Arcee joins the case of TF: The End/ Crying Robots Power Hour! Beneath her cute round cheeks and candy-pink coloration lies the spark of a budding black ops agent. Hobbies include gossip, espionage (same thing, right?) and teasing Hot Rod. Voted “Most Smoochable” onboard the ship. Took second place in “Most Likely To Murder Megatron In His Sleep.”
I think everybody’s gonna get at least one alternate color mode. hers is “STEALTH ARCEE” (a Target exclusive)
She used to be paler, pastel. The softest touch of pink, like a dawning sky or low-grade energon crystals diluted with minerals. It was the first color that bloomed over her armor once her body had properly integrated, replacing some, but not all, of the clean white that all bots started with, tracing over the silver where her protoform was exposed. She’d been a lone pink figure in a sea of reds, blues, and greens.
She didn’t mind. It was a perfect balance, a unique color to counter her soft voice, her tempered personality.
Not everyone thought so.
“It’s a little…inappropriate, don’t you think?” Her trainer had said, when she was nearing certification of her teaching license. The older bot had a kind voice, a gentle smile, but her eyes were sharp, disapproving. “Pink is a color best reserved for showbots or medics. Not teachers.”
“Oh.” Had been her only response, a tiny, quiet sound, as the others training to be teachers around her giggled softly and glanced her way. Embarrassed, she drooped into her seat, grip on the datapad tightening.
“There is no shame in choosing to alter your natural color scheme. I, myself, was protoformed a very unpleasant shade of yellow-green.” The trainer rose, gesturing with a cherry-red-and-blue arm. “It’s best to do it when you’re young. Before your surface nanites are fully settled, requires less work for the coloration to stick.”
Arcee chose not to speak up the rest of class, focusing on her studies, internally fuming but ultimately too restrained, too polite to vent outwardly. After class, she waved her classmates and boardmates goodbye for the evening, and looked up the nearest body shop that did full-frame paintjobs, counting her student’s allowance of credits.
It would be just enough to color a complete color change and sealing.
The next day, when she walked into the classroom, everybody stared. There were no comments, just muffled ventilation and a quiet gasp when her trainer turned and saw her sitting down. Maybe it was shock, but nobody said a thing all day, and Arcee smiled, seeing her own confident reflection in the datapad’s screen before she turned the device on to her textbook files.
Inappropriate, she’d been told.
Well, now she was a far more vivid shade of pink- a deep, rich hot pink, the color of an energon-jelly-candy.
Cybertronian Database 