Ep 1.5 It's On Again (Pyrotech and Roulette/closed)

[Deleted]

"Shockwave..." She tilted her head, trying to fathom the mech who dictated her life. Well, he did value her opinion or she wouldn't have stayed in his service for very long. She'd seen lesser proxies come and go, some in pieces. The mech had little room for sentimental drivel and would sacrifice his own body to the task mistress that was Science. A mere tool was an afterthought in his designs. She was no different and didn't have any delusions that their relationship was something special. She stayed ahead of him because she stayed a weird variable he couldn't quite figure out. The realization wasn't even scary. It was enlightening and gave Roulette all the free room she needed. Now all she had to do was make sure she didn't hang herself with the rope she allotted herself.

"Shockwave trusts me. I've known him long enough to know all his habits. The mech loves routine too much to change." Which wasn't an exaggeration. The scientist really did settle into well formed routes in both mental and physical categories. He noticed even the slightest changes in his lab. Which is why she went out of her way to tweak that serenity of his. Just enough to make things interesting.

Ew, can we think of something besides the Lump? He offered dancing. That could be fun.

"I think I'd have to find some free time to dancing. Sadly, social delights are the first thing to get trampled under the cogs of war. Although," she looked up, watching the flight of a bird far above, "I've always found sparring to be like dancing. Or the heat of battle. Basically the same thing with a different outcome."

[Pyrotech]

"That makes sense," Pyrotech replied. He lifted his hand to thoughtfully rub at his chin. "Most science is about routine, in many respects. Method and planning. Control."

The architect smiled over at Roulette and shook his head as he dropped his hand back to his side.

Then he quirked a browridge. "Sparring? Like dancing? Well yes, now that you mention it they are very similar. Give and take, back and forth. Learning how to gauge the other's sense of timing and balance, but..."

A chuckle. "I would hope that my partner would not hit me in the face given half a chance," he said. His doors lifted and smoothed back. "Not even if I stepped mercilessly on her toes." He followed her gaze upwards, drawn by the motion of her neck and helm.

When he realized it was merely a bird, he dismissed it and went on.

"Yes, though, I understand a lack of free time," Pyrotech admitted. "Although I do like being busy and focused on what needs to be done."

Now that they were close, Roulette suddenly would realize that that little black overhang was the mouth of a cave. From a distance it had appeared simply like one more of the crags in the rocks and the way the iron-rich crags rose up and here and there, it broke up the pings of any scanner. Dry brush had been cut back in few places, but with care - not a swath, just space to easily set a foot down without leaving tracks behind. It blended into the landscape, used the surrounding detail to draw your eye away...

The ground was gradually sloping towards it as well, which helped give the entrance height without enlarging it upwards. Pyrotech had patiently dug a trench and filled it with stone, then smoothed it over again to drain any water away from the entrance.

He paused and glanced over at her. "I'm afraid this is it," he said, and his accent grew thicker, touched with dry apology. "But we can sit and chat in my office... ah, listen to me, office. It sounds much nicer than it actually is. I'll offer you my one good chair though, if that will help me with what you have come to discuss."

[Deleted]

"You haven't sparred with me," Roulette muttered. She wasn't exactly known for her, ah, talent on the sparring ring. It wasn't that she was bad, per say, in battle. Hell, she was pretty good. Wouldn't be alive if she didn't have tricks up her sleeve in the proverbial sense. But in the sparring corner she turned awkward and unfocused. Maybe because her life wasn't really on the line? Or maybe she only worked well when her life was on the line.

Forgetting the bird, Roulette studied the cave and the impressive concealment. Shockwave would surely be impressed (if that was possibly. Hint, it wasn't.) by the care taken in hiding the compound in plain sight. Hard to detect, remote, and casually hidden with little fuss. Certainly right up the scientist's alley.

