Don't Knock the Insecticon

-Thundercracker is walking down a busy street in Kaon looking around at verious vender stalls. He more than likely stands out as he is a flier and not everyone can fly. He looks a bit out of his element but everyone has to walk at some point.
-Zephyr also likes to fly when she can, but sees the merit in not attracting too much attention. As an Insecticon she's not exactly in a good position as far as social hierarchy goes. Her wings, of which she is admittedly somewhat vain, are tucked away while she walks the streets. Today she is somewhat absent of her usual drone followers. Without her wings and her drones, she looks small and insignificant.
-"An' dun think y'kin fool me 'gain wi'tha cheap coolant! Jus' coz I'm not oner yer miners dun think y'kinna cheat me!" Oh the messy and lazy speech of Swivel. One could argue that she must have picked up that way of talking from somewhere. Admittedly, she didn't tak much better than the empties who had tried to ambush her the other cycle. She looks a lot better off, though. The femme, who is mostly tires and legs, stands in front of a vender stall flailing her arms emphatically as she tries to get a fair deal for her shanix. 
-Thundercracker stop suddenly. He knows that voice, that 'accent'. Who could forget it. The Blue Seeker looks around for a huge set of wheels on the back of a small femme with flailing arms. "What the problem here?" he rumbles as he walks up to Swivel and looks at the vendor.
-Zephyr stops as well and stares at the rather inarticulate, over-gesticulating femme. Curious, she veers in that direction, noting the blue Seeker that is also standing in the area. She doesn't know him personally, but she's at least familiar with Seeker types. Clasping her hands behind her back she stands there and quietly watches.
-"Th'problem is 'e sold me dirty coolant claimin' it was 'clean'!" 
       "The problem is this femme is slandering my products!" 
       Both the femme and the vender spoke at the same time, pointing their fingers at one another while looking to Thundercracker, trying to appeal to him to take their side. And at the same time, both of them glare at each other. 
"It'ent slander f'its true!" 
       "I never claimed my product was clean I--" 
       Once again, they speak at the same time, their voices loud and competing over one another to be heard. Neither have noticed Zephyr, obviously, as they are quite preoccupied with one another, and the more obvious witness to their dispute. 
-Thundercracker looks from one to the other and back again. "You what then?" he asks the vender and reaches for a container of what he feels is the coolent in question to have a look for himself.
-Zephyr comes up to stand a little off to the side of Thundercracker as she watches this little drama play itself out. She really doesn't have much opinion of commerce; Insecticons don't really buy things from each other. Either they help each other, or they don't. It's really quite simple.
-Swivel turns, setting her large purple optics on Thundercracker for support, but is quiet and allows the vendor to speak. The vendor, meanwhile, is giving a very dirty look at the femme, which changes to a look of anxiety when Thundercracker examines a container of coolant. "I never said it was clean, I said it was cleaner than the local competition. Times are hard, resources are scarce, and miners and mining equipment are the life-fuel of Kaon's economy so most of the coolant is used in the company stores for them.... we ned additives to make things go further. I never claimed to have high grade anything, the femme should have listened more closely." Admittedly, the containers the coolant are in have very little information on them, just a label, manufacturer, and the top three ingredients, and then a little note saying "chemical traces" indicating that anything, really, could be in ther. Coolant is only the second ingredient. 
       Swivel looks to have allowed herself time to calm down. "Wellum, 'en I jus' gotter go t'yer comp'tition ter see fer m'self if yers is ther cleanest, cos if so, 'en I jus won't buy coolant in Kaon again." Swivel offers up a casual shrug. Perhaps too casual.
-Thundercracker pours some of the coolant on his hand and checks the viscocity of it and scans it. "Not much coolent in this." he says finally. "Would work for low labor alt modes but not couriers." he hands the container back to the vender but says nothing. Then he turns toward Swivel but notices a small femme standign and watching them. "Who are you?" he asks point blank.
