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Post by Clipper on Nov 3, 2010 23:00:17 GMT -5
Day 11. Semi-private thread. Please PM to request entry.
A tiny pink car rolls along the passages and corridors of the Event Horizon, never staying long in one spot before moving on to the next. Clipper is on the hunt, and her prey is tricksy and sly and has managed to elude her for the past several days. It's taken until now to work up the courage to even go looking for the mech in question, but she'd heard a rumor that he happened to have some skills with unarmed self-defense, and Clipper is quite frankly tired of being a liability.
But Ultra Magnus has been elusive and hard to pin down. If she didn't know better, she'd almost think he was avoiding her! But how could he even know that she's even looking for him? So, that's just a silly idea. Right?
It isn't that she dislikes that Holi looks after her... It actually feels pretty nice, but... But holi hadn't been there, and it isn't fair to expect Holi to stand by and hold her hand every moment, and, besides, she promised him that she wouldn't be an imposition. That she wouldn't be trouble, and, so far, he's already had to rescue her, and she just doesn't feel like she's pulling her own weight. Especially since, if she has her way, she's never going back down to that horrible planet again.
That's cowardly, though, isn't it?
She's running out of places to look, though. She's already checked his room, the training rooms, the lounge, the biosphere, the command deck, even the engine rooms, and all have proved to be empty. She could radio him... But she doesn't want Holi accidentally picking up her transmission and tracking her down just yet. She needs to do this on her own, if for no other reason that to prove to herself that she can actually face the big mech and make the request.
Maybe she should try his room again? With a sigh, she turns down a corridor and zips back to the staterooms, stopping and transforming at his door.
"Mr. Ultra Magnus?" she calls, knocking on his door. "Are you there, sir?"
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Nov 3, 2010 23:51:06 GMT -5
It has been a disappointing and unsettling day all around for Ultra Magnus, between his strange conversation with the older Jetfire and the much briefer, far more awkward encounter with Optimus. He has since retreated to his quarters to read and try putting the day's events out of mind. He isn't expecting a visitor.
He certainly isn't expecting one of the Micromasters – Clipper, he realises once he processes the greeting. She is the only one to call him Mister Ultra Magnus. Holi prefers a more military Ultra Magnus, sir.
Stifling a sigh, he sets down the datapad in his hands and heaves himself off his bunk to answer the door; he palms the lock and the door slides open, confirming his guess about his visitor.
"Hm?" is all he manages, trying his best not to sound as weary as he feels.
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Post by Clipper on Nov 4, 2010 0:00:57 GMT -5
"Oh! You're in!" she gasps before stifling herself with a hand to her mouth. She takes an instinctive step back as the door opens, her neck craning up as she hesitantly looks up to meet his gaze. He's... bigger than she thought she remembered, and looks tired.
"Err... I was hoping... we could talk, Mister Ultra Magnus, sir? If... if it wouldn't be a bother, I mean. I don't want to intrude, sir," she asks. Maybe this wasn't a good idea...
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Nov 4, 2010 0:10:18 GMT -5
"…Talk?" Magnus echoes a bit dumbly, blinking down at Clipper. She wants to talk? With him? Surely, he thinks as he steadies himself with one hand on the door frame, this is just the universe punishing him again.
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Post by Clipper on Nov 4, 2010 0:46:05 GMT -5
He doesn't look very pleased with her. She worries her lower lip for a moment, trying to decide if she should just go, instead. No. No, she can't. She's come this far, and... and what's the worst thing that could happen? He'll say no, right? At least she'll have asked, and she can try to find some other solution, but if she doesn't ask, she'll never know if he might have maybe, possibly, perhaps said yes.
Besides! She's Clipper, darn it! No one pushes her around!
Usually. Sometimes.
"Well... actually... I..." she's wringing her hands together, screwing up her courage for a long moment. "I-heard-that-you-know-some-unarmed-fighting-styles-and-I-was-hoping-that-maybe-you-might-be-willing-to-teach-me-a-little-so-I'm-not-such-a-burden-anymore!" she blurts out in a rush.
