The Diego Diaries: Callow Wallow (dd8 402)
Friday nights are appearing to be crash on my face nights. Getting up all night with old dogs is catching up to this old dog. All of you, YOU ARE LOVED! -Granny xo
=0=Late that night on a corner in Iacon
They gathered, Prime with his mechs and Tempo with a surprising number of individuals with high caste paint schemes and bad energy. It was in the park in the center of town where a 'speaker's corner' was placed for anyone at any time to speak to anyone about anything. Each city had one and sometimes they were used to do stand up comedy, intentionally or not as well as for candidates for office to sell themselves to the populace of the location. Many was the announcement, personal or public made here and many were those who just wanted to debate something with anyone passing by.
Tempo was there with his family and he was lit. But he waited to see what Prime would do. He'd collected as many as he could and it was a fair sized group.
Just as Prime expected and wanted.
Prowl was incandescent with rage and didn't hide it. Starlet had insisted upon coming to 'protect Lord Optimus from this outrage' as well as most of his circle but for his genitors. He hadn't told them about this.
Optimus considered the group, then walked to the marble platform to ascend. He looked out at the group, all of them standing in dimmed light which he knew was part of a lighting replacement project going on at this park this night. He quashed a grin inside even as he took in the moment with a sense of deep responsibility. He had laid hands on someone without the threshold of threat met that he personally subscribed to. This was his fault, there was no mitigating excuse and he would deal with it.
His way.
"Yesterday I was at lunch with my bond, Prowl of Praxus and many good comrades and friends at a restaurant in Pax. We were enjoying a good meal when Tempo of Praxus and his family entered. There was an exchange of words, conversation was directed toward me and an altercation erupted given comments made by Tempo that were crass, unworthy and vulgar about a member of my family."
Tempo flinched, then gripped his fists tightly. The group with him startled, then glanced at each other.
"It elicited in me a response that I regret. I put servos on him and would have injured him without the intervention of my fellows. He made a vulgar and cowardly remark about a member of my family, one that is a vicious slur and it created the moment. There are no circumstances short of the pulling of weapons that require such a response as I gave. Even in the throes of emotional distress, I should have remembered that because it is my personal creed as a mech and a warrior. I will repeat. Words do not meet the threshold of a violent response.
"Everyone is entitled to their opinion and to express it no matter how crude, vulgar, false and disgusting it is. If a person is willing to make a disgusting slur to another about their loved one, then that reflects who they are. As for me, I will endeavor to remember who I am.
"I am the Prime of Cybertron, the bearer of the Creation Matrix, the Autobot Matrix of leadership, the greatest of the Matrices that marks me as the First Disciple of Primus, our warrior god. It behooves me to temper myself around those who are not able to withstand the assault of someone with a Primal frame like me.
"I believe in peace and understanding. I believe in our people. We will come through our traumas as one in the end because it is the Will of Primus that we love each other and leave behind all the stupid and vicious practices that have created our destitution. I must lead that effort and be the best example of what He decrees as I can.
"For Tempo, I apologize for laying hands on you and that is all I apologize for. To my people I give a vow that I will continue to grow and become ever more the mech you need to protect you, to give you hope and opportunity and to be the leader that you need and want. For all others, I will wait for you to catch up. Change is difficult even for me but in the end Primus will be waiting to greet us with great happiness and that motivates me even in my darkest joors."
With that, he stepped down.
Into madness.
=0=Springer and Company
They galloped into Iacon where a report of a riot was made by a local. They slowed at the park where a huge argument was underway with of all people, Optimus Prime and Prowl. They hopped off and hurried to the altercation, pausing on the edge of a crowd of mechs swarming Prowl and Prime. Standing nearby grinning like Buddhas, all of Ironhide's family, Ironhide and Ratchet watched with great amusement.
Springer glanced at Drift, then waded into the crowd muscling his way to the front where he turned on the civilians arguing and shouting. "STOP!"
A momentary pause overtook the group, then they burst into flames again.
"ENOUGH!"
Everyone stopped yelling to look around, then down.
Starlet was glaring upward with outrage at the crowd who silenced for some reason at her shout. She shouldered past Springer and headed for Tempo who stepped back automatically at her approach. "HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO A PRIME LIKE THIS! HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU SLUR HIS BOND LIKE YOU DID!"
It was silent a moment, everyone glanced at each other, then someone in the crowd stepped closer. "What exactly did you say, Tempo?"
"IT DOESN'T MATTER! HE TRIED TO KILL ME!" Tempo said as he pointed at Prime.
That's when Starlet hit him in the chassis with all her strength.
=0=Moments later at the Pax Medical Center, Pax, Terra Hub, Mars
She sat on a med berth with Barto, the night shift orthopedist checking her tiny seemingly broken servo.
"You're a stand up femme, Starlet," Ratchet said as he held her other servo. He'd given her a script for pain so she felt none but her outrage was still glittering in her aura. "Do you belong to the Professional group of femmes and the like?"
"I do," Starlet said. "Your amma is our president."
"She is," Ratchet said proudly. "She's almost as stand up a femme as you are."
Starlet grinned. "Well, I wish I had actually hurt him, the slagger. I did the same thing Lord Optimus did. It wasn't right but it felt good." She frowned. "Am I going to be arrested?"
