Backwater & Bait
Oct 8, 2020 23:02:04 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2020 23:02:04 GMT -5
PLAYER INFO
Name/Alias: Agrimony
IM/Email: dm me ^^
CHARACTER INFO
Name: Backwater “Bac”
Age: Late 20s - Mental Equivalent
Gender: Femme.
Species: Cybertronian.
Faction: Decepticon
Original Occupation: Wildlife Officer
Occupation/Specialization: Seacon/Marine Lieutenant - due to lack of Seacons, currently acts as Scout.
Appearance
Height: Midway between Bumblebee and Arachnid
Optics/Biolights: Backwater’s optics are dual-toned, lime-green ‘pupils’ surrounded by a duller, darker green ‘iris’, set in the blackness of the optic cavity. While muted, few and far between, her biolights are a dim, dull green.
Colours: Mostly 2 or 3 different shades of matte green and khaki brown, her colour palette fits right in with a swamp.
Build: While on the smaller and stockier side, Backwater is of a standard frame model. Her helm is akin to a baseball cap, with a short brim extending out the front and shading her faceplate. Her optics are hidden by a dark red visor that only covers half her face and locks into a ‘track’ along the bottom of the brim and the plates behind her audials to either side. Secondary vents are inset along her jawline and temples, continuing under the visor. Two lengths of armor run parallel to the vents and meet at her chin to form a guard, while continuing up and back to frame the sides of her helm and cover her audials. A little antenna pokes upward from behind her left audial. Armor flares around her neck to form a protective collar.
A couple of the curved fan blades of her alt poke out of her back. Another couple extend upwards from her broad shoulders, framing her helm between them. These joints are reinforced and robust, perfect for wrangling strays. Her upper arms are relatively slim, however her forearms are thick and densely armored aside from a trio of metallic rods that extend past her elbows, interconnected in places with a wire-frame mesh. Her hands are wide with four digits (plus thumb) to each. These taper somewhat but end in a blunt squared-off tip, the pads inside lined with a layer of soft, gripping material.
Her chest is somewhat barreled with smooth, curved, mid-level armor plating that splits in two further along the torso. Primary vents are tucked underneath this on either side, protected from dirt and debris. When her cassette, Bait, is docked, the plating seems to run almost seamlessly from below this into her hip pieces like a snug belt. When he is not, there is an obvious indent/gap between torso and hip, revealing a weak spot in her armor. At both her thighs are storage pockets, with an additional magnetic holster lock on the left-hand side. Much like her arms, her upper legs are slimmer relative to her pedes/calves. As is often the case, the back of her knees are exposed areas. Her pedes are slopped in a lazy curve ending in two ‘toes’, supported at the heel by another backwards facing ‘toe’.
While her paint is green, brownish and black, it has clearly seen better days. It is chipped and scratched to the pits in multiple places- not that any of it is visible under the layers of mud and miscellaneous other organic material that is usually plastered all over her between trips to the washracks. It is not out of the norm for seaweed or reeds to be dangling off her armor. The only visible biolights she has line her neck, her wrists and the plating beneath Bait’s docking area, seen only when he is not docked.
Altmode: ‘Armored’ Airboat - As seen here!
Pertinent History
Backwater and Bait were cold-constructed as part of the first generation of carrier-cassette partner “Wildmecha Officers” on Archon, one of Cybertron’s colony worlds. Built as guardians, managers and mediators of the planet’s rich fauna and flora, the pair and their cohorts took up their duty willingly enough. Made for the wilds, these pairs were built to survive roughing it in the woods while also dealing with some of the planet’s wildest creatures. Cassettes like Bait were equipped with potent venom to subdue but not harm, while the carriers were fitted with heavier armor in only the most crucial areas to have a lightweight, fuel efficient frame that could still protect them in a tussle.
As part of the subset of sea-able officers, Backwater, Bait and their squad spent a lot of time rotating between oil swamps/wetlands, speeding along tar-pitted beaches and surveying up along rivers inland- to name a few. About the same amount of time was spent dealing with the rich upper Caste-mechs breaking some rule or another, getting caught without a permit, or, occasionally, some action against poachers or even a mission to find a lost hunter. Not that any rich mech would get much more than a slap on the wrist for any grievances short of burning up a forest. The wildlife populations weren’t too high on the list of things Archon’s leaders cared about, and many of the officers didn’t care too much either.
At first, Backwater was one of the few that, at least, wanted accountability for laws broken. She was not impressed with the pansy city bots that spooked at an avian swooping down to peck at their shiny paint jobs, who had all the time and credits to purchase a trip to Archon and the best camping gear but not the common sense to use it correctly. At the end of every deployment she would get sent back to base in the nearest city-state for a short break before going on again. The crowded, polluted conditions, rotting accommodations that were all she could afford for those weeks and the constant noise would drag at her, and drain her until she couldn’t wait to get back to the wilds.
This is how one night, as Backwater tried to drown her miserable anger in back-alley Highgrade from a seedy bar, a Cybertronian mech approached her with a proposition. Acquire licenses and lead a hunting party for a rich offworlder who wanted a Dhrail as a trophy piece in their entry hall. While initially unwilling and suspicious, the femme was in a rough patch and needed the credit. Backwater led the hunt to success, got paid more than half a year’s work officially, and decided to throw everything to the pits. The wealthy would continue to abuse the system and break rules- she might as well cash in on it. So started a lucrative, slippery slope side-hustle. Alongside her official job, she would lead hunting parties into the wild with much success, and word spread around in just the right circles. Her business grew from trophy hunts to acquiring live, exotic mechanimals as pets for people stupid enough to buy them, which soon led her to taking trips back and forth between Cybertron to meet clients and deliver specimens. Using her foundations as a wildmecha officer, she slowly built up an arsenal of equipment and nifty little gadgets perfect for the tracking, trapping and killing of all sorts of critters. Backwater also learned to discern the scammers and backstabbing customers from the ‘trustworthy’ lot. Eventually, with various unpleasant dealings under her belt she came to develop a tenet- if something is too clean, too nice, it is too good to be true and suspicious as the pits.
