[ti]Ep 3[/ti]Fair Trade ((Bladewing, Blue))

[Cassandra Cassidy]

WEEK 1, DAY 6

Center of Jasper, NV

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It was the limbo time between the end of lunch and the end of the work day, the sun hanging hot and halfway through the sky. Typical of a small town during such a lull, there was little activity to notice. Moving a few ticks over the speed limit, a black car with red flames painted on sped by KO Burger. An old poster for a bake sale and some newspaper fluttered away from its tires in its wake. A pigeon pecked at a lone fry, grabbing it off the pavement of the fast food joint's parking lot. Against one of the place's warm concrete walls, a tanned woman with freckles and red-gold hair did lean.

"You're kidding me." The woman was frowning slightly as she spoke, her eyebrows dipping a little. "He didn't even finish the job? He quit after an hour?"

The person on the other end answered in exasperation. They loud enough to be heard but not understood by eavesdroppers. The woman crossed one arm over her torso, resting her free hand in the crook of her raised arm's elbow. "Mmhm. Mmhm...yeah, I get it," the woman said. "Yeah. Yeah, it's a shame. No, I agree, someone's got to do it. I can call a ride and stop in - are you sure? No really, it's okay. I don't mind hiking in this heat. No sir, I'm not concerned. Mmhm. Mmhm...are you absolutely sure? Absolutely sure, sir? All right. Yeah. Yeah, I can see if anyone around might want to volunteer for the next job, but no promises. It's a small town, not a lot of unemployment around here...I can mention that, sir."

She glanced up at the sun to gauge the time, squinting her eyes. "It's about...almost quarter to three, isn't it? Oh, two-thirty. Yes sir, lunch has been taken care of." (It hadn't been, but there wasn't anything stopping her from grabbing a bite later. It wouldn't have been the first time she'd eaten late after running around for work.) "Yes sir, I'm fine, I promise. I think there's an unemployment center attached to the Town Hall - it's not that far from here. Is there anything else I should do before I call you back?"

She turned away from the sun and leaned against the wall with her unoccupied hand's shoulder. "Mmhm. Uh-huh. Yes sir, I can do that, sir. Please let me know if you find Kaspar's sunglasses before I get back. Mmhm. Thank you sir, I'll do my best...I won't be too long, hopefully. Yes sir. Goodbye."

She brought down her phone and, with a bit of difficulty, tapped the End Call button with a free finger. She sighed as she slipped it back into her right pocket.

[Deleted]

It had been a few solar cycles since their awakening on this foreign world and their escape from Soundwave's trap. 

They had eventually found an abandoned warehouse in what appeared to be a ghost town. Fortunately Bladewing's wounds hadn't been too deep and patched up easily. They would be healed up in a few more cycles. 

It was clear that they wouldn't be going back to Cybertron any time soon or even leave this world, because where would they go? And so they had started to come to terms with their new situation and home. In order to blend in amongst these potentially dangerous humans Bladewing had scanned a new alt-mode. They had managed to find a television and thus had been able to learn a few things about the small organics. From what they have learned those creatures were quite territorial and aggressive, especially those within the military. Thus it would be best to remain undiscovered.

However they were slowly but surely running out of energon. And while Bladewing had managed to locate an energon deposit it had quickly turned out to already be occupied. Right now however getting close to any faction promised to be dangerous and they weren't not desperate enough, yet. Especially since Blue had found an alternative to energon in the form of organic fuel. Unfortunately in order to acquire it, one needed something called Dollars. And they also needed to acquire something to filter the organic fuel in order to not damage their tanks in the long run. 

Thus, Bladewing had activated his little holoform drone in order to scout the area for possibilities to acquire fuel Dollars and other things they needed to survive on this world. 

Now the seeker had connected his mind into the drone which projected a human avatar and after some hitchhiking in a human's car, which was one of the most unpleasant experiences in his life, had arrived in a settlement called Jasper. 

It was a wonder how well Blue it took to ride in his cockpit. 

After saying his goodbyes to the driver he looked around the parking lot. It seemed to belong to a place where humans acquired their food. 'KO Burgers', what a strange name. But then again Jasper was also a strange name for town. 

