kismet_loop | 2nd Bite [Video]

Entry tags:

tf: animated | dirge (crau)

2nd Bite [Video]

Sam human, I have located two of the data p- books, on your list of wishes.

[He opens his palm revealing a worn copy of The Diary of Anne Frank and a newer looking copy of The Colour Purple. He has since stopped damaging his drone, so the picture is clear again.]

Also, this is to let everyone know I'm moving into the warehouse. Everything in there is mine now. Take anything and I will know.

[If he ever finishes doing inventory, which might take him years at this rate.]

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No intermission to explore? Huh.

[Sam shrugs.]

Whatever floats your boat. There's a restaurant you could ask at, though, since some of it's to-scale.

No, I- ....There's just so much. [He sighs, because its easy for him to get carried away around all of that stuff.]

A restaurant? Do they expect us to pay?

Edited 2014-12-25 02:34 (UTC)

True, that.

[After all, there's enough she's spent a week straight searching through games and toys, seeing what? One volunteer.]

Nah. I've never been asked to pay for anything since I've arrived, and I've had a fair few restaurant meals. I doubt it'd be different for you.

I thought so. [He seems to recall someone telling him there isn't really currency here yet.]

Free is good- now to find out if they have enough to actually fill me up!

About that---I want to give you some more advice before you head on out.

[The adept peers up, to be sure she has his full attention. The words 'I want to give you...' should've secured it---this mech has the soul of an acquisitive magpie and the ticks of a till---but hey, she wants to be certain. This is important.]

Okay?

[Dirge had been about to transform and fly off, thinking the transaction was complete, but the human spoke again and her words cut the unique noise of changing off abruptly. Normally, it would have been very hard to get his attention away from food, but Sam just so happens to have picked the exact words for the job.]

Hm? I'm listening~

Trying to farm people is a terrible idea. This is a fact---a fact I want us to have established, here.

[She couldn't, in good conscience, just let him go after a conversation about edibles.]

Tomatoes? Fine, good. And other crops! But people, you should rule right out.

[Be they humans, or anything else.]

Why? You're the one who told me humans are so wonderfully adaptable. That more humans could be made nearly anywhere, as long as the basic necessities were provided.

For starters, we are talking about thinking, feeling, self-aware agents. That alone should be enough to deter you.

[Especially since there's precious little someone could farm humans for, save some Soylent Green shit.]

[That's terrible.]

I shouldn't have to build on the ethical arguments, but I have a feeling I still will.

...And? [She's lost him here- there's obviously something she is assuming that he has no knowledge of.]

Oh, ethics. [That would be it.]

I don't really know anything about those. Except that Swindle claimed to have his own set of 'Business Ethics' that he never explained to me.

...well, hell.

[That's going to change. That's got to change.]

[Sam pauses to run a hand up over her face, ostensibly to brush some stray hair away. A small part of her wants to start with "sit down, we're gonna be a while."]

Look. People, on account of being people, are due a certain measure of respect and consideration. There's 'the golden rule,' which is 'treat others the way you want to be treated,' and 'you've got to give respect to get respect' is more-or-less a footnote for it.

[Dirge gives his fuel meter a fleeting glance as she takes in a breath to explain, wondering if this is going to take long.]

Why? Also, what makes this rule 'golden'? How valuable is respect?

[It is going to take as long as it has to. Fortunately, Sam's twigged to a couple of angles, so it should be an issue of approach.]

Its importance, since it's just kinda what allows people to function smoothly, socially. And very. A point in case? If people don't respect you, they won't respect your property---or territory, either.

And why should I care what humans need to function socially?

Hm, I see... That sounds very important, actually. How does one [he grimaces because he is about to say a word he does not like] give respect?

[Sam flicks her hands to the sides; they stay spread at shoulder-height for a sentence.]

I said people. Human people, Cybertronian people, other people, whoever's here. We've got a sort of standard for civility; there's not a great deal of difference there.

[Her conversation with Predaking was proof. They'd both been understandably upset by being misplaced persons, but throughout that conversation they'd both been courteous---and easily at an understanding.]

Respecting others, you treat them as equals. You take their wants and needs and feelings into account; you try to compromise if there's a conflict; you don't treat anybody as just a means to an end, and for fuck's sake you don't eat anyone.

How do you know anything about Cybertronian moral c- Wait a minute.

[Dirge's huge red optics narrow.] I know exactly where I've heard things like this before. You sound just like an Autobot.

