|
Post by Pee-Dee on Dec 12, 2011 20:20:16 GMT -5
Month 4, Week 2, Day 1. Semi-private.
Pee-Dee squares her shoulders. She's finally tracked down Nightbeat when he's off-duty and alone. Now she just has to- go in the room. And talk to him.
And swallow her pride, wrap it in a bag, and bury it in the junk.
"But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and you'll not fail,1" she mutters.
1. The Scottish Play, William Shakespeare[/size]
|
|
Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
|
Post by Nightbeat on Dec 13, 2011 10:59:41 GMT -5
Nightbeat is in his room curled up with a trashy fantasy pulp novel on a datapad. His reading material tends toward straightforward adventure or nonfiction. He doesn't read a lot of suspenseful whodunits for the same reason clowns don't read joke books. It's one of the things he and Muzzle have in common.
Of course, no good book is complete without a cool drink, and his energon cube just dissipated. Thus, he gets up of his berth, stretches, and heads out the door.
"Pee-Dee," he greets as he emerges. "What can I do for you?"
|
|
|
Post by Pee-Dee on Dec 13, 2011 12:30:07 GMT -5
Pee-Dee gets a momentary deer-in-headlights expression on her face. This is- this is not how it's supposed to go! Then she mentally shakes herself; she's a cop, she can do improv.
"I'm a cop. I know things... like how to hunt somebody to the ends of the Earth. And I know how to use a gun.1 But you're the best there is at what you do.2" She knows, she asked. "Justice is a by-product of winning3, but fast reflexes aren't going to help if they're the wrong reflexes.4"
1. Breaking Dawn, Part 1 2. Uncanny X-Men 3. Law and Order 4. Schlock Mercenary
|
|
Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
|
Post by Nightbeat on Dec 15, 2011 19:20:28 GMT -5
Nightbeat needs all of his considerable detective skills to puzzle out what Pee-Dee is actually trying to say amid the deluge of Terran pop culture references.
"You . . . want me to teach you street fighting?" he ventures.
|
|
|
Post by Pee-Dee on Dec 15, 2011 19:46:54 GMT -5
Pee-Dee shakes her head. "Elementary, my dear Watson."
|
|
Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
|
Post by Nightbeat on Dec 16, 2011 19:45:44 GMT -5
Nightbeat smacks himself on the forehead with the heel of his hand.1 "Oh! You want to me teach you how to do detective work. They don't teach that in . . . Junk Planet Police Academy, or whatever you have?"
1. Muzzle wishes he wouldn't do that.
|
|
|
Post by Pee-Dee on Dec 16, 2011 20:33:59 GMT -5
Pee-Dee gives him a bemused look. "I am the law.1 Bullshit and experience are all it takes.2"
It's both more and less complicated than that.
"When in Rome do as the Romans do." She shrugs. "With all things being equal, I'd rather be in Philadelphia.3 But the way I look at it, Nightbeat, if we're still drawing breath, we have a chance to do something on our shortcomings besides piss and moan.4 What works in Philadelphia doesn't work in Rome."
1. Judge Dredd 2. Forty-Eight Hours 3. Die Hard 4. NYPD Blue
|
|
Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
|
Post by Nightbeat on Dec 18, 2011 15:19:00 GMT -5
Nightbeat gives Pee-Dee A Look that speaks volumes. Specifically, it says something along the lines of 'You're lucky you have nice gams, toots, because I can't understand a word you're saying half to three-quarters of the time.'
"So you want me to teach you how we do things on Cybertron," as far as he can puzzle out. "Okay, I can do that," he says, putting a hand to his chin and giving the Junkion an appraising look. "So what do you know? What do I have to work with, here?"
|
|
|
Post by Pee-Dee on Dec 18, 2011 15:32:05 GMT -5
Pee-Dee pauses for a long moment. "-Can I speak English?"
Assuming Nightbeat agrees, she proceeds to explain what she knows in a mixture of English and Spanish. It's much clearer than her usual Cybertronian. Basically, she can track on Junk and she can probably manage in not-too-crowded places on Earth. She knows how to talk to people - but there's a certain underlying assumption in both what she says and the examples she gives that Junkions want someone to solve their mysteries. And if it's not a mystery, then it's pretty standard police-work. She can do basic crime-scene examination but her forensics experience is pretty shoddy. And she really has no idea how to use any kind of electronic databases or worldnet resources for solving crimes.
|
|
Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
|
Post by Nightbeat on Dec 19, 2011 19:06:51 GMT -5
Nightbeat tilts his head to one side, since that's the closest someone with built-in sunglasses can come to raising one eyebrow. "So basically, everything you know about police-work, you learned from television." Of course, he thinks to himself. If they have banks on Junkion, the only people who rob them probably wear domino masks and carry big sacks with dollar signs on them.
"Alright, do you know about 'MOM'? Motive, opportunity, and means?"
|
|
|
Post by Pee-Dee on Dec 19, 2011 19:33:02 GMT -5
Pee-Dee puts her hands on her hips. "I learned from experience and from Kup, too."
She's sticking with English for now, it should be noted.
"Yes, and I do."
|
|
Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
|
Post by Nightbeat on Dec 20, 2011 21:26:35 GMT -5
Nightbeat looks at the ceiling, hands fumbling instinctively for the pockets of the trenchcoat he is not, in fact, wearing, as he thinks.
"So, say you get called in to investigate a crime scene. Some bots from the precinct have already cordoned the area off and detained the witnesses. Word is it was a robbery," the detective narrates, pulling a worn brown fedora from his subspace pocket.
"The place is a tenement block, low-income housing, not government subsidized or anything like that, just your standard not-quite-slum. One of the apartments is what got broken into," he continues, clearly making this up as he goes along, though sounding more sure of his scenario with each word.
"What's the first thing you do?"
|
|
|
Post by Pee-Dee on Dec 23, 2011 23:40:02 GMT -5
This is... almost completely foreign to Pee-Dee. Her optics brighten a notch as she tries to wrap her head around the scenario. It's very Cybertronian.
Of course, she reminds herself. The whole point of this exercise is to learn how to do things their way.
Still, this is the kind of thing she did on Cybertron the one time she was there. She should know this. Crime scene cordoned off, witnesses detained - crappy robbery if there were witnesses-
Was it a robbery? Nightbeat hadn't said that it was. He'd said word was.
"Determine what crime, if any, was committed."
|
|
Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
|
Post by Nightbeat on Dec 24, 2011 19:54:58 GMT -5
Nightbeat nods, turning the fedora over and over in his hands as he thinks, then nods as Pee-Dee responds. "Okay, obviously you want to make sure of what actually happened. How are you going to go about that, Officer?" he prompts, watching the Junkion closely.
|
|
|
Post by Pee-Dee on Dec 24, 2011 20:11:11 GMT -5
"Look. Listen. Smell. Touch. Examine." She frowns, looking suddenly uncertain. "Unless I'm supposed to trust the others when they say what it is? But then I don't know."
|
|