Chapter three: Plan? More like suicide!
The moment Hymnal had stepped beyond the threshold and into the hall, Luna was all but dragging them up another few flights of stairs, towards her private level.
"Luna? What's wrong? Why is everything on lockdown?" They tried to question, but still got no answer as they came to a halt outside the reinforced doors, they had a few moments to look at the exquisitely carved curved corridor which ended at some point beyond their view, the carvings depicted a kind of forest land, the walls painted to an accuracy and detail that, had they not been actually metal, and unmoving, they would of thought that a few steps would transport them to a whole different planet.
Glancing at Luna, who was only half a helm over her own helm, she took stock. Those walls, so realistic, meant to trick her psyche, make her feel like she wasn't trapped within the walls of an artificial building, for her own protection.
Her going to see them at the Temple, they realised in that moment, had likely been her first time outside the walls without anybot there with her.
They'd unknowingly put her in such a situation, over golden age lullabies. "Luna? I wish too…" She was cut off when the heavy doors rolled apart like massive circular columns, revealing an expansive open plan room, similar to her gardens back at the temple, only more… untamed.
Vines and other foliage, a lot of which they didn't recognise, grew from seemingly every crevice, flowing across the floor and making a carpet of brightly coloured leaves and creeper vines, the pillars which held up the ceiling entombed in thick branches and even more leaves.
From the ceiling, small multifaceted glowing flowers swayed, lighting the room.
And all of it was organic.
"Luna? Is this your room?"
Luna finally turned to them and nodded, optics narrowed behind her visor, putting them on edge slightly. "Yes, one of them, relaxation and emersion is the main goal for this room. Now, to answer your question of yours, that Gladiator, Megatronus, has stolen a code red level data pad, one containing the entire knowledge of all mass viruses and other mass extinction causing illnesses, natural and laboratory made, and exactly how to make it, how he even got ahold of it, is beyond me. But, as I fear has already happened, in the wrong servos… it could be used to wipe out millions of innocent on Cybertron, and across the galaxies."
The sombre tone had left an air in the room which made Hymnal shuffle slightly, only for it and themselves, to be shattered from that aura by the sound of the Hybrid femme lashing out with her hoov, the two sharp pointed end smashing into a column of plant life which shook from the force, but somehow didn't buckle. "And all because I dozed off! I should've held a more acute vigil! Then none of this would of happened and you wouldn't of had to of come through the emergency entrance!" She exclaimed, clawed digits latching onto her pointed audios and yanking on them, hard.
Her frames reaction was instantaneous, jerking from the sudden pain which ripped directly into her processor, Hymnal could only stand there in shock as Luna began bellowing, sounding nothing like a normal femme as she thrashed her helm from side to side, hooves slamming into the foliage covered ground and ripping large tears into the organic matter, and even the steel below.
Then, she was keeling forwards, her lower knee joints and pedes landing with echoing thuds before she listed to the side and fell facing away from the Priest, curling up into a ball as her servos continued to yank on the sensitive audios.
Carefully they made their way towards the downed femme, kneeling down carefully so as to rest their servo on their side armour.
"Luna, this isn't your fault. You couldn't have possibly known what this mech was going to do. You are not responsible for his actions." Hymnal said.
Luna sighed, rolling onto her back strut and running her six digits down her visored faceplates. "But… I'm head data clerk, it's my job to look after all the data in the hall, and now, one of the most dangerous data pads was stolen, right out from under my recharging optics!"
"But you cannot be everywhere at once" they said.
"True… unless I find some weird way of multiplying myself… but then I'd probably end up half the size or some scrap like that." The Ion deer femme mumbled, drawing a line across her middle to emphasise her point. "I just… wish my frame wasn't so weak, then it'd be able to keep up with my processor and I wouldn't have to rest nearly as much! Meaning I could be far more productive! Slag! I could probably double my efficiency if I didn't have to keep on taking breaks throughout the cycle to avoid frying my processor!" She chuckled.
Hymnal hummed and reached into their subspace, pulling out a large cloth covered crystals that glowed brighter than normal.
