[ti]Ep 2[/ti]For a Song [Closed/Vega]

[Sparkplug]

So Vega was one of the Decepticons that would happily wipe the planet clean of its native sapients, Sparkplug noted to herself. It was a pretty common attitude towards organic life, at least amongst the Decepticon faction, and it didn't particularly bother the diminutive white-plated femme. She simply made a note of it, tucking the thought away at the back of her processor.

Her own feelings were more ambiguous.

The local species were - well, primitive, and amusingly temporary on an individual basis. By any sane length of time, any one of them barely existed at all. She felt rather impatient, even mildly exasperated, towards them, but in a way that almost verged on fond. If humans were in her way - if there was a native city atop an energon deposit for example - she'd shoo them out without a second thought, but she'd have probably tried not to actually get any killed. She did like the music they made, and in truth, she was more than a little curious to explore on ground level a bit more. It'd been ages since she'd had any use for her holoprojector other than crawling around inside fiddly bits of machinery.

Of course, none of that applied to the humans that had figured out how to hurt Cybertronians. She frowned briefly. Those humans did need to be dealt a short and terminal lesson in minding their own business. However amusing the little organics might be, they couldn't be allowed to think they were ever going to be allowed to pose a genuine threat. From what she'd read of the truce, the Autobots were deeply embedded with certain groups of humans, which was going a bit far even for them.

Sometimes, she thought that the severity of the divergence in the way Autobots and Decepticons dealt with organics was more about conspicuously rejecting the viewpoint of the other faction than anything to do with the organics themselves.

Anyway. No point in annoying herself thinking about the local species, not when she had this gorgeous slab of intriguing femme to polish.

"Oh, I don't think it's vanity to take care of your chassis," Sparkplug replied lightly, her vibrant green optics focused on Vega's plating. "It's just satisfying, you know? That's how it feels to me, anyway. When I give myself a good polish, and my plating's all crisp and nicely detailed, well, I just feel good about myself. You're a seriously impressive piece of work, and you deserve to have a nice sheen about you. I hear it's good for aerodynamic resistance, too. Every little helps!"

Resting her right hand on Vega's chest plate, Sparkplug paused a moment to simply feel the soft thrum of the other femme's fuel pump under her fingertips. It was a nice feeling. Still, handling the flier's chassis wasn't - in theory at least - why she was there, and so Sparkplug shook herself, and got back to work. With patient, painstaking care, she ran her buffer over Vega's shoulders and down her arms, carefully lifting one after the other to polish all around her. "There, now," Sparkplug murmured contentedly as she worked. "That colour's coming up beautifully."

Polishing the large femme's whole chassis wasn't exactly a quick process, but Sparkplug didn't feel in any urgent hurry to be anywhere else, perfectly happy to spend the time to do the job right.

[Deleted]

From her time with their CMO Vega quickly gathered how vain of a bot Knockout was. He took great pride in his appearance to an almost sickening degree. He valued himself on how others physically perceived him and even the smallest scratch had to be immediately buffed away. Sparkplug's reasoning was a little different. It wasn't vanity that drove her it was simply the satisfaction of being polished and looking at one's best. Finding the motions of buffing soothing in a way. Perhaps it was in different context but Vega could understand her to some extent. Though she doubted Sparkplug would see drinking as a suitable facsimile to buffing.

The compliment was quickly picked up on and a soft smile slipped across her face.

"Thank you, and perhaps it does. I suppose I will find out one way or another."

Vega cast a quick glance as Sparkplug lifted her right arm meticulously running the buffer over her new paint. In it's wake the pigment was near mirror shined and if she were honest it was indeed pleasant to look at. "Hm, it is indeed." She muttered in a soft pleased tone.

Perhaps it wasn't her lack of vanity that made this exchange odd. But simply the fact the found it relaxing. Vega had grown paranoid over her course of her survival, always wondering if some other straggler would end her in her sleep just to take what little she had to offer. It was odd to now be lying completely still and being polished almost as if none of it had actually happened. As if she had always been aboard the Nemesis from the moment it left the planet in pursuit of The Ark.

