re_alignment_logs | The fog hissed away like a movie

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The fog hissed away like a movie

WHO: Vandal and her whipped guard dog- ...er. Drift.
WHERE: Junkpile!
WHEN: Shortly after Prism's post!
WHAT: Vandal does some fishing around to see if she can disarm Prism's chip... only to make an interesting discovery.
WARNINGS: Semi-robot-surgery? Nothing horrible. OH. Vandal swears a lot too.

He's certainly taking his fucking time, isn't he?

Vandal had taken the time to... borrow some tools and be on her way. For someone so ill-trained in cybertronian medicine, she sure does find herself diving right in. In the end it's not so hard. Relays, fuel lines, circuits. She can at least do basic first aid without much help. Despite everything, studying the anatomy data that Ratchet had given her and the basic med-notes has helped take her mind off other things.

She has some diagrams up, projected from her RIG's VI screen and it looks like she's doing some last-minute crunch study here. Very encouraging.

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Drift is going as fast as he can, Vandal. He's not up to his top speed or form just after having been mangled by Prism. Ratchet does good work, but some things are up to the body to heal, and that takes time.

But he is coming. He should probably be having second thoughts about amateur surgery but, well, the bar's been lowered after Prism. At least she'll feel bad if she hurts him.

He rolls around the last corner, and shifts modes. And then just stands there.

Well. This is awkward. "I'm here." When in doubt, go with the obvious.

Okay... so shit down those sensor nodes and he shouldn't feel any pain. Good. Okay. Yes. Why does everything have to be so goddamn close to the other things that might kill him? Vandal shuts off the VI screen when she hears him coming, antsy to help her best friend.

"Hey."

So she's mad at him. She's really fucking mad at his whole. Self-sacrifice crap. And maybe a little overemotional because it's not fair. She finally has a friend who's actually her friend and he's going to just let himself die?

So maybe it's undignified but she wobbles over and wraps her arms around his leg. Closest thing she can get to a hug on him.

"Lay down, Drift." She doesn't sound quite as firm as she'd like.

That 'hey' doesn't make this any less awkward. He wants to say 'I came because you asked' or 'be careful' or..anything but he's pretty sure that would get him punched.

Hard.

"I--" And then she's hugging his leg. It's hard to lie down when she's hugging his leg, but he doesn't want to say that, either. He drops down to the other knee, closer to her. "You don't have to do this. Thank you."

Maybe it's a little silly of her, but being around these guys makes her feel a little robotic at times. Forget to eat. Forget to sleep. Forget you need things like comfort and assurance. Which is silly because all of them do anyways. Just in different ways.

Right she should probably let go before she makes this any weirder. She remembers First Aid hugging her. He was smaller, and he was just that type of person. Drift didn't seem like he was used to it. (Not that she is either). Reluctantly she steps back.

"You mean a lot to me," She says, scrubbing a hand through her hair, not wanting to look him in the eyes- optics. Whatever.

"Lay down now."

And she puts her helmet on. Not because it will protect her any. Because he asked.

No, he's not used to being hugged, but that doesn't mean he minds. One arm is hovering halfway around her, as though afraid to make contact, when she steps back. He drops his arm to his side quickly.

"...you too," he said. Though, honestly, the fact that he's here probably says that louder.

He waits till she settles the helmet on to stretch himself on the ground. He's so tired of lying down....

The helmet muffles her voice, but she turns off the filter. Just for him, so it's not the usual deep distortion that keeps her fairly anonymous.

"Okay. I'm gonna start dampening your sensors, so you won't feel much."

Right so. Doing this. She has to search around a little for the right components, the right panels to get into to start gently disconnecting things.

"You're gonna be just fine, okay? After this, we'll go back to the medbay, and you can see Wing and you know. When he wakes up you guys can have some nice romantic romp or something."

She laughs, trying to keep him distracted as she goes about her business, not entirely sure what she's doing.

He's used to the helmet altering her voice, so he's mildly surprised when it doesn't. And he figures why it is, and can't help a sort of nervous smile. It's almost sweet.

Well, for Vandal.

"Don't worry about it hurting, Karrie." Compared to what Prism had done...? Or what he'd done to himself back on Cybertron?

