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Post by Dr. James Hook on Aug 27, 2011 15:51:38 GMT -5
OOC: Month 1, Week 4, Day 4, Event Horizon medical ward, open
Hook can feel a pressure behind his head. He pauses in sorting out the miscellaneous bolts bin, paces swiftly to the nearest chair, and sits down. There are black spots in the centre of his vision, and they're widening. Then there's a shimmering zigzag and scintillating, flickering lights. Hook makes sure he's sitting as safely as he can, and he turns off his optical band.
So there's Hook sitting in the medical ward with his optical band off. If someone tries to draw something on his face, he's dropping a box of scalpels on the offender's foot.
It's just an optical migraine. He shut his optical band off before it could start to hurt. It'll just take a few minutes to reboot, which is better than trying to wait it out - that might take half an hour, and Hook doesn't have half an hour. Of course, if he could fix the settings mismatch between his hardware and software, he wouldn't have this problem in the first place, but he doesn't have administrative authority to adjust his settings - he tries not to think too hard about why - and he has yet to find someone he trusts enough to install different hardware. Hook might break down soon and just use a surgical armature to do it himself.
Finally, his optical band reboots. What does Hook see there in the medical ward with him?
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Oracle
Minor
The future is always in motion.
Posts: 426
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Post by Oracle on Aug 27, 2011 23:45:26 GMT -5
Hook sees a female Seeker standing hip-shot and with both arms and ankles crossed as she leans against one of the ward medical tables, obviously studying him and not trying a whit to hide it.
Oracle still isn't entirely sure why she's here. She can admit to herself if to no one else that she has entirely mixed feelings about what's been done to Hook. Were she Hook, she would have chosen a true death rather than this, but then she is most certainly not unbiased in the matters of a changed mind. So she's braved one of her least favorites places on the Event Horizon to come see him for herself.
Maybe that will finally help settle some of her disquiet. Or make it worse.
She had been watching him silently before his optical band lit again, and continues to do so after it does. Perhaps it is rude, likely so even, but she doesn't want to speak until she's sure her tangled thoughts won't come spilling out if she does.
And when she does say something, it has nothing at all to do with what's in her head, and yet...
"Are you alright?"
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Post by Long Haul on Aug 28, 2011 13:33:03 GMT -5
Long Haul pushes a cart of parts into the room. For him, the matter is a bit simpler. The Decepticons changed Hook against his will. Now the Autobots fixed it. But then, Long Haul has never been much for deep philosophizing, and he's ready to accept anything at face value if it gets him his old partner back.
He double-checks the parts on the cart, making sure they and the tools are all laid out in the order when they'll be needed, then turns towards Hook. "That should about do it, Hook, though I know you're prolly gonna go double check to see if I'm missing something, anyway." Long Haul already double checked, and he's certain he's not missing anything, but this is Hook.
Belatedly, he realizes that a blue Seeker has entered the room since last he left. He dips his head towards her. "Hey, Oracle."
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Post by Dr. James Hook on Aug 28, 2011 14:01:29 GMT -5
Seeing a Seeker in a medical ward is not an unusual thing for Hook. It happens all the time. Usually the Seekers are bluer than this, and usually the walls are purple, but none of this is particularly out of the ordinary. At her question, Hook snaps, "Fine."
He's not fine.
Then there's Long Haul! Not so long ago, seeing Long Haul wouldn't be unusual, either. Hook does busy himself checking over the parts, and he doesn't think about why this whole scenario is unusual. His thinking has been very.... fuzzy lately. There are many things he doesn't think about. He inquires, optical band narrowing, "Did you notice that not all of the parts I requisitioned are specifically necessary to turn you into a Hitachi DH321 mining dump truck?" This is a quiz, Long Haul. Look alive.
In fact, there are a whole bunch of extraneous parts on Hook's list. Some of them seem to be for a missile launcher, because Hook will be blasted before he lets Long Haul run around without appropriate protection, but the rest of the parts are a bit more.... baffling. The kind of heavy duty load servos that Guardians use? The morphcore from Que's corpse? Metres and metres of high data volume fibre optic cable?
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Oracle
Minor
The future is always in motion.
Posts: 426
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Post by Oracle on Aug 28, 2011 15:42:40 GMT -5
Long Haul is greeted with a smile when he enters with his cart, and his greeting returned. "Hello Long Haul, planning a project?" Oracle is not the least bit surprised to see him, was in fact more surprised to not find him present when she arrived. Still, her winglets flick backward and down slightly, the only visible sign of her loss of tension at a familiar face.
