Ah-hem.
As of 1:45 Mountain Time, I, Meiza, completed my last class of my last semester of school. As of this moment, I am a University Graduate with a Major in English and Minor in Business.
I. AM. DONE!
I'm still having trouble believing it. ^_^
In celebration, I'm updating one story (Elita One, 28 Times) and starting another, (The Sum of Our Parts), inspired by a plot bunny I found on the bunny farm (which will be posted after another chapter or two, to avoid spoilers). Feel free to check that one out when you're done here!
Meme: Drinking Energon
Universe: G1, pre-war.
Warnings: Certain liberties taken with Dion's personality. He insisted on abusing the exclamation button.
Summary: Somehow or other, Dion convinces his two best friends to celebrate their upgrade into their adult molds with a trip to the best oil-house in the city – Macadams.
"I'm telling you guys, this place has the best drinks on the planet! Bot's flock here all the way from Vos just to get a sip, and it's the perfect place for celebration!"
"If this place is so spectacular, why couldn't the owner set up shot someplace a little better than Iacon's armpit?" the speakers red and blue friend muttered.
"It's probably because the 'spectacular drinks' are spiked with something illegal," his rose hued girlfriend suggested flatly.
Their orange and blue mutual friend looked back at them with a wide smile. "Ah, c'mon, don't be like that Ariel. And Orion, buddy, don't go knocking it before you try it. Trust me guys, you're going to love it! Have I ever steered you guys wrong before?"
Flat looks of 'slag yes'.
"Have I ever steered you guys wrong before on purpose?" he amended.
Orion and Ariel had to admit no.
"There you go! You know you can trust me!"
"Dion, trusting you not to so do something malicious is entirely different from trusting you not to do something stupid," Orion informed his friend in a dead pan.
Orion's and Ariel's doubts were not without reason. The pair had followed their old friend to the lower-mid levels of Iacon, sub-level six of the lower east quadrant to be exact, so far from their usual haunts that it took three t-levs just to get out here. It wasn't the worst part of the city, but it was seedy enough in its own right.
"If this is Iacon's armpit, what does that make the lowest levels?" Ariel asked curiously.
"The waste tanks." Orion answered seriously.
"Oh stop being so dramatic, this isn't exactly Kaon here." Dion reprimanded. "If it was, we'd be mugged, killed, and tossed into an ally by now for trash drones to pick up in a deca-orn or two."
"Thank you Dion, that possibility had not occurred to me until just this moment."
So why were these three young bot's braving the city sector so far from home and in dubious company? Because earlier that very orn, these three friends had gone through their final upgrade, leaving behind their youngling frames for their adult ones. It was a rite of passage that was almost sacred, leaving behind the innocence of childhood and accepting the rights and duties of an adult. Traditional celebratory customs varied from city to city by class and culture, and Dion had insisted the three of them participate in the most widespread one of all.
After all, what better way to celebrate such a momentous occasion that to get completely cratered out of their processors?
Following that line of logic, if they were going to celebrate their right to get cratered for the first (legal) time, then they would do with it with the "good stuff', nay, the "Best Stuff". Evidently, the "Best Stuff" could only be found in an obscure little oil house in a section of Iacon the three of them had no rights – or sensibilities – to be in.
Naturally, Orion and Ariel had their doubts, but long experiences had taught them it was just easier to go along with Dion and let him blow off his steam that try to talk actual sense into him.
"We're here!"
Dion twirled around and raised his hands high in grand presentation. "Lady and Gentlemech, I give you the Matrix of Bars and High Grade!"
The 'Matrix' revealed itself to be a midsized, roundish building about two stories high, yet still managing to be tucked away and easy to miss by anyone who didn't know where to look. They themselves would have right past it if Dion hadn't pointed it out to them.
Then again, even if they had seen it, they would have gone right past it anyway.
It was old, rusty, dimly lit, and rundown looking on the outside, as if the owner couldn't be bothered to care about presentation. Even as they watched, a bulky mech stumbled out of the doors, swaying badly on his feet, and trotted off down the street, muttering unpleasant things as he went. Over the door was a sign glowing half-sparkedly proclaiming the building to be none other than Maccadams Old Oil House, confirming that this indeed was the place they had been searching for. Even as they watched, a dull colored mech stumbled out the doors, swaying on his feet and keeping his balance only by the grace of Primus himself, right up until he stumbled to the wall and purged up his tanks.
