EP 0 - Messy job, but somebody has to do it - Open

[Deleted]

The improvised cell long forgotten with the departure of its former occupant, Arcee stood at the brig’s threshold. A crudely fashioned pail filled to the brim with cleaning solution and scrubbing towels, borrowed from the med bay, hung loosely in Arcee’s small servos. The blue femme grimaced at the task ahead of her.

“Frag you to the slagging pit, Barricade,” she mumbled quietly to no one.

After Ironhide’s sound thrashing, the infiltrator had the nerve to leak energon over every possible surface in the cell. In the madness following his release and distractions in holding the fraying team together, no one bothered to return and clean the mess up. Pools and splatters of energon laid scattered across the floor and walls dried and crusted. Arcee wearily set about the task at hand, not bothering to activate the ceiling lights. She was in a gloomy mood, preferring to remain in the dark with only the light from the hallway filtering in.

At the time it occurred to her the brig was still a mess, she hadn’t been able to pass the task onto the other bots. She felt, in part, responsible regarding Barricade with their shared history as former team mates. A teammate she once laughed at or with, share contraband cocktails with off duty, or simply argued at him for the sake of it.

Arcee sighed softly, rubbing her tired optics, and set the pail down with an echoing thud. Grabbing a stiff towel, the femme soaked it and proceeded to scrub the stain floor. Only the quiet swish, swish of her rubbing filled the silence.

[steele]

As a general rule, Dipper never like being anywhere close to where prisoners were kept. He did his best to avoid places like that if he could. Makeshift ones were even worse. There was always the chance of those ones breaking down when you least expect it and then the slag-storm happens. But today, he couldn't help it for too much longer. He needed to check some of the electronics in the area as part of his routine maintenance schedual he had set up for himself and he has already procrastinated enough.

Dipper walked in that direction with tool kit in hand. He walked with a quickened sense of purpose. The sooner he got there, the sooner he could leave. It was as simple as that.


It's WASN'T as simple as that.


What he had found when he had got there, in what had once been Barricade's cel, was Arcee on all fours scrubbing the floor. The walls were covered with dried and crusted energon. He stood in the doorway. He was a mixture of nerves and shock. This was a very bad idea.

A VERY bad idea.

His tool box slid from his hands and hit the floor with a loud clatter.

[Deleted]

The unexpected clatter jostled Arcee's already fried nerves. The femme whipped around in a crouch defensive poistion, managing to knock over the bucket of cleaning solution. However, the ever so slight trembling 'bot in the threshold with fluids spreading slowly around their pedes broke the tension with the absurdity of the moment. Arcee relaxed, her EMF hummed with low static having been drained of any momunment of energy.

Resting back on the balls of her pedes, she finally took note of the intruder daring to trespass her darken mood. One of the recent arrivals, she knew, but never really interacted with given the recent race of events. The stuttering and awkward little bot, of course, Arcee groaned with annoyance. She simply didn't have the patience to deal with the 'bit right now.

"Flipper, Clipper, Dip, or whatever, what do you're thinking you doing in here?" Arcee barked, a note sharper then she really meant too.

[steele]

It annoyed Dipper that Arcee couldn't get his name right. It always did whenever someone managed to botch his name. Though with him, it happened often and frequently. So it was no big surprise that Arcee got it wrong. But he wasn't going to call her out on it. That rarely did him any good.

He looked down at his pedes avoiding looking directly at Arcee.

"I-I-I'm s-s-s-sorry. I d-d-didn't mean to sc-scare you. I-I'm j-just here t-to do some maintenance ch-checks," Dipper just managed to mumble.

[Deleted]

She stood to her full diminutive height, failing to once again meet shoulder level with any mech near her. Rubbing her faceplates tiredly, Arcee gave the stammering 'bot and the spreading pool a quick glance, before heaving a sigh. Awkward didn't even begin to describe the situation at hand and Arcee was beyond trying to be subtle, when she wasn't very skilled at it to begin with.

"Very well, I won't hold you up from your duties," Arcee said, plainly, and then added reluctantly after a moment's debate , "Lend me a servo first in cleaning up this mess. It wouldn't serve to do your maintenance checks with a potential electrical hazard around. I'll come back later to finish the walls, when you're done."

Arcee grabbed a handful of unspoiled clothes she had along.

[steele]

"Uh! S-s-sure! I can h-help!" said Dipper suddenly.

he walked inside what was once the makeshift cell and picked up a rag. He had never seen this amount of spilled fluids in his life. Just what in pit happened? He got down on his hands and knees and he just simply froze. The most fluid he had ever seen spilled was when Oort got his servo caught in that bulkhead six months ago. Dipper nearly passed out upon seeing that!

Come on! Now wasn't the time for him to be useless! He tried mentally shaking himself out of this staring contest with the puddle. It was going to take a loud noise or something to snap himself out of this.

[Deleted]

A circuit ache started forming in the fore part of her processor. What was working up to be a good and hardy gloom mood filled with self-wallowing did an about turn into a full-fledged crab attack. Arcee rubbed a servo tiredly over her faceplates and looking upward to Primus for any sort of patience. The young bot was trying. Arcee couldn't remember the last time she worked with a bot so green.

Two, Three steps, Arcee moved over to Dipper and smacking him gently upside the head. Folding her arms, she asked, "Are you going to be able to hold your energon or would you prefer to come back in a short while?

[steele]

Dipper jumped as being gently smacked.

"Gah! Oh! Uh! I-I'llbeokay! I'llbefine! I'mtough!" said Dipper quickly.

The only thing he could offer Arcee was a brief nervous-sheepish glance before getting back down on all fours and started to scrub an area.

"don'tthinkaboutit, don'tthinkaboutit...." Dipper mumbled to himself.

[Deleted]

Arcee vented a sigh of resignation and cut out her growing irritation lingering throughout her EM field. The situation was as good as it likely to get with the jittery bot and she forced herself to accept it, so she wouldn't throttle him for simply being a jumpy and stuttering little bot.

The who-wheeler resumed cleaning her own section of the floor before Dipper's interruption. Several minutes passed without further conversation, Arcee's processor turned inward in contemplation to drown out the constant ramble streaming from the young Autobot Technician. Unfortunately, it was a quirk very hard to ignore, given how exhausted the blue femme was. Arcee cringed briefly as her fraying nervous and temper threaten to get the better of her.

Primus, Bumblebee was better at these sort of things then she was!

Heaving a heavy vented, Arcee attempted to settle the nervous mech, rather stiffly she said, "Dipper, right? How have you been settling in on Earth?

[steele]

Dipper almost dropped everything as he jerked up right suddenly. Femmes! Talking to HIM! Prior to Earth, he had NEVER gotten THIS much attention. What was it exactly that he was doing differently?

"E-e-earth? W-w-well... it's uh uh uh wetter than th-the Tangent. I-I-I haven't g-g-gone out m-much since Sh-shadow threatened t-t-t-to weld me to th-the floor," said Dipper.

Of course, at that point he mentally cursed himself for sneaking out of the base to follow Shadow that one time. THAT was a mistake.