Work Text:
Working in the archives had come to feel less like a job that he was forced to do, and more like something of a hobby that he chose to do. Commonly, he would take work loads from his fellow archivists; being slightly stronger than many of the lithe framed archivists, he helped to transfer crates of data pads and texts into different areas. Whether it was for them to be transferred to another facility, or to be destroyed (in which many of those crates wound up missing, somehow) Orion had become close with many archivists.
It was one of the more leisurely low class jobs; he didn’t have to interact with many non-cogless, and the cogged bots who he did have to interact with were more often than not calm and distant, prefering to study and decipher their own work. Orion could understand, and although he was an extremely chaotic mech for an archivist, he would leave them be. Alpha Trion was one of their supervisors, although he overlooked the general sector of Intelligence, which the role of archivist just so happened to fall under. Although Orion was a cogless mech, he quickly became considered one of the best in his craft; for his kind, at least. He would spent groons locked inside of the small room with a couch that served as his berth. He had stacks of datapads and thin folders of fragile texts sorted by assumed eras; a project assigned to him by Alpha Trion.
He had ashamedly fallen out in terms of keeping up with the current events in Iacon. Orion now received most of his news via the whispers of other archivists when he left his room to find a certain tool– or to search for datapads that would serve to give context to something that he was unable to understand. For the past few chords, he’d heard whispers of some Starscream in Vos. At first– they were passing mentions, slipping from Orion’s processor quickly. But as he noticed the increase of speak about Starscream, he took it upon himself to research more about the mech. He had found that said mech was a seeker who had hailed from a now long fallen Vos; which was the home of seekers. Orion assumed with this that no more seekers were being put online; likely due to both Cybertronian's infertility, and the fallen state of Vos. But it seemed that Starscream and his seeker trine, consisting of two mechs named Skywarp and Thundercracker. Orion, intrigued but having more pressing matters to attend to, cleared his desk of his research, satisfied, and stored the seekers into another part of his processor.
While there weren’t many cons of being an archivist aside from the occasional lack of social interaction and the confines of the musky, wide areas of the Archives; one major downside was that many of their materials had lacked images; relying on heavy, advanced reading from the archivists. All of them had advanced optics as well as frames that were able to click in place in front of their optics, allowing them to have a closer look at their materials. Archivists used these continuously, even in casual activities unrelated to their work as archivists. When a new bot would enter the archives, typically happening during Alpha Trion’s occasional visits to their center, the sound of dozens of glass frames clicking could be heard. Whoever was the victim of their scrutiny would be the victim of a multitude of multiple overlapping voices attempting to discover their identity and background without a name; solely off of appearance and assumptions. Orion wasn’t allowed to participate in those anymore, given how his victory in so many had caused his reputation among the archivists to sky rocket in the first place.
However, being given information prior to an appearance caused no trouble for him. Orion would be able to click the information into place– the similar descriptions written and seen visually, the physical appearance that he could use to assume the age of the relic, the color, texture, material, everything as miniscule as bits of nature on a fossil or a dash of a paint scuff on a relic made all the difference in how quickly Orion could identify its origin and importance. His proficiency with his internal search system, privately unlocked by Alpha Trion given Orion’s status as an advanced Archivist, gave him a much easier time with completing his work. Although to others, his abilities made him seem to be something impossible. In some cases, he could even identify a relic without having to pick it up to search for patterns or important information.
Regardless of his talents with inanimate objects and relics; he was infamously terrible at recognizing bots. To name a couple, Alpha Trion had been led around by a young Orion Pax who was unaware that he was their supervisor, and had preceded his existence by a few million kilocycles. He had felt terribly embarrassed about it after, and had apologized to the larger mech immediately and repeatedly although Alpha Trio laughed, waving him off. The second instance being right now. There was a mech, a seeker who had entered the archives with two others following him, the three of them talking with two evidently rising in volume; that being what had garnered the archivist’s attention.
The only way that Orion was able to tell that the trio held some sort of significance was in the way that his fellow archivists stopped their work to whisper about the trio, their optics darting over and their words muddled with their overlapping whispers. The archivists were arguably the worst gossips in all of Iacon, and that definitely said something given the Spec Ops department was their competition. So here Orion was, his optics narrowed while he leaned against the Archive’s front counter, a pensive expression on his face as he hummed slowly, clicking his glossa as he muttered multiple names under his breath before crossing them out as possibilities.
“Seeker… from what I know about modern day ‘celebrities', none of them are seekers… are they accessories? Larger door wings maybe? Who, and what… who and what,” Orion muttered to himself. The low number of archivists near that were able to hear his mutterings were darting their optics at him in amusement, without curiosity. They knew that he had a lack of understanding in regards to current politics and significant figures, but they hadn’t expected for him to not recognize the trine when they were right in front of him. Inconspicuously, to himself, at least, Orion moved in toward the area that the mechs had wordlessly claimed as their own. The familiar click broke into the silence of the archives, causing the trio to glance toward Orion, who hadn’t attempted to look the least bit ashamed at his obvious squinting. The primarily blue mech met his optics with a fond exhaustion for his friends in his optics. Orion was unaffected by the positive EM field. A purple mech narrowed his eyes, glaring at him whereas Orion stared at them in curiosity. ‘Blue’ slowly tilted purple one’s helm away from the archivist, muttering that the mech was likely unfamiliar with the idea of seekers. Orion bristled, offended at the fact that those mechs thought him to be so uninformed on an entire species of Cybertronians. So much so, that he stood straight from where he was previously leaned, and approached the trio with a firm frown on his face plate.
