Ask Beachcomber
Ask me Anything:
This blog is open to Magic Anons and may sometimes be NSFW.
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“I thought the same, I think it may be a prank so I haven’t brought Red Alert into it yet. I would rather try and find out what happened without worrying him if I can” he said lightly.He listened to the others explanation and nodded in agreement. ”I understand how you are feeling Beachcomber, it’s… a hard decision, but we do not have the resources to keep them either. Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback make a starter out of a forest, imagine the damage their offspring could cause” he said carefully “We have a duty to protect this planet, I’m worried that if we do nothing it is Earth that will suffer”
“I - I know we don’t have the resources.” He looks down at his hands, worrying his thumb against a knuckle. “And I know we swore to protect this planet and the people that live here. I haven’t come up with anything feasible beyond Percy’s… shrinking-growing-ray thing he’s got in his lab, but even then it’s not exactly humane to keep a bunch of infants in a terrarium, and then we’re back to the question of How Do We Feed Them.” Beachcomber sighs softly. “And I know how dangerous they are to us, and the last thing I want is to see my friends get hurt… There’s no way I can stop you, and I can’t offer any decent alternatives, but… I’d like to ask to be excluded from this project. I can’t bear to kill them, and if I saw it happen I might not be able to avoid trying to intervene, despite knowing how stupid and dangerous that would be to everyone involved.”
“Shrinking-growing-ray?” he murmured thoughtfully, that sounded like it could work “it would be easier to feed a clutch of tiny insecticons than a clutch of normal sized ones” he said still sounding thoughtful, if they could do that he would be quite happy to allow beachcomber to keep them in a terrarium.
“I will listen to any alternative offered by anyone, this is not something I want to see happen either” he said carefully putting a hand on his friends shoulder. Of course, no one will be made to do this against their will Beachcomber” he said gently.
Beachcomber waved a dismissive hand, sighing, “Yeah, you know, the one he uses to repair microchips? He shrunk himself and Brawn and Bee down that time Megatron got slag-faced-overcharged?” He shook his head, voice heavy with despair, “But the effects wear off so it’s not reliable, and there’s a chance of developing an immunity to the type of energy it emits if used too frequently. I’m no engineer so I don’t even know where to start ironing out the kinks with that thing, and he’s had it for practically forever so if Perce can’t make the effects stick I don’t know who can. And I don’t have any better ideas…”
He lowered his head. He’d felt the Prime’s hand on his shoulder before but… somehow it seemed heavier right now, under the weight of the events ahead. So he pressed a little closer to Optimus, seeking a bit of comfort from familiar blue legs, leaning up against his wheels. “Thank you, Optimus.”
More Autobots?! Just how many felt the need to creep up on Rattrap? At least this guy was small…ish. Smaller than the others, at least.
“Uh, hey dere blue bot. What’s hangin’?” Rattrap threw up a servo in a loose wave.
Oooh tiny bot. Part organic? Beachcomber crouched slightly to inspect the smaller mech with a smile, scanners sweeping curiously over him. It wasn’t every day he found someone smaller than himself - Cybertronian-wise anyway. “I’ve heard that the moon is hanging in the sky, and I’ve heard you can swing on a star. I’ve heard you can hang ten, or hang loose, or hang a frame on the wall.” He grins wryly to the bot. “Gonna have to be more specific.”
Even as soft as it was, Reuse is startled by the voice. Drawing in a deep vent in a gasp, he manages to inhale several hundred dandelion seeds in one moment. A goodly forty plants have been stripped bare by his sudden sucking in of air, aided, no doubt by the turbine nature of his intakes. Just as abruptly as he’d inhaled, his vents hiccup, tickled by the little seedlings, puffing out a large cloud of possible life into the soft breeze that had just decided to ripple the field of white and yellow around him.Optics wide, he just stares at the floating white parachutes of fluff before coming back to himself, and sheepishly smiling in the direction of the voice. He answers back just as quietly, one small hand rubbing nervously at the back of his helm, “Erm…I..um…maybe the next set? I’m not sure I can count how many wishes um…I just sucked through my vents.”
The little mech carefully stands, dusting off his knees, his slender frame and silver finish probably looking woefully out of place in this mass of flower, and natural beauty. He was painfully aware of that too, self-consciously clutching his hands together. With thoughts to the flowers, and bugs, he steps lightly, trying to avoid trampling any as he heads slowly over towards the tree. “Erm…I’m sorry if I invaded or intruded upon um…anything.”
Golden optics turn back at gaze at the field, a little smile twitching up the corners of his mouth. Just for a moment, he loses himself again, just enjoying the thrum of insects, the play of the wind, the seeds brushing past him as they fly to parts beyond. “I can erm…leave, if you like?”
He really didn’t want to be a bother.
