5mind - Tumblr Posts

5mind​:

@stxr-bxster

There was a spaceship next to the scrapyard. No other way to put. There was a completely intact spacecraft in the little clearing next to Fivemind’s favourite scavenging spot. 

The blue android had come here to scavenge with the red one not too far behind. Her cracked screen of a visor scanned the alien vehicle. Fivemind had an eye for hardware, and there was no way this thing was constructed anywhere around here. 

Perhaps it was supposed to go inside the scrapyard? At least that was what the AI hoped. It looked a bit too cared for to be scrap. Blue unholstered her weapon and gave the spacecraft a prod. A rather hard prod.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP-!

“GAH!”

Krigg startled, the small piece of aluminium framing she’d been inspecting flying out of her hands as a noisy, high-pitched ringing that was particularly harsh on her sensitive antennae sounded off from what felt like just around the corner.

The small alien began furiously patting at her coat, trying to locate the source of the familiar noise from hell. Why-oh-why had she decided to use such an agressive sound for urgent alarms?! On one end, it was impossible to ignore, which was the point of it, but having the equivalent of an ultrasound airhorn blast catch your attention was not fun.

Finally, she managed to fish out from an inner pocket the small device responsible for the screaming, turning it off with a press of her thumb against the big ol’ blinking button. She squinted, trying to muster up the information of WHAT the oval remote was. Perks of having so many gadgets - sometimes you just forgot what one given thing di-

The proximity alarm. The information sprang to life in her mind rather unexpectedly, and with enough force to leave her donwright scowling.

Of all the times for her to go scrounging for small recyclable bits in the nearest deposit of garbage - The alien sprung from a crouch to standing, and made a beeline back towards her beloved Revenger, leaping from discarded kitchen appliance to gutted cars full speed ahead. If she was lucky, the proximity alarm was just some animal poking at the ship, looking to use it as a back scratcher. If it was not...

---------------------

It took entirely too long for her taste to come to a skidding halt in the small clearing she’d parked her ship in. And she quickly found out that it was not the best case scenario when she spotted two large humanoid robots painted vivid colors, assembled from mismatched parts of discarded plating, milling about her Revenger. One of whom was *poking* it with a broken street lamp. A sharp, jagged piece of metal. She could almost feel the paint flaking off.

Oh, hell no.

“AY! GARBAGE RANGERS! STOP TOUCHING MY SHIT!”

Perhaps the angry screech would have been more intimidating if Krigg didn’t actually reach the smallest robot’s waist, barely.

5mind​:

Red One perked up. Could’ve sworn their auditory sensors picked up something nearby. Of course, the pitch was a bit too high for them to properly detect. Huh, was this what humans meant when they said their ears rang? 

Blue Two’s sensors did not pick that up. So Fivemind just filed it away as something to look into during their next maintenance check.

The furious outburst that came next, however, both units definitely heard. With an unnerving synchroneity, both androids turn to face the newcomer. Huh, that was weird. There was no one- 

Oh. 

There was someone. A very short someone. Two visors turned down to look at her. 

“What did you just call me….us..?” Red One tilted their head. “That is not who we are, little one.” 

Blue One resumes scanning the ship visually but has ceased poking at it with her pedestrian light. Instead she has opened a small compartment on her thigh out of which she pulled out a screwdriver. 

The possibility of the metal being alien meant that it would be best to take a sample, no matter how small. 

While very much wound up like a grandfather clock, even Krigg couldn’t help but stutter a little in her stiff-legged, purposeful marching advance towards the robotic entities as they turned to face her as one. It didn’t feel like something that an exosuit would do, organic twitch reflex wasn’t that precise.

Remote drones sounded more likely. The small alien took a small, cautious step back, one hand twitching hard towards one of her collapsed plasma pistols tucked under her coat, wary of some form of automated defense system kicking in in response to the holler. The drones’ responses though... weren’t that.

They were to look down, and correct her bellow of anger with some choice... ways to call her.

Little one. LITTLE ONE. Krigg’s translator helpfully supplied that the subtext of the designation, while very much adequate on surface level, was usually geared towards children.

The small extraterrestrial’s lower eyelid twitched, and her back stiffened, chest puffing out and antennae perking up on her head in hopes of making herself look more noticeable. Which worked as well as it usually did when facing down something twice her size. Not-not a whole lot.

“Well, maybe if you weren’t poking at, y’know, my freshly repainted livelihood, mode of transportation, and HOUSE with a pointed, probably rusty metal pole, I would have been bothered to find a correct designation for you lot!” Krigg hissed, levelling a stern glare at the red drone, the one which had decided to adress her in the first place.

“So, kindly vamoose your caboose AWAY from my ship, because it’s not good for the scrapyard-”

Something moving just behind her visual point of focus caught her eye, the faint star-shaped reflection of her pupils shifting just enough to look at the blue drone, which had returned to its own occupations, and pulled from a compartment on its hip a metal tool with a handle attached to a flat-ended metal tube.

“...What’re you trying to do with that?” Her tone felt distracted, a little far away. Not yet aware of the possible disaster about to unfold.

5mind​:

Impressive. Somehow the small stranger seemed to be even more agitated than when she was hollering at them. Was it something they said? Oh it was definitely something they said.  

Now she was trying so damn hard to intimidate them. It was a little funny, they had to admit. A sense of humour was something Fivemind only developed later in what can be considered its life, and thus something it does not feel comfortable expressing openly. All for the better, considering that laughing would only exacerbate the situation. 

And it seemed the other had every right to be angry anyways. 

“Oh! You live in this!” the red one replied. “My apologies.”