Nice.
Dion kept grinning as if oblivious to his friends expressions. "Well? What do you think? Pretty awesome, isn't it?"
"Words fail me," Orion said with feeling.
"Dion, are you absolutely, completely, totally, one hundred percent certain this is the place?" Ariel asked, fixated on a discoloration on the out wall of unknown and possible unsavory origin.
"Of course I am!" Dion said exuberantly, never losing his grin. "I heard about it from a reliable source!"
"Who?"
"Eh, some mech I met a party one time. He gave me great directions, even drew a little map for me. Granted, we were both a little charged at the time, and this is my first time here, but I defiantly remember he mentioned Macadams, and this is the only Macadams I've seen ever!"
Orion and Ariel exchanged looks and a silent message of "what have we gotten ourselves into?"
"Dion, this is a bad idea." Orion tried to reason. "Maybe we should just head home, I'm sure you know of a few good places where-"
"Nonsense!" Dion insisted. He leaned forward and grabbed an arm each from Orion and Ariel, pulling them forward towards the building. "We've already come all this way, we might as well enjoy the fruits of our labor? Besides, what's the worst that can happen?"
Again with the exchanged looks, but this time with a sense of heavy resignation usually reserved for prisoners heading to their execution.
"Alright Dion, you win," Ariel said wearily. "But if anyone grabs my aft I'm kicking yours."
"Fair enough."
oOoOoOoOoOo
The owner could have been forgiven the rather dismal first impression the store front gave if he had renovated the interior to be bright, airy, clean and welcoming with engaging floor design and smiling staff to greet them as a reward for anyone who gave the establishment a chance.
He didn't.
If nothing else, the owner was consistent with his presentation. The insides was dimly lit, with a low ceiling and dun colored walls and the occasional painting of random subject and hanging, as if someone had tried to spruce up the place and had no idea how to go about it. Several tables were scattered haphazardly as if the owner didn't care where they went, so long as they were inside. Most of those tables had at least a couple of patrons nursing their drinks, and one table was dominated by a trine of obnoxiously loud lavender Seekers celebrating something or other, it was hard to tell through the drunken revelry. A harpsichord was playing itself in the back (drone? Machine? Weird transformer?), lightening the overall atmosphere with its music. At the bar itself they could see a massive scowling mech cleaning empty cubes and glasses with a rag.
At least nothing was broken, though Ariel had doubts about one chair's ability to hold its massive occupant for much longer.
Friends in tow, Dion marched straight up to the bar with a grin fit to split his face in half. Finally releasing his hands, he slapped both his palms down on the counter in a fashion he probably saw too many times on the holo-vids.
"Bartender!" he said loudly, with cheer that seemed jarring out of place. "A round of your best high-grade! We're celebrating!"
The bartenders hands never stopped, but his optics flickered up to Dion for a brief second before flickering over to Orion and Ariel. When he saw them, his optics narrowed ever so slightly. Just like that, it was as someone had dropped a neutron star on the room, the gaze was just so heavy and inescapable.
Ariel couldn't put her finger on it, but there was something about this mech that was creeping her out, and not just because he was looking at them as if he had completely forgotten Dion. Or rather, he paid a bit of attention to Ariel, but focused with laser like intensity on Orion, and he didn't like what he was seeing. It was an intensity of such gravity, it made the entire world tunnel until there was nothing else. Ariel almost took a step back. Orion even put an arm half up protectively in front of her, more by instinct than choice.
"So long as you can pay, you can stay. But I won't tolerate any trouble here," he said in a deep, gravelly voice. "This is not a place for scores or fights. I don't give a frag what you do once you leave, but provoking is strictly banned inside. Try and start anything, and I'll throw the lot of you out."
He might have meant the group, he might have been answering Dion, but he never broke optic contact with Orion.
Ariel felt a chill down her spinal strut, and stood a little closer to her boyfriend.
