Nightseige Spaceport

Apparently most of Team Green is not out here for the moment, leaving the gumbies largely untorme- unsupervised (changes pending Hook's pose). But Long Haul is here! And Long Haul is... hauling! What did you expect? At the moment he's carrying in sheets of metal from off-site and depositing them where needed. Ah, the life of a dump truck. Bah.

Unsupervised generic Decepticons? That's almost criminal! And indeed, as if someone had lit the Arrogant Constructicon Signal, Hook appears on the scene, a spring in his step and a tune in his processor, ready to correct miniscule errors and generally get in the way! "You there!" he says, pointing imperiously at one of the nameless seekers, who doesn't seem to be stacking that pile of metal with the enthusiasm and accuracy Hook demands. "What do you call that? Because I call it a MESS!"

And it's about that moment that Long Haul arrives at his destination, which would, of course, be the very pile that Hook and the nameless seeker are currently tending to. He backs up against the pile and raises the front end of his truck bed, tipping the contents out. And Hook thought it was a mess before?

Hook facepalms with a *clang*. "No no no!" he says, striding up to his brother and the hapless gumbie. "Long Haul, I've told you 564.3 times.. you dump the materials HERE," he points to a space just before the pile, "And the plebian stacks them HERE."

Point three? That was probably the time Long Haul shoved Hook before he could finish what he was saying. Long Haul had been in a bad mood that day. He was in a bad mood this day, come to think of it. "Shove it, Hook!" he retorts. "I got the scrap here, they're using it there!" Long Haul tries to point, then remembers that he has no fingers in this mode. "It's all the same scrap! It doesn't matter how it's stacked!"

Hook sighs. "I should expect that kind of attitude from /you/ Longhaul. I don't know why I keep trying... I suppose it's out of sympathy, and the goodness of my core processor." He taps his foot in an irritated fashion.

Dump Truck <Long Haul> lowers his truckbed, snapping back, "Yah, you probably should! Maybe, if you'd /quit/ trying to pester me and let me do what I'm /s'posed/ to be doing, we'd actually get some /work/ done around here. Primus forbid, I wouldn't expect /you/ to actually work yourself, but at least you could let the rest of us do our jobs!" Granted, Long Haul's never much cared for doing his job, but dammit, like it or not, he knows it needs to get done. He begins to drive away, apparently considering the exchange over.

"Well if all you care about is quantity over quality" Hook replies, not noticing for the moment that Long Haul has driven off. "Then I... hey! I wasn't finished! Come back here!"

Dump Truck <Long Haul> transforms and turns around, stomping back. He crosses his arms and looks at his brother. It would probably be an angry glare but really, with his face, it's hard to tell. "Yeah? And? Is there anything yer gonna tell me that I haven't already heard about a thousand times in the last astroweek? Pitt, why don't we just record your speeches, and the rest of us can carry them around with us, and then we wuldn't even needja, since that's all you do, anyway."

The dump truck stretches out and unfolds into Long Haul.

Hook hmms, actually considering Long Haul's suggestion. "You know, that's actually not a bad idea. Of course, my recorded instructions wouldn't be as fresh or as relevant as the live ones, but in your case that wouldn't make too much difference. I could record corrections for the multitude of errors you consistantly make, and provide you with them on chip! Why, I could even install them into your audial circuits, so that they play at timed intervals!" Hook seems incredibly pleased by the prospect. "Yes, this is definitely one of my better ideas."

Long Haul would probably be a /lot/ more worried about Hook seriously considering this, were it not for the fact that Hook would probably take about a quarter of forever to actually finish the chips, get them recorded properly, etc. etc. And /then/ Long Haul could worry about ramming them down his throat. He clamps his right hand heavily on Hook's shoulder in an almost friendly fashion, a touch calmer now that Hook was focusing on something else (even if it was something with almost equal annoyingness potential). "Yeah, why don't you work on that. And I'll get back to working on getting those materials on site." With that Long Haul turns around again. Maybe he can escape /this/ time!

