Food for Thought

++ Rust Narrows ++
Rewind is a new member of Hot Rod's so-called "Team Trouble" and this has meant the small mech's rather limited world just got a whole lot bigger. It's a little frightening, to be honest, but it's also rather exciting. And while Rewind himself is no fool, he can't help but crave a little adventure. Coming from a disposable, almost slave-like background he learned not to stick his nose out where it doesn't belong... too much, at least... but even that background could never quell his natural curiosity. Becoming an archivist for the Hall of Records, and gaining a video camera with which to record MORE archival footage has only encouraged that curiosity. 
So now he walks the streets of Nyon through the Rust Narrows, absorbing all the sights and sounds- and recording them as he goes. He probably should be more wary, but adventure is calling and he must go... go.
Harbinger is simply walking through the streets, for once not garbed in her usual heavy cloak, her black and golden colors standing out rather throughly with their reflective shine. The stares and muttering she draws doesnt seem the bother the Insecticon as she keeps moving along the streets, pausing here and there to look over various things.. more often then not something shiney that stands out against the more muted colors of the run-down area, her soft musical voice echoing as she sings softly to herself.
Taking this all in, Rewind still can't quite get enough. His camera whirrs and clicks and zooms in and out as he records everything from the crumbling architecture to the mechs on the street. And then his camera picks up something unusual. Zooming in on the black and gold, he unwittingly starts staring at Harbinger. "Wow... an Insecticon."
Harbinger is presently stopped in the middle of the street, looking at a pair of shiney Femmes who had been off to the side discussing something but both had turned to stare back at the Insecticon. Her antennas twitches a bit, and she gives a cheery "BOO!" that causes the two Femmes to jump before she turns and wanders down the street again, a bit of a hop to her step as she continues the soft singing, her path leading her along the street in Rewind's general direction. She does notice him staring a bit and she raises a hand and gives the V sign.. though the massive and very sharp looking claws attached to the back of her hand glint rather clearly in what lighting there is there.
Now, MOST people... especially people Rewind's size... would probably back off at this point. Those claws look formidable and rewind is not a fighter of any way shape or size. But his curiosity draws him in like a cat- let's just hope it doesn't kill him. He steps towards her. "Hi, I'm Rewind! I've never seen an Insecticon before."
Harbinger 's course changes and she zeroes in Rewind, her hands dropping down and lopping behind her back as she stops a foot or so away from Rewind, crowding his peronsal space a great bit and almost seems to /purr/ "Ooohh.. someone who is brave enough to talk to me. Finally a mech who actually had steel bearings." Her voice raises up in a almost challenging tone to the other mechs around the two, though her focus remains on Rewind, "Rewind hmm? I've heard that name.." She taps brings a claw forward and taps it on her chin below her mandibles, "Was that a snack I had before.. no, can't be.. if it was you'd be dead."
Rewind looks at Harbinger with a hint of concern as she crowds in- and there is a definititive *ulp* from the mech as she mentions snacks. He stands his ground, though, taking the opportunity to get a close up look at an Insecticon. "Uh... well... yes, that makes sense." He looks down at himself. "But I'm sorry, as a disposable I've ever really been able to properly pkeep myself... I imagine I wouldn't taste very good anyway. All... dusty and... rusty, I think."
Harbinger almost purrs in response, "That's what a oil bath is for.. get all that excess.. rust off so you can enjoy the snack properly.." She starts to circle around him, still crowding him, optics glowing faintly from behind her facemask as she looks at the mech, "Not many Hollows /want/ to meet my kind.. even fewer want to meet me.. and even FEWER live to do so." Another few passes and she purrs out again, "So why.. would you /want/ to meet one?"
Rewind begins to wonder if this was such a good idea after all.... but while he's (mostly) sensible, he's NOT a coward. And he's already in deep now, so might as well continue. "I'm an archivist." He points to his camera. "It's my job to record things- record people, record events that might have historical significance. You never know what chance encounter might lead to a decision, or an action that affects others. Might have significance far down the road. It's really interesting, you know? How a chance encounter can sometimes have lasting repercussions!"
Harbinger works her mouth a few times, the mandibles clicking together, "Hmmm.. snack.. now I'm hungry." and stares at Rewind. Finally she rolls her shoulders and walks off to one side, turning around and sitting on a metal crate that had been left there for some reason and looks at the Mech, "Or a chance encounter the provides me with a snack is a good thing for me.. not so much for the snack." She leans back legs kicking a bit as the crate is just big enough to keep her off her feet, and puts her hands behind her head, "Last people who wanted to know me wanted to try to take me spart. Did not work out so well for them."
Rewind stares a moment, still a little unsure how to take all this. Then he decides to just keep doing what he was doing. "Oh!" He looks down and rummages through his subspace compartment, finally bringing up a small energon cube. "Would this help? I got this from some friends. We don't have much, but we have enough to share with people who are also in need." His hand lifts up, offering her the cube.
Harbinger tilts her head to the side and looks at it, hmming softly then reaches out to take it, sniffing at it a bit before tossing it back to Rewind, "Meh.. not that hungry yet." She rummages around in one of the pouches she has strapped in a few places across herself, most unnoticable till she reaches into one and pulls out a small chunk of fairly shiney metal and nibbles on it a bit before mrrring. Finally she shakes her head and looks at Rewind, "So what did you want to know, hollow? My favorite snack are the ones taht squirm around.. kinda like you are doing now.. then the ones that are more shiney.."
Rewind accepts the cube back, then just sort of stares at her a moment. Slowly, he reaches down and picks up a spot of rust on the ground, lifts it to his frame... and rubs it in. There, not shiny at all now. There's one more pause, then he continues on like nothing just happened. 
"You eat metal, then?" he asks as she starts nibbling, then realizes that maybe he wants to direct her to some conversation that doesn't involve *eating* at all. "Um... well, let's see. What brings you to Nyon?" Hopefully the answer's not... eating small mechs.
Harbinger takes another bite of the metal and chews on it for a bit before swallowing it and returning her attention to Rewind, "Nothing. Felt like walking.. and walking took me this way."
Nodding, Rewind finds another crate nearby and hops onto his, his own legs swinging as they are far too short to reach the street pavement now. "I see. Do you come from a Hive? Don't Insecticons live in hives? You have many relatives?"
Harbinger tilts her head to the side, "Why does everyone ask that?" She scrounges around in the bigger pouch along her back and... pulls out the head casing of a Insecticon, a Queen-type from the general look, "Was I part of a Hive? Yes. Till they decided I would serve the Hive better dead. I objected, they still tried, and all that are left of my Hive are myself and my Queen here."
Rewind blinks. "Your Queen? Here?" He looks around, confused.
Harbinger simply holds up the REALLY shiney, and fairly large Insecticon head she had pulled out.
Rewind staaares. Then he leans away a little. "Oh. That's... that IS your Queen. Um.... nice." Is there a polite way to say this is a bit... unstandard? Then again, maybe this is normal for Insecticons, who knows. "She's very... uh, lovely." He thinks he may feel a little sick now. 
 
