| abstract
| - November 25, 2011, 12:18 PM (Barracks, Iacon/Track and Training, Iacon) --- Blades is sprawled out on his bunk, with a sheet pulled over himself while he reads a datapad that is, of course, also obscured from public view. He doesn't move his rotors much -- that fabric feels too funny on a moving rotor -- and settles for lowering the blades toward the bunk in a heliformer-sized cone tent. He vents a sigh (and the sheet billows out), and thumbs through the datapad again. Hot Spot zooms through the door and over to his bunk. He dives onto the floor and starts reaching underneath it. "Hey Blades!" he says, cheerfully. First Aid follows Hot Spot in the door at a slower pace, smiling. "What are you looking for, anyway? Hey Blades, I didn't know you were in here." Groove follows after both the others, chewing thoughtfully on part of an energon goodie. He pulls it away, looking like he's about to say something, but when he spots the tented sheet hiding Blades, he apparently forgets whatever it was. "Oh, hi Blades!" The blades kick up briefly as Blades startles, then he scowls and shuts off the datapad to shove it into an empty space at the head of the berth. "Hi, guys," he says from under his sheet before he stretches out arms and legs and relaxes to doze through... whatever it is they'll be doing. "Hey guys!" Hot Spot says, his voice a little muffled as his face is pressed against the side of the bunk. "Just... trying... to reach something..." "Well, maybe Groove can reach it, he'd fit under there better than you do," First Aid suggests, practically. "Great plan!" Hot Spot says and leaps back. He smiles at Groove. "It's the little black thing right at the back. It's part of my gun maintenance kit, but it must have fallen out last time I took inventory." Groove nods, biting down on the energon goodie again to hold it while keeping both of his hands free. He drops down next to Hot Spot's berth, tilting his helm to try peering under it. "I think I can reach it." The statement's muffled by his treat, but clear enough, and he leans down, stretching one arm underneath the berth to try and get a hold of the object. Blades makes a little grunt of effort to pull his rotor down into his back, then ever so slowly twitches the rotors themselves to sit more toward his shoulders. Satisfied with the effort, he sighs happily and puts his pillow over his helm. "Do we still have time to try you know what at the training field before your shift?" First Aid asks. Hot Spot says, "Uhuh," Hot Spot says, as he watches Groove and wonders whether he should just have tried to lift up the bunk in the first place. But he doesn't know how firmly it's secured to the floor." Groove humms thoughtfully from his place squashed up against the berth. After another moment, he sits back a bit, the hand not under Hot Spot's bunk grabbing his goodie and holding it out behind him. "Can somebody hold this, please?" First Aid reaches down to take the goodie and looks at it curiously. "This looks good. Can I have a bite?" "Hey Blades, are you up for that?" Hot Spot says, in the hope that extreme enthusiasm will win the day. Blades grunts. "I'll have whatever Groove's having," he says in a muffled voice. "I meant the training," Hot Spot says. "We could have a go?" Groove goes quiet for a few moments at First Aid's question, mentally debating. "...okay." He agrees finally, shifting to lay on his front to reach further under the berth. "I have more goodies if you want to come." He offers to Blades, the sound muffled by how he's positioned. Blades narrows his optics as he considers this. "It's okay. I've been raiding the stash under your berth." A long pause. "Lots of bugs crawling around under your berth," he says. "They taste okay, better after they eat the energon goodies." "Well. Um." First Aid says. "Do you want to come train with us, Blades?" Groove stills at that revelation. "...you've been stealing my goodies?" He asks quietly, frowning even though the others can't see it. "...You could have just asked, you know. I would have given you some." With that said, he returns to grabbing at the little black object Hot Spot wanted him to get. "Thanks!" Hot Spot says. He glances at Blades. "Maybe we should have a communal box?" he says. "That's not a bad idea, and that way Groove isn't the only one sharing." First Aid agrees. Blades pokes his head out from under pillow and sheet. "I haven't been *stealing* them," he says. He shrugs his shoulders and rotor. "The bugs've been stealing them. I've just been cleaning up." He looks