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Post by Long Haul on Sept 24, 2007 21:22:15 GMT -5
Long Haul listens to Arcee give her combat experience. Then he listens to Jazz give his combat experience. Then he slumps.
"Alla the combat experience I got was that big thing a few weeks ago, Kup, and even then, I didn't do no fighting. I can handle myself in a barroom brawl, but never been in a real battle before then." He rubs the back of his head, embarrassed, and falls silent for a long moment. Finally, he admits quietly, "Kinda scary." There's another pause, and then he looks up at the whole group, hands raised, palms up, as though offering up the gift of himself. "But I'll learn!"
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Post by Kup on Sept 24, 2007 22:05:03 GMT -5
Kup nods at Arcee's answers, but doesn't mark anything down. He does wince and smirk slightly at her question. He's pretty sure he saw Arcee sitting near enough when he was telling Slingshot about the events in 2005 to hear, but apparently she missed some of it.
"He's the new Prime, Arcee," the elder answers. "The One that the Matrix Chose to bear it." He smiles faintly, but fondly. "Who, as it turns out, was Hot Rod, before the Matrix transformed him." He's already braced for Arcee's reaction. She accepted it easily enough when it happened, but when it happened she had actually lived through the events.
At Jazz's story, Kup raises his brow-ridges and nods, but doesn't look too shocked. His own Jazz was fairly high-ranked too, after all, although he's been strangely quiet since 2005. "All right. Good to hear." He looks right at Jazz. "Don't be too surprised to find yourself in a position of responsibility here, then." But... just who is in charge, anyway? Heck, Kup seems to be acting like he is!
The veteran continues, "All right. Now, next, I'd like you guys to go over any non-combat skills that you think might come in handy here. For example," he points to Long Haul, "I wouldn't worry too much about your lack of combat experience. For one thing, you're a damned find builder, and for another, medics are at a premium." That, and Long Haul will have plenty of opportunity to gain combat experience the rest of the time. "But if you can think of anything I'm missing..." he turns and looks at the others, "if any of you can think of anything I'm missing, please, fill me in."
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Grimlock
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There's no crying in Basebrawl!
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Post by Grimlock on Sept 24, 2007 22:44:52 GMT -5
Grimlock listens to the trio talk about themselves, crossing his arms. He does find it hard to believe that Long Haul has little combat experience, as he's went up against him and his brothers countless times...but that's a different Long Haul that Grimlock knows.
Grimlock also fails to come up with any useful non-combat skills that he knows he has, so he stays silent.
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Arcee
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Post by Arcee on Sept 24, 2007 22:51:31 GMT -5
If she were drinking, Arcee would have just done a spit take.
"Hot Rod?! Hot Rod[/b]?!"
She just shakes her head. "C'mon, Kup. Pull the other one. It's got bells on."
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Jazz
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Post by Jazz on Sept 25, 2007 22:24:52 GMT -5
Who knows what Kup’s Jazz has been up to? Maybe he’s just gone underground. Or maybe he’s off on Monacus, racing.
This Jazz is most certainly not underground. He’s also most curious at the description of this ‘Hot Rod’ being Transformed by the Matrix. “Matrix?” He’s no shrinking violet, to be deterred from a question by the threat of responsibility. Jazz has been responsible for ... a very long time now. “Sounds a little like–“ And then Skyblast pops into the radio conversation. That brings a laugh. “Responsibility, huh? If I gotta, I gotta. I’ll not to betray any trust y’all put in me, when it comes down to it. I don’t like t’let my friends down.” And Autobots are his friends, aren’t they? They did save his life, and have been quite friendly. So why not? But Kup is asking questions still. Jazz has non-combat skills? “Actually, I got a couple of hobbies... Was gonna try an’ see if I could figure out what all these signs say ‘round here. Might be good to be able to get directions to where we need t’go. Someone mentioned you’d been here. You got any clues on decipherin’ the local lingo?” Frenetic? Usually. Jazz is standing still– for the moment. But there’s probably something atwitch in his systems somewhere.
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Post by Long Haul on Sept 25, 2007 23:04:57 GMT -5
Long Haul perks up at the mention of the non-combat skills, although he seems pretty confused both by Arcee's laughter and all the leadership chatter over the radio. He looks at the pink Autobot and asks, "Why wouldja think Kup's lyin' to you?"
