maskormenacelogs | And after all, we're only ordinary men

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And after all, we're only ordinary men

WHO: Duo Maxwell, Gemini, John Watson, and maybe YOU??
WHERE: Respectively; De Chima, Heropa, Maurtia Falls
WHEN: Past week into this weekend!
WHAT: Catch-all for his CR in the past week! Being a terrible teacher, a better detective, and a much better spy.
WARNINGS: Probably a bit of language at most, will edit if needed!

A. [CLOSED: John Watson, De Chima, May 13th]

There were always people with good heads, in these places. The problem was how good their attention spans were to focus on something without letting some new disaster take precedence. Back in The City, where it had been a new disaster every other day, it had been very easy for people to lose sight of the things happening right under their noses, to lose support in a matter before it could even be properly investigated.

That guy… he’d always been the one to complain about short attention spans. Well, no use letting a single murder get him nostalgic- although it was that nostalgia that had brought him here at all. A heart attack with no medical explanation, just before the woman sent off her life savings, and no signs of a perpetrator yet. In a world full of all kinds of mysterious ways to kill, he didn’t want to think it could be a Shinigami right off the bat, but he needed to at least gather enough information to be sure he couldn’t rule it out. Although he had been told of the number of imPorts remaining from The City, if there was even a slim chance that “A” had returned, he needed to know. There was no telling if he could have already seen his face.

It was pretty funny that way, Duo thought as he exited the Porter into De Chima, that he was coming here to meet a detective. Well, guessed he was coming to meet a detective. If his partner really was called “Sherlock”, codename or no, there wasn’t much wiggleroom for guessing, there. He’d told the man he was meeting to look for a priest- wearing his usual collared shirt and slacks he wasn’t too hard to pick out. For now, he’d let himself be approached, and inconspicuously leaned against a wall outside of the Porter building to wait. He never did need cloaking powers to be low-key.

B. [OTA: Heropa DMV, anytime from May 15-19]

Duo prided himself on being the best pilot in the Earth Sphere (well, no, it was the solar system now, wasn’t it?), and even though his kid seemed to be hot on his trails to surpass him, he wouldn’t say he was out of the running just yet. Hey, just because a guy starts getting too old for the torque of piloting a mobile suit, doesn’t mean his actual skills go out the window!

But the saying went ‘those that can’t do, teach’. Those age-old sages never really mentioned that things went the other way around, too. Being assigned as a driving instructor had seemed like it would be a piece of cake, at first- he’d driven everything from a motor-scooter to military trucks, to every model of mobile suit and his own spaceship. What was so hard about showing someone else how to do the same?

A lot, apparently. “Uh, no, I meant the other lever— …you’ve never driven stick before, huh?”

C. [OTA: around Maurtia Falls, anytime May 20th-21st]

It hadn’t been a lie that he was traveling to Maurtia Falls to check up on and volunteer at the local soup kitchens and orphanages. Certainly, he was doing that, and that sort of work was important to him (even now, years later; once a colony rat, always a colony rat). It just wasn’t the entire truth. Certainly, a convenient reason to give for the Porter paperwork; being Unregistered was a bit of a pain that way, but it was easy to get around. The real reason was of course to nose around the suspicious murder that had taken place recently. He already had the details regarding the crime scene, the cause of death, a bit more about that suspicious transaction… But Duo had long since learned that you could find out just as much about a person from those around them.

To that end, between his visits to the church properties that weekend, he had been casually visiting cafes and businesses around Maurtia Falls to chat up the locals, eat lunch, see if he could shake loose any more information about the woman or circumstances of the murder. He didn’t look like a typical imPort, he supposed, and people tended to trust clergy- maybe he could find something out. Or better yet- maybe one of the local imPorts had heard or seen something already.

“Afternoon. Weather’s real nice up here this weekend, isn’t it?” A disarmingly smiling priest just wants to have a friendly chat with you. No ulterior motives, right?

D. [CLOSED: Gemini, Maurtia Falls Catholic Orphanage, May 21st]

Any time Duo went visiting to an orphanage, whether it was the one he and Hilde had run back on Mars or the ones back in the day, on colonies that he would sometimes visit as he dropped shipments off for his business, he felt more like he was home than anyplace else. It wasn’t simply memories of the good times at the church, or the feeling that he was really giving back to those who needed it the most- but seeing a bit of himself in those kids, he felt he was amongst those that understood best. Everyone had been through the same kind of loss, had the same loneliness. Everyone was angry about something, had the same tenacity for survival or the compassion for others. He didn’t always have to lie to these kids, because they got it.

