The Diego Diaries: Aftermath and Beyond (dd6 365)
-0-Dojo in Tyger Pax, earlier in the orn before Prime's broadcast … the rest of the day ...
They lounged, weary and slightly dinged. A long shower, a trip to the detailer and most of the slag would be repaired. Some of them would require a visit to the 'plastic surgeon' to get the dents out. That would come in due time. Right now, a beer, a donut and a soft chair was the ticket. Just as Springer, Hercy, Kup, the twins, Twin Twist, Drift, Lon, Bezel, and Splice kicked back, the door across the vast space was filled with the sounds and sights of little kids.
"I was hoping there'd be a floor show," Springer said with a grin as Neo led her line into the room followed by Laret and hers. Level 1, Group C and D were here from Sparkling Day School for their once a decaorn 'self defense' lesson. They wandered in holding their grip on the rope that Neo and Laret held as they walked to a mat where Willa was waiting.
"EO! YOU COMED! I, ORION LOVE YOU!" someone said from back in the line.
Willa aka EO!, IO!, ILLO! laughed as they came forward to gather around her.
The mechs grinned as they watched the lines stop and the ropes get gathered up. The bus driver along for the fun walked to the lounge and sat. "This is the best floor show in town," he said as the mechs nodded. They handed him a beer and a donut which he took, rules of the road be damned.
"I love you, too," Willa said with a smile at the little imps who gathered to hug and pat her legs. "How about you find your place and show me your stance?"
They smiled all together, then ran for the mat, finding their places, mostly, then turned around to face her. There were fifteen little kids on the mat, all of them toddlers, all of them well known to the mechs who always tried to be here to watch them. Some of them were family.
"Okay. Let's do our movements. Do what I do," Willa said as she began to go through the slow series of movements that made up the first part of their katas. They would follow.
Mostly.
-0-Home, joors before Prime's broadcast that night
Ratchet walked through the apartment picking up this and that, straightening this and that as he bused the place. He had put the groceries away, thought out what he would cook, then got the call from Ironhide. Deep sea sonars had tracked the entire ocean finding that the mechs were hidden, cloaked and powered down somewhere below them from minute particles of exhaust which made location difficult due to ocean drift. He bridged in to take over command again but would be back by dinner unless something happened. It didn't look good for him spending the night at home.
Such was life.
-0-Grapevine around about the same time
"I was told that in two orns, at 1100 in front of The Fortress, the bonding ceremony will occur," Laslo said over the monitor to Lucien who was working in his capacity as political adjutant and adviser to the Secretary of State and Ambassador in the Autobot City Medical Center. "Bluestreak is coming by tonight to tell us what we have to do. Mostly, we have to show up."
"That's a relief," Lucien said. "Are they coming to dinner tonight?"
"Yes," Laslo said. "Inweld and Morius are going to be there. They've taken leave for the festivities. I'm having it catered. Partition and Lancer can tell us about the mission."
"When do you get off?" Lucien asked as he signed a datapad handed to him by someone off screen.
"I'm coming home a little early to get things ready for the dinner. I'm so glad to have a celebration party. It's been so long since we could really rejoice … I'm so happy."
Lucien grinned, then nodded. "I am, too. See you in a joor or two."
Laslo nodded, then the screen went back to the Emblem of Mars. He turned around to inspect the house, then began to make the table for the intimate party they would have this evening. He had ordered the best possible dinner for everyone from The Catering Place and there were drinks to be had. Lucien had grown into the moment, Laslo was sure, and he was doing a fine job at the Secretariat, he was told. Their lives had taken a turn since the Pantheon meeting and it was good to watch Lucien decompress.
The other wonderful part of this would be the bonding ceremony in two orns. They would celebrate with dinner tonight with Lancer and the family, then dinner with the bigger one, Ironhide and Ratchet's the next night at the Tower in the Sky. It would be a beautiful event with food, children, dancing, laughter, and joy. Lucien almost quivered with happiness as he set up a beautiful table, a comfortable living room and a kitchen ready to receive the most beautiful food. Then he sat down at his desk and commed the Squad to get the latest gossip and to coordinate when all of them would show up the next night for the dinner with the Mob. It would be difficult for him to remember a time when he was ever happier in his entire life.
-0-Bluestreak earlier in the orn before the 2000 broadcast by Prime
He walked into the house and began to throw things around. :Sunstreaker?:
:Here, Blue:
:You get the kids. I have work to do to coordinate the parties for the bonding ceremony. Remind Sideswipe that the bonding dinner with everyone is at 1800 hours on the top floor of The Tower in the Sky in Terra:
:On it. What are you doing?:
:Calling everyone. Getting the word to Rampage and the Tower. I have to go see Laslo because he's having a nervous breakdown he's so happy and there's so much to do. Just get the kids and keep them with you. Bluestreak out: He grinned, then pulled out the datapad where he had organized this affair. Sitting down at the monitor, he began to get it rolling. He would.
-0-Dojo
They sat on a number of laps, little kids taking bites out of donuts as Neo, Laret, Willa, and Bus Driver Calus kicked back a moment to kibitz. It was hilarious. None of the kids were afraid of hanging with mostly strangers and all of them loved biting a donut or two. Orion took a big bite, chewed, then swallowed it. "I, Orion, like dis. Good, me." He looked up at Drift. "Good you, Spliff. You good she."
