Delayed Lunch Ep. 2 {Carbine}

[Deleted]

Episode 2; Week 3, Day 2; 12:30pm

While there was still a lot to learn, Nell was slowly finding her place here at the Autobot base. She learned a few things about Cybertronian anatomy already and she had been reading the files that were given to her that gave details on odds and ends she could help with if the time ever came about. They were all on a simple ereader that had been heavily encrypted to keep the information safe, but also allowed her to take them home so she could read when she had time to herself.

To some, it was boring work – but to a gear head like her? She found it interesting, just like she thought helping repair tanks interesting. Beside, the more she knew to help make actual repairs – the better everyone would be if she was needed.

For now though, Nell was finishing on more basic base repairs – like replacing sockets that could barely hold plugs because they had become too loose. Sure, it was more electrical work but someone had to do it and with the one she was working on? Well, it'd be the last of the 'known' problem sockets that needed to replace – just in time too, her stomach was starting to growl at her. “Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know you want food.” The mechanic muttered under her breath as she worked her fingers carefully around the wires to get things hooked up properly.

At least this sort of work, was relatively quick – or would have been if she didn't have to go through the base map finding each individual socket, finding the sections power breakers to shut off the power, and THEN getting to work on the whole thing. She had to remind herself, as her stomach growled again, that this was the last one. Even more so, as she started screwing the face plate back on. All that was left? Was turning the circuit breaker back on, and to mark off on the chart that she was done.

Really, it was just in time too, because her stomach let out another growl as she moved towards the circuit breaker and flicked the switch on before marking off on the chart with the green pen. Okay, now to find some autobot to let them know she was heading off for an hour for a well deserved lunch break – though she heard some soft 'clink-clink-clink's along with a softer 'thump-thump'. Her brow raised, well then...at least she wouldn't have to go far in letting someone know she was taking off for a little bit.

If only she knew she should of ran the moment she heard those damn footsteps.

[Carbine]

Where was that tiny little thing...

It had to be around here somewhere...

There were certain tasks and jobs that a smaller individual was best for. Cassettes with real digits and where sentient enough to use them often helped quite a bit with menial repairs for their Masters, as well as other tasks. But not everyone had a cassette, and even fewer had one with dexterity and thumbs. Then add on the fact many were as dumb as rocks... and well... Carbine hit the statistical average of being shit out of luck.

It is this that made him have to consider his other options. The most logical choice was to go to Ratchet, because he was their Medic and did have the skill and dexterity to work with tiny objects, but pride was also a consideration. It would hurt his pride and be embarrassing to have to seek out their one and only medic for something so stupid. His efforts would be better spent elsewhere. As such, other alternatives were few and far between, but he had heard they had a human around that Ratchet was helping to teach...

Score.

Disproportionally long limbs carried the large Cybertronian through the hallways, each footfall careful and considered to try to be as sneaky as was reasonable. He didn’t want to cause a raucous, or draw attention to himself, but he didn’t want to be overly slow and hindered. As such, he ended up in a lower near predatory gait, the sharp toe of his ped clicking down, before his heel wheel struck a moment after with a soft thump of the rubber liner.

His goal was a simple one all things considered, and all he needed to do was seek out the little human and get it to help him out. Surly this couldn't go wrong in any way, especially when Fowler had appointed it to help them right? So it would just be doing him a favor! As such, he continued down the hall, before yellow optics locked down into the weird little thing.

Humans looked like a toy to him. They were way too small, and very oddly shaped. Their limbs tapered down with no flares or panels of thicker components, and they just seemed so... bland... alas, what could you expect for organics right? Either way he didn’t even wait for her to notice him fully, as his at-ease gait instantly bucked into a loping jog, and he was upon her instantly.

White tipped fingers swung down and clutched around Nel with a gentle but firm grip, cautious to not really squeeze or crush it until he felt too much resistance. While he knew very little overall about the organics, he knew they were fragile and squishy, and that they had a strut system made of breakable glassy material. It is because of his he hefted her up while planting one hand down and beneath her to support the majority of her body weight like he had seen some humans doing to smaller animals, and the other about her torso. Unless she became liquid, she was trapped.

Nel would find herself hefted swiftly into the air, like an impromptu carnival ride gone astray. The world around her would become a blur of movement and changing sceneries, doors flashing by on either side of her and lights buzzing past overhead as they wove back and down the halls until they were deep into the base. There was a moderate lurch, a swivel, and one of the many doors within the sleeping quarters of the outpost had slid aside, plunging them both into darkness.

Quickly, as if suddenly deciding Nel could bite, or shoot acid or something, she was deposited down atop a metal slab of a berth, abandoned readily where she couldn't chew at his fingertips. Now able to see the kidnapper in the darkened room, Nel would be able to make out the outline of a larger Cybertronian, luminous yellow optics peering down at her from behind a black visor. In the darkness, that was mostly the only light, save for some flecks of blue that shined along his left shoulder. The thick luminous material dripped down along the white ring of the shoulder array, leading down to drip to the ground below with soft patters.

"So, human, I͝ ḿay need a f-favor."

