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Post by Drift on Mar 26, 2011 14:12:04 GMT -5
Drift hasn't been with the Wreckers long enough to know the whole roster but....
"Ultra Magnus? The Tyrest Accord lawdog?" Drift shrugs. No idea why Springer'd be hanging out with him, not that there's much love lost between Drift and Springer. From Drift's understanding, the Wreckers liked to skate on the edges of the law, but...not that particular law.
Stupid law anyway.
"He can fuss over whoever he wants," Drift adds. "How's that a problem?" These Autobots have some fraggin' weird hangups.
Speaking of weird hangups. He's just going to glare at Kup for a long moment. He...hasn't caught on yet to how Kup knows any of this yet. "Yes," he says, finally. "I know how to use it." And the sentimental reasons, too. But admitting that? HAHAHA no.
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Post by Kate Mason on Mar 26, 2011 14:22:14 GMT -5
Kup puts down a mark on his sheet to indicate that Drift is probably from Springer's reality and then another to indicate that Drift claims he can use that hog-sticker.
Drift has asked two questions. Kup is feeling generous and answers them anyway, "Different Ultra Magnus. Wrecker Ultra Magnus," with creamy Optimus Prime-flavoured centre, "Anyway, it's a problem because it means Springer might act like an idjit. You wouldn't like it if you need Springer laying down cover fire for you, and Springer goes haring off just because someone's torn Guzzle in half and leaves you exposed."
If Drift does enjoy being screwed over like that, Kup doesn't want to know.
"Mmm, okay. So tell me a bit about your personal background. I can either hear it from you, or I can hear it from the next guy to show up from your universe who knows you. You got a shot to put your spin on it now."
Except that Kup's already heard a version of this. Time to see how they match up.
"An' the next guy might be on the other side, understand, son?"
Does Drift really want to deal with Turmoil telling the Autobots what Drift is like, when Drift has a chance to set the story straight himself?
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Post by Drift on Mar 26, 2011 15:03:38 GMT -5
Kup is making marks. On forms. Drift hates forms. And marks on them. Especially when he's the one it's about and he can't read it.
"Wouldn't like it, but...." Drift shrugs. "Shouldn't have him in combat if he's that unstable." He looks aside, dissatisfied with his own answer. He hadn't let himself get distracted to go help Wing and.... "Is it so fraggin' bad to look out for each other?" It's a semi-serious question.
And have a long moment of some uncomfortable chair dancing, Kup. Drift weighs the options: Not telling him could turn out to suck like a quasar. Telling him could also...not end well. But.
"My Kup figured it out on his own," Drift says, optics narrowed. Do these mechs get jealous of their alternate selves? Perceptor seemed to, at least for a moment. "Was one of them. Ran into some Neutrals. Now I'm not. One of them."
There. That covers it. His Kup had given him a chance let him show what he could do. Would this one?
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Post by Kate Mason on Mar 26, 2011 15:49:39 GMT -5
It's not really a form, as mentioned prior. It's a battered and torn and abused piece of metal, which Kup uses a sharp stylus to inscribe various marks in, as a sort of roadmap to help him remember various details. The vast majority of the marks aren't even Cybertronian, and they wouldn't even make sense if Glyph and Nightbeat together tried to translate them.
"No. It's not bad," Kup says quietly. "There's just a time and a place for everything. You can get your whole team killed with rash sentimentality... but you can lose your reason to fight if you don't care about your teammates, too. Gotta balance it right."
Kup smirks and admits, metaphorically laying two cards on the table, "Kid, I already knew you were ex-con by way of New Crystal City. I just wanted to see if you would admit to it or not. Being ex-con's not a problem, and it's nothing to be ashamed of."
It means the kid was kind of derpy to start, but realising he'd made a mistake late in life is better than never. Besides, Skyfire's made the same damn mistake, and the guy's some kind of genius.
"You ain't the only one around here. I just don't want to see one of our enemies using that against you, kid." The concern there is real, not affected. Drift's being a pain in the skidplate, but that's no reason not to be concerned. If anything, it's more of a reason. "If some Decepticon recognises you and calls you out on it, if your squad-mates know that and know you, they shouldn't care. Fact is, they oughta back you up. If it takes them by surprise..." Kup shrugs. "But it's up to you how open or not you wanna be about it. I ain't gonna push it."
He already has it for Drift's dossier, anyway, so Rodimus and up will know, if it ever comes up and matters.
"Any notable weaknesses? Don't wanna assign you to a post in the rain and find out that you break out in rush rashes at the touch of water." Kup suspects Drift is going to be evasive about it, but he has to ask.
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Post by Drift on Mar 26, 2011 17:47:32 GMT -5
Well, that explains why Drift can't make any sense of what Kup's 'writing'.
Yeah, 'balance it right.' Easier said than done. "Sometimes better to work alone." Drift's thinking of his, uh, tendency to do his own thing. This way he only has to worry about getting himself killed for rash sentimentality. Like rescuing Perceptor.
Drift bridles. Okay, wait. They're still playing this stupid question game, right? Fine. "How the slag did you know that?"
