Nightbeat
Minor
Lord High Instructor, Duke of Snack
Cybertron's Greatest Detective
Posts: 373
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Post by Nightbeat on Feb 21, 2009 15:46:34 GMT -5
Nightbeat frowns. Building a dimensional scanning probe notwithstanding, his comprehension of interdimensional physics and time travel made his head hurt. He'd read the files on the Time Wars (Autobots from a future with Unicron attacking then, compared to now when Unicron was practically on their doorstep) and it still made his head hurt just thinking about it.
But he nods, even though Rodimus has pinged his curiosity. He suspects it has something to do with the Matrix--it's impossible to think that their sacred lifeforce could be so easily duplicated--but also suspects its far more complicated than that.
Instead, he shrugs. "All mumbo jumo until we get off this rock and find some better answers," he says.
A ping from the nearest computer console alerts him that his data-pull is done. "Aaaand we have a time-stamp."
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Post by Rodimus Prime on Feb 22, 2009 0:02:00 GMT -5
Rodimus raises a browridge as he looks down at Botanica. "I... really can't go into detail on the matter," he says, perhaps a bit too sharp. She knows about Unicron, she knows about the need to keep him secret, and she's asking a question like that in front of Nightbeat, of all people?
"The Earth's another example of strange parallels, as much as how we have as many different origins ourselves. You say your Axalon had an impact on Earth's evolution... and yet, I doubt every reality will take your path, and yet Earth still ends up mostly the same." Granted, Earth in most Transformers realities is pretty weird compared with real Earth.
He continues to pull out the least damaged parts in Emirate Xaaron, although there aren't many. He frowns and points to a section of the Emirate's leg. "Is that... is that a tread?"
To Nightbeat, he asks, "Yeah? What's the date?"
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
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Post by Shanodin on Feb 22, 2009 11:38:45 GMT -5
She tilts her head up, brow furrowed at Rodimus' sharp tone. They were embroiled in a discussion on time travel and physics; she did not expect his burdens to have any bearing on the topic. Plus, she is unfamiliar with Nightbeat's amazing powers of deductive reasoning. The look she levels on the Prime, though, clearly says she will not be letting the topic go for good.
"You have a point. Though most 'base realities'- those that follow a template of similarity such as yours, Xaaron's, Kup's, Mirage's...even my own- have progressive technology that indicates a strong possibility of such an evolutionary turn. Just because the timeline does not line up does not mean it will never happen."
She looks askance at the part Rodimus has pointed out. "I..think it may well be. Could Xaaron be an artillery piece? It would fit with the cannon barrel, and some of these other parts."
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Nightbeat
Minor
Lord High Instructor, Duke of Snack
Cybertron's Greatest Detective
Posts: 373
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Post by Nightbeat on Feb 22, 2009 20:45:45 GMT -5
Very, very curious. He might just have to put a little bit of time into investigating their Prime's secrets. In-between, you know, formulating crackpot theories about how they all got here and fighting with Pee-Dee.
"Looks like... Hmm. This guy's ahead of me. 1990s, Earth-time."
Well, that was a possibly chilling thought. Did he go back only to die? Was his life now caught in some kind of psychotic loop? Did that, therefore, mean he was invincible because he could not die now?
...Probably not.
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Post by Rodimus Prime on Feb 22, 2009 22:13:54 GMT -5
"Not my branch, then," Rodimus tells Nightbeat without looking over, apparently unconcerned with any emotional upheaval this might cause. He continues to pick at the pieces of a shattered god-mech, and says, "Yeah. Looks like he might be a tank." He pauses. "Hnh. That's weird. I didn't realize there were many war-build Iaconians that age."
He misses the Look from Botanica, which is probably for the best.
"As for whether or not we have the business you're referring to in our future, Botanica, I dearly hope not. Not because... well, not just because it essentially means extinction for my kind in just a couple hundred years. Time travel in my reality has a mass-displacement requirement. It seems all right for a reality to temporarily go below its normal mass level, but going above it for even more than the shortest periods has dire effects on the space-time continuum."
He finally does looks over at the plant lady, and his expression is extremely sober. "I know it sounds far-fetched, and I wish to god I was making things up, but I've seen timelines split, shattered, rewritten, and nearly destroyed because of improper temporal mass balances. And... didn't your and Rattrap's recounting of the events involve deaths?" He shakes his head and gets back to sorting pieces. "Dying before you're created has a devastating effect on the timestream in my home reality. In order for your Axalon crew to do what they did, we're talking an entirely different set of temporal-physical laws between realities, Botanica." Rodimus is taking such a proposition in stride, but then, when there are realities where Cybertron itself is older in some than others, where the entire birth of the species is different, where complete islands and continents on Earth are re-arranged... again, it's the parallels that seem strangest.
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
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Post by Shanodin on Feb 23, 2009 10:33:15 GMT -5
Botanica shrugs at Rodimus' comment about Xaaron, "I would not know. That type of thing wasn't in our history databases. But maybe he isn't Iaconian? People move all the time."
She listens to Rodimus explain how Time Travel works in his reality, and by the time he's done, her eyebrows have relocated much higher on her skull.
"Mass displacement requirements? No offense meant to you Rodimus, but in that I think your reality would be the one with the most oddball physics. That suggests time is strictly linear in your reality, possessed of fixed starts and stops." She shakes her head, "It flies in the face of most theoretical advancements along those lines."
Botancia has yet to hear about Electric Lava.
"But if that is the case for your time, then...what does your being here- what does anyone from your timeline being here- mean for the integrity of your timestream?" She frowns as she continues to try and salvage parts from Dead Xaaron.
"What happens if one of you dies here? We don't know if we are before or after your creation point, in relation to your reality."
