Help Unwanted

[universebeware]

Who: Brainstorm and You!
Where: Brainstorm's Workshop, which is in a slightly-quieter portion of the Cancer district.
Summary: Come Bother the Giant Robot: The Entry.
Warnings: Brainstorm is a jerk.

Unlike most of the inhabitants of Hinoto-Ri, Brainstorm is a touch too large for the given apartments. So he's acquired himself a space that looks more like a hangar than a house, but for someone like him, it works. Most of the time, the door is shut, but today, it is open. It's not that Brainstorm wants company - it's that he expects the other visitors to break their new toys at some point or another. Organics are clumsy things, and much as he loathes to interrupt his own work and research, well. Some things just have to be done, whether he likes it or not.

That, and with spring getting into swing, it's getting warmer, and some days it's easier to just keep the door open.

Those who approach would hear the sound of tools in use - and perhaps be unlucky enough to step up when he's welding, and get a eyeful of terribly bright light. Whatever he's doing when someone draws near, though, he's too busy to notice them.

At the side of the open hangar door is sign with an arrow pointing to a roughly human-scaled stairwell. It zigzags up to a platform that will put anyone who climbs it roughly at Brainstorm's chest level - high enough to not strain their necks, but low enough to still be looked down on. There's a panel on the safety railing with a large palm-sized button on it. A digital display above it displays "Press For Assistance" in multiple languages. It appears to be considerate, but it's mostly to cut down on what he considers annoyances.

--

OOC: Do come bother Brainstorm! Need something built, repaired, or if your character's curious/nosy, or whatever you wanna do!

Comments

[screwattack]

"It's good to know that as unpleasant as you are, at least you'll give me the time of day." Her sarcastic tone is full of jest, though, and no true ill will. And she doesn't seem at all frightened by the prospect of fighting a giant robot.

"Decepticons... not a very subtle name for their group. You're in opposition with them, then?"

[terminally_clever]

Humans say plenty of unnecessary things.

[universebeware]

Yes, yes they do. If I had a shanix for every unnecessary thing I've heard in my time here, I would be a very, very wealthy fellow.

[universebeware]

"Well, no, were you, or anyone else here to ask, I'd likely get frustrated that you'd either broken your COMP or somehow lacked the ability to tell time and make it well-known," Brainstorm snarks right back - though he's serious. "Still a better alternative to being stepped on, I suppose."

"We are, or were, or...something. At this point it's all rather complicated - but no, they're not subtle in the least. We're all Cybertronians, but we've had this nasty little civil war thing going on for about four million years. It's supposed to be over now, but when you've been at war for this long, it's rather difficult to stop old habits, y'know?"

[terminally_clever]

I suppose taking on lucrative government research contracts will have to pay the bills instead. Pity.

[screwattack]

Samus just shakes her head at him slowly. "At least when I'm being stepped on, I'm perfectly aware of the intentions of the one who's trying to step on me. Your intentions and motivations are nearly impossible to pin-point." Even now she has no idea where they stand with one another. She still didn't trust him, or even really like him, but she didn't hate him either.

"... What exactly were you conflicted over that could last for four million years?" Samus was actually... somewhat appalled that a conflict could last for so terribly long.

[genkibot]

Aww, but I like being helpful and learning new things...

But I use to be an urban combat tank back from where I originated from! Well, an AI that controlled such a tank for Section 9, but really, it was practically my body since my AI always resided there.

Oh, do you have a cable with an IEC 76610-5-203 compliant connector on the end of it? I could share some of my memories so you can see what I looked like!

[universebeware]

[There's a coy chuckle.]

Oh yes, it's quite the shame. And all the more reason to avoid those saying the unnecessary things.

[universebeware]

"Well, those are my business, not yours or anyone else's - so I'm quite happy to leave you in the dark on that front," Brainstorm answers as he pops the case on Samus' weapon. "Just because they're not bad doesn't mean I'm obligated to tell people."

The question gets a shrug. "Politics, mostly - questionable leadership led to revolution and it just sort of...kept going. And when you're a race that's as long-lived as mine, things tend to drag on. Granted, by the time it ended, the original reasons for it were long-gone."

[universebeware]

[Brainstorm leans in a bit and squints, tilting his head just a bit.]

