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Post by Raymond Stantz on Oct 30, 2011 21:01:13 GMT -5
Pincher suspects that Perceptor's confidence is misplaced, but he does not say so.
Ultra Magnus's comment, however, does not sit well with Pincher. 'I'll take laughter over gunfire, honestly. These humans have every right to run us off with force if they decide it's necessary.' He is not sure that is true. Certainly, if humans had arrived on Cybertron to look for an escaped war criminal, and the Council and Shockwave had decided to simply shoot all of the human visitors for their trouble, Pincher does not think that would have been right, just because his leaders decided it was necessary for whatever reason. In fact... //...necessary and right often have little to do with each other.//
He shouldn't say any more, though, he really shouldn't. That is his Ultra Magnus there, and he has already made a fool of himself before.
The human is showing her dental plating. Is that a good thing? Pincher debates saying that of course Titan is around another planet because moving Titan to be around Earth would take a lot of energy, but he becomes lost in confusion as Carly starts talking about Spikes and... whatever. He does, however, inquire, "Witwicky? Are you of the same design-line as the Ambassador?"
Pincher is probably picturing a Witwicky factory that rolls out Witwickies.
"Uhm. Apologies if that is impolite. Nevermind. We do need to leave within the hour. We apologise for not sending notice sooner, but if we sent notice sooner or left later, the Decepticons and Predacons would have had more chance to notice." He manages an approximation of a frown, though he's more used to chelicerae.
Then he studies the human with wheels. "Ah. Optimised for flat surfaces?"
Maybe this is why humans seem so interested in paving so much of their planet: to provide more flat surfaces for wheeled model humans.
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Post by Perceptor on Nov 1, 2011 20:37:20 GMT -5
Perceptor doesn't give much thought to the concept of becoming a traffic hazard to an adjacent road, purely because he's from an Earth where they had already spent two decades accustoming the humans there to Autobot presence. He keeps forgetting that this is not his Earth. Giant space robots have not been a novelty for his Earth for many years.
"Oh," he replies to Ultra Magnus, pausing to stare down at himself with a bit of embarrassment. "Ah... Rather late for that, now. Eh-heh." He shuffles closer to Drift, as if doing that will minimize his Giant Robotness or something.
//Justice and "right" often have little to do with each other, Pincher, // he muses with a faint shrug that Pincher cannot even see. // We still muddle through as best we can, though. //
The amusing thing for Perceptor will be trying hard not to give himself away if and/or when he recognizes Chip Chase and Carly.
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Fleetwind
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The Chancellor, His Eminent Grandeur, Marquis Fleetwind. The Insurgent Subduer of A Non-Threatening Cute Little Furry Kitten
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Post by Fleetwind on Nov 3, 2011 21:27:18 GMT -5
"Chip!" Carly exclaims cheerfully, rushing over towards him, her own expression broken into a goofy smile. "I'd believe it, because we have a space robot in our lobby." She gestures towards Pincher, then looks back at him and adds, "Er, even if he doesn't look much like one right now." She turns and hands Chip the paperwork, so he can verify for himself. "They want to apologize for heading to the UN first by offering to take us to visit Titan. You know, Saturn's moon? That Titan?" Her eyes go round. "They say there's intelligent life on it! But we have to go, like, now!"
She looks back at Pincher and shakes her head. "Not, erm, exactly. His legs... don't work as well as most people's, so he usually uses a wheel chair to get around." The 'don't work as well' doesn't mean they don't work at all, which might explain some instances where he's seen standing - not everyone who uses a wheel chair has no use of their legs at all.
Or he's just lazy. Take your pick.
Then she grins. "And Spike... erm, Ambassador Witwicky is my husband." A beat, and then she realizes something. "Wait a minute. Parking lot? I've got to see this!" And then she hurries over to one of the windows to peer out, her eyes wide.
Goodness! So much going on, so much she wants to focus on all at once, and Carly always was a bit on the... energetic side.
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Ultra Magnus
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Nov 6, 2011 10:25:39 GMT -5
OOC: Skipping Guzzle due to timeout.
