 | |
| Name | Overclock |
| Faction | Decepticon |
| Function | Tracker |
| Class | Unknown |
| Alt Mode | Cybertronian Hound |
| Species | Original Character |
| Subgroup | Insecticon |
Profile
Quote: "What's the point of power if you don't use it?"
Speed, throughput, power. Overclock is the mental union of a middle-caste chemist, a low-caste beast, and a bottomless thirst for performance. Having left even her original body behind in her quest, her current frame is an MTO that rarely stays the same from one stellar cycle to another as the femme pushes it to higher and higher limits. Vivacious, competitive, and a little cocky from the heady rush of her own systems, she's prone alternately to bouts of impatience and sloth as her fuel levels rise and fall.
Skills: Anything for an Upgrade; Knowledge: Chemistry, claw-to-hand combat; Tracking by taste/smell; Honorary Bug; Skills: Matter-to-Energon Fueling; Languages: Wavespeech.
Descs
Current Desc ("Overclock", 4/17/15-)
Overclock is a dark, looming femme made of racing hardware and bestial attachments. Her body is night black with white and purple accents and, while not hulking, there's a definite athleticism to her build. The femme's torso has a pronounced V-taper as her shoulders stretch wide apart to make room for exhaust manifolds on either side of her chest while her waist draw sharply together to hug an armoured radiator that makes up her abdomen. Overlaying her back, sides, and joints are shifting metal plates that sheathe almost-exposed pistons and actuators - an anatomy chart in motion - and vents cover the rest keeping her hungry internals supplied with plenty of air.
The longer sections of Overclock's body have a sleekness to them but smaller ones are jagged, giving her an in-between appearance that's neither the stream-lined curve of a racer nor the blocky strength of a labourer and one further overlaid by a chimeric mix of beastformer and even Insecticon traits. Her hands and feet end in sharp claws, the red-eyed head of a large black hound - her alt-mode - serves as her entire chestplate, and her engine growls with a tone that's more feral than mechanical. A long braided-steel tail extends from her lower back but it curls along armoured joints and the plates that shift across her body are rounded and chitinous.
In the center of her helmet where the femme should have a face instead are an opaque red visor and a full face mask. The rebuilt beastformer rumbles with power and radiates with heat, but emits no emotion except through body language and voice. In the dark or under exertion she even glows with waste heat and the smells of spent fuel and hot metal wash from her onto the passing breeze.
Current Desc ("Overclock" [alt-mode], 4/17/15-)
Standing no smaller than her root form, Overclock's alt-mode is a chimeric hound coloured black with white and purple accents. Bestial, brawny, and freely exhausting air through open pipes in her sides, her frame is clearly built for performance but at the same time it seems forged under a mishmash of rules. Chitinous metal plates shift over barely-concealed pistons and actuators and the whole of her body rumbles with the force of her motors, giving her a visage somewhere between beastformer, Insecticon, and racer. The femme's face is expressive if menacing with red lenses and a fanged maw that glows with an inner heat, and a steel-braided tail curls overhead along armoured joints, ending in a stinging point.
Not the quietest nor the best cooled Cybertronian, Overclock passively howls with the force of air being sucked through her systems and even idle her barely-covered motors are warm to the touch. In the dark or under exertion, the femme's body even glows with waste heat and after a particularly satiating meal, dark smoke can be seen wafting out her vents.
Second Desc ("Bloodhound", 3/8/15-4/17/15)
Original Desc ("Scrapheap", 3/4/15 - 3/8/15)
Despite the scale of her damages, her critical systems are in deceptively better health; the damaged robot has been getting cut-rate repairs for a long time. Bearings and gaskets are still functionally clean and even if her inner workings are exposed, they're still working; her gait, while the slow, ponderous pace endemic to empties, is smooth; and a large blade swings at her side as she walks. It's a piece of loose metal that's been welded directly to the last bit of paneling on her right arm and sharpened to a usable edge - an improvised weapon at best but by no means harmless.
Relationships
| Picture | Name | Trust | Relationship |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Chimera | Wary | What they say about cats and dogs applies here. Current score: 2-0-1 Chimera's favor. They've met three times, Chimera's pinned and/or damaged Overclock twice, and one almost-fight was called on account of Nyon being unmade by phase charges. |
 |
Kickback | Cautiously Optimistic | An accidental mentor to Overclock, Kickback is her current source of advice and knowledge of the world as a whole. She's not entirely sure of the locust's motives but his apparently vested interest in her as a fellow Insecticon and parental regard for her as a Seeder to the young hatchling has inspired a rare measure of optimism. |
  |
Pharma | ...Maybe? | Pharma saved Overclock's life once. He also let her glimpse the sheer amorality with which he operates and covertly bugged her optics so she would serve as an unwitting spy. Having discovered the optics, Overclock's trust in Pharma could fit in a thimble. Oh, and he used Kickback as a lab specimen for his research.
