Look, I won't lie to you: We've had trouble gaining traction on Cybertron Reloaded since the great medical adventures of 2007 sidetracked both me and Phil in almost immediate succession. But one thing we have got is one scene that we thought of, kicked around the studio, had a lot of fun with, and then immediately determined we were not going to be able to use in the story itself. It's a hilarious image, but it's more the kind of thing the "actors" would do while screwing around on the set between takes, possibly to break up the tension of being unable to make the scene come out right when sticking to the script.

---

INT. DECEPTICON HQ - The Vilnacron Communications Center. Plastic still covers various consoles and the Constructicons are working on upgrades and reactivations in the background. Soundwave and Sylvie Daniels are attempting to decipher an intercepted hyperwave communiqué and Sylvie is having some difficulties with the unfamiliar new equipment, prompting Soundwave to make the occasional acerbic comment, until one of the Constructicons comes over to put his oar in.

SCRAPPER
He gets to raggin' on you too bad, kid, you could always ask him about Pavarotti.

SOUNDWAVE
Scrapper   your interference: not required   I am in the process of teaching Consultant Daniels the intricacies of modern superluminal telecommu -

SCRAPPER (interrupting)
Yeah, and I ain't chief o' the Constructicons, I'm actually Patina, Queen o' the Junkions.

SOUNDWAVE
Scrapper   desist -

SYLVIE
C'mon, Scrapper, tell me.

SOUNDWAVE (resignedly)
very well   proceed

SCRAPPER
Communications Officer Soundwave here, he's into music in a big way. He figures the whole fabric of the universe is basically his own personal stereo set. So he gets this piece of Pavarotti -

SOUNDWAVE
Paganini

SCRAPPER
Whatever.

SOUNDWAVE
it was Paganini

SCRAPPER
Look, this is my story.

SOUNDWAVE
Pavarotti: tenor   Paganini: composer

SCRAPPER
Okay. So he's got this music, and he's got it out in the æther, and he's listening to it on his internal receptors and he's just happy as a Vectrian turboclam. And then all hell breaks loose. A whole slew of Decepticon outposts -

SOUNDWAVE
including one way out at Nebulon

SCRAPPER
- including one way the hell out at Nebulon, all of a sudden, they start hearing...

SYLVIE (giggling)
Pavarotti.

SCRAPPER
Pavarotti! Comin' out their asses! Soundwave here -

* An alarm sounds.

SYLVIE
What do I do?

* Soundwave transforms and slots into the console.

SOUNDWAVE
I have it

---

You see why we decided we couldn't use it. I don't mind riffing on pop culture, hell, it could be argued that it's all we really do around here, but this bit is a little too blueprinted. :)

--G.

*SNRK*

That is all.

"They say one should not speak unkindly of the dead, so I say, 'nice try'." --Lezard

I'm sorry to hear that you're having difficulties, but thanks for sharing what you can, and who knows, maybe this will jar something loose. And while I can totally see this happening, I agree that it may be just a little too far off the beaten path for what you were trying to accomplish, which was to take the original CD and bring it to the current level of UF both plot-wise and style-wise.

Offsides

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>

Ah, an oldie but a goodie.