Looking away, he changes the subject once again. "So, um, my impression is that Insecticons have had... a bit of a hard time of it. Just like... just like people like ME haven't been... always treated so well. I know what I've heard from some people, that you're... well, you're ... not quite like us." (Stare at dismembered head- no kidding.) "But as an archivist, I'd like to hear YOUR side of the story, if you wouldn't mind telling me, that is."
Harbinger flips the head in her hands a few times then puts it away again, the same happy smile on her face that has been there since the start, "I was hunted by my own kind.. what would it matter to me if the Hollows hunted me as well? None have been good enough to finish me." The smile does grow more at Rewind's reaction to the head, "There is no story.. they wanted me to die 'For the good of the Hive'. I objected. I won, they didn't."
Rewind ...actually looks sad. "Your... own people wanted you *dead*?" He clasps his hands on his lap, tilting his head. "I'm sorry. that must have been difficult. I haven't had an easy time, myself. I'm a dataslug, a disosable, a... throwaway. But no one ever wanted me dead. Certainly no one I cared about."
Harbinger simply shrugs her shoulders, "It was many cycles ago.. they thought they could add what I could do to the Hive." She tilts her head to the side as she looks at Rewind more closely, "You are only disposable if you let them dispose of you. You live, you object, you fight. your only throwawayable if you just lay down and die."
The little mech tightens his fingers closer together in a ball and looks upwards. "I've... never exactly laid down and... died. But soemtimes it's hard, you know? I'm not a fighter. I'm..." Rewind's hands unclasp and spread wide as he looks at himself. "Well, look at me. I'm *tiny*. I can... object, but if my so-called superiors *object* to me objecting, well... then I'm kind of at a dead end."
Harbinger moves suddenly... from where she was sitting she is suddenly standing next to Rewind, her large claws inbedded in the wall behind him to either side, the inner blade of each resting against his neck, that same smile still on her face as her faceplate slides back to show her face directly, "Then do you want me to make it easier? Turn you into a snack here and now, so you don't have to fight? Make it easier for you so you don't need to choose?" She watches the mech for a long passing moment, "Because there is not thinking on it.. you want to live or you want to die. If you want to live, you fight no matter what, mech.. if you want to die, then die and get it over with so you stop wasting other's time and energy."
Rewind jerks back, freezing and staring as Harbinger lashes out so close to him. His blue visor stares up at hers, his ventilation cycles going a little bit faster now. The small 'Bot is speechless at first. Then there's a blink as he stirs to life and his hands come up to try and push her away. "I want to live! I want to live, Okay? I..." He starts trying to scramble back and to the side, though her claws sort of halt that progress a bit. "I...I can fight! I..I..." He looks a little lost. "I... just don't know HOW."
Harbinger's claws flick just a bit, leaving tiny marks on the sides of Rewind's neck before she pulls back, "Then fight. There is no one way to fight, Mech. If you want to /live/ find your own way to fight. We are both small, and we both wish to live but I have these to make larger mechs think twice.." And there is the soft swish of metal brush metal as she works her claws a bit against each other. "You simply need to find /your/ way to fight. But /never/.. NEVER surrender and just go with the flow."
She pauses as the other mechs in the area are making more rumbling noises about bugs and dealing with them.. she turns her attention back to Rewind then leans in and gives his forehead a kiss, though her mandibles to leave a bit of a mark, giving him a bit of a hickie before she draws back and grins, "And as I am rather hungry right now and do not wish to fight quite right now I will make my way away from here before they try to 'deal' with me agian." She turns and starts to walk off, the bounce still in her step as she simply just fades away, increaisng the muttering from the croward as she does.
Rewind stares up at her still, the Insecticon commanding his full attention. And how could she not? He winces just a little as she marks his neck, but the claws are soon gone. He can't help but "breathe" a small sigh of relief- and then she leans forward and kisses him on the forehead! The mech's surface circuitry blushes just a bit. As she pulls away, he tilts his head at her. "... That... that makes sense." His gaze is thoughtful as she disappears back into the crowd. Then he smiles a little under his faceplate, touching a finger to his head lightly. "Thank you." 
 
She is right, too. Though, he thinks, his manner of fighting will not be through physical force. No, his fighting will be a battle of the mind and the spark- with the power of information.