Philosopher Seeker

-Since speaking with Megatron, Swift Blade has been looking for the one known as Rumble. Of course, she took some time out to help Blast Off and is still in training at Vos, so she hasn't put /all/ her time into it, but now that she has time she's looking again. She knows he's small, and that's about it. So, here she is at the Forge, looking for Rumble again.

-There's some little loudmouth up in the observation area, who seems to be armchair-coaching some of the combatants. He's a little minibot who's snacking on some energon goodies in-between bellowing at the fighters. "Hey there, rusty aft! Let's see some spark. Get up an' frag that flymech!" The little mech flings an energon goodie at the fighter, and it pings off his helm.

-Thundercracker walks out of the Repair bay section suddenly and pauses as he hears bellowing from the stands and fighting in the arena. The Seeker decides to take a seat and watch whats going on.

-Well, the loud guy is small, so it could be Rumble. Despite his yelling, she approaches him. "Excuse me," she asks politely, "but are you Rumble?" Facing the minibot at this angle, she doesn't see Thundercracker walk in.

-Rumble glances over at the femme addressing him, and he suddenly grins. "Yeah, that's me! How'd you know??" Well, at least she didn't call him 'Frenzy'; he gets enough of that as it is.

-Swift Blade wasn't looking for Frenzy. In fact, she doesn't know of his existance, so there really wasn't much danger of calling him by the other mech's name. "My name is Swift Blade and I've been looking for you," she explains with a faint smile and a polite inclination of her head.

-Thundercracker glances up at Rumble. Figures that's who was bellowing. He notices a femme Seeker talking with him, the same one that fought the dragon the other cycle. He let before the fight was over but since shes standing there fully functional, she must have won. "I see you won the other night?" he says over the din of the fight. Then he decides to move slower so he doesnt have to yell and he gets up and walks over.

-"Ah, well! It's good to meetcha, Swift Blade, now what can I --" Rumble smirks as Thundercracker suddenly approaches. "Hey, don't be rude. This nice femme came in here lookin' for me. /Personally./ See, that's significant. Cause you ain't in the picture."

-"Won what?" asks Swift Blade, looking mildly confused. She doesn't recall being in any fights...the situation with Blurr doesn't count because she didn't actually FIGHT him. Then she turns back to Rumble. "Megatron told me that I should speak with you about getting some information," she says.

-Thundercracker frowns and takes another look at the femme. Yea this one does seem a bit less bulky and theres no gun on her back. "Oh. I thought you were someone else." he looks at Rumble. "Information? You? What do you know short stuff?"

-"I know everything, that's why Megatron's got me as the go-to guy for all the important information!" Rumble boasts to Thundercracker. Of course, he has NO idea why Megatron sent this femme his way, but he's about to find out. "If Megatron sent you then I'm definitely happy to help," he tells Swift Blade. "What kinda info you lookin' for?"

-Swift Blade smiles faintly at Thundercracker. "That's quite all right," she says, not at all offended. "I suppose some people stand out more than others." Nodding once to Rumble she goes on to answer the question, "He says I should get all of his writings to familiarize myself with them, and this his position. Also I should learn who is in his army."

-Thundercracker didnt mean to get her mixed up with someone else. Then again that happens to him sometimes too. He listens to Rumble's comment and just flicks a wing. "Yea sure..."

-"Well, absolutely, toots! I got all that stuff." Rumble produces a datastick from subspace, and hands it to Swift Blade. "This has the mannyfesta, the whole text, all the info about who we are, an' why our movement is important to the success of Cybertron's future! Keep it...read it a bunch...it's completely insperitational an' you'll wanna read it many times." He looks to Thundercracker with a smug expression, as if to say: see? I'm really the go-to guy!

-Swift Blade doesn't have anything to say about Thundercracker's doubt of Rumble's knowledge, but she does raise a questioning optic ridge; she isn't sure if he's teasing the other mech or if he really has such a low opinion of him. Banter is not one of her skills.

Solemnly she takes the datastick from Rumble. "Thank you," she says. "Do you also have a list of the current members of the Decepticons, or is it something that isn't committed to written form yet?" She wasn't sure if Megatron meant for her to get an actual list or just memorize it from listening to Rumble.

-"Well my name is Thundercracker and that's Rumble as you know." the Blue Seeker begins and he starts rattling off a list of names.