"Just...please be careful. For yourself. If you see anything dangerous, just...get away." He doesn't want to torture himself with thinking about a future that Prism might not let him have. But for her sake.... "I hope you're done before he wakes up."

"Fuck you, just let me make you comfortable." She gives his chest a gentle thump, shaking her head as she goes back to work.

Once she's satisfied she gives his armor a flick.

"Feel that?" She asks before addressing his fretting.

"And seriously? If anyone is living on borrowed time here, it's me. Besides. You? Are gonna live. I'm the best fucking engineer I know," That is a lie, a terrible lie, "And I'm gonna save you."

Maybe that's a lie, too. If he explodes right there, well. Not much either of them can do. But at least she'd have tried.

Well how can he talk back to that?

"Have you been taking bedside manner lessons from Ratchet?" He's trying to make a joke but in the circumstances, don't count on him for much.

"No," he says, to the tap on his armor. It's unsettling: he'd almost rather feel pain. He offers another smile. "First time since I've been here nothing's hurt."

He shifts against the ground, resettling his shoulders. "You're the best I know."

Edited 2012-08-20 05:15 (UTC)

"Nope," She says proudly, "I'm just a bitch."

Her smile is almost audible behind her helmet, in her voice, the way she softly snorts.

"You sure do know how to flatter." She does mean that, it's nice to hear it, even if it's not really true.

"And you shouldn't have to hurt. God, seriously. After this is all over? When you are feeling better, you and me are gonna do something fun. Okay?"

Carefully she's unhooking and lifting paneling away, manually opening hatches. To move his chest-plate she has to use the kinesis module on her RIG, floating it up and away carefully resting on the ground.

"Wing told me looking at someone's like. Spark-stuff was kind of personal. But I'm gonna have to. You know. Do this. I hope you understand."

He'll argue with her later about that. You know, when she's not stripping off his armor.

"Vandal. It feels nice. Not to hurt." He winces. That sounded stupid. But he meant it; it's been so long that having no alarms popping up on his HUD other than armor-removals was making him almost giddy.

He's craning his neck to watch her work, fascinated by how she uses her RIG, looking up finally at her words. "Yes. I knew that when I agreed to this, Karrie."

It's kind of cute in a sad way to hear him say that. It's nice not to hurt.

"Yeah, imagine that. Pain not feeling very nice and all." She honestly hadn't been sure if shutting off those nodes would do the trick, but it turned out it was like giving an anesthetic. She's quietly pleased.

"You don't have to hurt anymore," She says, quieter, reaching up to pat the side of his helm comfortingly before she throws herself back at getting down into the internals.

"Yeah, okay. Just wanted to make sure you weren't gonna get all like- no, Karrie you can't look at that I am so modest."

She switches her filter on just so she can do a convincing Drift impression.

Which doesn't sound like him at all.

"Right. Anyways... let's see here..."

It's probably obvious that the Decepticons, nor the Autobots, valued Drift for his conversational skills. He can write a good speech given time, but off the cuff, he's....Drift.

He blinks at the pat on his helm, and the sudden break in Vandal's usually hard shell. "I-I'll do my best." Because it's only a matter of time until he does get himself hurt again.

"Karrie. I was unconscious when you brought me in. I'm pretty sure most of me has been stared at already."

And that's a terrible Drift impression. Does he really sound like that?

"Damn well right you will," She sighs, beginning her search through his internal components for anything foreign. She does have to keep checking her VI datapad on her RIG when she runs across something she doesn't quite remember.

"And if you do- well. Ratchet's gonna teach me to be a good mechani- ah. Medic. So I'll always be around to fix you up."

She lifts a bundle of wires to check underneath. It had to be in this area, it would be incredibly hard to implant something elsewhere through the chest cavity.

"Alright, alright. I know. Just trying to respect your comfort zone."

He's beginning to figure out that her abrasiveness is a cover, so he grins as he lies back, watching her work. It feels strange, knowing someone was working on your opened chassis, and not feeling anything other than some slight pressure.

"I hope I don't need to be fixed a lot." But it's a sweet offer.

He watches, a bit tense, because, well, she's rooching around for a bomb. So many things could go wrong he can't even count them.

"Vandal. You're doing me a favor. Don't worry about my 'comfort'."

