"How pathetic, you're scared. Then again, who could blame you?"- unknown
"Hello! My name is Filter and I'll be doing patient education today!" The diminutive little bot sits behind the desk and waved her and her mother, or dani she guessed, toward one of the large seats. Watching it fold out and expand to fit his size, her dani took his time getting comfortable, rearranging her on his chest closest to his spark as the medics had suggested and sorting out the mesh pouch they had put together for her. The medic said she was suppose to be able to cling to his plating instinctively but she was so little compared to him, all his plating thick with too-small spaces for her to safely hold and her arms and pedes too weak, her control over her claws spastic at best. And she was so sleepy, a drained feeling she had had since waking up for the second time in the medic's care. Dani had been pretty startled the first time she had lost her grip, the feeling of falling and being caught jolting her awake. The medics clucking and flaring their plating as she, predictably, had started crying. Again. Like a big baby.
Which she was technically. But really! It's like the game was playing with her emotions, her an adult, bursting into odd clicking and chirping noises every time something startled her. Which was a lot. She wasn't even human anymore! And don't even get her started on the carrier-creation bond thing. It felt like gravity, an awareness, knowing where dani was even when he'd be across the room. Her past relationship with her parents had been complicated and here was this fictional coding-created not even human who's giving gold star effort to smother her with affection. Discretely of course, but she didn't think the medics were fooled. He rarely even put her down, which was great in her little sparkling mind, but so, so unfair.
"I understand that you are probably ready return to your duties but considering nature of some of your injuries-"
"Flinger, I don't see how a mech with your set of skills is necessary in this situation. Now if you could.." There's a look, "I have duties to attend to."
"It's Filter, my Lord. And I'm getting there. Since you seem like a fairly straight forward mech, let me ask you a few questions." Illuminated flimsies were shuffled. "You did not know you were carrying, correct?"
"Yes," Shifting, tucking mesh closer. Dani didn't like this mech, doesn't like how he looked at her.
"And you don't know who the sire could be, right?"
"I might have an idea."
"Well you have several options since this was unexpected and with your responsibilities I'm sure you don't exactly want a sparkling underfoot. I can arrange for a foster couple to take her in before any parental bonds settle too much. You'd be able to choose who you think would be the best fit of course. The next option is a crèche; you could still claim her and there would be days where you could visit. She would be surrounded by caretakers and given a truly exceptional education. Despite the lack of a Sire willing to claim her your position alone can grantee her entrance into the Alpha one in Iacon or the Alpha Crèche in Simfur if you perhaps wanted her to live a more… devoted life? Some truly talent priestess have come from there." He kept shuffling the little flimsies around, making several piles with crèches, foster families or orphanages from around Cybertron.
They all looked very high class, the couples draped in shining meshes and smiling in front of an expanse of estate land, lavish interiors or ornate gardens. The crèche brochures showed classes, available at a price of course and seemed to look more like permanent, year round boarding schools. She could see the New Information notification pop up at the edge of her vision with each new flimsy. He wouldn't just get rid of her, right? She'd heard several mechs call him 'Lord' but he wouldn't just leave her with some strangers and move on, would he? Her vents started up that little hiccup they did when she got upset and she can feel his try to sooth her through the bond.
Massive clawed servos shuffle through the options, discarding one to the side when it didn't seen to meet expectations.
"Why do you think these are my best options?"
"You aren't prepared for a sparkling at this point. I know you and the Winglord had an…agreement but the sparlings produced from the contract stayed with him. You don't have the experience to-"
"Stop."
The mech behind the desk seems to realize he had treaded into some questionable territory.
"She will stay with me, and I will give her a designation at the temple when the deadline passes."
"But-" Dani pushed away the options and held out a servo for the discharge pad.
"If you experience any difficulties and change your mind, feel free to contact me. I'm sure I can find her somewhere fitting of her station and potential if the need arises."
"That will be unnecessary."
Cradled to his chest, she could hear the thrum of his spark, feel the rumble of his voice through the plates of armor. Dani, Lord Megatron, stands and hands the last of the paperwork to the now quiet Filter.