Dion was wholly oblivious.
"No problem! We know how to behave properly, don't we?"
"Y-yeah, right." Orion agreed, the slight waver betraying how freaked how he was getting with the bartender just staring at him.
A long, long moment as the bartender appraised them.
"Just wait a moment, then." He said at last, turning away to put the cube and rag aside. All at once, Ariel fell like she had gone from being sucked into the crushing power of a black hole to the liberating freedom of deep space on a sling shot. She hadn't realized how unnerving the bartender was getting until he had finally turned away.
What was that about? She wondered, even as her spark kept anxiously fluttering.
"So like I said before, we need three cubes of your best high grade!" Dion told the bartenders back. Ariel snapped back to reality.
"Make that two," she said quickly, coming around Orion. "I'll just have oil."
"A-ri-el! We're here to celebrate!" Dion protested, drawing out her name and looking like the femme had personally wounded him.
She rolled her optics at his theatrics. "Believe it or not, Dion, SOMEONE needs to stay sober to make sure we all make it back home again in one piece, and quite frankly, I'd rather not get 'cratered' in a place like this. Ah, no offense intended," she added hastily to the bartender.
"None taken," he said, and if anything he looked amused. "Just shows you're a young femme with a good head on your shoulders. Wish there were more like you out there."
Ariel smiled slightly. Now that he wasn't staring at them, the bartender wasn't nearly as intimidating as she thought – he just had a powerful presence. The glaring thing was probably something he did with everyone to enhance his 'no-violence' warning. Not that he didn't look fully capable of going through with his threat of literally throwing them all out on their afts.
She, Orion, and Dion carefully counted out the payment as the bartender prepared their order. As soon as they money was on the counter, two cubes and a dull grey cup appeared before them.
The three friends stared.
The cup looked like a non-descript but safe serving of oil. The high grade, on the other hand, were shifting shades of lavender and purple that were practically humming with contained energy. Even as they watched, occasional bright bolts of mini-lightening would dance across the cube walls. It was like looking into a rolling purple electric storm someone had managed to trap in a box.
"…This isn't…food." Orion noted.
"Don't knock it just yet, youngling," the bartender said briskly but with no bite, already back to cleaning the used cubes. "Your friend wanted the best, I gave you the best. You don't want it, it's your loss."
"Of experience?"
"Of credits."
In one smooth motion the bartender scooped up the deposited credits and dropped them into his sub-space.
"Hey!" Orion protested.
His protest died a quick and violent death under the Glare.
"Never mind," he amended quietly.
The trio took their drinks and managed to secure a table to themselves, as far from the still-obnoxiously loud Seeker trine as possible. They stared at the high grade, all of them, even the inordinately optimistic Dion, privately wondering just how safe it was.
"Dion, you go first." Orion ordered bluntly.
"Hey, buddy, I appreciate the thought, but since you're my best friend, I'll let you have the first honors!"
"My friend, I would rather chew off my leg and use it as a pogo-stick than try that stuff untested."
Ariel tried to cover up her laugh but turned it into a snort.
"Alright, fine, if you're going to be such a pussy about it…"
With much aplomb Dion took his cube and brought it to his lips for a full swig to down the whole cube in one gulp. Fortunately, common sense prevailed at the last second, and instead he took just a mouthful.
"WHOA!"
Orion and Ariel were already half out of their seats as Dion jolted and stiffened in this seat, optics flashing brightly as his entire body trembled minutely.
"Dion! Are you alright??"
"Whoa…whoa…that's…whoa…"
"Orion, call the hospital! The surges shorted out his CPU! I think he's about to go into stasis lock!!"
Dion rapidly shook his head clear.
"What? No no no, relax!" he said quickly, optics dimming to their normal glow. But now he was looking at his cube with almost reverential awe.
"Ariel, you have got to try at least one sip of this stuff! It's just…it's just…Primus, I can't even describe it! Are my denta glowing? I feel like my denta should be glowing. Frag, my entire mouth feels charged. I'm still tingly all over, that's how awesome this stuff is."
"After just one sip?"Orion asked, looking at his own untouched cube like it was a bubbling acid bomb.
