never hurts to help!

Wander desperately wants them to be better.

M1 couldn’t help but lift Wander, wheeling backwards away from the battlefield for a foot or two, as if in a silent warning or plea for him not to go that way. Worried glowing eyes scanned the distance, making sure no threat was going to creep up on them before her attention set back down to the fuzzball in her arms.

She had almost lost her friend, she wasn’t sure if she could bare the thought of it happening again if he went out there. It was eating her that she wasn’t out there helping, but she had grown a new objective to go alongside her other one: Protect her friends.

Beeps and whirrs of panicked distress left her, unable to give proper response or logical reasoning; regardless of weither or not if he would actually listen to such.

Hesitance met her systems when he mentioned patching her up, normally standing by a dispenser was all she needed, but there was no guarantee one was even out there in that mess.

Carefully, she sat Wander back down, letting go of him and nodding; trusting him with what he said. She may not be able to speak in this moment, but perhaps she could still guide him on what needed to be prioritized. 

She just hoped the mercs could hold out just a little longer.

Wander’s hand reached far down in his hat, shuffling through the contents. While it wasn’t necessary, he was hoping that the hat really would give him what he needed- and he’d knew how to use it right away.

After all, M1 likely couldn’t be fully repaired by the little orange nomad, but he could keep her together and at least try to help as much as he could before bringing her to Teeni for repairs. 

“M1, ya know ya don’t have to worry to much, right?” He knew the robot was stressed, and about his health, nonetheless! “Thank ya for helping me, buddy, but I don’t want you to worry, okay?”

Out of the hat came another roll of duct tape, which the nomad used to reinforce the other’s previous job of patching up her medigun. He wasn’t sure what else he really could do- he had no experience with engineering to the point of M1′s design. It didn’t help that he was already distressed, biting back the urge to run back in the midst of battle.

M1, curious, had idly circled around the two as they talked. She wanted to sit with them, but sitting, let alone down at the floor, was pretty difficult when one had only a wheel. 

Teeni watched her for a moment before her attention was brought back to Wander, her grin only widening as she listened. “Ah, no need to call me miss or ma’am Wander, we’re all friends here aren’t we?” The engineer giggled, before nodding at his first question “Out of all places on earth, this is probably my second favorite place to be!”

Leaning over upon request, curiosity soon turned into mischievousness as she brought her voice down to low tones..

“Well, maybe not in the same way as us, but she does have several touch sensors on her exterior, touchin’ those tends to make her jump”

“As long as you say so, Teeni!” It was definitely a habit, and he tipped his hat ceremoniously before letting it roll back onto his head. “And this is your second place to be? May I ask what the first is?”

After all, there were many wonderful places in every galaxy- in fact, there were several he wanted to hit in the Milky Way before going back on his adventures! Although the solar system they were in was not the most captivating- aside from Earth- there were still fun places outside of it that humans had never seen.

“Aha! Good ol’ love of travel, fills the tanks right up!” Teeni nodded knowingly before another short laugh left her. She was quite familiar with the strange things of life, yet Wander was something else.

She has almost questioned where his friend was, but she stopped herself as to not interrupt him. Surprise met her features as she couldn’t help but exclaimed “A thousand years?! Goodness!” Teeni sat herself down on the floor, crossing her legs before continuing “Well, you bet lots has changed! In fact, a lot of good has happened just in this past year! I can’t really account for the- oh, 971-ish before me, but there’s that!”

“Yes ma’am, it sure does!” Wander nodded vigorously. He listened to the other attentively, absolutely interested in Teeni. 

“Well, ma’am, I have lots of first-hand experience explorin’ the galaxies- and Earth itself. I have to say, it is a mighty fine planet! Not to say other planets are lackin’, of course.” Wander hummed, craning his neck to curiously peer around the other’s workshop. “Do you like it here, Ms. Teeni?”

He motioned for Teeni to bend down, to whisper to her,

Teeni couldn’t help but giggle seeing such energy and excitement from Wander, shoving her rag into her pant pocket and adjusting her headphones.

