Ep 1.5 - Shady Characters, Shady Dealings (closed)
Dec 12, 2012 18:20:56 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2012 18:20:56 GMT -5
(Timeline note: this happens after Shadowrunner disappears, and also after the as-yet-not-started Soledad-Ironhide thread.)
It was difficult to keep track of time in the Autobot base. You could tell day from night by the level of activity - things picked up in the daytime, the Autobots having apparently adopted a diurnal mode as an adaptation of working with their human allies - but Soledad had never realized how much she relied on clocks before. In schools, hospitals, homes, there were clocks everywhere, and everyone was constantly checking their cell phones to see what time it was. The Autobots didn't seem as bound to the numbers on a clock as humans were, but they always seemed to show up for their shifts on time - or at least as often as humans ever did. Maybe they all had internal clocks, so they didn't need them on their walls.
Soledad had no clock or cell phone and no schedule, no reason to get up at a certain time or be anywhere in particular. She slept when she was tired and got up when she wasn't; she ate when she was hungry, wandered wherever she would aside from the restricted areas and the medbay, and for the most part was left alone. Jack, Raf, and Miko were friendly enough, but they had school (and Soledad was having a hard time deciding whether she was relieved, jealous, or oddly guilty about the fact that they went to school and she didn't) and Jack had a job, so there were only so many hours she could spend with them.
As best she could, she avoided the Autobots Shadowrunner had called cohort.
In a way it was a relief. It was also convenient on nights like this one, when anxiousness or the odd nightmare had dragged her awake at I'm-not-sure-but-judging-by-the-quiet-it's-probably-Godawful-o'clock. On a school night (not that she would have dreamed of Starscream back when she was still going to school) she would have squinched her eyes shut and tried vainly to get a little more sleep, but at Autobot Headquarters there was nothing stopping her from getting up and wandering the base until she felt tired again. After all, she could sleep 'til two in the afternoon if she felt like it.
In bare feet and borrowed pajamas, Soledad was cat-quiet. Someone was always awake even at this hour, but meeting whoever was on monitor duty meant explaining what she was doing up, and just imagining trying to explain made Soledad's skin itch with tension. She headed down to the other end of the base, where the storage and sleeping quarters were: fewer cameras, fewer Autobots or humans wandering about, and here and there interesting nooks and crannies to poke into. Here, it seemed, mechs kept hidden things they didn't want their imposing, somber-voiced commander finding out about: not bad things, necessarily, just... things. Odd collections. Ill-advised experiments. An energon-condensing machine Soledad had heard described with some relish as a 'still,' putting her in mind of mobsters and moonshiners.
Maybe she should get a better look at this still - maybe she could figure out how it worked. Her step quickened, perking up now that she had a goal in mind, and she slipped easily through the cracked-open door before observing that the room was a bit brighter than it should have been, for this time of night.
Then a huge shadow moved, and Soledad jumped.
It was difficult to keep track of time in the Autobot base. You could tell day from night by the level of activity - things picked up in the daytime, the Autobots having apparently adopted a diurnal mode as an adaptation of working with their human allies - but Soledad had never realized how much she relied on clocks before. In schools, hospitals, homes, there were clocks everywhere, and everyone was constantly checking their cell phones to see what time it was. The Autobots didn't seem as bound to the numbers on a clock as humans were, but they always seemed to show up for their shifts on time - or at least as often as humans ever did. Maybe they all had internal clocks, so they didn't need them on their walls.
Soledad had no clock or cell phone and no schedule, no reason to get up at a certain time or be anywhere in particular. She slept when she was tired and got up when she wasn't; she ate when she was hungry, wandered wherever she would aside from the restricted areas and the medbay, and for the most part was left alone. Jack, Raf, and Miko were friendly enough, but they had school (and Soledad was having a hard time deciding whether she was relieved, jealous, or oddly guilty about the fact that they went to school and she didn't) and Jack had a job, so there were only so many hours she could spend with them.
As best she could, she avoided the Autobots Shadowrunner had called cohort.
In a way it was a relief. It was also convenient on nights like this one, when anxiousness or the odd nightmare had dragged her awake at I'm-not-sure-but-judging-by-the-quiet-it's-probably-Godawful-o'clock. On a school night (not that she would have dreamed of Starscream back when she was still going to school) she would have squinched her eyes shut and tried vainly to get a little more sleep, but at Autobot Headquarters there was nothing stopping her from getting up and wandering the base until she felt tired again. After all, she could sleep 'til two in the afternoon if she felt like it.
In bare feet and borrowed pajamas, Soledad was cat-quiet. Someone was always awake even at this hour, but meeting whoever was on monitor duty meant explaining what she was doing up, and just imagining trying to explain made Soledad's skin itch with tension. She headed down to the other end of the base, where the storage and sleeping quarters were: fewer cameras, fewer Autobots or humans wandering about, and here and there interesting nooks and crannies to poke into. Here, it seemed, mechs kept hidden things they didn't want their imposing, somber-voiced commander finding out about: not bad things, necessarily, just... things. Odd collections. Ill-advised experiments. An energon-condensing machine Soledad had heard described with some relish as a 'still,' putting her in mind of mobsters and moonshiners.
Maybe she should get a better look at this still - maybe she could figure out how it worked. Her step quickened, perking up now that she had a goal in mind, and she slipped easily through the cracked-open door before observing that the room was a bit brighter than it should have been, for this time of night.
Then a huge shadow moved, and Soledad jumped.