Firefly
Designated Decoy
We Can't All be Heroes...[A1i:3]
Posts: 63
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Post by Firefly on Dec 17, 2011 10:48:20 GMT -5
She had to admit, she wasn't expecting the attack. If she had, she would have easily swept aside - after all, dodging was her only defensive. It had done her well to master. However, as it was, the attack affected her much more than it normally would have, the shock hitting the sensitive armor, a sensation flooding her leg much as if she had hit a funny bone. She cringed faintly at the sensation, indeed forcing most of her weight onto her arms to pull back a moment, ending in the same position - just about five feet back. She hadn't meant to seem threatening, but, looking back, she had been rather abrupt. Huh. Human/smaller bot relation skill level = nada.
She didn't move, however, to reach for a sword, which would be at least as long as the bot was tall - no, she instead tilted her head to the side a bit, speaking in her human voice, a soft, light voice with a fairly strong British accent. "I apologize for surprising you. I'm not much of one to stay back from objects of curiosity. Please do excuse me.." She was also fairly shy, so her motives were contradictory to each other.
On the flip side, he sensors were still tingling from the shock. This is why she can't take hits. This is why she dodges. But no. Now, while attempting to remain in a non-threatening stance, she had most of her weight on her front foot, despite the bristly dead grass that insisted on scratching at it. If the bot moved forward again, she would simple spring back. Her build was centered specifically around athletic capabilities, and she used it as such.
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Post by Jessica Ross on Dec 17, 2011 11:31:43 GMT -5
Jessica let out a sound and tried to scramble back a bit as Whiplash ignored her, again, and decided to fight. "Why do you never listen to me?" she muttered, before she focused on what could be the shortest fight which ended with Whiplash a little smear on the pavement.
She figured that, due to his reaction, this wasn't a 'bot he knew. Or if he did, it wasn't one he got along with. Of course, the way he acted, he probably didn't get along with anybody.
She hadn't been sure what it was that had made Whiplash decide to transform, leap, and attack the perfectly innocent, if large, transformer. He landed a strike with one of his stingers and she pulled back slightly from the attack as the other bot seemed to almost...stumble backwards a bit until she (not that Jessica knew who Firefly was) rebalanced.
In the meantime, Whiplash took a defensive position over her. Considering how he was acting most of the time, this actually made her a little suspicious. And then the other bot apologized. "Um...well, yeah, you dropping out of nowhere was a little startling. And what do you mean 'objects of curiosity'? I am not a display at a museum!" she responded and looked up at Whiplash.
"And did you have to attack?" she muttered before she leaned back on her hands, the strain of trying to remain sitting up without aid getting to her.
Oh, this was...bad.
She wondered how much she had undone with her little snit of anger and realized she could easily have reverted back to her time before the braces.
Her heart plummeted, even as she tried desperately to hope it would never come to pass.
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Post by whiplash on Dec 18, 2011 0:19:10 GMT -5
Whiplash did not relax, not in the slightest, despite the reasonable response he received in a decidedly gentle tone of voice (considering the size of the speaker). His engine growled a challenge, and while, to Jessica, it was a veritable roar, to the enormous Seeker it would have sounded remarkably high-pitched--the equivalent of a puppy growling at a Great Dane. It was not exactly intimidating.
“You hafta admit,” Whiplash muttered to Jessica, “you are kind of weird-lookin’.” He did not seem angered by Jessica’s sharp words. His attention was instead focused on his opponent. He didn’t have the luxury of dividing his irritation between his sort-of ally and his foe, so Jessica was probably going to be able to get away with a little more smack-talk than usual. What should he do next?
If he had to flee, he was taking the human with him. Whiplash had found her, and he wasn’t about to hand her over to this unknown femme. As far as he was concerned, she was his, at least for the time being. Running immediately would not be a good option, though. He would prefer to run when his stingers came back online. It would give him a better chance to hold his adversary at bay, should he need to. So for now, he had to stay put and keep the Seeker away from him.
“The human’s got a point. You drop out of the sky, and you expect me not to attack you?” He snarled. “Where do you think you are, you walking glitch? This is a war zone!” He wasn’t referring to the peaceful parking lot in which they were currently standing, but rather to Earth at large.
