[Transformers] Ghost Unit | Learning Curve
Series: The Ghost Unit
Title: Learning Curve (22)
Setting: IDW Transformers, inspired by the "What's Wrong with a Little Destruction" 'verse by ajremix
Note: Many thanks to rexlapinii for beta-ing! This one is the result of a drabble request from bookworm_faith, asking for more Callsign & Deadline interaction.
Summary: In which Fallout is sent off on a sanity break and Callsign worries about her absence.
Learning Curve
"Human beings are designed for many things. Loneliness isn't one of them."
~ Mary Alice, Desperate Housewives
#Deadline?#
#Yes, Callsign.#
#Um... I have a question...#
#Of course you do.#
#Why is Fallout away?#
#Because I sent her away. She was showing signs of cabin fever and clearly needed the downtime.#
#...what?#
#One moment, please.# A pause. #Meet me at Hangar Bay 3, would you?#
#Okie dokie!#
~*~
The flier hovered at the edge of the landing field outside the Hangar Bay 3, amusing himself by raising puffs of dust from the surface of the ground at the edge of the tarmac, the fluctuations in his anti-gravity fields shifting as needed to keep the larger clouds up in the air as long as possible.
"That is rather unorthodox," Deadline observed calmly as he made his way to join the flier - he did not worry about surprising him, having no doubt his location was one of the many, many things the other mech kept under constant watch through the plethora of sensors he was equipped with. The flier shifted, unperturbed by Deadline's comment and nudged another cloud of dust a bit higher up as the tight-link he'd established earlier with the medic pinged to life once more.
#It's fun. So why is Fallout away?#
"To explain this, I will need to refer to your own social interactions. Are you comfortable with this?"
#Yes.#
"Very well. For you, isolation is something which you consider relatively normal. In fact, it was something you learned to find preferable due to the generally injurious quality of your interactions with most, prior to becoming one of us. As such under your current circumstances, the presence of the others in the unit alone fulfills your need for social contact easily enough." Deadline looked toward the horizon, noting how the flier remained quiet. His next words were gentle - far gentler than any other on the base had ever heard him speak. "But there are too many of us still for you to deal with all at once for too long. Which is partially why you choose to stay aloft as much as you can, beyond simply being able to fly without experiencing pain. You are still learning to add a variety of social interactions to your most basic of communication patterns."
#You let me. Stay away sometimes, I mean. Fly a lot.# Though Callsign wasn't shrinking in on himself as he'd often done during his early days with the team and with the medic, his voice was still a touch unsteady. Deadline gave him a calm, quiet look and continued nonetheless.
"Yes, I do. I expected you would need time to adjust to such a drastic change in everything you knew and advised Flagship and Fallout accordingly. We all anticipated that you would need to stay in the air as much as possible, as well, until you were certain you ability to fly would not be removed. Thus we agreed to simply let you adjust your behavioral patterns in the way which was most comfortable to you, while monitoring your mental and psychological state along the way." Deadline slid the flier a look. "You're doing fine, evidently. You come to us of your own accord fairly regularly, and are able to interact without any evidence of resurgent trauma."
The flyer hovered nearby, the dusts of cloud having settled to the ground somewhere since they'd begun to talk - he'd gradually shifted closer as Deadline spoke, not quite touching him but lingering nearby nonetheless.
#Thank you. I like flying. And... I like the others!# The flier paused and listed to the side, just a bit. #I like them a lot. And you too.#
"I know. But liking and speaking through the communications systems still isn't the same as being exposed to us physically on a daily basis. Hence, your need for distance more often than not, still." The urge to reach out and pat Callsign was near overwhelming, but Deadline repressed it easily. While it would be comforting on some level for him to do so, the flier still had no positive experience to touch, and never would - and any comfort the gesture would bring the medic was irrelevant. What mattered was that Callsign accepted that the others enjoyed being near him, particular on the few movie nights Salvo managed to set up now and then, but to the flier, touch was still something to be avoided as a baseline behavior and survival pattern. The habit and the reflexes attached to it were just that deeply ingrained.
#...no. I guess it's the same. But no one seems to mind and they're always happy to see me. And - I wouldn't... not be able to see them anymore would make me sad.# The last words were spoken quietly, and Deadline suspected that particular admission was still recent - and fairly terrifying - for the flier. He left that alone, giving Callsign more time to integrate that particular concept.
