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Post by Swerve on Sept 12, 2009 21:12:54 GMT -5
Day 33, concurrent with Bartenders and Guinea Pigs. Open thread.
With a little help from the files Perceptor sent him, Swerve has been busy setting up a program in the sim room. It's taken him a while – he's dabbled in them once or twice before abandoning them, but coding and programming aren't his fields of expertise – but finally, setup is complete. He's hardly stopped tweaking until now and he'll probably do more tweaking as time goes by, but for now, he's satisfied. He fires up the program and for an instant after the dusty orange sands appear and the ceiling becomes a bright orange sky and the wind hits his face with a hot, gritty smack, he thinks he could really believe this fake.
But ultimately, it's still a fake. The sand hitting his plating is fake; the sky is fake; the wind is fake. The black ribbons of highway that cut across the landscape, the criss-crossing overpasses and bridges and the elevated roadways… none of it's really there. It's good enough to fool his sensors, but not his spark. It isn't home.
"Something's better than nothing," he says finally, eyeing the first stretch of road before him. He'll settle for a lie just this once, and he transforms, starting off slow to test the feel of imaginary roads under his tires. It's off; he knows the asphalt isn't real, but it feels like it's there. He could get lost in this lie. It's dangerous.
Swerve snorts, then laughs, and he opens the accelerator wide. It feels good. And he has the roads all to himself; there's a sign on the door since he couldn't figure out the lock, a notice to keep out scrawled in short, angry strokes on the first piece of metal he could find.
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Override
Minor
The Chancellor, Her Noble Potency, Empress Override. The Glorious Victor over Everyone Else On the Track
Shut up and drive
Posts: 476
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Post by Override on Sept 12, 2009 22:03:40 GMT -5
Override's really been aching to roll her tires lately. Last time she tried the training room, it was being used for target practice. Driving on a shooting range might make things a bit more interesting, sure, but at the moment, it seemed kind of rude to do that.
So now Override figures, with everyone 'testing energon,' the room is sure to be open.
She approaches it and spots the sign. "Oh, come on!" she groans, irate.
She considers for a moment, then shrugs and barges in anyway. She doesn't know who might be inside, but no matter who it is, she starts with, "All right, loser, why the hell aren't you at the party wi-" and then she cuts off, eyes wide.
She knows this desert.
This is home.
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Post by Swerve on Sept 13, 2009 13:33:52 GMT -5
Override even gets to enjoy that familiar view unadulterated for a few seconds before the sound of an engine, muffled by distance that isn't really there, cuts across the air and Swerve appears, coming out of a turn just behind that second hill.
He's missed this – the wind rushing through his intakes, the sand scraping over his plating and cutting across his windscreen, the road humming under his tires. There were tastes of it back on Gillanan, speeding through the desert, but it wasn't the same. This isn't either, but the oranges and light browns make it easier to not think about that.
And the road… it's a proper road, not one made of metal. His tires bite into it the way they should and it resonates the way he remembers roads feeling. It's right and wrong at the same time, like loading a Cyber Key; it's the old thrill with a queer new edge. He won't admit it aloud – not to just anybody – but it's actually great. He hasn't really driven topside in millennia, not fast and loose like this, and now it's like learning the old routes and courses all over again. Nothing can screw this up; everyone else is at that stupid party.
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Override
Minor
The Chancellor, Her Noble Potency, Empress Override. The Glorious Victor over Everyone Else On the Track
Shut up and drive
Posts: 476
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Post by Override on Sept 13, 2009 17:38:00 GMT -5
Even before Override sees Swerve, she's guessed who it is. Who else would create a sim of her home planet? Some what odd that she hasn't really talked to her fellow Velocitronian, but after their first conversation, she's had no real desire.
Check her for fuel additives? Please. She doesn't have to prove herself to anyone anymore. Other people prove themselves to her.
She stands quietly as Swerve continues to approach, crossing arms and putting her weight on her right leg. She waits for awhile, until she's sure he's near enough to hear her over the sound of his own engines, and shouts, "Awful lot of road to be keeping it to yourself like this!"
This is probably pretty odd coming from someone with a private race track.
