| abstract
| - Lab Every base needs a lab for its resident (mad) scientists, and the Ark Base is no exception. The orange alloy hues predominant throughout the base blend with sterile white panels, giving the entire area the ambience of a slick, metallic creamsicle. Rows of gleaming glass beakers, spectrographic analyzers, Jacob's Ladders, Tesla Coils, and Ratchet Rectifiers line the walls and aisles of this densely-packed laboratory. While not as expansive as the facilities at Metroplex, it has enough equipment for a serious scientist to get some serious research done. A giant art deco head of Wheeljack has been molded into the wall opposite the entrance, with a small plaque: "Never do what your enemy expects you to do." RIP WHEELJACK, ?-2005 Fairway has his easel set up in the lab today. He's off duty, and fully prepared for enjoy a day ofrest and relaxation. And art, of course! To this latter end he has dragged a very large, complex piece of something's inner machinery into the lab and set it on a workbench draped with silken purple fabric. As soon as Grapple walks in to the lab, he stops to stare a moment at what Fairway is doing. He's completely quiet as he does so. After a few seconds, he shrugs to himself; ever since that bizzare ramble in the theme park, the architect's been both worried and wary of and for Fairway. "Hello, Fairway! What are you working on?" He stares at the large, fabric-draped.. Whatever it is. Strolling along through the Ark's halls, the femme Firestar decides to poke her horned head into the lab. It's been a quiet day here at the Ark, but you never know when something might catch fire or explode in Wheeljack's old labratory. Vince Larsen had just come from Chicago, where a couple Decepticons had been terrorizing a pizza place. There hadn't really been any kind of reason for it, that he'd been able to tell, but the situation had been resolved pretty quickly, and, surprisingly, the Decepticons had left without fighting. It had been strange, but Vince was definitely not going to complain. Last time he'd run into Fusillade, he'd very nearly died, so this was a nice change. On his way back, he had decided to stop in at the Ark, and see if anything was going on here. Finding the lab apparently a place of some activity, he wandered his way in and looked around. He wasn't familiar with /all/ the Autobots yet, but he had met quite a few of them in the last month or so, mostly in combat, so being able to talk to them outside of an exo was still a fairly new experience. But he was working on that, spending as much time at Autobot City as he could lately, and tonight, he'd be a lot closer to home. A compact car sized block of metal skims along the hallways of the ark moving at a slow pace. Noah grips the controls lightly, not worried of crashing into anyone or anything at this speed. Of course, he could be considered grandma, but safety first! The armor turns a corner and sets down next to the large doors marked 'Lab'. "Good place to start." he says while popping the canopy and hopping out. He walks through the doors just as they're closing for Vince and tilts his head curiously. Fairway holds up a single finger to Grapple to indicate that he will adress his comrade in a moment, though he doesn't appear to be doing anything other than staring. He looks at the massive object, unmoving, focus intense, and then frowns. He leans back on his stool and makes a single quick stripe of puple on the canvas before he finally turns to Grapple. "Disappointment, I fear," he says, "is what I am working on. I've only just started and am already feeling the frustration of having reached an impasse." He drops his brush into a cup of paint thinner and looks about at the others arriving. He nods to each. "Otherwise, I am well. And you Grapple? Firestar?" He looks to the two humans. "Mr. Wolfe. And...I don't believe I'm made your aquaintance, Mr..." This last bit he says to VInce. Grapple nods slightly to the various arrivals as they each come in, glancing to the silent Fairway between visits. If he didn't understand how focused someone could become on such things, he might have even been insulted; instead, he's simply amused. Oh, he's been there himself more than a few times. "I'm perfectly fine, myself. Dissapointment? What seems to be the problem? Perhaps I can assist?" Watching Fairway stare, then make a single stroke of the brush before setting it down, Vince is glad he isn't a painter. He's far too impatient for that. Grinning up at the Autobot, he introduces himself, loudly enough that everyone else can hear, as well. "Vince Larsen. Exo-pilot and mechanic." Turning at Noah's name, he chuckles and nods at his fellow EDCer. Noah Wolfe waves to Fairway and says, "Yo. Nah, looks