Bladewing let his gaze wander over the immediate surroundings and missed his wings. He really couldn't understand how grounders could live like this. If he were here in his original form he would be able to fly up and hover over the place in order to map this place. Now however that wasn't an option, scrap. 

While he was still trying to decide in which direction he should go in order to find out how to acquire these Dollars or a generator or fuel he overheard another human talking to someone on the other end of a communication device. 

They were searching for someone to help with some kind of work. And wasn't this how humans aquired their dollars, if he remembered the human TV shows right? 

Bladewing decided to test his luck and moved over to the woman. 

"Excuse me, miss, I happened to hear that you're looking for someone who could help with some work?" He said after she'd cut the connection. "My name is Jack O'Neill." The name was inspired by Bladewing's favorite character from a TV show he had been watching. "And I just happen to be looking for a job."

The man in his early theerties was wearing a black shirt and jeans. Apart from that he looked like the very definition of Joe Average. 

[Cassandra Cassidy]

She'd noticed him a moment before he spoke. The woman glanced up, looking Bladewing in the eye as he approached. Her expression was neutral, perking up a bit as Bladewing - or "Jack", rather - explained himself. She held out her hand for him to shake.

"Well you came along just in time, friend," she said. "My boss is looking for an extra hand. We're cleaning out a storage unit today and it's a bit of a wreck. You ever done housekeeping jobs before?"

Once he explained himself, the woman would reach for her left pocket with her right hand. She pulled out her left from that spot, a pack of cheap cigarettes grasped lightly in her fingers. If Jack's eyes were keen enough in his holotar, he might've noticed a couple didn't bend right. A large scar, pink and jagged, rose from knuckles uncovered by a bare square on her gloves. She flipped the top of the pack open, reaching in to grab a fresh smoke.

"You can call me Butch," the woman added, sticking the cigarette into one side of her mouth. Her left hand dove back into its pocket with the cigarette pack, her right fumbling on its side for a lighter. "Most people do."

[Deleted]

Bladewing took the hand and shook it with a smile. 

"So both of us were struck by good fortune today. I haven't exactly worked as a housekeeper before but I have experience in clearing out storage units." He explained keeping things rather vaguely especially the part of the circumstances of him having cleared out storage units before. This wasn't a place wrecked by war so being a scavenger and thief wasn't exactly anything that one should be advertising around the local natives.

He watched her pick out the cigarette and light it curiously. He had seen humans doing it on TV but still wasn't sure on why they did so. For a moment he considered sating his curiosity by asking her about it, but he stopped himself before the words could reach his lips. A human would most likely know this and asking could raise suspicions. 

Primus forbid, if that outed him as an alien and she called the men in black or the military or something. 

"Nice to meet you Butch, you can call me Blade."

He said with a nod while moving his shoulders in a curious way that looked as if he was trying to pull them back and down before relaxing them again. 

[Cassandra Cassidy]

"Blade, huh?" She gave the slightest grin at that, the cigarette cocking upwards as smoke blew out of her nose. The plumes rose and danced on unseen currents, their blue-gray swirls fading into nothing. "Can't say I've heard that one before. You a fan of vampire movies?"

The woman reached over to her right pocket again, retrieving her phone. Her left hand whisked out as she switched the device back on and unlocked it. One scarred, calloused finger tapped out a text, wavering a little and not quite straight. "I'm just sending a text to my boss now," Butch told the new worker. "He's had a rough morning. New hire walked out of a job at a real wreck of an apartment. He only signed up two days ago. I think that's a record for our turnover."

She glanced up with a slight frown. "Don't let that put you off of the job. He probably was thrown in too early into one of the bigger clean-ups. From the sounds of it, all you'll be moving is some boxes and some garbage we've already bagged up. We don't usually look for outside help if things are messy enough."

Butch went back to tapping at the screen, pausing a couple of times and wiggling her finger. It made a little crrk that Cybertronian ears might've been able to pick up on. If Blade looked at the right angle, he might catch a glimpse of the massive scar on her partly-gloved left hand.

