Scene #2188:

Owner	Pose
Soundwave	The medical bay is relatively quiet for the moment. Those recently returned from missions have been treated, and there has not yet been a call for medical to prepare for another wave of wounded. On one of the larger cots, Ravage reclines in the pose of a composed feline, front paws crossed in front of his chest. The damages caused by his encounter with Blurr have long been repaired, but one foreleg still looks a little more shiny than the other. Rumble is mostly hidden by the berth, his arms folded on the surface with his chin resting on the folded limbs. Both seem to be watching across the bay, where something... strange... seems to be happening to a human. It's certainly a correct size, about 6-foot tall, but the form keeps flickering like an image on a badly-tuned TV. With each flicker, something changes -- hair, clothing, skin color, even height. It's clearly not something /bad/, as the medical staff are completely ignoring it, but it's certainly not normal either.
No. 9	Why is Nine here? Well when you've been sleeping for weeks to months at a time there's some unfortunate side effects that can happen. Chemical imbalances and physical maladies that come up. Things he doesn't want to bother Taro with. Things that are kind of embarrassing. Things that are a bit too biological. So due to a buildup of- something- in his kidneys, he's in to have them switched out, cleaned out and replaced. Thankfully the kidneys themselves aren't biological anymore, since... oh, he didn't remember which one, one of the Union put twin burning blades through each one, so it wasn't much to get them replaced, but it was uncomfortable and kind of unpleasant, and so he lay there as they layered the flesh back over the replaced metal plates and stapled it in place along the treasure trail that wasn't there any longer, looking down as the blood started to already seal just a little. The temp kidneys pinched a little, but an uncomfortable squirm and they felt a little bit better... So horror of horrors, you have a Nine wandering around in medical jammies and a thin white sheet, looking tired and out of sorts, plaguing Medical.
Kari Wolf	Harriet peers at the flickering form, having come in to Medical for somebody to replace the myomer controller in her leg. 'Muscle' spasms have a very different cause if you happen to be a tiny robot like Harriet or her older sister Kari. She's riding along on her robotic rabbit familiar/drone while the leg is being repaired, and the pair hops over to the flickering image, both regarding it warily. She reaches out to touch the image.
Soundwave	Soundwave and his crew haven't met Nine yet! This could be... interesting. Ravage lifts his muzzle for a moment, then looks over at the wandering Nine as his ears twitch. "Boss, you might want to stabilize /something/ soon," he warns. The out-of-focus human flickers again, this time seeming to finalize clothing on a navy-blue business suit with a white shirt, red tie, and black shoes. "-Autobot technology is difficult to work with.-" Though Soundwave's melotoned voice is clearly coming from the human, the mouth moves slightly out-of-sync. Harriet would find that despite the flickering imagery, the pants leg she touches definitely feels like cloth. This, however, seems to get the human's attention and he looks down at her. His eye color is a bright gold, and the whites of his eyes appear mildly bloodshot. "-Oh.-" He blinks, eyes instantly changing color to brown. "-Hello.-"
No. 9	Interesting. Yeah. Interesting. To TL;DR Nine? He's fucking ugly. Fugly one might say. A degenerate looking cyborg with leathery brown skin and mad strange photonegative eyes and a too-wide grimace, his face is apeish, his body troglodytic, his expression somewhat sour, his clothing sadly inadequate. He hates medical jammies with a passion. At least he didn't bite anyone this time. Black sclera'd eyes grow wide, the yellow centers going bright. "Wow. BIG KITTY. Hello there um. Hi. Don't eat me. I taste like shit, akay?" Backing away, big metal hands out defensively. Looking at the flickering guy, he sort of edges over nervously. "Hey. Hey guy. That thing aint the eatin folks kind, is it?" It's alsor right there Nine and can hear you. He looks down to little Harriet, smling and suddenly clanking down in a crouch. "Heyy there, how're you doin?" Grin.
Kari Wolf	Harriet seems to be missing a leg, the synthetic substance that serves as her skin simply rolled up and tucked into place where the leg was. If one is familiar with shinki, she almost seems like a giant-sized version of one, though without any obvious joints like her smaller kin have. She looks startled to realize that the flickering image feels solid, like the visualizers used by shinki. "Hmm, a hologram maybe?" she says quietly before Nine makes his approach. Harriet and her familiar shift around to face the King Golem. "You are Number 9, I guess? Kari has mentioned you. Repeatedly. Especially when welding something with the tools you gave her." The augmented shinki says cooly.
