Cons, Guns, and Schemes

[Duskwing]

"Yeah, okay," Duskwing said, oblivious to what Swindle might be filching out of his back joints. He shambled toward the indicated office, kicking some of Screwdriver's marbles out of the way as Mistwind comes back--

Stop. Stop right at 'kicking some of Screwdriver's marbles'; the marble magnets-from-Hell stick to Duskwing's foot with a distinct 'clungg', magnetizing the all-metal Seeker. Unfortunately for Duskwing, the deck is also metal--he finds his feet stuck quite firmly to the floor. Anyone made of metal touching Duskwing may suddenly find themselves stuck to the hapless Seeker.

"Ruh-roh. I think I made a little mistake..."

[Screwdriver]

Screwdriver turns at Duskwing's declaration and grins. A demonstration!

"But as soon as the swan feels as much as a finger on it," she starts, in the overly-cutesy voice of someone reading a fairy tale to a child, "it will scream out, and then you must say, 'Swan, hold fast.' Then the hand of the person who has touched the bird will be held as in a vice, and nothing will set it free, unless you touch it with this little stick which I will make you a present of!"¹

With the last, she turns towards Swindle and bows forward, holding the tin that the marbles had come in up towards him as though making some sort of offering.

¹ The Magic Swan

[Swindle]

Swindle turns to greet the returning Mistwind. "Hey, there you are, kiddo! Just step right in heeeyikes!" Years of dealing arms have given Swindle excellent reflexes in certain situations, so he's not touching Duskwing when he gets magnetized.

The conbot turns to Screwdriver and cautiously accepts the proffered tin, listening to her uniquely Junkion explanation. "I'm detecting a pattern to your toys. Are they all dangerous? Not that it's a problem if they are, we'd just need to market them differently. And maybe apply warning labels." Holding the tin of marbles at arm's length, Swindle touches it to the Seeker.

[Mistwind]

With the distraction in place, Mistwind scurries over to examine the new version of the bazooka. He makes little squeeing noises from time to time.

Nodding excitedly, he sets to work on altering the case, immediately. It betrays his love.

[Duskwing]

Duskwing stumbled a bit, suddenly released from the magnetic lock. "Well, you can play catch with the birds, but I think dat was 'cause Mist here didn't know how to make the birds fly on their own. Hey, Screwy! You oughta write construction manuals for dem things! Like Swindle sells wit' his guns, see? Dey have diagrams and pictures and stuff and show you how to take 'em apart and clean 'em and load 'em and take care of 'em, an' any idiot can unnerstand them."

Duskwing straightened up from his usual hunch, proud that he's not just any idiot--he took good care of his guns! "So, where's my new gun?"

[Screwdriver]

"Take a look! It's in a book! A reading rainbow!" Screwdriver sings out cheerfully as Duskwing suggests writing user's manuals.

Oh, sure, Screwdriver will write user's manuals. But just imagine what they'd read like!

She turns towards Swindle and explains, "Not recommended for children ages three and under, choking, blinding, explosive, or dismemberment hazards. Please review all warning labels."

She gathers up everything except the marbles (Swindle has the tin, after all) and announces, "Toys are needed, but few hours, I can build them with the power... power, of K'nex!"¹ And with that, she turns to head towards the door.

¹ To the tune of old K'nex commericals.

OOC: She's heading towards the door, but people can stop her before she gets there.

[Swindle]

Mistwind's New Gun is basically the same bazooka he has now, only modified with a Micromaster-sized rifle-grip, trigger, scope, and bipod, with a shiny purple Decepticon insignia on the barrel. Swindle is just pleased as punch that the little guy likes it. A happy customer is a repeat customer!

The merchant steps into his workspace and gestures grandly toward the Seeker arm gun suspended in the force field in the center of the room. "There she is! The Nightflash One-point-oh! Fires a stream of high-albedo magnetized dust particles that. . ." Swindle trails off, then restarts. "The Nightflash One-point-oh! Fires a cone of black dust using technology that you can clean and do field repairs on without understanding how it works! Guaranteed to temporarily blind both optics and radar or your money back! _{(Guarantee not valid in spiral arm galaxies. Some restrictions may apply. "Money back" may be in the form of store credit or an item of equal or much, much lesser value. Do not look directly at the device while it is operational. Swindle Inc. and its subsidiaries are not liable for damage caused by the device.)} Ain't she a beaut? Want to see a test fire?"

Swindle nods goodbye to Screwdriver as she goes. "Thanks for stopping by, Screwdriver, good to see you! Call me sometime, we'll do lunch!"


