The Diego Diaries: Moving On (dd6 422)
-0-Courthouse on Cultural Center Road, the day following the Festival of Primus
She walked down the corridor past office after closed office. The odd few were busy like her bond, feverishly working for the common good. Her peds echoed in the hallway as she made her way to the last office, the big one at the end. Passing the desks where paralegals, assistants and others worked normally, she entered the outer office where her bond's secretary and all around walking miracle worked, then entered Barron's office.
He was working over a computer with his usual focus getting ready for the trials which would happen in a few orns if things didn't intrude. Optimus Prime would hold Primal Hearings with the Option of Special Circumstances, ie, the Pantheon weighing in at any time, before, during or after. He was going to have his ducks in a row. He would sit as the legal resource, Coln-2 would prosecute the Prime's Brief and Blackstone would handle the defense, both of them with substantial help. The witness list was long, almost as long as the charges and the ordeal promised to be terrible for everyone involved.
"Well, why am I not surprised to see you hard at it, Barron," Alto said as she pulled up a chair to sit. "You realize that we were meeting for luncheon with friends."
"Have I missed the time?" Barron asked with a startled look on his face.
"No, darling," Alto said with a grin. "I am here to prevent such things from happening. Please, log off or park it so we can go and have a nice meal with friends."
Barron grinned at her, finished his sentence, then put his system on standby-lock out. He rose, stretched, then walked around the big heavily burdened desk. "Thank you for being so wonderful. I would have no social life without you," he said as he took her servo.
"You're welcome," Alto said as they walked out the door together.
-0-Upstairs
Blackstone stared at the questions he planned to formulate as his basic list for any witnesses that Colie threw at him. He would throw the sink at the defendants. Blackstone would in his place. This was going to be a terrible event with little recourse for him to mitigate the situation, to make Sentinel less than the cad he was. Ratbat would be problematic to his own defense and the others were no better. Decimus and Contrail would be tried first, then the others. The two asked to be in the same docket for whatever reasons while the others would be one offs each. Ratbat, he reasoned would be the worst. At best, the Pantheon wouldn't weigh in on anyone and Prime would have his usual fair and highly Matrix supported say. Worst case, They would be here with Their wrath intact.
Coln-2 walked into the office and rapped on his door. Blackstone glanced up, then grinned. "Coming to surrender?" he asked with a smirk.
"In your dreams. Let's go eat. I'm buying," Colie said, waiting as Blackstone rose to walk to the door. They left together to go to The Pit Stop and eat a lunch that was long overdue. Then they would be back at it again.
-0-The Residence
Prowl sat at the dining table putting videos and pictures into the albums of each of his kids, a Praxian practice of family fidelity. Blue had one from the moment Prowl had found him wailing at the sky covered in his ada's blood. Now, he was keeping one for each of his other children so they would have the record of their lives some fine orn.
Sitting at the window nearby reading his newspapers, Optimus Prime glanced at him. "Prowl … what's the agenda for the orn?"
"No business, if that's what you're asking. Nothing is prioritized that high right now," Prowl replied as he checked through the data pouring into him in a steady stream. "Loon wants us to meet up at The Diner, then go to the Water Park with them. What do you think?"
"I think it is long overdue," Optimus said with a grin.
Prowl nodded, then finished downloading Miracle's last conference report into that part of the book that held them digitally. Closing it, gathering the others, he walked to the living room and put them back on their shelf. He turned to Prime with a grin. "I think everyone else has them somewhere."
Prime rose, tossed his datapad onto the chair, then walked toward the door. "I think you are right."
Prowl called family and children to meet them at The Diner On The Corner for lunch. They left companionably together.
-0-Diner
They filled the room, the family from everywhere and the usual entourage. Everyone was still buoyed up from the Festival and there was a lot of good cheer around, more than usual. The twinnies stood on the table in front of Sideswipe who had put them there. Meals had been ordered and drinks delivered. As the two stood there Miracle climbed up off Miler's lap to walk to them. They smiled at each other, then Miracle took Uraya's servo. They stood in a row smiling at everyone. Hero who was sitting on the table dangling her peds stood up, then pulled Halo up as well. Taking her servo, telling her to miss this and that, the two began to walk around the settings to Uraya, Iacon and Miracle. Reaching them, everyone hugged, then took each others servos. A little line of kids stood side-by-side holding hands.
That's when everyone else thought it would be a good idea to join them. Resolve, Mars, Io, Praxus, Mimi from a booth with an assist from her Amma who was taking images as fast as he could, Sojourner, Solus, Prima, Scout, Bleu who's family was in another booth, Prowler and his teddy bear, Breakout of all infants much to the surprise and unease of his ada, old Big Mouth and the delight of his atar, Breakdown, and finally, last but not least, Orion himself.
"ADA! WHAT THE SHES?" he asked as mystified as everyone else.
Ratchet chuckled. "I don't know but I like it."
Orion clambered up, then sauntered over like a drunk going to a bar for a beer. Taking Breakout's little servo, he held it, then smiled his usual huge smile. "I COMED HERE TO THE SHES!"
Halo who was close to him turned his way and smiled. "ADA! COMED TO SHES!" she said (im)perfectly as she pointed to Orion.
It was a new page in the legend how fast everyone there lost their shit.
-0-Moments later
Terradive and Roto walked into the crowded room, then halted to see all the babies standing in a line on the table holding each others hands. Spotting Ratchet, they made their way in.
"MR. ROTO!" -many of the babies
"TOTO! I LOVE YOU, I, ORION!" -you know who
"TOTO!" -copper and silver, white faced and black pedded, copper and silvery 'hair' embellished little Ironhide-ette
Everyone froze then turned toward a smiling little femme holding Hero's servo. She was beautiful and smiled eerily like her big mouthed brother. Roto turned to Ratchet. "Did she just say my name?" he asked with great surprise.
