10391/Secrets of Vector Sigma: Pit Stop

Secrets of Vector Sigma: Pit Stop
Date of Scene:	11 December 2019
Location:	Hadean System
Synopsis:	Blurr wasn't as prepared for taking care of Terrans as he thought he was, therefore a pit stop has to be made. Doug buys supplies, and Shannon finds a new...pet.
Cast of Characters:	Blurr, Cypher, Nightingale

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Blurr has posed:
    So! Doug and Shannon have suddenly found themselves blasting away from home sweet home Planet Earth on a Cybertronian vessel. Just another day in the life, right? The atmosphere around them heats up and burns as the craft shoots up through the sky, and soon enough they can see the blue planet just as a satellite would see it! It really is pretty.

    Doug's question about bathrooms is met with a slight pause. "-Bathroom-?" What does he mean -bathroom-? Blurr thought he had been -totally- prepared for this taking care of a human thingy. Even adjusted the onboard life support systems. "What do you use a 'bathroom' for? Anyway, you'd better hold onto something."

Cypher has posed:
    After Blurr revealed just how much he knew about humanity, Doug was a little bit taken aback.

For a little while after being space-napped, Doug sat in thought, with one arm curled around his knee and his hand on his chin. Then he uncurled, and handed Blurr a list, titled simply, 'Things humans need so they don't die'.

This list would be absolutely REVOLTING to a Cybertronian. Two liters of clean, non-salinated water a *day*? Protean, fibrous and vegetable matter specifically derived to feed beings with double-helix DNA? *Toilet paper*? *Deodorant*? *Soap*? Apparently human beings get dirty just by *sitting there*.

Sickening.

"I suggest you stop off at an intergalactic waystation and give me some credits so that I can buy these things. I mean it's hardly like I can steal a spaceship and fly home. Otherwise things are going to get covered in organic oils *really* fast."

It's a *very* detailed list, complete with explanations of why these items are needed. Blurr probably didn't know what 'pooping' is but now he knows why, and why humans need to do it.

"You can refuel the ship while I pick up the essentials. I hope the spoo at the gas station is fresh."

Nightingale has posed:
     Oh, lordy. The bathroom question. Shannon just looks over to Doug and shakes her head, facepalming in an epic way. There was just no delicate way to have this talk. "Ummm... yeah. What he said." She was trying very, very hard not to so much as smile, let alone laugh. It seemed there was bound to be a learning experience all around. She remains silent long enough for Blurr to look over the list, her battle against smiling finally lost in the end. "You mean you don't deal with... waste oils?"

     Now, however, it's the winged young mutant's turn to look over at Doug with brows raised in confusion. "Do I even want to know what spoo is? Please tell me it's not anything what it /sounds/ like?"

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr uses the typical holomatter to take the list and look at it because face it, his real body is probably too big. He makes a face. "Smelt that is disgusting. I mean come on I knew you waterbags were gross but I didn't know it was -that- bad. Ugh, fine. We'll make a pit stop at the Hadean refueling station since I'll have to go there anyway to get Shannon an exo since I wasn't expecting you to -insist- on coming." he says, giving the winged mutant a pointed look. "Now are you going to hold onto something or not because if you don't you're gonna get thrown."

Cypher has posed:
"This isn't my first rodeo, though the last time I traveled in deep space it was with a Technarch, who was a MUCH smoother ride than this." Doug says, before he straps himself down. He seems remarkably CALM about the whole thing.

Nightingale has posed:
     Shannon just shrugs, and finds a way to strap herself down somewhere, taking her cue from Doug. "Hey, that's still farther than I've gone, Doug." Though just how far that is, one may never know, if that secret little smile on her face is any indication. "An exosuit? Ooo boy, getting my wings into something like that ought to be... interesting. But I guess if Jay could manage hiding his wings, it can't be that bad, right?" Oddly enough, instead of calm or even nervous, she's a little bit excited and curious about the whole trip, trying to get a glimpse out of any viewport she can.

     She just grins at Blurr, and finally chuckles softly. "You really think I'd pass up a chance to help you guys out? No way!" Even if she wasn't entirely sure just /how/ to be of use, surely there'd be something--right?

Blurr has posed:
    As soon as they're strapped in, the holoform fades away and the sound of whining hyperdrive engines can be heard as they prepare to jump to FTL speed. Blurr's voice is on the intercomm again. "Don't worry, I'll just get you one of those Nebulan adaptive exos that shape up according to your physiology. Or was it Nebulan? I dunno, some other organic race."

