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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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Look. Severa wouldn't call herself clumsy. But it was possible she was getting used to a street she hadn't gone down in a while—she knew the city, sure, but she didn't know every part exactly the same. And it was possible that she tripped over a jutting up piece of the sidewalk. And she miiiight have tumbled into a bunch of motorcycles parked on the street when she did.

But all that was totally hypothetical, because nobody saw, right? No muss, no fuss. She could just go on her merry way and pretend that somebody else was responsible for knocking a couple of motorcycles over. Even if one or two of them looked kind of expensive. Punk kids, right? You couldn't trust them for anything. Nobody would ever suspect someone like her, looking like she just walked out of an American Eagle catalogue. The perfect... accidental not-a-crime.

Despite his best efforts, Orion's attempt at being independent has yet to become very constructive. In truth, he just has no idea where to start.

He managed to talk Magdal's ear off a little about issues, but even that couldn't give him an answer so easily. It helped him consider things a bit more objectively, perhaps, but that was only of limited use when his spark was so tied up in this. Either option would hurt, and even if he could decide which hurt more, what he wants to believe has little to do with what's actually true.

He knows that. He does, and he hates ever day he wastes not being sure. Either way, he is leaving his friends to worry - or people who should be his friends. He hasn't spoken to Megatron since he left.

The guilt is what has really been getting to him. It seems like no matter what action he takes he is doing someone wrong, but he knows that anything less than the correct choice is unacceptable. There's not guarantee that if he doesn't make the decision for himself, and soon, that someone else won't make it for him.

Right now, his indecision has him shellshocked, and he can think of little to do with the situation but remain in his alt mode and try to think. He's taken to parking at a truck stop towards the outer rings of the city, and thus far he's spent almost two days doing nothing but watching humans come and go and intermittently recharging.

He's angry about what's been done to him, but more than anything, he's angry at himself.

Arcee's spent most of the day just driving around the city already,
trying to gather information, but while she's learned some things
about the day to day comings and goings of humankind, she's picked up
very little about the Decepticons or the threats the Earth itself
holds. She's decided to call it a day and head back to the Rod Pod to
regroup; she's grinding out her frustration on the road, just focusing
on the sensation of her tires on asphalt, when she passes the truck
stop. It's impossible not to recognize Orion's alt mode, especially
when she spends so much time thinking about him, about whether or not
he's okay on his own. He'd been in bad shape when he'd left the
Autobots.

She hesitates to approach him at first. He hasn't reached out to her
since he left; she doesn't know what's happened in the interim. Then
again, she's fairly sure he's alone. And it's not like she wouldn't
leave him alone if he asked her to. She just wants to check on him,
that's all.

Arcee flashes her headlights briefly as she circles around to pull
into the space next to Orion, her holographic driver appearing to
dismount once her engines have idled, and she hits up his comm link.
Might as well keep the conversation private, if they can. "Orion? It's
Arcee."

When he's already been doing little more than zoning out for several hours now, its easy for such a communication to catch him off guard - especially since his comm link has only just been repaired. His engine abruptly rumbles in surprise, and he finds himself far more agitated than he would have been in the past.

He's still feeling the edges of what happened to him in the tower. Any sense of being snuck up in leaves him panicked.

It takes him another moment to realize that her vehicle mode is actually right next to him.

"Arcee," he replies, his voice stiff in a way that clearly betrays his surprise.

Arcee had slid into a vacant space in the line of motorcycles parked
in front of a strip of restaurants and small shops, watching -- and
listening -- to the people passing by. She's idly keeping an audial
out for any important keywords in passing conversation, but most of
her attention is directed inward as she taps into human data networks.
That's where the real information seems to be.

So when a spectacularly clumsy human knocks into a motorcycle a few
away from her, she doesn't notice right away -- not until she feels
the scrape of the one next to her hitting her plating and her kneejerk
reaction is to rev her engine and try to gun it out of the way. She
doesn't quite manage, her tires squealing for traction briefly before
she topples over altogether with a noisy clank. Scrap.

"Hey, watch it, kid!" she snaps, scrambling to project her holomatter
avatar in her surprise. Her avatar appears rounding the corner toward
Severa, an agitated-looking woman in biking gear, but it comes just a
moment too late -- anyone paying attention might think that the voice
came from the motorcycle and not the lady moving to hoist it
back upright.

Nothing is coming up Starscream. Ever.

