It was rare that anyone got to see Tinman in such a stage. Few things could set it off and perhaps it was the contrariness of the task with what was hard wired into a program that only begun to adapt as it saw fit. If it had been about any other scientist Tinman would have capitulated at once though it had been restrained from saying anything disparaging about the doctor.

Even it's own thoughts that it was a failure as a weapon was something that was a challenge to profess though as it implied that Balnab was a failure. If not for the doctor relaying that it was not a failure all the time it probably wouldn't have even admitted that much.

It stopped, analyzing the last few seconds of memory. Then swung that shattered visored face in her direction. “PASS.”

Juniper blinked as she cast her gaze through the jagged outline of dark glass that serves as a protective visor for her guardian's eyes, his simple lightly glaring impassively towards her as a pool of light from the damaged door shone across his body. Unsurprisingly, for a creature with no real facial expressions, Juniper had trouble reading his mood. It would be best to maneuver a little delicately for the moment and make sure that he wasn't bearing a grudge before she tried anything quite so outrageous again.

She was silent for a few moments, casting her head around a bit to survey the damage. Particularly, she was trying to track where the tools from the table had landed when he'd violently upended the tray that held Rena's torture implements. The odds of something she could use landing where she could actually use it were slim at best, but there was no harm in looking. If she could swing her weight in her bonds, she might just get the table to jerk and jump, rolling an instrument towards her hands where she might, with no small amount of difficulty, manage to pick one of the locks that held her so tightly bound.

"What is it that you were planning to ask Rena permission to do, hmn?" she asked, sure that it wouldn't violate any share the information, and it was certainly no dare. Simply stalling a few moments as she considered her next move carefully.

There were a scattering of tools on the floor to her right. Scalpels and other cutting instruments. A pair of scissors and the like had all been out of reach to her right though maybe …

Tinman had been difficult to read. It could switch on and off reactions as easily as someone could flick a light switch though since she asked kt elaborated on it's earlier request.

“TO BEGIN THE PROCESS OF COLLECTING COLLENT FOM YOU BEF0RE I REACHED SAFETY LEVELS.”

"Hmph, so you have picked up on the notion of using that as a means to punish or lash out at someone." she said, her voice growing frosty with disdain. She supposed she wasn't surprised, she couldn't ask for worse role models than the people using the labs, and it occurred to her that Dr. Balnab likely hadn't been any better given the fact that he'd designed Tinman with such an unconventional coolant system. Dimly, she considered what exactly he'd been intended to battle that such a design would be considered ideal.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to teach you a little responsibility." she said, rolling her head to one side to indicate a shrug her shoulders couldn't impress, "I dare you to pick up all of the tools you've scattered about in your tantrum, one by one, and arrange them at the head of the table here, left to right, from slimmest to widest blade. I can't imagine it'll be easy, what with those clamps of yours, but being a machine you should be well suited to repetitive, monotonous tasks, eh?"

“AFFIRMITIVE.” Tinman was a fast study on most occasions though there was still a child-like wonder that it possessed it simple had not transcended out of it's thinking and there were still things that were hard wired in him. But he was both designed as a war machine and a Collector, though the design was later found to be too inefficient for Balnab's tastes. It was an idea that the doctor played with for a little while until he had grown bored and discarded that line of thinking.

Tinman was not into torture, well what it did had not qualified it thought though it supposed that was a matter open for interpretation.

Turning it's head it regarded the tools, then the clamps. It regarded them for a few minutes, clamps opening and closing on the empty air each time. Slowing, it then began to move into action a few minutes later kicking the scattered tools together. It did this for a little while until it had adjusted to using the right degree of strength to gather up the tools.

“AFFIRMITIVE. I AM USE TO REPETION THOUGH THIS IS NOT AS REPETIVE AS YOU MAY THINK.”

Tin man opened and closed those clamps a few more times as if practicing on an imaginary object, activated it's laser and cut a hole in the floor that was wide but not deep. Kneeling beside the tools he gingerly pushed them so that they slide into the hole standing at an angel. It uprighted the over turned table, returned then scooped up the majority of the tools a few falling to the floor or into that hole but he got the majority of them.

