[ti]Ep 3.5[/ti]Scattered [Closed]

[Miko Nakadai]

Episode 3.5 | Week 1 | Day 5
Afternoon

((OOC Note: This is a slight re-hash of another, similar thread, which due to player circumstance had to be shelved. New characters are being brought in to see it to completion.))
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Huffing a loose strand of hair from her face, Miko found herself in one of the many storage rooms below Omega One. The hustle and bustle of whatever had gone on today was over – not that she'd know anything about that, being stuck at school all day – and now things were eerily quiet. Then again, things were always quiet down in this part of the base.

Which was probably why nobody had noticed her down here.

Her first thought when making her way down the lonely corridors was to go and visit the Decepticon prisoner, if only to do some interrogation - Miko style! Howeeeever… the doors had been completely locked, almost as if fate (or Prowl) knew to keep her away. Alas.

So, she'd ventured to the storage rooms. She'd walked past them a few times, usually when helping Bulkhead down here with the generators - though had never gotten a chance to snoop through the myriad of boxes in a search for treasure on her own.

The first few boxes that she'd manage to pull out had been disappointment after disappointment. Old, chunky laptops that looked like they were from twenty years ago, complete with a thick layer of dust that made her regret even touching them. A can of canned air that'd rusted slightly was in another, though despite her best efforts? She couldn't get it to spray anything.

She wasn't quite sure what she'd been expecting down here. Pieces of Decepticons taken as trophies, maybe some of that… what was Cybertronian money called, again… shallox? Shanix? But so far it seemed that everything down here had been left over from the humans who'd used this place as a base way before the Autobots had arrived.

It was all boring beyond boring, and sneaking down here hadn't been worth the effort considering there was nothing interesting here at all.

Except…

Taking a step back, Miko found herself peering up at something that caught her eye. It wasn't Cybertronian, and was, in fact, quite human in design - but even amidst the dust and dreary lighting, she knew she wanted it.

A purple Boombox.

For way too long she'd had to use her phone to play music around Omega One, but if that thing still worked? Oh man, she was about to show the Autobots all kinds of awesome songs - and crank the volume with actual speakers to boot! Maybe she could get Raf to help her burn personalized CDs for everyone based on what she thought they'd listen to!

The only problem was how to even get up there. There were no ladders, and the shelves looked too unsafe even for her to attempt anything silly - which was probably saying a lot.

Shifting her hands to her hips and sticking her tongue out as if to try and think just that little bit harder on what to do, her gaze quickly fell on a milk crate that was filled with dusty old manuals, probably for the generators and other pieces of human equipment that still remained here.

Psh, nobody needed those - and she was quick to tip them out onto the floor, flipping the milk crate upside down so she could use it as a stepping stool, slamming it down and stepping onto it, thankful for the tiny boost in height.

Straining upward, with one hand carefully holding onto the shelf for support, she reached upward, leaning onto her tiptoes – trying desperately to get the treasure she sought – and quickly realizing that she was still way too short.

[Carbine]

In general, individuals tended to assume that there were five senses to interact with the world around them, though there indeed were the unspoken abstract ones not often considered.

Like the ability to get a general feeling of being watched.

If Miko were to turn and look at the doorway, she would see the large outline of a more than familiar canine, its mechanized shape a towering representation of the creature it emulated. Angular with lower hips, a high set helm with sharp ears that pointed straight to the ceiling, and a confident stance, its black and white body was eerily still akin to a statue that was watching with interest. A faint haze of light ghosted on the area around it, a flick of red showing up on the closest door frame edge from biolights that were nestled within joints, though the most prominent light were its flat-plated eyes, the solid-colored yellow locked down unwaveringly so. It was a sight that could seem imposing and threatening to some who didn't know better, however after being noticed, the posture broke.

Easing into a walk, Bolo started to cross the room towards Miko, rubber-padded paws making a softer click which could explain how he made it so far down the hall without being heard ahead of time. this said, he was not known for his sneaky nature, so there was a chance that being distracted while looking for a solution to get to the boombox likely played a role in his sudden manifestation as well. Whatever the situation, or however it happened, it ended with a curious animal more than happy to interact with someone.

Omega One could be a boring place. While others did like him and would give him a head pat or a neck rub, at the end of the day there wasn't a lot to really do. Back on Cybertron he got to work actively, riding along with his Carrier readily sniffing the air around them while waiting eagerly to be deployed, or getting to stand at his side tracking smells or chasing down someone dangerous who thought it was a good idea to flee from a canine officer... It was a task that made his inner coding happy that he hadn’t been able to itch at all, instead clutching to anything of slight interest like a lifeline.

In this case, one of the human children.