[Deleted]

Vampires? What in the name of the skies were vampires? Obviously, it seemed to have something to do with his nickname. Maybe some pop culture reference, he concluded.
"Oh, it doesn't have anything to do with that. It's - a long story. Maybe for a later time." He tried to evade the whole vampire topic for now.

He spotted the scar on her hand as she took out her communications device, smartphone it was called, he remembered. He didn't stare at it, though, as it was an inappropriate reaction. He didn't ask about it, either. They were still strangers and scars, especially on civilians were in almost every case of a deeply personal matter.

As she explained what had happened to his predecessor, he shook his head with a little smile. "Don't worry, I'm not squeamish. And if you need someone on a more permanent basis, well I'm kind of new to this place and I need a way to earn money.” It was kind of a strange thought actually, that people could choose their work assignments and could just quit without any consequences - even though they had fought for exactly that. At least before everything had gone south and Cybertron had ended up destroyed and lifeless.

[Cassandra Cassidy]

"Ah, so am I," Butch said with a faint smile. "I've been here for...almost a year, I think. Maybe a little more, but I've lost track of time. I used to have family in this area." She finished her text, sent it off with a small ding!, and dropped her hands to her sides. The phone went back into her right pocket, and her hand quickly slipped into her left.

"If you're willing to work long hours in some pretty disgusting environments, you might fit. We're a crime scene, large-scale, and extreme cleanup company. We tidy up places after hoarders, the police, cockroaches, and the like are done with them. There's a couple of things you'll need to learn, and you might have to take a drug test. You'll need a background check, too, but don't worry - he won't be on your ass for a misdemeanor or two."

Beyond the usual job interview requirements, some might say it was a tall order to ask of someone. There were many who would never see the kind of carnage or filth Butch had. They might not ever meet the distraught and ill individuals Butch's line of work could bring her to. It didn't pay much more than minimum wage, and it could be a disgusting, disturbing job. Despite this, Butch looked - or was trying her best to look - reassuring.

"If you still think you're 'not squeamish' enough for this kind of work, I should be getting a text or call back soon. Within the hour, at least. It depends on how busy the office is. We don't have a secretary, and everyone else is out working today, so there's only one person to answer the phones. Guess who that is."

[Deleted]

Bladewing listened to her explanation and realized that it was obviously way harder to get a job than he thought. From the television media it had looked like one could just walk in somewhere and get themselves hired should they need someone. But no one said anything about background checks and drug tests, which could be a bit problematic, if you kind of didn't have existed until just now and you were an alien using a holoform drone to blend in with the humans.

"That's some pretty strict security for a cleaning job that no one would want to do." He observed.
"But don't worry, what you described wouldn't be a problem for me. Believe me I've seen worse…" He spoke the last sentence in a mumble and a way that made clear that he might just have thought aloud.

Bladewing had seen worse. There had been a few times when they had been desperate enough to move to battlefields that had only been left recently. Having been forced to scavenge still cooling corpses, mangled by enemy weapons, for energon rations they might still be carrying in their subspace pockets and other useful things. It had been a matter of survival but it still gave Bladewing chills when he remembered these times and he hoped the primes would forgive him for desecrating the dead in order to secure his and Blue's survival.
At least here the corpses, if there had been any, were all long gone.

"Well, I'm ready when you are." He then said, after shaking himself out of his revery giving her an excited smile.

[Cassandra Cassidy]

The edge of Butch's lip quirked up approvingly. "You're an eager beaver, now aren't you?" she said. "We could use more people with your kind of attitude."

Before she could say anything more, music began to blare from her phone. It was one of those styled as electronic music, bopping out soft beep-beep-boop as she answered the call. "What Stays In Vegas Cleaning Services, Cassidy speaking," she said into the phone, turning away. A man's voice was faintly heard responding, which was similar to the voice she'd had on the line before. Something between a smirk and smile crossed Butch's face as she turned to face Blade.

"Yeah, he's here, James," Butch said. "Let me put you on speaker."

