Ep.1 - 'Fangirl' - Open

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<<Set during Week 1.>>

As normal, Fairwinds was heard before she was actually seen.

After putting the Decepticon cassette through the standard battery of authorization checks, alerts, disarming, meaningful looks and final clearance, Layby walked the visitor to the Neutral base in from the outside ledge that was currently serving as the bridging-in coordinates. Fairwinds had not shut up since arriving within his audio-range.

"So then I was like, no way, and he was like, way!, so I was like, dude, I'm so going, and so I did, but it turns out it was totally over-hyped and not as good a selection as I thought, but I still think it looks good. Do you think it looks good?"

Fairwinds stopped in her heavy waddle to stretch up her helm towards the towering mech, and consequently hold the bouquet of metal-crafted flowers clutched in her beak up for closer inspection. Her vocalizer chattered on before Layby had time to do anything more than give the steel posy a look.

"It's cool that Walmart had'em an' all, but next time I'm gonna try and make some myself. It'll be more special, y'know? And I can copy some of the native flowers like daffodils and carnations and gardenias and lavender for the design. Just gonna need some chicken wire and tape and someone with thumbs. Okay bye!"

At some unmarked threshold just inside the Atrium, Fairwinds left Layby's side to scamper ahead at speed. Her wings were half-spread behind her, the posture similar to that of a running goose.

"Air Raid? You here? Air Raid!" She stopped in the middle of the cavernous space, the slightly-dented bouquet jutting out from either side of her beak, and started to look forlorn. "Air Raid..?"

[Deleted]

Really, she had no choice but to stop.

When you see a little robot goose waddling at high speeds through the main atrium with a bouquet of metal flowers in its beak, you don't keep walking.

You sure's hell stop and wonder what kind of a turn your life has taken, and whether or not it's for better or worse.

By the time Cat realized how long she was watching, she started to get a cramp in her neck from how far it had been tilted to the side. Flareup, when she looked up at the Solus girl, didn't seem to have any helpful answers to offer. At least she could kind of assume that this turn wasn't going to be for the worse. The little turduckin obviously checked out with the Order and no one else had come to meet it, so..

"Hey." She called, moving herself from corridor to fully in view of the rest of the atrium. A box of not-quite-clean-just-yet parts was balanced on her hip and under her arm, Catherine herself dressed in work pants and boots and a shirt that had been cut and worn so much its structural integrity was…gone.

She wondered if she should run to try and avoid the fact she had called out, but… well if first impressions meant anything she wagered it would try and tackle her. She glanced up to Flareup again, who didn't seem to protest Cat's interaction, and continued more at ease. "You need help finding someone?"

<< Puppeted just a little bit from Flareup; hope that's okay? Can edit if needed. :3 >>

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Fairwinds swung the bouquet about to face the new voice.

"Oh hi, meatsack! Yeah, you can totally help me. I'm looking for an awesome Aerialbot."

She scuttled closer but slowed to a dead stop next to a sofa of a size indicative of Haven's largest inhabitant. Considering the height and stability of the cobbled-together piece of furniture, Fairwinds engaged her thrusters for the short hop up to the arm. Once perched, she arranged herself neatly and peered down at the neutral. The only other human she'd had close contact with had been June Darby, and that hadn't gone particularly well.

Satisfied by her vantage point, Fairwinds set the sculpted flowers to one side. "Air Raid's, like, one of the few scummy Autobots who're totally cool and we go way back. He's white an' awesome an' he walks around with his cockpit puffed out like this." Her memory of the heroic pose was exaggerated, and her impression doubly so. "I heard from my buddy that he was planetside and since there's a DMZ and they're where the party's at -if you're not an officer, anyway- figured that'd it'd be smart to try here first."

Fairwinds looked over the box of parts, the woven garments hanging across the woman's organic frame, and cocked her head ninety degrees. "I knew some of the Autoscraps had pet humans, but I didn't know the Neuties did, too. Have you been ostracized by your own species? Do you sleep in a bed? Are you harvesting our technology? Do you like Pokemon? How do you not get squished when you're so squishy? Do you think the groundbridge is 'Magic'? What'd you even do here?"

