Starting the week with Art
Title: The Art of Deception. (15/??)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: A bit of violence, minor implications of sex, drugs, self flagellation. Eventual slash.
Characters: Prowl, Jazz, Smokescreen, Drift.
Setting: G1 AU. Borrows shamelessly from IDW and DW elements as necessary.
Summary: He had been unwanted but he willed himself to survive and old tricks are hard to leave behind.
Notes: This is an AU bunny that I had been keeping under the bunny pile, I don't think it'll be nearly as long as Paint Streaks and Sparkless, but you know how these bunnies tend to be. Several concepts seen through the duration of this fic are inspired by or belong to snugsbunny and used with permission.
Many thanks to mmouse15 for kindly beta reading this for me and wicked3659 for her input. Hopefully we're going back on steady schedule again.
Prowl looked at Smokescreen with a hard expression, not exactly hostile but one that would let his teacher know he wasn't pleased with the prospect of spending more time around him than what was absolutely necessary.
"May I inquire what it is you want to talk about, sir?"
"It's about you and your...peculiar situation." Smokescreen gestured for Prowl to sit down again and he took a seat across the mechlet.
"My situation, sir?" Prowl raised an optic brow, not at all suspecting what Smokescreen wanted to talk about or how it would shake his newfound sense of stability. "What situation are you talking about?"
"Prowl, I know you're a very smart and quite dedicated student, however, there are things about you that seem to be less than clear." Smokescreen leaned back on his seat, seizing the student sitting across of him. "I was quite curious when you told me you had not been raised in Praxus, but you were quite...ambiguous about your family and origins. All I know is you come from Kaon but not under what circumstances."
Smokescreen brought a hand to his chevron, stroking it idly. "You see, I feel from you a certain...distaste for your Praxian origins, something that no true Praxian mech would ever feel. And that is something I cannot wrap my processors around. I thought maybe it was because you were an orphaned mech that was raised by non-Praxians in Kaon."
Prowl remained impassive in the outside, although inward he was bristling already, imagining that Smokescreen was looking into his past, and that fact was more than enough to incite Prowl's anger. Smokescreen had no right to go snooping around to find about his personal information simply because he showed disdain for his Praxian origins. "With all due respect, sir, I would appreciate if you get to the point you're trying to make without more preamble."
Smokescreen frowned but his lips curled in a little humorless smile. "You're quite remarkable, Prowl. Not many mechs would speak to me like that."
"I do have other duties to attend to as well, sir. As much as I would like to humor you and listen to all you have to say, I'm afraid time is of the essence." Prowl wasn't being openly hostile but was making no effort to hide that he really wasn't up to listen to Smokescreen's flourished explanations, whatever the mech had to say he better say it now.
"Very well, I'll get to the crux of the matter." Smokescreen looked straight into Prowl's optics. "Prowl, I have reasons to suspect your entrance into the Academy happened under particularly irregular circumstances. I have found nothing useful that could link to your origins in Kaon."
That did get Prowl's interest straight away although the chevroned mechlet didn't show any reaction beyond raising an optic ridge. "Why would you want to find about that? I was raised in Kaon and I don't know anything about Praxus past what's taught in text book files and now, thanks to you, that there's a very specific model type to the city. My family didn't instill any kind of values about being Praxian, that's all."
"They might not have taught you anything about Praxus and the customs observed there, I can believe that much, but it doesn't explain why you seem to be so contemptuous about your heritage. It's something you should be proud of not hateful, and thus...it sparked my curiosity." Smokescreen waved a hand around, trying to bring emphasis to his point about what he thought Prowl should feel. He reached for his pad and turned it on, flipping through the data until he found what he was looking for.
"Now, allow me to explain something. When this academy made its bid to keep me as one of the permanent teachers when a Praxian institute was offering me a better pay, one of the conditions I stipulated to remain here was that I wanted every Praxian aspiring student to be assigned to me for their examination." Smokescreen looked back at Prowl, pausing for a moment as if he was trying to decide what to do next. "I'm certain you are familiar with the process of selection, seeing as you went through it."
