little robots in ringback tones.

[heartlessglitch]

WHO: danger & YOU!
WHERE: various locations around heropa and cape canaveral!
WHEN: 05/01-05/03.
WHAT: robot lady adventures in spicy food and terrorists!
WARNINGS: tbd.

a: local park (morning/organic form)
[ Danger's organic body was, truthfully, not as different from her mechanical container as one might have imagined. There were certainly stark contrasts-- but this body required maintenance, just as much as her armored chassis did. Besides, when the recent attempts on her psychiatrist's life, she'd had a lot on her mind, to say the least. She needed time to herself to think. So she took her human-like form out to run, early in the morning before the heat and the sun became too harsh. Her path took her through the Heropa's residential area, out to the local park.

But she wasn't doing much running at the moment. A progressive pain in her right leg had grown intense enough that even the self-titled war machine needed a moment on a bench, hands kneading the muscle as she attempted to assess herself. Analysis was easier with a computerized brain-- the kind of brain that didn't feel pain to begin with.

It could end up being a long (limping) walk home. ]



b: food truck (afternoon/organic form)
[ It had been easier to force herself to experiment with foods when she'd had a companion with a more adventurous palate-- but with fellow robot Steve counted among those lost between this universe and the last, science and progress had to be the motivation for what Danger had come to think of as tests. Despite having lived in her organic body on and off for months on months now, she was still gastronomically inexperienced, so to speak. Partially through her own unwillingness to put anything too unusual into her mouth. Taste was one sense she was still adjusting to. It was still new.

But after the incident at the house-- the one where a sadistic housemate had decided to serve weaponized tofu for dinner-- she had become determined to adapt. To educate herself. To increase her tolerance through trial by culinary fire.

Danger stood outside an Indian food truck with a styrofoam container full of curry, staring into its depths as though she might be able to pick it apart with her mind if she stared long enough. In her human-like body, it was impossible to ignore the strong smell (foreign to her, and burning ever so slightly at her sinuses). This was the being that had single-handedly thrown half a dozen of the finest X-Men around like rag dolls, facing off with a cup of spicy curry as though it were an unstable nuclear reactor.

Finally, she lifted a spoonful to her mouth. For a long moment, she didn't chew. Or swallow. Or do much of anything besides stand there. Still. Eyes narrowing ever so slightly. Seconds ticked by-- and unceremoniously, the unknowable and infinite entity that called herself "Danger" parted her lips to let that spoonful of curry slowly fall from her mouth onto the sidewalk. ]



c: cape canaveral streets (night/robotic form)
[ This situation was not ideal. Of course, being a robot, she was calculating and considering any number of possible resolutions to the circumstances at hand. Though it was complicated by the fact that her suspect-- a man in a hoodie, average, tachycardic, body temperature rising-- was currently holding a handgun to the head of a homeless civilian, who in turn looked approximately two seconds from passing out. ]

Stand down.
I am a government agent, and I am authorized to negotiate on your behalf if you release the hostage.

[ Though it was getting more likely that if the suspect didn't quickly bend to her demands, she would be forced to utilize any number of the weapons at her disposal to neutralize him. That would mean paperwork later, and dealing with politics. This was, after all, Homeland Security she was working for. There were some liberties she could take, certainly, but still.

It needed to be dealt with as cleanly as possible. It was lucky enough that the late hour meant there wasn't a gawking crowd about, even exposed out on the street like this. ]

Drop your weapon.
I will not repeat my request again.

Comments

[harryingjet]

[Not approach any closer, his commentary is not required, please. Starscream instead takes a step forward, hands in his pockets, giving Danger a little smirk.] I know it's not required, but I'm offering it anyway.

[And oh. There's a gun in his face.

As the gunman pointed the gun at Starscream, he couldn't help but frown. He had his immortality, granted by that shred of the All-Spark stuck in his forehead--at least, according to the file, he did. But according to the file, he also had his robot form, which he was having an insane amount of trouble activating. And, he knew from experience, that dying really hurt.

So, out of all the answers, he quickly decided on the best one for him: covering his ass and making things up.]

Now you really don't want to do that, do you? After all, you don't know what superpower I have. I could...ah...blow up, or something like that, and we wouldn't want that to happen.

[heartlessglitch]

[ No, they wouldn't want that to happen.

