Ep. 2 - Refuge in Audacity ( open)

[Carbine]

"Not Video͜ Ga̷me͡s, unless Thunder p̶ut śom̷eth͏i͏ņg w-weird together."

Carbine replied to Bee with a casual tone, trying to brush off the terror he had experienced a moment prior. In doing so however, he instantly started to question himself. Could Thunder have made something new? The brute wouldn't be using some of the more... vicious... Garrus games, but now that they were out and free they had access to more technology to possibly make something more elaborate.

Yellow optics cast Thunder a sideways glance trying to consider his intelligence and creativity, before they flicked up to look over the pretty little lean femme sitting on his shoulder. Since Arcee didn't seem to be the easiest of targets to flirt with, he changed his current objective. Besides... the little green thing had smiled at him, that was an invitation!

"I h̵av̀e͜ ̛o͘t͝h̷er̕ ideas."

Being that Carbine was still on his wheels, he lazily drifted backwards as he spoke, making his way down the hall absently a moment, before he angled the rotor wheels again and started to the side some. It was only when he felt confident in his position, that he turned his right wheel perpendicular to the direction he wanted to go, and kicked off with a hard impact to charge at Thunder.

He didn't need much momentum, and after only one swipe of his left foot to propell with a bit more speed, he was upon the other mech in a fraction of a second. It was then he kicked down with a hard bang to in order to lunge up and practically drape himself up and over Thunder's shoulder like some kind of human coat.

If Carbine was weighted properly for his frame size, this would be quite a burden to suddenly throw onto the jet, but being that he turned into a paper light little sky faerie helicopter, he only had so much mass available to him. He was heavier than what his alt mode should be, but not by a substantial amount. Either way, this landed him draped next to rotary, where he plunked one elbow down on Thunder's helm, and then rested his own head in his hand.

"What's the ru̵s͟h͝ bea͢ut̷iful? Th-̀ere̵'̡s plenty of time to h͢ang͢ a͟r̶oun͝d."

Ahha?

Hah?...




Hahhhhh?

[Bumblebee]

Disappointment flooded Bumblebee's field when he learned there wouldn't be video games at this thing. Well... Carbine hadn't exactly said no, but the likelihood that these two shared his love for video games was probably slim to none. Maybe him mentioning it would give Thunder ideas for possible party games, though. 

He was about to ask what Carbine meant by 'other ideas' when the helicopter began to drift backwards, before he suddenly sprung forwards, charging at Thunder. He should've known it'd be something ridiculous. and it was. 

A servo lifted from his side to palm against his face at the terrible pun, a low drone of a beep could be heard as he sighed, shaking his head. His optics would narrow some and he'd give the femme who'd been botnapped by Thunder a sympathetic glance. She didn't look too happy or comfortable. Bee still didn't recognize her, so she couldn't have been at the Omega base for long. What an amazing first impression... Not.

--If she wants to be let down, ya should let her down!--

Bee would swivel around on his heel to look at Arcee, arms out to the sides in a 'what the frag' motion, as if silently asking her to back him up and use some of her authority here to get Thunder to lower the poor femme.

[Deleted]

One might think, given Thundercloud's violent proclivities, that he would immediately buck Carbine off his shoulder like an unbroken horse displeased that someone had the audacity to saddle them. However, there was one thing Thundercloud would never admit about himself even upon threat of death, and that was that he did not actually mind being treated like the ex-cop's personal jungle-gym as much as he pretended he did.

Sure, he would bitch and moan and pretend he was so very long-suffering, but at the end of the day that was all just talk. He just couldn't let people think he actually had a soft spot somewhere in that scarred-up Primus-forsaken sparkchamber of his - he had a reputation to maintain, after all. One that would be sullied if people got the idea that he actually liked the little glitchy spaz.

Because he did not like people. He tolerated them at best. Liking people meant there was another way for folk to stab you where you lived without ever sticking a knife in your sparkchamber, and Thundercloud was not signing himself up for that slag.

So, when Carbine hopped up on his shoulder and tried (lamely) to hit on Rotary, Thundercloud just continued to pretend he was oblivious to to goings-on around him. Instead of paying any mind to the mecha on his shoulders, Thundercloud simply continued into the rec room to get the party started.