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Blade's terms of work were fairly straightforward that day. James McElroy, owner of the cleaning company What Stays In Vegas, would hire Blade as extra help. He would be paid in cash at the end of the job at a minimum-wage rate. If he wanted to be hired on as an actual employee, he'd have to provide an address and his social security number. He'd also have to have a background check to the police, and submit to a urinalysis test. James made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that he needed employees he could trust. Not only was the turnover rate horrendous for his operation, most of the jobs were sensitive ones. Hoarders, abandoned areas, and crime scenes were just the start of what Stays In Vegas dealt with. James couldn't risk Blade trying to steal from a client or pretending to be hired by someone. Butch said nothing as the stern man said this, holding up the phone with a neutral expression.

James said that Blade could think about full-time hiring, and that he'd give Blade time to settle in. He was understanding of Blade being new in the area, and knew that real estate in small towns could be hard to find. Once he made sure to answer any questions Blade asked, he hung up. Butch dialed for an Uber driver to take them to the storage units they'd be tidying up. Fifteen minutes later, a black Cruiser rolled up outside of KO Burger. Butch thanked the driver for coming, pulling open the nearest sliding door for Blade.

"Hop in!" Butch called to the alien in disguise. "It's a forty minute drive or so, so if you have anything else you need to ask, there's time."

[Deleted]

Blade smiled back at her as she called him an eager beaver, even though he didn't really know what a beaver was. Something diligent, maybe? 

"Well I'm in need of Dollars and you're in need of helping hands. Sounds like a good deal." He said with a shrug.

Blade waited in silence as she answered the call. He listened to what James had to say about his terms of work should he want to become an employee. He didn't interrupt but affirmed that he understood the terms. 

He didn't let it show, but they made it sound like it was obviously very hard for someone like him to get a job and earn money to buy the things they needed. It looked like they'd have to resort to scavenging and stealing again. But at least right now he had a real job once more.

At the end of the call Blade thanked James for the kind offer and told him that he would contact 'What stays in Vegas' as soon as he had made his decision. 

"Do you have a business card?" He asked Butch after the call had ended. Maybe, when they had access to the planetary datanet they could make up some documents and references. 

As they waited for their transport Bladewing decided to learn a little more about the little town, Jasper, he was supposed to be a new inhabitant off. "So, do you have any advice for someone who just came to this place?"

As the Uber came he got into the car a little reluctantly. He still really didn't like the idea of riding in a car. Even back on Cybertron he hadn't liked to board a transport in order to be taken to another part of the planet. He prefered to rely on his own wings rather than the skills of some pilot. 

Blade masked his nervousness with a smile as the driver pulled out of the parking lot. "So, from what I gathered, we aren't allowed to keep any of the things we clear out of that place?"

[Cassandra Cassidy]

"Do you have a business card?" Blade asked, Butch hanging up her phone just as he asked. She glanced over at Blade, putting the device back in its proper pocket and beginning to dig around in both.

"I should," Butch said. "It's around here...somewhere...oh, wait, they're in my bags. I keep them stored when I'm not at work. They have all my things related to work. I'll ask the driver if we can stop there so I can grab what I need. Everything for you will be at the unit when we arrive."

When Blade asked for advice, Butch answered, "It depends. How familiar are you with small towns?" Rural and urban areas were two different beasts. The answer to his question depended on what he called his stomping grounds. Butch was silent as she gave him time to reply, taking in whatever he did (or didn't say) as she squinted at the horizon.

Blade's nervousness when they got into car didn't go unnoticed. Cass took the far side of the cruiser's back seat, allowing Blade to either sit in the middle or by the door he entered. When he was situated and flashing his nervous smile, Cass nodded at him as if to reassure Blade. Butch glanced at the driver's mirror, exchanging the usual short pleasantries with her.

"Where to, hon'?" their driver asked. She was a middle-aged brunette with pink-rimmed glasses, a dark blue T-shirt, and a wrinkled face. Her expression was as weary as Cass's and a bit more worn.

"The apartment block on the eastern edge of town," Cass said. "I have to pick up a few things there. After that, we'll need to go to the old Handy Dandy place outside of Vegas."

