re_alignment_logs | Fundamental Failure to Fly

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Fundamental Failure to Fly

WHO: Fracas and YOU! Yes, YOU!
WHERE: All over the Haven
WHEN: Over the course of the next week (7/8 to 7/13)
WHAT: Fracas is practicing flying... unfortunately he's not so good at it yet.
WARNINGS: n/a, to be updated as needed

Fracas had been a car since forever. No, really. It was what he had always been. Wheels were the way he got around; it was why he suggested the roads in the first place. His undercarriage was so sore from rocks and stray junk he had to do something. Besides walking, anyway.

Changing to the body of a flier has... been something of an adjustment.

Okay, it's been a lot of adjustment. One he's still not entirely there with. But practicing combat with Shockwave had helped his fighting abilities. So practicing flying will help with that. At least, he hopes so.

If only it didn't end with him crashing so much.

Wing flaps are more difficult to deal with than he'd expected. If not for those, he'd have the flying part down. The landing not so much. As it is, he's only got down the takeoff. But one out of three ain't bad, right?
... Right?

Beware, Haven. For this week, a certain now-teal Vehicon is going to be in the sky. And nobody will be safe from him unexpectedly dropping out of the sky. Not even if you're in a temple; he might just crash right through your wall, in fact. Hope you were planning some renovations!

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There's only so much to be done with Vehicon frames, unfortunately. At least they removed the wheels before slapping the wings on. That was pretty much all they could do, though; uniform-looking soldiers, blah blah blah. But he didn't want to abandon his people quite so quickly, and this was the one concession left to him.

Now, if he was just any good at it...

Fracas gasps in surprise, shifting back to robot mode as he connects with Jetfire's arm. And then promptly curls himself around said arm. Way too high up, eep.

"Ah... actually this is pretty normal. I'm. Learning. Sorry, I didn't mean to run into you..."

Hope you like clinging to the arm of an Autobot who's of comparable size to your reality's Megatron...

Jetfire, slightly bemused but keeping his expression polite instead of letting the smile through like it wanted to, kept his arm out to allow Fracas his anchor point.

"Since neither of us got injured, no harm done." Literally. The comment about still learning, though, got a helmtilt and the upper edge of an optic arching.

"Reformat? Since I believe... you've been here a while, and you weren't a flyer then," Jetfire said as he looked Fracas over. The fact of minimal changes allowed the connection to be made rather easily between Fracas' former appearance and the current one, though the colour threw him off at first.

Well. Not exactly, but it's better than plummeting towards the ground. And once he manages to stop squirming around it's probably not all that difficult to deal with his weight.

Vehicons are woefully underarmored and all.

Fracas looks up at the Autobot - huge Autobot he finally realizes - wings twitching down sheepishly. He's also going maskless these days, Jetfire can get a good look at a one-eyed Vehicon. "Ah. No, I wasn't. I was also... slightly more purple than this."

He may have panicked a bit much about Starscream, but he was able to fool a lot of the bots from his dimension and that was what mattered to him.

His weight, Fracas squirming around or not, wasn't really an issue, no. More trying to hold his arm so that Fracas didn't fall off immediately if he lost his grip.

"Hmm, thought so. Don't see many... ah, drastic reformats like this, though you're obviously flexible enough to make the switch, even if flying is giving you some issues." He's curious about Fracas' reason as to why he'd change, but he's not necessarily going to ask him - he doesn't really know the Vehicon, after all.

The one-eyed look gets a bit of a frown, but Jetfire just shakes his helm slightly.

"Anything in particular giving you problems?"

Edited 2013-07-10 23:45 (UTC)

Fracas will hopefully manage to keep his grip, though he had to dig his claws into whatever seams he happens to find in Jetfire's armor. Well. This has certainly gone well so far!

"Some issues may, ah. May be a bit generous. I've never actually done this before. Like. Ever." Not even on the back of someone else had he done this. As for the reason... well. It's difficult to explain, really. Actually, it's less difficult and more incredibly awkward.

"Uhm. Well, mostly the flying and the landing parts. I figured out takeoff but... that's really as far as I've gotten."

There should be a few seams Fracas can use, yes, though his explanation has Jetfire eye Fracas slowly up and down, and then the upper edge of an optic rising.

"... None? I think... er, you should perhaps have asked for assistance before you decided to learn the hard way. Do you even have any supplementary flight programs and flight-check routines?" With a shake of his helm, Jetfire raises his other arm to rest a finger or two against Fracas' back.

"... Find your main thrusters, and turn them on, and concentrate on a low, continuous burn that should be just enough to counter your own weight." Nevermind flying, it was clearly best to get the Vehicon capable of just keeping himself in the air right now.

Fracas flicks his wings down slightly as he's scrutinized.

"The hard way would have been someone throwing me off of a starship in-atmo," he replies dryly. "Thundercracker offered to help me but I haven't seen him in a while. I hope nothing happened to him..."

He makes a short noise that sounds remarkably like 'eep' as Jetfire's fingers come to rest on his back.

"W-well I kind of, uhm. Have to be in vehicle mode for that. It would be really cool if I could, but... I don't fly like you can." Being able to fly in robot mode might actually make it easier for him.

Jetfire can't quite help the stare, and then he shakes his helm, giving a faint, dry snort, though it's not just from some vague and dry gallow's humour regarding the possibility of being tossed off a ship, but also incredulousness from the fact of Fracas' (dangerous) flight limitation.

