Crossing The River
Stretchin' Out
I went to the training room, and mainly focused on stretching out. I had been crunching myself into uncomfortable positions for months, and I was starting to pay for it big time. And sleeping in a car is asking for pain, which I have received. Did I mention being transformed around was not the most comfortable thing? Convenient, but not comfortable by any stretch of imagination… like ever. Seriously, an adult Cybertronian is 80 percent metal and plastic, 15 percent fluids, tubing, and wiring, 4.5 cushion if they take a human alt, and .5 percent spark. iIt's like a moving metal slide that tosses you from one section to another and feels like a speed run through a McDonald's play place when you're trying to do everything before your parent gets annoyed. And perching on Jazz is a workout all on it own, his shoulders are populated with moving parts, and it takes practice to avoid snagging your clothes on them and gumming up systems. Needless to say, my body was tying itself into muscular knots and I needed to untie them.
I had been stretching for an hour or so when I heard Optimus and Ratchet's holoforms walk into the room. I pulled out of the runners' stretch and looked at them.
"Mind if we join you?" Optimus rumbled.
"Sure," I said. I settled back into running stretch and and pulled into myself as they settled on either side of me.I started a more complex stretching routine, pushing my body a little bit more to flex past its comfort zone, bending this way and that. When I dropped into a backbend, Ratchet jumped up worriedly and fussed as I threw up one leg and then the other so I was in a handstand and just sat where I was.
"Are you crazy? You could have broken your back," Ratchet said.
I gasped in some air (it's hard to breath and speak upside down) and hummed my assent.
"I could've. But I didn't," I said cheekily, slowly dropping my legs into a split and petting optimus on the head with my foot just because.
"Hey Optimus, you communing with the primes or sommat?" I said, bringing my legs back up straight.
Optimus looked up in a daze and then shook his head in surprise at my position.
"I beg your pardon?" Optimus blinked.
I bent one leg down and petted his head, "you communing with primes or sommat?" I asked.
Optimus blinked again. "In a manner of sorts.,"
"What about?" I asked. I brought my legs back up and moved them like I was walking upside down.
"You."
"What about me?"
"Do you know what slave coding is?"
"Name makes it kinda obvious,"
"One thing about slave codeing is evident from the outside, the more a mech fought, the more obedient he looked, and the less autonomous he was. You looked very obedient, and didn't seem at all autonomous,"
"It's hard, I haven't been put in ordered mindset in a while, so I snapped into place."
"You shouldn't even have an 'ordered mindset' Iren,"
"Then how am I to listen when I am inconsolable?"
"You shouldn't have to listen when you are inconsolable," Optimus said.
"Him snapping you into an 'ordered mindset' actually put you in more danger because you couldn't communicate, Iren," Ratchet said. I hissed in frustration.
"It's necessary to fulfill missions," I said.
"If they want a robot," Jazz said, strolling into the room and petting my foot. I growled and swung my legs to get the momentum to back-flip up to standing position.I stalked over to a pull-up bar and yanked myself up, swung one leg over the other so I was sitting on it and then carefully but with speed got myself to standing on the damn thing.
"It's how Burnies operate," I growled as I found a chink in the cinder block wall and started climbing. I heard a transformation outside and Jazz's holoform disintegrated, Ratchet started fussing, and optimuss' bass rumble called me to reason as I got to the rafters.
"Iren, you're not a burnie, you're a nest operative," Jazz said, now in biped mode as he approached me
"And I'm also a burnie Jazz, it's where I come from," I said, falling back from one of the cross beams and hanging by my knees.
"Primus, Whisp, you're gonna fall and crack ya head open," Jazz said.
"Not likely, I'm just flipping around," I said, grabbing the beam and pulling myself back up. I stood on it, and staredown at a bot and two holoforms.
I gave myself some time to adjust and then asked them a question
"Why are you so worried about this?" I said, gesturing at them a tad bit aggressively
"We care about you and don't want anyone controlling you that way. It makes us worried about you,"
Ratchet said.
"Well I am who I am, and that training is already there,I can't erase it from my memory," I said, swinging up high over the beam and coming back down onto it.
"Iren," Ratchet started.
"That's not the healthiest prospective," Optimus finished
" I know, i'll get better eventually," I said, jumping off the beam and kinda drop climbing down Jazz, scaring the spark out of all three of them.
"WHISPER!" Jazz shouted, "What the hell do you think you're doing.?" he asked.
"Working," I said, heading back to my towards my room. I walked at a brisk pace to my quarters, and when I got back to my room I showered off and I changed clothes, I slipped on my dog tags and head out to a mmeeting with mahjor officials. lias
There was a lot of fielding questions about why they weren't aren't sharing their weapons tech, and then I was done with that and I was heading to Optimus'potimusses office.
"They are still so concerned about the weapons? This worries me," he rumbled.
"I don't think they get that if you released the weapons tech it would be for the whole world to see," I said.
"Maybe we should tell them that," Optimus rumbled.
"Indeed, I will bring it up at the next meeting with them," I said.
"Good, do so ," he said, dismissing me.
I bid him good-bye and headed to the cafeteria.