Then, the Rust Plague hit. Backwater and Bait were on Cybertron for business when word first spread, and rather than go back to Archon she decided to stay- giving up not only her official job but also a large portion of her side-hustling in the name of self-preservation. She managed to rebuild most of her work by refocusing on the dealing of mechanimals and other creatures, rather than the acquiring thereof. It was far less pleasant, and as she came into contact with more and more sleazy “rich, city-slickers”, the more cynical she became. Eventually, tensions rose, overboiled, and the War broke out. Backwater spared no time in enlisting with the Decepticons. and from there became a Seacon scout offworld. Already a small division she quickly moved on to lieutenancy and stayed there, snug in the position. They had few major battles as most fighting stayed on Cybertron in the early years, but after some time and a couple bad Autobot Air Raids, the Seacons ceased overt operations and were instead scattered and put to use by other battalions.
She was stationed at a refueling outpost in the Far Reaches when Exodus occurred, and only just managed to call on some old favours from her black-market days to get herself and Bait out of there before it ran dry. From there she planet-hopped, and eventually made her way to a more functional outpost where, in time, she managed to get into contact with the Decepticon forces on Earth.
Personality
Backwater is infuriating. She always seems to have smug smirk on her faceplates and a stupid, witty remark on her tongue. She seemingly doesn’t care about anything much at all, besides Bait, a good scrap and their continued survival. The only respect she shows goes towards Decepticon High command and the forces of nature. BW will push far past the line just to get a reaction, and then laugh at the fallout. She doesn’t seem to consider consequences and pulls risky maneuvers within her missions constantly. The truth however, is that she is deeply dissatisfied with most other Cybertronians. Anger with society turned into cynicism long ago, expressed through her happy-go-lucky carelessness and disinterest. The number of friends she’s had over the course of her life can be counted on her fingers, and it takes a lot of scrap tolerance and patience to figure her out enough to see where all of her attitude comes from. Safe to say, few Decepticons were up to the task.
Likes: Getting down and dirty, hunting, sweet sweet credits, joyrides through marshes, Bait and his adorable face, mapping out new areas, new challenges, tracking mud everywhere, tormenting Knock Out whenever she possibly can.
Dislikes: Wide open waters, crazy rough waves/water, being landlocked with no water, flight, vanity, anything too clean- too easy or too nice, scammers, indecisive buyers, stale-boring-uninteresting things, staying in one place too long, pansy-aft city-slickers.
Strengths
Physical
Survival of the Fittest: Backwater is built to last out in the wilds and wrangle the occasional critter. To such an end, she has a few adaptations:
I’m (on) a Boat!: BW is water-resistant, more so in alt than in rootmode. She is able to shutter her vents closed against dirt/water. Her innards are a bit better insulated against water than the average cybertronian, and so long as the water isn’t boiling/freezing/the lining isn’t breached, she could possibly stay submerged for as long as her energon lasts. Salt and other various bits of debris can still be a problem however, so every so often she does get a good rinse/scrub down before going straight back to the mud. Fun fact, she also floats.
The belt of many doodads: Over her years of trapping/hunting/collecting for the blackmarket and rich mecha, BW has developed a small arsenal of various little gadgets. Only a few she keeps on her person- most are kept in Bait’s subspace pockets.
Mental
Do not mistake me: Backwater may seem the dumb, carefree type- and most of the time she is because she simply doesn’t care enough otherwise. Hiding under that red visor however, are the sharp optics of a scout. Always observing, noting the little things for later (not to mention her slithery companion keeping a silent lookout as well). Her cunning and intellect are hidden well by her dumbaftery.
Oil and Water: She can take what she dishes out tenfold, and it can be infuriating for others to see all their insults slide off her plating without leaving a scratch. It has to be truly horrible to get a reaction out of her, in a weird almost boundless version of ‘professionalism’.
I will Survive: Her will is almost as hard as her head, getting her to quit is almost impossible and her stubborn resolve to live is formidable.
Weaknesses
Physical
Airboat =/= All-terrain Vehicle: While Backwater would argue otherwise, her alt is not equipped with four-wheel drive. While relatively short distances on flatish dry land can easily be covered, she won’t be going for rides in dense woods anytime soon. Snow and ice-covered landscapes are, however, quite feasible if they are smooth/flat-ish and barren. Water remains the best medium for her success, though. You won’t be seeing her cruising down the highway anytime soon.
Selective Armor: Only high-contact and crucial parts of Bac’s frame are armored, rated medium-grade. The large patches of lighter armor are more prevalent in rootmode, as in altmode they are tucked away inside. They include her thighs, lower half of her torso, lower back and waist when Bait is not docked, and upper arms. The rods and wireframe mesh that make up her fan cage are relatively the weakest part of her altmode’s sturdier-armored shell.
