Spire Fallout

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Goa Slipstream
Goa is at a console in a small alcove, back armor protruding into sight. He sounds like he's tapping away busily at the controls.
Slipstream pokes her head in and spots Goa so enters fully to see what he could possibly up to here in the Intelligence Compound.
+Roll: Goa rolls against his Snoop Software and fails by 2! The total roll was 38.
+Roll: Goa rolls against his Awareness Stat and succeeds by 8! The total roll was 2.
Goa is scrolling through fields of data at remarkable speed, but there's little of graphical interest. His pose is calm, but frozen, as if zoned out again. He does not break pace at the keys when he speaks. "Hello, Slippy."
Slipstream looks at what you are scrolling through and replies, "Hello Goa. Why are you looking through the fleet data for?
"Checking up on some old friends." Goa continues his trance for a click, then, after an inhaling whirr and pause, locks the console. The mech's head slowly turns to look over his shoulder, expression obscured by the wing of his helmet. "Am I wanted for training?"
Slipstream cocks her head a bit to that statement, then she smiles a bit to the question. "Only if you would like to train, Goa."
The mech turns around at his post. He stands tall, proud, but his expression looks hollow, like he hasn't recharged in some time. "It seems to be my duty," a smile musters onto the blank face, "and maybe it's time to give my processor a break. Was there anything you wanted to learn?"
Slipstream studies that look on your face a very long moment in silence. "Goa... are you okay?" she asks, actually sounding concerned.
Goa shakes his head negatively, then shrugs. "Define okay."
Slipstream takes a few steps closer, that concern still upon her features. "I don't know... something seems wrong. You usually are more upbeat. This... this face I'm seeing... that isn't a you I've seen before."
Goa chuckles in response with an almost-whining tone. "Complaining?" He takes half a step back as Slipstream approaches, though it appears reflexive, not matched by any other movements to create meaning.
Slipstream frowns a little, "Not complaining, though I am concerned. If there's something you'd like to talk about... I hope you know you could talk to me about it?"
Goa looks out to the floor. "Worried about a bumbling grounder's problems, are we?" he says, wry tone creeping in. "In that case, did... Polyhex miss me last cycle?"
Slipstream nods to the question, "Yes of course I'm worried. We are comrades." she pauses then tells you, "Well I missed you."
Goa casts one hand at the other Decepticons on duty in the intel compound, hunches forward as if about to speak... then the cast arm just falls back to his side. "Did you hear about the eclipse? Wouldn't be surprised if we attending 'Cons all left with Autobot bombs or bugs on us..."
Slipstream nods, "I heard there was some sort of ceremony but nothing specific about it." she hmms, "Let's leave this area... we can talk more privately?"
Goa looks from side to side, swaying more wearily than warily, then motions to the wind shaft with both arms. "Lead the way, ma'am."
-- cut to smelting pits --
Slipstream takes you down to the pits where there is less likely to be interruptions, "Okay Goa, what is going on."
Goa thuds gracelessly into a seat on some raised support or another. "What's going on with /you/? Decide you like the tunnels all of a sudden?" His snort of amusement renders as a small smile and awkward noise of grinding fans.
Slipstream frowns a bit at that question, "I don't mind them the way Rogue does. It's just that they are very hard to fly through in my other form." her hands plant on her hips, "Something is amiss, I want to know what it is."
"... Just ghosts. Your Starscream would be more at liberty to talk." Goa leans forward, propped on his legs, staring up with wide but dim optics.
Slipstream frowns at you some more, "What do you mean 'your Starscream'? The mech hardly notices me so you better come out with it Goa."
Goa leans back up, clearly taken aback by the insistence. "I mean that he's a flier and you all are fliers and that gets held over my head. Pun intended." His fingertips meet each other with a clack of metal, violently assuming their steepled pose, and he tilts his gaze up and around into the superstructure above evasively.
Slipstream's fingers tap against both her hips, studying you with that frown still in place. "So he's a flier, I'm a flier, what's gotten into you Goa? Do you honestly think I think less of you because you are a grounder?"
Goa shakes his head, repeating with some mirth, "No, no. No. Not you. But I thought that might throw down the energon treat and distract you from the part where..." He clears his vocal processor with a quiet backfire and collects his rambling words, "Vivid hallucinations can bring into question the health of a Decepticon."
Slipstream looks confused now, "Goa. Please don't talk in riddles. You aren't making any sense." she sighs, raising a hand from a hip to rub along the side of her helmet. "Honestly... what HAS gotten into you."
His speech becomes flat. "Crystal City held some activation ritual at the Spire of Freedom. There's an ancient library in there. We all went in, Decepticons and Autobots, shoulder to shoulder." Goa looks over at his own shoulder and spins the wheel there, as if checking the alignment. "I think my CPU was probed. I don't know. I had visions of things I recognized, and things that I didn't." The mech's tone warms again, "Firestorm saw them too. I don't know if the air commander did." He falls silent, staring blankly toward the pit.
Slipstream cocks her head a little and nods to your words, "Okay so you and the others saw some things, this is why you are acting all weird?"
"The CC-ers were talking about predictions of the future. You know what I think about the time machine. That it's a bunch of rust," Goa stands and begins to pace with slow steps, "But the visions were... convincing? No, that's not it." He taps his chin, looking up again, then snaps his slightly less-dim eyes back to Slipstream's face. "Ah! Triggering. Worth considering."
Slipstream hasn't lost that frown as of yet as you talk about the time machine and the visions you saw. "Would you mind sharing with me what your visions were so I can figure out why you are acting so odd. I swear you are like a different mech entirely."
