| abstract | - Shark has come down to Cubricon, seeking out Lifeline for a specific reason - to update her on what he's learned so far and how he feels about it. Lifeline has been intentionally staying busy in the clinic, trying to NOT think about the disturbing things she and Shark happened upon. Shark knocks at the door of the clinic, then let's himself in, "Lifeline. We need to talk." CRASH CLATTER CLANG A crash happens down the street, and a trashcan lid bounces past Shark as it rolls down and hangs a right, turning at the light and disappearing around the corner. Meanwhile in the direction it came, a startled looking alt mode of Reliquary was sitting there. Lifeline nods as Shark lets himself in, leaning a bit to peer out the open door past him at the crashing noise. She dismisses it almost immediately, though, and looks at the mech. "What did you find?" Shark peers toward the crash then shakes his head, got better things to focus on right now. He takes a seat on an open med table, rubbing at his chin that has grown a bit of beard. He looks a little tired. "After hours of going through security footage, taking notes, talking to other Bots, even talking to a Con, giving all that to the scientists. I'm very sure that something is indeed off." he pauses looking at her, "I hate knowing that what we are living in now could well just be a lie..." Pulling out carefully, Reliquary makes his way, covered in trash, towards the Clinic. He stops just outside and beeps a few times. oblivious to the conversation with Lifeline looks at Shark oddly at that. "A lie? How is that possible?" She looks over at the beeps, and out of habit gets up to open the bay door. Shark glances over his shoulder at the beeps as well, "Yeah. A lie. The scientists gave me a preliminary finding but are digging into it more deeply. They believe that somehow, in some way, someone or something mucked around in the past and the oddness we are all coming into contact with.. like you not remembering we are a couple and just not wanting me to touch you... the fact that Goa has a con femme that remembers him as a Con.. and frag she's spot on there as far as I can tell he don't belong with us Bots... then there's Starscream as Emperor... Magnus as Bot leader.. " he frowns, "It all comes down to a big lie." Sitting there, Reliquary twitches "Uhm... Sorry!" is the first thing out of his vocals. "Its just that I have a problem uhm, you know..." he nods, and rolls backwards as he spots Shark. Lifeline seems to not mind speaking about this openly around Reliquary. "But... WHY is someone doing this? That's what I can't understand. What was the point of mucking with the past?" +Roll: Reliquary rolls against his Intelligence Stat and succeeds by 2! The total roll was 9. +Roll: Shark rolls against his Awareness Stat and BOTCHES! Shark frowns and shakes his head, "I don't know. The scientists are looking into it." he glances at Rel, "Don't be sorry." Another roll backwards "I didn’t hurt the eels!" he exclaims simply. Then he ohs "of COURES someone is messing with time. I could've told you that!" Lifeline blinks. "What in the Pit are you talking about, Rel? Come on in already." She looks at Shark oddly. Eels? Shark nods to Reliquary, "You better not. Ironhide wasn't kidding about me being the Eel master." he points out, then smiles toward Lifeline, "Pet project of mine, quite literally." +Roll: Lifeline rolls against her Awareness Stat and fails by 2! The total roll was 17. Grumbling a little, Reliquary rolls in, garbage littering all around "The time thing! Nobody sees it! But I know its been messed with! " he explains, transforming and shaking off the last of the scrap Lifeline says, "You've been keeping eels as pets?" Shark looks at Reliquary, "Do go on." then nods to Lifeline, "Training them." Lifeline is clearly curious about the eels, but she mentally dismisses the thought to see what Reliquary has to say. "How do you know, Rel?" Reliquary starts to rummage through his compartments "My Timey Wimey balls' been acting up." he explains. "That's how I know." Shark looks hard at Rel, "The balls you were telling Ironhide and I about the other cycle?" Lifeline makes a face. "Your WHAT?" +Roll: Lifeline rolls against her Awareness Stat and fails by 3! The total roll was 18. Reliquary blinks, looking up at Shark in confusion "Who? He said he was Rusty, not Ironhide." he frowns, before focusing on Lifeline "My Timey Wimey Ball." Lifeline ohs softly. That cleared that up. NOT. Shark smiles, "Oh yeah.. Rusty." he states, that lie just tastes wrong... so so wrong... "So they go off when time goes awry?" Reliquary finally pulls out a crystal ball, perfectly smooth and clear save a few tiny micro bubbles and a faint sheen. IT was very carefully polished and glowed with a strange light. He held it in his hand tightly, opticing Shark nervously. "Well, maybe." Shark looks at it and says, "There is no maybe here, there is yes or no." he taps on the ball to see if it will go off.. he is certainly a prime candidate for being off... or so he has been told.. With a SHRIEK, Reliquary leaps back as Shark moves to tap at his ball, quite outraged "DONT TOUCH IT!" he puts another hand over it protectively "You'll BREAK it." Shark nods to Rel, "Sorry, just wanted to see if it would go off around me is all... been told for a few days now I seem off to others.. including Lifeline here." Lifeline nods. "May I see the ... um, Timey Wimey ball, Rel?" A pause, and Reliquary glowers at Shark, before moving to offer it to Lifeline. IT glittered a little.