Prowl realized Smokescreen seemed to suspect something, narrowing his optics at the thinly veiled tone of accusation. "Yes, sir. The examination process requires a general knowledge exam and an aptitude exam. The first is handled in a general class room with a media of fifteen to twenty students at a time under a teacher's observation to ensure the students won't cheat. The aptitude examination is handled individually by the different teachers of the Academy."
Smokescreen hummed and nodded. "That's correct. You see Prowl...for the aptitude exams, if a mech is Praxian it is I who runs the examination by default. I never saw you until the cycle you arrived at the Academy."
Prowl shrugged. "Perhaps I wasn't sent to you for examination because I come from Kaon rather than Praxus. Perhaps you have never been there, but in Kaon frames are modified all the time. For all you and I know, I am not really a Praxian and my family just had my frame modified to look like one." Prowl leaned back on his seat, looking straight into Smokescreen's optics as he spoke, never showing a single sign of being disturbed by Smokescreen's questions.
Smokescreen wasn't deterred, though. He was quite convinced Prowl was of Praxian origin, but it was what happened between his creation and his arrival at the Academy what now interested him. "While that is a possibility, I sincerely doubt any medic can produce the kind of chevron you sport. It's not merely decorative, Prowl, and that is without counting the level of sensitivity of your wing panels."
"It could be. I wouldn't know, sir. I told you already that I've never been to Praxus, and don't know any Praxians myself." Prowl shook his head, clearly wishing to get over this point already. "If I was created by Praxians they handed me down, then, or they perished. I don't know and I really am not concerned about it."
Smokescreen, too, wanted to move away from that point. "Very well. I can actually believe that the staff simply decided to go by your city of birth since most Praxian applicants do not come from other regions but Praxus. That still doesn't answer to a certain incongruity I found about you and your possible examination."
"What would that be?"
Smokescreen stood and began to pace around, crossing his arms behind his back. "Well, Prowl, for this period we had only one Praxian applicant, which I examined myself." He looked over his shoulder at Prowl. "Of course, he passed my examination and I was certain that student would pass his general knowledge test."
Prowl tilted his head, looking genuinely confused. "What does that have to do with me?"
"That student never showed up in the Academy, Prowl. But you did."
The mechlet frowned deeply. "And?"
"Don't you think it's a little...unusual? A student I examined and I'm sure was accepted never showed up, but one I never saw and of whom I can't seem to find further information did." The Praxian teacher turned around and took a few steps closer. Prowl couldn't help but feel somewhat cornered. "I have reasons to think, Prowl, that you might have something you’d like to tell me.”
Prowl remained impassive, holding the older mech’s gaze. “Would you care to clarify what you mean?”
Smokescreen snorted. “Do not play games with me, Prowl. Your enrolling in this Academy is most suspicious and you know that.”
“I’m afraid I don’t, sir.” Prowl shrugged again. “I was examined like any other student was. If you don’t believe me, feel free to review the data base, then.”
Smokescreen grunted. “I don’t have clearance to dig in further into that, but even if I could, I still believe something is not quite right.”
“Because one of your favorites didn’t get into the Academy like you thought? I’m sorry but I fail to see how that has any relation to me. Are you trying to accuse me of something?” Prowl stood up. “Are you going to try to have me expelled because your fellow Praxian didn’t get in?”
“Listen, Prowl,” Smokescreen raised his hands, trying to appease the younger mech. “I am not implying you did something-“
“Certainly not.” Prowl began to walk away, sidestepping around Smokescreen. “You are just telling me all these things because it’s highly amusing, isn’t it?”
Smokescreen followed after the retreating student. “Prowl, that’s not it. I just mean that...well there might be more to your background than we know, and it might be related to this occurrence.”