A few moments of silence passed, just longer than a pause. Fairwinds snapped her beak, serpentine tongue flicking away metal flakes that had been scrapped away from the flowers.

"It's your turn to talk, now."

[Deleted]

She had a little cousin like this. She had a lot of little cousins like this. Like exactly like this. Pretty sure they might have used the term 'meatsack' before getting their ass landed in time out, too. So it was with an instinctive and practiced ease that she handled the barrage of questions like a damn pro.

"Not a pet," She began, and then dryly continued without pause, "Depends on who you're asking; Yes; If I told you I'd have to kill you; I like the Fire types; and because I'm magic, but the groundbridge is not and I do lots of things." She paused here, tilting her chin down to peer over her frames (bright orange today) with an air of secrecy, accented with a raised brow and a hint of a smirk. "Secret things. It's official Club business."

She returned her head to its proper position, though tilted back to look up at the couch. "I haven't seen him around… I might be able to help you get a message through, though. What's your name?"

[Deleted]

"Fairwinds," the cassette replied promptly, claws digging into the fabric of the sofa as she sidestepped across the arm to narrow an optic at the human. 'm'Fairwinds. And no way is you club better than my club."

She sat up a little, giving a little sniff of pride(an impossible sound to make for a Cybertronian, so it was recorded). "My club's got spaceships and lasers. I bet yours doesn't."

When the woman's subtle, assured smile remained in place, Fairwinds rocked in thought. It had no hidden weaponry, and everything in her tool kit was non-toxic, non-corrosive and would leave a dent at worst if thrown. Satisfied that her safety was assured, she hopped down from the sofa and rose onto her toes.

Her helm-crests flicked and twitched with interest. This was the longest peaceful interaction she'd had with a human.

"Any club that has a human member is super uncool, but if it'd make you feel better, you can tell me all about it." Fairwinds tried to smile, which unfortunately looked rather horrible. "What'd'you do? Do you have, like, a suit to do it with?"

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Catherine remained right where she was, box braced on one hip and under the same arm while the other hung loosely at her side. Laid back and perfectly patient with Fairwinds and the way she kind of fluttered down from the sofa and waddled about. But within she became oddly aware of how much she distrusted the little thing. Why she’d take a Con three stories tall over the little turkey she didn’t know. But the thought stayed in her head when the thing tried to smile. Creepy. Creepy because she’d expect this chick to blast a hole in her just as quick as she’d talk about pokemon. While she blabbed about pokemon, even.

“Of course I have suits. I have lots of suits.” Whatever. She shook off the sensation that made her skin crawl in favor of secret club business. “Lots of secret suits to do my secret club business with. Can’t tell you shit, though. It’s a rule - we can’t tell big metal birds anything.” By that time she was walking across the atrium to a surface she could dump the box on… because apparently it was break time. “How d’you know Air Raid, anyway? If I’m gonna help you I gotta know these things, ya know.” She leaned back against the surface, arms crossed and face a kind of playful-smug.

And even though Cleaver and Optimus would have the final say regardless, she was actually interested. She had no idea who the hell this guy was, but she felt she had some type of obligation to protect him from the squealing waddler.

<< Just tossing up this tag in response to your question, Krax! Yes, let us edit and continue for episode 1! >>

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Fairwinds pivoted on the spot to watch her go, intrigued by the fleshy's bearings. There was no fear in the human, who was apparently used to powerful alien lifeforms like herself and compensated for her fragility with her mouth. Another glance at the toolbox gave the cassette the sneaking suspicion that there might be a few things in there with which she backed herself up. Things with imagination and range.

Neutrals tended to be a little nuts. It'd make sense that an organic who'd elected to live with crazy Neutrals would itself be more than a lot unhinged.

Chirring happily when the woman said that she'd help, Fairwinds glanced back to check on her bouquet then gave a full-body wriggle. "Well! See, when Master's ship left Cybertron, I got stuck behind in the fighting, right? And it turns out Air Raid did too. So we teamed up and had adventures and I saved him from these glitches who wanted to cut him up and wear him, which is less disturbing for us than it is for you squishies, I think, because we can just take bits off and stick 'em back on again, yeah? You get that our physiology is way cooler than yours? But anyway, I saved him and the bits of him they wanted to steal and he owes me dinner cuz he's awesome."

