Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on May 19, 2012 18:11:09 GMT -5
M9W1D4, Pincher's laboratory deep in the bowels of a secret Kao-Nic Tech facility, semi-private
Tarantulas doesn't want to be here. He wants to be back in the lab he had been working in before. The one where he was stockpiling supplies to move into a second, secret laboratory where Shockwave couldn't watch his every move. It'd give him more time to make cybernetic modifications to himself and plot his escape. Whether Victoria Raines suspects any of this or whether she just thinks Pincher and Tarantulas would make more headway working together is unclear.
They're being forced to cohabitate in the laboratory. Colabitate, as it were.
So the currently-mostly-human Tarantulas finds himself clad in a labcoat, freshly showered and shaved (but he has still refused to comb his hair) and holding a box of his personal effects in the doorway to the lab currently occupied by one Raymond Stantz.
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Post by Raymond Stantz on May 19, 2012 18:21:19 GMT -5
Raymond does not want other people here. Persephone and Victoria having seen his laboratory is already too many people. Yes, he trusts Persephone not to do anything abjectly awful with his research. However, while he trusts that Victoria will indeed do abjectly terrible things with his research, another person might do different abjectly terrible things. The fewer people who see his laboratory, the better.
Also, he's annoyed that he's actually going to have to turn up the lights and start wearing his sunglasses again, because normal humans can't comfortably see in the twilight he prefers.
Raymond shows up just outside the airlock, in a lab coat that hides his usual terrible taste in clothing and sunglasses, resolving to be polite to the newcomer and... immediately makes a face and blurts, "What in the Helix Gardens have you done to to your pulse?"
So much for first impressions.
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on May 19, 2012 18:28:04 GMT -5
"Hello to you too," Terrence snaps back, striding into the room and clearing some papers that are not his and therefore are not important off of a desk and proceeding to put his 'World's Best Dad' coffee mug, plastic toy spider, notepad, and various other odds and ends onto said desk. "For your information, my pulse is fine. What you're hearing is the hydraulics and energon pump," he says over his shoulder.
He blinks as his brain catches up with his mouth, then turns around, striding up into Raymond's personal space to examine the other man closely. "And how can you hear that anyway?"
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Post by Raymond Stantz on May 19, 2012 19:10:39 GMT -5
Raymond sighs and picks up his papers, moving them to his desk. So much for the freedom of extra space. His attention perks up when Terrence mentions an energon pump. Apologetically, he offers his hand to Terrence to shake. Terrence will find it to be room temperature, not warm at all, and lacking a pulse if he cares to check at the wrist. Raymond also looks rather pale and ashen. His pupils are little pinpricks behind his sunglasses, like the room is too bright for him.
Raymond greets brightly, "I'm Raymond Stantz. Chemical engineering." Then he laughs nervously. "I, ah, am very good at hearing pulses." That's an oddly specific thing to say! "Probably not so much enhanced hearing as a different mental filtering schema." He rubs his head behind his ear. "Energon pump? Any biocompatibility problems? I know that energon has a high toxicity for baseline humans."
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on May 19, 2012 20:37:54 GMT -5
Terrence isn't normally a big hand-shaker, but in this case he makes an exception, because he does, in fact, want an excuse to look at Raymond more closely. Terrence's right hand has a vaguely purplish cast to the skin, with unhealthy looking yellow fingernails. If Raymond investigates further, the purple discoloration ends abruptly at the elbow.
Terrence takes the opportunity to attempt to roughly grab Ray's arm and check his pulse at the wrist. "Terrence Morgan," he says, sounding as though he'd love to put the name in air quotes if his hands weren't occupied. "Mechanical engineering and programming. Mostly."
"There were some problems with immune response in test subjects," he brags, lured by the siren call of conversation with an actual colleague, "but I was able to use Transmetal technology as a baseline to create a technorganic interface."
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Post by Raymond Stantz on May 19, 2012 21:02:40 GMT -5
Raymond makes something of a face at his lack-of-pulse suddenly being checked. He makes a soft 'ahem' noise and stoically resists the urge to pull up Terrence's sleeve. Instead he just observes, "You have a... purplish cast to your skin. How are your liver and kidneys doing? Oh, and, uhm." He looks despondently over at his medical mini-fridge. "Don't drink anything I've put in the mini-fridge."
He seizes on that other conversation thread, because it is less hideously awkward, "Mmm, I suppose the Transmetal aspects would block the energon radiation, preventing excess charge build-up."
Test subjects? Does Raymond even want to know?
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on May 21, 2012 20:19:57 GMT -5
"The purple is just pigment. It's intentional," Tarantulas says. "My liver is fine and my kidneys have been augmented with a far more efficient filtration system." He gives Raymond a look. "So how come you don't have a pulse? And of course I'm not going to eat out of the lab fridge. Or are you keeping food in there?" he asks, wandering over to look inside said appliance.
"The problem wasn't really blocking the radiation, that's easy. It's keeping the host from mounting an immune response to the material that blocks the radiation. By using Transmetal protocols I was able to integrate the organic with the technological components to avoid graft rejection." If Tarantulas way paying closer attention, he might find that he was actually enjoying this conversation. He's talking about his work! With a colleague! He almost isn't thinking about ways to slowly kill Pincher.
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Post by Raymond Stantz on May 23, 2012 21:43:58 GMT -5
"Oh. Like a tattoo. That will attract attention to you. Do you mean it as warning colouration?" Raymond inquires. Then he shrugs and says defensively, "I have a pulse... and extreme bradycardia so severe that a medical team decided I was dead. So I have a few things more in common with a hibernating ectotherm than I do with other mammals."