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Firefly
Designated Decoy
We Can't All be Heroes...[A1i:3]
Posts: 63
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Post by Firefly on Dec 18, 2011 12:47:46 GMT -5
Yeah. She'd made an error in landing. But she was still curious. Adressing the human with what she hoped was a respectful nod in her direction, she spoke again, even though she was seriously considering leaving at this point. "That was the was the wrong word choice. What I meant was, you aren't one of the humans that I'd known to have contact with us, or know about us. I apologize for my curiosity." [/color] She then directed her attention to the smaller bot, who was beginning to frustrate her. She wasn't the most patient toward other bots. She leaned on her forward foot a big more, even though the armor was still tingling from his attack and the sensors were still frazzled. She could ignore that. "And you. Do you dare think that I would abandon my family and my trine to come here without the knowledge that there was a war? That there was battle? My skills are better used here than they ever were at home, and you would do well to remember that."[/color] Her voice hitched for a spot in there, and the cybertronian undercurrent to her simulated human voice ran a dissonant note amongst itself... In other words, she sounded upset by the smaller bots implications, through both trained Cybertronian audio receptors, if they didn't know how to read a human voice, and the less-trained human ear. She felt a lonesome little pang of guilt, all of a sudden, echoing through the strained trine bonds and the now-empty creator bonds. She had killed. She had abandoned. She may forever be alone. The pain and guilt flickered across her frame for visual interpretation for only a moment, a light shudder carrying over her armor as she went back into her semi-defensive position. She wasn't about to take insults, even if she deserved them. There was a line, and insinuating that she had fled Paradron NOT knowing anything... Crossed it. Maybe she should just leave. There didn't seem to be anything particularly dangerous or fishy. Of course, things weren't always as they seemed.[/blockquote][/size]
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Post by Jessica Ross on Dec 18, 2011 14:28:55 GMT -5
The growl threw Jessica off guard and she naturally flinched away from the sound. Which, in turn, pushed her father into the ground, forcing her to be leaning back somewhat on her lower arms instead of just her hands.
While the growl may not have been that impressive for the Seeker, Jessica was pretty much terrified by it. Of course, her momentary fear was quickly removed when he brought up her looks, again.
Jessica rolled her eyes at Whiplash using her 'odd looks' as an excuse not to listen to her and resisted the urge to snap at him about how 'yeah, well, you look odd to me!' However, considering there was another bot across from them, who may or may not be a threat, though she was leaning more heavily on the threat side, Jessica kept her mouth shut.
And, if Jessica had any knowledge of what Whiplash was thinking, she probably would have attempted to smack him for thinking of her like a possession. As she said before, she was not a flipping museum curiosity, or even a curiosity at all (at least, she wished she wasn't), and she would not like to be considered as such (on either terms)!
"The curiosity isn't bad, the way you approached it was. And I get stared at often enough for the wrong reasons to just not like it at all. Sorry I snapped," Jessica answered, hoping to try to smooth things over.
And...of course, Whiplash had to open is big, fat, mouth and piss off the other one more. She groaned and curled over slowly to face-palm.
"Are you trying to piss off everyone in the whole universe?" she inquired, before she shook her head a bit at Whiplash's actions.
Stupid, hotheaded, annoying, bot. He was going to get himself killed if he kept going on like this.
For some reason, that terrified Jessica more then Whiplash's growls did.
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Post by whiplash on Dec 18, 2011 14:40:24 GMT -5
The normal and proper response for being admonished by an enormous machine that could rip one apart, but for reasons of her own decided not probably had a lot more to do with polite deference and gratitude and less with what Whiplash did next. He stretched himself up, as if to make himself look bigger and taller (though he wasn’t even ten feet), his optics narrowing behind his battle visor. “So why’re you actin’ all surprised that I treated this like it was gonna be a fight? You slow in the processor or somethin’?”
When Jessica tried to get him to behave in an even vaguely reasonable manner, he responded by hunching down very quickly, so that he could whisper a hiss at her, “Shut up, human. You don’t know what you’re dealin’ with here. I‘ve got this.”
Immediately he was back to standing as tall and trying to look threatening. It was probably obvious to Firefly by now that she was not dealing with an adult mech. The timbre of his voice suggested a mid-year adolescent, at best. If he’d noticed the shift in body language, in Firefly’s expression of her conflicted emotions, he didn’t comment on it. Likely, he simply didn’t care.
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Firefly
Designated Decoy
We Can't All be Heroes...[A1i:3]
Posts: 63
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Post by Firefly on Dec 18, 2011 15:45:52 GMT -5
The growl. That growl set her even closer to the edge, and she instinctively twitched toward one of the blades between her lower half-wing and back. Firefly tensed up for a moment, the split wings on her back perking up a bit in frustration, before forcing herself to relax, wings settling into their natural position. This mech had a death wish. "If I had wanted to pick a fight, I would have attacked from the air. It is not I who art slow, youngling. Do not push me. I have no reason not to attack you besides the fact that I simply do not want to, and I'm certain you know this already."
Her voice sounded strained as she spoke, as though it were already difficult to remain calm - which, by this point, was fairly obvious. Her patience was wearing thin, but she did not want to harm a youngling, or risk the chance of harming the human. Life was precious. She kept her primary sensors on the bot, but focused her secondary sensors on the human to keep track of her, vaguely like looking at something out of the corner of your eyes. She hoped this didn't go too far.
