Ep 1 - Idle Hands Are the Devil's Playthings (Open)

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Shockwave gave the screen the commands it required to begin production, before turning towards his guests. Guests, he’d long realized, didn’t really distract him; not for him the complains of others in the scientific field, of time lost to visitors, unwanted or otherwise. He well knew it was because he did not care for said guests as one was supposed to; he wasted no time or thought or effort on the social interactions that such situations were expected to provide. Those who said Shockwave had about as much social grace as a wall were not far off: he did indeed emulate the wall, by choice: he didn’t ignore social niceties, he just didn’t have them all. Science was mistress and god and devil and life and everything in between.

Not for an instant did that mean he was unaware of what it cost others around him to indulge said nuisance behavior. To become unaware would have been to invite destruction, and to be destroyed was to be rendered unable to engage his scientific pursuits; in that regard alone did Shockwave scheme.

Therefore, he found Roulette’s bland reply, as much as he could, pleasingly reminiscent of what his might have been. Whether she was interested in the quasi-Insecticon, and in what fashion, he would have to research through any further interactions the two might share.

“I have a loaded prototype multi-purpose extruder carrying heat-resistant ceramic mixtures that have proven unsuitable for my purposes. You may take it if Kickback’s offers prove unappealing, but I will require a full report on your activities and interactions within the Neutral Zone, including your subjective input on the site, its inhabitants and their interactions.” He pointed to the device, resting alongside several other, larger models.”

His attention returned to Kickback. “I am certain carefully detailed work was done to your shell and your mind, and likely to several internal functions critical to Insecticon survival. As you still function, such work was done with extreme attention to the complexity necessary to your continued existence, no small feat. It is entirely possible that you find such instincts as accompany an Insecticon’s average life unsuited to your own intellect. But the fact remains: you have chosen not to surrender to that call, and instead impose your voice over theirs. You are not an Insecticon because your mind allows you to choose not to be one. If you, possessed of an intellect which was no doubt left to you on purpose, choose to eschew it and dwell instead on the bestial shell and the part of your mind governed by it, then you are blinded by your lack of estimation of the power of pure intelligence.”

Shockwave deactivated the oven and pulled out the tray of tungsten samples from under a wash of coolant vapors. “You were left your mind so that you could be tortured by dwelling on what you have lost. If you cannot see also what you have gained, I am not favorably impressed by your lack of self-awareness or your surrender to the victory your enemies no doubt claim.” He lifted the heavy cannon which had replaced his left arm – his own work if rumor were to be believed, which in this case it should. “One is only handicapped if one allows it. One is defeated only when all function has ceased, inside and outside the shell.”

He eased the samples out onto a small work table, sliding them under a laser cutter already set up to take paper-thin slices from them. “You have not yet impressed upon me what use you are to me. Vague offers of goods and materials while requesting details on my work normally privy only to myself and Lord Megatron are purely illogical. The only information you will receive is all around you.” Shockwave gestured to the laboratory. “Consider that as I ask, again: what do you offer me?”

[Deleted]

Despite trying very hard not to eavesdrop, Roulette was dropping a whole lot of eaves. Was falling over them, one could say. She would never profess to understand Shockwave in full. Logic, when studied closely, wasn't actually all that logical. But maybe it appeared that way to Roulette because she was more often than not, an illogical creature.

Whatever past Kickback had with Shockwave was as mysterious and vague as shadows to her. She had no idea what the scientist did before she met him but she was going to stray out on a limb and say he hadn't changed much if at all through the ages. Dynasties could rise and fall and he'd still be puttering around in his stupid lab studying that centuries equivalency of sea monkeys. He liked his lab a certain way, she'd come to find, and relegated everything down to useful or not useful.

Somehow Roulette fell under that category. At no point in time did she delude herself into thinking he was fond of her. (That was a nauseating thought in and of itself) No, she was useful and catered to his stupid wants. That bought her some security on the ship. She wasn't delegated to menial tasks of grunts or drones. But that didn't exclude her from duty, either. If he wanted, Shockwave could demand anything of her and given Megatron's fondness for the scientist, Roulette would be forced to comply.

So she got the ire growing in Kickback. It was understandable to a degree. The Insecticon-not-Insecticon wanted to be seen as a peer and as a useful assistant. At least, that's what she thought. From what she'd witnessed of the mono-optic scientist, Shockwave chose who and what was useful to him at the time.

That and he was an asshole. Straight up. Despite that 'logic' gambit, Shockwave was an irritating piece of work and she would swear that deep down he thrived on causing some fissure of uncertainty in others. Still, she wouldn't have admitted anything unfortunate about herself to him as Kickback had just done. But she was a deep seated paranoid femme who feared waking up on a dissection table one day. (Oh irony)

"Do you mind if I come by later, sugar? When the big, lumbering behemoth isn't gawking over my shoulder?" She grinned at Kickback and rocked back on her wedged heels.

