[ti]Ep 2[/ti]A Routine Run (Closed)

[Deleted]

Set day 7, week 1.

Somewhere on Route 93, Arizona

Patrols, Smokescreen had decided, were boring.

Or at least they were when you had a certain red minibot with you. It wasn't even the bland scenery that was bringing this patrol down. Zoom-Zoom sure was one grouchy mech, huh. He'd so far rebuffed every suggestion Smokescreen had made to make patrol even the slightest bit more interesting.

"Hey, come on, don't you wanna race? There's no one on the roads, just you and me."

The young Autobot was keen to bolt down the highway and throw caution to the wind. It wasn't often he scored patrol on the wide open road like this and traffic had been rather light today. And no MECH or Decepticons spotted, like it had been for every other patrol Smokescreen had run on this route, much to his eternal disappointment. It was, in Smokescreen's not so humble opinion, the perfect opportunity for some friendly competition with a fellow Autobot.

But-

"No."

"But we're travelling so sloooowly."

"We're doing the limit."

"That's slow. Actually, hey, I'm doing the limit. You're like, doing 5pmh under."

"It's inconspicuous."

"There's no one in sight."

"It's safer like this."

"Repeat: no one in sight. Come on, Red, let's race."

"Repeat: it's inconspicuous and it's still a no."

Yeah, Zoom-Zoom was a total downer on fun plans. He really was into that whole lie low, be a spook thing.

Booooring.

"Is that a motel? Like a sorta human refueling station?"

"What it is is completely unimportant."

"Nah, I think it's cool. Can we stop?"

"Stop for what?"

"Uuuuh. Refueling?"

The Mazda did a very good impression of leveling a deadpan stare at Smokescreen, even without any optics. Smokescreen backtracked hastily as they sped towards the building. "Um, for people watching? Learning more about the humans? Isn't that what you guys are all about? Knowing the territory so you can beat a hasty retreat?" The young soldier paused. That sounded kinda bad actually. "Not that I'm calling you a coward or anything."

Zoom-Zoom actually snorted at that. And then, to Smokescreen's complete surprise, agreed with him. "In case you haven't noticed, yup, that's me. Total coward. I'd signed into that club before the War even started. Why do you think I'm still alive?"

And so on and so forth as they journeyed onwards.

[Deleted]

As with most of the arid part of the United States, Arizona continued to be dusty and boring. The view was spectacular, she supposed, but after several hundred miles of rolling desert and scrub the rig started to get very bored with the traveling. The only amusing part was having a partner sharing the space and mileage. Wildfire had gotten very used to his scant weight fidgeting about her cab.

The downside to traveling with a human was catering to their needs. While Lukas wasn't fussy, thankfully, he was also limited in how long he could go without fuel. Wildfire's tanks could keep her going for days if she paced herself. (And given the disgusting fuel on the planet, starving herself was preferred.) The human, however, had needs. She didn't question said needs. She just stopped when he requested. Preferably at a roadside dwelling that didn't look like it was held up by rust and cockroach secretions.

The only dwelling within the next several miles was definitely seedy but it was either the human risk the establishment or go without for the next few hours. While the human decided on whether to chance the motel/diner/gas station/gift shop, Wildfire parked at the rear of the lot from the building to discourage passing interest from random humans. She'd had her quota of curious humans for the next few cycles. Dust crusted her hubcaps and the spiked protrusions from her tires. She could not have looked more weather worn or hostile if she tried. And she honestly wasn't. If anything, the warm sunlight was making her sleepy.

[Deleted]

(I have no idea if Lukas was going to post or not but figured it's been long enough)

"Pssst. Hey."

"No."

"But-"

"No."

"Don't you-"

"No."

Smokescreen's avatar gave an exasperated sigh and stepped back from the open driver's window that belonged to Zoom-Zoom's altmode. He'd managed to wheedle the minibot into pulling over, the two bots were parked at the front of the lone gas station. However, the next part of his hastily put together plan ('let's go into the seedy looking place!') was not coming along as smoothly as he'd hoped. While Smokescreen had been eager to give his holo a go and sent himself out to wander over to his companion, Zoom-Zoom had no such desires.

The minibot did have an avatar going, however. All Smokescreen could see though was a small figure, dressed in a thin, plain grey hoodie and shorts, slumped in the driver's seat, which was reclined back as far as it could go. For some reason or the other, Zoom-Zoom's holo had materialised with a wide brimmed hat and it was propped over its face, concealing his holo's features completely as he laid back. The folds of the hoodie had also made assigning a gender to the construct difficult. "For the purposes of this detour," the minibot had tightbeamed snidely, "I, holo me that is, am going to take a nap. You may go and do whatever you want."