"Lord Megatron, your escort is here." The secretary at the door notifies him we they step out of the office, all pleasant professionalism.
"Come, little star, time to go home."
Home. She certainly hoped so, before she started crying again.
Log Out.
ERROR: ACTION NOT AVAILABLE
Huh. That was a big problem. The world froze when she pulled up her game menu, blinking at the LEVEL 2 banner. 'Congratulations! You passed your first level. You earned 1 skill point. You unlocked the Skills menu.'
Opening the Skills menu, she saw the skills map was still mostly grayed out. Another window read:
Due to your frame some skills will be easier to earn, or cost less points to learn, than others. Spend them as soon as you get them or horde them for an emergency but remember, you can only activate one skill of each type for each level, and you must complete the TUTORIAL TASK for each skill before you can upgrade to the next one.
So she couldn't just activate the whole skill section at once and not know how to use the skills with the game. Plus from the look of it, some skills played into each other. Some were pretty big booster skills and some just seemed to be little tricks. Maybe they would be expanded upon later in the map. The four skill classes are FLIER, WARRIOR, SCOUT and NOBLE. She knew that while these were probably actual titles in the game the labeling only showed how the skills affected certain parts of game play. Like Warrior skills would help her with combat later on if the game led her to needing those skills or Flier skills would obviously help with flying. She had wings so she'd be using those eventually, right? It was the scout and noble that were less obvious. The scout for information gathering maybe? Learning skills? The noble for teams or charismas? Until she unlocked more of the map, there wasn't any way for her to know and looking at the faded areas, she could see where the types of skills overlapped or she would need a skill in a completely different section before she could get a skill another.
The Flier and Warrior skills were completely inactive, probably because she couldn't use them at her age, but Noble had a single skill available.
Truth: You know a lie when you see one. Good for you. Cost 1 skill point
So maybe the noble skills were everyday skills used in social situations?
All three Tier one scout skills were open:
Seer: There's a lot of books in the library. Good thing you can read. Cost 1 skill point
Silence: You're quiet but you're no ghost. Cost 1 skill point
Knowledge: Someone might tell you some things you don't need to know. Cost 3 skill points
Debating for a minute, she knew it was important to learn as much about this game as she could while she was stuck here but she needed to know what was true and what wasn't. While she was at a lower level it would take less experience to level up and she could use her skill points to get rid of some of the lower tier skills so she would have access to the higher skills when she needed them. Mind made up, she hit the Truth skill and the Seer skill.
The Tutorial Task for each skill under her Quest menu said: read three data pads for information about Cybertron for the Seer skill. Identify three lies and one truth for the Truth skill. Each task completed will reward experience points that will help her keep leveling. The experience points rewarded for these is only a couple hundred, so the higher tier the skill is, the more experience she might earn as the skills get harder to master.
The game unfroze and the world resumes, dani's long strides rocking her into a kind of nap. Once he stepped outside the doors though, the whole world descended into noise.
"Lord Megatron! Now that you've made a full recovery-"
"My Lord! When can the public-"
"Lord High Protector! Are there any decisions to be made about-"
"-is it true you were attacked by a member of your own guard?"
"-is it true you were carrying?"
"Lord-"
The crowd seemed to fall back as three massive mechs, almost as big a dani, came from nowhere and silently surround him, leading them to the transport, a hover vehicle as sleek as it was advanced compared to anything found on earth.
The silence after so much noise made her audios ring.
"My Lord, I have made arrangements to your schedule to allow for some down time at the Citadel. It's not the best circumstances but it would lead to a more controlled environment for you to begin addressing the public." Who she thought was a mech was actually a femme, large enough to go toe to toe with any of the mechs in the transport and with enough weapons to boot. She had a hard face and red optics and was making an effort to not look at her but the two other guards didn't seem to have the same problem, discretely leaning to get a better view.
