Ark/NEST Base, Earth
Ratchet sighed exiting the dimly lit room, his arms full of empty energon cubes. "Still not coming out?" Wheeljack peered behind his mate looking into the room.
"No. Said she's still not feeling too well." Ratchet sighed. He was frustrated and concerned. Jinx has been on base for nearly an Orn and has a yet to leave the room in the med bay she had taken over. Ratchet and Wheeljack would bring her energon and attempt to coax her out to socialize with other bots. The other bots and even the humans on base were curious of the new femmes whereabouts. Moonracer and Metalhawk had stopped by once to tell her about how beautiful Earth was. Jinx had no interest in what anyone had to say. She sat in the dim, nearly dark room. Her optics blank and emotionless as she stared ahead. She tinkered around with a few things but was frustrated her arm was still not fully functional. She could move her fingers and shrug her shoulder almost all the way up. Almost. She felt useless in this state, although she felt useless in her regular state as well.
Optimus entered the medical bay, his optics held concern as he approached, Prowl close behind him. "It's been ten days now Ratchet." Prowls voice was stoic and emotionless. "How is she doing old friend?" Optimus placed his hand on Ratchet's shoulder. Ratchet sighed and pinched his nasal ridge in frustration. "She's depressed..fortunately it's not getting worse. She's been consistent with her disinterest."
"You're her creators. Tell her to leave the room, force her to interact with others. She will only get better with help." Prowl's doorwings flickered with annoyance. He didn't understand why the two mechs didn't just pull her from the room and drag her to the recreation room to socialize. Wheeljack's optics narrowed into a glare at the Praxian. "I believe what Prowl means, is perhaps you should try pushing for more interaction. The majority of bots here are friendly and open to interact and help her. You've just kept all of us shut out and we only want to help." Optimus corrected his second in command. Ratchet and Wheeljack exchanged looks, again conversing in their bond. Ratchet headed back into the room, leaving the three mechs waiting.
"Jinx, it's time to come out of hiding. This isn't good for you. We're only trying to help you." Ratchet said walking towards his daughter. She stared up at him from her spot on the floor. Her back was against the wall, Gadget in her lap. "I..can't." She whispered. "You can. Come on. You have friendships waiting out there, you just have to say hi." Ratchet leaned down taking her hand he hoisted her up to her pedes. She swayed a little before steadying. Wheeljack entered the room, turning on the lights. Gadget whirled and clicked around the room. He stopped at Jinx's pedes and stared up at her. She looked at him apologetically, taking in both their appearances. She unsubspaced a cloth and began wiping down Gadget, cleaning his silver armor. He clicked happily at her, as she then cleaned herself up.
"I'll….I'll try I guess." Her voice was soft and unsure. She followed her creators from her room. Optimus gave a small smile, extending his hand out to her. She hesitantly shook it. "Jinx.."
"Ratchet has told me a lot about you. I apologize for us not being able to meet sooner..before the war."
"It's okay."
"This is Prowl, my second in command." Jinx looked to Prowl, then quickly back down to the floor, avoiding eye contact. Wheeljack draped his arm around Jinx's shoulders, "Why don't we head to the rec. room and introduce you to a few bots?"
Jinx reluctantly followed her creators, Optimus and Prowl down the long halls. She fidgeted with the sling on her shoulder, anxiety racking her frame. She doesn't make friends, why would she want friends? So they can die in front of her too? The five entered the rec. room and Jinx looked around. It was rather empty, the usual for 6pm, most bots were just getting back from patrol and getting ready to recharge or start their night shift. Since there were so few of them here they usually had to work double shifts at least twice a week. However there was a single mech sitting at a table by himself watching tv.
"Blaster, good to see you." Optimus greeted the mech. Said mech turned around facing the group, he smiled.
"Heya Prime!" He nodded at the group in greeting. "This is Jinx, Ratchet and Wheeljacks creation." Ratchet nudged her forward. She stumbled forward, looking towards the mech she smiled nervously and gave a small wave. "Why don't you show her around base and perhaps introduce her to a few more bots?" Ratchet asked. At that Jinx quickly turned facing him, looking at him with betrayal. "You'll be fine. Blaster is a great mech, he's nice." Wheeljack reassured her. Jinx huffed in defeat and shuffled along, following Blaster out of the room.
