if you've time for the ask game - maelstrom/viceglide; lies, damn lies and statistics
Oh absolutely.
Shore leave is, in many ways, a semi-magical thing.
It's not like anyone becomes a different mech when they're fully and near-completely off the clock, it's just that the whole atmosphere's a bit more... relaxed. It's what drives the best of the Armada's forces towards the seediest dives this side of Quintessa, something more... ephemeral.
See, it even has Viceglide using words like "ephemeral." Power of shore leave.
Like now, under the dim magenta lights of one of said seedy dives planetside, where Mae's sprawled out on one of the booth seats against the wall and Viceglide can sling his leg over her cockpit, be as close as he damn well likes.
"Statistically, it's bound to happen again," she says.
She has a cube of high-grade in one servo, the other rests on his helm.
"What is?" he asks, because his helm feels kinda fuzzy and she's so beautiful that it makes it a little hard to think about anything else.
Maelstrom snorts and drains the rest of her cube in one long pull that leaves him staring at the cabling of her throat. She throws the empty shell at Blackout, which Viceglide finds hilarious.
"Another with abilities like mine," she says musically, Vector Sigma, everything about her is a song, "you were playing with my hands."
Yes, he was doing that, wasn't he? Looking at the tiny points of the needles tucked under her claws, wondering if he could reach them with his glossa—
She laughs again, optics slitted under her visor painted with black highlights, "You're overcharged." She tilts his head up and Viceglide's never been more in love in his function. It takes a nanoklik to turn his vocalizer back to something coherent.
"Am not."
"Lies."
"Am not."
"Damn lies."
"We've had the same amount."
"You're half my size."
"Don't I know it," he said, knows it and loves it, "gonna prescribe me somethin' for it?"
And then her lip curls up, she huffs the softest laugh, leans down, oh, yes, yes please—
Like he said. Shore leave was great.