-"My name is Zephyr," the insecticon says, antennae bending back slightly. She doesn't offer any other information nor does she inquire of the mech's name. Neither does she explain what she's doing there, though she gives Thundercracker an almost inquisitive look.
-"Wha'? We met th'other...." Swivel trails off, suddenly realising that Thundercracker was not talking to her. She turns to see where Thundercracker is looking, finally seeing the quiet femme who had been observing the littler commotion. 
       "Um..." the vendor clears his vents, "...you going to pay for that coolant you just opened?" the vendor asks as civilly as he can so as not to offend Thundercracker.
-Thundercracker notices the antennae and raises an optic ridge. "You're a bug." he says and then looks at the vender. The stare is blank and the Seeker grabs the bottle and closes the lid so tight as to effect a 'factory' seal back on it. OR at least as close as he can fake it. He sets it back down. "What did I open?"
-Zephyr blinks her optics at Thundercracker's comment, then slowly nods her head. "I suppose you could put it that way," she says dryly. "Though we prefer the term 'Insecticon.'" She doesn't exactly sound offended, but she certainly isn't impressed either. As for the bottle, well, she lets the vendor and the Seeker work things out for themselves.
-The vender stares as Thundercracker simply closes the bottle and denies having meddled with it. A rather disgruntled expression comes over him and the tenseness he is displaying makes it looks as though her were about to protest, but then he instead snatches the coolent and tucks it away somewhere, grumbling. The whole time Swivel has her hand over her mouth, trying not to giggle at this little interaction. 
       "Wow..." Swivel turns her attention to Zephyr. "Y'talk good fer a'secticon," Swivel says, meaning to give the femme a compliment.
-Thundercracker flicks an airelon, "I thought so." he looks back at Zephyr and starts to say something when Swivel speaks up. He laughs a bit, "Far better then you can, thats for sure." he teases. Then he gets serious, "Come on lets find you some decent coolent -- hey maybe she might know a good spot." he motions toward Zephyr
-Zephyr tilts her head to the side. While it's tempting to point out she speaks even better than Swivel, she refrains. Which works just as well since Thundercracker apparently does it for her. "I practiced," she says, perhaps a little flatly. For a moment she flicks a glance to the vendor, but says nothing directly to him.
"I can't say that I do," she says, shrugging her shoulders. "Though if Hollows were smarter about things, their resources wouldn't be so low," she points out, flicking her antennae towards the vendor who had been complaining about such things.
-"Come on, move along move along! If you aren't buying anything then scram!" the vendor jeers. 
       Swivel also laughs a bit - she can take teasing fairly well and doesn't seem at all put off by Thundercracker drawing a comparison between herself and the Insecticon. I'm sure there were some who would find it pitiable for a femme, even in a low caste, that could not speak even as well as an Insecticon. Especially considering the stigmas and common misconcentpions surrounding the bugs. "'Ollow? 'Oo's 'ollow?" Swivel asks, tilting her head. She doesn't sound indignant so much as bewildered.
-Thundercracker narrows his optics. "I think we just got instulted." he says as he moves away from the vendor. "What is 'hollow' suppose to mean anyway?" he stares at Zephyr.
-Zephyr tilts her head to the side. "Ah, yes, you might not know that. It's what we call the others on Cybertron. Most of you are hollow in spots to accomodate your other forms," she says. "We are not the same that way." Surely if Swivel practiced as long as Zephyr did, she would speak this well too! "It is not a matter of insult, just a matter of different arrangement of our bodies."
-Swivel is more than happy to remove herself from the presence of that nasty mean cheating vendor. Although she is sure he has his reasons for trying to prey on innocent, law-abiding citizens such as herself. "Huh..." Swivel idly knocks on her helmet, then her chest, then her thigh. "Ne'er thought 'vit tha'way," she comments. She edges closer to Zephyr, looking her over closely, as if almost trying to see if there is some indication that she is, indeed, so very different. Well. Other than antannae and other marks of her buggish altmode. 
