Transformers Aftermath

The Burdens of Being A Cybertronian Artist

Inside her apartment in Autobot City, the blue and purple Seeker Moondancer carefully slides a paint covered brush across the canvas to touch up the painting she had been working on all afternoon. Once she was satisfied enough with the touch up, she placed the brush in a large jar of water and stepped back to admire her work.

Which was quickly interrupted by the chime of her door going off.

Still, she was in enough of a cheery mood that it didn't bother her.

"Come in," she called out.

The door slid up and Redtail came strolling in with the usual bounce in her step.

"Hey Moonie, I as just wondering if-"

She paused mid-step and her expression faded when she saw the painting her friend had just finished.

"Nooooo girl, not again!" she whined.

"What?" Moonie asked, looking back and forth between her friend and her painting.

The painting itself was an image of Decepticon Air Commander Starscream soaring majestically in the sky in his robot mode. His highly detailed, lovingly recreated robot mode. The soft lighting used in the painting made him look almost angelic. Especially with the clouds and rays of sunlight surrounding him.

"What's wrong with my painting?" Moonie asked again.

"It's just..." Redtail paused.

She tried to find a sensitive way to express her displeasure but nothing came to her. So instead she chose the direct approach.

"It's STARSCREAM! Again!" she blurted out.

"What's wrong with me painting Starscream?" Moonie demanded.

"You mean aside from the fact that he's a jerk?" Redtail countered, putting her hands on her hips.

"He is not!"

She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes just a bit at Moonie.

"Okay fine," Moonie sigh in resignation. "But he's a handsome jerk!"

Redtail sighed again and placed her face in her palms.

"Sweet Primus girl, we have got to find you a partner!" she murmured.

"I fail to see how these two things are related," the blue Seeker retorted.

"Oh really?" Redtail challenged.

She then confidently strolled over to the storage closet in Moonie's quarters and mashed the button to open it. The door whooshed opened to reveal the space was full of canvases of various sizes. She reached in and without even looking was able to pull out another painting of Starscream. And then another. And another. And another.

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Moonie declared, waving her hands in defeat.

Redtail's expression softened and she placed the paintings back in the closet.

"Look I'm not trying to make you feel guilty or anything, I just don't...I don't get what you see in him!" she exclaimed.

"He's charming! In his own...unique way," Moonie explained. "He has kind of a...dark charisma about him. You know you shouldn't listen to him but something about him just draws you in."

"So he's a bad boy fantasy," Redtail scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Which is fine to fantasize about but definitely not someone you should actually try to date. Especially Starscream! Windblade actually did date him for awhile and she said he was nothing but a manipulative jerk! And there's no bot he's ever going to love more than himself!"

"I know!" the other femme jet cried out. "I know shouldn't be interested in him! I know he would never love me because I have interacted with him and you're absolutely right! And yet..."

She gazed lovely at her latest painting of the mech in question. Redtail shook her head then turned back to the collection of paintings again. Her optics shined with hope when she caught sight of another figure among then sea of Starscreams and landscapes.

"Oh hey, look," she said cheerfully as she pulled out the painting. "Jazz! Jazz is a good guy to date! And you captured his essence really well too!"

Moonie snapped out of her dreamy daze to look at the old portrait of hers. Her smile grew a bit wider at the compliment and the subject matter.

"Thank you," she replied softly. "And yeah, I do like him too. I'm just not sure if he would ever really notice me."

"Well why don't you ask him?" Redtail encouraged.

"Mostly because he's helping Optimus run Cybertron now and I just don't know if I'm in the mood for a long distance relationship right now," she answered.

"Oh right," the red femme said in a slightly defeated tone, drooping her shoulders a bit.

They perked back up when a solution came to her.

"What about Headlights? She's looks like a female Jazz!" she suggested.

"Looks like," Moonie pointed out. "They're not really the same person though. Plus she's part of a Combiner team and I just don't think I want to get involved with that right now."

"Fair enough," Redtail relented then carefully put the painting back into the closet.

She paused as she looked over the stacks and stacks of paintings that filled the small storage space.

"Hey, how come you don't put these paintings up somewhere?" she asked, turning back to Moonie.

"Because I don't have much space in here," she answered, gesturing around the room, "and to be honest if I look at my own work too long...all I can see are the mistakes," she revealed sheepishly.

Redtail cocked her head slightly as that comment but decided to ignore it.

"Okay then what about a gallery?" she pressed.

"What gallery? It's not like we have one here and human galleries are too small to hold the canvases I use. In fact..."

She held her sentence as she walked over to the closet and dug around inside it for a few seconds. Soon enough she pulled out a much smaller canvas with a landscape painting on it.