"Well, obviously this stuff needs to be savored slowly. But Primus guys, when they talk about the Good Stuff, this is what they're talking about! Go on, try it!"
Orion was still hesitant, but since Dion hadn't died yet ye figured the high grade was moderately safe after all. But just to be safe, Ariel kept poised to call the hospital while he took his first experimental sip.
Orion's optics flared a bright azure in astonishment as the energon hit. "Oh wow.
Dion was grinning like a mad mech now.
"See? See? Ariel, your turn!"
"I'll pass," the pink femme said, lifting up her cup of oil. "I know you. I let you talk me into one sip, you'll have me taking a few dozen, which will completely defeat the purpose of me being the sober one here. I'll stick with my oil, thanks."
"You're no fun."
"Say that again when I'm getting your cratered aft back to the t-levs in one piece," she responded, before taking a sip.
She didn't jolt with an energy surge, and her optics didn't flash from a burst, but they did widen in astonishment as she discovered the taste.
She had been expecting regular oil, something to fill her up while the mechs had their high grade. But when Dion had asked for a round of the "best," the bartender took his order seriously, and he delivered as well with his oil as he did with the high grade. The oil was smooth, rich, and flavorful, with a hint of sweet rust and mercury for body, coming together for a beverage that was rich, delicious, and nutritious.
So THIS is where all the renovation money went!
"Wow."
Dion grinned smugly, leaning back in his seat and holding up his storm-in-a-cube as if in toast. "And to think you guys doubted me. Was it worth it, or was it worth it?"
Orion and Ariel exchanged looks. Dion would never let them live this down, but there was no denying that this was one of their friends better ideas.
"Alright Dion, yes, this was a good idea." Orion admitted with a sly grin. "And since it was your idea, you get to buy the next round."
"What?!"
The dating couple shared a good laugh over Dion's stricken expression.
They stayed for another couple of rounds, Ariel sticking to her oil as promised (not that she was tempted to get anything else because, because Primus that stuff was good!). The buzz relaxed the young mechs and they became more and more talkative and animated, and their happy mood bled into Ariel so that she couldn't help but share in their festive feelings and relax right along with them. They spent joors at that table, talking and laughing about anything and everything. Ariel would never remember exactly what they talked about or why it was all so funny, but she would remember this as one of the best night of her life.
Well, most of it anyway.
"And then, and then, he kicked him in the face!" Dion finished loudly, laughing as if he just told the funniest joke in the world, rather than a disjointed anecdote that sounded like a mishmash of four or five other stories Ariel was vaguely familiar with. Orion chuckled right along, sober enough to realize he had no idea what was so funny but too charged to really care.
Ariel, the last remaining voice of reason, decided enough was enough.
"Okay then," she said slowly, gathering up the empty cubes. "I think you guys have had enough. How about we call it a night before someone passes out from surges?"
"Wha? Nuh uh!" Dion protested. "I'm, I'm still good, I c'n hold m' grade, right Orion buddy?"
"Uh what?" Orion asked in a daze, torn away from his self musings. Orion was many things, but Ariel knew that a mech able to hold his high grade was not one of them.
She quirked an optic ridge at the less than stellar response. "Right. Yeah, you're both about done."
"Just, just one more round Ariel, promise!" Dion pleaded. "Then I'll go nice and quiet, on m' honor! I'll, I'll even pay for it myself!"
Ariel opened her mouth to argue, but changed her mind. She wasn't sure about getting more drinks, but again, this was Dion and most times it was easier to just go along than to try and talk him out of anything, charged or sober. Orion, she knew, would follow her direction easily and willingly. But Dion? Not so much. Besides, he was still talking in mostly complete sentences and could hold extended optic contact, so one more couldn't possibly hurt. And if nothing else, Dion was always as good as his word.
"Alright, one more for you," Ariel conceded, standing up. "You stay here, I'll get it. You can pay me back in the morning."
"You're such a sweetie, Ariel!" Dion gushed with a love-struck smile. "Orion, he's such a lucky guy t' have you."
"Watch it Dion," the named friend said suddenly, snapping back to clarity just long enough to deliver the dire warning.
