"—So I say to the guy you know you ain't half bad… for only being in second place! Ahahaha! And he just gives me that look like he wants to kill me but he knows he'd never catch me!"

There was a round of laughter, but none of it was from the few Wreckers the new kid had pulled together to hear his oh-so-dashing tales of his time as a racer. Kup noticed as he walked by just in time to hear such a sour ending to what was surely another one of his victory stories that none of them seemed like they really wanted to hear it from him either. How the little hotshot had rounded up the couple that he did was beyond Kup's understanding. With a hand rubbing down his faceplates, wishing the gesture could erase what he saw and come away with a nice quiet soldier, Kup sulked towards the small group, only to get looks from the others that were all-too-thankful for his arrival.

"Hey, Kid. Your frilly stories about your time in the limelight are great and all, but they're not anything we wanna hear about. Keep it canned for your fans."

His tone wasn't as harsh as it could have been, which he regretted a bit since the blue mech scoffed before giving him a mischievous grin of defiance.

"Oh yeah? What if I'm MAKING fans out of these guys?"

"I'd say you're doing a slag job then."

Finally, a group snicker rose just to an audible level, and the cocky look on the new recruit's face faltered before becoming harder and more forced. He tried to stand up as tall as he could to look down his nasal at Kup, his lower lip tucking against his upper to make a pout of sorts. Might have been cute for the ladies back home, Kup chided to himself, but not for him. Not for the mechs here.

The ex-racer seemed to puff up even more when Kup didn't react and scoffed again, "Tch. I could make fans out of anyone if they opened up a little."

Kup merely quirked an optical ridge at him, his voice quizzical. "Really? Why do you assume that?"

"Because I'm the greatest racer in all of Cybertron! I'm the fastest thing in the universe!"

It was Kup's turn to grin, finally, and he shifted the cygar in his mouth, giving a noncommittal shrug. "Oh yeah? Never heard o' ya."

"Never hear—" The kid was incredulous, then furious. "You've never heard of BLURR? The blue blur? The Blue-Ribbon-Mech? The Damn-he's-fast Guy? None of it?!"

"Nope. Never heard of ya. Until your file came in when you became a recruit. At least now I can verify you're Blurr, that you're a loudmouth, and that you're likely to cause trouble unless you're kept under close watch. Congratulations, Kid. You've just got yourself under my radar. Happy?"

Blurr didn't quite react at first, then huffed as his hands went to his hips. "As if I'd wanna be under some old mech's radar."

The others of the group glanced at Kup then, expecting for him to strike, tense and excited to see this fragger be put in his place.

Not one to disappoint, although it was on his own terms, Kup frowned, walking right up to the speedster and feigning a hit from the left. Of course, Blurr dodged, only to get hooked in the jaw by Kup's right hand. The blue mech stumbled, fell onto his aft, and yowled in protest. "What the frag?!"

"That was for disrespecting your elders, son. Do it again and it'll be worse than a booboo on your chiseled chin."

He was expecting Blurr to retaliate. Mechs like him were known for it. But Blurr stayed on the ground, seeming to actually soak in Kup's warning and take it to heart. At least, Kup was hoping that's what he was doing. He frowned when there was no witty remark back, then nodded to the group, who all shuffled up to their feet and were on their way out. Kup took another look at Blurr, who was finally getting back up to his feet, rubbing gingerly at his jaw, moving and shifting the mechanisms to see that they still worked.

"Frag, you hit hard."

"Not as hard as a Con would." His voice flat, Kup made the move to walk out as well, done with his lecture for the day. He felt optics locked onto him from behind, but didn't make much bother with them.

Meanwhile, Blurr smiled to himself, then huffed with a grin, muttering lowly to himself, "Stupid old mech. I'm not usually into guys like you. Welp, change of scenery usually comes with a few other changes~ Let's hope you'll like me better when I'm flirting instead of showing off."