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Post by Jessica Ross on Dec 18, 2011 23:23:49 GMT -5
Jessica groaned quietly as the fight began to escalate. Well, escalate in words. She resisted the urge to just lay on the ground and start banging her head, gently, against it until she knocked herself unconsious for the rest of this.
Mostly because it practically hurt to watch, mostly listen, to the way Whiplash seemed to just dig himself into a hole.
She let out a low sigh and shot Whiplash a look when he hissed at her. "I can tell," she responded dryly and then shut up, resisting the urge to slam her head into the ground.
Jessica mostly chose to keep her mouth shut. Even if the fear of possibly losing her new friend, {"maybe, possibly, it could be..."}. She was actually a bit terrified that she would end up losing him when she wasn't around because he obviously couldn't keep his beeping mouth shut!
She rubbed her eyes, carefully, and tried not to scream at Whiplash to just get the effe out of here, now! "If I die, I'm haunting you," was what she settled on.
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Post by whiplash on Dec 18, 2011 23:55:02 GMT -5
The thinly-veiled insult in Firefly’s words just ticked Whiplash off more. He growled again, lashing his tentacles, which still weren’t recharged. He probably would have made some kind of challenging remark had Jessica not cut in with her promise to haunt him. He glanced over his shoulder at her briefly, silently.
Her words were a subtle reminder that, despite his intention to flee with her if things got bad, the girl was still woefully incapable of defending herself. If this did end up in a fight, it was more than likely that she would be killed during it. Whiplash didn’t want to give this mouthy jet the satisfaction of taking his prize from him, either by snatching her up or simply crushing her in the chaos a battle would undoubtedly entail. Hmm. It began to trickle through the haze of ever-present anger surrounding Whiplash’s thoughts that a bit of prudence might be called for.
“Okay,” he growled lowly, “if you aren’t here to fight--which I don’t believe, you know--then what do you want? If you’re here for the human, this one’s mine. Get your own.” While it could not be said that Whiplash’s tone was polite, he sounded a little less like he was gearing himself up to attack Firefly. He held his defensive stance, but lowered his tentacles slightly.
It was not quite prudence, but it was as close as Whiplash seemed willing to get at the moment.
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Firefly
Designated Decoy
We Can't All be Heroes...[A1i:3]
Posts: 63
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Post by Firefly on Dec 19, 2011 18:37:39 GMT -5
He had calmed down, but he was still irate. He was a youngling in a bad environment, though, and a bad attitude was moderately expected.
She was glad she wasn't a Decepticon.
"Well, you," She nodded her head at Whiplash, "are a Decepticon, whereas she," She gestured now toward the human, "is as of yet unknown to me. As far as I'm concerned, in my biased background, intervention might be required. Besides," She added, with a slightly sadistically humored expression, "I am an Autobot, and worse than that, I'm a Seeker. I'm supposed to get in your business, because obviously I'm a good-for-nothing egotistic glitch, correct? I don't understand why this surprises you."
She had to admit, once at least the human girl wasn't on edge anymore, this conversation might be amusing. Right now, she just hoped he didn't call somebody bigger. She really didn't want to fight anybody right now.
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Post by Jessica Ross on Dec 19, 2011 18:44:16 GMT -5
Well, the revelation that Whiplash was a Decepticon didn't surprise Jessica in the slightest. Considering she had already been thinking in that vein meant that she already had considered it and had kept it as a possibility. Now, with the confirmation in hand, she looked up at Whiplash, gave a 'huh', and focused back on Firefly.
"What does you being a Seeker have to do with you being egotistical? And what is a Seeker anyway? And I'm Jessica. I'm sure the big guy, to me anyway, can introduce himself, should he so wish, but I don't think he will," she responded, before she looked back up at Whiplash.
"And thanks for not persuing the fighting," she added very quietly, hoping he would hear her.
"I like living," she added and looked back to Firefly.
With the crisis, mostly, averted, however, the adreneline began to die a bit. With a groan of pain, she curled over and gripped her legs, somehow sitting in a tiny ball and let out a slew of cusswords to help alliviate the pain.
Today was turning out to be pretty sucky. And she still had to talk with her brother when she got home.
She didn't stop the scowl from coming across her face at that. She was still mad at him, but that wouldn't mean she could escape talking to him.
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Post by whiplash on Dec 19, 2011 18:56:39 GMT -5
“Well, at least you’re honest,” Whiplash snapped back, “About the egotistical glitch thing, anyway.” The Seeker’s admission that she was an Autobot made Whiplash antsy. He wanted to attack her, to fight her and bring her down, but… but she was goading him. Maybe she wanted to fight him, if only to get a stab at his human. Despite the fact that every particle of his being was crying out for violence, Whiplash held himself at bay. His tentacles lashed every now and then, like the tails of angry cats, betraying his agitation. He wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction. “Anyway, don’t the Autobot Seekers call themselves ‘Aerialbots?’”
