Autobot Interim: Repair is... *Mostly* Intact...

[Wedge]

"We'll see who watches whose back," Wedge makes a face at Sideburn before his attention is turned towards the strange things that Screwdriver reveals. That's definitely interesting, but really, what use of...Oh, that's interesting. Wedge stares and immediately moves to help Bumblebee. He attempts to pull at the yellow bot's arm, wobbling the table more, but nothing happens. It's when he tries to separate himself from Bumblebee that he begins to see that perhaps there's something more to these little marbles than he thought.

"Ah, I'll have to hold on that, Perceptor, Sideburn. Just a little stuck at the moment," Wedge frowns as he tries wriggling his hands off to no avail. "Ah, what's going on?!"

Golden goose syndrome anybody?

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OOC: Attempted help and attachment done with player permission

[Bluestreak]

Bluestreak's optics brighten at the femme's words. She has a strange way of communicating, but really, it's not any worse than Jazz's frequent pop-culture references, and it's kinda cute. And these new toys she's pulling out are fascinating!

"Oh, those look cool! Like human's Legos, except they're round... whoa, who are you?"

That last is said as the weird yellow mech enters. He has doorwings like Bluestreak, and he appears to turn into a car, but that's where the similarities end. He stares, silent, as the yellow mech tries to clean up the spilled marbles and... gets stuck to the table? And he continues to stare as Wedge moves to help Yellow Mech... and gets stuck as well.

"Um... what's going on? If Wheeljack were here, I'd say it was one of his inventions gone screwy, but he's not here, so..."

[Screwdriver]

Screwdriver grins as she watches first Bumblebee, then Wedge get stuck to the 'marble.' "She seized the goose by the wing, but her finger and hand remained sticking fast to it. The second came soon afterwards, thinking only of how she might get a feather for herself, but she had scarcely touched her sister than she was held fast."¹

She continues to look, offering no other explanation just yet, but grinning wide and foolishly.

---

¹ The Golden Goose. Tee-hee.

[Sideburn]

"I'm responsible for the repairs and maintenance of myself and my brothers... Not too long ago I had fix X-Brawn's energon intake. And if another team needs help with repairs for whatever reason, I jump in for that too." In other words, no expert surgeon, but experienced in typical battle damage.

Then a new mech enters and gets stuck. Sideburn's about to help him, but Wedge beats him to the punch. ...And ends up stuck as well. "Whoa, Wedge. Can't help someone if you get in the same position." Sideburn wraps his hands around Wedge's arm and braces a foot on the table to try to pull him free. As if in slow-motion, the table responds to Sideburn's yank by raising its far legs...tipping over. This starts the short domino round, all three landing in a massive tangle on the floor, the table ontop of them.

"Ow..." comes the moan from the bottom of the pile. Sideburn really should have heeded his own advice.

OOC: Pulling and falling of 'Bee and Wedge done with permission.

[Perceptor]

Long enough association with Wheeljack serves Perceptor in good stead as everything - and everyone - topples to the floor with a clatter. He manages to dodge backwards out of harm's way. Harm's way, of course, meaning within range of any of the tangled, magnetized mechs managing to topple into him and drag him into the pile, that is.

"Bumblebee, Wedge, Sideburn, are you functional?" Perceptor asks as he warily circles the pile, examining it from all angles - particularly wary for the presence of more of Screwdriver's "beads".

"That is a very clever toy, Screwdriver," he opines, glancing in her direction. "How do keep it safely contained when you are not enjoying it? And how is it negated?"

[Bumblebee]

Bumblebee, Wedge, Sideburn and table all go tumbling down, Bumblebee's limbs getting yanked under the table as people fall down on top of him. Another pained yelp emits from his strained vocalizer.

He transmits to the person responsible. //screwdriver. how do you turn this off.//

[Wedge]

What's a good thing about being a good sturdy Buildbot? Well, the table on top of him doesn't hurt as much as as he thought it would. The bad thing about being a good sturdy Buildbot? Well, the amount of added mass Wedge probably has on the two below him aren't earning him any brownie points.

"Well, this blows," he mutters to himself. Though, it's more than likely that with the--ah rather close proximity of Bumblebee and Sideburn that this comment is heard. Wedge's head falls back with a clank. Now his cranial's stuck. A curse that would earn him a quick smack on the head from Heavy Load escapes Wedge's vocalizer. It's a very stuck, embarrassed and slightly irritated orange Buildbot is that currently watches Perceptor and Screwdriver.

"Okay, okay, great joke. Can it be over now?"

[Bluestreak]

Bluestreak can't help himself -- he starts to snicker. He claps both hands over his vocalizer in an attempt to stifle the laughter, but it escapes anyway.

"I'm sorry Sideburn... Wedge... uh, other guy... still don't know you're name... I shouldn't laugh... it's funny though... I'd help but..." The "but" dissolves into a fit of hysterical giggles as he covers his face with his hands, as if by not seeing him the others won't be able to hear his laughter.

He should be grateful it wasn't Swerve that fell prey to Screwdriver's toy, or he would probably be one dead mech once Swerve got free from the magnetically-adhered tangle. As it is, he's probably not popular with the unfortunate three at this point.