So... What, are you in a human-shaped body now like some of the other AIs here, or what?

[That's important, because even if he did, if she's some kind of bio-mechanical hybrid thing, he's not going for it.]

[terminally_clever]

Well, I'd best get to work, then. This may end up being a functional partnership after all.

[genkibot]

Oh no, I definitely have an organic brain and body now! It was like I was born a human!

Oh, but I do have a cyberbrain like most humans do where I'm from. It's just a normal brain with electronic enhancements that allows people to connect to the net or other electronic devices directly via their brain! It's done mostly through nanomachines. Look! See! I have the outlets like others do!

[She turns around and shows Brainstorm the back of her neck, where four round openings are. They vaguely look like S-video outputs or other such cable connections one might see on a computer or TV.]

Actually, if you think about it, a cyberbrain works a lot like the COMP and watch this town provides works. Except it's internally in our brains instead of outside our bodies.

[universebeware]

[It's at this point that Brainstorm scrambles up and backwards.]

I believe I will have to decline that connection offer quite vehemently, as I have no desire to interact with any sort of biomechanical things unless necessary.

[screwattack]

Samus grits her teeth in annoyance at that. It was just frustrating, not knowing what he was up to... "Fine, I'll leave you to your own business, though I hope you don't take it personally when I admit that I really can't trust you while your motivations remain so utterly ambiguous." There's a bit of a bitter smile in her tone as she says this. She lets the issue go, though, a little more interested to hear about the war that ravaged his race.

"... I've seen worlds torn apart by civil war in the past. I won't begin to try and understand what drove your race to so many millenia of war, but for the sake of your sanity, I hope you're done fighting it." She ponders his past for a moment. "...Are you a scientist or a soldier?"

[universebeware]

"Well, obviously," Brainstorm begins to answer, poking about a bit within the insides of the gun. "It's a logical conclusion - I'm not one of those leaky-fuel-pump types that's going to get my wires in a twist just because some organic that hardly knows me thinks I'm untrustworthy as a person."

He scoffs a bit at the war commentary. "I'm no Decepticon, but I feel I took to the situation better than a fair number of my comrades. As for what I am - some of both, but mostly scientist."

[genkibot]

I'm not a thing! I'm a Tachikoma!!

...Well, okay, a Tachikoma in a human body. But where I come from, almost everyone has a cyberbrain! They're not things at all! They're humans! With their own ghosts and everything! Even fully cyberdized humans still have parts of their brain intact as well as their ghost.

[screwattack]

"It sounds to me as though at least one of your sides isn't ready to make peace yet. I would hate to see the damage caused if one of your Decepticons arrived in the city... Though I feel as though it would fall to me to prevent it. I agree though, you certainly seem more like a scientist than a soldier... you don't come off to me as a fighter."

She leans over the railing a bit more to try and get a glance at her paralyzer. "How badly damaged is it?"

[universebeware]

So your world is full of such things as well. Lovely. All the more reason for me to avoid the Trapezohedron on the off chance it sends me to your world.

If you're quite finished flaunting your terrible state of being around, then I ask that you leave my lab quite hastily if you don't mind.

[Yeah someone's a little bit racist against cyborgs.]

[universebeware]

"Well, no. Decepticons aren't exactly known for their ability to cooperate and be decent 'bots. Quite the stubborn lot, really. I mean sure, there's the odd one here and there that defects or generally is okay to talk to, but they're more the exception that proves the rule, really. Hopefully if any of them show up, it'll be the odd ones. Though I suppose I should work on having something on hand to deal with such a situation non-lethally... While I'm more at home in a lab, I can go in the field if necessary, though I don't particularly like to."

He pauses in his work, bringing up the holo-interface of his COMP to make that as a note on what appears to be a very long list of projects. Given the language they're listed in is Cybertronian, though, they can't be read.

"Not badly," Brainstorm answers once he closes the interface, and picks some bits out of the firing mechanism. "You weren't kidding about it being jammed."

[genkibot]

Terrible state of being? But I love being human! It's so great and different from being just an AI!

[Tachikoma hasn't quite catch on the tone of racism just yet, because she thinks Brainstorm is only referring to her, and she's only one Tachikoma, not a whole race of them.]