Carly's roving eyes will spy, beyond the cars that no doubt normally pepper the SETI lot, beside Perceptor and companion, a car carrier with a trailer that looks conspicuously bulkier than the Terran equivalent, hitched up to a near-antique Freightliner COE tractor painted in gleaming white. On the carrier trailer is an armoured vehicle the likes of which is rarely, if ever, seen in such a situation or place.
That big old Freightliner makes a displeased rumble, all engine, that probably can't be heard indoors across the lot, and turns his wheels forward again.
"I suppose it is," he says in a stony, iron-flat tone, dash panel and headlamps flickering – the latter Carly might be able to see from her window, though the sequence resembles no code so much as it does a wiring dysfunction – before he goes silent again.
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Post by Gertrude Huldon/Guzzle on Nov 6, 2011 15:05:37 GMT -5
Even in such an excited state of mind, it does not escape Chip's notice that this man is a bit weird! Mostly because he asks him if he's optimized for flat surfaces. Chip looks at him with a bewildered face before it hits him, his smile returning in full force, fingers snapping in an 'eureka!' gesture, even as Carly introduces him. "Wow! I didn't even know- That's fantastic! A little bit terrifying, but mostly fantastic! Chip Chase, pleased to make your acquaintance!"
He'd give Pincher a hand, but Carly gives him something far more interesting! His mind is nearly blown at what she says, gawking at her before he looks down at the paper, wasting no time with reading through them. He doesn't even look up when his collague explains his condition. He does grin widely, but it's more likely that it's over the whole 'intelligent life on Titan AND THEY'RE GOING THERE' thing. "Wow. I always suspected it, but figured that Europa was far more likely! This is...This is..."
He tries to find the words, but simply can't. So instead, he puts the papers away and rolls over to Pincher so that he can firmly grasp and shake his hand, and there is a special look on his face. One of wonder, intrigue, gratitude. "Thank you. Thank you so much for this fantastic opportunity. But it will be difficult to leave as soon as you ask of us. But I won't let that stop us, so I will contact the board immediately, pull some strings, call in every favor that I'm owed, and I promise you that we will be ready within the hour." ______________________________
Handshaking done with player permission.
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Nov 7, 2011 15:11:22 GMT -5
Pincher nods and looks faintly embarrassed when Carly says that Chip's legs don't work that well. Oh, yes, Transformers have problems like that sometimes, too, like not being waterproof and rusting really easily or being allergic to energon or whatnot. Given that Transformer medics have not figured out how to fix such conditions yet, Pincher is just going to assume that human medics are in the same boat with regards to Chip's legs.
Then he looks concerned when Chip says that Pincher is a little terrifying. Yeah... Pincher is never going to transform around a human now. He frowns and mumbles, "I thought it was a reasonable phenotype match..." not understanding that the scary thing is that the robots can wander around looking humans.
His handshake is odd. He seems to have no idea what he's doing with his fingers, lumping them together as if they were one half of a claw and his thumb the other. Everything else, like temperature and texture seems normal enough.
Pincher blinks twice at the mention of Europa and murmurs, "Europa? Uhm, I am fairly sure that Io has life, but it is sort of..." Pincher respects all life! So he's not sure how he wants to put this. "...somewhat hazardous."
There, that is a nice way to put 'infested with insane bats that transforms into missiles'.
OOC: Timeskip to landing on Titan on my next post, perhaps? Complete with cool commercial bumpers? I am going to assume that the Autobots have spacesuits suitable for humans along with them. However, in S3, Marissa wanders around on Titan without a spacesuit, which is.... cracky and implies that Titan has an Earth-like atmosphere and temperature and no diseases that can seriously endanger a human. So I will leave it up to the players of the humans if they want spacesuits or not. The Autobots will have supplied some small, discreet translators, however, so that the characters can talk to the Titans without trouble.
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Fleetwind
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The Chancellor, His Eminent Grandeur, Marquis Fleetwind. The Insurgent Subduer of A Non-Threatening Cute Little Furry Kitten
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Post by Fleetwind on Nov 9, 2011 21:27:42 GMT -5
OOC: Skipping Perceptor due to time-out. Also timeskipping right to the shuttle right.