Ratchet whose optics stopped spinning first shook his head. "No. She called you Toto." Ratchet leaned forward to Halo. "Halo, what are you doing?"
She smiled. "I comed to shes."
"Oh frag." -everyone there including Toto.
-0-A moment later with food
Everyone was sitting in a lap being fed off a plate by emotionally electrocuted adults. Roto was considering the situation before them. "I think we have another glitched kid, Ratchet. I would have to test her but it would appear that Halo has the same pattern as Orion. Mind you … it could be that she's fine but has picked up on Orion's pattern. I'd have to test to find out."
"No, you aren't," Ironhide said with a gimlet optic. "You'll take her. She's still too little."
"I can do home outreach," Roto said with a smirk at the biggest baby in the room. "Child Find is a program that lets me do this. Its for kids who aren't in schools for whatever reason."
"PROVE IT!" Ironhide said sulkily. He looked at his baby who was sitting on Turbine's arm. "I do remember hearing a lot of that kind of slag and losing one after the other BEFORE THEIR TIME!" He glared at Ratchet who smiled brilliantly back.
Roto laughed. "Don't worry about it. She could come if you wanted but she isn't at the legal age for it to be compulsory. Why am I telling you this since you're on the School Board?"
"Because he's a big baby?" Raptor asked with a grin. "It would seem, Ironhide, that the glitch is inherited through our line. Sorry, babykins," he said as he grinned at Halo. She smiled back.
"It weren't mine," Ratchet said with a smirk.
"No," Prowl agreed. "Raging insanity maybe, but not this."
They both smirked at each other.
"Eat up. We are going to the water park. I have not had a slide in a while. Last one in the pool has duty on Pluto," Prime said with a grin.
"I didn't know you had a shit list, too, Optimus," Kup said with a grin.
"The sheer depth of me that you do not know, Kup, would boggle the processor," Optimus said as he slipped a piece of breakfast to Uraya. His genitors both nodded with big grins.
Huge laughter greeted that as they worked through their meal, then rose to go to the Tri-Cities and drown each other. It would be a mellow group that would.
It would include Terradive and Roto.
-0-Prison
He had finished his last meet up with his legal team for the weekend and now sat by the fence to watch the miscreants everywhere. It was time to argue his case. It was going to be tough sledding and there was the possibility that the Pantheon would weigh in given this was going to be a Primal Hearing with the special circumstances part that he dreaded. It didn't mean They would. It just meant They could. Since They already did it with the Functionalist Council, there was no reason why They wouldn't check in with Prime on this.
The prison was relatively silent, a byproduct of the Blessings which only lasted so long. Decimus, Ratbat and Contrail were inside watching a game on the television. He didn't want their company now. He wanted his own counsel. He wondered how Cybertron was. He knew it was rising upward and it was doing so without him. He felt restless but had no way to expend the energy. Now his fate was in the servos of others. It was ironic to him, this world ruler and decision maker that his own life was out of his control. He was a bad mech but he wasn't stupid. He could connect the dots and did. It didn't help him a bit.
The sun was high overhead as he sat in his chair by the fence staring at the crowds all around him. He wouldn't know that Prime was sliding down the big slide at the water park some distance away to cannon ball on top of Ironhide. They would play like big kids, putting aside their cares and duties for a moment spent with their families and friends. He would spend his here in this hell, alone and bereft.
The orn would march onward slowly.
-0-Unidad Terra 1
"That's looking good, Gloria," Harley Epps said as he watched his daughter make cheese. Balls of mozzarella were finished and piled in a pan nearby. Pressing curds into forms, his daughter expertly made the cheese that would become highly sought after some fine day, cheese from Square Deal Dairy on Mars.
"Thanks, Grand Daddy. I'm nearly done. Did Grandma get the butter?" Gloria asked as she put a weight on the cheese in the form to squeeze out more whey.
"She did. Thank you," Harley said as he watched her clean up the area. "More folks coming tomorrow. We will have 1200 come with their families included."
"It's going to be nice. We all have to go to the lecture with them," Gloria said. "Ratchet is coming back to give it. Thank you, Grandpa, for asking us to come and help. This is the most fun I've had since I retired."
"Me, too. I never thought I'd be back in the dairy business but I think I have a lot more things to do. Every job needs a straw boss or it isn't a job," Harley said as the two of them walked to the door. He turned out the light. "You should see what happens around here during Christmas," he said as the door closed behind them.
-0-Sliding Ho!
He spun around the long convoluted track that carried sliders around the roof of the giant mall and back to the pool. Ratchet crashed in ahead of Prowl who came in behind him fast and peds first. Booming into the water, they sank down about 60 feet before swimming back up. They broke the surface in time to be buried by a train of Ironhide, Hard Drive, Blackjack, Raptor, Lumi, and Fireball. They slammed in and disappeared. Riding the waves up and down, the two paddled to the side and clambered up.
"LAST ONE UP IS A DOUCHE BAG!" Ratchet yelled.
Prowl sniffed. "Savage." Then with a swipe of his peds, he spun Ratchet off his own. Ratchet flew through the air and landed in the water to sink from sight. Prowl grinned. "Gonna beat you, douche bag."
He wouldn't.
-0-TBC 7-25-18 edited 7-26-18
ESL: whey is the liquid left over when you squeeze curds to make cheese. I do believe when cottage cheese sits too long and there's a liquid on top, that's whey. Just stir it in and all is well. YUM! :D:D:D
Who didn't grow up on cottage cheese with pears? ;)