heavyweaponsbot | 10th Transmission

[Everything hurts anymore. He could use a tune-up, but he's just too stubborn to go out and look for help.]

[It takes him a second to haul himself upright, but he does, in time, and gets the door locked up.]

[Go see the mechanic, man! He's a nice guy! Probably! Xanth really has no idea.

Xanth walks over to Ironhide's bed, then sits down and flips the book open. As he does, he asks,]

I-Is the, uh, the-- th-the little guy s-still up there?

Think so.

[To better answer Xanth's question, said little guy pokes his head out from behind Ironhide's helm crest thing, and croaks.]

Yep.

[Xanth breaks into a lopsided smile.]

O--Okay, good. Just-- m-making sure he didn't... h-hop off or s--something.

[Now: to business! Xanth flips open the book on frogs and thumbs through for anything about how intelligent they are. Or if they can trained. Or what kind of habitat they need...

He frowns thoughtfully. There's a lot of varied information.]

Hm...

I-I, uh, I-I'm not sure what-- what kind of frog th-this is. That's, um, th-that we have, I-I mean.

[He holds the book up and shows Ironhide two adjacent pages displaying very different frogs.]

At this point? Would not surprise me if it did leave.

[And, once again, Ironhide crouches down near the boy. He really needs to get some of those joints looked at -- salt water is murder on gears.]

[He kind of tilts his head to observe his passenger, before snorting, and tapping the smaller frog.]

Looks more like that one.

[Xanth's frown deepens at the noise of Ironhide's frame. He's pretty sure the only care Ironhide's gotten since arrival was Xanth picking seaweed out of his joints, and that was a long time ago. Doesn't all metal rust...?

Still, he looks back to the book and nods.]

Y-Yeah, it, it does...

[He thumbs through the pages, looking for habitat and diet information. (And, of course, anything that says whether they could be trained.)]

Wh-- where'd you find him?

[And Xanth would be right about that. He was too firmly attached to getting maintenance from one specific source when he arrived. It's proving detrimental.]

Near the pools. The heated ones.

[He was washing forest off his feet.]

O-Oh, yeah, r-right.

[Sorry this is taking so long, Ironhide! Xanth's reading skills are still kind of terrible, and by kind of I mean very.

Eventually, he pipes up:]

Th-they like the-- the warm water, o-obviously, and the-- I-I guess they eat whatever bugs a-are, uh, a-around.

[He pauses, taps his finger on the page, then looks up.]

A--Are there a-any bugs a--around? I, I've been to th-- th-the pools, a-and they seem... um. N-Not-- not buggy.

[But there have to be bugs. Bugs are everywhere! And there are frogs, so logically, there would be bugs. But not everything follows logic in this place...]

[It's all right, Xanth. He'll wait for you.]

[But at the question, he just shakes his head, and looks confused.]

I was not looking for any insects. Just the water.

O-Okay.

[Xanth turns back to the book. After another minute or so, he looks up again.]

I, I-I don't think th-they're, uh, s--smart enough to be... trained.

[Which is sad, but not surprising, as they are little amphibians and the one on Ironhide's head is probably still trying to crawl into his mouth somehow.

As if Ironhide has a real mouth.]

[He lacks anything like a real human mouth. Which is probably why the frog has wedged itself into a dent, and refuses to be budged.]

Maybe C4 was... altered, somehow, then. It seemed intelligent.

[AND HE MISSES THE LITTLE GOLD THING :(]

M--Maybe...

[Curiously, he looks up at Ironhide.]

Wh--where did... where did you get s-s-- C4?

[The old 'bot frowns, thinking on that. It probably says something that he can't remember a time without C4.]

... It just appeared. In the very beginning. Others got them too. And the crew... wanted them.

They would trade honest answers for one of the things.

O-Oh. That's, uh.

[No wonder Xanth doesn't remember them. The 'very beginning' must have been a long time before the Boat picked him up.]

I, I-I guess they are-- p-probably a-- a little d-different, then.

[A pause. Then...]

H-How come you didn't-- you-- y-you know?

[That's an easy answer to come up with. But... not an easy answer to say.]

[Ironhide studies the wall.]

Ratchet... was fond of it.

10th Transmission - Audio

Commentlog

Commentlog

Commentlog

Commentlog

Commentlog

Commentlog

Commentlog

Commentlog

Commentlog

Commentlog

Commentlog

Commentlog

Commentlog

Commentlog

Commentlog