good..." he tilts his head the other way, "Whatever it is...what is it anyway? "An impasse?" Firestar asks, peeking at Fairway unfortunatly uninspiring subject matter. "Maybe you just need a new model, something to inspire you! Hmm.. Arcee was around here somewhere. I'm she'd be happy to model for you, as long as you have plenty of pink paint." Noah Wolfe waves to Fairway and says, "Yo. Nah, looks good..." he tilts his head the other way, "Whatever it is?" He looks over at Vince and says, "Oh hey!" suddnely getting an idea, "Vince, I've been looking for you! I've got an idea I wanted to swing to you. Remember how you said you were wanting to get me into fighting form, right?" Arcee, who happened to be passing in the hall, looks into the lab at the sound of her name. "What's this then?" she asks, curious about the crowd. She still has a bit of a limp from getting caught in the Decepticon trap last night. Grapple glances to Arcee as she moves in; as he sees the limp, he winces slightly. He had seen the injury when it happened, and it hadn't been pretty. "How is your foot, Arcee? It will be in good shape soon, I hope?" "That is the aft secondary coolant recycler unit from a Bore-Tex XP32.9Z industrial drilling unit. The small structure in front, marked with the red and green, is an EM field rectifier element I installed," Fairway smiles, "for its aesthetic value." He chuckles a bit at Firestar and waves to Arcee. "I fear I've promised my first portrait to Air Rad, nonetheless I would be happy to paint Arcee when that is finished. And...Mr. Larse, you say? Pleased to meet you. Fairway, engineer." He turns on his stool, putting the easel at his back. "Am I in anyone's way?" He adds, looking to Arcee, "Are you in need of medical assistance?" Grapple blinks at Fairway; a coolant recycler unit? "Why is it a dissapointment? Any asthetic enhancement you equipped it with couldn't possibly be -too- terrible, my friend.." Arcee looks at her damaged heel thoughtfully. "Well, if you're not busy. It'll work itself out on its own, given time." Vince Larsen nods at Noah and grins. "Yeah, Noah. What's your idea?" Looking over when yet another Autobot comes limping in, he frowns. Vince really needed to get some more material on Cybertronian tech, and a few more teachers, too. Dee-Kal was a good start, but she was a little strange, and tended to get side-tracked too often. Looking back up at Fairway, he smiles. "Just call me Vince, please. A pleasure to meet you, too, Fairway." Noah Wolfe grins and has this excited but crazed look in his eyes. "Let's join the wreckers! Yeah. Just you and me! If there's any group that could, you know, fix me. They could." He waves his holo comp screens around on his arm, "I've read the unclassfied files on them. They're bad afts. EDC Black Ops got nothing on them." Not that Noah would know, ALL the black ops files are classfied. But he's working on fixing that. Air Raid was told by someone, somewhere, some time to seek out a techy mech, and the only techy mech he could tolerate was Fairway, who happens to reside in the Ark. So here he is, in a sour mood for some reason. Seeing as the lab was strangely full, Raid sidles off to the side and leans against the wall near the entrance, arms folded. Human Wreckers? Raid bites back a laugh. "Vince then," Fairway smiles. "The pleasure is all mine." He stands then, saying to Grapple, "It is actually my approach that is likely to lead to disappointment. The mechanism itself is a thing of beauty. Perhaps you agree?" He gives a nod to Air Raid as he crosses to Arcee. "Friend Aerialbot. It's good to see you all here. I hope I'm not impedigin anything important. And Arcee...I would be happy to look at your heel. Perhaps there is something I can do to speed up the healing process." Grapple looks to the coolant device for several seconds. "It certainly IS as functional as it as asthetically pleasing." He blinks down, for a moment, at the concept of human Wreckers; he decides not to comment on it. Instead, he takes a step closer to the device to see, exactly, what Fairway percieves as a 'disappointment'. Arcee has the grace to pink at the attention, trying to defuse the medics' concerns with a burst of musical laughter. "Well, if you insist, you're the doctor," she replies to Fairway with a wink, hopping up lightly onto a table. Crossing her injured leg over her intact one, she holds out the damaged little foot- it's still badly dented, and the ankle is wrenched in an unnatural way, although she has clearly been working it back into tune on her own. Vince Larsen chuckles at Noah and shakes his head. "I'm not sure I have the 'Wrecker' mentality, Noah. But yeah, they could probably fix you right up." Or get you killed, he thought to himself. Looking