The Diego Diaries: Home Again, Jiggity-Jig (dd7 310)
=0=Morning time around the planet
"Ada, we need to spend the night with Ammas and Appa. There's going to be a party for us by the elders."
Ratchet glanced at Fireball. "A party? Do tell."
Fireball grinned. "Some mechs from Cybertron are coming in to play cards and have a meal. They wanted to meet us and they suggested a party. They haven't seen mechs our age in a long time."
"All nine of you will be there? Too bad Teatro and Swan can't accommodate pretender gear yet," Ratchet said.
"Amma told me they have it. Someone made a modification for them but they don't think they can handle being small and seeing themselves standing nearby as they really are like adults can. They're too young emotionally for it," Quasar said as he rose to walk to their lounge to play games. "I can't wait for them to be able to manage it. We can have little brothers and show them things."
Ratchet grinned at the towering kids. They were big and handsome, taller than most adult mechs and it was easy to forget that they were children. "You'll have so many brothers you're going to have to grow another arm to accommodate the tattoos."
They laughed, hugged Ratchet, then happily walked down to their end of the apartment to play games and chat. Cousin and Robby ambled after them.
"ADA!"
"WHAT!"
Orion smiled up at him. "Lou ha-ha."
"So are you, Spud. What's on your processor?" Ratchet asked as he hefted the tiny mech up.
"I talkeded to lou?"
"Okay." Ratchet walked over to his chair to sit and settled the baby to face him on his lap.
"What's on your mind?"
"Lou me doh-doh?" he asked, then flashed the biggest smile he could manage.
"No. I'm not getting you a donkey."
"Lou me a … a thing?" He smiled brilliantly as he began the inevitable game of 'lou get me' that sometimes came about out of the spur of the moment.
Ratchet considered 'thing' then grinned. "Nope."
A huge fat chuckle began at the bottom of his aft and went upward. "LOU HA-HA!"
Ratchet grinned. "You're hilarious yourself. I have a meeting with Mr. TOTO to hear about you talking."
"I LOVE TOTO! He my she. Love my she. Him good me. I good him. We good."
Ratchet laughed at the matter-of-fact recital of 'good me'. It was one of Orion's funniest speech patterns. "Do you work hard with him on your speaking?"
Orion nodded, then a dark expression crossed his face. "Him not me. Not good me. Say I, Orion talkeded bad me."
Ratchet felt a cold ice pick in the tanks. "Who said that?"
"Him. Not good him. 'nother bad one."
"Someone else said something?" Ratchet asked as casually as he could manage.
Orion nodded his helm. "Him bad me. Not good me. I cwied."
Given his propensity to embellish and sometimes outright lie about his 'suffering', Ratchet considered that. He could join him at the moment and cry, too. "Did you actually cry?"
Orion considered that, then nodded emphatically. Then he smiled brilliantly.
He was hugged hard.
=0=Up there in the clouds
"Well, we have a tie. Kaon won. Praxus won. We're actually one half game behind in the standings to Kaon," Prowl said with a frown as he perused his 'game boy data pad' while Prime cooked breakfast.
His turn.
Everyone was getting ready, their little book bags and snacks were on the hook rack by the door where Prowl left them the night before. They were trickling in for food, happy and contented with everyone home.
"We have to step up our game," Prowl concluded as Possibility reached up for Prowl to pick him up. He did and walked to the dining room to help the other kids take their chairs.
Prime watched them go, then grinned. "We?"
=0=Elsewhere
"You have both of them then."
"I do," Raptor said as he fed his cow. "I'm looking forward to endless joors of drama, teenaged angst and stupidity."
"That was mighty cordial of Prowl to give them to you. I might've used the help in dunging out the back forty of the Temple. The sand is still stacked up there and its as packed as concrete. We're using shovels and elbow grease rather than equipment to move it out, all fifty or so tons of it. Getting equipment in there is too hard and the disturbance to the grounds unacceptable so shovels it is."
"So essentially you need more 'grease'," Raptor said with a grin.
"Only if you want it," Turbine said as he sat food down for both to dine.
Raptor joined him, then grinned. "I can stay here until noon given the staff meeting and finalization of the mission plan. We'll go there right away."
"What will those two knuckleheads do during the meeting?" Turbine asked.
"I'll think of something. Idle servos are the Fallen's workshop, or so I'm told," Raptor replied.
They both laughed loud and long.
=0=Rockwell and Periodic
They sat in a street side cafe in their town. They had the orn off, both of them, and were going to spend all of it together. They were even free from counseling today. It had been a very long and hard journey, the two of them, to arrive at this point. What that point was was still evolving. Yet, they seldom talked of entitlement and privilege. They talked about what they wanted to do here, to build a life both of them would find enjoyable as free citizens.
Rockwell was due to speak to the Caste Court down the road shortly and he was still unclear about what he would say. A lot of thoughts were still roiling and he felt some orns as very heavy and other joors as very light.
Sun and Jack were nearly ready to cut him loose but wanted to ensure that the two would have like minds to go around with. Pico and Carbide were doing a wonderful job in their turn around but they still had a cloud of emotion between them and Rockwell. They would work it out, both of them thought as they chatted in their restaurant booth eating breakfast before heading out to the meeting. Flint, STU-RT, Lissie and Steiner were with them. It would be a great way to start the orn.
