Mechs Are Terrible

Ever since her bug-pet got taken away, there's been something of a sea change in Arcee. She quit her job at the Senate, moved out of her habsuite, and...pretty much vanished for a while.
At least...up until today. This cycle, she's checking Blurr's usual haunts in Ibex, trying to find out where the speedster's been.
Well Arcee's in luck this time already, Blurr and Feint are walking through a commercial strip near the tracks. There's quite the buzz of excitement about, since an announcement was recently made that the races would be resuming in seven megacycles' time. So all the vendors and merchants are back, selling sports propaganda again, in preparation for the big day even though it is still a significant ways off yet. But this is Ibex, what more could you expect?
The racer is pointing out some of the typical race day things to Feint. She still has a lot to learn about her new life. And he still has a lot to learn from her. Everyone here is race-crazy. He seems to be doing well, at least on the outside. But what else is new? He -always- has to look like that.
Feint is almost overwhelmed by the amount of activity. It will take getting used to, and she shies away from the crowds a little, sticking very close to Blurr, who is a very convenient spot to hide behind when things get a bit too heated. As a flying frame should be -somewhat- used to speed and agility, and yet... she does not give that impression. She seems to be more acclimated to walking, and has none of the typical behaviors of someone who should have come from and been trained in Vos.
"Hey, Blurr!!" Arcee has learned one thing about the racer, he's always deluged by fans. Not such a big deal if you're in the center of it all, but if you're on the outskirts of the crowd, you need to make yourself seen and heard, or you'll probably miss out. She waves enthusiastically, with a big grin. She's still pink and still mostly herself, although...*something's* different. Her armor seems a lot more 'serious'. She's definitely bulked up. Also, she's wearing an Autobot sigil, now.
Now that Arcee is probably much stronger, she might not have too difficult a time muscling her way through the crowds. Blurr does spot her, after all her waving and grinning. Oh...she looks sooo familiar! He points at her. "I know her." He says to Feint. "Slag it, I don't remember her name, did you see her at all when we were connected?"
He waves the other fembot over. "Hey uh..." he looks somewhat sheepish. "I remember you, I do. I swear I do. I just--what was your name again?"
"He has trouble with names," Feint immediately adds. "Hello there! It's nice to meet you, ma'am." She salutes and then adopts a respectful pose, the type that disposables are required to give to their betters.
Arcee's smile fades a bit, but it isn't out of anger, it's definitely concern. "You're still having those memory issues, aren't you...well, no real surprise there. I'm Arcee!" She peers at Feint. "Nice to meet you as well, and you are?"
"Oh, Arcee!" Blurr grins. "That's right. Now I remember. Yeah, I guess I am. Sorry about that, I've always kind of had that problem. But you know, when you meet that many people every cycle it gets to be a lot." He looks Arcee up and down, wow, she's really gotten some upgrades, hasn't she? "Wow, you've really toughened up, huh."
"I'm Feint, now," the little blue aerodrone answers. Blurr was probably running waaaay too fast for Arcee to realize she was the one carried out of the Institute in the dead end.
"You're Feint *now*, but who will you be later?" Arcee quips with a chuckle. Nope, Arcee has no clue, she's never seen Feint before in her life. "So...yeah! I kind of had to quit my job and get real with life," she tells Blurr. "I can't pretend like everything's alright anymore, because it hasn't been alright in a while -- and what's more, it's not like I can depend on anyone else to do the things I *know* I can accomplish." She claps her hands together, once, in a 'well, well!' sort of gesture. "Soooo! What have YOU been up to?"
"Oh, not much, since the races were suspended I've just been training a lot, and trying to keep everyone from going crazy waiting for the matches to be reinstated. You know, the usual." Blurr says, still grinning. "So you quit your job huh?" He glances at her badge. "-And- you've got a new job. How's that going?"
"Well, I -was- TC-I38," Feint adds. "But Blurr suggested I should have a real name." She just kind of keeps near Blurr and lets him and Arcee chat. She's not sure what to say!
"It's...too new to say one way or the other," Arcee laughs. "I have to make myself useful to them, first. Being a little office assistant isn't exactly...intimidating. I have to really work on that." She peers strangely at Feint, as if under the impression there's something a bit 'off' about the other Femme.
Feint picks up on this. "Oh I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm a disposable caste, you see. I know it's a bit unusual for me to have a full name instead of just a serial number, but Blurr insisted," she explains. "He's kind of my hero, if it weren't for him, I'd probably be on a laboratory table by now."
"Ohh, I see." Awkward. Arcee does one of those half-effort smiles, really unsure what to think about Feint's sudden revelation. "Well that's actually very sweet that he rescued you...that's a terrible place. I'm...fairly sure the police took my pet there. Matter of fact I'm almost positive they did, just because he was different. Not particularly fair. But it sounds like you got a lucky break, Blurr's just the best, isn't he!"
Feint's smile fades and it dawns on her what Arcee might be speaking about. "... They wanted him for the underground place, didn't they? That's where they took me. Because of what I can do."
"I suppose they did..." Arcee tilts her head. "So...what *can* you do?"