at Hot Spot after eyeing Groove kicking around under the bunk. "We could also trap the bugs. For... uh... later," he adds. "Sure!" Hot Spot agrees. "Now... how about that trianing?" Groove scoots back out from under the berth, sitting up and holding out the lost piece for Hot Spot to take. "Here you go. It's dusty under there." He offers, putting a grin on his faceplates. "And I think a communal box is a good idea. A thicker one. I don't want bugs in the energon goodies." "Yeah. Maybe we could put some energon out for the bugs somewhere else though? They must be really hungry to try eating your goodies." First Aid offers. Blades burps softly, sending the noise out his vents as he sits up. "And the energon goodies are good bait," he says. "Agreed," Hot Spot says. "Is everyone ready to go?" Groove grabs onto the edge of the berth and pulls himself to his feet, shaking off the remaining dust as he does so. "Sure." He agrees, glancing at First Aid and Blades in turn. "Are you going to come, Blades?" Blades eyes the other mechs. "What are you doing?" he asks. "Trying to see if we can unlock my alt mode by syncing up through the gestalt bond." First Aid says. "We were on our way to the training field when Hot Spot realized he didn't have that kit." "And now we've got everything we need..." Hot Spot says. "You in?" Blades frowns. "You needed a kit for that?" he asks. Groove shrugs, edging closer to First Aid and surreptitiously glancing at his energon goodie. "Well, if this fails, we should probably do some general training too. I think that's why Spot wanted his kit. ...can I have that back?" The last part is directed at First Aid, complete with the cycleformer pointing at the ignored treat. First Aid hands Groove his goodie back. "Woops, sorry!" "Sync... up?" Blades asks, as if tasting the phrase for the first time. "And you've gotta do *what* to do this?" "It was," Hot Spot agrees with First Aid. He smiles at Blades. "I'm not entirely certain," he says. "I think First Aid has a better idea." First Aid looks at Hot Spot and shrugs. "I'm not quite sure either, but no cables or anything, Blades. No one'd be messing with your head." Groove smiles at First Aid, taking another bite of the energon goodie. When Blades asks his question, he shrugs again. "I think we're going to try and do our group thing." He says around the mouthful of goodie, only belatedly realizing that it was kind of rude. Blades stands up. "No cables," he says, eyeing First Aid. First Aid shakes his head. "No cables. I think we just need to .. I don't know. I think Hot Spot will know what to do, but more of us there would be better." Hot Spot smiles at Groove talking with his mouth full, then looks a little worriedly at First Aid. "We hope," he says. Groove returns the smile a little sheepishly, making sure to swallow his treat before speaking again. "I'm sure you will. You're our leader after all, right?" He sounds totally convinced of this fact, giving Hot Spot another smile before taking another chunk out of his goodie. Blades grunts and sighs. "Mind as well get it over with, then?" he asks, looking at Hot Spot closely through narrow optics. Hot Spot 's smile turns more than a little nervous, although he's very happy that Blades has agreed. "All right," he says, and tries to sound more confident than he feels. First Aid smiles and scoots towards the door to give Blades space to get out. Groove looks around at all of them, swallowing his last bit of goodie. He humms quietly to himself, considering, then pivots in place, throwing one arm up to point at the door. "Onward ho!" He says cheerfully, marching toward the door himself. First Aid trails out the door after Groove and Blades with a smile at Hot Spot. Hot Spot follows close behind, hoping to Primus that he'll know what to do when the time comes. --- First Aid follows the others onto the training field and looks at Hot Spot. "I think we should probably be pretty close together, right?" He asks, thinking hard. "Maybe.. what you talked about with Alpha?" "I think if we stand facing each other," Hot Spot begins, but he second guesses himself and stops. "Or perhaps not... No, standing close by, so we can all see each other. That feels... right?" He chooses a patch of ground and shrugs as if to apologise pre-emptively. They can but try. First Aid reaches up to pat Hot Spot on the shoulder. "We're as new to this as you are." He offers a reassuring smile. Groove frowns at the mention of Alpha, but forces it away, instead following Hot Spot's uncertain instructions and planting