Calling on Blue Skies (closed)

[Deleted]

Episode 2 | Week 3 | Day 2 | 1:30 pm

It almost felt like she was drowning at this point. In both a figurative and literal sense. A week on this planet and she still knew next to nothing about it. She knew the adjustment period would be longer than that but at the same time she was just too impatient with it. She wanted to move it along faster so she could finally stop feeling this way. She'd learned quite a few things by now - mostly traffic laws and things about comic books. But the work load in front of her was still enormous and, while she knew she could tackle it, it would take a little more time than she liked.

As for the literal sense-

"SHIT!"

She swore loudly as she jammed her hand against the leaking pipeline. She'd also picked up a few new obscenities from the tv and from a few disgruntled drivers she'd angered during her lessons in town. She quite liked them, they had a certain bite to them that the others she knew didn't. With a loud sigh Shale slowly moved her hand away, enduring the water just long enough for her to tighten the loose connection.

Once it stopped she gingerly moved away waiting a few seconds just in case disaster struck again. It didn't. In her restlessness she'd been wandering around the base all morning, stopping every so often to look for something to occupy herself with. This base was nothing short of a mess, broken piping, holes in walls and ceilings, even a leak in the dispenser in the rec room. This would take weeks, maybe even months.

And Shale was happy.

Even soaked she had a smile - an honest to goodness smile - on her face. Nothing made her happier than working and in this place she had plenty of that to do. For the better part of two hours she'd been keeping herself busy with repairs. She'd first taken care of the leak in the rec room prioritizing that above all else. Once it was patched and she'd taken the time to fuel she moved on to the many leaking pipes around. So far she'd counted five through the base and out of those five two were already repaired. This would make three.

All that was left to do was replace a handful of the rusted nuts and she could move on to the fourth. Shale was very content even softly humming the tune of a song she'd heard while fiddling with the stations on her radio. Sometimes the music on this planet was washed out and filtered garbage but when it struck it REALLY struck. For now the cloudy skies had opened, just enough to let light through. It'd close again eventually, probably within the day, but for now things were going better. She'd found a project, work, her hands were busy. That was all she needed.

A puddle had gathered on the floor from the burst pipe, Shale had every intent to clean it but first she needed to make sure that it wouldn't get worse when her back was turned. She herself was dripping wet and she took a brief moment to dry herself. The rag she'd been carrying around had a fair amount of grease on it but that didn't bother her in the slightest. Now sporting several new grease marks on her face and arms she returned to her task, dropping the cleaner rag next to the pile of tools she had.

Nobody would mind if she'd borrowed them right? ... She was going to put them back afterward.

[Deleted]

It wasn't often Thundercloud was seen without his companion Carbine, or vice versa. Despite his immense displeasure for all the jokes made at their expense about the two being joined at the hip, even Thundercloud had to admit they were a bit cliquey. Granted, they were close friends, and they had known one another for far longer than they had anyone else at the outpost, but still. They never really made much of an effort to get to know their other teammates, content to have just one another for company.

Well, most of the time.

As much as Thundercloud hated to admit it, there was really only so much time he could spend with the other mech before his abrasive personality started to wear a little on his nerves. He liked Carbine, he really did, but even he had his limits. There was only so much he could hang around the other mech before his ability to tolerate his more irksome habits grew thin. It didn't help that Carbine was damn good at being obnoxious, even when he wasn't actively trying to be. It was a talent, really. When Carbine did it, the act of annoying the piss out of someone was practically an art form.

It was too bad, really, that Thundercloud wasn't in the mood for some art-appreciation that day. In fact, that was the exact reason why he was out and about, wandering the halls looking for trouble - he needed some space. Some Carbine-free space. And if that space happened to be occupied by the other Bots at the outpost who's names he hardly remembered, well, then so be it. He could probably do with making a few new drinking buddies anyhow.

It was with this thought in mind that Thundercloud, upon spotting Shale at the other end of the hall, decided now was as good a time as any to make nice with his comrades.

"Hey! Yo, Rosie the Riveter!" He called out, waving his arm lazily as he casually made his way over to her.

"We ain't had the chance to talk yet, me and you, I figured I'd stop 'n ask what's good."

"So," He began, breaking into a crooked grin. "What's good, fam?"