That had been that, apparently.

Smokescreen shot the Mazda one last side look before turning his attention to the rest of the dodgy seedy dingy shabby less than respectable establishment. His gaze scanned across the parking lot, sweeping over the two other cars besides the Autobots before lingering briefly on the odd truck at the back.

Huh.

He hadn't seen one like that before. Human vehicles, he'd been learning, came in a whole variety of shapes, sizes and the style varied greatly according to when they'd been manufactured as well. Still, Smokescreen felt, that one certainly was unusual and would stand out to humans as well. It certainly didn't seem to belong at this parking lot in the middle of nowhere, with the aging white pickup and the slightly rusted green 4x4.

Maybe it was a one of a kind custom job. Humans did that too, sometimes. (And Cybertronians too! A tiny part of his processor piped up but he wasn't really paying any attention to it at the moment. Autobots often picked flashy and unusual alts, heck Wheeljack was cruising around with a concept car alt...)

Unconsciously, Smokescreen's avatar bit at its lower lip as he pondered on what he was going to do next. There was: a) an interesting vehicle to look at, b) place full of humans he could investigate, c) an unhelpful and not-adventurous mission partner who was ignoring him. Also, was kind of an aft, even though Smokescreen had been doing his best not to let Zoom-Zoom get to him. While the mech's holo was going to be taking a nap, Zoom-Zoom certainly wasn't and there was nothing to stop the mech from making smart mouthed comments over the comms if he stayed out in the parking lot.

"You realise if you go in there, you don't have any money, right?"

Just like that one.

Maybe a break from the other bot would be good.

The Autobot's holo turned on its heels and bounced up the stairs, into the seedy motel. He was going to have fun and whatever adventure he could make of this, no matter what.

[Deleted]

For the most part he did his best to not make a nuisance of himself during their travels. He did his best to respect the fact that he was riding around inside a living being, and that the interior of the cab was part of her. Hands were kept to himself as much as possible, he minded where he put his feet, and generally tried to limit the amount of human contamination he inflicted upon her. He even tried to remember to ask for things such as radio station changes, or even rolling down a window for air, instead of just doing it without permission. That was tricky honestly, and he had caught himself several times reaching for various buttons or knobs before he had gotten into the habit of asking first. It took some trial and error, but he thought after a time they had found some sort of status-quo with each other.

None the less,, he was happy to be out for a stretch even if their current pit stop seemed to be fit for the opening scene of a trashy horror movie. He had run into aliens on this road trip, why not axe murderers, too? Depending on the state of the bathroom, the axe murderer might actually be the preferable option.

Leaving Wildfire, Lukas had wandered into the ratty building to explore the food options available, and to peruse the gift shop full of cheap trinkets and vaguely off-color souvenirs intermingled with "local native crafts and jewelry." At least the inside was a hair better than the second-thoughts-causing exterior, though some of the trinkets and pottery on the shelves looked as if they had been there a while going by the layer of dust they had accumulated.

While debating if diner food or gas station snacks were the safer option, Lukas was fairly certain Wildfire would not appreciate a dancing hula girl dashboard ornament or a solar-activated dancing flower in a pot, let alone a plush animal suction-cup window clinger that had "I <3 Arizona" embroidered on it's belly.

It was tempting to buy one anyway.

[Deleted]

((Skip me this go round! I'll have a reaction once Lukas comes out.))

[Deleted]

Zoom-Zoom was a lot of things.

Lazy was one. Uncooperative was another. Terrible was a word many would ascribe to him.

Lying, oddly enough, wasn't usually assigned to him. Probably because he was so bad at it. He talked a lot sure, but a lot of the stuff that came out of his vocaliser tended to be rooted in some form of honesty. It was just tended to drive most people to insanity.

In this instance however, Zoom-Zoom very much was a dirty liar.

The plan had been sleeping. Well, not actually powering down and falling into recharge when a) on patrol and b) not in the relative safety in the Omega base. But like, just a quick 'stop paying attention to that hyperactive ball of energy they had assigned to him' sort of thing. Smokescreen, the minibot was certain, would be fine. The worst the other mech could do was be weird and freak out the locals here. Surely the mech was sensible enough to not blow their cover.

