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Post by Perceptor on Apr 6, 2011 13:38:58 GMT -5
The very first thing that Perceptor does on his way to the Rock Room is to cover his Autobot sigil with a bit of the appropriate color of red paint; there's no sense in throwing away what small advantage they may have to reason with this "Pincher" for lack of a little preparation. The next thing he does, though, is to enact a security lock on the Rock Room door once he is through it. Magnus will be able to open it from the outside, but only registered Autobots will be able to open it from within.
Just because Pincher sounds pleasant enough, and seems to see Perceptor as some sort of authority figure, does not mean that his loyalties will not ultimately reside with Shockwave. Perceptor isn't about to risk letting a potential Decepticon agent, or even a misguided future-Autobot, loose on the ship.
// Springer, Optimus, please be prepared to engage the primary security field, // he radios the pair privately as he strides confidently into the room and secures the door behind him.
"Greetings Pincher. I can assure you that your loyalty is not being questioned in the manner in which you assume, however, certain parameters will need to be ascertained eventually. I merely ask that you, as a fellow scientist, suspend your judgment until we have an opportunity to present all the facts."
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Post by Springer on Apr 7, 2011 2:03:48 GMT -5
Alright, Perceptor's here, now Springer doesn't have to stick his foot in his mouth!
//Been hovering over it like a Cyber-Hawk,// he answers Perceptor.
So he'll continue to do that and save any actual commentary for when he's fairly certain it'll actually be helpful. This isn't something he can flirt and flatter his way out of!
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Optimus Prime
Minor
Caution: Hero makes wide right turns.
Posts: 385
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Post by Optimus Prime on Apr 7, 2011 20:32:49 GMT -5
If Pincher was from Optimus's reality, Optimus would think him not harboring rebel sympathies meant he wasn't a Decepticon sympathizer, which would be a good thing which he would comment on. However, Pincher is quite obviously not from Optimus's reality, so we are saved having to listen to what would surely be a confusing exchange.
"Hello Perceptor. Have you two met?"
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Apr 7, 2011 20:58:20 GMT -5
Perceptor can probably tell Pincher works with all kinds of dangerous chemicals, not by looking at him but by... yeah. Pincher hasn't had a shower in a while. Sulphur stinks. Then there are the claws. And the horns on his helmet. And how he's an arthropod. So he's not so pleasant-seeming in person by conventional standards.
Pincher looks a little like a rock star just entered the room. A math prof rock star. He clasps his claws together and greets, "Sir! I... oh, of course." He glances over at the Optimus clone and explains, "Councilor Perceptor is head of science! Just like you rebels not to pay attention."
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Apr 8, 2011 10:22:28 GMT -5
Lacking any further details from the rock room, Magnus hazards that he should go down there, at the very least in case things should get out of hand. With any luck, he thinks, or good sense, if Pincher is indeed from his reality and from a time when factions were rebels, he will know of Security Commander Ultra Magnus and be even less inclined to cause trouble.
Magnus, looking exceedingly torn about the matter, unwittingly follows Perceptor's example when he finds his blue paint and drowns his Autobrand in it. He wanted to never remove that brand again. Unfortunately, he can't excuse Security Commander Ultra Magnus wearing a rebel emblem. Maybe if he asks nicely, Long Haul will restore it again.
With his brand thus unhappily concealed, Magnus makes straight for the rock room and tries to keep his entrance as circumspect as he would have made it back home. Bursting onto the scene all flash and fury only worked on a select few and usually resulted in too much collateral damage when the reactions were violent, so he'd reserved it for raiding the rebel hideouts; quietly filling the doorway, on the other hand, he'd realised had a more subdued and ultimately better effect. And he doesn't need to startle anyone or start a firefight on board.
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Post by Perceptor on Apr 10, 2011 8:35:19 GMT -5
// Thank you. //
"That is... complicated, Optimus," Perceptor replies, though his optics do not leave Pincher. The door behind him opens, meaning that Magnus has arrived; Perceptor is relieved. The additional verisimilitude will hopefully prove to their advantage as they attempt to sort out this... mess.
"As for my function, and theirs, Pincher, events are not always what they appear to be, even when we are at our most certain that we are being presented with the unadorned truth," he cautions. "The universe is not as singular as once I imagined, and there are realities and reflections of realities that co-exist like facets of a crystal, each reflecting its own view, which may be similar, or nothing at all like what we are familiar with."
