And Eyes 7
And Eyes That I Might See
Chapter 7
Series: Transformers 2007
Ratings/Warnings: T for safety, but nothing worse than mild language.
Characters/Pairings for this chapter: Amanda (OC), Bluestreak, Jerry (OC)
Summary: The Autobots get cornered in a canyon after a Decepticon attack, along with a handful of humans. Unfortunately, Amanda is blind, making things a little harder for her. How's a girl to manage when she can't even see the giant robot aliens who rescued her?
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
At FFnet
oOoOoOo
Amanda was idly shredding a blade of grass between her fingers, whistling quietly to herself. The warmth of the sun felt nice, pushing against her shoulder blades, the warmth pressing deeply into her skin. The air smelled clean and alive and fresh, she’d found a comfortable rock to lean against, and there was a river a little ways away; she could just barely hear it. She was happy.
More to the point, there were no giant robots to be intimidating, vaguely (if accidentally) insulting and/or overwhelming. And she was quite tired of having herself-and her disability-run face-first into some sort of outside-my-cultural-frame-of-reference barrier, damn it.
…Although there was a fair chance she was breaking just as many of their standards and expectations.
At least they had known that humans existed previous to today, hadn’t been kidnapped, hadn’t woken up to crazy explanations and then a demonstrative attack by a borderline sociopath named after a type of accident, hadn’t been left, stranded, with total strangers who, in many cases, weren’t even from the same planet, solar system or, presumably, galaxy…
Though they had lost their planet to what sounded like a truly horrendous civil war, and then had their only hope for continuing their species destroyed, which hadn’t happened to Amanda, yet. Although, considering the way the past two days had gone, it was only a matter of time before the ‘little’ catastrophes were used up and whatever higher power had it out for her started pulling out the big guns. And then she’d have scuzzballs with creepy pick-up lines about ‘rebuilding the human race one baby at a time’ hitting on her.
So she supposed she could cut them some slack. Assuming they stopped freaking out because she couldn’t see, and that they weren’t Sideswipe, and that nobody tried and neuro-optological experiments on her. She’d thought human doctors were bad! They at least went through medical school. And, for that matter, had eyes. (Of course, for all she knew, the Autobots did, too. It seemed unlikely, though.)
But really, everyone she’d met had been nice, or niceish, or at least not purposefully trying to freak her out. If you ignored Sideswipe. Which Amanda was. She thought that it just wasn’t a good idea to think about certain things too much. It could be… Upsetting.
Mirage-she’d liked him. Quiet, polite, and with a nice voice; it had been calm, even when there’d been that whole confusion with being seen and not seeing. Ratchet had been grumpy, but in a very human way, and he hadn’t even been that unnerving when he’d been arguing with Ironhide, who’d laughed at some sort of ill-advised joke or wisecrack of hers. Wheeljack, she though, honestly wanted to help her, she just didn’t want to accept. Bumblebee had been…
-He’d been thoughtful, that was it, and diplomatic. Maybe he’d had more time on Earth to adapt, or something. Beyond that, she’d been third-wheeling with him. Or fourth-wheeling, really, but all three of them-Sam, the car, and Mikaela-had been nice about it. It hadn’t been an exclusive sort of closeness the three of the them had, it just was something Amanda wasn’t a part of.
She wondered how that sort of closeness, camaraderie and understanding had grown up between the three of them. She knew the bones of the story, from Sam, but…
Oh well. Some people just had personalities that fit each other: puzzle pieces, if you wanted a slightly trite metaphor. Saving the world had probably just welded those figurative pieces together. And that meant the puzzle pieces were metal…? Because cardboard would just burn.
She should probably give up the metaphor while she could still pretend she was ahead.
And Optimus Prime. Amanda felt her cheeks burn a little hot, blushing-she had no idea what she looked liked, but she imagined it wasn’t particularly attractive. She’d been panicking when she’d met him, really, and that was the problem: stress clearly did horrible things to her already-slightly-warped sense of humor-which would probably explain any number of unfortunate teenaged incidents-and the leader of the Autobots had just managed to show up at a particularly bad time, and embarrassing things had gone down. His voice didn’t help, and the fact that he’d been nice despite the fact that she was a borderline-hysterical young woman with very little in terms of accomplishments to her name, and he was the highly-respected supreme leader of a group of aliens fighting to protect earth.