Just the same, even though they had seen it all, he was more protective of these places than he might have been of other kids. They didn’t need any more crap in their lives- just the smiles to carry them through each day. Outside, playing with some of the kids- teaching them a bit about some basic mechanics on an old motorbike he’d rented for the weekend, he spotted an incongruous figure watching from outside the gates. A woman in a business suit… A government worker, maybe? DSS? But as he went on talking to the kids, watching from the corner of his eye, it became clear that she wasn’t watching the kids.

Someone always had to ruin his day. “Alright, alright, we’ve covered everything interesting, I think. Why don’t we get some food in you kids, huh?” He rose to the chatter of hungry kids, helping herd them off to the custody of the Sisters calling for them inside. After the last few stragglers were out of earshot, he muted his voice to the figure behind him, calling to her without turning to look. “I get the feeling you’re not here to adopt, Miss.”

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"Oh, um..." Riptide awkwardly smiles back, unsure of how to handle this Human Interaction™. What if he says something wrong? He runs a hand through his human form's hair, awkward and uncomfortable.

"It sure is... weather."

The look Duo gave Riptide in response wasn't exactly-- well he wasn't laughing at him. Yet. There's no way he can wipe the grin off his face, though. Maybe this guy just wasn't used to being approached by random, friendly strangers?

Not like he would let that dissuade him from having a chat with the guy. "Way better than the weather's been further south; that humidity is just sweltering." He gives a low whistle, fanning himself for effect. "Really does a number on a guy in black, but hey, the cassock comes with the job."

"Sad what happened here, the last week. Real sad."

"Yyyyeah, right. Just change?" he offers, still looking at Duo awkwardly.

"What happened?"

Duo does laugh this time, though it comes off more as self-deprecating (he hopes). "I could, but you're really not supposed to. I think it would make God mad, or something." He wasn't really sure, since he never actually went through the ordaining process. But no one had to know that.

Lowering his head a little in respect, he gives a quiet tut. "The murder, didn't you hear? Mysterious heart attack, perfectly healthy woman, very respected in the community. I do wonder, what would possess her to send her life's savings away just before that? Whatcha think?"

"Go-- ohh, you better not try to convert me! I'm happy with what I have, thanks. I get enough of this scrap with Drift... you should try spectralism, Riptide! No!"

He rubs his hands on his face, groaning.

"I don't know, what do humans usually do when they're dying?"

The information that the Count had provided about the potential recruit hadn't been that extensive, merely a name and a few snippets of information that the Constellation had been able to gather. But there was enough for Gemini to begin to put together a profile of Duo Maxwell and to work out how and where she would approach him.

Unluckily it seemed he was taking an unhealthy amount of interest in the death of Sally Cunliffe, but the silver lining in that irritating cloud was that it had brought Maxwell to Maurtia Falls, making it much easier for her to track him down. The research she'd done had led Gemini to watch the city's Catholic Orphanage in the hope of finding him there and sure enough, after a few days the employee she'd bribed had called to say that the target was there. it hadn't taken her long to fly there, land out of sight, and sure enough there he was.

Wearing her own face for a change, dressed in a professional looking pin striped jacket and skirt and with just enough cleavage to entice but not to look slutty, Gemini put on a sympathetic smile at his question to make it look like she actually cared about the little brats before answering. "Miss Richards, Anna Richards and no I'm not I'm afraid. I've been sent to speak to you about a business proposal Mr Maxwell, I hope you'll be able to give me a few minutes of your time, perhaps over coffee?" She finished in a hopeful tone, injecting a hint of flirty interest to help ease him into saying yes to the suggestion.

"Huh? Oh, no no no, don't worry about that," he chuckles, shaking his head and waving a hand. "I'm not the proselytizing type. 'f you ask me, anybody that's gotta be talked into religion ain't gettin' anything from it, anyway." Well, he probably wasn't supposed to say things like that if he wanted to keep up appearances, but whatever.

Duo looks thoughtful at the question-- it was an interesting one, though he does a bit of a double-take when Riptide says 'humans'. An imPort, huh? "Well, depends on the situation and the person, I guess- beg for mercy, sudden crisis or change of faith, peacefully accepting their inevitable demise as they go into the darkness... or light, dependin' who you ask. Could go on about infinitely, I suppose."

Hey, wait, this guy was an imPort, and at first Duo had glossed over the words tossed out, but then he realized those words had been names, and-- "Waitaminnit, Ripti-- Ohhh!" The priest brightens up considerably, any semblance of decorum dropped like a hot potato as he realizes exactly who he's managed to stumble upon. "Hey, you're not dead yet! Congrats!"

"...Oh, uh--" Duo holds his hand out to shake, beaming a grin. "Shinigami. In the flesh."