"The only size that would fit in one of their galleries gave me severe servo cramps," she explained, shaking her hand at the memory of the pain. "Besides...they said they weren't interested in it, so..."

Her face fell in a dejected expression as she put the canvas back into the closet. The sight of her friend looking so down ignited a fire inside of Redtail.

"Nope! No, that won't stand at all!" she exclaimed. "I am gonna make this right one way or another!"

"Redtail, no, please, it's okay," Moonie tried to assure her. "I don't need my paintings displayed. I have enough fun just painting them."

"Nonsense! I'm going to help my friend get her paintings displayed and that's that! This...I vow!" Redtail declared before she spun on her heel strut and strode out of the room

Moonie just shook her head and sighed before she moved back over to her still drying painting. She looked it over and felt overall satisfied with it.

Except for the little spot down in the left corner.

"No, no, you're just being hard on yourself. It's fine!" she tried to convince herself. "It doesn't bother me, it doesn't bother me."

She looked at the spot again.

"It bothers me a lot!" she remarked before she picked up her brush and easel again to fix the mistake.

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

A few days later, Moonie was on her way back to her apartment from an art supply run when she was stopped by a note taped to her door. She pulled it off the door and brought it up to her face to read it.

Meet me outside of the left tower on the east landing platform. Got a surprise for you!

-Redtail

"Uh no, what is she planning now?" Moonie asked in sight worry.

She placed the art supplies in her apartment before walking back outside and transforming to fly over to the east landing pad. When she arrived at the pad, she instantly spotted Redtail waving to her and dove down towards her. She transformed just before reaching the ground and landed next to her friend.

"Great, you found my note!" Redtail exclaimed happily.

"I did. What's this all about?" Moonie asked in confusion.

"It's a surprise!" she squealed excitedly before she move behind the blue femjet. "Now close your optics!"

"O...kay..." Moonie muttered unsurely but did as instructed.

She then felt Redtail place her hands on her shoulders and lead her inside one of the towers on the landing pad. She then felt them getting into an elevator and going up. She was tempted to open her optics but she was sure Redtail would just clamp her hands over them. She also knew it would be useless to ask what was going on because she knew just how much Redtail loved to surprise people. When the elevator stopped, she was led down what she assumed was a short hallway before coming to a brief stop to wait for a door to swish open then stepping into some kind of room. It was then she felt Redtail's hands leave her shoulders.

"Alright, open them!" she implored, her voice full of excitement.

Moonie did as instructed and was shocked at what she saw. She was standing in a fairly large open room with paintings hung up all over the walls. Her paintings. What's more, there were various bots from the city standing around and looking at her paintings. Talking about them. Admiring them. They were admiring her work.

"Wha...wha...wha...?" she stammered as her overwhelmed eyes looked towards her friend.

"It's it amazing?!" Redtail cheered, bouncing up and down. "It's your very own art gallery!"

"But...how?"

"Well, after our talk last week, I started asking around and found out there was a whole empty room in this part of the Metroplex and so I asked if it'd okay if we could use it. It took some convincing but eventually Rodimus said yes! So...here we are!"

"But..." Moonie started again, looking at the room again, "How did you get the paintings from my apartment without my noticing?"

"Oh well..." she paused, looking a bit embarrassed, "let's just say it's good to have a girlfriend that's on the security team."

Moonie placed her hands her hips and glared slightly at her so called friend.

"Do I even want to know how you got Strongarm to agree to that?" she pressed.

"Probably not," Redtail waved off then took her arm and led her forward a bit. "But come on! Look around! Your paintings are on display for all to enjoy! Doesn't that feel amazing?!"

Despite the questionable ethics behind it, Moonie had to admit to herself it was pretty amazing watching others enjoy her paintings. She walked behind the various mechs and femmes, catching bits and pieces of their conversations and compliments. She couldn't help but smile giddily at the praise she was receiving. It did fade a bit when she studied the paintings herself and realized there were quite a few missing.

"Wait..." she said softly.

"Yeah I decided it was best to leave the Starscream ones in your apartment," Redtail confessed softly.

Moonie looked like she was going to protest but then paused and nodded in agreement.

"Okay, yeah, you're probably right," she admitted.

"I know I am! Just like I know I'm right to do this!" she smirked then cupped her hands over her mouth. "EXCUSE ME EVERYONE! If you want to know who made these amazing paintings she's right here!" she announced, pointing towards Moonie.

"REDTAIL!" the surprised Seeker cried out.