Mud Gremlin: She’s short, and stockier than your average scout. She isn’t particularly lithe nor agile either. Being small has its advantages, but it also has its disadvantages. The ‘mud’ part comes from her preferred state of ‘covered head to pede in dirt’. Some may mistake this as lack of hygiene, but she is actually quite meticulous and routine with her cleaning out of necessity. The price to pay for being dirty is the real danger that something may get into her joints and jam, causing damage to finer internal mechanisms. Her fans in particular are susceptible to damage if even the tiniest rock gets lodged in their housing, or too many weeds wrap around their down rod- which could snowball into a total engine blowout. Not to mention that these conditions are perfect for rust if not properly taken care of.
Noise complaint who?: Sneaky in rootmode, definitely not in alt. The faster she goes the louder the whirring, choppy, gale-force-winds howl of her fans gets.
Slow Guns: Backwater’s pneumatic pistol takes time to recompress air into its reservoir if it is depleted, and ammo needs to be reloaded individually after each shot.
Bait and switch: Bait carries the majority of the darts in his own subspace pockets. Useful for when he’s docked, but a dangerous hassle when they are separated in the field, as Backwater only keeps 3 of the sedative darts on her at any given moment.
Throw hands: Most of BW’s tricks are medium-ranged or traps set ahead of time. She rather be prepared and know her terrain to trip-up her opponent than face them directly, because she knows she’s at a disadvantage there. Hand to hand is not a strong suit.
Mental
Me and the Deep Blue Sea: Backwater definitely has some minor form of Thalassophobia, or fear of the ocean/sea. She doesn’t like being without the cover of a shoreline, and hesitates to leave its sight. Rough waves and waters where her sonar is too disrupted for a proper reading are her worst nightmare (besides being shiny-clean).
Ba(i)ted Breath: Bait was cold-forged side-by-side his carrier as an extension of Backwater’s very spark. They are linked on levels beyond any usual bond, and if BW were to lose him… well. She could probably function, but she’d be a husk of who she once was- unable to cope with the gaping hole in her spark and processor where her cassette thrived. It was once said Bait is the only thing BW really, truly cares about, and that’s about right.
Backwater will drop whatever she is doing and throw hands with friend and foe alike when it comes to protecting him, hardwired as his protector and care-giver as she is- failing this, she will plot revenge.
Self-centered, sufficient: BW is quite bitter and misanthropic with her fellow Cybertornians. Her base-line view of others is ‘unimpressive unless proven otherwise’. As a result, she comes off as quite self-centered, smug and confrontational. She loves to push others’ buttons and bait them into anger, and her targets of torment are carefully chosen to get the full effect.
Special Skills
I’m Baregrills: Backwater is quite literally built to be a survivalist. More than that however, she has the traits and skills that come with it. She is resourceful, quick-thinking and adaptable. She can field dress wounds (enough so that you won’t leak to death), track like no one’s business and is quite knowledgeable about different terrains/areas. She does her homework once in a new location, learning as much as she can about the area and the things that live in it.
Extra Info (Cassette)
Name: Bait
Species: Somewhat-sentient Sea-snake Cassette
Purpose: Extra eyes and ears of Backwater, able to get in close when she cannot. Scouting ahead unseen, danger noodle, venomanator.
Appearance
Bait is a snake-like cassette, almost as long as Backwater is tall and at his thickest point is a bit more than a foot in diameter. His body is triangular in cross section, narrowing at the neck and thinning into a wide rudder-like fin at the tail. His ‘scales’ are green, while his stomach is sectioned off and black in colour, lined at intervals with biolights. His 5 eyes are glossy black, a pair on either side of his head with one inlaid in his forehead. Bait’s mouth opens into six, many-toothed mandibles. He has two sets of thick, triangular fangs (one on top and the other on bottom) while the rest of his jaws are lined with smaller, rear-facing teeth. Nestled in the back of his mouth there is a metal-shredding, many-layered many toothed grinder. When he is particularly irate, he may drool a little yellow venom. Two sensors jut out at the corner of his month, followed behind by something that resembles a short, cobra’s neck flare. These can be folded in for the sake of aerodynamics when swimming.
Altmode
He docks around Backwater’s waist as part of her hip plating, flattening out a little and locking into place by compressing his body around her twice. When docked, he is almost seamless and, unless you know where to look, indistinguishable from BW’s actual armor. In BW’s altmode, he forms part of the cab and engine case. He can be deployed and keep pace in the water beside his carrier, but it leaves a vulnerable empty spot in her engine’s plating.
Pertinent History
Bait was forged as a part of Backwater. He’s slithered himself and his carrier out of many a difficult situation, and has constantly been at BW’s side.
Personality
Bait is a Hardware Cassette, sentient but not sapient. While independent in his movements and decisions, he is able to follow simple directives like wait, follow, strike, scout etc. Say if BW tells him to ‘watch ahead’, he’ll go scout as stealthily as he can. If someone is coming towards them, or he comes across something that is unusual to the area (i.e. if something stands out to his senses in a manner that is not consistent with what he was reading before, like say a cybertronian ship in the middle of a forest) he will flag his carrier to let her know. He would only be able to recognize the basic aspects of what he’s flagging and can’t understand abstract concepts as a whole (i. e. a big metal thing vs crashed cybertronian cargo ship). This can lead to mixups, especially in new places where everything is unknown and to be explored- but that’s why he’s so curious.