She offered a comm to Shockwave so as to make wheeling and dealing less awkward for all parties involved. "A full report? That better be a damn fine container." Full reports to Shockwave usually meant fifty pages of mind-numbing drivel.

[Deleted]

"Big lumbering behemot" was, inasmuch as Shockwave was aware of Roulette's designations for him, relatively tame. He was well aware that she used such designations, whether consciously or otherwise, to ingratiate herself to others while in his presence. She was emotional, he was emotionless; she presented a flawless facade of friendliness and approachibility, he was granitic and practically in need of a translator.

What he could not understand was why, time after time, meeting after meeting, it kept on working. Against all logic, it was as if a mech subjected to this particular skill of the femme either did not know, or did not care, or did not (somehow) remember that she had every reason to present herself as someone to appreciate, reward and protect while potentially being none of those things. It was, after all, the Decepticon way.

It was also one of those unquantifiable skills that Roulette possessed and Shockwave accepted, sort of, that he could not measure, examine or duplicate. His limited understanding of the very logic behind it made him wary of poking at it, lest he destroy it and thus the usefulness of a very useful, if slightly... wild proxy.

He did not mind the words, or what impression they made on others. That same subtle effect she imbued them with extended to him in beneficial ways: it made him seem, ofttimes, less threatening; it distracted those nearby if they were particularly taken with her. Sometimes that was all the opening one needed to secure particularly wary specimens.

The fact she was opting to play the both of them also bothered him not a whit. While she was the most useful of his current proxies, that did not mean she was the only one, or that she could not, and would not, be replaced if need must. It would have been wholly illogical of her not to seek every venue of support she could secure. His comm. presence was unmoved. The extruder has been programmed with a variety of multi-purpose shapes useful for repairs on both delicate systems and bodies. The ceramic should remain stable through excessive use on any such situations as well. The report and its terms are non-negotiable.

Shockwave considered all this, as well as said proxy's private wheedling, as he watched with detached interest while Roulette entirely obliterated the quasi-Insecticon's mental fortitude with her ever-present trick. Well, whatever intelligence and scientific deductive cognition Kickback may have had were gone until such a time as Roulette would allow him to reboot. Metaphorically speaking.

Of course Lord Megatron would assign a scientist under his command. Shockwave considered: Kickback had spend what, given his behavior, likely amounted to a tremendous amount of time as a free agent among the native lifeforms. There could possibly be some emotional bonding, though that would be a problem for a latter time. Nonetheless he could and should be used as the asset his liege had given him. The quasi-Insecticon's physical might was more or less incidental to Shockwave - Vehicons and Insecticons were exceedingly efficient at manual labor. Kickback's mind had to be applied somewhere between the most benefit to be reaped from his labor and the least damage from any potential tarnish the planet might have left upon him.

Fortunately, Shockwave might just have the thing. He acquired the datapad and, given that Kickback was likely not to hear a single word out of his vox at the moment, the scientist entered the information as he spoke. "You will secure a naturally occurring, underground site within a geologically stable, natural formation, within these coordinates." The map he'd included within the datapad pointed to the most abandoned, least densely occupated areas of Africa. "You will acquire a minimal workforce, entirely disposable if not utterl loyal. You will oversee a stockpile of niobium, germanium, titanium, beryllium and helium. There are other materials needed in slightly lesser quantities. I will require ongoing reports until the quotas are met." He held the datapad out to Kickback, waiting to see if the mech even had the presence of mind to notice it was there.

It was a basic duty, the most obvious of tasks, but that in and of itself made it an appropriate test, he felt. It only remained to be seen how his new proxy performed.

[Deleted]

Understandably, Kickback's svelte charm went right over Roulette's head. She just nodded at him and turned back to study the sea monkey tank. If she timed it just write, she could sneak a few things in there. Shockwave would notice, of course, but she was curious as to how long it would take him to give a cease and desist.

Shockwave, you realize that all I heard just now was "wah wha wha useful wha wa wha durable." I will take it at face value that they are suitable for trade and worth the cycles it will take me to write about a trip to the store.

Primus, she needed to get away from scientific mechs for awhile. They were a right pain in the processor sometimes.

"If you gents don't need me, I have places to be."

[Deleted]

Shockwave's attention had been redirected from both Roulette and Kickback already. His responses to either, as far as he was concerned, had been bluntly clear.

Roulette's further commentary was nothing but that - idle commentary. Whatever it is she wished to acquire from the Neutrals was so needful as to make her accept what, to his mind, were fairly reasonable terms. The rest were loquacious details that he really didn't need to pay overt attention to. Your lack of a scientific understanding is not my concern. I will include the basic specifications; further questioning will fall on your head.