At odds with that, he also likes her, does lots of charity work, and is trying to be a better person. Overclock isn't sure what to think anymore. |
  |
Scorn | Wary | Overclock's progenitor and the person most responsible for the fact that Cybertron has a firebreathing, quadruped bug on it. While thankful to Scorn for the upgrades, Overclock never quite received the emotional investment she expected from her Queen, a fact highlighted by Kickback's own unconditional care for her. As a result, Overclock assumes her value to Scorn is low and treats the Mantis with proportional caution. |
  |
Soundwave | Yes <3 | Telepath, friend to animals, full of wub... what's not to like? The lucky mech who drew a short straw when Overclock expressed an interest in joining the Decepticons, Soundwave has officially served as her recruiter so far, answering questions while also vetting the unusual femme. Less officially, Overclock's paranoid desire to know the motives of everyone around her lead to an unusually two-sided interview. Soundwave had an interface cable handy and while they both got the answers they needed regarding one another's trustworthiness, they also found plenty to like. In a grey area somewhere around friends (maybe skirting amica endura), the big blue mech is currently Overclock's best reason for trusting the Decepticons and someone she appreciates having around regardless of factional labels. Oh, and she wants to get to know his friend Ravage better. That's not weird, right? |
| Shockwave | Murderous Hatred | "Because he's Shockwave" really sums this one up. If there's one thing Overclock can't abide it's forced experimentation and Shockwave's done terrible things for science in spades. | |
| Backdrop | Adorable Dimwit | A bright spot among her fellow Decepticons, Overclock considers Backdrop one of few people she can rely on to have their moral compass properly calibrated. While she doesn't hold the highest opinion of the little mech's intelligence, she appreciates his presence and bright-opticed enthusiasm. |
History
Backstory
The beginning of Overclock's life was innocuous but damning. Originally known as the mech Spectrum, she was a scienceformer with a particular talent for chemistry. After completing primary programming school and the technoversity with promising marks, he was assigned to the demanding but sheltered post of a lab assistant in mentorship to Chromate, one of the Institute's many pharmacologists. Working in concert with mnemosurgeons, the focus of Chromate's work was Project Tandem, an attempt at one of the medical holy grails: lasting, illness-free personality grafts. If successful it would allow them to 'clone' more desirable minds over dissidents and other unwanteds, instilling the loyalty of a police officer into a miner or imparting the intelligence of top minds upon generations of sparks. The test subject for this project was Bloodhound, a former Vanguard beastformer who'd rebelled against the organization's disbanding. For her protests she'd been imprisoned and then quietly transferred to the Institute. Unwilling but drugged into a harmless degree of compliance, Spectrum quickly came to know every major facet of her frame, personality, and of course, her medical schedule. A fresh protoform himself, the idealistic mech had little conception of the unethical work he was furthering, at least in the beginning. As Chromate's promising young apprentice, he was also chosen to be experiment's donor mind with his memories repeatedly read and copied into Bloodhound as part of the experiments. Early results from Project Tandem were a complete failure with Bloodhound either rejecting Spectrum's memories or simply being confused by them. In a bid to ease the transition, Spectrum volunteered to have the same process performed on him, the intent being to then remove Bloodhound's portion once the femme herself was successfully altered. The results of Spectrum's naivety were even worse and the repeated intrusion of one another's memories caused a collapse of both of their identities rather than the lasting personality changes Chromate was looking for. Further research was interrupted when their lab was raided during the early discoveries of Institute facilities on Cybertron. Chromate was killed in the raid but Spectrum and Bloodhound managed to escape. Tainted - or rather enlightened by Bloodhound's perspective on the Institute - Spectrum hid with her in the Dead End to avoid recapture rather than retreating to another facility. Over time the pair managed to reconstruct a semblance of their identities and, though haunted by various maladies from the experiments, looked after one another's basic needs. Bloodhound's old skills from the Vanguard as a hunter and tracker were put to use scavenging while Spectrum used his chemistry knowledge to adapt street drugs into usable suppressors for their illnesses. Towards the end of Sentinel's reign, Bloodhound died, a casualty of an energon theft gone wrong, and her death left Spectrum cast adrift. Without both his protector and charge, the former chemist sought to replace the femme he'd lost and finish rebuilding himself despite lacking Bloodhound's grounding influence. <On-Grid RP takes over here> In defiance of her perceived incompleteness, Spectrum set herself to upgrading her scientific frame to equal the beastformer she'd lost. In practice of course she had few resources and little experience in frame engineering, leaving her changes more cosmetic than functional. Seeking a solution in spite of her criminal status, Spectrum knew she'd need a mechanic skilled enough to perform military upgrades, as Bloodhound had a military frame if an aged one; a way to ingratiate one with service or shanix; and a way to find one who would do all of this illegally. As she was never particularly wealthy nor trusting of anyone who would do an illegal reformat for coins, the answer became obvious. Spectrum needed a mechanic with a loyalty she could rely on and a shared loyalty could be used as her currency. Enter her search for the Decepticons, the most likely criminal group in her mind to have the mix of brains and bearings she needed.