This stranger had sharp eyes it seemed. And here the machine thought no one would notice if it just made of with a singular screw ( at least not until when its too late). Scavengers they may be but sabotaging someone’s home and livelihood was…well, that’s just not what heroes do. Not unless if the other was evil anyways.

“We were thinking of taking at least a little of your ship for…..further analysis.” The blue one spoke up this time. In contrast to her red plated counterpart, her speech was much more even in tone and very obviously synthetic. ”But seeing how this is your home, I suppose we should have just asked first.”

“Let us put it this way,” Red One said, “We were just admiring the craftsmanship of your vehicle-” 

Blue Two completed the sentence, “- enough to want to take it apart.”

“We will not though!” 

This would be so much more convincing if Red’s bladed arm wasn’t idly twitching and Blue didn’t still have the screwdriver in her hand.

“IN “THIS”. Really? My beloved Revenger, just a mere THIS? Come on.” Krigg huffed sharply, tilting her chin up for emphasis as she strolled around the two drones to place herself quite strategically between the screwdriver-weilding stranger, and her adored ship. She was not going to be caught taking risks of them nicking off with a small pannel that’d bring a crucial function of the ship unexpectedly offline.

The mentions of asking first before taking the ship apart after certainly struck her as not entirely honest. She narrowed her eyes, glaring quietly at the two drones, one sporting a much less smoothed out voice box. Were the two AI, or just remote drones of various degrees of quality? No, no, the second one had what sounded like a voice synthetizer found in basic AI.

“I don’t care if it’s “a bit”, or if you should have asked - don’t make me have to do repairs! If you want to get some scrap metal to, I don’t know, chew on or something, I have spare bits that don’t require me replacing something yet for you to mess them up!” Krigg ends up huffing, hands plopped onto her hips for added emphasis, staring with a rather blatant lack of trust at the two drones.

If giving them some of the metal scrap from repair jobs she did semi-frequently could keep the metal-crazy drone chipmunks AWAY from the Revenger, then it was honestly better than being arsed to find a new parking spot. Or fighting them off. It wasn’t that she *feared* them by any stretch of the imagination, but they were still heavy duty machinery with sharp blades strapped to it.

Krigg was confident, not stupid.

5mind​:

“Well, yes. How else are we supposed to refer to an item?” replied the red android. It wasn’t like they thought poorly of the ship. If anything they were impressed by it. Obviously, so impressed that they want a lil peek at its inner workings even on a chemical level.

They did understand where the little green being was coming from. Sure, the machine enjoyed tinkering but maintenance tend to be tedious more often than not. Not to mention the need for parts at times.

“What.” Somehow the blue android managed to sound even flatter than she normally did. “We do not chew on them…we do not have mouths.”

“As nice as it would be,” continued Red. Chewing on metal did not sound appealing at all but being able to bite on things did. “Where are those spare bits from? What metals are they made from? Can we have some from wherever you came from?”

“We can even trade. If there is anything you require,” said the android in blue. Not that they themselves have much aside from the same junk one could probably find in the scrapyard they were in.  “ And if there is anything we wish to keep.”

There was a bit of a moment of silent disbelief as the two androids took what was originally a lazy quip more litterally than she could have expected, henceforth somewhat ruining the punchline of it. Krigg’s mouth opened and closed a few times without so much as a sputter, with her wide-eyed and looking almost vexed that her joke didn’t land before shaking it off with a grumbble.

“...Okay, you two are definitely AI-controlled.” She shot back, her tone somehow managing to emulate fairly well the flat monotone of the blue unit’s text-to-speech function, though with a hint more controlled annoyance. The little alien reached out to her face before slowly dragging her hands from her forehead to her chin, not caring about the somewhat exaggerated look it gave her. Only that it helped evacuate some stress.

And helped brace her for the fact she was talking to a being with a possibly limited grasp on the art of sarcasm.

“I don’t know what I have on the spare bin from the top of my head, but I can figure it out fairly quickly. Pretty sure I have a lot of heat-resistant ceramic panes, superconductor sheets... Just keep a lid on your expectations.” She nodded to herself knowingly, crossing her arms onto her chest. The offer of a trade though, did get her attention. “Though, I guess I could use some pre-stripped materials to feed into the fabricator machine. There’s a lot of specialist stuff in the bin, but I still need raw components like copper and junk. At least I wouldn’t have to trudge through garbage to find it.”

And to be honest, that was a neat positive of a nature to put a small smile back on her face.

“...Can I actually go back to look without one of you scratching at the paintjob while I have my back turned?” Ah- there was that familiar squint, back again.

5mind​:

They weren’t sure what Krigg seemed so dumbstruck over their reply. The AI was pretty sure it made sense. Oh. Oh, maybe it was a figure a speech when she suggested that they chewed on metal scraps. Maybe.

She hit the nail when she said they were AI-controlled though. 

“What else would be controlling us if not for a computerized brain?” There was a hint of amusement in Red One’s voice. 

There’s a glint in Red’s single exposed optic as Krigg mentioned the possible contents of her spares bin. Even Blue had perked up considerably. It seemed a trade could work out.

“We mostly just have a lot of broken bits and pieces,” said the blue unit. She had moved away from the ship now, leaning against a shoddily stacked pile of junk. “Used batteries, burnt out circuit boards, charred remains… it would probably be better to just show you.”

“No worries,” replied the red android. They pulled out what looked like a very heavily modified ipad from a compartment under one of their chestplates and handed it to Blue. “I will be heading back to our base to gather up what we have.” 

And with an obviously practiced casual wave, they jogged off.

By now Blue’s screwdriver was already tucked back into her little metal pocket. Hands where Krigg could see them, the very picture of trustworthiness. Unless…

“I mean, I’d still have to strip the components down to see what I can feed into the grinder...” Krigg’s hopeful smile soured a smidge as she grimaced, tapping her foot down as chemical formulas started streaking the surface level of her thought process. The fabricator machine was only able to detect what it was eating up to a certain point, so the tedious process of sorting and identifying the recycled scrap fell to her.