"....please?"
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Nov 4, 2010 14:24:02 GMT -5
Magnus's initial reaction is to quietly blink again, this time in surprise. He hadn't expected this request; Holi at least has some sort of military training, so Magnus assumed it was standard for a planet that the Autobots might have militarised. But then, he remembers, Clipper is very pointedly not military. Does she even know how to use a pistol? He wonders.
"I…." What to say? Should he refuse? Can he? He owes the Micromasters far more than unarmed combat lessons, to be certain. It may take his life to make up for the wrongs he's done their kind and he knows he would give it if they asked. "…I doubt you're a burden," he finally manages. He supposes he could offer Clipper and Holi some training – no, he should, without question. But he can't like this. A carbot, he can manage despite the size difference. The Micromasters are an impossibility. A hard-light proxy, then?
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Post by Clipper on Nov 6, 2010 16:33:37 GMT -5
She might actually kick him right in the shin - err... ankle, actually - if she knew that he's wondering if she even knows how to shoot. She isn't quite that helpless, thankyouverymuch. Fortunately for Magnus's ankles, she's really only aware that he's looking at her quite dubiously. Or rather, she imagines his expression would be dubious, if it weren't for the face mask. The narrowing of his optics and his whole posture scream, "uh... what?" to her, though.
"I got captured," she replies in a soft murmur, hanging her head with shame. "Holi had to rescue me." Holi should have more important things to do than babysitting his girlfriend.
"I know you're probably really busy, and I know you have a lot more important things to do, but..."
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Nov 8, 2010 20:09:41 GMT -5
Aeons of self-control stop Ultra Magnus from blurting out that if Holi is as much like Stakeout as his doppelgänger body implies, he's supposed to rescue others. Now hardly seems the time to be quite so flippant; Clipper is taking all this very seriously, for one.
"No," he says quickly before she can demur further. A split second of awkwardness prevails before, stepping back to avoid hitting her, he drops to one knee so he isn't looming over her quite so severely. He props one elbow on a knee and rests his other hand on the floor. "No, if you want lessons, you are as entitled to them as any other member of the crew." Perhaps more so, but he avoids saying that. "I offered my service. That's that." His posture masks how close he is to asking that she allow him to help, but it's there in his tone if she listens. Please, let me do this. He'll sort out the how later.
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Post by Clipper on Nov 8, 2010 20:24:13 GMT -5
Her hopes, just teetering on the edge, start to crash down the instant he speaks and shifts back that step. He really is too busy and too important to waste his time with a little secretary; she should have known. Not that she can blame him. No. He said no.
She's so expecting the door to close, now, that she's already putting Magnus out of mind; she doesn't notice, at first, that he's dropped to one knee in front of her. He said 'no'. What am I going to do now?
His voice startles her out of her fugue a few moments later, though. He's still speaking? She glances back up in surprise, surprise to see him kneeling, and even more surprise when his words penetrate. "Wait... you will?" she asks a little breathlessly, optics widening in awe. "Really for really?" No matter how hard she tries to prove otherwise, Clipper is still very much a child, compared to a mech like Ultra Magnus. Compared, even, to someone as young as Optimus Prime. Perhaps a more sophisticated child than a human of her maturity, but a child, nonetheless, and the smile that utterly blossoms across her features hearken that as much as the youthful language that creeps in now and then.
"Oh thank you, Mister Ultra Magnus, sir!" she exclaims, flinging herself at him with obvious relief. Her little arms circle around his neck as far as they will go in an exuberant hug, as she continues, "Thank you so much! I promise to do my best! Thank you!"
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Nov 9, 2010 18:50:50 GMT -5
It's a good thing, Magnus supposes privately, that Clipper is too small and too close with her arms clutching around his neck to see the way his expression contorts with shock and no small measure of hurt and shame when she latches onto him. It isn't her embrace that pains him; it's that innocent gratitude she lavishes on him. She isn't one of his Micromasters and she has no idea what he owes them, but she is a Micromaster all the same. In many ways, he thinks while simultaneously wondering how he can tactfully dislodge her, training her is as much selfish of him as it is altruistic. It's a step toward independence for her and for him, another inch closer to absolution.
