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Post by Raymond Stantz on Oct 9, 2011 18:46:17 GMT -5
Earth, Month 2, Week 3, Day 1, semi-private, starts in Mountain View, California, will change locations shortly
Pincher fiddles with his cufflinks. The cufflinks have little Autobot symbols on them. His suit and tie are black, his shirt is white, and the overall look perhaps MIB-ish, given the polished back shoes and the ominous black shades. Pincher didn't pick out his outfit. Someone else decided to dress the alien like a stereotypical alien hunter, doubtless with good intentions.
At length, he comments, "I do not think it is normal for humans to drive car carriers. You, s... uh, are the only one I have seen on the roads thus far. Perhaps car carriers are a persecuted subgroup?"
Pincher looks out the passenger-side window, as sitting in the driver's seat would probably be rude, and he reads off the numbers on different buildings, muttering, "Why can't they just install little wireless transmitters in everything?" Then his eyes light up behind the shades when he spies the number for which they are looking, "Oh, oh, we're here, s... er. Oh my. Is there even going to be room for you in the parking lot?" He makes a sort of box gesture with his hands. "All of the designated spots indicated by the white paint demarcations upon the asphalt appear to be for smaller vehicles, perhaps evidence for some bias against larger machines?"
There is definitely no giant robot scorpion parking.
OOC: Ultra Magnus posed with permission. Depending on whether or not they want to be here right now or want to show up later, Perceptor in microscope mode probably fits inside Ultra Magnus and Guzzle probably fits on the car carrier racks, because there is nothing weird at all about a civilian car carrier hauling around a small tank. However, Guzzle and/or Perceptor can show up later if they want, after a scene jump to the small away shuttle.
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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 Oct 9, 2011 20:00:51 GMT -5
Ultra Magnus has quietly endured the nervous babble during this road trip; the frequent comments on discrimination and exclusion baffle him, though. Is this really how his passenger thinks all the time? He slows when Pincher announces that they've reached their destination and his sigh sounds suspiciously like the air brakes hissing.
"Humans drive most of the vehicles on this planet, as I understand it," he says through his console, gauges flickering in time with his words. "There are only a few exceptions, most of those operated remotely in larger cities, and I'm not sure my weight class is among them." He holds no real fondness for the world of the humans, but he holds no real enmity either and he still made certain he read up on local traffic laws. He thinks many of the situations that brought some of the laws into being could be avoided with automated traffic control systems and he does find himself wondering as he stops and idles just why such a thing hasn't yet been implemented. "Most places in the cities, however," he adds, "don't accommodate vehicles of my size, either."
That's what truck stops are for, he has learned. This… isn't a truck stop, unfortunately.
"I don't suppose they'll mind if I just park at the curb," Magnus rumbles. Of course, he's parking here whether they mind or not, because there's really nowhere else he can reasonably fit himself.
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Post by Gertrude Huldon/Guzzle on Oct 16, 2011 8:22:51 GMT -5
At least Ultra Magnus' other passenger has been keeping quiet. The four wheeled tank pays no real attention to what's going on in that cab and instead uses his sensors to 'look' at his environment. It's rare to come across a relatively technologically advanced planet that hasn't yet build layers upon layers over every square inch, unless the planet itself is hostile. Guzzle hopes they speed it up a bit. This is far too dull, not to mention that he doesn't like how open everything is.
Then, finally, they stop, but Guzzle doesn't transform yet. He pretends to be an innocent wheeled tank a bit longer, though he does scan the environment for any potential threats. Being just a little paranoid never hurt anyone. Well, not him, in any case. //Clear.//
__________________
Piggy backing done with player permission. If Magnus needs to transform, you have permission to pose Guzzle rolling off the ramp in tank mode.
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Oct 18, 2011 20:59:24 GMT -5
//Clear?// Pincher sounds rather befuddled. //Oh, you mean to say that you have not reconnoitred any threats, yes? Uhm.// Pincher wasn't really expecting any threats in a SETI parking lot! ...he is terribly naïve. Well, that was thoughtful of Guzzle, anyway. //Thank you.//
He fumbles with the latch and unbelts himself somewhat clumsily. Pincher is a laboratory shut-in. He has no reason to go anywhere, most of the time, and a seat belt really isn't much like the crash webbing that the troop transports had during the war, and the war has been over for...