Rolling her optics at the slight possessive display, but secretly still thinking it was kind of sweet that Orion could still jump to 'defend her honor' even when he could barely keep his optics focused in front of him, she turned and headed for the bar to get the last drink of the evening. As a precaution she took her oil with her, because in his state she didn't trust Dion not to accidently knock it over or knock it back, thinking it was more high grade.
As she passed one of the tables, the big mech she had observed earlier when she first came in chose that moment to push his chair back and get up. He was easily two heads taller than Ariel, and at least three times her mass. So when his shoulder hit her at a glancing blow, the force was enough to send the unprepared femme stumbling backwards, her drink spilling as she tried and failed to catch her balance.
Before she could lose the fight with gravity, the navy blue mech that nearly knocked her down shot his hands out to grab her. One huge hand landed on her shoulder, the other haphazardly around her little waist.
"Oh Primus, I'm so sorry!" He apologized quickly as he helped steady her back on her feet. The hand stayed on her shoulder, but he was quick to remove the one on her waist.
"You're not hurt, are you?" he asked in sincere concern. "I'm really sorry about that, I didn't see you there."
"No, no, it's alright, I'm fine, thank you," Ariel assured him with a smile. What a gentlemech!
"HEY!"
Ariel and the mech looked to see the infuriated orange truck standing over his table, shooting daggers at the blue mech behind the femme.
Unfortunately, Dion had seen the exchange, and between the energon goggles and his own impulsive nature, he got an entirely different perspective.
"You! Get Away from Ariel, you pervert!" he shouted.
"Pervert?!" the blue mech exclaimed in disgust. "What the frag are you talking about? I haven't done anything to your friend!"
"Dion, he hasn't-" Ariel tried to say, but was quickly drowned out.
"HA! Don't pretend to act all innocent! I saw everything! Now step away from her before I kick your aft!" Dion loudly proclaimed, coming around the table. Orion lifted his head and looked at his friend in confusion.
"What? What did who do?" He asked.
"That guy hit Ariel and tried to grab her aft!"
"He WHAT!"
Ariel slapped her hand over her optics as her "drunk avenger" count doubled.
"Dion, Orion, calm down, his hand was nowhere near-"
Again she was cut off, this time by Orion swinging her around so she was behind the Great Wall of Dion and Orion, with the increasingly annoyed Blue Mech on the other side.
"Look, you're both charged," Blue Mech tried, making a visible effort to keep calm. "You're overreacting. I didn't do anything, your girlfriend knows I didn't do anything. So both of you calm down before we start something we're all going to regret."
"Bet you'd like that, huh?" Orion challenged, bringing his fists up to bear. "Trying to run away, coward? We're not going to let you off that easily!"
"Yeah. YOU leave, you freak, before we MAKE you!" Dion added, shoving Blue Mech in the chest as hard as he could. He almost made him move an inch.
"Don't you touch me!" Blue Mech warned, pushing Dion back off of him. But with him being so much larger, his push sent Dion stumbling back two steps.
It was like someone flipped a switch. Dion was immediately on the offensive, jumping on top of Big Mech with a full body roar. Orion was right behind him, coming around behind Blue Mech and helping Dion overwhelm the much larger and now fully infuriated mech while Ariel yelled at them both to stop it already!
A mountain loomed over all of them, and a heavy thunder rolled over them all.
"I believe I was quite clear about the rules," the thunder intoned.
Blue Mech was big. The bartender was bigger.
The bartender grabbed Blue Mech and Dion by the backs of their necks, bodily dragged them both to the door like sacks of bearings, and tossed them one after another onto the street. Orion and Ariel had followed out of concern and curiosity, and for his effort Orion was swiftly grabbed up and tossed outside as well, nearly landing right on top of Dion.
"If you're going to fight, take it outside." The bartender reminded them, before retreating back into the building. Ariel, standing just outside the doorway, moved aside to let him past, optics wide in astonishment at the incredible display of strength.
Well, now she knew why the owner never bothered to hire a bouncer.