Just sitting around and waiting until Smokescreen got bored and came back out was what Zoom-Zoom had been planning on.

Except-

Okay, so he was curious about the big tanker at the back. It was odd, compared to the other trucks he'd seen on the roads so far. Slowly and incrementally, the driver's seat in the Mazda reclined upwards. It stopped just when a slitted pair of brown eyes were at the right level to stare at the tanker.

Zoom-Zoom didn't actually need to use his holo to look at the truck from where he was parked. He was however debating fiercely with himself on whether to send it closer to get a better look at it.

While the minibot grappled with that decision, Smokescreen was facing a dilemma of his own. There were a scant few number of humans about. The majority were located in the diner, but having no money of his own nor an actual need to eat made Smokescreen hesitant about wandering right in there. It would look odd if he went in and then didn't order any food, wouldn't it?

Now the gift shop on the other hand, he could browse and get away with not actually buying anything. Plus, there were less people there, one bored store clerk and another traveller, fewer eyes in case he mucked up the whole 'pretending-to-be-a-human thing.'

The gift shop it was.

Smokescreen's holo moved in the same way he did as a mech, bouncy, excited and likely to attract attention no matter what shape he was. His holo was that of a young man, with spiky black hair and bright blue eyes. Its shape had changed little from that first test run with Wash, it still wore black baggy cargo pants and a sleeveless vest.

The store clerk looked up briefly from where she had been poring over a crossword puzzle. Lukas's own entrance had been soundly ignored nor she bothered to keep an eye on him as he'd browsed the shop's ware, her job didn't pay enough to care nor were the souvenirs worth enough to risk her job if some went missing. After subjecting Smokescreen's holo to a cursory look, she went back to the puzzle.

Now, where to start.

To Smokescreen's alien eyes, most of the items and their purpose was unfamiliar. He hovered uncertainly in front of a few stuffed animals before shuffling over to the next shelf. This one had...magnets, a wide variety of American flags and as well as ones in the shape of the state of Arizona. And American flags in the shape of Arizona. Go figure.

Moving on, Smokescreen did recognise the contents of the next shelf. Jewellery. Miko wore bracelets and he'd certainly observed similar looking objects worn by different humans he'd seen around when on patrol. It had so far escaped Smokescreen's notice that the majority of them had been female. Now, however he was curious. Cybertronians didn't exactly have the same way of fiddling with their aesthetics the way humans did. Smokescreen was also in the perfect place to explore this curiosity.

There was a mirror propped on the shelf, which he ignored. Smokescreen reached for a wooden bangle and slipped it onto his wrist to check it out.

(OOC: I swear I was gonna send Smokey to go and chat up Lukas about suitable dashboard ornaments for annoying friends but then Smokey and I both got distracted about the possibility of Smokey's avatar with a pierced ear and wearing a stud.)

[Deleted]

It was after a moment of better judgement that Lukas returned the sassy off-color bumper sticker back to the rack he had picked it up from. No, truly, Wildfire would probably smite him if he tried to decorate her bumper with that. Tacky but iconic dancing dash board hula girl it was! Of course, he fully anticipated it disappearing at some point, but it was the thought that counted, right...?

Ridiculous trinket in hand, he went back to perusing the gift shop while idly debating food in the background of his thoughts. Diner food, or gift shop snacks. Greasy fried gut bomb, or salt and sugar infused almost-food? Decisions, decisions.

Lukas had not paid much mind when the other young man had wandered into the gift shop. People came and went, after all. He had no reason to look up and inspect everyone that came through the door and set off the middlingly annoying ding-dong door chime. Similarly, the likelihood of him having reason to interact with any other gift shop goer was fairly low.

This would have proven equally true for Smokescreen if Lukas had not noticed something while bypassing the holoform on his way lazily towards the snack food aisle. Pausing, he bent to pick up an item from the floor near the holoform's feet before straightening and holding a rumpled ten dollar bill out to the jewelry-inspecting individual.

"I think you may have dropped this." It was a reasonable assumption on his part that Smokescreen had dropped it given the location of the stray currency. Lukas was merely being polite in returning the bill to whom be believed was the rightful owner.

[Deleted]

Zoom-Zoom had lowered the driver's seat again and allowed his avatar to flop back flat. His desire to not do anything had won out over his curiosity. Nothing it was.

For now at least.

Smokescreen, on the other servo, was admiring the bracelet. It didn't really matter that he lacked the funds to purchase the item, all it would take was a quick dive into his holo's specs and he'd have a perfect replica. It meant that he was free to try on as much jewellery as he wanted and save the best ones to file.