Otherwise, he’s fiercely protective of his carrier and loyal only to her. Bait likes observing things from dark corners of the room, and often gets into places that one would’ve thought impossible for him to get into. He often gives the impression of a silent, somber, possibly-in-recharge feather boa draped around BW’s neck. He can come off as lazy and disinterested, staying curled up on the top of a shelf for days on end if there is no reason for him to be going anywhere. He has gotten himself stuck in trees in the past, simply because something caught his interest at the top.
Likes: Head scritches, a good chase, spooking bots, Backwater, swimming, eating the occasional scraplet, sunny patches to bask in.
Dislikes: Strangers getting too close, vast open spaces without cover, being separated from BW for too long, mecha who tower over him, threats to BW, avians.
Strengths/Weapons
Ssstealthy Noodle: Bait is virtually silent when he slithers, and can blend in well with the shadows of his surroundings- this works best of course in places with a lot of ground cover. The placement of his optics (most notably, one on the top of his head) and their ability to see into the infrared spectrum at a range of 10-13 meters, as well as in low light conditions, are perfect for scouting and looking out for possible targets on land and in the water.
Toxic Noodle: Bait produces a system-affecting venom that is administered via biting and is used to make Backwater’s darts. Without tampering, this venom acts like a stronger sedative dart. He can control how much he releases, but a solid bite with a complete injected dose is enough to affect a medium-large bot for 5-10 minutes, depending on their metabolism. It varies quite a bit from individual to individual.
The bite itself is a quick strike, giving just enough time for the grinder to work into the target’s mesh and allow for administration of the venom. Sometimes, depending on the size of the mecha and if he hit a good spot, multiple strikes may be needed, and other times he will hold onto his victim. The bite itself can pierce medium armor.
Pool Noodle: Bait is a very strong swimmer. He can keep up with Backwater’s alt with a bit of effort, and is as resistant as she to the water. The same strength that allows this speed and endurance allows him to coil around the arms or legs of a bot if need be, and possibly crush lighter armor.
Hunting Noodle: Much like Backwater, Bait is equipped with robust filters and an additional metal shredding grinder to consume other mechanimals. Once eaten, the body is completely processed and supplements added to Bait’s preserves to aid in venom manufacturing. However, he is vulnerable in this state and prefers to remain docked until the meal has been processed. In the absence of mechanimals, BW either gets him scrap-metal treats or he feeds off of his carrier’s mineral reserves.
Keen Sssenses: Bait will always know where BW is in relation to him, and is rarely ever lost. Stuck, however, yes. Fairly often. In places Backwater doesn’t even know how he gets to.
Weaknesses
[: Bait is a snake. A smart snake, but a snake nonetheless. He cannot speak, but he does hiss if something he doesn’t like occurs. His form of communication is an enigma only his carrier is privileged to know, and to others he appears an emotionless drone.
Ssspaghetti: He is about as long as Backwater is tall, if a bit longer, and while thicker than most would think (especially around the middle), he is still delicate in the sense that he could be severely damaged if a large enough bot were to step on him. His dorsal armor is the same as his carriers (about medium), but along his sides and his stomach it is thinner and lighter. His tail-fin is an especially fragile part, without which he can not swim nearly as well.
Ssslowpoke: His slithering speed is relatively slower than his swimming one. Slower than a bot’s run or jog, especially if he is on a slippery surface.
Sssupplements: Bait needs certain mineral supplements in order to produce his venom. If he goes without long enough that his reserves run dry, he will cease venom production until he gets his supplements once more. Prolonged dry-spells can actually cause him harm and helm pain, as well as be detrimental to his teeth as the nanites help with upkeep. He used to get these from mechanimals and scrap-metal, but might have to make do with whatever BW can scrounge up for him in the future, lest he be forced to constantly dip into her own small in-case-of-emergency reserves. Once her’s run dry, they’re really in trouble.
Dynamic Duosss: Backwater needs Bait, and Bait needs Backwater. Bait would not make it if anything were to happen to his carrier, and he depends on her for his continued survival. He can’t go more than a day or two without docking, if not for energon then just for the defragging necessary for his processor after such periods of time.
Name/Alias: Agrimony
IM/Email: dm me ^^
CHARACTER INFO
Name: Backwater “Bac”
Age: Late 20s - Mental Equivalent
Gender: Femme.
Species: Cybertronian.
Faction: Decepticon
Original Occupation: Wildlife Officer
Occupation/Specialization: Seacon/Marine Lieutenant - due to lack of Seacons, currently acts as Scout.
Appearance
Height: Midway between Bumblebee and Arachnid
Optics/Biolights: Backwater’s optics are dual-toned, lime-green ‘pupils’ surrounded by a duller, darker green ‘iris’, set in the blackness of the optic cavity. While muted, few and far between, her biolights are a dim, dull green.
Colours: Mostly 2 or 3 different shades of matte green and khaki brown, her colour palette fits right in with a swamp.
Build: While on the smaller and stockier side, Backwater is of a standard frame model. Her helm is akin to a baseball cap, with a short brim extending out the front and shading her faceplate. Her optics are hidden by a dark red visor that only covers half her face and locks into a ‘track’ along the bottom of the brim and the plates behind her audials to either side. Secondary vents are inset along her jawline and temples, continuing under the visor. Two lengths of armor run parallel to the vents and meet at her chin to form a guard, while continuing up and back to frame the sides of her helm and cover her audials. A little antenna pokes upward from behind her left audial. Armor flares around her neck to form a protective collar.