"These are the crystals I told you of," they said, unwrapping one of the smaller ones and holding it in their servo. "But you must be very careful, they are very fragile and explosive. But, they should help a bit." They wrapped the mesh cloth back around the crystals and handed them over.
Luna perked up at this, rolling onto her front and carefully picking it up between two digits, before holding it to the right side of her helm and taking a quick vent, this because her olfactory sensors were tucked away under the two panes of metal which framed their faceplates. "So… if it's explosive… how am I supposed to eat it? I'd rather keep my internals just that, internal."
"You have to refine it," they said. "Put it in the energon processing machine to turn it into liquid like normal energon"
"Ahhh…. I don't have one of those… You know, eat the tin leaves and all that, this is my fuel room as well basically." She explained, light blue tint forming on her faceplates as she rubbed the back of her neckcables, again avoiding the band of calm blue glass which wrapped around the back of her helm.
"They should have one at a local bar or restaurant." Hymnal said "We can go to one together if you'd like and have it processed."
"Can't, everything's on lockdown, and besides, no fragging way am I taking you to a bar, ain't you supposed to be all about purity? Trust me, from the stories I've heard, one wrong move, and you're pretty much damn impure three astroseconds later… I think there is a processor in the main rec room, but it's not an area of the hall I frequent."
"Well, I wasn't planning on drinking anything at the bar, but your idea sounds better for us." They responded, rising back up to their full height and offering their servo to their friend. "I hope you don't mind if we skip that duet of harp and piano? Something tells me that such an activity would not bode well with the current situation we find ourselves in. Though, I was looking forward to it." Hymnal helped Luna to stand, "Why don't we make our way down to the processing machine now?"
Rolling her shoulder plates she nodded. "Sure, the only question now is, do you trust me?"
Hymnal tilted their helm to the side, "Of course I do, but why ask?"
Again, Luna didn't give them a verbal answer, instead she grabbed their servos, crossing them, and then with a sudden burst of strength, flipped them around so that they landed on her backstrut, arms around her chassis in a tight and surprised squeeze. "This is why!"
Without another moment of warning, she'd leapt down the hole in the centre of the room, letting off a whoop as they plummeted through the tube, blue lights illuminating them every few moments as they rocketed downwards with the pull of gravity. "Hold on tight!"
Hymnal gasped loudly, their wings folding down tightly to their back as they clung to Luna.
They hit the bottom of the tube a few moments later, Luna's legs absorbing the massive shock easily, not that it didn't jostle Hymnal quite a bit due to the fact that Luna had landed not on just her pedes, but her servos as well, her arms having taken some of the impact force as well.
She held that position for a few moments before tilting her helm round to face the priest, a coy smile on her faceplates, and expression Hymnal couldn't really recall seeing before. "From the fact you're trying to choke me, one would think you thought I'd let you fall?" A slight purr left them as they pushed off the floor with their servos so that she could put herself upright again despite the bot hanging off her back strut. "You know, not intending to offend here, but, lay off the snacks for a bit ok? I think I heard something groan, not sure if it was the floor, or something in me though." She joked, despite the serious tone she stated that in.
Hymnal stuck their glossa out in a very un-Priestley way. Only for Luna to poke it back into her mouth with a digit. "Now, now, we can't have Primus' favourite acting like a little sparkling~ Can we?~"
"Well normally, Primus's favourite is surrounded with bots who treat them as such." Hymnal said, amusement in their optics.
"Oh? Well, from now on, I at least, am going to treat you just as you deserve, like an adolescent punk rocker!"
Hymnal gave off a short laugh, "Now what in Primus's name gives you the idea I, of all bots, am the 'punk rocker' type?"
Luna chuckled, tapping her chin guard in faux contemplation. "You know what, I'm not sure, I think it's the fact that you're cutting off energon circulation to my processor, and the little nymphs are throwing their glitter dust at us."
"Oh," Hymnal said, realizing that they were still holding Luna in a vice like grip. They set their peds on the ground and let go.
Before either of them could step away though, the doors to the place they'd landed in where thrown open with a sharp 'BANG' jolting the two. Luna stumbled back, and Hymnal ended up catching one of her pedes, sending the both of them crashing down when they went to move again, both getting tangled up in the other.
