Wrecking Terminals and Taking Names

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Goa Slipstream
Goa's set up at his favorite console, legs perched up against it as he kicks back in his seat with a ration. The mech seems to be set up for a long day in here now that he's off his patrol shift, though for what isn't visible yet.
Slipstream got up from a recharge cycle feeling well rested. She happens to come in here for her own personal reasons when she spots Goa. "Hello Gooey." she takes a chair nearby.
Goa clicks his optics over to the familiar voice and tracks her as she sits down, echo of a smile on his face. "Hey Slips." He chuckles and mumbles a little something about "nothing else to do" as his orange fingers start tapping credentials into the keys. It would appear he's checking into Crystal City's more public layer. "How's life treating you?" The mech takes a sip of his ration and turns to face the seeker again, heels falling from their perch on the table to drag on the ground.
Slipstream taps into the console she is sitting at to bring up some files on various Autobots. She wasn't kidding about learning about the enemy. "It treats me well." she replies, looking toward you a moment. "Up to no good?"
"What else?" Goa snorts and sets a mining script running. The mech leans out to the side to see what Slipstream's up to in turn, responding immediately with a smirk. "Is that why you like grounders so much?"
Slipstream seems to be studying up on Optimus Prime himself. She chuckles a bit as she looks back to her reading, "He healed me after I fell. I am seeking out the reason why without going to the source."
Goa frowns just a smidge. "Seems to me like the Autobots 'heal' anyone they can get their claws on," he says, in a deadpan. He ends his script and draws away to pore over the collected data. "Doesn't answer my question," he adds in his cocky sing-song tempo.
Slipstream scrolls through what data is on the leader of the Autobots, wings flex a bit behind her seated form. "I like one grounder in particular and that sets me up for liking them all Gooey?" she asks right back, sounding just a little hurt.
A few errant beeps sound from Goa's console as he tries to push further into Crystal City's access grid. He pauses, hands hovering over the keys, to look over at Slipstream with a bit of a furrow above his optics. Goa's known the femme long enough by now to recognize that tone. "Hey, it's not like I'm complaining," he murmurs, almost apologetically. "Based on what I read when I was stuck in med bay, it wouldn't be the first time their leader has acted altruistically. I wouldn't worry about it." His optics brighten just a shade. "Much."
+Roll: Goa rolls against his Snoop Software and fails by 5! The total roll was 41.
+Roll: Slipstream rolls against her Intelligence Stat and succeeds by 2! The total roll was 8.
Slipstream finishes scrolling through Prime's credentials, but a frown dwells on her face. "Not all seekers stick to their own, Gooey." she states softly, tapping her fingers on the console. "For a leader his history is very sketchy." she murmurs. "There's more information on Megatron."
"Surprise, I can pull up terabytes more information on our Rumble than I can on their Bumblebee." The mech rolls his optics, but chuckles a little to defuse the sarcasm. "Just because 
they have good security or bad recordkeeping doesn't make them sketchy. Or did you get all the way into the Autobot records and not tell shorty about it?" Goa takes another gulp of energon. "Oh, and I know seekers don't. I'm glad for it." His optics flutter off and on a little, and he shifts in his seat. "Relevant, actually..." The voice trails off as Goa ensconces himself reading a few apparently interesting looking records.
Slipstream hmms softly to that comment about the sketchiness of Bot records vs Con records. "Or we need better spies." she states as she changes her tactics on the console now, opting for a little neutral intel now. What little there is anyway. "I'm not the professional hacker here, Gooey. I'd probably tip them off the second they saw my sad attempts to get into their network." then a little nod, "So what you getting yourself into then? More research on Firestorm?"
"... sort of." Goa leans back with narrowed vision, cradling his shell in the seat, fingers stiffly steepled in his lap. "Who built you, Slipstream?"
Slipstream rattles off a few names, known seeker builders of course. Then a couple names for programming, also known names. Nothing really unusual about her creation there. "I suspect there's a reason why you asked?" she inquires once she's done.
+Roll: Goa rolls against his Snoop Software and succeeds by 24! The total roll was 12.
Goa nods slowly. "Firey's curious. I'm more pointedly curious," he stops as he snags some new pages of information, "Who would build two protoforms like that, and just give them away. That's before you take the spark aberrations into account, even." His voice begins to growl a little at the end.
Slipstream cocks her head a little to this then turns her gaze toward you, "When you put it that way, I was basically given away as well. Just sent off to claim my destiny.. my fate." she pauses, "I suppose they may have done it so there were no personal ties, no emotional attachment."
