[ti]Ep 3.5[/ti]Craigslist Crawl [Avalanche]

[Avalanche]

"Anything that won't fit in the cab, toss in the rear bed. Unless you're planning to scoop up more than twenty tons worth from the curb."

That was a very easy question to answer. She had enough transport space to bury Butch's apartment floor to ceiling in junk and still have room over. Admittedly, getting the stuff into her rear bed might be trickier since they wouldn't have a handy Cybertronian in root mode to pick it up and put it there, but her avatar could scramble up the side and pass stuff in.

Is this a thing your people do often, or...?

That, on the other hand, wasn't so easy to answer.

"...depends on the mecha. Some cared more about being shiny and polished, way back. Most of those gave it up a long time ago. A few still do it. Everyone's got ways of hanging on to who they are."

All of which was true, and accurate. But it was also skirting around the actual issue, and she hated when she caught herself doing that. That wasn't what being a bulldozer meant, even if she no longer had her original altmode. There was a long pause, underscored by the growl of her engine.

"...polishing someone else shows you're pretty close," she admitted. "Not the sort of thing I ever did, leading my troops. You keep some distance." Another pause. "Sunny took the chance to – express interest."

Yes indeed, that gruffness was a betrayal all by itself.

[Cassandra Cassidy]

"Express interest"? Butch raised her eyebrows at that question, a curious look across her face. "So this Sunstreaker..." she began, trying to choose her words carefully, "she like you, or something? As in, like like you?"

Butch wondered if fraternization was disallowed among the Autobots. As far as she knew, the US Military didn't look kindly at it, or at least at relationships between those of different ranks. But Sunstreaker was no longer under Avalanche's command, so maybe it was okay? Either way, what the other robot had done clearly flustered Avalanche.

Still, Butch couldn't help but ask, "Did you...like it, at least?" in a cautious tone, not sure if she was crossing a line here. She knew better than to pry, but at times, her curiosity won over her sense of holding back. It was a fine line to walk, and Butch didn't always fall neatly onto one side or the other.

At least their destination would be coming up soon. About six or seven more minutes, she reckoned, and they'd be sorting through electronics and maybe getting something for Butch's apartment. She could use a new lamp.

[Avalanche]

Avalanche's inner monologue, inasmuch as it could be summed up at all, was more or less the word 'aaargh'. She hadn't intended to get into all this. Though... if she was going to admit any of it, who better to talk to about it than Butch? She wasn't one of the garrison, she was a good friend, and she was a human who knew how to keep her mouth shut when called for.

A long pause, underscored by the swish of tyres on tarmac and the low rumble of her engine. Then Avalanche nodded.

"She... hrm. Either she's wanting to share my rack, or she's teasing me by flirting at me." Ava's avatar coughed once, in a reflex that seemed to come with the body structure's response to embarrassment. "She was persistent."

Another long pause. Did she like it? It was difficult to answer that. Or, more accurately, it was hard to admit that. The holographic woman sighed, her left hand guiding the wheel while her right absently toyed with the gear lever. "When you're in command, and your nearest superior is on another planet, you do not get involved. Not with anyone. Poison to morale. Solus knows enough tried it on with me, one time or another. I shut them down hard. Sunstreaker was one of mine, way back. She'd been put in my unit as a punishment. I straightened her out. Hadn't seen her in a long time."

Her nose wrinkled. "The command structure at Omega is..." a disaster, "....fluid. Sunstreaker isn't directly under me in my current role. I – indulged her approach more than I would have, before."

[Cassandra Cassidy]

Persistent. Butch didn't like that word. Some people - or robots, in this case - didn't know when to quit. They would go at you, again and again, even if you set up a boundary. It was too easy for some people - or robots - to ignore the word "no". Butch frowned and turned to look at Avalanche, distaste visible on her face.

"Next time you want a polish, I can do it," Butch offered. "For one, I have no attraction to anyone or anything. For two, I don't like the sound of how this 'Sunstreaker' thinks she can cozy up to you. You're a commanding officer in a garrison, and you deserve to be treated as such. Flirting with authority? That's just asking for trouble."