Sure, he's fortunate that Megatron wasn't anywhere NEAR as mad as Starscream had thought he'd be upon learning that they still only had half a synthetic energon formula, or at least he hadn't taken it directly out on his second... but once Starscream had given him a name for a possible holder of a second piece, Megatron had sent him on his way and out on Orion Pax hunting duty.

This in and of itself wasn't necessarily a poor assignment. He had his orders: Locate Pax, observe from a distance and avoid engaging him, and tell Megatron immediately. This he didn't mind, because he now had his own personal investment in the task, especially since Pax had gotten in touch with him and informed him of the presence of Autobots on the planet.

Thing was, he is having zero luck locating the bot from the air, which is infuriating because how damn hard could it be to locate a bright red and blue big rig? And so he finds himself (rather unwillingly) wandering the city once more, holomatter avatar skulking about a local shopping mall among the crowds upon crowds of humans, keeping an audial out for any sort of rumors or leads that put him back on the right track.

He's marching his way past a food court when an internal warning indicator starts going off. Conflicting signal... He turns this way and that, looking for the source before finally tracing it back to what looks like an ordinary Earth female to the naked eye, but under the scrutiny of an energy scan its origins become immediately apparent. Another holomatter avatar. Another Cybertronian. A Decepticon would have likely checked in upon arrival on this planet, so this could only mean one thing: Autobot.

He carefully falls into step a good distance back from them, watching carefully. Willing to observe for as long as possible, but also waiting for the moment when they inevitably catch on to his presence there.

Edited 2014-05-19 13:58 (UTC)

Well, this conversation's already off to a great start. It seems like it's impossible to get off on the right foot with Orion, despite her best efforts. This whole situation is just...impossible.

"Sorry -- I didn't mean to scare you." It's a genuine apology, but she has to struggle to keep the disquieted tone from her voice. She's getting the sense this conversation won't last very long. "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

The past few days have been rather crazy for Matilda, needless to say. A lot had happened in the couple of days that she had begun to live on her own, and she couldn't say that much of it was particularly good. After the recent events with the towers, however, she had decided that maybe taking a more active role in her community would be a good thing. The first thing she thought she ought to do was warn others about the dangerous Cybertronian in the forest.

Sadly, it seemed like she was running into the same problems she often had before.

Everyone seemed to think she was lying. Some of them even though she was joking and sure perhaps her artistic rendition of Airachnid wasn't exactly the most intimidating thing but no one seemed to be bothering to listen to what she had to say.

Yet she would continue looking for at the very least one person who would heed her warning, and so that's why she remained near the library entrance, trying to get the attention of anyone who came through it.

A little bit of exhaust plumes out of Orion's tubes as he balances himself, already feeling uncomfortable with the way he greeted her. It wasn't any sort of personal reaction, this time, he's fairly certain. It's more that he is just a total mess at the moment no matter how you look at it.

"It is fine," he says, his engine winding down. He's trying to sound formal and polite, but there is a strain to his tone. "I meant no ill will, I just...have been in a reasonably poor state. Which I am sure does not surprise you."

Arcee isn't exactly on the lookout for other avatars -- although she knows it's a distinct possibility -- but she is keeping an eye out for suspicious figures. That, and she's been in the field for a long time. Honestly, she'd be pretty put out with herself if she didn't notice the guy tailing her eventually.

Her sensors pick up the guy tailing her and she lets him follow for a while, just to make sure it is what she thinks it is. At first she thinks it's just some human being a creep, but an extra sweep of the area with her remote scanner reveals...an anomaly. That's not a normal human. No, it's definitely a holomatter avatar, not unlike the one she's using now. And an unidentified Cybertronian holomatter avatar on this planet, following her here now, means only one thing.

Decepticon.

This could be her chance to really learn something new. After all, if she can get any intel at all on Megatron and the other Decepticons...this might sway the tide of the conflict here. Of everything with Orion.

Arcee weaves her way through the food court and past a few shops, stepping into a corridor whose signs advertise they lead to a restroom. The second it becomes apparent that her would-be pursuer is still following, she sidesteps and pivots to face him, and she sure doesn't look like she has time for any bullshit.

"All right, I've had about enough of letting you follow me. Who are you and what, exactly, were you hoping to gain by staring at my back all day?"