“Whatever it is, I do not know. But I do know you are taking far too much interest in my affairs, sir.” Prowl sneered the last word, clearly no longer impassive about Smokescreen’s words and doings. “I would advise against trying to dig further into my records and finding about me, sir. That is far beyond the responsibility of a teacher and to me it skirts too close to abusing your privileges. I’m certain you wouldn’t want to lose them.”
It was Smokescreen who frowned this time, clearly scandalized by Prowl’s veiled threat. “Are you threatening me?”
Prowl’s wing panels flickered with barely contained anger. “No, sir. I am merely pointing out that your interest on one student is bordering in harassment, and I will not stand for it. You want me out of this institution? I hope then, that you can handle the consequences because I am not going down in silence.”
Smokescreen stood there with shock written all over his face watching the furious youngster leave the class room. Prowl’s reaction hadn’t been what he had expected but it certainly made him all the more concerned about whether Prowl was legally in the Academy and if not he was convinced someone, likely whoever reared the young Kaon-raised Praxian, did something to get Prowl in the Academy. But the possibility Prowl was actually a legal student was also there. “I have to find proof of one or the other.”
Prowl stormed through the halls and open grounds of the Academy radiating an anger that seemed uncharacteristic for the usually calm and pleasant young mech. Jazz saw Prowl pass by the open door of the training room, frowning behind his visor at the deep scowl that marred the mech’s handsome face. He turned to the center of the fighting mat where Drift was explaining something and raised his hand. “Uh... Drift, sir, may I be excused?”
Drift looked at Jazz for a moment, taking notice of his sudden anxiety. “Yes, of course. The class is almost done anyway.”
“Thanks!” Jazz ran off the training room after Prowl. “Hey, Prowl!”
Prowl heard his name being called and stopped for a moment, his frame seemed to relax marginally. “Hello, Jazz.” He sighed. “I’m sorry, I hope you weren’t calling me for a while.”
“Nah, it’s ok.” Jazz slowed down to a stop by his friend. “What’s wrong? Ya seem...upset.”
Prowl frowned again and looked down, debating whether or not he should tell Jazz, deciding his friend shared his woes with him, might as well share his own. “Smokescreen is doing something about me that is quite irritating.”
Prowl explained the situation to Jazz, cleverly avoiding admitting or denying any of the accusations thrown at him and rather focusing into what, surprisingly even to himself, bothered him the most: Smokescreen’s invasion of his privacy and his excessive interest on him and his past.
Jazz understood that Prowl had to have his reasons to have the contempt he had about his Praxian heritage and reasons to have left Kaon behind without talking much about his family and upbringing there. Because of his past experience training in Kaon he knew the place was not the easiest for a young mech to grow up in. He could relate, because he had his own share of personal things he didn’t want to explain to others or that he didn’t want touched upon by other mechs.
Prowl found that talking to Jazz eased him from his irritation and anger and Jazz’s agreement that Smokescreen was going too far into trying to find things about Prowl along with his support served to relax him and calm him down further. Prowl knew that short of ordering a medical identity examination that included reviewing his chamber’s serial, or finding the mech whose academic identity he stole, Smokescreen would have a hard time proving that he wasn’t a legal student of the school. And to acquire the permissions to request such thing, Smokescreen would have to explain how he reached that conclusion, which could prove to be detrimental for him.
Prowl wasn’t about to let his efforts to be ruined by Smokescreen and had no qualms in putting his less admirable traits and skills to ensure the pesky teacher would let the subject of his origins and acceptance in the Iacon Academy to be put to rest. He hoped it wouldn’t come to that, though.
“Hey, class is done an’ I think ya need somethin’ sweet t’cheer ya up.” Jazz hooked his arms around Prowl’s and tugged him towards the gate with a smile. “An’ someone owes me a shake.”
Prowl found Jazz’s smile to be quite infectious and allowed him to drag him out. “Alright, let’s go get those shakes.”
