August 5th, 2003 ~Dirge(D), Skydagger(D), Cinder(D) Darkmount - Repair Bay Much like the adjacent research lab, the equipment here is showing signs of age, but is kept in a serviceable condition. Two automated repair drones lie against the far wall, though each is obviously missing a few parts...apparently they've been salvaged for someone else's benefit. The once well-stocked parts closets now contain mostly empty shelves and bins. Several dozen repair tables of various sizes are arranged in rows in the middle of the room. Skydagger [Robot] [D] Dirge [Robot] [D] Drone Medic Redline's Side Office AutoMedic Dartboard Serdidymus Medical Terminal Obvious Exits: -S- South leads to Darkmount - Regeneration Spa -E- East leads to Darkmount - Medical and Science Level -W- West leads to Darkmount - Cryochamber -Moonlight meanders into the repair bay. Although none can say she isn't taking her training itself seriously, her outlook on life in general hasn't been dampened at all. "Hello there," she calls to Skydagger and Dirge. -Skydagger peers at Dirge curiously. "F-fixing you...y-you were complai-aining befffore thatat I didddnt fix you...well...now.." She shrugs and goes back to work, now starting to poke around inside Dirge, starting with the hydraulics. She hears Moonlight and says, "Hello, c-come w-w-watch," giggling like a loon. -Dirge is now lying on the bed, immobilized by the pain. It seemed as though his whole body had been turned into a network of raw pain sensors, with any motion - however innocuous - capable of causing pain. "You...are...mad...." Dirge manages to utter through screams of pain. He can feel the tools probing his insides and for him it felt like he was slowly being ripped apart. "Stop...stop!" -Moonlight arches an optic ridge at Skydagger. "Aren't you a bit...happy to be fixing Dirge?" she says in an attempt to be tactful. She looks over at Dirge. "And if you're not too happy, he's certainly too unhappy." -Skydagger giggles at Moonlight's words, and this causes her to slip and bang the tool against an internal strut - nothing breaks, just a bang like if someone poked you in the stomach. "H-h-he whinge-ges for me to fixxhim...well...now I will fix himmm..." She turns the hydraulic systems off - Dirge now immobile - and removes the pump assemble rather slowly. "Moonlight, come here, pl-lease." -Dirge SCREAMS as the tool makes contact with the strut. He is about to move his head towards Moonlight, his audio receptors barely registering her words, and realizes he cannot move. Dirge's optics widen with alarm and he screams some more, out of both fear and pain. "SOMEONE MAKE HER STOP!" -Moonlight moves rather quickly towards Skydagger once the other femme tells her to. As far as she's concerned, Dirge is just a hopeless grump, but her certainly doesn't deserve to be at the mercies of an inebriated medic. "Yes?" she inquires, trying to appear calm. She has a horrible suspicion that getting flustered might send Skydagger off the deep end. She flicks a sympathetic glance Dirge's way... -Skydagger nods at Moonlight. "H-have I shshown you hhow to fix hyddrawlikk unids?" -Cinder wanders in unexpectedly, but at the sound of the screaming, jerks his head up and his optics widen. Seeing what was going on, he takes a few steps back, looking rather nauseous. -Dirge would like to struggle, but his body is currently unresponsive to his wishes. "You...won't get away...with this...curse your creator..." he hisses at Skydagger. -Moonlight nods her head. "Sort of. It was more of a 'learn by example' sort of case than an official lesson. I have been reading up on it a bit during my free time though, if that counts for anything." She doesn't notice Cinder's entrance, being much more concerned with Skydagger and Dirge at the moment. She doesn't move to aid the mech...yet. -Skydagger peers at Dirge. "I-I c-could leavvve you here-ere like thissss..." Then she nods at Moonlight. "G-goot...you fix this" - gesturing at the hydraulic unit - "I'll work on the elelelectrical system." -Cinder shivers and looks atthe two femmes, then Dirge, starting to back slowly out of the room - SMACK - his wing slams into the door frame. -Dirge can still feel the pain from the tool banging against his internal strut and through grimaces, cries in an indignant, tortured voice, "Make the PAIN STOP!" His optics flicker towards Moonlight. "Curse...your creator too..." Dirge hears the sound of another mech in the room and shouts, "Curse you too! I'll kill you all!" -Cinder looks at Dirge and flinches, then mutters "What did I do?" -Moonlight nods her head, wondering which is worse, her inexperience or Skydagger's current instability. "I'll