[ti]Ep 3[/ti]Wires And The Concept Of Breathing (Open)

[Red Alert]

Week 1 / day 4 / Miscellaneous locations across the base

Red Alert considered his security network to be not unlike a living body - certain systems were vital to the functionality and longevity of the network as a whole, whereas other parts played (slightly) less crucial roles, but would none the less be sorely missed if they were absent. A human heart or Cybertronain spark verses a limb, for example. One could live reasonably well without an arm or a leg, but without their brain they wouldn't be able to live at all - this did not mean the limbs were not important, simply that they did not take priority. No sane, reasonable person would argue that limbs weren't necessary because they weren't vital to the continued existence of the rest of the organism - and yet Red Alert was frequently and consistently told that his smaller security measures were unnecessary or superfluous simply because they did not play a vital role in the overall network.

It was frustrating, to say the least. Almost infuriating, really, particularly when his reasoning was questioned by those with less authority on the subject of security (Ie: everyone.)

Contrary to popular belief, he did not do the things he did just for kicks. In fact, if you asked him what the last thing he did purely for entertainment was, he would be hard pressed to come up with an answer. (Read a book, maybe? He likes recreational reading well enough, though for the life of him he couldn't remember when he had the time for such a thing.) No, everything Red Alert did was done with purpose - whether that purpose was appreciated or even recognized by anyone else didn't matter. All that mattered was that he was able to do the things he needed to do without distraction, argument, or impediment.

Often, this meant flat out not telling anyone what it was he was doing.

Luckily, Red Alert's rank and reputation afforded him quite a bit of clout - so long as the project was small, unobtrusive, or Reasonable™ by conventional measures, he had the authority to implement it without first consulting Optimus. This saved them both quite a lot of grief, as neither mech would be able to get anything done if they had to sit through a meeting every time Red Alert wanted to clear a new project from his ever-growing, never-ending docket. There simply was not enough time in the day.

Thus, Red Alert needed not (and did not) tell anyone when he finally scrounged up the time and resources to install AFCI/GFCI circuit breakers on every bloody outlet in the northwest half of the Outpost. He would have to take care of the rest of the base as fortune permitted, which would not be any time soon, by Red Alert's estimate. Still, a half-measure was better than no measure at all, and on the rare occasions when he slept, he would sleep fractionally better knowing the risk of a short circuit compromising his network or causing a fire had been a wee bit lowered.

It was tedious work, installing the breakers, but not difficult. The only remotely hard thing about the whole process was that everything was so bloody tiny, being human construction and all. His optics were perfectly suited to the task, but his hands were not designed for manipulating such absurdly small components and this, combined with the level of precision required for proper installation, was a recipe for frustrating disaster - or rather, disastrous frustration.

After only eight installations, Red Alert found himself reaching the limits of his tolerance, and after removing an outlet only to discover a badly stripped wire behind it, he did something he was loathe to do in light of certain unpalatable aspects of his reputation: he began talking to himself. Rather, he was talking to the wire, which, for all that it was able to listen, amounted to the same thing.

"---Lovely. A real treat, you are."

He frowned severely at the offending wire, as though it had consciously and deliberately frayed itself specifically to grieve him.

It would be simple enough to repair the wire with electrical tape, but Red Alert was quite familiar with himself and knew it would bother him endlessly if he didn't replace the entire thing.

"If you were wanting to start a fire, you'd best do it now. You'll not have much longer."

[Miko Nakadai]

There was something about sitting in one place and doing homework that Miko simply did not agree with.

Okay, she didn’t agree with homework in general, but hey! When you were in a hidden base filled with Cybertronian? She was probably forgiven for being a little distracted at times. They were always doing super cool things like going on patrols, or even boring things like janitor duty and cleaning ended up somehow being a BILLION times more fun.

