Seeker Cant - a sound guide
Chillwing - clickclick-whirr
Sideswipe - click-chirpchirp
Sunstreaker - whistle-chirpclick
It was a very different Cybertron, a nearly primitive one, that served as a home to many different frame types - but two distinct groups. The grounders - in their cities with their high towers, reaching falsely for the skies while at the same time scorning those who were at home in the air. The Seekers - in their forests and wildlands, shunning the societies and laws of the grounders and living their lives the way their coding, their instincts, dictated.
Two very different cultures, physically compatible but socially different. Those differences created a hatred, a hostility, that spanned over vorns. Vorns that were reaching their limits with the gods that were tired of their beloved creations killing each other.
.~:*:~.
Misfire and his twin Discharge shrieked with laughter as they danced around the fence that guarded the city they called home. They were playing a game together, bouncing a ball and trying to steal it from each other as they raced around the space, staying a safe distance from the fence like they were always told to. At the moment Misfire had the ball and his twin was chasing him.
Their creators had been watching them like hawks at first, making sure they followed the rules and stayed clear of the fence, but after a while they decided to take a sweet moment to femmes didn't truly care for the sparklings, but they did care about the credits that Praxas gave to them for the care and support of raising proper sparklings. It was a sad fact that many grounders felt that way in this era - they continued to create and raise sparklings, but many of them did so only for the funding. Some mecha, concerned about the possible abuse this might lead to, had tried rallying for a complete halt to sparkling creation - they believed it better to simply bring mecha online in fully grown frames. For now, however, sparklings were still prevalent, and mecha still raised them just because they were paid to.
The two sparklings were right at the edge of getting their first upgrades, one of many painful growth upgrades that they would endure together. The femmes would be happy when the abominations - as they saw them - were gone in a few thousand vorns, but they would regret the loss of the sparkling income when the twins would be deemed ready to live on their own.
The femmes began to touch each other, completely ignoring the sparklings now as they began to hiss and mutter to one another, urging a charge to build that they really should have waited for. Misfire tripped as a plaiting of the ground peeled up just enough to catch his awkwardly sized pede, and he dropped the ball with a soft exclamation of dismay. He and his twin watched the ball roll away toward the fence, and their systems stalled with fear as they waited, expecting the energy of the fence to destroy their ball. They saw where the energy fence crackled, popped, then dispersed and the ball rolled just out of range of the fence, unharmed. They waited another moment, and when the fence didn't turn back on right away, Misfire turned to his twin.
"Dis, our ball," he stated simply. The two of them didn't need words, not really, but they spoke out loud out of habit - the femme caretakers hated when they used the twin bond to speak to each other. They called it rude. Instead, the twins learned to speak quietly, so that they could still keep their private thoughts private. The yellow twin nodded and hesitated before releasing his wings to flutter them slightly and track their creators. The femmes were far too distracted to take notice of them, and he let himself relax.
"It's close, let's go grab, kay?" Misfire cheeped at his twin, worried, but got up and did as bade. They needed to save their ball, and if Discharge was by his side, he knew that he would be safe too. They exited the fence together, planning for a quick retrieval and return before either the Seeker-monsters could notice them, or worse,the femmes did. Misfire reached out for the ball and whined softly as it bounced away on its own and rolled further into the wilderness. He was sure that he hadn't even touched it yet, so how could that have happened? Discharge giggled, and Misfire made a soft, distressed noise in response. "How you do that, Mis?" Discharge asked and hurried after the ball. He had to get his twin to show him that trick!
Misfire followed and neither noticed as the fence ignited again and their way home was cut off. Their ball was bouncing on its own and playing with them!
Finally the ball stopped rolling after the duo chased it far enough to get lost. When it finally stopped it was touching a large pede that was arched with a thruster. Their exposed door wings rose high as they followed the thruster up and up, and passed knee guards that looked sharp enough to cut. Then further up passed the orange waist and they gawped at the black cockpit, orange surrounding it and they finally settled onto a face baring denta.
Tiny doorwings simultaneously snapped down and they whined. Discharge stood frozen in fear and Misfire let his optics flicker about trying to not look. If they couldn't see the monster, the monster couldn't see them! But- there was their ball. He stumbled forward without thinking and reached out, "Ball?" He asked softly and tripped again. This time he scraped his plating in a soft spot hard enough to crack and he whimpered. It hurt!
Discharge stumbled over to him and chirped at his twin trying to pet and calm him. Both forgetting about the big bad 'monster' in front of them as Misfire held his arm up and Discharge kissed the boo boo, all better? Their purple ball was suddenly held out in a deathly sharp clawed servo. The monster trilled and clicked at them and they tried to mimic the sounds. Discharge took the ball and gave it to his twin then looked around.
"Mis, where are we?"
THe seeker watched the funny little prey. They talked odd and walked funny. They were so tiny that he was sure they were only the size of a thruster each. Their itty bitty ball was picked up between two fingers and let to settle in his palm. They would barely fill his tanks.
Optics burned as he sharply looked at them, one was bleeding- and oh it smelled so good. But- but it's match kissed the blood and wiped tears away. They- they were oddly cute for fuel. Perhaps he'd let them go along their way, but if he ever ran into them again, into his tanks they went!
He held out the ball and spoke to them. "go, before I devour you whole together." They repeated his words clumsily and when their tiny fake wings fluttered then moved around in fear, he felt his spark twinge. He had lost his bitlets recently to a raid. They were stolen from him then his entire clan burned. As he watched the ball be hugged he pulled something from a hidden subspace. It was verry rag like but it was all he had left, he held it out and the ball holder dropped the ball to take what he offered.