"I think you may have dropped this."

Huh?

It took Smokescreen a moment to register that he was being talked at. By a human. He dragged his attention up from his wrist and up to the person who had chosen to speak to him.

He blinked.

What.

Something was being held out to him. "Uh, thank you," Smokescreen took it automatically before the man's words caught up to him. The human thought the note belonged to him. Which it couldn't because Smokescreen had never possessed any form of human currency. Which meant someone else had lost their money. Oh geez, how sucky for the other person. What did humans do in these sort of situations? Did they go and track down the owner, how much effort did they put into doing that? What if there was some sort of established protocol they had and Smokescreen wasn't following it? He had no idea about any of these things but surely the human he was dealing with would be better equipped to handle the lost money.

"No, wait, this isn't mine," Smokey spoke quickly and tried to shove the note back at Lukas. He almost blurted that it couldn’t possibly be his because he had no money. Due to being an alien robot. Thankfully, that scatterbrained thought didn't escape the mech.

"Thanks," he said again, his tone calming down from before. "But I can't take it."

Please, oh please, take it back.

[Deleted]

The heat from the nearby star was a bit too relaxing. Wildfire felt her heavy frame creaking as she nearly drifted into recharge in the parking lot. Well, that wouldn't do. Not only would it be embarrassing for Lukas to catch her napping (again) she needed to keep vigilant in case any suspicious activity occurred. And not just from her own kind. Humans were entirely unpredictable and made rash decisions on the poorest of choices. It wouldn't be like that bank robbery in Mesa del Caballo. Not this time.

Scanning the parking lot, she didn't see any potentially bad movement or threats. But that was the problem. Nothing was a threat until it acted with purpose. Even her own kind were well suited for blending in. That was the point of her kind. They wouldn't have survived this long if they hadn't had the ability to hide in plain site. Which made contacting the right side very...tricky when your comms were damaged. She could hear all the local chatter she wanted but could answer none of them. Now she knew how that whale felt.

Her side flanked the highway and while no vehicles were in sight, she had her holo flicker to life on the side away from the store. Then with a stretch, the figure walked around her formidable front and waited near the wheel well. She couldn't lean on her figure in a believable manner. For one, she wasn't very good at solidifying the holo matter and her focus wasn't the best in that regard. And no one could comfortably lean on her frame without getting perforated by a errant spike or two.

Now all she had to do was wait for Lukas so they could begin their aimless roaming once more. If she didn't think she'd call the wrong company, she'd just make a grandiose gesture to draw attention in the middle of the desert. But odds were that hostile forces would answer and she did not have the resources to engage in combat. That and Lukas made an unfortunately squishy target.

[Deleted]

When the other man took the bill, Lukas figured that was that, and that the money had been returned to where it belong. That said, it was rather surprising when the bill was abruptly thrust back at him with some sort of urgency. Thus, he took it back was left holding the bill once again with a rather surprised expression upon his face.

"...if you are sure.. I'll just drop it off at the counter then." Then if no one claimed it, hey, the counter jockey got a tip or something. Most people would have said 'thank you' and taken it anyway, so the honesty was rather surprising. If it had just been a dollar he might have tucked it in his own pocket but a larger bill he'd turn in just on account even if the likelihood of someone coming looking was fairly low.

"Thanks for the honesty," Lukas complimented, before he moved on to go drop the bill off with the woman at the counter before he disappeared among the rows of preservative laden snacks and unhealthy beverage options. A few minutes later he was returning to the counter with an armload of said snacks, a case of carbonated caffeinated sugar water, and one tacky dashboard dancing hula girl. Setting the items on the counter he fished out his wallet while the woman took to ringing items up. He would get this over with, and head back out toe Wildfire and figure out where their wanderings were going to take them next.

[Deleted]

Zoom-Zoom was longing for, well, not for his berth. The basement of the Omega base, if anything. Somewhere dark and enclosed and definitely not outside where you could just randomly wandering into Decepticon warlords. Also, he wanted to not be on patrol with a hyperactive Bot who was up to Primus knows what right now.

His holo had reverted to that initial sprawl with the driver's seat laid back as far as it could go. But just because it was out of sight didn't mean that the minibot wasn't keeping watch on the carpark. Being outside on patrol upped the stress levels on the already highly strung minibot and he regarded anything new with a high degree of suspicion.