It had to widen that hole so the appendage in it's chest could slide in there and drive it out. It took it awhile though it got the tools by pushing them near the lip of the hole so it could get beneath them gently clamping each.

“REANALYZING ...” It had spent more than a few minutes trying to arrange those tools before sliding then against the table top rather then trying to pick them up. It took far longer than it would have taken her to do it but it did it proving that it could do more than think in a straight forward way and would meticulously do something until successful, out of power or commanded other wise.

"Tch, I can't see to check your work." she said, craning her head back, closing one eye as if it might shift her perspective enough to see over the lip of the tray. Technically she'd told him to collect them one at a time, but she decided against correcting his method. She only had so much time to work in, after all. "I don't suppose you've got a mirror or anything over there?" When dealing with a tray littered with blades, touch was probably the sense she least wanted to rely upon for finding what she needed.

She stuck her tongue out slightly and tried to shift to get a better view, planning out her next move silently. Finally, mirror or no, she'd settle back down against the table and open and close her hands a few times, taking a deep breath.

"Alright . . . Truth." she finally said.

Picking the tools up one at a time would have taken too much work where his safety levels of coolant might have run down before it had a chance to finish the task. So it chose to expedite things a little. When she mentioned not having a mirror it thinks for a moment, walks closer than tares at the top of the table ripping it off and standing her upright so she could view the tools.

It processed her words though as it pondered over the next question though, coolant levels steadily dropping as it thinks upon the matter a little.

“YOUR FIRST EPERIENCE IN COLLECTING COOLANT. TELL ME ABOUT IT.” They had been but that was the point after all as Rena reasserted her dominance.

Juniper watched somewhat curiously as the machine took a few lumbering steps around the table, raising an eyebrow as one broad clamp gripped hold of the side of the table, the strength of his grib bending the light metal slightly in his clamps. She felt her gorge slightly as his other hand grabbed hold as well and he pulled. The table's supports, it seemed, had been bolted to the floor, leading to a cacophonous wail as bolts and struts labored to resist his powerful frame, metal stressing and bending with disturbing ease as he pulled her into an upright position.

"It's a little vague . . . I was kinda, well, really drunk at the time . . ." she stalled for time slightly, feeling like a fair-goer trapped eternally at the peak of the rise for a roller coaster, that lingering impression of an impending fall stretching out in her mind with every moment. Still, even as the warped table pulled her arms back uncomfortably, she worked to keep her mind on task. Perhaps it was a foolish gesture, but in a few moments she selected the third slimmest tool from the left to be the one most appropriate. Now she just had to figure out how to get her hands on it . . . if the Tinman kept holding her like this, she might as well forget about it.

"Are you looking more for technique, or just the story?" she asked simply with a ghost of a shrug, trying to dust off the old memory and reexamining it, not for the first time. Of course, by the rules of the game, regardless of his intentions, she was bound to reveal the full truth of the question put to her, not settling for a pithy comment and trying to turn the game around.

The twisting wail of metal screeched in the air. It was grating to the ears and if the audio sensors and recording devices had not been destroyed Rena may have been wincing some where rather than confused by what the machine was doing as in a display of strength it had shown Juniper the tools as it held the table upright long enough for Juniper to confirm what it had accomplished.

Still each delay caused it's battery power to diminish though it was in no hurry this time. Gathering up all the tools would have taken far too long though but this was accomplished before much time had been used. Really it had not been too much of a bother for it though it was a bringer of collateral damage wherever it went, that was a certainty though as it went about it's day to day activities.

Destroying things had never been a big deal for it and so the table was of little consequence. It did lay her back down rather than hold her upright and those tools were closer though the table top lower now from what she had been use to being half the elevation now.

It knelt at her side rather than looming over her at it's impressive height.

“A STORY IS WHAT I WAS AIMING FOR. TECHNIQUE … THERE IS MORE THAN ONE?”

Apparently it had not downloaded the Karma Sutra or perhaps it had but understood that the basics were the same or at least assumed as much.

