Ave Maria [OPEN]

[vandalization]

WHO: Karrie (VANDAL) and YOU!
WHERE: The Medbay; Solus Temple.
WHEN Sunday morning
WHAT: Vandal, awake and having broken her fever, is no longer in immediate danger of dying, so she decides to keep her hands busy.
WARNINGS: ... She's got a foul mouth when she's upset, but otherwise she's pretty tame. Also slight disturbing imagery.

DO YOU SWEAR TO FOLLOW THE TEACHINGS OF UNITOLOGY?

I DO.

DO YOU ACKNOWLEDGE ALTMAN FOR HIS SERVICES TO OUR CAUSE, AS OUR SHEPHERD INTO THE PATH OF ASCENSION?

I DO

WELCOME TO THE CHURCH, MISS NORTON, WE ARE HONORED TO HAVE YOU AMONGST OUR GATHERING, PRAISE BE TO ALTMAN FOR DELIVERING YOU UNTO OUR CHURCH. MAY THE MARKER MARKER MARKER MARKER MARKER MARKER MARKER MARKER MARKER BLESS YOU, KARRIE NOW AND F O R E V . . .

Waking up in a hospital that's built for creatures far larger than yourself is jarring in and of it's own right. And Karrie is entirely impressed that she is waking up at all. Maybe this isn't a dream? She feels clear headed enough. And the pain tells her that she's very awake.

Can you have dreams inside of dreams? The desert... the white

She shakes her head, sliding off the small "bed" that had been made for her and fetching her Rig which was neatly laid out nearby. The wound at her side had been stitched. She could still feel broken ribs, though. Those would take time to heal, but this place is far too strange. Surreal... to be left unexplored. At least there's no necromorphs scuttling after her here. Not that she'd seen, anyways.

Nobody around. No robots. But signs of them. She slips out into open air outside, finishing gingerly putting her rig and helmet on. She may be safe now, but who the hell knows what's out here?

She won't stray far, rather balking at the idea of earning Ratchet's ire. Instead she wanders just as far as the edge of the junk pile, poking around for a while. Thinking.

She has to think. Despite not knowing what to even do with herself. She needs a focus. Needs to ask questions.

She begins gathering a few things here and there, and after about thirty minutes she's back in the med bay with a small bag full of what appears to be useless parts. Dumping them on the floor and sitting down like a kid with some brand new legos.

In an hour, the junk she'd picked up has been assembled into two box-like devices and set up on platforms at either corner of the room. And she's fiddling now with a smaller something- like TV remote, the holo-screen of her RIG floating in front of her, and the tools from her belt storage spread out around her amongst the left over, but neatly-sorted scraps of wire, batteries and little bits of tape that she'd scrounged up.

Comments

[sword_redemption]

"It happens." He's seen worse. He's not fond of being sick, but compared to D-Void trying to reach in and control him? This was nothing.

"It's why I started fighting, actually. It was something to do. Something that gave me some kind of power over my future." He strokes the Great Sword, tilted at an angle over his head.

The touch on his ankle stops him. He's not used to being touched. Well. In a non-medical, non-going-to-blow-your-head-off way.

He gives a quiet laugh. "I'm not sure what I'd say if I had to sing about life."

[vandalization]

It's such a weird feeling. She can feel warmth even through her gloves. Not like the normal kind of working-machine warm. It's like a living kind of warmth, like she'd felt before laying, bleeding inside Ratchet. It's almost unnerving in a way.

Excuse her while she peers into his ankle-gap, trying to see the gears inside.

"Yeah? So why the swords, anyway? I mean, you are kind of... advanced technology. If that's not too intrusive to ask."

He really can't help the urge to poke around. She's never seen anything like these bots before. She dares to tocuh a small wire that's near the surface.

"Well I guess that's up to you. Though come on. Repeat after me: lovin, is what I got."

[sword_redemption]

"Swords. It's a long story. I used guns for a long time. But swords, they make it personal. You know what you hit, and you're in danger, not hiding, safely, behind something." He gives a tight, strange smile. Not really something he talks about. Then again, it's not really something that comes up.

Drift twitches, before stilling himself, afraid that any movement would compress his armor, crush her fingers. Besides, she's just looking.

Looking with her hands, apparently.

He holds himself still, but she may hear the slight hitch in his vents at the plucked wire. "I...uh...what are you doing?" He means the singing thing.

[vandalization]

"Yeah? I guess I can understand that. Know what it's like fighting in close quarters."

He hand pulls back like she's been burned at the slight sound.

"Sorry. Doesn't hurt does it? I've just. Never seen engineering like this. I mean Duh alien robots, right? But it's just... amazing."

A pause.

"What? Singing along? Try it. S'fun."

