Hi! Sorry about the delay! (You know how life can be. :) I love the reviews and favs on Fanfic, though!
I've drawn a G1 style picture of Auri with her new look and posted it as my Fanfiction avatar, in case you want to see sort of what she looks like. A picture is worth a thousand words, y'know ;)
Chapter 8
First Impressions
Prowl was feeling almost content; he was, at least, not alarmed. Auri was showing herself to be highly interested in everything that went on at NEST Base. She also showed an eagerness, as well as quickness, to learn. Her questions were many, though not unintelligent. She seemed to be process things very well, and she readily sorted out details and materials.
Prowl had intended to have her download the rules of the base, but she had far too many questions for that to work. He discussed various rules as they walked from place to place.
He'd just finished explaining speed-limits and speeding fines to her. That had taken a long time, not because she was slow or indifferent, but because she wanted to know thoroughly how and why the speed limits worked, their reasons, causes and effects and their enforcement. She was satisfied now.
At least, she wasn't asking any more questions. Or was there another reason? "Did I bore you?" He asked not because it made any difference to him,-it was not really logical- it was irrelevant to ask since he had already acted- but because it was the polite thing to ask.
"Not at all!" She exclaimed, "Oh dear! I didn't mean to give that impression. I was just reprocessing what you'd told me."
"Good." He was satisfied, but she went on.
"It's not boring at all. In fact, I think it sounds preferable to getting blasted at by 'Cons and trying to blast them in return." She commented, giving her door-wings an airy flit.
"I do that as well." He said, not about to let her get any delusions about his line of work. Then a jeep sped by, exceeding the speed limit by 7.9313 miles per hour. He frowned, for he knew that driver well.
"Excuse me a moment. And do not move from that place." Prowl told her as he transformed into his patrol car. He blared his siren once, flashing the lights at the vehicle, and the driver pulled it over.
Auri was immediately fascinated, the light caught her attention first, and then the whole process of enforcing the law intrigued her.
The organism was talking a lot, arguing with Prowl, answering back like it was an equal. Was it an equal? It was rude, anyway. It said 'Autobot' to Prowl like it was a slur.
"That's only a 5 miles per hour difference, Autobot! It not that big of a difference."
"It is, in fact." Prowl replied, never getting perturbed and deciding to leave it at 5 mph for once. "Speeding is a factor in about one-third of all fatal crashes. Even a small increase in speed increases the chances of a crash. I could quote statistics, but I know you do not care to hear them. I will issue the fine."
The organism had more arguments to make; Prowl handled them all with calm politeness. Eventually it accepted the fine and drove away at a slower speed.
Auri heard an almost inaudible grating noise in Prowl's system when he came near, and she detected slight tightening of his mouth. "What's wrong?" she asked him.
"I have stopped that man for speeding four times." He stated as he logged it in his data-pad.
She said the first thing that came to mind. "Hm. I guess fines are not working then."
"I want to suspend his driver's license, but he is too useful to too many people for me to do that." Prowl replied grimly; he had no alternatives.
"But he's breaking laws; he should be effectively punished!" Auri argued, saying 'he' instead of 'it' as she realized that was what Prowl was doing. 'Fatal' meant something took away life. That couldn't be allowed, especially since there were lots of these organisms around. It might smash one with a non-sentient drone.
"The fine system is designed to be effective." Prowl pointed out. "Did I not already explain it to you?"
"You did." She answered, reconsidering the system. A standard fine was enlarged relative to the number of MPHs the person or 'Bot exceeded the limit by. If further infractions occurred, the fine increased relative that number. The Bots had come up with it based on a system from Cybertron. "Still, though, it is obviously not effective." She reasoned.
Prowl faced her, scarcely believing his audio processors. His door-wings had risen a little higher with surprise. No one ever gave a broken monkey-wrench about whether the fine system worked or not.
Auri twisted her mouth to the side. Was she in trouble again? Had she spoken in the wrong way again? Prowl didn't say anything; he just stood and studied her expression. He didn't correct her, though. "It should be made effective." She decided to go on if he wasn't going to stop her. "Those organisms are clearly delicate; something going too fast could damage them, especially since their reflexes are not fast enough to avoid a high-speed collision.
Prowl looked at her with a new perspective. "Is there something you think would be effective?" he asked, ready to take any logical suggestion she might have.
He had caught her off guard. She stared for a second until she realized that her simple act of argumentation had brought her up to a new level of status in Prowl's universe. She squared her shoulders a little, copying his formal stance. "No, Prowl; there is not, but with further processing I may find something." She replied, reflecting his formal manner of speech.
"I welcome any suggestions you may have." He told her.
She nodded once to acknowledge his words. She had learned this motion from watching him and found it just the thing for this moment when she was at a loss for words.