[And didn't they team up with humans all the time?]

I am not an Autobot, and I will eat whatever I please! [He hisses, for his tank is nearly empty, which always tends to amp up his aggression levels.]

I've been talking to Cybertronians, that's how! You, Predaking and Wing from my first friggin' day!

[Now she's throwing her hands up---or, at least, beginning to, before planting both on her hips instead. It's a little awkward, what with the books, but still, that stance should confirm Dirge's suspicions: despite being so much smaller, Sam isn't entirely afraid of him. She's aware he's a potential threat (of course; it's conspicuous) but so is she.]

Oh? No-one's ID'd this accent. I'm just me---and I'm not saying you're anything!

[except for "an asshole," if anybody asks]

So cool it for just a split second, okay?

[She's hoping he will, even as she's striving to scan his rough read for any flicker of intent.]

If that 'whatever' is including people, there are going to be problems. Not just with me, though by god I'd give you grief, even if I don't really want a beef with you. I'd rather talk this out.

Edited 2014-12-27 00:49 (UTC)

Hmph. Neither of them come from the same place as I do. [Dirge folds his arms, wings flicking. No one this small has ever bothered to try and argue with him like this. She really isn't afraid, either because she doesn't expect him to actually harm her, or because she has some trick up her sleeve.]

What problems? [He snaps, because talking is swiftly becoming something he is not interested in doing anymore.]

[A bit of column A, a bit of column B, and it's exacerbated by the minor madness common to all adepts.]

Aside from immediately-pressing practical problems, like angry mobs and people out to avenge others? You don't care for the dignity of persons, but you care for yours; holding a captive population or just up and eating people, you are going to reduce yourself to an obstacle, and lose out on a lot. Potential allies. Information. What peace of mind you might've had, since people who resent something strongly enough will, for spite, do things that are absolutely insane.

I'm not afraid of being attacked by humans. [He illustrates this by stomping his massive foot very near her. How many humans were even here? He's only met Sam, so far.]

But I don't like losing out- on anything. [He contemplates this for a minute or two. Were humans worth more as allies, informants, or fuel for his body?]

....I will have to think about this.

[For a moment, Sam freezes, her shoulders hunched; although an adept, she is largely sane, and should like very much to live.]

[...still...]

[Still, that stomp tipped the scale. Sam straightens, glaring first at the offending foot, and then up at Dirge. If he wants to throw his weight around, fine---she can answer in kind.]

Think about this: if you eat anyone, I'll witch your ability to taste away.

[Can she? She doesn't know for a fact---it's something she's never tried to do. Given the amount of unspent ink she has on her person at present, though, it's plausible. That's good. What's better, though, is that she says it with a cool and complete confidence.]

Don't think you have an easy out, either. Not with a stamping, not with anything else. Dying curses are notoriously difficult to counter---you'd have us both hooped, and I'd haunt you.

Edited 2014-12-27 04:32 (UTC)

[Her flinch brings a smug grin to his long face. And that would usually be the end of any argument.

Except it isn't. Dirge blinks when she doesn't go running for the hills.]

You'll what?! [Can humans do that? It's his turn to cringe now- just contemplating the possibility scares him.]

Haunt me...? What does that even entail? A transparent version of you hanging around while I recharge?

[The golden rule is well and good, but there's Sam's silver: if pushed, push back.]

You heard what I said.

[She stares up at the clone, serious, her free hand fisted at her side.]

Humans, merpeople, anyone at all---j'men calice. [Quebecois would roll their eyes since it sounds something like 'j'meh-calee,' but the sentiment behind the sacre comes through clear.] I'll stand by it.

My haunting you would mean this ball of malice hanging around, spiriting away most of your stuff---phenomenon's well-documented as 'asports'---and wrecking what remained. I'd be angry enough to make everything awful.

[He swallows nervously and audibly... She doesn't sound like she's bluffing. Maybe he should be careful until he can confirm her claim one way or another. Well, any other way then possibly inflicting it on himself, that is.]

Spiriting away my- and wrecking it? That IS awful! No, no I cannot let you do that!

It would be. I'm not much for half-measures.

[Sam crosses her arms. Her expression is still serious, but the noise of that nervous swallow is remarkably satisfying.]

You won't have to worry about that, though, if you don't eat or otherwise murder anyone.

Re: [action]

dirge - 2014-12-27 20:04 (UTC) - Expand

Re: [action]

10_20_15_5_50 - 2014-12-27 21:30 (UTC) - Expand

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