He's going to focus his discomfort--as he does--into something to get angry about, though he relaxes, marginally, at Kup's easy acceptance. Just like his Kup, this one...would at least give him a chance. Which was all he'd ever ask for, anyway. He files away the advice, for later. Maybe he'll tell others. Maybe he won't. Kup would give him a chance. Perceptor, too. Someone else? Might not. He wasn't going to open himself up for it to be used against him by his 'fellow Autobots', either.
Drift's mouth twists. Weaknesses. Yeah, you're...gonna love this, Kup. Helluva story. He taps the Great Sword's hilt. "If I use this, it could kill me."
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Post by Kate Mason on Mar 26, 2011 18:51:19 GMT -5
Another lone wolf. At least he's not an Intel bot. Rattrap would punch Kup. (Kup wouldn't feel it, but the thought would be there.)
Kup points out, "Well, you sure do talk like a 'con, and you perked right up when I mentioned Crystal City."
It could have happened that way. It just so happens that it didn't. No need to lay all his cards on the table quite yet.
Kup stares for a moment, mouth opening silently. Okay, that's not the dumbest thing Kup's ever heard, but only because Kup has heard some really, really dumb things. He remarks wryly, "I assume in something other than the usual fashion?"
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Post by Drift on Mar 26, 2011 20:15:42 GMT -5
Drift grunts, dissatisfied. Somehow the nice linear A-B scenario Kup's trying to sell him about how he figured it out seems a bit...tangly. "That...happen a lot where you're from?" You know, that railroad from Con through Crystal City to Autobot? He...doesn't feel special anymore.
And what the slag does a 'con talk like!?
Oh.
"I'll...try to work on the speech. Sound more like an Autobot." Does this mean he has to talk like Perceptor? Frag. he's going to need a thesaurus.
Yyyyyyeah, this is awkward. "Thought you knew everything about everything, Kup," he counters. Not breaking him this easily, Kup.
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Post by Kate Mason on Mar 26, 2011 20:30:51 GMT -5
If cussing a lot makes you sound like a Decepticon, Kup has a problem! Kup meant the sneering about 'weakness'. Dinobot does that a lot.
"The opposite, actually," Kup admits, voice low. "In my reality, Crystal City was a beautiful, glittering place pre-war made by some folks named Bonecrusher, Hook, Long Haul, Mixmaster, Scavenger, and Scrapper. Maybe you've heard of them as Constructicons, maybe you haven't. but they weren't Constructicons then. They were okay enough folks, I guess. The Long Haul you'll see around here? He's from there. Megatron got ahold of 'em with a thing called the robo-smasher and brainwashed them into Decepticons. They tore down Crystal City. There were... a lot of civilian casualties. They had been... friends with Omega Supreme, who guarded Crystal City. He caught them and tried to fix them, but they tricked him and the robo-smasher got ahold of him. It only halfway finished before Omega Supreme pulled it off and broke the thing, but if you ever wonder why the Omega Supreme around here is a bit... clipped in his speech, we never exactly fixed the damage to his head, either."
"So no, folks in my reality mostly associate Crystal City with folks turning into Decepticons, not the other way around." Kup finishes and shakes his head.
Kup adds bluntly, "Talk how you want, kid. I'm just sayin'. And frak no. I just know enough to know I don't know it all."
Sometimes, that's more important.
"The medics'll want to know what the exact problem is, so if you do gotta use it, they can keep you from dying," like Long Haul now knows to strap an auxiliary cooling unit on Swerve when he's near meltdown.
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Post by Drift on Mar 26, 2011 20:52:44 GMT -5
As Drift always does when his Kup starts Storytime, he tries to pay attention. First because Kup cut him a break, second because Kup knows important things. He recognized not only the armor but the source. But about halfway through his optics sort of glaze over. His attention span isn't helped by the fact that...robo-smasher? He'll add that to his list of...stuff. His very, very long list of Stuff that Does Not Make Sense. A robo-smasher should, uh, 'smash' and not 'change faction'.
"Yeah, not...the same place." Try harder, Drift. ....sigh. "Is that how Decepticons are made where you're from? They're...smashed?"
He shifts on his seat. "I...not sure of the exact problem." He didn't get fully trained on this one before he left. And there probably was a user manual somewhere in New Crystal City but...he, as usual, hadn't thought ahead. "But it uses a mech's own spark energy. Which can, apparently, be...kind of lethal."
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Post by Kate Mason on Mar 26, 2011 21:05:45 GMT -5
The kid actually pays attention! Kup looks faintly surprised and grateful. Even Hot Rod didn't do that! Hot Rod pretty egregiously didn't do that.
"Not all of them. Not even most of them, but some of them, yeah," Kup says, frowning. Some random generic was shown at the beginning of the episode getting brainwashed, and it is implied that such a fate befell other hapless generics.
Kup snorts. "Sparks. Yeah. I don't have one of those." He thinks sparks are a bit silly, old-fashioned Autobot that he is. Kup's guessing they'll hit Drift with an energon infusion or something if it's a problem, but it's not his thing. "I'll pass it along, and the medics'll figure out what kinda protocol they wanna use if it comes up."