As he got closer, Bolo's ears would shift into a more relaxed posture, and his head would lower some, a single lick made to the mesh of his nose before he started to try to sniff at Miko, curious where she may have been and what sorts of things would be stuck to her and her clothing. It was rather invasive how close he got to her personal space, though it wasn't as though the animal knew any different, already knowing she was friendly towards him and wasn't likely to smack his snout aside.

[Miko Nakadai]

The feeling of being watched was something that Miko was pretty much used to when she was at Omega One. She knew Red Alert was probably keeping tabs somewhere and somehow - after all, that was just who he was! But normally she ignored it and continued with whatever mischief she found herself in.

Today was no different, except - the feeling hadn't gone away, and should she have been paying attention she would've realized far quicker that there was something in the doorway.

Instead, for a moment longer in blissful ignorance, she struggled. Already on her tiptoes, she reached with almost everything she had toward the small purple prize, but it was absolutely no use. She needed another milk crate at least, and even then she wasn't sure that'd be high enough.

Who put the thing all the way up there, anyway?!

Giving up, at least for the moment, she carefully lowered herself down from her tiptoes, hands shifting to her hips as she again mulled over the problem she faced. Huffing the strand of loose hair from her face, the brief second where it wasn't covering her eye revealed some sort of thing in the corner of her vision.

Ah, okay, so she was being watched.

She hadn't even heard anyone walking down here! That was the thing about Cybertronian's that often gave her the advantage - they couldn't walk lightly if they tried. But this wasn't Bulkhead or Optimus come to scold her for being down here by herself, and at the sight of just who it was? She smiled.

"Bolo!"

A welcome sight indeed, though she did wonder for a moment just what he was doing down here all by himself. Carbine couldn't be too far away, though she wasn't exactly worried - he didn't seem the type to care if she got into trouble, and would probably encourage her to pilfer all the cool things from the various boxes.

Not that there was anything cool in them, but hey.

As the canine moved closer, she turned to face him, making sure her feet were firmly planted on the thankfully stable milk crate. She wouldn't move as he sniffed her, not caring that he was wwwwaaay into her personal space, and once she realized he wasn't about to topple her or the crate, she moved to embrace his snout the best she could in a semi-awkward half hug.

"What are you doing down here, huh?" she asked, the smile heard within her words as one hand moved to pat him gently. She knew he couldn't understand nor reply to her, but felt the need to ask anyway.

"Don't tell anyone what I'm doing, okay? I found a really cool thing and I want it!"

Turning to peer up at the boombox to show him what she'd found, it was then that an idea seemed to click into place.

"Oh! Maybe if I stand on you I can reach it!"

Bolo was a cool dog that was thankfully used to being around humans, and it'd probably be way safer to climb up and onto him than stacking various crates and boxes into some precarious tower of doom.

"Uhhh…" turning back to look at him, she quietly hummed in thought - thinking of how to even go about this. To climb up and onto his nose and snout seemed beyond rude, even if he was right there. Plus she didn't want to accidentally hurt him somehow.

Time to go a different route.

"Bolo, sit!"

She wasn't even sure he'd listen to her without Carbine here, even though the helicopter mech had sort of told him to a while back. She was so small and insignificantly tiny compared to him, though her confident posture and firmer-than-normal words would hopefully portray her 'authority' when she spoke the command.

[Carbine]

When Miko looped her arms around his snout, Bolo let out a snort as he then sniffed at the top of her combat boots, now more occupied with trying to figure out just what he was smelling that she had walked over since he could no longer get directly at her shirt or face. A lot of what he was picking up on wasn't anything he really understood however. On Cybertron he knew what a sidewalk was like in different parts of the subsection he worked, what fresh concrete was or fresh plastics. He knew the smell of individuals and how they could all be different depending on their composition, and even what the smell of vomit was. When it came to Earth? It was all new, and at this moment he was trying to understand just what the smell of a cafeteria and school hallway was, which was an act of futility.

Despite only half paying attention, Bolo's ears would rotate forward to listen when Miko continued to speak, trying to pick out what little words he did know from the muddle of others. He knew 'down', and the rough idea of 'want', yet so much was just nothingness to him, though looking at something was an unspoken thing he could catch onto, resulting in the flat plate of his optics shifting in their socket, peering at the shelf and the objects on it.

Annnddd... he still didn't know what was going on.

Though he could catch onto her command.

Lifting his helm up and away, Bolo looked upon Miko with a sort of calculative focus, trying to figure out if he actually cared enough to respect her words, or if she had no authority over him whatsoever and he didn't have to do anything. It was a battle that was brief, yet it was there, a single lick offered at the end of his snout, before he squatted down awkwardly a moment, taking a half-sit as if he was still having an internal debate. After one more brief pause, he fully sat, watching her intently.

He may be down at this moment, though that could easily change given he did this as a courtesy and not out of obedience.