"Owww…." The both groaned, Luna's faceplates currently being pressed into the floor by whatever part of Hymnal was laying on top of that part of her. "Hymnal….. Get… off!"
The one who had thrown the door open was none other than Parixian, one of the Data Clerks, the mech now covering his lower faceplates. "Oh Primus! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to startle you like that!"
Hymnal groaned, feeling parts of their wings were tangled into Luna's legs. They quickly tried to sit up when they noticed they were smothering Luna with their chestplates.
"Oh, sorry Luna," they said, a soft blush of embarrassment on their face.
"It's ok, only more processor dama...dama…. Damage, to add to the list of…. Reasons why Luna needs a trip… tah tha nurse!" She responded back, voice becoming more garbled the longer it went on until she just slumped down on the floor, a light rumble leaving them.
"Oh dear," Hymnal said, trying to untangle their wings from Luna so they could stand and take Luna to a medic. They were able to after a few moments and a bit of assistance from Parixian, who'd finally recovered from his shock enough to heft the femme up into a firemechs carry. "Primus, she needs to stop over exerting herself… why can't she just use the fragging lift like the rest of us?!"
Hymnal did not respond to him, feeling no need. They followed him to the medical room, where he set Luna onto the berth.
A femme medic was quickly at their side, running a scan over the femme, worry etched on her features, even when she shoved Parixian out of the way.
"Is she going to be alright?" Hymnal asked worriedly. They stood out of the medic's way so they wouldn't be told to leave.
"She'll be fine, she just needs to rest for a while, I was worried that this whole debacle would put a strain on her, but from what I can tell, her actual collapse was caused by temporary shortage of energon in the processor, care to explain?" The teal green and red femme enquired, placing a sturdy servo on her hipplate.
Parixian looked away, trying to look like he knew nothing whilst Hymnal stepped forwards. "We were both startled by this mechs sudden appearance… and we fell in such a way that my chassis was putting pressure on her helm, I believe that was the cause." Hymnal couldn't help the dark blush on their faceplates. They had caused Luna to go unconscious with their own chest plates.
The medic gave Hymnal a long stare before sighing and shaking her helm. "Well, good news is this put little to no strain on her spark… in comparison to the stress she was already putting on herself… Primus above she really needs to control her stress levels."
Hymnal gave a soft frown and nodded to the medic, letting her know they understood. They sat in a small chair near the berthside, their legs crossing as they prepared to wait for Luna to wake up.
It took half a joor for the femme to come round, groaning as she rubbed her optics under her visor. "Note to self, when falling, always land on top… oh, hey Hymnal, would've thought you'd go back to the temple, what with there not being much for you to do… please tell me you haven't been sitting there this whole time? And on that note, one, how long was I out, two, any news on that fragger, and three, Cyler! Would you stop messing with my audio! You know that feels weird!" She exclaimed, batting the medics prodding servo away and flicking her audios down in irritation.
Hymnal gave a soft smile, "you have been out a little over half a jour, Luna. There has been no news yet" they said, "and yes, I stayed here while you were out."
Luna shot the Priest a look before pushing herself upright, batting away the femme medic's servos once again. "No, touchy, I can walk on my own… I'm pretty much used to walking on stilts as the norm anyway." She huffed, placing both pedes on the ground and pushing herself upright. "See? I, can, walk." She declared, before striding over to Hymnal. "I'm going to go check in with the Enforcer HQ, then get something to fill my tanks, you need anything?"
"Just to be directed to the refinery for these" they said, pulling out the pouch of crystals. "I should get these liquidized as quickly as possible."
Luna chuckled, rubbing the back of her helm. "A refinery? Now that's something we don't have I'm afraid… kinda a fire hazard."
"But you said you had a processing machine?" Hymnal asked.
"Yeah, we have a processor at the bar, but everything is shipped in already refined and ready to use." She tried to explain, before the discussion could go any further, Orion walked up to them.
"Err, Mrs Luna? If I could continue with what I was trying to say, you know, before you kicked me in the face, I'd like to offer a suggestion for our next course of action, if I may?"