"Oh, you poor thing." she murmured piteously, "The entirety of the human race has been fucking since time immemorial. It's an incredibly intense feeling, full of hormones, sensuality, and raw animal urge. Some of the greatest minds of their generations have poured countless hours into experimentation, and the sensitivities and receptiveness of one's partner introduce a positively fractal number of minute variations to be explored for the best effect in all participants. It is a tad more involved than "Insert Tab A into Slot B . . . and never Slot C without asking" she lifted her shoulders slightly and turned her head, the best approximation she'd figured out for a shrug in her bonds so far, "Ah well, lacking nerve endings of your own, I imagine the study would be of limited value to you."

She uncurled her hand for a moment and reached with a finger. Mmn . . . no, she supposed it had been too much to hope that she'd be able to touch the bottom of the tray from here. She lightly traced her tongue over her lips as she ran a few options through her head. As Tinman knelt next to her, however, she admitted that she'd probably delayed enough for the moment.

"It was almost two years ago now." she started, looking blankly up at the cieling, prodding at the old hurt for the second time in as many days, "I was . . . kind of lonely. I'd had a near miss, buried a friend, and my two best friends were seeking solace in each others arms. I'd never been a perfect fit for the gang, yeah, I had my family issues but . . . it wasn't the same. Silly little girl from the 'burbs, slumming it to get back at Mommy and Daddy. Tom and Mary never treated me like that, but with them caught up in each other, I just felt like I was being pushed outside more and more. The fact that I was nursing a little crush on Tom didn't help any."

"So, I'm killing time down at the pier, just trying to figure out what the hell to do with myself and I get a call. It's Tom saying that he and Mary were just talking about how long it'd been since they'd seen me, so they extended the invitation and sweetened the pot with the promise of brew. Just like old times, ya know?" she chuckled a bit, "Keep in mind, I was . . . pretty different back then. Didn't eat as well, hair was a matted mess of purple, trying a little too hard to look like the punk I felt like. I guess we all go through phases . . . getting off track here."

"Tom's place . . . well, it wasn't exactly upscale. He kept it clean, sure, but there wasn't much to do about the water damage, or the fact that you had to run the water for a few seconds to let the rust clear out of the pipes, or his broke-ass couch and a coffee table made up of cinder blocks and a slab of wood with a cloth thrown over it. We were sitting in kind of a lopsided circle on the floor, just knocking 'em back and catching up while Tom had some of that anti-establishment crap he listens to playing in the background. I've got a pretty good buzz going on when he drops an arm around my shoulder and leans in close. Says something about how I haven't been around lately , that he misses this, just the three of us hanging out. Then his hand shifts a bit, hanging over my shoulder to squeeze my breast. I laugh it off, we're both drunk, and I like him, so whatever, right? Jab him in the ribs with an elbow and tell him his girlfriend is right there, ya know?"

"Thing is, I'm all distracted with Tom, so I haven't noticed she's leaning forward, crawling towards the two of us a little unsteadily on hands and knees. At least, I don't notice 'til there's a hand on my cheek turning my face back towards her, and her lips press into mine. I'm just a little shocked, I never knew Marian swung both was, never even suspected she had a thing for me. She shifts her weight up against me and Thomas . . . well, he's a fucking ragdoll, so the whole lot of us go over in a tumble. I mean, I'm a little off balance, I've barely even kissed a bloke at this point and now I've got both of the most important people in my life pawing me up. Rubbing, kissing, squeezing . . . well, I don't want to pretend to be an innocent victim of anything, I got into the rhythm of things quickly enough."

"We roll, clothes get lost. Tom's kissing Marian over my shoulder and grinding his fingers against my sex, while she's stroking his cock that's currently erect and between my spread legs with both hands. They just keep rubbing me between their bodies, pushing things around as lips part to taste my skin, I'm getting a little fuzzy, short on breath and moaning when they push me free to watch as Marian leans over my heart's desire's cock and starts to suck him off. Thing is, she's not just doing it to dig at me, when she comes up for air she's giving pointers, telling me what he likes. After a few minutes she invites me over and we start working his knob together, she sticks around long enough to make sure I've got the knack before she slips off and leaves me there, Tom groaning and curling his fingers in my hair so I can't see where she's going."