"Indeed. You've achieved a balance which suits everyone, yourself included. That is what we were hoping for."
#Okay. I understand that. So why is Fallout away?#
"In terms of social interaction, Fallout and Longshot were among the most active of us, before joining the Ghosts. Their social interactions with others were constant, varied and on spread across several levels of physical relations. They had the most active inter-personal contacts as well. It's quite natural they would be the first to feel the effects of the isolation being part of our unit involves, due to the nature of our work and the lack of dealings we're allowed with most of... well, everyone else. But each and every one of us knew that such a thing would be necessary, to preserve the secrecy of our work." Deadline paused, tilting his head to the side slowly. "I confess, I truly expected Longshot to be the first to require some downtime. Though in retrospect, his natural gregariousness translates better into a unit setting than Fallout's tendency to self-isolation due to the pressure and formality she imposes upon herself as our second in command. After all, she had a far wider social network and support system before she was recruited as a Ghost. Furthermore, she wasn't part of a command team beforehand - her professional interactions were therefore different and more established, as well. Having a new function to learn and ease into as well as modifying every interaction on a different level..."
#Salvo says she's so stiff sometimes she has a-#
"Yes, I know," Deadline interrupted the flier hastily. The flier went on hurriedly; openly eager about making sure Deadline knew Salvo hadn't been only critical.
#He also says she's settling into it good, better'n most green officers he's had. He said one of the SICs from that other command team she and Flagship go see sometimes off base is a good influence on her. He teases her about it a lot. She never minded before, though.#
Trust Salvo to perfectly balance a negative with a positive and then destroy it all by driving a bot to distraction the very next moment, Deadline thought, not quite smirking. The flier giggled, apparently guessing what the other was thinking with little effort and didn't push any further as to the identity of any other Autobot who might (or not) know about the Ghosts, beyond those the unit already knew about.
#Oh!# The flier rose a few feet, trembling slightly as understanding finally settled in. #I get it. Maybe he should have waited till she'd had some downtime before he teased her about that? And more time to deal with what happened with that hacker on the last mission?#
"Perhaps he should have," Deadline conceded, remembering the event which had prompted him to assign some vacation to Fallout a bit earlier than he'd planned to.
#Or... do you think he also did it on purpose, so you'd send her off to relax some?# Callsign sounded curious more than pensive, and Deadline suspected that something else Salvo had said which Callsign was not telling him about had clued him in to that fact. That Callsign could begin to understand and extrapolate such nuanced social interactions was what Deadline had been hoping to see during this conversation - their flier was indeed settling in, and he was glad he would be able to report as much to Flagship. Fallout would also be glad to hear of his progress, upon her return.
"I would not be surprised at all if he had done so on purpose." Deadline was not smiling as he said this, though from the way the flier tilted to one side then the other, slowly, he knew his vocalizer had somehow given him away to the other's hyper-sensitive sensors yet again.
#Fallout's going to be okay.#
"She will be perfectly fine. And likely will attempt to present apologies to Salvo upon her return."
#He won't let her. ...Salvo's lots smarter than he lets on, isn't he?#
"While he's as usually about as subtle as, oh, a megaton proto-nuke, I must confess that in certain situations Salvo can be highly intuitive. Particularly when it comes to how others process on an instincti-"
An explosion in the distance broke the conversation sending the flier up in a straight line to investigate. The report did not take long, nor was it any surprise to Deadline.
#Um. That was the firing range.#
"And sometimes," Deadline sighed, "Primus save us all, Salvo is an utter moron."
#Hee. Yep! Longshot says Salvo blew himself up again.#
"Fancy that. I am stunned." Deadline continued, a withering tone creeping into his vocalizer. "Absolutely, positively shocked."
With a dark mutter, the medic shook his head and headed off towards the firing range at a brisk pace, Callsign tagging along high above, giggling merrily over the open team channel as Longshot gleefully described Salvo's current predicament (stuck in a mound of dirt, with only his wildly flailing legs sticking out) to the rest of the team. Wildside had no qualms about sounding thoroughly amused as he chimed in, asking Deadline if he wanted him to come over and dig Salvo out. Again.
Once Longshot was done taking many, many captures to give to Fallout on her return, of course, they all concurred.