In fact, he’d even said that he’d find someone-and by that he meant one of the robots-a little less intimidating who’d be willing to talk to her. She wondered how that would out, assuming it did. They were in the middle of a war, after all.
It was getting colder. The sun was going down. Thank God, thought Amanda. Today had been the day that not only refused to end, it kept on getting worse and worse as it didn’t stop happening.
Hmmm. She was getting hungry again. The nasty sandwich had been a while ago. Sam had said he’d pick her up, and she thought that that had been a while ago. And dusk was falling fast; she was uncomfortably chilly.
There was a long moment’s silence, unbroken by Amanda’s thoughts, or by anything but the soft noise of the river and the forest. Finally, it was interrupted. Amanda sighed heavily.
“Amanda!” she heard someone yelling, still a pretty long ways away, if she was reading the voice right-although who knew how being out in the woods like this would affect how sound traveled.
“Here!” she called back, and waited.
“Amanda! Are you out there?” the voice yelled again, a few minutes later. Now, the yeller was close enough that Amanda could tell that his voice was unfamiliar.
“Over here!” she yelled-maybe he just hadn’t heard her the first time.”
“Okay! I’m heading over there now!”
A few minutes later there were the noises of someone scrambling up a steep, slippery slope. “There you are,” said the voice. “I’m Jerry-Mikaela asked me to get you.”
“Amanda, but I suppose you know that, considering the evidence. Thanks for coming out here to get me, too.”
“I have to admit, I wanted to get away from everyone-and everything-back there for at least a few minutes. Have you met Sideswipe?”
“Wish I hadn’t had that particular pleasure. Did he pick you up, too?”
“No, thank God-he was just talking, with me. Apparently screwing with peoples’ world views is something of a hobby for him.”
“Fun.”
“I know-and now I’m probably going to need to rewrite whole portions of my book. Dang constantly-changing worldviews.”
“You’re a writer?”
“Not… Exactly.” Jerry sounded slightly embarrassed. “I’m actually a janitor. Writing’s my hobby.”
Amanda decided to ignore the obvious jokes and jibes. She’d already been callous enough today, what with Phenomena and all. “What’s your book about, then?”
“Comparative religion.” The embarrassment had switched to sheepishness. “I have a degree in philosophy-it’s utterly useless, of course, but it was also completely worth it-and my own faith, on top of that was the inspiration for the whole thing. It’s out of my hands now, though. I sure as hell ain’t the one in the driver’s seat at the moment.”
Uh-oh, religion. More to the point, someone who had it. And today was not going to be a good day for Amanda to get into a heated philosophical debate about the existence of god. Amanda searched for something a little less likely to end in tears.
“Divine inspiration?”
“Satanic would probably be a little closer to the truth.”
Amanda laughed. He had a sense of humor, at least. “That sounds almost heretic. Do you want to start heading back, though? It’s kind of cold up here, and I suspect it’s getting kind of dark.”
“Your suspicions would be correct. Want me to lead you?”
“Well, ‘want’ would be a little strong, but I’m not diametrically opposed to it. Thank you, by the way.”
“It’s no problem! Like I said, I wanted to get out a little-”
“Well, thank you for that, too, but I was trying to thank you for not making a huge deal out of the fact that I can’t see. You have no idea how refreshing that is, especially after the day I’ve had.”
“Ohhh. I get it.”
“To hammer the point home, giant alien robots apparently don’t have physical disabilities that aren’t easily fixed.”
“Ouch. No, I’m used to it, by now. My parents were both deaf. I’m a fluent signer-I translate, sometimes-and so I think I’ve got something of an advantage over most people when it comes to knowing how to act.”
“Unfair advantage or not, it still stands. Anyways, how’d you get involved with this particular mess?”
“I’m new in town. I, uh, got lost trying to evacuate with everyone else.”
Amanda couldn’t help it-she laughed. “Sorry!” she gasped through her giggles. It didn’t seem to matter: after a second, Jerry started laughing as well.
“And here I was, feeling a little silly for getting separated from my next-door neighbor on the street and then conked on the head with a piece of falling rubble or something.”
oOo
“So… You’re Bluestreak?”