[sword_redemption]

"It's better to know what you're doing. You feel it. Rather than being in a safe distance, pressing a button and...destroying a whole world."

He shakes his head. "No. Doesn't hurt. And if it did, I can handle it." He shrugs. "Stabbed myself once." ...because that's a really cool thing to admit to someone. Drift. Where is your brain?

Fun, huh? He could try a little fun. "All right." Brace yourself, human. He tilts his head, remembering the song. "L-loving...is...what...I...got?" He's concentrating on the pitch, because that's how it works, right?

[vandalization]

"I guess. I just never had much of a choice. Locked in a tin can with something trying to kill me isn't the ideal thing though. But I suppose you're speaking more about battles and less about surviving."

A beat as she absorbs that.

"Fucking- why the hell would you do that!? Good lord."

Well then. She'll just circle around and investigate your foot this time. Whatever is in reach.

"You have to relax into it. Come on, after me. Well, life is too short, so love the one you got. 'Cause you might get run over or you might get shot. Lovin' is what I got. I said remember that- snap your fingers a little like this, it helps. And it makes you look cool."

She will teach him this whole damn song before the day is out.

[sword_redemption]

"I've done my share of surviving. Back in the gutters. Maybe not as bad as what you've seen. But surviving isn't really living." He says this as though it's a really wise thing. To him it is: he's just learning this himself.

Yeah, uh. Well. He was trying to make a point with that. What was that again? Drift is a terminal idiot? Not quiet, though he's pretty sure Ratchets across the multiverse would agree with that one. Oh, right. "Something was trying to control me, making me attack my friends. I had to stop it. Uh. Myself." Hence, self-stabbing.

Wh-what is it with her and his feet? He's beginning to think she might need to see Rung. Still he stretches it out in front of her, to let her look. It's just a foot. He does not get the big deal.

He's trying, Vandal, he's trying. But you've got him trying to do a dozen things at once: Look cool, make a melody, and learn words. He can manage maybe...one of those, and it sure isn't the first one.

"you might get run over you might get--hey. Uh. These words?" What is this song?

[vandalization]

"I know. Just didn't exactly have a choice." She leaves it as that watching with fascination, the gears and joints visible through the gaps in his plating as he moves his leg.

It was whatever she could reach, and she wasn't exactly about to go examine his crotch or whatever. But when he stretches out like that she can sure get a better look at his knee and hand. His hand, particularly complex. She spends a good while leaning in and looking it over.

"Well shit. You're quite the honorable hero arn't you?" Not meant to be mocking. More just... stating the facts. He looked like some kind of samurai right out of- she has to think about it to remember, as she'd never been to earth. Just learned about it. Ah- Japan.

"Hey don't stop you were doing well. What about the words?"

[sword_redemption]

"No. You always have a choice. You can fight, or you can give up."

That, no mater what mistakes he'd made in the past with that choice, he knew.

He watches her quietly as she studies his lower leg. "Are you a medic?"

It's strange to think of himself as something to be studied, stranger still to be almost admired. "No. I just try to do the right thing. Which isn't often easy."

He shrugs. "Just...seems hard to think of dying. Just like that before no reason."

[vandalization]

"Medic? No. Engineer. Though I guess by your guy's standards that would make me a medic. If I knew how you guys worked on the inside."

She seems fascinated by the smooth joints she can see through the gaps in his knees. She resists the urge to touch this time, not wanting to hurt or bother him.

"S'not about death, Drift. It's about living, because shit happens. So you just live day to day and being a decent person. Doing the right thing. Just like you, right? You say it's not easy doing the right thing, but you sure do make it look effortless. S'actually a rare quality in people."

[sword_redemption]

"It would make you a...something more than I can do." He's more about the injuring than the fixing, honestly.

He tres to angle his leg to give her a better look. It was weird, but harmless.

"I guess I was just thinking that you should do those things, but not because you're afraid you could die or something." He's not getting the words right, at all. "It's not easy for me. I spent most of my life doing the wrong thing. Kind of makes you doubt..everything."

[vandalization]

See when he's sitting here enabling her curiosity, she can't resist it for long. She slides her fingers between his knee-gap to investigate the moving cog she was shift when he adjusted.

"I suppose so. And... hah. I know what you mean. You're not the only person in the room who's made mistakes, so whatever they are, it doesn't matter to me."

She pauses, hands withdrawing and dropping to her side. She sits down at last, next to him, an ironic smaller mirror of his posture.

"You're the first friend I've had in years, and I've only known you a few days, so fuck all if I'm going to judge you."

Not an easy thing to admit, but she was just that socially inept. It was what drove her to Unitology in the first place.