up at the drilling unit, Vince grinned and spotted several pieces he'd like to scavenge for a few projects he had going at home. Looking over at Fairway, he grins and shrugs. "I could probably get a lot of pleasure out of meeting you. I'm trying to learn about Cybertronian technology. Dee-Kal's been helping me out a little, but she's a bit, well, odd." He turns and watches Arcee hop onto the table, and moves a little closer. Man, he really needed to work out a way to get humans up there easily, to watch, work, or whatever. Air Raid shakes his helm in response to Fairway, but otherwise remains silent, idly thumbing his lense. Stupid lense. He's mad at it right now, and even glares at it for a few moments, before noticing Vince. "Y'wanna' watch, Vince-man?" He stoops to scoop Vince up in his palm, carefully setting him atop the medical table. Noah Wolfe frowns, but no matter, he'll just join the wreckers himself. If anyone can give him what he needs, they can. "Well, ok, I'll go it alone." He listens for a moment and says, "A little more than odd. But better than some of those Junkions." He's comfortable just watching from where he's standing. "So is this the equivalent of painting a bowl of fruit?" Fairway kneels to inspect Arcee's heel, taking it in his hand with a cold and clinical touch. "Hmmm," he says, disaffected, "This looks painful. You should probably be abstaining from walking without a crutch. But it is healing fairly well...here." He produces, from subspace, a curious device of his own design. It is a large suction cup with a broad handle on the top. He places it over the tnet and pulls the trigger on the handle, activating an intense and focused suction over the dent. The aim is to pull the dent out and realign whatever electronics must have been disaplaced. He looks at Vince while he does this. "I am still unsure what to call this device. My comrades used to call it the 'dent sucker', which sounds lascivious to me, but seems to have stuck nonetheless. If you want to learn about Cybertronian tech, I would be glad to take part in your training. Friend Dee-Kal is, well...a bit on the eccentric side." He looks at Raid with a look of concern. "Yes, Mr. Wolfe. I suppose this could be considered the equivalent of painting a still life of fruit. I have done my fair share of those, but I find mechanical objects to be far more appealing." Grapple hmms at the painting. "..It looks visually asthetic and appealing to me, friend Fairway." Really, he thought it was accurate enough to be nearly identical. "Perhaps you're judging yourself too harshly?" Vince Larsen chuckles at the name given the machine, and shrugs. "Maybe you can call it the Dent-reversal 1.0." A bit of humor in his voice, he smiles and continues to watch. A fascinating device, he could definitely use it back at base. Well, he could use it when he didn't come back with /pieces/ of an exo. "I'd love to learn a thing or two from you. Dee-Kal's been a great teacher, when I can keep her on track with the conversation. Though, from everything I've heard about Junkions, she's fairly 'normal', comparitively." Looking up at Arcee, he has to ask; "How'd you manage to mangle your foot like that? Looks like it got caught in some kind of vice." "It got caught in some kind of vice," Arcee replies wryly, holding still for Fairway to work his magic with the 'dent sucker.' "We had to walk into a Decepticon trap in order to try to rescue the best pancake chef in the world. But it all worked out in the end!" "He's always judging himself too harshly, Grapple," Raid grins, moving towards the wall. For now he's content to just watch. Pancake chef? Damn! He missed something /cool/. Grapple shakes his head a little. "Why they had kidnapped a pancake chef in the first place, I have no idea." He's still baffled over that entire situation. He looks to Arcee with some concern. "Vice? From what I recall, a wall rather.. Slammed down on your foot." "Certainly something I appear to be likely to do, friend Grapple," Fairway smiles, "I do appreciate your praise. I fear, in fact, that the precision of my work thus far actually detracts from the painting. It seems to be...strange as it sounds...too much like the work of a machine." He finishes up by producing his patch kit and straightening some hydraulics. "I know what you mean about Dee-Kal," he says to Vince, rather candidly, "She can be quite flighty. And her methodology, if I may say so, is colored by Junkion thinking...which is often sound but can be bent on flawed or taboo concepts - such as using damaged comrades to repair one's self." He steps back and looks at his work, satisfied, before returning to his stool. "What are pancakes?" Hey, he'd heard about that chef being kidnapped. Vince