It was strange and a little unsettling...but she also found it enjoyable. And at least the company was nice. She hadn't actively sought out social activity in her previous life, just adjusted to it if it happened to fall on her. Yet after her ordeal it seemed her perspective had shifted some, and she found herself enjoying the company of the much smaller femme. It certainly worked in her favor that she was polite.

"I am curious, what else do you do? Besides....most everything that is."

[Sparkplug]

"What else, huh? That's a tricky one. Either I'd end up rattling on about the work I've done, or I'd be going on about really boring, trivial stuff. Y'know. 'Hi, my name is Sparkplug, and I like going for long drives at night'."

Working her way down Vega's legs, Sparkplug hummed thoughtfully to herself, before adding, "I actually do, no joke. When the sun's low, you want to park up and watch it go down for a while, else it shines right in your optics. But when the light's gone, and you find somewhere nice and dark... no traffic around, no street lights, just long, quiet roads, the stars and your headlights painting the landscape."

She trailed off, then laughed and shook her helm. "Not that that makes a whole bunch of sense to a flier like you, I guess. Traffic, roads, street lights... don't tend to get much of that when you're ten klicks straight up. Anyway. I like dancing, and singing. Give me a chance to swing my aft, and I'll take it. But well, like you've got the idea of, I really like tinkering. Give me a decent work bench and some basic parts, and I'll have myself a real fun time. Give me just the raw materials, and I'll get there eventually, just takes longer."

Flexing her long left arm, and its odd double elbows, Sparkplug grinned. "Building fun new toys, trying out different principles, well. There's not a lot as enjoyable as hearing a new rig fire up for the first time, and spraying a wall with explosions. Really makes me proud to get them installed, too. Just like giving them out and seeing them used, you know? For that matter, I'm not a front-liner, but when I do get a chance to show off the on-board weapons, I have way more fun than I really should do."

Catching herself rambling, Sparkplug paused for a moment to think, before adding, "Don't care much for being inside all the time. I can deal with it - spent megavorns in stuffy bases where there was so little room to stretch out, I might as well have forgotten what my altmode even was - but knowing we're over a planet that isn't actively at war, a million klicks deep in hot gas, or filled with deadly Cybertronian pathogens, well. It makes me want to stretch my axles."

[Deleted]

Sparkplug's wistful tone as she spoke of her love of long drives in the dark - while yes she did not experience the same things grounders did - was certainly something she herself thoroughly understood. She held a deep love of space and just watching the sprawling night sky was a marvel she never grew tired of seeing. A soft yet genuine smile crossed her face as Sparkplug continued.

"Yes while I lack any experience of roads and things associated with them, I do find that trips in the dark are something to behold myself. Space is...marvelous." She vented a sigh as she finished speaking. A soft, calm noise as she reminisced over her many nights watching the stars. Unsurprisingly the smaller listed tinkering and meddling with any sort of material she could in her long list of miscellaneous capabilities and interests. Vega lacked the creativity for something like that, it simply wasn't in her code. She was made to observe and apply what others already had accomplished themselves. She lacked the sort of creative mind it would take to do such a thing.

Then again Sparkplug found common ground. It was common among flight builds - when left in one place for too long - to grow claustrophobic and restless. Though it hardly applied to just those with wings. The white plated femme told of her time in small outposts, kept from the outside by war, toxic atmosphere, and deadly pathogens. The very notion caused a slight ripple of anxiety in the flier's closely held field.

"Dreadful. I despise being still, and for that long..."

Her thought trailed off as she processed just what that would have been like. Maybe her situation prior to coming to this planet had been similar, kept to a certain distance for risk of wasting fuel.... Perhaps it was marginally different.

[Sparkplug]

"You get used to it. It helps if there's a whole bunch of work to do. Back when, well, the facility wasn't great for driving - most of us were airframes, so there wasn't much point in making the corridors wide enough for vehicles - but there was enough room not to trample on each other's pedes. Between that and getting your processor really humming with the work, you make do. Being down here, though, that's different. Whole world to get to grips with, atmosphere and everything. Not spent long on the ground yet, but I sure had a lot of fun with this configuration. This new engine structure hums like a tame turbofox."