[Deleted]

"Hey! Yo, Rosie the Riveter!"

The sudden shout from the other end of the hallway made Shale stop mid reach for one of the rusty steel nuts. She briefly looked around, there wasn't anyone else around so that had to mean her right? Who was this 'Rosie' person? She'd yet to cover Earth art and History so the name flew right over her head. Regardless she turned to look at the mech who had called her.

He was big, bigger than her. And a flier, she knew there had to be some under the Autobot banner but she didn't truly expect to run into one. And in such a short amount of time too. As he approached and explained that he wanted to familiarize himself with her she continued her work. With the rusted washer and nut removed she quickly reached for the new ones and moved them into place. Fam? As far as she could tell it was a term of good natured familiarity. Well, he was here, might as well humor him.

"Currently I'm trying to make sure this place doesn't flood. Watch your step by the way."

She motioned to the water on the floor, hoping to prevent him from sliding right onto his aft. Twisting the bolt as tight as she could with her fingers she reached quickly for her tools and let it finish the job. Once it couldn't move anymore she set it back and moved on to the next one.

"This place is held together with duct tape and hope. Mostly duct tape, I've found it everywhere."

She'd seen the usually silver adhesive strips on tv and discovered quickly most praised it as a cure all for repairs and construction. While it was an amazing thing even she could see it only went so far. She placed the next set of bolt and washer in her denta as she set to work removing the next rusty pair.

"And hey if it keeps me busy for the day then all the better."

Standing idle wasn't her forte. She hated it, absolutely hated it. Once the old nut and washer were set to the side and she began working on the next set was when she spoke again. Best not be rude to her new.... unexpected company.

"And it's Shale, you would be?"

[Deleted]

Thundercloud raised a brow as he looked down at the water-soaked floor, then - because he was a contrary little shit - he kicked a leg out and tapped the puddle with his boot. Just because Shale had warned him not to. He was much like a cat in that respect: if he saw something on a table that really wasn't meant to be knocked off, he was gonna go ahead and knock it off anyway simply because he could.

He gave the puddle an extra tap just for good measure, sending a ripple through the water and scattering tiny droplets here, there, and everywhere. Then, satisfied that he had been sufficiently recalcitrant, Thundercloud tuned back into the conversation and flashed Shale a shameless grin.

"Thundercloud. I'm the guy who put up all the duct-tape." He replied, without the slightest hint of remorse for unintentionally giving Shale so much work to undo and then fix properly.

"You probably already guessed, on account of you got eyes and all, but I ain't exactly an expert on fixin' shit. All I know is what I figured out on my own, never been taught a damn thing."

He paused, scratching absently at the ragged scar across his throat as he admired his pitiful handiwork - or what was left of it. A few sloppy patch-welds reinforced with five or six layers of duct-tape did not a solid-repair make, but hey, it had held up for longer than anyone expected it to. That was something, at least. Besides, now they had someone around who could actually make a repair that would hold, and since his crappy patch-jobs had held up long enough for them to actually get here, that had to count for something, right? Right.

"What about you? You do somethin' like this before the war, or did you learn all this on the go?"

[Deleted]

Thunder tapping the wet floor not once but twice had Shale feeling... not much really. She'd simply warned him to keep him from blaming her if he ended up slipping. If he wanted to do that on his own it wasn't any of her business. And by the look on his face once he turned around to look at her he didn't have a care in the world. Wasn't he lucky?

Thundercloud, cause of said duct tape fiasco it would seem. Though she hated to admit it - her perfectionist ways getting to her - the patches had held. Thunder didn't even have the proper programming or skills needed for the job, he openly admitted to it. Shale wasn't surprised. More often than not most flier frames were slim and delicate to keep strain off their bodies in the air. Thunder was pretty big but she still couldn't see him lurking around a job site. Fliers - more specifically their wings - weren't really outfitted for that kind of work.

One wrong move and said wing would be lying on the ground.

Builds like her was ideal, stout, heavy, and not too much kibble that could potentially end up as collateral damage. But still, Thunder managed to keep this place running until she got her. That was something she supposed.

"Not originally. It was my job to do the clean up, get rid of the useless heavy stuff. But when you haul away leftover slag around a bunch of workers you pick up a few tricks."

