June 5th, 2003
~Whiplash(D), Skydagger(D), Dirge(D), 

The Wild Surge - Bar

     Dimly lit and noisy, Dead End's only bar is never lacking in patrons. While the energon isn't of the best quality, many of the chemical additives are unique to the place, and so highly prized by those who can afford them, even outside of the city. For those less affluent, the wall behind the bar still offers old, contaminated energon and various forms of crude-grade fuel as well as the more acceptable low and high grade energon, plus some interesting compounds that are better left to the imagination.


Ghost [Robot] [D] 
Dirge [Robot] [D] 
Skydagger [Robot] [D] 
Whiplash [Robot] [D]

Obvious Exits:
 -O- Out leads to Dead End - North Strip

-Moonlight makes her entrance into the Surge, a rather uninteresting event in and of itself. Moonlight is /always/ walking into a bar somewhere.
-Whiplash is at a table with Skydagger, Ghost, and Dirge, discussing something with considerable interest.
-Skydagger nods. "Quite possible."
-Whiplash does like to position herself so that she can see the door, though, and does not miss Moonlight's arrival. She looks up and motions the other femme over, should she be so inclined.
-Dirge smirks at Ghost's comments and takes another sip at his second Omegarita. To Skydagger he says in a sarcastic tone, "I guess this 'task' will give you something to occupy your time". He then turns his attention back to Timedigger. "So Ultra Magnus thought he was no longer useful, and exterminated him. How much more is there to it?" Dirge pauses for a moment, then says, "Not that Timedigger gained any interesting information during his stay." He glances at Ghost again and asks her, "What about his contract with Enfilade?"
-Skydagger makes a disgusted face at Dirge then mutters something to Whiplash.  "... ... use ... one ... ... ... ... spare ... Perhaps experimentation too?"
-Moonlight grins, always happy to be part of the group. At least if she's invited over she doesn't have to be rude and include herself despite the wishes of any given gathering of people. Quite easily she finds herself a seat and scooches up to the group of Decepticons. "So, what's up?" she asks good naturedly.
-Whiplash mutters to Skydagger: " if ... do I ... know ... ... it."
-Dirge narrows his optics at the muttering femmes, then nods in greeting to Moonlight. "Timedigger," he says to her.
-Ghost's optics flicker as she 'hears' something.. "Dirge.. Skydagger has excellent medical and *combat* medical skills. Not everyone is a front line warrior. Accept that and move on."
-Skydagger grins at what Whiplash said, then nods to Moonlight and says, "We're discussing this Timedigger character." She hears Ghost speak, and she smiles faintly.
-Moonlight shakes her head at Dirge. "Sounds like you're raving about warrior supremecy again..." Then she turns back to Skydagger. "Oh? Did you ever find anything else out about the fella?"
-Dirge snipes at Skydagger, "Not everyone needs to be insulting."
-Whiplash says, "Now now. We're all *friends* here, surely." She raises her glass, looks around the table, smirks faintly to herself, and leans back to sip at the drink she never quite seems to finish.
-Skydagger doesn't even acknowledge Dirge's comment. To Moonlight: "A number of interesting things," but she'll leave it to Whiplash and Ghost to say what they want about it. She takes a sip of her drink, which is almost gone now.
-Dirge glances at Whiplash, then notes, "At least we don't shoot each other in the head." He sips more at his Omegarita.
-Whiplash must agree with him there. "Now this is true."
-Ghost lifts a brow, "You might not, Dirge." she comments idly.
-Skydagger thinks out loud. "Maybe Timedigger screwed the Bots over, too?"
-Moonlight motions for a waitress to bring her an enerwine while she watches the Cons around her. "Somehow I don't think that interpersonal skills was high on the list for training requirements..." she says to no one in particular.
-Whiplash says, "See now, Timedigger said he was a historian. Solar thought he was lying. Timedigger said he didn't have much self-defense ability. I ran him through a few rounds in the arena. He wasn't brilliant, but he had *some* training. Maybe we'll never know exactly what was up with him."
-Skydagger says, "Did he know anything about history?"
-Ghost grins for a moment, finishing her obnoxiously sparking drink. "I don't know, Moonlight. I can be downright charming when it suites my needs.  But unless I'm feeling sincere, I do not see why I shouldn't speak my mind. Honesty is demanded of officers."
-Moonlight arches an optic ridge at Ghost. "Is it really? Maybe you should tell some of /them/ that."
-Whiplash makes a shrugging motion with her tentacles in response to Skydagger's question. "I couldn't tell you," she admits. "It's not exactly my area of study."
-Ghost peers at Moonlight, optics flickering softly, "Which ones?" is her dry reply.
-Skydagger ponders something else. "How did he get to Darkmount?"
-Dirge is interested at what Whiplash had said, and adds, "He had a plasma rifle as well. Not all the time you see a historian with one. Even an archaic one." He glances at Skydagger and addresses her, for the first time, in a civil tone. "Apparently he had some historical knowledge." To Skydagger's question, Dirge replies, "I brought him into Darkmount."
-Moonlight waves a hand expansively. "Any of them...all of them." She grins. "Most higher-ups don't seem very honest to me, but I could just be paranoid."
-Skydagger blinks at Dirge. "Why?"
-Ghost shrugs, "Sometimes what we know can't be shared, Moonlight. I find it simpler just to say that it is classified rahter than lie."
-Moonlight nods to Ghost. "Works for me. Though I certainly can appreciate honesty, it seems to me most people seem to think it's a flaw instead of a virtue."
-Dirge gives Moonlight a curious look. "You want interpersonal skills, or someone who can drag your aft before your lasercore is ripped to pieces?" He turns back to Skydagger. "He claimed he was threatened by the Blots. He appeared sympathetic to the cause. In hindsight I was foolish."