But today was a homework kinda day. She’d promised Bulkhead she’d get it done, but wanted to try something that she’d made up on the fly which was walking around and reading at the same time. Her excuse being that it would totally help her study by getting the brain juices flowing or something, but it was turning out to be more of a distraction than simply sitting at a table with her phone in easy reach.

She’d wandered the hallways, algebra book held out in front of her, casting the occasional glance over the top of it to make sure she wasn’t about to walk into a wall or get trampled by an unsuspecting Autobot. Not that that would ever happen, she’d hear them coming first and move out the way, but whatever! Plus it wasn’t like she was in the middle of the corridors- having at least the common sense to stick to the walls.

It also didn’t help that there seemed to be nobody around. Bulk had taken her at her word and gone out on a patrol, meaning she’d been left to her own devices. Probably not wise, as the first thing she’d done was try to find a broom to go harass Carbine and Thunder, but unfortunately they’d all been locked away in the cleaning closet and her attempts at hammering on the door for attention with her puny human fists hadn’t worked.

Woe.

She was about to give up for real and go back to the small human-sized table in the hopes that someone would walk past her, when she heard a voice.

A voice that she didn’t quiiiiiite recognize, and it wasn’t until she turned the corner and saw the Autobot in question that she realized it was Red Alert.

Noooo way! Red Alert was out of his room. That was like, the rarest thing ever! A myth! It never happened, and yet here he was- talking to aaaa… what was he talking to?

“If whatever you’re talking to wants to start a fire, can I throw this book at it? It’d be an awesome excuse as to why I didn’t do my homework!” she spoke up, grinning as she closed the book in question.

She kept as close to the wall as she could, and didn’t move any closer even though she was curious as to what he was even doing. Red Alert was one of few Autobots who would no doubt super-enforce the stupid “STICK TO THE CATWALKS” rule, but psssh, when was Miko ever about following any kind of rule?

[Red Alert]

Red Alert was what the humans would colloquially refer to as a massive buzzkill. He was an authority figure, a stickler for rules, he refused to compromise or cut any slack, and he had the tendency to take things far more seriously than was strictly necessary. People rarely begrudged him the important things, like security screenings and background checks - those were inarguable. The smaller things, like periodically checking in over comm. while out on patrol or using the bloody catwalks, those rules seemed less necessary to the overall safety of the base and its population, and so they were frequently ignored. Because they were frequently ignored, Red Alert had to double down on reinforcing them, which just meant people had to be more careful to break them when he wasn't around to notice, which meant he had to triple down on reinforcing them.

Then, of course, there were he people who had the decency/audacity to break the rules right in front of him, not even bothering to pretend like they gave a toss about all the codes and regulations that were there for a goddamn reason. The moment Red Alert heard the tell-tale pitter-patter of little sneakered goblin feet, he knew one such rule-breaker was headed his way.

It was almost refreshing, really, seeing someone being honest about their blatant disregard for the rules. It saved everyone the trouble of having to pretend like this was a rare occurrence, a one time-mistake, instead of a deliberate and recurring habit. Of course, the honesty didn't make up for the rule-breaking in the slightest, it just meant Red Alert didn't have to bother with the whole 'in case you've forgotten' song and dance.

Red Alert breathed in, reminded himself that he needed to be patient with the humans - the children especially - and let out a deep, long-suffering sigh in anticipation for what he was sure would be a particularly trying interaction.

"An even better excuse would be that you were trampled underfoot by a giant metal alien because you didn't keep to the catwalks as you're supposed to."

He leveled a severe look down at the girl, despite knowing she wasn't the sort to wither under anyone's stare, giant metal alien or not.

[Miko Nakadai]

The deep, loooooong-suffering sigh was one that Miko had heard many times throughout her short life. Parents, host parents, various teachers, Bulkhead, Optimus… Ratchet… and now Red Alert had been added to that list. Or at least, this was the first time she’d heard him sigh out loud over something she’d done. She knew he watched the base like a hawk and was no doubt super privy to her shenanigans, meaning she’d probably racked up a couple hundred at least.

