Ep. 1 - Hives - Closed

[Deleted]

Fairwinds remained standing on the floor right where the groundbridge had left her, taking seconds to come to the conclusion that making herself comfortable was not going to happen. There was a theme of messy destruction throughout the lab; a sense of being in the middle of things being disassembled or reassembled. It was hot and humid, with an organic atmosphere completely unlike any laboratory she'd been in before.

Someone got the Mad Science Lab starter kit and all the booster packs, too. Eww...

The tiny cassette felt quite vulnerable on the floor, but looking around she couldn't see anywhere remotely favourable to perch. And like Pit was she going to settle anywhere atop Kickback's person.

She elected to just follow the Insecticon, wings tucked in primly as she waddled speedily after him. "Could do with some throw rugs. And a dimmer switch." Perking up a bit, Fairwinds smiled to herself. "Dimmer switches are ace. They've got this whole spectrum of ambiance, thing, which is really handy if there's a thing you want to look at and you don't know how you want it to look yet, so you can spin the twisty knob thing back and forth and make the shadows lighter and darker. Much better than fairy lights, for looking at things, cuz fairy lights are so awesome that, like, no matter what you put next to them, you'll always look at them, right? Totally. So, does your squishy like dimmer switches and rugs and snow in a can and Velcro? Are those things in another room where it lives being squishy?"

[Deleted]

"Lord Megatron is pretty awesome," Fairwinds remarked, her engine ticking into a lighter, happier note. "I've not been able to meet any squishies in the mesh. With holoforms, just a little, but never one who knows we exist and aren't an Autobitch sympathiser."

Being distracted from the creepier elements of her surroundings eased some of the tension out of the small cassette's frame. She flexed her wings carefully, one tessellating section at a time, optics darting about alert to danger, then finally warmed her thrusters and took off.

"I'd like to meet a squishie who aligns with the Decepticons," she continued as she made a quick circuit of the expansive room. "Did you save her from Autosaps? I think that's how they got theirs. Maybe you took her away from some non-Autoscrap badness? Or did she follow you home, like James the cat in Haven?"

After a preliminary scan, Fairwinds alighted on the flat surface closest to Kickback and regarded his hulking form. He really was huge - all sharp edges and brooding strength, bestial lethality in every limb.

She came to the edge of the berth, perching neatly on the overhang. "I think that she does like dimmer switches," Fairwinds began with great certainty. "I imagine she is the kind who would want to brighten or darken their perspective on the world."

[Deleted]

"That is so, so messed up." She did not quantify the statement, nor did her tone bear any inflection as to her emotionally-based opinion. It was simply a statement; like 'water is wet'.

Fairwinds had turned into something of a paperweight as Kickback spoke, hydraulics settling firmly into the berth, the vent array positioned like a collar around her neck turning cool and quiet. He seemed much more interested in talking than in showing her around. Maybe he'd provide her with an uplink cable to pick up the data she'd been sent to retrieve directly. Maybe not.

"So what're we doing now? You making me a USB stick to take back or what?"