Nimbus Tsura
Major
Secretary to Mr. Breakaway
Sky-Painter Extraordinaire
Posts: 735
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Post by Nimbus Tsura on Jan 26, 2008 15:30:12 GMT -5
It hits Skyblast that he's not going to be very useful here. He's not like Pee-Dee and Bumblebee, who have some credibility as far as investigations go, or Perceptor, who actually operates the lab.
One of the secrets to performance art is knowing when to let another take the stage. The time is now. Skyblast calls out, "You know, I think that I see something over there. Going to check it out. Good luck, all of you!"
With that, he peels away from their course.
OOC: If someone wants to join Skyblast, PM me, and I'll make a thread for it. If not, just assume Skyblast is off somewhere, doing something slightly productive. Either way, he's out of the thread.
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Post by Pee-Dee on Jan 26, 2008 15:45:48 GMT -5
"Of course they're connected! Those two came through the looking glass!" Pee-Dee declares.
She transforms as she arrives at the door of Perceptor's lab, then steps inside. For a brief moment, she considers uttering horrified scream, but she doesn't think the other Autobots would appreciate that kind of startlement.
Instead, she waits patiently just inside the door and off to the side.
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Oracle
Minor
The future is always in motion.
Posts: 426
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Post by Oracle on Jan 26, 2008 16:59:19 GMT -5
For a moment Oracle considers following Skyblast, but the impulse to stay with the other flier gets fairly quickly buried under her need to find out more about what's going on.
In response she actually kicks in her thrusters a bit more to catch up with the remaining three, ending up not too far behind Bumblebee.
Hearing Pee-Dee's comment, she knew if she wasn't in alt mode she would be tilting her head to the side in confusion. Through the Looking Glass? Wasn't that an Earth book? What did that have to do with anything? Clearly she was missing more information then she thought.
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Post by Perceptor on Jan 26, 2008 22:56:14 GMT -5
There's a long moment of... well, not so much silence from Perceptor as it is just a low rumble of mutterings; the scientist is still running calculations and hypotheses through his CPU, and is essentially discussing them with himself in quiet murmurs.
"Looking glass?" Perceptor replies a little louder as Pee-Dee's comment penetrates the intellectual fog. "Looking... Oh my. Looking glass. Yes, that is quite the analogy, yes."
No, Perceptor is totally unaware that he isn't making much sense at all to anyone but himself.
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Post by Bumblebee on Jan 27, 2008 16:13:31 GMT -5
Bumblebee pulled up to the lab, transforming. Somehow as countless parts shift back into place, His red microscope passenger falls out and lands gently into his hand. Bumblebee holds it out in his hand so that it can transform into the scientist.
Once said microscope does so, Bumblebee begins to carefully make his way around the building, ensuring there aren't any more 'arrivals.
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Post by Pee-Dee on Jan 27, 2008 18:02:10 GMT -5
"Aww. My little smoke-machine wandered off." Pee-Dee peeks around the door frame and gives Perceptor an exaggerated pout. "I bet we're going to lose the other jet, too. And there where will we be? Cats and dogs living together! Mass hysteria!"
She gestures wildly at that last bit, before letting her hands settle on her hips. More seriously, she goes on, "Well, we're more likely to get 'mass hysteria' if any more people come through the looking glass. Put the back back on, Perceptor."
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Oracle
Minor
The future is always in motion.
Posts: 426
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Post by Oracle on Jan 27, 2008 18:11:03 GMT -5
Pee-Dee is right about losing the other jet as Oracle looks back and forth between the retreating Skyblast and the three on the ground for a moment before banking away.
With that nagging curiosity pulling her in both directions now, she decides to go with the option that isn't going to make her circuits ache trying to understand it. The muttering about looking glasses wasn't a good omen in her opinion, and she would bet things were only going to get more incomprehensible from there.
-----
(ooc: Exiting thread following Skyblast unless otherwise called back.)
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Post by Perceptor on Jan 27, 2008 22:03:10 GMT -5
It takes Perceptor a moment to realize that Bumblebee is awaiting his transformation to continue. With an apologetic little cough, the tiny red microscope unfolds and refolds, somehow shifting from something that fits in Bumblebee's hand, to a mech that stands but a very few feet shy of his own Optimus Prime's stature.
"Hmmm..." Perceptor intones thoughtfully, striding forward into his workshop - an incredibly cursory glance preceding him to ensure that his workshop is, indeed, as empty now as he'd left it originally. "I am afraid that if my suspicion proves correct, it may not be as simple as that. Disabling this unit is, at best, a temporary solution. A temporary solution, however, is all we require for the immediate future."
A few brisk strides eats up the distance between scientist and innocuous looking arched platform sitting in the far corner. Perceptor pauses just long enough to give the entire device a considering look, before stepping around behind it and, with a few resounding clunks, a fizzle, and the unmistakable sound of a plug being pulled free of its port, the few glowing lights indicating power in the unit fade to darkness.