"I learn soon enough, she's behind me, and I feel her hot lips on my pussy, her tongue sweeping in to eat me out. Ah, I moaned into Tom, I remember because he groaned and twitched hard, but he didn't give up the seed. Not just then. We stayed like that for a few minutes, me working his shaft and massaging his balls while Marian ate me out and fingered herself. Just as I was about to cum, she stopped and pulled back, and Tom pulled me off of him. We all moved over to the mattress they had laying on the floor for the next round. I got pressed down into the mattress, a pillow under my hips to raise them just so, and I saw that Marian was wearing a modest double-ended dildo. She pushed her way inside and leaned forward to muffle my cry with a kiss, her tongue exploring my mouth. Thomas moved up behind her as she leaned forward, grasping and massaging her tits for leverage as he pushed his way into her ass. She rode the motion of his hips, fucking me in his place while she got it from both ends, moaning and her eyes rolling back up in her eyes at the sensation as I wrapped my arms around her neck to keep her close."

"I came first . . . I wasn't ready for anything like that, and as they kept grinding away I came second as well. Tom was next, but the feel of his seed bubbling up in her set Marian off too. With the last bit of strength she had, she hammered home into me hard of her own volition making me cry out. We were spent, breathing hard, sweating . . . Tom must of tried to pull out because Marian told him to stay right there until he was too soft. We kinda fell asleep in a tangle of limbs and bodily fluid."

She was slightly flushed as she finished recounting the tale. She was sure there were bits she was leaving out, but she really couldn't remember what they were. As for the morning after . . . well, what care had 2179 for that? Arching an eyebrow, she supposed she'd never really "collected" any "coolant" during that exchange . . . well, it would probably suffice. She didn't much want to admit to her second time anyway.

"Does that satisfy your curiosity?" she asked, her knees trying to bend inward futily as she felt a slight trickle from her sex at the memory of it all. Her flush only grew a little darker as she realized he could probably see it fine, exposed as she were in her restraints.

It was true it lacked nerve endings. And it lacked hormones amongst other things but could that have been why it had thought that there was no big deal to the matter? Other than recharging and serving as a Collector there did not appear to be any real reason to experiment with something to derived pleasure from the experience. Nor did it reproduce in such a fashion. It was a convenient way for it to collect the samples that Dr. Balnab had assigned it to collect.

Humans fucking for so long only made sense since there lineage would not lasted to this day if they were disallowed from doing so. If they could not reproduce then they could not pass on the knowledge that they gained in their brief lives.

It would never know death from the ravages of time. Some would kill for that alone but it would have been interested in living as they did. It lacked three of the five senses. It could not smell for it had no olfactory sensors though it was working on that but had no sense of taste or any real sense of touch. It could grip things and know that it was touching them for instance but without a nervous system it's mind could only tell it the basics such as the fact that it was holding something.

Tom and Mary, It stored the names and times that she supplied though it had not interrupted allowing her to continue. It did not really possess an imagination but imaging her with purple hair had been easy in her case since he could bring up an image of her with purple hair though it was as if she was serving as an artist in a rendition of a sketch that lead to a wanted poster given that other features were different. It took down such changes then stored the file with the altered images.

It possesses her words. Though it does not understand the squalid conditions all that well given that a lot of times it is stored in rather spartan conditions. Ton seemed more thrifty with the table idea but it picks up of the ambiance, that the conditions are sub par and not the norm.

Terms like knocking them back and buzzed are concepts it is not use to but in the context of the statement they are easy to figure out as is bloke. It is odd though as it thinks on the concept of lesbianism. It did not understand the purpose of homosexual sex. Reproduction did not seem to be an issue here, nor could it entirely understand safe sex. Granted it understood such notions of protecting against disease but what was the point if there was no reproduction. It was not able to wrap it's mind about sex for entertainment, for sheer bliss.

Seed? The sexual coolant of the male of her species it had assumed too. Had Tinman been able to form emotional bonds it would have fond the tale hot. As it was it judged it, liked the tale and like all it's memories stored them away to access later.

The tale did not have her collecting coolant but it was not too anal about these things seeing that it had modified a dare least it still he picking up tools right now. “SEX IS NOT JUST FOR REPRODUCTION IN YOUR SPECIES?”

It had been a little confused by this though it had been programmed with the concepts of homosexuality it could not get beyond the text book definition of the term of sex.