"I see -everything-," Feint replies. "Through walls and buildings, deep underground, I can see where energon ore is, where radiation sources are, the pulse of radio bands in the air, heat and gamma waves. I can even see through people's bodies, right to where their energon and spark are."
If she wasn't unnerved before, Arcee's *definitely* unnerved now. Not scared, but...creeped out, maybe in the same way one would be creeped out by some crazy mech on public transport who suddenly announced FREE SCRAPLETS FOR EVERYONE! "Wow, that's...amazing," Arcee exclaims. Which is true! It IS amazing. "And it's probably pretty useful, too."
"When the mining foreman learned about it, he sold me to make extra money because of it. I used it to save others who were trapped in a cave-in. I could see their sparks and bodies through the ore, so we were able to rescue them."
"The value of being useful, you see? It's universal," Arcee points out. "While I'm not saying the foreman's conduct was particularly good, I guess my point is...your value in that moment changed your fortune. And I suppose right now, I'm working to do much the same thing, because that's really what it's going to take. So what are your plans now that you're free?"
"Well, I'm going to help Blurr however he needs it. I go where he goes, so I'm going to be learning more about the races here. Maybe actually learning to fly. I've never done it before," Feint smiles.
"Well you're certainly more intimidating now." Blurr laughs. "Just look at that." he asides to Feint, nodding toward Arcee's newly armored frame.
"So I take it you're learning how to fight, and stuff right now?" He asks Arcee. Probably listening to boring lectures from Prowl, like most of the cadets do. "And I know, her sensors are pretty amazing."
Arcee folds her arms across her chestplate. "You're probably on someone's watchlist," she says matter-of-factly to Feint. "I mean...I'm not telling you that to ruin your cycle, but it's probably true, so...keep it in mind. I've already been shot at, in a public place, so...that's why I got refitted, it's just too dangerous anymore." She nods to Blurr's question. "Oh yeah, half my cycle these days is sparring, either with a drone or with someone who's available. Right now it's...as you can imagine, more me getting punched out than winning, but I'm working on that."
"I would assume I am, yeah," Feint replies with an understanding nod to Arcee. She looks up at Blurr. "Maybe we should consider learning how to fight. I mean, given everything that's happened..."
Blurr nods knowingly. As knowlingly as someone as naive as he can, anyway. "Oh, I know. I'm sure that no-good pile of scrap who wanted to experiment on her before is still out there looking for her. But I won't let them get their hands on her!" he exclaims with determination.
He shrugs at Feint's suggestion. "I don't see why, I mean maybe you could, in case you ever wanted to go out on your own sometime." Of course, the racer is convinced that he doesn't -need- combat training. After all why would he need it when he can move so fast? No one would -ever- be able to hit him! At least he thinks. Not that he's ever been in a -real- fight before.
Arcee frowns to herself, as she's faced with a sudden realization. Sure, she's a little slow on the uptake sometimes, but...! What was all this 'we' business, coming from Feint? And 'I go where he goes'? What was THAT all about?? They sure seemed unusually cozy together, considering that this Feint wasn't even in the picture the last time Arcee came across Blurr, and it was *not* that long ago. Something was strange, here.
(Maybe she's got some kind of emotional manipulator powers,) Arcee thinks with some suspicion. Yes, THAT made sense, and it could very well be an outlier thing for all she knew! Because...wasn't it obvious to the speedster how much trouble Arcee went through to rescue him? To track him down??
And not only did he not recognize that...he couldn't even remember her *name*. What a blow.
"Yeah, well! I'm sure you're busy. See you around," Arcee says with curt politeness, deciding that this would be the cycle she would definitely beat that training drone into scrap. Literal...*scrap*. She wasn't going to stop punching until there were scraps left.
Oh, Arcee. If only she knew! Blurr just likes being the hero. He's never had that chance before! It made him feel important, like something more than just extremely talented entertainment. Feint was just...the perfect damsel in distress. And Arcee is -so- not, especially with being able to take things into her own hands and deal with life being difficult on her own like that...
Which, actually the racer kind of admires that. It's not his fault he doesn't remember what she went through for him! -Other- people...don't want him to remember. He looks surprised at Arcee's sudden curt tone as she just starts walking away. FWIP. Suddenly, he's in front of her. "Hey, what's the deal? Was it something I said?"
"No, it's..." Arcee looks up at him, then sighs and glances away. "It's nothing you said. I'm just kind of disappointed, that's all. Expectations and all. Sometimes I raise the bar a little TOO high. Imagine for a minute that you have a goal, and you don't quite reach it, and there's no way you're going to reach it. And you can't try again because you only get one try. It feels like that."
"Uh..." Blurr just stares blankly at her. Yep, that all just went waaay over his head. He tries to imagine the goal thing, but it's kind of beyond him because right now all he can think of is comparing it to racing, and he just -doesn't- fail to reach his goals in racing. "What expectations? I mean did I promise you something, then forget?"
Arcee grins. Of course he wouldn't know about not winning! "No, you didn't. Look: How do you think 'not winning' would feel like? Honest question! What if you did your best, but someone else won? What would go through your mind? How would it make you feel? I know it's impossible, but...try to imagine it."
