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A temporary lapse in judgement; [Closed for Brainstorm]
Topic Started: 7 Aug 2016, 01:09 PM (61 Views)
Influx
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you wanna buy a watch buddy
[ *  *  * ]
He really shouldn’t have been hauling the two of these weapons along like this, like, really really, for a number of reasons! Primus this was a dumb idea in retrospect, unfortunately, Influx had managed to quell the fear of being caught on an incredibly foreign ship; Transporting lethal weapons through its confines, he could probably get shot. Why exactly did his logic processors seem to be malfunctioning? Well, the answer to that was strolling by his side rather enthusiastically: Brainstorm.

Influx had simply been minding his business, quite literally when the Scientist had shown up, well, Influx assumed that’s what he was, it was hard to pin down given how eccentric the mech had come across as, those were always the difficult ones to place. The ‘customer’ (and he used the term incredibly lightly) had waltzed into his store with eyes full of wonder, but only for one very particular thing, well, two in fact, and now he was carting the both of them directly to Brainstorm’s lab.

The travelling merchant was always a sucker when it came to breaking down and building back up gimmicks, gadgets and gizmo’s (not literally, he’d never met the guy). When Brainstorm proposed making them better, Influx had a difficult time saying no, and he’d been saying ‘no touching’ for how many cycles? He’d lost track. They’d made a deal, a trade of sorts, and Influx hoped, no expected it to be honoured. This was, with any luck, not going to be a huge mistake, Autobot or not, handing over a slagging Lightformer cannon and an ancient Pathblaster to an enigmatic, eccentric and excitable scientist seemed dubious at best.

“You’re not leading me in circles now, are you?" He glanced around corridor number twelve, everything looked the same. "I’m not exactly slugging the lightest of weapons here, Brainstorm.” He hefted them both back onto his respective shoulders, still hoping nobody rounded the corner to meet the both of them, barrels pointed directly at their optics.
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cosmos
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the truth is out there
[ * ]
Brainstorm, for his part, was incredibly pleased with himself. He had entered Influx's shop with the intention of just poking around for a bit (not that he could do much else, considering that he had about two shanix to his name) but had ended up walking out of the place with two huge, beautiful guns and the shopowner himself in tow. That had to be a record of some kind for first shopping trips.

Now he was walking all three of them to his workshop - Influx and his two lovely, lethal, shoulder-riding companions. Brainstorm couldn't help but steal glances at the guns every few seconds. Being a weapons engineer, Brainstorm made it his business to know guns, and these two were different from anything he'd seen. Not different in some earth-shattering way, but just - unconventional. Not the sort of things that came off production lines. Which meant the guns were either one-of-a-kind customs or highly experimental, and both of those possibilities set Brainstorm's spark aflutter. Oh, he was itching to take these apart and see how they worked. Then he'd put them back together and test-fire them a few times to see if the theory behind their functioning held up in reality, and then... well, any gun could do with some improvements, right?

Influx's question pulled him abruptly out of gun-filled fantasies and back into reality. "What? No, we're almost there. That's my workshop up ahead, the door with the big caution sign on it." Brainstorm lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Ultra Magnus put that there 'cause he kept mixing up my door with Perceptor's. Thought about taking it off after a week to mess with him, but then I had a better idea."

Beneath the caution sign, scrawled in Brainstorm's messy handwriting, was a little addendum: "GENIUS AT WORK."

Brainstorm stopped in front of the door and punched in his passcode with a flourish. The door hissed open, revealing his workshop: a jungle of half-gutted, or perhaps half-built, guns and gadgets and unidentifiable machinery lay sprawled across every available table- and counter-top, and various things lined the shelves around the room, some of them concerningly organic and suspended in green fluid. Brainstorm flitted over to one of the tables and unceremoniously dumped the things on it onto the floor.

"Here," he said, patting the newly-cleared space, "Why don't you set down our two new friends and I'll take a look at them?"

((supplementary image!))
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Influx
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you wanna buy a watch buddy
[ *  *  * ]
“Caution?” Oh, what exactly had he gotten himself into? If he wasn’t such an optimist he’d likely think he was being led towards the brig by this small mech, having been tricked into having his weaponry confiscated, until Brainstorm pointed out the scrawlings beneath. “OH. HA!” His laugh was abrupt and guttural, he very much enjoyed this bot’s sense of humour.