Then he turns to Kup and nods. "Yeah, I can build, and I can repair. My specialty is logist- log- erm, making sure supplies are where they need t'be when they need to be there. Yeah, there's the physical part of haulin' but there's also the plannin' and the thinkin' about it. Nothing works if you don't got the tools to do it, or the parts to do it with."
"'Cos of my background, I'm pretty good at working out city layouts, even in new cities. Mostly 'cos the supplies don't do no good if I can't get 'em where they need to be, but also 'cos I've helped build a lot of cities that I kind of got an idea how they work."
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Post by Kup on Sept 25, 2007 23:26:31 GMT -5
Kup positively glares at Arcee. There is genuine anger in his gaze. When he speaks, however, his voice is cold. "I'm not joking, Arcee."
"And if Rodimus Prime were here to say you that... well, an energy dagger to the side'd have been kinder. His burden already weighs on him plenty."
It's about this time that Kup, fed up with the continued delays in choosing a chain of command, makes his declaration over broadband. And then, all blazes breaks loose over the airwaves.
Kup's first reaction when he's nominated is to open his optics wide in shock. His second is to snarl. He starts pacing, and begins ranting angrily, "Of all the pistol blowing, cam jamming, crank busting, axel splitting, software slumping, diode shorting, gear cracking..." this goes on for quite some time. To say he is Not Happy about developments over broadband would be one hell of an understatement.
Now, what was that he was just saying about burdens?
"Dammit!" he finally finishes, arms thrown into the air (although, yes, he's still holding his stylus and his 'notepad'). "They're being led by Starscream! Starscream! I don't think in those kinds of twists, blast it all!"
So... no more questions for the moment, obviously.
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Grimlock
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Post by Grimlock on Sept 25, 2007 23:40:07 GMT -5
Grimlock isn't happy about Arcee's laughter either. For one, she's disrespecting Kup. For two, she's disrespecting Rodimus. He walks up to Arcee, looming like a Dinobot does, optic band focused on her.
"Kup right! Rodimus good leader! Him work hard to keep Transformers in line! And why you no believe Kup when him tell you what happened? Him no lie about something like that!"
The Dinobot seethes for a moment before backing off, crossing his arms again, watching Kup curse over the leadership issue. So Starscream was in charge over there, eh...?
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Arcee
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Post by Arcee on Sept 26, 2007 15:40:37 GMT -5
Arcee is suddenly very aware that she's crossed a very bad line. But... Hot Rod? Okay, sure, he occasionally showed a little bit of insight and maybe even some genuine leadership skills, but he was also a total doofus. The number of whacked out stunts he'd pulled, the number of idiotic moves he'd made...
And the number of times he'd saved all of their lives.
The Decepticons would have done even more damage to Autobot City without Hot Rod and Daniel.
And frankly, that was just the tip of the iceberg.
"I... I'm sorry."
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Jazz
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Post by Jazz on Sept 27, 2007 19:58:43 GMT -5
Yeah. Burdens really aren't much fun. Which is why Jazz said precisely nothing when someone mentioned his name for that position. He's thinking about it when Kup mentions a familiar name.
"Starscream... egotistical nutjob, likes to stab folks in the back, and manipulate the situation to his advantage?" Jazz shakes his head, "Y'know, if there was one constant in all the universes, that's one that I really hate t'see again an' again. He yours, mine, or someone else's?"
Poor Arcee. Loomed over by a Dinobot. Yanked out of her spot, and given really difficult news to swallow on a regular basis. Jazz has put his foot in his mouth (figuratively speaking, of course) a few times. But hey... all /he/ has to deal with is whatever Skyblast ends up telling him. And if that included Bumblebee as the new leader-- well, hey. (Not that he'd be a bad choice, just a surprising one.)
Jazz sticks close to Arcee, just in case this Grimlock decides that it's ok to go back to being intimidating. She's got a lot to absorb there. "Take it ya don't have any more questions." He says chirpily, "Gotta couple for you though. How much do ya know 'bout this planet?"
He did ask that before, but the whole leadership thing did kinda distract the poor guy. Just think-- Kup could be the boss around here...
Isn't likely that it's going to be Jazz. He may have qualifications, but... these folks have more experience.
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Post by Long Haul on Sept 27, 2007 20:38:00 GMT -5
Long Haul tenses when Grimlock begins his looming, and then visibly relaxes when Grimlock stops. After that, he just turns and watches Kup pacing and ranting and ranting and pacing. He tilts his head. Hmm. Pretty good list of swears there. Not that the construction-mech doesn't know a thing or two about swearing, but Kup just might have him beat.
