|
Post by Needlenose on May 16, 2011 22:08:32 GMT -5
Month 4, Week 3, Day 5. Ship. Needlenose and Spinister's room. Semi-private.
"Yes, I know, darling," Needlenose replies, throwing himself down into his berth. "But since then, I came up with a brilliant idea for a redesign, and I want to put it into form! Just think, you'd be getting an exclusive first peek of a Needlenose original layout!"
Zigzag groans and scrambles off his shelf. "I'm out of here." The robots are about to get mushy, he suspects. He doesn't want to be anywhere nearby when that happens.
Sunbeam is playing a handheld 3-D video game, and hasn't yet noticed.
|
|
|
Post by Spinister on May 16, 2011 22:44:03 GMT -5
"I would be the layout," Spinister says softly. He doesn't really like the idea of someone getting all up inside him, with grabby, probing fingers! On the other hand, he does like Needlenose. Spinister is laid out on the floor, prone, so his rotors are not on the floor, and he's noodling around with writing bad poetry about killing Autobots.
What rhymes with eviscerate?
Hairsplitter excuses himself, "I really ought to work on doing this week's cooking."
Singe adds, "I'll go with you. Smoke some meats."
Hairsplitter reminds, sniffing, "It's not real meat. We grow it in a petri dish."
Singe growls, "Remind me of that again, and I'll split more than hairs."
That said, they exuent, stage left.
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on May 17, 2011 12:29:51 GMT -5
"Why, yes, you would be!" Needlenose proclaims cheerfully. "Wouldn't that be wonderful?" He sits down next to Spinister and peers over his shoulder.
After a moment, he asks, "So. How long are you thinking it'll be before Starscream makes his grab? Gotta say, I'm a bit shocked it hasn't happened already. This really is a backwards universe!"
|
|
|
Post by Spinister on May 17, 2011 13:32:09 GMT -5
"I wouldn't let you show it off," Spinister says warningly. "It'd only ever be between us."
Hmm, obliterate rhymes with eviscerate. That'll do.
Spinister says, at length, "They seem to stop to think first here. If they don't have a power base, they don't make a grab. When Starscream's name is on everyone's lips... then he'll make a move."
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on May 18, 2011 13:35:33 GMT -5
Not shown off? That is a downside! But still, "Between us is still good!"
He nods, sitting down on the floor next to Spinister and peering over at the poetry. "Hmmm. Should make for less frequent transitions, at least, and the less frequent, the more stable, right?"
|
|
|
Post by Spinister on May 19, 2011 21:39:07 GMT -5
Phoo, Spinister thought the inability to display the work would throw Needlenose off. He adds, "Can't add weight or slow my reflexes."
Spinister's poetry is intended to demoralise opposing Autobots. Know how he sometimes says gloomy, depressing things in mid-air combat? Yeah. Needlenose, socialite that he is, has likely seen much better poetry.
Spinister speculates, "Maybe. Don't know what tomorrow will bring."
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on May 20, 2011 10:52:17 GMT -5
"Light and agile, got it," Needlenose answers quickly. Then his antennae lay back. "You seriously expected otherwise from me? Please."
He leans against Spinister, carefully avoiding the blades, and lays a hand down on his back.
"And this new plan of our new leader's... any thoughts on it?"
|
|
|
Post by Spinister on May 20, 2011 18:02:07 GMT -5
Spinister accepts the leaning and the hand on his back with little more reaction than a twitch of his rotors. Needlenose is not a threat. Spinister will keep track of where Needlenose is, but he won't over-react; that would be a waste of energy.
It's quite remarkable. To think, once, he would have drawn a gun on Needlenose by now. Spinister just looks up at Needlenose and gives him a very steady look. It isn't that Needlenose does bad work. Needlenose does fabulous work. Spinister just has extremely exacting standards. "Combat hardened. Combat redundant."
"Depends on how time works here. If we have time like in Tarantulas's universe, should be all right. Time like in our own universe... reality breaks. Since physical laws aren't constant between realities, I'm not sure there is one beginning."
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on May 20, 2011 22:20:25 GMT -5
Needlenose gives an exasperated sigh. "Yes, yes, yes, I can do all of that," he assures.
As Spinister makes his guesses about the plans, he idly runs his fingers over the helicopter's back. One antenna skews back as he considers this. "Hmmm. The problem there is, how do we know how time works here until, say, we're already breaking it? We've already played around with cross-time a bit... well, at least the Autobots have... with no long term effects that we've been able to notice, but these things do tend to start slow."
|
|
|
Post by Spinister on May 22, 2011 21:07:14 GMT -5
"There is such a thing as non-destructive testing," Spinister comments softly. He splays one rotor blade out, incidentally moving it away from Needlenose's fingers, and he continues, "I use ultrasound to check these monocrystalline babies for defects. Not that it helps, sometimes." They still break. That's Spinister's congenital defect. No matter how good he makes the blades, they'll break.
"Gotta be a non-destructive way to test time."
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on May 22, 2011 22:56:02 GMT -5
Needlenose sighs, running his fingers over the armor-plating seams on Spinister's back, being careful to stay away from those delicate rotors. "I'm afraid that sort of thing's a bit beyond me, and Oil Slick's a chemist, not a temporal physicist. Little Blackarachnia got sent back to Gillanan, and Big Blackarachnia, if she even knows this sort of thing, is... probably already allied, anyway."
"Who else do we have who might know about this sort of thing? Tarantulas?"
Spiders. Why is it always spiders?
|
|
|
Post by Spinister on May 24, 2011 21:05:16 GMT -5
Spinister nods. Tarantulas is probably about the only one. Tarantulas is from a reality with non-destructive time travel, even!
He moves a hand back to try to catch Needlenose's fingers, though he doesn't remove them.
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on May 27, 2011 12:10:16 GMT -5
Needlenose's fingers are caught! Oh dear!
Actually, Needlenose finds he rather likes this.
He moves his other hand up to play with Spinister's side, even as he allows his first hand to just be held, and nods. "Then I'll talk with Tarantulas. Get him started on some... non-destructive time testing? Which just brings up the question of how... quietly we want to go about doing that. It's a reasonable enough thing to try and research, and if we try to be under the table about it, that's a hold that Tarantulas could use against us."
|
|
|
Post by Spinister on May 28, 2011 20:39:41 GMT -5
Spinister tries to creep his fingers between Needlenose's fingers, to lace their hands together, but he's slow about it, stealing in like a thief in the night. he continues to be negligent and nonchalant about the other hand.
He thinks, and he decides, "Just have him do it. Doesn't need to be a secret. It should be done."
If Scourge doesn't want non-destructive time testing first, Scourge is doing it wrong, the ever-careful Spinister thinks.
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on May 30, 2011 17:29:03 GMT -5
Needlenose does nothing to stop Spinister's thieving fingers, for the other hand is too busy in stealing its own way up Spinister's side, searching and exploring. He gives a faint nod. "Agreed. I'll talk to him, then."
He falls silent for a moment, optics narrowed as he considers matters.
OOC: Can we pause this until Thieves and Beggars is wrapped up, as Needlenose would likely want to discuss the events of that thread, but it hasn't played out yet.
|
|