A couple of the curved fan blades of her alt poke out of her back. Another couple extend upwards from her broad shoulders, framing her helm between them. These joints are reinforced and robust, perfect for wrangling strays. Her upper arms are relatively slim, however her forearms are thick and densely armored aside from a trio of metallic rods that extend past her elbows, interconnected in places with a wire-frame mesh. Her hands are wide with four digits (plus thumb) to each. These taper somewhat but end in a blunt squared-off tip, the pads inside lined with a layer of soft, gripping material.
Her chest is somewhat barreled with smooth, curved, mid-level armor plating that splits in two further along the torso. Primary vents are tucked underneath this on either side, protected from dirt and debris. When her cassette, Bait, is docked, the plating seems to run almost seamlessly from below this into her hip pieces like a snug belt. When he is not, there is an obvious indent/gap between torso and hip, revealing a weak spot in her armor. At both her thighs are storage pockets, with an additional magnetic holster lock on the left-hand side. Much like her arms, her upper legs are slimmer relative to her pedes/calves. As is often the case, the back of her knees are exposed areas. Her pedes are slopped in a lazy curve ending in two ‘toes’, supported at the heel by another backwards facing ‘toe’.
While her paint is green, brownish and black, it has clearly seen better days. It is chipped and scratched to the pits in multiple places- not that any of it is visible under the layers of mud and miscellaneous other organic material that is usually plastered all over her between trips to the washracks. It is not out of the norm for seaweed or reeds to be dangling off her armor. The only visible biolights she has line her neck, her wrists and the plating beneath Bait’s docking area, seen only when he is not docked.
Altmode: ‘Armored’ Airboat - As seen here!
Pertinent History
Backwater and Bait were cold-constructed as part of the first generation of carrier-cassette partner “Wildmecha Officers” on Archon, one of Cybertron’s colony worlds. Built as guardians, managers and mediators of the planet’s rich fauna and flora, the pair and their cohorts took up their duty willingly enough. Made for the wilds, these pairs were built to survive roughing it in the woods while also dealing with some of the planet’s wildest creatures. Cassettes like Bait were equipped with potent venom to subdue but not harm, while the carriers were fitted with heavier armor in only the most crucial areas to have a lightweight, fuel efficient frame that could still protect them in a tussle.
As part of the subset of sea-able officers, Backwater, Bait and their squad spent a lot of time rotating between oil swamps/wetlands, speeding along tar-pitted beaches and surveying up along rivers inland- to name a few. About the same amount of time was spent dealing with the rich upper Caste-mechs breaking some rule or another, getting caught without a permit, or, occasionally, some action against poachers or even a mission to find a lost hunter. Not that any rich mech would get much more than a slap on the wrist for any grievances short of burning up a forest. The wildlife populations weren’t too high on the list of things Archon’s leaders cared about, and many of the officers didn’t care too much either.
At first, Backwater was one of the few that, at least, wanted accountability for laws broken. She was not impressed with the pansy city bots that spooked at an avian swooping down to peck at their shiny paint jobs, who had all the time and credits to purchase a trip to Archon and the best camping gear but not the common sense to use it correctly. At the end of every deployment she would get sent back to base in the nearest city-state for a short break before going on again. The crowded, polluted conditions, rotting accommodations that were all she could afford for those weeks and the constant noise would drag at her, and drain her until she couldn’t wait to get back to the wilds.
This is how one night, as Backwater tried to drown her miserable anger in back-alley Highgrade from a seedy bar, a Cybertronian mech approached her with a proposition. Acquire licenses and lead a hunting party for a rich offworlder who wanted a Dhrail as a trophy piece in their entry hall. While initially unwilling and suspicious, the femme was in a rough patch and needed the credit. Backwater led the hunt to success, got paid more than half a year’s work officially, and decided to throw everything to the pits. The wealthy would continue to abuse the system and break rules- she might as well cash in on it. So started a lucrative, slippery slope side-hustle. Alongside her official job, she would lead hunting parties into the wild with much success, and word spread around in just the right circles. Her business grew from trophy hunts to acquiring live, exotic mechanimals as pets for people stupid enough to buy them, which soon led her to taking trips back and forth between Cybertron to meet clients and deliver specimens. Using her foundations as a wildmecha officer, she slowly built up an arsenal of equipment and nifty little gadgets perfect for the tracking, trapping and killing of all sorts of critters. Backwater also learned to discern the scammers and backstabbing customers from the ‘trustworthy’ lot. Eventually, with various unpleasant dealings under her belt she came to develop a tenet- if something is too clean, too nice, it is too good to be true and suspicious as the pits.
Then, the Rust Plague hit. Backwater and Bait were on Cybertron for business when word first spread, and rather than go back to Archon she decided to stay- giving up not only her official job but also a large portion of her side-hustling in the name of self-preservation. She managed to rebuild most of her work by refocusing on the dealing of mechanimals and other creatures, rather than the acquiring thereof. It was far less pleasant, and as she came into contact with more and more sleazy “rich, city-slickers”, the more cynical she became. Eventually, tensions rose, overboiled, and the War broke out. Backwater spared no time in enlisting with the Decepticons. and from there became a Seacon scout offworld. Already a small division she quickly moved on to lieutenancy and stayed there, snug in the position. They had few major battles as most fighting stayed on Cybertron in the early years, but after some time and a couple bad Autobot Air Raids, the Seacons ceased overt operations and were instead scattered and put to use by other battalions.
She was stationed at a refueling outpost in the Far Reaches when Exodus occurred, and only just managed to call on some old favours from her black-market days to get herself and Bait out of there before it ran dry. From there she planet-hopped, and eventually made her way to a more functional outpost where, in time, she managed to get into contact with the Decepticon forces on Earth.
