Sideburn
Rookie
Must not chase Swerve, must not chase Swerve...
Posts: 211
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Post by Sideburn on Apr 15, 2008 23:42:13 GMT -5
The road sings under Sideburn's tires as he and Swerve drive along. The sun is bright, but not as hot anymore. They've left the black desert and entered into the grasslands that seem to surround it. While his injuries still sting, Sideburn is in a better mood.
That could be because he's locked into a local radio station. This one must have an automated system for choosing songs, to be still playing this time. And what luck! It has visuals to go with the audios! He's happy that someone has video-audio combination radios, like him and Wedge, even if those someones are a weird alien race. Currently they're playing some catchy tune. The video to go with it doesn't contain a lot of what Sideburn assumes is the local dancing. Instead it has a lot of locations, ones that oddly match the road he and Swerve are on.
Sideburn occasionally hums along with the song. He would've broken out into singing a couple times, except he still doesn't know the local language. Annoying Swerve is entirely unintentional. At least he's keeping the music itself internal.
They're approaching the coordinates Wedge gave. Hopefully the other two will come into view soon.
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Gizmo
Rookie
Blue and Nerdy
Posts: 147
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Post by Gizmo on Apr 17, 2008 21:49:54 GMT -5
Gizmo finally catches up to Sideburn and cruises along behind him, grateful to have left the chaos of the battle behind. His injured door still hangs open slightly, but it's not hurting as badly now. In fact, the air circulating through his interior thanks to the ajar door feels pretty nice.
"Hey Sideburn, whacha hummin'?" asks Gizmo. "Sounds pretty nice."
OOC: Sorry for the delay!
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Post by Swerve on Apr 17, 2008 22:10:55 GMT -5
Annoyed is one way to describe Swerve right now. A more accurate version would be wishing for a fifty-length buffer zone on all sides. And no stupid slagging Sideburn humming that stupid slagging music. He can't really get what he wants, he suspects; definitely not, he determines as Gizmo catches up. He accelerates anyway, trying to put some sort of distance between himself and the blue cars – and the inevitable orange bulldozer.
"Would you shut it?" he growls at Sideburn as he opens the throttle to pull away, engine rev adding a deeper snarl to his voice.
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Wedge
Minor
NOT a reckless teen-bot
Posts: 413
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Post by Wedge on Apr 18, 2008 6:49:52 GMT -5
Either he's making a mini-racket on the metal road or he's unintentionally clipping a bit of a path in the grasslands has his treads pinch up ridiculous amounts of grass between the slats of his tracks, Wedge picks the road. Noise won't jam up his movement and wind around his gears. The volume isn't terribly bad, he can hear Sideburn humming along to something and the questions that follow.
Well, this buildbot has some questions of his own, especially as he takes in Gizmo's crooked door and the other injuries peppered around the team. "You guys going to be okay or should we stop a bit to patch up?"
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Sideburn
Rookie
Must not chase Swerve, must not chase Swerve...
Posts: 211
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Post by Sideburn on Apr 18, 2008 20:23:11 GMT -5
"Sorry, didn't mean to bug you," Sideburn replies to Swerve. He lets the red car get a couple body lengths ahead before speeding up to maintain the distance. He doesn't want to let Swerve get too far away in case something happens.
"It's a local song. I managed to find a radio station. I think it might be about this road we're on. The video that goes with it seems to be showing a lot of places on this road, while the videos from other songs were showing what I assume is dancing."
"I'm good for either, Wedge!" he calls back in reply to the orange bulldozer.
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Gizmo
Rookie
Blue and Nerdy
Posts: 147
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Post by Gizmo on Apr 18, 2008 21:06:16 GMT -5
"Yeesh, is he ever happy?" Gizmo mutters, not really realizing he's talking aloud. He's starting to think Swerve's emotion processes are permanently locked onto "grouchy."
To Sideburn he says "Lucky, I wish I could get video. Maybe I'll ask Perceptor if he can install something. Would be cool." Yes, he's totally thinking Star Wars marathon -- it would help the time pass so well on these long stretches of road.
"Um... sure, that'll be good, Wedge. Door's kinda starting to get achy..."
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Post by Swerve on Apr 18, 2008 22:24:07 GMT -5
Statistically, the chances of a happy Swerve are slim, especially when he's gotten shot up by Decepticons and had to break off before he could return the favour with interest. He wants space and road to himself and he isn't getting it, which isn't helping his mood at all. If he hadn't said he'd keep an eye on Gizmo and Wedge, he'd just redline until there wasn't another mech in sight. He can't do that, though.
"Whatever," he says. "But if you're gonna stop, do it somewhere in the shade." Running repairs out of the sun would be easiest on him, but he doesn't have to admit that.
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Wedge
Minor
NOT a reckless teen-bot
Posts: 413
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Post by Wedge on Apr 19, 2008 0:26:42 GMT -5
You can't make everyone happy, but that won't stop Wedge from trying.
"We've passed a few odd structures before. They seem pretty evenly spaced out around here so we should be coming up to one pretty soon," says the buildbot even as he scans the horizon for anything other than grassland. Someone a little more familiar with a more rural Earth from the topside might find the occassional buildings and the fields of not-grass surrounding them to resemble farms. "We can stop there and also see to some refueling." Always hopefully optimistic, but always expecting the worst only makes things seem so dismal.
Looking at things from a dismal point of view is never good, because 1) it lowers performance, and 2) it'd end up with a sharp, reprimanding smack from Heavy Load.
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Sideburn
Rookie
Must not chase Swerve, must not chase Swerve...