Jinx's POV
I don't want to do this. I don't want a tour around the base, I don't want to socialize. And I don't want or need friends.
"Hey, how's it going? You doin alright? No ones seen you around base since ya got here. Some don't even believe you're real."
I wish I wasn't real. Especially now, small talk? Small talk is horrible. I never know what to say. I can feel my faceplates turning red. "I'm uhm alright. Just here you know. Adjusting to Earth and life and...stuff."
Staring at the floor I followed next to Blaster, I felt him looking at me. Glancing to my right I found him looking at me curiously and expectantly. "Did I say something wrong?" Replaying the conversation in my processor, I forgot to ask him how he's doing, I'm such an idiot.
"Nah, you just seem nervous is all. I don't bite so ya got nothin to worry about. 'Kay?" He shrugged and continued on the tour.
"These are the community wash racks for those that don't have private ones. Though there are mostly mechs here except you and Moonracer, so I'm sure you guys will get private ones." Community wash racks? They want me to shower in there with mechs? I hope I get private wash racks, or I could use the one in the medbay. I should've stayed in the room. Why did Ratchet and Wheeljack make me come out here. I was fine in my room.
"That door over there leads to the human side of the base. We don't usually go over there. The humans are small and fragile and it doesn't end well if we accidentally step on one. So just try and stick to this side, unless they call you over there." I nodded in understanding. Humans sound weird.
"When can I meet the humans? To study them? For science?"
"We could go now if ya want." My optics widened as Blaster herded me to the door. He punched in a code and it opened. Inside were several heavy duty vehicles, weapons lined the walls, computers and desks were scattered around. Humans are so small. Looking down I was careful where I stepped. I scanned the room excitement threatening to buzz my frame. New life forms, new things to study. They look so interesting. How do they work? Are they really so fragile? Oh Primus one is coming over here.
The human approached me, I adjusted my optics to zoom in closer on it's apperance. It had curly dark brown hair down past it's neck, fair skin, it's optics were bright blue. "Hey Blaster! Who's your friend?"
"Yo Eliana, this is Jinx. She's new. Jinx this is Eliana, one of the human medics. She's pretty cool." She? So this is a femme human. Interesting. Inspecting her more now that she was closer I did see some appearance differences. A slimmer waist and a medium bust. She had feminine facial features as well. She looked…. soft.
"You're.. a medic? You have knowledge on human anatomy?"
"Well yeah, I'd hope so. How else would I take care of these guys." I smiled at that. It's good meeting other medics, they're usually like me. And I can talk to them easier about..medic things.
"I'd love to learn more about humans. You all seem very fascinating."
"You're a medic for the bots?" She pointed to my shoulder.
"I am. I trained with the Elite Guard. Ratchet is my carrier so I guess medicine is just kind of my thing...I guess. I dunno."
"Carrier? Ratchet is like, your mom?" What the frag is a mom? Blaster must have prepared for my confusion because a link appeared in my notifications. Following it I was taken to the..world wide web?
"A mother is the female in a family that carries and births the offspring? I suppose Ratchet is my mother, though he's not a female. And Cybertronian birth doesn't work like human birth. So really he's not my mother...but kind of is? Humans seem fascinating, though their mating and interfacing rituals seem somewhat odd and...messier than ours?"
Blaster put his hand on my shoulder and I stopped talking. I looked at him confused. "Yeah Ratchet is basically her mom and Wheeljack is her dad." He smiled down at the human. She had a confused look on her face as she watched me. She exchanged a look with Blaster then her gaze softened back to me. What did that look mean? Why did they look at each other like that? Do humans have internal bonds and perhaps she has one with Blaster?
"I'll tell you what, I'll come by Ratchets medbay tomorrow and we can exchange information about our species I'd like to know more about Cybertronians so that I could help with small repairs the bots need. So you write down a list of questions about humans and I'll make a list for you and we can swap information?" The femme smiled at me. My frame stiffened and I looked to her and Blaster. She wishes to make plans with me? She want's to sit with me and answer questions about her species I have? How do I answer that?