“SEX DOES NOT HAVE TO BE FOR PROCREATION BUT FOR FUN?” It already had determined the answer given homosexuality had not produced offspring but it turned it's processors on that. It had assumed that homosexuality wasn't the normal evolution path of a the species and was an exception rather than the norm but could not understand sex for the sake of having sex. Perhaps it was due to the lack of touch. It could analyze when it touched something or pressure had been exerted and to the extent but really lacked anything but the mental processors of such contact usually in the form of damage.

But perhaps it was a good thing that this had been broached now for Tinman grew busy thinking over the procedures involved and the onset of pleasure.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose, letting it fill her chest and holding it for a long moment before she let it out in a long whoosh. She inhaled again, just breath, don't dwell on the memory. Maybe they were just words to the Tinman, but there were a whole host of half-remembered sense memories still rummaging in her head. Heat, the sound of flesh on flesh, the way her body had responded . . . there was evidence that Thomas and Marian had recovered before her, gotten another round or two in while Juniper herself had been indisposed. She remembered waking up between them, Marian half curled around her with Thomas's arm reaching out to embrace them both, the smell of sex still heavy on the air.

She bit her bottom lip hard, she didn't want to remember what came next. Not right now. Just breath, steady the heartbeat, relax. Try not to think about it . . . nothing in your system right now, there's no excuse to lose control. Hold it together, wait for your moment.

"It's . . . not quite that simple." she said as Tinman's curiosity probed a bit further. She sensed a hook in the question, particularly considering how quickly he'd latched onto the concept of "fun" before, "I think a full discourse on human psychology and sexuality is a little outside of the purview of the game." she said with a reserved smile, "Like I said, it's different for different people, any generalizations I make are going to have exceptions." She took another deep breath, letting her eyes fall closed.

"It's . . . very intimate, it's not something most of us do casually. The biological imperative for reproduction is still there, of course, we all select our partners based on traits we find desirable. As a species, though, our libido is tied to our visual senses, just looking at a person in the right circumstances can get us "in the mood" even if the biological cycle isn't at the proper point." she decided to leave the sense of touch and the concept of personal space out of it for the time being, just to save time, "Nature saw fit to reinforce the act itself with a number of rather potent biological responses. Potent enough that sharing those feelings with another became desirable in it's own right, in the right circumstances it can deepen a relationship between people, be a comfort in a moment of pain, or simply make an enjoyable experience even moreso." she looked at him a little pointedly.

"But there's the other side, that you've already picked up on. Intimacy is also a vulnerability. By it's nature, it means lowering one's defenses ." she paused, not quite meeting his gaze, "There are people who've twisted it. Used it as leverage in power games, or a bargaining chip in exchange for favors. When uninvited it's nothing short of an attack, defenses aren't lowered, they're battered down and intimacy isn't shared it's taken." she looked away, "So it gets used to break people down, or to hurt them, or to illustrate dominance and control." she shook her head a little bit. She didn't want to muddy the waters by bringing the fetish scene into it, the notion that some people liked and sought out some of those elements.

"All too common, here." she said, voice dripping with malice, "But, I think I've chewed your ear enough on the subject. Truth or Dare, big man?"

It had realized that something was going on. Her breathing had changed and it was unsure what to make of the matter. It nodded at her words a full critique of the matter went beyond the game and while it was curious and wanted to learn more it new when to leave well enough a lone.

“AFFIRMATIVE.” Was all that it had need of saying as it looked at her in that moment. No immediate change in her breathing and Tinman accessed what it had in general first aid. Carefully a clamp sealed over her arm as it tried to access a pulse.

While if she had expired it would not be been the end of the world it had no desire for her passing if it could help it. She was informative after all, more so then the others. It's victims were often terrified to the point that a Q&A session was not possible and that the scientist would not go into depth explaining a command but just expect it to carry out the wishes that they desired only explaining what was needed in order to accomplish the task.

It had listened gaining a greater understanding even if most of it did not apply to it Tinman realized that it seemed to matter to the organics and was considering her words though it had been governed by safeguards and orders it tried to understand how organics went about things.

