|
Post by Drift on May 11, 2011 20:03:46 GMT -5
Oh are you serious?! Drift finds himself hyperventing at the thought. Unarmed? A Decepticon was never unarmed.
But...he wasn't a Decepticon. And, well, he hadn't always had weapons. He'd been disarmed and with a stasis cuff, and he'd managed to hold his own.
You can handle this, Drift. Good practice, or something.
Doesn't mean he has to be particularly happy about it. He snarls as he pushed himself off the berth, slapping the Great Sword onto the low bench. He turns, glaring at Kup, to make sure he's noticing, as he jerks his two smaller blades from their scabbards, laying them beside the larger sword.
He turns to Long Haul, holding his hands behind his head, the way disarmed prisoners are told to stand. He's making a point. "Disarmed enough for you?"
Which leaves him nice and exposed when Kup makes that crack. Apparently, the codgy old timer isn't one to expect to keep a secret. Noted.
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on May 12, 2011 17:54:00 GMT -5
Long Haul shrugs as Drift asks him if he's disarmed enough. "Y'are for now. Do something like that again, and I may remove your arm-arms," he explains as he trudges back towards Drift. At Kup's question, he stiffens and narrows his optics, turning back towards Kup.
"We din't have soldiers in Crystal City," he says softly. "We had Omega Supreme." Then he turns back towards Drift and really studies him, tilting his head slightly to the right. "Though... now that you mention it, the armor does look kinda similar to some of th'way the law enforcement types look. Different, too, but... similar style, I'm thinking." Then he turns back towards Kup. "You're right, though. We was too busy makin' buildings to make peoples, so's I didn't get a chance to get a close look on the make-up."
Long Haul really should have noticed this before now, but he's tends to deal with Crystal City by trying not to think about it, something he has to work on more than usual right now with Hook on board the Event Horizon.
|
|
|
Post by Kate Mason on May 12, 2011 18:42:43 GMT -5
Listen again, Drift. Kup didn't say one word about Drift's secret. Kup just found a casual way to work it into the conversation that Long Haul is from a Crystal City. Drift can follow that up or ignore it as he likes, no harm done, no foul.
Drift might even notice that Long Haul is speaking in present tense, not past. Crystal City is Long Haul's now.
Kup nods along at Long Haul's artistic judgement and says in and off-hand manner, "Yeah, thought as much. Funny coincidence. Then again, he sure looks a lot like Override, too." He shrugs.
Well, Drift is disarmed, shoulder repair can go on, and weirdo soul sucking swords can get written down in medical files.
|
|
|
Post by Drift on May 12, 2011 23:10:19 GMT -5
Um, no. You do not threaten Drift with arm-removal and then get to come at him with tools that might very well be used for said aforementioned and previously referred to arm removal.
Drift shall just stand here, clutching his arms. And glaring, but that's probably his default by now.
And he wants to ask about this Crystal City Long Haul--non-decepticon Long Haul--knows, but, he's a little unenamored of the mech at the moment.
So he manages to sound pretty condescending (which is easy when you're taller than the mech you're condescending to, you know, the words just sort of get to...float on down or something).
"Guess you were too busy to notice the swords then, too, huh?"
(And when/if he realizes that Override's a female? Oh Kup, you sure are going to regret inventing butts, because Drift will be kicking yours. Forever.)
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on May 13, 2011 14:53:11 GMT -5
Long Haul is bright enough to know that many mechanoids are not not-dangerous just because they don't have any actual weapons on them. In fact, quite a few people on the Event Horizon, himself included, tend to fight melee unarmed, and thus they are only truly disarmed when they no longer have them. Hence the warning.
When Drift makes it obvious that he's not going to let Long Haul near the shoulder and instead just decides to be snide, he sighs and looks at Kup.
"Look, Kup, I got things to do." He turns and starts to plod towards one of the supply cabinets, calling back, "Let me know when you're ready to stop stretchin' a five minute job into a couple'a hours, huh?"
|
|
|
Post by Kate Mason on May 13, 2011 15:59:40 GMT -5
Drift can try, but old soldiers don't become old soldiers in this line of work unless they're slagging good. Drift's not the first punk Kup's seen, and he won't be the last.
Besides, if Drift is so insecure he can't handle being compared to other red and white fast cars with headfins on their helmets, Drift has other issues.
Kup lets out a rattling sigh and explains, "He does have better things to do with his time. Like making sure the engines are working, in case the 'cons catch up with us, and we gotta manoeuvre this ship."
A lot of warriors look down on 'tech work', but without tech work, the warriors would be stuck banging rocks together on an asteroid.
"You can just deal with that shoulder." Kup moves off toward the door. "Guess I'll get you into the shift rotation."
Last chance to stop wasting Long Haul's (and Kup's) time and get the leakin' shoulder fixed, Drift.
|
|
|
Post by Drift on May 15, 2011 17:00:32 GMT -5
Drift is really beginning to think about slipping Kup Turmoil's comm channel. They probably have a lot to talk about. Both, you know, being overbearing micromanaging jerks and all.
"I didn't want this stupid intake physical to begin with!" He's still clutching his arms. Because, Long Haul? Not funny.