“Yes-I am. I’m new here, I arrived halfway through the battle that made all you humans end up out here, though I actually landed a little earlier than that, it’s because I needed to find an alternate form to transform into, and I didn’t realize that something was going on, let alone a battle, until I tried comming Optimus Prime to find out where he was and where I should go to report in, and they were all fighting so I was just there for the end of things-really, I feel kind of bad about it because I should have been there and it was my first fight here on earth so I was letting them all down right from the start, in a way, which is too bad because I’d really wanted to make a good impression since everyone here’s so famous and experienced and also some of the last Autobots left so it’s not like I have somewhere else to go or get assigned to if I mess this up too badly-well, except the Decepticons, but I’d rather have my processor glitched up past recognition than that-which is about what it would take to make me join up with them, so I suppose they might be one in the same…”
It was even worse than it would have been in a human, Amanda thought reflectively. Autobots didn’t have to stop and pause for breath.
Really, though, it wasn’t all that bad. Bluestreak talked too much, yeah, but Amanda also got the distinct impression that he was really, really nervous. Amanda knew other people-humans-who were babblers when they were nervous.
Of course, from the sound of things, he’d have to be a talker regularly, too, because nerves could only count for so much in terms of extreme personality changes.
“All the Autobots seem really nice,” she said. “I don’t think they’re going to care too much that you were a little late.”
“I hope so… Optimus Prime is my hero, I never thought I’d actually meet him in person, let alone be under his direct command-and I never thought I’d be working with mechs like Bumblebee or even Wheeljack-well, I was never going to end up working with him back during the middle of the war, I’m not made for science or medicine or anything even vaguely connected like that, but still, he’s really well-known-”
“I didn’t know that,” Amanda said, surprised. “Maybe I shouldn’t have been so nervous about him working on fixing my eyesight… Actually, on reflection, yes I should have been. Even without considering the warnings I got. I don’t know too much about your guys’ biology-or not-biology, but I don’t think I know a better word for it right now and I’m too tired to want to bother; physiology, maybe-but I doubt it has all that many similarities to ours.”
There was, surprisingly, a long pause.
“Bluestreak?” asked Amanda finally, sounding maybe a little doubtful.
“…I was told not to say anything about how you can’t see ’cause it would be rude and I’m new to earth so I haven’t had any time to learn about what’s appropriate and what’s not and in what situations and things like that and I heard you’ve been hearing questions you don’t want to deal with from all of us Autobots all day so if I end up insulting you I’m really, really sorry and I’ll just shut up for once and take you back to the group, but what is it like being blind?”
“You know, with that sort of buildup, I thought you were going to ask something really bad-way to psyche a girl out.” Amanda paused for a second, to give him a chance to say something, but there was no response.
“Well, I’ve been blind my whole life, so don’t expect me to be able to give an answer with accurate comparisons. But anyways. It’s some sort of neurological problem, for me-there’s nothing wrong with the eyes themselves, as far as we can tell. It can be hard. It was worse when I was younger-ninth grade was probably the worst. I was angry with everybody, which really isn’t so unusual, although I suppose actually having something to angst about is-and I just wanted the chance to not need all kinds of special arrangements.
“And it was hard to get around, alone especially, or with other people, which made me feel dependent; I couldn’t make friends without feeling like that person’s Good Deed for the day or the week or the month or whatever, or a pity-me case, or the answer to someone’s curiosity; I couldn’t find the school textbooks in a Braille edition, which just drove my differences home-things like that. It wasn’t a good time for me. Some of my teachers didn’t help-I did not need coddling. Still don’t, matter of fact, it’s a pity some people can’t learn the difference between making allowances for a disability and being a condescending ass. But I’m set up to deal with it, now-it was harder back then. Really, it was just a hard time for me.”
Bluestreak didn’t say anything. Amanda suddenly felt kind of awkward, a little embarrassed. She hurried to fill the silence.
“Well, now everything’s fine. I’m getting a degree in psychotherapy, I’m living on my own, learning to deal with everything-I’m really happy, I have friends, I have a part-time job to help pay the rent… I have giant alien robots asking me if I’m really sure that I don’t want them poking about in my brain.” Amanda giggled a little. Surprisingly, Bluestreak did as well, a little cautiously at first, but relaxing when she didn’t jump down his throat for it.
