Nexus. Arcee's room in the safehouse. Meeting Kia

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((From here))


Arcee sighs and creaks to her feet, then limps over to her desk and sets the little Bumblebee doll next to the little Ratchet. "Well, that didn't work. Let's hope Ratchet has a better plan, because I don't like how your engine sounds, kid."

As expected there's no reply from the little silver being under her berth, and she sighs and leaves the room to go wait in the common room and see if there's anything worth watching on TV.

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"Thus far she hasn't seemed the panicking type," says Arcee, absently rubbing her chest as she watches and listens to the little silver femme for a few moments. "There goes her engine."

With the renewed purr Kia's big optics open, and then widen fearfully as she catches sight of Ratchet.

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

It helps that Kia is young; Ratchet's long since developed a soft spot for kids, whether they be of his own species or human. Thus his bedside manner is better than usual, allowing him to offer Kia a reassuring smile while he finishes up.

"Easy, missy. Just makin' sure your empty tank isn't so empty, anymore. I'll be done in less than a breem." As the last of the energon is pumped in, Ratchet dismantles the relatively simple set-up and disconnects it from the port before visually checking all the fuel lines again. When he's satisfied that those are working as they should, he closes Kia's plate. He'd like to do a full routine maintenance check, but now is likely not the best time. "...and there you are. Hopefully you'll do less hiding now so we can just give you your own energon in a mug, eh?"

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Those big optics watch him, widening again as she sees him close her chest. Then she looks up at him uncertainly as she touches the plate, her attitude saying that she hadn't known that opened, and is curious about it. She wriggles and tries to sit up, but then beeps and holds her head as vertigo hits for a moment.

"Beep?" asks Arcee, blinking.

As Kia moves the inspection tag comes into sight, proclaiming her flawed and marked for dismantling and recycling.

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

"Something must be glitched in her vocalizer." Ratchet eyes Kia a moment, then blinks his shutters as the tag comes into view. He glances back at Arcee, his own optics wide. "This one... She was marked 'flawed'."

Ratchet places one hand on Kia's chest plate to gently hold her in place. "Don't get up too quick. You're too weak to leap from the berth just yet."

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"Is that what it says?" Arcee looks at the tag with surprise and dismay. "I never translated all of it. I just looked at her brand tag and recognized it as one of the car brands I studied when I was alt mode hunting." She scans the strip of adhesive paper, working out the words, then blinks. "She was alive before they finished building her. No wonder she's traumatized."

Kia wriggles slightly, but is obedient to the hand and lays still.

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

"That'd go a long way in messing any bot up. She probably high-tailed it out of danger's way when they tried to take her offline, not that I can blame her in the least. At least she ended up in a good place." Removing his hand, Ratchet steps back a little, looking thoughtful. "Can you talk at all, kid? Even just in coded blips?"

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Arcee's faceplate drops into an unconscious scowl, her hand once more rubbing her chest as her spark flares with indignation.

Kia, for her part, is looking back at Ratchet with no hint that she understands anything he's saying... or even that he is saying something. With no vehicular life to remember, the little silver bot is starting from scratch, with just the memory of the assembly line, being stickered, and then dumped on another conveyor belt heading toward a very big masher before she wound up in the crowded and confusing place where Arcee took her arm and brought her here.

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

When Kia fails to respond, Ratchet sighs, rubbing the back of his helm with one hand. "I'm not sure she understood the question or if she did, she can't answer. This kinda thing... The problem could be a memory file glitch, coupled with fouled up primary programming. Normally I would suggest running a defrag, but without proper programming to restore in the first place and correctly ordered files, it's not going to do much."

Stepping back up to the berth, he figures he might as well try something. He doesn't want to make the little bot feel stupid, but there needs to be some sort of established communication. Ratchet takes one of her hands in his and places it over his windshield.

"Ratchet," he says simply before waiting a moment and then repeating himself. He then taps the fingers of his other hand against her chest plate. "Kia." His optic ridges raise a little, as if he's trying to encourage her to repeat after him and understand their designations.

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"This's all over my head," admits Arcee, her scowl growing a bit, though there's no anger in it. "This the 'elementary protoform' I heard people talking about sometimes?"

Then she falls silent to watch him work.

Kia looks at her hand on his chest, her optics once more wide with curiosity, then beeps and looks down as he taps her. Her own ridges lift as her faceplate registers quizzicalness. She can sense something is wanted... she's not sure what.

After a moment she hesitantly taps his windshield.

And Arcee frowns intently, shaking her head slightly. No, that's not it.

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

Knowing now that Kia cannot even begin to fathom their conversation, Ratchet nods at Arcee. "Technically speaking, she's an accident. The idea among some is that bots like Kia are so elementary that they can't function and therefore it's a mercy to put them out of commission. I could try to work with her systems, see about setting some of her programming right...but it would take time. And some things, well, some things we can't do for her. Life is a learning process for everyone, but more for her than for 99.9% of our race."

Knowing he needs to make her understand that the words he's using are names, Ratchet again taps his own windshield and says his name. He then taps Kia's chest plate and says her name. Taking it a step further, he points at Arcee and says her name as well. The process is then repeated, each of them named in turn. There is a chance her vocalizer is damaged, but he's willing to wait and see if an actual effort on Kia's part will result in success or strained static.