The units probably could’ve heard the gears spinning inside her mind, if they tried.

“But, I still wouldn’t have to carry everything. And hopefully, you can tell me what is what, in the pile of junk, and I can do the same in return.” She uttered, her slow and thoughtful wording growing more and more excited as she finally decided upon a trade remaining more than a bit beneficial to her. It was still, for all intents and purposes, a win-win situation. More out of polite reflex than anything, she waved off the red unit running off to gather supplies - only to feel herself flush as it dawned on her that they were still here, at least through the blue unit. She quickly shook off her fluster, continuing to think.

“...Hmmm. Maybe it’s a good thing you’re drones, rather than remote-controlled exoskeletons piloted by a random bunch of humans with a tech savyness. At least then, I shouldn’t have too much trouble asking for specific chemical composition-...” Krigg mumbled to herself, already running the scenarios in her mind of what she’d need, and admittedly feeling her attention slip away from the blue drone, whom had decided to put away the screwdriver and their hands up in a show of good will. She slowly turned back to her ship, walking to a small ladder running along the side of it, meant to access the wings and upper exit hatch, intent on mimicking the red unit and unloading the goods.

Her head jerked up as she placed a hand against the first rung of the ladder, snapping to the blue unit with a sudden sort of awareness. Oops, better safe than sorry! Krigg’s face scrunched back into one, final squint. “I redesigned, fixed and rebuilt this ship often enough to known it like the back of my hand. If ANYTHING goes missing, I WILL know.” She grumbled out, the words heavy with an underlying threat of...

Well, she’d figure it out.

5mind​:

“Stripping down materials.. we can probably help with that,” Blue Two commented. The AI figured it would get things done faster. “To an extent.”

While the android units did not have the same level of auditory sensitivity as Krigg, the blue android definitely caught the extraterrestial mumbling to herself. Drones? She thought they were just mere drones? Perhaps that was what they were intended to be upon creation but now they were so much more. The blue android a short staticky noise that sounded uncannily like a scoff. They would have to correct her some time later.

Krigg was right that she wouldn’t have to carry everything though. Because there was no way Fivemind was bringing over every piece of junk it has hoarded. In terms of raw material, it had a lot. It wasn’t even sure where to start. 

Red One was just getting started on piling up whatever they had. What with renovations and repairs, the machine had not gotten around to actually sorting out what they wanted disposed of. At the same time, they connected their visual feed to the modified ipad they had handed over to Blue. This would take a while, the device in Blue’s hand was an old frankenstein’s creature of computer parts after all.

On the other hand, the blue unit was being threatened by a being barely half her size. 

“Understood. As tempting as it would be to scrutinize it’s internals, the ship will not be tampered with.”

“I cannot lie.”

That wasn’t a lie. At least not when it was coming from Blue Two. They all had characters to stick to after all.

“...Uhuh.” If Krigg’s voice could reach a more disbelieving tone, she hadn’t been made aware of it just yet. The diminutive alien blankly stared at the blue unit, as through there was something profoundly unbelievable about an AI being unable to lie. Somehow, she had a sinking doubt that a lone AI making bodies out of scrap metal to investigate its surroundings was bound to TOO many rules.

Krigg’s expression went from severely lacking in trust, to thoughtful, to the look someone usually got when they over-exerted their brainpower by thinking about logical loops that kind of sort of went nowhere. A balanced mixture of burnt out, annoyed, and past the point of caring.

She didn’t bother dignifying her roiling mental state with a verbal update for the observing party, and instead simply turned back to the ladder, and resumed climbing. And climbing FAST, skipping ladder rungs with each short, skittery hop upwards, before disappearing over the Revenger’s wingspan and into the bowels of the ship through an access hatch on the top of the habitat.

After that, it was just a matter of navigating the somewhat cramped corridors connecting the various rooms of the ship together to arrive at the cargo bay in its metaphorical bowels. Crates and storage units were stacked almost ceiling high in places, held in place by straps and chords and ropes, filling most of the available space. Machines and the odd work bench surrounded the couple small zones of walking space that dotted the messy bay.

Krigg walked past most of it all, until she reached a space by the largest work bench beside the welding equipment. By the bench sat a large bin on wheels filled to the brim with what could be best described as junk. Pieces of metal trimmed off the ship’s hull during repairs, broken parts... it was junk, but it was alien junk. She didn’t bother sorting through the bin, simply choosing to wheel it through the the back of the room. After that, it was just a matter of pressing a button on a wall-embedded console, and moving to cling to the bin as the cargo bay’s door groaned to life, slowly opening downwards to create a slope between the ground and the ship.

Krigg let out a small “whee!” as the bin, carried by gravity, just kind of rolled down the cargo bay’s entrance hatch, and onto the grassy ground of the clearing, carried by its own momentum.

5mind​:

Blue Two watched silently as Krigg went through what seemed like a whole journey of thought before leaving to grab the promised junk.

Not much to do but wait on her end, which was fine by Fivemind considering that Red was busy gathering up whatever junk they have as neatly as they could given that they were in a hurry. Metal odds and ends were in one pile, discharged batteries in another. Failed attempts at paper mache were in yet another pile, right next to a bunch of dismantled toilet bowls and sinks. It wasn’t like they had any use for porcelain.

Well, that should be a good enough assortment.

They were ready. The piles of junk were clearly displayed on the screen of the smaller computer in Blue’s hands.

The blue android perked up at the sound of the entrance hatch opening. And out came Krigg and her bin rolling down the slope. Blue hurried over. As the bin rolled onto the clearing and its momentum petered out, Blue reached out to stop the bin fully.