[Miko Nakadai]

Watching the canine curiously, Miko shifted both hands to rest on her hips. It was something her host mom did when she was being all serious business, almost like it gave her some air of authority or whatever, and while she wasn't sure if such a pose would work on a dog – and a giant robot dog at that – she found herself doing it anyway.

Bolo wasn't hers, he belonged to Carbine, and while the helicopter mech had told the cassette to protect them that one time, it didn't mean he had to listen to every order ever, especially ones given at random such as this. Still, though, she hoped he would listen, or she would have to rethink her plan on climbing up to get the treasure she sought.

There was a momentary pause where they seemed to just look at one another. She stared at him, he stared at her - it was brief, a half second or so at best, before he broke the concentration with an idle lick of his snout.

Then, he started to lower into a sit, but not quite.

Still holding her hands on her hips, Miko watched. She wasn't quite at the 'point at the floor for dramatic effect' stage of things, as he did seem to be listening, albeit warily - but that was totally gonna be her next move should he not ease all the way down.

Ah, but then he did! Fully down into a sit, and with it? The almost serious look on her face shifted into a bright smile.

"Good boy!"

It was a simple command, yet the bestest boy deserved all the praise, and while it probably didn't mean anything really, she wanted to keep him in a good mood so he'd continue to listen and obey.

"Noooow stay!" she spoke the command clearly, tone shifting into the serious one from moments prior.

Then, she moved, carefully hopping down off the milk crate and the few short steps toward the sitting cassette, and around to the side of him.

"I'm going to try and climb up you, okay?" she said, as if he could understand. Perhaps she was only talking so Bolo could tell where she was, as the last thing she wanted was him getting spooked and moving too quickly because uh, well… that wouldn't end well.

Huffing a strand of hair out of her face, she thought for a moment about how to even go about this. Even with him sitting, it wasn't exactly going to be super easy - though she knew she'd probably have more success while he was sat down and being still, rather than moving around.

"Hhm…"

His back leg seemed the best place to attempt this, though she worried about him not liking the sensation of her climbing up from that point. Even though he was on their side, he was a giant animal that didn't understand her, nor could he be reasoned with should things go awry.

But she trusted him.

There was, admittedly, a flicker of worry as she stood alongside him, peering up at where she planned on going. But she was never one for backing down from something like this. Carefully, she placed both hands on him - wanting to gauge his temperament first. Some dogs and cats – Chi-Chi immediately sprang to mind – didn't like their legs and paws touched, and as badly as she wanted that purple boombox? She did not want to upset Bolo in the process of trying to get it.

[Carbine]

Stay? She couldn’t tell him what to do...

A dash of arrogance and pride welled to the surface within Bolo at these thoughts, his helm raising as though he were trying to look dismissively down upon Miko with a hefty dash of judgment thrown in on top. He certainly was continuing to remain sitting, however he was doing so because he could, and not because she told him to, which was a very different thing in his opinion. While he indeed would protect her if things were to go amiss, she wasn't his owner, and she lacked the authoritative presence that was anywhere close to overpowering his stubborn nature.

While Miko went into motion and moved towards his side, Bolo's helm would crook around to watch her, inadvertently creating one of those moments where his lack of facial features could make things unnerving, to say the least. No eyebrow plates, no ability to squint eyes or even flick a lip to show off teeth... no wrinkled panels between the ears, nor flared nostrils... There was nothing, and while his ears were articulated, they were simply upright and angled forward, it not apparent if it meant he was on edge, or if he was simply listening for whatever may be said next.

When Miko moved further, Bolo's front paws lifted and re-positioned slightly, almost wanting to turn his upper torso around so that he could watch better, though he did not stand, able to see her well enough with the hook of his neck. He was overall being good, rather stationary in the grand scheme of things, that is, before Miko placed both of her hands on his hip. The touch itself didn't particularly bother him, however, he didn't know how to translate it, almost assuming that she was then trying to push him? This caused an annoyed grumble to form, mentally chastising her along the lines of 'if you didn't want me here, why did you make me sit here'. It was a higher thought process he couldn't cobble together in so much detail, yet there was a feeling that could be roughly translated as such.

Mechanics shifted, and Bolo calmly stood upright after the touch, his back end taking a couple of steps away from Miko while he pivoted to be able to look at her more head-on.

Down the hall, the sounds of footfalls could start to be heard, each one a dampened tap followed by a sharper strike of a thin heel clipping down. While sounding narrow in its contact point, there was still some heft, which when paired with the spacing between impacts, it was safe to assume it wasn't a smaller soul's gait. Given the current occupant of the room, it would not be difficult to guess who could be making their way in their direction.

