Just the 'Bot I Wanted to See

[Swindle]

Day 18, Ship, Open to 'Cons

Swindle is in his workshop, doing an inventory of his stock. Many, many weapons are laid out in neat rows on every available surface, in various states of disassembly. He's currently hunched over a Seeker arm cannon with a tiny soldering iron in one hand and a circuit probe in the other.

There's a sign hanging next to the door reading "OPEN." Commerce waits for no 'bot, after all!

[Assault/Arthur Aldrin]

If there is one constant in all of the multi-verses, then it has to be that Swindle is your go to guy when you need something. Well, as far as Assault knows anyways; he's not aware of the red drones or the Mini-Con.

The blue Seeker walks up to the door of Swindle's quarters, only sparing a brief glance at the sign before walking right on in and my oh my, does the armsdealer ever live up to his name! His face doesn't betray his satisfaction at seeing the rows of weapons though, remaining blank, while his voice does sound friendly and polite as always as he speaks. "Good day, my friend. I hope that I am not disturbing you?"

[Swindle]

Swindle looks up at the Seeker and grins, using the circuit probe to push closed the access panel of the arm cannon he's working on.

"You're not disturbing me at all! Assault, right? Standard Seeker load-out? How can I improve your life today?" Another day, another blue jet, another space dollar.

[Duskwing]

But wait! There's another blue jet, this one slinking in the door, looking furtively around, yet somehow overlooking Assault as he rushes over to Swindle.

"Hey, Swindle, you got dem guns ready for me yet--" Duskwing starts abruptly, suddenly noticing Assault. "Uh. Assault. Whaddaya doin' here?"

[Assault/Arthur Aldrin]

"Ah, most excellent, and yes, you are correct!" Assault lets out a satisfied little chuckle as he walks forward, looking at the weapons that Swindle had been working on, admiring the circuitry that's on display. "I see that you know your engineering. This is quite perfect. I was actually hoping to acquire some items from you, for a personal project. As well as talk to you about some other topi-"

But before he can even finish his sentence, Duskwing comes barging in! Assault's left optic visibly twitches as the other Seeker rudely gets in between the two, though it's more at his bad luck in general lately. Which god has he pissed off to deserve this much of it? He will have to find him/her and show it that this is one Decepticon NOT to be trifled with. "Duskwing. I'm here to discuss important business with Swindle, so would you be so kind to get what you need and then get out, please?"

[Swindle]

"Duskwing, buddy! I sure do, I was just doing some fine-tuning on the targeting circuitry," Swindle says.

Shooting the other Seeker a perturbed look, he adds "I'll thank you not to be rude to my other customers, Assault. I know you were here first, but Duskwing has been waiting on this order for a while now. Let me do a quick install on his new weapons and then you'll have my full attention." The arms dealer didn't miss that Assault wants items for a 'personal project' and to talk about mysterious 'other topics.' Sooomeoooone's uuuup to sooomethiiing!

"So, Duskwing, just hop up on-" Swindle looks around the room, seeing every available surface laden with instruments of destruction. He quickly clears a space. "-this table, and I'll switch out your guns. Remember these mods will still shoot lasers, but they'll shoot the blinding dust too."

[Duskwing]

Duskwing glares at Assault, and opens his mouth to say something rude and hostile--then Swindle says his piece, and Duskwing has to think about who to answer what to. He promptly loses his train of insult--er, thought, and stares blankly at Assault for a few moments.

He turns to Swindle. "Yeah, dat works," he says, then sits on the table. Ruby optics narrow slightly as he turns his head to look at Assault again.

"Yeah, what he said!" The dark blue and purple Seeker jerks a thumb in Swindle's direction. "An' I don't take orders from youse, no how, an' finally, I work for Swindle, so's you gotta long wait for me to leave, see?"

[Mindwipe]

Another 'bot enters the store - the naked teapot zombie!

At least, that's how Twin Twist described Mindwipe. He doesn't make conversation yet, he just seems to be browsing for the time being.

[Assault/Arthur Aldrin]

The way things are going does not please Assault at all, but he swallows both his pride and his bile, nodding in apology at the two Decepticons, while entertaining thoughts of using Duskwing as an unknowing suicide bomber. "Of course. Please, forgive me for my behavior." It doesn't help matters when the other Seeker starts spitting some more insults at him, and if it weren't for Swindle, he'd make him eat those words! "I will be waiting."

With that, he turns to browse the other items Swindle has available, only for Mindwipe to come in. Now this is interesting! A smile tugs at the corner of his lips before he walks forward to the other mech, nodding in greeting as his attitude turns noticeably more friendly. "Mindwipe, you old summoner of Eldritch Abominations! Such a delight to see you!"