    The vessel lurches abruptly then, and the stars turn into streaks outside the viewports as the ship shoots across the galaxy at warp speed. Why, it's just like Star Wars.

    "A Technarch? Pff, no way I'm definitely smoother." He probably doesn't even know what that is. But whatever it is, he's better than it. "What do you mean 'rodeo'?"

Cypher has posed:
    "Skrull." Doug says. "You want a Skrull adaptive exo-frame." He watches the stars shift, and then he leans back and relaxes, kicking his feet up.
    "It's an Earth sporting event, not important. You know there's a human tradition of singing on these long voyages?" He says, "I'll just... share my culture with you."

Who knew Doug knew so many sea shanties?

Nightingale has posed:
     Who knew that any of them at all would sound even sound at all familiar to Shannon? One of them does ring a bell, and she grins at Doug, picking up the melody of the first verse.

"Shiver my timbers, shiver my soul
Yo! Ho, heave ho!
There are men whose hearts are as black as coal
Yo! Ho, heave ho!"

     Truth be told, her singing voice wasn't all that bad, and she seemed to be getting into the spirit of things, her wings soon moving in time with the beat of the song.

Blurr has posed:
    "Skrull." Blurr repeats after Doug corrects him. "Right, right it was Skrull. That would make sense, I guess." He listens to Shannon's song somewhat curiously as the ship hurtles across the cosmos. Of course, he has no idea what it means. "Not bad. Not that I know anything about music."

    Finally, the vessel drops hyperspeed on the fringe of Hadean, and begins docking procedures at the nearby fueling station.

Cypher has posed:
    "All right. You hang out with Blurr for a minute." Doug says, "I'm going to go get what we need." He tosses the tablet with his shopping list up in the air and catches it. "Won't be a tick." He gets off the ship, and walks into the station comissary. He pushes the tablet across the counter, having conveniently typed it out in Interlac. "I need everything on this list. And while you're pulling that together, which way's your deep space comm station? I just have to fire off a quick message."
    As the grumpy-looking alien gestures to it with three of five arms, Doug walks into it and closes the curtain behind him. "Ew. Sticky keys, don't you ever clean this thing?" He sighs, and fires it up.
    'Hello love, you've reached Lila Cheney's personal hideaway. If you've got this number you're part of a very small group of people, so leave me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.'
    'Hi Lila, it's Doug. Listen. I need you to take a message to the gang on Earth. Shannon and I got kidnapped by a robot named Blurr, and he's taking me to planet Cybertron to do -- something. Whatever it is, it's important to him. I can't talk for long, I have to get back before he gets wise and locks me in a closet or something. He's not stupid, but he is kind of an idiot. Anyway, please get hold of the others and tell them to get their tails out there and pick us up. Everything is under control, I'm just going to need a ride home. 'Kay. Bye.'
    Doug nonchalantly exits the terminal and picks up his float-tote of supplies.

Nightingale has posed:
     While they've landed at the station, it's a chance for Shannon to get up and explore Blurr's ship a little bit. Doug might be at least a one-time veteran of space travel, but all of this is completely new to her, with even the most mundane of things (to Blurr and Doug, anyways), viewed with an air of awe and wonder from the winged girl. Thankfully, she has the good sense to keep her hands to herself, though she does wander up to the front of the ship to join Blurr for a moment.

     "Guess this must all seem pretty ordinary to you," she muses, a light smile on her face as she peers out the viewport. "Most from Earth will never get to see beyond home." To many, it was just another pit stop. To her, it was something else entirely. She chuckles lightly, and grins over at Blurr. "Thanks for not kicking me out an airlock, and letting us both help you. I promise I'll try not to annoy you or anything."

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr watches Doug make his way onto the station as if he were just walking into another ordinary mall on Earth. Heh, well at least he's used to this. He turns to Shannon as she comes up to the cockpit, which is even more a sea of unfamiliar controls and holpanel displays. "Well I guess you're lucky, then." Okay, she -has- kind of already annoyed him but whatever. It wasn't a big deal. "Listen, I'm going to go get you that exo. You stay here, okay? Don't touch anything, don't go anywhere. It's for your own good, trust me." He then exits himself, folding back down into his speeder form and scooting off.

    The alien stares at Doug when he picks up his supplies and pays with the currency Blurr gave him. "Listen kid, I don't know what planet you're from but if you know what's good for you, you wouldn't be hanging around Cybertronian sorts. Yeah yeah I know what am I doing working in Hadean then sure but working on a station in Hadean is one thing. Takin' currency from 'em and riding around in their ships with 'em is another."