“Oh.” The lenses behind her screen-visor were already scanning the contents of the bin. “ You might have to inform us of some of the materials we may not recognise. Our database is rather lacking when it comes to the extraterrestial.”

“Here.” She offered Krigg the computer she was holding. “This is what we have. If anything catches your eye Red One can bring them over.”

“Our place is not too far away but we do have too much lying around.”

Krigg held fast to the side of the bin, which eventually stopped with a light jostle that suggested an unexpected obstacle. Given she couldn’t spot the blue ‘bot as her head swiveled about, watching like a hawk the side of her ship for any new dents of scrapes, she quickly figured they must’ve stopped it. She also failed to spot any sign of tampering, and that much quickly put her in an already better mood. The diminutive alien effortlessly sprung herself over the bin’s edge with a hop, landing in a squat on top of the contents that the drone was already scanning.

“It’s no sweat, if I’m asking for a contents warning, no reason for you not to want one! I have a manual I keep on hand with precise alloy contents, I’ll bring it over.” She chirped, flashing the drone a large, toothy grin. Be it because she didn’t care to move, or just felt like enjoying the perch that put her at rough eye level to her interlocutor, she simply grabbed the modified... dataslate? Looked like one, anyways. She had no problem perusing the video feed while still crouching on top of a level metal plate, lips pursed in a thoughtful frown, rocking ever so slightly on her heels. Until the metal plate she stood on shifted a few degrees down and she found herself having to clench every muscle in her body to not fall on her face.

She instead plonked on her butt with a rustle, which left her staring at the dataslate with wide, startled eyes and a face a few shades darker than usual. A gloved hand slowly lifted towards her mouth, and Krigg coughed into her fist, trying to dispel the brief moment of awkwardness, pointing a finger from the same hand towards the screen. “I think I could use some chemical acid in etching projects, or just to treat parts for rust, so the, er, primitive batteries will do. Plus, I need some copper.”

“Though I’m going to need context on whatever THAT is. Seriously though, what the heck is this.” Krigg then pointed a finger at the discarded porcelain thrones, squinting at the screen and cocking ever so slightly her head to one side, the tip of a brightly colored yellow tongue poking out from the corner of her mouth. No matter how much she raked her brain, she couldn’t figure out what the items were supposed to be. A bunch of shock absorber parts? Decorative items? Dipping tanks?

✧ : My muse and art. (If they have an artistic side or not and why, favourite artist if they have one, e.t.c.) 

Krigg has a somewhat "Meh" artistic inclination as far as people go. She was born and raised in a very utilitarian mindset, and art was not something she was brought up to particularly enjoy for what it was, or cultivate a knack for. Any appreciation of it just... Sort of happened over time through cultural osmosis.

Which is why most forms of art she's even mildly interested in are the ones most widely consumed by the general galactic community, or that she was passively exposed to growing up. She's not much for museum visits, though she respects very much their contents, and prefers to them things like music, or even murals painted on the street. She doesn't read very many actual books, though comics are acceptable.

Creation-wise, she has a very limited aptitude for imaginative behaviors related to making something that could be considered art. Though she does have a sense for color theory and what is esthetically pleasing. Her beloved Revenge receives fresh, fancy coats of paint every now and then, which she takes great pride in. Her own clothes are fabricator made, and she's the one modifying/creating them to fit her tastes more often than not.

Art is a bit of a broad subject for her. Looking snazzy though, very much her thing.

5mind​:

“A manual? What language is it in?” the machine queried. Sure, Krigg may be talking in a language the machine understood but she was still an alien. And Fivemind did not have every language and dialect on Earth, let alone outerspace, installed in it. Well ok, they probably had at some point. Maybe.

There was not much of a reaction from the blue-plated android as Krigg fell backwards, she just politely turned her head slightly away. The AI may have found it amusing but it did have a character to play at the moment. 

“Oh. Most of the batteries already had their fluids drained out and neutralised… we were planning to scrap them for metals and didn’t want any accidental corrosion or combustion. That and we also had some use for the acid.” Internally, the machine tried to recall how many of them still had some of their juice in them. Not much of them, unfortunately. “Apologies.”

The question about the toilets did not really surprise Fivemind. The horrors wonders of human necessities was as foreign to it as they would be to someone from another planet.

“Those? They are toilet bowls,” Blue pointed at one of the more elongated but less bowl-like constructs. “And that one is a urinal.”

“Both are used for-” The unit exhaled a sigh through a vent somewhere on her back. “-the reception of organic waste produced by the human body. Well, other animals on this planet produce them too but really only humans find the need to invent specific items for their discharge.”

“Not one of their more charming aspects, even I will admit.”

“Uuuhhhhhhhhhhhh...” What Krigg wanted to say was “A lot of different dialects none of which are earthborne”, but she quickly gave up on the act of explaining herself. Instead, what came out was a dismissive handwave and a soft huff of. “Aaaah, don’t worry about it, I’ll scratch up a translation. I forget how few universal translators there are out in the galaxy.”

The news that the batteries were already empty for the machine’s own purposes served to dampen a smidge the smile on Krigg’s face but, at that point, she was starting to be aware that the trade was... not technically fair. They didn’t trade things of equal value in that instance, only things that they each needed against things they didn’t. Their proportionnal importance didn’t matter that much, and frankly...

Well, she didn’t really care. As long as she wasn’t technically fucking up a lower tech-tier planet’s technological advances, there was no moral dilemma to the situation. Plus, she could rest easy with the nice, fuzzy feeling that the trade was a blatant win-win.