"But which speeches to record? I mean, they're all so good.. And there's only so much storage space.." Hook trails off as Long Haul grips him by the shoulder, knowing how often his fellow team mates have inexplicably turned to violence while he's administering friendly advise. Of course, he can lay the smack down on most of them, but Bonecrusher and Long Haul can be.. troublesome. "Yes, perhaps I shall" he replies. "Naturally, since you're interested, I shall keep you informed on my progress." Oh.. good.

Hook is reporting to Long Haul on something? Cool! Even if it is Project: Most Annoying Thing In The Universe Next To Hook. Long Haul begins to wonder off before his somewhat slower mind begins to put something together. Wait a minute. That probably means that Long Haul will have to listen to all those speeches. Again. And Again. As Hook tries to make the best possible recording. "Waitaminute!" he shouts.

Hook hms, himself already turning to leave. "Yes, Long Haul?" he replies, figuring his brother wants advice on something - the proper way to stack sheet metal, precise riveting techniques, how to talk to femme-cons...

And no, "Hey baby, wanna see my 'lifting arm?'" Doesn't work.

But Long Haul doesn't have a lifting arm! Wait, uhm.. hang on.

....

Let's just move on, shall we? The dump truck turns around and tries to work out how to delicately tell Hook that he's not interested in progress reports from his newest project. "You leave me out of yer stupid tape recording project!" There! That's delicate!

Hook huhs? "Well YOU suggested it!" he replies huffily, the idea suddenly becoming Long Haul's again as Hook shifts position in the neverending conversational judo match that is Constructicon interaction. "Though I can understand that you'd rather have me supervising in person."

Long Haul tries to follow the conversation, which seems to have shifted track in about four or five different ways. He would frown, had he a mouth, and blink, had he eyes, as he tries to figure out just where the conversation has gone to. So the project is Long Haul's again and Hook is supervising, so does that mean, "Uhm... you want /me/ to make the recordings, then?" Obviously, Long Haul has gone in an entirely different direction than Hook in this argument.

Hook gives Long Haul that special look he reserves solely for Long Haul and Bonecrusher, the one that suggests Hook's wishing they'd recruited smarter team-mates before initiating Project Interlock. "Just haul the scrap, Long Haul" he finally says. "PROPERLY, this time."

Long Haul was recruited? But wasn't he built in a cave with the rest of them? But wait, no, erm, nevermind. "Properly? PROPERLY? The scrap was there, and now it's here!" the dump struck shouts, gesturing wildly with his hands to emphasize 'there' and 'here'. "What more PROPERLY do you need?!"

Hook pinches the bridge of his nose. "And THIS is why I need those recordings" he mutters to himself. "The material is being stacked and sorted, ready for use, right? Or it SHOULD be, at any rate. So if you dump it any old way... Gah! MUST I go over this AGAIN?"

"Well, just how the pitt am I /supposed/ to dump it out! I turn into a /dump/ truck! Maybe if we had someone with a crane alt mode who actually /worked/ around, I'd have another option!" shouts the, well, dump truck. To once more emphasize the obvious. Long Haul may not be bright, but you don't need to be /that/ smart to figure this much out. Besides, it gives him an excuse to shout at his brother.

Hook very CAREFULLY explains, as if to a protoform. "What you do, is you re-verse.. sorry, "back up" to this point here, see? Hook takes a piece of chalk from subspace and makes a mark on the ground. "Then..." he waves a hand at the seeker, as if trying to remember his name, "he takes the met-tal out and stacks it co-rect-ly? Do you un-der-stand?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Long Haul grumbles as he waves a hand dismissively, his mood shifting once more from angry to just generally sullen. Of course, if Long Haul hasn't listened the other 564-point-THREE times Hook has told him this, he's probably not going to listen this time, either. He spins on his heal and marches off, although he doesn't get more than a couple of steps before transforming and driving off to... where-ever it is he got it from to begin with.