The seeker who he had assumed to be the ‘leader’ of this trine finally directed his attention toward the approaching archivist, and momentarily startled, which was apparently out of character if the odd glances from the two others meant anything. Disregarding this, Orion stopped his movements in front of their table, his gauntlets crossed and his optics remaining narrowed. Thundercracker averted his optics when the archivist’s optics landed on him.
“ He’s probably never heard of seekers ,” Orion repeated Thundercracker’s words, a firm frown on his face plate. Thundercracker quietly clicked his glossa, opening his intake to defend himself before Orion continued to speak.
“An archivist not knowing what a seeker is would be like a seeker who doesn’t know how to fly. It doesn’t make sense. How would that be possible,” Orion tilted his helm to the side, Thundercracker slowly nodded to show that he understood. Skywarp rolled his optics, “It’s not that serious Archivist–”
“Orion Pax.” Skywarp’s expression dropped before he released a vent of air loudly before continuing, “It’s not that serious Orion Pax – hey, I thought they started calling the cogless by number names–” Starscream darted up from his laid back position to swat his trinemate on the helm. Orion glanced at the seeker who bristled under his gaze before straightening himself.
“What Skywarp meant to say, was that he is extremely uneducated and was unaware, somehow, that there are many archivists who were already online before that rule was implemented. I’m sorry on his behalf, Orion Pax,” Starscream said smoothly, his gaze leaving Skywarp to trail up the archivist’s frame before meeting his optics. Orion didn’t know how to feel about the seeker’s odd behavior, but he chose to ignore it as he slowly nodded, accepting the apology.
“It’s right… I guess–”
“–So you haven’t forgiven me? Could I make it up to you in another way, perhaps?”
They weren’t even trying to hide it now. Skywarp wouldn’t have tried regardless, but now Thundercracker joined him in his outright, mind boggled staring directed at none other than Starscream. Orion didn’t know what the big deal was, but he was all for energon higher than low grade.
“Dinner?” He offered, almost jokingly, unsure if the seeker was being sincere or not. Starscream slowly nodded before the pace picked up. He bit his derma, suddenly looking a bit hesitant despite his eager attitude mere moments before. Orion huffed, uncrossing his arms and resting his servos on the table as he leaned forward.
“Look, I don’t really care either way, but if you aren’t–”
“No!” Starscream exclaimed, causing both Skywarp and Thundercracker to wince, while Orion jerked back at the loud noise. Starscream glanced at his trinemates before looking at Orion with hesitant regret, his servos hovering as if he was unsure of how to help.
“Sorry. But, no, I really would like to take you out,” Starscream paused before quickly adding on, “–for energon! Yes, for energon. Us.” Orion slowly lowered his servos from his audials and stared at Starscream in silence before his eyeglass clicked once more. Starscream’s face plate was evidently darker near his cheeks. Starscream pulled himself back, raising his arm and using his gauntlets to hide his face as he flushed under the archivist’s scrutinizing gaze.
“Is that a yes, or a no, Orion!”
“Hm, yeah why not! I’m sick of low grade.” He cast a glare to Thundercracker who huffed, “And I suppose that I have to update my knowledge on seekers. One of you think that, at least.”
They sat there in silence, for a few moments as the archivist walked away, Starscream and Orion having worked the details of their date out in front of the two of them. Skywarp was still somewhat gaping at his trinemate while Thundercracker muttered under his breath about his impossible standards in mating. Starscream seemed deaf to it all, nodding enthusiastically at Orion’s words and adding his own thoughts occasionally, not arguing when Orion disagreed or suggested something else. Once a coherent plan was worked out, the archivist waved at them from over his shoulder armour before promptly leaving with that casual goodbye.
If it was possible; Starscream seemed even further enamoured with the archivist. Thundercracker groaned in the palm of his servo. Skywarp was shaking with poorly contained questions. Once the archivist was out of sight, Skywarp exploded .
“ Starscream ! What the frag was that!” Skywarp blurted, his face discolored from how he held the air in his vents as he waited in anticipation for the archivist to leave his sight, “You were the one who had all these expectations for a mate! How your first meeting, second, third, all the way to seventh just because you liked the number, and you had– qualifications that their friends would have to fill! It was like you were creating your own mate out of thin air!” Skywarp sputtered, his arms jerking around in a show of his astonishment and sheer confusion. Starscream slowly blinked out of his awe struck gaze, blinking his optics.
“And here we are– with you asking to take an archivist out! And you said that they had to ask you out, non-negotiable–”
“And I also said that you would feel it in your spark when you found someone who pleased both your spark and your seeker instincts,” Starscream’s voice effortlessly cut through Skywarp’s ranting as he propped his gauntlet onto the table, resting his chin on his servo as he sighed, entirely content.
“He was more than satisfying to me… that’s for sure.” Thundercracker and Skywarp shared an affectionate, yet annoyed glance once Starscream closed his optics, undoubtedly imagining how the solar cycle with Orion would go.