Old Mech, New Tricks

Log Title: Old mech, new tricks Characters: Imager, Encore, Discretion, Delusion Location: Valvolux Date: TP:Non-TP Summary: Imager shows off, and Encore gets an idea out of it As logged by  [[Imager There's always some down time during a siege, and a lot of that comes down to just passing the time. Bots left to their own thoughts could fixate too much on what's bound to happen shortly, which is why there's always something competitive or social going on unofficially.

Officially, of course, everyone is vigilant and ready at a moment's notice.

It has been a long, long road since Imager finally took up her vioello again. Five eons since the Maestro Secundae of Cybertron played.

Coincidentally, the war's raged for about that long.

Currently, she's got a small crowd of Bots behind her, as she has her vioello out, resting against the ground. Off in the distance, about within blaster pistol range, lies a single exoglass. "Come on, place your bets. I'm tellin ya. Its a sure thing myself, I mean come on, would I lie?" Bots throw down shanix as they bet on whatever she's up to, the entire time, the Maestro has a smirk on her face, "Come on, modeshift or get off the pot already!"

Delusion settles among the back of the crowd to watch, arms folded over her chestplate as she leans against a bit of construction material.

Encore saunters towards the group casually, coming over to see what's up. "Och, wha's gae'n on 'ere?" He asks, curiously. He's been a fairly constant soundtrack to the seige, standing dramatically up on the walls with his bagpipes.

Said bagipes are cradled, deflated, in the crook of his his left arm, with the drone pipes resting on his shoulder. Encore has partially disconnected.

A smaller, sleeker femme stops near Delusion doing her bes to look throught the crowd at what's going on.

Motorpool remarks to Encore, "She says she can break a duranthium sheet plate with her sound thingie."

"Vioello, you chump." Imager points at Motorpool with her baton, "Its an instrument for a more civilized age....now the thing here is that I got no sonic accelerators on this here instrument, no sonic projectors, I'm just all skill."

Huffer raises a hand, "So why is the exoglass out there first?"

She motions towards the target, "Presentation!" With that Imager draws her baton, and hefts the vioello under her chin like one might a violin (which is an exceptionally crude substitute of course). She plays several short scales as she talks, "See, the thing here is intensity. If I hit the right pitch, I'll knock out our optical relays...which is pretty cool, but I'll save that for the baddies."

Imager adjusts her stance, and furrows her brow at the exoglass. She draws her bow again, the sound nearly silent to those with normal receptors, and the exoglass buckles as if it were sliced into, before clattering to the ground. Delusion arches an optic ridge but otherwise is unmoved by the display. Sonics isn't new tech, after all.

Encore watches the whole thing with his arms folded, smirking. He himself winces slightly at the noise, nodding with approval. "I knew I kenned yez from somewhere. Seein' yez with the instrument'srung th' bell. Didnae you play a' th' last major concert, jes' before hostilities broke out? Like, one or tae days, at most." He sniffs. "Pretty good, I've nae seen single-note controllike tha'. Mind I've seen Banshee, tha' green and yeller Con, do th' same trick wit' jus' her voice."

He lifts his bagpipes up onto his shoulder. "I reckon I can dae it."

Discretion is somewhat surprised that anyone might place bets against Imager's ability shatter material with sound, or rather vibration energy.

Imager talks offhandedly back to Encore, "Awww, I was still doin concerts early war...first eon or so." She frowns to herself as she draws the bow again, the exoglass cube breaking into pieces after that hit, "Wasn't much call for it. Better'n playin yer pipes. Least unless you can hit Octavia 23-C with those things." She looks back to the other mech behind her, "Go set up the plate, would ya, Muffler....Wait.." She pauses, and squints. "Huffer? I've been callin ya by the wrong name all day."

Huffer manages a weak shrug, "I get that a lot." She motions with her bow, "You go an set it up for me anyway, would ya?"

Huffer grouces, "Might as well, I've got eight shanix that says you can't, but I'm about to be broke again."

Imager grins, "Yeah, you are."

She looks back to Encore, "You said you caught a show pre-war? Oh mech, that was back in the day, you tellin me you actually would go hit Harmonex for a night or two? You?"

Pathpaver coughs under his breath, "Conjunx Endura."

Imager scowls at Pathpaver.

Imager calls back to him, "I done told ya! There's no sonic weaponry involved here, HUFF-FER!"

Encore laughs "Aye, me. People dinnae 'spect it, but I like most types o' music. Rock's got its roots in th' kinda classical yae can *feel*, y'ken? I like my music tae have some power behind it, dinnae rully much care beyond tha' so long as the tune's good, y'ken?" He chuckles. "A'reet, Huffer boss, Imager lass. What'cha got of the odds on me doin' it? I've had th' pipes up tae 20, 22 fer thungs like Acid Folk. Reckon if I give a good squeeze an' figure th' right holes I can get pretty close..."