Firefly might have been worried about Whiplash calling backup, but it was the farthest thing from his mind at that moment. Whiplash wanted to fight his enemies himself. He wouldn’t turn backup down if it showed up, and in certain situations he welcomed it, but as far as he was concerned, involving someone else just meant there was less room for him to jolt his foes into submission. He liked doing that.
He tilted his head to view her with new suspicion. It was during this time that Jessica spoke up, asking questions of her own. Yes, that was good--she could keep the Seeker occupied while his stingers recharged. Maybe the sight of this pathetic and truly helpless little human would lull Firefly into a false sense of peace. He didn’t look at Jessica, but he nodded slightly, a very subtle sign that he’d heard and acknowledged her thanks. He would keep his human in good shape.
Or, well, as good a shape as he found her in, anyway. When she started muttering to herself, he looked back again. “What’s wrong now? What are you sayin'?” The words streaming from her mouth sounded like expletives, but he couldn’t be sure.
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Firefly
Designated Decoy
We Can't All be Heroes...[A1i:3]
Posts: 63
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Post by Firefly on Dec 19, 2011 19:13:29 GMT -5
Firefly, still in defensive position, laughed. Finally, somebody who didn't use her being a Seeker against her. She could kind of get to appreciating the company. And so, she answered the questions all together, slightly out of order, glad for the slight topic change.
"Seekers are generally distrusted by our kind. Seekers are seen as violent, mistrustful liars only out for themselves, and think they're better than everybody else." She laughed again, this time a bit of a hollow, sarcastic laugh. "Also, comparing and Aerialbot to a Seeker would, I'm certain, insult both the Aerialbot and the Seeker in question. Aerialbots are a team that happens to have jet alt modes. Seekers are... Were... A culture, a family, and, from what I've heard from my Seeker father," She flickered an optic, as close as she could get to a wink, mostly for the human's benefit, "the best of the best. However, we know he can't be trusted for honest word, right?" She laughed again, the same faintly hollow laugh, slightly twinged in pain for insulting her dead father.
"It is a weighty claim,
to be the best, and it has cost us."
If they had not made such boisterous claims then, maybe they would not be hated so much now. She had some big shoes to fill, metaphorically.
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Post by Jessica Ross on Dec 19, 2011 19:21:49 GMT -5
The answers were intresting. They swirled in Jessica's head, leaping and being put together for her. She just had to mull it over and think. Seekers were a culture, a family. They probably existed in a special place, or an area at least, where they were best fitted.
Like all other cultures which were built up to be the best fitted for the area they were in. "What happened to the Seeker culture?" she asked, unable to help herself after all the explanation.
Too bad her legs sparked with pain. Whiplash's own questions were not unexpected and she resisted the urge to growl. "This...this is sadly normal. This is the muscles in my legs contracting and this is me cussing up a storm. Cussing means using human curse words," she answered when the spasm passed.
She did not mention it hurt worse then usual due to Whiplash's tugging.
She sat up slowly and her eyes glanced over at her wrecked wheelchair. It was amazing the Seeker hadn't noticed it, but she would take what she could get.
So long as it didn't get dark.
Or her mother didn't drive up this street.
Oh, yeah, today was just fan-tastic.
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Post by whiplash on Dec 19, 2011 19:33:35 GMT -5
Whiplash silently logged away the particulars of Jessica’s curses. They sounded… satisfying. Maybe he could afford to go native a little, while they were here. When Jessica asked Firefly what had happened to Seeker culture, it was Whiplash who decided to answer first.
He gave a bitter laugh. “Same thing that happened to the rest of Cybertron, the rest of all of us--the slaggin’ war. The planet’s dead. Most everyone else who used to live there are dead. Apparently Cybertronians used to be a big fraggin’ deal. They said that they had cities the likes of which the galaxy hadn’t even seen. Towers reachin' towards the heavens. Cities made of crystal. Scrap like that.” He did not sound wistful, or sad, as he spoke of what he had lost, what all Cybertronians had lost. He just sounded angry.
“That we even used to live on faraway planets, connected by space bridges. Pit, maybe there’s still some out there. Maybe they’re livin’ somewhere, not knowin’ about us, thinkin’ that someday they’ll find their old homeworld and have somethin’ other than a graveyard to go back to.” Another bitter laugh. “I only wish I could see their faces when they find out they’re wrong.” He paused, cocked his head, and with a sizzling sound, his stings recharged themselves, briefly spitting sparks into the air before he let them go dormant.
“We’re all that’s left. Pretty pathetic lot, if you ask me, and I ain’t exceptin’ myself from that. I was told we used to be great.” Whiplash shook his head. “But I ain’t never seen it.”
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