"In short, you are no longer within the universe, the reality, from where you originated. Those who look familiar, may not be the individuals that you think they are, for they may come from an entirely different reality than you, no matter how similar they may appear to be to the person that you know. This reality that we have all found ourselves similarly removed to, shares similarities with parts of the realities from which we all come from - with one major exception:"
"Our race appears to be unknown here, and those rocks you find yourself upon, are fragments of Cybertron."
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Post by Springer on Apr 11, 2011 22:41:37 GMT -5
Springer crosses his arms as Perceptor starts in. The scientist's excessive wordification can sometimes be irritating, but right now, it's a godsend. This 'Pincher' guy is too tricky for Springer.
Oh hey, there's Magnus. Springer gives him a curt nod, then goes back to looking pretty while Perceptor gives the run-down of what's going on.
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Optimus Prime
Minor
Caution: Hero makes wide right turns.
Posts: 385
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Post by Optimus Prime on Apr 12, 2011 20:33:53 GMT -5
"Actually," Optimus snaps, "here, Perceptor is second-in-command of science. And he's taken time out of his busy schedule to come see you." The Prime cycles his vents and pointedly looks anywhere but at the Pretender. Pincher is just rubbing him to wrong way for some reason. Even though they just met! He's so smug, thinks he knows exactly what's going on, refuses to listen to any evidence to the contrary. Optimus blinks, then smiles. No wonder the scorpion is getting on his nerves. He reminds Optimus of Sentinel Prime!1
//You've met a Pincher, but not this one?// he radios to Perceptor.
1. They'll have to go on adventures later, and have a mutual friend be mutated in a horrible tragedy. And then they can be best friends. Or something. Except Pincher already turns into an arachnid. Hmm.
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Apr 12, 2011 21:03:42 GMT -5
Pincher visibly recoils when Ultra Magnus arrives. The Security Commander? Here? Oh, shards. Pincher doesn't want to be thrown into lockup and never see the stars ever again! (If he knew what grief he has caused Ultra Magnus over his symbol, he'd be, well, confused at first but also mortified and repentant.)
When Perceptor drops a bomb on him, Pincher takes it oddly calmly, but he does do into a ramble, "The thing is... I'm not even sure if I exist. 'Cogito ergo sum' does not satisfy me. It is entirely possible that I am a philosophical zombie, a being lacking in qualia that gives off all the appearances of thinking without actually undergoing cognition. It is also possible that I lack free will and am merely the sum of my programming. However, I generally accept that I exist, that I possess qualia, and that I have free will, because the consequences of being wrong in these areas could be quite dire."
"So... there is another layer of complexity. I have worked with some seriously hardcore deliriants. Never recreationally," he shoot a nervous glance at Ultra Magnus, "and while the ones I have tailored myself for military purposes," like, oh, interrogations and diversionary tactics, "tend to be far milder, shorter in half-life, and possessing of fewer side-effects, the originals upon which they were based are rather harsher. I think I'm clean, but the fact is, I could move a piston wrong, cycle some old hydraulic fluid, and wham."
Pincher waves his arms out, claws clicking.
"I could be hallucinating all this. I have a decent imagination. I could imagine myself as a Seeker or a female or being born a human on Earth or never being created at all or being a battery enslaved by organic creatures to power a future-predicting computer... I've tried to radio my lab techs, and it doesn't seem to go through, but for all I know, while I think I've just been sitting and standing around here on these rocks, I could have wandered off to a smelting pool and be ready to throw myself in."
Pincher looks rather bleak and grim.
"If I am hallucinating, there are possible consequences that I could very easily end up dead, and there's not all that much I can do about it. Given that inherent futility, I suppose I should chose to believe that I am not hallucinating. Mind you," he pinches the bridge of his nose, "it doesn't necessarily mean you are telling me the truth. Given that you have just stated that I might not know people that I think I do..." his head tilts, "...I suppose you are not the Perceptor I know of, are you?"
Pincher glances sidelong at Optimus, who is apparently not a clone at all.
Cybertron rocks, huh? That's... interesting. He thought they just looked like rocks, but then, he's never seen rocks from another planet outside of a few astronomy articles. Cybertron rocks look like rocks to him.
