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Post by Perceptor on Apr 13, 2011 12:48:52 GMT -5
Perceptor quirks a small smile down at Sentinel as he begins the laborious process of sorting through Sentinel's systems to salvage and repair his most vital systems first. "Stranger things have happened. I'm certain that Dinobot would be game to try, although Rodimus seems to favor having stories recited."
Not that Rodimus is capable of much, just yet.
"Your shield?" Perceptor glances over at the fragments for a moment. "Yes, of course. If I cannot repair yours, I can rebuild it. I promise." He built a spaceship from a toy; he can repair or rebuild a shield.
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Apr 13, 2011 13:29:16 GMT -5
Sentinel Prime bridles a bit at how Perceptor seems, to him, so dismissive about his Skyboom Shield. Especially with the casual comment that it might be rebuilt entirely, not repaired. How would Perceptor like it if they lopped off his scope and replaced it?
He sulks, //Yeah. Fine. You'd better.//
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Post by Perceptor on Apr 13, 2011 14:54:15 GMT -5
Well, um, actually.... That's already happened, Sentinel. In fact, it was replaced by one built by Hook, of all mechs. Not the Hook currently cooling his heels in their Brig, but A Hook.
And given the choice between using the parts to repair a mostly functional shield, or rebuilding an entirely functional one from scratch, Perceptor is going to opt for the better end result. Even if he is forced to rebuild it entirely, though, the original materials will be used in its construction. Not that he expects Sentinel to be sentimental or anything, but... it just seems right.
"I did not, exactly, intend to damage it in the first place," he replies, throttling down his own desire to sulk.
Sentinel has every right to be irritated; Perceptor did render his shield less effective in the first place.
"I promise to return it to function as good as new, though, Sentinel."
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Apr 13, 2011 15:08:32 GMT -5
Sentinel Prime is sentimental at times! If Aragorn can mope over Narsil, Sentinel Prime can mope over his Skyboom Shield. He grumbles, //Yeah, yeah, you were shooting at that Seeker. For the love of energony goodness, how could you miss him?//
Because Sentinel Prime threw his shield just then and Perceptor wasn't expecting it. Perceptor might be great at shooting, but it's not like he does it much. He's a scientist. He doesn't go down to the firing range for kicks and giggles. So Perceptor's probably especially not used to shooting in a team situation, where's expected to be 'ranged guy' as opposed to 'smart guy', since his reality is so overflowing with ranged guys that he could just sit in the lab all day back home...
//We need to teach you about the purpose of suppression and cover fire, huh? Well, no, you probably know that... practise the implementation? Yeah.//
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Post by Perceptor on Apr 13, 2011 15:18:24 GMT -5
Martial training? Target practice? Group combat tutelage? Him?
One can imagine those words floating through Perceptor's processor, each one just a little higher pitched than the last. One would be... pretty spot on, actually.
"Ah... well... I... suppose?" he stammers. "I do have, ah, quite a few, um, other duties, already, however...?"
Yes. This is Perceptor, attempting to weasel his way out of having to train in the sim rooms with everyone else.
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Apr 13, 2011 16:35:57 GMT -5
//Oh, yeah. You're an officer; you don't have free time like us peons,// Sentinel Prime replies, not really thinking through what he's saying. He's pretty out of it.
Not that Sentinel Prime actually has free time. Punishment duties. They'll be over sometime, though, and when he does, all that glorious free time will be spent in the sim room and training room, honing himself to the peak of martial perfection.
Oh, and reading. The reading is not as exciting, but there are so many tactics and strategies to learn and so many 'cons and alien species that need threat analyses.
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Post by Perceptor on Apr 13, 2011 17:08:38 GMT -5
"It's not like that at all!" Perceptor splutters, and then curses himself as he realizes that Sentinel had given him a perfect excuse... that Perceptor had just cast doubt on. Not that he could have allowed himself that out, anyway.
He bends low over Sentinel's shoulder, picking out the shattered components and clearing debris and damage out of his neck and near cheek.
"I'm... not very.... good... at that sort of thing," he finally admits. Stating the obvious much?
"You look at a situation, and you see the tactical strengths and weaknesses. You can see the tactics. I... It is not... my forte. Or preference."
"And... it is not something that I think that I, uh, want to learn."
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Apr 13, 2011 17:46:05 GMT -5
//So... you don't want to learn not to shoot Optimus in the grapplers? Firebolt in the boomerang? Impactor in the harpoon chain?// Sentinel Prime inquires, feigning innocence. Optimus and Firebolt may be way nicer than Sentinel Prime is, but Impactor? Sentinel Prime can imagine the ornery old zombie tearing Perceptor a new one over friendly fire like that.
His shovel-blade halves are just out and out missing, Perceptor has probably noticed, and that plays into the damages on his shoulders.
//I'm not the only one who tends to use unusual subsonic ranged weapons.//
Sentinel Prime is not hugely worried about Perceptor shooting down bullets, missiles, or other laser beams. Can laser beams even be shot down? He doesn't think so.
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Post by Perceptor on Apr 13, 2011 18:27:34 GMT -5
"I am not typically that, ah... bad?" Perceptor offers weakly as he cuts away a bit of twisted mounting bracket. He thinks. Maybe.
Which is why practice and training would be a good thing.
Defeated, Perceptor wilts again. "It is not that I do not wish to learn... I just..." Don't want to learn.