"Yeah, me too. But if it happens, I'll be ready."

She pauses, looking as though maybe she's found something. And then relaxes a moment later.

"I'll worry about your comfort all I want. Don't tell me what to do." Her usual edge is fuzzing, but she's still making the effort.

Her hands are still searching, and to get under his spark-casing she has to turn her head and feel blindly. There's another pause.

"Hold on. I think I found it." Another moment of struggling and she does abandon her helmet in favor of pushing her head down and stretching her hand out. It's a tight space to fit in... but there-

"Holy shit I found it. Hang tight."

She doesn't really give him a lot of room to argue. Not that it's wise to argue with her, ever. But especially not right now.

He twitches, feeling not pain but sort of the rather unsettling feeling of something moving around where things normally didn't. He can feel her proximity to his spark chamber, sending a bit of a flutter through his energy field.

"Vandal!" Damn, didn't she listen to him about the helmet? "You said you'd be careful."

"Shhhh. I know. But I'm less likely to make a mistake when I can see properly here. Hold on, I'm just running a few tests. It doesn't look like it's actually hooked into anything. Welded in pretty good though. I'm gonna run a scan, just. Hold still."

There's a few moments of very tense silence.

And then she starts shaking- just a little. It only becomes apparent that she's laughing after a moment when it gets louder, and she withdraws, flopping over on her back and planting a hand over her face and just laughing.

"It's not a bomb. You have no bombs in you," She says after a good uncomfortable moment of mirth.

"The little fucker was bluffing."

It's now more apparent that she's laughing out of relief than humor.

"What? What? What are you doing?" He feels her vibrate against him, afraid to movie, because he's not sure what would move in his chassis and afraid of crushing her.

"How do you know? Maybe there's one in there somewhere?" He doesn't want to hope but....

"No. I looked. It's the only bit of foreign matter in there, Drift. It's like. A tracking chip. It's transmitting but it's not hooked up to anything else. There's nothing big enough in there that would even do any damage to you if it exploded."

Give her a moment, she's got to revel in this relief for a minute more.

"You're gonna be fine." Gloved hands scrub over her face, leaving oily marks.

"He just like. Tagged you and released you back into the wild. I bet all the others are the same."

Right. Gonna close him up now.

"I can't remove it without Ratchet. It's on there really good and I don't have anything that is powerful enough that wouldn't damage you. But you're not gonna explode."

"A...tracking chip?" He's torn between disbelief and outrage. Who would lie about something like this?

"But...he has to know we'd find out about it. What's the point of lying in a way that could only be exposed like this?" It's slowly starting to seep in that he's made, well....sort of a fool of himself. Ouch.

He tries to sit up. "None of this makes any sense."

"Hey! Lie down. I need to close you up."

She pushes at him, for all the good it will do.

"I get the feeling there's something seriously wrong with him. Like he's crazy or something. Maybe he counted on the fact that the bluff would go long enough for him to get to that Hal guy he was asking for. Or maybe he just wanted to piss everyone off."

She bristles.

"You know. Some people just like to power trip. Get people to react. The point is, you're safe."

She goes about the much shorter task of closing up his panels, picking up the white chest plate with her RIG and clipping it back into place before turning his sensor nodes back on bit by bit.

Oh. Right. Sorry. Drift lowers himself back down, carefully.

"But threatening everyone to get one person? That seems a bit like overkill." A bit?

He frowns. "The point is, we need to stop him. Maybe this was a bluff, but maybe next time it won't be."

His face creases as the sensor nodes come back online. Welp. It was nice while it lasted.

"Seems like a crazy guy."

She pets a hand over the Autobot brand absently.

"He's been caught. He's been punished. As long as he doesn't get loose, we'll be fine."

Gingerly, she slides off of him, before turning abruptly and delivering a swift kick to his shin-plating. Not hard enough to dent. probably not hard enough to even hurt.

"That's for being a stupid fuck," She snaps, sighing after, "There are people who give a damn about you, Drift. You fucking deal with that however you want, but don't pull something like that again."

Her voice wavers. She's stressed, exhausted, and still in a good deal of pain. Having nearly lost one of the few good things ever given to her was even more taxing than she'd care to admit. The raging bitch act will only go so far.