Jazz’s smile grew wider but didn’t let go of Prowl’s arm as they headed away, neither noticed the two mechs that followed them with their optics.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: A bit of violence, minor implications of sex, drugs, self flagellation. Eventual slash.
Characters: Prowl, Jazz, Smokescreen, Drift.
Setting: G1 AU. Borrows shamelessly from IDW and DW elements as necessary.
Summary: He had been unwanted but he willed himself to survive and old tricks are hard to leave behind.
Notes: This is an AU bunny that I had been keeping under the bunny pile, I don't think it'll be nearly as long as Paint Streaks and Sparkless, but you know how these bunnies tend to be. Several concepts seen through the duration of this fic are inspired by or belong to snugsbunny and used with permission.
Many thanks to mmouse15 for kindly beta reading this for me and wicked3659 for her input. Hopefully we're going back on steady schedule again.
Prowl looked at Smokescreen with a hard expression, not exactly hostile but one that would let his teacher know he wasn't pleased with the prospect of spending more time around him than what was absolutely necessary.
"May I inquire what it is you want to talk about, sir?"
"It's about you and your...peculiar situation." Smokescreen gestured for Prowl to sit down again and he took a seat across the mechlet.
"My situation, sir?" Prowl raised an optic brow, not at all suspecting what Smokescreen wanted to talk about or how it would shake his newfound sense of stability. "What situation are you talking about?"
"Prowl, I know you're a very smart and quite dedicated student, however, there are things about you that seem to be less than clear." Smokescreen leaned back on his seat, seizing the student sitting across of him. "I was quite curious when you told me you had not been raised in Praxus, but you were quite...ambiguous about your family and origins. All I know is you come from Kaon but not under what circumstances."
Smokescreen brought a hand to his chevron, stroking it idly. "You see, I feel from you a certain...distaste for your Praxian origins, something that no true Praxian mech would ever feel. And that is something I cannot wrap my processors around. I thought maybe it was because you were an orphaned mech that was raised by non-Praxians in Kaon."
Prowl remained impassive in the outside, although inward he was bristling already, imagining that Smokescreen was looking into his past, and that fact was more than enough to incite Prowl's anger. Smokescreen had no right to go snooping around to find about his personal information simply because he showed disdain for his Praxian origins. "With all due respect, sir, I would appreciate if you get to the point you're trying to make without more preamble."
Smokescreen frowned but his lips curled in a little humorless smile. "You're quite remarkable, Prowl. Not many mechs would speak to me like that."
"I do have other duties to attend to as well, sir. As much as I would like to humor you and listen to all you have to say, I'm afraid time is of the essence." Prowl wasn't being openly hostile but was making no effort to hide that he really wasn't up to listen to Smokescreen's flourished explanations, whatever the mech had to say he better say it now.
"Very well, I'll get to the crux of the matter." Smokescreen looked straight into Prowl's optics. "Prowl, I have reasons to suspect your entrance into the Academy happened under particularly irregular circumstances. I have found nothing useful that could link to your origins in Kaon."
That did get Prowl's interest straight away although the chevroned mechlet didn't show any reaction beyond raising an optic ridge. "Why would you want to find about that? I was raised in Kaon and I don't know anything about Praxus past what's taught in text book files and now, thanks to you, that there's a very specific model type to the city. My family didn't instill any kind of values about being Praxian, that's all."
"They might not have taught you anything about Praxus and the customs observed there, I can believe that much, but it doesn't explain why you seem to be so contemptuous about your heritage. It's something you should be proud of not hateful, and thus...it sparked my curiosity." Smokescreen waved a hand around, trying to bring emphasis to his point about what he thought Prowl should feel. He reached for his pad and turned it on, flipping through the data until he found what he was looking for.
"Now, allow me to explain something. When this academy made its bid to keep me as one of the permanent teachers when a Praxian institute was offering me a better pay, one of the conditions I stipulated to remain here was that I wanted every Praxian aspiring student to be assigned to me for their examination." Smokescreen looked back at Prowl, pausing for a moment as if he was trying to decide what to do next. "I'm certain you are familiar with the process of selection, seeing as you went through it."