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Apr 13, 2011 18:37:37 GMT -5
//Fine. Then don't fire into a melee or when subsonic ranged weapons are in use,// Sentinel Prime grants. //Just get out of the way. It'll be safer for you and everyone involved.//
If Perceptor doesn't want to fight, that's okay. That's what knuckleheads like Sentinel Prime were built to do. Sentinel Prime could never do what Perceptor does with science. Just don't play at soldier and screw it up for everyone else who knows what they're doing, Perceptor.
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Post by Perceptor on Apr 13, 2011 18:49:26 GMT -5
Almost working on autopilot, Perceptor frowns down at Sentinel. "I cannot simply... do nothing while everyone around me is expec...ted..." While everyone else is expected to be pulling their weight.
And he's quibbling about not wanting to learn how to be less of a threat to his own people.
"Oh."
He's quiet as he reroutes a couple of systems so that he can begin rewiring the motor controls that will run the repaired arm that will be reinstalled very shortly. "I'm... not very good, you know," he offers quietly. "At, um, fighting. I will... require assistance. Learning, that is."
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Apr 13, 2011 19:01:30 GMT -5
//You keep people from dying. You don't have to fight. Just keep to cover and tend the wounded,// Sentinel Prime says a bit thoughtlessly. Perceptor's lucky. He has a choice. If he just wants to run around being a combat medic, he can. He doesn't have to fight. Perceptor's that valuable on his own, and he's not bound by the Geneva convention, so he can pack heavier heat than a 9mm.
Schmucks like Sentinel Prime are only good for fighting, though. As it is, he likes it, but he has no choice in the matter if he didn't.
//And you do all that... science, too. The spacebridge is cool?//
Sentinel Prime is not trying to belittle Perceptor and make him feel bad about himself. It just comes naturally, and again, he's a soldier with no real useful skills aside from bashing heads. Even Optimus can repair spacebridges, which isn't glamourous, but it's a sight more valuable to polite society.
//But... if you did want to learn, there's plenty of people who'd be willing to help, I'm sure.//
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Post by Perceptor on Apr 29, 2011 17:45:43 GMT -5
"Sometimes," Perceptor murmurs quietly, then he ducks down to concentrate on the tricky bit of wiring and soldering he is performing, using that as an excuse to tune out the conversation until he can get his metaphorical feet back under himself. So far, no one has died from this attack, though there are at least one or two still missing and unaccounted for. That isn't really his doing, though.
He'd saved Jazz. But he hadn't saved Hound.
Hound keeps haunting him, the scout's death just too similar to Prime's, for all that Perceptor had thought that he was finally coming to terms with that. He'd saved Jazz - torn in half, fluids leaking out more quickly than Perceptor could clamp the tears, sparking his last ergs of energy out of his mortal wounds - and yet, Prime and Hound, who had seemed so much less injured... had slipped between his fingers like grains of sand.
How much longer before that scene replays itself on the rocks again? How many more lives will slip beyond his grasping hands? He is beginning to understand why Ratchet would intoxicate himself so often.
"Would you?" he finally asks, not looking up. "I... should be better prepared. To defend my patients, if nothing else."
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Apr 29, 2011 19:03:05 GMT -5
Sentinel Prime is repaired enough to wince a bit - and then he wishes he hadn't. He wants to protest that he wouldn't know what to do with someone who uses firearms. Sentinel Prime doesn't know what to do with firearms! And he hates doing drill work; it feels like a demotion.
This whole reality is a demotion. He hates it, too.
And then he remembers that he's starting to forget what hate feels like.
What was he even doing? Oh, right. Sucking up to nerd boy, because that is what his life has sunk to. So would he? Sentinel Prime goes back to the point that he has no idea what to do with firearms and then he recalls that he had no idea what to do with flying Autobots, either, and Jetfire and Jetstorm are remarkably well-adjusted and non-screwed up. Something he did worked. Or the Twins are just awesome. Probably just that.
But Autoboot Camp is supposed to teach Autobots how to best utilise their unique special abilities. it's kind of a slag shoot, but he's seen all kinds of weird things, like the one kid who could permanently change the colour of other bots' paint by doodling on them with his finger. Last Sentinel Prime heard, he'd gotten out the service and was working in a detailling shop.
Firearms can't be dumber and weirder than that, can they?
This is the problem with overweening pride. With his ego and enough pain medication, Sentinel Prime can convince himself that he can do anything. This usually leads to pain, tears, and his head being stuck in the ground and possibly also an unbalanced fiscal year and techno-organic monsters.
Right now, it just leads to him assuring, //I will!//
Wait, was that a threat?
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Post by Perceptor on May 23, 2011 19:43:55 GMT -5
If Perceptor had known that Sentinel felt the need to "suck up" to him, he would be somewhat... weirded out, to put it bluntly. He doesn't really consider himself to be a mech of any real rank at all, despite being second in Med/Sci/Eng. He especially doesn't really consider himself to rank someone who spends their time on the front lines, but much of that still stems from how he'd always been viewed back home.
"Y-you would?" Perceptor asks, relieved and a little surprised. He hadn't actually thought that Sentinel would bother with wasting his time on such a pursuit. And then his expression sort of... goes still... as he realizes that he just volunteered himself for extra training for the thing he pretty much most hates to do.
"Heh. I will try very hard not to, um, be utterly useless."
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