"If he's threatening people to leverage someone else, I don't think he feels very 'punished', Vandal."

He rubs one hand over his chestplate, sitting up, drawing up one knee. "And trust me, they always get loose." Even Megatron had, from the Variable Voltage Harness.

And then--ow! It didn't hurt so much as, well...hurt another way. "Vandal, I'm...sorry. I was just thinking about trying to save lives."

"Yeah well- well I don't know. What do you want me to say? That letting him kill you would totally have stopped him. I'm not a genius. Hell, I'm not even smart."

Anger gives way to feeling helpless. She sits back on the edge of some rusty piece of machinery.

"I can't deal with it, Drift. I just want you around. You're-"

She shuts herself up, not trusting what she'd say beyond 'you're important'.

"It likely wouldn't have stopped him. But it would have bought us time to save others." And maybe would have taken care of Prism, if Drift had gone to where they were holding him instead of out here. And, uh, if it had been an actual bomb.

Yeah, he still feels kind of stupid about that.

"...an idiot?" he supplies, helpfully. Maybe helpfully. He's trying. "Vandal, I'm just not...used to anyone caring if I live or die." He shrugs. "I don't know how to do this."

"That's bullshit and a dumb reason to die." She feels herselft bristle again, halfheartedly.

"Yeah. You are. But you're my idiot. And not just that- there are other people who give a damn about you. And don't give me that 'they could do better' crap. Because it's crap."

She sighs, resting her face in both hands.

"Well. Learn, dork."

"Saving others? If you have to die, it's the best reason, I think." He vents air, frustrated at himself or not being able to manage the words right.

He winces as she covers her face. He's no expert on human body language, but that looks...upset. "I'm trying, Vandal. Just be patient."

"Well... I mean. Not-" Not like that, "I don't know. Maybe I'm selfish. I just don't want to lose you."

Come on, Karrie, get with it.

"I'm sorry, Drift. I'll try. You just scared me pretty bad. You're the first half-decent thing that I- I mean. I didn't have many friends. You know. At all. So... you're special."

"I..." Don't even know what to say, really. "I don't think your selfish. I had a good friend. A long time ago. He died and it changed...everything." Not for the better, either.

"You're special too, Karrie." He's so torn, because he doesn't want to hurt her but still...what he does is dangerous.

She shuts up for a moment, picking her next words carefully.

"The guy you mentioned before?" When they had that terribly awkward conversation about 'scoring'.

She shakes her head. Special? Her? No. But it's nice of him to say that.

"Yeah. Gasket." It's not a beautiful name, not like Wing which seems to almost want to fly off the glossa. But Gasket was...special.

He grins, prodding at her shoulder. "You are, to me." So there.

"Sorry he died, Drift." He's obviously been through some shit. Shit she can't even possibly hope to grasp. She'd hear him out, but the last thing she wants to do is pry more than she already does.

Maybe she's been too clingy. But he was the first bot she really met here. Maybe she's just a sucker for nice guys or desperate for companionship but she's starting to get the distinct feeling it goes beyond that. He is special.

She balks at the prod a bit, batting his hand away with a smirk.

"Good to know."

It really, really is.

"It's not your fault. It's nobody's fault, really. Just a thing that happened, but I guess we always want to make things have meaning." Or something. He's not always good at these gnomic sayings.

"Yeah, so, uh, if I can every, you know, repay you for this." The whole groping in his guts thing, "let me know."

Because he's just awkward like that.

"Yeah I'll let you know if I need someone to poke around my insides."

Well that came out way more awkward than she wanted.

"I mean th-"

Sigh.

"Let's just. Go home. Can you drive or should I call Ratchet?"

"I.......

"...I'd rather someone like First Aid or a human doctor do that?"

Unless you mean, uh, the other kind of poking and yeah he's just going to find the horizon fascinating right now, don't mind him.

"I can drive. Drove out here, didn't I?"

Though in all honestly, these two could probably use an adult.

She chooses not to even grace that with an answer. She was just saying words without thought and that was always dangerous for her.

"Right. Wasn't sure if you felt up to it after the whole... yeah. Let's go home, Drift."

Because she kind of wants to go be alone so she can have a mental breakdown.

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The fog hissed away like a movie

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