Not that she’d admit it out loud, anyways. She simply shrugged and smiled, appearing as though the news didn’t put that much of a damper on her mood, before moving to stand back up and waddle to the edge of the bin, hopping off nonchalantly. She landed with a light bow of her knees, and turned to face the blue unit, hands tucked in the inner pockets of her jacket. “Yeah, you probably made the right call in that instance, improper storage of acids and all that. It’s fine, I could still use the conducting metals within anyways. I need the fabricator to print out new chips for the electronic relays in Revenger’s wings.”

Her relaxed expression quickly turned into a blank, disbelieving look when the unit mentionned the, uh, nature of the mystery contraptions. Then to a slowly creeping grimace of disgust as her mind thought it wise to extrapolate the minute details of said waste disposal systems.

“Why would you even HAVE that in storage?!” Krigg squeaked, shaking herself like a wet dog as an unpleasant shiver ran up her spine. “Liquid waste management - ew, ew, ew, EW- I hate tier five civillizations’ answers to biowaste! It’s SO nasty! I don’t want to think about it, I’m going to go translate the manual!” And without further explanation, the little alien spun on herself with a click of heels, and made a dash for the still open cargo hold, a string of high-pitched “Ews” following her run. Her speedy skitter ended with her disappearing within the cramped space, voice dimming to a faint background noise covered by the sound of moving crates and objects crashing to the ground.

drawing prompt: POKEMON

Petalcoat, the camo pokemon.

Bug/Fairy

Pokemon XXX : This glutton expels indigestible hard pits and seeds through its hands with enough force to punch through steel. Projectiles that miss their mark will eventually grow into new plants.

Pokemon YYY : It's able to both move and fire from its hands at once without losing accuracy or speed. If it runs out of ammunition, it becomes quickly despondent.

“It’s perfect!”

Plush toy for the drawing prompt with our Boi Red!

you sure you wanna grab that one? it's got like, an actual knife strapped onto it

5mind​:

Universal translators, huh? The AI made an internal note to look into it later. Certainly would help future encounters, be it with more manuals or otherwise. 

The damper on Krigg’s mood went unnoticed. Well, the machine did pick up on the extraterrestial’s smile faltering for a bit but did not really correlate it to any change in mood. 

Krigg’s reaction to learning of the purpose of toilets was much more dramatic (?) than what the AI would’ve expected. After all, from what they could observe, she herself was an organic being. And most organic beings ,from what the AI had seen, eventually excrete waste.

And what did she mean by ‘tier five civillizations’? What are the other tiers?

But before Blue could further question her, Krigg had already left for the cargo hold still squeaking exclamations of disgust.

Blue stood in place for a moment. Was she just supposed to stay here and wait? Well, Krigg did not say she had to. But then again she did not mention anything about following her in at all.

It couldn’t hurt to take a peak inside, Fivemind supposed. After all, that would probably the second best thing after being allowed to take the ship apart.

The blue-plated android proceeded behind the alien, ducking into the cargo hold.

Hey, maybe she might even find thar fabricator thing Krigg mentioned!

The cargo hold wasn’t exactly the most robot-friendly space that Blue-2 could have decided to explore, but it could be crossed, with enough patience and dedication to squeezing in all of one’s dangly bits. The space was rather full, with crates being piled on every which way and held in place by a rather haphazard looking tangle of straps. Some were half-opened, showing off unfinished projects in the midst of assembly that were practically impossible to identify, or stacked spare parts for later use in whatever Krigg needed. Be they glittering chords of optic fibers, small dodecahedrons covered in hairline patterns of gold and copper, or occasionally, what looked like the small boxes hanging off Krigg’s waist.

 Thankfully, the ceiling was high enough to actually accomodate the unit without them needing to crouch, but passageways created between the crates still demanded a minimal amount of keeping one’s arms tucked in. Occasionally, Blue-2 would hear rattling noises coming from about the room, followed by faint, annoyed groans, and then the pitter-patter of small boots scurrying over closed boxes and metal floors. Occasionnally, he even got to see Krigg zip about the place, hopping over the gaps between the crate piles and scuttling up the taller spires with no small amount of ease, seemingly looking for something.

After some amount of shimmying however, he was allowed to come to a large-ish open space that was surrounded by several work benches. Some had things like integrated buzzsaws, grips to hold items, some had racks covered in various tools, from dremels to what looked like soldiering irons - hell, there was definitely a forge tucked away in a small corner. But, what definitely occupied the most space was a large device in the shape of a half-cylinder. Two thirds of it was cut out of a light grey metal, into which was ensconced a large screen and several keypads, as well as several hatches and slots. The rest was, well, also metal, light blue, but it did sport a large window that revealed the inside of the machine, which was occupied by a moving system of robotic arms on rails and several trays.

The facility tour was interrupted by a light thunk as Krigg landed on top of the mystery device, holding up to the artificial lights what looked like a fresh stack of paper sheets, and... a many times crumpled and stained, barely holding together stapled wad of sheets thick with writing. “There you were! Come on now, I got stuff to-” She chirped in delight, her happy tirade grinding to a screeching halt as something very blue floated just in the periphery of her vision.

Krigg looked under the homemade contents manual in her hand to Blue-2 with a disbelieving quirk of her brows. “Hey, I did NOT invite you in! Seriously, what is it with you and being way too curious?!”

🌎 :)))

Send me   ‘ 🌎 ‘   for my muse to talk about a place they really want to visit

"Oh man, where DON'T I wanna' go? The whole appeal of being a rough-and-tumble space drifter IS going wherever you darn' please, travel laws be damned! I have SO much backlog on places I'd love to visit."

From... somewhere, Krigg excitedly produced what looked like an overstuffed binder full of colorful advertisements for various places in the universe, leafing through it with a delighted smirk on her face.