=0=At the Autobot City Stables
They came in and took care of their steeds. The night have been rowdy and the drunk tank was brimming for Magistrate's Court. Gathering to go, they walked out ready to go to the Diner, then home to rest up. Most of them were either full time Watch or part time Watch and part time professional soldier. They worked their shifts and stood by on call ups for missions with the army and air force. They had a life.
Springer and Drift did as well but were often as not going about after shift doing this and that. They really needed very little 'sleep' but a rest would be a good thing for anyone. After the down time they had prior, it felt good to be out and about.
They reached the Diner and entered, a loud laughing gregarious group. Drinks were on their tables before they even sat. Relaxing, giving orders for food, they watched the street outside as mechs and the odd femme walked by going to who knew where.
"How's the back?" Hercy asked Drift.
Drift shrugged. "Its good. I'm going to the dojo to stretch things a little and get a few moves down."
"Humans would be surprised that we need to stretch," Splice said with a smirk. "They'd be surprised by a lot more than that, I think."
"You wanna volunteer intel?" Kup asked.
"And make you cry?" Splice said to an avalanche of laughter and disdain.
It would go like that.
=0=Here
"You have to get them to school," Bluestreak said as he put the last dishes in the dishwasher. "I have to go to the Ops Center. Prowl wants me to handle communications for the mission."
"How about we finally agree to the bus for rushed mornings?" Sideswipe said as he put Iacon down on the floor. "Iacon. Do you want to take the bus to school?"
Three adults stared down at her as she looked upward at them. "No." She then smiled brightly, then ran for her room.
"Frag." -all three adults
Iacon, Uraya and Kaon would take the bus to school from home and get off at Granny's stop in The City.
=0=On the way to the Ops Center
He walked along feeling his oats. Tonight, the University graduation for Level 1 students was going to take place and he'd be among them. He'd finished his course of study and he was a free mech.
FREE!
He crossed the street and headed toward Temple after spending the night at his folks' house. They'd wanted to see him after the game and get his impressions of what it was like to play in such a historic event. They also wanted to coordinate with him over the graduation ceremony at the Performing Arts Center. All of the family would be there for him. Then they would come to Amma and Appa's house for an after graduation dinner and pie.
Walking along with a spring in his step, he slowed slightly as he saw Turbine and Raptor waiting with Hot Rod at the junction across from the Ops Center. He sped up and walked nonchalantly toward them, crossing the street as he did. He paused before them studiously avoiding the slightly smirking face of his nemesis, the (un)lovely Not Rod™.
"Welcome, bright eyes," Turbine said. "We want you to do something for us while we're at the meeting. This is a very, very important job and we think you two are going to ace it."
Roddy and Smokey glanced at each other with cool optics, then turned to Raptor and Turbine. "Good," Smokey said.
"Follow us," Turbine said as he and Raptor began to cross the street to go back toward Temple.
The two followed, uptight and silent. When they reached The Diner On The Corner, they paused long enough for Hercy and Kup to step out.
"Glad you can join us, boys," Raptor said as they began to move onward again.
"Its our pleasure, General," Hercy said with a slight grin.
The group walked onward, turned into the Temple grounds and followed a trail that bypassed the building, headed toward a number of outbuildings behind it, several of which had sand piled around them to a surprising depth. They reached the two worse case buildings, then stopped.
Raptor glanced at the sand, then the two youngling mechs. "This sand needs to go. I think it would be commendable to Primus for you two to do it. Dig and move this until we get back from the meeting. Hercy and Kup, here, have volunteered to straw boss the operation. Its like my good old pa said once, the great and Immortal Hard Drive of Praxus … 'son, he said, it isn't a job if it doesn't have a straw boss'." He then smiled brilliantly.
The two kids stared at him, then the pile of sand which was three times taller than them. Roddy turned to Raptor. "Uh, where's the equipment, sir?"
Raptor nodded to the building, a small shed nearby. "In there."
"I'll get it, General," Kup said as he walked toward it. He opened it, leaned inside and brought out two buckets and two shovels. Walking back, he held them out to Smokey and Hot Rod.
The two kids looked alarmed as they glanced at the sand piles, then the 'equipment'.
"Uh, General … sir … you can't really mean this?" Smokey asked. It was silent as a tomb. "I mean … do you?"
"I'm serious as a spark attack, infant. But guess what?" Raptor said with a big smile.
The two kids stared at him expectantly.
"I believe in ya," Raptor replied. Then he glanced at a very amused Hercy and Kup. "Thank you for your service."
Turbine grinned at both mechs, then went off line. :Work them like mules, boys:
Hercy grinned. :No problem:
The two kids took the shovels, then picked up a bucket. Glancing at each other, then the four smirking adults, they reluctantly walked toward a pile of sand. Setting their buckets down, they stabbed at the sand with their shovels. The blades bounced off.
Smokey stared at it, then the adults. "THIS STUFF IS LIKE CONCRETE!"
"If sand blows hard and long enough against something and is fine grained like this, that's what happens," Raptor said. 'Isn't science wonderful?"
Neither answered him.
Raptor and Turbine thanked Hercy and Kup, then walked off to go to the meeting. It would be a jolly conversation on the way over and much enhanced when Turbine hooked both of them into the Temple cameras that would show them the sad aft story of two youngling mechs pounding on sand berms with picks, then shoveling it into small pails to be dumped by hand into a dumpster standing a distance away on a road that passed by. A truck would take it when full, then bring it back empty.
Like that.
Hercy and Kup would relax in chairs brought out from a community room nearby and watch the show.
It would be hilarious.
For some of them.
=0=TBC 6-24-2020