“Yeah, Wheeljack’s famous, but he’s also kind of infamous…”
“Yes, I got warned that the real bad things started happening when things stopped exploding. Got any examples of what he’s infamous for? I do love a little gossip now and then…”
oOo
“You’re showing signs of tiredness,” said Bluestreak worriedly.
“…If that’s what you want to call it, then yes,” said Amanda, dryly. “Personally, I would say I am yawning, but that might just be me.”
“You should go back.”
“Would you, um, would you mind laying down for a while so I can pace your length? To figure out how tall you are?”
“Sure, no problem! Although we’re all different sizes. I’m a little taller than Bumblebee, who’s the shortest, but more lightly built. Optimus Prime’s the tallest here, but there are taller ’Bots, although mostly fliers at that point. And then the really, really little ones, but those are mostly dependant now and attached to bigger ’bots-or ’cons, mostly, because that can get kind of morally iffy, I remember back on Cybertron before things got really bad, there was always one kind of debate or another about legal status for…”
Amanda half-tuned him out as he carefully lay down on his back, waiting for the noise and vibration of his movement to die away before she carefully walked forward, feeling for the robot.
“A little to the right,” Bluestreak said helpfully, and Amanda finally touched metal-it was strangely warmer than she’d expected, especially now in the brisk chill of evening, not at all like what she’d expected-although it made sense. It wasn’t the Autobots were actual cars that could turn themselves off-would that be like death to a human?
Carefully, Amanda walked the length of Bluestreak’s body, utterly absorbed by trying to get a clear, solid idea of the size of him-it was hard to do. Amanda was irked by how hard it was, even concentrating the way she was, and with a full day to process everything that had happened-Sideswipe had easily picked her up, after all-she was still having a hard time absorbing the information. She felt, perhaps unreasonably, as if it would have been much, much easier if she had some visual information to go along with what her other senses could provide.
It was her absorption and consternation that distracted her enough to miss the approaching footsteps-footsteps belonging to another of the robots-until he was, figuratively speaking, right on top of them.
“What the slag are you doing?” asked a voice flatly, an abrupt tenor that was, pardon the pun, alien to her. “You look ridiculous.”
“Uh…” said Bluestreak.
“Jesus Christ not again,” muttered Amanda.
--end chapter 7--
(…I bet you can guess whose turn it is next chapter.)
Chapter 7
Series: Transformers 2007
Ratings/Warnings: T for safety, but nothing worse than mild language.
Characters/Pairings for this chapter: Amanda (OC), Bluestreak, Jerry (OC)
Summary: The Autobots get cornered in a canyon after a Decepticon attack, along with a handful of humans. Unfortunately, Amanda is blind, making things a little harder for her. How's a girl to manage when she can't even see the giant robot aliens who rescued her?
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
At FFnet
oOoOoOo
Amanda was idly shredding a blade of grass between her fingers, whistling quietly to herself. The warmth of the sun felt nice, pushing against her shoulder blades, the warmth pressing deeply into her skin. The air smelled clean and alive and fresh, she’d found a comfortable rock to lean against, and there was a river a little ways away; she could just barely hear it. She was happy.
More to the point, there were no giant robots to be intimidating, vaguely (if accidentally) insulting and/or overwhelming. And she was quite tired of having herself-and her disability-run face-first into some sort of outside-my-cultural-frame-of-reference barrier, damn it.
…Although there was a fair chance she was breaking just as many of their standards and expectations.
At least they had known that humans existed previous to today, hadn’t been kidnapped, hadn’t woken up to crazy explanations and then a demonstrative attack by a borderline sociopath named after a type of accident, hadn’t been left, stranded, with total strangers who, in many cases, weren’t even from the same planet, solar system or, presumably, galaxy…
Though they had lost their planet to what sounded like a truly horrendous civil war, and then had their only hope for continuing their species destroyed, which hadn’t happened to Amanda, yet. Although, considering the way the past two days had gone, it was only a matter of time before the ‘little’ catastrophes were used up and whatever higher power had it out for her started pulling out the big guns. And then she’d have scuzzballs with creepy pick-up lines about ‘rebuilding the human race one baby at a time’ hitting on her.
So she supposed she could cut them some slack. Assuming they stopped freaking out because she couldn’t see, and that they weren’t Sideswipe, and that nobody tried and neuro-optological experiments on her. She’d thought human doctors were bad! They at least went through medical school. And, for that matter, had eyes. (Of course, for all she knew, the Autobots did, too. It seemed unlikely, though.)
