[ti]Ep 3[/ti]GOAL! (Javelin, Patch, Closed)

[Patch]

There it was again. “Ladies”... what… what did that mean?

It didn’t translate to cybertronian as well as Patch wished it would. Something about… higher class people? A complement in some senses, though an insult in others…. It made little sense to her. Though, It did seem to be spoken with good intent, so she chose to interpret it as only a complement. Wearing the foreign word like a badge as she smiled yet again at the larger entity. She turned the sharp peaks and valley of the line on the jacket to him then, as she continued to follow her comrade.

As Jav spoke through the com, Patch looked up again toward her and grinned. A knowing laugh through the link huffed through.

As they grew closer, the young form began to notice… a sound she’d never heard before… sharp… husks. Smooth cracks, and low, heavy taps, and scraping noises. Clatters of plastic, and folds of fabric and sprays of powder that skittered, and only grew louder as they neared.

“Whoa…”

Round blue eyes widened as her chest swelled. They were… gliding… Like rolling on wheels- but there weren't any there! Patch hadn’t seen any hover technology on Earth; not on this scale, at least. Soft ginger brows lowered, and folded together as she examined the bright… Almost glowing white surface they moved across. Thick, colored lines obscured beneath, with shallow thin ones cut into the surface. Spots of shiny, spots of dull… And a strip of glinting silver upon each and every alien boot which connected the armored forms to the large obround beneath them.

They were… Very graceful. Maneuvering so carefully with those little black… things, and weird… Flat…. Curved sticks. The young form kept moving, kept following behind, though she gawked as she did. A quiet awe at the power, and the speed mixed with such skill.

::How are they doing that?:: A crooked smile took to the young form’s face as she spoke through the comlink. Eyes still locked on the ballet of alternately uniformed tanks shifting smoothly around one another.

[Javelin]

Javelin paused long enough to look over her shoulder towards Patch, and then down to where the younger femme was looking. She looked from the ice back to Patch, back to the ice for a moment, not entirely sure what the other was talking about. Doing what, exactly?

After a moment, it clicked. Stopping her move towards their seats, she turned back to face Patch, successfully hiding her smile. She didn’t want to offend or insult the younger femme by making her think she was laughing at her...but Javelin was reminded of herself the first time she had seen ice on a foreign planet. Not Earth, but a similar system. Ice was weird enough, but snow....snow had almost sent the blue scout into a full blown panic.

::They’re wearing special shoes called skates,:: she explained, turning to watch the players warming up on the ice below, ::And they have these blades on the bottom. The floor down there is made of ice. It’s like....hmmm....well, I mean you can get ice all over the place, but here it’s made of super cold water. It becomes a solid, and it’s extremely slippery.::

As they watched, one of the players moved down towards a net, easily pushing the puck out ahead of him. The others seemed to somehow be aware of his position and ice, and while not really watching him, moved out of his way all the same.

The player approached the net, and suddenly seemed to swing wide, swerving to the right. Allowing his body to lean towards the floor, he suddenly swung back around to the left, passing in front of the net. Both arms swung back, then snapped forward, and the small black puck shot forward, zipping into the net, where it bounced off the back netting. The player never stopped or paused, just continued to glide back out around, heading back towards the center of the rink.

::The blades on their shoes cut into the ice, and allow them to go extremely fast. I understand it’s an acquired skill, not something humans are born with, and not everyone makes to the skill level of these. Those who are interested in reaching these levels start very young.::

Javelin tucked her hands behind her back as the two women stood there, watching the players below.

[Patch]

::Wow.::

It was an alien dance, and a beautiful one. Just HOW someone managed to come up with the concept alone was baffling to her… Gliding across frozen liquid by cutting it up with blades on your feet- and to think these players had likely been trained to do nothing but this since infancy… It was a level of foreign splendor the young soldier could hardly process.

The leisurely decadence of Earth culture, and the ways they spent their short lifespans; it was absolutely tickling to Patch sometimes.

Seemingly satisfied with the other femme’s response, Patch’s little human persona nodded slightly, then looked back up at the cordoned off seats. At least their objective was clearly marked. That would likely help avoid any translation errors, as the letter/number system they used here to maintain organisation was a little difficult for her. Even with the study of road signs, and basic words, Patch was still used to the luxury of Cybertronian text, thanks to the translation programs back at base.

Standing comfortably in the middle of the path beside the taller human, Patch began again ::So, uhh… Is this… The thing? Is this what they do?:: She gestured loosely up at the ice, her other hand tucked in her pant pocket, then looked over to her guide.

Not that she was underwhelmed, of course. This was great! It was beautiful! it was just… The marketing made it seem like this was more of an competitive event than… This… Maybe the padding and the colors were more a... ceremonial thing? She could get behind that. Even if this was all there was to human 'sports' it would be satisfying enough to watch for a matter of hours!