Goa breaks step, standing immediately in front of Slipstream, and starts counting on his fingers. "A world like my little plot of jungle. Energon-rich. Organics, the nasty kind. All that I understand, that I knew. The energon /sickness/..." He completes one round of fingers and switches to the other hand. "A gestalt of jets. Wings that fade and rust away. Blinding terror." He pauses on the last finger, then looks over to the seeker. "A reality check, Slipstream. I am inclined to believe I failed."
Slipstream listens carefully to what Goa is saying. "Okay, so you are telling me that sometime in the future there'll be a world of organics we'll be on. We'll get sick from energon. There'll be a gestalt of jets. And there's something rust related coming."
Goa raises one optic ridge and smiles, half-amused, half-incredulous. "I'm telling you what I saw, possibly what I was manipulated to see. Do you really buy into what Crystal City says? Every tower, every tunnel is some kind of sacred artifact," he says, then leans his side against Slipstream's chest. Insomnia's probably affecting his gyroscope. "If there's any chance I, or you, or the entire Decepticon army for that matter -- if there's a chance, prophetic or not, that I could end up back on that slagging /mudball/, I have to do /everything/ in my power to prevent it."
Slipstream cocks her head a bit, then her optics flicker a bit as he leans against her. Something is definitely off. She moves her hand off her hip and helm to rub her fingers over your helm and slightly into the grooves, maybe a little stimulation will wake you up a bit. "Goa, listen very carefully to me. You don't know if this future will occur. If it does, you don't know when it will happen. If you want me to promise never to go on a mission on a shuttle, then I won't. Okay?"
Goa twitches his helmet forward reflexively. "... you?" he says, still sounding and swaying like he's out of it. "That makes sense, but..." the effort of processing lulls the mech back awake, and he stands under his own power, bashfully. "I appreciate the sentiment, but that isn't my call to make. Preventing the call, though..." Goa strokes his chin, looking decidedly conspiratorial.
Slipstream feels you twitch away and pulls her hands back. "Well and you too of course, we can remind each other not to go on missions that might take us to an organic planet." she tells you.
"No, no, no, what you just said, no, that's the whole point. I don't know when it is, sooner, later, if it can or can't be avoided, if it's even real at all, which it probably isn't... Pointless." Goa looks over and, cautiously, almost as if trying to be subtle, leans against Slipstream again, letting his weight shift. "I should've deleted those data files. It's smelt, pure brimstone. Flight doesn't work there. Nothing does..." The mech's face is obscured, but the trembling and the drop of violet trailing down the edge of his helmet is telling.
Slipstream moves her hands again, this time settling against your shoulders, which she rubs gently as she feels you shiver. Voice lowering into a nearly comforting cadence, "I don't know what to say Goa... other than I hear and see this really bothered you. I hope that talking about it has helped... even a little bit."
Goa cranes his neck about so he can see Slip, helmet tipped to one side -- Still shaking, but at least he has his smirk on. "What? No... rationalization? Your verb-judo not in good form today? You said I seemed like a different 'Con ... maybe that's what I have to be, if I ever want to dice up that ghost."
Slipstream shakes her head a little, "Nothing to rationalize. I wasn't there to have this Shrine tell me things. No one has even reported about it on our end. Who knows what anyone outside of the Decepticons saw...” she stops there, seeing that smirk, "Maybe I like the way you were, Goa."
Goa smiles weakly and shakes his head, turning all the way around to face the seeker at point blank. "Don't tempt me. I don't really look forward to getting the royal smack down again... though -- Don't they say the third time's the ... trick? Trinket? One of those?" He face plants the side of his helmet against her somewhat tactlessly, wobbling on his feet again. "They didn't. Or I didn't hear anything about it. Maybe Firestorm knows. Could've just been somebody's trick, the whole thing..." he's quiet and motionless for a long moment, then bolts back awake. "... reports? What's the point of a report? Would just ask me more questions. Interrogate, repair... You can see I don't take those questions ... well."
Slipstream looks down at you with a little concern in her optics. Softly assuring, "Unless you do something horrendously annoying Goa, I don't expect to gain Lord Megatron's notice again." she takes the impact of your helmet and hmms, "Okay, off to the barracks with you. You are going to rest, and I am going to make sure you are not disturbed. I won't hear any arguments to the contrary." she states firmly.
Goa whirrs. "Not disturbed by others. My own processor keeps bumping me out of recharge. Used to have to keep it in a high-functioning state like that, so I could stay alert, on the move." He grins to himself, "Maybe it would shut down if I wasn't on my feet."
-- cut to barracks --
Slipstream takes hold of a shoulder and literally takes you back to the barracks without a word until we are in the barracks themselves. "You. Bunk. On your back. Now."
Goa frowns. "Have you seen what happens when I fall on my back? Funny for everyone else involved, maybe..."
Slipstream points to the bunk, "Goa. Get your sorry recharge deprived chassis on that bunk. I don't care how you lay there, just do it now."
Goa just chuckles and collapses onto the platform, shutting down almost immediately, but nonetheless halfway through some counter-quip -- His vocal processor powers down with a comical "bwooooo" sound.
Slipstream takes a seat next to you and will remain on guard until she's sure you won't wake up again and try to sneak out! That and keep others from waking you up.
Goa clicks one optic back on at the sound of the impact when the seeker sits. "Told you so."
Slipstream reaches down to stroke fingers over your helmet. "I could get a medic to give you something you know."
"Like what? A drill to the head?" Goa doesn't so much as flinch this time. At least he's relaxed, if not abounding in intelligence.
Slipstream is gentle, trying to soothe you. "No, just something that will let your mind stop racing long enough that you can get a decent recharge." she states.
"/Stop/ racing? Think I'd be tolerable if..." He mutters a couple more syllables of dubious communicative quality, then blinks back into lock. Seems like Goa's out for good now.
Slipstream sighs softly, it's obvious Goa's time on that organic planet did something that will need addressing.
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