[Miko Nakadai]

Okay, so far so good on the Bolo sitting still thing…

Or, it was, anyway - until the tell-tale grumble that told her that something was wrong. He didn't sound mad, it didn't sound like a growl of anger or anything like that. Instead, it was more like a rumble of annoyance, proooobably because she'd told him to do something instead of offering him pets.

AKA he was being a big giant baby! Which uh, he kind of was.

Rumble of annoyance aside, it was the sound of mechanics shifting - and the fact she felt movement beneath the metal panels, that drew her attention up and to his face, if only to try and see what was going on, and— Whoa, okay, that was kind of creepy and unexpected to look at. Bolo was normally so cute, but the way he twisted his neck to loom down at her was a little eerie, especially with the lack of decent lighting down here making the absence of facial features all the more noticeable.

But these thoughts would have to wait, as further movement followed the sound of mechanical shifting as he began to stand.

"Ack! Bolo noo! Stay!" she whined, taking a few steps back of her own, holding both hands up - wanting to give the cassette space, as while she knew he would probably be careful, it would be all too easy for her to be caught underfoot.

But wait-

Another noise.

Footsteps.

Luckily, she realized almost in an instant who it was. The fact Bolo was here was the major clue, however she'd managed to memorize the various sounds of how different Autobots moved throughout the base. Their different frame sizes and types meant that each walked with differing gaits. Some were heavy, some light to the point she had to really be paying attention to hear them coming - even on concrete!

"You've done it now, Bolo! You shoulda listened! Carbine is gonna come in here and kick your butt!" she shifted her hands to her hips as she spoke, poking her tongue out at the cassette a second later.

She knew Carbine wouldn't actually do that, especially as the canine hadn't done anything wrong - but a tiny part of her hoped that simply by mentioning his name, Bolo would be more inclined to backtrack and listen to the order from moments earlier. It wasn't how it worked at all and deep down she knew this - but, eh, points for trying!

At least Carbine would probably help her out, and not question too much just what exactly she was doing down here with his dog.

[Carbine]

Miko's words and actions were effectively not hitting their marks, Bolo doing a poor job of translating just what she was trying to convey. She wanted him to sit, then stay, then pushed him into a stand, only to then tell him to stay, ending with holding her hands up in the air, which he then took as inviting him back down to her level again... it was an ordeal. He somewhat rolled with the punches however, which wasn't that hard given he had already mostly forgotten just what was happening to begin with and just what her goals even were any longer.

Taking a partial step forward to effortlessly cross the distance Miko had made when she backed off, which was more just a re-positioning of his paws, the canine's helm would dip, wondering if the exposed palms had some sort of meaning. He didn't know if she had something on her hands for him to smell, or if she instead wanted to just grab onto his snout again. If she didn't manhandle? Then score. He would go back to sniffing at her face and shirt like he had been the previous time before she stopped him, only for a new interruption to be made.

At his name, as well as his Carrier's, Bolo would stop and his ears would rotate forward quickly, showing a sort of interest due to the recognizable words. As with before, he had no real clue what it meant, but she was now doing the hands-on-hip posture, and he knew well enough what the 'attempt to be commanding' stance could be. People have done that to him before, and it went over as well as to be expected since he did not respect that, and instead followed those who spoke HIS language.

Whatever the case, the flat plates of Bolo's eyes would shift up slightly, before his helm would raise, looking at the doorway.

"You ha͘r̕a͘ss͞ing my dog?"

An all too familiar voice paired with a faint crackle spoke up, Carbine stepping past the threshold into the room properly. He had known Bolo was going on ahead of him when he needed to hang back a moment, though he didn't know exactly what he may have been getting into in the meantime. When he hadn't seen his Cassette down the hall and realized he went in the side room? Well, he assumed the worst, and was now pleasantly surprised to see that Bolo was not digging through stuff to eat, but instead was with Miko, which... meant they still could be getting into trouble... it was Miko... which speaking of...

"What are y-you ̀d̴oing down here?"

Carbine wasn't some snitch who was looking to stop her, whether by himself or by telling someone else, though he would be lying if he said he wasn't curious. As far as he knew this area didn't have a bunch of stuff FOR her, yet that could be the allure of it all together. Some chop saw, blowtorch, paint stripper, industrial adhesive, or who knows what else that a kid her age... or more... a kid of her mischievous nature... should not be getting into. The opportunities were endless! As such, he was already invested in being a potential bad influence so long as it was something that legit wouldn’t end with her breaking her arm off since for their kind that wasn't a recoverable event.

After this question, Carbine would step further into the room towards them, making it so that Miko wouldn't have to yell her secret plans and risk someone else overhearing who may not be as open-minded. With this approach, Bolo would ease back down into a sit, his butt wiggling ever so slightly as though he were trying to shake a tail that wasn't even there. It was once the mech did get closer, however, that some new damage that Miko hadn't seen before may be more apparent.