Arial watched the trio untangle themselves with a flat expression, one hand on her jutted hip, the other still holding her cup. The Blue Mech managed to disentangle himself, muttered an apology to Ariel (which she acknowledged with a nod) before leaving down the street. Dion sat up and was holding his head, although whether the processor ache was from the high-grade or having a mech twice his size dropped on top of him, no one would be able to tell. Orion, flat on his back and looking content to stay there, craned his neck to look at the pink femme upside down.
"Don't worry, Ariel, I'm okay," he said with a little smile. "I'm just glad we were able to chase that guy off. Next time he'll think twice before he tries to get frisky with someone else's girl."
"Really. That's just great, sweetspark, because random acts of violence and bar fights do WONDERS for protection! Primus forbid the two of you ever think twice before getting in a fist fight with someone nearly twice you size for no reason."
"Hey, we had a fragging good reason, I'll have you know!" Dion protested.
"Yes, because in your totally cratered state you thought some mech was getting too 'frisky' with me. Maybe we should come up with hand signals so I let you guys know when I actually need 'rescuing'. How about this?"
Ariel made a rather obscene gesture with her free hand.
"That was a little uncalled for." Orion said quietly. Ariel almost felt bad. Almost.
"Deal with it. You're both so cratered, neither of you are going to remember to be offended in the morning," she snapped.
Dion started to say something, but Ariel held her hand up to stop him. "No, don't even start Dion, I'm tired of you both right now. Both of you listen to me. This is what is going to happen."
She held up her cup.
"I am going back inside. I am going to finish my drink. When I am done, I will come out here again. If I'm feeling charitable, and if you both managed to stay out of trouble for the next five breens or so, I might be willing to help you guys get back home in one piece. Until then, LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Orion and Dion flinched. A couple of bystanders clapped. Ariel ignored them both, turning on her heel and striding back inside, mutteringly darkly about "stupid macho mechs with glitched out CPU's who think I need protecting from every little thing because I'm a femme".
"I take it this has happened before?" The bartender asked/guessed as the pink femme took a seat at the bar, chuckling a little as he spoke.
"They've always been a bit protective of me, even growing up. The drunken bar fight is new though." She admitted. She put the cup to her lips and tilted back for a sip. Then tilted more. Then a little more. Confused, she pulled the cup away and peered in, only to groan in discovery. Sure enough, when she had stumbled after bumping into Blue Mech, she had spilled the last of her drink.
What was she supposed to do now??
Clunk.
Ariel started slightly as a full cup materialized in front of her.
"On the house." The bartender informed her. "You're going to need it if you're going to be the one to get Dumb and Dumber back home."
Ariel smiled at the little show of kindness. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "And I'm sorry about the mess they made. They're not normally like that."
"I'll take your word for it," the bartender promised, going back to polishing (didn't he ever run out of cubes?). "But didn't you say they were usually protective of you?"
"Pretty much all the time, yeah," she answered, taking and savoring a sip of oil. "Normally I think it's kind of sweet, and let's face it, what femme doesn't feel better knowing she's got two strong mechs ready to defend her in a bad neighborhood? I just wish they'd back off a little sometimes. I'm not made of crystal; I don't need constant protection, thank you very much!"
The bartender listened in silence, hands continuously moving from cube to cube, as he let the femme rant between sips a little on her well-meaning if occasionally idiotic friend/boyfriend. The hardest part was keeping a straight face though the whole diatribe when her vocabulary became especially creative.
"Sometimes I think I need to punch someone out just to show them how not-helpless I really am," she finished with a grumble. "See how they think of that."
The bartender grinned as Ariel took a long sip as if in toast. His hands never stopped, but he watched her out of the corner of his optic for a long, appraising moment, and carefully weighed what he was about to say. Ariel never noticed until he set the cubes down and leaned down against the bar, prompting her to lower her nearly empty cup and give him her full attention.
"Now you listen to me," he began seriously. "I already told you you've got a good head on your shoulders, which is a lot more important than all the misguided good intentions in the world. It's not going to be much longer until you're the one doing the protecting."
Ariel snorted. "Yeah, by bailing them out of jail some day because Dion had such a great idea and Orion is too good a friend to let him do it alone."