A surge of anger pains him. The war's not over. If they're right. Not just in this strange new dimension. The war's not over back home. He was just blind to it. If they're right. His thumbs click against his forefingers, and he reaches for the door and lets himself out, nearly falling flat on his face. From the curb, he suggests, "Perhaps you ought not step on the curb, if you transform. I think the... asphalt, I believe it is called, is a bit more resilient in terms of fracture resistance and will better support your weight." He stands, dusts off his klutzy self, looks in one of Ultra Magnus's mirrors, straightens his tie, and enters the building.
Any real humans here will probably be able to tell that there's something... off about Pincher. A reasonable assumption would be that Pincher is foreign... or mentally ill... or on drugs... or quite likely all three. They must get their share of kooks there, don't they? But there's something almost uncanny valley about him, if someone really takes more than a second look at him, something that deep in the reptile brainstem of humanity, softly whispers that Pincher is wrong. His body-language is nothing of woman born; his smell, however faint, is nothing of this world.
But the tendency for human self-delusion is strong. Without the comforts of what one assumes is reality, what is really reality might drive one insane. He looks human at first glance. First glance is all it takes to fool most people, and he'll learn and get better the longer he observes humans.
It's easier to just assume he must be on drugs.
Stranger in a strange land, he looks for something that might be a receptionist, and having found it, he starts hesitantly, "I am to deliver, ah, a message? More of an apology, really... from, uhm, the Autobots. And the Maximals, too." Oh, for the love of little hydrogen atoms, why did they even send him? The Maximals would fit inside the building, and they have to be better spoken than he is. Yes, Pincher thinks that Seaspinner would be a better diplomat than he is. That is the extent of his self-deprecation.
Pincher pulls a holo-cube out of subspace, a trick he doesn't think anything of. There's no room in his pockets or anywhere in his outfit, for that matter, for the holo-cube, unless he's a master magician. He finishes, "There are some odd energy readings on the moon your people have called Titan." As he speaks, the holo-cube pulls up a picture of the solar system as designed by a people whose first experience with it was seeing it from the outside as opposed to making observations from Earth. Then it zooms in on Titan, to a picture that is rather clearer than anything Earth probes have ever managed. "We also have reason to believe there is intelligent life there, which is... what you search for here, yes?" He pauses. "If you'd like to visit, you may come with us while we examine the energy readings. It may be dangerous, though we do not estimate it will take any longer than a day. A short trip."
Total kook, right?
Kook with a holo-cube.
Apple's not supposed to have those on the market until ten years from now.
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Post by Drift on Oct 19, 2011 20:37:44 GMT -5
Drift rolls toward the rendezvous point torn between apprehension and the old stir of excitement. Which...he wasn't sure was a good thing to be feeling. In a way he wanted something to happen, something that needed him and the very, very little he could actually do.
It had been good to get out of the ship, the endless cycles of training, recharge. Resting up...for no real purpose. He'd begun to feel like a fifth wheel, useless, and all of his inadequacies--lack of education, lack of ability to do anything but kill--had begun to weigh on him.
Earth was pretty, but he found he couldn't shake the old habit of viewing all terrain as battlefields. Human cities, that Hooverdam place everything just seemed a place where a battle could be, or should be. High ground, cover, concealment. It was like he was seeing an entirely different Earth than the one Perceptor was regaling him with.
And maybe the two different Earths would come together here, now, exploring these strange readings. He catches sight of the others, aware that his white armor was possibly even more visible in the bright sun.
((ooc: bookmarks are still abjectly failing--could someone ping me when my turn comes if I miss it? I don't want to hold things up because the interwebz hate me))
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Post by Perceptor on Oct 19, 2011 20:47:39 GMT -5
"Perfect," Perceptor observes cheerfully from where he is tucked up in his mass-shifted microscope mode in Drift's front passenger seat. "There is Ultra Magnus and Guzzle. Pincher must be inside already. Very good."
It's been rather... fun, actually, spending these last two days exploring this version of Earth. Perceptor has never really had the opportunity to play tour guide before, and being able to explore with Drift has been freeing - for both of them, he thinks - as well as educational.
"Of course, there is no real guarantee that any of the human scientists will wish to accompany us to Titan, although, I would be surprised if there were not at least a few who would not leap at such an opportunity, since their level of space exploration is significantly diminished than the Earth I am accustomed to. We should know shortly."
"Greetings Ultra Magnus, Guzzle, Pincher," he calls, adding an echo across the very short-distance broadband. "I trust that you had no difficulties?"