[Deleted]

Nell might have been appointed to help them, but it didn't mean she had to be subject to a ride that made Space Mountain look like a carousal! There were a handful of times that her stomach lurched and flopped – just like there was a moment she had to swallow down the bile that was creeping up the back of her throat.

One thing was for certain, it was a damn good thing it had been hours since she had anything to eat and lucky for Carbine – he didn't have to worry about finding a drive in car wash that took helicopters. There was a moment or two, when the woman tried to yell for him to slow down and to stop yanking her about like a rag doll. Her head and shoulders were already starting to smart from the whiplash she endured and despite being set down in Carbine's room? The room was spinning, his yellow eyes and the blue that shined along his shoulder blurred together into a dizzying swirl.

Her eyes were clamped shut, and she took a series of deep breaths to simply orient herself – as well as stop the blasted spinning.

What was funny about this whole thing, if she had ate something not long ago? She would have shot acid – though in the lovely act known as vomiting. At least the former cop didn't have to worry about that happening, and Nell wouldn't have to try to soothe a possibly panicking Carbine that 'No, vomit is not strong enough to bore through your metal plating.' Once her eyes opened, mainly upon him saying he may need a favor, they looked towards the luminous ooze that dripped onto the ground.

“Couldn't you have just asked for my help instead of sending me on a fuckin' whiplash ride?” She asked him, taking a deep breath before looking towards the yellow orbs hidden behind a mask. “And the name's Nell.” Because seriously, did someone not get the memo of her name? Either way, she rolled her shoulders slightly – trying to loosen the tightness that had developed with no thanks to him.

“What's the favor?” She vaguely knew about Cybertronian physiology thanks to Ratchet, but really? She was like a student nurse at the very best when it comes to these things.

[Carbine]

"I am s-sorry" not really "But I didn͜'͞t͘ real͢l͢y have much choice!" also a lie "To sh-ow any kind of weakness for our spec̀i̸e̵s̶ ̴is frowned upon." A bigger lie to mess with the human. "I can't have an entire co̴n̴v̡èr͏sation all out in the open wh-where just anyone can walk by a̴n̶d e͝av̧e̸s̷drop!"

As Nel's eyes would get more and more adjusted to the darkness, bits and pieces of what was Carbine and Thunder's shared quarters would come to the surface. The room was scarcely put together, which was to be expected, with only a few belongings here or there. There was a metal berth, but only one of them, and it was only big enough for a single Cybertronian and no more. It was apparent that only one of the two would get to sleep on anything resembling a bed. Across the way was a bit of a small hoard, where interesting trinkets were stored from their scouting missions. Mangled scrap metal, chunks and parts jutting up out of a wadded mess. Beside it was some containers and shoddily welded together vessels, all of which were probably used as some makeshift chemistry set.

Above them all, it seemed that one of them had been hard at work over their short stay at the Omega Outpost. Filigree and constellation like etches were carved into the far corner's ceiling, the grooves and marks deep cut and decorative with harsh edges and sharp crooks in shapes. The surface of the ceiling was only part done, a mere fraction, but it showed intent to further spread out like a disease to consume the entire surface if permitted. Either way, the ex-cop started to speak.

"Ok so, Th-things happen, stuff ǵoes ̵down̨, and what do͜ y͜ou̧ have it! Things can g̛o̷ ͡wr͘o͢ǹg in this crazy loopdee-loop we call li-fe."

As Carbine started to explain the situation, he lifted up both of his hands in order to gesture about. The arm attached to what appeared to be an injured shoulder, was held mostly stationary, the palm angled to the ceiling and white fingertips gently curled inward. In contrast the other hand was swooping around in controlled motions that added to what he had to say. A flick of a wrist, a low swoop of a thick forearm covered in armor, it was paired with soft hisses of internal mechanisms churning away to make such motions.

"And when things go out̡ ́o͢f l̨i͟ne͝, sometimes a few th-̸th-̵things snap, and a few things go ͠w͟rơnǵ."

Holding out his hand, he would extend his pointer finger and angle it in front of Nel's face. He didn't touch her, he knew better than to do that and didn't want to be bit ((even though it probably wouldn't hurt)). Either way he hovered the digit in front of her, as if wanting to place on her lips to keep her silent. He paired the action with some quick clicking noises, akin to a fast 'tsk tsk' to interrupt whatever verbiage may try to be spewed out and keep her hush.

"Oh ̕òh͢! But hold on now lad̛y hu̶m͡an̛! I know you are just wor-ried sick, but you got to han̡-h͢a̶n̢-hold tight there. It is true! Life ca̵n bȩ ̀a cruel mistress that cradles you only to ͏d͏ro͟p͠ ̢y̶o͡u out a window on your head! It isn̛'t̀ a͝lwa̴y̶s̸, life is still good, you shouldn’t go hu-rl yourself into the Ground Br-bridge reactor, but things can just not go̴ according to plan and͏ ͞c͞aus̨es͠ a bunch of other stuff to go w̷rong."

He then placed both of his hands down on the edge of the berth, internals groaning and churning once more to fuel his dipping motion. In just a second, he was down far more level with Nel, the slick surface of his cracked visor not very far from her. Yellow eyes could be seen through the dark material, a hazy outline that was vague and showed not where he was looking exactly. However at such a close distance, some of the brighter yellow that bordered white shone from his cornea lens.

