shitposting rave 2, electric boogaloo

...I keep forgetting some societies have the resources to just make new parts. Raem knows if I could I'd have done so long, long ago, and not only for myself.

 

uh uh uh...
what's the right answer to that one again?

 

Repeating it?

 

oh. Right.
Um.
:)

 

Ah, War.
I probably would! I find my own very fascinating as well, saying that I've no longer got a heartbeat!

Oh what a dirty little lie! I see you enjoying yourself hearing about biology.

Not every society on Earth has that ability. I spend quite a bit of my time aiding as many victims of War that I can. It is crushing to see how many people are destitute even with our current technology levels. It is terrible, but if your people are like humans you will always find a way to survive! Or make new parts on your own! I met a boy whom had been caught in some crossfire in an anti-omnic shooting, and the omnic that had shielded him had been hit in just the wrong spot as to make it explode. Took the child's leg. The resourceful young man had staunched the bloodflow and then scavanaged a leg from the omnic then nearly made it three kilometers before passing out.

He survived, before you ask, and has kept the leg and still uses it instead of getting a proper prosthetic.

 

Salvaging isn't the same as fabricating entirely new limbs. I'll readily admit the arm replacement [they lift their mismatched arm, twist it so Mercy can see the rotor in their forearm] was entirely voluntary-- part of my society's mourning process-- but I would most definitely prefer a leg that actually fits inside my alt-mode. Unfortunately, lightly-built frames tend to... fragment, given the most common causes of death in my region, so salvaging extremities, let alone entire limbs, can be difficult.

And all this is to say nothing of, say, the crewmate who's actually falling apart and refuses to accept any but the most necessary repairs, or the spar-- the patient I was forced to splice onto the lower half of some shredded beastformer when he lost his own legs to a trap, or--

[They pause for a full ventilation cycle and intentionally smooth their wings down against their back.]

Apologies. It is... something of a sore point for me.

 

the only one who is lying here is you! I've never enjoyed myself in my life. I don't even know what enjoyment looks like. You'll have to show me.

 

Shutcher face, Sil. I hold t'gether, th'li'l bit needs what metals we pick up more'n I need some fancy-aft plating.

 

I don't really have one anymore either, though the pumps do make noise sometimes.

Very little of this body is human anymore. My understanding of it is that they grew a new life form using the matrix of my body but using most of it purely to fuel the transformation. Then they hauled my soul back in and nailed it down.

 

Thoracic plating is not optional. It's called a cavity for a reason, it needs walls to hold your internals in place.

 

Oh you poor dears. That must be so much harder to deal with! You say alt mode? So you can change ah-- Shape?

If you need medical attention you should take it.

Oh gosh, yes please get medical attention! I would aid you but you are a bit large!

Well, for me enjoyment is some tea and a book, or climbing up as high as I can go and using the Valkyrie swift-response suit to glide to the ground, or helping someone!

I see! The power within the Caduceus Staff is what leaves me as I am.

 

Yes. It's a feature of our species-- most of us are capable of shifting into one mode apart from our 'root' [they gesture at themself] which tends to be, but is not always, bipedal. Some have more than one alt, and of course Shifters are a category of their own...

I'd demonstrate, but without some way to make mass magically vanish or a new, slimmer leg I'm permanently rooted. Unfortunately. While I could still shift, I was a flier, but... [They shrug, looking away.]

 

what's tea? I don't like books because people don't stop talking long enough for me to get far and then I'm frustrated and stop caring, climbing is hard, wow rude I can't fly, do I look like a jet? and there's no one who needs my help who won't have to pay for it.

 

'F I ain't let m'own fraggin' crewmate fix me up, who th'slag're you t'get up the frag'n my frame? 'S a thing called resource managment, an' surprise sur-fraggin'-prise the sparkling takes priority over a rusted-out scrapheap!

 

I see, I am so sorry. I cannot naturally fly but, I can understand. It's a bit addictive, you know? I wish I could help you with the leg, but only the construction omnics were that large and even then I am not sure if they're-- I know quite a few were destroyed in the war but I don't know exactly if there are any more.

Well, no. Tea is a drink, leaves and roots steeped in hot water. It is warm and tasty, though I'm not sure if your kind has tea exactly? Do you have games you like?

Sparkling? Am I to assume that is a-- child? I would offer to heal you, as it takes very few resources for my technologies to work, but you are very large and I am very small. Do you protect this sparkling? Would you being unable to function unintentionally cause problems for the sparkling? I don't mean to be unkind, but many parents have felt the same way on my world and have doomed their children by getting too sick to help them get food.

But I only barely understand your situation, though I dearly do wish I could help.

 

YES THIS.

All the things I've ever wanted to do with my life that have nothing to do with killing people.

Because none of the things I ever wanted to do with my life included killing people. That was just a thing people decided that I should learn when I was about two. I was a stalky little kit from whom nobody's ankles were safe, and I do like hunting, but that doesn't mean I ever wanted to kill other people. I'm very good at it and I will do it if you threaten my mates or my children without feeling even a little bit sorry for that, but I don't enjoy it the way I enjoy growing roses or doing alchemical work or watching someone who came to me in pain get out of it.

And we should talk about our rose gardens sometime.

 

It is, yes. To be in the air is... as natural as-- [they laugh, shake their head.] Well. The phrase runs "as natural as transforming" for us, which should say enough about that.

Please don't misinterpret this as a request for assistance; we have only just met, and I wouldn't dream of asking Mercy to work on a stranger, for free, whose physiology she knows nothing about. Even if I had a replacement on-hand.

...Sparklings are growing mechs, yes. I'm not going to touch the rest of Mercy's conversation with Rust, he's a titanium wall when it comes to self-neglect.

...every time Valiska appears, I am ever more impressed.

 

My favorite game is Listen in on people talking about their 'face lives
and by favorite I mean I want to claw my audials off

 

*She nods* Yes, and I'm still really grateful about it.

 

And yet, impressively still standing!