Fandoms: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: War for Cybertron, Transformers Generation One
Relationships: Smokescreen/Original Cybertronian Character
Characters: Smokescreen, Original Cybertronian Character, Nightbeat, Prowl
Other Tags: Pre-War, Alternate Universe, Gambling, Debt, Blackmail, Intrigue, Lots of Intrigue, Headcannon, Worldbuilding
Summary: Sin City (definition): An urban area (a city or part of) that caters to various vices. These may be legal (depending on area) or illegal activities which are tolerated. Perhaps the most well known example on Cybertron is the city-state of Praxus…
Note: In addition to having a perfect pair of lines in the second verse, inspiration-song was just plain ironic. How ironic? Read this story all the way to the end, then go YouTube the song and *so* much irony will fall out. It's so fragging optimistic that I cannot *believe* I had it on loop while writing this.
Also… in this one PPC is inspired by FFVII and stands for "Portable Personal Computer/Comunicator" rather than On Causes Bluestreak's PPC which is inspired by Battletech and stands for "Particle Projection Cannon." Important detail.
And you can blame the racing drones (which are not vehicons) on Rizobact. Everything about racing drones is to be blamed on that conversation.
Still Happy Birthday to Me… celebrating by posting the first bits of this.
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Sin City
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He liked seeing his targets in person. It gave him perspective and allowed his meager telepathic talent to give him a bit of insight.
Discretely Clover compared the image his client had given him to the mech playing Predacon Ante down on the gaming floor. A blue and red Praxan with the racing markings that indicated he occasionally participated in the casino's amateur mech races, he wasn't much too look at. Smokescreen, one of the Breakwater's professional gamblers. They were in the second round of the current gambit, the dealer had already taken the casino's rake, and Smokescreen was charming the other players with some sort of story or joke. It didn't matter which. The gambler did have considerable charm and the other players (none of them native Praxans, Clover noticed) weren't taking losing too hard, they were having so much fun. Distraction. Misdirection.
That was what professional gamblers did; they won more money for the casino they worked for and made sure the losers still had fun doing it.
That persona he used while gambling went all the way down to his spark; it wasn't a facade adopted on behalf of his employer, but his name was accurate. The layers of doublethink and misdirection ran deep in him. A trait that probably served him well as a gambler. Still. He couldn't figure out why his client might be interested in Smokescreen, however. He looked like a normal example of his type.
But then, since when did this client need a reason. He might have hired — he snorted through his vents and admonished himself to be honest with himself if no one else — coerced Clover just to find a reason to justify that interest. He suppressed a shudder. He didn't like thinking about this client. He may not be much of a telepath, but he knew a psychopath when he brushed up against one's firewalls. He might have been tempted to turn his own skills loose trying to figure him out, but he wouldn't dare. Investigating such people was not a healthy past time.
No. He wouldn't touch the one he was currently employed by. That was for someone braver than him. He just had to do his own part: Smokescreen.
Smokescreen… What makes you tick? What weaknesses might you have for another to exploit?
Clover turned away. He'd seen what he needed. To find the answers his client sought, he'd have to start at the beginning…
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tbc…
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