this town belongs to OVERLORD - A Transformers Murder Mystery Wild West AU

bored.

Overlord sipped upon his small glass of burgundy energon wine across the table, and the late afternoon suns were shining their golden light through the windows of Starscream's quaint bar. I had only interacted with Overlord for an underwhelming two and a half days, but I could sense a strong rapport developing between us. Yeah, the kiss was uncalled for. He wanted to speed up the stages of our relationship, but he also surrendered to me pushing back. We functioned as one when it came to solving the mystery, though. Overlord had the power to hail crowds and start meetings, and I was the brains of the operation. It was a stressful puzzle, but he aided in calming my nerves.

Megatron drowsily waltzed into the building, his face blasted with ash from his work, and he quietly ordered something to drink from Starscream. The people of the town seemed one-dimensional at first, but their true colors begin to reveal themselves after some time. For example, I had begun to observe that day that Swerve's personality revolved around the mimesis of Overlord. He was talkative himself, yes, but he also would try to walk like his leader: with swagger, power, and a strange jolt with each step. He also repeated some of Overlord's signature phrases like, "Stop pulling my damn leg."

The newcomers were more open, obviously. They were loud, angry, emotional, and whatnot. My people are more like the townsfolk.

I knew Overlord adored me, so I enjoyed teasing him. "I never noticed this until now," I muttered to him as I took in a gulp of my Visco. "but Megatron is very attractive. He has a nice face."

The sound of Overlord's long, deep sip halted, and he flicked his optics up to stare at me.

I leaned back in my seat, a sly smile on my face. "I'm just saying."

"Hmm," he grunted. "And I think Chromia is attractive."

"She is. I agree. Unfortunately, my dear, she is already taken."

"Stop pulling my damn leg."

I softly laughed and swirled my glass. "I think we should ask Starscream about that hole. Trailcutter's here too, so we can get some info from him."

Overlord nodded energetically, mid sip, and we ambled up to the bar where Swerve and Starscream were chatting about Cyclonus and Tailgate, who were outside enjoying their own beverages.

"I'm just saying, I don't think Cyclonus is a good fit for Tailgate," Swerve said. "What he did was just...rude!"

"Gossip is rude, Swerve." Overlord slipped onto the stool next to his stocky deputy, and Swerve's elated expression dropped to that of horror.

"Sir! Oh, oh...I'm really sorry! I'll never do it again!"

See? What a little toady.

"Well, this is a small town. We all like to talk about each other." Starscream smirked at the town's leader before sliding a new glass of energon next to Swerve's arm.

"Oh, Starscream." Overlord dug his thick fingers into the empty holster strapped to his broad waist, and he extracted a handful of golden coins. He placed them on the counter. "For my debt."

Starscream satirically cleared his throat before slowly counting the coins. He finished up and pushed five of them back to Overlord. "There's excess."

"No, please keep it. To pay for the time you spent waiting."

"No, you please keep it. You gotta pay for Arcee now, right?"

"Uh, yeah." Overlord peeled the coins off the glass counter and put them back into his holster.

I clambered up onto the stool next to him. "So you use a holster to hold your money?"