#(peepo carmela if you read this im so sorry i dont think i wrote seven or viggo right. elwins a gremlin.)

[fistsoflightning]

8: live a little

prompt: clamor || masterpost || other fills || ao3 mirror

word count: 858

What’s the point of a giant mech if you can’t have a little fun with it?

Contains spoilers for Sapphire Weapon/Sorrow of Werylt questline? Sort of? But also not really? Thanks to @windupnamazu​ and @winduphaurchefant​ for letting me drag Seven and Viggo into Elwin’s joyride LMAO

If Cid didn’t want him sneaking off and fiddling with the giant mech, Elwin thinks he would have had the foresight to talk first and show the really big, cool robot after he finished talking about boring things, like safety precautions and the actual purpose of said mech. Really, he should know better by now—maybe asked Syhrwyda to tie him down, or something. Keep him from wandering off from below everyone’s noses.

Well. Either way, he would have found a way to sneak past, because they wouldn’t have let him near it regardless, not without a baby leash or something keeping him from getting inside. The incident with the colossus (and, yeah, nearly trampling Nero in the process too, he supposes) was several summers ago at this point!

With Wyda not paying close attention to him due to Cid’s lecture and the rest of the Ironworks crew he’d brought along not really expecting a renegade lalafell (well, except Seven, but he took one glance at Elwin, sighed, and looked back down into his pile of scrap metal salvaged from the old facilities nearby) he’d made it all the way behind the giant feet of the G-Warrior before he realized his first problem.

How the hells does anyone get in this thing?

Even if he looked as far up as he could crane his neck, there wasn’t anything that vaguely looked like a hatch or door. In all likeliness, it might be something strange again, like what with the other things in Azys Lla being overly complicated. Always with the tricky, strange contraptions with Allagans.

He taps his chin, quietly listening to the quiet clank of metal and what random words he can pick up from Cid. Someone from Ironworks might know just how to get in, though, so he looks over to where Seven last was and waves.

“Sev,” he whispers, smiling brightly when Seven peeks up from his pile of random scrap bits. Cid probably has some sort of rule that kept Seven from touching the G-Warrior himself, now that Elwin thinks about it, but a few rules could be broken if he looked innocent enough. Maybe. “Help me get into the G-Warrior?”

Seven’s nose scrunches up. “I—mm. Cid’ll have my hind if I help ya, but…”

“You can say you were just trying to stop me but I was faster, or something!” He taps the side of his goggles, adding a small wink at the end. “We can co-pilot. C’mon, it’ll be lots of fun!”

For a moment, it looks as if Seven might call Cid over and blow Elwin’s very, very shoddy cover, considering he’s not trying to hide that badly, but eventually he just sighs, drops the piece of Garlean warmachina shielding he was inspecting back into the pile, and quietly walks over, arms crossed in that way he does when he’s thinking.

“We’re going to need a step ladder,” he grumbles. “or maybe some other, taller co-conspirator. Seat inside’s made for some ten-foot tall Allagan or something.���

Elwin sighs. Of course. He could probably wheedle Valdis into helping, if he could grab her attention and no one else’s, but considering how tall she is and how bright her hair is...

“Pardon,” someone says from behind Elwin. “But perhaps I could help?”

When Elwin turns around, standing behind him is a tall man with tousled brown hair and ridiculous eye bags, still wearing his doctor’s coat for whatever reason despite having come up from Gridania to a former war zone, and part of Elwin nearly expects to see Marron lurking somewhere to make sure he doesn’t get up to anything funny.

“Viggo!” He’s known Nero for long enough to be familiar with the doctor, he thinks, to be his usual amount of energetic when greeting him. Viggo smiles, but the glint in his glasses suggests something a bit more than general interest in, well, driving a mech around. “Wanna help us sneak into the mech, huh?”

Viggo hums his agreement, looking up at the G-Warrior. “I had thought it would be nice to get out of the clinic for a bit, and I heard from the grapevine about Ironworks’ new project, of sorts. Could use a little bit of… fun.”

There’s something in Viggo’s eyes that worries Elwin just a little, but it’s probably fine, and besides. What harm could the three of them do? It’s not like they’re going to swing around the giant swords in camp; the salt dharmas would work as target practice—if they could get there in the first place, he thinks, quieter than the part of him that screams WHAT DOES THIS DO AND CAN I BLOW THINGS UP WITH IT.

Well, he thinks after, that’s what the test drive is for!

“Right,” Elwin says, dropping his fist into his palm. “Let’s get to it!”

It takes the three of them a lot of maneuvering and thinking to get into the G-Warrior without Cid noticing, but the horrified screams and curses that crackle across Cid’s intercom when Elwin manages to get the G-Warrior moving are so worth the trouble of potentially not getting dessert for the next few moons.