But really, everyone she’d met had been nice, or niceish, or at least not purposefully trying to freak her out. If you ignored Sideswipe. Which Amanda was. She thought that it just wasn’t a good idea to think about certain things too much. It could be… Upsetting.
Mirage-she’d liked him. Quiet, polite, and with a nice voice; it had been calm, even when there’d been that whole confusion with being seen and not seeing. Ratchet had been grumpy, but in a very human way, and he hadn’t even been that unnerving when he’d been arguing with Ironhide, who’d laughed at some sort of ill-advised joke or wisecrack of hers. Wheeljack, she though, honestly wanted to help her, she just didn’t want to accept. Bumblebee had been…
-He’d been thoughtful, that was it, and diplomatic. Maybe he’d had more time on Earth to adapt, or something. Beyond that, she’d been third-wheeling with him. Or fourth-wheeling, really, but all three of them-Sam, the car, and Mikaela-had been nice about it. It hadn’t been an exclusive sort of closeness the three of the them had, it just was something Amanda wasn’t a part of.
She wondered how that sort of closeness, camaraderie and understanding had grown up between the three of them. She knew the bones of the story, from Sam, but…
Oh well. Some people just had personalities that fit each other: puzzle pieces, if you wanted a slightly trite metaphor. Saving the world had probably just welded those figurative pieces together. And that meant the puzzle pieces were metal…? Because cardboard would just burn.
She should probably give up the metaphor while she could still pretend she was ahead.
And Optimus Prime. Amanda felt her cheeks burn a little hot, blushing-she had no idea what she looked liked, but she imagined it wasn’t particularly attractive. She’d been panicking when she’d met him, really, and that was the problem: stress clearly did horrible things to her already-slightly-warped sense of humor-which would probably explain any number of unfortunate teenaged incidents-and the leader of the Autobots had just managed to show up at a particularly bad time, and embarrassing things had gone down. His voice didn’t help, and the fact that he’d been nice despite the fact that she was a borderline-hysterical young woman with very little in terms of accomplishments to her name, and he was the highly-respected supreme leader of a group of aliens fighting to protect earth.
In fact, he’d even said that he’d find someone-and by that he meant one of the robots-a little less intimidating who’d be willing to talk to her. She wondered how that would out, assuming it did. They were in the middle of a war, after all.
It was getting colder. The sun was going down. Thank God, thought Amanda. Today had been the day that not only refused to end, it kept on getting worse and worse as it didn’t stop happening.
Hmmm. She was getting hungry again. The nasty sandwich had been a while ago. Sam had said he’d pick her up, and she thought that that had been a while ago. And dusk was falling fast; she was uncomfortably chilly.
There was a long moment’s silence, unbroken by Amanda’s thoughts, or by anything but the soft noise of the river and the forest. Finally, it was interrupted. Amanda sighed heavily.
“Amanda!” she heard someone yelling, still a pretty long ways away, if she was reading the voice right-although who knew how being out in the woods like this would affect how sound traveled.
“Here!” she called back, and waited.
“Amanda! Are you out there?” the voice yelled again, a few minutes later. Now, the yeller was close enough that Amanda could tell that his voice was unfamiliar.
“Over here!” she yelled-maybe he just hadn’t heard her the first time.”
“Okay! I’m heading over there now!”
A few minutes later there were the noises of someone scrambling up a steep, slippery slope. “There you are,” said the voice. “I’m Jerry-Mikaela asked me to get you.”
“Amanda, but I suppose you know that, considering the evidence. Thanks for coming out here to get me, too.”
“I have to admit, I wanted to get away from everyone-and everything-back there for at least a few minutes. Have you met Sideswipe?”
“Wish I hadn’t had that particular pleasure. Did he pick you up, too?”
“No, thank God-he was just talking, with me. Apparently screwing with peoples’ world views is something of a hobby for him.”
“Fun.”
“I know-and now I’m probably going to need to rewrite whole portions of my book. Dang constantly-changing worldviews.”
“You’re a writer?”
“Not… Exactly.” Jerry sounded slightly embarrassed. “I’m actually a janitor. Writing’s my hobby.”
Amanda decided to ignore the obvious jokes and jibes. She’d already been callous enough today, what with Phenomena and all. “What’s your book about, then?”