Which was why she’d smile ever so sweetly in response to his stare. If it was one thing Miko was good at, it was looking innocent even when she’d been blatantly caught out doing something wrong. The sweet little smile worked on a few people, especially Bulkhead, and while she was sure it probably would not work on Red Alert, he had to give her points for trying, right?

“Aw, sticking to the walls is just as safe, and way faster! That would be a cool excuse though!”

She wasn’t sure what the point of the catwalks was to be honest. While the Autobots were large and getting stepped on would mean absolute CERTAIN DEATH? She could also hear them coming from a mile away, meaning that should there be any danger of getting trampled she’d move out the way waaaaay before it became an issue!

Or at least, that’s how she did it so far and she had yet to come even close to being trampled.

“Whatya doing, anyway? Anything fun?”

Red Alert didn’t seem like the type to do anything fun, but Miko would take something utterly downright boring over reading this book, and so she paired her question with a cute little head tilt for added effect.

[Red Alert]

Red Alert very much disagreed with the assertion that keeping to the walls was even remotely as safe as staying on the catwalks, but he knew better than to try and debate the point with Miko. He had been fighting against the Decepticons for thousands of years, he knew a losing battle when he saw one and had no desire whatsoever to plunge himself head-first into another. Instead he simply resolved to have a word with Bulkhead later, in the hope that the mech might have a better chance at curbing the young girl’s bad habits. He very much doubted anything would come of it, but at least he could say he tried.

Undeterred by his withering stare, just as he knew she’d be, Miko plowed triumphantly ahead, as though by ignoring his vexation it would somehow disappear or become inert. He had no idea how she thought that strategy could ever possibly work, but he had to give her credit for making such a brazen attempt. Miko was, if nothing else, unyielding and unapologetic in her boldness.

“If preventing electrical fires falls within the purview of fun, then aye, sure. Having a pure blast.”

His tone was flat, indicating just how entertaining he found the whole process to be, in case it wasn’t woefully obvious. It wasn't as though he resented having to do the work, at least not enough to pawn the task onto someone else (especially when he would have to re-do it all to be satisfied with it anyway) - it was just offensive to his sensibilities. Such a massive safety oversight made his head spin, made him want to track down the electrical engineers who worked on the building and demand an explanation for their oversight. The obvious and most likely answer was a shoe-string budget, but still. It galled him that no one pushed for such a simple but vital safety measure.

He looked from Miko to the outlet, gesturing for her to follow his gaze so he could properly explain what it was he was doing.

"Hundreds of these throughout the building, not one of them has their own breaker."

He shook his head, still thoroughly disgusted with the negligence of the base's former owners.

"It's a bloody miracle the whole place hasn't burned to the ground."

[Miko Nakadai]

Miko could only wrinkle her nose at the response given. Preventing fires? Booooo-ring. Then again, the last thing they needed was this place to catch on fire. Even though it was mostly made of concrete and probably wouldn’t do too much structural damage (Miko logic!), the thought of a bunch of panicked Cybertronian running out into the Nevada desert? Not cool!

At least it seemed she shared Red Alert’s sentiment. This was almost the most un-fun task ever, and so she would continue to show interest in what was going on, if only so she didn’t get sent away to finish her homework (which for the record was the most un-fun task ever) or do anything but linger.

Following Red Alert’s gaze, she wouldn’t move from the spot she was standing, merely content to watch from afar, if only for now.

“Not one of them? Yikes!” those things were all over, too!

Totally not surprising, though. This place had been some sort of missile silo before the Autobots had moved in, and so any sort of fancy wiring - or at the very least, doing things properly - was probably an afterthought.

“Good thing you noticed!” if anyone would, it would be Red Alert! A cheery smiled accompanied these words, and it was then that she would take a cautious step forwards toward the offending fire hazard.

“Did you need any help? I can hold a flashlight or something so you can see better!”

Anything to get out of homework. Anything.