himself a few kix away from him and First Aid. He gives both of them a confident smile, bouncing on his heels as he waits to be told what else to do. First Aid looks from Groove to Hot Spot to Blades. "Now what do we do?" He shrugs a bit helplessly. Blades watches the others with a small frown. Facing each other... check. "Yeah," he agrees. "Now what?" "Try that thing where, if we focus, we can learn about what's going on with each other," Hot Spot says. His optics dim a little as he begins. First Aid looks at Groove. "How - how'd you do it, when you and Streetwise contacted me?" Blades shuffles his feet back and forth, frowning. It's as though Hot Spot just asked him to grow another rotor. Groove stays quiet for a minute, trying to figure out how to explain it. "I just- I knew needed to talk to you somehow, and I just focused on that with everything I had. I don't really know how I did it." He finishes lamely, shrugging. "Maybe if we all focus really hard on each other and what we're trying to do?" "Blades," Hot Spot says quietly. "Do you ever just know things about the rest of us without knowing how you know?" First Aid nods. "Okay, right, I can do that." He nods again, more decisively, optics dimming and head dropping a little bit as he focuses on the others. "It wasn't ever anything I was trying to do," Blades tells Hot Spot. "I just need to... focus?" he asks, looking around at the other quickly before trying as hard as he can to copy Groove. Hot Spot nods. "I think so. Just try to..." He goes quiet for a moment. "Just have a go." He thinks about the door Alpha opened, and the strange feeling it prompted, and tries to bring that feeling back. It's remarkably easy to do - so easy it scares him for a moment. Then he realises something his audials have been picking up for a while: their engines are beginning to synchronise. First Aid bites his lip, turning off his optics entirely and focusing on the vague feeling of his brothers' presence, taking one step closer to the others. Groove watches First Aid with a small, worried frown, but lets it go for now. He ducks his head, offlining his optics to help himself focus. His frown starts to dissipate as he notices the same thing Hot Spot did, and he also takes a step forward, ignoring the disconcerting feeling of his gyros lacking a visual reference as he moves. Blades blinks at the movement around him and steps forward himself. He's also not sure about this ventless feeling in his chest... Hot Spot also steps forward, focusing on the open door, and the idea of First Aid's and Streetwise's alts. There has to be a way to unlock their alt modes. "That's -weird-" First Aid says, armor clicking oddly, flexing at a transformation seam along his shoulder before settling back into place. He steps forward again, but with his optics closed, his foot bumps into Groove's and he stumbles off balance, grabbing Blades' shoulder as he flails and tries not to fall over. Hot Spot attempts to stop him falling, before he really knows what he's doing, and trips over his own feet. Blades squawks in distress at the grasp on his shoulder, and he wobbles threateningly before crashing his ventral panels onto Hot Spot's chest. He swears roundly at the discomfort. Groove just has the plain bad luck of being in the way as this happens, and he onlines his optics in confusion just in time to almost get caught between Blades and Hot Spot. He tries to step backward out of the way, but catches his foot on somebody else's- he's not sure whose limbs are where at this point- and loses his own balance for a moment, stumbling to the side. He grabs Hot Spot's arm to help him restabilize his gyros, which probably wasn't the smartest idea... First Aid ends up at the bottom of the pile with a crash, and there's a moment of silence where the others can feel his plating shaking where he's trapped against them before the giggles finally escape. "Oops! Sorry guys!" Blades gives a high-pitched yelp while Groove crashes past his blades. "Sorry? Sorry?!" he asks. Groove laughs from his spot trapped somewhere between Hot Spot, Blades, and the floor. He's not at all fazed by the fact he's stuck under two mechs a decent bit larger than he is. "Well, /that/ didn't work." He says, pointing out the blatantly obvious. "I don't think this is what's supposed to happen. Though you guys are comfy." Hot Spot can't help but laugh. It's not what he thought they were meant to be doing, but /something's/changed, and he has a feeling it's for the better.
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