Oracle would also maybe apologize for not being sufficiently blue to suit Hook, but really, she quite likes her colors, and finds herself quite blue enough already thank you.
Other than a slightly doubting tip of her head, she doesn't question Hook's rather snappish statement of his current circumstance. Clearly, whatever his state, fine or not, he did not wish her prying. It also does not take someone of Hook's intelligence to figure out that his question is not intended for her, so other than a slightly amused smile, Oracle continues to keep her silence. Still she has to wonder, a Hitachi DH321 mining dump truck? What?
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Post by Long Haul on Aug 28, 2011 16:43:44 GMT -5
"Yup," Long Haul answers, dipping his head in a nod as Hook asks his question. He looks up and narrows his optic band. "Was wondering if maybe you didn't have some other project planned," he admits.
He looks up at Oracle and shrugs. "Sorta. Getting an Earth mode." He gestures towards the parts. "Not sure what this other stuff is for, though."
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Post by Dr. James Hook on Aug 28, 2011 18:36:10 GMT -5
"Some?" Hook asks, smirking at Long Haul a little. "Many. Why do you think I was brought here, Long Haul?"
Satisfied that Long Haul has procured the correct parts, he walks over to the medical monitors and starts to fiddle with them, bringing up a schematic of Long Haul as he is, a schematic of the Earth-form Long Haul that Hook knew, and a third schematic, which is undeniably Long Haul, especially on the outside, but the internals are a bit...
Why are there all those extra pieces? It looks even more excessive than the schematic of Hook's Earth mode Long Haul, and that Long Haul is a combiner piece. It's like Hook tried to cross Long Haul's insides with a Swiss Army Knife and an automotive factory. This isn't even a normal level of Hook-convoluted, which usually Scrapper would prune down into something more manageable. This is really out there. Long Haul might recognise some elements from Breakaway's reality in the designs.
After a moment of looking over the designs, Hook turns around and tilts his head up to look at Oracle in the optical band. He asks, "What is it that you need? Not a reformat, clearly, and I'm scheduled for Long Haul right now."
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Oracle
Minor
The future is always in motion.
Posts: 426
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Post by Oracle on Aug 28, 2011 19:00:37 GMT -5
Looking over the things on the cart at Long Haul's gesture, Oracle shrugs. Not a mechanic, medic or engineer, is she. The only plans she knows are her own, and that doesn't even mean she would try fixing herself. So the items on the cart other than being familiar in that 'well I've seen that before' don't mean much to her. And now she knows what the Hitachi DH321 mining dump truck comment is about. "That's right, reformats for people that don't already have an Earth suitable mode. Rather glad I won't need to deal with that."
A comment echoed by Hook's statement querying her presence. Her winglets go from the vaguely relaxed position to clamped tight against her wings again. She is most certainly not here for Hook's professional services. Oracle still doesn't let any of the medical staff near her if she can help it other than Botanica or Perceptor. She won't have her remaining secrets spreading any further than that if she can help it, and it was rather grudgingly she had shared her specs with them in the first place.
"I have no current medical need, and if you or Long Haul object to my presence I will go. I did have a reason for being here though, even if I require no action from you to complete it."
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Post by Long Haul on Aug 28, 2011 23:15:34 GMT -5
Long Haul tilts his head, then leans forwards, examining the plans. Then he leans back. Then he tilts his head in the other direction and leans forward again. Finally, he points at the plans. "Why the heck you wanna put all that stuff in me?" he demands.
He glances back at Oracle and shrugs. "I don't got a problem with you being here."
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Post by Dr. James Hook on Aug 28, 2011 23:50:27 GMT -5
"I don't suffer performance anxiety," Hook replies, smirking. Is he arrogant enough to think that someone might want to watch him perform surgery out of boredom? Just maybe! "Just stay out of my way."
Hook gestures up to the third set of plans and explains, "Apparently, in one reality, there were such a thing as 'Scramble City combiners'. Any of the limbs could form a leg or an arm, and teams could swap members between themselves. As you can imagine, this would make fielding combiners on the battlefield a much smoother logistical process. However, it doesn't go far enough," a bold statement, but Hook's not shy. "Why constrain teams to groups of five?" Six is so much better. "Why constrain members to the role of limb or torso? You, Long Haul, will be the first of a new kind of a combiner, a more fluid kind, one that can bind in groups of four to six as needed and can assume whatever role is required by the merge."