looked over at Grapple. "They probably did it to try to get you Autobots into a trap that would kill you. I'm glad they didn't succeed." Looking back at Fairway, he chuckles. "Pancakes are a typical breakfast food for us humans. I prefer eggs and bacon, myself, but on occasion, I'll go in for a nice stack of blueberry pancakes." Nodding in agreement with Arcee, he looks at Grapple. "A vice really is any two objects that close together to hold another object." Arcee wiggles her toe to see how the ankle is working out before she steps down and walks a few steps around the table. "That feels much better, thank you, Fairway." "So er, Fairway, how's your head feeling?" Raid speaks up, optics following Arcee around the table. Grapple nods slightly to Vince. "I suppose that makes a great deal more sense than the Decepticons finding a use for.. pancakes." It was all so, so very strange. Then, at Air Raid's question, he looks to Fairway. "..Any more head pains?" Fairway nods. "Ahhh, breakfast! I continue to forget that humans need to refuel at specific times of the day for their systems to operate correctly." He looks up at Raid and Grapple. "Some. Disorientation, lack of focus...those have been the primary side effects." He frowns. "Have you experienced any of the like, friend Air Raid? Any discomfort or....ill effects caused by your lense?" He belatedly bows to Arcee. "You are certainly welcome!" Arcee waves airily as she flounces out again enthusiastically, no doubt going back to her room to repaint her ankle in that special detailing station she's got. Vince Larsen looks at Air Raid and Grapple both at their question regarding Fairway's head with a confused look. He has absolutely no clue what that's all about, but he's sure someone'll explain it, or something. Nodding at Fairway, he grins. "Yeah. Our bodies aren't quite as fuel-efficient as yours are, unfortunately." Looking at Arcee as she walks around the table, he grins as she 'flounces out'. The Autobots were so much like humans sometimes it amazed Vince, and made him want to learn about their technology even more. "Nothing like that..." Raid answers. "Though uh..." His shoulders slump, as he's not too comfortable talking about this with several others around. He continues in a low voice, "I get like, this voice or something, sometimes. It's weird." Fairway looks concerned. "A voice?" He frowns even more deeply and, sensing Radi's hesitance, doesn't press. "Come talk to me about it in private if you feel the need." He turns then to the others. "Grapple...you recently spoke to some of the other lense-bearers, yes? Were you able to learn anything?" Grapple frowns slightly at the talk of 'voices' and strange pains. He nods slightly to Fairway. "Nothing alltogether useful, I'm afraid. Only that the lenses are actually linked to your own frames. Physically, I mean." Looking at everyone still here a little strangely, Vince listens for a few moments, then breaks his silence. "I'm sorry, but what are you guys talking about? Air Raid perks up, lifting a finger, "Hey, I think it has addictive qualities! Observing Scrapper..." He looks to Vince, and points to the clear disc on his chest. "Some of us got these thingers from that Collecter's planet. They have some pretty kicking power." Raid pauses to twitch angrily, "But I've yet to make mine actually /work/!" Fairway nods to Vince. "Bonded to our frames, yes. In a most dangerous way, perhaps. The power drain is enormous...carrying this disk around is much like having another entity inside me sharing my energon intake. And the effects it has on my psyche have been disturbing as well." Grapple frowns. "I'm still doing research in to what was analyzed of the discs, but it's.. All really rather ambiguous. If they weren't causing so many issues, I'd almost say they were benign." He sighs slightly. "..I'll let you know if anything new comes up, however. For now, though, I believe I'll leave for now. The past few days have been draining." What, with rescuing that chef and all. Air Raid's optics widen at Vince's comment. "Primus, I sure hope not... we can't remove them either!" He finally takes a seat somewhere and broods. "Could that happen, Fairway?" Fairway hmms. "Addictive qualities, you say?" He looks at Raid. "That is most disheartening. Luckily, I haven't used mine too often. But...hmm...maybe that is why I have been feeling adverse effects - I haven't been using it." Fairway continues. "As for a virus...it isn't outside of the realm of possibility, I fear. I wonder if you would come to the medbay with me so that I can ran a scan on your cranial unit?" "Might be a good idea to uh... not use them too much then, yeah?" Raid looks up, chin in his hands. "Sure Doc. Vince, would you want to observe? Or