A few had taken a personal liking to her and gave her lessons once the bosses had left for the day. The rest she'd read about or figured out on her own. She shifted back onto her feet dusting of her hands as she admired her work.

"Alright, now to clean up this mess and move on to the fourth pipe."

She turned to Thunder, figuring while he was there he might as well make himself useful. She might even give him a few pointers on proper repair and upkeep. And that duct tape only went so far.

"Could use an extra set of hands, mind filling that position? Not like there's much else to do 'round here."

[Deleted]

Waste hauling, huh? Not the most glamorous job, but then, neither was punching folks for a living. Thundercloud was in no position to judge the femme on her prior occupation, even if he wanted to  - which he didn't, because that sort of slag meant less than nothing to him. It wasn't like anyone had a choice in what they did, before the war, not unless they were one of those obscenely wealthy brightplates who could buy their way into a new occupation if they just filled out the right forms and lined the right pockets.

There weren't too many mechs like that alive, these days. Thundercloud honestly wouldn't have been surprised if there was only a few hundred of them left, if that. The tower bombings had taken out most of their population, and over half the survivors didn't even make it to the exodus. Those that did were either lucky as all hell, or they were made of tougher stuff than the average Towerling. Thundercloud had a grudging respect for the latter - anyone who could survive the war this damn long had to have some grit, even if it was masked by an obnoxious amount of polish.

This femme, she had grit. She had lots of it, Thundercloud could tell just by the look of her. It wasn't the kind most Towerlings had, the kind that comes from living in luxury your whole life then getting thrown right into the goddamn apocalypse. No, she had the hard-won sort of grit, the kind that accumulates over time while you're down in the dirt, living a hard life.

Or maybe Thundercloud was just projecting, seeing what he wanted to. He had the bad habit of doing that, or so Carbine had told him. That was a problem he had, apparently. He had a way of seeing certain folks the way he wanted to, evidence to the contrary be damned. It was why he kept insisting Carbine was a good guy, deep down. It was why he was, at times, convinced that the Prime was going to lose his cool and bash his head in one day.

It was why he had trusted Atlas for as long as he did.

Thundercloud shook his head, as if to physically evict that thought from his mind, then flashed Shale a broad grin that was only a little forced.

"Sure, why not." He shrugged, his wings bobbing along with his shoulders. "I mean, I was just gonna go stare directly at the sun for a few hours, maybe bang my head against a wall, but what the hell."

He looked down at the puddle of water at their feet, wondering how in the hell they were going to mop it up. Sure, they could probably rummage around one of the storage rooms for a mop or a towel or something, but that took effort and time and Thundercloud was feeling both lazy and impatient that day. Naturally, this meant that he decided to take the easy route  (also known as the batshit insane route). Without a word of warning, Thundercloud tapped his boot twice on the ground, kick-starting the jet in his heel. Flame burst forth from beneath his foot, causing the water to hiss violently and fizzle into the air into thick plumes of steam as it was rapidly heated.

[Deleted]

Thunder wasn't wrong, Shale had earned her grit. She had scratched it out over time and with probably a little more effort than necessary but she'd earned it. She'd never been all together 'wealthy', closest she ever got was right after Decepticons started bombing everything that had significant impact on their society. Droves of maniacs practically tossed credits in her face hoping to get their last fix before the 'end of days' they kept screaming at the sky about.

She didn't pay it any mind back then... but she'd never guessed they would be right.

But even when she was 'sitting pretty' - and she used that term lightly - it wasn't even close to the bots that inhabited the towers. They had more money than they would ever know what to do with. Or used to anyway. Most of the poor glitches had died in the Tower bombings, and half the survivors of that died because they had absolutely no clue how to fend for themselves. Self entitled as some of them were Shale didn't think they deserved that. She knew first hand just how terrifying that was and she'd actually taken care of herself up until that point. She never had help to do that for her.

Thunder's grin and ever so casual response made Shale snort in amusement.

"Sounds like a full day."

She commented as she placed her borrowed tools back in their box. They were a little rusty, no doubt from going unused for an extended amount of time. She wondered if that meant she might be able to keep them. The tarnish could easily be polished off given enough elbow grease and she could easily supply that. It wasn't like many others would be using them as much as she would right?