Prowl shifted his optics to something strange that caught his attention. What on Base…? Then realization hit him. "Would you like to meet some of the other Autobots?" he asked.
"Yes." Truthfully, she was a little afraid to, but if Prowl was there, surely nothing too bad would come of it.
"You may go over and say hello." He said, moving his hand to indicate.
Auri followed his gesture and saw them for the first time. They looked rather casual… a little too casual; they were just parked neatly by the curb, not doing anything, looking like they were just waiting for some organism to drive them off like some non-sentient drone would. One was bright yellow. The other was bright red. And then a light blue mech was standing nearby, looking almost like someone had frozen him in place. And a different light blue mech was trying to straighten out and fix a newly crumpled speed-limit sign… most ineffectively.
"Oh..." She said, suddenly realizing that they were all pretending not to being looking at her, except for the frozen one. This was awkward. She knew that mechs looked at femmes, but she'd never been stared at just like this before.
"Go say hello to them." Prowl said, taking out a data-pad to inspect.
"Well, okay." She said, heading towards the mechs after a brief hesitation. Prowl stayed where he was and watched.
"Who says I have no sense of humor?" Prowl murmured to himself.
Auri approached the group. "Hello." She said.
The red car and the yellow car didn't even twitch. The frozen 'Bot warmed up. "Hello…" he said, and then he had no idea what to say next and flickered his optics.
By then, the other light blue mech had straightened up and put the ruined sign behind his back. He seemed to be the only one capable of communication, and he spoke rapidly, "Hello- Are you new to thisbase-? Because Ireally don't remember seeingyou, and I think that if I'd seenyou before I'd rememberyou -that didn't come outright- 'cause if it'd come outright, I wouldn't be here, standing here, feeling silly here because it came out wrong-…"
Auri's optics flickered in astonishment. This Bot was making it ridiculous mess of his sentence structure and fluency. She wanted to laugh at herself for having been afraid. "Indeed, I am new to this base." How did one communicate with this kind of nonsense…? "Do you need help with that speed limit sign?"
"What speedlimitsign? Oh, that speedlimitsign- Actually, no- no-no- I'm really just here to retrieve and replace it, because if brokensigns weren't retrieved and replaced they'd be lying around all over the place and we wouldn't want that…. Would we-?"
"Uh… no..."
"Heh- Yeah-" He hesitated for a second before transforming and bolting off with the speed limit sign sticking out of his window.
Her mouth was open in a small o of wonder as she watched him flee.
"Rather abrupt, I'd say he is."
She turned to look at the remaining blue mech, who had finally spoken. He seemed to be normal now. "Does he have a name?" she asked, indicating the 'Bot who'd just sped off.
"He does, actually. It's 'Blurr,' it seems to fit him." The 'Bot replied smoothly.
"Oh…" well, that made sense.
"I have a name, too, did you know?"
"I supposed you might." Where was this one going now? She thought she heard some self-satisfaction dripping from his lips. "What is it?"
"It 'Mirage.'" He answered in a very debonair tone.
"That's cool." She looked up the word, "Hey… it's got a pretty nifty meaning, too. Doesn't it?"
"It sure does. It fits, too. Because, now you see me… and now," he vanished, "…You don't." she still heard his words.
"NICE! I bet the 'Cons hate that trick!"
She received no answer. She looked around. "Where'd you go?"
"Right here." He appeared just behind her, almost right over her left shoulder. Almost a little too close for comfort.
"Pretty sneaky." She said, looking over at him.
"That's why I'm the ultimate Autobot spy. I've snuck into Decepticon territory numerous times and never been seen, nor have I been detected either. I have a very effective cloaking system."
"Coooool." Ego rush going on here! Let him brag to some other femme. Time to lose him. "So, is it true that spies are often shallow and don't form strong relationships with others?"
Something went wrong with the spy's marvelous gears, causing him to choke. "I'd better go see Ratchet about this…"
"Well, okay. I hope it's not too serious." She said sweetly.
"It'll be fine…" He turned away and hurried off.
The two remaining mechs jumped up, transforming simultaneously. "AWESOME!" The yellow one exclaimed pumping a fist.
"Did you do that on purpose?" the red one asked, "That was so COOL!"
"Thanks." She said grinning. "What I said, I had been wondering about, but I did ask him on purpose. He was being a little too egotistical for my tastes."
"Yeah… he was a little sleazy." The red one agreed, "M'rage can be such a snob. Anyway, what is your name?"
"I was going to ask her!"
"My name is Aurion-Blaze. But it's 'Auri' for short." She replied, and they grinned with approval. "What are your names?"
"I'm Sunstreaker." the yellow one replied,
"And I'm Sideswipe. We're twins."
"Cool! Fun!" Auri exclaimed. Twins of all things! "Those were slick alt-modes; do you like to race?"
"Like everything!" Sunstreaker said, grinning, and his twin asked, "Yeah! Do you?"