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Post by Swerve on Sept 15, 2009 21:15:55 GMT -5
The universe just likes yanking Swerve's drive train, doesn't it? He mutters invective to himself as that all too familiar red and white form draws closer and closer.
"Sign said to keep out!" he bellows back at Override as he veers around her, not even tapping the brakes. He's in no mood to stop driving right now and he definitely isn't in a mood to stop and chat.
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Override
Minor
The Chancellor, Her Noble Potency, Empress Override. The Glorious Victor over Everyone Else On the Track
Shut up and drive
Posts: 476
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Post by Override on Sept 16, 2009 7:40:52 GMT -5
"Yeah, it is. Congrats on spelling right," Override snickers in answer to the passing car.
She watches Swerve, well, swerve around her and turns to watch him leave. A slight smirk tugs faintly at the right corner of her lips, and then she lifts her right hand to examine her fingertips. She flexes her fingers, then wriggles them, then looks at the palm of her hand for a moment, as though it were intently interesting. Then she brings that same hand up to her mouth to stiffle a yawn.
Once done with all this, she lifts her hand above her head, index finger pointed.
One.
Then her middle finger goes up as well.
Two.
After that, her ring finger joines the others.
Three
Her pinky is extended.
Four
And last, her thumb pulls out, so all her fingers are spread wide over her head, palm towards the departing racer.
Five.
By the time this little ritual is complete, Swerve has gotten quite a good distance away from her. It's only when this has happened that she leaps forward, transforming before she can land, and her engine revs, then pushes her forward, while she throttles it.
(Or at least puts on a good show of it.)
She's gaining.
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Post by Swerve on Sept 18, 2009 19:06:40 GMT -5
The spectacle of Override's theatrics in his rearward sensors doesn't get much attention from Swerve. Mostly, he just wants distance before he tries to take pot-shots out of sheer annoyance at the interruption.
So when Override suddenly takes the track and starts closing the gap between them, Swerve is, yet isn't surprised; racing is everything on Velocitron, after all, and she's the best at it. He curses and makes a noise of disgust and irritation all the same, in part because he knows she can catch him up in no time. All the work he's put in and he ended up sacrificing speed anyway, so he's barely a dip of the speedometer to her. There isn't even a point in trying to outpace her. Swerve redlines it anyway, just because he can. Because it feels good to just drive as fast as he's able. Because even if there's no point in trying, he won't just consign himself to the slow lane. And because it'll give him another half-second of solitude if he pushes hard enough.
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Override
Minor
The Chancellor, Her Noble Potency, Empress Override. The Glorious Victor over Everyone Else On the Track
Shut up and drive
Posts: 476
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Post by Override on Sept 18, 2009 21:42:13 GMT -5
Override is a racer, and to her mind, Swerve has just challenged her. It's not much of a challenge, but it's not like the poor guy can help that. And besides, Override never backs down from a challenge, intentional or not.
But Override is a sport. Just like it's not Swerve's fault that he's not much of a challenge, it's not Override's fault that there's not many who can challenge her. She doesn't pour it on. Not yet, anyway. This is her world (or a simulation of it), and these are her roads (or a close copy). And if these roads really are a match for the ones at home, up ahead there's an area where it's particularly hard to pass, where the skill of the lead is more important than the speed of the follower in determining who comes out ahead.
So naturally, she's going to wait to overtake Swerve there.
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Post by Swerve on Sept 26, 2009 16:08:23 GMT -5
It's been a long time for Swerve since racing was about more than just surviving to the finish line; it doesn't really hit him until he starts into the long curve leading into the narrow underpass that Override, being Override, might only be racing for its own sake. Keeping that in mind doesn't really improve his mood since it's one possibility of several, but he edges off the proverbial trigger to focus instead on the road ahead.
For all he knows, there might have been roadwork done in the interval, but these roads are just as he remembers them from the last time he laid optics on them, down to the last guardrail and lane divider.
"Sign said to keep out!" he repeats angrily. Override can read the sign, but decides to ignore it, and that just burns Swerve's oil.