Edited 2014-05-19 18:35 (UTC)

That's a comfort, though a small one. Arcee doesn't feel good about the fact that he's so jumpy, that he's so...unlike himself. He hasn't been faring well since he left the Rod Pod, that much is clear, and Arcee feels a pang of guilt in her spark. Maybe she should have tried to get him to stay longer, at least until he'd recovered.

"Not really," she admits grimly, sighing. "You weren't in great shape when you left. That's...why I wanted to make sure you were doing all right." And evidently, you're not, is what she wants she want to say, but that doesn't seem constructive. She's never had to choose her words so carefully with him before. "You haven't been attacked, have you?"

"I have not," he says, his words continuing to come out awkwardly as he struggles to say the right things. It's more a desperate grab to be socially appropriate when he doesn't really know what that means in this context.

"I received some medical aid from a member of the local indigenous species. They did not know our species anatomy well, but their familiarity with machines allowed them to help somewhat." He falls silent for a few moments. His rear view mirror shifts.

"...I apologize for the stress I have likely caused you as of late. Whether you are wrong or right, it has not been my intention."

"You let a human work on you?" There's a thread of rising alarm in Arcee's voice, though it's not accusatory, just worried. "Orion, that could have been incredibly dangerous. I'm sure most humans don't mean us any harm here, but -- "

Well, she still doesn't know who exactly was responsible for the mind control. It could have been human, it could've been something else, but they don't know what humans are capable of. What they'd do with information on Cybertronians. Discretion has always been their top priority on alien planets.

But it's his last comment that catches her off guard. So much of their conversation has been painful, strained; Arcee knows he's just been trying to be courteous, polite even, but the genuine admission of regret is strangely unexpected. It's strangely personal, coming from someone who'd seemingly been trying to put distance between himself and the Autobots. Her tone softens immediately, taking the words to heart.

"Orion, it's...all right. It's not your fault. It's...part of the package, I guess."

The library seems like a good place to check out information -- she can probably get a good connection jacking into any human data networks here, at least, and there are plenty of people, too. Arcee's been doing a lot of people-watching. It's been pretty informative.

But the little girl at the entrance of the library with the spider drawing catches Arcee's attention. She's far more inclined to take the word of a six-year-old girl than most other humans, if only for the fact that Cybertronians don't...really have a concept of childhood. Arcee gets that it's a thing, sure, but she doesn't have the same reluctance to trust a kid that other humans might.

She stops at the entrance to the library, her avatar frowning in concern as she bends slightly to address the little girl. "Sorry -- wait -- could you repeat that?"

"It was...a friend of a friend," he explains. He knows full well it still could have been dangerous, but when it had come as a recommendation from Magdal, it had felt like something he could be much more certain about. Also, Vanessa's status as 'human' was a confusing one to him.

"And I feel the weight of responsibility for it all the same. The longer I go undecided, the large burden I put on my true allies. I am not all that worried for myself."

Matilda seems to straighten up when Arcee approaches her. It finally seems like she has caught someone's attention. Granted its an adult, but she supposes that's better than no one.

"My family and I were camping in the forest not to far from the city," she didn't really want to explain why she was out there by herself, "when we saw a really big robot lady. She was really, really big and built like a spider." Matilda stood on her tip toes and stretched her arms out to try and indicate just how big Airachnid was. Which of course would not actually be a clear indication to anyone who had know knowledge of Cybertronians.

"We've been trying to warn people not to go there, but no one has been taking us seriously."

Despite the fact that he completely expected her to turn on him like that the moment he decided to follow her down that hallway, the sudden launch into confrontation still startles Starscream, and he pulls back a bit as Arcee whips around. That voice was oddly familiar, but he can't quite place it...

He smooths over that pretty quickly though, laughing darkly and leaning on one arm against the wall with an obnoxiously smug grin on his face. That no-nonsense look she's giving him is really only encouraging him to be obnoxious. It isn't like they can do much to each other like this anyway, which actually gives him more free reign to say whatever he wants.

"An ex-Prime-- I believe you might know him-- he informed me that there might be some autobots on this planet... Rumors have a tendency to make me curious, so when my sensors picked up signs of an unknown Cybertronian in the area I just thought I'd take a look and see what we're up against." He pauses, for a moment, looking her over and raising one eyebrow. "My initial conclusion to that line of inquiry would be: 'not much'."

Legion catches Arcee's unique heat signature during another people-watching session, and pings her comm. The consensus decides to use audio this time; she preferred it the first.

"You remain upon Earth, despite your assurances that you would leave when Optimus Prime alias Orion Pax was secured."