So he noticed when the human just rounded the weird looking tanker out of pretty much nowhere. There had been no sign of her before in the parking lot and she couldn't have walked in from the highway, Zoom-Zoom would have seen the human's approach if she had.

Weird.

Surely that couldn't be…?

His curiosity stirred again. Suddenly the minbot regretted sending Smokescreen into the shop. This would have been an ideal situation to send the overly enthusiastic mech over to investigate.

With a great deal of reluctance, the minibot kicked his holo into gear. The figure seated inside his cabin pushed open his front door and climbed out. The holo's hands were shoved deep into the hoodie's pockets and the wide brimmed hat had been left behind in favour of pulling the hood up.

As the figure crossed the tarmac, the details that had been difficult to make out when sprawled across a car seat would now become clearer. Zoom-Zoom's holo was a short, skinny thing and while it lacked curves, it was female. Short, straight black hair and brown eyes, plus a smattering of freckles, the holo wouldn't have looked out of place on a college's campus. Somehow, it managed to give off the frazzled air of 'sleep deprived and highly caffeinated student,' even though it was a hard light construct and not actually made of flesh and blood.

"Hey there," the holo said, nodding at the big truck of spikiness. "Is that yours?"

---

Meanwhile, back in the shop…

Smokescreen forlornly watched the human continue on and proceed about his business. Wait, that was it? He...wasn't quite prepared for the encounter to end as abruptly as it had began. What exactly he wanted to talk to the human about, Smokescreen hadn't quite figured out, but the opportunity was long gone.

He returned his attention back to the shelf, sorting through different necklaces, bracelets and rings, trying to find ones that he liked. Then, it was just a matter of getting a good look at it for his memory banks.

This entertained Smokescreen for a few minutes but soon he was bored and ready to do something else. He perused the shop for other items but the food didn't interest him and he'd already checked out the souvenirs. The cashier was busy dealing with her customer and there really wasn't anything left in here for him to do.

Time to be on his way. Maybe he'd check in on the diner anyway, even though he'd originally decided against going there.

On his way way to the door, Smokescreen noticed the number and volume of items Lukas had on the counter. That...was an awful lot for one human to carry at once.

"Hey," he called out. "Do you need a hand with any of those?"

[Deleted]

The heat made Wildfire sluggish but not enough to miss the approach across the parking lot. She grunted as she crossed her arms. There was no need in the gesture. She didn't need to vocalize anything. The humans just seemed to make an awful lot of noise in general. It was easier to sell the ruse if they believed a few simple gestures here and there. Now if only she could remember to blink every once in awhile. That and the breathing gesture always alluded her at times. Some mechs could code their holoforms to incredibly life like abilities. Wildfire...was not so gifted in that regard. The fact that her holoform could fool anyone for longer than ten minutes was a minor miracle. Which is usually where Lukas came into good use.

"She is." Outwardly, Wildfire was stoic but inwardly she cursed her passive use of personal pronouns. Perhaps the human would just think her another obsessed owner. It happened far more often than she would have thought. Lukas was a rather outstanding individual from his race. Not the normal default. His not owning a vehicle or living a nomadic life was just very odd compared to the rest of his species. Not unlike her own wishes, really. Which would explain why they got along so well. 

And now here is where the femme fell short in skills. She had little ability to hold a conversation. Everything about the mecha, beyond the rather dramatic appearance, was very to the point. Her thoughts were ordered and neat. Her actions were rarely wasted. Which did nothing for filling in the void of silence between two individuals. Humans didn't like silence, as a whole. They liked to chat about nothing in general. 

"...do you like trucks?" Her expression mirrored her inward feelings of befuddlement. A furrowed brow and a hint of a frown on her lips. This was hard! Give her a battle over small talk. 

[Deleted]

Quite posibly, he would have been amused if he had an understanding of the inner turmoil Smokescreen was currently undergoing. Even though he had been keeping company with Wildfire for a time now, the idea that he, a simple human, could ruffle the proverbial feathers of members of an advanced alien race was entertaining in it's own way.

He had to admit though, from what he had seen through his travel partner was endlessly interesting. He would have never imagined such a wildly different type of being from humanity would be so relatable. Any which way of it, his life seemed intent on being interesting no matter what direction he went.

By the time Smokescreen came to flag him down and caught his attention, he had already begun the process of thoughtfully puzzle-stacking his purchases into his arms, balancing snack bags and soda cases, the couple of knicknacks. All in all, just enough to be awkward to easily carry in one go.