-Whiplash muses, "There's different ways of being honest. You intel types should know all about that, surely? Sometimes you gotta present the truth in different ways. Sometimes there's good reasons for not explaining something, or saying it not quite the way you mean it. Sometimes the ends justify the means." This, she has come to accept from many of those around her whom she does trust, but she adds, "Still, given my choice, I prefer the straight answer."
-Ghost flags down a waitstaff and orders another nasty, sparking drink. "I've actually found that the more truth you tell, the less others believe you." Her optics glitter. "Especially with the more complicated issues."
-Whiplash turns away from Moonlight to give Dirge a blank look at that admission, and is just about to jump in and agree with him on it - but instead finds herself saying, "Well, he talked a good talk against the 'Bots, like he hated 'em for enslaving Crystal City. Woulda been nice to *think* he meant it, anyway."
-Moonlight chuckles. "Yeah, people see my function and automatically take everything I say as a lie. Kind of annoying if you ask me." She looks to Dirge. "And I still hold the opinion that too many people talk with their guns instead of their mouths."
-Skydagger finishes off her own drink. She ponders Dirge's words. "Again, perhaps he wasn't sympathetic to anyone, if Magnus killed him. On the other hand, He may have done that to cover up..." Still more thinking out loud.
-Dirge gives Whiplash a pointed look after hearing Moonlight's last comment about guns and mouths, then says to Skydagger, "He was a spy, after all. But a spy who gained little information - a useless spy." He asks Skydagger, "Have you found whether he was travelling incognito?"
-Ghost gets her drink and sips it, quiet for a moment, "From one fire to another, in other words, Skydagg new avenue..."
-Skydagger lifts her glass to take a sip before realising the glass is empty. Setting it down, she says, "Perhaps...perhaps he tried the same thing with the Autobots as he tried with us. And yes, Dirge, I have found evidence that he was rebuilt not very long ago, with Autobot parts. He had struts for wings in his back, by the way the struts were arranged, I'd say straight gull wings." She makes a slight face. "If we can determine who had such a form, that might open up a whole new avenue..."
-Dirge nods at Skydagger, and takes a contemplative sip of his Omegarita. "Strange," he says.
-Ghost hnns, "Finish the autopsy, Skydagger and I can run it through Intel's datatracks.. Including the ones Solar admits he doesn't have." She winks at Moonlight.
-Whiplash without being invited pours some more glowing liquid from her MedusaSaur-label bottle into Skydagger's glass.
-Skydagger nods first at Ghost, then at Whiplash. She takes another sip. "Not much left that I can look at, Ghost," she says with a shrug. "We're lucky we got this much."
-Ghost hrmphs, "Luck had little to do with it.. "
-Whiplash says, "Maybe that's what Magnus wanted. Destroy enough to keep the remains from telling their secrets."
-Moonlight grins. "Seems to me that the more one has to hide, the more one is in danger. Which means everyone is doing a bad job of hiding...because people /know/ they are hiding something."
-Skydagger looks at Whiplash. "Hence the headshot...well, I did manage to find three memory chips which look to be intact enough to extract information from." She glances at Ghost.
-Dirge listens to the conversation in silence, then notes, "And they call -us- 'deceptive'."
-Ghost nods, "I havent gotten them to the mainframe for full analysis yet, Skydagger. have to uplink myself to access that particular program."
-Skydagger nods at Ghost. "I think that will be the most useful source of information. Unless of course we can find someone who knew a very old mech with straight wings, Bot or otherwise..."
-From subspace, Dirge pulls out an archaic plasma rifle. "Would this be helpful?" he asked.
-Whiplash stashes her MedusaSaur label bottle back in her storage compartment, and stretches her tentacles a little. She can't help much on the technical details, and has given the only information she had about Timedigger, which wasn't much. Her gaze starts to wander toward the door.
-Ghost eyes the Rifle.. "I think we have most of the scans on that one.. " She comments softly before peering at Skydagger. "I know several rather old beings. But I would prefer to utilize the mainframe.." She slides to her feet.. "And as it stands, I have a rest coming up.. And then a return to my usual duties." A faint, wry smile, "Good cycle all." She seems utterly unaffected by the nasty things she drank.
-Moonlight settles in nice and comfy like. Not much else to do at this time. She didn't really find anything too off about Timedigger, but she's also not a natrually suspicious or paranoid person. In fact, she's not exactly a very good intell agent come to think of it...
-Whiplash decides, as Ghost wanders off, "Time to head back to my guard post."
-Moonlight waves farewell to the two departing femmes.
-Skydagger nods to Lash and Ghost as they leave.
-Dirge places the rifle back into subspace and drains the rest of his Omegarita. "We have strange things happening in Darkmount," he says. "First the death of Redline. Then Timedigger. I'm not sure whether it was a good idea to rebuild it after all." He gestures to a passing waitress and orders another Omegarita, then to Ghost and Whiplash.
-Moonlight shrugs. "What would we have done without Darkmount?"
-Whiplash glances back before she heads to the door. "You want to sleep out in the wastelands, maybe?" she says with a chuckle.
-Dirge replies to Whiplash, "At least we wouldn't have to deal with continual sabotages." To Moonlight, Dirge shrugs. "Take over another city?" he says in a dry voice.
-Moonlight notes sarcastically, "Because /that/ always turns out so well."
-Whiplash imagines the lot of the Darkmount Decepticons living in the wastelands under the stars, and just shakes her head a little in amusement as she heads out.
-Skydagger stands too to depart. She has to sleep the MedusaSaur-inflicted overenergisation off before getting back to medbay.
-Moonlight stays put in the bar...she doesn't have any particular need to head back to Darkmount at this time. And it's certainly much more comfortable and interesting here.