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Post by Sentinel Prime on Jul 14, 2011 20:07:15 GMT -5
Month 2, Week 4, Day 4, Event Horizon simulation room, open- - - It's hot and dusty, so dry that all a spark is all takes for tinder to burst into flame - if there was any tinder to be had. There's just a racetrack that is slowly becoming more of an obstacle course and endless, trackless desert on all sides. There's a ramp over a spike strip, and if he doesn't get enough air off that ramp, he's going to land hard and shred his tyres if he's lucky. If he's unlucky, those recurved spikes are going to rake his undercarriage. He takes just a moment to reflect why he's here. Because he asked Swerve for driving advice? Oh. Right. That was stupid. The very first thing was running flat-out to find his top speed, an underwhelming at best 65 mph courtesy of that Earth-designed governor. Why did Sentinel Prime switch back to this glitchy Earth mode, anyway? Because it was fashionable? Because Ultra Magnus kept his Earth mode? Stupid! Then there were just ramps and jumps, next serpentines, but now there are these spike strips and K-rails. Sentinel Prime's not sure what might pop up next. If this is hazard driving, Sentinel Prime wants to go back to being a bulldozer and knocking things over at a grand speed in the single digits.
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Post by Swerve on Jul 19, 2011 17:10:00 GMT -5
"You rip yourself up," Swerve bellows warningly from where he stands, watching, "and you're gonna have to start over. Again!" He'd rather be running the course, too, but the only example of training he has to go on is the training he got when he was still a fresh-paint, and the old rally car who'd been his teacher never ran with the trainees. But Detour was old and patient. Swerve is… not quite so old, and definitely not patient in any way. He drums a staccato rhythm on one forearm with his fingers and scowls into the dry, dusty wind, tracking Sentinel visually.
Sentinel, he thinks, is too blasted slow to be worth two stripped hexnuts on the road. He's pretty sure Kup might actually be faster, and that's just pathetic. Then again, and the racer's expression turns a strange, softened sort of bitter, speed isn't the be-all end-all anywhere but Velocitron. Sentinel can probably take a punch better than Swerve can, and that counts for plenty.
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Jul 19, 2011 20:06:45 GMT -5
"Yeah, yeah, start over from the beginning. Got it. That's what I'd do myself," Sentinel Prime rambles nervously as he takes on the ramp.
Then Sentinel Prime slips a bit, as he barrels up the jump, his wheels failing to grip for just a quarter-second, shifting him a little to the side. He doesn't make the jump quite straight, and he lands with one tyre on the sharpened stakes. The tyre is shredded almost instantly, and it hurts like a rusty nail through his foot. Sentinel Prime keeps himself rolling, anyway, almost sheepishly, almost as if Swerve won't notice that he just blew a tyre and won't make him start all over again. Maybe Swerve didn't hear that hideous pop?
Self-delusion is a powerful force.
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Post by Swerve on Jul 21, 2011 9:16:31 GMT -5
That pop is like a gunshot. Swerve isn't so far away in the simulated distance to miss it and he curses quietly, resting his forehead in one hand and shaking it slowly. He looks up again and scrubs his hand down his face as he does so.
"Hold it!" he roars. Not that this actually pauses or resets the simulation. He just expects Sentinel to stop as directed.
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Jul 21, 2011 19:50:28 GMT -5
Sentinel Prime does hold it, stopping with a squeak and the stench of burned rubber. He's serious about wanting to learn. When Sentinel Prime really applies himself to something, he's dogged and determined. If Swerve tells him to halt, he'll halt and not ask why.
He still wishes Swerve hadn't heard that. Starting all over again? Someone just shoot him.
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Post by Swerve on Jul 27, 2011 19:12:50 GMT -5
"Good thing you aren't planning on bein' a racer of any kind," Swerve pronounces as he rolls up, having gone to his own vehicle mode to catch up Sentinel in a timely fashion. He makes the jump readily with a burst of speed the big truck apparently just can't manage, though his low-riding frame means he scrapes in noisy, showy fashion on landing. His axles might be accustomed to such random abuse, but it doesn't make it any better for him. He ignores the way it stings and coasts to a stop on Sentinel's left.
It gives him a chance to inspect the damage, too, and it's a good thing, he decides, this is all fake.
What a mess. "What happened?" he barks instead of further observation.
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Jul 27, 2011 19:32:57 GMT -5
"Yeah, I have career prospects that don't involve pounding other vehicles into the pavement," Sentinel Prime snaps. He has a wonderful political career ahead of him! He just wants to stop running into stoplights and junk like that.
What happened? The snow plow grumbles, admitting, "I may have, possibly, slipped. A bit. That's a plausible explanation. Of course, it's also possible that the ramp just likes you better."
Since Swerve is a perfect, special show-off with the ramp. Sentinel Prime may be ignoring how Swerve bottomed out there.