His heart beats every now and then. When it feels like it.
The little medical fridge is filled with a bunch of medical Thermoses.
The medical Thermoses are filled with blood.
Mostly porcine.
Mostly.
Raymond asks, "Mmm, no fibrous encapsulation? What about nanoparticles - any of those being given off? Those tend to lead to apoptosis due to cells being unable to handle them."
There is a little office area, and then there is a lab, and then there is the airlocked section, which, if Raymond has his way, Terrence will never enter.
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on May 24, 2012 13:52:17 GMT -5
"I suppose it might function as warning coloration, but I mostly just like my forearms to be purple. And if your heart isn't beating, how are your tissues being oxygenated? You clearly aren't hibernating." Tarantulas's urge to take Pincher apart in order to see how he works is rising.
The ex-spider unstoppers a thermos and pours out some of the contents into a test tube, because his player isn't clear on whether medical thermoses are transparent/labeled or not. "Are these all full of blood?" He sounds curious, but not particularly surprised or disapproving.
Pincher's comment gets the closest thing Tarantulas can muster to a pitying look. "Fibrous encapsulation? That adds so much weight, though! Better to just have pseudoperoxisomes to absorb any emitted particles. I used PP-1703 out of the Kao-Nic stock catalog, then did some additional processing to modify a couple of the silicon chains."
If Terrence ever gets into the airlocked area, he'll just wonder why Raymond hasn't already released his nanites into global circulation. They seem to be working perfectly!
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Post by Raymond Stantz on May 26, 2012 20:11:22 GMT -5
"I have an extremely slow metabolism and am rather efficient in how my body uses energy," Raymond explains.
He considers his options with the fridge. He could tell Terrence that they are all blood, but Terrence is going to want to check. He could tell Terrence that they are not all blood, but Terrence is going to want to check. So Raymond grabs one of the Thermoses, pops it open, and drinks all it down, licking his lips. Seeing Terrence pour out that vial of blood was making him hungry! Seeing Terrence at all was making him hungry, actually. Human blood, however mangled, smells ever so good compared to the porcine swill he's currently imbibing.
There, now at least if Terrence pours out everything to check it or if he poisons everything or whatever, at least Raymond has had a meal. That should last him for a while.
Raymond snorts, "No. I mean that the foreign body response usually involves fibrous encapsulation. How did you prevent that?"
Anyway, the nanites would turn every living being of a sufficient conversion mass into a psychotic scorpion. The world would be covered in apolocalyse of deranged arachnids. Would Tarantulas want to be a completely incoherent scorpion for the rest of his life?
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on May 27, 2012 11:17:29 GMT -5
So what Pincher really wants to know is 'Would Tarantulas want to grow a tail and claws?' He supposes he would not.
Raymond drinks blood. That's interesting. Terrence idly wonders what his urine output is like. If he's on an all-liquid diet, it must be considerable. Unless he's a vampire, as his symptoms seem to indicate. Tarantulas is willing to believe in the supernatural. He's met the Vok.
"Oh, you mean granulomas! The layers of cells closest to the technological components of the graft are impermeable to leukocytes, and don't express many of the chemical markers necessary to trigger inflammation. So, you're a vampire?"
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Post by Raymond Stantz on May 29, 2012 22:37:06 GMT -5
"I suppose so," Raymond replies, looking at his empty Thermos, as if it contains an escape hatch at the bottom through which he can vanish. He adds, "I think it is unwise for you to be in a confined area with me. I suspect that Ms. Raines may be trying to provoke a deliberate reaction from me."
From the office area, he opens the door to the not-airlocked laboratory section.
The floor has been covered in sand, and there are potted cacti scattered around, sitting on top of various machines. It's quite hot, and the light is almost blinding. The air is scorchingly dry.
Raymond claps his hands over his sunglasses and growls, "She is definitely provoking me. Please try not to look too edible."
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on Jun 3, 2012 11:31:36 GMT -5
Terrence just shrugs when Raymond says he thinks Ms. Raines is trying to provoke a reaction, falling into step slightly behind and to the left of the other man as he enters the desertified laboratory.
His face twists into a frown as Raymond gives his warning about not looking edible. "I reciprocate everything you just said one hundred percent." They are agreed that Shockwave is deliberately being a jerk, and that as long as no-one looks appetizing to anyone else, everything should be fine.
"I never would have thought she had a sense of humor."
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Jun 4, 2012 21:25:11 GMT -5
"Shockwave has whatever you do not want to Shockwave to have. He has warehouses full of his stockpile of things he should not," Raymond deadpans as he reaches for the lights and dims them down to something that should be comfortable for the both of them as long as he keeps his sunglasses on, which he will.
He adds, "I assume he has some heuristic program monitoring our every moves. Now... how are you with spark extractors? I was thinking we could work on one of those. I have schematics, but the reality-stream of origin is the future of your own, so perhaps you can assist me with some of the dialectical nuances."
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on Jun 9, 2012 12:24:27 GMT -5
Tarantulas blinks as his eyes adjust to the dimmer lighting. Stupid human eyes. "Yes, it's almost like he doesn't trust us," the spider chuckles, smiling sweetly.
"I've never used one, but I'm familiar with the theory. They were banned under Maximal rule." The good guys tend not to be okay with ripping people's still-beating heart/souls out of their chests. "Let me see the schematics, then," he says, lifting up a rock to peek under it.
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