There had been a thin crack that ran from the lower left to the top right of Carbine's faceplate for a very long time now, the gap slightly larger at the bottom end, however now it had fully formed into a fissure, to which the bottom portion had split into more than one line. The triangle that must have fallen out was glued back in place roughly, though no glue would ever make it seamless, which was most apparent in front of his right eye which appeared almost broken in half.

Carbine didn't seem bothered by this as he was still looking with no sense of struggling to pinpoint her, though it wasn't fun, which paired up poorly with his more tired demeanor.

He would like the distraction of whatever Miko had going on...

[Miko Nakadai]

As frustrating as this ordeal was, she couldn't really blame Bolo too much for the misunderstandings that were going on. It wasn't as if he could understand a word she said – aside from a few specific ones, anyway – and she'd given him a few different orders all in succession.

Even she would probably be confused by what the goal was here, though it was too late to try and start over - as Carbine's voice sounded a moment later.

She knew he was coming, she'd heard his footsteps, and yet she still squeaked in surprise, both hands shifting to hide behind her back. She wasn't quite sure why she'd done that – habit, maybe, considering she did quite often get busted doing things she wasn't supposed to be doing – and upon realizing she'd done it, she'd quickly move them so they were both in view.

"No!" she was quick to reply. "I was trying to get him to help me!"

She was a good liar, but- there was that saying 'can't bullshit a bullshitter' – meaning she probably couldn't get anything past Carbine even if she wasn't telling the truth. Her words were sincere, honest… yet vague, as she didn't go on to elaborate, even when he asked the question of just what she was actually doing.

Instead, she took in the details of his face, noticing in an instant that something had changed since the last time she'd seen him.

"Whoa, what happened to you?!" a question of her own, a deflection – eyes narrowing in almost-accusation. "You get punched in the face by a Decepticon or something?"

It sure looked like it - that thin crack that'd been there for ages was bigger, and there was a hastily glued triangle from where a piece looked to have fallen out. His eye looked pretty bad, and the sight of that made her frown. It was pretty much the worst coverup in the history of coverups, though given the current lack-of-medic situation, it was probably the best they could do.

[Carbine]

Help?

At Miko's words, the top edge of Carbine's optical projection would flick up, implying a sort of raised eyebrow as he tried to consider just what said 'help' could possibly be. He didn't know what she was doing down here to begin with, and he didn't know how Bolo would even remotely be able to assist with anything. Sit, down, go over there, stay, or attack... none were really conducive to any sort of fitting adventure in this room without him there to guide the canine for anything more advanced or complicated. With their bonded link, and a lifetime of reading one another's body language, Carbine would certainly be able to make the canine do more than simple commands could ever manage, yet even then, there wasn't someone to take down, and he didn't think Miko would know how to tell Bolo to find something while offering an object to smell. Even if she did know the right words, the issue of if he would actually abide by it was where the true challenge would be.

Bolo knew that the human children were to be protected and not hurt, yet being a guardian was far different than being an obedient follower, meaning the level of shits that would be offered was dependent on his mood and if he felt like messing with the individual who thought they had power.

Nothing was said right away, Carbine simply waiting with an expectation that Miko would continue, yet it didn't happen. While her yelping and hiding her hands could be seen as evidence she was up to no good, he had chalked that up to her simply being accustomed to being caught in the middle of getting into things where hiding evidence before knowing if she truly needed to was a quick way to get a step ahead. That didn't bother him. What had got his attention was the way that she avoided detailing anything further. He wondered briefly if it was something related to him, given the fact she wanted to work with Bolo, yet there was a more likely chance of it being good old-fashioned mischief.

With the misdirected question, the black and white mech let out a scoff.

"Nahh, I did the pun̨c̴hi͘n̕g!"

Carbine's words were arrogant and prideful, a form of zeal thrown behind them that would easily convey the confidence someone may feel in striking down an enemy in a brawl. To pair up with this statement, his hands rose, the fist on his right slamming into the palm of his left with a solid thrum of metal against metal. As soon as this happened, however, the abruptly enthusiastic energy started to bleed away, his shoulders relaxing while his elbows lowered in turn.

"With m͘y fa͠ce..."

His arms lowered more, gaze pulling to the side some.

"...in̕to a wall..."

A pause lingered then, an uncomfortable moment where his pointer finger tapped twice atop his fist, before he tuned back in, gaze flicking back to Miko.

"Anywaaayyy, you n-need help with ̀s̴ome͝t́h̸ing?"

That was far more interesting to him than him doing a pivot over Sunstreaker into a wall with no ability to pull his hands forward to block or dampen the impact. He didn't feel up for that discussion, since the entire incident was why he felt so beaten down to begin with. That and well, Blurr, but that was another thing. Whatever the case, he would look back at Miko expectantly, his helm turned slightly to the side so that he could see her better around the crack.