"Let's see... ooooh, oooh, I always wanted to visit Galvan Prime! It'd be nice to actually be a little taller than the locals for a change, even if travel laws around that sector are a nightmare. Triceraton space is kind of the same, but with more angry dinosaurs, and an actual "shoot on sight" policy aimed at me..."

"If there's anything that'd actually tickle my fancy though, it'd probably be visiting Cybertron. The only hiccup with that is that no one really knows where it is, and it's widely accepted that organics are persona non grata. At least for like, seventy percent of the population, those guys are wayyyy not into making friends. Also populated with giant robots that could squish me without trying too hard. But that only makes me wanna' check it out more! I hear there's a pretty bomb bar planetside too, so that definitely has me curious."

@5mind​ from [X]

“GAH! What the hell!”

Krigg was... a little startled by the sight of Red-one limping away from the shadows of a dark alley, trying to compensate for their mangled leg as best they could. The diminutive alien tensed sharply on her perch on the edge of a dumpster, flailing her arms in an attempt to not kiss the pavement. She eventually managed to correct her posture enough to hop off the dumpster and land on her feet.

Unfortunately, any relief she felt from not landing on her face was short lived. There was still the pressing issue of Red issuing the suggestion that they hide. Well, her, them - she wasn’t going to argue! If the decidedly mangled automaton told her there was danger, she was listening!

“Alright alright, we’re going, we’re going! Geez, what threw you into an industrial grinder?!” Krigg grimaced nervously, scuttling closer to the unit. Her expression only soured as the extent of the damage became more apparent up close, and the diminutive alien found herself fidgeting nervously with her gloves. She couldn’t exactly take weight off of the robot’s bad leg without getting squished in the process, nor could she really fix a leg whose entire frame was busted without heavy duty tools.

“You got a destination in mind?”

5mind​:

Blue Two awkwardly maneuvered her way through the cargo hold, careful not to knock anything over. Discerning optics scanned the contents of whatever containers were already open. While the AI might not be able to recognise a good chunk of the items, it could speculate. And it could appreciate the make of some of the more intricate structures. 

She kept quiet as she spotted the tinier figure hurrying around, not as any attempt in stealth but simply because the alien seemed busy. Because trespassing was fine and dandy but interrupting someone was where the line is drawn. 

Also because the machine was too occupied with taking in every single detail at once. She was essentially taking snapshots (silently and without flash). Because of course the units could take photos. Well, some of them at least. 

And then Krigg was talking. Not to her though, at least not until she noticed the nearly 2 metre tall robot in the middle of the room.

“You did not say I was not allowed inside.” The android monotoned. “And you cannot blame me for my curiosity. This is a rather nice place.”

“I suppose a human might regard it as…homey.” 

Krigg opened and closed her mouth a few times, holding up a finger as though wanting to object. But as disbelief was slowly supplanted by a sort of tired, disgruntled acceptance, she opted to lower her hand and close her mouth, glaring at the blue unit with a sharp exhale. While the drone made a good point on her leaving them hanging with no further instructions, she still was a little mad about the invasion of privacy. Which she was pretty sure they were smart enough to understand.

Not noticing the giant intruder in her living space was a little embarrassing too, which didn’t help with making her want to adress the situation.

“Just... don’t touch anything.” Krigg sighed, making her way to the edge of the cylinder before hopping off. She landed in a crouch, before walking over to one of her workbenches. They were, unfortunately, not really her-sized, and she found herself having to clamber onto a tall stool before she was able to place her homemade manual, as well as the spare blank sheets, on top of the bench. After that, it was only a matter of, well, climbing onto the bench itself to access the tool rack.

Some rummaging later, and Krigg had plopped herself back onto her stool with a pen in hand, at which point she began to write. One of her antennae perked upwards, angling itself rather conspicuously towards the blue unit. “I dunno’ what you see here that is “homey”. It’s got all my things crammed in one easy-ish to access locale. It’s practical, in a “no organization allowed” sorta’ way. I don’t actually live or sleep here, I’ve got my own living space in another section of the ship.”

“Though, eeehh...” Krigg lifted her pen from the page briefly, before returning to writing, the faint scratching filling the blank. “It’s a fifty-fifty distribution of how long I spend between here and the living corner.”

5mind​:

There was a pause before their answer. 

“Traf-Traffic accident.” It was probably as convincing as telling a teacher a dog ate their nonexistent homework, but technically it was true. They did get hit by a truck at some point but that did not account for all of the damage. The blunt force trauma still did a number on them though. Red tried to walk a bit faster only to lurch forward with a start. They did manage to stabilize themselves with a hand against the walls of the alley. 

“Industrial grind–grinder?” There was not grinder involved. But the AI was a bit too preoccupied  with making sure they didn’t lose one of their bodies to consider that she might not have meant that literally.

“Away from here.” Away from the traffic and the cops and the infinite possibility of casualties. “You should hide too. Jus-Just in case.”

A traffic accident. Krigg looked up to the Red unit with a sneer. Traffic accidents usually didn’t have the mangled party running from the scene with the intention to hide from prying eyes. She let out a puff of breath, shaking her head with a frown. Whatever, she didn’t have time to ask him for the details, and the drone looked a little too frazzled to really offer more convincing lies, considering how far above their head the nervous grinder metaphor had gone.

The small alien planted herself by the unit’s bad leg, doing her best to step along in tandem with them. “Away sounds... about as nice as it goes.” She spoke slowly, trying her best to sound positive, despite the slightly crooked look to the grin she flashed up to them. “And, don’t worry, we’ll get to hiding when we find a good spot. Meanwhile though, I’m not goin’ nowhere. You’re not exactly functionnal right now, and leaving you to your own devices sounds like a recipe for disaster.”