The set up was simple, nothing fancy or lavish: There were chairs arranged in a circle on one end of the room, and an empty space cleared away on the other, presumably for some sort of activity that would come into play later. Near the circle of chairs was a table lined up with refreshments - aka, a horrible cocktail of energon, jet-fuel, and various other Earth-made chemicals that Thundercloud had mixed to make bootleg highgrade.

It was presumably edible, considering Thundercloud had taken a swig of the ugly green stuff and was still standing, but only time would tell if he was a dead mech walking.

Walking over to the table, Thundercloud grabbed himself a cube and took a swig of it, not even flinching at the acrid taste. He had chugged harder stuff than this in his time - hell, he could have MADE harder stuff with all the goodies lying around the base, but he didn't wanna accidentally kill anyone. From the looks of them, all these mecha were lightweights.

It was only after he got a drink that Thundercloud actually turned around to address Bumblebee, who he had been ignoring until now.

"What was that, Lassie? Timmy down a well?"

[Deleted]

She more or less ignored the odd look Carbine had sent her way earlier. She might have been relieved that his 'attention' was focused elsewhere, but she'd spent enough time around mechs like him back in the day on Cybertron to really pay any heed to flirts. Though that's not to say she might not find a way to pay him back for his comment later tonight...

To be honest, she initially had mixed feelings regarding the two ex-convicts when they had first joined the team. The two-wheeler had recognized Carbine’s standard enforcer frame right away, beyond that she didn’t know much else about his case. Her own personal record as an enforcer starting out was hardly squeaky clean.

Arcee had caught Rotary’s glance in her direction and decided some order was needed at the moment, especially with Bumblebee now looking at her to intervene. Besides, Rotary might as well enjoy standing on her own two feet while she still could tonight.

“Thundercloud, for Primus’s sake, put Rotary down.” Arcee implored with a tone that didn’t allow room for argument. The blue femme casually approached the table holding a variety of questionable mixed energon drinks. Looking over the selection of different hued drinks, Arcee found an electric blue color one and picked it up.

“And I promised Optimus won’t get a whisper of there being more than standard high grade at this party.” She held up her chosen drink for example, before slugging it back all at once with barely more than a grimace on her face plates. Primus damn it. She needed that.

“Especially, certain special blends that were deemed illegal in at least 7 City-States back on Cybertron.” Arcee grabbed a cube similar to the one Thundercloud had just downed and sampled it with a quick gulp. "Or at least the Earth equivalent."

Frag...She really didn't want to butt heads with those two slagheads all evening. Acree scowled at the thought of being the first mech to dropped plastered. The two-wheeler obviously didn't have Thundercloud's drinking capacity, but she definitely had a few tricks of her own.

Cycles spent off-the-grid between Enforcer duties had built up a decent tolerance in her frame. She, also, wouldn't mention that being a high-performance speedster allowed her to metabolize High-grade standard fuels just a little faster than the average mech, especially if extra physical activity was involved.

A devilish smirk graced Arcee's faceplates.

[Deleted]

When Carbine spoke up again, this time to break the news that they wouldn't be playing the sort of games Bee apparently like – his comment on having better ideas made her helm tilt in curiosity.

And then, he jumped up and landed on Thunder's other shoulder with surprising grace.

Her smile widened a little, as a former dancer she could admire that little tiny bit of skill it took to land a landing like that!

Then Carbine had to go and ruin the moment by opening his mouth to deliver the cheesiest of pick up lines.

The femme stared at him for a moment, wearing a smile filled with awkwardness that she had not felt in a very long time. “w-What?” She asked slowly, not completely sure on how to respond to the remark. Then again, while being flirted with was nothing new to her – it had been a long time since such a thing happened and in that time? Well, she really did forget how to respond with a gracefulness that was fitting for a towerling such as herself.

She was ready to open her mouth again, to possibly recover from her lack of grace and to politely bat down the flirtation received from Carbine, but Bee spoke up to implore Thundercloud on her behalf – who was pretty much ignoring what was happening around him and had kept walking into the rec room. She looked rather defeated at this point, a little huff of air leaving her as she looked at Arcee and Bee for a brief moment before looking towards Carbine. Another awkward smile graced her face, and again she tried to speak – but Thunder had took a swig of the most hideous looking green stuff, and then finally replied to Bumblebee's remark.