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Post by Swerve on Aug 1, 2011 20:14:50 GMT -5
The way Swerve leans low on his right front tire and dims his headlamps is as close to a sceptical glower as he can manage, given that he's currently a car.
"The ramp ain't alive," he mutters. He deliberately, and with great difficulty, ignores the jab at his racing style. "It can't like anybody better. Anyway," and he reverses with a loud squelch from his tires, "make a pit stop. I'm gonna change some stuff." Sentinel doesn't – can't? – manoeuvre the way Swerve expects others to manoeuvre. Rodimus was pretty spry for being a huge clunker, he recalls, and Sentinel is quite a lot more compact than the other Prime. Then again, thinks Swerve as he cruises back to where the access panel appeared last time, Sentinel's built more like Dirt Boss. But Dirt Boss could hold his own on the track.
He curses casually and transforms to work on altering the simulation. What he expects and what works rarely seem to meet around here.
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Aug 1, 2011 21:21:38 GMT -5
The ramp could be alive. Ramptron has feelings, too!
Sentinel Prime heads off towards the pit, his shocks squeaking over how lopsided he's riding. Each squeak punctuates a stabbing jolt of pain. Whoever invented spikes ought to be drug out and given fifty lashes, Sentinel Prime thinks. He bets a Decepticon invented spikes. Autobots prefer blunt objects... like hammers. Just shut up about his shield spikes and lance; those are completely different.
Sentinel Prime mutters to himself, though Swerve might be able to hear it, "Oh, goody. Changes. I just love changes. What next? A flaming ring of fire?"
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Post by Swerve on Aug 7, 2011 9:24:11 GMT -5
"No," Swerve says very loudly without looking up from the control panel. "That just sounds stupid." And while the course changes in a series of flickers and ripples, like heat shimmer over the blacktop, the pit crew goes to work. Being that this is the sim room, it would be just as easy to simply reset Sentinel's condition to default, but Swerve programmed everything with what he knows.
The pit crew are all small bots, white and teal or pale green with compact vehicle modes – some look like they might turn into cycles of some kind – and several of them are obviously female. The whole crew sets to putting Sentinel back in proper driving condition with professional efficiency, not communicating outside tracking their time. They know their job.
When that's done with and Sentinel comes back to the track, he'll find it drastically changed. The obstacles are static and more generously spaced, but larger; the spikes are gone entirely and the jump isn't any longer than it was before, but it's a higher jump now.
OOC: Cool with skipping parts that seem too tedious?
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Aug 7, 2011 20:31:08 GMT -5
Flaming rings of fire are stupid? Swerve has the screwiest priorities. Sentinel Prime probably takes too long in the pit, possibly checking out some of those lovely, lovely pit techs. Don't say much do they, though? Once he's back on the track, he honestly wonders if Swerve has dumbed it down for him by making everything bigger and therefore easier to see. Is this some kind of insult? On the other hand, the higher jump looks... intimidating, looming off in the distance. His suspension's going to hate him, he's sure, but he rolls off, trying to avoid the obstacles with somewhat more grace than he has previously. High jump, Sentinel Prime is coming for you! - - - OOC: Skip whatever you'd like to skip!
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Post by Swerve on Aug 16, 2011 22:16:39 GMT -5
Swerve has simply tried tailoring the course to a larger, slower-moving vehicle with far less driving experience than he. There are no pop-up obstacles, either; he's decided that Sentinel can work on reaction time once his manoeuvring has improved.
"Try to get a feel for the timing," he bellows. "Figure out when best to brake and accelerate again! You'll lose less momentum that way!"
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Aug 17, 2011 20:59:28 GMT -5
Sentinel Prime tends to read insults into things where none were intended.
It'll probably be pretty obvious to Swerve that Sentinel Prime has some braking issues. He's not as bad as when they started this session, but he often doesn't brake soon enough, and he has traction problems even when he does. But he's paying attention, and he's learning, and he's at least doing a bit better now that he's on the Dummies Course.
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Post by Swerve on Aug 19, 2011 13:24:01 GMT -5
Swerve does indeed notice. The traction problem, he thinks, should be as easy to solve as a new set of tires. Should be. He doubts it will. The timing issue, on the other hand… he scowls as he watches Sentinel miss the mark yet again. The big lugnut's reaction time can't innately be that bad. Maybe there's a malfunction somewhere?
"You're still way off! Pay more attention, blast it!"
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Aug 20, 2011 20:40:17 GMT -5
Sentinel Prime had treads for thousands of years on a waterless world. Wheels are weird. He's also overconfident to the point of arrogance; he thinks he can time some of these tricks properly, but he can't.
He's finally managing to wrestle some of that ego into the backseat. He's not impressing anyone when he scrapes his side against a K-rail.
But then there's the ramp. Locking up and freezing in a stressful situation doesn't do anyone any good, but he's failed this jump before, and that bears down heavily on him.
Just about as heavily as Sentinel Prime lands, throwing his poor suspension into a tizzy and wrecking his alignment.
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