Mistwind's new gun is the top one. Warning: explicit MSPaint content.

[Mistwind]

Screwdriver is flashed with a bright smile as she leaves, Mistwind promising "I"ll come play with you later!". Then he returns to his sewing case.

Still, while his fingers work needle and thread dilligently, his optics never leave the sight of Swindle, Duskwing and the gun. Could it really make the world turn black?

[Duskwing]

"Hey, see ya 'round Screwdriver," Duskwing muttered absently; his attention was on Swindle. His optics flared up.

"Oh, yeah! Can I try it?" Duskwing reached for the gun. Is that the hard kind of forcefield, or the "zaps you" kind of forcefield?

[Swindle]

It's the "suspends things in midair for display without unsightly clamps" kind of force field. It doesn't zap Duskwing when he reaches for it, but Swindle tries to slap his hand away. "Don't touch! This is the demonstration model, it's still got some sensitive components on the outside. If you decide you like it I'll shell out for the minaturized versions of the delicate stuff and make a pair of production models with all the gizmos on the inside so you can mount them on your arms without anyone knowing you've had an upgrade. Now then, I have to insist on protective eye-wear for the demonstration." The merchant gestures to a rack of goggles in various sizes and configurations. One with a pair of huge lenses is obviously for Swindle himself, but there are even sets that look like they'd fit Barricade or Lugnut.

[Mistwind]

Mistwind grins at Swindle's reaction. He would've done the same, in both cases.

From subspace, Mistwind pulls the same kind of burlap and begins to adjust the corner protectors.

[Duskwing]

Duskwing scowled and snatched a pair of goggles off the shelf; he wanted to play with his new weapon now, dammit! He took a long look at his arm guns before he donned the optic protectors.

He frowned. "Ain't got room on my arms 'less I take off my regular guns, and den I wouldn't have enough firepower. Can you make it mount somewhere else? What's a spiral galaxy, anyway?"

[Swindle]

Swindle dons a pair of goggles himself, then throws one to Mistwind.

"Duskwing, who do you think you're dealing with? The Nightflash 1.0 not only shoots blinding dust, but also the good old-fashioned lasers you've come to know and love, just like Mom used to make. Though I could mount it somewhere else if you like, of course. Are we thinking wrist-mounted? Shoulder? Wing? Head?"

The merchant's customary smile suddenly becomes a bit shiftier. "Oh, a spiral galaxy is nothing important. Just an astronomical classification. There are bunches of them out there. There's the Triangulum Galaxy, the Whirlpool Galaxy, _{the Milky Way}, the Andromeda Galaxy, the Sunflower Galaxy, the Pinwheel Galaxy, the list goes on! But astronomy is boring, am I right?"

Swindle walks to the other side of the room and motions to a hovering sphere studded with lenses, antennae, and various other sensory greeblies. "Here you have your basic sensor drone. It can sense pretty much every portion of the electromagnetic spectrum known to Cybertron, using both passive and active sensors." He then indicates a bank of computer screens. They all show the sensors on the drone working perfectly. Swindle waves at the sphere and the motion is repeated on the video monitors as well as flickering on radar-like displays. "As you can see, it's working perfectly. Now let's watch what happens when I Nighflash it." Moving back over to the center of the room where the weapon rests in its force field, he flips a switch on the device. The Nightflash 1.0 stutters once, then projects a cone of black dust at the sensor drone. The computer screens all go blank.

[Mistwind]

The goggles land perfectly into Mistwind's lap, who takes that as his cue to put them on and start watching the demo.

Oooooh, DEMONSTRATION!
When the screens go blank, Mistwind is watching in awe, mouth open, and frozen. "That gun is AWESOME!"

[Duskwing]

Duskwing nodded, smirking wickedly. "Yeah, that's the stuff! So if you can make that field capable an' maybe a wing mount? Don't wanna give up my regular guns; they work real good."

Duskwing was obviously not a mad scientist/engineer; he believed fervently in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" -- mostly because "fixing it" usually meant "Duskwing does the grunt work", so he preferred things that didn't need fixing. Ditches that were already dug, fortress walls that were already shored up, squad leaders who had enough real fighting to do to not assign busywork, stuff like that suited him very well.

He frowned as a thought occurred to him. "Hey, Swindle! If you're gonna set up in business, you gonna need some security. Dis planet, stuff happens to guys as ain't got 'protection'. I figure I can help you wit' dat, by way of payin' off the rest of the bill."