He looked at her tentatively, his frame tense. Luna raised her optical brow before nodding for him to continue, causing him to relax a bit.
"I was thinking," he started, "That I'd go and talk to Megatronus and convince him to bring the data back to us, so we are not forced to harm him."
Luna turned her helm to shoot Hymnal a look, before turning back to him with a look of utmost concern. "Orion, you can't be suggesting that? Or am I hallucinating… no, I'm not hallucinating… ok, are you insane?! He might offline you!" She exclaimed. "He's been placed on the top of the Enforcers target list! Did you know that he was already under Enforcer watch before then?! Orion, you are one of my Data Clerks, one I have no intention of replacing." She declared.
Orion shuffled back, averting his optics from the visor of the hybrid femme. "No, I was aware of that, but, let me do this ma'am! I know all of his favourite spots the Enforcers can't get access to! I know that sounds bad, but if I go now, there's the chance I'll be able to find him. The longer we wait however, the lower chance we have of finding him, and getting that data back before irreparable harm is done that no amount of Enforcers can fix." He declared, a new determination in his optics and pose as he stood firm on his opinion.
There were a few moments of silence in the corridor they now stood in. The silence finally broken by Hymnal after a quick glance at the still internally debating femme.
"This may be our only option." they chimed in, drawing the gaze of everyone. "If what Data Clerk Orion is true, he may be our best and only option of recovering such sensitive information."
Luna jerked her helm round to stare at the Priest, her gaze turning scrutinous as they diverted their optics back to the information trailing down her visor at a more languid pace. "... You have me there Hymnal, very well, I'll run it by Alpha and see if he gives you clearance, is that Enforcer Captain still present?" She enquired Orion. "He should be able to at least get you an escort and back up incase this all goes to pit, and if we do this, I want you to keep your com channels open, understood?" She pressed.
Orion quickly nodded his helm at a fervent pace. "Yes ma'am! I let you down once, I won't do it again!"
OoOoOoOoOoO
"He wants WHAT?" Luna yelled out as Orion returned from his trip with Megatronus' terms.
"A meeting with the Council, then he'll hand back the data." Orion said again, looking at Luna nervously.
The hybrid femmes response was a simple one, bang the data pad she'd been holding into her faceplates and letting off a groan. "Perfect! Just perfect!" She declared, before throwing her helm back and yelling to all present. "Anyone here damn well lucky enough to be in the good graces of the council? Cause I know I sure as the pit ain't! Hymnal! Look at me! I'm using improper grammar I'm so stressed right now! I need to take a moment…" She huffed, rubbing at her chassis to try and calm herself down.
Hymnal, who had somehow remained calm during all of this, placed a servo on Luna's shoulder.
"I can speak with the Council. Since I am head Priest, they will listen." They said in an even voice. "However." they continued, "Giving in to Megatronus' demands may prove to be the wrong decision. He may plan to assassinate any of the members, or innocent passer by's to get his point across. He is a driven mech, and one we must be cautious of." Their facial expression did not change throughout their little speech. The only indication of emotion was a twitch in their wings.
Luna shot the Priest a look for a moment, before letting off a sigh and looking back to her data pad, digits already flying across the screen. "Already planning a meeting, now just need them to clear it, validate it, call in every guard they have… oh and arm the entire the Council Hall security system… Ok… even I'm not that paranoid."
Luna looked back up from her data pad to see Hymnal silently pointing at the still engaged security walls. "Ok, maybe I'm a paranoid android, but this is a fully justified measure under protocol." She tried to justify.
Hymnal let off a slight chuckle that only Luna's heightened hearing caught.
"It is alright Luna, I know what you mean. How long will it take for this to all begin?" Hymnal asked. "I must leave now to consult the Council."
Luna turned back to her Data pad. "Well due to the lockdown, you're fastest method is by flight, I've just sent an alert to the Enforcers you're exempt from suspicion, good luck with your travels."
Hymnal gave a short nod before turning to leave.
OoOoOoOoOoO
"... In the beginning, I had no name. None of us did. We spoke to each other, down in the mines and the smelters, by electronic signature. We indicated each other by function. We assigned each other nicknames. I was D-16, named for the sector of the mine where i conducted demolition operations. And then I saw my first match in the gladiator pits."