-Thundercracker folds his arms and loos a bit aloof, "I have air induction systems running the length of my legs, of course Im going to have 'hollow' spots in my form. There no reason to point it out like that though." Hes not sure what to think of insecticons and not sure what to think of this one for that matter.
-There is a great deal of difference between Insecticons and 'Hollows' as she called them, but not so much as a lot of people want to believe. "Just as there was no reason to call me simply a 'bug'?" she returns, raising her optic ridges, antennae twitching back and forth. "We are different, there is no point in denying that." She shrugs her shoulders.
-"Agreed." Thundercracker says and then nudges Swivel, "Come on lets find you some proper coolent." he looks at Zephyr. "You coming?" he asks in a blunt way of asking her to walk with them.
-Swivel edges even closer to the antannaed femme. She glances about, and then reaches out with a fist attempting to knock on Zephyr's back. 
-Zephyr just nods her head and moves to follow the two 'Hollows'. "I'm from deep under the surface," she says as she walks along. But she doesn't get much further than that because Swivel knocks on her back. Better watch out Swivel, you might get knocked over as the Insecticon's wings burst forth from her back and flit open and shut several times.
-Swivel does indeed end up on her rubbery aft. She was so very surprised when something suddenly bursts out right in front of her that she stumbled back, lost her balance, and went down with a bounce-bounce-thud. Swivel stares up in partial bewilderment and partial awe at the wings that had just assaulted her. Yes. Assaulted.
-Thundercracker sees a blurr of motion and then the courier bouncing on her hugely tired back. He looks at the wings as he laughs. "You are the clumsiest Transformer Ive ever met -- and you are a flier?" that kinda impresses him a bit but he doesnt admit it.
-"Don't do that," Zephyr says. She doesn't sound angry or offended; she sounds more like someone absentmindedly telling a child not to do something that is mildly annoying but not really dangerous.
She nods to Thundercracker and smiles. "These aren't for show," she says, taking to the air, but only staying a bit above ground.
-Swivel got told, and has learned her lesson. Do not knock on Zephyr's back. Swivel slowly picks herself up off the ground and continues to stare at the winged femme. Her mode of flight is different than most of the fliers about cybertron, which clearly fascinates the small femme. 
-Thundercracker watches her hovor. "Nice." he glances around to see how much attention migth be drawn to this and then clears his voice synth. "Lets get out of here before cops show up." he turns and start looking for a better coolent vendor.
-Zephyr lands a moment later and retracts her wings, only because she feels a need to be cautious. Still, she awards the mech with a smile. "Good idea," she says with a faint shudder, "I would hate to have them accuse you of stealing me," she adds with a bit of sarcastic venom. It's directed at the system that subjugated her people, not at Thundercracker.
-As they get a move on Swivel rubs her chin. "Yanno.... I'nly jus' learned disposables gots feein's 'n stuff... thought they was automated, not, yanno, people. An'now seein' th'insecticons are kinner like people too." She nods her head, as if agreeing with somehting in her own mind. "Really makes m'think 'bout stuff." Swivel picks up the pace, not wanting to be about if the cops do arrive, as she has been forced to challenge her ideas about them as well. 
-Thundercracker is reminded of just how their society is with Zephyr's comment. "I'm not a theif, though they wouldn't care." he might be slighly priveledged but he's not at the top of the caste system even if he is a Seeker. He looks at Swivel. "Yea I think thers a lot of things most of us don't now the truth about but are fast learning."
-"You /were/ being decieved," Zephyr says pointedly. Now, where have they all heard /that/ before? "We have our own way of speaking that is quite natural to us; it takes effort to learn your way of vocalizing." She shrugs her shoulders. "So it was easy to dismiss us. That and only a handful of us are truly self-aware." She smiles faintly. "But even so we often treat our drones better than your government treats those of your people who have just as much claim to feeling and intelligence as they do."
She nods her head to Thundercracker. "No one owns me," she says, "but your system believes that I should be owned. Or destroyed." She narrows her optics.