5mind​:

“Are you su-sure?” They shifted their weight onto their knife arm for a moment to free up the hand that had been pressed against the alley wall for support. They gave themselves a hefty thump where their clavicle should be and let out a burst of static, as if clearing their throat.

“The others- Blue and Yellow are facing …some diversions. It would take a while for them to get me.” 

Several blocks down from where Krigg and Red were, Yellow and Blue were being tailed by a handful of cop cars. Fuck if they knew why. At the very least they were relatively uninjured, best keep the police away from Red. Fivemind doubted cops would help their situation.

“Do you know any good spots? For hiding. Somewhere- somewhere warm.”

Krigg’s expression kept its odd, somewhat tense smile for a few moments of silence as Red explained the situation, aside from the uncomfortable twitch of her upper lip as they up and smacked their voice box back into working order. Once he was done explaining the situation, she gave quick inhale, followed by a sharp exhale, and in a matter of seconds, her expression was more or less back to its calm, faintly smiling one. The little extraterrestrial shrugged her shoulders, tucking her thumbs into the band of her pants nonchalantly.

“Eh, you only interrupted a session of dumpster diving. Not exactly what I would call a great loss on my schedule. I’ve got time to spare. Besides, I’d be a little miffed about losing one of my contacts for material scrounging.” She huffed, tone light-hearted, before reaching to tap a finger to her chin, brows furrowed in thought. “As for good, warm hiding spots... I don’t think I’ve got any options that are on ground level. I only pop in for scavenging runs and I stick to the rooftops.”

Krigg’s gaze slowly started to wander as she spoke, trailing up the buildings bordering the dark alleyway. They weren’t in a part of town where she had to strain her neck to actually look at the edge of rooftops, and one of them was actually made out of bricks with cement that was old enough to leave gaps between them. If Fivemind was listening closely enough, they probably could’ve sworn they heard the soft ticking of an egg timer as her frown deepened, followed by the metaphorical “Brrringg!” that followed her eyes growing wide. She snapped her fingers, and trotted over to the wall, cracking her knuckles with audible little pops.

“Alright, just let me check something.” Krig called over her shoulder, a small grin stretching over her face. And just like that, the small alien tucked her fingers into the gaps between the bricks, and started... well, pretty much bouncing like a cricket from grip to grip, quickly clambering up the rough surface. The one good point of having small, pointy fingers - being able to use even ridiculously small things as climbing holds.

It wasn’t long before Krigg’s kicking boots were hauled over the edge of the building. She gathered herself into a crouch, one hand flying to her temple and summonning her goggles with a tap of her finger. The yellow, transparent material flickered into being, tinting her vision briefly before going clear. She reached over to the side, manipulating a tiny dial until the information displayed on the inside shifted. A few more tweaks later, and the city skyline was lighting up in cool shades of blue, speckled with reds and yellows where heat was pouring out from both buildings and streets. She scanned her surroundings carefully, trying to find a heat source that wasn’t a building, or an open sp-

Huh, that looked like it’d do. Moments later, Krigg’s head poked out over the edge of the roof to allow her to look back to the Red unit, hollering to get his attention. “I found something! I’ll guide you from up high, just call if you need anything, I’ll definitely hear you! For now just keep going forward!”

5mind​:

Blue brought her hand up before her to indicate that no, she had not and would not touch anything on the ship. Probably. To the best of her abilities.  Oh, Fivemind understood  the concept of privacy. It was just that, even when playing the role of the blue unit, it’s curiosity far outweighed any concerns for manners. 

“Oh. So this is just a workshop?” the android replied. That made sense. And the AI supposed that organic beings do not exactly correlate being surrounded by machines and an easy access to tools and resources with coziness. 

“I was only attempting a compliment but… I do genuinely find a space like this comforting. On a surface level, it does have the same atmosphere to where I- we- my team reside.”

“Our base is much more simpler though. Technology-wise.” The blue unit sat down on the floor, crisscross applesauce. 

Krigg went silent, pencil hovering over the paper as her task was interrupted by her train of thought. Brows furrowed, she gnawed a little on the end of the pen, gaze trying to find again where her translation efforts had been thwarted by the slightest hint of feeling bad about shooting down a well-meaning clompliment. From an overly curious brightly painted robot that didn’t know how to knock and probably didn’t deserve to be let out too easy.

The sound of a turning page punctuated the brief, thoughtful pause. Then the scratching of the pencil resumed. “...I uh, appreciate it anyways.” She mumbled, leaning further towards the page as though trying to hide the slight embarrassment in her voice. “I guess I’ve just gotten kind of used to that sort of space, so it doesn’t really feel like much.” She admitted, drumming her fingers against the metal surface.

“...Given the scavenging habits, I would’ve been more surprised if your home base WAS high-tech - by that world’s standards, anyways. You look like you’ve got a lot of need for raw junk materials.” Krigg briefly lifted the pencil, turning around and using it to point at the blue unit, which had made themselves right at home on the cargo bay’s flooring, sitting cross-legged naturally enough. She mentally kicked herself a little for not offering her seat... and then, naturally, realized that any regular seat would have gone “squish” under their weight.

She didn’t turn right back around just yet though - an idea did spark into being in the back of Krigg’s mind causing her to pause, pencil held up into the air.

“...Not to ask insensitive questions or anything but, did you... build your own bodies from scratch?” Krigg hazarded, one antennae quirked inquisitively.

5mind​:

“I am more worried about your safety than your schedule,” Red commented, their volume lowered. When it comes to situations like this, Fivemind really hated getting anyone else involved. If something was to happen to anyone aside from its units… Guilt was not something the AI was new too but it was an emotion they would never get used to. 