To Nightbeat she adds, "Well, you may now know your fated destiny, or at least, a situation to avoid should you ever find your way home."
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Nightbeat
Minor
Lord High Instructor, Duke of Snack
Cybertron's Greatest Detective
Posts: 373
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Post by Nightbeat on Feb 23, 2009 19:06:36 GMT -5
"Search me," Nightbeat says. "I've done most of my work for him, but I can't say I know that much about Xaaron. Other than him being about the only person who can out clever me."
Nope, no ego here.
He shakes his head. "The time travel rules don't make much sense," he says. "How can you guarantee you're finding a replacement of comparable mass? Goldbug filed a report where he saw First Aid replaced by that bounty hunter, Death's Head... who's got to mass at least as much as Galvatron."
Science. Who needs it?
He looks over the deceased version of himself. "Credits to energon chips this is Siren and Hosehead's fault. I always said they'd be the death of me." His tone is light though, joking. "No. Looks like something was... eating him."
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Post by Rodimus Prime on Feb 23, 2009 20:38:11 GMT -5
"Why should I be offended?" Rodimus asks Botanica. "I didn't make the rules. And our timeline is supposed to be linear, yes, but it can be knocked out of whack. Believe me, it doesn't respond well to that, though."
"As for what us being here means?" The Prime shrugs. At this point, they're probably getting close to pulling out the most useful pieces, leaving Primus-energy-soaked scrapmetal behind. "Like with a lot of other things, I don't have the answers just now. My guess would be more splintering, but remember a couple of things. One, the mass in the base reality can go down, just not up. That's why the displaced were sent elsewhere, and not just brought to the future. Two, the concern about dying before we're created probably only crops up if we're in our home timeline. Remember, it's trying very hard to stay linear. Shunting to a different past instead..." He shrugs. "I don't think it's as big a concern."
Electric lava is from Perceptor's reality, not Rodimus's. Rodimus has the Savage Land.
And Spider-Man.
He glances over at Nightbeat - the dead one - and frowns while he points. "It seems that those edges, the ones nearest to where it's been eaten, look a lot more brittle than living metal. Is it?"
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
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Post by Shanodin on Feb 24, 2009 11:23:29 GMT -5
Botanica gets the reality with the green and oozing center. Truthfully, they're all pretty screwed up!
She begins to stow her kit. They are down to dregs, and she's noticed that the Creation energy hasn't fully left the dead Xaaron. She frowns.
"If that doesn't ebb away to a more negligible level, I'm going to be extremely hesitant about using these parts in another. We don't know who might prove sensitive to it, or if another who can sense such may show up. I definitely do not think adding the scrap to the bin is a good idea."
"Though if ever there's a call to make religious amulets, we've got material in spades," she adds a bit dryly as she moves to get a look at Dead Nightbeat.
"It...it looks like oxidation. But our metals do not oxidize. Do yours?" If the Cosmic Rust is in Botanica's past, it was not in the archives she read back home.
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Nightbeat
Minor
Lord High Instructor, Duke of Snack
Cybertron's Greatest Detective
Posts: 373
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Post by Nightbeat on Feb 24, 2009 16:51:16 GMT -5
Nightbeat gets the reality where Optimus Prime killed himself over a video game.
He flexes his wrist and pops out his magnifying glass (which, naturally, is actually a very sophisticated sensor system that just looks like a magnifying glass) and examines the metal carefully.
"Definitely not like this... There's something weird about this, like it's been broken apart on a particulate level."
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Post by Rodimus Prime on Feb 25, 2009 0:13:05 GMT -5
Rodimus also gets the reality where Optimus Prime killed himself over a video game.
That was before the split.
Rodimus nods at Botanica's suggestion. "Yeah, you're right. Keep the parts - and the scraps - separate and out of the way, until and unless that fades a bit."
He turns towards the dead Nightbeat, and even reaches over and plucks a brittle piece off the edge. He rubs his fingers and watches it fall apart. "Yeah. This is definitely no rust I've ever seen."
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
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Post by Shanodin on Feb 25, 2009 11:24:15 GMT -5
"How very odd," Botanica murmurs, also testing the eaten up edges.
"Any number of things could cause such an oxidation-like pattern. Chemical interactions, a metallurgic virus of some sort...even exposure to certain plant compounds. The planet where I picked up this form, for example, had several sub-geneses that split of from the pitcher-flower styles like my own. They simply evolved to devour metal instead of insects and small mammals."
Wait...does that means that pre-conversion to her technorganic self, Botancia could eat small critters for energy, like Airazor and Rattrap?
Yes, yes it does.
She pulls a small knife and a test tube form her kit and begins scrapping some of the rust-like substance into the tube. "I can run some tests and at least determine if its organic in origin."
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Nightbeat
Minor
Lord High Instructor, Duke of Snack
Cybertron's Greatest Detective
Posts: 373
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Post by Nightbeat on Feb 25, 2009 20:12:33 GMT -5
"Organics," Nightbeat muses. "Go fig."
Of course, he'd spent more time around organics than quite a few Transformers, though it's also worth noting that many Transformers of his reality had. It was easier when most aliens were Transformer-scaled.
There was definitely something unsettling about your own corpse. "Hopefully the interior parts are still okay. Might be able to pull a few memory files, with enough time."
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Post by Rodimus Prime on Feb 25, 2009 21:36:09 GMT -5
"Well, let me know if you find anything, Nightbeat," Rodimus tells the Detective. He pauses. "Or, well, Emirate Xaaron, since I think that may be a bit more relevant to his branch of reality, anyway."
He inclines his head towards Botanica. "Thanks for the help, Botanica, and keep us up to date on whether or not the, erm, aura fades enough for normal use."
With that, the Prime turns and walks out, leaving the detective and the scientist to their work.
OOC: Scene-end.
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