It had processed her words as well as the orders that it had been assigned. It had also analyzed what Rena was forcing it to do. A quick check of it's power reserves … could it make it back to the island in time? It was not certain. But it was still processing those words before she asked it next, truth or dare though it was too busy processing those words. Intimacy had not factored in to the matter.

Rather than answering her right away it crossed the room smashing down the door before returning to her side, It had scanned the tools that it laid out sliding one off the table to the floor then sliding it closer to her.

“DARE.” But it had chosen this one. No doubt Rena would be heading down here if she wasn't already. It had done everything but place the tool in her hand after all. She would have to get that on her own.

Compassion? An interpretation of her words? To spite Rena? Just for the hell of it to make the game far more interesting? It was tough to say with any certainty just what was going through those processors as it headed towards the door.

Juniper twisted her head back and forth slightly as she watched 2179 pick himself up from where he'd squatted on the floor, his heavy tread echoing in the amphitheater and causing the tools to rattle and dance slightly on their tray. Tawny locks still pasted to her forehead, she blinked a few times as he strode over to the door, trying to determine what he was intending. Then, with a single swing of his arm he crashed through the double doors, the weld jerking part of the deadbolt violently free and leaving the doors hanging drunkenly from only one of their hinges. She'd half expected to see Rena standing on the other side, issuing orders unheard into the machine's ear, but all she saw was empty corridor from where she lay.

As the machine cautiously bumped one of the tools from it's elevated position on the tray, there was a sharp rattle as Juniper swung her full body weight, causing the unsecured table to shift slightly on it's crooked and unbalanced legs. She stretched her hand out, the took she'd wanted nearly slipping her grasp, she should managed to just barely catch it between two fingers. It dangled precariously in her grip for a few moments, leaving it uncertain whether or not she'd be able to maintain her tenuous hold long enough to shift it properly in her hand or whether it would clatter to the floor. Finally, she closed her hand into a loose fist and pressed the tool into her palm, giving her a chance to adjust her grip.

She hadn't exactly been playing subtle with the Tinman, she admitted, twisting the tool in her finger tips until it had the proper orientation. She didn't think he was stupid, simply ill-informed, and that he lacked much in the way of motivation. He was wired not to rebel against orders, but he didn't bear her any particular ill will, and with Rena having taken his ability to "replenish coolant" off the table for the near future, she was safe. Well, for a limited quantity of "safe", at any rate. Still, she hadn't predicted this response. She casually wondered if he were acting out of spite for the Slug Queen, some degree of investment in Juniper herself, or if he were actually manipulating the both of them in his crude way.

"I suppose telling you to dump coolant to ten percent while within arm's reach of Rena wouldn't fly." she said with a bit of a smirk, flipping the tool into position and beginning to pry at where she knew the lock to be. This kind of thing was never as easy as movies made it seem, and any odds of her managing to do this discretely went out the wall when Tinman decided to knock out the door . . . she'd originally intended to crawl through the hole he'd punched in it, "So, let's try this. For the next twenty minutes, turn off your visual preceptors. No sonar, no hacked camera feeds, just your other senses and flawless memory to guide you along."

The faint click and rattle of the tool in the keyhole continued unabated, she had a little more time before she'd be on the move again. Best to keep him occupied.

"And, since I have your undivided attention, let's go with Truth."

Tinman halted. It considered what Juniper said for a moment, mainly because it had overlooked that option as means of a loop hole. It liked it though it seemed to countermand Rena's orders by actively seeking a reason to disobey. No, it could not do that.

Still, it was an interesting concept. For that same reason it could not dumb coolant and replenish itself with Juniper, somethings were just hard wired in though once Rena no longer constituted as a scientist, well, then things certainly opened up.

“NEGATIVE. SHUTTING DOWN PROCESSORS.” And things went dark. Only one steady light burned on it's face plate beneath the visor, essential his visual processors had gone off line at this stage.

It waited beside the door it damaged door for a moment calculating her position from the sounds of her voice and the scrapping sounds of the tool working in the lock.

Truth huh? It had to make this one short given it's coolant levels and the additional challenge of doing it without sight. Rena was probably heading this way too and it was probably best to be gone by then.

“DO YOU LIKE PUPPIES?” Nice, simple, a yes or no as he doubted that she would get into a huge explanation either.