Right.

Now they needed to get the floor clean before someone decided to be a little too careless. Shale was just about to suggest that Thunder went hunting through some of the broom closets down the hall for a mop and for the time being she could use a rag to get some of the excess up. Then she heard Thunder tap twice, and noise and heat then followed.

"SHIT!"

Swearing loudly for the second time she jumped as water very rapidly turned into steam. What was he doing?! How reckless could someone be?! Well, hazards aside, it did get the job done. The floor WAS dry now... but just what had she gotten herself into?

[Deleted]

Generally speaking, Thundercloud liked to get a feel for folks before deciding whether or not he was gonna let himself get palsy with them. It was a practical thing, a little unwritten rule that he tried to abide by if only because it kept him from getting attached to the wrong sort of people - something which he had the bad habit of doing, as evident by...basically every close personal relationship he ever had. This included Carbine, though as their long history showed, that mech tended to be the exception to the vast majority of Thundercloud's personal rules.

The ex-cop may have been a terrible friend (and person in general), but damn it, he was Thundercloud's terrible friend, and that made him worth keeping around despite how much of a colossal pain in the ass he could be (and frequently was).

That said, Thundercloud knew he was in trouble the minute Shale jumped in suprise and shouted that filthy human word at the top of his lungs. Despite his better judgement, despite his own "get to know them first, you dumbass" policy towards making nice with folks, he just couldn't help himself. He was starting to like this femme, if only for her foul mouth and grit. She seemed like good people, his sort of people. He had been wrong before, of course, he had let himself take a liking to folks he'd later wish he had never even met - but he was willing to take a chance on Shale, give her the benefit of doubt. It was probably a stupid move, yet another thing for Carbine to rub in his face later, another thing for him to point to whenever he tried to argue that Thundercloud never learned, but that was a risk he was willing to take.

"Whoops." He said with a short laugh, sounding far from apologetic. "Sorry 'bout that, chica. Shoulda warned you I'm a walkin' fire hazard."

[Deleted]

Thunder laughed trying to make light of his actions and apologized - though she could tell it wasn't heartfelt - for lack of a warning. Shale exvented and rubbed at the back of her stiff neck. A warning would have been appreciated, but she wasn't angry. She'd just been startled half to death. And the floor WAS dry now so his unconventional methods proved again that they worked. With a light shrug she cut Thunder a one sided grin.

"It's fine, just surprised me. And hey, the floor is dry so it worked out in the end."

With tools safely back in their box and said box in hand Shale stepped into the hallway, thumbing down the direction of the other two damaged pipes.

"Just two more, down this way."

Then she took the lead keeping her pace relaxed. She didn't want this to be over quickly and have to face the dreaded inactivity. Maybe once everything was fixed she could find someone who wasn't busy and go for a five. She still needed practice on all the arbitrary rules humans had on their roads. 'Signaling' was something she was still struggling with and a few - a lot rather - of people didn't approve of that. She'd ask Thunder, but as a flier he probably didn't know much about the rules of the road. Maybe Bee was free?

Turning left at a fork in the hallway Shale slipped into the first door in the right, pausing just inside the doorway. Another puddle had collected on the ground and on the other side of the room the pipes on the wall were dripping rapidly and in multiple spots. It hadn't been this bad when she'd first seen it. Shale crossed the room in just a few steps setting her tools down and quickly assessing the damage.

"This is not good, this whole section of pipe is pretty much destroyed. Forget the washers we need to put in a while new section of pipe!"

She quickly turned to Thunder.

"We need to turn off the water for a while, unless we want to explain why there's suddenly an indoor pool in this corridor. Go find the valve and shut it off, I'll go through some of the storage rooms and hope one of them has the right piping."

Without confirmation from Thunder she slipped past him and quickly made her way down the hall again. Maybe this wouldn't be as quick of a job after all.

[Deleted]

Thundercloud followed at an easy pace, trailing after Shale with slow, casual strides - not out of laziness (at least not entirely), but because that was really the only way for him to not immediately overtake the femme. Being as big as he was, a single one of his own steps tended to be the equivalent of two or more for the average-sized mech. If he didn't want to outpace all of his companions just by virtue of having longer strides to match his longer legs, then he needed to go slow.