Soundwave	Ravage snorts, though whether he's insulted or amused at Nine's reaction isn't immediately obvious. Rumble, who is mostly hidden by berth and feline, just snickers in the background. "I don't eat organics. They're messy and damage my internal workings." "-Ravage.-" Soundwave's voice holds a clear stern warning, and the feline Decepticon just shrugs his shoulder-servos. The 'human' then shakes his head at Nine, not seeming to be bothered one bit by the cyborg's physical state/appearance. "-Do not mind him. He is harmless. If their presence bothers you, they can transform to a less imposing form.-" The human stiffly walks a few paces towards the nearest mirrored surface to use as a mirror. He noticeably walks around Harriet to do so, clearly mindful of her small size. Of course, the scale of the Shinki to him is roughly the same as his actual body to a human, so he's had plenty of practice. "-Affirmative. 'Hologram' is the simplest explanation,-" he replies to her. His eyes change again mid-blink, this time settling on a golden hazel color as the redness of his eyes dissipates. His hair changes as well, this time to a jet black color. "-Apologies.-" His melotone decreases noteably to an underlying hum and the voice-to-mouth sync noteably improves. "I do not believe I have met either of you?"
No. 9	Nine is still grinnin like a fool when Harriet speaks, nodding. "I kin only imagine. I miss 'er sumthin fierce. She's a great gal n' fully deservin a all th' praise she gets. Whut bout you, whass yer name?" At the snort though he's scrabbling back, behind the SoundHumanGuy solid holo, hiding. "N-no no, no need to go shiftin an changin, that gives me th' aches every time I watch it. When yer head goes twistin back down n' around n' ends up in yer stomach or on yer hip or somethin I always feel a touch nauseated." A shiver. But then a blink. "Bullshit man, I jest touched you." Technically he brushed against his shoulder but it still mostly counts. But then, a pause- "Ah hell sorry, I'm bein a dick again." A big metal hand is held out. "Name is Number Nine. GOLEM-Style ANMC King Unit No. 9, atcher service. Is nice t' meecha."
Kari Wolf	Harriet looks at Number Nine with concern and confusion, trying to understand what the hell he's rambling about. The magenta eyes follow the conversation between Ravage, 'Soundwave', and No. 9 for awhile before she finds the right moment to answer Number 9's question. "I'm Harriet and I'm Kari's younger sister. Master built me from scratch, so I'm larger, stronger, and better armored than most shinki. And illegal in most places that shinki can be found because I'm considered 'military grade'." She explains.
Soundwave	Ravage and Rumble share a glance as Soundwave simply looks over his shoulder at Nine's hiding behind him. Yes, there was a brush on the shoulder in Nine's haste, but it doesn't seem to affect the 'hologram' any. "Dat'sa good point," Rumble admits, his Yankee accent sounding a bit apologetic. "'Ey, Boss, youse mind if me an' Ravage go walk 'round th' Citadel a bit? Ravage still needs t' test all th' repairs." "Go ahead," Soundwave nods, and the two Cassetticon agents take their leave. He turns and accepts the handshake from Nine, his 'hand' as physical-feeling as any true human's with a solid grip to boot. "I am Soundwave. A pleasure to meet you both." He nods to Harriet, including her as well. "I apologize for my strange appearance. I am calibrating recently-installed hardware, and the steps required are unfamiliar to me." He rolls his shoulders as if trying to relax the joints, and his standing stance becomes a little less stiff. "It is a learning process."
No. 9	A pause and a barking laugh. "People are such dumbshits. Military grade? All yer kinds are military grade. Hell any human bein out there s' military grade. Folks are fuckin dumbshits." He rubs his face, shuddering through bared teeth, and then laughing again. O-kay? "Soundwave. Thassa pretty jazzy sorta name. Kudos man-o." Very late eighties, which he digs. "Hey man, everything's a learnin process. I remember back when I was first cyborged. Hard times man, learnin all that shit. Havin t' figure out how t' move yer arms and legs n' stuff? Was weird as hell."
Kari Wolf	Harriet shrugs. "It is what it is, Number Nine. I think they're ready to put my leg back on." And the rabbit drone, carrying the large shinki, leaps quickly towards where the tech is waiting to reattach Harriet's leg.
No. 9	A nod, albeit somewhat sadly. "Well I'm glad t' hear it. Sucks not havin legs, even onna them. Hell havin jest one kin be more frustratin."
Soundwave	Soundwave offers a thin smile, the corners of his eyes crinkling. "Everything can be 'military grade' in specific contexts." Clearly speaking from personal experience, here. He bows his head slightly to Harriet as she hops back to where she needs to be, then returns his attention to Nine. "True." He walks in a wide circle, a little less stiff than earlier. It also appears that he's pretty much settled on his appearance, as he hasn't flickered for a while now. "This just feels... unsettling." He chuckles dryly. "I have had perspectives taller than humans as well as smaller, yet /being/ human bothers me."
No. 9	The man is looked at funny by the Golem, his head tilting, his eyes uncertain. "...Yeah I'd, imagine so-" a glance over his shoulder. "...Looks like my kidneys r' cleaned out." Most people go through dialysis. Nine just has his kidneys cleaned manually and put back in. Huh.
Soundwave	Soundwave hums softly. "I won't keep you, then. Until next we meet, Number Nine." He walks over to a nearby human-sized berth, picking up an Earthen microcassette recorder and tucking it into a pocket within his suit-coat. With a final nod in farewell, he walks out -- most likely to catch up with Rumble and Ravage.