Emirate Xaaron-3
Rookie
Ate you alive since you were a child/That's when the monster first appeared in you
Posts: 162
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron-3 on May 4, 2008 17:51:41 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron cannot feel the hand on his shoulder, and it is just as well. He hesitates, and he admits, "Swerve's main goal was to get me to safety, but now, I have made him promise me that if it come down to him or me that he will save himself. He is a good lad. He will find the right."
For a split-second, the sickly, wan yellow light in the coward's optics turns fierce, a raging fire. Swerve matters to him, and he sincerely believes that Swerve will do well long after Emirate Xaaron is gone.
|
|
|
Post by Perceptor on May 4, 2008 21:42:05 GMT -5
"I do not doubt that he will, as you say, 'find the right'," Perceptor replies, straightening a subtly warped piston rod. "However... there comes a time, now and then, when the right thing to do is to break a promise."
|
|
Emirate Xaaron-3
Rookie
Ate you alive since you were a child/That's when the monster first appeared in you
Posts: 162
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron-3 on May 5, 2008 8:41:02 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron snorts dubiously. He insists, "Swerve needs a man of action, a leader with real goals. He needs someone who will get things done and stand fast to his morals, rather than compromising himself at every turn. I understand that Swerve is compassionate, and I re..." What was he going to say there? "respect him for it, but he deserves, he needs better than me."
Maybe Swerve will find that here. Maybe he won't. Either way, Swerve is away from that wicked Prime of theirs. Emirate Xaaron hopes this is an improvement.
|
|
|
Post by Perceptor on May 6, 2008 21:28:37 GMT -5
Perceptor tilts a long look upon Xaaron, puzzling through that slip, unable to parse any alternatives. He does not know this Swerve well enough to offer any confirmation or refutation, but these fatalistic words of Xaarons trouble him.
"Perhaps. Perhaps not. I cannot say, although I do feel confident that he would take your loss... somewhat amiss."
The fabricator certainly gets a workout, however, not nearly as much as Perceptor had privately thought it would - many of Xaaron's sabotaged parts are easily salvaged with but a bit of fine retooling. Tedious and exacting, however not particularly materials intensive.
"Nearly prepared to begin reinitializing your sensory arrays," Perceptor observes as he slots the last structural pieces in place and carefully reboots Xaaron's motor functions.
|
|
Emirate Xaaron-3
Rookie
Ate you alive since you were a child/That's when the monster first appeared in you
Posts: 162
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron-3 on May 6, 2008 21:45:05 GMT -5
"He would," Emirate Xaaron has to admit, sounding ashamed, "but I hope he'll be able to overcome it."
His viewpoint is pretty fatalistic, it is true. He's pretty much resigned to the fact that he will die, likely soon. He was denied his rightful apocalypse. All he has now is Swerve.
Sounding worried, he inquires, "Oh, you will dull them, won't you?" His fingers twitch.
|
|
|
Post by Perceptor on May 7, 2008 16:34:14 GMT -5
"Yes, of course," Perceptor replies, nodding. It doesn't sound as if his underlying point had been absorbed. He's not much skilled at repairing anything beyond the elctrical and mechanical, unfortunately.
"But I must bring them online and then calibrate them first, to ensure full repair and re-integration with all your systems. Once that is complete, then we will reset their limite to a more tolerable level."
A few more tweaks for the final motor relays to boot up, and then the first sensor arrays should begin registering. "Acceptable?"
|
|
Emirate Xaaron-3
Rookie
Ate you alive since you were a child/That's when the monster first appeared in you
Posts: 162
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron-3 on May 7, 2008 19:01:38 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron is too self-absorbed in his misery to absorb much of anything else. He listens along to the techno-babble, parsing it for the most par. Nothing is ever easy, is it? Before he can be comfortably numb, he must experience the world and all its discordant sensations. The noise must die before the void can be pure again.
He's always a twitchy fellow, and even while all the burrs and breaks in his system are gone, he twitches purely out of habit. Emirate Xaaron shakes his head and replies dully, "If I could get away with feeling nothing at all, I would, but we both know I need at least baseline tactile sensors, to make sure I don't accidentally crush something."
|
|
|
Post by Perceptor on May 7, 2008 20:56:50 GMT -5
Perceptor nods, watching the readings on his equipment as he brings everything back up online, darting quick looks at Xaaron's expression as the sensory networks finally return to function.
And - hopefully, if he has done his work correctly - without the clawing, constant pain that has been the Emirate's companion for far too long. "Status?" Perhaps without the constant pain, Xaaron might be persuaded to not require such a drastic step?
|
|
Emirate Xaaron-3
Rookie
Ate you alive since you were a child/That's when the monster first appeared in you
Posts: 162
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron-3 on May 8, 2008 7:40:48 GMT -5
To be trite, the pain is gone, but the memory lives on.
It had been wonderful, not to feel anything at all.