"…Clipper," he says as gently as he can after a few seconds of enduring her attention. His first impulse is to simply lift her off; he corrects himself at the last second, easing one hand under her feet instead to give her a platform.
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Post by Clipper on Nov 9, 2010 19:10:00 GMT -5
She giggles just a little nervously as she drops onto his hand, her hands clasping in front of her as she ducks her head for a moment. "Sorry, sir," she mumbles, scuffing the tip of one foot against his palm.
She has no clue about his past, his issues, or how much helping her may help him. She's just desperately glad to have even an opportunity to learn a little more self-reliance. Not that she minds Holi looking after her - it gives her a private thrill, actually - but... it's the uselessness she can't stand!
She won't stand for it. Not one moment more.
"When can we start, sir?" she asks, finally looking back up. "I, uh.... kinda don't really have any duties or anything important, so, I guess whenever it's most convenient for you. Just... umm.... don't tell Holi? Not yet?"
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Nov 11, 2010 17:47:12 GMT -5
While the request to keep Holi out of the circle puzzles him – aren't the two of them attached in some way? – Magnus makes no protest of it, nodding his acquiescence instead. He rests the back of his hand on the deck so Clipper can step off at her leisure.
"I," he begins awkwardly, "need time to sort out the logistics." He glances down at himself, then at her to point out why. He also needs time to attempt programming it into the simulation room. "But you'll know as soon as everything is ready." There is as much reassurance in that sentence as Magnus can muster from a lifetime of consoling and encouraging weary soldiers to take on one more campaign, wait just one lunar cycle longer for reinforcements. Clipper seems so ready to be refused at every turn and he suspects the delay won't help matters.
OOC: Short timeskip, perhaps?
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Post by Clipper on Nov 13, 2010 6:40:00 GMT -5
Oh, they're attached, but Clipper desperately wants to learn enough to hold her own, just a little, before Holi finds out and joins them. She wants to show him that she can do this. That she can do this on her own, without him having to hold her hand. She didn't need him to hold her hand when she learned how to shoot. She can do this!
With a little hop, Clipper jumps back down to the floor, nodding. "I understand, sir. I mean, I am kinda small, and you're pretty big, but.. maybe the sim rooms can... like maybe project a little you for me and a big me for you, or something?" she offers, worrying her lower lip a little. "That's probably over simplifying it, or something, but... I know you'll think of something!" She fixes him with a look of complete, adoring trust. He's Ultra Magnus. He can do anything!
ooc: time skip away!
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Nov 16, 2010 13:00:40 GMT -5
OOC: Clipper posing and radio cleared with player.
Magnus is too occupied with trying not to wince at that smile Clipper gives him to tell her that sometimes, simple is the best way to do things. Her trust in him seems to make sense – she hardly knows him, after all, and both she and Holi seem so impossibly young and naïve that anyone in a position of authority must be utterly trustworthy – but at the same time, he knows it is so wrong that it pains him. Nevertheless, he manages a thin smile for her and nods as she heads off to wait.
It isn't until a couple of hours later and after, kicking himself throughout the entire short conversation, Magnus gets Clipper's frequency from Holi by lying to the little police car that he needs it in case of an emergency since it's his responsibility to secure them and the orange Wheelie should something happen to the Event Horizon and after spending the time following that arguing with the simulation room programming that he contacts Clipper. Then he waits.
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Post by Clipper on Nov 24, 2010 19:51:35 GMT -5
Clipper is breathless with excitement and exertion by the time she arrives at the sim rooms at a jog, her expression a study in that same, naive, youthful trust, heavily seasoned with eager energy.
"So soon? You're ready already, Mister Magnus, sir?" she asks as she comes to a halt far enough away that she can stare way up at him without cricking her neck cables too much. She knew he'd be able to help her!
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