We are a literate, intermediate to advanced AU Transformers RPG Based off of the first season of TFP with dashes of other incarnations sprinkled here or there. Characters from any continuity are welcome however must be restyled to match the TFPrime universe.
Active, with ongoing plotlines, we are always willing to integrate new characters into storylines once incorporated into the setting.
Someone, Roulette thought, went to an awful lot of trouble to waste space on this ship. The quarters of plebeians such as herself were just tiny while the hallways were sprawling. She was sure Megatron's quarters were ridiculously lavish in comparison. Which led to the horrifying image of said War Lord in his room. She shuddered and sat up on the sturdy berth. Really, thinking of any of the ranking on the ship in their personal, leisure time was creepy.
In theory their leader could have some mundane hobby he turned to in his quiet time. Perhaps he even napped. But she couldn't actually picture him resting peacefully unless he was say, dreaming of a blood bath. And what the slag did Soundwave do in his spare time?
Right, like he has spare time. He'd just take someone's work if he ran out of his own. She derailed her train of thoughts before she could focus on the errant idea of him polishing his tentacles behind closed doors.
"I need a hobby," she muttered. If she was spending this much time thinking of what her superiors were doing in their own time, she surely needed to find something to fill her hours. Shoving herself off of the berth, she strode for the door and opened it with a easy pass of her hand.
Instead of a stupidly spacious corridor, there was a large, gaudy behemoth blocking her doorway and that freezing field settled over her like a blanket of snow. Roulette squalled in surprise and backpeddled far enough to abruptly sit on her berth.
It would have been partially incorrect to claim that Shockwave got any sort of emotional satisfaction out of sneaking up on a mech. The scientist did his best to go through each cycle as unemotionally as possible; emotion, after all, was a fog upon the purity of data. That being said, he well knew the effect his presence tended to have on most anymech not a senior officer, all the more so when it was a presence not expected. Forcing someone on a reactive footing at the very onset of a conversation was always a tactical advantage for any exchanges to follow.
Surely that was all it was.
Shockwave did not move. He did not need to. Nowhere within the femme's quarters could she move outside the vast, implacable presence of his field, the space allotted to her was a model of efficiency. And far too small for him to do more than stand outside her doorway.
It had been... satisfying to know of Roulette's presence on the Nemesis. She had done work for him while he'd remained in Cybertron and, while her behavior could at best be qualified as inefficiently cavalier, her results had always met or exceeded Shockwave's calculations. The femme also had a particularly illogical, but nonetheless successful, way about her that spurred others around her to better efforts on whatever task had been put to them. If she felt like spurring them.
Overall, she was a quantifiable asset that Shockwave could rely on for minor, unscientific chores. This was something he found himself sorely lacking at the moment. He had... hoped to find Roulette available so that he would not have to sacrifice work-time of his own.
"Oh, good, you're here. I am in need of your services."
Of course I'm here, you face-challenged freak! Roulette knew better than to actually say that to him even from the safety of her room. Which wasn't feeling all that safe at the moment. She resisted the urge to shut the door in his face. One-he was a senior officer and that would look bad. Two-he could probably just bypass the locks she put on there. And then there was three-he would just wait for her to open them again.
"Shockwave....how unexpected." She sat up on her berth and took great pains to act like this was where she had wanted to be all along. "If I had known you were looking for me, I would have taken great pains." To avoid him at all cost. But he knew that and accepted the nature of their relationship. Which was what galled Roulette more than anything. She was starting to suspect he enjoyed alienating her and that was extremely disturbing. Like Megatron napping like a kitten.
Unsurprisingly, Roulette did her seeming best to fall into the habitual behaviors she had exhibited around Shockwave before - namely, to act as if his presence were expected and welcomed, when in truth it was neither. The logic or reasoning behind such behavior escaped him, but it was at least a known variable.
He remained a perfect wall at her doorstep; if he did not try to make it into the room, it would not be obvious that the likelihood of such an enterprise being successful was minimal, at best.
"Your work for me in the past has been adequately successful, and I understand you are currently in possession of some minor downtime." The latter was important, as he was ever aware of Megatron's dictum that he not impose on the Nemesis' military resources. "I require your field expertise on a task that should not require much effort or involve undue risk."
I wonder just how much trouble would it bring if I shot him in the optic. Just the once, real quick. The scenario brought about the rather unfortunate likelihood of him surviving an attack and what he would do afterward. And that wasn't even counting what their fearless leader would do. Inwardly she cringed at the very idea of a angry ranking leader pointed in her direction. Such actions were not worth the risk.