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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 Oct 19, 2011 22:19:24 GMT -5
Ultra Magnus is perfectly content to sit here in his alternate mode for now. He isn't obstructing traffic too badly and he can't fit inside the building, so he sees no point in transforming. He'll only be a bigger distraction that way than he already is as a car carrier toting only an armoured vehicle. Guzzle is free to roll off and stretch his legs if he likes, however.
"Heavy traffic," he answers. "Otherwise, nothing of note." And then he falls silent to wait on Pincher's report.
OOC: Skippable.
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Fleetwind
Major
The Chancellor, His Eminent Grandeur, Marquis Fleetwind. The Insurgent Subduer of A Non-Threatening Cute Little Furry Kitten
Twined Elf
Posts: 730
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Post by Fleetwind on Oct 19, 2011 22:44:13 GMT -5
Ten years? Five years until the iHolo, tops! This is, after all, the future, and humans were already developing the early forms of holotech by the good old days of the twenty-teens!
There is a pretty blonde woman in blue and silver having an amiable break-time chat with the receptionist when Pincher approaches. At first she looks over at him with idle interest, then her eyes widen as he mentions the Autobots and the Maximals, and she straightens up, focusing her full attention on him. Her mouth opens when he says something about life on Titan. "What?!" she exclaims, shocked.
"Wait.. you just.. popped down here for a visit, to... take us to another planet? Inside our solar system? With intelligent life on it?" She peers closer, brow furrowing as she takes in the... oddness. "Who... are you?"
Yes, she is looking a gift horse in the mouth, because gift horses like this are liable to be from Troy, but if this is for real...
Carly Witwicky is so there!
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Post by Gertrude Huldon/Guzzle on Oct 22, 2011 17:29:19 GMT -5
Guzzle doesn't want to attract any attention. Attention's never good. Though this does mean that he is pretty much stuck when Drift shows up. Great. The Wrecker was impressed by his sword skills during the Reaver incident, but he still doesn't exactly have much love to spare for the sword wielder. When Perceptor greets them he just sends out a grunt over the shortband as a response before he returns to observing their surroundings.
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Oct 25, 2011 19:01:50 GMT -5
//Only with parking, sir. I am worried that perhaps the humans have something against the more heavy duty vehicles?// Pincher answers Perceptor, sounding nervous as a cheerleader at a volcanic sacrifice.
Look, this is nerve-wracking for Pincher. There's Perceptor, only it's not his Perceptor here, a mental giant who deserves to have his own deep thought space station all to himself, and there's Ultra Magnus, who is his Ultra Magnus, and... augh.
Pincher's going to make himself look like an idiot in front of both of them and in front of this human he's talking to, too, he is positive.
For one thing, he's talking to a human. English feels funny on his tongue. The shapes are unfamiliar, and it's all so slow, and he doesn't normally even use his tongue for anything. His shell was an experimental novelty. He never expected to get practical use out of it!
"Yes? Titan is just a moon, though. Not a planet." Pincher answers Carly somewhat hesitantly, taking a step back from her. "I am Pincher. I think that is how it would translate; that is what I put down on the forms, anyway, it sounded better than Étau... Uhm, I have my paperwork here..." It just appears in his hand, all the paperwork and rigmarole the USA had him fill out such that he can pop in, wander around, and hunt Shockwaves. He doesn't go to a pocket or anything. He leaves all the paperwork for all the other semi-friendly countries in subspace, though.
//Uhm, well, I haven't been laughed at yet, sir?//
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Post by Drift on Oct 26, 2011 19:25:36 GMT -5
[ ]
He rolls up after Perceptor, letting the other move ahead of him. He suspects--especially after Guzzle's greeting--that he's not really that welcome here, and does his best to keep a low profile. Well, as low as can be managed with his deco.
He pushes to his alt mode, turning to survey the perimeter before giving a small nod at the others.
((skippable--no one's really talking to him! orz))
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Post by Perceptor on Oct 26, 2011 19:46:24 GMT -5
Unfortunately for Ultra Magnus and Guzzle's peace of mind, Perceptor has given no thought to attracting attention or not. He and Drift have already been traipsing about the US, transforming whenever they wished to, and so, he doesn't even hesitate in doing so now.
So, now SETI has a brightly painted car carrier, carrying an armored vehicle, with two giant robots standing next to the cab. If Carly can see outside from her position? She should be getting a serious eye-full.
"Yes, however, heavy traffic here tends to lack the sudden introduction of inbound heavy ordinance," Perceptor replies to Ultra Magnus with a grin. He would have omitted the "tends", however, there is always Los Angeles.