Prowl realized Smokescreen seemed to suspect something, narrowing his optics at the thinly veiled tone of accusation. "Yes, sir. The examination process requires a general knowledge exam and an aptitude exam. The first is handled in a general class room with a media of fifteen to twenty students at a time under a teacher's observation to ensure the students won't cheat. The aptitude examination is handled individually by the different teachers of the Academy."
Smokescreen hummed and nodded. "That's correct. You see Prowl...for the aptitude exams, if a mech is Praxian it is I who runs the examination by default. I never saw you until the cycle you arrived at the Academy."
Prowl shrugged. "Perhaps I wasn't sent to you for examination because I come from Kaon rather than Praxus. Perhaps you have never been there, but in Kaon frames are modified all the time. For all you and I know, I am not really a Praxian and my family just had my frame modified to look like one." Prowl leaned back on his seat, looking straight into Smokescreen's optics as he spoke, never showing a single sign of being disturbed by Smokescreen's questions.
Smokescreen wasn't deterred, though. He was quite convinced Prowl was of Praxian origin, but it was what happened between his creation and his arrival at the Academy what now interested him. "While that is a possibility, I sincerely doubt any medic can produce the kind of chevron you sport. It's not merely decorative, Prowl, and that is without counting the level of sensitivity of your wing panels."
"It could be. I wouldn't know, sir. I told you already that I've never been to Praxus, and don't know any Praxians myself." Prowl shook his head, clearly wishing to get over this point already. "If I was created by Praxians they handed me down, then, or they perished. I don't know and I really am not concerned about it."
Smokescreen, too, wanted to move away from that point. "Very well. I can actually believe that the staff simply decided to go by your city of birth since most Praxian applicants do not come from other regions but Praxus. That still doesn't answer to a certain incongruity I found about you and your possible examination."
"What would that be?"
Smokescreen stood and began to pace around, crossing his arms behind his back. "Well, Prowl, for this period we had only one Praxian applicant, which I examined myself." He looked over his shoulder at Prowl. "Of course, he passed my examination and I was certain that student would pass his general knowledge test."
Prowl tilted his head, looking genuinely confused. "What does that have to do with me?"
"That student never showed up in the Academy, Prowl. But you did."
The mechlet frowned deeply. "And?"
"Don't you think it's a little...unusual? A student I examined and I'm sure was accepted never showed up, but one I never saw and of whom I can't seem to find further information did." The Praxian teacher turned around and took a few steps closer. Prowl couldn't help but feel somewhat cornered. "I have reasons to think, Prowl, that you might have something you’d like to tell me.”
Prowl remained impassive, holding the older mech’s gaze. “Would you care to clarify what you mean?”
Smokescreen snorted. “Do not play games with me, Prowl. Your enrolling in this Academy is most suspicious and you know that.”
“I’m afraid I don’t, sir.” Prowl shrugged again. “I was examined like any other student was. If you don’t believe me, feel free to review the data base, then.”
Smokescreen grunted. “I don’t have clearance to dig in further into that, but even if I could, I still believe something is not quite right.”
“Because one of your favorites didn’t get into the Academy like you thought? I’m sorry but I fail to see how that has any relation to me. Are you trying to accuse me of something?” Prowl stood up. “Are you going to try to have me expelled because your fellow Praxian didn’t get in?”
“Listen, Prowl,” Smokescreen raised his hands, trying to appease the younger mech. “I am not implying you did something-“
“Certainly not.” Prowl began to walk away, sidestepping around Smokescreen. “You are just telling me all these things because it’s highly amusing, isn’t it?”
Smokescreen followed after the retreating student. “Prowl, that’s not it. I just mean that...well there might be more to your background than we know, and it might be related to this occurrence.”