She gave the area a critical eye, for once being completely serious. This was, after all, what Shockwave had sent her down to do. Yes, sure, she was supposed to woo the mech over to the dark side with gifts and whatever it was Shockwave thought she did. (Some days she wondered about that mech, seriously.) But the other half of her assignment was to check out the work being put into the hidden station here. If the work was shoddy or lacking, her superior wouldn't have interest and would move on to another mech. Even if his options were limited.

Luckily for Pyrotech, Roulette was suitably impressed with what she saw. She was no slouch when it came to an eye for detail. Working with the mad scientist have given her a keen eye and insight she sometimes wished she didn't possess. How could one unlearn something?

"Don't apologize. This is good. You should be proud of your work. This planet is..." Hostile was too strong a word and yet, it really did fit the bill... "...unforgiving. This is actually one of the better locations I've been sent to. If you haven't guessed by now, I don't get off the ship very often." She grinned and gestured for him to lead on. "...there aren't any lizards in there, are there?"

[Pyrotech]

The architect rested his hands on his hips. He did not disturb Roulette as she surveyed the base and the way it was hidden. There were other things, subtle things that not many of their kind would notice in his work. The way he'd adjusted for the way the wind came from most times down into the valley. How he'd chosen a spot that was uphill slightly and the way he'd dug into the terrain. Where the entrance lay, naturally hidden partially by the shadows that the rocks cast, no matter the time of day. Pyrotech had even moved some of the actual stones to disorientate both scanners and vision.

In some respects, the terrain had made him think more than nearly anything he'd had to deal with back on Cybertron. There it had mostly involved how to use space; building upwards with elegance and an eye for the grand. He built those places with the eye of someone who knew how the spoiled elite wanted to live. For the most part they wanted to flaunt it in the faces of those below them, he'd found.

Here he had to dig in, shore up, hide every trace of himself.

It had become a game where he countered it at every turn, tried to outbuild it and outmaneuver it at every point. It threw the worst it could offer, snow, wet, unstable ground with shifting muck. Plants tried to tear it apart, insects and small mammals crept in and did damage. He countered it, changed the way he did things. The way he built a vent, designed a duct. Tiny details made all the difference.

Pyrotech thought about that for a moment. His work and hobbies didn't stray far from each other, not at all. He simply enjoyed getting lost in the details.

He glanced down at Roulette and smiled.

"I am," he replied. "Proud of my work, that is. It's unfortunately more of a matter that there is so little to work with."

His optics dimmed slightly under the brim of his helm and then brightened once more.

"Oh, don't worry," he chuckled as he stepped forward at her grin and gesture. "I can't say I blame you. No reason to get off that ship unless you absolutely have to. It is rather nice to hear someone appreciate what I build though. That hasn't happened for a while."

A look over his shoulder. "There better not be any," he said in response as he led her inside. "I have a strict no-vermin policy after Australia."

The tunnel Roulette would step into was dry, cool and dark. The walls were rough-hewn, natural looking, but there were slight subtleties - they'd been smoothed out on areas that might catch an unwary hip. It was low at first, but after two or three steps the floor sloped downwards and the sides widened and gave her plenty of room. From how it appeared on the outside was utterly deceptive.

As Pyrotech passed he touched a palm to what looked like stone in the wall. Tiny soft blue lights turned on and flickered overhead so that she could easily see where she was in relation to the walls as they continued downward. Mica patches on the walls glittered and gleamed. Her sharp eyes might notice a series of small holes drilled here and there in the tunnel walls. Vent holes perhaps, that went up to the surface? The air here was cool but not stale.

[Deleted]

"Honestly, I tend to have a bad time when I get off the ship." She could name multiple times things went south for her every time she set foot off of the Nemesis. What was it about this planet that borked things up for her so thoroughly? She'd never had such karmic kismet on any other planet. Heck, things had been downright dull on Cybertron. Except for that whole war thing.