Hymnal's lips pressed into a thin line. The Priest stood off in a doorway behind the Council's podiums, out of sight. They were ordered to return to the Temple, but had refused, wishing to see the infamous meeting between the gladiator Megatronus and Iacon's high council. Their meeting with the Council several cycles earlier had not gone well, not that they were surprised. The old mechs reeked of impurities; greed and anger pungent in their fields like a bad aroma. Hymnal's sensitive electromagnetic field made it near impossible to stand near such volatile mechs and not twitch.
"That is where I first learned how life was for the lower castes that none of you ever take a nanoklik to consider. Each Cybertronian in that balcony has seen more Cybertronians die himself than the total of you in the rest of the gallery. Our lives are worthless!" Megatronus's voice was like thunder, able to shake into the spark of every mech and femme within the hall.
The lower caste mechs and femmes, who were all crammed into the upper balcony, roared along with their leader. A tap of one Council member's gavel quieted them down.
"Until… Until we decided we had worth. We, the lower castes. We, the bots who die in subsurface mills and factories creating all of the things that you up here take for granted. We learned that we were individuals by facing off against each other in the gladiator pits in Slaughter City and Kaon, and how did we know we were individuals?" there was a pause "We knew we were individuals because as we killed our opponents in the ring, we saw in their deaths the realization that they were individuals. And so we knew we were, too. In killing, we understood life. In being the most disposable of commodities - a gladiator, whose remains are thrown into a junkpile to be picked over and scavenged, the healthy pieces sold off to brokers in Iacon and Crystal City - in being disposable, we discovered that we had value. Someone should pay us for what we did. Someone would cheer when we killed, and roar in anger when we died."
Luna stepped up to Hymnal's side, the hybrid femme having only then arrived from the Hall of Records. "This. does not look good." She mumbled, pointed audios drooping as she ducked back slightly behind Hymnal. "So, so many Cybertronians…."
"He makes a fair point." Hymnal said softly, their voice barely a whisper.
"So if our lives had worth - even to other just as worthless as we were - then we had the right to names. And that is how the sequence of events started that led to me being here before you today. My friend Orion Pax, I thank you for helping our cause gain this platform; and to the High Council, I express my thanks for your time and attention." Megatronus finished and fell silent.
"The data pad!" Luna had called out before she even realised what she was doing. "We've kept our side of the bargain! Now return what you have stolen!"
Hymnal placed a servo on Luna's shoulder as everyone looked to them, the Council members looking angrily at Hymnal. Hymnal ignored them and gave Luna a long look. Luna glanced at them for a moment before narrowing her optics back at the gladiator from behind her visor. "Where is the data!?"
"Already returned to the Hall of Records," Megatronus said easily.
"W-wh… how?!" Before she could go further her HUD pings, alerting her that the data pad had been in fact returned, and the Hall's security returned to standby mode. "You crafty... I'm done here then… Until next we meet Hymnal, it was good seeing you in the frame for a change." With that, she strides away, trying her hardest to ignore all the stares piercing her back strut.
Hymnal's wings flared out a bit from where they had been pinned to their back at some of the stares following Luna, not liking the look in some of the mech's optics.
Luna refused to look back until she was long out of sight, letting off a shuddering vent as she grasped at her flat chassis. "How I am not offline from that, shall remain a mystery…"
Hymnal internally relaxed when the Council members began debating with Orion and Megatronus, drawing everyone's attention back to the topic at hand.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
The meeting ended badly, with an angry, riled up crowd, an angry Megatronus, a third of the Council members leaving with him, and leavin a sad, shocked Orion Pax… no… Optimus Prime,staring at the fountain in the Hall of Record's main lobby. "War… I've potentially started a war…"
Luna glanced to Hymnal. "No, I set this whole thing in motion, had I spotted him taking the data pad, he would never of had the leverage to hold that meeting."