do my best," she says. Maybe she'll even try to disable Dirge's pain sensors. She's read about them, and if she can find them, surely turning them off won't hurt. She frowns at Dirge. Maybe she should leave them be after all. But no, she's never endorsed suffering. She reaches out and puts a hand on Dirge's forehead. "I'm trying the best I can. Yelling at us won't make me want to help you any. Just calm down and I'll see if we can't get you fixed." She motions for Cinder to ignore Dirge's ranting. -Cinder is somewhat in a trance at this stage, just staring at the scene, looking like he was going to pass out. His wings tremble slightly. -Skydagger takes a different tool in her hand and starts slowly working on the electrical circuits that are damaged. She's working slowly, being lucid enough to know that she can't hurry because the overenergisation is destabilising her movements. Mind you, she isn't really as drunk as she's making out to be, not by a long shot. Someone who has watched her work closely before might be able to spot this by the way her hands move. -Normally, a hand being placed on a forehead would assure most mechs...but since Dirge's pain sensors have been placed on maximum, Moonlight's action feels like a burning laser to Dirge. He screams again, his optics blinking rapidly. "I'LL KILL YOU!" he screams back at Moonlight. "I'LL RIP YOUR LASERCORE WITH MY BARE HANDS!" -Cinder cringes at that, wings vibrating badly now and he looks at Moonlight, then skydagger "Uhm... turn him off?" he requests in a weak voice. -Moonlight really doesn't like being threatened, but she also realizes that Dirge isn't quite in his right mind. She scrambles about for the pain sensory units and turns them off...or so she hopes. Once the screaming stops, she says to Dirge quietly but firmly, "I will forgive you for saying that. I know that it's not fun to be in pain." -Skydagger giggles hearing Dirge scream, then she looks up at Moonlight and winks quickly and goes back to her work. She's enjoying this thoroughly. But then it stops. She looks back up at Moonlight crossly. "Why did you do that?" Now she's not exaggerating her drunkenness. A small amount of slurring is detectable, but nowhere near as bad as it was before. -Cinder sighs as the screaming stops, and looks at Moonlight, a grateful look on his features. -Dirge can feel Moonlight feeling about inside him and continues screaming, because it feels as though she is tearing him apart with her hands. "YOU...WILL...PAY...!" he shouts, then suddenly - his whole body is numb. Dirge stops screaming and looks puzzled, then relieved. -Moonlight could be honest, but decides against it for the moment. "He was giving me a headache with all that screaming," she states. Though there's something in her expression that indicates that isn't the only reason for her actions. She might have blown her chance here, but she couldn't really do otherwise and respect herself later on. "Besides, it's easier to work on someone who isn't squigling so much." -Dirge flickers his optics towards Moonlight and replies to her in a similar, quiet voice, "I don't forgive that easily." He then flickers his optics towards Skydagger and snarls, optics blazing, "Enjoy tonight. It will be your last." -Cinder stands there, against the wall, wings pulled around him as he quietly runs a finger along his chestplate, face haunted and distant. -Skydagger inclines her head. "Well, say that then. I'll just disable his vocal circuits, then," she says with a giggle. "But the fragger should consider himself lucky that I'm even bothering to fix him." She shrugs at Dirge's comments, watching him as she speaks. Then she makes a quick decision. She turns her attention to Moonlight. "Alright, then, 'Doctor'" - pronouncing the word mockingly - "if you know enough to overrule me, you know enough to fix him. So fix him. I'll be at my desk if you need me." With that she turns and walks, quite soberly, to the desk and begins reading some humorous pulp story. -Moonlight takes Skydagger's words rather meekly. "You didn't say /not/ to cut the pain sensors," she points out mildly, her tone clearly /not/ argumentative. Sighing she tries to calm herself. How was she supposed to know this was a sham on Skydagger's part, that she was, after all, in her full senses? Since it's now her task, she sets herself too it, pulling out the datapad that has all her notes on it. At least she has been a good student and did a fair ammount of studying. -Cinder watches Skydagger move away, frowning to himself at that, making a note to avoid her completely. He then looks at Moonlight, then to the door, pondering heading out before he distracts