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#Duke
Nov 25, 2023 1:38:28 GMT
Post by Duke on Nov 25, 2023 1:38:28 GMT
Characters Appearing: Duke Hashtag Location (s): Witwicky. Local Diner. Timeline: Septemeber 25th. Plot Summary: Agent of G.H.O.S.T. Conrad "Duke" Hauser is on his lunch break when he notices something out of place...
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#Duke
Nov 25, 2023 1:45:26 GMT
Post by Duke on Nov 25, 2023 1:45:26 GMT
Conrad "Duke" Hauser was currently enjoying his lunch at the local Diner in Witiwicky. It had been a long couple of months since the breakout. Duke was taking every chance he could to get some rest in.
Right now he took in the calm tranquility of Witwicky. There was something charming about this town. Couldn't beat the old feel of North Carolina though.
As he was eating something caught his eye. It was a G.H.O.S.T. van. Not an out-of-the-ordinary site mind you but this one had Agent Rosato in it.
The same Agent Rosato who was supposed to be on leave right now.
Duke decided to see what was going on. After finishing his lunch he walked up.
"Agent Rosato hey." he greeted "What are you doing here? I thought you were on leave.".
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#Duke
Nov 27, 2023 0:27:42 GMT
Post by Hashtag on Nov 27, 2023 0:27:42 GMT
Oops. She'd done it again.
Hashtag just wanted to go exploring around Witwicky and of course one thing had led to another. Sure she could just drive around, but what was the fun in that when she could try out that holoform technology to get to see all the cool places humans had. When she had scanned her alt-mode she had also unintentionally scanned one of the G.H.O.S.T. agents that had been in the area as her holoform. She had no clue what she was doing, but she figured now was a decent time to give it a try. Besides, it'd only be awkward if that same G.H.O.S.T. agent just happened to be walking around at the same time. What were the odds of that happening? Not to mention a G.H.O.S.T. agent disguise driving a G.H.O.S.T. van alt-mode? It was the perfect crime.
The only downside was there really wasn't much that Hashtag knew about this Agent Rosato woman aside from the fact that she was part of G.H.O.S.T. and had a couple friends she liked to get ice cream with. The only reason she'd remembered that part was how sticky her steering wheel was after that whole incident. Hashtag shuddered just thinking about it.
The Terran walked around in her holoform exploring all the little shops before entering a nearby diner. She didn't quite know what it was at first, but it didn't take her long to put two and two together. Plus it was like one of those places she'd seen from those shows including the one about the guy with that fiery name. Great stuff. Although, she was a little surprised when she heard someone call out her name. Rather.. Agent Rosato's name. "Huh?" Hashtag turned around, spotting the man that had walked up to her. Play it cool. Just pretend to be Agent Rosato! That was all she had to do, and this was her best chance to pull off the performance of a lifetime. Granted, if she was found out that probably wouldn't end well either. It took her a couple seconds to think of what Rosato's voice had sounded like, though it wasn't terribly far off from her own as it was.
"Oh! I am. I'm just taking a bit of a stay-cay but wanted to grab some ice cream. Gotta love that Berry Marsh-Manilow."
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#Duke
Nov 27, 2023 0:41:27 GMT
Post by Duke on Nov 27, 2023 0:41:27 GMT
Duke's eyebrow raised.
"You said you were going to visit your parents in New York," he pointed out.
"Look Agent is everything okay?" he asked "Did something happen?"
A bad thought suddenly shot through him.
"Is it an emergency? Is it that Decepticon that was spotted near here?" Duke remembered a story some agents told him about a Decepticon who kidnapped a kid.
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#Duke
Dec 6, 2023 0:05:41 GMT
Post by Hashtag on Dec 6, 2023 0:05:41 GMT
Truthfully, Hashtag should've seen that one coming.
Of course it'd be too simple to just pretend she was this Agent Rosato lady in these parts, but it was worth the shot. Still, she couldn't just let this guy figure out she wasn't Rosato either because that'd be bad news for her and her family. It took a little bit of quick thinking as she listened to the man to come up with what she felt was a convincing enough lie. So she'd gone to see her family in New York and there were Decepticon issues here in Witwicky. Hashtag looked around awkwardly for a second, then settled on her answer.
"Oh! Yeah, I was supposed to go but you know how it is. Flights got cancelled with the weather and the folks got sick. Didn't want me to catch whatever they had, so I decided to just stick around here and have a little quiet time to myself." She felt like she'd nailed it, but she honestly wouldn't have been surprised if the man saw through her little ruse. "I did catch some chatter about some Decepticons causing trouble though, but nothing big since that whole break out about a year ago. Why, there someone else out here causing trouble?"