"Both of you should stop blaming yourselves because self pity gets us nowhere" Hymnal said with a surprising amount of sternness. "Megatronus… Megatron has High Council members on his side now, and promises to overthrow Cybertron's Governing system by force if they don't comply. There has been bombings happening around Iacon since before the meeting, and even though he refuses his involvement, Megatron is the obvious instigator. Civilians are dying, a war has been going on for vorns now, we just refused to acknowledge it."
"Well it's here now… out in the open… Primus we're all going to the Pits…" Luna practically deflated, slumping down against the side of the fountain. "War… I… I… it's too dangerous… No, I can't let my flight instincts take in… none of us can…" She snapped, pushing herself back up. "I know my condition will mean I can't enlist, so I'll help from the sidelines Ori….. Optimus Prime…" She correct herself, it was so strange, her beta, now beyond that of the rank of an alpha, her wilder coding was screeching that it wasn't right, but the other half of her fully accepted it. "If you'll excuse me though, I need to go clear my helm." With that she strode off towards the lifts up to the upper levels, not even trusting her own shaking double jointed legs to get her up where she wished to be.
Hymnal watched her go, a frown on their face. They turned and looked towards the Prime, giving him a long look.
"As a Priest of Primus, I can only help you if you get the Matrix." they informed, "I cannot follow just any bot the Council declares a Prime into war."
Optimus just nodded. "I… understand, I did not expect you to anyway, could you, go keep Luna company? She seems most at ease with you besides that of Alpha Trion, but he is in discussion with the remaining members of the council at present. I believe her outburst at the hall has thrown her off kilter."
Hymnal said nothing, only nodded and walked off to find Luna.
Hymnal found Luna after only a few breems of searching, their first notion being to check areas where the Hybrid femme may of gone to calm herself. It had been luck when they had spotted Luna on one of the Hall's external balconies, the returned data pad in servos, and her optics darting across the screen in a way that would of made Hymnal dizzy if they would have tried to follow.
"Luna," they called in an even voice, walking up to her. They moved next to her, placing a servo on her arm and making her look at them. "Something seems to be troubling you, was the data pad damaged?"
Luna shook her helm, audios flapping with the motion. "No… No, not even a single chip on the chrome finish, I'm trying to find signs of tampering, Red Band data pads are designed to be impossible to download information off…. But somebot will always find away…. Around…. I knew it… Primus I'm glad I didn't let this thing touch the others! I have to alert Alpha!" She jolted, pulling herself away to prepare a quick dash to the closest communication hub. "Screw the council, he has to know about this!"
Hymnal let out a small huff, before schooling their features. They opted to follow behind, but at a much slower pace. "Why your sudden hurry?"
Luna skidded to a stop at their words, looking back over her shouldplate and shaking the tablet around like a loon. "There's a virus! Someone planted a type of Gilma Virus on it, yes I know it's a weird name, but Primus is it a nasty one, if this thing had just been 'put back' as said, it would have latched onto all those around it and had transmitted all of the data on those to an outside source! This whole thing, that's why Megatronus only stole one data pad, this virus would've given him access to all of them! Well tough luck for that glitch!" She exclaimed, continuing to wave the data pad around. "I've got to alert Alpha! Now that this attempt has failed, there will be more!"
Hymnal nodded "Go on then, I plan on returning to the Temple soon." they said, their wings shifting.
Luna deflated slightly at the news. "Oh…. Ok…. Well I guess you have your duties too… hug?" She enquired, opening her arms out. "Surely the High Priest of Primus is allowed to give a mere lowly hybrid a farewell embrace no?"
A smile curled at the edges of Hymnal's lips as they allowed a moment of emotion to show as they gave their friend a long hug. Their wings came around to wrap around the both of them for a moment.
"I shall see you soon, Luna" they said into Luna's audio.
"If I don't offline from a spark attack first…. With this war nonsense brewing and all…" She patted them on the shoulderplate with her free servo. "You got those Primus enriched crystals on yah? Just remembered you said you were gonna bring some?"
"Ah, yes" Hymnal hummed, pulling back a bit so they could reach into a special subspace to pull out a bundle of enriched crystals, each wrapped in its own mesh cloth to prevent any accidents. They handed over the crystals, "Be sure to get these processed as soon as possible."