someone. -Dirge carefully watches Skydagger, then Moonlight, then back at Skydagger. As Skydagger walks away, he sees Cinder for the first time - his view having been obscured by Skydagger. Dirge raises an optic ridge at Cinder. "Enjoying the show?" he snaps sarcastically at Cinder, then turns two sullen optics back to Moonlight. "Repair me well, or be prepared to meet your maker." -Cinder flinches and staresback a moment, stating "Absolutely NO. Too... like me." he rasps back. -Moonlight rests her hands on the table beside Dirge and leans over him. "I'm going to be honest with you Dirge. Threatening me is only going to put more pressure on me and make your chances of being fixed properly /that/ much slimmer. Now, you can either stop threatening me, or stay like this. I really do want to help you, but I can't do that if helping you is going to result in injury to my person." She doesn't sound angry, merely weary. -Skydagger glances over at Moonlight and Dirge momentarily, then goes back to reading. Occasionally, she laughs. -Dirge gazes at Moonlight as she speaks, carefully digesting her words. After she finishes, he casts his optics down as a silent sign of acceptance, then waits for his repairs. His face takes on a neutral look - except for his optics which are silently seething and reflect Dirge's inner feelings. -Cinder finally wanders over to moonlight, murmering to her as he just watches, and somehwat guards Dirge, one could say. "... of know ... feels... Dirge ... ... Like ... ... ... you know who... removed core... ... in ... hurt ... lot... Poor..."((Kind of know how feels... Dirge, you know. Like when Auto... Auto... you know who... removed core... put in stasis... hurt a lot... Poor...)) -Moonlight nods once, her face sympathetic, before she gets to work. First she looks over all the damages as a whole, trying to find the most logical place to start. She just hopes that Dirge actually /will/ forgive her if she messes up. After all, it was her helping him in the first place that got them both into this mess. She gives Cinder a dry smile at his words. "I see what you mean, but it doesn't give him the right to slag me if I make a mistake." -Cinder shrugs "Well, if intentoinal pain, yes. If unintentional, no." he states simply "Plus, on same side, Very no." -Skydagger just reads, ignoring everyone, because Moonlight hasn't yelled for help. Again, the occasional laugh breaks her silence. -Dirge glances curiously at Cinder, catching some of what was said between him and Moonlight, then glances again at Moonlight. She better hope she fixes him well...because Dirge has plans. Big plans. Dirge remains silent for now. -Skydagger just reads, ignoring everyone. -Moonlight braces herself for a life of running and gets to work. Figuring the injuries to the chest are more crucial, she sets to work on those. Carefully she clears away anything that is scrap, cleaning her work area to improve efficiency. She forces herself to hum as she works, trying to calm herself and keep her hands steady and gentle. -Dirge casts a malicious glare at Skydagger's direction. He also has big plans for Skydagger. Hearing Cinder addressing him, Dirge glances at Cinder, his optics "neutral" again - save for the seething anger underneath. Dirge replies sarcastically, "Never better," then clears his vocal chords. "What are you doing in here?" he asks, his tone slightly more civil. -Cinder blinks, andstats "Oh yeah!" he reaches into subspace and pulls out a small box. Moving to one of the counters, he sets it down and scribbles on a sign-out sheet. -Skydagger doesn't notice Dirge's glance, and even if she had, she couldn't have cared less. Suddenly she starts laughing uncontrollably as she reads a particularly amuusing part of the story. -Dirge gives Cinder a quizzical look as he moves towards the counter, then fixes his optics onto Moonlight, watching her every move. He ignores Skydagger for now. -Moonlight finishes with the cleaning phase, and goes onto the fixing phase. Of course, a lot of damage looks worse than it really is because anything that hits has to go through armor and the more 'cosmetic' layers before damaging the internals. So she looks to the internals first, collecting any parts she needs to replace from their places in the repair bay. -Dirge continues to watch Moonlight with his "neutral" optics. Occasionally he glances around the room as well, taking note of the door and the positions of various equipment. "Does it -always- take you this long?" he abruptly says to Moonlight. -Moonlight sighs and gives Dirge a long look. "I /am/ new at this," she says mildly as her fingers start to connect in the new parts. -