"Father," he corrected, gesturing to his collar with a grin as he approached the gate. "And that's a shame; kids could always use a good, permanent home." Ah. Women were a weakness of his, he supposed; it was fair that anyone sent after him should make use of the obvious weaknesses. He should probably be careful not to let himself get distracted with this one- still new and without strong, established alliances already, his escape options weren't the greatest. He pushed open the gate, letting it click behind him, and then leaned against it with the relaxed ease of someone who hadn't a worry in the world.

"I don't know what kind of business anyone would want with a man of the cloth, but it seems I've got a bit of free time for the moment. And I do like a cup of coffee." Well, at least she'd suggested an open, public space for this little dance to play out in.

He jerked his thumb towards the bustling cross-street a few blocks down, where there was a grouping of businesses- luckily including a coffeeshop. "Shall we, Miss Richards?"

"The pros... ana... okay," Riptide says, not understanding that word at all. "That's clever. I don't know anyone like that."

"Oh!" he chirps brightly! A friend! "I remember you! You're a lot smaller off the video!"

Meant as a joke, but probably offensive. Human humour is hard.

Entirely unoffended, Duo laughs as he shakes Riptide's hand vigorously. "Well, yeah, but I guess when you used to be the size of a building, everything is kinda smaller than expected, huh?"

There's just a flick of a glance but he gives the former robot a more scrutinizing once-over, now that he knows what he's dealing with. Nothing obvious he could see to tell anyone that he wasn't originally human, which was in line with most of the humanized imPorts he'd met. He wondered briefly if he'd retained any of his robotic parts as powers, but that seemed like a rude thing to ask right off the bat.

"How goes the eating? And uh, the ankle?"

"Well, I'm not dead," he comments with a little grin.

As for the ankle, Riptide lifts his leg up and twirls his foot. Perfectly fine!

"I guess it's not hard to figure out, is it? Put vitamins in face, swallow down the right pipe..." He had total faith in you the whole time, Riptide. "Now that you've got that down, I guess you can take it easy and focus on what it means to actually be here, huh?"

Honestly, it was probably enough to be stuck in an entirely new physical form. Letting the general imPort situation sink in was probably a whole other mess on top of that. "Luckily, I just so happen to be an expert in that, too. Actually, I just know a lot of stuff." Duo leans in a little. "You find any of your buddies around?"

"...There's more than one pipe? I thought it was just one!" he says, barking a laugh. Humans are so weird!

"Nah. I see a few of 'em were here before but they're not here now so what can ya do?"

"Surprise! Land-dwelling animal life on Earth separates gaseous intake from solid and liquid intake. Real arbitrary, when you think about it, I guess." Duo tilts his head. Alien life really made you question evolution, sometimes. "I guess you guys don't require any vapors or gases for survival? Most life on Earth requires somethin' other than food, either oxygen or carbon dioxide."

It interested Duo that there had been more Cybertronians present before they showed up, but that was something he could always investigate later. "Ahh, that sucks. But they're definitely better off not having the hassle of dealing with this place. Or your uh, specific conversion issues, I guess."

"Which reminds me, I guess you can't turn into a car or a plane or whatever you were anymore, huh?"

Riptide's eyes glaze over slightly. He understands very few of those words.

"I turn into a boat. And I can, I just need to, uh. Not be human? I have to switch back. Which I'm not gonna do here because I'd probably kill someone. I'm one of the big ones!"

Biology is hard. Don't worry about it, robot friend.

"Oh, so you're a good swimmer, then? Or floater, I guess. That's pretty nifty, though- I don't think I've met one of you guys that could turn into a boat." Duo rubs his chin- trucks, cars, planes, spiders, dinosaurs. Yup, no boats.

"But that means you still can? I mean- the Porter, it let you switch back to a mechanical shape?" Now that was surprising- from all the griping the Cybertronians did in The City, he was pretty sure he'd never heard of one that could switch at will. "........How big?"

"There's not many. Most of us are cars or jets or whatever. I'm a boat for a reason," he says. A reason he might not tell Duo! He's not sure. It's still a touchy topic.

"At will. That's all I can do, though. I don't have any special powers like everyone else." Not clocking that changing is a power. "Uhhhh..."

Riptide looks around for a moment, then points at a two storey building.

"Bigger than that! That would come up to about my chest, I think."

"Oh, is that right?" Duo had originally considered that transformation modes were either something close to human equivalent of race or rank- from what Starscream had said about fliers, but now he considered if it wasn't closer to one's natural skill set, in the same way he specialized in stealth and sneaking. Hardwired into one's brain or programming, so to speak. "Specialization comes in all forms, huh."

Right, like everyone else. Duo glances to the building, nodding in understanding. "About 2/3, then, roughly... Not some little schooner, not quite a carrier? My buddy was a great swimmer, too."

"There was... a long fight. They needed boats," he offers, a little hesitantly. "I was meant for speed and transport. You gotta be big to carry a big race."