Stretching one wing behind her, Fairwinds pointed. "And I brought him flowers because that's the native custom if you're torqued someone off, and even though he thinks I'm awesome, we're still in grr-opposing factions and you gotta break that ice up a bit."

Fairwinds resettled her wings with a series of twitches, feeling a little twist in her neural net. It wasn't betraying the faction to want to meet up with an Autobot. They were usually under orders to engage with them as much as possible. The trick now was to engage with one specific Autobot in a place where fighting was most definitely not allowed. That way she wouldn't be in trouble.

If the human or any other Neutral cooperated, that was.

"Is your designation secret club business too?" Fairwinds asked. "If it is, I'm gonna give you a nickname. I'm totally awesome at naming stuff."

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How her face must have looked, she wasn't sure. But she could feel muscles contracting in areas of her forehead and cheeks that she didn't even know she had. Probably had never used. Her eyebrows rose steadily above the frames of her glasses (bright ass green today) until they rested into her hair line, her lids remaining somewhat closed in an expression that said little else than "I'm hearing all of this but not understanding jackshit".

"...Uh-huh." Was the first thing out of her mouth, leaned back against her elbows propped on the edge of the bit of rock. She tried to go back through the conversation, letting the silence stretch out while she did. A deep silence, like she was contemplating some important serious club rules about telling her name. Really, she was just trying to sort through all the non-stop chat.

Kay. So. 'Master'. She's kind of attached to someone then. She leaned away from 'working' for, because the way in which she said it made it sound like there was some deeper personal connection there. A kind of reverence maybe, if the word reverence wasn't so cliche. "No secret business!" She said after a bit, offering a small quirk of her lips. "Just Cat. But if you're awesome at naming stuff then.... have at."

She flipped up her communicator a second later, tilted her head to the side in a theatrical way to speak into it. "Hey Laaaayby. You busy? I got a question for you. Ya wouldn't happen to knooow an 'Air Raid' on the 'Bot side... would you?" She looked back down to Fairwinds. ...She /seemed/ harmless. "There's this thhhh-some.one. here to see him." Click.

She let the communicator rest on the ledge while she waited, turning her attention back to Fairwinds. "So you just decided to ask this cat on a date after four million years, or...? Not that I think it's a bad idea, I mean go for it, ya know? Just curious."

[Deleted]

Fairwinds paid no mind to Cat chattering on her suped-up phone, running the new name through her databank and coming up with practically squat. Layby did have a record, but it was short and boring.

She tapped her chin with one claw, making a show of considering Cat's question. "Well, I woulda asked him sooner, but I was busy. And I figured he might be dead because he's not on the winning side. I only just found out he's alive and being awesome, and right here too."

The cassette was about to project a holo of Air Raid so that Cat could be suitably admiring, but held off when she felt the vibrations of a large mech approaching. She gathered from the human's ease that it was a local inhabitant of the mine rather than a visitor, which made her straighten up a little. On the whole they knew very little about the Neutrals, and any visit to Haven was to be followed by a debrief. Who was there, what equipment they had, if structural modifications had been made to the mine, and so forth.

Fairwinds took a dozen image captures of the blue mech as he crossed the Atrium from a side-cavern. Layby smiled at them both and dropped to a squat so as not to loom.

[Deleted]

"Hi again," Layby rumbled, meeting the cassette's bold stare. After escorting her in with the usual run-down on the rules, he'd hung around to keep an audio on her. Cat had continued to impress him, and the smile he wore now was entirely down to the young woman's masterful handling of an obviously throttled Decepticon.

He kept down with his forearms on his knees, letting her stare at him and run her checks. Like many soldier cassettes, Fairwinds showed no anxiety at the significant difference between them in mass and power. Unlike most cassettes, however, that confidence didn't appear to stem from a stubborn refusal to be made to feel small. Fairwinds was just happily sure of herself.

And had apparently dismissed him from her mind as soon as he'd walked her in.

