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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"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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