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[deadpartners]

Who: Arcee and YOU!
Where: All around L.A.
When: THIS WEEK
What: Arcee's scouting out the city, gathering information and getting to know humankind.
Warnings: idk robots

Nothing about this mission has been easy. Not spending the terse weeks in the cramped Rod Pod with Rodimus, not trying to keep her troops in line, nothing to do with Optimus -- no, Orion now. It had been hard to let him go, to watch him walk away when she knows that she and the other Autobot pose the least threat to him. If he goes back to Megatron, Arcee's not sure what'll happen with the war. And the fact that Megatron's on this planet at all is cause for concern.

That, and the considerably more local threats. Orion's terrifying bout of mind control hadn't come at the hands of the Decepticons, but something Earth-based. Something deeply sinister. Arcee knows a bit about this planet, but not enough. It's starting to look like they might be here a while, so she decides it's time for some serious recon.

She has a holomatter avatar for precisely this reason -- blending in with the local populace, maintaining a low profile. It's a remote projection, solid enough to interact with its environment and relay data back to Arcee. She can learn a lot just by driving around, but certain information is a lot easier to come by when you get up close and personal. She can be found around the city either as her human avatar, who's gathering any information she might be able to find about Megatron's whereabouts and the strange happenings in L.A. of light, or as a sleek motorcycle on the city streets, either bearing a holographic rider when on the move (because a motorcycle moving on its own would definitely be cause for suspicion), or unattended while parked out of the way to watch passersby.

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Comments

[squanderlust]

"You don't seem to have any problem with it," she says over her shoulder, even though yeah, this person is probably just looking out for herself. Then she hears the other woman agree to help, turns around, and grins. With a grunt of effort, she grips the frame underhand and brings the first motorcycle back to a standing position with significant help from her killer leg muscles. It's obviously easier with the ground as a pivot point (she's not dead lifting motorcycles in her free time, Christ) but still maybe an impressive feat for someone as young and small-looking as her.

"Guess I can skip leg day," she says with slightly more wear in her voice than there just was. But she'd never seen somebody lift something that heavy so effortlessly. "How much do you do?"

[deadpartners]

Scrap. Arcee glances over at the girl -- she doesn't look all that old, but she's obviously pretty strong for a young human, and she's struggling with the motorcycle far more than the avatar. Maybe Arcee needs to tone it down a little. These avatars never were very specifically calibrated.

That, and the girl's question doesn't make any sense. Arcee's expression is one of clear bewilderment. "Pardon?"

[squanderlust]

Wait, was Severa not loud enough? No, that can't be it. She can read this other person's face pretty well; she's just clumsy, not stupid. "You... do work out, right?" Is this somebody with natural strength? Or another superhero? No, she'd probably recognize her if she were another superhero. So... she's just ridiculously strong. To the point where she probably could dead lift a motorcycle. And Severa just pissed her off, probably. Well, this'll be fun from here on.

[deadpartners]

Double scrap. It's obvious the girl's asked her a totally normal question for a human. Arcee's done plenty of infiltration work in her career as an Autobot, but her experience with blending in with alien life is comparatively limited. And humans are awfully prone to random chatter with strangers. She's just glad Rodimus isn't here to see this, her eyebrows shooting up as she fumbles for an actual answer. Working out. That means exercise -- training. From what she knows about humans, that means something different for them -- organic bodies are such a strange notion for her to get her head around -- but the concept is familiar at least.

"Oh -- well, yeah," she says as though that should have been obvious, hoping for a quick recovery. "Of course. Practically every day."

[squanderlust]

She can hope for that quick recovery all she wants, but she won't be getting it. Against her better judgment, Severa goes for snarky instead of cautious in her reply. "You know, if you're an unregistered hero, you can tell me." Maybe not full snark. But she does cock an eyebrow with her hip and place her hand on the bike she just righted. "Or don't. I don't make it my business to out people. But it's pretty obvious you've got something going on."

And hopefully whatever that something is won't bite her in the ass if she calls this person out on it.

[deadpartners]

Arcee doesn't see much point in attempting to cover it up anymore -- this part of her subterfuge, anyway. She's a little annoyed at herself for slipping like that, but at least the phenomena of unusual powers aren't totally unheard of amongst humans. She sighs, crossing her arms.

"All right, all right. Yeah, I guess you could say I'm not the most...average human."

[squanderlust]

"I knew it," Severa says, totally full of herself like any normal human would be. She'll leave the speculation unspoken, but she's already running a bunch of possibilities for secondary powers in her head. (Super strength is the obvious one.)

"Thanks for the help," she grunts out after hefting a second motorcycle to a standing position. It probably won't take too much longer now. "Highlander." No, it's her name, not just some random word.

[deadpartners]

It takes a second for Arcee to register that as her name and her eyebrows go up a little, but she nods. "Highlander. Right." She pauses, shifting forward to extend a hand. That's what humans do, right? Yeah. This is totally the thing. "Arcee."