The compound looked good. If she wasn't actually paying attention, she'd have overlooked the instillation and not given the cave a second thought. The eye for detail would please Shockwave in as much as he could be pleased. It wasn't even the smaller details that would impress. It was the dedication to the craft. Pyrotech wouldn't muck up the scientist's latest project with haphazard application.

Mind already made up, Roulette really didn't even need a complete tour but balking out of the offer now would be the height of rude. And the longer she was here, the less time she had to spend around the scientist doing something as mind numbing and monitoring that stupid tank of his. Or recalibrating something again.

"I guess I should tell you that Shockwave will offer something nice in trade if you play nice. I'm probably supposed to say that better but, come on, he sent me down here to bribe you." She grinned and looked around the cave, musing over the holes in the walls. How clever...

[Pyrotech]

Roulette's sharpshooter eye would catch something that most would have simply passed over and not noticed. There was venting, the holes in the walls nudged a bit of warm air upwards and pulled cool air from the shadows in the rocks above.

There was also something else in there scattered among them. Not all of them. But cleverly hidden within were the silver echoes of small projectiles here and there. They were small ones, but aimed cleverly into the hall at several differing heights.

Pyrotech chuckled. "I don't think that's you," he assured her. "This planet has a way of ah, doing that. Let's put blame where it is likely due, among the mud and the lizards. Were there other things that happened to you here besides that, or...?"

"Oh?" he asked her after a moment.

His doors lifted ever so slightly behind his shoulders. "That is refreshingly straightforward," he told her.

Then the architect lifted his hand and wryly indicated the space around them. "Between us?" he said, his tone slipping to the same humor she'd offered him, since it was merely the two of them, and her charming grin had caught his eye. "Under the circumstances, I believe you could bribe me with nearly anything and I'd be delighted. Well, almost anything. I have enough rocks to last me a while."

In front of them the hallway opened up into... a cave. Big enough for several mechs to stand or sit. There were benches of stone. Several crates were stacked neatly in the corner, along with a bunch of other items. Spools of wire, some big metal coupler that had come off a train-hitch. A few girders had been laid neatly along the wall. Everything was orderly, if sitting and waiting to be put away. The glow in here had brightened; there were soft yellow lights imbedded into the walls and ceiling. It was interesting how some of them were set above mica scatterings, to reflect even more. There was plating starting to be laid across the floor in here. It read as old scrap that had been heated, smoothed, heated again with patience, and the rivets to the stone were as familiar as the deck of the Nemesis.

Overhead, the red bands of stone darkened and lightened, rippling across the ceiling. He'd seemed to have taken an aesthetic touch to things as well; as if that was one more nuance he'd taken into consideration. This was not just a hole, it was-- well, it was as close to not being a hole as possible.

The mech turned and looked at her. "My office is this way," he said, and gestured to one of the three side tunnels that branched off.

[Deleted]

"I think a newt under my plates was enough," Roulette teased while stepping away from Pyrotech to give the cave some critical attention. Or at least pretend she was. In truth, she didn't know what the slag she was looking at. Was the ceiling being ceiling like? Good enough for her! Ideally, Shockwave probably had impressed some details to keep in mind while looking over the compound but, in true fashion, Roulette had stopped listening to him five minutes into lecture mode.

"Under the circumstances, I believe you could bribe me with nearly anything and I'd be delighted. Well, almost anything. I have enough rocks to last me a while."

"I'll be generous and not pass that along. Let's squeeze Shockwave into doing a few favors. He's overdue being generous." She held out the datapad for him to take, glad to be rid of the darned thing. Unfortunately, she had no blueprints to give him but for the schematics on the pad. "For your services, he is offering some sort of printer thing. I think it makes furniture and such. The details are all there. I'm sure he told me but I ah, misplaced the..." She chuffed, "Ok, I wasn't listening. He does this thing where he goes off on a tangent when he's all excited about a project and just rattles on with techno babble."

