Happy Friday everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin here.
Today’s story is another return to World of Warcraft as a mini xenologue during an event being part of a roleplaying event. To fill you in, it was the last part of a campaign called “The Raven’s War” in which players worked together in helping securing an artifact. In the RP, I had a robotic critter named Optimo help out with securing the artifact. Sadly, the result led to Optimo pulling a FLUDD…
But for this story, it gives a brief discussion about saving a friend and discovering a secret of Optimo.
With that, sit back, relax and enjoy this story.
The Mystery of Optimo (Alternate title: Saving a Friend)
Written by TheChoujinVirus
The night the artifact was secured….
Chala Nightshadow returned back to her workshop home in Boralus. Not stopping or anything as she placed her badly damaged companion onto a table. Not caring about space but more worried about the extensive damage he went through. Jeeves and Reaves, who heard the commotion checked on the whole ordeal. The small Legion machine had a hint of surprise on his face (as best as a machine could) as he noticed Optimo’s damaged body.
“By Sargeras’ Breath, what happened to him?!” Reaves asked
Chala paid no attention as she replied, “Welding Torch.”
“What?” Reaves asked
“I said welding torch! NOW!” the night elf yelled
Jeeves hands Chala a Welding Torch. He watches Chala open a part of Optimo’s damaged chassis and noticed some significant damage. Most of it was fried wires and components.
“Query: is Optimo alright?” Jeeves asked
“The power core is intact..but the wiring’s fried. I’m worried about his personality core,” Chala said. She then extends her hand, asking her machines, “Saw.”
“Saw?” Reaves looked quizzically
“your arm!” Chala said, grabbing his arm and making him convert it into a saw. Jeeves stood by and watched as Chala began to open the back part of Optimo’s robotic head. Once the casing was removed, she saw what she was hoping to find: Optimo’s personality core. The good news was that the core is intact and undamaged. The bad news is the power in Optimo’s body triggered the auxiliary system for his memory, which usually has a maximum of half an hour of emergency power. What made it worse is that whoever created Optimo’s personality core needed a lot of energy to function, which meant putting in her Portable Pocket Computer wouldn’t work like with Reaves.
“damnit…seems a bit too complex to pull the primary. We need a plan B and fast.” She looked at Jeeves before asking him, “Can you open your chest plate, Jeeves? I need access to your power core.”
“Query: Are you planning on using me for Optimo’s new body?” He asked
“No, Jeeves, I think I got an alternative that can work,” Chala said
“and what is that?” Reaves asked
Chala looked at Reaves, “The Kiryu Version 3,” The Night elf returns to Optimo, then turning back to Jeeves. “Chestplate!”
“Apology: Sorry, Mistress Nightshadow,” Jeeves said as he opened his chest. Exposing his power supply and a pair of jumper cables underneath. Chala quietly thanked the mechagnome as she took the two cables. Gently hooking the wires into Optimo’s Personality Core, so that Jeeves would serve as the backup power supply. The process took a few hours into the night as Chala, Reaves, and Jeeves did everything to their power as they worked quickly. Hours pass as the trio finish with hooking up Optimo’s brain into the Steamscale Incinerator, which will serve as Optimo’s new body. Chala then pulled out her Dalaran Hearthstone as she told the two, “I need to head back to Dalaran to check up on the artifact. Keep an eye on Optimo and see if he reacts.”
“Acknowledged Command: Sure thing, Madame Nightshadow,” Jeeves said with a nod.
“I’ll do the same as well,” Reaves replied.
Chala gave the two a nod as she used her Hearthstone to return back to Dalaran. When Chala left, Jeeves turned toward Reaves as he looked at the Fel Machine.
“Confused Query: Did you just want to help keep an eye on Optimo?” Jeeves asked
“What? I actually like Optimo.” Reaves said to Jeeves, “He’s a bit of an odd thing. A robot that thinks he’s alive? What kind of machine wants to be that?”
“Statement: Optimo’s personality matrix is strange, even stranger than ours.” The Mechagnome looks at the robot dragon. Though power was going into its brain, the machine didn’t move or anything.
