(Untitled)

[helpful_squid]

Who: Vergil and Baywarp
What: Vergil's gotten his Cybertronian shell built and needs to test a few things out.
Where: Vergil's clinic, formerly Tyran Ratchet's clinic
When: Thursday, I guess.

Comments

[caelumtorqueo]

Skywarp rolled his shoulders in their gyros. It had been a busy few cycles, and they were gearing up for a big night tomorrow. His newest headliner had odds enough for the match to be exciting even if he didn't have a big name.

Not that there were big names among what could best be called 'refugees'. Still Skywarp was feeling like he'd done pretty well for himself, and for Magnum.

Thus far.

His comm sounded. Oh frag. This better not be his headliner having second thoughts....

[caelumtorqueo]

Skywarp tried--and failed--not to stare. It was certainly a change. He hadn't really thought what he'd expected Vergil's suit to look like. He guessed he expected something more...squiddy?

"Vergil?" He watched the mech, well the frame, at least, approach. The voice was...interesting. A little musical, or maybe that was only in comparison to the flat monotone of the texts. "What does it feel like to walk?"

Right. He had a role to play, but...he couldn't help be a little fascinated.

[helpful_squid]

"More stable than the first time I tried," the mech admitted. Its inflection sounded like more of an accent, now that there was more than one word to it. It bobbled forward a little, enough to allow it to duck the head forward and peer at one leg. "The knee design is more stable than what I experienced before, when we were swapped from body to body. But it's still very strange, being subject to gravity. At least I have the right number of arms."

Even if it didn't seem to be paying much attention to keeping them entirely still. Like Vergil's tentacles, they tended to drift and sway fractionally as it spoke.

[caelumtorqueo]

"It's a good knee design." Skywarp extended his own double-jointed legs. "Good for taking sudden weight."

His optics kept getting caught by the drifting limbs.
"Ummm, polite suggestion? The arms look a little...freaky moving around like that. Unless you kind of are planning on going for my optics?"

[helpful_squid]

"My apologies. It had seemed more natural."

The forward arms went still. The rear arms folded up neatly along the mech's back.

"is that better?"

[caelumtorqueo]

"Maybe 'natural' for a, uh...your kind. But when you're sporting solid limbs that have modifications that look an awful lot like weaponry, to a mech who...doesn't care for having weapons pointed at him...? It might cause problems.

"Unless you only plan on working on the unconscious or something." Maybe it was a specialty where Vergil was from.

"That's a little less threatening, yes." A long silence. Skywarp struggled for something else to say. "The, uhh, white's a good choice for the optics. Unaligned, at least."

[helpful_squid]

"I see. That's fair." The mech's head dipped briefly; Vergil didn't have the hang of nodding, body or no. "I will remember not to let it happen in future. There's not much point to this shell if I only work with those who can't see it."

"Thank you. I also removed the original faction marks. They seemed inappropriate."

[caelumtorqueo]

"Well, you might need to use the limbs to immobilize a mech at some point. Can you do that?" If you needed to?" It was partially a physical ability question, but also, Skywarp didn't know if Vergil had the, well, the diodes to pin a mech.

"Yeah, I noticed the interior design theme, too. Nice."

Skywarp shifted on the exam table. "So, I'm your patient, right? Let's...um...play doctor?" (Why did that sound wrong?)

[helpful_squid]

"I don't know if I have the skill to do it by pure physical means," the mech mused. "But the arms are wired for as much conductivity as my tentacles. If it were necessary I could extend signal interfacing over their length and interfere with motor function at the bitwise level."

Its head dipped again, the optics flickering a moment. "All right. We will begin. Welcome to the clinic, Skywarp. What brings you here today?"

[caelumtorqueo]

"Yeah, well, something to think about. Ratchet's apparently turned his entire clinic into some sort of death trap. There's the Autobot definition of 'first do no harm,' for you." Bitter? Skywarp? Never.

He blinked. "You...asked me to--oh. Right." Right. Pretend. "I mean, I came for, uh, a check up? I've recently had some repairs and I want to know if they're integrated." Why not, right? He trusted Glit's work, but...trust but verify.

[helpful_squid]

"Death trap? I should check that out. It doesn't sound like what I saw when I was there the first time."

The mech made a humming sound not all that different from one of Vergil's usual trills. "I see. What sort of repairs? Have any of them given you any trouble thus far?"

[caelumtorqueo]

"Yeah. I imagine he likes it being a surprise." Because that would be just like a typical Autobot ploy--lead you in with an illusion of harmlessness. "I'm sure to another medic he'd be happy to give you all the details."

Skywarp wasn't known for bringing out the best in mechs, but still, he added. "You know, maybe ask him from a distance. In case you don't want a demonstration."

Skywarp shrugged. "No problems on the physical repairs, but I had my cockpit glass replaced. Haven't had any high pressure, high speed flights that would stress it." The non physical stuff...he doesn't want to talk about yet. It was hard to figure out which set of optics to focus on.

[helpful_squid]

"I will wait and see. I helped him with some of the initial work on his building to return the area to something viable. I think he'll give me an answer."

The mech head dipped again, optics dimming briefly. "Well, I can examine that if you like. And conduct the rest of a physical examination to ensure nothing else is likely to need repairs any time soon, if you wish. Has anything got you worried?"

[caelumtorqueo]

Yeah, Skywarp wouldn't doubt that. The inimitable Skywarp charm remained...blissfully inimitable. He was dully glad that Vergil had better luck. "It's...something to consider. Some mechs can get a bit...thrashy when they're in pain."

"Sure." Skywarp settled himself on his back so that Vergil could get a better look at his cockpit. It was strange to think that Vergil had...hands now. But they wouldn't be proper mech hands, not like Barricade's or Glit's.

"No...nothing's really worrying. Some probably normal memory stuff. You know...normal for whatever procedure you did last time."

[helpful_squid]

"If you want," said the mech as it picked up the first nearby scanner, "I can examine your memory data integrity when I'm done. I don't intend to intrude on any of that without permission, of course. But so far, I think, I am seeing normal system performance..."

[caelumtorqueo]

"That'd be fine," Skywarp said. He watched a bit nervously as the hands brought the scanner over his frame. The 'drifting' thing had made him wonder about Vergil's motor control. Not that he was going to say that. But his frame did get a little...tense, his optics tracking closely.

"Can you, uh, do memory scans without, well, you know...the tentacles?" Normal system performance, maybe right now. As long as he kept busy.