do you have to go have some breakfast? ...Or wait, what time is it..." Vince Larsen looks at Air Raid and chuckles. "It's nowhere near time for breakfast yet. And it's past dinner, which I managed to eat just shortly before getting called out to Chicago to help run a couple Decepticons off, so I'm good for now. I'd love to come watch." Repair Bay Like most of the rest of the Ark, the Repair Bay is made of smooth, clean orange metal. The lighting is considerably brighter in here, though, and things are kept much, much cleaner -- there's not even a dust bunny to be found. The chamber is large, with open spaces sufficient for even the largest Autobots -- barring combiners -- to haul themselves, or be hauled. Around the edges of the room, various storage units and equipment cabinets holding specialized parts and tools, ranging from common lugnuts to special gear for specific Autobots. The center of the Repair Bay is an island consisting of several medical beds, with overhead scanners feeding information to a set of consoles. A drain at the center of the room is useful for cleaning up any messes that get made. In one corner of the room, a picture of Ratchet has been put up, depicting the famously party-hearty medic giving a thumbs-up while pouring energon into his mouth straight from the old repair bay's fuel injector. Air Raid finds his way to a table and sprawls out on it, kicking his feet up and linking his hands behind his helm. "Maybe you'll get to do some brain surgery, Vince! Take note Fairway: there is breakfast and dinner. I feel like I'm missing something in the middle." Vince Larsen comes trailing in, not being able to walk as fast as the much larger Autobots, and chuckles at Air Raid's comment. "Lunch, but a lot of people skip lunch these days. Or breakfast, depending on their schedules. And I'm not real sure you'd want me doing brain surgery on you just yet, Air Raid. I'm not exactly qualified, unless you're an exo-suit, or a mechanical device made by humans. I've barely scratched the surface of how you guys work." "There is quite a bit to learn," he says to Vince, "not the first of which shall be 'brain surgery', as my eloquent friend here has put it. We shall start you off with the basics." He approaches Air Raid's table and smiles down at the Aerialbot. "Honestly, I fail to see the significance of drawing linguistic distinctions between different meals. Fuel is fuel, as crude as that sounds, whenever it is consumed." He pulls down a boom and then produces a large, collander-shaped helmet. Attaching it to the boom arm, and lowers it down over Raid's helm. "Lie stil, please," he says, "Mr. Larsen...Cybertronian brains are computers, of course, but much more highly advanced than anything humans have the ability to build so far. As such, we operate using hardware - the physical systems built into our positronic nets - and software - cognitive support programs. This machine will scan the physical systems of Raid's processor for any kind of virus." Air Raid lies /quite/ still, aside from his drumming finger tips on the table. "Ah, but humans apparently have different types of food for different times of the day. Pancakes are a morning food." He pauses, listening to Fairway explain the techy stuff he's so fond of. "Still, I think something should be said about human computers. An organic race created them from scratch." Ahh, finally, an easy to follow explanation! Vince listens and nods, looking at the helmet and grinning at the sudden mental image of an old electric chair that came to mind. He knew it wasn't anything at all like that, but the resemblance was striking. "Well, we've come a long way with our computer technology, but it's still light years behind anything you guys have." "What impresses me most," Fairway says, "is the structure of the human mind. I know nearly nothing about it, but I find myself fascinated any time I have the good fortune to watch a human learning to do a new thing, or an infant imitating its parents' speech. Organics have come quite a way in the field of computer technology, yes, but their greatest advances have been evolutionary - physical advances. We may differ in the extent of our technological development, but we are so very alike in our thinking...I ceasely marvel." He presses a few buttons and the scanner on Raid's head begins to beep and whir, lights cycling across its top. Vince Larsen grins and nods, watching Fairway activate the scanner. "That is true, our races are very similar in terms of the way we think, and act, as well. That's one of the things that drew me into wanting to learn Cybertronian technology." Air Raid smiles and nods to Fairway under the scanner, likely messing things up, "I agree. They're development is really