"She'd love to. I'll come give you a lift tomorrow when you're ready to head to the medbay." Blaster answered for me. I looked to him and he gave a small smile and placed his had on my shoulder, leading me back to the bot's side of the base where the tour continued.
"These are the quarters of like the regular soldiers, the officers are in another hallway. My room is down here on the left. Room number 37, just Incase you need me for anything." We stopped outside the door. It was painted bright red so it stood out against the gray of the hallway. It was the same red of his paint. With an orange doorknob. There were little pictures on the door. "What are those?"
"Those are Polaroid pictures. Eli showed me her Polaroid camera so I had Wheeljack make one fit for a cybertronian. Those are pictures of my creations, my cassettes. And a few other bots on base." Interesting, he is the same model as Soundwave so I should have known he has cassettes as well. He pulled the camera from his subspace and handed me the device.
"You point the lens at what you want to take a picture of, push this button here on top. It'll flash, meaning it took the picture and then the photo prints out of this side right here." I examined it curiously. That's kinda neat, for humans at least. I guess they can't store things in their processor like us.
"Let's take a picture and I'll add it to the door, yeah?" Before I could protest his arm draped around my shoulders, his other arm extended out in front of us, the lens facing our direction. I forced a quick smile as he snapped the picture. I stepped away from him as he waited for it to complete the printing process. He waved the picture around and then showed it to me. "Sorry.."
Blaster chuckled as he pinned the picture to his door, "What are you sorry for? It's a great picture." I examined the picture again and the others littering the door. Blaster has a lot of friends…
"And the tour continues!" I followed Blaster down the halls again. Is this place just hallways? Like? Why's it so small? Back on Cybertron there's so much room on the Elite Guard base. I had a lab bigger than their rec room. And a room the size of the medbay. They really need an upgrade. Blaster showed me the officer quarters, the large conference room, the security room where Red Alert yelled at me about the dangers of spy's on base. And then we ended up back at the rec room.
The doors slid open and there were several mechs in the room now. We were gone for like an hour and a half. Why are there so many mechs in here now? Just stay calm Jinx, be cool. Don't draw attention to yourself, don't do anything embarrassing. "Mechs are waking up from recharge and getting back from patrol. It's usually a little busy at this time but it dies down around 9pm." Blaster explained, he walked over and gabbed two cubes of energon handing me one.
Why is everyone staring at me? Is there something on my face? Do I smell weird? "Sorry..thank you. I don't know...I just.." I stared at my cube of energon while Blaster looked around the room. "Why don't I walk you back to the medbay? Was a pretty long tour."
Blaster winked at me and we headed out the door. "Sorry if it was a little overwhelming in there. A new bot on base got everyone excited, and you're a femme, and you're also mysterious by never leaving the medbay."
"It's okay. I'm sorry..just not very social is all. I'm sorry."
"Well you just let me know if you wanna hang out or anything. I'm happy to help. I'll comm you tomorrow when I'm on my way with Eli. Have a good night Jinx." Blaster smiled at me, holding the door open for me as I walked into the medbay. I smiled down into my energon as I walked in the room.
"Thank you." The door shut softly behind him and he was gone.
"Enjoy the tour with Blaster? He's a nice mech." I nodded at Wheeljack. "He was nice. I have plans with a human femme tomorrow."
"Oh? What's her name? What are you going to do?" Ratchet walked in from his office smiling at me. He walked over leaning against the same berth as Wheeljack, both of them now in front of me.
"She said she would answer any questions I have about humans, and I'll answer any questions she has a Cybertronians. She's a medic also and her name is Eliana but Blaster referred to her as Eli? Must be a nickname of sort."
"Eliana is very sweet. You two will get along great." I smiled at Ratchet.
"Well I need to get cleaned up, I look horrible." I bid my creators goodnight and headed off to my room. Gadget needs a bath, I need a bath, need to finish this energon. Gadget needs energon. Need to repaint my armor, wax, clean my room. I have a lot to do. Make the list for Eliana and prepare a list of answers to questions she's probably going to ask. Comm Blaster in the morning to try and confirm a time. I don't want her to just show up, I'd prefer a time.
I have too much to do.