* DING* Lifeline startles and pulls away from Rel, actually recoiling from the ball. Shark hmms, "There's that ding again." Lifeline looks from the ball to Shark. "What does it mean?" Reliquary blinks and looks at the ball "It only dings when there's stuff. But its been dinging a lot more, even when there IS no stuff.' he glances about Lifelines’ place, looking for the alleged 'stuff' You say, "He just said that time has been affected, and that the ball seems to sense it so it makes that ding sound. That means that what I just told you is true.. we are living a lie."" Lifeline hesitantly reaches a hand toward Reliquary and the ball again, but isn't aiming to really touch the weird thing. Reliquary holds his hands out to Lifeline again. This time the ball doesn’t DING when its' picked up at all. He nods at Shark "You should've just asked me!" You say, "I wasn't aware that's why your ball dinged. You were more intent on your trade." Lifeline says, "What kind of 'stuff', Rel?" Reliquary uhms and shrugs "Just... stuff. sometimes its useful stuff. Sometimes its not." he explains. "It just works! I don’t know how. But I'm worried its broken. Can you see?" he asks hopefully, glancing to Shark. Reliquary says, "that is true, I guess." Shark shakes his head, "I'm no mechanic. Maybe Lifeline should look at it." Lifeline takes the ball very gingerly. "But ... it's a solid crystal sphere. There's nothing mechanical about it." Reliquary pauses "... But it has to have SOMEThing inside. I mean... it DINGS!"
* DING* "see?!?": Shark hmms, "Interesting. Is this native?" Lifeline frowns slightly, then clears a space on her workbench and uses a large flat washer to support the sphere and keep it from rolling while she reaches for her scanner. "I don't know that I've seen a material like this before. Not on this planet, anyway." "Is it what? " asks Reliquary, confused as he remains near his ball, shifting his weight to protectively keep Shark from getting too close. Lifeline scans the sphere, and gets results distressingly quickly. "It is exactly what it looks like. A solid transparent sphere. I have no idea why it keeps dinging." "Its cause there's stuff!" a pause "Or a spatial-timeial wibbly-wobbly anomaly thingy." Reliquary says this. Of course. Shark hmms, "So not native?" he asks. Lifeline says, "Well, it is made of the relatively common isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice carbon, but the molecular structure is non-standard in a way I've never seen before." Reliquary pauses, and stares at lifeline. Blinkblink. Shark rubs at that slight beard of his and hmms, "So in other words it is native but has be altered in some way to react to time fluctuation?" "Or stuff." points out Reliquary Lifeline says, "I can't be sure, but I'd venture a guess and say yes. To react to something, anyway. Mineralology is not my specialty." Reliquary reaches out to carefully slide it back to him "Something’s' going on. But I don’t know what." he notes quietly. Shark nods a bit, "Well maybe it can help the scientists out somehow.. that is your friend here will let me borrow one?" Lifeline puts the scanner away and lets Reliquary take the sphere back with a sigh. "Rel, how many of these spheres do you have?" "Just the one." notes Reliquary, wrapping it in a surprisingly clean red velvet cloth and tucking it away. "I’ve had it since forever." Reliquary then glances to Shark, pausing "... What would you use it for?" You say, "The scientists can study the mineralogy and talk with you about the 'stuff' so it makes sense to you." Reliquary shifts uncertainly "... I don’t know. If something happened to it then I wouldn’t be able to find stuff as easily." Lifeline nods her agreement with Shark. "And they won't do anything to it without you there, right?" Shark hmms, "Think about it. You know where Iacon is..." he looks to Lifeline, "They will probably show him why it dings.. they are smart mechs after all. I need to head back." Reliquary nods a little bit uncertainly "Uh, okay." he notes doubtfully, merely standing there as he watches Shark Lifeline says, "You should go with him, Rel. Let the scientists start helping you figure out your ball." Shark states, "I'll be back when I hear more," he turns and heads out towards Iacon, hoping Rel will make the smart decision and bring that thing by Iacon sometime soon. Reliquary says, "... what If I don’t want to figure it out?"
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