"That run-down rat's nest?" the woman asked, looking surprised. "Hasn't that place been abandoned for years?"

"Yeah, but the land's been bought. We're heading there for work. We've been asked to take out to take care of what was left behind when the old owners left town."

"Right, right."

As the driver pushed the stick-shift into drive and pulled out of the parking lot, Butch looked over at Blade. "You get carsick?" she asked quietly. The woman up ahead began to fiddle with her radio knob, genres of all kinds skipping across the airwaves. What bursts of music managed to get out where choked by the hiss and fizz of bad static. The driver muttered an annoyed, "Oh, come on..." as she kept moving the dial to and fro, trying to get a signal. It wasn't long after she started doing this that Blade asked his question, and Butch made a quiet snort.

"I wouldn't recommend it," said Butch. "Where we're going, everything's pretty much in ruin. There was a severe rat problem the previous owners never addressed properly. The little bastards chewed through, tore up or pissed on whatever they could get to. A lawsuit happened and the place was sued. Next thing people know, the owner's padlocked all the units and abandoned the property."

[Deleted]

Blade just nodded when she told him that they would stop by where her work bags were stored, asking himself why she didn't have those with her when she was about to go to her assigned job when they met. He didn't say anything about that though, not wanting to appear strange or alien towards her.

When they were waiting for the uber and Bladewing tried to learn more about Jasper, she answered with another question. "I used to live in a big city." He stated and there was a certain wistfulness in his expression and voice. There was a sting in his spark reminding him of the never healing wound that the loss of everything he held dear had ripped into his spark. All gone within seconds in a bright flash of light. The expression was gone as quickly as it had entered features as Bladewing was able to shake the feelings. He sent a wave of gratitude over to Blue for helping him with it. What would he just do without his symbiont?
"I don't have much experience with villages or small towns." At least none that were still inhabited.

Blade took the place next to the door. At least that gave him the illusion of safety as he could get out of the car in case of emergency.
Should he find a way to get some work he also needed to find a way to store and charge the holoprojector in Jasper, saving him the trouble of hitching a ride to the small town every day.

He stayed silent as Butch talked to the driver and nodded as she asked him if he got car sick. "I just don't like the feeling of being in a transport."

He listened to her answering his question and it really sounded like an awful place. Almost like the abandoned warehouse in that small ghost town they'd found for themselves. From the TV they'd managed to get working they'd learned that the small organic rodents that had infested the place were called rats. It had been a pain to fight them. The small creatures even had the audacity to Crawl into his plating, trying to nest there. Fortunately lasers had proven effective against them and after they'd moved most of the unusable junk to another part of the place the rat problem had gotten better.
"I hate rats. Why would someone allow those creatures to live in their place? What's even their function apart from indicating that a place is a mess."

When they arrived at Butch's workplace he was relieved that he could get out of the car, even if it was just for a moment. "Shall I help you carry anything?" He asked.

[Cassandra Cassidy]

((Accidental double post, please remove))

[Cassandra Cassidy]

"I used to live in a big city. I don't have much experience with villages or small towns."

Butch made a noise of acknowledgement as she pulled out her phone to check something. "I'll explain more on the way, after I get my things," she said, opening up her text messages and scrolling through. Each was given a brief glance, then dismissed as she swiped to the next one. Butch was a fast reader - it seemed she could read less than a hundred words in seconds. She was silent as she did this, occasionally glancing up to look at her surroundings.

About a block away from some two-story buildings, each flat-roofed and in a roughly-adobe style, Butch held up a hand. "Stop here," she ordered the driver, undoing her seatbelt. With a quick, "I'll be right back," she pulled open her door and hopped out. The woman jogged up a corner to where the buildings were, disappearing around the bend. Almost ten minutes later, she returned with two large duffel bags in each hand. Butch thanked the woman for the stop, and politely refused help when Blade offered to grab her bags.

Once Butch was settled, she pulled a bag into her lap. It was one of two huge, bulky duffels, black-strapped and navy blue. The fabric, worn and stained with spots of bleach and dust, gave way as she pulled back on a paint-chipped zipper. Her good hand reached to fish around inside, metal and plastic clinking with movement.