Obviously, she was interrupted again – but it was what she got for not wrangling her words sooner!

She did not understand what the giant mech talked about with 'Lassie' or 'Timmy' being down a well, but at least Arcee was speaking up on her behalf – by promising the Prime didn't hear a word about there being more than only standard high grade at the party. “I really would like to stand on my own two feet now...” She spoke up, her voice a little bit louder than what it had been earlier.

“Maybe I'll dance if you put me down?” Hopefully, Thundercloud and Carbine's processors would be in the proverbial gutter and think what she meant by dancing as the more dirty kind that she herself had never done. Who knew? Maybe that offer coupled with Arcee's threat would persuade Thunder to put her down?

The femme could only hope, besides – she could use another drink and she knew she could handle at least a couple of drinks (though who knew what sort of concoctions were lined up so 'innocently' on the table).

[Carbine]

Skill in a landing probably wasn't the correct word, considering he had slapped his arms and upper body up and over Thunder's shoulder like a fish slapping on concrete, but he had made it up high enough to do what he needed to do, so that was something of note! It had gotten him close enough to drop his cheesy line and also enjoy the awkward look that crossed her features.

Carbine fed on this, he absolutely loved it. The embarrassed response, the almost flustered reaction, it meant that anything he says will be responded to well, instead of him being punched down. There was no scowl, no glare, and in his tweaked little processor that meant that she had found it even marginally amusing. Alas, no more flirts were allowed to come, as the others all started to chirp and chant the same mantra of letting the femme down. He decided he was going to help, but this decision had been made that much more set in stone when the femme spoke that she was a dancer?

He approved!

"Ahh you all ar̡e ͢b͜uz͢zkill̶s before we even have a buzz!"

Carbine knew that Thunder did not respond well to being TOLD what to do. Sure he could do it, and if the person had enough authority he probably would while taking the most renegade path in doing so if it was deemed a silly thing. But here? It was bound to just hurt the lighter mood that much more, and so Carbine opted to take the situation and choice from Thunder. If the jet didn’t have the OPTION to argue, or ignore it still, or get sassy back, than there wouldn't be a fight or he wouldn't get himself kicked in the face by a desperate little green femme.

With a slide, the helicopter mech popped back off of his companions shoulder, landing down upon the ground with a clunk before reaching his arms up to gently grasp onto Rota's sides. He made sure to have a firm enough grip that she couldn't fall down. Granted... if she suddenly started thrashing like some kind of dying animal he may get spooked and lurch away, dropping her down to the ground with a smack, but... thankfully that didn’t happen and he soon plunked her solidly upon her own two feet.

Once Rota was secure, he would walk away and move over to the table, using the pointed toe of his ped to hook onto the edge of the furthest chair and pull it out, only to pivot it around. Grabbing the top, he twisted the chair to sit down in it straddling the backrest, with his dorsal plating facing the far wall. This was not just something to attempt to look 'cool', but was in fact for his frame shape. A backrest can be uncomfortable with Bolo docked, it making his spine hook forward awkwardly, and his rotors can clink and clunk against the hard surface unpleasantly. Swapping the chairs orientation simply made sense, and gave him something to place his hands on.

"S̴o͝! Thunder!"

Carbine interjected, trying to get things back on track before 'lassie' tries to bite the jet. His hands that were resting on the top of the back rest started to bat down gently, tapping to no rhythm in particular but excitement.

"I am chom̡-c̀h̡-çh͟-́biting at the bit... you know... i͜f I̡ h͜a̵d͞ a mouth to bite with... let's hea͏r͜ what is h-happening?"

[Bumblebee]

Bumblebee didn't mean to be a buzzkill before the party had even started, but he couldn't help it. The femme being botnapped by Thunder didn't look too happy, and he didn't want things to get off to an awkward start.

At Thunders comment, Bee would turn on his heel to look away from Arcee and stare down the other bot. He narrowed his optics into a scowl, the lenses making an audible whir of annoyance as they shifted. He didn't humor Thunder with a reply as he skulked his way into the rec room finally. He was glad to see Carbine pull Rota down from Thunder's shoulder, thankful the femme was now on her own two pedes.

With a huff, Bumblebee would move over to the table and grab one of the cubes. Already feeling like a loser for being so overprotective and being called out by Carbine for being a buzzkill, he would take an overly large swig of the contents of the cube after lowering the faceplate that covered his mouth.

