The Diego Diaries: Matrixing (dd6 420) (see note at bottom) :D
-0-Temple
He stared at the AllSpark which had begun to turn slowly again, the lights of the area where it was featured focusing brilliantly on Its enigmatic surface. It was silent in the room as everyone stared at the relic, then Prime. He shook his helm slightly, then turned to leave. It would take a while walking through the group to the street where he would transform and drive off toward home.
-0-Home
The door opened as he came inside. Everyone paused their conversations and fixations on the children to turn toward him. He walked across the crowded room, then paused beside the couch where Prowl sat looking at him with the usual blend of concern and ferocious loyalty that was his usual expression during a moment of unknown turmoil. He sat, then picked up Solus who had chased after him on her tiny peds. She hugged him and he, her.
The room that had been filled with quiet tense conversation when he had left was silent now as everyone stared at him. Finally, Hercy broke the silence. "Did you get what you needed?" he asked.
Prime looked at him, then the solemn faces of everyone in the room. "That and more." He considered the moment, then glanced at Alpha Trion. :What would you suggest if I decide to tell you about it, if anything, old friend? I am not a judge at the moment of what is good and what is not to say:
Alpha grinned. :I have no problem with disclosure but you are Prime. It is your call, brother:
Prime stared at him, then Solus. "I know what the AllSpark is and what it means to us beyond the Matrix."
It was stone dead silent in the room as even the children slowed or stopped to turn to the adults. Orion who had a car in one hand and the servo of Praxus in the other turned to Ironhide. "Atar. What with Otis?" he asked in a quiet voice, perhaps prompted by the adults.
Ratchet grinned at his son, then Optimus who looked amused. "Yeah, Otis. What with you?"
Snickers from the punters filled the room, then Prime grinned. "The AllSpark exists in all universes. It is a multiversal singularity."
"That makes sense," Ironhide said. "What if anything else can you tell us about it?"
"You can't."
Everyone glanced at Zenith who looked deeply shocked. Prowl glanced at his ada, then his appa. "Appa, there are no rules about what a Prime can or not say about what they experience. It's up to Optimus."
"No. That would be blasphemy to talk about Them and tell about what They are. To talk about their wishes is one thing but the rest? No. It would be blasphemy. They are holy and … and untouchable. That is part of their holiness. This is private ... only between the Pantheon and a Prime. To tell us about Them Themselves would be wrong and unwise," Zenith said. "Some things are supposed to be mysterious and unknowable."
Everyone stared at him, then Optimus. Ratchet looked at Sela, Chevron and Lauren who looked dazed themselves. They glanced at each other during a short off line conversation, then Alpha looked at the two, then Prime. "You have complete discretion. You may tell what you wish. They're ours and we're Theirs. They're holy but They aren't unknowable. If your practice involves leaving Them as remote figures, then that's one thing but to impose that on everyone who believes in and loves Them would be wrong. You may speak as you wish, Optimus." Sela and Chevron nodded in agreement.
"Then we cannot stay. I believe what I believe. Thank you, Lord Optimus, for your kindness and hospitality but Shadow and I cannot stay to hear more. It would not be what we observe in our practice," Zenith said as Shadow stood up. They bowed, then headed for the door.
Prowl stood. "You don't have to go."
Prime nodded. "My position does not include discomforting anyone, Shadow. I would hope you would stay for dinner."
Zenith looked rattled and so did Shadow. "I'm sorry. Perhaps another time," he said as the two opened the door and left. Prowl stared at the door, then his genitors who looked rattled themselves.
Prime leaned forward as he held Solus in his arms. "Nothing in me wishes to cause upset and offense. I would not reveal things that cause anyone disquiet. I wish they had stayed. Are you alright, Miler?"
Miler looked at him, then the door. He nodded. "My family is very conservative. They practice and believe what they do. I'm sorry, Optimus, for any discomfort."
"People must do what they believe is best for them. There are many roads to take and I will honor theirs," Optimus said as he sat back to look at his daughter. She was uneasy with all the bad energy as were all the kids.
Orion walked to 'Otis'. "Otis, why them shes goed?"
Optimus grinned. "They had to go somewhere."
"Oh," Orion said as he glanced around. "Lou sad?" he asked Miler. "Lou want me to doing for lou?"
Miler grinned at Orion, then caressed his face. "I do, baby," he said.
So Orion did. He sang a song he learned in school at the top of his vocal processor.
-0-Moments later
When the laughter died down, everyone sat with a child in their lap and a burning desire to know what Prime had to say. However, no one had the nerve to ask. He grinned at them knowing all that even as he struggled to let them in on the secret life he led as the Bearer. It was a fraught thing carrying a Matrix, of which there were many among their people. There was even a Decepticon matrix. It was his hope they would all be found and stored safely away. For now, his, the greatest of them was all that mattered to everyone here. "I had a conversation with the AllSpark."
Everyone silenced as they looked at him.