“Goodness, and here I thought I was the bubbliest person around here! Pleasure to meet you, Wander!” Teeni beamed while setting her hands on her hips, “Can’t say I ever met someone like you before, what brings you here?”

M1, meanwhile, bent down to better hear what Wander was whispering, a giggly set of beeps escaping her once she heard. 

“Aw, shucks- I’ve got lots of energy at my disposal, ma’am. Got the wanderlust goin’ for me!” Wander never did stay in one place for too long, but Earth might be an exception. 

give my muse a fear and they’ll rate it from 1-10 according to this scale! 

7 - 8 - I see it as a pretty big fear of mine, I cannot stand being in the presence of this, or I could be mentally distraught.

It wouldn’t be like Wander hadn’t thought about it before. After all, Star Nomads were practically immortal. Sylvia, however, was not. There would be a time where she would eventually age, and eventually die, and Wander would have to cope with the loss.

It was not a pleasant thing to think about; however, he didn’t let his eyes water. As much as he loved Sylvia, and as much as he couldn’t imagine live without her, he knew it would all... be okay.

“Well, anon- Sylvia and I still have lotsa time together, by all means. After all, I don’t plan on lettin’ anyone hurt Sylvia and she’s still got a lot of life kickin’ in her.” Quite literally, many times. “But focusin’ on the bad, and the ends, won’t help nobody. And I know Sylvia’d want me to be happy, no matter what ended up happenin’. So I can’t let the fear and the sadness of it control me.”

Worried and distraught noises left the robot until things were finally looking up, her eyes brightening in a newfound relief of her friend healing up quick and springing back to his old self. She even bounced on her wheel for a moment in excitement before calming down. The hug was very quickly returned, and M1 let Wander patch her wounds with the tape.

Seeing him so much better, the medibot picked up her medigun and let it turn off, seeing as he was now likely overhealed. “Ofcoᵒᵒᵒᵒoourse!” Her voice was truly starting to strain, but she didn’t think much of it, keeping her friend safe was far more important.

“Waaᵃᵃᶦᶦᶦii--” A final spark, and a surge of electricity, and her voice finally gave out, near shocking her systems with the backlash. 

M1 resorted to quickly pulling Wander into another hug to keep him from trying to go back to the battlefield, worried and frantic beeps escaping her. It’s true, the mercs were out there dying; but so long as the respawn systems were still up, they would in all technicality be fine. Even the soldiers and demos who were practically flinging themselves across the skies in an attempt to put a dent in this threat would pop out of the room mere seconds after exploding to bits.

Wander, however, was not a mercenary. He was not connected to respawn. If he were to die, that would be it, and that concept was incredibly scary to the injured Medibot. She was not connected, either, but there was still the chance that her engineer could piece her back together. 

At first, Wander hadn’t even noticed the other’s arms around him. Out of instinct, he moved to hug the robot back, although he couldn’t help but be confused. While Wander acknowledged that it wasn’t the safest out there, he felt obligated to help- especially knowing he could.

Why was M1 worried? Wander almost felt a familiarity between M1 and Sylvia in that moment, and the smile on his face had disappeared entirely. He could still hear gunfire and sounds of war in the background, and it was killing him to not be able to help- and yet, M1 seemed worried about his personal safety over what else was happening.

“M1, what’s the matter?” He knew the other’s voicebox was shot, but he still wanted to know. “There’s people hurtin’ out there. I got to be able to help ‘em- though, shucks... I really need to help you too.”

M1 still wasn’t in the best condition, and Wander would feel... awful if things got worse.

“Here, pal- let’s get you fixed up. I promise I won’t run off on ya- just want to be sure you’re okay.” It isn’t often he’s serious, but there were times where it was necessary; he felt like now was one of those times.

M1 was quick to follow en suite of Wander’s picked up pace, such excited energy was practically contagious. The door was wide open, allowing easy access inside. Her engineer friend didn’t have much to worry about now a days, thankfully.

