Understood
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Chapter 41
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Gloss met Tailgate at the elevator landing. "I'm glad you decided to give it a try," he said. "And by the way, you look great."
"Thank you," said Tailgate happily. He'd spent most of what money he had to have some imitation starstones applied to some of the more conspicuous areas of his armor. If no one looked too closely it wouldn't be discovered that they weren't the real thing. "I'll give it my best."
"I know you will." He gestured at the page beside him. "This is Shane. He'll be sticking with you today to help you out with questions and procedures."
The four pages were and ever-present fixture around the House of Red Curtains. Gloss had hired them ages ago—all four refugees from Sandus Sept. And like all Sandians they were small—the size of data-slug mechs—but had no natural alt-modes. Many Cybertronians considered their race a throwback or an aberration. Some considered them crippled. The Monoformists considered them next to godliness. The Adaptusians considered them cursed. The Functionists deemed them only worth of manual servitude. But whatever anyone else thought of them, they worked hard at the House of Red Curtains delivering ordered drinks to the rooms, running errands for the boarders, and helping out here and there. The red scarves they wore were a badge of pride.
"Hello Shane," Tailgate said cheerfully. The mech was even smaller than himself. "Nice to meet you. I'll probably have lots of questions for you."
"I'm happy to help out," he said, extending a hand in greeting.
Gloss smiled. "I'll take you to the viewing floor and introduce you there. But after that you two will be on your own."
"I'm sure we'll be fine," said Shane confidently.
"Of course you will," responded Gloss with the same enthusiasm. "Tailgate here certainly won't be the first mech you've walked through his first few days."
The three went down to the viewing floor where Gloss got the attention of the other six boarders lounging about. The femme playing ther electroharp brought her tune to an early finish. The slender mech with the interesting head-flares set aside his datapad with an irritated groan. "Everyone, this is Tailgate. He's being kept upstairs by his patron, but he's decided to join us on the floor now and then.
The mech and femme who could have passed for twins leaned into each other, heads touching, and giggled effervescently at some private joke. The harpist smiled. The lithe femme in the glittering shawl did as well. The big mech with the intensely green optics nodded. The one with the datapad just went back to his reading.
"Shane will be looking after him while he gets used to things, but I expect you all to be friendly and helpful toward him." Gloss' optics fixed deliberately on the datapad mech for a moment before he turned back to his newest employee. "Any questions before I head for my desk?"
"I don't think so. And Shane will be here for me."
Gloss put his hand affectionately on Tailgate's shoulder. "I hope you have a good day and get to entertain a guest or two."
The manager departed, and Tailgate and Shane sat on one of the couches with Shane beside him, the tiny mech and the twins talking him through the process of being summoned from the viewing floor. Basically he was to wait there until a guest invited him up to the lounge. Once in the lounge the guest could either buy him a drink or take him right up to his room. Sometimes Gloss would issue a 'viewing summons', for which Gloss himself would be present. In this case the guest had not made his decision yet and wanted to look over his options more closely and perhaps speak with a boarder should it be a certain personality being sought.
But once he and guest were on their way upstairs, the contract key would be handed over and he would see any specifics of the services required. "The system works pretty smoothly," said Shane. "You'll get used to it quickly."
"Do you think I'll get many clients?"
"Easily," said the femme half of the twins, simply named 'Left' while her partner went by 'Right'. "You're nice to look at and a lot of mechs these days prefer a smaller partner."
"Shane, what about you? Do they ever ask for you or any of the other pages?"
"We pages aren't for sale," he said with a knowing smile.
"But do they ever ask?"
Shane chuckled. "Very rarely. But let me introduce you to Harmony. She's the one with the electroharp. Half of the time she gets asked to bring her instrument in with her and play for the guests."
Shane introduced Tailgate to Harmony and to the other mechs about. As requested by Gloss, they were friendly, though the datapad one made it clear he had no interest in his new co-worker.
And later in the afternoon a party of four Decepticon junior officers came in and each picked out a boarder, and Tailgate found himself selected by a white-plated seeker. Shane accompanied Tailgate and the guest in the elevator, showing Tailgate where to slip the contract key into the reader and how to go over the terms. There was a basic default contract, and anything that varied would be marked by Gloss. But there was nothing out of the ordinary, and when the elevator opened on the sixth floor, Tailgate lead the way toward his room, one of the four on that floor. He felt a little excited, having been away from this work for a while, and everything seemed so nice here.
"I'll just be waiting out here," said Shane. "Comm' me if you have more questions." He sat on the bench right outside the elevator. ::And remember, if you need him, Terror can be here within two kliks if there's trouble.::
::Thank you, Shane. I don't think I will, but it's good to know that he's right there if I'm in trouble.:: Tailgate smiled as he hopped onto the berth, bouncing a little on the mattress. He could have used Terror on several occasions when working in Overdock. The house's security mech was big enough and threatening enough to chase off mechs even of Cyclonus' size.
His first client here did seem nice. He'd bought Tailgate and himself a drink downstairs, at which point Shane was introduced. The white seeker then bought Shane a drink as well. And now he was making himself comfortable upon the berth, relaxing his head into a pillow. For a moment Tailgate's smile straightened when he saw that the mech had grabbed Cyclonus' pillow. He'd have to remember to put that particular cushion into the closet before entertaining the next guest. But just this once, it would be fine.
From now on, everything would be fine
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"Understood" continues in Chapter 42
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Author Notes:
Starstones – I already used the concept of decorating one's plating with sparkly stuff in my story "Sunset Dreams." When Skyfire and Swoop visit an expatriate singer's bar, she dolls herself up with a lot of gems and glitz for her performances. Later, she does the same for Swoop as a gift to his bondmate, painting and decorating him as a femme.
Shane – I'm a fan of the Headmasters Series, which aired only in Japan as a direct continuation of the G1 animated series. The titular Headmasters all come from a diminutive race of Cybertronians with no natural alt-modes. While those at the center of the series all have 'normal' Cybertronian names, the others all have Western names, such as Jack, Abel, and Kirk.