to examine the books is because he's anxious for someone to solve the time-space riddle so he can go home.
But he doesn't say anything to Skystrike, nor does he express interest in the reader. Because Jetstorm's screaming over the broadband has attracted his attention. Despite having just gotten here, he's kind of grown fond of the little blue jet -- don't ask him why, he's not sure why himself.
He elects to let the others work on this particular problem. He'll go work on a problem HE knows how to solve.
"Let me know how the reader deal goes," he tells the others, and without further preamble, he activates his anti-gravs and shoots skyward.
OOC: Off to Joy Flight thread...
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Post by Needlenose on Sept 25, 2007 22:48:07 GMT -5
Needlenose leans over to examine the object. "I suppose, maybe..." he answers Sky-Byte. "I mean, they're a bit small. I got one for Zigzag once, but he just broke it."
With that he strolled to the nearest building and casually leaned against it. "Now, folks, I'm afraid this isn't a social call. Seems Starscream's charged Spinister with running a series of interviews and such to get an idea of troop capabilities, and Spinister has delegated. So it's on me."
Thundercracker, luckily, had already been interviewed, anyway.
"First off, I'm going to need to know about all of your abilities, useful, useless, just plain cool. Anything you think's worth mentioning, and then all the other stuff, too. And then I need to know about your levels of experience. That should do for a starter, I think."
His voice is casual and warm as he speaks, and his antennae are still perked up in a friendly manner. One could almost miss just how carefully he's observing everyone's reactions.
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Wreckage
Major
One of the Quiet Ones
Posts: 554
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Post by Wreckage on Sept 26, 2007 5:23:35 GMT -5
Wreckage glances from the small device Starfighter presents – something about it is vaguely familiar, but nothing important enough to have committed fully to memory – to Needlenose. He is careful to keep his expression not an expression as he re-scrutinises the other Decepticon.
Evaluations by interview. How engaging.
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Post by Skystrike/Skylar Stringers on Sept 26, 2007 6:45:52 GMT -5
Skystrike settled Needlenose with a brief and rather unconcerned expression. Interviews weren’t her thing. Even if they were, she wasn’t about to give him too much detail. There wasn’t much to know about standard seekers anyways; they were able to shoot guns and they flew. Just like everyone else, except they usually flew better, were vainer and sometimes seemed more standardized in the Decepticon army than datapads.
As long as Needlenose didn’t pester her too much about her background, she’d tolerate the prodding. It didn’t mean she cared enough to make the job easier for him, though. The seeker just nodded idly to the not-jet, uttering a low ‘mm’ noise before turning her attention to the blast zone and walking off, rotating one shoulder cannon up to check on it. Target practice it was and that was a lot more entertaining than waiting around till it was your turn to be interviewed. Being cheap and not wanting to end up like Eye-fire earlier, however, Skystrike changed to setting to low. It was still probably enough to boil organic flesh, but it was harmless to anyone else and significantly less noisy.
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Post by Starfighter on Sept 27, 2007 11:30:25 GMT -5
Starfighter very tentatively holds up that entire purpose of his very existence, his datapad.
"I've got profiles and timestamps right here," he says awkwardly. "Not much in detail, but it's got the basics and if you want I can record any of your interviews for later perusal. I did it for Shockwave all the time back on Cybertron." At the same time he attempts to hand the "CD player" off to Sky-byte and thus remove himself from any responsibility at reading strange data.
Please say Starfighter can play secretary. Starfighter is good at playing secretary and it means he doesn't have to hang out with the scary grumpy people anymore.
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Sky-byte
Minor
Worst Luck Ever
Posts: 334
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Post by Sky-byte on Sept 27, 2007 19:39:26 GMT -5
At the mention of interviews, Sky-byte having received the pseudo-CD player, peers over it with narrowed optics. So they’re still asking around with their interviews aren’t they? Hmph, and he thought that getting away from that bright pink copter would get him away from it. Ah well, he can pull out the ‘I’m busy with something important card’...right?
Fixing intently on the task before him of opening the relatively tiny item. At a time like this, having two hands would be really useful. With the player perched between his claws, one wrong twitch and...instead of a reader they’d have pieces not even useful for spare parts any more.
Watch as Sky-byte tries to look as unnoticeable as possible. It takes a lot of hunkering down.
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Post by Needlenose on Sept 27, 2007 20:05:48 GMT -5
Needlenose's optics narrow first when Skystrike just turns her back and walks off, then again when she claims not to be doing anything. His antennae tilt back when none of the others answer his questions. His hands ball into fists when Starfighter offers to record the answers... and still doesn't answer the questions. Finally, furious, he spins around, grabs onto the corner of the building he had been leaning against, rips off the entire metal side of the building, and then turns to throw it down noisily on the ground in front of him. Probably, people will have to scramble to get out of the way.
There's a good chance a few books got smashed.
"NOW!" he starts angrily. "Now, you see, that sort of behavior you lot are all exhibiting... that sort of behavior would be perfectly acceptable. If I had suddenly switched to, say, Nebulan or some other language you don't speak. But you know what? You know what?! Just to make sure, I just reviewed what was asked, and I didn't. Therefore, this is not acceptable."
The not-jet clasps his hands behind his back and begins walking casually, almost strolling. "As I have said over the radio, it's my understanding that you don't know what a Mayhem is. So maybe you just don't get that it is our task to keep. Other. Decepticons. In line. That we specialize not only in high profile missions against the Autobots, but, even more often, against the worst and most dangerous in our own ranks. Deserters. Bad seeds. Poor influences. People who are bad for the morale and discipline of the Decepticon army."
"Well, I personally consider not following orders to be the sort of thing that has a negative impact on morale and discipline."
Needlenose turns in his walking, and pulls his arms in front of him as he gestures dramatically. "Now, I understand, you are all ignorant of these things. You don't have Mayhems. So obviously you're not used to discipline. I understand that. I really do. However, even a half-clocked empty would be able to figure out that I am the only person in this outfit that was actually able to damage Omega Supreme. You were all there! You saw! And just think. Just. Think. If I could do that to Omega Supreme, just think what I can do to you!"
He spins once more, and his demeanor suddenly switches to it's former, amiable, casual one. His antennae perk up, and his optics crinkle in a friendly manner. "Now, I'm a nice guy. I really am. But I'm also a nice guy who just happens to be a fuel-thirsty killer. And I've not. Killed. In weeks. So, you all, and by that, I mean all four of you. Starfighter. Skystrike. Sky-byte. Wreckage." Needlenose suddenly stops short. Hmm. Maybe he needs to get an 's' name. They're obviously very 'in' around here. After that moment of thought, however, he continues. "All four of you will answer my questions. And this can either go pleasantly, or you guys can remind me just how much violence I currently have pent up."
He holds his arms out to the crowd, palms up, in a pleading gesture. "It's really up to you four."
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