The little seeker doll was almost flat from vorns of use from creation to creation. He picked the ball up and hid it away as he watched the two play with the doll that was almost their own size. He didn't hesitate when the red one gave a seeker like trill of joy and hugged the doll. Snatching them up he pulled them close to him and noted how cold they were. Primus, it was getting so late and they were going to freeze out here.
Cockpit opening he put them in there with his blanket. "You two need designations." He finally said as he closed them in and set a servo over the black glass, good, no seekers would ever see them in there and they would be safe. "Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, foolish grounders. One that comes right up and takes what he wants without a care or worry for himself, the other so blindingly beautiful he will draw all dangerous optics. You two fit them."
His spark flaired and wrapped around the two with his powerful field. He let the loss of his recently detached sparkling wash over him and alert them to his loss, let them know that he would love them and take care of them until he could no longer do that. They, in return, pushed back. Their fear of their creators making them shiver and hesitate to trust him. But the femmes never tried to create a bond, never tried to touch their fields with anything but disgust. And the seeker, he felt nice. They liked it. So they accepted him, letting the fields all mingle and merge until the femmes left their feeling and it was the seeker that they claimed as creator.
.~:*:~.
The twins grew so slowly, but they were so brilliant. As Chillwing hid away in the woods he let the twins 'escape' from his cock pit. Most times they played trapped in his crossed legs as he sat on the ground, but when it came to speech lessons they sat attentively in his servo's chirping and clicking back at him. Mimicking his words nearly better than a seeker sparkling. He knew they didn't understand and it was frustrating but they were trying and he cooed at them and nuzzled close.
"Si*click*" Sideswipe said one orn and Sunstreaker gawped at him. They were still so tiny but had nearly doubled in size. Servo's reached up and the tiny claws that were growing in curled and uncurled. "Si*click*." Chillwing's spark seemed to sputter and he reached out towards Sideswipe. That second click was not like the child's designation it was almost more like-
Chillwing clicked at Sideswipe and and the child nodded.
"Si*clack*" Chillwing reached down and pet the child's tiny face with the back of a claw.
"So close little one. It's Sire, that click you are making means nothing."
"Si*click*" Sideswipe attempted and made a frustrated sound. Chillwing realized the speech barrier did not only frustrate him, and he nearly cried. His poor babies were having such a hard time. "Si-ree." He clicked hard and angry, like a shriek.
"Ree, is like Sc/re/am. Go Er like like Sunstreak/er/."
"Si-re." Sideswipe clicked and Chill scooped him up fast and brought him to his face and let a tear slip out. His field was filled with adoration and love, pride flowed through their bond so hard Sideswipe just gawped and reveled in the feeling. It was- it was so perfect.
"Sire?" Sunstreaker chirped. He mimicked his twin perfectly and Chill picked him up too. He carefully kissed them both. Oh his little ones were so perfect!
He transformed the tips of two fingers on one servo and the twins let out seeker cant chirps for excitement as he gave a finger to each and they suckled. Loving the rich fuel that was changing their anatomy just a bit. He knew they would be large for grounders and their wings would have better sensors and a further range of motion. They would be able to cant perfectly and almost seem seeker like if not for their lack of cockpit and doors for wings.
When they were fueled and full they lulled into a light recharge and he carefully placed them in the safety of his cockpit. He contemplated on what to do, there were a few joors before sunset and recharge, but something felt bad about returning to the close camp. Yet, it was getting colder and colder at night, he needed more blankets or risk all of them freezing. There was little he could trade but work and he wasn't sure the safety of that with the two grounders. If ever caught he would be offined and they would be made into fuel.
But he needed to do all he could to keep them warm and his energon flowing for them. He could hunt well enough for his energon, but he could not do nothing else. Getting up he headed into the camp and met with the femme that made thermals. She needed several dangerous and hard to offline prey to make them and he promised to get the kills and all extra she could keep. The trade was fair enough to her.
Chillwing left only to freeze and fall to his knees. Optics downcast and wings fluttered before snapping down behind him. The winglord- oh Primus- he was going to be caught!
The procession walked on by without pause and he relaxed minutely. It was barely a twitch of a wing but it was enough and the Winglord stopped to look at him. The giant blue seeker stopped in front of him and his field pressed out to examine and feel the younger seeker. He knew the seeker was hiding something when the field was a solid block and not a moving wave like feeling. "What do you hide?" His tone was like liquid fire, deep and smoldering, demanding to know without forcing the Winglord tone.
Chillwing opened his mouth then closed it. His field wavered and he looked over at the dark gray pedes. "They just fell into recharge, please, your presence is so strong they would wake." He gave out the partial truth. The twins had just fallen into recharge, and the Winglords presences would smother them, they wouldn't wake but they'd offline from the pressure. Suddenly it lifted, the field that was trying to crush him in a dominant display.
"You are a dominant, where is your submissive that carried them?" The winglord demanded and Chills wings slumped with sorrow. His field peeled back and thundercracker reached out to caress the young fields that he found.
"We had two dominants in our trine, i was the submissive dominant. I carried for my dom, just this once, but another clan heard that our leader had taken ill. They took that chance and attacked. Killed everyone while my Dominant ordered me to escape. I could not disobey and stay to offline fighting by his side as I should have."
A servo touched his helm softly. "When they are old enough to survive on their own, I will grant you the mercy you seek." With those parting words he turned and walked off, not caring that the younger dominant's wings rose high and he looked on for a long while. He knew he had shocked the seeker with his knowledge and offer. If the seeker chose to take him up on it- as the Winglord knew the seeker would- it would be a worthy offlining.
"Thundercracker~" A black and purple seeker purred and seemed to lounge on the winglord. "My mate~ Lets go home~ our third awaits us~"