If Drift wants to run around with a sword that can kill him, Drift's an adult, and that's his choice. Kup doesn't think it's a particularly smart choice, but there's no learning some folks.
"Any outstanding skills or talents?"
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Post by Drift on Mar 26, 2011 21:21:42 GMT -5
Fraggin' weird. "Yeah, it...wasn't that easy for me." No quick and easy smash, for Drift.
Right. Kup wasn't his Kup so of course he didn't have a spark. What were some of the other things Twin Twist had rattled off? "Laser core? Brain module?"
Or is it going to have to be 'zombie'? He looks askance at Kup. Zombie? Maybe.
Drift twitches at the mention of medics. He's not fond of getting probed and prodded, or of letting them near the Sword. It's...kind of personal.
He snorts at Kup's question. "Already answered that: good at killing."
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Post by Kate Mason on Mar 26, 2011 22:08:45 GMT -5
Something flickers in Kup's optics when Drift says it wasn't that easy for him, but Kup doesn't push it. He has basically everything he needs: reality, function, weapons, weaknesses, brief history, and some preliminary observations on personality.
"Laser core," Kup agrees. "Bit of a smaller target than a spark, and it's not as glowy in bad light if your armour's busted." Clearly, Kup considers these properties to be pluses.
Of course the kid twitches over medics. It takes a doc with an isty bitsy needle to cow a big, strong warrior.
Kup puts another mark down as Drift continues to insist he has no noteworthy skills, such as poetry or basket-weaving. "Any special abilities?"
Maybe Drift can walk through walls! Or... kind of slide to the side when he turns at high speeds.
OOC: Up to you whether the medical exam happens off-screen or not. If you want it to happen onscreen, you can OOCly ask some of the medics' players if they feel up to it.
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Post by Drift on Mar 27, 2011 6:23:38 GMT -5
Drift's expression alters to a mask of some dark memory at Kup's cool evaluation of a spark as a target: Wing, the scream cut off abruptly, too abruptly, as Braid drove his lance through the white metal of his armor. He cycles an uneven vent, hands clutching together. "Yeah," he croaks. "Big target."
Drift isn't afraid of needles so much as...not really having the patience to sit there while they probe and prod at his armor. He's a warrior, dammit. Not SCIENCE. Or an exhibit.
"What? Killing's not good enough for you?" Drift huffs, impatient. "Look I didn't have much chance to get some stupid fancy education like your scientists or zombies or...whatever. So I don't have any stupid skills." He leans forward--this is a sore point for him: "Know what I can do? I can shoot things. Really well. And I can stab things. I can take a beating. I can dodge. I can drive recklessly. A few megacycles running from the law does that." He grips the surface of the desk between them. "That NOT enough for you? Not 'educated' enough to play in your stupid army?"
((OOC: I guess this means I should drag my sorry ass into chat, huh? ^_^))
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Post by Kate Mason on Mar 27, 2011 9:58:20 GMT -5
For someone who sure talks a lot about being good at killing, Drift sure acts strange when Kup talks about sparks as targets. Kup's optics narrow.
Kup waves a hand dismissively and urges, "Don't get your diodes in a bunch. A lot of these kids come from realities wherein everyone's got some weird power, like a forcefield, turnin' invisible, or copying other people's powers," and Drift has already met all of these people!
Driving recklessly? That's kind of... funny. Kup didn't think Drift had a sense of humour! So it's probably not a joke, but there's a snicker out of Kup anyway.
"Guns, swords, and vehicle modes are fine. Why, in my day, all I had was a musket an' a vehicle mode, no fancy swords, and I did just fine. I was lucky to have the vehicle mode. Folks appreciated transformation back then, except for the Decepticons, mostly 'cos we kept tricking 'em with it."
Kup doesn't bother Drift about running from the law, but he notes it, and someday a law-bot's gonna show up and harass all the Swerves and Twin Twists and Drifts...
"Education really don't got nothin' to do with whether or not your creator decided to slap some weird mod in your chassis. Some of us are stone dumb and still got weird powers."
Kup's mostly looking at Twin Twist and his extra-fast transformation and diamond drills.
OOC: If you want. Or you can PM folks.
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Post by Drift on Mar 27, 2011 11:33:56 GMT -5
Drift is better at the stabbing of sparks than the whole...looking at someone else do it. You should see his beheading! He's pretty handy at a good old-fashioned decapitation.
"Yes," he says breezily, to Kup's list of special abilities. "Females. I've met...some." Okay, one that he's sure of. But it sounds better this way. You could tell him they'd send tentacles up his nasal in his recharge mode and lay eggs in his cortex and he'd probably believe you.
And never recharge again.
Behold: umbrage being taken: "'Fine'? Guns, swords...." He's a little grumpy, especially at Kup's snicker. Yeah, it's a bit of a fall to hear just how phenomenally unspecial he is. "are honorable. All that other stuff--invisibility. copying, forceshields--it's sneaky. Cowardly." He'll spare you the 'w'-word, but it's implied. Real mechs don't need no stinkin' special abilities.
It strikes Drift that if anyone would know the answer to his next question, it would be Kup. "Anyone here from...where I'm from?" Good to know...for a variety of reasons.
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