His first actual taste of highgrade.

And it.. Was strong.

Oh Primus.

Not wanting to look even more lame, he would swallow it down with a grimace, his body shuddering as he did, and it took everything in him not to cough and splutter. Gotta look cool, afterall!

He took note of Carbine sitting on a chair, deciding he would copy and do the same – he pulled out a chair and moved to sit, setting down his cube on the table infront of him. It probably wouldn't take much of the drink to get Bee buzzed, and he'd rather play it cool and sit down than be a wobbly mess on his pedes; not wanting to get called out and laughed at because of how much of a lightweight he was.

He was quiet for now, and his attention would turn to Thunder as Carbine spoke. He was curious as to what Thunder had planned, even if it wasn't video games.

[Deleted]

Thundercloud raised a brow at Arcee's assessment of the bootleg high-grade he concocted, and took a moment to look the femme up and down. She didn't look much like a cop, certainly not the cookie-cutter variety Carbine and his ilk were. He wouldn't have pegged her for former enforcement, but then, he never really have her much thought to begin with so he supposed he could forgive himself for not realizing sooner that she was a law-dog.

He'd have to keep an eye on her, make sure she wasn't gonna be a nark and spoil the fun once it got too 'illegal' for her tastes.

...Oooor he could go right back to ignoring her existence, which he did instinctively the moment she tried to tell him what to do. Thundercloud was many things, first and foremost recalcitrant. He didn't like being ordered around, and he sure as hell wasn't going to do anything he was told in >that tone of voice.

Rotary, by contrast, was a bit less demanding with her request, and so Thundercloud graced her with at least half an audio and a wry smile that, while mocking, was not unkind.

"Sorry, chica, I don't swing that way. Nice try, though."

As he spoke he reached up to pat the side of Rota's face, before throwing his head back and finishing off the rest of his drink in one fell swoop. Once finished, he carelessly tossed the empty cube over his shoulder without bothering to look to make sure it actually made it on the table.

Luckily for Rota, Carbine finally came to her rescue and lifted her from her perch, though Thunder didn't see why she couldn't just hop down herself if she was really that desperate to get down. It wasn't like he was keeping a death grip on her or anything - or at least he didn't think he did. It was sort of hard to tell, his hands being more or less nerve-dead and all.

Once he finished rescuing the fair maiden from her tower, Carbine turned to address him and ask the question they all wanted to know: what the hell were they going to be doing for fun at this thing? It was a question Thundercloud was all too glad to answer; and with a broad, crooked grin, he did just that.

"All kinds of things, fam. Anybody here heard of a little game called "Never have I ever?" 'Course you have, that's a rhetorical question, so don't be a tool an' go answerin' it straight, alright?"

Turning towards the drink table, Thundercloud sweeps his arm out and gestures broadly to the assortment of cubes waiting to be drunk.

"That's how we're gonna start things off. Good way to get to know folks, or at least the weird slag they've done 'cause ain't nobody here lived this long without doin' something worth talkin' 'bout."

[Deleted]

In the femme's opinion, any non-dancer (former or current) who was able to leap up like Carbine did was to be somewhat admired! After all, it was not in his programming to make high jumps look at least a little easy like it had been ingrained into her own. Of course he still had to ruin it by dropping a cheesy line and to add salt to the wounds, he enjoyed the awkwardness that cross her features.

If only poor Rotary knew that this meant he would say anything to her and she would not harm him because of it – she needed to be a little more assertive in that such things were not okay. Alas, that was just not how she was and she would be the reluctant recipient of his cheesy pick up lines. Oh well, such was her fate – she would just have to live with it, especially since the femme would not want to hurt his feelings by being rude towards his advances.

Thundercloud was not going to put her down anytime soon, but at least he gave her a wry smile. She let out a huff, though she returned the wry smile with a small one of her own, but she looked like she almost bluescreened from the pat on the side of her face. Well then, that did not work as well as she hoped and she let out a small 'huff' and gave him a pat on the shoulder. It was looking like she was going to have a jump down, but given she hadn't dropped down from a 'high' place in ages? She just naturally worried about getting hurt.