Bolo meanwhile simply sat and watched, his ears upright while he listened to the two individuals speaking, not understanding but also being interested enough to not wander off to explore on his own again.

[Miko Nakadai]

At Carbine's first words, Miko couldn't help but grin - expecting some sort of epic story about a fight where he'd kicked all sorts of butt. The fact his words were arrogant and laced with pride was a good sign indeed, and she couldn't wait to hear all the juicy details.

Only, just as quickly as her excitement grew, did it dissipate into… wait, what?

"You fell into a wall?"

Shifting her hands to her hips, it was her turn to scoff. That was so lame - and it looked like he'd managed to actually really hurt himself in the process. That must've been quite the fall, unless of course he wasn't exactly telling the truth.

Narrowing her eyes, she tried to look for any signs of him lying - but it was made hard by the fact he didn't really have a face to begin with, and with that came a lack of easy clues as to when he was making stuff up.

The topic change was met with a quiet hum of doubt.

"Nice sidestep there! You know I don't buy that at all, right?" she teased, huffing a strand of dust-covered hair from her face.

"But uh, yeah - actually. I was trying to reach something on the top shelf, which was kiiinda what I was trying to get Bolo to help me with."

Only he was bad at listening.

"-But he's hard to wrangle into doing stuff!"

[Carbine]

"Nice sidestep there! You know I don't buy that at all, right?"

"Know w-what els̸e I ̢cou̢l̢dn't sidestep? The wall."

Carbine wasn't above joking about himself. When certain circumstances lined up with certain individuals that he favored, he could take a punch and roll with it to make a joke stick. Miko was one of these people that he didn't mind, and the issue in play wasn’t horrendously insulting nor truly wounded him on some psychological level. As far as he was concerned, it meant he played his role well, as what kind of moron would attack his teammate simply to make his defected belligerence look legitimate to such a degree that they bashed their own face in? The only real horrible bit of that portion of the larger ordeal really was the fact that his visor was now even more messed up. At this point, its structural integrity was a thing of the past, and it was doing nothing more than hiding what lay below while offering a 'convenient' visual impairment that fissured part of his vision on the right side.

Point was, Carbine said what he had said in a joking nature, flicking his wrists up and back to point at himself.

Then it came to light what she was doing.

"Ohh, yeah th-that’s a mi̛st́a̕k̨e. He'd probably eat wh̷át y͠ou͏ would point out."

If Bolo didn’t try to chew it up and eat it? There was a chance that he would have simply broken it while trying to pick it up, to begin with, if it was something fragile. Most of the things that were small enough that one of the children would want, were probably also things that could easily be downright eaten whole by the foolish Cassette unintentionally with its primitive hinge mouth with no lips. Carbine just hoped that the object in question truly was durable and larger, otherwise he would be questioning some things about Miko's decision-making abilities. He hadn't put two and two together yet that she didn't want the dog to be the one to grab it and was more wanting him to raise her higher via pretending to be a jungle gym.

"Whątc͝ha lookin' at?"

With a calm gait, Carbine crossed the distance that was left between them, ending up standing at Miko's side which truly highlighted just how large their size difference was. When looking at one another across the room, there was a certain barrier to detach from this variable to a small extent, one that was now gone as his ped was only a handful of feet away, resulting in the top of her head only coming up to the bottom edge of his curved knee guard. It was from this new angle that he then dipped his frame some, being able to see the one bright-colored thing that stood out to him.

If Carbine was a betting mech... well no... he was a betting mech... he would safely wager that the colorful who-knows-what was what was being sought. As such, before Miko even confirmed it, he reached forward to pull it off the shelf carefully between the tips of his fingers, being mindful that he didn't know how thick the plastic wall was. It felt super light to him, and he didn't want to cause any sort of damage by overestimating its durability and causing one side to cave in. Some plastics got extra brittle as they aged, and he didn't know where on the brand-new to antique scale this thing landed.

With it in hand, he would lift it to look at it himself to try to see what it even was.

[Miko Nakadai]

Laughing at Carbine's words – if only because she knew damn well he was simply poking fun at himself – Miko couldn't help but scoff. She knew there was probably more to it. He probably had been in a fight with a Decepticon, after all, the Autobots did have their own lives, most of which unfortunately went on when she was stuck in the prison known as school, and those lives meant that sometimes they got into fights with the enemy faction when out on patrol or whatever fun adventures they had without her.

Maybe he'd lost, hence the need to sidestep and come up with something totally lame as an excuse, though she hoped that whoever had run into Carbine had gotten a smack or two in return.

