A/N: Sorry for the long wait guys! I've been so busy lately with the vacation and the move and the job hunt. Please pray for me, I really need a job and am having difficulty.
Anyways, I know I said in my update of A World Apart that this story and It's a Prime Adventure would be trading places, but as it turns out, I got this update done first. I've been working on it while Sci works on our co-op chapter for IAPA, you see, so that's how come I was able to keep the order the same. I will tell you that there will be at least one time the order is different in the future though. I cannot tell you why, as that would be a bit of a spoiler and I don't want to spoil it for you. ^.^
As another note, I have a poll up on my profile now for this story. I have been on the fence for a while now about something. My initial intention with this story was that Mina would remain human and somehow gain the lifespan of a Cybertronian. It would be a double first for me if I did that, as this is my first writing a character who's never heard of the Bots before as my main character and it would also be my first time not having the main character turn Cybertronian. My muse has been nagging me to change her eventually, though and I have been…requested to do so by a reader, though I will not go through with all of that person's suggestion. If she changes, she will not be paired with OP, just saying. He has Elita, and Ironhide has Chromia. They are off-limits for Mina.
Anyways, the poll is whether you guys think I should change her or not. And, if I do, who you think I should pair her with, if anybot. If I change her, I will decide her exact design when it happens. Choices for pairings are as follows:
Ratchet-my preference, as you all know, but I thought I'd give you guys a chance to choose
Wheeljack-he is in my top five favorite bots
Jazz-one of my favs who is not already paired
Sunstreaker-please don't torture me, I'm just trying to be open-minded
Sideswipe-he's not as bad as Sunstreaker
Any other suggestion, which you will have to make me aware of-most preferably a mech
No bot
And, of course the option of keeping her human.
If you guys don't give me input, my muse will inevitably win, which would be fine with me, but I'm trying for some input here.
Scripture of the Update:
"Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil." ~Proverbs 4:26-27 New King James version
Author's Replies:
Mikaela the Cat: Hehe. I'm 20 and still do things like that from time to time. Ah, I see. We had a place called Book World back in Chillicothe. I don't know about here yet as I have yet to venture downtown, where I'll be headed tomorrow. Glad you liked the chapter! :)
RintinDestiny: Stereotypical? Have I ever been that? ;P Lol. That'd just be boring! Glad you like it so far! :)
Sci-Fifan95: Indeed. Lol. She'd hurt herself if she met Omega Supreme. Lol. Glad you liked it, bro. :)
Vivian Hale: It's a really long fic…lol. Jazz pull a Prowl? Probably just cuz he wants ya ta pass yer classes. As we all do. :) Glad you liked it. And capes are fun! Sometimes I'm tempted to try and use a blanket like a parachute, like Baby Mario in Yoshi's Island when he is Super Baby Mario. I've never actually done so, as it may not work and I am fond of living. XD
KayleeChiara: I will work on that. This one is actually a little over six thousand words. :D I'm glad you like it. :)
Luna Uchiha666: Thanks! I am glad you like it. :)
crystal bot: Well, the misspelled 'please' is better, but as I said, I am not going to ignore Elita's existence, as you will see in this chapter. I will not now, or ever, write an OP/OC fanfic. OP has Elita, that's that. I do not understand your hate for her. *frowns and tilts her head in perplexity* Anyways, I always keep cannon pairings, which are OP/Elita and Ironhide/Chromia. If you want an OP/OC fanfic, feel free to read Through a Cybercat's Optics-it is perhaps the single best OP/OC fanfic out there and the only one I could ever bare to read. Or, write one yourself.
TransFanFreak101: Glad you liked it!
Anyways, finally to the chapter! Enjoy!
Chapter 5: A Way to Communicate
Journal Entry #33: Almost a Month?
It has been fourteen solar cycles since I met Alpha Trion. I am calling them solar cycles, because I was certain by now that if I said days I would be wrong. Day, as I know the word, means twenty-four hours. And I am now one hundred percent sure there are more hours in a solar cycle here than back on Earth. So using Earth time measurements doesn't make much sense. So do I know if I've been here a month or more? Well, I've been writing twice each cycle, and had transferred all my journal entries to my notebook when I realized the laptop battery was running low. And I had written twenty eight entries since the cycle of Alpha Trion's visit. Add the eight I had written before, counting the cycle of, and taking into account the first four were the same day/cycle then that means I've been here seventeen solar cycles.
Seventeen solar cycles that are longer than a day on Earth. That means it's been almost a month, or has been a month. I couldn't really know for certain, since my internal sense of time was not the best to begin with and has been completely thrown off by this new time. I had no idea what to rename any of my sense of time beyond the whole solar cycle thing.
Anyway. During this past…time period…whatever, during this past time period I have managed to learned a few things from listening to Orion and Jazz talk whenever the silver mech came for a visit. I hear Orion mention somebot named Megatronus a lot during their conversations. I wasn't sure what, but something about this mech troubled Orion and Jazz, though it was harder to tell with Jazz. I wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing though.
I also learned that beyond Alpha Trion and these two, no one else knew about me. I was able to figure that out by paying close attention to their body language. I had walked over to them while they were talking one cycle and had discovered they were talking about me. Jazz had mentioned something called the High Council before Orion shook his head and lifted me. He seemed concerned and his hold had seemed protective. Whatever he said had Jazz agreeing with him.