Personality
Backwater is infuriating. She always seems to have smug smirk on her faceplates and a stupid, witty remark on her tongue. She seemingly doesn’t care about anything much at all, besides Bait, a good scrap and their continued survival. The only respect she shows goes towards Decepticon High command and the forces of nature. BW will push far past the line just to get a reaction, and then laugh at the fallout. She doesn’t seem to consider consequences and pulls risky maneuvers within her missions constantly. The truth however, is that she is deeply dissatisfied with most other Cybertronians. Anger with society turned into cynicism long ago, expressed through her happy-go-lucky carelessness and disinterest. The number of friends she’s had over the course of her life can be counted on her fingers, and it takes a lot of scrap tolerance and patience to figure her out enough to see where all of her attitude comes from. Safe to say, few Decepticons were up to the task.
Likes: Getting down and dirty, hunting, sweet sweet credits, joyrides through marshes, Bait and his adorable face, mapping out new areas, new challenges, tracking mud everywhere, tormenting Knock Out whenever she possibly can.
Dislikes: Wide open waters, crazy rough waves/water, being landlocked with no water, flight, vanity, anything too clean- too easy or too nice, scammers, indecisive buyers, stale-boring-uninteresting things, staying in one place too long, pansy-aft city-slickers.
Strengths
Physical
Survival of the Fittest: Backwater is built to last out in the wilds and wrangle the occasional critter. To such an end, she has a few adaptations:
- Good Grip: Her grip is strong and intended for catching wiggly (usually wet) animals when the need arises, so as such the pads of her digits and palms are lined with a thin layer of rubbery material. They’re worn down now as they haven’t been replaced since the start of the war.
- The mileage on this: Her frame is made to be efficient, trading in armor for a lighter frame that consumes less energon. She is equipped with a secondary tank, smaller than her primary one. When Bait is docked, his systems align with his carrier’s, and he can essentially go into stasis until more energon is available if they’re really in a bad spot. Additionally, her filters are particularly robust in the eventuality of consuming energon from uh, second-hand sources.
I’m (on) a Boat!: BW is water-resistant, more so in alt than in rootmode. She is able to shutter her vents closed against dirt/water. Her innards are a bit better insulated against water than the average cybertronian, and so long as the water isn’t boiling/freezing/the lining isn’t breached, she could possibly stay submerged for as long as her energon lasts. Salt and other various bits of debris can still be a problem however, so every so often she does get a good rinse/scrub down before going straight back to the mud. Fun fact, she also floats.
The belt of many doodads: Over her years of trapping/hunting/collecting for the blackmarket and rich mecha, BW has developed a small arsenal of various little gadgets. Only a few she keeps on her person- most are kept in Bait’s subspace pockets.
- Shock net: Small though it may be, this weighted net can be thrown like bola, entangling the legs or arms of other bots. The cabling is strong enough that standard, medium-sized bots shouldn’t be able to rip it apart barehanded. A 7 meter long, insulated handline connects the solar-charged battery pack and handle to the center of the net, so that it resembles a casting net. It has one 2-3 second shock per charge, which can send small creatures into stasis and give mecha a nasty jolt. It can be used as part of a trap, either by laying it down ahead of time and arming it or actually using it as a cast net. It is stored in her right thigh compartment. It can be rendered useless by destroying the battery pack.
- Airsoft pro: Her gun is a pre-charged pneumatic pistol. Each ‘charge’ lasts about 5 shots before she needs to let it replenish its compressed air reservoir. It is not a rapid fire weapon- each bit of ammo needs to be reloaded individually. It can be equipped with a scope she keeps in her left thigh compartment, along with the darts she keeps on her person. As an airgun, it is not as loud as other guns. It is magnetically holstered to her thigh, right beside the left compartment. Its maximum effective range is about 90 meters- the longer the distance the less accurate the aim as darts drop and lose speed. For shots over 55-60 meters the scope is almost a necessity.
- Darts: Two kinds, with varying dosages and quantities of each. She is able to make the mixtures and darts if she loses them or runs out, but it takes a while and it’s easier to just recycle them. These darts work by latching onto a bot’s armor magnetically and then digging into it with little barbs. The bigger the bot, the more likely the effect will be localized and BW will have to aim for a weak spot for anything to properly be administered. The duration depends on the victim’s metabolic systems and size, so it can vary between individuals. None should be fatal.
- Sedative: 6 darts- 3 medium and 3 small doses. They make the target’s movements sluggish and lethargic. At full dose, the effect lasts 10-15ish minutes.
- Paralytic: 3 darts- 1 medium and 2 small doses. Targets non-essential motor systems and shutting them down temporarily, the larger the target the more localized the effect. At full dose, the effect lasts 5-10ish minutes.
Common side-effects last for a further 5-10 minutes, and those are processor aches and numbness in the extremities affected. Both mixtures are based on Bait’s venom, and while BW does carry a dose of neutralizer on her, she rarely uses it. - You call that a knife?: Kept in the same compartment as the scope and 3 sedative darts, this cybertronian swiss-army tool has gotten BW and Bait out of many binds in the past. It is one of those tools that folds open into a pair of pliers, and a few other tools such as a small energon-laser knife, a small saw, a small wrench and a flint stick are tucked into the handles. It is about hand sized, and is well-worn with use. The knife can pierce light armor and can be jabbed into joints in a pinch.