Oh, crap. "Uh. What?"

Yeah. Yeah, still perfect. Severa looks over her shoulder at her "handiwork" and pretends to have no idea what's actually going on. "I didn't do that."

She's not really paying attention to the source of the voice right now, because she's focused on her lie. Which is still amazing and believable. In fact, she even tries to keep walking and let this be someone else's problem. But... dammit, no, she can't. She stops.

"Which one is yours?" she asks, still totally committed to her lie.

Arcee doesn't know what organic allies Orion could possibly have on this planet, but she decides she has to at least trust his judgment there. Second guessing everything he does won't help, and at least he hadn't gone back to the Decepticons. After all, he's not that different from Optimus, not where it counts, and she'd always trusted his judgment.

"You never are," Arcee sighs; this is strangely familiar. "But I am. Orion, I think...this is harder on you than anyone right now. You've been thrust into the middle of the story, asked to make a choice based on secondhand evidence alone. And it's personal for you. I can appreciate how difficult it must be. But whatever you decide to believe about Megatron...I just need you to know that Optimus Prime wasn't a war mongering tyrant. He was one of the best bots I've ever known, and I wouldn't be standing today if it weren't for him. Whatever else you decide, I just want you to know that. Because believe me, Orion -- if Optimus Prime were half as ruthless as Megatron says, the war would have been over a long time ago."

That grating voice, the smug, cloying manner...there's something naggingly familiar about it. Arcee's sure he's a Decepticon, and she's sure she knows him. But she can't quite place it just yet. The avatar's eyes flash angrily and she takes a half-step start toward him, just stepping in closer, because she'd mindful of their surroundings -- can't risk an open confrontation. Not worth it.

Yet.

"I wouldn't be so sure," she bites out, half-hissing the words. "You and your Lord Megatron aren't going to get out of this scot-free, believe me. I know what Megatron's done. I'm telling you right now -- it's not going to work."

She sounds far more confident than she feels, but anger is an excellent motivator. She's been seething over this for days, tamping it down, but now that she's finally encountered a Decepticon, it's all starting to bubble to the surface.

"Yes yes, and we'll never get away with our 'evil schemes' and the bot who became Optimus Prime would never be so easily fooled for long." Starscream rolls his eyes, looking extremely unimpressed by her grandstanding.

"He came to us like that, you know. I found him, wandering in the desert and brought him back for consideration. You have Lord Megatron to thank that he's even still functioning at this moment. If he'd listened to my advice, Pax would be rotting in a scrap heap somewhere right now. And if Megatron decided out of the kindness in his spark to catch his old friend up on some Cybertronian history in all the time that he missed, well...naturally he's going to get our side of the story."

He pauses and continues to stare Arcee down appraisingly for a moment. "Where is dear Orion Pax at the moment, anyway? Ive been so concerned, we went through quite an ordeal together and I havent seen him since. Surely he is in need of medical attention, which the Decepticons are readily equipped and happy to provide for him..."

Perhaps he should have been, then, Orion thinks darkly for a moment, though it's a sentiment that is quickly brushed aside. The idea of so many years of war is still hard for him to fathom, and any world where that could have been truncated is an appealing one. He misses Iacon badly, and even weeks later it's still hard to imagine its loss.

"May I ask you a...personal question?" he eventually asks, his tone careful. "What is your relation to Optimus Prime?"

A personal question, from Orion Pax? It seems like he's avoided asking those thus far. At least where Arcee is concerned, anyway. It's the first thing he's really asked her about herself, outside of what she thinks about Optimus Prime. And even most of that had been volunteered rather than solicited. Her mirrors angle towards him, as if in a sidelong glance.

"I'm...not sure I understand what you're asking, exactly," she admits, her tone considering. "Optimus Prime is my commander -- or was, anyway. But you already knew that."

When Arcee's mirror tilts, Orion's tilts away, like a weird truck equivalent of avoiding her gaze. This is a stupid question, he thinks. She is right, what more would there be to it?

He thinks about his own feelings for Megatron, though, and how lost he feels. There have been so many little things about the way she's responded to him, that he's starting to wonder.

"I have...gotten the impression that even beyond rank, there was a particular emotional bond. I mean to ask if there has been something I am missing that I should be...taking into account."

Oh Primus why did he just ask that.

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(Muffled spaghetti western music playing in the distance)

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puts on the good the bad & the weird soundtrack

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