Beachcomber couldn’t help but chuckle at the white cloud of seeds that puffs out of the mech’s vents, placing a hand over his face to try to muffle his laughter. “Maybe the next set,” he agreed with a laugh. “They seed themselves like that pretty fast during the spring and summer. There’ll be lots of chances for wishes.” He vented a puff of air at a cluster of seeds drifting by, sending them on their way. “Dandelions grow fast and spread their seeds pretty wide so there’s not exactly a shortage of them.”
Beachcomber watches the mech approach, looking for an insignia - he still hadn’t met all of Magnus’s crew since he landed, so it’d be easy to overlook a ‘Con in the confusion of new faces. But the mech seemed a little shy and wasn’t shooting at him being this close to the Ark, so chances were that he was probably on their side. Or one of the rare ‘Cons that enjoyed flowers. He leaned his head back against the tree and rubbed the flat of a finger between the ears of one of the sunbathing squirrels on his lap. “Nah, mech, Miss Robin doesn’t seem too bothered and she’s the one sitting on a nest of eggs. She’d raise a fuss if she felt like you were invading her space, so no worries. The animals around here are getting pretty used to seeing ‘bots wandering about.”
“Yes, I went to split up a scuffle in the hall and when I came back Nova was gone” he explained, humming in thought “It might be worth a visit, lets speak to Grimlock” he said carefully, slowing his usual pace to make sure Beachcomber could keep up with him without trouble. “How are you feeling Beachcomber? I have heard that you’re upset about the current situation with the Insecticons,” he said watching him
“That kinda sounds like a set up - how long has he been missing? If you wait long enough they might send ransom demands. Or you could appeal to their guilt by hanging ‘Have you seen me?’ posters everywhere.”
Beachcomber glances to the side at the question, feeling oddly guilty himself under the Prime’s gaze. “I’m feeling okay. I mean, I can understand why it’s something that needs to be done, but it feels wrong to me to destroy a bunch of eggs. I know the ‘Cons don’t have the resources to keep them satisfied and under control, if they even cared to, and I know they would get out of hand really fast if they turned out to be just like the other Bugs, and the last thing either side needs is a third faction comprised entirely of ravenous cannibals, but they’re eggs… they’re, y’know, they’re innocent. They’re like… I dunno, an egg is kinda like Vector Sigma - round and hard and you never know exactly what’s going to come out of it…” He sighs a bit, rubbing the back of his neck. “It just kinda makes my spark hurt to think of all that potential life being destroyed when there’s so few of us still around.”
“I thought the same, I think it may be a prank so I haven’t brought Red Alert into it yet. I would rather try and find out what happened without worrying him if I can” he said lightly.
He listened to the others explanation and nodded in agreement. ”I understand how you are feeling Beachcomber, it’s… a hard decision, but we do not have the resources to keep them either. Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback make a starter out of a forest, imagine the damage their offspring could cause” he said carefully “We have a duty to protect this planet, I’m worried that if we do nothing it is Earth that will suffer”
“I - I know we don’t have the resources.” He looks down at his hands, worrying his thumb against a knuckle. “And I know we swore to protect this planet and the people that live here. I haven’t come up with anything feasible beyond Percy’s… shrinking-growing-ray thing he’s got in his lab, but even then it’s not exactly humane to keep a bunch of infants in a terrarium, and then we’re back to the question of How Do We Feed Them.” Beachcomber sighs softly. “And I know how dangerous they are to us, and the last thing I want is to see my friends get hurt… There’s no way I can stop you, and I can’t offer any decent alternatives, but… I’d like to ask to be excluded from this project. I can’t bear to kill them, and if I saw it happen I might not be able to avoid trying to intervene, despite knowing how stupid and dangerous that would be to everyone involved.”
“You’re not in trouble Beachcomber” the Prime said gently noticing the worry in the minibots demeanor “I would appreciate your company while looking for my missing pet, and I know you have somethings on your mind” he said softly, motioning for him to step through the door first. “I’m a good listener”
“Missing pet?” He relaxed a bit with Optimus’s reassurance, stepping through the door and waiting for him to lead the way. “Have you checked the Dinobots? They’re pretty interested in fish - they usually favor the bigger ones in the lake, though.” He falls into step with the bigger bot, taking the occasional hop to be sure he keeps up.
“Yes, I went to split up a scuffle in the hall and when I came back Nova was gone” he explained, humming in thought “It might be worth a visit, lets speak to Grimlock” he said carefully, slowing his usual pace to make sure Beachcomber could keep up with him without trouble. “How are you feeling Beachcomber? I have heard that you’re upset about the current situation with the Insecticons,” he said watching him
“That kinda sounds like a set up - how long has he been missing? If you wait long enough they might send ransom demands. Or you could appeal to their guilt by hanging ‘Have you seen me?’ posters everywhere.”