Cypher has posed:
    Doug raises an eyebrow and says, "I take it they're not well-liked?" He asks, as the exchange of payment is completed.
    He taps his techno-organic arm on the counter, and says, "Let's just say it's the company I've got, not the company I've picked. I uh, I don't suppose the Legion or a Green Lantern are anywhere nearby?" He asks, his eyebrows raising, as he speaks sotto voce.

Nightingale has posed:
     At least Shannon doesn't go poking about the ship, though her eyebrows raise at the dizzying array of displays and controls present in the cockpit. She looks outside to see unfamiliar stars, various vessels docking and departing, in a place that must be so ordinary. Her lips purse slightly as she thinks back, hoping that she hadn't actually annoyed Blurr. Was he just being kind? It had been made pretty clear she was more like the little kid sister who was tagging along and barely tolerated, on top of already being organic and so... /human/.

     Well, she thought to herself, alien culture, alien sensibilities. She'd just have to try a little harder, pay attention so she wouldn't annoy either of them any further. But how could she stay behind, when there was a friend who needed help?

     Although... what could be taking Doug so long? That had been a fairly long list, and probably some of those items weren't easy to find out here. Still, as the minutes ticked by, she heads on over by the door where both Doug and Blurr had made their exit, peering out to see what's going on....

Blurr has posed:
    The commissary looks even more shocked. Does this individual mean to say he doesn't even -know-? "Don't you know? Cybertronians have been blacklisted by the Galactic Council for -eons-. And for good reason too. Practically everything and everyone they come into contact with meets with a violent end." Then he starts to look worried at the question. "No, even the Lantern Corps typically stays away from these sectors thanks to Cybertron being here...." He leans forward slightly, lowering his voice. "Are you in trouble?"

    The airlock is still open, with a walkway leading across the open space of the docking bay over to a balcony where Doug is talking to that comissary. Blurr is no longer anywhere in sight, although there are quite a few other people milling about. From here, Shannon could probably catch some of the conversation, but she might also catch sight of what looks like a small mechanical insectoid creature with huge yellow optics slumped against a wall near the outermost reaches of the docking bay balconies. Well relatively 'small', in comparison to her it's probably like the same size as her. Honestly it is -ugly- as slag, but...it just looks so sad and lonely!

Cypher has posed:
    Doug flattens his mouth into a line. "Let me guess, it has something to do with their civil war?" Then he adds, "As something of an oppressed minority where I come from, racism doesn't hold much truck with me. I might be in a tight spot, but I'm not in any danger from *him*." He quirks his mouth and side-glances. He's not in any danger yet, at least.
    "Listen, never mind, just give me the stuff. I'll be fine." He shakes his head, and says, "...I'll take my chances with the robot."

Nightingale has posed:
     Almost immediately, Shannon's heart went out to the little--well, in comparison to Blurr's size, anyways--insectoid. A quick glance this way and that for recognizable threats didn't bring anything to her immediate attention. Still, it was an unfamiliar area, and it would probably be a good idea to keep the ship in direct line of sight. So she does venture out, tiptoeing over in the general direction of the down-and-out mechanical being with the strange yellow eyes.

     She hesitates for a moment as she approaches, keeping a healthy distance between her and... it? Did these creatures have gender? Would it understand her if spoken to? There was only one way to find out. "Hello there," she offers, keeping her voice soft and her tone, gentle. "Are you alright?"

Blurr has posed:
    "I'm sure it does, it's more the fact that they destroy everything they touch." The alien replies, sighing. "And trust me, they are far from -oppressed-. They're the ones who -do- the oppressing." But since Doug insists that he'll be fine and will take his chances, the commissary doesn't press any further. "Fine, your choice." he says, and hands him the purchased items.

    The creature does seem to react to Shannon's presence as she approaches. It pokes its antennae up, surprised that someone would pay attention to it. Tentatively, it inches toward her curiously, trying to get a better look at her.

Cypher has posed:
    In the meantime, Doug is loading the supplies onto the ship. "Hey." He says to her, "Be careful--"

He turns, and rubs the back of his neck. "Have I seen one of those before somewhere...?"

Nightingale has posed:
     Smiling, Shannon crouches down to get a better look at the odd, bug-like mechanical creature, keeping her wings tucked in and her relative size small so as to hopefully appear less of a threat. "Kind of lonely, huh? I know how that gets sometimes, believe me." She's not too terribly far from the ship, and would likely be able to make it back in a hurry if things went south. But this poor little guy didn't seem to have anybody, and seemed to be cast aside. Nobody deserved that.