Carefully keeping her gaze away from him, she studied the room they'd just walked into and under her helm, an optic ridge raised slightly. Wow...she was suitably pleased with the room. A cave was a cave, but he'd taken the pains to actually accentuate the quality of the stone they'd dug into. That took a certain flare for detail...

"You really like your job..."

[Pyrotech]

"Thank you," he chuckled. "For not passing that along, and... oh? So, this is a project he's interested in for his own purposes? Always a good thing, I find."

"I do," he replied. "I've always enjoyed my job. I think because it also has become... hmm, a hobby in places? It's one thing to slap a roof over your head or dig a bunker. Another to be tuned to the details, add a touch or two of your own."

The red mech carefully took the data pad from her hand. He was polite about it and didn't touch her fingers. He glanced at it but didn't rudely begin to scroll through the information. That could wait.

Another room. This was the only one in the place with a door. It was shut. He reached up and touched his palm to a lock-plate and warmed his fingers up slightly. Immediately it keyed over and unlocked, and he shifted his weight and slid it off to one side with a soft whirr of rollers and smoothly disappeared into the wall.

He led her into what was obviously an office.

The walls had been smoothed and squared off. There were shelves in the walls, carved out of stone. A series of warm lights yellowed overhead, bringing out the warm reds and golds of the rock. A desk had been hewn out of stone as well, and she could tell the top had been smoothed and smoothed and then smoothed again, polished and sleek. There was a bench to sit on.

It also had one Cybertronian desk chair tucked neatly under it. The only furniture in the entire place that wasn't stone. Well, that and the desk lamp. It sat in a place of honor on his desk and the cool blue light overlooked some scribing devices he had neatly stacked into a salvaged metal cylinder.

Everything on his desk was neatly stacked out; datapads, schematics. A topographical map of the area that was a small paper one from the humans. It was curling at the edges and he'd weighed it down with rocks.

Pyrotech pulled out the chair and offered it to her. "Please, sit down," he said. "I'd offer you a drink but I'm afraid I'm a bit short down here until the next supply run."

[Deleted]

The office was nice, for something that was located in a cave in the middle of nowhereville. Certainly a better retreat from the heat and dust outside. And the insects and lizards. Blech. This planet had a problem in that it liked lifeforms too much.

The offer for the chair was respectful and certainly more comfortable than the bench. Which is why she forewent the offer and slid onto the bench with a smirk. She didn't mind sitting on the cold, stone surface. It kept her away from the desk and the temptation to fiddle with things. Even as she perused over the polished surface, a number of items caught her attention. They were too tidy. Her fingers twitched.

She slid forward on the bench and sat with her hands between her thighs. Ok, I can stay out trouble for five seconds. This will be easy. Against the stone surface, her fingers tapped on the underside of the bench. She could probably do this.

"Drinking is over rated anyway." Though, more and more did she wish she was fragging drunk off her rocker.

[Pyrotech]

Underneath Roulette the stone was smooth. There wasn't even a bit of a burr; it had been polished until the surface felt as close to metal as it was possible for it to be. The bench was surprisingly comfortable; the height was adjusted fairly well for several sizes of Cybertronian. She could have either stretched out her legs if she was taller or tucked them underneath. Against her back it was cool, and one of the lights angled down correctly to read by.

Pyrotech eyed her as she set herself down on the bench. He didn't offer his chair again one more time; he respected that she had chose to sit where she wanted. If she was comfortable on his bench, that was fine with him. The red mech turned to his chair and settled himself down into it. His doors swung out slightly as he leaned back, and then he picked up the datapad Shockwave had sent with her.

"It depends on the circumstance," he agreed. "Although lately let me tell you, I've badly needed a whole night of it myself. Drinking, that is."

His optics fell to the datapad. He'd refrained from looking at it this entire time. Now though, now he was sitting in his office. Like he had so many times back home on Cybertron. They brought him all sorts of things to look at, so many possibilities. At first he'd taken anything he could get; he was oh so content to set supports, double check beams- go over the work of others. Slowly, cautiously, he made himself useful to those higher up, his hard work and careful eye for detail caught their attention. He'd developed a reputation for hands on, for good work. If his team was there building, he was there supervising.