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Apr 14, 2011 10:04:43 GMT -5
Ultra Magnus privately and eminently sympathises with Pincher's concerns that all this is some elaborate hallucination. He still has days where he isn't entirely certain himself that he hasn't died and landed in some madhouse purgatory filled with strange characters and otherworldly versions of people he knows just to break his mind. This universe even has an evil copy of Optimus who despises him, a Sentinel Prime who looks to him for training, a young Optimus who reminds him of Optronix and still unbalances him – as the younger Autobot does now, surging to the fore briefly with his outburst – and even Shockwave. A Shockwave hellbent on recapturing his loyalty or eliminating him if he can't be had.
Can he be blamed for thinking sometimes that none of this is truly real?
"If this is your imagination," he says instead and likely sounds more ominous than he means to, since he's trying to make light of the situation, "does that mean I'm your guilty conscience?" Pincher was so hasty to reassure them he never plays with his chemicals; he could be scared and nothing more, or he could be guilty. Magnus doesn't know either way. He's just trying in deadpan Wrecker fashion to ease tensions.
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Post by Perceptor on Apr 19, 2011 19:53:51 GMT -5
"Optimus," Perceptor chides warningly. Fortunately, Pincher doesn't seem to take the young Prime's outburst badly, and goes on to a very coherent and intriguingly complex soliloquy.
Weaponized deleriants? Hmm. Xaaron will be pleased. Perceptor finds himself wondering if they can repurpose an area into Pincher's own lab, because he isn't certain that he wishes to share space with such work. Just letting Springer talk him into building the chainsaw rocket launcher had been a huge step for him; chemical weapons are a little too... mirror alternate for his tastes.
"No, I am not the Perceptor you know," he replies gently, summoning a cloth from subspace to wipe away the fresh paint over his Autobrand. "I come from a different reality than you do, although Ultra Magnus here is likely to be from the reality which you are originally from."
"Your lab technicians cannot answer you, because they are not here in this reality with us. Unfortunately, the very nature of your existential debate renders any proof that I may offer, void and meaningless. Of course, that begs the question: what if you are merely a construct of my own imagination? I have memories of my own in this reality that surpass the length of your own by several orders of magnitude." He had been, in fact, one of the very first arrivals, way back then on Gillanan III.
"Who is to say that I am not the author of this entire experience, and you, and Magnus, and Springer, and Optimus, merely shadows of my own conjuration?"
He smiles then and shrugs. "As is the case for your experiences, all I am able to offer are 'proofs' which cannot be considered proof, and hearsay. Anecdotes and faith. Not a word I imagine that you ever thought would exit my vocal processor, hm? Faith?"
"Regardless, this is real, you are here, and events which you thought you understood are not what you believed them to be. Here, or in your base reality. For that, I ask that you speak with Ultra Magnus, as he has the personal experience to explain best."
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Post by Springer on Apr 23, 2011 13:06:08 GMT -5
Springer lets out a mostly quiet sigh before he falls into the chair he was sitting in earlier. By the Prime Program, the nerd in here got way too thick, too fast. Existential debate is so not for him. Not even if Magnus adds angst.
Springer leans on the console, propping his chin up in one hand. This could take a while...
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Optimus Prime
Minor
Caution: Hero makes wide right turns.
Posts: 385
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Post by Optimus Prime on Apr 24, 2011 19:47:14 GMT -5
Optimus looks back and forth between Perceptor and Pincher as the two scientists debate the nature of reality. He was going to chime in about how solipsism doesn't do you any good so you may as well just assume it's all real, but Pincher seems to have worked it out for himself.
"Sorry," he says quietly to Perceptor, looking at his feet.
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Apr 24, 2011 20:02:21 GMT -5
"Yes, that is possible," Pincher agrees with Perceptor says it is possible that he is just a figment of Perceptor's imagination. "However, suppose that I am not your figment. If I am a thinking being with free will and I do not live up to that potential, I am only serving the evils of sloth and hedonism. It is better to act as if my destiny is my own. If it is not, I do no harm in my minor delusion, because the delusion was preordained anyway."
At Perceptor's directive to speak with Ultra Magnus, Pincher fixes a decidedly queer look on Ultra Magnus says, "If I am to let my conscience be my guide, where would my conscience lead me?"
He's not sure what form his conscience would manifest, if it had one. It weighs upon him, what he has done, the damage done, but at the same time, even with the hardest choices he has made, Pincher has done his best not to betray what he is.
Pincher's worst betrayal is the one he is as yet unaware he committed.
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on May 2, 2011 18:17:21 GMT -5
"Well, we're going to stay here," Magnus says to Pincher, "but… we should talk." Even if Magnus isn't terribly comfortable discussing what Perceptor suggests, though he ends up reiterating it constantly.
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