Hey, Bartender...

[Cannonball]

OOC: Late into Small Plots, day 30-ish. Semi-private thread, ask before joining.

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So, apparently, Cannonball being himself and nicking energon from the stores is a bad thing in this reality.

Granted, back home, he'd steal the entire contents of the shed, and fly off with a triumphant cackle. Lacking a ship, somewhere to go, and a crew in this universe puts a sliiiiight damper on the usual means of acquisition. So, it's time for Cannonball to do things...differently.

A bit of detective work and careful listening has informed Cannonball that Hook has a brother of sorts who is good at playing with chemicals. Now, him being Hook's brother may cause a problem, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. After some careful asking, he determines Mixmaster's location, and enters the lab, closing the door rather audibly, with a clever gleam in his optic band.

"I be lookin' fer a bugger named Mixmaster..." he says to the room, and any beings inside.

[Mixmaster]

"There's a Mixmaster, but he's certainly no bug!" Mixmaster says and doesn't look up from where he was carefully cleaning off his equipment. "Or, for that matter, any sort of organic pest."

Mixmaster's hand is probably a bit too tight around the thin, shiny metal rod in his hand, but that's a minor detail.

"Now, did you want something or did you need something?" The difference, after all, is quite important.

[Cannonball]

"I didnae call ye a bug, I..." Cannonball trails off, shaking his head, walking further in. He stops a small distance from the Constructicon, so he can watch the other. Cannonball's already a touch wary of the chemist.

"I be offerin' something, actually. This base bores me to th' pit an' back. I'm a built treasure 'unter. You're a chemist. I kin seek out ingredients, if ye be needin' an errand boy. Somethin' like this..." Cannonball offers, pulling out a fairly large-sized vial of pale purple crystals. "A small stash o' dilithium cystals, got 'em in me travels before I came 'ere from some ugly little organic with big ears..."

Cannonball isn't doing this out of the goodness of his spark, mind you. He's just found that a deal works better if you provide the other party with what they get first. Bait 'em, then reel 'em in...

[Mixmaster]

Boredom is most definitely a grave enough condition to fall under the 'need' category, so Mixmaster will not chase him off just yet. This, it should be pointed out, has little to do with the need and more to do with the fact that Cannonball has a vial of shiny purple rocks.

Mixmaster glances at the crystals, optics brightening curiously before he turns his stare to Cannonball. "A treasure hunter? Should you not be bored then, with all this whole new planet to explore?"

He tilts his head and rests the equipment he was cleaning on the nearest surface, hand twitching lightly.

[Cannonball]

Cannonball grumbles, pulling the vial close to himself again. "Starscream an' Shockwave won't approve it unless it's for official business. And after my close call a couple of weeks ago, I figger I may as well behave, as I like functioning."

He smirks now, holding the vial up. "...'owever, if I'm running errands for our brilliant chemist, they won't give me any trouble." There's a faint glimmer of his optic band now. "There is one minor thing. I would require payment for these services, in the form of some 'igh-grade energon. Think ye kin do that for me, lad?"

[Mixmaster]

Mixmaster crosses his arms and frowns very severely at Cannonball. "High-grade? Truly? You ask me if I can make you high-grade?" Mixmaster sounds somewhat offended by this. "First you call me a brilliant chemist and then you ask if I can make high-grade! You make no sense at all, you don't."

Mixmaster is already processing a list of the materials that he desperately needs or would need, along with any he had suddenly decided right at that moment that he absolutely must have regardless of the fact he would probably never use them. He just wants to know if Cannonball is worth abusing.

[Cannonball]

Cannonball raises his arms in a defensive gesture. "Now, now, 'old on a second lad. I donnae mean t' insult ye. I'm just lookin' fer th' best o' th' best 'ere." The pirate offers a smile. "I mean, I can stir up some passable bootleg, but I'm lookin' fer a pro here who can do it right, y'know?"

Cannonball makes sure the crystals he's holding are in good view. Bait and flattery, bait and flattery...

[Mixmaster]

It works wonderfully, Cannonball.

"Of course you didn't mean to insult me. Nobody means to insult anyone they're trying to convince to make a deal with them, correct?"

Mixmaster uncrosses his arms and takes a couple of quick steps closer to Cannonball; openly curious. "But you didn't insult me at all, you didn't, not really. Do you think that's a good thing?"

[Cannonball]

Cannonball smirks. At least the chemist knows the game. "Aye, ye be right, and I'd like to think it's a good thing. Unless ye prefer to be insulted, which would strike me as odd, but something that I could work with. Either way, I just want some really good high-grade, and I want it through legit channels so that I survive."

This was getting a bit odd - Did Mixmaster want to be insulted? Or maybe oddness runs in the Constructicon family. Hook had that odd tic about wanting his name to be pronounced properly.

[Mixmaster]

"Who likes being insulted?" Mixmaster asks, surprised. "I don't, not at all, but that doesn't mean people should go around being careful not to insult someone, correct?"

He straightens up. "But! Ignoring that you seem fairly certain that you will survive anything I give you, since you probably will more likely than you won't, what would you be willing to do to find these materials, hmm?"

[Cannonball]

Cannonball smirks once more as Mixmaster finally comes back to discussing the deal. The pirate taps the vial against his upper lip, thinking. "Mm... I kin deal wit' a fair bit o' danger, but nothin' too rough. After all, I wanna live, and you want to be gettin' your stuff, right?"

[Mixmaster]

"Right! But just because you say you'll be willing to do something doesn't mean you would actually do it, correct? And I couldn't possibly know any better if you said you weren't able, could I, being all cooped up here at base and completely without resources as I am?" Mixmaster smiles widely and wanders back a towards his table to poke through the total of two datapads he had lying out.

"So, you want an entire list, yes? And you find what you can, yes?" Mixmaster asks, and holds up one pad to present to Cannonball.

[Cannonball]

Cannonball gives the mixing truck a look. "...ye donnae know me very well. If I'm askin' to trade favors for hooch, then I'll be doin' them favors."

Booze - it's Serious Business.

"Th' list will work. I'll see wot all I kin dig up before we take off from 'ere, an' deliver it once we're outta 'ere. Use all th' time I can to dig up as much as I kin find." Cannonball says, laying the vial of crystals down for Mixmaster, and taking the offered datapad.

[Mixmaster]

"Why would I know you very well?" Mixmaster asks, and then shrugs. "You use words like 'hooch', after all, you do!"

And Mixmaster snatches up the vial quickly and with much enthusiasm, throwing a grin Cannonball's way. Mixmaster is far too easy to please. "But I do hope you at least know what half of the things on that list are, yes? It won't do you much good with only the name and a vague description to go by, I don't think."

[Cannonball]

"I'm not quite an 'ighbrow kinna bot, so I donnae care fer usin' 'ighbrow kinna words, y'know?" Cannonball chuckles as he says this, stepping a bit a closer. "I s'pose it'd 'elp to get a lil' background on this stuff and where might be the best spots to find it...."

With that, he spends the rest of his time in the room going over the info on the datapad with Mixmaster, and departs once he has what he needs.

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OOC: Fadeout.