"You didn't have a twin. And you sure as slag weren't reprogrammed to forget them. To slagging... make it /easier/ on li'l old you." Goa grits his dental plates against each other, and it's only when the metal squeals a little that he realizes how angry he's getting over this. The ancient past! Before Slipstream was even online. He chuckles inwardly at the thought, in part because he now knows enough to have it. It's not like it didn't work out in the end, anyway. Except... maybe, if he'd been with Firestorm, able to fight... He looks over at her, a drained droop in his features. "Well, you have the others in your line. I suppose. Sorry."
Slipstream hears that anger and gets up out of her seat, then leans over and hugs him about the shoulders. "I have nine other sisters who only keep in contact rarely. At least you have your sister here now with you for as long as you are both in this army."
Goa looks a little alarmed as the femme approaches, then boggled as she squeezes his shoulder tires together with a little squeaking complaint of suspension struts. "... I hope so. I guess you wouldn't've picked up on it, but I was having my doubts. When I got wrecked, I mean." He seems unsure what to do with his hands, one still occasionally pecking a key or two, the other trying to find some place to hang that isn't waist or wing. "Firestorm did. Heh, probably kept out'a the repair bay so my fear wouldn't get to her too." The mech's bright-rust optics line up with Slipstream's, and Goa musters a sort of plaintive smile. "If that happened again... well, I'd probably hate that more at the time, but I hated leaving you out in the cold, too."
Slipstream releases the hug and straightens up, "Having doubts about Firestorm?" she asks, not clear on what he was talking about in regards to that. "I suppose she has the right to have them. To go so long not knowing you had a sibling then to find out you had one.. wondering why that was taken from you. That just complicates things overly much." and a nod, "You had your reasons to keep me out of it."
+Roll: Goa rolls against his Snoop Software and succeeds by 11! The total roll was 25.
Goa chuckles haltingly. "No," he shakes his head at the floor, "Doubts I'd be in this army much longer. There's nothing for me to doubt about her." He gets a chance to look over at the console and perks up excitedly, but only for a moment, as he deflates with a sigh. "Names, names everywhere. Not a one I recognize."
Slipstream hmms softly, "Wouldn't stay for me?" she asks curiously, taking her seat at her console again. "If you two were made to forget each other, isn't there a chance they made you forget who created you."
The shutters on Goa's eyes drop slightly as he has some difficulty with the seeker's thickness. "... no, Slip. I thought I might die." He tilts his head, not quite ready to go back to work himself. "... made to forget? I hadn't thought about that... I mean, Firestorm has damage to her memory, and mine seems to just cut off at an abstract point..."
Slipstream ohs softly, "Truth be known, I feared the same. But the medics proved my fear unnecessary." then a nod to you, "Would make sense. You could see their names and not realize it was them. Maybe you need to limit the search down to both known and unknown mechs and femmes that created others."
Goa thumbs his beard, optic ridges angling down in a way that almost makes him look angry. "It's worth a shot, but what would possess someone to do that? He slagging well knew his sparklings would come looking for him later down the road..." He's already adjusting parameters -- among them taking his search beyond Crystal City alone. "By the way, 'professional hacker?'" Goa smirks behind the edge of his helmet.
Slipstream's own search is looking for mention of Pax, that mysterious mech at the bar. She hmms to the question, "Maybe they were not of the same faction." she suggests, "Would explain you being a grounder and Firestorm being a seeker."
+Roll: Goa rolls against his Snoop Software and succeeds by 32! The total roll was 4.
"Same faction as who?" Goa reels with a bit of surprise at just how /much/ data the Autobots make easily available -- changes the nature of his response to Slipstream's reports of sketchiness a bit -- but says nothing about it.
Slipstream explains, "Well it's possible that one of your creators was a 'Con and the other a 'Bot, possibly were a couple before the war then parted ways.." she shrugs a little, "Just a thought."
Goa lets his optics dim off for a click to collect his thoughts. One of? Of course it could be more than one. If the rest of his creation and construction was so involved, so unlike the factory-type progression Slipstream described, why wouldn't it? He snorts out a little breathless laugh. "I always guessed the image of some kind of mad scientist-bot. No regard for emotion." Goa powers his visual systems back on. "I guess that'd be where I got the penchant for drama from, huh?"
Slipstream states, "Nothing is outside the realm of possibility. I was just offering a possible explanation for not having memory of Firestorm, not knowing who created you. A 'Bot-'Con collaboration on the creation of siblings would have been very frowned upon."
