redshiftrp | 01 ⚡ voice - un:starscream;

[ You'd be forgiven for thinking that this world had sent Starscream away, considering he hasn't been present in Anchor for a good while. Not down in the public park, not in the vehicle bays, not even poking around engineering. No word of a departure, no expected return.

And yet here he is! Spending an obscenely long time in the garage decontamination showers, until the systems check finally says he's free of dangerous radiation levels. Sadly, it seems Anchor is not yet free of him. ]

In all your little scurrying about and exploring this place, tell me someone has come across excavation equipment. Specifically rock drills and cutters. For that matter, are there any hauling carts? Mag-grav would be best, I'm not carrying this all back by hand. I'm not a mining drone.

Further, I require the following items:

[ He lists off about a dozen parts, which individually aren't that special, but combined sound an awful lot like he's building a distillation tank. ]

Finally, I have high fidelity scans of planetary areas outside the colony. In exchange for assistance with extracting my located resources, I will share them with the rest of you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Dangerous" is subjective. Everything can be dangerous if applied improperly.

Look at water: you fleshies need it to live, you're practically walking sacks of it, but try and breathe it and look at that, you're dead.

[Another pause of a second or two.]

I'm sorry, what did you call me?

What, fleshie? A collective adjective, nothing to be personally offended by. You sound like you missed my point about the water, though.

[Yeah, that's what Carlisle thought he said. He takes the implication that this is another construct, like Scaramouche. Goodie. His tone is a little dry as he continues:]

Right. Something as benign as a rock can be dangerous when 'applied improperly,' but I meant, 'Will these resources you've found cause harm to the majority of the living beings here?'

[ Carlisle isn't wrong, but at the same time, isn't thinking big enough... ]

Not in raw form, for the most part. And afterward... only in cases of improper storage, direct skin contact, ingestion, or explosion.

So all in all, a minor risk.

You call an explosion a 'minor risk'? What if it breaks the air lock?

[ Not necessarily a problem for Starscream since he doesn't breathe, but an understandable concern for the majority of Anchor's residents. Even in an audio feed, you can hear the eyeroll. ]

Then don't shoot it or light it on fire, it's not that hard a concept to grasp.

You say that as though there aren't morons here who will do exactly that. For fun.

Then perhaps those risks should be dealt with, rather than challenging mine?

If a man brings a bear home and someone lets it out, I'm blaming both the liberator and the one who thought it wise to bring a dangerous creature home in the first place.

[ there's an oddly long pause ]

... which ones are bears, again? The scaled ones?

In any case, you seem to be labouring under the false presumption that I am asking permission.

Allow me to be perfectly clear: I'm not.

I'm not foolish enough to assume you would be. You seem more akin to the aforementioned reckless morons.

If I were reckless, I would just bring it to the colony and not tell anyone about it.

[ Which he definitely considered doing. ]

If you're so concerned about it being tampered with, perhaps you should help me locate and secure a storage space for them, where I'm the only one with access.

I suggest a deep hole beyond the walls of the colony, the location of which only you know. There is hardly a place in Anchor that is wholly impregnable.

[Said like someone who knows from experience.]

I'm not going out in that waste every time I want a meal! Besides, I don't know how it will react in its refined form to the erratic types of radiation from the shift.

I will accede to reasonable requests for its storage, but I will be bringing it inside Anchor. That should be concession enough for the lot of you.

Wh— a meal?! You're putting the rest of us at risk so you can eat?

[Just what is it constructs eat, anyway?]

[ Admittedly, that's not the reaction he was expecting. ]

Yes. Shockingly, I want to be able to eat, the same as the rest of you do.

Aren't you a construct?

[ Starscream's tone distills to something precise and dangerous. ]

Be very careful how you elaborate that question.

Are. You not. A construct. That would logically not have to eat. What else would call people 'fleshies'?

[Aside from things that are clearly not people, like constructs.]

If you mean in any vein similar to the drones that are stationed about the colony, then no... and should you imply so going forward, it will carry serious ramifications.

I am Cybertronian - we are an inorganic species. We are not constructs. We eat, think, require rest, have measurable life force.

The drones here in the colony are not alive, they are machines.

Right. Let's call it a 'collective adjective' then for you inorganic types. Nothing to be personally offended by.

They don't mean the same things.

[ Yes, he recognizes the hypocrisy. No, he doesn't care. ]

Oh, oh you're right. You and them aren't the same. The little constructs around here are actually helpful on occasion.

[Things Carlisle may regret saying one day: all of this.]

Those mindless little tin-pot trash compactors don't know the meaning of the term. They're only capable of doing what they've been programmed to do. I should step on each and every one of them.

(no subject)

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