Fortunately, at least one of them was still in their robotic form. Danger had nothing to fear from a simple handgun-- her chassis was armored, and capable of taking much worse than few bullets. Either way, it wasn't as if she could feel pain. There was no hesitation before she moved to protect him. With the hostage out of way, her suspect was exposed. It was simple enough to take advantage of her greater speed and ability to calculate, one hand catch the man's gun-wielding hand and swiftly snapping the wrist.

Bone yielded to her effortlessly with an audible noise. The man recoiled with a noise, releasing the gun to clutch his broken wrist. It was simple enough then, to just kick the weapon away and use her greater weight to pin him to the ground. Only then did she glance up again at Starscream. ]

I did warn you that your interference was not necessary.
Please confirm your status.
Are you all right?

[harryingjet]

[As she breaks his wrist and pins him to the ground, Starscream's frown turns to a triumphant smirk, as if this was some sort of planned team-up instead of her saving his ass. He shrugs slightly, like having a gun pointed in his face was something that simply happened.]

Oh, I'm fine. He couldn't have hurt me anyway. [Yes Starscream, cockily assume that your immortality works the same way as before. He looked over Danger one more time, eyes lingering on her robotic chassis.

Jealous? A little.]

You must be Danger.

[heartlessglitch]

[ The gunman continues to struggle underneath her, but it's all a bit futile against six-feet and nearly three hundred pounds of alien alloy. His slight flailing didn't seem to faze her though-- she simply continued to hold him down, waiting for her human colleagues from Homeland Security to arrive.

When he says her name though, that visibly draws her attention. She eyes him a moment before responding: ]

That is correct.
I am Danger.
Though I would like to be informed as to how you might know that.

[harryingjet]

As the organics say, a little bird told me, [Starscream responded, smirk on his face. A little bird by the name of Knock-Out. He walked closer towards Danger, paying no attention to the human on the floor.]

I'm Starscream. And, though I currently don't look like it, I'm also a fellow inorganic.

[heartlessglitch]

[ He didn't have to tell her-- she could take a fair guess as to who told him about her, as soon as he mentioned being inorganic. She had seen documentation of a Cybertronian named "Starscream" in their previous universe, and the robot community was a small one. The Cybertronian community was smaller still.

Knock Out.

But out loud, she simply answered a bit pointedly: ]

Acknowledged.
May I inquire as to what your specific interest in me is, exactly?

[harryingjet]

You're inorganic, I'm inorganic, I thought we should get to know each other. [Of course, this was only a crazy random happenstance that he should meet her here, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.]

[heartlessglitch]

[ Danger does believe in solidarity between mechanical life forms. But her reception with Cybertronians has been mixed, and she isn't the type to take much at face value.

She scrutinizes him a long moment before rising, straightening up as she keeps the gunman pinned under the weight of her foot. ]

I see.
You want to get to know each other.
Is that all?

[harryingjet]

Not all. I wanted to offer you a...proposition, of sorts. [Smirk on his face, Starscream walked over to Danger, paying little mind to the gunman.]

It seems this place is crawling with humans. [which Starscream punctuates with a little shudder. Urgh. Organics.] You see, back home I was the leader of the Decepticons, a group of fellow inorganics like myself. Care to join the cause?

[Of course, he wasn't exactly the actual leader...he simply thought he was. And he was still apprehensive about Danger, as she wasn't a true Cybertronian. But hey, beggars can't be choosers, and Knock Out and Thundercracker were being less than helpful about the whole thing.]

[heartlessglitch]

[ Danger had a complicated relationship with humans-- as a species, and in individual circumstances. She'd even loved a human being once, though this hardly seemed the opportune time to bring that particular tidbit up. She somewhat doubted that it would entertain the current company.

Loosely, she folded her arms under her chest. ]

And what precisely would you define as "the cause?"

[harryingjet]

[Starscream, on the other hand, was full-blown straight into space racist territory--a fact which was easily apparent. As he continued to talk, his smirk grew more and more, his expression changing from someone who was talking just to talk to someone utterly passionate.

Unfortunately, he was passionate about robot dominance.]

Overthrowing the humans, of course. Or at least, taking back the Porter. We're obviously better, stronger, and more intelligent than those pathetic organics--why not put it to good use? With our combined intellect and power, surely we could convince that machine to send us back to our proper worlds. [A pause, and the smirk grew.] Or, of course, use that machine to send us back to when we want as well as where.