"And just s̕o̶mȩt͝i͜me̛s... very rar-ely, just occ-occasionally..."

His voice dipped a lot deeper at this, far more grim and serious. At his downed position, some of the Energon speckled onto the slab of metal below. It patted audibly in the haunting silence that fell over the far more grave tone the helicopter mech was now portraying.


"You uni̸nte͡ntįo̷ńa̶l̶ly͡ st-stab yourself in the shoulder and c͞au͏se̕ ̢an old shank to shatter͜ ͘in̛to̷ the jo-joint."

Anticlimactic.

His smile could be nearly felt in the air.

[Deleted]

Her face was flat as she looked up towards the darkness as he prattled on with his lies. Her brows raised briefly, her lips were pursed into a thin line. Then, her lips parted as she spoke. “...I think you're a lyin' sack of shit.” She remarked, cool as a cucumber. “But seriously, what's the favor?” Because they might as well cut through said crap and get down to business.

At least her eyes were adjusting to the darkness and she noted how thrown together the room was. God, it was a mess. An interesting mess, but still a mess that a junkyard king would probably be proud of. The trinkets (could one really call them such tihngs?) were interesting, in their own junky looking way. The chemistry set, was a bit..Dubious to say the least and the human half wondered what the higher ranking Autobots thought of this craziness. Oh well, not her rodeo, she wasn't going to touch it with a ten foot pole.

And really! If she hadn't been abducted like she had been? She would have been rather happy to continue staying out of it, or as much as she could be given she was working with these 'people'. Though, one thing as for certain ,she had to admire the carvings on the ceiling. They were intricate and beautiful in their own way, she could study and look at them all day – but the crazy started talking again, and in her opinion? He did sound crazy and Nell's brows were once again raised as she watched his good hand waved about while he talk. She could hear the soft hisses of the internal mechanisms move about, and she paid attention to his words even if they were rather nonsensical at the moment.

He pointed at her and she opened her mouth to tell him to get to the God damn point, and he made his tsk-tsk sound, telling her that he knew she was just worried sick. A sigh left her, he was an idiot and she really wished she could just smack him upside the head. His voice was deeper now, more grim and serious as he crouched down. Her eyes were on his face, the yellow eyes showing ever so slightly from behind his visor, she doubt things were as serious as he was trying to paint them to be.

Though hearing pitter-patter of Energon hitting the ground, and actually seeing it a little closer in their current positions, well there was a faint haze of worry across her face – but Nell made it vanish as quickly as it had appeared. That, was less because of concern and more because of the anticlimactic ending to his little story. Her hand lifted, running down her face as a grown and a unaudible curse was mumbled under her breath.

“Seriously?” The word was drawled out. “That's it?” She asked. “That shouldn't be hard to fix, I mean...I learned enough so far to know that's like..What?” She thought for a moment. “The Cybertronian version of porcupine needle or a damn splinter?” He had to be the worlds biggest baby for this, didn't they have giant tweezers somewhere for crap like this?

[Carbine]

Carbine only pouted when she called him a sack of shit and a liar, his helm lowering and rotors pulling back. He seemed dejected, but slowly ramped back into his conversation where he would try to be the funny self he typically is. It was all a lie though. Her words didn't hurt him at all, and he frankly found the insult funny. But he'd play the role to manipulate if it was possible. He had little clue how this organic thing functioned.

On and on and on he spoke, rambling away until his long winded tale and buildup was clipped abysmally short. Her groan and frustrated look, only caused his optics to turn up higher into little delighted half crescent shapes, betraying how amused he was at her expense. The buildup had been perfect, and he wouldn't have done anything differently if he had the opportunity to do it all again.

"Maybe not hard ̷f͘ǫr͡ yo͢u͏, but tools ̸o̡ņly do͘ ̨şo̡ much and my h-ands aren't shape͟d͞ for this."

Carbine stated this with a chirp happy tone, before he held up his hand for her to see it more effectively. His palm was broad and flat, with fingers that tapered in a elongated wedge shape to a rounded off point. They were clunky in a way, built to function for generic things and not so much fiddly work, as was evident in the fact his fingers lacked the same amount of digits a human hand had. He has fewer articulation.

Also he was lazy.

He had already tried poking and scraping at the lodged in pieces of metal, but he couldn't really make any headway unless he were to make his injury worse in the process. This was a nice balance of being too simple to seek real help, and yet obnoxious enough he'd want to get it resolved and not consider the shrapnel to be part of his mesh as a permanent resident. That wasen't a very appealing concept to him.

"So, you g-oing to hèl͟p̨ me? Or you going to ̶l͠eave lil-ol me out to d̴r͡y?"

He pouted a bit then once more, his helm tucking lower and shoulder dipping. That last bit was a bit of a mistake however, as an optic twitched with a bit of shocked pain when the joint shifted badly. The grating crackle of the metal shards in the hinge could be heard, and a fresh new amount of Energon decided to grace the outside world.