-Thundercracker shrugs, "Well if we get stopped and questioned, I will tell them I just bought you, ok?"
-"I wonder 'ow it go'this way..." Swivel ponders out loud as they walk, slowing her pace ever so slightly. She glances over at Zephyr. What an intelligent and beautiful person. Why would someone destroy her? Own her, perhaps Swivel can understand. People like to own pretty things. But she isn't a thing, is she? Then Swivel smiles and shrugs. That's a bit too heavy for her right now. She picks up her pace. "Still need ter find m'some decent coolent!"
-"I can lie," Zephyr says with a shrug, "but are you sure you could afford me?" There's the slightest hint of teasing in her tone. "I'm afraid I know more about general energon production than I do coolant," she says to Swivel with a shrug of her slim shoulders.
-Swivel is glancing about when there is a slightly audible crackling noise. She glances at the two she is with and then takes a few steps, turning her back to them. She is speaking very quietly, almost whispering. And then she turns around. "Gotter go - coolent kin wait. I jus' gotter b'easy on me systems to not use up wot I gots now." With that the femme transforms not waiting for goodbyes and zooms off.
-Thundercracker stands there trying to figure out what the femme just said. Finally he looks at Zephyr, "Could you figure that out?"
-Zephyr shrugs her shoulders. "I got coolent, wait, and systems," she says dryly. "I'm guessing she has to go and will take care of the matter later." It doesn't really matter to the Fluttercon; the other femme is gone for whatever reason. She fixes her optics squarely on Thundercracker now.
-Thundercracker shrugs, "Ok. So, what you wanna do? Im just bored and browsing."
-"What had been your plans before you stopped in front of that little altercation over the coolant?" Zephyr asks. She hardly knows the mech, so she certainly doesn't know what he finds entertaining.
-"Oh nothing in particular, just wandering around." Thundercracker says, "I figure if there's something out here that I'd be interested in, it would find me. Make sense?"
-Zephyr thinks about that for a few moments. "I suppose so," she says. "Though if I were to look for something I would be sure to know what it was before I went searching," she says. "Doing it otherwise doesn't sound very effcient." Then she smiles. "Still, it might be more surprising that way."
-Thundercracker grins, "That's the whole idea. So come on." he turns to start walking down the street again.
-"Lead the way then," says Zephyr. Being spontaneous isn't really her strong suit, so she's more than happy to follow the Seeker mech for now.
-Thundercracker nods and keeps walking. Occasionally he stops to look at what some Vendor may have but then moves on. Sometimes he looks around at some of the mechs and femmes there and subconsously keeps an eye out for senate police or enforcers.
[IC-Decepticon] Starchamber says, "WHEN ARE WE GOING TO WAR ALREADY."
[IC-Decepticon] Starchamber says, "This lolligagging about is intolerable!"
[IC-Decepticon] Megatron says, "When the time is right and not until then, Starchamber."
[IC-Decepticon] Starchamber says, "Oh I know this, but I still say the waiting around is intolerable! To me, at least."
-Zephyr continues to walk along with Thundercracker, keeping her optics trained on the blue Seeker. She's about to say something when she looks annoyed, her antennae pressing back flat against her heat. She sighs softly and shakes her head. "Find anything interesting?" she says dully to Thundercracker.
[IC-Decepticon] Megatron says, "What is intolerable for you is irrelevent. But if you want something to do; go into Kaon and find yourself a worthy opponent for tonight. You will be the star attraction at the Forge this even cycle."
-Thundercracker shakes his head annoyed. "Not unless you count the inner party channel bickering right now."
[IC-Decepticon] Starchamber says, "Are we still doing death matches? It seems a waste of troops to slaughter them."
-Zephyr makes a face. "No, I would hardly call /that/ interesting," she says with mild disdain. Despite the fact she's already discussed the matter over with a more impartial individual, she still doesn't care much for the overbearing femme speaking on the channel.