He still sometimes went and set supports on his own. He rather enjoyed that part.

This though. This... Commander Shockwave wants my assistance.

He'd been saddled with the dregs of what they could give him since coming to Earth. He'd been assigned to some backwater, filthy places, given mechs who could barely count to ten let alone be trusted with plans. As always, he'd worked with the materials he'd been given and didn't complain. He just did. However, after Australia, there had been something else. Crawling up and settling into his thoughts. Would he just be sent to one hell hole after another, spiraling down farther with each failure he had to report?

Pyrotech perused the data pad his finger scrolling lightly across the surface as he read.

As he scanned carefully through it, the architect's optics focused down and became thoughtful. Then he glanced up at Roulette.

"Hmmm," he murmured. His field was quiet and still, not even a bit of a ripple of excitement at the prospect that he held in his hand. "I see. Earlier, you mentioned an offer of sorts...? May I ask? I shall assume he had something particular in mind."

[Deleted]

"Last time I got drunk, I hung all over an Autobot and threatened to elope with him. Allegedly. I still don't believe that happened," she mumbled. Denial was a lovely item to hold onto on the longest nights. She'd ride the denial train until it derailed, flipped fifty times, and then caught on fire.

While he looked over the datapad, she leaned forward in her seat and studied his desk. What did an architect need on his desk? Mostly boring stuff, she surmised. Though, there were a few trinkets of interest. She always found that the items one kept on their desk told interesting little secrets about the mech. Shockwave kept science on his desk because he didn't have a life.

Sneaking a look at the mech, she found him suitably busy perusing the data. Enough time for her to sneak a hand onto the desk to poke at a few things. She only wanted a little peek, after all. Couldn't hurt to take a closer look. Besides, his desk was too tidy. Another peek into the psyche of a mech?

Do you have control issues or just a fondness for cleanliness? Right as her hand brushed a pile of schematics, on her quest for the interesting (and tiny) map, she happened to look up at him. And he was looking at her. Optics wide with sheepish surprise, she jerked her hand away from the "cookie jar" and knocked the whole tidy pile over.

Ah yes, this is exactly how I thought this would go. Why does Shockwave employ me, again?

"...pardon?"

[Pyrotech]

Pyrotech's desk was neatly covered with interesting things. Yes, schematics and rough engraved sketches on thin metal tablets. Some of them were of things like buildings and skylines, just so, elegant towers and outlooks. Others were of what appeared to be fortified bases; tunnels underground. One of the things she peeked was a schematic of the light rail system in Portland, with notes over several entrances and exits and markings on storage. Another held a a design that... well, turned this way and that, it was a weird looking jumble. Could have even been a space laser, who knew.

There was also a map of the Oregon and Washington coast. The outline was distinctive enough that it was obvious even at this scale.

"Pardon?" the red mech echoed.

His browplate lifted slightly, just as the perfectly neat stack of schematics and tablets tumbled to the floor.

His doors flicked back, sliding behind his shoulders with a soft whirr. On his shoulder, the cannon tipped an inch or two up from where he'd focused it on the floor, politely away from Roulette. His optics brightened under the brim of his helm.

"Well I was asking what you were here as proxy to discuss with me, since you'd mentioned it, but..."

The red mech leaned forward in his chair. He didn't bend to pick up the mess, simply left it where it lay.

"I'd rather hear about how you hung all over an Autobot," he said, even as his expression became amused.

"And allegedly threatened to elope with him," Pyrotech chuckled. "I have to admit, I'm totally intrigued now. So...? Am I allowed to ask this story, because it sounds much more interesting than this datapad."

The architect held it up and tapped it gently on empty air. "It's a bit dry," he admitted, and a smile slipped onto his face, a bit conspiratorial. "I've had enough of that lately to last me a lifetime."