[Screwdriver]

Screwdriver laughs merrily at the others' antics. When she's asked how to control the marbles, she stops and explains cheerfully, holding up her container, "The genie obeys the master of the bottle!"

With that, still holding the container, she kneels next to the whole mess, particularly where Bumblebee's hand covers the "marble." She gently touches it (or, if Bumblebee's hand covers it completely, touches his hand over the spot where the "marble" is) and, the moment she does, the magnetic field shuts off, releasing the Autobots. That done, she begins to gather all the "marbles" up into the little container, being very careful not to release her hold of it.

[Sideburn]

"Hey, this isn't funny!" Sideburn calls out to Bluestreak, though it's mostly his ego that's wounded.

Then Screwdriver releases them from the magnetics of her marble. As soon as he can move again, Sideburn's head and limbs flop down and he sighs with relief. Relief, however, doesn't last long. "Hey guys? Could you get off me? You're more than a bit heavy..."

[Perceptor]

Perceptor is having visions of Repair in tattered pieces, and he's not liking the images his imagination is painting. He needs to find some means to occupy Screwdriver, at least until he can settle the others and catch Bluestreak up past the unfortunate events to now.

"That is a very clever toy, Screwdriver," he repeats, an idea beginning to form. "And you are quite clever to have designed it. Quite clever indeed."

He pauses, examining her speculatively for a moment. "Perhaps you are even clever enough to assist me with a... a quest," his databanks supply after a moment of inquiry. Xaaron had said like something out of a trashy fantasy novel, and, fortunately, he does have a few examples of some of the most prominent and important bits of Earth mythos tucked away in his vast stores of information.

"I seek Excalibur, and had considered sending one of the others to find it... but perhaps they are not clever enough to succeed," he explains, glancing down at the still tangled pile of mechs and table and equipment that had fallen prey to her "toy". "Are you? Will you know Excalibur when you see it?"

And if the Junkion is at all familiar with that particular tale, discovering what she considers analogous to the fabled sword of Arthur will be quite telling, he imagines.

"Are you brave enough for such a quest?"

He imagines that he can hear the rest of the "Illuminati" laughing at him now, to say nothing of what Wheeljack or Ratchet would say if they could hear him speaking in fables and myths. Ah well.

---

Excalibur - from the mythos of King Arthur.

ooc: apologies, all. I'm feeling utterly uninspired for Perceptor right now, and I kindly thank Xaaron for bailing my happy aft out with a quest idea. Here's Screwdriver's chance to escape the evil Autobots, if she's so inclined. Sorry to have held folks up for so long.

[SceneMod]

OOC: Bumblebee may not be able to post for awhile, and has granted permission to skip him. It may be assumed that he got off the floor, and is no longer on top of anyone he had fallen on.

[Wedge]

Bluestreak and Screwdriver's laughter brings a frowning pout on Wedge's face. Yeah, sure the pile-up probably looks funny. It doesn't feel funny...though, if Wedge weren't part of this mess, he'd probably laugh at the situation too. Loudly.

"What in the world do you use those things for?" His question to Screwdriver is slightly incredulous. It's also as if he doesn't quite realize that he's probably rudely interrupting into something between her and the red scientist.

Wedge shoves the table off and it topples onto the floor with a loud bang. Stiffly, he picks himself up, rubbing absently at the new batch of scratches and dings that he has accumulated on top of the many he already has. Something squeaks in his elbow and he flexes it a couple more times. Where's that lube? "I think I'm gonna have to take you up for some repairs soon, Sideburn. That is, if you think you can handle it."

Though, at the moment, his attention is shifted slightly at Perceptor's mention of 'quests' and such.

[Bluestreak]

Bluestreak finally manages to get his laughter under control enough to get up and walk over to Sideburn, bending down and pulling him to his feet*. "You okay, Sideburn? You too, Wedge? That couldn't have been fun, though it did look funny. Heh, everything looks funny when it's not you involved, I guess. Kinda like that old human saying, 'it's only funny until someone gets hurt...' Hope none of you were hurt, though..."

His interest perks in Perceptor's mention of a quest. "Excaliber? Wow... but isn't that a human reality? Are there humans coming here from all different realities too? That would be cool, the whole sword in the stone deal... like a Matrix of Leadership for humans..."

Bluestreak's not dumb (most of the time), he just doesn't catch that Perceptor's inventing the quest deal to get rid of Screwdriver.



*OOC: Handling done with player's permission

[Screwdriver]

Screwdriver's optics light up at Perceptor's compliments, but she frowns and tilts her head at mention of the quest. "But... Arthur has Excalibur!" she answers, confused.

Her optics narrow and her brow-ridges furrow as she considers this. "Then... you've lost Arthur? Is that, then, why you've crowned the Emir?" Ah! Things finally make sense!

Screwdriver bounces up on her 'toes' and reports, "The youngest sister is always the cleverest! I shall find for you lost Arthur and mighty Excalibur, with naught but my wits to sustain me!" And her toys, of course, but those were made by her wit! And with that, she transforms (yes, right in Repair) and peels off, driving down the ramp at a high speed.

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OOC: So yes. Screwdriver out of thread.