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#Duke
Dec 6, 2023 0:16:14 GMT
Post by Duke on Dec 6, 2023 0:16:14 GMT
Duke's eyes narrowed. He didn't hear anything about flights getting canceled. The weather hadn't been that rough in New York lately. Also, her parents just happened to get sick around the same time?
"Look Rosasto I think you better come with me," Duke said he took the agents hand...
It didn't feel quite right...
"Wait a minute," Duke said. He gripped the hand more tightly.
"This isn't flesh and blood! It's a holomatter Avatar!" he said the anger in his voice evident.
"You're a Decepticon!" Duke said pulling out his gun.
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#Duke
Dec 6, 2023 1:46:15 GMT
Post by Hashtag on Dec 6, 2023 1:46:15 GMT
Oh scrap! Hashtag's holoform eyes widened as the man suddenly reached for her hand leaving her little time to react. Before she could even think to move he had already gripped her hand, and then the fun was over. He knew that she wasn't Agent Rosato, and now he was pulling a gun on her calling her a Decepticon. Why were humans so quick to assume that the Terrans were Decepticons?! Granted they didn't know who they were as they were supposed to be kept a secret, but why make the assumption at all? Why not assume they were Autobots or anything considering they did nothing to hurt anyone. It just reminded Hashtag of all the cruel messages she found places she went telling Cybertronians to go home. Earth was her home!
"Wait, wait!" Still in the holomatter avatar form, the purple Terran raised her hands defensively while dropping the pretend Rosato voice. "Can we just talk this out, you know.. outside and face to face? I'm not a Decepticon, but I don't want you to fire that thing and hurt all these other people in here either. They didn't do anything wrong, and neither did I."
Frowning, Hashtag allowed her holoform to vanish before honking her horn to get the man's attention. That way he'd know just which of the vehicles she actually was.
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#Duke
Dec 6, 2023 1:53:36 GMT
Post by Duke on Dec 6, 2023 1:53:36 GMT
Duke didn't buy it.
He walked to the GHOST van, his gun still out and ready to fire. If that van made a move he'd be ready for it.
"Nice try Decepticon." Duke said "But I have every Autobot and their holomatter Avatar registered in my data packet. I know them inside and out. And I don't know any registered Transformer that turns into a GHOST van.".
Still, it was best not to be unreasonable. This Decepticon didn't seem to be hostile. She had even expressed reservations about stray shots hurting civilians. Maybe this con was more like Thundercracker...
He put his gun away. "Alright. I'll hear you out. Who are you?" Duke asked.
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#Duke
Dec 23, 2023 16:11:02 GMT
Post by Hashtag on Dec 23, 2023 16:11:02 GMT
Hashtag sighed with relief as the man put away his gun, sitting idly in her vehicle form as he demanded that she state who she was. Naturally he still believed she was some Decepticon, but hopefully with a little explanation he'd understand that she wasn't what he thought she was.
"Before I say, can you promise to keep this a secret? Please? G.H.O.S.T. isn't supposed to know about me or my family, so if you're part of G.H.O.S.T. that could be a massive problem for me." Somewhat reluctantly the Terran transformed, crouching down a bit so she could get a little more on his level. She wasn't too much taller than Bumblebee, but there was still a pretty good size difference between her and the humans. Hashtag was the tallest of the Terrans after all. The purple femme frowned as she spoke, trying to be as sincere as possible. "My name's Hashtag, and I'm not a Decepticon but I'm not exactly an Autobot either. Kinda aligned with the Autobots I guess, but I think I'm more neutral. I'm a Transformer that was born here on Earth about a year ago with the rest of my family and we're called Terrans by the others. Kinda fitting. You know.. Terra. Earth. Terran?" Hashtag paused for a moment with a weak chuckle. "I tried."
Shaking her helm for a second, she smiled to the human. "What about you? What's your name? What's your backstory?"
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#Duke
Dec 23, 2023 18:03:33 GMT
Post by Duke on Dec 23, 2023 18:03:33 GMT
After hearing the bots explanation Duke was left even more confused. Terran? Secret from G.H.O.S.T.? Why hadn't he heard about this?
"I... think I see?" Duke said a bit hesitantly. "Can you explain a bit more?"
On the subject of his deal that was easy.
"I'm Conrad Hauser. My friends call me Duke," he explained "I've been serving as a member of the United States military for over a decade now. Including my G.H.O.S.T. service.".
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#Duke
Jan 5, 2024 12:48:31 GMT
Post by Hashtag on Jan 5, 2024 12:48:31 GMT
As Duke asked Hashtag to elaborate further on her story, an irresistible urge to make a quip struck her. She knew it was not the best time, but the urge was just too strong as she spoke seriously albeit somewhat dramatically.