Just as she was about to give some kind of response, a voice called into the room as a short woman entered from behind a curtain. “Oh! I thought I heard company. Find a friend, M1?” Teeni grinned, cleaning her hands on an oily rag before looking at Wander “Hiya! I’m Teeni, whats your name?”

Wander- unbelievably- seemed to become even more excited upon seeing Teeni. The Star Nomad practically bounced on his feet, rocking back and forth between his heels and toes.

“Howdy, Ms. Teeni! My name’s Wander!” It seemed reasonable to assume that this was definitely the person who built M1, and he couldn’t help but feel amazed. “You have a mighty nice place here, may I say!”

M1 let out a distressed robotic noise that could be compared to a sniffle, emotions overloaded with panic and sorrow. The only sort of relief was that Wander could still smile despite everything, but even that was feeble.

“I’m fiiiᶦᶦᶦᶦiine Waaᵃᵃᵃᵃᵃᵃaander--” The voicebox sparked, a stray lazer blast had apparently melted some of the wires within in the midst of their escape, distorting it’s ability to work. One of her hands went up to the voice mechanism, whrrring in unease at the sound of her warping voice. It would have to be fixed later, it wasn’t important- no where near as important as making sure Wander was okay. 

An awry gasp left M1 as the other tried to stand, motioning for him to stop “Stttaaᵃᵃᵃᵃᵃᵃyyy down-! Yooᵒᵒᵒᵒou’re hurt-!” Her deformed voice was filled with metallic worry, fretting over the other’s condition.

The bot briefly glanced at the hat when it fell off, but her main focus was keeping the weak healing beam on Wander. It was only when he asked that M1 put the medigun down, setting it right next to the injured fuzzball to make sure it would still do something as she picked up the hat and reached in. It almost felt infinite, yet her sensors picked up something in her hand so she pulled it out to see.

What had come out of the hat was a roll of heavy duty tape, yet with how emotional the bot was she had a hard time registering if it was for squishy fixing or metal fixing. Looking between the tape, her friend, and the medigun, her head finally did a 360 and snapped herself into focus, of course its for metal fixing! It’s too sticky and harsh on fleshy and furry friends. Goodness that wouldve been bad if she mistook that- Hastily unfurling the tape, she patched up the hole in the tubing; causing the medigun to suddenly spring to life now that the leak was fixed. A stronger, more potent healing beam surrounded Wander, making quick work of his injuries this time.

Wander continued to usher the other off to get his hat. If Wander could appreciate anything, it was his own hat- it always gave him exactly what he needed, even if it wasn’t what he wanted. The roll of duck tape made an immediate breath of relief leave his lungs, and as the other figured out what to do, Wander found himself feeling better and better.

Of course everything would be alright- Wander had never lost hope that it would. After a few moments, he sprung up with renewed vigor, and- undoubtedly- even more energy than he had before being wounded. 

Jumping up from the ground, Wander felt better than ever, grabbing his hat before leaping into the air once more.

“Whipee!  I told ya I’d be fine- ‘n it’s all thanks to you! Thanks pal.” Wander gave the robot a (careful) hug. Although Wander could fix a lot of things, he knew it likely would be best not trying to fix what injuries the robot had, although he found himself patching up anything that seemed dangerous with the tape next. “Now we gotta get back! There’s a whole buncha people killin’ each other- and that’s not somethin’ friend should do!”

Watching Wander pull the banjo out of his hat with a befuddled head tilt, M1 mimicked the tunes of the plucked strings with whrrr’s and beep’s without much of a second thought. What was it, and what was it saying? The medibot did not know.

His words brought her attention back to the conversation (even while mostly one sided), head straightening forward once more. A thoughtful hum of machinery sounded from her, the smile returning as she glanced up to keep track of where they were. In fact, the barn workshop just at the edge of the BLU base was just coming into view. Beeping excitedly, the bot tried to get Wander’s attention and point in that way to show him they were almost there.