Luna nodded in confirmation, holding the mesh cloth close to her chassis. "Don't worry, you know I'm not one for procrastination…. Unless it's a medical exam that is." She joked.
Hymnal chuckled, "well then, I'll just have to suffocate you again with my chassis to get you in there more often," they joked back.
Luna felt her faceplates turn a blue very similar to her secondary colour. "T-T-T-That won't be necessary!" She exclaimed, waving her three digit servos in front of her, barely keeping the data pad and wrapped crystal in her grasp.
A sly smirk crept onto the side of Hymnal's lips, their wings flaring out behind them in a very flirty, very UN-priestley way to tease the femme.
Luna felt a sliver of fear drop through her. "Meep."
The smirk dropped off Hymnal's face, going back to their normal stoic look, and their wings settled back down. "My apologies" they said evenly, after hearing Luna's response.
Luna shook her helm. "No, no, it's ok, you just… threw me off guard there, didn't think you could be all flirty like that Oh, and don't worry, I won't tell a sod about a certain Priest's cheekier side~" Luna practically purred the last part, jokingly bouncing her audios as she tilted her helm to the side and rocked forwards slightly.
Hymnal's stoic look softened a bit as they smiled. "I doubt a spark would believe you otherwise. I'm not well known for showing any form of emotion."
Luna pondered this, or at least looked to before she shrugged. "Fair point, then again, I did over hear once that the council wanted to throw me in a 'safe place' Which involved padded walls and stasis cuffs, suddenly saying you have a flirty side may not bode well for others view of my sanity."
"I'd like to see them try and get you in there, Luna. Your peds would go so far up their afts they'd taste the ground you've walked on." Hymnal huffed before muttering, "then we'd see how far I can shove one of my magnets down their throats."
Luna chuckled. "One, I don't think very far if my hoof is already jammed up there, and two, that's if they can even catch me, you likely won't find a fem as slippery as me even if you tried…. Being a hybrid has some up sides." She added, moving the crystals to her other servo so her free one could run down the layer of metallic nano fibres which covered her protoform and which could be clearly seen by her limited armour.
The Priest smiled, "You could always stay with me in the Temple if they ever did. Aristocrats are not allowed within the inner temple."
The hybrid just chuckled. "I appreciate the offer, but only if you're willing to be overrun with data pads, you know I could never leave my beloved information behind!"
"There are many unused corridors in the depth of Cybertron, we can find a suitable room for storage." Hymnal thought for a moment before speaking again, "with this coming catastrophe, I'd deem it wise to start storing data in the Temple; however, the general public will grow restless if they found out we were preparing for war, even if it's worst case scenario. What is left of the Council is still trying to divert Megatron away from war, if we start packing up, the public might panic."
Luna nodded as Hymnal spoke, running her free servo along her audio as she contemplated. "If war is declared, I'll send you copies of every data pad in the Hall then join you, guess that means I'll be your new temple mate, just, don't expect me to study the religious texts, ok? It's not really my thing I'll admit." She declared, rubbing the back of her helm in embarrassment.
"It's not my Primus-given duty to force religion on anyone," Hymnal said, "so you don't have to worry."
Luna waved them off good naturedly. "I know, I know, now, get going Hymnal, I've kept you here long enough. With all the crazy scrap that's been happening in the last… single orn… Primus it feels like way too much has happened this orn for it all to fit!" She exclaimed. "Well, I have to alert Alpha about this virus, safe travel to the temple Hymnal! And don't get hurt ok?! It'll all be going to Pits out there soon enough!" She called, before sprinting away down the corridor, disappearing from view behind a wall, yet her heavy pede falls were still easily heard for a good duration until even they were cut off by the distance.
Hymnal stood for a moment to think before turning and walking out of the Hall and back to their temple.
(AN: (Silver) woo the War kicks off in style
(Moon): Reminds me of a domino effect
(Silver): yeah, Luna is like the epitome of Murphy's law
(Moon): Very true, the Universe seems to have a bone to pick with her, wonder why?
(Silver): not a clue, lol
(Moon): Or we have plans~
Bigpinkstudios: (silver) i like your idea :3 if you find me on DA feel free to note me X3
Till all are one!