"If I tell you more, then you will know too much and I'll have to kill you." The femme paused for a second, then continued naturally. "Kidding! I wouldn't do that to you. Heh. Sorry. I've always wanted to say that. Anyway, it's pretty much like I said we Terrans were born here on Earth. One day we didn't exist and the next poof! Born in a spooky cave with magic cave water. My human siblings touched something called the Emberstone, and the next thing they new we were here. Well.. Twitch and Thrash came first. My other siblings and I came a little later when they needed help stopping Mandroid from causing trouble."
Hashtag purposefully left out the little detail about how Bumblebee was teaching them all about how to be Transformers and how to scout and such, but she was especially glad that she had when Duke confirmed that he was working for G.H.O.S.T. It did worry her that there was now a G.H.O.S.T. agent out there who knew about the Terrans, but maybe this guy would be different. The more she thought about it, it was just how the Autobots treated the Decepticons. Unless they swapped sides it was like they treated any Decepticon as a bad guy and so did G.H.O.S.T., yet the Terrans themselves had seen good in the Decepticons. Nightshade had gotten close with Tarantulas, and the purple femme herself had seen good in Starscream. Yes maybe they'd done bad things, but that didn't mean they couldn't change. They just needed a push in the right direction using the right methods.
"So you are part of G.H.O.S.T." Hashtag spoke disappointedly, a twinge of sadness in her voice. "Please promise you won't tell them about us, Duke? Optimus would be really mad if they found out about us. He's been trying to keep us a secret from you guys for the past year for our safety."
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#Duke
Feb 1, 2024 23:19:07 GMT
Post by Duke on Feb 1, 2024 23:19:07 GMT
Duke paused at the "If I tell you I'll have to kill you" Remark Hashtag let out. He raises his eyebrow "Really?" he asked.
It wasn't much of a surprise when Hashtag confirmed she was kidding.
Hashtag told him her story, about being a new kind of Transformer born on Earth or something.
He thought about it for a minute.
"...Okay. I won't tell GHOST about you," he promised, "But you have to promise me to not cause trouble."
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#Duke
Feb 4, 2024 0:37:09 GMT
Post by Hashtag on Feb 4, 2024 0:37:09 GMT
Hashtag tried so hard not to laugh at Duke's comment, but in the end she couldn't resist. "Me? Cause trouble? Naaaah. We Terrans do our best to stay out of trouble."
Though as she spoke, she suddenly paused as she frowned. "Trouble, just.. kinda finds us instead. G.H.O.S.T. has caused us trouble yeah, but the one causing us the most trouble is Mandroid. Uh.. Dr. Meridian is his actual name, but we call him Mandroid because, you know. Part man. Part.. you get the idea. He's been kidnapping bots and forcing them to do his bidding, and he apparently has this thing for stealing Transformer arms just to slap them on his own body? Dunno how he manages to even lift them, but I'm getting off track. He kidnapped my older brother and sister when they were first created and tried to hurt them, and his Arachnamechs have been all over the place."
It was kind of scary thinking about it. What if Mandroid kidnapped her or one of her other siblings.. forced them to hurt their own family or anyone else. Hashtag would never forgive herself if something like that happened. "I've got a question for you, Duke. Is G.H.O.S.T. trying to do anything about Mandroid? Do they even know what he's been doing to bots?"
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#Duke
Feb 8, 2024 7:24:05 GMT
Post by Duke on Feb 8, 2024 7:24:05 GMT
"Oh. You're some of those types huh?" Duke asked in response to Hashtag's explanation on Terrans and getting into trouble.
He shrugged though, "It's alright. My son Scott is a lot like that."
Regarding Mandroid, Duke looked curious, "Not really." he said, "Croft told me the Autobots had it handled.".
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#Duke
Feb 17, 2024 2:13:50 GMT
Post by Hashtag on Feb 17, 2024 2:13:50 GMT
"Well I wouldn't say it like that, buuut.. yeah you're kinda right. It's not like we're trying to get in trouble or anything, it's just that it keeps happening."
It was honestly frustrating. Hashtag could just be having a normal day with her family and boom! Mandroid's doing something. It could be something completely unrelated to their day and it would still get thrown into disarray anyway. Sure they wanted to learn a bit more about Cybertronians, but ultimately Hashtag was perfectly fine with the idea of being a normal family that did normal family things. Hiking! Vacay! Random trip to a theme park! Not.. dealing with Mandroid's messes every five minutes along with G.H.O.S.T.
But at least it was nice to know that she wasn't the only one that seemed to have this problem. Duke's son Scott seemed to have the same problem too.
As the G.H.O.S.T. agent mentioned that Croft told him that he Autobots had the whole Mandroid situation handled, Hashtag felt a bunch of things. Anger.. hurt.. Of course that's what Croft was saying. "But he's not our mess to handle, nor is he the Autobots. Mandroid's a human just like you guys, even if he's got the whole android thing going on for him. There's only so much the Autobots can do, so why can't Croft deal with him?"
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