There was a gravity to her words, a knowing, but also...protectiveness? Butch probably didn't have the whole picture, and Avalanche could take care of herself, but the edge was there. She was not happy about someone making the big femme uncomfortable, and probably should've held back a little in her words. Alas, it was too late now.

"Stuff should be around the next couple of blocks," Butch instructed. "You'll see a gray house with a red door and a garden in the front. It's full of flowers, and a bush that looks like a ball."

[Avalanche]

Ava ran a hand down her face, wincing inwardly as Butch took an immediate and seemingly well-justified dislike of Sunny. Her own fault, for being too vague about her own feelings, though the unconditional support felt good. She'd relied on her battalion perhaps as much as they'd relied on her, and the absence was a hole in her spark.

"I was – contemplating it." Gruff, a bit awkward. "Been a long time. Told her about a subcommander from a different battalion; used to share my rack. Wasn't completely against the idea. She is pretty." And familiar. A trusted presence. A comforting one.

"...I like her," the commander concluded after a moment. "Don't know if I should let it go anywhere. She won't push, if I shut her down." The habits of solitude were hard things to break, especially when she wasn't sure if it was a conflict with her duties. Though as their numbers ever ebbed through the war, it wasn't like there was that much room to be choosy anymore.

The approaching destination was a welcome distraction. There really wasn't much in the way of designated dump truck parking, so Avalanche did the best she could, riding up onto the curb along one side to leave decent room for cars to squeeze past her vast, armoured bulk. The engine rumbled to silence, with a fading hiss of pneumatics as the brakes locked on.

The door handle clunked under her hand, and Ava swung out, dropping to the ground. "Grey house, red door, round bush. Looks like this is it. What are you hoping for here?"

[Cassandra Cassidy]

"I remember you telling me about that piece of work, back when you were in disguise," Butch said. A scowl had come across her face - it seemed that Butch felt strongly about these subjects, considering her knee-jerk reactions. Butch emoted, but not to the degree she was showing now. "I'd think long and hard about going anywhere with her. You have your duty, and you can't let feelings for a subordinate - even if she's not directly under you - get in the way of that. With that said, I have zero reference for how Cybertronian relationships work, so I could be wrong and absolutely out of line here."

Not that Butch was one to talk, considering her own history of romantic hangups. But that was neither here nor there, and the arrival at their first destination was a welcome distraction. Butch hopped out of her seat at the same time Ava did, dainty as ever in climbing down and landing softly on the pavement.

"I need a new lamp," Butch told Ava. "Was going to look at some other stuff, too. Help yourself if you want."

Out on the curb was indeed a lamp, as well as an old toaster with a frayed plug, a box of extension cords and power bars, some boxes of coat hangers, an empty tool box, and a round contraption on top of what looked to be some kind of console. Butch did a double-take at that last piece, going over and picking it up to inspect it. Giving it a little shake and listening for a rattle, she said, "Well I'll be. This is a Roomba - it's a moving vacuum robot used to clean floors. Not sentient. These things are usually hundreds of dollars. Either someone doesn't know what they have, or it's broken." She glanced down at the console-looking thing - its dock - and inspected that next, kneeling. A frown crossed her face.

"Yeah, it's broken. Plug's barely holding onto the wires by a fraction. Not sure what the Roomba itself is like, but it probably has something wrong with it."

[Avalanche]

Butch was making sense. A lot of sense. She was saying everything that Avalanche's endless tours of service were already saying to her: don't screw anywhere near your own command structure. The fact that every cybertronian on the planet not actively trying to kill her was part of her command structure to a reasonable degree... that meant she was fully out of luck, but it wasn't like she was accustomed to having that kind of companionship available. And yet, on some level, she felt... deflated. Disappointed.

Maybe she'd hoped to have her own sensible impulses argued against, but that wasn't Butch's way. As the big femme had noted before, their devotion to duty was something that united both of them.

