Autobot Interim: Walk and Talk

[Emirate Xaaron]

Can't describe any of his treasures? Odd. Emirate Xaaron comments, "Indescribable? A shame. I'm sure that our young lady here would just love to hear some tales of exploration and its spoils."

He turns back to her, "You are an engineer, then."

Emirate Xaaron has about a 50/50 chance of offending her. If she's an engineer, she'd throw a fit over being called a technician. If she's a technician, she'd throw a fit over being called an engineer. He'll deal with it and quickly continues, "And you like to share? You may have noticed that this is a parched land to our people. If perhaps you could build some toys to my specifications, we do have access to a wonderous generator that bottles up delicious lightning in little lines."

Diplomacy sometimes means talking funny. Laugh anywhere but inside your head Nightbeat, and Emirate Xaaron has a barbed retort waiting for you.

[Cannonball]

Bumblebee's head-tilt is met with an optic-ridge quirk, then a shrug before Hardwire turns his attentions back to Xaaron.

"Well...far be it from me to not brag, but it's just not the same without being able to show them off at the same time." Hardwire thinks a moment, and then comes up with a proper comparison. "It'd be like if'n someone told me about that big bloke o' ours wot blew that power plant before I saw 'em - a bit difficult to relay just how large and powerful 'e be without seein' it firsthand."

As for Xaaron's diplomacy...Nightbeat might not be laughing audibly, but a few faint snickers come from Hardwire.

[Nightbeat]

Well, Nightbeat does snicker, but he chokes it down after a moment. Granted, he could be snickering at being called Puss in Boots, but that would require him knowing the fairy tale, which seems unlikely.

Xaaron will probably be sarcastic with him. And he'll go "Sir." And Xaaron will talk about other things, and he'll also go "Sir." It was a useful word. It noncommittal. Could mean he agreed, could mean he was just being respectful until he went off and did what he wanted to anyway.

Now, Hardwire's line about salvage is an interesting one. After all... the word for "salvager" in one language is "thief" in another.

It's actually true. He checked once. And in Skuxxoid, they're even the same word.

[Screwdriver]

Screwdriver turns her head, noting the departing Slingshot, but does nothing to prevent his leaving. She's becoming a bit unnerved by the crowd, anyway. She smiles brightly at Bumblebee's 'singing,' and nods to agree with him.

She narrows her wide optics at Hardwire. Treasure hunters! Huh! They come to Junk sometimes. They check in, but they don't check out! And then... and then Screwdriver gets new toys.

Toys.

The Junkion turns to Xaaron, shakes her head, and corrects, "No. Toymaker!" Then she pauses. "But I... do design," she gets out, making the effort to speak 'normal.' And then, Xaaron offers her a job. She grins very wide. "Oh, I could build you toys! The most wonderful toys! I could do that!" Of course, then she'd expect lots of praise, and observations on how wonderful and clever and such she is. That's just the way these things work.

[Slingshot]

Slingshot slips away, like a brightly-colored and scowly jet. Ninja-vanish!

---

OOC: And Slingers is out of this thread.

[Bumblebee]

Bumblebee let the staring from the strange-talking 'Autobot' go. At the revelation that Screwdriver is a designer, Bumblebee asked via private transmission //what experience do you have in dealing with vocal capacitors. mine has been broken for some time now.// Bumblebee realized his chances were slim, but he figured it'd be worth a shot. Who knows, she's obviously one to think outside the square.

Bumblebee then realized he would probably need more private frequencies from people, just in case. He made another close-range broadcast with his own freq. //i will need to contact you via here on occasion. please respond with your own frequency.//

[Emirate Xaaron]

Emirate Xaaron deadpans, "I have always loved your cultural sensitivity, Nightbeat."

At Screwdriver's confirmation, Emirate Xaaron claps his hands together, seemingly delighted, and he exclaims, "Brilliant! Now, we have a very clever scarlet wizard – something of a seer, really – and he can tell you what sort of toys we'll need."

That's right, Emirate Xaaron wants to sic Screwdriver on poor Perceptor. He looks over at Bumblebee and suggests, "Might you escort her to Perceptor?" He offers his own frequency back – huh, Bumblebee's matches Bumblebee's. Weird.

That'll leave him and Nightbeat to harass Hardwire. Perfect.

[Cannonball]

Hardwire turns toward Xaaron, frowning a bit. "Oi, y'know 'e be busy wit' me radio" he protests, "Las' thing 'e be needin' be distractions."

And the last thing Hardwire needs is more delays on contacting Starscream. He's gonna be so very peeved from no contact, and telling him that it's all his fault will be fuel on the already-raging fire.

[Nightbeat]

"Eh, Perceptor'll be fine. Guy can multi-task like nobody's business," Nightbeat supplies helpfully.

Time to put the screws to the screw, oh yes. Days like this made his job fun.

[Screwdriver]

Screwdriver looks at Bumblebee. She's beginning to suspect the yellow one isn't a Junkion at all! //All the king's horses, and all the king's men!// she reports to him, although she really won't know until she looks. He is a most interesting design.

Although she can't put Humpty Dumpty back together again until she's properly taken him apart.

When Xaaron claps his hands, Screwdriver claps hers, grinning wide and bouncing up a bit on her 'toes.' She nods her head enthusiastically. "I'll build them up with iron and steel, iron and steel, iron and steel, my fair lady!" she singsongs.

My, but the Sons of Camelot were never this supportive of her before!

The Junkion turns towards Bumblebee, then transforms. Presuming he does the same, she'll follow him right out of this thread.

---

OOC: Consider me out.

[Bumblebee]

Bumblebee transformed back into a rusted old Camaro as per Xaaron's orders. He'll talk with Screwdriver about repairing later. Though he's not sure if he likes the analogy...

The Camaro sputtered before revving its engine and heading off in the direction of Perceptor.

---

OOC: Bee is buzzing off too.

[Emirate Xaaron]

Emirate Xaaron, were he a weaker mechanism, would have repeatedly smacked the palm of his hand into his forehead repeatedly and then curled up in fetal position.

Outwardly, he shows very little reaction to the events, but inwardly... sigh.

He has Kup clearly plotting to betray him with Grimlock and Slingshot. He has a surprising show of faith from Perceptor. He has Nightbeat ruining his reputation.

Emirate Xaaron still needs to talk to Hardwire and worry about Skyfire.

Smoothly, he excuses, "Perceptor can get more done if he has a second set of hands helping him. Now, did you work solo on your hunts or did you have friends?"

[Cannonball]

Hardwire doubts the crazy femme will be much help to Perceptor.

And he sure as slag doesn't want her touching his radio.

"Some were solo, but a good deal o 'em, ah 'ad assistance. A retrieval crew, 'and-picked by me, some of 'em specializin' in various fields for wotevah odd circumstances we may've encountered."

And he wishes some of 'em were here now to bail their wonderful Captain out of this, and maybe blow up his 'employer'. Then pillage the planet and return home.

[Nightbeat]

To Nightbeat's trained audio receptor, Hardwire's description is sounding more and more like carefully shaded truth.

"Sounds like a pretty good way to go about it," he says. "Though just what kind of 'odd' circumstances do you get out there?"

[Emirate Xaaron]

Emirate Xaaron comments wistfully, "I bet that you miss them, then. It's nice to have friends. Did they help you fight your Megatron, too?"

Just about every Autobot here has whined about a Megatron. This isn't a bad assumption, and corrections often tell quite a bit more than their makers intend them to.