red_diode_district | The Start of Something Interesting...

The Start of Something Interesting...

The day was calm, with no recent Decepticon attacks, and none suspected to be incoming for some time. The cons were too busy licking their wounds from the last battle, one that the Autobots had decidedly come out ahead on. The celebrations had gone on long into the night and the recreation room was already a mess.

Thus, it was the perfect chance for a lone Autobot to slip casually outside.

Mirage had no shift currently scheduled, so he was free to spend his time as he pleased. He certainly made no move to hide his departure, greeting his comrades in the halls on the way out, but the box in his hands remained unopened despite any passing curiosity. It was quietly shifted into subspace before long, and the former noble shifted into alt mode just as smoothly when he reached the doors. Despite the completely inappropriate earthen race car mode, the mech had little trouble self-adjusting before driving off into the forest covering the mountain, for business unknown...

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He almost bit out a muttered 'who's we' but managed to keep that opinion to himself, if only barely.

"Don't think relaxing's something that's gonna happen," Cliffjumper said instead as he finally straightened back up, and he didn't even remotely mean because of their argument. No, this was all because of the situation and location.

Strange ship surrounded by strangers, who were an unknown quantity. And he didn't mean in regards to insulting them either!

"How're ya even gonna find stuff about taboos just 'cause we'll have access to their systems?" Frowning as he looked around the cabin again, Cliffjumper was relieved (and completely ignored the tiny squiggly bit deep inside that was disappointed, that there were two berths... probably because it was standard.

Not that they'd probably get the chance or need to use them on this short trip.

Question was, what would things look like when they got to Paradron?

Mirage could only shrug, making himself more comfortable in the plush chair.

"Suit yourself." He at least needed a little while to recover from their bickering, as he was going to take it while he could.

"And most people keep some sort of records for their taboos, even if they don't realize they do."

Mirage made a lazy gesture, not even bothering to lift his arm from the chair.

"Criminal records, censored vid files, educational data for protoforms... It's all about looking for what they don't want to show you, but once you find the holes in their data..."

Rather like hacking and finding Decepticon data, really.

Cliffjumper, though he didn't notice it, ended up leaning forward in his seat as Mirage spoke, confused and incredulous at first... But it made sense, didn't it?

"... That just sounds weird, but," pausing, Cliffjumper frowned, nasal ridge scrunching up as he thought it over again, "it also makes sense? I guess. How the slag do ya come up with scrap like that?"

Who even thought of things like that in that way? It seemed so utterly alien Cliffjumper couldn't do more than shake his helm at first...

"... is this a spy thing?"

"It's hardly weird. Logical, really. Once you think about it for a while. People broadcast all sorts of things they don't realize they do..."

Mirage paused, helm lifting toward Cliffjumper with a faint grin.

"A 'spy thing'? ...Well yes, yes it is. It is part of why I can manage both sides of my job, really."

"Not something I'd be able to pick up," Cliffjumper said with a little snort and a roll of his optics. Mirage made it sound so obvious, when, to Cliffjumper, it seemed anything but.

"Both sides?" Cliffjumper repeated, feeling faintly dumb as he was just echoing what Mirage just had said. He just wasn't sure what the mech meant, and looked away both due to that, and Mirage's little grin.

It just hammered home how handsome Mirage was, and, more than that, how much more open he seemed even when he just relaxed just a little. It did funny things to his insides, which was just embarrassing.

Mirage could have made a cruel remark - but really, that would just be rude, at this point, and would have only served to flair everything back up again. Instead, he simply inclined his helm, acknowledging Cliffjumper's point without rubbing it in.

"Indeed. I am playing both diplomat, priest, and spy, for the moment. And normally, there are of course other aspects of being within the special ops division than 'simple' spying."

Another causal shrug, as he watched the smaller mech for his reaction. It was a curious question he had posed, after all.

"That's a lot. Don't get 'em mixed up," Cliffjumper said with a grin, but even so he was suddenly uncomfortably aware of how, most probably, most of their safety hinged on Mirage not doing just that.