Mental
Do not mistake me: Backwater may seem the dumb, carefree type- and most of the time she is because she simply doesn’t care enough otherwise. Hiding under that red visor however, are the sharp optics of a scout. Always observing, noting the little things for later (not to mention her slithery companion keeping a silent lookout as well). Her cunning and intellect are hidden well by her dumbaftery.
Oil and Water: She can take what she dishes out tenfold, and it can be infuriating for others to see all their insults slide off her plating without leaving a scratch. It has to be truly horrible to get a reaction out of her, in a weird almost boundless version of ‘professionalism’.
I will Survive: Her will is almost as hard as her head, getting her to quit is almost impossible and her stubborn resolve to live is formidable.
Weaknesses
Physical
Airboat =/= All-terrain Vehicle: While Backwater would argue otherwise, her alt is not equipped with four-wheel drive. While relatively short distances on flatish dry land can easily be covered, she won’t be going for rides in dense woods anytime soon. Snow and ice-covered landscapes are, however, quite feasible if they are smooth/flat-ish and barren. Water remains the best medium for her success, though. You won’t be seeing her cruising down the highway anytime soon.
Selective Armor: Only high-contact and crucial parts of Bac’s frame are armored, rated medium-grade. The large patches of lighter armor are more prevalent in rootmode, as in altmode they are tucked away inside. They include her thighs, lower half of her torso, lower back and waist when Bait is not docked, and upper arms. The rods and wireframe mesh that make up her fan cage are relatively the weakest part of her altmode’s sturdier-armored shell.
Mud Gremlin: She’s short, and stockier than your average scout. She isn’t particularly lithe nor agile either. Being small has its advantages, but it also has its disadvantages. The ‘mud’ part comes from her preferred state of ‘covered head to pede in dirt’. Some may mistake this as lack of hygiene, but she is actually quite meticulous and routine with her cleaning out of necessity. The price to pay for being dirty is the real danger that something may get into her joints and jam, causing damage to finer internal mechanisms. Her fans in particular are susceptible to damage if even the tiniest rock gets lodged in their housing, or too many weeds wrap around their down rod- which could snowball into a total engine blowout. Not to mention that these conditions are perfect for rust if not properly taken care of.
Noise complaint who?: Sneaky in rootmode, definitely not in alt. The faster she goes the louder the whirring, choppy, gale-force-winds howl of her fans gets.
Slow Guns: Backwater’s pneumatic pistol takes time to recompress air into its reservoir if it is depleted, and ammo needs to be reloaded individually after each shot.
Bait and switch: Bait carries the majority of the darts in his own subspace pockets. Useful for when he’s docked, but a dangerous hassle when they are separated in the field, as Backwater only keeps 3 of the sedative darts on her at any given moment.
Throw hands: Most of BW’s tricks are medium-ranged or traps set ahead of time. She rather be prepared and know her terrain to trip-up her opponent than face them directly, because she knows she’s at a disadvantage there. Hand to hand is not a strong suit.
Mental
Me and the Deep Blue Sea: Backwater definitely has some minor form of Thalassophobia, or fear of the ocean/sea. She doesn’t like being without the cover of a shoreline, and hesitates to leave its sight. Rough waves and waters where her sonar is too disrupted for a proper reading are her worst nightmare (besides being shiny-clean).
Ba(i)ted Breath: Bait was cold-forged side-by-side his carrier as an extension of Backwater’s very spark. They are linked on levels beyond any usual bond, and if BW were to lose him… well. She could probably function, but she’d be a husk of who she once was- unable to cope with the gaping hole in her spark and processor where her cassette thrived. It was once said Bait is the only thing BW really, truly cares about, and that’s about right.
Backwater will drop whatever she is doing and throw hands with friend and foe alike when it comes to protecting him, hardwired as his protector and care-giver as she is- failing this, she will plot revenge.
Self-centered, sufficient: BW is quite bitter and misanthropic with her fellow Cybertornians. Her base-line view of others is ‘unimpressive unless proven otherwise’. As a result, she comes off as quite self-centered, smug and confrontational. She loves to push others’ buttons and bait them into anger, and her targets of torment are carefully chosen to get the full effect.
Special Skills
I’m Baregrills: Backwater is quite literally built to be a survivalist. More than that however, she has the traits and skills that come with it. She is resourceful, quick-thinking and adaptable. She can field dress wounds (enough so that you won’t leak to death), track like no one’s business and is quite knowledgeable about different terrains/areas. She does her homework once in a new location, learning as much as she can about the area and the things that live in it.
Extra Info (Cassette)
Name: Bait
Species: Somewhat-sentient Sea-snake Cassette
Purpose: Extra eyes and ears of Backwater, able to get in close when she cannot. Scouting ahead unseen, danger noodle, venomanator.
Appearance
Bait is a snake-like cassette, almost as long as Backwater is tall and at his thickest point is a bit more than a foot in diameter. His body is triangular in cross section, narrowing at the neck and thinning into a wide rudder-like fin at the tail. His ‘scales’ are green, while his stomach is sectioned off and black in colour, lined at intervals with biolights. His 5 eyes are glossy black, a pair on either side of his head with one inlaid in his forehead. Bait’s mouth opens into six, many-toothed mandibles. He has two sets of thick, triangular fangs (one on top and the other on bottom) while the rest of his jaws are lined with smaller, rear-facing teeth. Nestled in the back of his mouth there is a metal-shredding, many-layered many toothed grinder. When he is particularly irate, he may drool a little yellow venom. Two sensors jut out at the corner of his month, followed behind by something that resembles a short, cobra’s neck flare. These can be folded in for the sake of aerodynamics when swimming.