At least Carbine was to the rescue and her optics widen in surprise as his hands wrapped around her waist and lift her off Thunder's shoulders. She didn't thrash about like some dying creature, and she was still as she was set down upon her own to feet. Oh she was relieved that she was down onto her own two feet again! Turning towards the others, her smile widened a little more and she gave a nod to the other femme. Bee on the other hand, got a cheery smile and she was gearing up to head towards the drink table.

Besides she needed a drink after that ridiculousness and if there was something she liked? Well, all the better!

Poor Bumblebee though, he looked like the highgrade was going to end up knocking him down onto the ground rather easily. But hey, the same thing could be said of her and as she looked over at the drinks, she listened to what Thundercloud had to say and a soft laugh left the femme. “Well that sounds like a game I will enjoy.” She was closer to Carbine as she stood beside the table and for a moment – she debated on this, but she was soon giving the larger mech a quick hug. “Thank you, for helping me down.” The femme remarked cheerfully before she picked up a interesting drink. Her eyes glancing towards Arcee and Bumblebee, and gave them an appreciative smile and nod for their attempts to get her down too.

“Now, who will start the game?” Rota asked, her optics glancing at the others before giving her own glass of highgrade a little sip – though it ended in her waving a hand in front of her face. Definitely sipping at the drinks was on the agenda because she did not want to be the first one down for the night because of drunkenness.

[Carbine]

A hug? Well, that was interesting. Carbine had not exactly expected such actions in return, and had pushed Rota to the side of his mind momentarily. He was thinking about her and Arcee, of course he was, he was a letch that appreciated the finer frame types, but what he had been trying to focus on more was trying to get the party back on track. It had to be guided onto the fun path once more, and he thought he was doing stellar at doing so! But alas, the femme appeal and distraction came back relentlessly as Rota hugged him.

The lithe thing was lucky she came in for the hug at his side however. Carbine could be a bit twitchy when someone moves or goes up behind him, especially if he was not expecting it. He controlled it well though, just tensing up ever so slightly which he masked over with a crooning sound of amusement and a turn of his helm to look at Rota.

"Well of course, I̡ ca͘n h̢elp̀ you all s-s̛-̛orts of places, you sh̕o̢u̴l̨d̡ ͘tǫta͘lly̸ call me up after th-the games."

His field bubbled up instantly in amused mirth, a cheeky sort of humor lacing within the frequency. He paired this field emotion with a light wink at Rota, knowing it would be the icing on the painfully awkward cake that could hopefully fluster her more. After he did this though, Carbine tried to look back at the event, his rotors chattering with twitchy wiggles when Thunder revealed the game.

"O̸H ̨OH̴! Y̢es̛! This w͜il̕l̶ ͞b͠e ͜gŕe͢at! Ok ok... Starting simple here for you ch-̷c͡h͢ildren"

When Carbine said this, he reached forward and grasped a cube that he then lifted up as if saying 'cheers' to the group, though didn't follow it up with the customary drink after such a motion. It was somewhat apparent why however, due to the fact he didn't appear to have any visible mouth or intake port. His face seemed to be just a flat sheet of glass with optics stationed behind it to convey some semblance of emotion. Because of this, he set the cube back down, tapping a fingertip upon its edge momentarily.

"Ne͝v̕e͏r̛ ̶h̴av͢e I ̵èver, been in a r-r-oad acc̕id̨ént."

The ex-cop didn't count pushing others into ditches or using a pit maneuver to be an accident. He did what he had to do as a cop to get people stopped and downed back in the day, and a few scuffs from such actions didn't count as a complete wipeout crash! It was semantics; since he had done his equivalent of spinning out at times, and clonked into a couple things, but alas... it was also a bit of a trick. He was under the impression the others may consider an accident to be minor things, so they would hopefully get to hear about how one of the little road-runners bonked a pipe.

"-and h̷ey̢, ͢be͡f͜or̕ȩ ̢you͝ whine and cry, back on Cybeŕt̕r̸on I was a hover car, not a whirly w͟ha͞tcha-̢call-it th-thing..."

His rotors flared as if sensing they were being spoken of, before pushing out to either side to be visible. Carbine thumbed back at them to indicate their presence, the bowing panels of metal arching softly towards the ground. He knew Thunder would not drink for this round, since he wasn't anything that would be on a road... unless the Jet was hiding some different alt mode past from him... or crashed into a street at some point like a drunkard...

