The Diego Diaries: Home Stuff (dd8 583)
I had a pneumonia and flu shot in the same arm yesterday and it swelled up. I hate shots. I'm a big baby. LOL! HERE WE GO!
=0=Going on: After School
The buses arrived disgorging kids right and left to genitors waiting and other family members. Cabs dropped kids off along with vans and other conveyances. The colony had it going on with the transportation systems developed to move about half a billion mechs and femmes wherever they had to go.
Ratchet gathered up kids, then headed for the apartment. He was off for a few orns and today was the start of it. He would always check in and do what was needed but he had four orns off and a house getting expanded YET again. It was going to be an epic surprise for the kids when it was completed.
Chatting loudly with big kids carrying little kids, they went up to their floor and down to Apartment 24 (and 23 and 22 and soon-to-be 21), blasting in to go play and/or do whatever kids did. The Christmas Surprise stuff would arrive later this afternoon and everyone would put it up when Ironhide and the elders were available to watch and assist. Dinner would be take out. Fun would be had by all.
Maybe.
=0=Starlet
She walked out of her office ready to go home. She was going to dinner this night with Steiner. They met during the lawsuit when Tempo had sued Prime, had been smitten of each other and had a low key (in relation to the family) thing going on. It was a case of combustion when they first came together. Helping her mend her tiny servo when she punched Tempo for slurring Prowl and Prime during the lawsuit settlement in the speaker's corner in the park at Iacon, Steiner spent all of his spare time either mooning over her or courting directly.
Heading out to the Metro, she would go to her apartment to freshen up, then wait for Steiner to call. Then they'd chat and if they didn't forget that they were going to dinner like they tended to do given that their conversations lasted for joors and joors, they would go to Retriades, have dinner and dance.
It would be amazing.
=0=Bridge Room: Heading for the barn
They lumbered in, huge mechs stepping from Cybertron to Mars in seconds. Ironhide followed Prime, Raptor, Turbine, Hardie, Delphi, Blackjack and Shackle to the stairs and the homeward trudge. Everyone in the IH v R family were due to help put decorations together, eat and tell lies. Prowl and Prime were invited along with their extended families and they accepted. Dinner would be more take out with the take out that Ratchet had coming. More kids to do the decorating seemed fine to the adults as they headed into the crowded sidewalks for home.
They would get there eventually.
=0=Unidad Terra 1
They sat by the window looking out into the growing darkness. Jim Johnson and Sam Hedges sipped beer as they stared at the night coming swiftly in the dark cold of winterish-springish, the only seasons that really happened on Mars. The day had been interesting with some of it spent watching the soldiers from the United Nations Garrison visiting here now that they had privileges, some of them. They came and hung out downtown, visited all the different places possible, then drove extensively in The Farm as the dome covered area was called by the locals.
They'd taken a truck to drive out as well, unobtrusively following several soldiers from countries around Earth as they marveled over the massive farm which was ever spreading outward as land laid fallow began to be cultivated. The dairy got a tour, cheese was sampled with cold beer kept in a small fridge in the Milk Room as the Epps family working there took them in.
The five soldiers helped carry this and that around, then got directions that Miss Merley's Soul Kitchen was a great place to eat before heading out to their own habitat. They'd take the advice and carry back with them a lot of food for the 'boys on duty. Growing boys need to eat, don't you know?', Merley would say as she handed them bags and boxes packed up for them while they were dining.
They would go away happy.
Johnson and Hedges didn't approach the humans but they discussed making friendships in the garrison. One didn't know unless one tried. Someone might get lucky especially among some of the women who made up the contingent. There were a lot of very fit, pretty women in the United Nations Martian Garrison.
They watched the visitors drive out of the airlock in the big vehicles that were part of the landscape for humans around here. They disappeared at the highway driving the few miles toward Autobot City that would lead them back to their Habitat just down from the Mausoleum. Then the two would walk to their place by the window to play cards. The next day Johnson and Hedges along with the other mercs would be in the Valles at the Training Center with the garrison and N.E.S.T. soldiers because their new security chief, Martin Polaski had asked Lennox and for whatever reason he had, Lennox said yes.
=0=At the house
The crowd were settled eating dinner, a mixture of many things including ice cold beer. The kids were fed and had disappeared into the big kid's lounge and the berth rooms of the little kids when the door opened and Partition peered in with Lancer. "Hi. There's a ton of boxes out here."
The big mechs rose and with Partition's assistance pulled out trees and decorations, then brought them inside. Setting them where Generalissimo Ratchet suggested, they walked back to sit and continue dinner.
"We have to get things going," Alor said. "Scout loves Christmas."
"He does," Trooper said. "That infant is a caution."
"They all are," Scout the Elder said with a grin. "I like Christmas Surprise. Will you still have Santa Primes and the like?"
"At the schools, senior centers and among the shut-ins. We also make it a point to salute the habitats and the Resort. Other than that, its way too big now to keep up the practice. We have to have more Santas to cover the usual assignments. Optimus will continue to cover the infant schools, though we're going to have to divide the private and small schools with another individual," Prowl said.