"I have before. It was a shining figure of a mech but you could see eternity on His body, galaxies and universes … stars and comets. The love is what amazes me, the explosion of love that They all embody. All of Them love so much and so perfectly. They are very pleased with all that has been done and They speak of you with great happiness. They see what you do and are well pleased.
"They tell us to continue, that things will be alright. It is my mantra to do so," Prime said. "It keeps me going against all things, that and knowing you are here." He thought a moment, then resolved. "The AllSpark is a vessel wherein resides The One."
It was almost too deep in the room as they assimilated that, then Raptor leaned closer. "All the time? Does The One live there all the time?"
"No," Prime said. "Just when a visit to this dimension and place is required. It's the vessel of The One, something that allows Him to experience all His creations Himself, to create All That Is when Its lost and floating in space, and to touch us and ours through It. He may be there now or not. But that is Its function."
Moments ticked past, then Alpha nodded. "I thought that might be it," he murmured. "I thought that the prestige of the artifact and the power … the inability for anyone to crack into It was at least Pantheonic or perhaps Prime Source."
"Well, Its with us. That means something," Springer said. "You said that Megatron is being managed by the Pantheon?"
Prime nodded. "That gives us time to do what we have to do. There are literally a billion of our people missing and we have to find, then bring them back. We are getting that much small help from them. They cannot step in and change our right to free will."
"If I thought it would help, They can have mine," Drift said as a number of them nodded.
It was silent a moment, then Kup glanced at Hercy. "I don't know about you but somehow, I don't think I'm going to be telling anyone about this thing any time soon. Somehow, I get the feeling that might not be a good idea."
"Perhaps, Kup," Chevron said with a nod. "It might focus unwanted attention on the device and bring hordes here with guns."
"I agree," Turbine said. "Perhaps, this can be held among us. Why wave a red flag at the enemy?"
Prime nodded. "I concur. Let us keep this between us. If others knew, if there were those with agendas who might seek It out, it would cause harm to our people and this colony, let alone Cybertron and everywhere else."
Everyone agreed in the room including a couple of the babies who nodded their helms, though why they had no idea. It was then that the siren sounded, its baleful tones rolling outward into the colony from the pinnacle of Fort Max's upper deck. Everyone in the room from the smallest child to the oldest elder listened until it ended. Then Ratchet stood. "When are the fireworks, Wheeljack?"
'Jack picked up Resolve. "In a joor. We decided to let everyone eat first."
"Then dinner is served," Prowl said as he stood. He looked down at Optimus. "Are you alright? You don't have to tell us anything, you know."
Prime nodded. "I know. I also know that all of us deserve to know more than we do. It would comfort everyone everywhere if they knew how greatly they were loved."
Prowl nodded. "You sit there and I'll get the children fed. Then I'll bring you dinner." He stepped past Prime, then walked to the kitchen and dining room where the buffet was laid out. As he did, everyone grabbed a kid and headed that way as well. They would be parked at the dining room table, those who weren't too small and only then would the others begin to dine. It would take a few moments of laughing, howling infants and hoo-haw.
Ironhide grabbed a cow that ambled by, then set him on the couch beside him. Gripping another one, he set Flipper alongside Pudding. Everyone stared at the cows who stared back at everyone. "Slagging fine cows there. Tell me where you can find better?"
"I don't know. I hear that the dairy has some 'slagging fine cows' as well," Drift said with a chuckle.
"Maybe, but you don't have to milk these," Ironhide said.
"No, you don't, grandson," Hardie said with some amusement. "Last time I looked they were both boys."
Ironhide looked at Appa Hardie, then the cows. "How can you tell?" he asked with genuine confusion.
"You look under their tail," Springer said as he sat leaning against Drift, sipping beer on the floor by the big windows. "Or so I'm told."
"I was told," Ratchet said as he placed a plate by a kid at the table, "that you had a 'drop your pants' moment in Utah and you were the only one who did, Drift."
Everyone turned to glance at Drift who looked at Ratchet with a HUGE sense of betrayal. "Who says?"
"Don't look at me," Springer said.
"That leaves me," Sunstreaker said with a snicker. "I told Ma about your game and how we didn't want to play."
"You fragger," Drift said with a chuckle. "Still a big sissy after all this time."
"Tell us about it," Jazz said as he shared a chair with Mirage.
"Yes, do," Rainmaker asked as Starscream smirked at the two.
"Ditto," Warlord said to be a cad.
"Yes, tell them about your game, weirdo," Springer said to Drift who elbowed him in the gut.
"You tell us, Ratchet," Kup said as he champed on his stogie and prepared to be entertained.
"Child abuse," Drift said with a grin.
"It is, isn't it," Ratchet said with a dazzling smile. He leaned on the doorjamb separating the dining room from the living area. "Well, they had the new pretender shell that replicates humans down to their dainty bits."