The door whooshed open, and not a moment too soon because Influx’s curiosity had just about reached its peak, and then he was greeted to the sight of Brainstorm’s inner sanctum. “...Primus.” he uttered, his arms going slack, and guns drooping a little dangerously as he wasted no time shuffling inside. He marvelled at the utter chaos surrounding him, it was an absolute shambles, even more so when the impatient scientist cleared his table. The place looked like the inside of Influx’s ship just after a docking, chaotic disarray everywhere; he absolutely LOVED IT.

Influx wasted no time in striding forwards and setting the two guns down with gusto, flipping his visor up to get an even better look at the place, this seemed like a special occasion after all.
“You did ALL this? All of this is yours?” He quizzed the mech with enthusiasm, looking down at Brainstorm in wonder briefly, but not for long as varying mechanisms and inventions caught his optics.
“Brainstorm, this place is like...it’s like a palace! For nerds! Did I die and make it to the Afterspark on the way here, because WOW.” The awe layered in his voice was evident, he hadn’t had the pleasure of being in a room this cluttered with technology since...well, since his ship a few klick’s ago, but this was something else, this was realised potential he was swimming in, swamped in even.

Excitedly, forgetting everything about the guns for a moment, he hurried over to some of the more peculiar-looking inventions, some finished, some abandoned perhaps, some even looked...familiar?
“This, this thing! I could swear I’ve seen it before.” He chittered from the other end of the room, making extra sure he was looking rather than touching, that initial caution sign was there for a reason after all. “Not that I’m at liberty to say where I saw it, but...if half the stuff here is what I think it is-” He turned back to the genius in a rather dramatic manner. “Frag me side-ways and call me a Knock-off, you’re a slagging prodigy!” Ah, ‘hero’ worship, here we go.
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cosmos
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the truth is out there
[ * ]
Brainstorm was used to people saying stuff like "Primus" when they saw the state of his workshop, but the awe and joy were new. He watched, bemused, as Influx dumped the guns on the table and then veered off to ogle the half-completed projects scattered throughout the room. He hadn't expected the shopkeeper to be so interested in sciencey... engineer-y... things. Not that he was complaining! In fact, if Influx kept up the compliments, Brainstorm was going to do the opposite of complaining. His wings were already spreading proudly as he basked in Influx's amazement.

"It's all my work. This is my workshop, after... all." He paused in the middle of the sentence, momentarily distracted by Influx's optics, before quickly glossing over his hesitation. "They don't call me 'ship's genius' for nothing. I've made hundreds of weapons. I've worked on projects at Kimia. I have patents."

Brainstorm sidled over to the guns Influx had left on the table and stroked a hand over a large barrel. Oh, yes. He recognized a few key design features. This one was meant to clear out a large area; the laser burst would spread from the wide muzzle in a powerful, if relatively short-ranged, burst. If he fired it in here it'd probably take out a good half of the wall - and that wasn't even factoring in any surprises hidden in the design. One finger traced the curves of the gun lovingly from muzzle to stock, noting the groove where it was supposed to be braced against a wielder's shoulder.

When Influx said something about recognizing one of his works, Brainstorm reluctantly peeled himself away from the guns to take a look. His optics widened when he saw what Influx was looking at.

"That," he said, picking it up, "is a chronal displacement grenade. I made them for the Wreckers a while back - this is a new and improved prototype. It-- uh." Brainstorm blinked. Did Influx just call him a prodigy? Okay, okay, play it cool. It was true, of course, but Brainstorm wasn't used to. This.

"Um. Thank you." There was an awkward pause. And then, brightly: "If you like these, you should see the other things I'm working on. Half of them would send the Ethics Committee into a collective nervous breakdown. Just - don't touch anything without my say-so."
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Influx
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you wanna buy a watch buddy
[ *  *  * ]
He gazed at the mech with fond regard as he listened to him list off his achievements. “That’s a pretty hefty résumé you’ve got there, almost sound like you’re trying to impress me! No need for that, you’ve already got me dazzled Storms.” He had a moment to compose himself from the overload of visual stimuli he was receiving from all this tech surrounding them, the mech advancing on him to show the goods was doing a pretty good job at keeping Influx’s attention occupied.


“Kimia sounds familiar, for some reason.” He mused, not entirely sure what kind of feeling it was, but it was certainly leaning toward negative.
“What’s Kimia?” He questioned, multitasking and inspecting the grenade that Brainstorm had highlighted. His optics trailed after the hand which clutched the grenade, a little uncomfortable that Brainstorm was literally handling it, but he was sure that he knew what he was doing, scrap that, he hoped he did. “Also, I know why I recognise that design! There’s a cheap knock-off that looks pretty similar to that on the Blackmarket! Pretty sure of it.” He wasn’t accusing the mech, in fact, he was quite sure that someone was mimicking his genius, and badly at that, though Influx could always be mistaken about the design.