Hook shrugs, palms up, and admits, "I'd test it out first on myself, but I don't have a spare pair of hands. The robotic armatures here are... hnn, not to my standards." He rubs one of his temples, thinking about the band swap that he needs. "So, lucky for you! You'll be a pioneer. Also, you need a missile launcher, because just running around with your welder set to 'laser' for self-defence is ridiculous, Long Haul."
Well, that should explain those plans, then!
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Oracle
Minor
The future is always in motion.
Posts: 426
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Post by Oracle on Aug 29, 2011 11:48:14 GMT -5
Good to know you don't suffer performance anxiety Hook.
Who knows when that information might be relevant!
Oracle smiled at Long Haul when he said he didn't have a problem with her being here and settled down hopefully out of the way to listen to the explanation of the extra bits in the plans for him. 'Scramble City combiners' sounded useful but complex to her and her thoughts drifted for a moment to an angry jet she knew was in the same situation as these two.
Thoughts that popped right back as Hook complained about needing extra hands and Long Haul not being armed enough. "He has a point Long Haul." Oracle can't help but pipe up. "You really should have a stronger method of defending yourself." So says the Seeker with no visible weapons, even the ones her model is supposed to have. No, she doesn't see the irony.
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Post by Long Haul on Aug 29, 2011 20:33:17 GMT -5
Long Haul doesn't give much reaction as Hook goes on about his grand vision for the future of combinerdom. Finally, he slips his hand behind his neck to scratch the back of it and grunts.
"Seems t'me being the first of a new breed of anything don't mean much if I need at least three more of that breed to even test the thing out and see if it works," he observes bluntly.
Then he looks at Oracle and narrows his optic band. "I do got a stronger method of defending myself! I call 'em my fists! They're plenty strong!"
Well, and then there's also Omega Supreme...
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Post by Dr. James Hook on Aug 29, 2011 21:15:40 GMT -5
This is why Hook has Long Haul: to poke common sense holes in his grandiose plans. His optical band narrows in irritation, and he insists, "As soon as I'm certain you're sure about the procedures, I am going to have you perform the pieces of the procedure I cannot do myself," which means that Long Haul gets to experience the joy of having Hook back-seating driving while Long Haul tries to do surgery on Hook! "I daresay finding volunteers for the other two shouldn't be difficult."
There are always idiots! Hook doesn't particularly want to share his mind with idiots, but there is engineering to be done. He misses Bonecrusher and Scavenger now, he really does. Scavenger would be just thrilled by how much Hook misses him. It's disgusting.
"Your fists are not a ranged weapon. Have they not taught you to appreciate the value of firepower?" Hook inquires sharply.
He looks over at Oracle, mouth tugged into a frown. Does he remember her? Blue and grey Seekers are a dime a dozen. Blue and grey female Seekers, blue and grey female Seekers with no guns, blue and grey female Seekers with no guns who wear the Autobot badge...
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Oracle
Minor
The future is always in motion.
Posts: 426
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Post by Oracle on Aug 29, 2011 21:54:40 GMT -5
Oracle's head tips to the other side as she regards Long Haul. "I know you're a brawler, but do you honestly think you're better off with your fists than a weapon?" That would be a very odd choice. She doesn't know anyone that would choose to go unarmed in a potentially lethal fight. Clearly her contact with pacifists has been limited.
At Hook's mention of volunteers she looks up at him. "I daresay you might want to see if the others from gestalts are willing. It cannot be easy, being isolated." Yes, she knows this applies to the two with her as much as anyone else, but she's still thinking of Slingshot. She's been keeping an eye on the younger jet for too long not to think of him when something that concerns him this much is going on in front of her.
Hook is looking at her speculatively. This may not be of the good. She's not sure why she's getting that look which makes her a bit nervous, but all she does is tip her chin up a bit before inquiring. "Yes?"
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Post by Long Haul on Aug 30, 2011 21:58:12 GMT -5
Long Haul studies Hook for a moment. Finally, he leans forward and asks, suspiciously, "You'd ever be certain that I'm sure about a procedure?" He reaches towards the Surgical Engineer. "You okay, Hook?"
Either that, or 'As soon as I'm certain you're sure about the procedure' is Hookese for, 'On a cold day in Hell.'
"Well, I got a ranged weapon! Kinda!" He looks at Oracle and shrugs. "I guess it depends on the situation, really." There are plenty of people among the Autobots who go into potentially lethal fights unarmed! At least when it comes to melee battles. Fists are Kup and Rodimus Prime's melee weapons of choice, after all!
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