“Whatever it is, I do not know. But I do know you are taking far too much interest in my affairs, sir.” Prowl sneered the last word, clearly no longer impassive about Smokescreen’s words and doings. “I would advise against trying to dig further into my records and finding about me, sir. That is far beyond the responsibility of a teacher and to me it skirts too close to abusing your privileges. I’m certain you wouldn’t want to lose them.”
It was Smokescreen who frowned this time, clearly scandalized by Prowl’s veiled threat. “Are you threatening me?”
Prowl’s wing panels flickered with barely contained anger. “No, sir. I am merely pointing out that your interest on one student is bordering in harassment, and I will not stand for it. You want me out of this institution? I hope then, that you can handle the consequences because I am not going down in silence.”
Smokescreen stood there with shock written all over his face watching the furious youngster leave the class room. Prowl’s reaction hadn’t been what he had expected but it certainly made him all the more concerned about whether Prowl was legally in the Academy and if not he was convinced someone, likely whoever reared the young Kaon-raised Praxian, did something to get Prowl in the Academy. But the possibility Prowl was actually a legal student was also there. “I have to find proof of one or the other.”
Prowl stormed through the halls and open grounds of the Academy radiating an anger that seemed uncharacteristic for the usually calm and pleasant young mech. Jazz saw Prowl pass by the open door of the training room, frowning behind his visor at the deep scowl that marred the mech’s handsome face. He turned to the center of the fighting mat where Drift was explaining something and raised his hand. “Uh... Drift, sir, may I be excused?”
Drift looked at Jazz for a moment, taking notice of his sudden anxiety. “Yes, of course. The class is almost done anyway.”
“Thanks!” Jazz ran off the training room after Prowl. “Hey, Prowl!”
Prowl heard his name being called and stopped for a moment, his frame seemed to relax marginally. “Hello, Jazz.” He sighed. “I’m sorry, I hope you weren’t calling me for a while.”
“Nah, it’s ok.” Jazz slowed down to a stop by his friend. “What’s wrong? Ya seem...upset.”
Prowl frowned again and looked down, debating whether or not he should tell Jazz, deciding his friend shared his woes with him, might as well share his own. “Smokescreen is doing something about me that is quite irritating.”
Prowl explained the situation to Jazz, cleverly avoiding admitting or denying any of the accusations thrown at him and rather focusing into what, surprisingly even to himself, bothered him the most: Smokescreen’s invasion of his privacy and his excessive interest on him and his past.
Jazz understood that Prowl had to have his reasons to have the contempt he had about his Praxian heritage and reasons to have left Kaon behind without talking much about his family and upbringing there. Because of his past experience training in Kaon he knew the place was not the easiest for a young mech to grow up in. He could relate, because he had his own share of personal things he didn’t want to explain to others or that he didn’t want touched upon by other mechs.
Prowl found that talking to Jazz eased him from his irritation and anger and Jazz’s agreement that Smokescreen was going too far into trying to find things about Prowl along with his support served to relax him and calm him down further. Prowl knew that short of ordering a medical identity examination that included reviewing his chamber’s serial, or finding the mech whose academic identity he stole, Smokescreen would have a hard time proving that he wasn’t a legal student of the school. And to acquire the permissions to request such thing, Smokescreen would have to explain how he reached that conclusion, which could prove to be detrimental for him.
Prowl wasn’t about to let his efforts to be ruined by Smokescreen and had no qualms in putting his less admirable traits and skills to ensure the pesky teacher would let the subject of his origins and acceptance in the Iacon Academy to be put to rest. He hoped it wouldn’t come to that, though.
“Hey, class is done an’ I think ya need somethin’ sweet t’cheer ya up.” Jazz hooked his arms around Prowl’s and tugged him towards the gate with a smile. “An’ someone owes me a shake.”
Prowl found Jazz’s smile to be quite infectious and allowed him to drag him out. “Alright, let’s go get those shakes.”
Jazz’s smile grew wider but didn’t let go of Prowl’s arm as they headed away, neither noticed the two mechs that followed them with their optics.