[Deleted]

Do I let them lay there or do I get them up? Ahhh, what do I do?? I can't just leave them there. Wait, of course I can, I do this to Shockwave all the time. ...yeah, but this isn't the Lump. That would kind of be a dick move to just knock his crap off the desk and leave it...what kind of a guest am I?

Shifting one leg to the side, Roulette started to scoot herself to the side of the bench, inching her way to the fallen debris. Oh yes, no, this wasn't awkward at all. She smiled at Pyrotech and tried to keep up with the conversation while trying not to be too overtly awkward. Unfortunately, that meant talking about events she had thought she wasn't going to speak of.

"Ah, that. Right. There's a bartender at the DMZ that has one mean drink. Or twelve," she coughed. Stretching her leg out, she tried to fish the pile of datapads to her while not being completely obvious. Turns out, stylized wedged feet did nothing for scooting smooth objects to her. She ended up knocking them further away from her.

Huffing, she just threw subtly out the window and took a kneel by the mess. The bumpers behind her shoulders twitched as she reached for the strewn about items. With practiced ease, she made a neat stack without looking at what could have been written on the datapads. Usually these things were locked anyway. Shockwave had more than he needed and kept them updated and full of mindnumbing lists and projects.

"You don't know dry until you've read project proposals for Shockwave. He has a talent for making something that could have been exciting, be really boring. But that's what he does. He sucks the fun out of things. Honestly, I find it best just to nod and move along when he asks questions. Seems to have served me well so far."

[Pyrotech]

The metal floor was smooth under Roulette's knees as she slipped off the bench. The red mech looked rather surprised.

Shockwave's proxy picking up his datapads was rather one of those moments where even Pyrotech wasn't quite sure about protocol. Yes, she'd knocked them off the desk when she'd been looking but that didn't bother him too much; it wasn't like they were incredibly important ones. He'd actually been intending to wipe a few of them clean; reminders of past failures were something he was tired of looking at. They'd been staring him in the face far too long, these things that he'd taken with him when he escaped Australia.

Pyrotech shook that out of his mind and admired her. She was rather charming in how she finally just tossed any sense of subtlety out and went to go pick things up. Interesting in that she stacked them without looking at them, but had them in order from largest to smallest. Obviously she'd done this more than once before.

With a twitch of his doors he suddenly slid from his comfortable chair and knelt down with her, reaching for a few of the datapads. One of them had clattered under his chair; he fished it out and politely handed it to Roulette.

"Oh, I know dry," he assured her. "I'm an architect. I've had my share of giving lectures and my share of sitting through them. As much as I love architecture, I am the first to admit that there's only so much enthusiasm one can put into a discussion on load bearing walls and cantilever construction."

A chuckle. "So I am assuming by your conversation it was more like twelve drinks. Aren't they supposed to cut you off at that point? I thought that was part of being a bartender, but... who knows how things work here."

"Well, was it one or twelve you had?" he asked. "Shouldn't a good bartender cut you off before you elope with the enemy?"

[Deleted]

Great gods, she was going to explain that night. Was she really? She didn't even remember half of the evening. She remembered waking up the next day so much clearer than getting drunk. It had been suspicious because she'd woken up in Shockwave's room with no recollection of getting there and she didn't ache like she should have. The implications were terrifying and best left alone.

"Oh, well, normally the bartender is on it. At least, I'm sure he is. Don't really know the mech from a hole in the wall. But he seemed solid. Unfortunately, I thought challenging a regular there to a drinking game would be a good idea." She accepted the datapads he offered and placed them in the tidy pile. "Not my most humble of moments. Next thing I know, I'm hanging off of an Autobot and possibly making threats. I do remember the look on his face." She snickered at the memory.

"Next time I see that mech, we're going to have a little fun." She sat back on her legs in a kneeling position and winked at Pyrotech. "Psychological warfare is such an underestimated art."