Sure, so far there'd been no proof the Paradronians would react badly to etiquette breaches, in Cliffjumper's opinion, but if Mirage got the 'spy' part mixed up in the other two, or it got revealed?

That probably wouldn't go over well.

Looking away to scowl at the porthole and the blackness of space outside, Cliffjumper was aware he did have some responsibility for their common safety and for Mirage as well... But, far more was on Mirage alone.

He wasn't sure what he thought about that.

"... what other stuff is there, anyway? Hacking?" Shaking his helm to forcefully eject those thoughts as he looked back at Mirage, Cliffjumper couldn't quite help the roll of his optics.

"I will certainly try," Mirage snickered in surprise at the unexpected joke. At least, he assumed it was a joke.

It wasn't about to get something like that 'mixed up'.

Watching Cliffjumper pensively for several moments, Mirage pursed his lips at the question.

"Mhmm. Hacking is part of it, of course. Monitoring communications. Body-language. And of course, being at the right place at the right time."

It had been, really. Cliffjumper had also just been struck by how very much it wasn't at the same time. The sicker in response drew another grin out of Cliffjumper while he waited for a reply to the other question.

... If Mirage would deign to reply, that was. Maybe it was too secret? Maybe his patience had run out? Cliffjumper wasn't sure, and he couldn't read Mirage's quiet, too-closed off expression.

"... That last's just luck though, ain't it?" Cliffjumper said with a frown, more thoughtful than accusing. It wasn't as if a lot of war, or anything, he guessed, wasn't luck. But in a way it seemed very odd that something that had so much secrecy around it should just include an element of luck.

"Less luck than you might think," Mirage corrected, despite the acknowledging tilt to his helm.

"There is an element of everything else I mentioned in finding the 'right' spots to be in, and learning the 'right' times. Stakeouts and guesswork are just as important."

Mirage glanced away for a second, something secretive and almost coy flickering across his faceplates for a bare moment.

"And it does help if one can tweak the 'luck' in their favor, on occasion."

"Plain work," Cliffjumper said with a nod, getting that easily. It made sense that you'd end up learning little things like that, especially if you put in the work and paid attention... Not that he had any delusions of that he could learn things like that, if he ever got put in that line of work more consistently.

And that was besides the fact that he'd probably not be able to stay still and hidden...

But then Mirage looked away, and that was such an odd expression Cliffjumper was wondering what the slag the mech was thinking about---

"What? How?" Cliffjumper stared, the confusion nearly making the question a demand, because how the frag could you tweak luck in your favour? Mirage didn't have any extra abilities, did he?

Mirage slowly raised a optic ridge, leveling an amused stare at Cliffjumper.

"Well. Just what do you think I was, in effect, doing when I was setting up wardings outside the Ark? Or what I do on a regular basis when we do rites? Hmm?"

"What?" That revelation had Cliffjumper frankly dumbfounded, because... what? It could work that way?

"It works that way? How? I just thought it was some sorta..." frowning and field twisting around him in his consternation, Cliffjumper vaguely waved a hand, "effectless stuff. Even with all that... uh, energy."

Not that he didn't well remember the lightshow he'd practically been stunned with on the one ritual Mirage had insisted he sit in on as 'penance' but what could you even do with it?

"Well. Yes.."

Helm slowly tilting to the side, Mirage eventually failed to fight the urge to press his fingertips to his face, rubbing between his optics.

"...You really didn't think I was just putting on a pointless display, did you?"

Cliffjumper scowled at that and looked away with a shrug.

"Well, why the frag would it do anything?" Cliffjumper muttered, sinking slightly deeper into his seat again before he frowned, "and I dunno if morale is pointless, 'cause I could see it boost that just from... ya know... knowing you're trying even if it doesn't actually do something."

He wasn't completely stupid, and while he had assumed the worst because of his paranoia, it wasn't hard to see how others might not - might actually find it encouraging.

Cliffjumper still couldn't see how that raised energy would be able to do anything specific though.

"...Why wouldn't it do something?" Mirage asked, equally boggled.

"I'm a priest, with all that entails, not simply a-a-" Uncurling from his comfortable spot in the chair, Mirage waved a hand with increasingly frenetic motions.