While meandering down such thoughtful pathways, she almost missed what he was saying and caught the last part. What? No! This was her recovery time! He always did this!! Whatever control she had over her field shattered with a burst of pure irritation before she could get a hold of herself.
"Surely you have someone else on the ship you trust with your chores. A drone, perhaps. Two drones." She couldn't help but half-grin, "Starscream?"
Imagine, if you will, a deep and tranquil glacier lake. An inexorable press of both cold and weight, unmoved by anything around it. For the most part, that was the sense Shockwave's field could be likened too.
Putting out the Seeker's designation, particularly directed at him, was akin to dropping a very large boulder in. A single, powerful wave of emotion radiated from the big scientist; then both boulder and wave were gone without a trace.
Shockwave knew why she'd done it, to; he was logical, not naive. She did not like the scientist showing up at her doorway unannounced anymore than anymech would, and she had simply grabbed for the most immediate way to demonstrate her irritation. It was effective. It was also obvious; such blatancy tended to carry a heavy price among Decepticons. It would be only logical of him to exact said price, and the list of locations he'd meant for Roulette to examine underwent a swift mental rewriting.
"Drones do not have the open-minded capability to consider a potential situation as well as an active one." He did not dignify the mention of Starscream with a response. "You are currently in idleness, and aware of my perception of such a status. Are you aware of the General's view of it?"
He said nothing beyond that; he'd long found out that leaving a mech's imagination to conjure up a response to such things as what a combination of Megatron's opinion of idleness and Roulette's sitting on her shocks might bring.
She would have pointed out that drones were a pit of a lot more capable than most gave them credit for...but he didn't really need to know that. Oh, he probably had plenty of theories about the sub-set of workers but she wasn't going to be the one to actively direct his attention to them. It wasn't out of any keen feelings for the drones, either. She just liked being in their good graces if things should go sour.
At the mention of the general, she looked away to the wall and resisted the very strong urge to huff. Leave it to Shockwave to be a tattle-tell. Circumstances had not exactly put her in a favorable position as of late. Roulette was failing at blending in as a faceless Decepticon, and she had been caught "playing" with Autobots. So she didn't quite feel the need to test either of her superiors patience by calling Shockwave's bluff.
Which, if anyone knew Shockwave, was no bluff at all. Logically, of course, if he couldn't get her to do something he would have someone else get her to do something. For some stupid reason he was fixated on her being an important asset and if that wasn't proof of his insanity, Roulette didn't know what else could be.
"I try not to be aware of the General in my down town. I'm sure he'd appreciate the sentiment." Inwardly she cringed at her choice of words. One day she would have to stop trying to bait the giant, frigid wall standing outside of her door. "Just give me the slagging coordinates. I'm sure you can appreciate my need for a prompt leave."
It was reassuring to find that Roulette's need to maintain a certain level of anonymity had not faded despite whatever time and ventures might have passed since their last interaction. She was no more predictable than any other proxy of worth, but Shockwave could draw decent enough probabilistic predictions if he knew a few of her baseline behaviors remained unchanged.
He did her the courtesy of offering a dataslate, rather than a transmission of any kind. Most mechs did not like receiving such things from him, though the logic of it seemed grossly flawed; if he'd wanted to deliver harmful data, he would not risk decay or mutation, and he lacked the finesse necessary to minimize either - he would have used a hard line.
"Environmental interference has been recorded occasionally. It would be better if some means of nullifying it is found, but overall data gathering must remain unobstructed. As always, I will expect a report as to your findings." To signify his own interest in swiftness, he took a single, smooth half-step aside, just enough to let her pass out of her room without physical contact.
If he was satisfied or pleased in any way that his reference to their commander had lit a fire under her aft, it showed nowhere. He was surely above such petty responses anyways.
She wouldn't have taken the datasend if he had wanted her to. It was the principle of the matter! No self respecting mech just willingly took things from a scientist without a healthy dose of suspicion and fear. She'd no sooner take something from Soundwave if he'd offered it freely. Paranoia was the Decepticon way of life. That or she was growing increasingly crazy under pressure.
"I am ever in your service," she said as she stepped out of her room. It took considerable will power to not flinch away from him but she kept her stride smooth and didn't deviate. She nearly brushed against him and had to quell the urge to lunge away from him while squealing about her personal bubble. When she got back, she was going to hide in the very depths of the ship so she could get one measure of peace without his interfering!