Posts: 211
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Post by Sideburn on Apr 19, 2008 1:53:24 GMT -5
"It's a part of our radio, in Wedge and mine's universe. Maybe when we get back you could ask First Aid about it?" Sideburn's face on Wedge's radio would be grinning as he chatters with the other blue car.
"Some shade and energon sounds pretty good to me, Wedge," he calls back, looking around as well for potential rest stops.
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Gizmo
Rookie
Blue and Nerdy
Posts: 147
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Post by Gizmo on Apr 19, 2008 19:29:17 GMT -5
"I'll have to corner First Aid when we get back and ask him about it," Gizmo replies. "Would be nice to have something to watch while on a long road trip like this."
To Wedge he says "I've noticed those. Think they might be farms of some kind. Sounds like a good place to stop."
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Post by Swerve on Apr 21, 2008 1:24:17 GMT -5
…Great. Swerve picks up just a little more speed, pushes his engine just a little more, letting the sounds of firing pistons and rushing wind and road screaming away under his tires drown out the background chatter as he pulls forward a couple more lengths. Stopping will be Wedge's call if he can drag himself away from the radio babble long enough.
Swerve has nothing for the conversation. Nothing to contribute, no interest. He only just tolerates the radio as it is, so why would he give a backfire if it suddenly started coming with video? All the cheerful talk does is remind him of something he'd almost managed to let slip his mind on this trip. There probably isn't anywhere on this Primus-forsaken planet he could fit in less than right here, right now, with this gaggle of kids. Wedge and Sideburn, they're both from the same place. Gizmo… might be, too? Swerve isn't sure, really. Can't remember. He seems to fall in well enough with them, though. But Swerve doesn't. He can't bring himself to fake it, can't make himself fit. It's like trying to thread a gasket.
I'm just here to be the pace car, he reminds himself as he veers to one side of the road, skirting a vehicle abandoned on the shoulder and wilfully pushing aside the twinge in his steering. Must've snapped something when I loaded that last Cyber Key. Frag. Better check it out if we stop. 'We'. He and the group back there, that is.
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Wedge
Minor
NOT a reckless teen-bot
Posts: 413
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Post by Wedge on Apr 22, 2008 20:51:42 GMT -5
Sideburn's grin is contagious, and Wedge can't help but smile back on screen at the Car Brother. "I don't think it'd be too hard to work into someone's systems." His grin falters slightly and turns into something a bit more perturbed as Swerve pulls away even more from the group.
As he pays some interest in the radio conversation and the red racer pulling ahead, Wedge keeps an optic out on the surrounding area . The incidents in the desert are still fresh in his memory banks and Wedge promises to himself to make sure something like that doesn't happen again as he slows down enough to carefully nudge the haphazardly parked vehicle off the road. The powers that be might have different ideas on fulfilling this promise though.
A set of buildings poke unobtrusively from the horizon off to the side surrounded by a field of green that doesn't quite match the grasslands all around. It takes a moment or so for Wedge to register its presence, but a pleased and relieved hum thrums from his engines as he does.
"Just ahead of us, guys! Looks like a good place to stop to me," Wedge calls out, hopefully reaching the whole party. Now all they have to do is cross that large expanse of field to get to the small compound. Looks easy enough.
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Sideburn
Rookie
Must not chase Swerve, must not chase Swerve...
Posts: 211
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Post by Sideburn on Apr 24, 2008 23:15:42 GMT -5
"Looks good to me too, Wedge."
Sideburn puts on a burst of speed to pull up by Swerve, if the red car lets him. He's been considering how best to word this offer since just before they exited the desert. How do you offer help to someone who hates the idea of it without offending them? Well, time to see if his idea for it works. "Hey, Swerve. If you've got some injuries that are hard for you to reach, might wanna consider letting me take a look at them, just so they get fixed faster. Think about it?"
Whatever Swerve replies, Sideburn's off the road and onto the field, heading towards the largest of the buildings.
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Gizmo
Rookie
Blue and Nerdy
Posts: 147
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Post by Gizmo on Apr 25, 2008 8:23:25 GMT -5
"So long as there's no 'Cons or flappers, I'm all for it," Gizmo tells Wedge, and he, too, starts off across the field. The feeling of vegetation crunching under his tires and slapping against his lower chassis unique to say the least. He wonders what was grown here, and what it was used for. Foodstuffs, perhaps, or maybe these plants were used for textiles or medicines... who knows?
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Post by Swerve on Apr 29, 2008 0:01:14 GMT -5
Green. All this green, one lousy, lonely road, screwed-up steering, holes in his plating, and three trap-rattling fresh-paints. Something about this whole thing makes Swerve suddenly feel tired and glad for the chance to stop. Not so glad that he'll chance taking ground he can't see clearly for all the green scrap; his decision to wait for a turn-off is only cemented by Sideburn getting nosy. Swerve does give the offer a second's thought, nothing more; fast repairs would be ideal, especially for anything in his front end….
…No. He guns his engine and pulls ahead, breaking off to continue down the road until he finds some clearer way to that compound, making the low snarl his answer. Sideburn is decent with the work, as far as Swerve can tell, but the racer can't trust anybody else in his systems. Not yet. Maybe never. Just the idea of another's hands mucking about inside… not happening if Swerve has anything to say about it. Too risky.
It's a short jaunt to an unpaved road that looks roughly like it'll take him to that compound and here, out of sight with the rest of the group, he lets himself slow down to take the turn, easing the strain on that aching pinion. He runs a quick diagnostic while he catches up to the group and curses to himself at the results.
Definitely internal damage. Smelt it all. Nothing that can't wait once he isn't driving; nothing that can't wait until the others are patched up. "Who needs what?" he rumbles, tone resigned.
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