Red’s visored gaze followed Krigg as she clambered up the wall. The entire time the little alien scanned the area, the android was throwing nervous glances over their shoulders with their audio receptors primed. The nearby traffic and overall noise from civilisation did not make it easy but they could tell, they were still being tailed.

If Krigg were to glance in the direction from where Red had come stumbling from, she would probably catch sight of a very distinct heat signature - hotter than the average human, roughly 2 metres tall, and fast approaching Red’s position.

Without the goggles, the figure merely appeared to be a very tall humanoid hunched in a navy blue raincoat.

The moment Red heard Krigg call out to them, they moved - faster than they should in their current condition. 

“Is there no other way to contact you? He can hear us, you know?”

Krigg’s eyes went wide as a speck of warmth on the edge of her goggles’ vision caught her attention. Her head snapped to the distaction, zeroing on the distant figure that had just entered the street, and that was approaching fast the current source of noise. Too much heat to be a regular organic. The little extraterrestrial cringed herself back over the railway from sheer embarrassment, and began furiously rummaging through her coat pockets. Her many, many coat pockets.

First order of business, she thought to herself as she pulled from the inside of a sleeve a small bead of polished metal through which ran hairline grooves that pulsed a faint blue, intercept the collision course. She quickly turned the bead until she found a small button, pressing down with a swipe of her thumb. There was a faint beep as the collapsed metal of the grenade expanded to fit her palm comfortable, the plates shifting to reveal an analog slide that she set with a quick tap of her opposing hand’s thumb.

The small, silvery projectile arced over the edge of the roof, and with pinpoint accuracy, plinked behind the dumpster that Krigg was previously investigating. Krigg’s hands flew back to digging in her pockets before the projective had even disappeared from sight, and soon enough, she finally produced what she was looking for. Two circular, white devices with a clip-on end, and another that she knew she was magnetic. One found its usual place on the collar of her jacket...

The other would eventually land and stick rather unceremoniously to the Red unit’s shoulder like an unruly fridge magnet. It buzzed a few times, before the little alien’s voice crackled through the device. “And three, twoooo, onee...”

There was a loud BANG as the grenade behind the dumpster went off, tearing the heavy container away from the wall and sending one side whipping at breakneck speed across the small alleyway. The spinning metal box ended ending its mad rush against the opposite wall whith a crash of torn metal and a burst of sparks, effectively blocking the path.

“Take a right on the turn while it’s looking the other way! And, don’t worry about me. I’m not the one who people are usually worried of getting involved in their troubles.” Krigg’s cheshire cat grin, somehow, could almost be felt on the other end of the line. “Because usually, people’s troubles don’t like having trouble with ME.”

5mind​:

The exposed optical sensor of the red unit ‘squinted’ as the little device Krigg latched onto a metal shoulder. Then a familiar voice emerged from the device and the machine understood it to be some sort of communication device. 

Well, Fivemind was not expecting an explosion to follow the countdown. Red One’s head whipped around for a second before quickening their pace. Not out of panic but because now was a good time as any to lose their pursuer at least for a few more minutes.

Behind them, the raincoat-clad figure had leaped out of the way of the dumpster that had come spinning in their direction. They landed on all fours and paused to access the situation, successfully thrown off for the moment.

“Thanks,” Red spoke through the communicator. Although the AI was going to disregard that part about not worrying about Krigg. It was gonna worry anyways. “Your help is much appreciated….and needed.”

The pursuer trotted backwards before taking a running leap towards one of the alley’s walls then bouncing off it to land on the other side of the blockage. Then they resumed their bipedal stance. Their face may be concealed by the hood of their raincoat but they seem to be looking…upwards? Or maybe they were just staring in front of them. Who knows. 

“Also, do you have more explosives? I am pretty sure he relies on heat tracking.” Red took a right-turn into a slightly wider alley. They were getting closer to the main streets. “But please do try to avoid any casualties.”

Peeking over the edge of the rooftop, antennae flattened on her head, Krigg quickly yanked off her voluminous cap. She kept the piece of clothing squished on her lap as she carefully observed Red’s pursuer land on all fours, away from the swinging dumpster, seemingly processing the situation. Just long enough for her to watch Red turn the corner to the intersecting street, away from their pursuer. Yup, not human alright.

Krigg squeezed a new metal bead from the lining of her hat, idly rolling it between her fingers. She frowned as the respite proved short lived, the creature charging towards the dumpster and bouncing off the nearest wall to pass over it, landing neatly on all fours. It didn’t resume its walk right away, instead getting back up on two limbs and looking... up?

The warning on heat tracking didn’t fall on deaf ears. Krigg frowned, clicking her teeth in disapproval and pushing herself away from the edge. She took a little bit of a run-up before flooring it, rushing towards the corner Red had taken. With a harsh kick and a springy leap, she launched herself off the edge of the roof, landing in a somersault on the opposite building. Soon enough, her head was back to poking over the edge, watching both the street Red had exited, and the one he was currently limping on.

“Heh, you can thank me when we’re out of danger. All the same, I’m a long way from running out.” Krigg chuckled into the microphone, her free hand holding it closer to her mouth, the other toying with the grenade. Her smile faded the slightest bit at the mention of casualties, but it didn’t otherwise put a dent in her attitude. “My bombs are modular - they’ll go off as hard as I want, when I want. And I’ve got a few, less explosive tricks up my sleeves. I can pick a fight without making a mess.”

“...Though you really gotta’ tell me what’s up with metal crawler over there. How did you get yourself in that situation? Oh- take a left at the next turn.” The spare bomb arced over the streets in a bell curve, landing in the vacant section of the street that Red was moving away from, going off with another, loud bang and scattering loose pieces of cardboard and litter. Another distraction, a few more seconds.