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Post by Raymond Stantz on Jun 9, 2012 21:43:18 GMT -5
There is a scorpion under the rock.
What was Terrence expecting?
"She shouldn't," Raymond says, shrugging.
Yet in IDW, the good guys use them all the time.
He brushes the sand off a counter, taps at the controls for a holoprojector, and pulls up the schematics.
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on Jun 10, 2012 19:50:36 GMT -5
Terrence was expecting a microphone. A scorpion is just as good though.
Tarantulas carefully and deliberately crushes the scorpion under his shoe. It's the simple things that make life worth living. Things like killing another living creature just to hear its carapace pop and know that it knew suffering, however briefly.
Can normal, non-Transformer arthropods suffer, Tarantulas wonders after the fact? He should perform sophisticated science to test this. Shockwave probably wouldn't approve of the expense, though. Overlord might if he was in charge. Alas.
He wipes the bug guts off his shoe onto the sand, smiling as he walks over to stand beside Pincher and look at the hologram. "He's stocked the lab with dangerous wildlife as well. We should be careful so we don't get bitten. Hm, where did you get these?" he asks, gesturing to the projected schematics.
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Jun 10, 2012 20:05:36 GMT -5
Raymond has a somewhat unsettled look on his face, and he says slowly, deliberately, "That was both unnecessary and cruel." His thumbs close on his forefingers, and while it doesn't make a sound, it just feels like there should be a clicking noise.
He's going to put the next scorpion they find in the lab on his back and carry it around with him. Perhaps Raymond is feeling a bit paternal.
When he speaks next, Terrence may notice that Raymond's dentition has changed. His fangs are out. Raymond doesn't seem to have noticed, though it does change his voice just a tiny bit. "Where they came from is of no consequence at the moment. What we do with them now is. What is this part about a manual control panel to adjust the polarization of sparks...?"
He gestures to one particular part with his fingers closed together.
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on Jun 12, 2012 21:13:20 GMT -5
"All the best cruelty is unnecessary," Tarantulas responds. There's no evil cackle, just his human eyes looking into Pincher's and the flat tones of a man stating something he believes to be true whilst making casual conversation.
"Do you purposely gesture with your hand as though it's a pincer, or is it an unconscious habit?" he asks, rather than answering Raymond's question. It appears they're both having trouble adapting to being human. (Not enough legs.)
He squints at the hologram, tapping the controls to switch the view, zooming in on some circuitry and rubbing his chin. "I don't know why you'd want to reverse the polarity of a spark once you'd extracted it. It'd only make it harder to contain. None of the models I studied ever had anything like that. It was only ever discussed in theory. And then there were the incidents with Starscream's spark . . ."
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Jun 18, 2012 21:45:11 GMT -5
Raymond is about to get into a diatribe about cruelty and consequence when Terrence disarms him with an awkward question. He splays his fingers out separated and mutters, "I only have fingers in one of my three forms. They take some time to become accustomed to using."
Soon, though, he's musing, "Better leave it in. Better to have more functionality than you need than not enough."
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on Jun 24, 2012 7:37:01 GMT -5
Terrence gives Raymond a disgusted look, hands on his hips balled into fists. "I'm used to only having three fingers on each hand, but you don't see me picking things up like I was a Vulcan," he says, making a Live Long and Prosper gesture at Raymond. "Before that I had pincers. Changing forms is part of what makes us superior to other species. Are you a Transformer or aren't you?"
He nods in agreement with Raymond as they switch back to shop talk. "No reason to modify the schematic at this point, though I would like to get a closer look at the power conduits."
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Jul 1, 2012 13:07:57 GMT -5
Raymond bring a finger up to feel along one of his fangs. He has those out again, does he? He says softly, "You are very, very young compared to me. You may brag about your youthful neural plasticity if you wish."
Raymond is going to refrain from mentioning what all he has done with his vastly longer lifespan... no, he's not. His aggression pricks at him and drives him, "For every year you have lived, weapons I have designed have taken several orders of magnitude more lives. Live until the universe reaches heat death, and you will never reach the years I have stolen."
He stalks back into the office area, grabs another Thermos of blood, and chugs it, looking somewhat calmer. It's not that he's hungry, because seriously, that last drink he had should last him several days. It's that he wants to tear out Terrence's throat and watch him bleed on the floor, a twitching wreck gagging on his own blood. Compulsion is a terrible thing.
Raymond grips the edge of the table tightly, fingers splayed, as a certain flush takes his pale skin, and he grits his teeth and tries to continue on with the actual useful part of the conversation, "I think this design was meant to be mass produced. Some of the tooling will need to be changed as a result. K-Tech is not going to be cranking spark extractors out by the thousands."
If it is, don't tell Raymond, Victoria. Raymond already knows Victoria is delicious.
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on Jul 2, 2012 16:55:26 GMT -5
Terrence smiles wickedly. "Oh, I didn't realize it was a contest. Well, you may have a head-start, but I'm sure I can catch up if I really work at it. Besides," he adds, following with his eyes as the other 'man' moves to get a drink, "you may have killed more people, but I bet I've enjoyed it more." He's definitely going to have to start spiking the blood with various additives and observing the effects. Of course, he can't control when Raymond drinks them, or observe him 24/7, so it's not really good science. Should still be fun though.
"The tooling changes should be minor," he says, waving dismissively, scrolling the blueprints to look at the extraction claw assembly.
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Jul 14, 2012 12:43:53 GMT -5
If Terrance starts spiking Raymond's drinks, Raymond will need to make Terrence some candles.
Perfectly normal scented candles.
It'll be fun watching Terrence try to figure out what's wrong with the candles.
"It takes true dedication to do something you don't enjoy," Raymond observes, and he pulls out a light pen to scribble down some notes on the hologram.
OOC: Fade out on general science bickering or timeskip to passive-aggressive science?
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on Jul 16, 2012 15:50:41 GMT -5
OOC: Timeskip!
"This interface is ridiculous," Terrence says, some time later, jabbing a finger at a holographic mock-up. "There's no reason you need to be able to adjust the frequency, just have it it autodetect and autotune. We've more than got the power for the function in the budget."
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Aug 8, 2012 20:52:43 GMT -5
"Never remove functionality!" Raymond argues. By now, Terrence has probably picked up on that Raymond is by nature a fairly passive, humble, gentle person... who has these inexplicable, sudden moments where he seems like he will seriously murder someone. Then again, Raymond did warn Terrence about that. There seems to be a weak correlation with how hungry he is and his level of aggression.
"But we'll add in the autotune function. No reason we can't have both."
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on Aug 9, 2012 18:42:34 GMT -5
"What do you mean 'never remove functionality?' That's ridiculous! We should remove any functionality we don't need to make a more efficient, streamlined device. Always assume the end user is dumber than you, and you'll usually be right. More buttons just confuse people," Terrence insists.
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Aug 11, 2012 22:03:45 GMT -5
"I was assuming you were the end user," Raymond says pointedly.
Burn.
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on Aug 13, 2012 19:49:01 GMT -5
Tarantulas gives Pincher a look that borders on pitying. If he thinks anyone other than Shockwave or Shockwave By Proxy is the end user for this device, then he has another thing come. (And Tarantulas does hope he's smarter than Shox, because at least in his mind, his continued survival depends on it.)
All he says aloud is "Clever. Either way, I'd say we're ready to start manufacturing."
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Aug 14, 2012 19:17:43 GMT -5
"We do not even know if it works, and you want to move to manufacturing?" Raymond asks, one eyebrow raised.
"I was going to suggest we move to simulated testing."
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