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Override
Minor
The Chancellor, Her Noble Potency, Empress Override. The Glorious Victor over Everyone Else On the Track
Shut up and drive
Posts: 476
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Post by Override on Sept 28, 2009 14:23:23 GMT -5
"You want to keep people out?" Override answers cheerfully from behind Swerve. "Learn to work a lock! A sign by an open door is nothing more than a challenge!"
And that, more than anything, might clarify why Override is in here.
As Swerve approaches the narrow underpass, Override suddenly guns it, attempting to pass him on the left. She broadcasts the move, however - Swerve should have no problem predicting what she appears to be trying.
Why would she broadcast like this?
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Post by Swerve on Sept 30, 2009 19:51:41 GMT -5
She's telegraphing? Swerve scowls as much as a car can scowl. Planning something? Jerking me around?
He doesn't know what to make of any of this. He's almost-home on familiar roads under a proper orange sky and he has a race on his hands – a full throttle, redline race. But it's with Override. She's almost as foreign to him by now as any other random Autobot, the faraway champion of Velocitron who calls a different world home. The disconnect feels unsettling and that just exacerbates Swerve's already boiling irritation at the intrusion.
"Door was closed!" he snarls. If he moves to smash her like he wants, she'll have more than enough room to get past him on his right. If he doesn't move, he doesn't get that chance to inflict damage. "And it would've been locked but I'd waited long enough already!" To the smelter with it! Swerve snaps hard to his left, bringing his pipes to bear on Override as she tries to get around him. So what if she's the champion? That title is meaningless; they aren't on Velocitron any more. They probably won't be again – a thought that makes Swerve even angrier – no matter how good a facsimile he manages to put together in here.
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Override
Minor
The Chancellor, Her Noble Potency, Empress Override. The Glorious Victor over Everyone Else On the Track
Shut up and drive
Posts: 476
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Post by Override on Oct 1, 2009 8:22:56 GMT -5
Perhaps surprisngly, Override doesn't swerve into the hole that Swerve is opening on the right. Instead, she speeds up and, just as they hit the underpass, moves even further left, using her momentum to carry her up and onto the wall itself! It's a showy move, but one that may cost her if she can't get back down before they get out of the underpass.
"This is a ship." Override points out. "If a door isn't closed, it's because someone's screwed up!"1
1 Whether the outside is void or water, the safest way to operate on a ship is by shutting doors behind one so that if one compartment is compromised, you're already halfway to blocking it off from the rest of the vessel.
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Post by Swerve on Oct 4, 2009 21:10:52 GMT -5
"That fraggin' door was closed, smelt it all!" roars Swerve in outrage as Override slips up the wall, dodging him. "So what if I was sick of waitin' and didn't slagging lock it?!" Threading lanes on his part, maybe, but he shut that door. He doesn't follow Override onto the wall. He just pushes, trying to stay in a position to either block her from coming down or just shoot her if she makes it past him. OOC: Fortunately, Swerve isn't so good with shipboard protocol or half the reason for this line of dialogue would be taken care of already!
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Override
Minor
The Chancellor, Her Noble Potency, Empress Override. The Glorious Victor over Everyone Else On the Track
Shut up and drive
Posts: 476
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Post by Override on Oct 5, 2009 19:21:40 GMT -5
"Oh, sorry!" Override answers snidely, in a way that suggests she's not sorry at all, "Since my psychic powers are on the fritz again, I didn't realize that it was the one guy on board who didn't realize that doors are normally closed around here inside!" Swerve probably isn't the one guy on board who thinks that, but a taunt is a taunt.
By the word 'realize', she had pulled up alongside Swerve, still driving on the wall. She makes no effort to pass him, however. Instead, at the 'side' portion of 'inside,' she suddenly swerves aside, attempting to sideswipe Swerve from her rather unorthidox, on-the-wall position!
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Post by Swerve on Oct 8, 2009 9:49:50 GMT -5
When Override makes her move, Swerve snarls and steers into it pipes first, shoving back and putting as much power into it as he's got. He's getting hot too fast; she's just making him angry and he's pushing himself and his thermostat is steadily ticking upward.
He isn't paying attention to it, either.
"You got a slagged definition o' closed!" he spits out.
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