Deciding that Vega's legs were done, Sparkplug moved back up the tall flier's chassis. Beginning to wax her shoulders and neck, the diminutive engineer went on, "Must be nice to just walk topside and take off. I know I can ask for a spacebridge if I want to get to the ground, but don't want to waste the energy and bridge-time unless I've got a real good reason. Still amazing that you even have one out here; spent a long time in places that were served by shuttles and freighters. Mind you, Shockwave's on-board, so I'm guessing anyplace he works gets outfitted with a bridge by his own hand pretty sharpish."

Sparkplug smiled as she worked, her field radiating contented calm. It really was relaxing just tending to another, making them their best. The fact that Vega was downright attractive didn't hurt that in the least, either. Her thoughts drifted back to the modifications she wanted to make to Vega's systems, and she was quiet for a moment, before returning to the present with a slight shake of her helm.

"Right, let's get you turned over and I'll do your back, then I'll do your helm to finish off. Lots of fine detail up there, so we'll save it for last." Stepping back to give Vega room, Sparkplug went on thoughtfully, "Must be really freeing to have that deep-space capability. Knowing that you could just step outside, flex your thrusters and go anywhere in the galaxy all by yourself. Y'know, subject to energon constraints and all that. But still, the principle's there.

"Back before the war, I was forged a grounder, never been anything else. Stuck me in the service class, like all the others. Strictly transport duty, couriering high-priority, low-mass loads around. Primus's pristine denta, it was dull. Not at first - got to see a lot of the city, get to know the routes. But they kept me in one area, going back and forth between a few major admin centres, and it got really, really repetitive. Could have had a non-sentient drone do the job just as well."

She shrugged, her shoulders moving loosely. "Put in for reassignment. Didn't have much hope for it, but they assessed me, put me doing lab tech work. It was a step up. Wanted to work on space bridges, actually. Still had a few up, the really big ones, and I was always a sucker for the romance of it. Used to spend recharge cycles looking at footage from the different planets they connected to; step through to anywhere." She sighed, a soft vent of air, and added, "Probably just as well I didn't, since they got closed down not long after. Learned chassis design instead."

[Deleted]

Despite Sparkplug's saying so Vega doubted she could get used to such a finite space all the time. The very thought made her feel uneasy, as if something was poking at the back of her neck with just barely enough force to be noticed. It made her want to roll her shoulders in an attempt to scratch it. However Sparkplug moved the buffer toward her neck keeping her from doing such.

"I have given my newly acquired flight frame a preliminary test. It is nothing like the previous...but it will do."

She said over the soft whine of the buffer as she leaned her head to the side for it. She felt a joint crack relieving some tension on her neck. Was it nice to have the ability to simply walk out of the ship and leave without having to request a bridge? Well, it was certainly convenient. The energy that would have been used for one could be focused elsewhere instead of someone just needing a moment to themselves. Vega couldn't imagine what it was like to be grounded as such. For her entire life she had been a flight frame, she physically could not understand.

"Indeed, I would assume that was top priority upon reaching this rock."

Then Sparkplug fell silent, Vega taking little notice of it. Then the smaller stepped away prompting her to turn onto her front to begin work on her back. Carefully Vega did so shifting over as Sparkplug continued. The comment about deep space capabilities made a sour chortle emanate form the back of Vega's throat.

"I sadly would not know, I was built to observe our space from afar rather than actually explore it myself. Document what I saw and pass it along."

She had always desired to explore it for herself, even if they knew quite a lot already. Even so it would be something to see with her own eyes as opposed to second hand through equipment. Vega listened closely as Spark touched on her previous existence in the service class; specifically hauling and how boring it was. She could imagine. But the smaller had opted to post a reassignment proposal and had been lucky enough to have it reviewed, even accepted. And while she seemed to take great pride in chasis design her eyes had been set on the space bridges. Disappointingly they had been decommissioned shortly after she had been given her reassignment.