Part of Thundercloud (the childish, deliberately-annoying part) almost wanted to start chanting "are we there yet?" as they made their way down the hall, but luckily for Shale's sanity, he refrained. He didn't want to test the Femme's limits just yet. There was a time and a place for seeing how far someone's tolerance levels went, and five minutes after meeting them was definitely not it.

At least, not if you wanted the person in question to like you, that is, and Thundercloud kind of wanted to be on Shale's good side. Not just because she seemed like a pretty cool femme, but because something told him she could probably kick his ass if he pissed her off too much.

Thundercloud stopped short, just behind Shale, as she paused to examine a section of pipe that was...wow. Yeah. There was no salvaging that mess. Thundercloud whistled, his brows raising as he eyed the damage.

"Don't look at me, fam." He said, before the femme could accuse his shoddy handiwork of being responsible for the mess before them. "I ain't ever seen this one before."

That much was true - Thundercloud hadn't been able to cover every section of the base, at least, not thoroughly. He was only a handyman, not a certified mechanic, and even then the most he knew how to do was fix things enough to keep them running. Repairing them and returning them to pristine condition was beyond his pay grade.

Propping his hands on his hips, Thundercloud turned to raise a brow at Shale.

"Right, so--"

He trailed off, watching the back of the femme's head as she turned and walked away before he could get a word in edgewise.

"Well, damn. Fuck you too then." He said with a dry, amused snort, before turning in the opposite direction to go see if he couldn't find that shut-off valve.

[Deleted]

Shale knew that Thunder wasn't too blame, there was a severe lack of duct tape to tell her that much. This was caused by both time and weathering by the water in the pipes. This silo had seen better days for sure. Hopefully the flooding wouldn't get much worse before Thunder found the valve. The last thing that needed to happen was flood damage in the base.

Hopefully the storage room had a lack of grumpy minibots and a plethora of pipes. Namely one that fit. Shale kept quiet as she walked into storage, having learned her lesson yesterday that Zoom Zoom didn't quite appreciate having his peace and quiet interrupted by sudden Joan Jett and Led Zeppelin. She would hopefully be out of her before he either spotted her or returned from whatever he may be doing right now.

She went through the first row very carefully, inspecting every pipe she could find. These ones were all too small. Not an issue, plenty more around. With everything back in place she moved on to the next spot. Not much luck there. She thought she'd found one at first but actually removing it from the shelf revealed it was far too short. Back to the search. They had more than enough L-pipes but that was far from what she needed.

After searching five rows she was starting to get irritated. Were they out? How would they even get more? Did she have to ask ZZ about it? Shale turned another corner and began rifling through its contents, she wasn't about to give up that easily. Or about to actively hunt down ZZ to ask about getting more of the pipe they needed. Who knew how long that'd take to get? The water would probably have to stay off for a few days and that wouldn't go over well.

But that wouldn't be an issue.

Resting against the rocky wall in the very back of the room was exactly what she was looking for. They were longer than what she needed but that wasn't an issue. They could easily be cut with the torch she had back in her tool box. Rolling the pipe away and lifting it onto her shoulder Shale slowly maneuvered her way back out into the hallway. She could get proper measurements once she got back to make a proper cut.

Hopefully Thunder had found the shut off valve by now.

[Deleted]

Alright, finding the shut off valve. That was simple enough, right? It couldn't be that hard. All he had to do was follow the pipework until he either reached a dead end or found what he was looking for -easy. Nothing to it.

Or so Thundercloud thought during the first klik or two of his search. After the four minute mark, he started wondering just how far the damn piping went, and after eight minutes he officially declared the task far less reasonable than he was lead to believe. He almost wanted to go back the way he came, see if he had up and gone in the wrong direction like a complete idiot, but he wasn't about to admit defeat quite so quickly. If he was gonna go back empty handed, he at least wanted to be able to say with certainty that the shut-off valve was definitely not in the direction he had gone.

After a bit more walking (and a considerable amount of grumbling) Thundercloud's perseverance was finally rewarded - though it certainly did not seem like a reward from where he was standing.

He stared at the door to the boiler room with the narrowed-eyed expression one might inflict upon someone bringing a screaming baby into a movie theater.