“Anyway, how about you give me a proper tour?” He placed a tentative hand on the Scientist’s shoulder joint, deftly avoiding knocking the somewhat erect wings, when had that happened? “How about we get back to the guns later, I know you’re desperate to get elbow deep in all the nooks, crannies and possible secrets they’re holding, buuuut-.” His face edged closer as he urged the bot towards more shelves, as though he were telling, or sharing something shady with the man “-impress me! I’m easy, eager and a sponge for knowledge...not that you know what a sponge is probably, never mind that! I’ve just gotta know more, pleeeease?” Whining, charming.
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cosmos
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the truth is out there
[ * ]
Brainstorm made a surprised noise. "You've never heard of Kimia? It's - well, it was - an Autobot research facility. It was the bleeding-edge of weapons development, among other things, until it turned into a giant laser and shot Cybertron. And then blew up." He paused, seeming to reflect on this for a moment. Then he shrugged. "That's what most people know it for nowadays."

He set down the chronal displacement grenade, frowning behind his mask, as Influx told him about the knock-offs. Of course, with Brainstorm's brilliance and the inherent nature of an arms race, there was always bound to be copycats. That didn't mean he had to like it. The weapons he made weren't just tools, they were works of art. If they'd improved it he might've been grudgingly impressed, but making undoubtedly less elegant imitations was kind of insulting.

The frown quickly melted off his face under the force of Influx's cajoling, however. Brainstorm never passed up a chance to brag. "Influx," he said with relish, "you are about to see the coolest and most dangerous weapons in the universe. C'mere." He tugged the shopkeeper over to an unobtrusive door that slid open in response to his spark signature, revealing a small and surprisingly neat armory. The various guns and gadgets here had their own racks and labels with their names. Brainstorm lifted the nearest one off its rack, holding it up for Influx to see. It was a gun that resembled a sniper rifle, save for a large cylinder at its base and some wires on its underside.

"I call this one the Misaligner. Messes with the velocity of whatever it hits, which can mean a lot of things depending on what you hit. Maybe you just dislocate their kneecap, or maybe their spark casing flies out of their chest." Brainstorm gave the shopkeeper a sly look and lowered his voice to a stage whisper. "Best part is it's nearly undetectable - no physical bullet, no visible trace."
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Influx
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you wanna buy a watch buddy
[ *  *  * ]
“Mhm!” he confirmed. “Some pushy mech from that place kept trying to get me and a few of our guys to ‘visit’. Didn’t happen.” He’d best not go into specifics, not that it was really necessary, Influx wasn’t anything special, he was just...experienced; he couldn’t ever hope to match Brainstorm’s brilliance.
“Glad we didn’t now, on account of the whole laser thing. Not your doing, I hope?” He was only half-joking.

He shrugged it off, his boxy-shouldered frame heaving slightly with the action. “Most dangerous?” He blurted in disbelief, following obediently, a little unsure if this excursion had been a wise idea after all, but curiosity got the better of him. He may find the usage of weapons abhorrent, but the engineering of any device always fascinated him, a weakness for sure, but there was no harm in indulging a little, right? “Oh, come on!” Exasperated as he was introduced to yet another secure door. “A locked door behind another locked door? You’re flirting with some intense levels of curiosity here; I LOVE it!”

He stepped inside, and found himself face to face with row upon row of neatly organised and categorised weaponry, ranging vastly in what seems to be both design and purpose. He found himself conflicted, unsure if what he felt was astonishment at the frightful displays before them, or dread.
“This is, um, wow…” he couldn’t quite find the words to describe it. “I never expected this, this is all yours?” There was a twinge of uncertainty in his voice, but his chipper tone hopefully outweighed that.

He came to a stand-still beside the Scientist’s weapons show, staring at the weapon, transfixed as he listened to Brainstorm explain it’s purpose. “How accurate is it?” He couldn’t help himself, intrigue beating his overly-cautious doubts from a moment ago. “With a weapon like that, if you adapted it into a Sniper, you’d have yourself the perfect anti-aircraft weapon, it could cause hell for fliers.”
He rubbed his face-plating thoughtfully, musing over it’s capabilities. “Just imagine the chaos as you carefully picked out key members of a squadron overhead...they have no idea what’s happening, who’s shooting!? Why are they dropping like flies? That’s a...gripping thought.”
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