The bartender shook his head. "No, that's not what I'm talking about."
Ariel quirked up an inquisitive brow. But curiosity would turn into slight apprehension as he leaned down a little further and lowered his voice for her and her alone, as if what he was about to tell her, could not be allowed to leave this room.
"Right now, you're the voice of reason to Dion's brashness and Orion's caution. It keeps the three of you balanced, connected. But it won't be like that forever. Pretty soon, you're going to become the rock he can lean on, the anchor that reminds him of what's most important."
There it was again, the incredible weight from before, and Ariel was helpless to move or speak or think, not so much because she couldn't, but because she was just so compelled to listen to that deep, gravelly voice that was so, so old, though she had no way of knowing this beyond a shivering feeling on the back of her neck.
" You're going to have to remind him of the things that are worth fighting for, because without someone like you, to remind him of who he really is, of where he came from and where he hopes to go, he'll just be stripped away layer by layer until there is nothing left. He won't be able to help it, it's in his nature to give it his all, but he'll need someone to help him pull it all back together again."
He straightened a little, taking the weight with him. This time, there was no sense of relief or freedom to follow, just a cold sense of dread that she had just heard something touching on a future that would come no matter what she did to stop it.
Ariel tried to laugh off her nervousness. Even to her own audio's it sounded fake.
"You make it sound like we're about to go off on some grand adventure from a B-rated holovid," she joked. "You don't have to sound so serious about it."
The bartender shrugged.
"You're still young. Still innocent. You'd best enjoy it while it lasts."
"Not that young," Ariel muttered quietly. She tilted her cup back for the last little sip, then set the cup down. She thanked the bartender for the drink, slid off her seat, and made a beeline for the door. It was late, and they needed to get home before the t-levs…
Wait.
Against better judgement and common sense, she stopped and half turned to look back at the bartender.
"'His rock?' Not 'their' rock?"
He didn't even bother looking up.
"You'd better get your friends before they wander off and fall off the walkway," he warned.
Ariel hovered there for a second or two longer, a question on the tip of her tongue. She opened her mouth…and closed it again. Instead, she turned and left for the door. S was still a little mad at them, but she was suffering a bad case of the willies and she really wanted to give her mechs a hug right now and never let go.
The young femme would remember many details of this night, the good, the bad, and the annoying-yet-funny-with-time-and-distance. But even though she had spend nearly ten minutes speaking to the bartender, she would never, ever be able to clearly recall the details of his face, his build, or even the color of the optics she had looked straight into.
oOoOoOo
Macadam watched the pink slip of a femme move around the tables as she walked away. Time and History would have their claws on her and her friends soon enough, that much he knew. The ancient mech knew there were few constants in the universes.
Optimus Prime was one. So was Megatron.
Elita One would be another.
No matter how many versions he saw, he still couldn't help but feel a small spark of pity for the young femme, mature for her friends, but still young and silly compared to the femme she would become. The universe would have its constants. That didn't necessarily mean that this one, this version in particular, whose importance and contribution were so often overlooked and ignored by the giants around her, was ready for it.
Almost to the door, Ariel found her path suddenly blocked by the large lavender Seeker with a lecherous grin and leaning torso. Macadam couldn't hear what he was saying, but from the enthused cheering of his trine mates and the Seekers own body language, it wasn't too hard to guess.
The femme shook her head firmly, and moved to go around him. The Seeker, undeterred, wrapped a hand around her waist.
Without the slightest hesitation Ariel's hand shot straight up with a CRACK! as the heel of her palm met the Seekers chin with enough force to snap his head back. The Seeker stumbled backwards, tripping over his own feet and landing painfully on his sensitive wings while his trine mates howled in laughter at his lack of luck. Ariel ignored them all and let the door swing shut behind her, as calm as if the interruption never happened.
Macadam chuckled as the unlucky Seeker pulled himself back up, rubbing his jaw and looking utterly lost as to what just happened. Technically she had broken his 'no fights inside' rule, but seeing as she had already left and had given the Seeker due warning, he could let it slide.
Oh yeah, he thought with a secretive grin. She's going to be just fine.