Forums » General Roleplay » Sands of Time (1x1)

Chris grinned. "Maybe you two will turn out after all. Clutch tends to run a little hot. Yo, Clutch, c'mere a second."

Clutch rolled into the garage from his spot in the driveway where he'd been exiled by Bill. "What?" he asked warily.

"I'm going to do that overhaul you wanted so badly today. How does that sound?"

Clutch beeped happily. "That sounds awesome!" If he missed the calculating grin on Chris' face, well, all the better that he didn't have cameras to see.

54 just snirked silently. ''Isn't everything awesome?'' She retorted.

Chris glanced at 54. "Clutch, please turn off, thanks." He waited for Clutch to shut down before turning to 54. "I'm planning on doing this now, unless you'd rather wait...though every minute brings us closer to when that car's driver reappears."

''You can do it anytime you need to.'' She hissed, her core stabilizing as it disconnected it's surge from the engine.

Chris made quick work of swapping things around--and he had only just finished relocating 54's core into Clutch when, lo and behold, the driver of the WRX entered the shop.

"Uh, I'm here to pick up my car?" he said.

Chris looked up from Clutch's hood, glad he hadn't wasted any time. "Oh, sure, right. Did you want to talk to Bill? The oil change and everything went well. But if you'd like to test drive it, there's a small place out back..."

The driver shook his head and eyed the other car in the shop. "Nah, it's fine. You two do excellent work. Got another project there, Chris?"

Chris rolled his eyes. "You have no idea. Bill is inside, if you want to talk to him." The driver of the WRX nodded and went inside, leaving Chris to collapse over Clutch's engine. "Whew, that was close."

54's core crackled lightly, but didn't attach to anything yet. It was warm, not cold as it usually ended up being as 54 awaited for Chris to say something.

Chris made a few more alterations, a couple of adjustments, and then grinned. "Alright; I'm gonna put a boot on Clutch, since he'll probably think he's possessed or something..." Chris rolled his eyes.

He did so and then turned the key in the ignition. "Alrighty, Clutch? 54? Can you hear me?"

Clutch, as per usual, would take a minute to respond. 54, though, he wasn't sure about.

54 was a silent for a few minutes until she finally replied with a clear ''Yes.''. Her core crackled lightly, and waited for Clutch to respond.

Clutch stirred groggily and then heard an echo of his own 'yes'. "Huh? Did you upgrade me or something? It feels a little different."

He rolled experimentally back and forth, his AI core unable to detect 54's cores since they were not connected directly. Unless she decided to mess with his system, he was blissfully unaware of what Chris had done until he felt the boot.

Chris shrugged. "Somewhat of an upgrade."

"Upgrade? What kind of upgrade requires me having to wear a boot?!"

''Well, cam you hear me?'' 54 asked Clutch, her core transitting a wireless signal that he could pick up.

"Of course I can hear you..." Clutch started to say and then his gears started turning. "Wait. What--Chris, what-did-you-do!?"

Chris grinned. "54 is going to be hanging out with you since she has no car body of her own."

"This wasn't what we agreed on! I can't believe you took advantage of me--see if I ever let you under my hood again!"

Chris shrugged. "You agreed when you woke me up late late last night. And it'll be good for you and 54 to interact. You can show her around and how to adapt to not having cameras. Good luck."

''Clutch, you heard what happens if my core touches CD. I promise I won't disrupt your systems. My core just relies on a small amount of power to navigate the fragile wires you have.''

"They're not fragile!" Clutch rebutted. "They're just sensitive! Stop laughing, Chris. It's not funny!"

Chris wiped his face, "I'm-I'm not-laughing. I've just never seen you so out of sorts."

"Well, you're the one to blame for this." Clutch retorted sourly, spewing a cloud of black exhaust from his pipe.

54's core turns ice cold harshly, sending a cold chill through Clutch.

Clutch silenced almost at once as the cold spread through his engine, cooling his temper.

Chris shook his head. "Thanks, 54."

Clutch growled internally, but it wasn't like he could go anywhere. He finally settled down and idled quietly.

The core warms back up. ''Besides, at least your a master of navigating without cameras. And stop grow;ling, your not a dog!''

Clutch calmed a little. "Well, I've had them all my life," he admitted. "So I should be good at using them. But it's not hard to learn. It takes a few days maybe to adjust."

He blasted a short wave of static out of his speakers. "Chris, can you take the boot off? I won't run away."

"Alright." Chris removed the boot. "That was just so you didn't completely panic, you know."

''My build heavily relied on cameras for getting around...CD mostly holds the basics of the programming, untouched for centuries because the humans of this age have little knowedge of how the core can analyze the images and then transfer it to her view processor. A basic yet complicated string of coding, along with several checkpoints with some frayed wires connects her core to her brown eyes....'' 54 rambled on.

Clutch listened, enraptured by her spiel. "However complicated it might be, I would love to see things. I don't even know what my driver looks like--I just recognize his voice. Same with, well, everything else. Voice recognition and motion sensors. I wish I had sight."

CD stirs awake, her brown eyes scanning the room breifly. Her engine purred to life, revving up a bit to adjust as she shifts into drive and rolls forward carefully. She was still flat out of gas, and barely budged. ''Ack...Gas...'' She groaned, sputtering to a dull halt. Her glove pocket had opened from moving, jarring the passenger door to open and show several papers in the department.

54 flinched in her core at the sound of CD's squeaky brakes.