[sword_redemption]

It feels....strange. Not unpleasant, not painful. Just very small fine contact in places rarely touched. It seems to interest her, so why not?

He gives a sort of bitter smile. "It's safe to say I've made mistakes longer than you've been alive.".

He wins!

"Don't be too quick to trust. But I give you my word, I won't hurt you." He's a little stunned by the 'friend' label. Not many on the Lost Light would use such a word for him.

[vandalization]

She withdraws her hand and gives his leg a gentle punch.

"Don't play the 'who's the bigger fuck up' game with me, pal or I'll give you something to think about."

Yeah right, what could she, still injured and hopped up on painkillers, posibly hope to intimidate a giant robot with?

She softens and sighs, examining the gloves over her RIG.

"S'all I could ask of you."

Maybe she was too trusting. What an idiot- she thought Tyler was her friend. Threw her under the proverbial bus on that one without a second thought. She's just a tool.

[sword_redemption]

"I was just saying, it's the past. You can let it weigh you down, or you can try to move beyond it." It's what he tries to do.

"But you're welcome to try, anyway." Just a hint of a smile, not condescending.

"It's a lot to ask of anyone or anything." He shrugs. "World's a rough place, even without a war."

[vandalization]

"Fair enough. Easier said than done, though, pretty aware. You guys must have a lot longer to move past your shit. How long do you live, anyways?"

That earns him another weak punch.

"You wanna go, buddy? I'm sure I can take you." Obviously, she's not serious, but it feels good to casually joke like this.

"Well. For what it's worth I wouldn't hurt you either. Not that I viably could, but you know."

[sword_redemption]

"I never said it was easy." There's a note to his voice--he never would say that. It's hard. Harder still when you know there will always be mechs to whom you'll always be 'the ex-Decepticon'. "And we live as long as we can be repaired."

A long time.

"You can always try." He pushes gently at one of her shoulders, a scaled-down move of the slamming punch he'd give Wheeljack. "I'll even try to stay awake."

[vandalization]

He can't see it, but her mouth turns up a grin behind her helmet.

"Oh I was gonna let you off the hook but now we're gonna tango, mister."

She hauls herself up, looking him over and returning to his side. Since fiddling with his leg joints and the gaps therein didn't seem to be much of a bother to him (didn't hurt, he'd said), she finds the seam in his side and mischievously prods a finger in against whatever is under there. Hopefully she'll make a pest of herself, make him flinch or something.

She realizes, only shortly after, that's more of a human gesture, and she wonders how one would really make themselves a nuisance to a robot properly.

God she hopes this doesn't backfire into something awkward.

how could this NOT backfire into awkwardville?

[sword_redemption]

He tries to block her, but her hands are pretty small, and he pulls his block because, well, you know, not fun to knock someone unconscious.

"GAAAAH!" He bolts upright, going rigid. That...tickles.

VANDAL ISNT THE BEST MAKER OF CHOICES HISTORICALLY

[vandalization]

Whoa. That was way more pleasing than she'd imagined. She laughs and it comes out of her suit in grainy static through the filter. She doesn't care if she has to grab her side after with the resulting pain. Oh that was worth it. Looks like she does have something on him.

It's easy to duck under and dart her hand into the same spot again, wriggling her fingers.

"I dunno, you seem pretty awake to me, pal."

clearly

[sword_redemption]

"Vandal!" He squirms, trying to get out of the way. And fails. "Ratchet could come!" Yes, when in doubt, and fear for tickling, invoke Ratchet.

It's a legitimate strategy.

[vandalization]

"Come on, what happened to the tough guy? What is Ratchet going to do? Grouch me to death?"

Yeah, Ratchet threat? What is he going to do, come rescue Drift from the awful human attack?

"Say 'uncle' and I'll stop."

It's weird how human these robots can be in so many aspects. Seriously? Ticklish? Who knew. Either way, he's not getting out of this one with his dignity as she redoubles her efforts with both hands.

[sword_redemption]

"I'm trying not to hurt you!" Yeah, you believe that, right? It is a bit true, after all. He's afraid of thrashing and hitting her.

"....what?"

[vandalization]

"I'm not really above using that to my advantage."

She stops momentarily, keeping the threat over her hands there.

"Uh... when you're messing around, and you want someone to admit defeat, they're supposed to say 'uncle'. I honestly can't explain it."

Unknowingly, she is steeping this poor robot in human culture.

[sword_redemption]

"Good strategy." He'll admit it, even though he's currently the victim of it. Because this is the most relaxed, most off-guard moment he's had since he's been here. No label of 'the ex-Decepticon' hanging over his head, no complications. He feels...comfortable.

He grins. "Who says I'm admitting defeat?" Of course it's easy to play tough when you're not being tickled.