Sentinel Age
Spectrum saved up enough shanix to leave the Dead End, with help from free repairs by Pharma, and got to know the competing ideologies of the day. She determined in short order that while she liked the Decepticon ideal she didn't trust them as far as she could throw Buzzsaw. After meeting Pharma, she didn't trust the Autobots at all...
A chance encounter with Soundwave as her recruiter lead at first cautiously to a friendship. By the end of the age with Sentinel dead by Megatron, the blue carrier was counted as Spectrum's only friend and the only mech she trusted besides. As the curtain closed with war brewing, she snuck off to Stanix to complete a deal with Scorn that traded Detour's identity for a new frame.
Zeta Age
Overclock was hatched during the later years of Zeta's reign as a de facto member of Cybertron's largest surface hive. She wasted no time in integrating into life with her fellow bugs, subordinate to Scorn (her queen) and Kickback (a leading seeder), but just as quickly displayed a penchant for rash behaviour and over-estimating the capabilities of her own frame. Nyon's obliteration was a megavolt shock to the young femme's systems that disabused her of any belief in Zeta's righteousness as Prime and lead Overclock directly to the Decepticons. Together with a near-scrapping from Hun-Grr, it also helped to foster a growing sense of inadequacy and incompleteness in the young Insecticon, which has already begun to lead her down a strange path. Now a proud member andsomewhat uncomfortably) Shockwave's direct subordinate, Overclock is ready to put her skills to use however she can in the times ahead - while keeping one optic open for chances to improve herself in the process.
Gallery
Sheet
Overclock (v3, Blame Scorn)
| Strength | 82 ↑ | Intelligence | 71 ↓ |
| Speed | 50 ↑ | Endurance | |
| Rank | Courage | ||
| Firepower | 64 ↑ | Skill | 83 ↓ |
| Hit Points | Energon | ||
| Abilities | |||
Bloodhound (v2, Blame Pharma)
| Strength | 59 | Intelligence | 93 |
| Speed | 12 | Endurance | |
| Rank | Courage | ||
| Firepower | 55 | Skill | 99 |
| Hit Points | Energon | ||
| Abilities | |||
Spectrum (v1)
| Strength | 59 | Intelligence | 93 |
| Speed | 12 | Endurance | |
| Rank | Courage | ||
| Firepower | 55 | Skill | 99 |
| Hit Points | Energon | ||
| Abilities | |||
Logs
- May 2015 Logs
- Little Base of Horrors: A raid on an Institute laboratory turns into a rescue mission when Soundwave is captured.
- Medicing the Medic: After Motormaster finishes with Torque, Overclock tries to pick up the pieces.
- We're All Horrible Tonight: Whirl pole dances. Do we really need to say anything more than that?
- Rite of Passage: Scorn finds Overclock and suggests that she take the next step as an Insecticon queen and get a hive of her own.
- Reunion with the Good Doctor: After 20,000 years and a new body, Overclock meets with Pharma again and makes a request. Poor Soundwave watches the whole thing. Don't worry, he's not jealous at all.
- March 2015 Logs
- Whirl on a Bench: Who thinks it's a good idea to bother a disgruntled empurata after he's made a fracas on planet-wide television? Spectrum apparently...
- Radio Recruitment Autobot Style: Pharma proves that the Decepticons don't have a monopoly on radio recruiting while making Bloodhound's trust issues so much worse.
- A Long Time in a Chair: Bloodhound meets her Decepticon recruiter and his friends. They share a chair and get to know each other very well.
- Radio Recruitment: Decepticon Radio! Bringing recruitment over the airwaves, no branch office required (some restrictions may apply).