Riptide mentally files a few questions away to ask Duo later. He wants to know exactly what--

"What did you learn about us from the others?"

Ah. Short attention span.

"Ah, excuse me, father." Although she smiled Gemini's eyes drifted down to the collar and narrowed for the slightest of seconds, assessing the implications of Maxwell's profession on the recruitment. Ordinarily Gemini would have walked away at that point; anyone idealistic enough to be clergy was not her idea of a good fit for the Constellation, indeed he might be a severe liability when it came to the group's more questionable activities.

But then again having a priest on board might give the Constellation a certain respectability should it ever be needed for PR purposes, and there was always the chance that his position was just a smokescreen to throw people off. So on the basis of that intriguing thought Gemini nodded warmly glancing towards the shops and took a couple of steps so that she was alongside him.

"Lead the way Father Maxwell." She answered politely. "Perhaps you might be able to tell me a little about yourself and your work here while we walk?"

...Necessity calls, huh. Though Duo flicks a glance over Riptide's face, none of the recognition shows in his features. He figured the 'well-oiled war machine' quip wouldn't be appreciated, here, no matter how fitting it was.

He considers the question, trying to mentally file through decades-old impressions and data, although the conclusion he'd reached that long time ago was the plainest to come to mind. "That humans aren't the only ones in the universe foolish enough to drag out a few centuries of pointless civil wars."

He rests his chin in one hand as he tilts his head, thinking over details. Casually, he activates his muting power so that nothing else he said could be heard by anyone else around them. "And I remember thinking, thank God none of my enemies were around that place long enough to try to weaponize you guys. My buddy was what we call a "mobile suit". Very similar to your race in basic construction, some of them can even transform like you guys. But man-made, originally for industrial work in open space, but later weaponized. Like any other technology, I guess." He wouldn't explain the Gundams just yet. That information was entirely too sensitive, just yet. "My partner... His name was Deathscythe."

"Optimus- and Starscream's big mouth- told me about the two factions and the war on Cybertron. Though, I guess amongst all the Cybertronians in The City, there was a few different timelines or maybe universes going on. I don't know the exact details, but some of them could turn into semi-organic forms. Like... a dinosaur, or a bug. And those guys called the factions something different- Predacon, or something, that buzzy one called it." Duo stops, glances at Riptide for a reaction. He had no way of knowing how much the guy would even know about this stuff, given that he had never clearly figured out the timeline of that world.

"No," he says immediately, eyes narrowing. "This was nothing like any war humans could fight. It was..."

Riptide trails off, not wanting to give away too much information. He's never... seen a human before, he doesn't know how to gauge this situation. Can he even trust Duo?

"We can't be weaponised. You don't--" he scowls rubbing a hand over his face. "Humans are nothing like us!" Woops space racism! Anything else Duo said has taken a back seat, because Riptide needs to make this clear.

Duo just looks thoughtful, rather than offended, the traces of a grim smile on his lips. "No? Well, I guess you'd know better than me." There was something cheesy about universal peace that could go here, but that wasn't his speech to give. He was just the guy that did the dirty work that appealed to his personal sense of right. He didn't have any grand philosophy to deliver.

He hums, pressing, "But you know, there's more than the direct path to weaponizing sentients. Yeah, it's probably suicidal for a human to try, but I'd rather not have found out either way."

"You've never been to Earth before, right? Whatcha think of the big blue marble?"

Duo wondered as much as Gemini did who would want something so obviously shady with a guy that for all fronts was just a very opinionated priest- although he had some guesses. Although the front worked well for the most part to get people to underestimate him, for anyone that remotely knew better, it was a flimsy excuse of a disguise. Therefore, it wasn't really meant for this kind of situation as anything more than a first layer to dance around, keep the uninvolved out of the coded language really being tossed around.

Leading 'Miss Richards' down the block, Duo folds his hands innocuously behind his back as he walks, an oblivious smile on his face. "Talk about myself? That's not particularly pious," he chuckles, crows feet around his eyes crinkling as he smiled back at her. "You're the one who's come to seek me out, Miss Richards. Why don't you tell me a bit more, first? About your offer, or yourself."

Do you think it's gonna be that easy?

Pseudo-heels click-clicking as she kept pace with him, Gemini nodded thoughtfully in response to his question, pushing back a stray stand of jet black hair behind her ear as she formulated a response which was about as far from the truth as possible. "I'm what you might call a consultant Father Maxwell, I do as I'm told for my clients and am well recompensed for it."

She lingered suggestively on the word 'recompense' for a moment before continuing. "As for them you are welcome to ask anything about my clients and I will ~~lie~~ answer to the best of my ability. I believe that you will find the offer they've asked me to make very attractive."

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And after all, we're only ordinary men

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