"A shame truly, they were such marvels...at least from the accounts I heard. I lived my life in the science class, relatively comfortable and I at least found it enjoyable work but I always wanted to know more. I often spent my spare time speaking to others who had been outside our atmosphere documenting and cataloging their stories and findings for my own...'hobby' I should say."

[Sparkplug]

"Were the big gates shut down before you came online, then? I saw them a few times, from a distance, but never got to go through any. Even back then, they were pretty tightly controlled. Time when you could just saunter through to any planet you liked, well. That was over well before I was sparked.

"Still..." she trailed off, her thoughts drifting. After a moment she resumed, "I do wonder how far the bridge we've got running can reach. Definitely planetary. Probably out as far as the natural satellites. But past that - system wide? Interplanetary? All the way back to Homeworld? No idea. Don't even know if there'd be a hard limit on the range, or if it's just a matter of throwing energon into the mechanism until it takes you where you want to go."

Focusing on the flier's chassis beneath her hands, Sparkplug painstakingly rubbed the buffer over her broad back, covering the wide expanses of her wings. "So no interplanetary flight on your lonesome? Sorry, guessed wrong, then. Guess I'd have to get a bit more familiar with your chassis to properly judge your capabilities." An impish grin shaped her lips, and she added, "Speaking of which..."

Humming cheerily, Sparkplug finished off the base of Vega's spinal struts, and moved down to - in a purely professional manner - run the buffer over the other femme's aft. Seeking to distract Vega a little, to keep things from getting awkward, Sparkplug added, "Not sure where I'd go, if I had a two-way holiday ticket to anywhere I felt like through the bridge. I once heard there's a waterfall of liquid mercury on Edaps, three klicks high. Might like to find out if that was true. You got someplace you'd like to take a vacation?"

[Deleted]

"Not shut down entirely, but recreational use was very uncommon when I came online. They went offline a while after though, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't slightly disappointed when they did." It was a pipe dream- borderline fantasy of hers to step through one. Well...when it wasn't for her own rescue that was. To not be limited by her frame and to travel to any world she liked. Perhaps sometime in the future whenever this bloody conflict was over. The buffer running over the flat of her wings hardly registered to her. Some other flight frames would be very remiss to have someone so unceremoniously touch their wings but hers were not quite that sensitive. Lacking the range of movement said others had in her wings.

Sparkplug offered a swift apology for her plight, stating afterward she would need to become better acquainted with the bigger femme's chassis to understand her better. The buffer moved along her spinal strut and even further down. Vega felt the need to shift slightly feeling a little uneasy with the smaller's touch. Swiftly reminding herself it was purely professional she quickly pondered over what Sparkplug had to say.

Vega hummed in thought, never really putting much stock into thoughts of a 'vacation' before.

"Well that mercury waterfall sounds interesting enough." She quipped before taking another moment to think of another answer. "I'm not entirely sure frankly....well, of course I would made stops at any bar I come across but aside from that no certain locations come to mind. I suppose I would travel for the spectacle of it alone." Taking in any corner of space she could sounded like vacation enough for her. Vega lifted her head to look over her shoulder at Sparkplug.

"And - outside of Edaps that is - what about yourself? Any specific planets you would want to see given the opportunity and the means of travel?"

[Sparkplug]

This was a professional massage and buffing. That was definitely all that Sparkplug was thinking about. If she spent a little longer waxing and polishing the big flier's aft than elsewhere, that was strictly because of the scrapes and scratches incurred by it being a primary contact surface for resting Vega's weight on.

Okay, maybe she was enjoying herself a little.

"Sounds like we were sparked in the same era," Sparkplug offered. "Both of us had similar experience of the bridges. 'course, back then I was just working as manual labour. That's the way that went; I had wheels and I wasn't built for heavy loads, so I was couriering. But other planets… umm."

Regretfully deciding to move on, she began running her integrated buffer down the backs of Vega's thighs. "Heard some interesting things about Gorlam Prime. They've been coming up with some really good technological jumps; nothing we don't know about already, but I'd like to keep an optic on them and see if they come across some problems that we've already solved, and do them differently. What's less likely, but even more interesting, is talk I've heard, on and off, that they're trying to develop the tech to transition from organic bodies to full technological chassis. If they get anywhere with that, well. That'd be really interesting to see."