[Javelin]

Javelin remained standing where she was, watching as the players below continued to warm up. A part of her wondered how hard it would be to come up with something similar for herself; some way to attach blades to the bottoms of her peds and go find some thick ice somewhere. Oh, she could get wheels installed, of course. It certainly wasn’t unheard of among their kind....Carbine’s own peds could retract in a manner, leaving him with wheels that he used to chase down criminals.

But this would be different. This would be an Earth thing – this would be ice skating. On ice. Not a wheel on a road.

Worlds different!

When Patch spoke, it roused Javelin out of her thoughts, and she turned, looking at the younger femme. A broad smile lit her face.

::Oh Hell no, not at all! They’re just warming up their muscles before they actually start to play.::

Turning, Javelin motioned for Patch to follow her as she started up towards where their seats were separated from the others, passing a few humans now and again.

::Apparently the way human muscles are, if they go from, like, just standing around to suddenly performing really hard, they can get something called cramps. Not enough oxygen or something. Really painful. So they “warm up” first – get the liquids flowing and stuff. Sounds really time consuming, if you ask me.::

Stepping up onto one of the steps, Javelin paused, peering into the stands, counting out loud, “..10..11...12...here’s us.”

Moving forward again, now in between the rows of seats, leading them to their own two, Javelin spoke through her comm again.

::They have this really interesting ritual before they start. Both sides line up and stand still, while someone sings the song associated with this country, or they play it on loudspeaker. No one is supposed to move or anything while that’s playing. Once that’s done, they can get ready to start the game.::

[Patch]

Warming up… Their muscles?

Now that she thought about it… Yeah, that actually made a lot of sense. With all those tiny little interwoven capillaries they’d probably need to physically heat up in order to make their fluids move through fast enough.

Ugh. Squishy. Meat. Weird.

As Jav announced the location of their seats out loud, Patch responded in tandem. “Nice.” The girl’s pink palms rose in front of her to rub together a moment as a smile spread again across her face. From what she could tell, the seats would give them an excellent view of the... Arena? Yeah, that felt about right.

As khaki cargo pants slipped sideways between the backs of one row, and the seats of the next she began to speak through her comm again.

::Freaky. So like… Everyone just stands at attention? For music? How long is the song?::

Hopefully it wouldn’t be a matter of hours. She’d heard that could be the case with some human performances, and dedications and stuff.

[Javelin]

Javelin followed behind Patch as they moved towards their seats. The air was chilly inside the arena, and loud rock music started to play again over the loudspeakers as the players continued to warm up. Groups of people were gathering and moving to their seats, some carrying giant hands, others small flags. Still others carried small cardboard boxes of what looked like different foodstuffs.

Bending for a moment to pull down the bottom of her seat from where it was folded up against the back, she answered through her own comm.

::The songs can vary in length, but they’re all about the same length, from what I’ve seen. And yeah, the first time I saw it, I was sort of worried. The players on the ice just stood there, kinda shifting around a little, but no one talked or danced. They all just kinda stared off into the distance. For a minute I thought they had all been hypnotized for a minute. When the music was over, everyone cheered, and the players started to move again. I think it’s some sort of respect or recognition towards the country. I’m trying to find more information about it on the human’s Web.::

Down on the ice, the players all finished gliding around on the ice, and one by one they left, heading back towards the changing room. The rock music overhead continued to blast.

Javelin continued to describe the event.

::They all go back to their separate rooms now, and they’ll come out in a few minutes ready to play. I have no idea why they go back or what they do back there. I’d love to be able to sneak back and observe – my guess is they prepare themselves for battle, like the Gralites from Gralite 7. ::

Here Javelin turned, and looked at Patch, greenish blue optics slightly wide with amusement, ::Do you know they have a war every afternoon? The Gralites, I mean, not the hockey players. They tend to their livestock and crops in the morning, then they go prepare for war. Every afternoon it’s just this free for all out on a large field. Every. Single. Day. Weirdest place I’ve ever had to do a social infiltration.::

[Patch]

The girl nodded in response to Jav’s mention of The Web, then caught herself. Trying to keep from gesticulating while speaking through her comm was hard. Didn’t want to connect this visible body with silent words in the eyes of those around them, after all. She watched closely as her friend drew down upon the row behind her, thus creating something to sit on.

As she turned to repeat the motion for herself, however… Patch’s attention was grasped by the people behind them, as they shifted to their seats. The boxes… The little morsels they seemed to be putting in their mouths...

To have so much food, or drink in excess that you could doll it out freely, and eat it at leisure...
Patch couldn’t imagine having that much fuel… Her own tank ached, back in the parking lot, and pushed the sensation to her smaller form as well. Their rations were better than they had been during the truce- they were bigger, but they were still rations, and meager at that… Patch had taken energon right before they left for this, and even still already she was hungry.

At least there would be more in the morning. They were safe enough here that could be said, and the last-sparked had lived a lot of places that wasn’t the case… Didn’t stop it hurting though. Didn’t stop it chewing at her.