"Considering what just happened, it seems the effect of your chosen method of teaching yourself nearly amount to the same thing as what you defined as the 'hard way'," said Jetfire, pausing before he shook his helm, allowing the incredulousness to colour his voice again.

"... That doesn't seem safe. At all, since transformation can be delayed, or any number of things. It's not something that can be over-ridden?" If he'd heard the little noise Fracas gave as he moved to support him, Jetfire did nothing to highlight that he had, and rather was now looking Fracas over again, frowning and, yes, considering the possibilities of over-riding routines or rebuilding/reformatting...

Not that he'd actually suggest that in any way more than he already had - it could obviously be something of a sensitive subject, but it was close to something Jetfire was interested in and had done a lot to himself so it came naturally.

He realizes how weird this whole thing likely is, especially to bots from a completely different dimension. It's not exactly an everyday occurrence that someone gets a complete reformat and then has to deal with readjusting alone, but... there it is.

"Well, no one threw me, first off. I have no one to blame but myself." Which, in the scheme of things, really makes all the difference to Fracas. Not that it helps anything here.

"It's not as though I have strategically-placed jet thrusters in this mode that would allow me to fly like this. No one from my universe does." That Fracas knows of, anyway. Even the ones with VTOL engines have to be in vehicle mode to do anything with them. People flying in robot mode is just crazy. At least, it was until he got here. Then again, now Jetfire has him thinking about the possibility.

It would be rather cool. And it would give him more options at least, if he had to fight or flee quickly. Who knows, it could even help with the whole flying thing in general...

"So, you'd need another refit or reformat for that to happen," murmurs Jetfire as he looks the Vehicon over again. He had of course noted there was no obviously usable thrusters or engine nozzles in a practical place on Fracas' root mode, but he'd assumed they were merely hidden.

Even if one might be slower and less elegant in the air in root mode, they could still fly in it.

"Well, I suppose it's a good thing you did it to yourself, but perhaps you should've kept to attempting to maneuver low to the ground?" He can't quite help the dry amusement. "How did you end up this high up?"

"Exactly. And then I definitely wouldn't know what to do." Interesting as it would be even so. He's not sure he's really cut out for something like that, at this point. Handling learning how defend himself, how to keep off of Starscream's radar, and fly is a lot already, but flying two different ways?

Maybe when he's got a better handle on other things.

"I try to, but... still kind of working on the whole wing flap thing." It doesn't exactly come naturally when you aren't used to having an extra axis to maneuver through.

Jetfire nods, looking at Fracas, then casts a glance down towards the ground quite far below them, and up at the smaller mech again.

"If you have access to and control of your wings in root mode, you may want to sit up and we might be able to work on that part at least." A pause, and might be a small, dry smile curling around the edges of Jetfire's lips. "Without you hurtling through the air because you did the wrong thing and lost control of your flying."

Hopefully he'd have access to that, at least, otherwise Jetfire would land with Fracas, have him transform and then - engine off - go through what he could, bit by bit, just to familiarise himself with it all.

Fracas looks down - as much as he can, anyway, swallowing. Well. At least now he'd be able to do something about the drop. Sort of.

"I do. The flaps, I mean. I can control the rest too, sort of, but. The entire wing doesn't move in vehicle mode. Just... have to sit up." Carefully. To keep from falling. Though the last little jibe gets a sheepish smile out of him. Yeah, he can't deny that. He is an aerial hazard and he knows it.

Ah, don't worry little vehicon. Jetfire would catch you if you fell! And not so much (just) an aerial hazard as minimising the potential harm Fracas could cause himself if he lost control and couldn't regain it in time.

"Good." Jetfire smiles and keeps his hand hovering at Fracas' back both out of readiness and hopefully some reassurance that when Fracas does sit up, it's not without some ready help if it should be needed.

"Do that, and then I want you to access the control over them, and move them all one at a time." At first, anyway. Hopefully it'll give the vehicon a chance to realise not just where they are, but how they're connected - to him, to flight control and to his own programming and frame so he can control them while doing other things while actually flying.

Well that's just sweet, Jetfire. He appreciates it regardless of the reasoning. Any help that Fracas can get with not dying and not killing anyone, after all. Someday, he'll be able to handle something without assistance, though.

"All right." Fracas takes his time sitting up but manages it well enough. Even better, he's decent at balancing himself. Once he gets settled he starts moving the flaps slowly back and forth, one at a time. He twists to watch them at least once, and closes his functioning optic to just feel them for a while. Okay. This... this makes more sense. Sort of.

"So that's how that goes. Okay."

At least it's a start, right? Probably a lot better than hurtling through the air attempting to get a handle on flying that way. Jetfire can't quite help the brief chuckle at Fracas' comment, though.

"Indeed. Not that I've ever had wheels, but the ailerons, and tail parts are as integral to your course and direction as wheels are. Turning will only give you a rough direction; these are to finetune it... plus, you're working in three dimensions, not two." Jetfire pauses to glance, pointedly, not just around them and up, but downwards.

He'd apologise for, accidentally and not, emphasising there's no ground directly beneath them and that it's very far away, but that's the feature of flying, after all.

"If you want to turn, you have to add additional power as well as angling yourself into the angle of the turn... otherwise you'll stall." And fall, but perhaps that's something Fracas has noticed already?

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Fundamental Failure to Fly

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