Preparations have been made, and almost before they knew it, Carly and Chip are on their way to Titan. On the shuttle ride over, Carly can barely contain her excitement and, since there's artificial gravity, she doesn't bother. She's up and about, practically bouncing around the Autobot shuttle, peering at viewscreens, inspecting technologies... and when allowed, examining the robots as closely as they'll let her. "I really can not thank you enough for this," she babbles excitedly at one point as she starts to get in her space suit - it's a pretty form fitting thing with a helmet, probably an appropriately retro-future bubble-helmet. "Titan... intelligent life on /Titan/. With alien robots! It's just... incredible! And I've dealt with space pirates on the moon!"
Obviously Carly, at least, has forgiven the Autobots for talking to the UN first.
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Post by Gertrude Huldon/Guzzle on Nov 11, 2011 15:37:54 GMT -5
Chip isn't a stranger to weightlessness. With his career, he's experienced it several times. But he never, ever tires of it, especially not when they are in space heading to Titan! He's currently hovering in front of a console, studying both it and the screen closely. It is a bit troublesome for him to operate an interface this large, so it's a good thing that there is a tall red, blue and white robot behind him to not only help him, but also to geek out talk science and computers with! "...Ohhh, so it uses an alpha-zeta type 5 pattern for these set of calculations in the OS, not type 6? Fascinating! But there is a lot of memory usage that goes to waste, it probably could be tuned down with a variant where the output is brought down with 0.6%."
Guzzle, for his part, his sitting in the Minibot sized seat, arms folded, but looking at the excited human woman nearby. He stays silent, and he will never admit this, but he smiles just a little at the excitement she's showing. Space travel has become so routine for all of them that he forgot what it was like to fly out that first time. _________________
Perceptor posed with permission.
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Nov 13, 2011 0:18:35 GMT -5
Pincher has been quiet most of the trip, reviewing his notes. He would like to engage in the chatter, but well... he would only embarrass himself, he is certain. Better to let the others handle social interactions.
From the windows, Titan looms large, a... blue moon. It doesn't really look much like the images that the humans may have managed to procure for themselves, though Saturn certainly looks correct, as do the other moons! Could it be that the humans just managed to photograph it on days when it was feeling yellow?
Pincher gets up to check some energy readings, which is why they're here, and he frowns to himself, a slight, unexpressive motion. Yes, well, they obviously need to get closer, and the shuttle does, skimming into the atmosphere and then down lower, over... significant blue forests. There are also windswept rockscapes, also blue, and deep cracks and crevasses filled with something... that crackles and sparkles like lightning.
And then, with a whump, the shuttle is on the ground, and the ramp opens. Pincher doesn't both with a suit of any sort for himself. There's nothing here that will hurt him unless he goes out looking for poison or other trouble, and there's nothing on him that will hurt this planet... unless it tries to eat him.
OOC: I think we should set the shuttle down on some crumbly rocks, so as soon as the Autobots are out of sight, the ground starts to collapse to tip the shuttle into a valley, such that they will have a problem on hand when they return to their shuttle. :v
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Nov 13, 2011 23:55:18 GMT -5
It's possible that the humans and Perceptor are the only social creatures aboard the shuttle. Magnus certainly has no idea what to say and nothing to contribute to the babble passing between Perceptor and the wheeled one. Chip, he'd introduced himself? He does give the female – Carly – a quizzical look when she takes her turn looking him over. He doesn't try to stop her, however.
Truth be told, this is the first time he has been in close proximity to any humans; before this, he'd only been to Earth once, briefly, and stayed outside city limits the entire time. He defended humans then because he didn't want them caught up in the crossfire. To this day, he doesn't know what possessed Blitzwing to try using them as leverage. They're so much like the Nebulans that he's half-afraid of moving in any way but to turn his head with Carly so immediately nearby. The little organics tend to be very fragile, he recalls, and he doesn't want to accidentally harm her.
"…How much longer?" he asks, looking up to the viewscreens. He tries not to sound tense.
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Fleetwind
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Post by Fleetwind on Nov 15, 2011 20:56:38 GMT -5
"Yeah, but couldn't you use the Arkeville-Von Furstwartz to help deal with that?" Carly asks, overhearing Chip's last comment as she locks her little helmet into place and momentarily switching from 'bubbly blonde' to 'computer scientist' mode. "I mean, sure that wouldn't get it down that low, but it'll get you into the right ballpark at least!"
