Y is for Y-Chromosomes
Too many vehicles pulled out the saying 'boys will be boys' when they were trying find a way to excuse some form of inexcusable behavior…but Dynamite had learned long ago the types of situations where the saying should properly be used. This was because as the captain of the Piston Peak's Smokejumper team she had learned that while her men were some of the hardest working guys she could ever ask for, they desperately needed the chance to play and burn off steam every once in a while.
On days where the team was fully off the fire line and all the chores were done, Dynamite tried to give her team the space to play as hard as their hearts' desired for a couple of hours by retreating to Patch's domain for a proper woman to woman chat. This particular day both vehicles had mixed up a mug of fancy mocha and had settled in for a proper gab.
As always, they had started with shop talk. They meandered their way through regulation updates and the latest budget figures and when they grew bored of talking work, they switched over to discussing some of their guilty pleasures. Patch was a voracious reader and always found joy talking about the latest novel with a vehicle who didn't mind her spoiling all of the plot points because her tastes landed solidly in the true-crime genera. The dispatcher was about to launch into a particularly in-depth rant about the latest Game of Throne theories delays when there was a soft knock at her tower door.
"Mind if I join you all?" Pinecone asked somewhat timidly. When Dynamite gave her a slightly quizzical look. "The rest of the team are building ramps again, and while that is often fun, sometimes you just want a relaxing afternoon."
Dynamite understood Pinecone's situation completely. While it was awesome to be part of a team of men…sometimes those men forgot that the women on their team were in fact women and might have a different opinion on which activities constituted proper entertainment. Honestly, Dynamite suspected that her team sometimes forgot that not all of the men on the team always had the same opinion about which activities constituted proper entertaining…but there was only so much she could do to convince Blackout to start advocating for himself...but she was digressing.
"Of course, you can join in." Patch grinned and did her best to put the larger vehicle at ease. "We were just getting into a proper discussion about this season's bachelorette discussion."
Pinecone perked up at that and instantly launched into her own opinion. As she did, Patch gave Dynamite a subtle wink and the captain couldn't help but smile into her mochi. It was true that her men needed chance to be boys, but it was also true that the women on base also needed the opportunity to be girls and there was no one as skilled at drawing that out as Patch.
The conversation continued to meander as it flowed from one vehicle's interest to another one's right up until a loud yawl of pain instantly caused Dynamite and Patch to pause mid-sip of coffee.
"Will you all simmer down!" Cabbie's echoed across the base and his tone instantly allowed Dynamite to relax. "Honestly, you think that the whole lot of you were raised in a mine."
"BUT IT TOTALLY WAS…" Avalanche sounded a bit cowed.
"Which was why I expected you to be the responsible one!" Cabbie gave a long barking laugh, which Dynamite knew communicated exactly what the male members of the smokejumper team needed to hear. It let them know that the old plane wasn't mad them, but they had pushed their play out beyond the realm of safety and Cabbie cared too much about them to let any of them get badly damaged on his watch. There was a muttering of apologies (which were mostly drowned out by Avalanche) and the guys resumed their competition with a bit more care until of course they got carried away again and Cabbie reminded rein it in a bit.
Boys will be boys…and luckily when they were there were a couple of adults on base to ride herd on them to keep them from doing anything too stupid. Which of course gave the whole gaggle of them the freedom to find creative ways to create trouble.
Term- Y-Chromosome- The Y-chromosome is the piece of genetic material that produces a male. Bringing up someone's Y-chromosome is often done if someone through common sense out the window in order to try to one-up someone in their peer group.
Author's Note- If you are an adult who has discovered that you need a chance to be a kid everyone and a while but needs some help getting to that goal, may I suggest the Escape Adulthood Society. It is an organization dedicated to the art of defeating adultitis and encouraging whimsy...and it is something the smokejumpers would totally rock at.-