[Deleted]

He certainly had no clue how she functioned, for instance? She just wasn't a sucker, at least for the most part she wasn't. Still, she gave a heavy sigh, and another shake of her head. His buildup was horrible, and he was way too amused for someone so 'hurt'.

“Aah, yeah. Sure.” The mechanic replied, skeptical of him – as she should be given the way his eyes were tuned up in the half crescent shapes. He did have a point, she'd give that much to him, when he pointed out his fingers. Another sigh and she rolled her shoulders, light pops could be heard as she did so. His little question made her frown and she thought about it for half a second before his optic twitched in obvious pain.

The grating sound of metal, and the dripping of 'blood', did not help any either.

“Fine. I'll help you, but only because you look sadder than a kicked dog in the pourin' fuckin' rain.” Nell told him and gestured upwards. “Get me up there, and I'll help your sorry ass out.” Because she sure as hell wouldn't be able to anything from down here! “Oh, and I'll probably need a soldering iron, you got one that's human size in handy? Or do you think it won't be needed – and the 'splinter' just gotta get removed?” She asked, and really? She wished he had the balls to go to Ratchet or one of his fellow Autobots.

Mainly because she just did not feel qualified at all to do this.

“And Carbine, just a heads up..If I fuck up? Don't kill me, okay?” There was a lopsided grin for a moment there. “But seriously, I mean it. Human body has like, a gallon and a half of blood in it – it'd be fuckin' messy. A wider grin. “And I like livin' too much, so there's that too.” She remarked. “Now get me up there, I'll take a look, see what I can do.” Hopefully she would actually be able to help him out, but the human was making it well known she wasn't making any promises.

Simply put, she had a lot to learn about Cybertronian anatomy and all.

[Carbine]

"I don't have anything hu͟ma͝n siz͘e͜. Isn't it t-the human's job to bring the human stuff around the Cy͜b̧ertro̡n͝ian̨ base? Pft..."

If he was feeling particularly sassy, and didn’t... you know... need Nel's help, he may have made a crack about how it was typical human mentality that others had to cater to their needs when it was the humans who were the outsiders in someone else's domain. Point and case the catwalks plaguing the larger rooms. But... he did need her help, and he didn't want to start a fight on that.

"If you end up ne̕e-eed̡i̕ng ̛someth́ing you can go fetćḩ ́i͡t."

He offered as a sign of partial peace, before he tilted his helm to look down at her curiously. He had no intention of killing her. If Nel completely borked up his shoulder, he knew Ratchet could fix it and everything would be fine. There was nothing there that she could mess up bad enough to cripple him, unless she was being deliberately violent, in which case he'd feel the excessive pain and stop her long before she could rip into anything like the main conduit.

"A gallon is tǫ ̀u̡s, what a w-wat͡er b̷a͜ll̵oon is to you. I thin͡-̶t̡h͟in̷-think I can manage to clean that much as the unhappily titled janitor."

Carbine reached his good arm up in order to plant fingertips down upon his chest in a boastful manor. He went so far as to even raise his helm in a hoity-toiyty fashion as if the job he just stated was something of reverence and actual ability. Pretending it was something to be revered instead of being the lowest of the low meaningless busy tasks to keep his non-reading reportless self busy and out of trouble.

After this declaration, he reached down and gingerly picked Nel up again. This time, he was far more careful, and maneuvered her with care so that she wouldn't be jolted around. It further proved his theory from before that he was doing all of that whiplash-running because he truly and honestly didn’t want for others to see him showing weakness or relying upon a tiny organic. Or maybe he just didn't want to hear her complain more.

Ahh well...

Either way, Carbine turned around with her in his grasp, only to sit down upon the bottom edge of the berth and teeter backwards with a solid thud down upon its surface. It was like watching a tree fall, using gravity and simple momentum more so than actively trying to lie down in order to give her a better view of the shoulder joint. The end result was weird however.

The posts on his back that typically stuck straight out, were now angled up at the wall above his head, the panels themselves for the makeshift 'wings' splayed off the edges of the berth. They made an unnatural warble noise of the semi flexible metal being jostled, the noise dying down after a moment. Bolo, who was securely docked upon his spine, however this caused his chest and back to hook and arch away from the slab sharply, forcing some of his riot armor to be visible, and twisting him uncomfortably.

If he didn’t have to lie like this, he wouldn't, but he knew it was the most convenient way for the little organic to actually get under to the shoulder assembly. He could have just boosted her up to hold her there, but chances are he'd move and shift his weight, shed yell at him, he'd bitch back, or she couldn't even see properly beneath the plating from shadows. Overall, unpleasant for everyone. Because of this, his injured arm held out straight to hang off the edge palm up, pushing up the shoulder plating to expose some of the mechanics underneath.

The major bulk of Carbine's shoulder assembly was that of a massive orb that had multiple cross sections cut through it that provided the up and down motion to raise and lower the entire limb. It seemed to carry the bulk of weight across its construction, and acted as a hub that everything else was attaching to. His upper arm slotted out from this mass and flared broader to support hydraulics that were visible attaching to other frame points. The piston rods made a few crossing shapes that were mostly tucked and hidden under the cap of armor, but at this 'looking up' angle could be seen woven with bundles of pipes, wires, and the metallic 'flesh' that webbed between larger points that was far from anything a human would construct. The far more visible section of his body that connected the orb to the rest of his frame was sheathed in bands of dark metal that flexed and moved not unlike the abdomen on a serpent, protecting what were undoubtedly many more pipes and rods and even more clusters of wires and tactile receptors.