[Swindle]

"Duskwing, stop antagonizing Assault," Swindle says offhandedly. Play nice, children, or no candy guns! Using some fine tools, the arms dealer proceeds to remove Duskwing's arm-cannons, and replace them with a pair that look completely identical. But then, Starscream's null-ray never looked particularly impressive either. "Just hold still while I connect the circuits. There's a couple extra connections to make, since you need to be able to switch between lasers and magnetized dust."

"If it isn't our local wizard! Daggers and low-power standard blasters equivalent to the Mark VI series, right? Let me know if you see anything you like. Shoplift and I'll hunt down you and everyone you've ever loved," he adds, in the same pleasant tone. Of course the 'wizard' is also armed with the whole mind-control thing. If Mindwipe were ever to die in battle, the Decepticon cause would lose one of its mightiest warriors. And then Swindle would steal his brain and sell it on the black market for all the money. All of it. But he would do so with a heavy heart.

"What were you looking for exactly, Assault?"


OOC: Open-arm surgery on Duskwing with permission.

[Duskwing]

"Huh?" Duskwing swivels his head to glare briefly at Assault. "Okay, boss. Guess he's a customer, huh?"

Looking down at the new guns, he waits impatiently, ankle joints flexing up and down with a soft "click-click-click" of well-lubricated metal hitting stops. "Can I test 'em? Can I?"

The glow in his optics dims and brightens as he glances surreptitiously at Assault.

[Mindwipe]

Mindwipe finds himself blinking curiously at the dual greeting. "Ah, your voice..." he says, turning to Assault. "I recall you from the incident with that Autobot drill tank." Mindwipe's wings droop slightly, then he he clenches his fists in front of his chest. "He broke my favorite teapot. He will pay dearly, once I subject him to an immeasurable array of mental and spectral torments!"

By this, Mindwipe means that he will hypnotize Twin Twist and make him do karaoke of Queen's "A Kind of Magic" in a public place while wearing a fruit hat.

Don't ask where he found fruit that big.

Then he looks over at Swindle, composure normal again as if nothing had happened. "I'm looking more for communication array and radio parts. I know you're an arms dealer, but it's not like we have any other merchants aboard this vessel."

[Assault/Arthur Aldrin]

Mindwipe remembered him? How kind! It actually pleases Assault, though alas, it does not show on his blank face, but what else is new? "Yes, you would be quite correct. But do not sulk!" Assault may not smile, but he still moves closer so he can give Mindwipe a good old encouraging pat on the shoulder. "You showed remarkable skill Mindwipe, even if we did not manage to take him down. But I am certain that your wrath upon him will be magnificent and the stuff of legends!" Though probably not in a way that Assault expects.

He's then distracted by Swindle calling out to him, nodding once as he digs out a datapad, bringing up a list with materials. "Just some things, nothing special." //I need a Mark 5 G-Mod toolset, specialized edition. A Colossus 5A battlemask, make sure it has the TX HUD, please. Finally, I need a portable, small scale vibro core. Model 7BC-6 should be sufficient; not as costly as the later models, but it should suit my purposes.//

He looks up from his datapad just in time to see Duskwing glare at him and say something rather unpleasant, and Assault is not going to ignore it. He slips the datapad back into subspace and narrows his optics his optics, his voice becoming noticeably colder and authoritative. "Shoot me, and I will return every shot fired. But rest assured that I will not miss. Do I make myself clear, soldier?"

[Swindle]

Swindle gives Duskwing a Withering Look as he solders the last few connections on his new cannons and closes them up. "I'd prefer you not go testing your new weapons in the middle of my munitions stockpile, Duskwing. We have a sim room and Autobots for a reason, you know." (Yes, Autobots exist to test weapons on. What else are they for?¹)

"Sure, I can get you radio components, Mindwipe. But it'll cost you extra since it's a special request and I have to order the parts," the merchant says with a winning grin.

//That's all easy enough, Assault. Though I am curious as to what you want it all for. Those are some pretty specific requests.//

And then the other Seeker starts posturing. Why anyone would want to mass-produce these things is beyond Swindle. "No-one is shooting anyone in here!" the con-bot says urgently, raising his voice. "Depending on what your stray shots hit, we could all be turned to glass, blown up, collapsed into a singularity, or have our hard drives wiped! And that's just for starters! If you're going to play Macho Soldiers, kindly do it outside or I'll put you both in stasis and dump you outside." He'll do it too, he swears on a stack of Space Wall Street Journals. His voice has lost that used-car-salesman tone and everything.


^{1. For selling weapons to. Duh.}

[Duskwing]

"Oh." Duskwing shrugs at Swindle. "Was just askin'. Figured if there was a problem, wouldn't have to run back so far to get 'em fixed. You oughtta have a test range."

Then Assault has to run his vocalizer. Duskwing slews his head around and looks intently at Assault, scanning him from head to foot. As he gets down off the table, he mutters, "Nope, don't see it."

Swindle's list of potential disasters catches Duskwing's attention; he turns back to Swindle, staring in something like awe. "Whoa. Youse can do all dat? Dat's like... like Megatron!"