He hesitates for a long moment, thinking of the almost agonized wailing of Perceptor's little device, as if he had so many errors and malfunctions that it was causing the device physical pain.
He gives a cry of inchoate frustration, flopping down on the berth, squeaks and all. Happy now?
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on May 15, 2011 20:25:09 GMT -5
Long Haul hesitates as he hears Drift's cry of frustration. He pauses and glances back at the swordsman, then shrugs and trundles back to the berth, snapping up the lubrication dispenser on his way. He attempts to place one firm hand on Drift's shoulder, recalling that the other tends to squirm, and with him held in place, immediately gets to work, as the shoulder plate had already been removed. Long Haul hadn't been lying: it really does prove to be five minutes of work, if that.
Once he's done, he starts to put the shoulder plate back on, observing quietly, "You might think that everything's a battle, Drift," he mutters, referencing the other's comment from before, "but I'm new to this whole 'war' thing. Back home, had heard only rumors about it getting started, distant-like. Wasn't a fighter back home, and if I'm fighting for anything here, it's so's that everything doesn't have to be a battle. If I gotta pick up arms, I'd rather it be so's that sooner or later, folks can lay 'em down. S'why I'd rather not have to do the fightin' in here, when I'm s'posed to be fixing, in addition to out there."
He shrugs and tightens the plate in place, then steps back to let Drift stand. "S'just the way I see things, anyway." And then he begins to put the tools away.
|
|
|
Post by Kate Mason on May 15, 2011 20:36:47 GMT -5
Everyone has to have a security interview. Everyone has to have a check-up. Everyone gets assigned to duty shifts. Kup is doing nothing unusual or unreasonable to Drift.
Kup glowers and reminds, "Everyone gets a physical. Why, I recall serving under Rustbucket, and he discontinued physicals, said they were a waste of time. The whole battalion caught the Cerulean Corrosion. Now, that ain't too bad if you notice it early, though you gotta spend a week under oil to cure it. I was lucky - I was out on a long recon patrol. Me 'n the rest of the fireteam got back, and... there was just blowing blue dust left in the wind. That's all there was of the rest of them."
Kup shakes his head.
|
|
|
Post by Drift on May 18, 2011 14:17:32 GMT -5
....which turns out to be the LONGEST five minutes of Drift's life. It's not Long Haul's fault, but Drift is...unused to being exposed, helpless, his systems stripped bare.
Long Haul's words take him...even more off guard, if that's even possible. "War's all I know," he mutters, softly, as though the admission actually hurts. It's an attempt at answering, without hostility. He's just terrible at it. Fighting just to survive, fighting to change things. "Sometimes, that's the only thing that works."
He listens to Kup's story, because, well, Kup at least gives him a chance. A gruff and grumpy chance, but that's a language he actually understands. He sits up, running his hands over his repaneled shoulders, as though reassuring himself they were intact. They felt...weird. The motion of the joints almost too smooth. He's not going to mention that part, because it would doubtless get him another lecture.
Or worse, another story like this one. "So...long patrols are good." He's trying to extract a lesson from this.
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on May 18, 2011 19:26:50 GMT -5
"Well, maybe you can learn some other stuff?" Long Haul suggests. And then, as if to clarify that he's not trying to suggest war is the 'wrong way,' he adds, "I mean, I'm having to learn war. Kind of, uhm... you get something else, you're more flexible, I guess."
He finishes putting away the tools and the can of lubricant, adding somewhat sourly, "Guess I'm not learning it as fast as I would have if I'd stayed 'home,' though."
|
|
|
Post by Kate Mason on May 19, 2011 21:35:16 GMT -5
Kup smacks his forehead with the heel of his hand and groans. He corrects, "No, lad, that's not what I meant. What I was gettin' at is not doin' regular maintenance means health problems can creep up on you, and these problems can spread. Would you turn your back on the enemy and hope they just won't sneak up on ya, just because you ain't lookin'?"
To Long Haul, Kup comments, "Eh, that ain't learnin', what you'd have done back home."
|
|
|
Post by Drift on May 22, 2011 7:26:10 GMT -5
Drift shrugs because, well, when he thinks of all the stuff he doesn't know? It's a little overwhelming. He wouldn't even know where to start. "No time for that," he says, "Till the war's won." Or...isn't that how that went? That Autobot thing?
Probably not.
Frag. Drift would rather it have been about patrols than maintenance. Kup's losing his touch because normally his stories were way more interesting than some idiots turning into blue dust. Eh. "Fine. Maintenance good. Blue dust bad." Got it. "And I don't hope they don't sneak up on me, because if I turn my back on an enemy it's because he's already dead."
You can take the hardaft out of the Decepticon Army but.....
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on May 22, 2011 19:38:45 GMT -5
Long Haul mutters, "Going to have a lot less time if every trip to sickbay goes like that." He trundles towards the supplies he had arrived with, ready to actually start putting them away.
OOC: Heading towards wrap?
|
|
|
Post by Kate Mason on May 24, 2011 20:22:41 GMT -5
OOC: Sure.
Kup eyes Drift sidelong but doesn't correct him on 'Til all are one'. The other version of the saying isn't bad, actually. He just snorts when Drift says the enemy will already be dead when Drift turns his back. Kup might even be amused.
Maybe.
|
|