Fingers crossed.

[Bumblebee]

The problem with Bumblebee was that he was young, impressionable.. Naive.. Innocent. So he didn't have a clue on what 'Never have I ever' was – and the chance of him understanding or knowing what any of these 'games' would be without first hearing the rules was slim to none – having never partook in anything like this before.

But he'd never actually admit to that. Not infront of Carbine and Thunder, at least – they already thought he was a buzzkill and therefore lame, and that was the last thing he wanted. He was going to wing this. And it was going to work out awesomely.

He would stare idly into his cube on the table as Carbine spoke, trying to work out exactly what he was supposed to do here.

Okay. Never have I ever. Surely this means if you've never done the thing the person says, you take a drink? That has to be it. Carbine has never been in a road accident. Neither had Bumblebee. That means he has to take a shot. Right? Right.

Wrong.

But unlucky for Bumblebee, he didn't understand this game, or know the rules.

--I haven't either!-- He would beep cheerfully, no doubt making the mistake of drawing attention to himself before pulling the cube toward him and quickly slamming down a shot of the contents. Another grimace, another subtle shudder as he swallowed it.

Aside from that, he was quiet. He didn't even know when it was his turn to say something he hadn't done. Poor kid. 

[Deleted]

While Carbine was laying on the "charm" and chatting up Rota, Thundercloud rolled his eyes and threw back the rest of his drink. He loved Carbine, but the mech was hopeless when it came to Femmes. Or Mechs. Or really anyone in general, in or out of a romantic context, because Carbine was terrible. Thundercloud felt he was well within his rights to say that, considering he had spent the vast majority of his life with the mech, knew him in and out, and had developed a healthy appreciation for how awful he truly was.

But he still liked him. No, really, he did.

Carelessly tossing his now-empty cube over his shoulder, Thundercloud grabbed himself another off the table then moved over to the nearby wall, which he leaned against casually while Carbine went on to be his usual attention-grabbing self and take the first question. He snorted in amusement, first at the question itself, then at Bumblebee's response to it - did the kid really not know how to play this game? Primus, was he forged under a rock or something?

"You only drink if you have done the thing, Benji."

Why call him Benji? A better question, in Thundercloud's opinion, would be why not. It was, after all, the exact line of reasoning he used when doing anything poorly thought out or completely ill-advised - which was the vast majority of things he did.

But no, really Thundercloud had just figured that since he had already called the little twerp Lassie, he might as well continue the them. Dog names was going to be his thing now, he decided.

[Deleted]

Arcee grinded her denta, when the giant jet proceeded to ignore her. The processor ache from before proclaimed its return in light of the last few minutes. Primus, she knew coming to this shindig was a bad idea, despite the lovely temptation of high grade. Then again she’d forgotten the unspoken golden rule for rare occasions such as these: Rank stays at the door.

Frag it, she’d been trying to deal with the situation as the present responsible member of team Prime, but to the pit with it. She was honestly tired of protocol with the stress of the current situation and not being able to ‘let loose’ like she normally did to release some steam. She always did prefer the tough as nails, face first approach. Damn the consequences.

Grabbing another cube, Arcee sauntered over to an empty seat and sat cross legged while leaning back with one arm over the back rest. “Bring it.” She said, when Thundercloud announced their first ‘icebreak’. Scrap. Well, hopefully she’ll be too drunk to care about any embarrassing stories or if she was lucky she’ll so waste the two-wheeler won’t remember tonight.

She quirked an eyebrow ridge at Carbine's beginning statement for the 'ice breaker'. Arcee couldn't help but wonder at what his definition of a being in a road accident was. Unfortunately, the two-wheeler couldn't say she didn't have a her share of pile ups since she had patrolled on Cybertron's highway system.

Arcee's optics widen in puzzlement, when Bumblebee promptly bleeped in agreement with Carbine and proceeded to down another shot. The femme chuckled lightly at the guaranteed less than pleasant initiation to High Grade for the speedster.

After Thundercloud not-so-nicely corrected Bumblebee on the rules of the game, Arcee calmly shot back her drink and shared one of her less dignified moments.