Kickback's questions, however, came as he was turning around, and the motion was arrested clearly enough to be obvious. His regard came onto the quasi-Insecticon in silent measure. The datapad contained a fairly straightforward list of materials, mostly in their raw form; only those that could not be found as such were listed in their purified ingot or bar form.

The specifications as to the underground site to be acquired were staggering, all the more so given the condition that it be naturally occurring. The quantities in which Shockwave wanted his supplies would have made CERN rend its hair and weep.

"Was I unclear in my instructions? The prompt acquisition and stockpiling as well as the efficiency with which your goals are met, or the failure thereof, will rest on you. Not your workforce." Shockwave was not one to eschew the value of a proxy, even if it was not one he'd hand-picked, but that did not mean his liege-given tool was trusted. While the collider was a project that Shockwave could afford to lose in extremis, he was not about to entrust any part of its construction or more, its programming, to anyone but himself. "If the workforce cannot be loyal, then it will be disposable, and said disposal will be your responsibility. The supplies must be acquired as soon as you are able to, of course."

Once again he turned towards the thin slices of tungsten alloys, examining them before beginning the somewhat delicate process of moving them to the analysis station. Geothermal drilling would be chewing up anything not up to par, and he did not mean to make such a basic mistake.

[Deleted]

Had she missed something? Either the Kickback had a mental problem or he'd decided something about her and dismissed any former pleasantries in the span of a mere moment. At first she dabbled with confusion at the abrupt, and somewhat chilly, shift in temperament. What had she done wrong?

And then she got angry.

She sure as slag didn't know this insect and whatever burgeoning good impressions he'd made with her shriveled up like a plant without rain. Being blithely dismissed she could understand. She worked around Shockwave. And if Kickback was a scientist, already his mind was on other items of importance. Megatron was notorious for abruptly ceasing a conversation. Soundwave didn't have conversations. And she'd not had the dubious pleasure of meeting Starscream. Thankfully.

But Kickback wasn't her superior. Whether he liked it or not, he was designated as Shockwave's proxy and that gave him even grounds with her. Until the words came out of Megatron's own mouth or Shockwave's, she wouldn't heed any order given by the insect.

'Pretty little head' my aft, she seethed to herself. Field flatter than a field in Kansas, she turned to Shockwave. "On your orders, Shockwave, may I be dismissed?"

Without waiting for an answer, she pirouetted smoothly on one heel and stalked out of the lab.

[Deleted]

Shockwave had long ago accepted that very few, if any, mecha shared his absolute dedication to science. The very vastness, the sheer complexity of the many fields that could be encompassed by the one word meant that a truly devout follower could afford little else, and in truth the scientist would have had it no other way.

He had no social life, and did not see a need for it - his interactions in even the most remotely social setting were limited to empirical and field observations and experiments. His proxies were chosen by usefulness, not empathic reasons. Emotional attachment, positive or negative, had been all but rendered null and void because the mathematics of science could only be corrupted by such things. He had risen to his position not just because he was the best - and in his mind Shockwave truly believed he was without peers, but because he allowed nothing to stand in the way of science, not even ambition.

His lack of the typical Decepticon political drive to move up in rank had, paradoxically, allowed him to move up in rank until there was nowhere further that he would need to go.

Roulette, as the proxy he'd used the most in recent times, knew of one point where Shockwave's utter emotional detachment failed. It would have been erroneous, however, to assume it was the only one.

Something much like black ice began to settle along the edges of Shockwave's field; it would have crackled underfoot if it had been a physical presence, a slick unseen trap on the road waiting for an unwary driver. The sense of it had none of that tidal wave depth that mention of Lord Megatron's second might bring to the scientist's field, but it was just as absolute in its own, incipient fashion.

Shockwave did not like wasting time away from his Mistress when that time did not need to be lost to begin with. He was not angry, but he was growing distinctly and obviously impatient.

"You are labor, and failure will rest on you." His tone had dropped to a lower registry, optic firmly on the quasi-Insecticon. "I do not care how you accomplish the stockpiling. I have no concern as to what workforce you engage, or how you engage it, or how you eventually dispose of it. You have been given all the data I care to provide, and I expect the stockpiling to become your primary objective." Shockwave was well aware that Kickback might or might not have ongoing projects of his own upon the planet, but he would not grant them his immediate attention until he'd measured the mettle of the quasi-Insecticon as a proxy. There was much to be said about that first measure above all things.

"I have been lenient in giving you leeway to balance discretion with expedience as you see fit, but if the task is not one you can pursue, then you may report to the medbay and place yourself under Knock Out's command. Either choice should serve Lord Megatron's orders equally as far as I am concerned."

Without another word Shockwave stretched his hand out for the datapad, his field and his posture both clearly denoting the end of the matter as far as he was concerned. Or, at the very least, of his patience.