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Post by Kup on Sept 27, 2007 21:12:25 GMT -5
If Kup weren't too busy swearing, he'd have been concerned over the Dinobot looming. However, this leadership business had him really worked up there for a moment. He does catch Arcee's look and apology, however, and sighs. "It's fine, Arcee. I shouldn't have snapped. We're all a bit on-edge, I think. There's things going on here even I never had to deal with." And a Kup faced with situations that don't remind him of other situations is not a happy camper.
The veteran turns to Jazz. "I'm pretty sure that's my reality's Starscream, or something damned close. Y'mighta heard that talk about Skyfire over the radio earlier. None of the other realities here seem to recognize the situation. But everything else you used to describe him is dead accurate." He sighs. "I guess some things really do never change." He pauses. "I... had other questions, but they're kinda moot now, and it looks like I got an election to organize here shortly." Another area where Kup is out of his depth. "I was here once, long, long time ago. Gillanan III. Organic, generally peaceful. My ship broke down in this sector, and I had no problem getting it fixed up so I could move on. While I was here, I saw some of the sights, went to a circus at one point where I got to see some of the odder local animals..." he trails off and shrugs. "Just passed time and moved on. I picked up a few glyphs, things like 'exit' and 'resturant' and stuff, but they're compressed and tucked away pretty deep in the archives. I'll draw 'em for you when I can dig 'em out."
"Fourth planet in this system is... was... a mechanical world." There seem a lot of those in the universe, oddly enough. "Got on all right with their in-system neighbors. III would send them their 'dirty' fuel sources, like coal, 'cos it didn't bother them, and they'd send back metals. Past tense, 'cos, as you see here, III's been abandoned." Kup sighs heavily. "And the news we're getting back is that IV's been destroyed. Synapse went out there... found an asteroid belt where the planet should be. One of them had a building on it. Even found a body."
He shakes his head, then looks around at everyone else. "That's about all I got."
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Grimlock
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There's no crying in Basebrawl!
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Post by Grimlock on Sept 27, 2007 21:30:35 GMT -5
Grimlock ...isn't too good with accepting apologies. Or giving them. He just kinda grunts when Arcee makes hers.
The Dinobot's attention then stays on Kup as he explains about his previous experience--heeeeey, waitaminute! Kup said nothing interesting happened before, and now he says he went to the circus. The circus is interesting! Then again, so is a planet being destroyed.
"...the whole planet?" Grimlock asks, tilting his head a bit. "We know anything on how it happened? Maybe...me no know, Unicron? Me not know of anything else that destroy whole planets - at least nothing me can recall."
Beware, Grimlock may be going into Deep Thought!
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Arcee
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Post by Arcee on Sept 28, 2007 0:25:19 GMT -5
"I still shouldn't have acted like that. You've been there. You know what you're talking about," Arcee says.
"A whole planet... just gone? If you hadn't told us about Unicron... Scary thought."
And then a shrug and back toward the original question. "For what it's worth, I'm a decent pilot in a pinch. Not that we've got any ships."
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Jazz
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Post by Jazz on Sept 29, 2007 21:21:21 GMT -5
Good thing Jazz is adaptable, and not prone to be cranky when he doesn’t find something that reminds him of another situation then! Just think. Y’all could have a bouncy happy Camp Gillanen councilor, who’d be delighted to find the upside in this place. Upside. Like– getting to meet all these really interesting Autobots from strange universes!
“Good thing t’keep in mind, if the Starscream I know comes a-hoppin’ in. Just set him on yours, an’ watch them try to backstab each other.” Jazz suggests, “When ya get to it, the glyphs’ll come in handy. Might be able t’find what happened t’the other world. Maybe that’s why this one was abandoned.” Jazz frowns for a moment, processing the thoughts. Something must have been pretty bad for a planetwide evacuation. Then again... there’s also the possibility that whatever– WHOever brought all of them there sent the natives off somewhere safe. He has to believe it was to a place of safety, and not the battles and hazardous places that some of the new inhabitants had come from. Not to a fate like whatever body that was found on an asteroid. And then there’s the suggestion from Grimlock and Arcee. “Unicron?” Jazz starts to ask, and then there’s the message from Xaaron. Oh boy.
This should be.... entertaining. Maybe.
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