Discretion quietly cajoles Delusion for all the shanix she has and the worms her way to the frount of the crowd. The pale femme ends up dropping another seventeen onto the pile in favor of Imager's boastful, and certain, claim of sonic prowess. Delusion sighs and surrenders some of her hard-earned funds. "It's just a lot of posturing," she says under her breath. From around a corner comes a booming voice: "Me Grimlock hear Huffer!" calls the Dinobot, stomping into view. The quietest and most subtle of all the Autobots approaches the gathering, really having no idea what he's seeing, but fixating on one very specific thing: "Me Grimlock ask who invite Huffer?" Then it hits him that something is actually probably going on, and his curiosity gets the better of him. He tilts his head at Imager and the - whatever she's holding.

Grimlock, despite being a fine figure of culture, has no idea what it is. Imagine that.

Pathpaver complains, "What, wait wait!" He approaches Discretion, "Bets are closed! Its too late to get in on this. Bad enough everyone's going to have to split six..."

Huffer calls out as he returns from setting up the duranthium plate, "...eight."

Pathpaver continues, "Eight shanix, there's not much of a return."

Imager just smirks, "Like we're all going to get rich here. But Encore, you givin it a go, that's somethin I'll pay to see next, hah!"

Huffer quickly steps into the crowd, attempting to elude the big Dinobot.

Imager raises the bow to her vioello, her gaze turning to the side as the Grimlock approaches, "He dropped in with me for Operations support. Hey, big Yellow, stay back a bit, Imma bout to juggle this armor plate."

She scales up a few notes as before, "I first started doin this during the Empyrean Suite, you know, back when I was recording it...and right up to the Vitiosus Finale, things'd start to just break..."

With a high note, the armor plate is sent skyward. A series of sharp notes carry on, even as she plays a bit of the Finale, sonic waves keep lashing into the armor plate, juggling it up into the air, and eventually denting the plate. Moments later, it gives under the strain and snaps in twain.

The applause is polite, and brief.

Discretion sighs and pouts at the mech, but does pick up the funds. "You do know how to ruin a femme's fun, don't you?"

As the perfoance begins she just listens, and watches the performance and just as the plate is about to give way again slips her way back to keep out of the radius of falling debris.

Grimlock doesn't pursue Huffer. He's distracted now by Imager's music. He folds his arms, not about to join in on the clapping, but he is quite taken with what's happening. "Me Grimlock say that look handy. Me Grimlock can't do that." He pauses, "Me Grimlock just hit plate with Huffer instead." He rumbles a chuckle, looking around for Huffer to elbow him - unfortunately, Huffer has already slipped into the ground. The Dinobot shrugs. Delusion shakes her head. "I know it's supposed to be thrilling, but that's a waste of an instrument, playing parlor tricks with it."

GAME: Encore PASSES a FIREPOWER roll of Very High difficulty.

Encore nods approvingly. "Och, nice work, lass. I've seen this trick a''fore. Jes'... not done quite so... smooth." He chuckles, sparking a cigar. "Huffer, gae put a fresh cube oot." He suggests. "We'll start small fae me, aye?"

Once the plate is set up, Encore inflates the bag of his bagpipes. It's a slightly distressing, unpleasant sound, athough it stops once there's sufficient air in the bag. After examining the pipes for a moment, he fiddles with two of the three drone pipes, and gives a test squeeze. They now don't so much drone as chirp, or squeak. He nods approvingly and then begins to play a high scale.

From the outset, the noise is... painful. Perhaps even 'horiffic'. It makes parts of one's metal body resonate in ways they weren't supposed to. As the pitch rises yet further, the energon cube he's targeting begins to dance and jump around on its support. As Encore begins to turn a funny colour from the effort, blowing as hard as he can. Just before he loses his puff, however, the cube shatters - it doesn't split in half, it just plain explodes into tiny shards.

The big autobot is left wheezing at the effort. Imager squints at Pathpaver, "Why you go an single her out not to have the same fun, eh?" She pokes the smaller mech, "Its just all funsies, cept how Huffer's taking it, but Huffer takes everything rough."

Mage steps back so Encore can try his hand at air-juggling, a hand on her hip. A flat look crosses her face as he hits that awful key. Lights near her ears flick off as she turns off audio for the rest of the show. As Encore recovers, Imager actually gives a somewhat-approving look, "That's actually pretty cool, I mean, you manage to up that a bit, you'll probably hit vibrational freqs and then you'll have to watch out for shatterin metal....kinda wish I had bet on that one.

She shakes her head again, "Anyhoo, its prolly time to shift change anyway, so I gotta call off on this." She points her baton at Grimlock, a bit of a grin on her face, "Well, it ain't no Dinobot power, but it'll short circuit most o'ya. Anyhoo, mebbe I get back on stage after the siege, since 'veryone here's such music lovers." She starts to step out of the semi-circle, leaving the shanix behind. People start to divvy up poor Huffer's eight shanix. As Imager leaves, her vioello shifts back into her large tower shield, which she slaps on her back, she chortles to herself "Still got it."