"Thank you Strika, see to it that the security is scanned for any more traitors. I'll be keeping the little one with me but alert Cyclonus to the added security priority," he made sure she was in the mesh, rubbing her little helm distractedly as he scanned the data pad he'd been handed.
Now she could see little a little name icon above Strika's helm, but not the other two. So name boxes appeared when bots were identified?
Time to test this.
It was hard to move as uncoordinated and sluggish as she was but she got twisted just enough to peek over the wrap and make eye contact with the mech on dani's left. Caught in the act of peeking while dani and Strika were going over a schedule of some sort, he locked up like a deer in headlights. Were there deer in this game? A hunting feature? Hmmm.
The guard poked his field against hers, and wasn't that a trip? It would take some practice getting use to those. Looking at this guard, his field just barely brushing hers she could tell he was excited? It felt like anticipation and joy and worry. Like an undercurrent in communication that expressed intentions and feelings to convey without words more complex meanings. It was pretty cool. She knew they had been working on this VR for years and building on old designs and technology as game software had advanced. It was part of the reason there were so many glitches in the system. The game, or the 'Malfunction' as it was affectionately called, was a conglomeration of years and years of patched, pieced and stitched together coding that was suppose to make a VR so realistic, she had had to read through three pages of health alerts alone. It would probably never release now that she had gone and gotten stuck in it. Damian was working on it, she knew. It was only a matter of time before they enabled the Logout button again.
"Blitzwing," the field shot through with fear, respect, loyalty even as dani used his own as a buffer, his attention on the guard. "Do you have something you need to add?" He started trying to get her back in the little pouch mesh thing, but she wanted to get these task over with and see what she was working with. The second field withdrew a little, Blitzwing taking the chance to grin down at her.
"The bitlet is very cute my lord, congratulations." Sounded like the truth to her, of course she was cute. A notification to the side opened to update her on the task status. One truth detected, piece of cake.
"What will you name her?" now that her presence had been acknowledged by dani it seemed acceptable to treat her like she was actually there. Strika was zoned in like a hawk.
"I have to wait till the anointment day deadline, you know that."
"Yes, but do you have any idea at least?"
"Well it's not like I kept a list on me for any surprise sparking I may drop, so no. I'm sure I'll figure something out though, if she makes it. Starscream will probably contest my claim either way."
"She is in poor health?" Ah, Strika disapproved of her? The feeling was gone just a quickly as it came, her face an expression of polite interest. Dani just watched her for a klick, cradling her helm in his massive servos. Did she mention he was huge? She could fit her whole sparkling body into the palm of his hand.
"No," the panels on her back started to itch, twitching. He stroked a claw over them, careful of the tiny, under-developed winglets. "She's healthy in every sense of the word, she's just a little small. Then again, aren't most seekers?" What? Task status update, one lie detected.
"So Starscream is the culprit?" The third mech was a green color, pale decals denoting rank on his pauldrons.
"It was a fling when he was in Tarn for diplomatic visits, nothing to concern ourselves with." Two lies detected. Stop. "He'll probably not want anything to do with her when he still has the three I gave him to keep himself occupied. This one I can raise, and she'll be a fierce warrior when the time comes, I know. Her spark is strong." Three lies detected.
"We should begin drawing up legal documentation then, there is a chance he could want her. Seekers adore all little ones, no matter their… conditions," Strika was done with all of them, tapping away at a second data pad she magicked out of thin air. Probably drawing up said documents. She wasn't the only one who could detect lies, it seemed. Dani stiffened, his field flat and muted. The other two sensed the discussion was done, their brief time of levity with their superior over, and wiped all expression from their faces and field, sitting ramrod straight in their seats.
She was done too, a wave of exhaustion dragging her down. Rearranged in the mesh hiding her from view, she was hit with home sickness. Why couldn't they have just made this game simple?
She was an idiot and some things were better left unknown. The 'Task Completed!' notification glared at her from the corner of her vision.
Identify three lies and one truth for the Truth skill
Status: Complete
The level bar filled almost halfway with the experience points but she still felt hollow, the familiar sound of Megatron's spark lulling her into recharge.