Perceptor barely pauses to set the thick power coupling in his hand safely off to one side, before a stylus appears in his hand, and he is already scratching notations and a curious diagram that looks like two cone shaped vortices reaching toward each other on the bit of blank wall behind the portal unit.
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Post by Bumblebee on Jan 28, 2008 14:13:03 GMT -5
Bumblebee will have to ask Perceptor for details about how he can do that.
Since the coast appears clear, Bumblebee enters the room, in time to see Perceptor power down the device.
//perceptor, are there any signs the device has been altered or tampered with.// he transmitted to those in the room. //or anything else, for that matter.// Bumblebee wasn't really aware of what this room looked like to begin with, he started carefully looking through the lab for something out of the norm, in case the 'other' Swerve and Xaaron left something here.
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Post by Pee-Dee on Jan 28, 2008 17:44:51 GMT -5
"Why's it temporary?" Pee-Dee tilts her head slightly. "If it's not working, it's not working. Not like they can come through and fix it themselves."
She makes a mental note to spend more time in Perceptor's laboratory if dangerous things are going to come out of it. She might need to do a crime scene investigation in the future, and that means having some idea of what 'normal' is for this place.
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Post by Perceptor on Jan 28, 2008 19:06:14 GMT -5
"Hmm?" Perceptor inquires absently of Bumblebee, pausing mid-calculation to tilt his head in thought as the question registers. He turns toward the nearest workbench and fetches a smallish datapad tucked amidst the still and fabricator set up there, plugging it in to a port on one side of the portal device, inputting a few commands, and reading the output. "According to these readings, no. No tampering, however I will need to conduct a more thorough examination once I have finished these notations to be completely certain."
The lab gets an even more cursory glance and a distant, "Everything appears to be in order," before Perceptor turns back to his inscriptions and his schematics and his diagrams.
Several long moments pass as he sketches quickly, carving tiny notations in detailed equations next to the odd dualed whirlwind diagram.
"I believe it is temporary," he finally observes, standing back to study the notations and the device in one long look, "because, if my theory proves correct, the continued functionality of this unit will no longer be a factor in further incursions."
Perceptor sighs, shaking his head as he glances back at both Pee-Dee and Bumblebee. "There is another unit in some state of construction elsewhere - the unit which this new Swerve and Xaaron entered. A device which some incarnation of myself has designed and constructed. If the unit is as complete as my own had been - that is to say, powered but currently non-functional - there will be some record of its activation. If the unit is in a more advanced state of completion to render it functional, there will be further records detailing the precise measurements of what energies had been produced upon the unscheduled activation of the unit."
His expression is grave as he glances back at the device and his drawings. "Either is a significant enough puzzle to warrant further investigation. This unit may no longer be a viable target for another Convergence, however, the other device will not be non-functional for long, if it is so now."
"If this reflection of myself from their own base reality shares my scientific expertise, he will likely share my curiosity if nothing else. I theorize that it is only a matter of time before there are further incursions."
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Post by Pee-Dee on Jan 28, 2008 22:15:00 GMT -5
Pee-Dee stares at Perceptor. "Look, lady, I only speak two languages: English and bad English."1
---
1. "The Fifth Element"
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Post by Perceptor on Jan 28, 2008 23:28:17 GMT -5
Perceptor tilts his head, blinking in comic bafflement at Pee-Dee as he processes her commentary. Finally, with a chagrinned little cough, he nods, glancing away with embarrassment.
"Ah. 'Cliff notes', yes?" he murmurs, thinking hard.
"If it were me," he finally offers simply, "I would find a way to follow where the rabbit hole went." Well, she'd likened it to the "Looking Glass," right? "Even if someone had blocked the other end of it," he adds, casting a significant look at the now deactivated portal device.
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Post by Pee-Dee on Jan 29, 2008 13:19:40 GMT -5
"Hnh." Pee-Dee pats down her sides, then mimes pulling out and lighting another cigarette. "And it probably is you."
"So you'll take the red pill, and you'll end up here... That's going to get ugly."
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Post by Perceptor on Jan 29, 2008 20:33:01 GMT -5
"Given that Xaaron recognized me," was frightened of him, in fact, "yes, it likely is me."
Perceptor turns back to his inscriptions, shaking his head. "Depending upon what our 'reflections' are like, yes... it could get quite 'ugly'."
"I have never thought to make this facility secure," he offers with a sigh. It had always been Wheeljack's laboratory that had required extra security, with the engineer's predeliction towards weaponry and highly dangerous objects. Perceptor had always been a more tame tinkerer, content to study less volitile things, far more harmless things, and he had not yet set up a quarantine area, since space is at such a premium in his adopted new home. He turns a look of inquiry upon Pee-Dee, shrugging slightly.
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