It was between the orb and the serpentine plating where the injury took place.

The matte black bands were chipped and bent in badly at the underside point where they touched the system, dislocating the topmost slat from its railing and making it hang with a bit of a sag. This exposed heavy masses of rectangular shaped rubber coated matter that was easy to guess housed thick bundles of cabling or other things, while also revealing some pipelines that snaked in and out of view comparable to veins. Some were bright with Energon, others the sickly green of coolant. Some were nicked and clipped, as an array of shrapnel was gored into the mess. Sharp pieces of what had once been a makeshift weapon jutted out at odd angles, and the larger pieces found their way into the primary hinge where they were being ground down from friction into a silvery powder of frayed metal slivers that would possibly be sharp for human hands.

Yeah... Carbine wasn't comfortable.

"So be hones̵t w͏i͟th me͜ p-pretend-doc, how many hours do I hav̡e l̢ef̨ţ to ļiv͏e?"

He mocked a carefree tone. Despite how bad the injury looked, it wasn't that serious all things considered, and auto Repair could handle a lot. Just... not everything...

[Deleted]

His remark made the mechanic raise her brows at him. “Well if I had some sort of heads up that for this particular task, I would of brought somethin’.” Nell pointed out to him before sighing at his sign of partial peace before shaking her head a little bit. She wasn’t going to argue herself, she honestly did not want to. Though that, partially had to do with still wanting to make it known she knew how to do things outside of the maintenance runs that she had been doing.

A small snorty laugh left her when he mentioned that a gallon to them, was nothing and that he’d manage to clean it all up as the ‘janitor’. “I think I like you already, Asshat.” The mechanic mentioned with a slight grin – though really, that meant things weren’t going to be as bad as she was thinking it was going to be. For starters, he was a little gentler with picking her up this second time, and she wondered if there was a little truth in what he said about showing weakness relying on her help.

Who knew, but she appreciated not being yanked around like she was on some runaway roller coaster ride. It was strange, when he teetered backwards like he had, she held tightly on his thumb when he did so, bracing herself more or less to keep herself from toppling over (and off his hand). She was ‘treated’ to a view of his shoulder joint, and Nell just couldn’t get over how strange it all looked. “The heck..?” She asked noting how it looked like there was something docked into him, and how it was like a secondary armor was buried underneath.

“Okay so..” She started. “This is gonna be fuckin’ interestin’.” Really, it was the only way she could describe this whole situation, and she noted the shards of metal that looked around the size of her fingers (some were far larger). She frowned, and then made sure her gloves were on properly. “No wonder you needed me to look at it.” Nell mentioned with a heavy sigh as she shifted a little more. “I’mma try getting those shards out, okay? And it looks like somethin’s loose…” Finding a good standing point, she reached in and started to slowly pull out the shards. “If I get a good amount of them out, I’ll get somethin’ to help flush this out, maybe get a hammer to help beat this..Belt? Into place.”

Her eyes narrowed for a moment or two as she thought about what she just said. “That being, if ya think it’d help?” Because she wasn’t going to go about doing something that she wasn’t sure about working unless she got the ‘go ahead’, especially since she didn’t really do such things with cars – and when the ‘car’ (or in Carbine’s case, the helicopter), was the ‘person’? Well she did not want to royally screw up, no thanks. She was going to be working on him like he was some classic hot rod that was ultra rare.

[Carbine]

"Color me giddy"

That was all Carbine said in retort to the fact the weird little organic liked him. His tone of voice was somewhere lodged between unamused boredom, and actually being amused, it hard to read in one direction over another. Part of this was because of the fact Organics to him were still strange. He didn't really fully understand how they functioned, and they were so fragile and just honestly freaky that it was hard to invest too much in them. It probably didn't help they were so technologically inferior they were almost like talking pets... AND they all looked so much alike, while not at the same time, not having the drastic alterations in appearance like a Cybertronian had.

Time could help or hinder his perceptions.

Once Nel was positioned to stand on the berth and observe his injury, Carbine's good arm pulled back and rested down at his side. He wanted to lay it over his abdomen, to try to get comfortable, but with Bolo still stuck on his back and his spinal strut arched as it was, it wouldn't have been as comfortable as he would have hoped. Despite this, he busied himself with small minute changes to his position, before Nel spoke again and drew his attention, halting his fidgeting.

Yellow outlines on the black visor slid over to look in her direction, the faint white illumination of a pupil further detailing how he was looking directly at her. He noted the way that she seemed confused, which didn't really help in his reassurances she could handle this. Wouldn't Ratchet have showed her things like this? Or maybe it was just so alien still to her that it would be freaky no matter what the situation.