“Regretful Probability: Though there may be a chance that the damage Optimo went through may have done some severe damage to his Personality Core.”
The Fel Machine looked at Jeeves, “That’s a load of Fel sludge! Optimo can’t cease function. I’ve seen him take damage..and I was able to survive.”
“Statement: True, you survived your core overloading and exploding, your system wasn’t too hard to fix. Optimo is not some machine made by the Gnomes. Something feels strange about him..”
The two watched while conversing on the question: Who made Optimo and why did he behave like that.
This continued until Chala returned and began to keep watch on Optimo. By morning, she leaned back first into a barrel, watching the unmoving machine after everything was operational. She dozed a bit, closing her eyes to sleep for a few moments. Unaware that the unmoving machine began to twitch its tail. Reaves and Jeeves were ready to prepare for today’s work, looking that the non-moving dragon. The two machines looked at each other until Reaves saw the tail move.
“Hey, it moved!” Reaves shouted.
“Shocking Query: It moved? Does that mean..?”
The machine turned its head before staring at the two machines, speaking in the same tone as their friend.
“Hello”
The two panicked, running around like scared chickens that would attract the attention of some of the dockworkers from below as they would stop to look up at what was going on. Though the noise was enough to get Chala up and stammering back awake. She toppled over, yelping out loud, “No, I got those parts legally!” she turned at the two panicked robots.
“What in Elune got into you two?!” As she wondered what the ruckus was, Chala said, “I keep telling you the rats won’t bother you if you don’t corner them.”
“Rebuttal: Mistress Chala, it wasn’t a rat. Optimo made some sound”, Jeeves said.
“Wait? He responded?!” Chala looked surprised as she got to her feet and ran toward the mechanical dragon. Reaves watched and muttered to himself, “It’s not my fault those rodents are annoying and want to chew on me…”
She checked on the unmoving object as she then taps it gently, “Optimo? Are you alright?”
The night elf paused for a few moments as she heard the familiar voice of Optimo.
“I am okay, Chala.” He said as he tilted his head, “What happened to my body? I feel…huge..”
Chala gently gives Optimo a pat, “I had to move your brain into this machine to preserve your Personality Core.”
The now sentient mechanical dragon began to, only to fumble and wobble a bit like a newborn kitten trying to walk for the first time.
“whoa, careful Optimo,” Chala said
“This body feels too big..” Optimo said as he inspected his body, “Too many moving parts…”
“I’m sorry, Optimo,” Chala apologized to her mechanical friend, “I had to save your personality core, or else you would have ceased to be. But the good news is that now I can work on your body.”
Optimo staggered, limbs and legs splayed like a deer on ice, “that’s good..so how long will it take for my body to be fully repaired?”
“Depends on the whole thing, Optimo. You best get yourself rested and maybe readjusted to your new body.” Chala said, reassuring her companion with a gentle head pat before heading back into her workshop inside. To be honest, she had no clue on how to repair Optimo’s body. For starters, whoever made Optimo’s frame seemed to make it of specific components and replace the fried circuitry just trying to get the artifact? It took her a while just to fit the Titan core inside. She would be there all night or all month if she has to get Optimo’s body repaired.
As she began to work on Optimo’s damaged body, she noticed a black box inside. Something she glanced over when she was repairing Optimo all these times. Her curiosity beckoned her to pull out the black box and inspect it. She’s never seen a black box being put inside of a Mechanostrider. Still, she had to remind herself that Optimo is no ordinary Mechanostrider. The night elf inspected the box and realized that it could be opened, so it wasn’t just the machine’s recording box. Inside the box contained a well-preserved film reel with the words “Project: Optimo” written on the film case.
“ ‘Project Optimo’?” Chala said to herself, “Who or what made you?”
She looked outside to see her mechanical companions helping Optimo. He began to extend and inspect his robotic wings.
Chala thought on the reel.
“This is something big, real big.” Chala said to herself, “Very well, I guess we got a mystery on who Optimo is..and who made them..”
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