-"Yeah, a lotta the VIPs in this outfit hang out here," Rumble admits, nodding in agreement with Thundercracker. Then he mentioned to Swift Blade, "We don't keep too much down on record like that, cause it can get back to the cops. But if you ever wanna know somethin', everyone here is involved in some way or another, that's a guarantee. An' you can always look for us here."

-Swift Blade nods her head at this, though she's not sure if that's exactly what Megatron meant. But if things are still meant to be covert, then this would make more sense than having a nice roster inputed on a datastick. "How many people come here that are not involved just to watch the fights?" she inquires. After all, that's what brought her here the first time. Things had changed since then, however.

-"Oh a lotta mecha come in here cause they like the fights, an' nothin' else, you know?" Rumble answers. "But the more they come here to see the fights, the more they end up gettin' involved. No one's GOTTA follow Megatron, see. But once they meet him, or listen to him or read his book? ...It's impossible not to agree, cause Megatron's tellin' the truth that everyone else is too afraid to say."

-Thundercracker nods, "He's right. This place is a good way to get the word out on what Megatron is trying to do and gather us all together for."

-"It took me a while to make a decision," Swift Blade says to Rumble. "I couldn't have made one before meeting him personally, but even that wasn't what finally prompted me into a decision." She looks over at Thundercracker and nods her head. "Hopefully those who join do so because of some belief and not simply because it seems like a good opportunity to indulge in violence," she says. "I suppose that's a downside to working out of a gladitorial arena." She shrugs her shoulders.

-"Welp...okay, are you a colonist, or have you been here on Cybertron for a while?" Rumble asks.

-"Neither," says Swift Blade. "I was from here originally, but I was taken away by the Quintessons and sold into slaver. I only got back semi-recently." She smiles faintly. "I was in denial of the war for most of it; I didn't /want/ there to be a war, not because I didn't think there was a cause for it, but because it made coming home more complicated than I was expecting."

-The tough little mech nods. "Yeah, so you seen some time offworld an' here as well," Rumble muses. "An' you know full well what it's like to live under oppression. Then you can see that...the government here is gettin' more an' more like those slave drivers. Those who got poor or menial jobs...they're treated like property. That just ain't right."

-"It certainly is NOT right, and I feel little remorse over their fate. But from what I've seen war doesn't only punish the guilty; a lot of innocents get caught in the crossfire, and that was the source of my hesitation." Swift Blade sighs softly. "But when I realized something about myself I also realized that I would either align myself with the Decepticons or remain alone." She shrugs her shoulders.

-"I think the more Decepticons you talk to, the more you're gonna see that we're all pretty different," Rumble mentions. "Some of them are real chill an' super nice, like my friend Soundwave, who I think you oughta talk to. Others...you're right, others don't give a frag who gets caught in crossfire. Megatron don't like collateral damage. He's into convincin' the oppressed that might is gonna set things right."

-Swift Blade nods her head at this. "Megatron is a very impressive mech," she says. "And certainly far more accessible than any of the Senators or the Prime. He's down here working with his people by using a hands on approach; not sitting barricaded behind fancy walls. To me, that is what a leader should be. There is a connection of sorts between him and his followers that I doubt most law abiding citizens can claim with their leaders."

-"An' do you see why the violence is important? We tried peace. Me, an' my brother an' Megatron...we were all once part of the same minin' crew. We mined some of the toughest energon mines out there. An' what did we get for it? Nothin' but more oppression, more unfair treatment." Rumble looks toward Swift Blade. "The ones who try an' ride this out without takin' sides...they're gonna die first. The Senate's gonna crack down an' begin killin' the disposables en masse. This is why we gotta fight back. It's for what's right. It's...it's for our sparks."

-"I see that it's right because, from what you and everyone else has said, peaceful measures have failed." Swift Blade clasps her hands behind her back. "When I was young we were subjugated by the Quintessons, Our people KNEW what it was like to be oppressed, and yet some of them are doing the same thing. It is far more of a betrayal when it is our own people that are making Cybertronians suffer," she says. "But some people are just not fit for fighting, and there should be some way to protect them so they have a chance to recover when peace is won."

-Wow, this Swift Blade was a real thinker, Rumble ponders. Rumble, on the other hand, was NOT a thinker, not at all. He was more used to bashing heads in with his pylons. "Oh yeah, I mean...we got room for every kinda mech who wants to follow Megatron. Scientists, medics, all kinds from all castes!"