"Oh, did yǫu ͜ad̡m͢i̢t that̶ ͝I͡ w̕as̵ r̨ight? C-can I get that in recor̨ding͡ for Thunder? I think he forgets that more often than ͠not̸ I ̢kn͠ow better th-than him."

The amused tone was back, chipper and happy. Carbine thought a second after this about what she had said then, letting out a low hum while he leaned back to rest. The back of his helm placed down against his collar flaring that hooked behind his head, keeping him from kinking his neck at an odd angle at rest. It is here he stared up at the partly carved ceiling.

"Yeah whateve̶r ͢li͝tt͏l͢e̡ ͡t̶h͡i͟n̡g͘, just at stuff k̷z̛z͠t̕ pull, hammer away, I don't care. Y-you will kno-̶kn͢-̶aware you did bad when I start yelling, or whe͘n Ene͢r̷g̢on sprays out if you g-ouge a line."

A pause.

"Which you probably should͡ ̵a͘v̵o͞id since I think its dead͞ly t͡o ̀yòu̧?͞ ́Wh́ich is hilarious, you organics are s̴o̴ f̕r-́f͜r̷agile!"

Unlike a car that was stationary and held in place while Nel would work, the Cybertronian mechanics were subtly moving and flinching when she began pulling out the shards and viewing the damages. It was all faint of course, nothing too disruptive, subconscious actions that caused a few panels to shift a bit, or the inner mesh to pull on a spot momentarily. The surface 'internals' could be actively viewed functioning in a way that drew parallels to organic systems responding to pain or pokes.

One large hydraulic piston slid back a bit in its housing to pull his arm up minutely into a different resting state, while the matte black bands were easing back into their railings as if to shy away from her prodding at the injury. They pulled tighter into place in a marginal tensing motion, which only caused the derailed band to push out a bit and make a soft scraping sound paired with a crackle.

As of now, Carbine didn’t really address her work as hurting or not. Other than the physical tells of his system responding, he didn't comment or make any noises of pain, so she was hopefully on the right path.

[Deleted]

Nell’s eyes rolled a bit at him, though there was a small smirk on her lips as she did so. Really, she wasn’t worried about her relationship with any Cybertronians, after all? She certainly got along with many of them, and she wasn’t a useless blob who wasn’t doing Jack shit around the base (or not bothering to learn something about these ‘visitors’). In other words, this particular human was doing all that she can be useful and so far? She was doing a damn good job at it.

As things started to fall into place, the human was careful with what she was doing. And while he looked at her when she looked confused? Well she shot him a look that clearly said ‘fuck you’. Things were a lot different from diagrams and words, she had to physically look at something to clearly understand it. Sorry she couldn’t remember the name of something she had learned incredibly recently that was ALSO completely alien to her.

“Maybe, when Hell fuckin’ freezes over.” The woman remarked as she continued to slowly get the shards out of where they obviously didn’t belong. It was strange, not having a perfectly still piece of machinery like she normally did, but she was adjusting well enough to the differences – at least as well as a person could when working on an alien.

When he mentioned it was fine to hammer away, a soft snort left the woman and her head shook a little as she carefully juggled the shards that she was pulling out of his shoulder. As for the energon spray that could be potentially harmful? Nell paused in her work and she frowned a little.

“Well fuck a goddamn duck.” The woman muttered under her breath. “Thanks for a heads up, I might have forgotten about that factoid.” She kicked herself for that, she had to remember that the Cybertronians weren’t well…Regular machines and that they had an alien biology on top of it. Letting out a slow sigh, she moved slightly before getting back into work. “I’ll be careful about that belt, it’s knotted up and stuck though, looks downright painful, Sug.”

It really did, and if someone were to tell her that the giant mechanical beings were vastly different than themselves – she would agree, before arguing that they flinch away from pain, had feelings, and had solid REAL personalities too. So far, she had yet to meet two Cybertronians who were exactly the same and she doubted it if she ever will.

More shards were carefully removed, and she was slowly sliding them into her work belt to prevent from dropping them onto the floor below (aka she was making sure she didn’t have one hell of a mess to clean up later). “You’re right though, humans are fragile – some more so than others, way of the game and how we evolved I guess you can say.” A shoulder shrugged as she pulled out another shard. “How you holdin’ up?” Because while she was essentially forced to do this, she honestly wanted to make sure if he was doing okay.

[Carbine]

When Nel denied him his recording proof that he had been correct about something, Carbine was not surprised, but he did force out a bit of a whine of a noise to pout a bit. Granted, he didn't know what he'd ACTUALLY do with such a thing. Maybe he'd really shove it in Thunder's face, but it probably would just receive an eye roll or other thing, the action childish even for him. Ah well, it would have been fun. Maybe he would have saved it and presented it to Nel herself if she ever said he was constantly full of shit, as proof it is a lie to drive her up a wall.

No use dreaming over what wasn't however.

Carbine's mind drifted back to reality, glancing over to watch to the best of his ability what she was doing. From this angle, he couldn't see his own injury of course, and only really could see Nel from her chest up, hands disappearing under the grey flaring of his shoulder armor, namely the part that would unfold into his riot armor should the need arise. He didn’t really NEED to see though; he could feel her poking at the injury and plucking out the scraps of metal that had shattered. Somewhere along the line the shiv must have gotten brittle to cause this, and he didn't really take that into account, especially when he didn’t plan to miss his mark entirely and shank himself.