"Well uh...." Blurr tries to think about it, but in his mind he's only ever let others win sometimes for the sake of reptuation. He rubs the back of his neck during an awkward silence that ensues. "How about you just tell me what's bothering you?"
Arcee can't help but chuckle. "Okay, sorry I stumped you there. I'll just go ahead and tell you. I've kind of liked you for a while, but I figured I would just get to know you better and everything like that. Looks like I made the big mistake of forgetting that you take life at warp speed -- which is fine, she's a lovely femme and I'm very happy for you, but all the same, I'm disappointed because I was hoping that maybe someday you'd see that...that I'm not that crazy after all, and I really WAS looking out for you on that day I really annoyed you, and...and maybe we would realize that at some point and it would all fall together, but...oh, I just got my hopes up too much. I'm young and it's the first time I felt like that, and...and I didn't know what to do, and I ended up annoying you so much you forget my name every time you see me! So...yes, I'm quite disappointed right now. But I hope we can still be friends, and...and I hope someday I won't have to tell you my name and you'll actually remember it."
Blurr just stands there, dumbfounded as Arcee rambles on. He is...really trying to make sense of it all, but he just can't quite do it right now, what with some of his memories having been completely erased or corrupted, and others having been force-compressed. Finally, he figures out something to say. "Hey, I'm sorry but don't worry about the name thing, it isn't just you. That happens with everyone, practically." he chuckles. "And uh...when did you ever annoy me? I mean I keep trying to think of when you did but I just remember us meeting at Jump Joint that one time and I can't think of anything you did or said that annoyed me at all."
"..." he pauses. "And-andIpromiseI'llrememberyournamenexttimeIpromise!"
Arcee laughs. "You're too cute," she exclaims. "I'm still looking out for you, disappointed or not, okay? There's definitely something very unsavory going on that's causing those memory lapses of yours." She smiles fondly, with a tinge of sadness. "Well...I'll let you go, for now. Have to go talk to the cops about my bug. I really hope that despite everything, we can still be friends. I'm kind of glad you forgot about how annoyed you were that one day," she kids.
"Well, maybe you -thought- I was annoyed, but I actually -wasn't-!" Blurr suggests. "Sometimes people come off wrong, you know?" He pats her on the shoulder. "I don't see why not," he replies to the comment about being friends. Because according to him she's done nothing wrong. "I don't think you're crazy, when did I ever say you were crazy?" Pfff. He laughs. "Maybe you're crazy to think I thought you were crazy."
The racer frowns a little, wondering what she's so sad about. Oh, maybe she's just worried about her pet. "Well, good luck with that, I hope they can help you find him!"
"Hopefully. I'm pretty sure they took him to the same place you found Feint, so." Arcee shrugs. "A little luck is necessary." WHAT. Why did he have to keep being so adorable when she was trying to wish him the best and get the heck out of here?? WHY? Mechs were terrible. That had to be the answer! "Just keep doing what you're doing. I'll be back around to make sure everything's good, alright? Because it's hardly fair that they've suspended racing on you, now what are you supposed to do?"
"Oh, there's plenty to do, don't you worry about me." Blurr chuckles. "But uh...I would be worrying more about your pet. Especially if he's in the same place where Feint was. What makes you think he's there, anyway?" Maybe Solvent has an -entire- torture factory down there! It wouldn't be below him, would it? "But don't worry, I was with some people, and I think that place'll get busted real soon! I'm sure the police can help you figure out for sure where he's disappeared off to, though."
"Ehhh, I don't know, they haven't been very forthright with me in what they've done with him, which has me a little worried...but I think I'm in the right frame of mind to head back to Rodion and lean on them to tell me. Because he's not just an average insecticcn, I mean...he can TALK. He's pretty awesome. Kind of like you." She laughs.
"Wow, a talking Insecticon!" Blurr's optics widen slightly. "That is pretty awesome. I didn't know they could." He grins at the compliment. "Thanks. Well, maybe they're the just really busy." Of course he doesn't realize -they're- the ones who sent Kickback to the torture-land. "But I'm sure they'll find time for you soon. Even if not I'm sure that terrible place won't last for much longer."
"If those 'clinics' keep popping up, we just need to do the right thing and keep shutting them down," Arcee says. She's still feeling quite upset, but it's settled down into her psyche now, and it's easier for her to cover up. There's still a training drone marked for total destruction on her 'to-do' list. Because, darned her miserable luck! "I'm going there now...tell you what, I'll find you later and I'll tell you how it went."
Blurr nods. "Yeah, here." He hands her a card with his hailing frequency on it. "You know how to contact me now." The racer grins. "Make sure I don't forget your name, okay?"
Arcee grins widely, confiscating the card. "You WILL remember my name," she promises. "Because I'm not going to let you forget it." She's no Feint, but that doesn't mean she can't make a name for herself in her own way. At one time, she thought she was only good for sitting in an office, taking commands from some Senator, and look how far she's come from that already! She waves and heads off with determination. Maybe if she gets one thing accomplished, she can make that thing finally reuniting with Kickback.