Title: Learning Curve (22)
Setting: IDW Transformers, inspired by the "What's Wrong with a Little Destruction" 'verse by ajremix
Note: Many thanks to rexlapinii for beta-ing! This one is the result of a drabble request from bookworm_faith, asking for more Callsign & Deadline interaction.
Summary: In which Fallout is sent off on a sanity break and Callsign worries about her absence.
Learning Curve
"Human beings are designed for many things. Loneliness isn't one of them."
~ Mary Alice, Desperate Housewives
#Deadline?#
#Yes, Callsign.#
#Um... I have a question...#
#Of course you do.#
#Why is Fallout away?#
#Because I sent her away. She was showing signs of cabin fever and clearly needed the downtime.#
#...what?#
#One moment, please.# A pause. #Meet me at Hangar Bay 3, would you?#
#Okie dokie!#
~*~
The flier hovered at the edge of the landing field outside the Hangar Bay 3, amusing himself by raising puffs of dust from the surface of the ground at the edge of the tarmac, the fluctuations in his anti-gravity fields shifting as needed to keep the larger clouds up in the air as long as possible.
"That is rather unorthodox," Deadline observed calmly as he made his way to join the flier - he did not worry about surprising him, having no doubt his location was one of the many, many things the other mech kept under constant watch through the plethora of sensors he was equipped with. The flier shifted, unperturbed by Deadline's comment and nudged another cloud of dust a bit higher up as the tight-link he'd established earlier with the medic pinged to life once more.
#It's fun. So why is Fallout away?#
"To explain this, I will need to refer to your own social interactions. Are you comfortable with this?"
#Yes.#
"Very well. For you, isolation is something which you consider relatively normal. In fact, it was something you learned to find preferable due to the generally injurious quality of your interactions with most, prior to becoming one of us. As such under your current circumstances, the presence of the others in the unit alone fulfills your need for social contact easily enough." Deadline looked toward the horizon, noting how the flier remained quiet. His next words were gentle - far gentler than any other on the base had ever heard him speak. "But there are too many of us still for you to deal with all at once for too long. Which is partially why you choose to stay aloft as much as you can, beyond simply being able to fly without experiencing pain. You are still learning to add a variety of social interactions to your most basic of communication patterns."
#You let me. Stay away sometimes, I mean. Fly a lot.# Though Callsign wasn't shrinking in on himself as he'd often done during his early days with the team and with the medic, his voice was still a touch unsteady. Deadline gave him a calm, quiet look and continued nonetheless.
"Yes, I do. I expected you would need time to adjust to such a drastic change in everything you knew and advised Flagship and Fallout accordingly. We all anticipated that you would need to stay in the air as much as possible, as well, until you were certain you ability to fly would not be removed. Thus we agreed to simply let you adjust your behavioral patterns in the way which was most comfortable to you, while monitoring your mental and psychological state along the way." Deadline slid the flier a look. "You're doing fine, evidently. You come to us of your own accord fairly regularly, and are able to interact without any evidence of resurgent trauma."
The flyer hovered nearby, the dusts of cloud having settled to the ground somewhere since they'd begun to talk - he'd gradually shifted closer as Deadline spoke, not quite touching him but lingering nearby nonetheless.
#Thank you. I like flying. And... I like the others!# The flier paused and listed to the side, just a bit. #I like them a lot. And you too.#
"I know. But liking and speaking through the communications systems still isn't the same as being exposed to us physically on a daily basis. Hence, your need for distance more often than not, still." The urge to reach out and pat Callsign was near overwhelming, but Deadline repressed it easily. While it would be comforting on some level for him to do so, the flier still had no positive experience to touch, and never would - and any comfort the gesture would bring the medic was irrelevant. What mattered was that Callsign accepted that the others enjoyed being near him, particular on the few movie nights Salvo managed to set up now and then, but to the flier, touch was still something to be avoided as a baseline behavior and survival pattern. The habit and the reflexes attached to it were just that deeply ingrained.
#...no. I guess it's the same. But no one seems to mind and they're always happy to see me. And - I wouldn't... not be able to see them anymore would make me sad.# The last words were spoken quietly, and Deadline suspected that particular admission was still recent - and fairly terrifying - for the flier. He left that alone, giving Callsign more time to integrate that particular concept.