[because Starscream had noticed that not everybody here was from the same year: a fact that he could take advantage of. Going back in time, meeting his past self and telling him what not to do? What could possibly go wrong there?]

[heartlessglitch]

[ There were probably very few diplomatic ways to break this news to her new acquaintance. In an alternate universe somewhere, she was probably a robot supremacist. She'd probably overthrown humans and taken the globe for mechanical life forms. But in this one, she had yet to be pushed so far. She was still exploring her relationship with humans. She hadn't found them irredeemable-- yet.

Finally, in a bit of a factual tone: ]

I do not hate the humans.
I do not even find inorganics to be objectively superior.
Only different.

[harryingjet]

[That...was insanely aggravating. Why was it that every single fellow robot here (in Starscream's eyes) a total failure? He sighs, a very annoyed huff of a sigh, as if this were the worst thing in the world.]

You've got to be joking.

[heartlessglitch]

[ She seemed mostly unbothered by his obvious aggravation, only slightly increasing the pressure her foot was putting on the gunman when he started to squirm a little too much. ]

I rarely joke.
My sense of humor is rather nascent.

[harryingjet]

Out of all the inorganics in all of the worlds, the three here are ridiculous when it comes to their tastes in humans, [Starscream complained, throwing his hands in the air.]

Does nobody else see the problem in that?

[heartlessglitch]

[ There might have been a hint of impatience in the way she eyed him, though she seemed more or less unmoved by his distress re: her stand on human beings. It wasn't the first time she'd had a conversation along these lines. But she'd known more humans during her development than other robots. Was it really any surprise that she saw their redeeming qualities? ]

Perhaps you would like to elaborate on what you feel the problem, in fact, is.

[ Her words were a bit pointed. ]

[harryingjet]

The problem is that we're better, [Starscream hissed, obviously annoyed. This was very much a sore point.] We're better than them, and yet they do things like stick us in these ridiculous organic shells! And yet inorganics like you and Thundercracker seem perfectly content to live among these humans, like there's no problem at all.

[heartlessglitch]

[ Her own annoyance was more subtle-- but maybe it was just that metal face. Still, her eyes narrowed visibly as she stared at him, letting him finish his rant before she answered plainly: ]

Obviously you and I do not have the same issue with organic forms.
Perhaps it will be an educational experience for you.

[harryingjet]

What could I possibly learn from them? [Starscream complained, with a roll of his eyes.]

[heartlessglitch]

I imagine a few weeks in that body will assist you in answering that question.

[ Danger, ever helpful. She glances away for a moment though, as a handful of dark cars with dark-tinted windows pull up. Men in suits arrive, apparently to take the situation off her hands. She waits until the suspect is appropriately handled before turning to Starscream again. ]

There is a certain irony to it, I suppose.

[harryingjet]

[Starscream is quiet as the men in suits take the suspect, watching them with an obviously disdainful look on his face. Humans. As Danger keeps talking, Starscream can't help but offer a small 'hrmmph.']

I'd hardly call it 'ironic.' I'd call it 'annoying' instead.

[heartlessglitch]

If you are, in fact, superior to the organics, then one might assume you should have no issue adapting to their inferior lifestyle and functions.

[ Clearly, sympathy is an aspect of humanity that Danger needs to work on being more liberal with. But instead, she just watches him, a bit skeptical herself. They probably won't see eye to eye on this-- but at least whatever sense of "robot camaraderie" she still feels prevents her from being either outright rude or aggressive. ]

[harryingjet]

I'm adjusting perfectly well. [And that is a goddamn lie.] But why settle for something inferior when you can put something superior in its place?

[heartlessglitch]

[ She suspects it is a lie. She remembers her first few days-- weeks even-- in an organic body as being completely miserable. It hadn't taken very well. Even now, she's still learning how to fine tune things. ]

As I told your fellow Cybertronian, Knock Out, I am unable to assist you in alternating between forms.
I cannot explain to you how I am personally able to accomplish it.

[harryingjet]

How helpful, [Starscream complained, with a roll of his eyes. Then, he looked over at Danger, regarding her inorganic body with blatant jealousy.]

What was the biggest problem you had getting used to this? [he says, pointing at his own body.]