Altmode
He docks around Backwater’s waist as part of her hip plating, flattening out a little and locking into place by compressing his body around her twice. When docked, he is almost seamless and, unless you know where to look, indistinguishable from BW’s actual armor. In BW’s altmode, he forms part of the cab and engine case. He can be deployed and keep pace in the water beside his carrier, but it leaves a vulnerable empty spot in her engine’s plating.
Pertinent History
Bait was forged as a part of Backwater. He’s slithered himself and his carrier out of many a difficult situation, and has constantly been at BW’s side.
Personality
Bait is a Hardware Cassette, sentient but not sapient. While independent in his movements and decisions, he is able to follow simple directives like wait, follow, strike, scout etc. Say if BW tells him to ‘watch ahead’, he’ll go scout as stealthily as he can. If someone is coming towards them, or he comes across something that is unusual to the area (i.e. if something stands out to his senses in a manner that is not consistent with what he was reading before, like say a cybertronian ship in the middle of a forest) he will flag his carrier to let her know. He would only be able to recognize the basic aspects of what he’s flagging and can’t understand abstract concepts as a whole (i. e. a big metal thing vs crashed cybertronian cargo ship). This can lead to mixups, especially in new places where everything is unknown and to be explored- but that’s why he’s so curious.
Otherwise, he’s fiercely protective of his carrier and loyal only to her. Bait likes observing things from dark corners of the room, and often gets into places that one would’ve thought impossible for him to get into. He often gives the impression of a silent, somber, possibly-in-recharge feather boa draped around BW’s neck. He can come off as lazy and disinterested, staying curled up on the top of a shelf for days on end if there is no reason for him to be going anywhere. He has gotten himself stuck in trees in the past, simply because something caught his interest at the top.
Likes: Head scritches, a good chase, spooking bots, Backwater, swimming, eating the occasional scraplet, sunny patches to bask in.
Dislikes: Strangers getting too close, vast open spaces without cover, being separated from BW for too long, mecha who tower over him, threats to BW, avians.
Strengths/Weapons
Ssstealthy Noodle: Bait is virtually silent when he slithers, and can blend in well with the shadows of his surroundings- this works best of course in places with a lot of ground cover. The placement of his optics (most notably, one on the top of his head) and their ability to see into the infrared spectrum at a range of 10-13 meters, as well as in low light conditions, are perfect for scouting and looking out for possible targets on land and in the water.
Toxic Noodle: Bait produces a system-affecting venom that is administered via biting and is used to make Backwater’s darts. Without tampering, this venom acts like a stronger sedative dart. He can control how much he releases, but a solid bite with a complete injected dose is enough to affect a medium-large bot for 5-10 minutes, depending on their metabolism. It varies quite a bit from individual to individual.
The bite itself is a quick strike, giving just enough time for the grinder to work into the target’s mesh and allow for administration of the venom. Sometimes, depending on the size of the mecha and if he hit a good spot, multiple strikes may be needed, and other times he will hold onto his victim. The bite itself can pierce medium armor.
Pool Noodle: Bait is a very strong swimmer. He can keep up with Backwater’s alt with a bit of effort, and is as resistant as she to the water. The same strength that allows this speed and endurance allows him to coil around the arms or legs of a bot if need be, and possibly crush lighter armor.
Hunting Noodle: Much like Backwater, Bait is equipped with robust filters and an additional metal shredding grinder to consume other mechanimals. Once eaten, the body is completely processed and supplements added to Bait’s preserves to aid in venom manufacturing. However, he is vulnerable in this state and prefers to remain docked until the meal has been processed. In the absence of mechanimals, BW either gets him scrap-metal treats or he feeds off of his carrier’s mineral reserves.
Keen Sssenses: Bait will always know where BW is in relation to him, and is rarely ever lost. Stuck, however, yes. Fairly often. In places Backwater doesn’t even know how he gets to.
Weaknesses
[: Bait is a snake. A smart snake, but a snake nonetheless. He cannot speak, but he does hiss if something he doesn’t like occurs. His form of communication is an enigma only his carrier is privileged to know, and to others he appears an emotionless drone.
Ssspaghetti: He is about as long as Backwater is tall, if a bit longer, and while thicker than most would think (especially around the middle), he is still delicate in the sense that he could be severely damaged if a large enough bot were to step on him. His dorsal armor is the same as his carriers (about medium), but along his sides and his stomach it is thinner and lighter. His tail-fin is an especially fragile part, without which he can not swim nearly as well.
Ssslowpoke: His slithering speed is relatively slower than his swimming one. Slower than a bot’s run or jog, especially if he is on a slippery surface.
Sssupplements: Bait needs certain mineral supplements in order to produce his venom. If he goes without long enough that his reserves run dry, he will cease venom production until he gets his supplements once more. Prolonged dry-spells can actually cause him harm and helm pain, as well as be detrimental to his teeth as the nanites help with upkeep. He used to get these from mechanimals and scrap-metal, but might have to make do with whatever BW can scrounge up for him in the future, lest he be forced to constantly dip into her own small in-case-of-emergency reserves. Once her’s run dry, they’re really in trouble.
Dynamic Duosss: Backwater needs Bait, and Bait needs Backwater. Bait would not make it if anything were to happen to his carrier, and he depends on her for his continued survival. He can’t go more than a day or two without docking, if not for energon then just for the defragging necessary for his processor after such periods of time.