Though… she wouldn't pry, even if she did want the actual details of what'd happened. She knew better, as much as it pained her to hold off with the billion questions and accusations about the whole thing. As impatient as she was about things a lot of the time, she did have manners - or at least, sometimes.

"…Wait, he'd eat it?"

His words pulled her attention back into the moment, and she scrunched up her nose at the thought of Bolo eating the boombox. Maybe it was a good thing she hadn't managed to wrangle him into doing her temporary bidding, though it woulda been kiiiiiinda funny to see. She'd never seen him eating things he shouldn't have before, but Carbine obviously knew him way better than she did. Though that of course brought up more questions like what would've happened if he did eat it - would he simply puke and it'd be over and done with? Or would it actually be dangerous? Dogs on Earth couldn't eat chocolate or grapes, maybe Cybertronian ones couldn't eat weirdly funky (and a lil dusty) purple electronics.

As Carbine moved to stand next to her, she tilted her head back further so she could continue to look up at him. As tempting as it was in this moment – because damnit, invasive thoughts! – she refrained from starting to scramble up his pede and onto his leg. She was so used to doing that with Bulkhead it was like second nature now, to the point she found herself shifting her weight away from Carbine if only to stop herself. Climbing up to sit on his shoulder would be really cool, but she didn't want to spook him or Bolo, not when there was the imminent risk of being trampled underfoot.

Thankfully, this didn't happen - and before she could even answer the question? The mech beside her reached forward to grab the boombox itself. From here, she could see the wire that plugged into the wall - which was a good thing, as it meant it might still work!

"You know me well!" she laughed. "It's a CD player!" she answered the question that was probably on Carbine's mind. "-though uh, it probably has a cassette slot as well, I couldn't tell from down here. Is there anything in it?"

She wondered who it even belonged to. Fowler wouldn't be caught dead with such an awesome colored boombox, she was sure - so it was probably just left behind by one of the many people who worked here back when it was a missile silo or whatever.

Hopefully whoever it was had good taste in music, if there was even anything in there - whiiiich there probably wouldn't be. Though man, some vintage hair metal or maybe some old-school punk? Either would be preeeeetty badass! Or maybe a mixtape with both!

But that could wait. Carbine was here now - and Carbine could understand her, unlike Bolo, meaning… it was time for possible treasure hunting while they had the chance.

"Oh oh!" her thoughts caught up to her in the form of sudden words.

"Since you're here, maybe we could see if there's anything else that's worth taking?"

She wouldn't take anything home, of course, as the last thing she needed was her host parents asking where she got a bunch of random stuff from like, the 90s or whatever, but she absolutely planned to set that boombox up in the Control Room - if it worked.

Leaning up on her tiptoes as if it'd help her see much of anything, she made a point of pouting when it didn't work. Hmph.

[Carbine]

A... Cassette slot?

Carbine paused at this, a wave of confusion flowing over him that could potentially be picked up on with his shift in body language and a furrow of the inner edges of his optical projections. The term being used for such a thing did not translate well for him, given English and Cybertronian didn't always have a one-to-one conversion. This was especially true when it came to old technologies that he wouldn’t know like Miko did. As such, he looked back down at the boombox, turning it over in his hand while trying to figure out how a Cassette would dock, and what a Cassette would look like for humanity.

On Earth they of course had whatever USB drives or game CDs he had seen around Omega One when he witnessed the kids playing something, and he knew there had to be transfer drives for data of many kinds, yet 'Cassette' held a very different meaning to him given he was created as a Carrier. It made him imagine one of the lifeless computers back on Cybertron being just smart enough to eject a mobile drone to act on its behalf away from where it was hardwired and mounted.

"A Cas͞sett̨e slot?"

Putting words behind things, Carbine turned the device over once more to look back at its front, though he wasn’t exactly certain what he should even be searching for. When Bolo docked with him, the animal flowed well into his mass, creating spinal armor and an almost backpack-like attachment that didn't look much unlike other frames who had to carry bulk from their alt-mode in their root form. For all he knew the handle itself was the drone, or half of it could rip away into its own entity. Thankfully this translation issue was much more innocent than the last one he had when speaking to Miko, this one something they could actually talk about further.

"Bolo i-is ̕a Ca̛s̶sette?... er... a - "

Carbine then said the Cybertronian word for 'Cassette' in relation to a Carrier's other half, the alien language far separated from the English he was just speaking a second previously. It held some mechanical inflections, though was not beeping like Bumblebee's limited speech. While he did not struggle with Miko's language in the sense of pronunciation beyond his glitch, this one word seemed to come to him more naturally for rather obvious reasons.

Hearing his name, the canine seemed to perk up, his ears pivoting on their circular hinges to angle in Carbine's direction with an expectation that an order of some kind could follow right away. This alert state would revert nearly as quickly as it had formed due to the fact that Carbine wasn't even looking in his direction. With this thought, his ears moved into their more relaxed position once again, looking down at Miko before peering back up.