Wander stopped midstrum, eyes flickering behind him for a second. Twisting around (instead of simply turning around), Wander spotted the workshop. Without a second thought, he stashed the banjo back into his hat before bounding his way over excitedly.

M1 had a feeling the fuzzy friend would be right, perhaps they will be good friends. After all, she was already content with Wander’s presence.

A gleeful set of beeps left the bot, her smile only growing as she followed the orange fluffball. They nodded at his statement about whom had made her the way she is, her engineer friend had spent a lot of time, thinking and tinkering into making sure everything would work just right. In fact, she was excited for the next installment, which would put her on the same level of vocal communication as everyone else. A imitation of a confused look crossed the bot, Beep Boop? She mimicked, tilting her head once more. With no memory logs of such, she shook her head.

A little skip in his step, a little hum. Wander really couldn’t help himself- meeting someone new- and so peculiar- was an everyday thing, but a very exciting one. He plucked his hat off of his head, pulling out his banjo and giving it a few plucks as he continued to walk backwards.

He couldn’t help but raise a brow when he’s suggested to take both, a questioning look in his eyes before shaking his head.

“Nah, I’m fine with one. I’d rather have you eat to than just give me both and be left with nothing,” He gently argued. He was used to not eating all the time, usually saving most for his crew in case they got hungry themselves, especially if they’re low on them before they restock on supplies. He handed one back. “Trust me, the fact that you offer one is great.”

Cisst listened to Wander, tilting his head at the proposition. His crew members were visiting their old friends and doing their own thing at the moment, and he wasn’t supposed to pick them up until a few days from now.

“Wander, huh? Name’s Cisst,” He answered. He thought for a moment before he shrugged again, a now very slight smile on his face. “It wouldn’t hurt to see. I don’t really have much to do for a few days.”

“That’s awfully nice of ya, Cisst, but I promise I’ve got plenty for the road! If ya need another sandwich anytime, let me know.” If Wander could think of the situation maliciously, he would know it might seem a little off to insist on someone taking two random stranger’s sandwiches- but the poor fellow really didn’t bat an eye at anything he did. “It’s no problem at all! It’s better to share with a friend than to let it go to waste.

“Also, it’s gonna be great to have your company! Sylvia- the usual person I travel with- is out with an old friend today, so it’d just be you and me- or any other friends you bring along! It’d be a shame not to have anyone to see it with me- and a shame not to see it! So you fixed a big ol’ problem by tagging along, ya really did!”

Wander never seemed to shut his mouth, the little orange nomad bouncing in place.

The bounty hunter didn’t expect to see any… fuzzy, orange creatures here. It was rather odd for him, but the galaxy was an odd place. The Chiss looked down, gloved fingers tapping the worn and old helmet he propped against his hip.

Cisst’s red glowing eyes showed a bit of confusion, his brows furrowing before he shrugged. Fuck it, he seemed nice, and the other didn’t seem at all intimidated by his size or his looks.

“Either is fine. I’m not picky,” He answered. “Thank you, I’ve been meaning to eat something.”

“How ‘bout both, then? Carry the spare with you for the road! After all, you probably have places to go and people to see, don’t ya?” Wander’s simply ecstatic the offer is taken. The nomad flipped his hat off his head and into his hand, shuffling through to pull out his picnic basket and then hand the other one of each sandwich. 

“If you’d like to stick around or meet up, I’ve heard there’s gonna be a big ol’ meteor shower tonight! It’s a real sight to behold if you know all the right places to see ‘em, and an even better one when you have company.” If this stranger would accept his food, maybe he’d take him up on that offer too- Wander could always hope. And if not, there were always other opportunities!

“Howdy sir!” 

It was certainly not weird for Wander to appear anywhere. The little orange nomad had made it a mission very, very long ago to visit every planet in existence- and, in his immortal life span, he should have time to hit them all. 

And, on this one, he found himself in front of a very tall individual. Craning his neck up, wander gave them a bright grin.