"I was working extra patrols with my partner for one of the festivals at Polyphex on the outer highway." Arcee grimaced when she mentioned her partner, Tailgate. She was definitely going to need something stronger yet to get through the night. "We split up. At one point, a major log jam occurred and halted traffic so abruptly, I had to transform mid-motion to avoid hitting the back end of a trailer. Suffice to say, I didn't stop and landed in the skid of a garbage hauler, which wasn't hauling your standard trash."

Arcee traced the edge of her cube recalling more details of the incident. "Nope, the garbage hauler was transporting junkies, drunkies, and empties a few bits shy of a processor who couldn't seem to keep their hands to themselves as I attempted to climb out of the skid. Turns out the hauler was just trying to get them to their side of the city safely, when one of the junkies decided to share his "glory' with the rest of Cybertron and caused the commotion for the log jam
in traffic."


"It took me three cycles to get rid of the grime and smell on my plating."

[Deleted]

Oh poor Rota, she needed to remind herself that some mechs were well...Just plain raunchy in their thoughts. Being alone for so long, and just being glad to be around others again, sorta made her forgot that there were plenty of mecha who were not so...Polite. Lucky for Carbine, she was a nice femme who wasn't going to backhand him or purposely zap him for getting too suggestive. Instead, he was getting what he wanted, a flustered wave washed out from her and if she was human? Oh how red her face would be!

“Oh shush, you are horrible.” Her own words were not said with even a hint of malice, but more a teasing manner that showed no hard feelings for his cheekiness. Moving away from the mech, she was standing closer to Bumblebee at this point, her helm was tilted in curiosity as he mentioned that he would start out simple and hearing the question? Well, she was a little surprised by it coming from someone who wasn't a grounder. Though upon hearing he was once someone like herself and Bumblebee? Well, that made since. Luckily for her, she had never been into a road accident of any kind – so she refrained from drinking.

Though in Bumblebee's case, a soft little laugh left her, and she shook her helm as Thundercloud mentioned the rules a little less politely. “Please try to be nice to him, he is not the first mecha to not understand the rules, I remember the first time I played this game I had at least five drinks before I understood how it was played.” She remarked gently, though really? It was a white lie that she didn't understand the game for that long – she was simply trying to be nice to the younger mech who certainly had no time to play silly games like this.

As for Arcee knocking back her drink....

The story made the lithe femme pause and her smile faded from her face, it seemed familiar to her in a way – she knew a certain Garbage hauler would transport others to safety, but she couldn't remember if the same mecha in Arcee's story was the same mech she had considered part of her cohort. Rota decided it was better to say nothing about it, instead pulling up a small smile. “Could not imagine trying to get clean from that, and I thought getting rhinestones and glitter off of my face was bad after a performance.” She remarked softly.

[Carbine]

Getting what he wanted from Rota, feeding off of the embarrassment and her meekness, Carbine looked over at Thunder and offered him two thumbs up and an implied stupid smile by the way the bottom of his eyes curved up. It made his optics appear like two crescent shapes, a delighted little grin before his hands dropped back down with a thunk onto the backrest of his backwards chair. He then began the game, lobbing an easy one to try to start to get everyone buzzed.

A soft chuckle rattled out when Bee made his mistake and Thunder corrected him. Oh... the poor little last-sparked hadn't done this before! He was ADORABLE! By the way Bee was acting too; this may even be his first drinks! The idea threatened to drag the helicopter mech's attention away from the femmes, to try to tease and egg on the little yellow tart, but... not yet... no... he could worry about corrupting the innocent soul later, for Arcee started to speak.

"The stench of tho͠-th̕-̛that things is un̡forge͝tta̧bl̸e̵, had to arrest a good amount̕ o͟f̴ them in my d-day."

He commented idly while many fond/horrible memories of old days bubbled the forefront of his processor, before side eyeing Bumblebee. It was technically the runts turn, but... chances are he didn’t know this and Carbine didn’t plan to have to delay the game any further. It is because of this he leaned over a bit, so he could 'stage whisper' to Bumblebee. The whisper was hardly quiet, and he was leaning so far that his chair started to creak from the strain. The rotors on his back were even flicking idly as if anticipating a fall any moment and the need to attempt to counterbalance.

"Now y͢óu s͡a̵y ̨w̕h͞at̨ ́you̢ haven't done, that yo̵u͘ t̀hin-t͞hu̢nk others have. To m-ake e͏m dr̕ink."