"It was nice while it lasted," Ratchet said. "It was bound to get too big eventually."
"Well, if things work out and nothing bad happens in the system we can keep our own rituals," Ravel said as he sat between Miler and Kestrel.
"Boozer at Prime's house," Ironhide said with a grin.
Fireball walked out of the hallway nearby, then knelt before Ratchet and Ironhide. "Ada, Atar, can we have the titans stay over tomorrow? We're going to have a tournament at the Club in Iacon and we want to go to breakfast together. We thought we'd go to the Diner On The Corner, then go from there."
"Done deal. We'll stack you on top of each other," Ratchet said as Fireball smiled. "Better go tell them to expect tight quarters. You don't have to ask for any of them to stay over. This is their house, too."
Fireball rose, then grinned. "I wish it was," he said before walking back toward their end of the apartment.
Everyone watched him go, then glanced at Ratchet.
"When do you think you'll tell them, son," Ravel asked.
"When the apartment is finished. Ironhide, here, is going to be straw bossing the crew tomorrow to get things right. We want them all to fit. By the way, we have four, count them, four wash racks when this is done." Ratchet smiled his best smile.
At Prowl.
Prowl smirked back. "You need four for your slag load."
Ratchet snickered. "Why, Prowl. You swore in front of your sweet little ada."
Prowl frowned at Ratchet. "Frag you."
"That's my little mech, Mr. Potty Mouth," Miler said with a sweet voice.
Prowl curdled on the inside. He smirked on the outside.
Progress.
Of a sorts.
Prime took video of the whole exchange.
=0=In a club
Smokescreen the Younger sat in the club, Hoyle's to be exact playing cards with a number of mechs who were becoming good friends. All of them were young Home Guardsmen including one who he'd gone to school with on Cybertron, a former high caste named Mingo who was in his grade school and secondary academy.
Devcon made sure of it.
They were laughing and comparing 'poor' stories with the other mechs, this former high caste and his faux high caste school buddy when Hot Rod, Sandstorm, Twin Twist, Whirlaway and Splice walked in to find a table to play cards. Hot Rod spotted Smokey right away but didn't make any notice of it. He pulled a chair as everyone sat, ordered beer, then dealt the cards.
Smokey glanced at the door, noticed Hot Rod, then grinned at the others. "They let anyone in these orns don't they."
Everyone with him knew the tale. They grinned at him.
"You going to go sit with your boyfriend or what?" Mingo asked. He was a Home Guardsmen and a mech with a talent for strategy. He'd become a project for Lissie.
"No. Why? Old Hot Blob is no one special," he said with a smirk. "He thinks he is, though."
"I don't know, Smoke," another mech said. "I saw you two belt it out during that game."
Smokey frowned. "Frag that."
"I hear they have you digging out the Temple Confines when it blows. I can imagine that doing that blows as well," Sefur said with a chuckle. He was a slightly older mech with a family, a knack for shooting like a seasoned sniper and a book collection that was enormous. He collected rare editions of books given he came from a family of book binders.
Pages. Bindings. Embellishments. They were acclaimed at their trade which they continued here. Sefur was a master binder at their family business.
"It gets like concrete," Smokey said as they anted up.
Bets were tossed and wagers were made before Smokey won the pot. He grinned as he raked in the oreos, one of several flavors of 'coin' used in the club. When a colony didn't rely on money, then other things fill the vacuum, many of them with varying degrees of deliciousness.
Nearby, they were betting and the pot was growing.
Twin glanced at the table nearby, then smirked at Hot Rod. "Your true love is over there. Why don't you arm wrestle and show us a bit of that hand-to-hand you're so famous for? It was a hit on the teevee last time."
Roddy glanced at Twin. "Not on your life. That little kid is a punk."
"That little kid has grand genitors I wouldn't want to cross," Splice said. He grinned. "How is that going with them?"
Roddy shrugged. "We get along. They can have him. Pokey isn't all that."
"You wouldn't mind, then, if it came up in the conversation with Dev? I have duty in the Ops Center with him next decaorn," Whirlaway said.
Hot Rod grinned. "Frag you, too, Whirl."
=0=IH v R Haus
"ORION! WAIT!"
"ORION IS SO FUNNY, ADA! YOU'RE FUNNY, ORION!" -Hero having a laughing fit with the twinnies, Sojie and Solus
"FUNNY!" -Uraya echoing her two shanix
"GRAB HIM, SUNNY!" -IH
GRAB!
MISS!
CRASH!
=0=On the beat
They rode out into the growing night time heading on a circuitous route around the colony. It was so big now that instead of several rounds per shift they were lucky to get in two. Given that the murderer was in custody and a few other things were cleared up, Springer and his posse were relaxed and happy.
Tell was streaking along with talking and trying to walk. At the moment he was tucked into his crib in their office with doting mechs and femmes taking care of him while on shift and it was all good. Soon he would have his first Christmas Surprise and they would both make sure it was good.
Galloping along the highway heading toward the Crater Districts, Springer, Drift and the Boyz expected a nice relatively peaceful evening.
=0=Club Hoyle about the same time
CRASH!
BAM!
=0=TLC 12-06-2022