Then she rushes to the viewscreen, eyes wide as the skim over the... "Forests!" she exclaims, eyes wide. "They've got forests!" She grins wide at the others, Autobot and human alike, and again claps her hands together, clearly back in 'blonde' mode. As the shuttle settles down with a whump, she starts to rush for the shuttle exit, then hesitates, looking back at the Autobots to make sure that's all right.
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Post by Perceptor on Nov 18, 2011 21:46:29 GMT -5
The irony is that Pincher is leaving being social to Perceptor. Oh, if just about anyone from Perceptor's past could be privy to that thought, then Pincher would see - and hear - real laughter.
It only happens to be working this time because he has two rather inquisitive humans to Talk Science with, even if he has to constantly remind himself to not behave in too familiar a manner toward Chip and Carly.
"An interesting postulate," he replies, considering Chip's comments. "Perhaps-- Wait, did you say 'Arkeville'?" Wonderful. That crackpot mad scientist exists here, too. He should have guessed. Oh, but how he hopes that Dr. Arkeville is not the same person Perceptor is familiar with.
And that he does not meet up with Oil Slick in any case.
"One moment, please, C- Mrs. Witwicky," he cautions. There's no total guarantee that this Titan will be as the last Titan he'd explored, however, he does not want to take that chance. His armor can easily withstand the arrows of the natives, if it is, indeed, the same, however, the humans' suits are not so durable. "Please allow one of us, "and by "us", he means Guzzle or Drift or Magnus, really, "to ensure that the area is safe for you?"
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Post by Drift on Nov 18, 2011 21:56:50 GMT -5
Drift LIVES has spent the ride trying to be as quiet and unassuming as possible. With a flashy white and red paint job and a sword larger than the humans, he possibly hadn't succeeded that well, but, A for effort?
He couldn't follow the science talk, so he'd spent the trip lost in thought. How different this trip was than anything he'd done with the Decepticons. There was a tense silence, hostility bubbling under ever movement. Here, laughter and conversation. It was an alien world to him in here. He didn't need to go to Titan to be out of his element.
Drift had been by the exit. He doesn't wait to argue it out. Something to do. More precisely, something he actually could do. He slipped his short blades from their scabbards.
"I'll go." If anyone wants to come with him, they're welcome, but he takes point.
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Post by Gertrude Huldon/Guzzle on Nov 19, 2011 18:56:19 GMT -5
"Arkeville is a brilliant man, but I am not sure his theories would apply to this field, Carly. Not when he is still trying to perfect the formulas and codes for works on this level, unlike his type 5 work. It might overload the systems, or cause glitches that could have averse long term effects!" It's probably for the best that Perceptor did not inquire about Arkeville's mad scientist tendencies. Or things would have gotten rather awkward.
He's about to further divulge in techno-babbling when he hears Carly squeeing. And when Carly squees, good things are afoot, as experience taught him. He turns his head and gasps at the sight that greets them, absolutely stunned. "H-how is this possible? But...Of course! It's so obvious now!" Chip needs no special suit of armor. All he needs is his spacesuit and the transport he's currently climbing into: A wheelchair with off-road wheels. Moon buggies are for chumps!
Guzzle peeks up at the suggestion, quirking an optic ridge, before grumbling as he stands up and wanders towards the exit, cocking the Judge. "I'll try not to make first contact. It would just end with a bullet in the face. Like last time."
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Nov 19, 2011 23:14:09 GMT -5
Pincher feels a flash of irritation at all of the... nancing over who is going to be first out the door or not. Then, cynically, he wonder if the irritation is really his, or if it just the extra aggression coding that these people say is Shockwave's work. He brings up his hand to the bridge of his nose, and he pinches it.
He holds his tongue. It is not his place to speak. His betters are here. They can decide what they're doing. He fiddles listlessly with some scientific equipment and reviews what he needs to do. Find the Titans. Let the humans talk to them. Find the weird energy signature. Do something about it. Take the humans home. Go back to the ship, which is not home. Continue to be a laboratory shut-in.
Yes, that sounds about right.
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