He tilts his head to one side, optics glassy, and he replies, "An actual improvement. Thank you. But..." Emirate Xaaron looks up at Perceptor pleadingly.
|
|
|
Post by Perceptor on May 8, 2008 14:22:25 GMT -5
"You are quite welcome," the scientist replies, nodding. "Just a moment."
Well, it had been worth hoping for, yes? Perhaps, later, as Xaaron grows accustomed to his new returned functions and sensations, he might change his mind.
Some careful tweaking, a few adjustments, glance at the doiagnostics, and one final change brings Xaaron's sensory network down to the barest of pressure and tactile inputs. Just enough to allow him to continue functioning, to adjust his motions and make note of damages, and not much else.
"Suitable?" He hopes that Xaaron will ask for a little input back. Hopes, but without much expectation.
|
|
Emirate Xaaron-3
Rookie
Ate you alive since you were a child/That's when the monster first appeared in you
Posts: 162
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron-3 on May 9, 2008 0:55:42 GMT -5
"Acceptable," Emirate Xaaron replies, nodding curtly. What does he need fine sensitivity for? It's not like Perceptor is going to suddenly ask him to help with lab work or something like that.
He looks over at the nearest clear space in the laboratory and inquires, "May I?"
Apparently, Emirate Xaaron expects Perceptor to read his mind. He'd like to transform. Even if it kills him, he just has to know. He can't live with the doubt anymore, and everywhere else, he has a guard watching his every move.
|
|
|
Post by Perceptor on May 9, 2008 14:46:22 GMT -5
It isn't that Perceptor can read minds, however, he is used to mechanisms whom he had repaired wishing to perform physical checks on their systems once everything is complete. It's that Xaaron feels the need to ask him for permission that perplexes him.
"Err... ah, yes. Of course," he replies, stepping aside so that Xaaron may have all the space he needs.
And if Xaaron dies as a result of a simple transform? Perceptor is going to be very unhappy.
|
|
Emirate Xaaron-3
Rookie
Ate you alive since you were a child/That's when the monster first appeared in you
Posts: 162
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron-3 on May 10, 2008 12:31:32 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron is not used to being allowed to actually do what he wants, so of course he asks Perceptor for permission.
Emirate Xaaron has lived in doubt for a very, very long time, and he comes from a people that sinks into depression if they know they cannot transform. He has, instead, remained existentially unsure, and it's gnawed at him, tearing him up inside.
It's possible that this Perceptor, despite all his feigned niceness, just wants the amusement of watching Emirate Xaaron kill himself with an action so simple as a transform. It's possible that this Perceptor, despite his thoroughness, missed one little critical detail. Emirate Xaaron lives in doubt still.
"Thank you," Emirate Xaaron says quietly. A little clumsily, still not used to his lowered sensitively, he stumbles off the repair table and narrowly avoids falling flat on his face in the clear space. There is a clean strain and clattering as he attempts to initiate his transformation. For a moment, he fixes a piteous stare on Perceptor, as if to ask, Should I really do this?
Then, panels start to shift. He cracks open down the side of his torso. There is a terrible ratcheting screech - Perceptor did excellent work, but he can't change the fact that Emirate Xaaron's transform is more complicated than it needs to be, not without redesigning the antiquated machinery entirely to something more sensible and modern. The last that can be seen of Emirate Xaaron's face as it folds away inside his torso is pained. Perceptor did everything right, really. It would take cleaning out the psychosomatic pathway's etched into Emirate Xaaron's circuits themselves to get rid of those phantom pains.
A turret snaps out and folds along his back, a cannon extending from within the turret. Twitching and grasping hands fold inside his lower arms as his arms vanish into his torso. His lower legs slide over his upper, rotate around, and treads flip out. A tank sits there in the floor of Perceptor's laboratory, and it is still.
|
|
|
Post by Perceptor on May 10, 2008 22:56:56 GMT -5
That glimpse of pain concerns Perceptor greatly. Xaaron shouldn't be able to even feel that quantity of pain, as his expression dictated. Not with his newly adjusted sensory array dialed down as it is. Had he made a mistake? Had he missed something vital? Had his alternate laid a trap in these very repairs that Xaaron is now caught in?
"Xaaron?" he asks, deeply concerned as he closes the distance between them, already scanning for problems in the quiet gold tank.
|
|
Emirate Xaaron-3
Rookie
Ate you alive since you were a child/That's when the monster first appeared in you
Posts: 162
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron-3 on May 11, 2008 9:26:38 GMT -5
The light tank is still for a while as moments slip by like fish darting in a stream. Then, the treads back up a bit, edging him away from Perceptor. His barrel swivels down and away, doing anything to not point anywhere remotely near to Perceptor.
If a tank can look shy and ashamed, this one does so.
"I," Emirate Xaaron pauses, trying to collect his thoughts, "I can transform. I can transform - without... without..." He laughs, a nervous, choked sob. "...th-thank you."
Emirate Xaaron doesn't need to doubt anymore. Both halves of his self are in working order - the cringing coward and the instrument of destruction, that side he hasn't touched in so very long. Why, there isn't a person alive here who has ever seen that dark side to the gold coin.
|
|