something else! Growth is fascinating. The photos are always neat. It's cool to see how a human looked when they were infantile. Usually they're 'cuter'." He laughs, "Were you a cute infant, Vince?" Vince Larsen chuckles at Air Raid and shrugs. "Depends on who you ask, I guess. My parents always said I was, but I think their opinion is just a bit biased, really. Hehe." F-16C enters and looks around a bit before finding his target. Fariway. Skydive changes back into his Robot mode. Fairway nods. "Honestly, I hope that I shall be able to be a good teacher. My first impulse is to say that Cybertronian physiology is easy to understand." He puts his hand on Raid's cheek, not quite chiding yet. "Shhhh," he says, "lie still." He smiles down at his incourrigible comrade. "I believe I read that there is an evolutionary advantage to the exaggerated 'cuteness' of infant humans. It may promote a stronger attachment." He then looks up briefly at Skydive, curious as to what he's doing. "Right then," Raid folds his arms and tries to stay still and quiet for longer than three nanos. It's hard work. "Doc's the captain of Operations, Vince. If anyone can teach you the basics of our tech, it's gonna' be him." Air Raid belatedly notices Skydive, "Hey bro." Vince Larsen looks up at Fairway and grins. "I'm sure you'll be a great teacher, Fairway. And I'm a fast learner, so I should pick up on everything the first or second time, so I might make it look as easy as you think it is." Glancing at Air Raid, he chuckles and nods. "I'll be looking into more than just the basics. I'm trying to make myself more useful around your repair bays, as well as back at the EDC in the R&D departments." Following Air Raid's look up to Skydive, he offers a wave at the new arrival to the party. Fairway smiles, flattered. His grin lasts only as long as it takes for Raid to break his silence again. A light on the scanner turns yellow, and the device emits a plaintive beep. "That is good to hear, friend Mr. Larsen," Fairway says, "I have quite a bit of experience to impart." Skydive waves to all that have waves to him and heads towards Fairway and he asks as seriously as the situation can allow, "The toaster?" "So Vince, what made you join the EDC?" Raid asks conversationally, gazing up at that yellow light somewhat uneasily. "Erm, no viruses, right Fairway?" he asks in a low voice, then his optics flicker in a blink at Skydive. "...Heh!" Fairway gives Skydive a blank look. "The..Oh! Yes! Your toaster." He pats Raid's chest and steps away a second to procure Skydive the Toaster from subspace. "It should be functioning perfectly now. I have also added some modifications. I shan't get into the details - as you can see I have your fellow flier on the slab at the moment - but I encourage you to try out the new controls." With this he steps back to the table. "That isn't certain. There's an anomaly...the scan is starting again just to be sure. Don't worry." Vince Larsen looks curiously at Skydive's mention of a toaster, and then he turns back to Air Raid. "I grew up watching the Decepticons trashing our planet on the evening news. I wanted to do more than just watch the fight, so I joined the EDC. Of course, with my background in mechanics, and the fact that I got my mechanical engineering degree before I joined the EDC, everyone expected me to go in as a mechanic. But I wanted to join in the fighting in a more direct way, so I went through exo-pilot training, and I double as a mechanic when I'm able. Lately, though, I've been working on my own exo's pretty exclusively. The last few engagements didn't end so well for me." Skydive holds the toaster as if it is the grail, then looking towards Air Raid. He makes a slow and deliberate apporach with the toaster held in front. Air Raid's not completely sure what an anomaly is, so he only gives a thumbs-up, and looks back to Vince without moving his helm. "The Headhunter, right? Say, I heard you got a medal or something. EDC commands seems to like you." His gaze darts to Skydive, and he tries not to laugh, "Hey I probably shouldn't touch it, I'll break it again." Vince Larsen turns to look at the readout, if he can see it from the ground where he's at, then looks up at Skydive. "Special toaster? Or just a regular toaster with some mod's?" Fairway grins at Skydive's reverence for the toaster. "The Headhunter! We /have/ met before, Mr. Larsen! We fought side by side in...India was it? Against Mixmaster and that circuit-glitched ruffian dimwit, Blueshift. You performed admirably...certainly deserving of a medal." He watches the readout himself. It runs past the point of the anomaly without signaling a warning. "You look to be in the clear, friend. Perhaps another scan in a terran week?" Skydive