Resolutely turning her attention to the here and now, Ava absently stroked her hand along the bumper of her main chassis and marched over to inspect the collection of.... well, junk. A light source missing the bulb, a very specific tool for heating thin sheets of grain material with loose wiring, some trivial lengths of electrical cord and some odd, hook-shaped contraptions of bent wire... perhaps the empty box – reasonably sturdy for its size, with many compartments – was the only thing she was particularly interested in.

Butch drew her attention, and abandoning the toolbox, she moved closer to the little round thing the human was poking. "You haven't developed sentient machines, have you?" She was fairly sure on that point, but given Butch had specified it wasn't, maybe the native technology was more advanced in places than she thought. Either way, this was an automated cleaning machine, which sounded useful enough.

"Can you repair it?" Avalanche cocked her head, with no real grasp of the value of native currency, and added, "Is it much currency to grab?"

[Cassandra Cassidy]

"No, not yet," Butch said. "Doesn't mean people aren't trying, but we're a long ways off."

Picking up the Roomba, she turned and held it out for Ava to inspect. "I don't have the know-how," Butch said, "to do more than try and reconnect the wires of the plug, but even then, it would be risky. Electronics, as you probably well know, aren't to be lightly messed with. I'm sure someone could fix it better than me, or find some use for it. Maybe Skirmisher? He had me help him with some kind of machine, once."

Her voice dropped a little at that final couple of sentences. Alone as they were on the street, one never knew who'd be around to hear the smallest thing. Butch turned and set the Roomba down in its dock, then picked up both and brought it to the back of Ava's storage. Sliding the broken device in, she went back and examined the lamp.

"Cord's frayed on this, too," Butch said, inspecting the length of wire that connected the lamp to its plug. "Not safe to plug in, so that's a bust. Anything you'd like to pick up?"

[Avalanche]

Ava hummed to herself, her dark eyes thoughtful. It was strange, in some ways, that Butch and the other humans that knew of them had so readily accepted their sentience. Certainly there were plenty of carbon chauvinists around in the galaxy that refused to accept any form of machine life as valid, and for a civilisation whose only experience of machines were as dumb tools... it made her optimistic, she decided. Hopeful that when the masquerade was dropped, they'd get along well with the native population.

She smiled at Butch warmly, relaxing. "Glad you're out with me, showing this stuff. I'd never be out here on my own." Absently pushing back her hair from her face, she took the round disc-shaped machine from her friend and turned it over, examining it. The underside immediately made clear that it was a cleaning machine, with a small array of revolving brushes.

"If he can't fix that, he's got no business in his current post." There was a wry humour to her tone, and the tilt of her lips. She hadn't really spoken to Skirmisher, but she was well aware that he was struggling as the back-up to the back-up physician, now the last even slightly medically trained bot they had available.

Patch.

The holographic woman sighed, her vehicle form settling a little lower on its suspension, but there was no point dwelling on worries she couldn't currently do anything about. Leaning down, she lifted the empty toolbox again, opening several of its small compartments. While it was comically out of scale for her true self, it made sense that there'd be human-sized things she'd want to store. Besides. Avalanche was a woman that couldn't resist a good toolbox.

"I'll take this," she remarked, holding it up. "Grubby inside. I'll clean it later."

[Cassandra Cassidy]

"What'll you think you'll do with it?" the cleaner asked, giving Ava a curious look. Maybe it was to store tools so she could work on herself with her holoform? Butch couldn't say. It would be a good idea, though, considering the chance of getting a flat or scratching her paint somewhere. Butch thought back to the time they first met, and the myriad of insults that had been painted across the poor robot.

"I think we're done here," Butch said. "Next stop is down the road and around the corner, then we take the next two rights. It's more miscellaneous junk, but we might find something useful, and I might finally find my lamp. It's worth a shot, isn't it?"

The woman checked to make sure everything she wanted was securely in the back. Going for the passenger door next, she gently swung it open and hopped back in, sitting down quickly. Once more her steps up to the seat were graceful, barely making a sound as she elegantly plopped down into a sit. Hands in her lap, she waited for Ava's holoform to hop in and start the engine.

"So, anything else on your mind?" the cleaner asked.