She exhaled a contented sigh from her vents. The work of polishing and smoothing the other femme's chassis was really relaxing, satisfying in a deep way. Given the personalities of the other scientists on Antilla-4, physical contact with others wasn't something she'd had much of for a long, long time. "There's Lithone, too," she added mildly. "Non-Cybertronian mechanised life there, I hear. Never met one, but I'd like to. Curious about how they spark new sentients without something like the All-Spark.

[Deleted]

Sparkplug was taking her time...and it was a little awkward. Vega said nothing, thinking Sparkplug profession enough that it wouldn't last much longer. At least that was how she perceived the grounder to be in their short time of knowing one another. Sparkplug pointed out that they were most likely sparked in the same era and continued about the life she previously lived. Being ungifted in the ways of strength and size she spent her pre-war days as a courier.

Then the conversation shifted once again, this time back into the topic of visitation to other planets. Thankfully the buffer shifted along with it. Vega perked up slightly - a slow upturn in her finials, almost as if to hear Sparkplug better - at the mention of Gorlam Prime. And of how it's citizens had been making quite the leaps in their technology. Nothing by Cybertronian standards Sparkplug assured but she would like to see how their scientist's approached and solved problems.

"Hmmm, I too find myself a little curious. It's always good practice to see other's solutions to a given issue."

Finias rippled once, mirroring her perplexed blink, as Sparkplug casually mentioned how the people of that same plane were working on technology to transfer organic life into technological form. That...sat oddly with her. On one hand it was a very impressive feat of science, something that she hadn't even thought possible. On the other...why? Why would they take the time to perform such a procedure? It almost seemed like a waste of time.

It was perplexing.

Then the bright grounder moved on, mentioning Lithone next. She could swear she heard of that place somewhere before. It sounded familiar enough. Then the smaller expalined herself and how she was curious how they brought new sentience about. Again she was perplexed. The data- simply the discovery of it would be something to behold. But again...why?

Vega was slowly getting the notion that it was best not to question the bot known as Sparkplug.

"Perhaps if- when we come out victorious from this conflict I will have to accompany you on this little venture through our known universe."

[Sparkplug]

The movement of Vega's finials was interesting, from a chassis-construction perspective. Obviously they'd been hooked up to some kind of semi-autonomous process that monitored her mood and reacted accordingly, like an extra subroutine in the processes for controlling her faceplate. Sparkplug found herself idly wondering how the big femme would react to other situations.

But that train of thought was overtaken abruptly as Vega spoke again.

"Sure! That sounds good. It's much more interesting going places when you're not alone. Then you can talk to them about what you're seeing, and experiencing. And like you said, it's good to see other perspectives on things!"

Forget that the war wasn't going to end until every last one of them had been ground to scrap and metal shavings - that was an expression of interest in spending time with her. Or at least, it wasn't not not an expression of interest, which was something. Moving down to Vega's calves, grinning happily, Sparkplug worked her integrated buffer over the plating, delighting in watching the big flier's chassis grow shiny and lustrous under her hands.

"Oh, you're coming up just beautiful," Sparkplug remarked brightly, nodding with approval. "Not that you weren't before, but this looks great."

[Deleted]

By her enthusiastic reply it was easy to tell that the smaller was thrilled by the flier's words. While the smaller was a relentless wall of words and volume Vega had to admit ..she didn't hate it. It felt familiar in a way, like the atmosphere of her favorite pub back home. "A New perspective and discussion is fine and all but I also find that things are often better in good company. Travel, a good drink...buffing."

She chuckled softly and cycled her optics shut as she felt the relaxing rumbling of the buffer against her legs. She smiled softly as Sparkplug commented on how lovely her paint was coming out. And again it was punctuated by what could be perceived as a flirtatious compliment. "Well it's in no small thanks to you. I see now what you meant earlier...this is quite relaxing."