"I did on Cybertron. This planet is a little different and has a different gravity, and I have a different alt-mode, so I have no clue what it'll be like here."
"It'll be awesome!"
Prowl watched them chat. Nothing was going to go wrong for the next few moments, he supposed. He would contact Prime.
::Prowl to Prime::
::Here, Prowl. How is the tour going?:: Optimus
::It is going well. Aurion met Blurr, who bolted. And Mirage, who tried to be smooth, but she gave him a quick turn off. Now she is chattering with Sunstreaker and Sideswipe like they are best friends::
::I'm glad to hear it.::
::Glad-? Prime! The twins are double trouble! Add her and that will make triple trouble!::
"Calm down, Prowl. She may not be the prankster sort.::
::As you say.:: Prowl replied, but Optimus sensed his doubt.
::Don't worry. Prime out::
"'Don't worry, he says." Prowl murmured with a shake of his head and a sigh.
"That sounds like it would be so cool!" Auri exclaimed, disengaging Prowl from his musings.
"You want to go now?" Sunstreaker offered.
"I'd love to; however, Prowl is giving me a tour of the base." She said, starting to sound a little shy about refusing.
"Ah…" "Oh." "Yeah… right. Well..." "have fun, I guess."
"What?" Auri asked, noticing a change in their manner. "You think Prowl will bore me."
The twins glanced over at each other. "Where did that idea come from?" Sideswipe asked.
"I pick up on things pretty fast, twinlings." She said, shifting her stance a little.
Sunstreaker dipped his head a little, "We think fine of Prowl." He said, and Sideswipe nodded, adding, "We just aren't fascinated by details and technicalities."
"I understand. We're all different. Anyway, 'details and technicalities' are important, and they do interest me."
The twins looked slightly blank.
"Hey," she said, "I'm interested in fun things, too. Don't log me as boring. Let me get settled, and then we'll hit the race-track."
"Okay." The twins said, regaining their enthusiasm and grinning, "See you later."
"See you later." She replied before walking back to Prowl.
Prowl watched the twins watch her as she left them. They were interested in her, definitely interested, but as a friend and co-prank-ist, not as a femme in particular. Those two would probably only be interested in twin femmes or two close friend femmes for spark-mates. If they ever matured.
"I like those twins." Auri told Prowl, once they were out of audio-processor range.
"They get into mischief at an alarming rate." Prowl told her. "They break rules."
"Oh," she said, looking around. "They seemed alright to me."
"That was merely a first impression." Prowl said.
Auri glanced over her shoulder, looking back up the street from where they had come. "As you say, commander." She said respectfully, "But they were nice to me."
Prowl paused; then he managed to say, "Yes, they were nice to you." He just knew, though, that they were going to get in trouble and not be nice to him. She would learn about their habits soon enough, he supposed. And she was going to have appointed guardians to watch out for her. No need to brood.
Auri's expression had grown concerned during his silence. That wasn't necessary. He half-smiled at her. "It is alright." He said, "Come on; there is more to see."
"Okay." She answered happily and fell into step beside him, eager for whatever came next. "Why are there poles with words on them at the intersections?" she asked a moment later.
"Because people do not know the longitude and latitude of their locations as we do." Prowl explained. "This system is the most effective one they have found to help them sort out, direct others to, and rendezvous at various locations."
"I see. So, instead of saying 'I am at the co-ordinates of ##-##-##,' they say, "I m at the intersection of 29th Street and Lennox Road'?"
"Yes."
"Why does this road have the name of that organism I met yesterday?"
Prowl shuttered his optics for a second. "They are called humans. Call them 'humans.' Or, call them 'people.' Organism is slightly insulting."
"Oh." She said rather flatly.
"Do you wish to insult the humans?"
"There is not much they can do if we do." She reasoned like a small Autobot who had taken insults from larger ones.
Prowl repressed a groan. "Is it nice to insult someone?" He asked attempting to steer her to a correct answer.
"No."
"And since we must strive to be nice, we must not insult humans."
"Okay."
"They are our allies and friends as well. As for the street name, they did that to honor Major Lennox."
"Okay."
"Please respond with 'understood' or 'yes, Prowl' instead of 'okay.'"
"Yes, Prowl." She answered.
"Thank-you."
"You are welcome." She said. Then she looked a little frustrated. "Prowl, what is the significance of those phrases, thank-you and you are welcome? What are they in Cybertronian?"
Prowl's optics widened with surprise.
Auri lowered her head, feeling small and vulnerable.
"Do not feel bad," Prowls said, his hard, formal edge softening a little for second at her motion. "I will explain," he said, and he did so quite clearly.
"Thank-you for explaining that." She said softly when he was done.
"I am always ready to explain." Prowl said, nodding politely.
'And I have much to learn,' Auri thought to herself. It would be good though.
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