     Glancing over towards Doug as she hears him call out, she tilts her head at him in something of a quizzical look. "What is it? Have you seen these before?"

Blurr has posed:
    The creature comes closer to her as she continues talking to it, appearing to become a little less apprehensive and more comfortable. She's a nice fleshy! It sort of reaches out toward her with these tiny arms it has right under its massive mandibles.

    At that moment, Blurr suddenly returns from his shopping trip. He gawks when he finds Shannon like, -petting- an Insecticon. Seriously? He rushes over there. "Shannon, what the slag?" he exclaims.

Cypher has posed:
    Doug lets out a sigh. "Sorry. Old experiences, I get jumpy around insectoid aliens. We used to have a ton of problems with the Brood." Brood. EeEEEEeEEEeEEEeEEEEEeeEeeew, Brood! To Cybertronians they'd be an nuisance. To organic lifeforms, they're a disaster.
    He doesn't rush in and intervene. "I think... it likes her." He says, to Blurr. "It doesn't seem to want to eat her."

Nightingale has posed:
     At the odd sight of those metallic arms reaching out towards her, Shannon can't help smiling. Okay, maybe this wasn't the smartest thing in the world, true. But if the trip was going to be half as dangerous as she thought it might be, even the smallest, most unlikely of allies could potentially prove invaluable. So she reaches back out in kind to brush her fingertips along that odd arm, for just an instant, though she's quick to draw her hand out of reach again. "Hey... shhh, it's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."

     Knowing nothing of the Brood, or of Insecticons, the reactions of both Doug and Blurr garner a very perplexed look from the young winged woman. She looks up at them, glancing from one to the other. But there are only two questions that bubble forth. "What is this? And how do you tell if it's hurt?"

Blurr has posed:
    "The Brood? Psh! The Brood is -nothing- compared to these things." Blurr scoffs. "For your -information- it's an Insecticon, and they -eat- organics like you to keep themselves running." And other things, but that was the part relevant to Shannon, so.

    Still, the creature doesn't seem interested in eating her at all! It's clear that it hadn't intended to hurt her, instead it makes a strange little delighted noise when she touches its arms briefly.

    At this, the Autobot continues to stare at the interaction. Maybe Doug is right, it -does- seem to like her. How that's even possible, Primus only knows. "How the--frag?" He wonders aloud. Perhaps it -could- be a valuable ally, hm. "Okay, fine. I guess if it follows you, it follows you." Then he returns to the ship.

Cypher has posed:
    "Yeah, they only possess other aliens from within and turn them into monsters," Doug says, as he rubs the back of his neck, and then says, "Well, you're going to have to feed it. And... oil its joints. I'm sure you can find out more about how to take care of it from Blurr. Probably."
    He shrugs his shoulders. Girl's first pet, and it's a robot space cockroach."

Nightingale has posed:
     It's time to return to the ship, though whether or not Shannon's new little friend would follow is anybody's guess. Standing up, she grins over at Doug. "Hey. Not my first pet but sure is the most unusual. There's the family dog back in Connecticut, an Old English Sheepdog named Charity." Another thought comes to mind, and she turns to look back at the lone, lonely Insecticon. "Okay, you seem to understand me. Can you talk? Do you have a name?" Or maybe it just understood tone more than words? Who was to say?

     Blurr especially gets a smile from Shannon, and she turns to follow both him and Doug back to the ship. She only slows for a moment to look back, and see if they will be getting underway, heavy one Insecticon.

Blurr has posed:
    The creature doesn't talk, but it does eagerly trot after her up the walkway and onto Blurr's ship. Welp, looks like Shannon has a new pet for now.

    Once they're all aboard, Blurr just sort of shrugs as he powers up the engines once more.

    "So you gonna give it a name or what."

Cypher has posed:
    Doug finds a seat, and puts his feet up on a console, the float-tote apparently part of the whole deal. He has somethign that looks like a pudding cup, but when he opens it, the contents give a depressed-sounding sigh. "Fresh Spoo." He says, before he digs a spork into it, and takes a mouthful.
    "...Mutants have a habit of adopting aliens," He admits.

Nightingale has posed:
     Welp, it did seem the crew of the not-so-little vessel had indeed increased by one, if an Insecticon could be considered crew. Still, for better or for worse, it was there, and the matter of a name had to be settled. Settling down and strapping in, Shannon regards her newest friend with a critical eye for a few moments, murring softly as she thinks. "Creed, like Apollo Creed. He started out as Rocky's enemy, but turned into one of his best friends. Maybe this little guy could be the same. Creed."