"A possible explanation is better than no explanation, Slippy." The mech strums his fingers on the side of the terminal. Without being borne aloft a flight of paranoia, it would seem, the mech actually bores of data-shuffling pretty quickly. "I need to talk to someone who actually does this."
Slipstream turns toward you, "Someone that builds?" she asks, not sure what your meaning was there. "Or someone else?"
"A builder, creator. Someone who might've fraternized in the trade. Someone who knows." Goa shakes his head as he locks up the screen. "A professional is someone who gets paid. Maybe 'vigilante hacker' would be better." He stands up, hooking the palms of his hands against the chair edge to pull his back shell out of the snug angle it found itself wedged in.
Slipstream hmms softly to that, "Could look up the known builders for around the time you two came online and work on if they still exist, then talk to each as we have free time." she suggests.
Goa nods in acknowledgement, but seems more interested in leaning on the back of Slipstream's seat and looking at her research now. "Next cycle. Found anything?"
Slipstream mmms softly, "I was trying to check out our mysterious mech at the El Sleazo. Not found anything as of yet."
"Ooooh, I just love a good mystery, apparently. Can I try?" Goa reaches comically toward the console over the flier's seated shoulders.
Slipstream shrugs a little, "If you want to try. It was mostly curiosity really."
Goa keeps up with the reaching and flailing of his arms, then flops forward, perching his chin on Slipstream's shoulder in defeat. "I don't think I can reach. Too short."
Slipstream shakes her head a little, "Let me get up then silly grounder."
"What? You can do that?" Goa sneaks a peck off the femme's cheek, then, instead of giving her the opportunity to rise, spins around to perch on her knees, usurping the console controls from her.
Slipstream's optics do a good semblance of a blink and she hmms softly. "Wonder how far you'd get if I distracted you Gooey." she remarks, idly walking her fingers up your back.
+Roll: Goa rolls against his Snoop Software and fails by 3! The total roll was 39.
"Not far, apparently." Goa produces an odd, beeping, almost-giggle as he rolls his shoulders, trying to lock his armored roof flush to his back. "You... well, you were right." He sounds unsure, or maybe just sulky, about this realization. "There's nothing here."
Slipstream idly strokes a finger along your back as she listens to your assessment, "Sort of odd, don't you think? A mech that says he's a war machine, but his name brings up nothing?"
Goa leans back to sit in Slipstream's lap proper, offset such not to crush her canopy in. "It's Cubicron." He glances up and down the intel hall, internally calculating how long he can stay here based on who else is around. "Probably just made it up. Wanted a nasty drink without catching the slag for it."
Slipstream considers this as she slides both hands along your back, "A good point." she agrees, "Like I said, was curiosity. Sort of unusual for someone to make such a claim. Especially in front of someone that is in the war."
"Kind of clever, actually. Really... clever. I'm gonna paint myself blue or black or something next time I head down there, maybe I'll have less trouble." Goa reaches back to thumb a corner of Slipstream's helmet, so thoughtfully as if it were his own chin. "Don't lemme keep you. Anything else you wanted me to look up? Save that Optimus fellow? Vague as they come, those files."
Slipstream nods a little, "It is clever. But makes it even more intriguing and gets into the realm of wanting to know more." she smiles to the contact, "Was thinking of looking up Starscream's file actually, see if there was a reason to him not noticing I was so badly hurt until the Bots had to tell him."
+Roll: Goa rolls against his Snoop Software and BOTCHES!
Goa rubs his hands together and leans forward, already back in Polyhex' database with a moment's pressing of buttons. "This, I can do." With a cautious, experimental pace, he uses some unfamiliar-looking pass codes, and seems to be downloading a larger glut of data than would be expected for even a lengthy dossier... The screen then flashes chaotic patterns and blanks, before the terminal fires off a dramatic little puff of smoke. "... oops."
Slipstream watches over your shoulder while idly sliding her hands against your hips. She hmms as something pops up then poofs. "Uh... oh..."
Goa sits up and makes a quiet clapping motion. "Well then! I think I'm going to go for a walk." Whatever the mech's just done, he has no apparent intention to talk about it. "A long walk. Underground, I think. Can't stop you from coming along--" He pauses a moment, not entirely willing to remove himself from Slipstream's hands, but the sentiment passes and he bolts upright with a forced grin and sudden march for the door.
Slipstream gets up after you have removed yourself from her lap, "I agree, a long walk would be nice. Let the techs deal with this old computer. Probably just got cranky over the Air Commander's file."
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