"EWWW!" -everyone there
"Since they were afraid to look, Drift being leadership material and all-"
"BWAAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! IN WHAT PARALLEL DIMENSION!?" -everyone there
"I think you are. Remember I said so." -Springer being loyal
"I will. It will sustain me in my joor of need." -Drift being Drift
"SOOooOOOOooo … they go into the living room and make a circle. He says drop your drawers on three, everyone can look, then they can all get drunk after. No more surprises and mystery." -Ratchet
"EWWW!" -Everyone
"There isn't enough beer. Then OR now." -Sideswipe
"There's some mysteries best left alone. Like why Sideswipe doesn't have a personality." -Sunstreaker before getting socked by Sideswipe
"So, Drift counts. One … two …... three! He drops his pants but no one else can. They're frozen into place in abject fear. But its short lived because the moment they see his human junk they run around screaming and yelling. Security comes up to the hotel room, they lie, security leaves, then they get drunk and nearly die." Ratchet smiled brilliantly. "Now isn't that a spark warming and delightful tale?"
"No!" -everyone in the party for that mission
"Frag. I want to go on the next pretender mission," Turbine said with a grin as everyone in the room nodded in agreement including Prime and the mechs who were on that actual mission.
"I want to tell you, Wheeljack, that it was a good thing that I didn't have access to your neck at the time," Sunstreaker said darkly.
"I heard. There was that little matter of eating their food, then eliminating it from the holding tank inside the holographic effect," Wheeljack said with a snicker.
"How hard can that be? We do that ourselves," Hercy asked.
"Here's the thing," Bluestreak said with a grin. "Your body is car form and your processor is in the human pretender mode. If you eat food or drink when in pretender mode, you can still transfer back to your root mode once you de-rez but there's a catch."
"Oh, frag." -everyone there catching on
"Yeah," Blue said. "If you don't purge your tanks before you de-rez, you destroy your seats when you go back to your car format."
"I may purge my tanks now," Arcee said with a chuckle.
"Let me get this right … if you eat something, then end the shell and go back without eliminating human style, you slaughter your interior?" Warlord asked with amazement and gratitude for being a Seeker. "What about Seekers who do that?"
"Same thing," Wheeljack said with a grin.
"That's right," Perceptor said. "Its the only thing we can't tweak. It, however, is astonishingly good and refined tech."
"For a detailer," Sideswipe said with a chuckle. "Slagger. How about coming along next time with us?"
"I'm not that stupid," Wheeljack said with a chuckle.
Prowl walked in with a heaping plate and a beer for Prime. Ratchet followed with the same for Ironhide. It was easier than all the slaggers crowding the buffet and getting the kids caddywampus. After a moment of monkey motion, the few slaggers who weren't already chowing down walked back to get food and a drink.
Ratchet who was sitting next to Ironhide with his peds up on one of Prime's many coffee tables grinned. "I would've loved to have been there. As it was, everyone was blotto. Some were in the bathtub, some all over the floor. It was hilarious."
"Child abuse," Sunstreaker said with a grin. "Though I will say, if I become a serial killer, I'm going to blame it on Drift's junk."
Huge laughter.
Drift who was coming back heavily laden grinned at Sunstreaker as he passed him. "Thanks, Tiny."
HUGE laughter, much gagging and pointed size remarks.
Everyone sat and began to eat. Beyond the window, the night deepened as Science and Armory kids in six places all over the colony got massive fireworks ready to launch. It was going to be epic.
TBC 7-22-18 edited 7-24-18
NOTES:
caddywampus: (ca-dee-wom-pus) something that's off kilter or crooked, uneven. If something is caddywampus, its screwed up.
Here is more information about higher selves and the Cybertronian view of things … TF's believe in reincarnation, death with an afterlife you can access, especially if you have a matrix … the people's knowledge and lives can be accessed. They also believe in ghosts, a pantheon of gods and the ultimate one, The One. Optimus himself has been killed now 19 times with the latest in the go90 combiner series. The ending is great but I won't say more. :D
It ties in really, really closely to spiritualism which believes most of that and more. They also believe in higher selves, that part of you that stays behind when you're born and becomes your conscience and helps you when it can. It's really you but you forget all that when you're born. Prime talked to Megatron's higher self which is always love and goodness. They stay behind to catalog your actions for later review and to help where they can. You almost never take your entire soul into a life, but more a portion.
Megatron can't influence his alter ego who is trashing the Borg. He can try but given this is a free will universe, he can only suggest. Megatron doing the rampaging has the right not to listen. Prime got to speak to the highest and best version of Megatron and it helped him. He has one foot in the real world and one in the Matrix all the time with the Matrix itself. He also is an immortal having this life as a member of the Pantheon directly created by Primus to do what He couldn't do, defeat and contain Unicron. Because he reincarnated to be Orion Pax, he is not allowed to know who he really is, though he's learning that through this story.
That's what that was all about. Hugs to one and all. Your comments are gold. HUGS!