“Comparative religion.” The embarrassment had switched to sheepishness. “I have a degree in philosophy-it’s utterly useless, of course, but it was also completely worth it-and my own faith, on top of that was the inspiration for the whole thing. It’s out of my hands now, though. I sure as hell ain’t the one in the driver’s seat at the moment.”
Uh-oh, religion. More to the point, someone who had it. And today was not going to be a good day for Amanda to get into a heated philosophical debate about the existence of god. Amanda searched for something a little less likely to end in tears.
“Divine inspiration?”
“Satanic would probably be a little closer to the truth.”
Amanda laughed. He had a sense of humor, at least. “That sounds almost heretic. Do you want to start heading back, though? It’s kind of cold up here, and I suspect it’s getting kind of dark.”
“Your suspicions would be correct. Want me to lead you?”
“Well, ‘want’ would be a little strong, but I’m not diametrically opposed to it. Thank you, by the way.”
“It’s no problem! Like I said, I wanted to get out a little-”
“Well, thank you for that, too, but I was trying to thank you for not making a huge deal out of the fact that I can’t see. You have no idea how refreshing that is, especially after the day I’ve had.”
“Ohhh. I get it.”
“To hammer the point home, giant alien robots apparently don’t have physical disabilities that aren’t easily fixed.”
“Ouch. No, I’m used to it, by now. My parents were both deaf. I’m a fluent signer-I translate, sometimes-and so I think I’ve got something of an advantage over most people when it comes to knowing how to act.”
“Unfair advantage or not, it still stands. Anyways, how’d you get involved with this particular mess?”
“I’m new in town. I, uh, got lost trying to evacuate with everyone else.”
Amanda couldn’t help it-she laughed. “Sorry!” she gasped through her giggles. It didn’t seem to matter: after a second, Jerry started laughing as well.
“And here I was, feeling a little silly for getting separated from my next-door neighbor on the street and then conked on the head with a piece of falling rubble or something.”
oOo
“So… You’re Bluestreak?”
“Yes-I am. I’m new here, I arrived halfway through the battle that made all you humans end up out here, though I actually landed a little earlier than that, it’s because I needed to find an alternate form to transform into, and I didn’t realize that something was going on, let alone a battle, until I tried comming Optimus Prime to find out where he was and where I should go to report in, and they were all fighting so I was just there for the end of things-really, I feel kind of bad about it because I should have been there and it was my first fight here on earth so I was letting them all down right from the start, in a way, which is too bad because I’d really wanted to make a good impression since everyone here’s so famous and experienced and also some of the last Autobots left so it’s not like I have somewhere else to go or get assigned to if I mess this up too badly-well, except the Decepticons, but I’d rather have my processor glitched up past recognition than that-which is about what it would take to make me join up with them, so I suppose they might be one in the same…”
It was even worse than it would have been in a human, Amanda thought reflectively. Autobots didn’t have to stop and pause for breath.
Really, though, it wasn’t all that bad. Bluestreak talked too much, yeah, but Amanda also got the distinct impression that he was really, really nervous. Amanda knew other people-humans-who were babblers when they were nervous.
Of course, from the sound of things, he’d have to be a talker regularly, too, because nerves could only count for so much in terms of extreme personality changes.
“All the Autobots seem really nice,” she said. “I don’t think they’re going to care too much that you were a little late.”
“I hope so… Optimus Prime is my hero, I never thought I’d actually meet him in person, let alone be under his direct command-and I never thought I’d be working with mechs like Bumblebee or even Wheeljack-well, I was never going to end up working with him back during the middle of the war, I’m not made for science or medicine or anything even vaguely connected like that, but still, he’s really well-known-”
“I didn’t know that,” Amanda said, surprised. “Maybe I shouldn’t have been so nervous about him working on fixing my eyesight… Actually, on reflection, yes I should have been. Even without considering the warnings I got. I don’t know too much about your guys’ biology-or not-biology, but I don’t think I know a better word for it right now and I’m too tired to want to bother; physiology, maybe-but I doubt it has all that many similarities to ours.”
There was, surprisingly, a long pause.
“Bluestreak?” asked Amanda finally, sounding maybe a little doubtful.