Beachcomber glances to the side at the question, feeling oddly guilty himself under the Prime’s gaze. “I’m feeling okay. I mean, I can understand why it’s something that needs to be done, but it feels wrong to me to destroy a bunch of eggs. I know the ‘Cons don’t have the resources to keep them satisfied and under control, if they even cared to, and I know they would get out of hand really fast if they turned out to be just like the other Bugs, and the last thing either side needs is a third faction comprised entirely of ravenous cannibals, but they’re eggs… they’re, y’know, they’re innocent. They’re like… I dunno, an egg is kinda like Vector Sigma - round and hard and you never know exactly what’s going to come out of it…” He sighs a bit, rubbing the back of his neck. “It just kinda makes my spark hurt to think of all that potential life being destroyed when there’s so few of us still around.”
“I was just thinking about the difference in the two, actually. If we place them right, we should be able to get power from sunrise to sunset. As for spacing them, we can put them as close as the sails would allow or space them out as far as needed, really. The only limiting factor in how close we can put them is the full width of the sails when they’re opened up.”He ran a few quick calculations, reaching over to add the sail to the blueprint. He fiddled with the size several times, starting larger before shrinking it down bit by bit. All the while still running and rerunning calculations in his processor. “I don’t want to make them too big, because there’s always the chance the wind could take it with a strong enough gust, or a sudden storm. The weather here can be so volatile, with very little warning. I’ll be coding in automatic weather detection, and a few other failsafes that will retract the sails to protect them.”
“Maybe we could set them to automatically retract when the wind picks up to a certain speed, or if the temperature drops too far so the gears don’t freeze while they’re still out. All we’d need is a thermometer and a little…” he pauses, trying to think of the word, finger rotating, “…spinny…thing. To measure the wind speed.”
Beachcomber doodles along the bottom of the blueprint - part of an algorithm for the temperature range and wind speed, some of the calculations seem to be comprised of squiggly lines and little stick figures, one of them might be a tiny doodle of a horse on a beach ball. “Once we can estimate the size of the panels we can use, I’ll just need to know the length and width of your shaft.” He grins, trying and failing to smother a giggle. “We’ll need to pick our materials carefully. We don’t want it to shrink in the cold~”
My name is Starswipe!
MY NAME IS SKYQUAKE.!! WHAT THE HELL.?
sup guys..my name is Skyquake AND NO ONE WANTS MY DEAD D.!!!SENTINEL TERROR, READY TO RIP OUT YOUR SPARK
NEMESIS BITE~
Skystrike.
Aw yeah~
//Sentinel Strike
Aw yeah
Sky X? =T What does… what does that mean? Is that like the powerpuff girls or something? I’m made with Chemical X? Is it Skyxe? Would you pronounce it “Sky Kai” or “Sky Ex”
Bah I’m not a seeker anyway.
You know that feeling you get when your parents want to ‘have a talk’ with you ‘in the other room’? When you don’t know if you’re in trouble or not but you’re not exactly expecting confetti and streamers all the same and the idea that you’ve done something they’re disappointed in has you unsettled? Something vaguely akin to that feeling settles onto the minibot’s spark, but he offers a nod and trots over to walk alongside the Prime. “Sure, Optimus. Sir. A walk sounds nice.”
“You’re not in trouble Beachcomber” the Prime said gently noticing the worry in the minibots demeanor “I would appreciate your company while looking for my missing pet, and I know you have somethings on your mind” he said softly, motioning for him to step through the door first. “I’m a good listener”
“Missing pet?” He relaxed a bit with Optimus’s reassurance, stepping through the door and waiting for him to lead the way. “Have you checked the Dinobots? They’re pretty interested in fish - they usually favor the bigger ones in the lake, though.” He falls into step with the bigger bot, taking the occasional hop to be sure he keeps up.
Would I recuse them? Yeah… Yeah, I mean, y’know, innocent until proven guilty, right? A dog bites you once, do you write off All dogs? All animals? Anything with teeth? I mean, I’m - I’m aware this could be a bad decision. The bugs are dangerous, and they’re destructive and cruel and so on, and, y’know, this could turn around and literally bite me in the aft, but killing off a bunch of unhatched eggs… I can’t condone it. I can understand the reasoning behind it, the preventative measures, but in my spark it just feels… wrong.
You know that feeling you get when your parents want to ‘have a talk’ with you ‘in the other room’? When you don’t know if you’re in trouble or not but you’re not exactly expecting confetti and streamers all the same and the idea that you’ve done something they’re disappointed in has you unsettled? Something vaguely akin to that feeling settles onto the minibot’s spark, but he offers a nod and trots over to walk alongside the Prime. “Sure, Optimus. Sir. A walk sounds nice.”