"Oh hell no."

He held his hands up as he spun on his heel, quickly turning his back on that ungodly door and the room beyond it before his own machismo could make him change his mind.

"Nope, nope. Nuh-uh. Not today, Satan."

[Deleted]

Pipe in hand Shale traced her way back to the empty room, humming slightly as she tried to remember the tune of a song she'd heard on her radio yesterday. She was content to say the least. But that wouldn't last too long. She stopped as she felt water under her feet and quickly looked down. Immediately her mood sunk as she realized: the puddle was nowhere near this big before. Nearly sending herself sliding down the hallway in the process she ran to the doorway and rested the length of pipe just inside. Not only was the water not off but the leak had gotten worse. At this rate the pipe would probably burst.

Swearing louder than she probably should have she turned back into the hallway and ran as fast as her frame weight would permit following the wall. In the opposite direction that Thunder had gone. Now was a pretty good time to panic she'd say. This whole floor could be flooded if she didn't move fast. For roughly five minutes she chased the piping that lead down the wall before she reached the end of it. Nothing, no valve, no Thunder.

"FUCK!"

The cavern walls carried her swear for longer than she had been there for. Making double time in the other direction - stopping just briefly to make sure the metal didn't have a gaping hole in it - she traced the line in the other direction. Before she left the hall she'd been sent sliding and slammed into the opposite wall. She didn't let that slow her down and bounded off to keep going. Another five minutes and she spotted Thunder at the end of the hall.

"Why is the water still on?!"

If the shut off valve wasn't at her end then it had to be at his. As she came to a stop it dawned on her just how much the impact with the wall had hurt her shoulder. But she shrugged it off for now. They had far more important things to handle right now.

Namely stopping this leak.

[Deleted]

Shale came tearing down the hall like a bat out of hell, looking more than just a little miffed, and Thundercloud had the feeling he knew exactly why that was. He wasn't about to feel guilty about it, though, at least not until his suspicions were confirmed and he knew for certain if he had just inadvertently flooded the base through his inaction.

He held up his hands in a way that was meant to be placating, but probably fell short somewhere around 'mildly assuaging.'

"Hey, it ain't my fault the shut off valve's in Satan's broom closet, alright?" He gestured behind himself, jerking his thumb towards the door to the boiler room.

"You wanna go in there and prove you got bigger bearings than me, be my guest. I don't do boiler rooms."

There was a decisiveness in his tone, a solid, firm quality which brooked no room for argument. His opinion could not be swayed - he could not be argued with. He was not going in that goddamn boiler room, even if he had to spend the rest of the month repairing all the flood damage that pipe bursting would cause. It was a trade off he was more than willing to make - hell, if he had to mop up the entire base, every room, every floor, he'd do it. So long has he didn't have to set foot in that place, he'd put up with just about anything.

[Deleted]

Thunder immediately held up his hands and tried to explain why he hadn't shut off the water. Satan's broom closet? She followed his gesture down the hall, toward the boiler room. For a long moment she just stared at him unsure of just how to feel about this ridiculous excuse. She didn't share his apparent phobia of boiler rooms so she couldn't sympathize. She just thought that it was the stupidest thing she'd heard in a very long time.

And she was about to tell him that when -

Down the hall came the last noise she wanted to hear right now. That loud bang was DEFINITELY the pipe.

With her words immediately lost Shale shoved past Thunder and ran as fast as she could, darting directly into the boiler room and cranking the valve as hard as she could to shut it off. Probably unnecessary but she was a little too panicked right now to care. It wasn't ten seconds after she'd shut it off that she was running back down the hall toward the epicenter. The water level had risen for sure.

As she came tearing around the corner - neglecting the advice she'd given Thunder - she lost traction and at first slid along the wet floor before crashing onto her back. With a groan she attempted to sit up struggling against her own weight to do so. She'd just managed to support herself on her elbows before she noticed she'd slid right in front of her destination.

The piping on the wall had split wide open; droplets of water still raining down on the floor below it. This was going to take a long time to clean up. And this wasn't even the last fix she needed to do today. She just had to hope that the last pipe wasn't about to burst either. Shale sighed heavily as she hung her head.

"Fabulous."