"You know, a little help would be nice," Lukas responded in an appreciative tone, happy to re-arrange his purchases into a less precarious balancing act in order to offer Smokescreen a couple of things. "I appreciate the help."

[Deleted]

Zoom-Zoom considered the question. He also scrutinised the figure in front of him. She looked and sounded human. At least on the surface.

But she had blipped into existence inside the parking lot from nothing. While the minibot hadn't seen her appear, it seemed impossible that he'd failed to see her when driving in or waiting around. Unless she was a holo…

Her. Had this been another conversation, the minibot wouldn't have thought twice about someone giving a supposedly inanimate vehicle a pronoun. But from what he understood of humans, the truck had none of the traits typically associated with the female side of the species.

His own holo blinked. It's gaze drifted up to the big truck. You know, he hadn't considered it before but if this was a member of his own species, by alt mode alone, it looked more like a Decepticon.

Frag.

"Do I like trucks?" Zoom-Zoom echoed, his thoughts and rising alarm colliding in a tangled mess inside his processor, allowing his mouth to run ahead of him. "Uh no. Not really. If anything, I find the fraggers confusing."

There was only one truck that Zoom-Zoom knew on a personal level and yesterday Prime had punched Zoom-Zoom in just about every emotional sore spot he had.


To say that Zoom-Zoom found Prime confusing was an understatement, the minibot's processor came grinding to a halt if he tried to figure out what he felt about the Autobot leader. The mech hadn't killed him for breaking his ceiling -twice!- but he'd also accidentally kicked open all the old wounds Zoom-Zoom liked to pretend he didn't have. The minibot would never admit it but he was almost glad to be on this patrol, away from the Omega base. It gave him something to focus on, rather than allowing him to sink into a funk, if he was left to dwell on his emotions.

Except-

Wait, what was he saying? To a human/possible holo no less.

"To drive!" he quickly added. The holo shot the truck another quick look and shook its head, feigning interest. "I can't imagine how complicated it would be to drive this one. Looks really...cool though, I've never seen anything like it before. Where'd you get it from?"

~

"Not a problem!" Smokescreen replied as he accepted some items.

Then the second Autobot had a moment's panic of his own when it struck him that offering to help Lukas carry his stuff meant testing his finer handling of his holo for an extended amount of time. He balanced the human's purchases carefully in his arms. The holo's face was tight with concentration. This was a Very Important Responsibility after all.

Also, he hadn't gotten that much practice in with his holo and now he was terrified that he might screw up and he'd dropped the precious items to the ground. Which would be embarrassing, offering to help the guy carry some stuff, only to fail to carry said stuff.

He eyed what he was carrying curiously as he followed Lukas. "...what's the dancing miniature girl for?" Smokescreen asked, mentally stumbling over the dashboard hula doll. Its purpose completely eluded him. At least he could understand the food.

It was only a second after he asked the question did it occur to him it might have been a weird thing to say.

Oh well.



(OOC: Edited because I got my timeline and ZZ + Prime threads mixed up, ZZ got emotionally suckerpunched the day before by Prime, rather than put a hole in the guy's ceiling)

[Deleted]

Wildfire would admit she was not the best at understanding humans. The organic life on the planet was baffling in its complexity and weirdly symbiotic of one another. It made an alien life like her feel very isolated and foreign. She didn't fit in even if she was "disguised" to blend in with their tools. She no better belonged there than they would on her planet. It was a humbling, rather bleak realization. 

Which did nothing to help her with the current conversation that had landed on her. Now what did she do? And where was Lukas when she needed him to field awkward questions?

"...I see." She might have sounded that out for longer than necessary. His words confused her but mostly because she couldn't quite read his intention behind them. Why come over and speak with her when he didn't like trucks? Was she that out of place? Well...certainly her look was quite outlandish. She would admit that even among her own kind she tended to be cringe worthy in the looks department. Her frame was nightmarish to most. A bit sinister to even her own team mates. 

"I've had this truck my whole life." Certainly not a lie. But it probably sounded odd. "Or, it feels that way," she awkwardly added. Oh Primus, when would this torment end? What did the small bugger want? She would gladly send him on his way if he'd just say what he wanted. Well, there was nothing for it. She was just going to have to nudge things along a little. Since Lukas was MIA.

"Is there something you wanted? You can't have just walked over here to admire the frame from a closer view." Or perhaps he had! She was having a hard time reading him and second guessing her own intuition. Which wasn't that good to begin with.