Vega exvented softly the fins resting fully flush against one another in a downward tilt. She would need to ask Sparkplug to do this again sometime.

[Sparkplug]

"Well, we're covering the buffing, so I guess that leaves going travelling and having a good drink someplace!" Sparkplug replied flippantly, smoothing her integrated buffer down to the back of Vega's calves. "Guessing there's not many places to get a drink outside the Nemesis, but there's always grabbing a cube, slinging it in the cargo compartment and taking it along with."

As far as Sparkplug knew, it wasn't like there were a plethora of Cybertronian bars around to cruise. Whatever supplies the Nemesis carried, whatever the Autobots had - wherever they were - and... she'd vaguely heard something about some neutral settlement. Borderline miracle that the settlement had been allowed to keep existing; Autobots recruited hard, and Decepticons tended to be forcefully binary in their 'with us or against us' philosophy.

Lifting Vega's pedes one after the other with her right hand, Sparkplug gently ran her buffer over their upper surfaces. No point in waxing the traction surfaces, unless she wanted to see Vega slip and fall straight on her aft.

"There anyplace on this soggy mudball you want to go see?" she asked mildly. "When I saw it from orbit, I thought the whole thing might just be a planetary ocean. Salty corrosive muck, klicks deep, everywhere you look. Downright bizarre that the natives are land-dwellers, given the comparative size of the aquatic ecosystem. But there they are, in their weird little optional body suits, wandering around being bipeds. Guess there's no accounting for organic species."

Finishing off Vega's pedes, Sparkplug gave the soles a little tickle with her fingertips before strolling up to the head of the table. "Righto, then. Just your helm now, and we'll be all done."

[Deleted]

Vega chuckled softly. "Well then I suppose you'll have to accompany me for those as well then."

She felt the smaller femme lift her pedes one after the other and the familiar rumble of the buffer over them shortly after. She let Sparkplug do so with no resistance. Then Sparkplug piped up again asking if there were any places on this ball of mud and ocean the flier wanted to visit. A sneer flicked across her face for a moment before she replied.

"Not really, this miserable pebble is of little interest to me. The local life are painfully primitive not to mention quite foul. They're bloody EVERYWHERE, infestation is what they are."

Last she heard there were eight billion of them squished together on this spinning ball of dust and rock. It was enough to make her spinal strut tense with disgust. She fidgeted slightly as Sparkplug tickled the bottom of her pedes. Promptly she relaxed as Sparkplug moved toward her helm, nearly complete with her brief passion project.

"What about yourself then? You seem to hold more love for the organics than myself. What do you wish to see."

[Sparkplug]

Oh, yes. Vega really didn't think much of the place. Sparkplug had forgotten that for a moment. "All eight billion of them on the surface, too," she replied mildly. "There aren't any deep levels like on Cybertron. They scarcely build up, and they never build down. Weirdly claustrophobic, really."

Standing behind Vega, Sparkplug adjusted her buffer for a smaller head size, then carefully lowered it onto the curves and finials of the big flier's helm. She was going to have to be a bit more delicate for the last bit. "Love for the organics? Pff. No, that's way too strong for the squishy little scuttlers. I had my fill of dealing with organics of any kind on the way here, crammed into that lousy tin-can freighter. Still..."

She trailed off as she carefully navigated the tricky finials, making sure not to put any pressure on them, then resumed, "...still, they do have one thing we don't, and that's - Primus, I don't know. Cultural vibrancy? They pop up and expire so fast, they keep changing. New music, lots of styles. Haven't heard much of that in an age, not genuinely new stuff. Been thinking of taking the next excuse to go hit the road, get some wear on my treads, listen to some. Got a decent holoprojector; can't be that hard to fool them into thinking I'm a native."

Straightening up, Sparkplug surveyed Vega's chassis end to end with a critical optic. "Nice. Very nice! Nice clean paintjob, and it sparkles like energon on a sunny day. Reckon we're all done." There was a little twinge of regret that she was finished, but tempered by the satisfaction of a job done well. "Flash up a mirror, and you'll see. Nothing like a fresh wax to add depth to the colour."