OPEN | ikea instructions anatomy

[aurable]

CHARACTERS: Drift and YOU
LOCATION: lab and tech storage room + various
DATE: A week after the mission
CONTENT: Drift performing self-repairs and modifications + closed starters
WARNINGS: potential robot body horror? missing limbs and cables sticking out of things*
*no, not like that

THE LABS

[ Bomb disposal and self-repair had one major similarity for Cybertronians — to be entirely zen about either and keep a steady hand was to think of both like this: Cut the wrong wire, and suddenly it's not your problem anymore. Drift didn't believe he was being too reckless and stubborn, but his left arm was on the table behind him. These repairs weren't even out of his wheelhouse, either. Even before the clinic on New Rodion, there were plenty of occasions where he had to hole up somewhere and patch himself up or risk leaking out. Necessity was the mother of invention, and a cataclysmic war was the best crash course in first aid. Drift knew what he was doing.

These weren't even life-threatening repairs, anyway. Drift had meticulously and painlessly removed his left arm and right leg to modify and repair the outer plating. Cables were plugged into his flank where access panels had been opened, with the largest cable running from the base of what approximated the back of his skull to a monitor in front of him. The display was in his language and rapidly scrolling at speeds difficult for a human to read.

Drift swore when a torque rolled out of his reach just enough that he'd had to re-attached his leg to retrieve it. As fortune would have it, the familiar hiss of the sliding open door caught his attention. He looked up and pointed to the tool. ] Could you lend me hand?