shakes his head, "NO, I know that you will be more careful and not carry it around with you this time. Besides, Fairway sasy he gave it new features," after extending the toaster towards Air Raid, Skydive answers Vince, "Pipes told me that it was a very special toaster and I gave it to Air Raid as a gift," a frown, "he broke it."' Air Raid slides out of the scanner and sits up, looking relieved. "Sounds good, Fairway." His cheery expression fades, "Hey I didn't break it on purpose!" He swipes the toaster and looks it over. It is indeed epic, as all of Fairway's work is. "Of course I'll be careful..." Vince Larsen nods and grimaces a bit, remembering that particular fight. "That was when I started working on my own exo's pretty exclusively, yes. Fusillade did a number on me with those bombs. I got a Purple Heart. That's nothing real unusual in this line of work. All it means is I was injured in the line of duty." Turning to Skydive's explanation of the toaster, he nods and smiles. "Well, at least he didn't break it beyond repair. It certainly looks like a nice toaster." Looking back at Fairway, he chuckles. "I wouldn't exactly say we /met/ back then, but yes, we did indeed fight together." "/Nothing/ is ever beyond repair," says Fairway. "Even the most damaged of mechanisms can be rebuilt and repurposed. That is my philosophy, at any rate." He grins at Vince. "And you will find philosophy something about which I am wont to prattle on. Air Raid can vouch for that, I am sure." He removes the scanner and lets Raid up at last. "A purple heart...injured in battle...the human mechanism is not nearly as simple to repair. Your minds are...fused to your bodies. They cannot function independently or be transplanted into new bodies as Cybertronian minds can. You must value your bodies greatly then! That is precisely why it baffles me to see humans willfully consuming poisons." Air Raid hops from the table and tucks his repaired gift under his arm, after having wrestled it from Skydive, dangit. "Naw, I have a lense," he gestures to it, "We were running some tests, doing research." Oh snap, Fairway's climbing up on his soapbox. Someone has to stop him! "Hey Fairway, you gonna' finish your painting?" he asks, smiling. Fairway gives Air Raid a befuddled look. "I do not understand your reference." He glances about, as if actually expecting to see a soapbox under his feet. "It is the substances humans see fit to consume with the express intent of impairing cognitive function of which I speak...not soap, friend Air Raid." He strokes his beard. "Or...do you mean to say that humans also ingest anionic surfactants to the same end?" He offers Vince a hand down from the table. "You make a valid point. And there are, indeed, convoluted philosophical avenues to wander on the quest toward the true answer to the question, 'What makes a thing a thing'? But that discussion is long and deep, and shall wait, I believe, for another time. And... yes, I do plan on finishing my painting. I shall retire now, to do just that, if there is no further repair work to be done. Skydive?" He grins at Vince and jokes, "Mr. Larsen?" Vince Larsen nods at Fairway's philosophical meanderings of philosophy, and grins. "I can answer the question 'What makes a thing a thing' right now, Fairway. Everything is merely a matter of perspective, which will differ from person to person. The 'norm' is what will be widely accepted as the definition of a 'thing'." Chuckling at Air Raid, he looks up at him and grins, then turns back to Fairway. "Well, now that you mention it, my primary motivator could probably use a bit of maintenance." With a laugh, he shakes his head and waves at Air Raid. "Enjoy your rest, Air Raid!" Skydive watches Air Raid begin to recharge with the Toaster in he hands and mumbles, "I hope it is safe, " then towards Fairway, "No, I just came to see in the Toasters repairs were finished or not. I personally do not need repairs." "Farewell, friend," Fairway calls to Air Raid, "One terran week! Back here! NO excuses!" He laughs, waving as Air Raid struts on out, in his way. He then turns back to Vince. "An interesting viewpoint! I should like to discuss it with you in greater detail at another point. You are more than welcome, so to speak, to join me in performing Air Raid's check up next week. I will show you how to operate the scanner." With this, he stands, stretching, his hydraulics creaking. "Enjoy your toaster, Skydive." This is something he never imagined he'd say. "And feel free to bring it back to me if it needs repairs...though I doubt it will. It's quite a marvel of toasting technology now." With this he waves to all and returns to the lab to finish his painting.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)