Illusionna had assumed that the "big meeting" would be in the entrance hall, which had seemed more than big enough to her for a meeting. It wasn't. The meeting was held in a different room, at least four times the size. And it was a big meeting.
The only gathering of people that Illusionna had seen that was larger was a sparking ceremony and the talk she had witnessed, not too long ago, at the auditorium by the Decepticon decrying against Optimus Prime.
And here he was, he would keep Cybertron in the dark ages. He had paid no attention to her during the gathering, which was good. The less she was noticed, she more she could notice. He was a large mech, and handsome in a rugged sort of way. Whoever built his body had a good optic for aesthetic. Flanking him was a white and blue Autobot with a visor for his optic lens named Jazz. Jazz had cuffed her shoulder and said, "Hey kid," in a sweet way when he came in the room. On the other side of Optimus Prime was an Autobot larger than Optimus, in a red, white, and blue chassis named Ultra Magnus. He didn't seem he was aware of any of the people as individuals, but rather as a whole group. He had said nothing at all the entire time he'd been there, but merely stood beside the Autobot Leader. Next to Jazz was an Autobot, in an old fashioned chassis, boxy and red, named Ironhide. He had looked her over, and then said disgustedly, something about "Neutrals who don't pull their weight." She sent a little energy spike toward him on the airwaves, still burning inside at the insult. She thought it was cleverly enough hidden, but when Ironhide shook his head with a confused look on his faceplates, Jazz's optics found her in the crowd. Still smiling, he shook his finger at her and shook his head. She looked at the floor and hid behind the Autobot in front of her.
As everyone got settled, the Autobots in the front of the room began to talk about what they were going to do about their energy crisis. Stand in line, like everyone else, immediately came to her mind. How many times had she heard that phrase in The Dead End? They discussed new ways they could extract energy from the planet, from universal radiation. One particular Autobot kept going on about how they could harvest solar energy, if they only had a sun from which to harvest it.
Gathering nothing from the meeting, Illusionna decided to tune into the airwave transmissions in the room. None of them were public, but none of them had anything more than a minor security attached to them. It was nothing to listen in. Many people were complaining about the content of the meeting. At least she wasn't the only one bored out of her energon. She chuckled at her own joke, and the Autobot in front of her turned around and glared. She looked at the floor again.
She picked up a communication between Wheeljack and an Autobot named Pipes on a private line. It took almost nothing to get into the private conversation, there was only the most minimum of locks on the frequency. They were talking about how to put together a coil generator that took energy from the atmosphere, and they needed to have something ready for the next Big Meeting.
Boring! Illusionna withdrew from the private line, and looked about and listened for something that might prove a bit more interesting. The phrase Big Meeting kept popping up in people's private communication, and it annoyed her slightly to realize that was the official name for this type of event. I can come up with something better than that. And I've never been to a Big Meeting before today.
She decided to concentrate on the apparent leaders at the front of the room. Optimus Prime was giving a speech, and his private lines matched what he was saying outloud. The big 'Bot next to him, Ultra Magnus had nothing going out of his private frequencies, but he was open to all frequencies coming in. She didn't get the impression he could hear what others were saying (a few were saying things about him), but was surprised at the range of his of open abilities. She considered poking him through the airwaves, the way she did Ironhide, but decided against it. Jazz might pick it up again.
She turned her attention to him, and prodded his private frequencies and he immediately opened up a line to her. His face was serious, and his attention was on Optimus Prime, but he said, Bored out of your mind yet? He gave the impression of a laugh.
Yes! Are these meetings always like this?
Yep. Gotta get through all the official business.
What official business do you have to do? Maybe she could gather a good tidbit or two in a more direct fashion.
Official business is no fun, he answered. I just come for the party afterward. You stayin' for the party?
It took Illusionna a moment to answer. Of all the replies possible, she wasn't expecting that. She had a brief image of herself wandering around Iacon while a party was going on in Alpha Trion's house. Since she was staying here, that was the only way she figured she wasn't going to the party. Yes, she sent him, yes I am.
He laughed through the line, though his face was still as serious as ever, Good choice! Optimus Prime then mentioned Jazz's name and motioned to him. Uh, time to be official. He began talking about transportation issues within the Command Complex, his face still carved into a serious demeanor. He kept the line between he and her open, but it only broadcast what he was saying out loud, as Optimus Prime's did.
When Jazz was nearing the end of his little speech, the crowd of Autobots in the room began to slowly buzz with excitement. She couldn't catch from anyone's private conversations what the buzz about it. However, her own excitement began when Jazz stopped, and moved to the side, to reveal a huge huge energon tank, with several refueling conduits in it.
Everyone else seemed to know the ritual of what was about to take place, they moved out of the way to make room for the energy keg. Illusionna had only seen these at the rationing lines, when they dispensed energon to those mechs who had to stand in line for it. Here was one that a mech could connect to!
"We share energy," Alpha Trion said, coming to stand next to the keg, "to show our unity. Until All Are One!"
"Until All Are One!" the Autobots cheered back at the old mech, who smiled and moved out of the way.
The Autobots gathered around the keg, in what originally seemed like a haphazard fashion, but eventually it evened out to a line. Each person must have known in what order they were to get their turn, for Illusionna didn't notice any elbow nudging or foot edging in the line. Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, and Jazz stayed at the front of the room, where Alpha Trion joined them. However, they were now at the back of the line.
Illusionna, at the edge of the group, fully expected at least one, if not all, of the four of them to come and take their places in front of the keg, but none did. Surprise caught her when a small, yellow Autobot connected to the keg first.