Guzzle's non-response is noted, though, and Perceptor sighs. Still no love lost between the Wrecker and Drift, obviously. Drift, however, has refrained from verbally lashing out at that, which earns the Knight a smile of gratitude, and, if Drift is close enough, a brush of fingertips against his arm or hip as a small indication of appreciation.
Back to the short-range broadband, Perceptor replies, // Not so much a prejudice, Pincher. Merely that the average human, particularly the type who would work at this location, would not favor the larger vehicles such as the type which Ultra Magnus has emulated, purely out of a desire for efficiency and space. The larger vehicles tend to be utilized here for the transport of cargo, rather than individual transport, hence the apparent bias. //
// And I have every confidence in you, Pincher. If they do, ultimately, choose to laugh and disbelieve your information, it will not be due to anything you have or have not done, but their own immaturity as a species. //
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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 Oct 27, 2011 10:21:09 GMT -5
It isn't peace of mind Magnus is concerned about; he has no peace of mind. His worry is being the distraction that leads to vehicle crashes because, as he's noticed along the drive here, humans tend to be distracted very easily even while operating heavy machinery at potentially fatal travelling speeds. Guzzle on his carrier deck earned more than enough wide-eyed, fascinated stares to make Magnus feel it's a valid issue.
//Heavy artillery and you standing there gawking in the bright of day might have a similar effect,// Magnus says grimly. His front wheels turn enough to pantomime a sidelong glance. //I'm sure I'd take up less space on two feet than eighteen wheels, but I don't want a bunch of distracted driver incidents on my shoulders.// He carries enough burden there already. To Pincher, he adds, //I'll take laughter over gunfire, honestly. These humans have every right to run us off with force if they decide it's necessary.//
…Perhaps Magnus should refrain from further pep talks.
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Fleetwind
Major
The Chancellor, His Eminent Grandeur, Marquis Fleetwind. The Insurgent Subduer of A Non-Threatening Cute Little Furry Kitten
Twined Elf
Posts: 730
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Post by Fleetwind on Oct 28, 2011 14:42:14 GMT -5
"Well, yes," Carly agrees, giving Pincher an amused grin as she accepts the paperwork and looks over it. "But a moon around another planet. As in, not our moon. Not that there's anything wrong with our moon, it's a great place to visit, and not only would I want to live there, I did, but... and intelligent life? On another moon in our solar system? Oh my gosh!"
It looks like the paperwork checks out. These guys seem to be who they say they are. And they are offering her a trip to Titan to meet intelligent natives. She contemplates this a moment, realizing, "Spike is going to be so upset he missed this," she observes seriously. Then she breaks into a wide grin. "Good. He deserves it!" Sure, it wasn't really his fault that the alien robots spent the day with him as soon as they arrived, but to Carly's mind, that doesn't excuse the matter.
She looks up at Pincher. "So.. Pincher... anyway, my name's Carly. Carly Witwicky," she probably should have introduced herself earlier. "How many will you be taking with you? When are we leaving?" If it's too soon, there will really only be time to grab one or two others who happen to be in at the moment, and it's not like they can leave Seti unmanned.
Wait, isn't Chip Chase supposed to be in today?
As she's still inside, she's yet to see the robots outside, but that will come soon enough.
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Post by Gertrude Huldon/Guzzle on Oct 29, 2011 21:51:06 GMT -5
What did Perceptor sigh at? His lack of a response? Guzzle suspects it is, and a low, discontent grumbling sound briefly escapes. Drift may feel unwelcome, and Perceptor may be disappointed, and it is true that Guzzle doesn't like the knight. But they need to keep in mind that Guzzle is, much like Drift himself, not a nice and socially well adapted Autobot. Even if he liked the white knight, he would still have given him just a grunt or a snort! Drift is a mech of few words himself, he of all people should realize that.
Guzzle doesn't move. Really, he'd prefer it if the humans believed there were as few Autobots as possible here. Since they arrived separately, that may be believable still. So he keeps surveying their surroundings, wishing Pincher would hurry up and come back already. It's...Awkward...To travel with the robot scorpion, but he'd rather be on the move than be a sitting duck.
Inside the building, an elevator at the far end of the lobby pings. As soon as the doors have opened wide enough, a particularly bright looking young man comes out, with an almost childish awe in his brilliant bespectacled eyes. He tries to act professionally as he approaches them, to not let a wide grin overtake his face, but he's fighting a losing battle. "Miss Witwicky. Carly. You will not believe what's outside. Robots. From space. Space robots. In our parking lot."
And just to make things more confusing for poor Pincher: This human appears to be in a chair with wheels.
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