“…I was told not to say anything about how you can’t see ’cause it would be rude and I’m new to earth so I haven’t had any time to learn about what’s appropriate and what’s not and in what situations and things like that and I heard you’ve been hearing questions you don’t want to deal with from all of us Autobots all day so if I end up insulting you I’m really, really sorry and I’ll just shut up for once and take you back to the group, but what is it like being blind?”
“You know, with that sort of buildup, I thought you were going to ask something really bad-way to psyche a girl out.” Amanda paused for a second, to give him a chance to say something, but there was no response.
“Well, I’ve been blind my whole life, so don’t expect me to be able to give an answer with accurate comparisons. But anyways. It’s some sort of neurological problem, for me-there’s nothing wrong with the eyes themselves, as far as we can tell. It can be hard. It was worse when I was younger-ninth grade was probably the worst. I was angry with everybody, which really isn’t so unusual, although I suppose actually having something to angst about is-and I just wanted the chance to not need all kinds of special arrangements.
“And it was hard to get around, alone especially, or with other people, which made me feel dependent; I couldn’t make friends without feeling like that person’s Good Deed for the day or the week or the month or whatever, or a pity-me case, or the answer to someone’s curiosity; I couldn’t find the school textbooks in a Braille edition, which just drove my differences home-things like that. It wasn’t a good time for me. Some of my teachers didn’t help-I did not need coddling. Still don’t, matter of fact, it’s a pity some people can’t learn the difference between making allowances for a disability and being a condescending ass. But I’m set up to deal with it, now-it was harder back then. Really, it was just a hard time for me.”
Bluestreak didn’t say anything. Amanda suddenly felt kind of awkward, a little embarrassed. She hurried to fill the silence.
“Well, now everything’s fine. I’m getting a degree in psychotherapy, I’m living on my own, learning to deal with everything-I’m really happy, I have friends, I have a part-time job to help pay the rent… I have giant alien robots asking me if I’m really sure that I don’t want them poking about in my brain.” Amanda giggled a little. Surprisingly, Bluestreak did as well, a little cautiously at first, but relaxing when she didn’t jump down his throat for it.
“Yeah, Wheeljack’s famous, but he’s also kind of infamous…”
“Yes, I got warned that the real bad things started happening when things stopped exploding. Got any examples of what he’s infamous for? I do love a little gossip now and then…”
oOo
“You’re showing signs of tiredness,” said Bluestreak worriedly.
“…If that’s what you want to call it, then yes,” said Amanda, dryly. “Personally, I would say I am yawning, but that might just be me.”
“You should go back.”
“Would you, um, would you mind laying down for a while so I can pace your length? To figure out how tall you are?”
“Sure, no problem! Although we’re all different sizes. I’m a little taller than Bumblebee, who’s the shortest, but more lightly built. Optimus Prime’s the tallest here, but there are taller ’Bots, although mostly fliers at that point. And then the really, really little ones, but those are mostly dependant now and attached to bigger ’bots-or ’cons, mostly, because that can get kind of morally iffy, I remember back on Cybertron before things got really bad, there was always one kind of debate or another about legal status for…”
Amanda half-tuned him out as he carefully lay down on his back, waiting for the noise and vibration of his movement to die away before she carefully walked forward, feeling for the robot.
“A little to the right,” Bluestreak said helpfully, and Amanda finally touched metal-it was strangely warmer than she’d expected, especially now in the brisk chill of evening, not at all like what she’d expected-although it made sense. It wasn’t the Autobots were actual cars that could turn themselves off-would that be like death to a human?
Carefully, Amanda walked the length of Bluestreak’s body, utterly absorbed by trying to get a clear, solid idea of the size of him-it was hard to do. Amanda was irked by how hard it was, even concentrating the way she was, and with a full day to process everything that had happened-Sideswipe had easily picked her up, after all-she was still having a hard time absorbing the information. She felt, perhaps unreasonably, as if it would have been much, much easier if she had some visual information to go along with what her other senses could provide.
It was her absorption and consternation that distracted her enough to miss the approaching footsteps-footsteps belonging to another of the robots-until he was, figuratively speaking, right on top of them.
“What the slag are you doing?” asked a voice flatly, an abrupt tenor that was, pardon the pun, alien to her. “You look ridiculous.”
“Uh…” said Bluestreak.
“Jesus Christ not again,” muttered Amanda.
--end chapter 7--
(…I bet you can guess whose turn it is next chapter.)