She watched in anticipation as he refueled, but almost as soon as he'd connected, he disconnected, and let the next person have their turn. They aren't refeuling, Illusionna felt a sudden surge of hunger, followed by panic, which she had strain to keep from surfacing. She knew what her faceplates looked like, she was always very consciously aware of her body language. Her face was impassive, showing nothing, neither serious, nor joyful, and especially not anticipatory. Anticipatory meant weak, and she was many things, may be even weak, but none of them would ever know it. However, the panic faded and left only anticipation, anticipation for energon.
Wheeljack eventually came to the keg, and motioned for her to join him. She didn't move from her spot, so that Lancette, right next to him, called, "Come on, Illusionna. It's your turn." Illusionna heard through some of the private lines she was monitoring a few grumbles, but nothing out loud that her audio sensors would have picked up. She walked to the keg, and Wheeljack stepped back, as if he was protecting her spot in line, and motioned with his arm for her to take her turn.
She connected to the keg, and her internal sensors showed her, fuel 30% capacity. The felt the influx of energy, and kept her optics on the keg. Fuel 35% capacity. Somehow, this felt like a private thing, yet everyone else had done it in full view of all in the room. Fuel 40% capacity. She felt everyone's optics on her. Fuel 45% capacity. She heard, on several private lines, comments similar to, Is she gonna get off, and let someone else have a turn, or take all of the energon? Fuel 50% capacity. With concerted mental effort, she disconnected from the the tank, and stepped back. She made her optics meet Wheeljack's, and then Lancette's, both of whom smiled at her. Wheeljack stepped up to take his turn, and Illusionna slunk back to where she had been before, at the edge of the room.
Once everyone had a turn at the keg (whether it was empty or not, Illusionna wasn't sure), Alpha Trion wheeled it out of the room, and several of the Autobots went out with him. All of the ranking officers, except for Jazz, left with him, along with Wheeljack, Lancette, and some other whom Illusionna did not know the names of. As soon as they'd left, the lights in the room lowered, and on all of Jazz's frequencies, a steady beat of thumps, with some whistles and beeps thrown in for good measure, surged through her mind and audio sensors. Illusionna smiled, Music!
She must have sent it on the private line to Jazz without knowing it, because he answered on it, Of course it's music! Then on a public line, Now it's time to dance!
A cheer went up from those who remained in the room, and several started clapping to the beat that Jazz was thumping. Other Autobots began to dance, moving their legs, their arms, transforming to their alternate modes, and then back to robot mode again, Illusionna watched for a while. It wasn't the same kind of dancing she'd seen before. In the Dead End, in the one occasion she had experienced dancing, all of the mechs moved in the same way. A leader would begin the movements, and each would try to copy him or her. Sometimes s/he would try to trip up the other dancing mechs by going fast, or doing a move that they were quite sure, with the body types of the dancers, that the others could not imitate. And while some of that was happening here, most of it was much more haphazard. Each individual would dance their own dance, in the midst of the others dancing their own dance. There was no coordination to it, no togetherness. Yet, each mech made room for those dancing around him or her, and no one bumped into anyone else. Suddenly, she was knocked out of her reverie by an Autobot taking her hands and dragging her into the small crowd.
She was stuck it the middle of a bunch of dancing Autobots, so she didn't feel she had much choice but to join them. She began to move slowly, fighting a strong urge to imitate someone. She forced herself to move, until it felt more natural, to move in this inharmonious way among all of this discordant movement. Then, like a switch was turned, time took on a different meaning. Autobots came up to her and mirrored her movements, and she mirrored theirs, stamping, and kicking, and twirling, and swinging. She joined hands and arms with others, and spun about like a gyroscope. She got into transforming contests with still others, changing into her alternate mode of a recording camera and back to mechanoid again. Faster and faster and faster, until either they or she could keep up on longer, and they ended up on the floor laughing, half transformed and servos aching.
And then, the beating rhythm stopped, and the lights came back up, and everyone came to a stop. "Party's over, 'bots," Jazz said. "We all have work to do tomorrow."
I don't, Illusionna shot at him.
He didn't even look at her, and spoke out loud, directing Autobots toward the door, but he answered her with a laugh in the line, Don't worry. Alpha Trion will find something for you to do. And if he doesn't, Lancette will. "Off with you," he said out loud, gesturing to the door. "Time for a rest."
She went out of the room, down the hallways to her room-for-the-moment. These Autobots do an awful lot of resting. The room was quiet, very quiet after the thumping on all channels of the dance. She laid down on the berth, and absent-mindedly connected herself to the recharger. It hummed, as it began to pump energon into her. Fuel 35% capacity, her internal monitors read. She lay in a slight daze, her heating system working to cool her off after so much physical activity, her mind wandering to movements and the thumping, until the charger cut off. Fuel 50% capacity.
She sat up, I wonder what it feels like to be fully charged. The thought was an errant one, one that she did not let herself think. It crept out from where she usually kept it hidden, her vigilance drained by evening's activities. She knew what it felt like to be fully charged, she even knew what it felt like to be fully charged and have the others around you at less than full capacity. However, for a moment, she let herself wonder if it felt any different than when one first came online. Of course one was at full capacity then. She hadn't savored it, she hadn't made an effort to remember what it felt like. She hadn't known, then, that she wouldn't see her internal monitor ever say, fuel 100% capacity, again.
She felt the prickles of anger begin to surface, and a thought she hadn't thought before, something more ugly and sinister than, I didn't know, I didn't work to remember. She stuffed the thought back down where it normally lived, underneath more rational and practical thoughts. It wasn't good to dwell on such things, Spanner and Wind Rider, both, had told her so. It only led to more irrational and impractical thoughts, and one shouldn't waste their precious energy on things like anger, jealousy, or greed. It was better to dwell on things that could be done, here and now. Like walking through Autobot databases, shoddily guarded, full of semi-useless information that might be worth something to someone at some point.
Illusionna hooked herself up to the port, and began to virtually wander around Iacon.