"No ide͠a ͠what 'sug' is, but don't w-worry about hur͡ti̶ńg͘ ̀me. Really, few thousand years of w-war and you learn k͢z͜z̸t̀ you learn what a real injur̨y̡ ͡is͏ ͘right fast."

He declared, getting a bit more serious for a moment to try to get the fact to go home. It was part honesty and part posturing though. The truth was that like many others who served on the front lines, he had been beaten up and smeared half way across the ground a few times. He had endured agony and seen parts and internals of limbs that weren't really meant to be viewed. This human jabbing and pulling shrapnel out shouldn’t come close to that. The posturing part though, was the fact that even though he HAS endured worse, didn’t mean what she was doing didn’t sting a good deal.

"-I m-mean-"

He started quickly, to try to cut her off. Some of the pride and arrogance seeped back in, smearing over the seriousness a moment prior with self a self inflated ego. His free hand raised then, gingerly placing fingertips down upon his chest to accent his boasting that much further.

"-I did survive san̛dwicḩi̵n̸g̸ ͞a͏ ̨grenade between my ch̸-e̵st and the ground not many̸ ͝weeks ago, so unless you can suck̵er̨ ͡pu̢nch m̶y a͡rm out of its socket you are g-good!"

His chest has since been patched up, and the welding marks have since healed enough to be painted over smooth, but there was still a warble to its surface only really seen if you were intentionally looking for it. Spiderwebs of subtle dips and inclines that traced out the lattice work of the shock wave that nearly robbed him of his life. He had no idea he could survive such a thing, so currently it was at the top of his 'I am awesome, lets boast about this constantly and rub it in other people's faces' list.

As Nel pulled the last of the obvious shards out, the injury appeared to be mostly cleaned out of the larger chunks, leaving behind the residue of metal shavings that flecked and glittered over its surface. The wound however was now far more open with the missing metal bits, and Energon pooled in the deeper crevices and flowed down the grooves between seams and components. It caused an illuminated blue spatter to start to form under his arm, pooling on the surface below. Despite this, there was just one shard remaining, rooted a bit deeper in the mess of metal and mesh with only a bit of it visible between the hinges of his shoulder assembly. It caused the two disks of metal to be wedged apart, and was probably the source of all the shavings.

"-So don͡'͝t͢ ̸be scared really, I can ta͝ke͘-K̸͡͠ZT̵͞T̶̛!"

Carbine's words were cut off and fate decided to laugh at his boasts when Nel grabbed onto this final bit of metal and tried to pull gently. Unlike the others, this one was painful enough to actually elicit a response, and it was sharp and fast. With no warning or prompting, Carbine's arm snapped back towards his body violently, to try to block the pain and stop it from happening again. Luckily he managed to halt his movements before he completely slammed his arm flush with his body, less he take out Nel's legs in the process. This meant that all that happened was his upper arm bumped up against her hip sharply, threatening to push her into his 'rib cage' for lack of a better term.

Carbine said nothing, since he boasted so much and now wussed out so violently, his voice shutting down abruptly.

[Deleted]

The little whine of his was ignored, he was seriously like a damn two year old – wasn’t he? She even rolled her eyes at him. No amount of pouting would have won him any favors, nope – not at all.

Besides, she had to concentrate (at least sort’ve) on getting those damn shards pulled out of his shoulder. She really found it funny in a way, that he tried to do this without someone elses help. Which of course in turn DID force the dumbass to turn to someone else, namely her – and she naturally was only doing this because she was essentially hijacked into helping. In a way, it reminded her of a guy in elementary school. The kid had broken his arm, and of course his skin started itching under the cast. When he had used a fork to itch his arm – it became temporarily stuck and if she remembered right? He had ants trying to get at the little bit of food that had once been on the fork tines.

Idiots, both the boy from her childhood and Carbine here.

She was just the unlucky thing to be stuck removing the ‘fork’ from his shoulder. “’Sug’, short for Sugar, sort’ve a nickname, term of endearment whatever you wanna see it as.” She told him with a shrug of her own shoulder before her head tilted a bit when he mentioned the whole few thousand years of war and naturally learning what a real injury is fast.

She was about to say she understood what he was saying, but he quickly started speaking again. Oh he sounded a bit prideful with that one, and she raised a brow when he mentioned he survived sandwiching a grenade between himself and the ground below.

“Well fuck a goddamn duck.” The mechanic remarked. “So that’s good to know that my yankin’ out pieces isn’t going to be something downright painful for ya. At lease nothin’ compared to that.” In all honesty? It was a little bit of relief to know that, to not worry about harming him when she was trying to help.

“And really, I was gonna say I get you – I might not been around for anywhere near what you and the other Cybertronian’s have been alive for, but I am a soldier. I know the difference between actually life threatening injuries and not. At least for a human, I’m still learnin’ about what makes you guys tick and all.” She explained lightly, just letting him know that she was still very much in the dark to how they functioned, what was considered life endangering and what was not for them.