The other femme just winked before she stepped back as a crowd descended upon the artist. Moonie did her best to not look too panicked as she tried to manage the barrage of questions and compliments that came her way. Though overwhelmed at first, she quickly settled into a pattern that let her address all the bots vying for her attention. She answered questions about her techniques, her inspirations, how she gets canvases that big and if any of them are for sale. Eventually, the rabble calmed down enough that she could excuse herself and walk over to where Redtail was smugly leaning against the wall.

"That was a dirty trick," she grumbled.

"Maybe but I saw your face there. You were loving that attention!" Redtail countered with a knowing smirk.

Despite herself, Moonie smiled just a bit.

"Okay, yeah, it was nice to know that people really do enjoy my work," she confessed and looked back towards the crowd.

She did so just in time to spot a pair of femmes walking towards her. While most of their bodies were white, they had a few bits of color on their arms and legs. Most of their colors were reserved for the alt mode kibble on their backs which revealed them to be a red jet and a blue jet. Much like Redtail and Moonie themselves.

"Hi, you're the artist of these, right?" the blue jet femme asked Moonie with a smile on her face.

"Yep, that would be me," Moonie smiled back.

"Oh good! I'm-"

"Sky Striker!" Redtail suddenly blurted out. She then looked towards the other red femme. "And you're Spitfire!"

"Guilty as charged," she replied confidently, a smile evident despite her mouth plate.

"You know them?" Moonie asked her friend.

"Of course! They're from the Wonderbots! The Combiner stunt team!" she explained.

"Oh right!" she nodded then turned back to duo. "I thought you were doing your show back on Cybertron?"

"Normally yes, but we're doing a show in Autobot City later this month," Sky Striker explain.

"Huh. How have I not heard about that?" Redtail wondered aloud.

"Because we haven't really advertised it yet," Spitfire informed them. "Want to make sure everything's perfect before tell everyone."

"Perfect by your standards dear," Sky Striker teased her. "The rest of the team is ready to go."

"And I'll believe that when we can run through the latest routine without any slip ups," the red femme teased back.

"Was there something you wanted to ask me?" Moonie spoke up awkwardly.

"Oh right," Sky Striker remarked with a sheepish grin. "Well, see, Spitfire here is going to be my Conjunx Endura soon and in addition to just photos, I was hoping we could get a portrait of ourselves done. Seeing all these amazing works here just made me wonder...would you be interested in doing it?"

Moonie stared in disbelief.

"You...want me to do something that important for you?!" she asked in shock.

"Yes! And you don't have to worry, we will pay whatever you want!"

"Within reason," Spitfire quickly added. "Money is some object."

"I'm sure we'll figure something out," Sky Striker waved off her partner and looked intently at Moonie again. "So?"

"I..." she paused, still surprised by this turn of events. "Yes. Yes I'll do it!"

"Great! Thank you so much!" the other blue jet cheered as she reached out and shook Moonie's hands.

"Yes, thank you," Spitfire agreed. "We'll be in touch with the details later."

"Of course. Thank you!" Moonie beamed.

The couple thanked her again before they linked arms and walked back to a small crowd of bots. Moonie still stood there in complete shock. Not only were others enjoying her paintings but she just set up a commission! She never expected anything like this to happen before!

"So?" Redtail teased, giving her a light bunch on the shoulder. "What do you have to say now?"

Moonie still had a bit of dazed look on her face when she looked back at her friend but it quickly turned into a lopsided grin as she took in her words.

"Thank you for breaking into my apartment and stealing almost all my paintings to put them on display without my permission," she retorted.

"Okay when you say it like that, it does sound bad," Redtail relented. "But look at all the good it's done you!"

"I know, I'm kidding. I really do appreciate all of this. Just next time...maybe ask first?" Moonie requested.

"Deal!"

Moonie nodded then looked around her once again. Her paintings were on display, she had just gotten a commission and she had a great friend beside her. This was definitely the kind of life she had envisioned for herself.

The End.

Author's Notes: Thus we have the official introduction of Seeker Moonie to my TF universe. I already have a few pics of her done and that's actually what led us here. I did a poll over on my DA page about which OC people would like to read about next and Moonie won! Followed closely by Spitfire & Sky Striker, which is why they have an appearance here. And if you're wondering who they are, take the Combiner Wars G2 colored Fireflight & Air Raid and make them female and there ya go! I might go more into detail about them later on. Hell I might just write a fic about the whole Wonderbots team. We'll see.

For now, I'll just leave off saying that the pic I'm using as a cover pic is commission I got from LyndaxyArt who you can find over on Twitter here: LyndaxyArt

Just fill in the gaps cause I'm not sure if FF.N is still weird about links & I wanted to be safe.

That's all for now! See ya next time!