Drift chuckled, then kissed his little helm. "Orion is a good she, too."
Orion smiled, then pointed to Springer. "YOU GOOD SHE?"
Springer nodded. "I am your father."
HUGE laughter.
Orion pointed to Kup. "GOOD SHE!?"
"Finest kind," Kup said with a grin.
"You good she, you she?" he asked Hercy.
"I'm the best she here," Hercy replied with a chuckle. "What do you think, Praxus? Am I a good she?"
Praxus who was working on a donut looked up, then smiled brightly. "You're good, Uncle Hercy. I love you." Then he went back to the donut.
Hercy grinned at Neo and Laret who were enjoying a donut as well. "This is why we fight," he said.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
-0-Later that afternoon along toward 1700 hours
The schools began to send their children home. The stations for the metro were below the schools now, letting everyone who rode the tube lines off at platforms there. Children climbed onto the three different long trains, each going in a different direction to deliver children to their stations. They still had to pass inspection with aides who rode along before they could get off at their stops. The streets topside were filled with cabs, the big yellow buses that transported kids and even the odd adult transformed to wait.
Waiting on the street for the mob of infants to show up down town, Ratchet chatted with other genitors and/or grand ammas/appas. Those who could were here. Those that couldn't would get their kids from the various day cares around the colony after work. All of them were carefully staffed and administrated by the school district or various private schools around. Two were run by the military and several were religious. The children of the 22 assistants of the Council of Twelve went to school and day care at the Monastery until their genitors who were getting retraining and counseling came to get them. They lived in a closed hermetically sealed bubble and it kept them out of trouble.
The children were strange, quiet and watchful. They were almost devoid of emotions and normal reactions to things. No one cried. Everyone did what they were asked to do. Spontaneity had been bled out of them and the counselors that worked with the teachers in the classroom set up for them off the secondary scriptorium did so in a quiet place. When the final testing was made and evaluated, it would be decided then whether or not they were ready to ease into joint activities with other kids. Right now, they weren't. Their genitors were also kept out of the big picture in the colony yet, with their jobs being mostly related to the Monastery and nearly full orn instruction on how to live and work in a life that was normal. It would take a long time to affect change. Perhaps when the Pantheon decided the 22 had a clue and they came back, it would help. Right now, it was a long term project for the community of the Guiding Hand.
It helped that a small number of other Functionalists lived here. They lived a simple life, were relatively unemotional like most of the Guiding Hand but not homicidal. Where Cyclonus was dour and stern, most fell along a spectrum of personality types. They all were very serious about their religion but they could laugh and goof around without feeling they were betraying some guideline somewhere. Their point of view covered a spectrum of behavior. It had been worse for the congregation than it was for other Cybertronians who felt the burn of the murderous act. The betrayal the congregation felt was real. It was going to take a long time before this group would ever fit in but Cyclonus and the Board which included Turbine in an honored capacity as his clan held secrets and lore of the Guiding Hand as well, all were determined to accomplish it anyway.
Cyclonus watched the children playing in the small area set aside for them. There were toys and swings, a sand box and other opportunities to cavort and be children. It was mostly empty. The children stood by the window and stared out at the colony beyond. A cold fury ran through him that this should have happened. Somehow, they would always be tainted by the horror. It was what he felt. He walked to the playground and paused by the dome window. The kids looked up at him. He looked down. "How was school?" he asked.
They stared at him with their little faces devoid of emotion. "It went well, Master," one of them said.
Cyclonus nodded. He wondered what he should do now. He had grown up in a sect that had the same reserve. Thinking a moment, he knelt. "See that dome?" he asked.
The kids nodded.
"That is the Temple of Primus. That big building beyond, the one with the spires?"
The kids nodded again.
"That is the Basilica of the Primes." He would point out the landscape and they would listen. There would be very little 'normal' to the moment.
-0-1950 hours that night
She smiled at him melting his spark once more. "I have to wait here for Sunspot. He will help me."
Ratchet and Ironhide stared at Hero with grins, then watched as Sunspot came back. "Come on, Hero. Time for bed."
She took his servo and walked with him and Spot before turning to wave at everyone. "CALL ME IF HALO NEEDS ME! I'LL COME!" Then she followed him down the corridor to her room.
The two stared at the corridor, then each other, the corridor, Prowler who smiled at them, then each other. Ironhide grinned. "It's good to be home again."
Ratchet nodded. "It is."
Ironhide gathered Halo, then with Prowler in servo walked down the corridor to put them both to bed. Walking back out, he sat down and they chatted a moment comparing notes of the battle when the monitor signaled that Optimus Prime would speak about the battle. They turned up the sound, then Prime spoke. "Good evening, Earth, Mars, Cybertron, the forward bases, the local planetary system of Cybertron, and all places where Cybertronians exist who may receive this message. I am Optimus Prime ..."
Moments later, Ironhide would be hurrying to bridge his way back to the mission over the Pacific Ocean of Earth.
-0-TBC 5-24-18 edited 6-2-18
Congregation is any gathering for any reason. Some use it to describe a religious gathering. I use it for all its meanings. When the people go to a game, its a congregation. Congregating means to come together. Just so the meanings are always clear. Leoness, I wish I had a biology lesson for you but I think clarifying the word will have to do tonight. BWAHAHAHAAHA! You can take the teacher out of the classroom but you can't take the classroom out of the teacher. HUGS! ;)