She was almost there though, which was nice because she didn’t want to mess around with this for too much longer. The pooling energon was making her nervous in a way, leading to her more cautious actions and trying to be gentle with this last shard.

Which, given his boastfulness and bravado? It didn’t seem to matter how gentle she was trying to be – it illicit a reaction from him that made her flinch. Both from the sudden movement, and from the actual little bit of pain from having her hip bumped into. Her hand reached out, bracing herself along the outer edges of his frame to prevent herself from falling into him.

“Jesus Fuckin’ Christ.” The mechanic spat as she slowly tried to resituate herself.

“What happened to bein’ able to take it?” She asked before letting out a slow, even sigh. “You need a moment? Or you want me to continue?” Another shift, to make sure her footing was good and solid.

“Cause I sorta like not fallin’ into you, and having my legs firmly attached to my body.”

[Carbine]

A term of endearment? That was weird. 'Sug'... it was an odd word, and while all of Earth's languages were 'alien' and odd to him, this one even felt weird for English itself. He rolled over the word in his processor, letting the way it sounded play again and again to try to make it not sound so weird and odd. Alas, it was just a weird word, and he had more trying business to get to.

AKA: Boasting.

Ahh yes, boasting. One of Carbine's favorite pastimes. He took the entire situation in stride, and ran with it happily. What he couldn't run with well was her exclamation. 'fuck a goddamn duck'. That was another weird phrase. Oh, he knew kind of what fuck was, or at least the exclamation aspect of it. Thunder would read things out to him from the computers, and they would try to watch movies when they had a chance. 'Fuck' was an expletive, a curse word, and he knew how to use it well, without knowing the technical organic action it was associated with. What he didn't understand was the rest. God damn... that was their deity damning, that part was easy, but a duck? That was a weird animal. So expletive a damned funky bird... yeah he didn't want to try to figure this out.

Luckily he didn't really have to, as the pain lanced into his shoulder and he had to focus on more important things.

Like not crushing her.

Gradually, once he realized he managed to stop soon enough and not kill their organic pet ((That'd be one hell of a cover-up he and Thunder would have to pull)), Carbine started to ease his arm away from Nel a short distance, to give her space to properly stand and move again. When his arm moved out and away from his body though, there was a grating sound, the metal shard having been shifted from her pull and now was actively grinding in the gear again. His limb trembled as it eased out and away from his body.

The silence that had occurred between him nearly crushing her, and her commentary had felt like it had edged on forever. Carbine's gaze remaining locked up upon the ceiling, dancing over the half finished carvings and details as if he were discovering them again for the first time. This stretch, in which the world had stopped momentarily, was broken however by the female's words, and Carbine reacted as such.

Hefting up with a grunt, the ex-cop tried to ease up from his reclining stance, looking a bit like a turtle stuck upon its back at first. The arching shape of his cassette curved his spine the opposite way, and trying to fight against gravity and the angle was downright difficult. This said, he made it up after a moment and a few churning internals, plunking the elbow of his injured arm down to rest. This left him staring down at Nel, a rattled scrape sound accompanying his words while the helicopter rotors tried to straighten out and pop free from under his mass.

"Hey! Y͞o͢u͢ ̕ju͘st hit a n-neural cluster! I can̵'̢t̛ ̛h̷elp ͏a̧utomatic r-r-eactions!"

Squawked defensively, Carbine's armor puffed a short distance away from his frame not unlike a feline that had been antagonized.

[Deleted]

Even with her concentrating on pulling out shards, and even with not being able to see his face, it was amusing as all get out to imagine his reaction to the 'Sug' remark or her exclamation of a reaction to his story. He was still boasting, up until she did that one yank of a shard that obviously gave him what could only be described as an involuntary twitch.

Still, it nearly gave her a heart attack when her hip was bumped into and she nearly fell into a bunch of moving pieces that would have left her dead (very very dead). Her heart was still racing when she had spoke, and when his body shifted slightly to allow her more room, she let out another sigh. Her nerves were still shaken though, even if it'd be a cold day in hell before she admitted it. Being snarky was practically her only way of moving past the shakiness that shifted into her hands and she took a deep breath despite how his body shifted again. Her eyes dragging upwards to look at him when things turned upside down in a rather odd way. The way he was twisted, along with that rattling scraping sound, was rather painful to look and hear.

Another slow sigh left her and she shook her head slowly. “Yeah, yeah sorry.” She told him before shaking her hand for a moment. “Near death experience you know, I don't want to fall into you and die – and I'm sure as fuckin' hell that you don't want me turned into 'Nell hamburger' inside of you.” She remarked before leaning back into him to yank out a less stubborn bit of shrapnel. “That'd probably be more of a mess for you, both physically and tryin' to explain what happened to Optimus.” Fowler too, but she was positive Carbine didn't give a shit about explaining Jack to the person she technically answered to.

“I'm almost done...that stubborn piece was just that.” She told him slowly. “Is there anything else I need to do to make sure you're up and runnin' again? Or is it just remove the non-you bits?” At least this was easy to tell what was him and what wasn't.

(short horrible post that took way way too long to get out i'm so sorry for the wait Z DDx)