"I don't know. I'll find out. If you are I'll go to jail with you," Ratchet said.
Prowl who was standing nearby solicitous as a granny glanced at Ratchet. "I'm going with you both." He had carried her all the way to the hospital in Pax.
Springer who was chatting outside with everyone walked in. "How is the desperado?"
"She has cracked digits. I'm going to wrap this and set a program into her self care routines to mend this. Easy fix, Starlet," Barto said to a relieved little femme.
"Will I go to jail, Commander?" she asked Springer.
Everyone stared at the little femme, brilliant, sweet, good sparked and beautiful. She bore calligraphy like Auntie Lissie, an affectation that was gaining steam among the younger femmes who were swooning over the intricate patterns of this iconic pre-Golden Age design.
"No." -everyone there including Barto
=0=Outside the room moments later
Optimus fretted silently as he considered Starlet, a little femme he loved like a daughter. He even called her daughter in the family-familiar, something that warmed Starlet like the sun. "How is she?" he asked as Ratchet walked out.
"She is going to self repair her little tiny servo and promised to never hit anyone who slags Daddy ever again, or until the next time," Ratchet said to chuckles all around.
Optimus looked relieved.
"You're a good example of a poor example, Prime. She did the same thing you did," Hardie said with a smirk.
"And that's why I'm adopting her," Prowl said darkly.
Huge laughter and agreement was had among the multitudes.
She was now the newest project of the elders of the House of Hard Drive.
Sun and Jack walked in trailed by Flint, STU-Rt, Lissie and Steiner.
"I heard there was a riot in Iacon and you were there," Sun said as he slapped Prime on the back. "That calls for a celebration. That is if you're not in jail."
"So far, so good," Prime said ruefully. "Starlet did the same thing I did."
"Ah, you're a good example of a bad one," Jack said with chuckle. "That calls for beer."
Huge laughter and agreement reached that as a tiny femme walked out. She walked to Prime and hugged him tightly. As she did, Steiner fell in love.
=0=Later at a bar in Pax
They gathered in a bar finding tables to push to booths. Orders were taken, then everyone turned toward Starlet to grin at her. When the booze arrived, everyone stood who could.
"ALL HAIL, STARLET! ALL HAIL THE CONQUERING HEROINE!"
They did, then sat again.
Starlet felt her insides warm as she sat holding a tiny beer in her elegant servo. "Thank you," she said.
"Our pleasure," Steiner said as he gazed at her with a grin. "Tell us about yourself. Your family and the like," he said oblivious to everyone who stared at him, then Starlet, then him with amusement and surprise.
She looked at him, a handsome accomplished mech. "My family is from Polyhex."
"A great and wondrous place," Springer said. He and Drift joined them, taking a night off to enjoy the coming pub crawl without the resultant sobriety from babysitting Prowl and Ratchet. He was missing the subtext with Steiner though Drift wasn't.
She grinned at him. "My family was in the law. We were criminal attorneys who took serious cases of criminal malfeasance. We almost never won because the system was rigged but a lot of lower and mid castes had a shot anyway."
"Then you did the work of Primus?" Ratchet asked. This little femme was going into the stratosphere of everyone there though she didn't know it.
"We hoped so. We didn't need to earn a living," she said, then paused with a hint of shame on her little face. "We didn't always care in my family's past but my ada was adamant with my atar that we do our best for everyone. It was what we should have always done."
"Your ada and atar are wise," Sun said with a grin. He was watching Steiner with great pleasure.
"My family is in a refugee camp out in the Diaspora that's going to be coming in a short while. I got the message from the lists and I tell you I can hardly wait. When they come we can help people. When they find out that I'm the Prime's attorney, this Prime, they'll be so happy. They were always on your side, Lord Optimus," she said earnestly.
Prime grinned. "I am honored."
"How does your servo feel, Starlet?" Steiner asked.
She looked at it in its bandage. "So much better. I don't feel any pain."
"I'm so glad," Steiner said. "Would you like to dance?"
It was like no one was there but the two of them to Steiner.
"I would like that. I love to dance. I don't get to do it very much though," Starlet said as mechs stood to let her out. She walked to the dance floor and disappeared into the crowd with Steiner.
Everyone sat then stared at the dancers.
"I think I'm going to cry," Lissie said. "Steiner really likes her."
"She's primo, this little femme," Raptor said. "Steiner is a lucky mech."
"I'll get Bluestreak to rent out the halls," Ratchet said.
Everyone turned toward him.
"Leave that little femme and mech alone." -everyone there
Ratchet laughed. "Frag everyone of you."
And such would be the start of not just a great and epic pub crawl but the Saga of Steiner and Starlet.
=0=TBC 4-2-2022 4-12-2022
ESL
mitigate, mitigating: (mitt-uh-gate, mitt-uh, gate-ing) something that makes something less worse than it appears to be.
When he pulled a gun on the other guy, it made the other guy's beating of him a mitigating factor.
Anything that makes something lesser or less worse than it appears is mitigating, mitigation. Courts use it in sentencing all the time.
Icon, iconic: (eye-con, eye-con-ik) something so important its recognizable for what it is, that its a stand out and represents something everyone can recognize. Elvis Presley is an icon. His music is iconic. Its transcendent, something that's iconic. Symbols like the Autobrand are icons and iconic. You know looking at it what it means and stands for.