- A Chance Collision in Kaon: Blast Off has a chance collision with a new resident and Swift Blade uses LOGIC to prevent the resulting fight.
- Thundercracker saves Swivel (Again): Swivel learns that handing out energon in the Dead End is a fast way to make new 'friends'. Thundercracker bails her out (again).
- A Meeting of Unlike Minds: Pharma and Spectrum meet to work out the empty's condition and trade trips down memory lane. Pharma gets a scientific curiosity and Spectrum gets a lot to think about.
- A Deal with a Doctor: Spectrum comes back to Pharma and offers to sell herself for more upgrades, on one condition...
- Repairs with a Bonus: An empty limps in for repairs and gets an unexpected bonus.
- Meat and Greet: A primordial visits Polyhex and gets distracted talking to her food.
- A Mercy Kill: A YX has an eventful day of odd friendship for his last day on Cybertron.
- Talking Scrap: Detour talks with scrap, the scrap talks back.
- Cutscenes
- Finding a Hive: Overclock goes looking for a domesticated hive but starts her search with some charity.
- Autocracy
- Registering Torque: Torque tries to pass through an Autobot registration checkpoint, it goes poorly.
- A Small Confession: Overclock seeks out Megatron to make a confession and get some guidance. He takes it better than she expected.
- Looking for a Speeder in a Race Track: Overclock goes looking for Blurr at an underground track. He finds her instead.
- Closing a Deal: Thundercracker strikes an agreement with Overclock for Insecticon aid in Vos but not before the femme insists on a show of good faith.
- In Memoriam: During the memorial service for Orion Pax and others, Overclock unveils a new monument.
- Rebuilding Nyon: Everyone copes differently and Bulkhead copes by building stuff, big stuff, whole buildings. His project attracts some attention.
- Building a Monument: In the aftermath of Zeta's death, Overclock recruits some help to make a memorial, and to gather a personal favor.
- Megatron Rises: The Decepticons and Team Pax make their big push on Iacon. Three mechs enter, one mech leaves.
- Somebody's Famous: Backdrop discovers that being famous means being RECOGNIZED. ON THE STREET! Awkwardness ensues.
- April 2015 Logs
- Shocking First Impressions: Overclock meets her new boss and receives her first Decepticon Mission. Neither one goes like she'd hoped.
- Just Catching Up: After dealing with Pharma, Overclock and Soundwave take a moment to catch up. Soundwave gets a better idea of who he's dealing with and Overclock confirms that facemasks don't blush.
- Change of Command: Thundercracker is named Air Commander. Starscream reacts. Swift Blade is updated concerning the personal assignment given to her by Starscream.
- Tonight We Dine: Dragotron and Chimera have a nice chat and go to dinner.
- Making Friends in Kolkular: Overclock finds Her Queen in Kolkular, then they find Whirl and Pursuit, then Hook finds them.
- Caught with her Thorax Down: Megatron and Soundwave seek out the naked truth of Overclock's loyalty to their cause. Megatron gets an answer and Soundwave gets an optic full.
- In-Flight Movie: Overclock gets a call from her doctor while riding Thundercracker to Kaon.
- Searching for Survivors: In the aftermath of Nyon's destruction, Overclock and Thundercracker look for survivors.
- Round Tw--Uh-oh: Overclock almost has a reunion with Chimera... then Nyon Falls
- Normal Day at the Clinic: Pharma has a perfectly normal busy day at the Dead End clinic. Yup, nothing unusual happens at all.
- Buggy Healthcare: Overclock returns to the Great Hive and is introduced to Insecticon medicine by Kickback. The psych therapy afterwards is complementary.
- Always a Bigger Beast: Overclock gets to feel high and mighty for about a week before Hun-Grr beats some sense into her. Seriously, Primordials need Warning Stickers.
- Meet Overclock: Vorns later, Bloodhound wakes up a changed femme. Introducing... Overclock.
- Upgrade Time: Bloodhound collects on her much sought-after upgrades and goes offline to incubate. Insecticons are weird like that.
- A Queen's Ransom: After a fruitless search for Scorn the hunter becomes the hunted... and sells Detour out immediately.
- Primordials need Warning Stickers: Bloodhound gets a visit from her favorite (only) Primordial "friend" and learns why they aren't known for being good house guests.
- Miners Vs Enforcers in Kaon: With a little encouragement on the part of Rumble and friends, a clash between miners and Enforcers in Kaon turns into a full-scale throwdown.
- Radio Debate: Megatron gloats to Pax over his recent slaughter of the Senate. Orion Pax refuses to give in. Spectrum decides to ask her own questions of the two.