No matter. She’d have a good distraction in no time she was sure! With the subtlest shake of her curly loaf of short auburn, the young woman pressed the seat down the rest of the way- then suddenly caught it as it tried to snap back up on her. Holding it, she turned around and plopped her khaki cargo pants atop it; still listening throughout to Javelin about the players, and the Gralites.

Idly, the young medic wondered whether the species still persisted… Must have reproduced quickly and en-mass in order to supersede the sure amount of deaths that would result from that sort of lifestyle… Maybe they did it to help control population growth…

Once settled, the girl looked over to meet the other's gaze.

::Did you make it out in one piece?::

Not considering how small and/or fleshy they may or may not have been, Patch simply assumed there had been some level of danger involved in said infiltration.

[Javelin]

Javelin had tried not to giggle faintly as Patch attempted to sit on the seat, only to have it pop back up on her. She had done pretty much the exact same thing her first time – but hadn’t adapted as quickly as the other femme had. Javelin had been sure her seat was merely defective, and so had moved a few seats to her right to try again, only to have the same thing happen.

She missed Patch’s glance back, and had she caught it, would have simply assumed the other was looking around. As a scout, Javelin was pretty fuel efficient, not being able to lug energon with her into the field, and not always having a nearby base to fill up. If she were a human, it would be said that her metabolism could slow down when she wasn’t being highly active, without too much hindrance to her systems. It only lasted so long, though, before she either had to go back to full power, or basically slip into recharge. And it was by no means a full stop to her energon burn.

Javelin was actually caught a little off guard by Patch’s question. It had been so long since she had been able to really talk to other Cybertronians, and the majority of them weren’t interested in talking about their work on other planets. The here and now, many lived by.

She paused for a second, recalling the Gralites and the planet they occupied. They had been an interesting group, if extremely tribal in nature. Resembling an Earth bear with four legs and two arms, their lifestyle was warrior based. The young were trained to carry weapons by the time they were able to walk on their own. Different tribes had their own fur colors and armour styles, different weapons and clothing. War was continual, and yet it never spilled over into their homes or public places. It was only held on per-approved battlefields.

::I did.....:: she answered slowly, glancing at Patch, before looking back towards the empty rink. People were still filing in, buy by and large the arena was nearly filled. The strong smell of popcorn and hotdogs filled the air, ::They weren’t all that bad, all things considered. Breaking into any new species’ culture is hard.::

She turned and looked at Patch again, speaking. She knew what she did during the war wasn’t exactly well known among a lot of Autobots. It wasn’t a secret, it was just so basic it wasn’t normally mentioned. Assuming Patch wouldn’t know, she explained.

::My job....Terrestrial Recon...it’s sort of classified as half Scout half Infiltration. Only instead of sneaking into an enemy base to sabotage something or kill someone, my job was to infiltrate a different species. So...say the Autobot Command had evidence there might be a Decepticon base hidden somewhere on a planet....a planet filled with dense foliage. Scanners can only penetrate down so far, cameras can only hit the top canopy. You can’t exactly go in with several gunships without alerting the natives to what you’re doing. Even if the natives aren’t on the side of the Decepticons, they still won’t be happy with a mechanized species bringing gunships into their forests and blasting away in the hopes of finding something. So....people like me are called in.

I go in, get a loose profile of what they look like, how they dress. My holoform is upgraded to match one of them, and I’m let loose. I go find one of their cities, hide somewhere nearby after covering myself with whatever I can find in the area – leaves, vines, anything, really. Then I fire up my holoform, and go mingle.

You start off just listening. I don’t talk to anyone – I don’t know their language yet, or their culture. So I find a market, pretend I’m shopping for something, and just observe. Eventually I learn their language and culture, so then I start eavesdropping for conversation that might have something to do with the Decepticons. Strangers from off planet, weird machines, new places in the forest that seems dangerous...anything could be a sign that the Cons are there, looking to take resources. If it sounds like a good hit, I pull back to my hidden frame, physically go check the area out as much as I can without getting spotted by a Con, then pull back to radio the location to the Command. If it’s good, the site is bombed a little while later.::

She paused after delivering all that information, letting Patch absorb it if it was new to her. When she spoke again, her voice was a little subdued.

::The dangerous part was sneaking in to see if it was a Con outpost, or just a dead spot in the forest, or even invasion by some other species. There have been times I’ve had to run for my life, calling for extraction, with several Cons reaching for my neck. A few times the natives themselves have been the danger. All in all, though? I liked it. I liked learning about the people. Their language, their culture. I...made some friends here and there. Some of them knew who I really was....some....didn’t.::

Her voice faded off for a moment, her thoughts drifting back to the others she had known over the years.

::Anyway...sorry. I got off track. The Gralites. They were an ok bunch, actually. Entirely built around a warrior lifestyle, yet their aggression never seemed to bleed into their daily life. It was weird.::