"I don't un-derst̷a͟nd."

With this simple declaration, Carbine shifted his position, reaching down with the boombox to either hand it over or set it beside Miko if she didn't take it in hand, freeing him so that he could ease up once more to look over at what else was up top well out of the child's range.

Which was a lot.

Some tools, some containers, and weird human stuff. The latter was probably what would be most useful to Miko, yet Carbine knew her enough to know she didn't want something she could just find outside Omega One when there were piles of other nonsense that was alien in origin. With this, he reached up and took hold of a sealed container, looking across the words that were written across it in Cybertronian. The writing seemed to dance in his vision, each one jumping around erratically such as the letter that was equivalent to a 'B' suddenly jittering to a 'D' and then 'A', only to snap back to the 'B' again... it made him close his eyes a moment and shake his helm, trying to forget what he had seen so that he didn't stress out the language center of his processor and trigger another seizure. He had two of those on this world now, and he didn't know if that meant the connectors were now fragile and he was more susceptible to them again due to the fresh damage.

Cradling the box in his left arm, Carbine used his right hand to pop the top just enough to look inside, his helm crooking aside just after before he bent once more and planted it in front of Miko with a clunking rattle of metal and glass.

"It's your l-lucky day! It l̀o̴oks like o-overflow shit ͡from the̛ Medical Bay!"

A room Miko could CERTAINLY never be able to rummage through.

Anyone else would have likely followed such a statement with 'It is probably dangerous, be careful', or other cautionary requests, but Carbine assumed it was whatever and went unsaid, and that if Miko cut off her arm it was her damn fault. He would get the blame no doubt... but he would argue that she was an adult!

Wait. No, she wasn't. She was a child. Yet... Eh? Close enough. She could walk and talk and tend to herself, she wasn't a drooly baby who had no cognitive capabilities. If something looked like some hydraulic punch needle meant to pierce armor? Well, he expected her to recognize what was effectively a lethal weapon in her small hands.

After he placed this down, he would watch quietly, still trying to wrap his mind around an Earth Cassette while Bolo lowered his helm to sniff at the container.

[Miko Nakadai]

The shift in Carbine's body language was practically immediate, and the furrowing of his 'eyes' had Miko quickly backtracking over what she'd said. Wrinkling her nose, she… found she wasn't quite sure what the confusing statement had been, it not quite clicking that 'cassette' meant something entirely different to Cybertronians.

Thankfully, this moment of confusion was broken with words – and some elaboration, including some in his native tongue. She'd heard Bulkhead speak Cybertronian before, pestering him to say all kinds of swear words and insults, even if she had no hope of ever being able to repeat them.

Come to think of it, he was probably just saying a whole bunch of random nice stuff, it wasn't as if she'd ever know.

Stretching upward, she took the offered boombox, tilting it this way and that, and using one hand to brush some dust from it. Then, without word she held it up to peer at the myriad of buttons, looking for whatever it was she sought.

Ah ha!

At the front of the device was a small squared area. The top clearly opened, but there was a panel in the front that had its own separate set of smaller buttons. Pushing one, there was a satisfying noise as it popped open, revealing that there was indeed something inside.

Carefully, she'd pull the rectangle object from the boombox, and held it up so Carbine could see.

"A cassette!" she repeated, laughing.

"It's one of those words that I guess means different things - which is so cool, honestly! When I think of the word, I think of one of these, and you think of Bolo! They're so old school though, I don't know if they even really make these anymore!"

As Carbine began rummaging, Miko pushed the cassette back into the slot and pushed it closed. There were no signs that it was from a specific band, meaning it was probably someone's mixtape that they'd forgotten was in there.

Hopefully whoever it was had good taste in music, though that would have to wait for a second - as Carbine had found treasure, and good treasure at that.

"Whoa…"

Hooking the small purple boombox under one arm, she took a step forward, leaning up onto her tiptoes so she could peer into the box. Only to quickly realize that… uh, okay, this was going to be a little annoying using one hand. She wasn't normally allowed anywhere near the Medical Bay, and while the box probably didn't have anything super cool in it? It was absolutely worth checking out - and something like this needed two hands for sure!

"I think we need music before we start rummaging!"

Moment of truth, maybe. This cassette was either going to be amazing, or the worst thing ever. Either way would be a win, though, in that she could teach Carbine a thing or two about good music! Oh, uh, what not to listen to if it was awful.

"Don't start looking in it without me!" with that said, she would take a step or two back, before making her way around the small storage room, almost as if looking for something.

There had to be an outlet in here somewhere, right? Hopefully the stupid old thing still worked…