"Indeed. You've achieved a balance which suits everyone, yourself included. That is what we were hoping for."
#Okay. I understand that. So why is Fallout away?#
"In terms of social interaction, Fallout and Longshot were among the most active of us, before joining the Ghosts. Their social interactions with others were constant, varied and on spread across several levels of physical relations. They had the most active inter-personal contacts as well. It's quite natural they would be the first to feel the effects of the isolation being part of our unit involves, due to the nature of our work and the lack of dealings we're allowed with most of... well, everyone else. But each and every one of us knew that such a thing would be necessary, to preserve the secrecy of our work." Deadline paused, tilting his head to the side slowly. "I confess, I truly expected Longshot to be the first to require some downtime. Though in retrospect, his natural gregariousness translates better into a unit setting than Fallout's tendency to self-isolation due to the pressure and formality she imposes upon herself as our second in command. After all, she had a far wider social network and support system before she was recruited as a Ghost. Furthermore, she wasn't part of a command team beforehand - her professional interactions were therefore different and more established, as well. Having a new function to learn and ease into as well as modifying every interaction on a different level..."
#Salvo says she's so stiff sometimes she has a-#
"Yes, I know," Deadline interrupted the flier hastily. The flier went on hurriedly; openly eager about making sure Deadline knew Salvo hadn't been only critical.
#He also says she's settling into it good, better'n most green officers he's had. He said one of the SICs from that other command team she and Flagship go see sometimes off base is a good influence on her. He teases her about it a lot. She never minded before, though.#
Trust Salvo to perfectly balance a negative with a positive and then destroy it all by driving a bot to distraction the very next moment, Deadline thought, not quite smirking. The flier giggled, apparently guessing what the other was thinking with little effort and didn't push any further as to the identity of any other Autobot who might (or not) know about the Ghosts, beyond those the unit already knew about.
#Oh!# The flier rose a few feet, trembling slightly as understanding finally settled in. #I get it. Maybe he should have waited till she'd had some downtime before he teased her about that? And more time to deal with what happened with that hacker on the last mission?#
"Perhaps he should have," Deadline conceded, remembering the event which had prompted him to assign some vacation to Fallout a bit earlier than he'd planned to.
#Or... do you think he also did it on purpose, so you'd send her off to relax some?# Callsign sounded curious more than pensive, and Deadline suspected that something else Salvo had said which Callsign was not telling him about had clued him in to that fact. That Callsign could begin to understand and extrapolate such nuanced social interactions was what Deadline had been hoping to see during this conversation - their flier was indeed settling in, and he was glad he would be able to report as much to Flagship. Fallout would also be glad to hear of his progress, upon her return.
"I would not be surprised at all if he had done so on purpose." Deadline was not smiling as he said this, though from the way the flier tilted to one side then the other, slowly, he knew his vocalizer had somehow given him away to the other's hyper-sensitive sensors yet again.
#Fallout's going to be okay.#
"She will be perfectly fine. And likely will attempt to present apologies to Salvo upon her return."
#He won't let her. ...Salvo's lots smarter than he lets on, isn't he?#
"While he's as usually about as subtle as, oh, a megaton proto-nuke, I must confess that in certain situations Salvo can be highly intuitive. Particularly when it comes to how others process on an instincti-"
An explosion in the distance broke the conversation sending the flier up in a straight line to investigate. The report did not take long, nor was it any surprise to Deadline.
#Um. That was the firing range.#
"And sometimes," Deadline sighed, "Primus save us all, Salvo is an utter moron."
#Hee. Yep! Longshot says Salvo blew himself up again.#
"Fancy that. I am stunned." Deadline continued, a withering tone creeping into his vocalizer. "Absolutely, positively shocked."
With a dark mutter, the medic shook his head and headed off towards the firing range at a brisk pace, Callsign tagging along high above, giggling merrily over the open team channel as Longshot gleefully described Salvo's current predicament (stuck in a mound of dirt, with only his wildly flailing legs sticking out) to the rest of the team. Wildside had no qualms about sounding thoroughly amused as he chimed in, asking Deadline if he wanted him to come over and dig Salvo out. Again.
Once Longshot was done taking many, many captures to give to Fallout on her return, of course, they all concurred.