"There's a few things you should know out here," she said as she looked around. "First, nothing will be open on a Sunday, and it usually closes by eight in the evening. The only things 24-hour out here are the gas stations, and maybe KO Burger on a Friday or weekend night. Second, people talk. Expect everyone to ask you questions and tell their neighbors what you answered, even if it was a 'no thank you'. Third, you'll be treated like an outsider for a while. You'll have to find a way 'in' with people, whether it's a church, organization or something else. Fourth, don't mess with people's cars. There's an illegal street-racing circuit around here, and people's cars are their babies. Some of the Vegas folks have toys that cost what you'll make in a lifetime."

Satisfied with whatever she'd meant to do, the woman zipped up her duffel and put it back on the floor. When Blade mentioned not like being inside moving vehicles, she gave a wordless nod. She didn't say much more, and would be content to sit in silence for the rest of the ride. The only time she'd talk, other than to acknowledge the rat comment with a, "They just do," was to give directions.

It wasn't long before they approached their destination. The storage unit was a dingy, falling-down affair. It sat on the edge of an old settlement that had a few houses still standing. What wasn't standing was dry and sun-baked, half-swallowed by the Nevada sands. The front door had a biohazard sign on it, and a notice of condemnation below that. A large blue truck with the words "NEVADA JUNK DISPOSAL" in a bold, white font was off to the side. Opposite of it was a white van that resembled an RV. A half-buried parking lot was what the Uber pulled into in a cloud of ochre sand.

Reaching for the door as the Uber slowed to a crawl, Butch pulled one bag onto each shoulder. "Just head over to the big blue truck outside the door. Knock if you have to come in; we're using something pretty potent today."

[Deleted]

It was just a moment after Butch's comment about the rats, when Bladewing felt Blue franticly trying to get his attention. He could feel that something had agitated and scared his symbiont and so Bladewing positioned his holoform avatar in a way that it looked like it was looking out of the window. Then he returned his senses to his own frame.

For anyone in the car it would appear like 'Jack' was just looking out of the window, following the landscape passing by in deep thought, spaced out and oblivious to the world around him. 

Within the warehouse that had become the duo's new home Bladewing noticed immediately what had caused the fuss. Something or someone has set off the perimeter alert. Exiting the warehouse he looked down the street, focusing his sensors into the direction of the alert. Two bigger groundcrafts were approaching their position, causing a dust cloud to raise in their wake.

At this distance it was unfortunately all the information he could get. 

Blue had followed his carrier outside. "We could detonate the defense line." The minicon spoke out loud what Bladewing was thinking about. The seeker nodded as he hummed in thought. So far there were only two vehicles, transport crafts, civilian in design. If they were human or Cybertronian in origin however he couldn't determine at the distance. 

"No." He said after some thought. "Right now it would do more damage than good."

Right now they didn't have any real means of defending themselves, if their position got reveiled and one of the factions or the humans decided to pay them a visit. 

"We should hide until they're gone again." Bladewing decided before quickly returning to the warehouse together with Blue, where they started to quickly gather their few belongings. Small things were stored in subspace and what didn't fit in there was stored within Bladewing's cockpit. 

As soon as they were done they left the building to hide between the ruins. Hopefully the desert camo they had scanned helped them to go unseen. 

Since Bladewing needed to return his attention to his holoform avatar in order to not raise any suspicions, Blue would keep his sensors on the vehicles and their activities and warn him should anyone get too close to their position. 

Sending over a wave of reassurance to his anxious symbiont Bladewing sent his senses back to the holo drone. 

Back in the car Bladewing regarded the desert passing by his window and suddenly with a murmured curse recognized the surroundings. He had a bad feeling about where they were heading.

Only about ten minutes later it turned out that his hunch had been right, as the car stopped in front of the old warehouse they were using as their new home base. 

"Someone actually bought this place? But, it's a ghost town of ruins no one should be coming to. Well, except photographers perhaps." Bladewing mused aloud.