"-a morale cheerleader!" he finished with a huff.

"Why should it?" Cliffjumper was, honestly, not trying to mock or challenge Mirage. He was just confused--- though the huffed end of Mirage's sputtering had Cliffjumper grinning.

"You'd look good as one, though," he said with a chuckle before he was thinking about what he was saying, and then bit his lower lip and looked away, caught between embarrassment and amusement.

Especially as the image that had popped into his processor when Mirage mentioned 'morale cheerleader' was the uniformed groups of girls who cheered on in sports.

"-that is hardly the point. ...No matter how good I might look," Mirage sputtered lightly, leaning back in his seat with the faintest heating of his faceplates.

Well.

Well then.

Mirage coughed. "But yes, it should have an effect. It's what the power and energy is for, after all."

Cliffjumper reset his vocaliser at Mirage's sputtering and felt his optics flare a little brighter. Sometimes, he thought, he might be better off without his vocaliser because then he wouldn't be able to say things like that so impulsively.

On the other hand, Mirage's reaction alone was worth it, really.

"Uhm," Cliffjumper didn't know what to say at first, so the first thing out was something of a inarticulate noise of vague agreement, before he managed to looked back at Mirage.

His optics were probably a bit brighter than normal still, though.

"All of 'em? Even just... those holiday ceremony things?"

"Of course."

Mirage sniffed, stubbornly clinging to his dignity despite the ridiculous situation. He would not let Cliffjumper fluster him so.

"Now some, like the holiday events, are somewhat designed to promote a sense of well being - but that is with the energy itself, not with...lightshow cheerleading."

He managed a somewhat wry smirk.

"But yes, protective rites, defensive rituals, etc, are intended to have their stated effect."

Wasn't it too late to not getting flustered, Mirage?

Cliffjumper tried very hard not to smirk at the sniff, but he failed, if only slightly and not spectacularly. Mirage's stiff-backed attempts at dignity were funny, but he also didn't need Mirage to actually get offended again.

"That was way more work than I thought priest ever did," Cliffjumper said with a grunt and a little frown, thinking it over, "kinda nice, though, that you'd do that, I guess."

Even if there was something vaguely creepy - however well-intentioned and useful - about being affected by something you didn't even know was there.

"I should have known," Mirage made an amused sound, abandoning his embarrassment with a shake of his head.

"If we are doing it right, it is supposed to look easy. But it is never not work, even to the most devoted. It is hardly effortless. We do a great deal, even if it is mostly behind the scenes."

He grinned.

"Glad someone can come to appreciate it, at least."

"Well, kinda slagging hard not to since I saw that stuff back on the Ark," Cliffjumper said with a roll of his optics, but not even being reminded of that awkward... thing the ceremony and the preparations had been before it and everything had been darkened his mood.

He was feeling pretty okay about everything... for the moment, anyway.

"Do people who ain't priests ever figure out..." Cliffjumper paused, frowning as he thought it over, "not all the work, just that you can actually... affect things? I mean, obviously Prime knows and probably some of the 'Cons as well, but maybe that's just assumption..."

Then Cliffjumper huffed and shook his helm sharply.

"Nevermind, I dunno where I was going with that."

"As I would have hoped, Mirage huffed. He would have thought Cliffjumper might have noticed the outside effects on the Ark as well, but apparently not.

"Some people assume we can, of course. Some know it - and some expect us to be able to do more than we actually can."

Mirage sighed, recalling frantic, unattainable demands in the ages before the war.

"But in general? Most autobots don't even know about the priest portion of my job, much less how much power I have over certain limited areas.

No, he hadn't noticed, but probably because he hadn't gone looking after the ceremony he'd had to be part of - of course, Cliffjumper honestly didn't know how to look, either, beyond simply being bombarded with it.

"More? Like what? Conjure up wealth or sparks to someone's exact specification without having to go through the official channels?" Cliffjumper said with a snort, shaking his helm...

But then realised that if either of those things, especially the latter was even remotely possible, that'd be kind of scary.

"... So what is possible to do, anyway?" Cliffjumper asked after a little hesitation. He wasn't sure he wanted to know, but on the other hand...

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