"Should've said when you arrived that you were looking for someone," Layby said, motioning with one thumb to Cat. "I figured the flowers were for Cat, here."

Fairwinds fanned her tail stabilisers and scoffed. "Tuh. How could they be for the squishy if I didn't even know it was here?"

The big military engine purred a deep-bass warning. "Ah, I'll be having none of that."

"Yeah, yeah. No racial slurs - I get it," Fairwinds drawled, rolling her optics as if this was a particularly stupid rule that no one should have to follow. "Neuties have no sense of humour."

Layby looked towards the Medbay, the chipped plates around his optics crinkling. "I can imagine how someone might think that." A shutter-blink to Cat before he gave Fairwinds his full attention. "As for your potential beau, I've heard that name dropped a few times. Not privy to the rota, of course, but I think Air Raid is with the Autobots stationed here."

Fairwinds bounced with unabashed joy.

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"So, I'm just guessing here," Cat began, shrugging her shoulders in an over-exaggerated way before continuing, "But I'm thinkin' maybe Fairwind's wondering if we can get the lovely, handsome Air Raid over here." She smiled at Windy, as if speaking on the little thing's behalf, but then turned to look up at Layby with a raised brow. Can they (should they, more like) even do that?

She crossed her arms over her chest, continuing. "Y'know, so they can date without shooting at each other, am I right, Windy?"

The whole idea still left her uneasy, and she figured Layby could tell as much. Which is why she needed an adult. …A better adult than her. …An adult a few million years older.

Raising a hand, she pretended to inspect her nails. "Ch'you think, Layby?"

[Deleted]

"I think there's no harm in sending a note," he replied after a few moment's thought. The towering mech smiled between both respective females, flicking the fingers of one hand at Cat in a silent gesture of reassurance and calm. This wouldn't be the first time he'd acted as a mediator. "Can't guarantee the mech's spark, but I think we can open a line of contact."

Fairwinds gave a little trill at that, flaring up as if Air Raid's affection was a foregone conclusion.

Layby wished for the forty-seventh time that humans could pick up field frequencies, because Cat was being an utter champ and ought to know so. He and Cleaver had had a very serious discussion with her about the realities of living in a DMZ back when the idea had gained some real traction. One-way, cross-faction obsessive-type infatuations hadn't been covered.

He'd have liked to take her out for ice cream after this if the only place his alt. mode didn't stick out like a neon fender was Iraq.

Fairwinds was on the verge of bouncing on the spot, now, the vibrating embodiment of impatience and delight. Layby's tone sobered a little to calm her down, the pitch and lilt angled as it would be towards any potentially rambunctious youngling. "Can't give you his frequency, mostly 'cause I don't know it, and I don't want to know yours. Bot's have got a receptionist all hours, though, so it'll get passed on."

"Hah! Hear Ratchet called a lot of things, but never a receptionist." Fairwinds' beak twisted in a cruel-edged smirk.

Layby ignored the remark, asking simply, "What do you want to say?"

[Deleted]

Fairwinds suddenly deflated, optics dimming and neck curling down so that she was staring without focus at the floor. She hadn't thought of what'd she actually say to the Aerialbot. The flowers had been pretty much the whole Plan.

Hunching tightly into herself, Fairwinds tottered eight steps forwards, turned, and toddled back without looking up.

Layby didn't push, patiently watching as the cassette paced and thought and scuffed at the ground like a bird flicking grain. Fairwinds appreciated that. She tended to operate at high velocity, her thoughts as quick and flighty as her frame. Focusing down on something entirely new took a little time.

Finally she returned to her original position, decided. Her wings slid back into neutral, and she tilted her chin up to meet Layby's calm gaze.

"I wanna encrypt it. You're just a messenger, 'kay? You don't get to read it." Fairwinds straightened to her full diminutive height. "Promise you won't open my datapacket, and I'll pass what I want to say on short-wave."

"I promise," Layby said, solemn as he had taken his oaths.

One beady optic swiveled to Cat, "Or you, squish. No reading it out loud or anything. Not your club business." She smiled on one side of her face. "Not even Decepticon club business."