I really wanted to figure out how to communicate with these guys.
~Mina Castina
I yawned and stretched, cracking my knuckles and attracting the attention of Orion, who was currently sitting at the desk. He always gave me an odd look whenever I cracked something and I always just grinned at him. That's just what I did now, grin at him. And then I closed my notebook-turned-journal and set it and my pen down with my other stuff before walking over to where Orion was working. I peered at the pad-thing that he was currently working on and tried to make sense of what he was doing.
He talked to me as he worked, so I supposed he was telling me what he was doing, but I couldn't understand a word of it. Nor could I understand the writing on the pad. After a while I sighed and shrugged, signaling to Orion that I had understood absolutely nothing. It seemed shrugging was the universal sign of not knowing or having no clue. I sat down and leaned against the arm he had laying on the desk. I heard him sigh as well before he continued his work in silence. This seemed to be our morning routine since I started waking up earlier than I had been. Or I assumed I was waking up earlier anyway, since he wasn't leaving before or just after I finished writing in my journal.
Usually I would sit against his arm and nap a little for a seemingly set amount of time before Orion would leave to do whatever he does during the cycles. So when there was a knock at his door, successfully startling my almost sleep self, and he got up to answer it, it was something new. We didn't usually get visitors in the mornings, so it was confusing.
~Normal PoV~
Orion sighed as his attempts at explaining the situation to Mina failed once again. He didn't really expect any different, but he supposed he had just fallen into the habit. Just like she had fallen into the habit of resting against his servo after giving up on understanding him. She looked so forlorn when she did so that he would sigh as well. They both wanted to be able to communicate, that was for sure.
Jazz did say he'd try to find someone who could help, he thought to himself.
Orion was surprised when there was a knock on the door and he hesitated just long enough to make sure Mina wasn't freaked out. She seemed perfectly fine, though she looked up at him with some confusion and curiosity in her organic optics. He was curious as well, so he got up to find out who was visiting. When he opened the door, he was relieved to see that it was only Jazz.
"Hey OP," he said.
"Hello Jazz," Orion greeted, allowing the silver mech entrance.
The silver mech walked in and grinned when he saw the organic sitting on the desk, who had put her visor on and then taken it off when she realized it was Jazz. "And hello to you, Minah," he said, waving his hand at her as she often did to him when he showed up.
Mina smiled and waved her hand back, saying something that was most likely a greeting in her language. Despite the language barrier, the two had somehow managed to communicate better than even Orion could communicate with her. Then again, understanding other cultures was part of Jazz's job.
"So what brings here in this jour, Jazz?" Orion asked.
"I just thought I'd let you know that I found some bots that may be able to help," Jazz grinned. "They're old friends of mine."
"That's great," Orion said. "But I must be going to the Hall of Records. I cannot shirk my duties."
"I agree," Jazz said. "That's why you will do that, and I will take Minah to my friends."
Orion was unsure about this idea. "Are you sure your friends can be trusted?" he asked. "I do not want to put Minah at risk. She is our friend, you know."
"Of course they can!" Jazz said. "They would never harm a living being such as Minah!"
Orion was still unconvinced, but he had no choice it seemed. For with that, Jazz turned and tried to communicate to Mina that they were goin somewhere.
~Mina's PoV~
I watched and listened as Jazz and Orion spoke. They said my name a couple times, which led me to believe they were talking about me and by Jazz's grin it as good news. Orion looked a little concerned, but Jazz didn't seem worried at all when he turned to me and began motioning to me, him then the door. I took it that meant we were going somewhere. He also pointed to my laptop and iPod, so I guessed he wanted me to bring those for some reason.
"Ok," I said, nodding to be sure Jazz knew I understood.
Orion said something to Jazz again as I walked over to get the two objects. I also grabbed my bag, which was empty due to the fact that I had taken everything out already, and stuck the two objects in it. I also put my notebook, sketchpad and some pencils in it, deciding that they may come in handy for me. It was surprising how much lighter the backpack was when I simply left out my text book and the binder I had had for that class.
"I guess I'll see you later then," I told Orion, even though I knew he couldn't understand me.
He still looked unsure, seemingly unconvinced by Jazz that whatever he had in mind was a good idea. I wasn't entirely sure myself, but I trusted Jazz as much as I trusted Orion. And if Orion was sure it was a bad idea, he would be doing more to argue, wouldn't he? I gave him a small wave as I stepped onto Jazz's hand. He waved back, clearly still unsure about what the gesture meant. He said something that from his tone might have been along the lines of 'be careful' and then Jazz responded with a cheerful maybe 'don't worry'.
Once we exited the apartment and parted ways with Orion, Jazz covered me with his other hand and I placed my visor back over my eyes. I then settled down for the ride, however long it would end up being. I had my back pack laying on top of me and I rested my head on my hands and one leg on my other. I didn't really have anything else to do, so I paid close attention to where we were going. We went left when we exited the building, which I could tell when we did by the way the air felt. Then we went straight for a while, I actually counted all the way to two hundred before we made a turn to the right. It was about half that when we made a left turn and then about three hundred counts when we made a right turn.
As we walked, I shifted every now and then and cracked my knuckles once in a while. I noted, with amusement, that whenever my knuckles made the loud popping sound, Jazz would twitch and loosen his grip again. It was almost funny how the mechs seemed to think I was hurt whenever that happened. Touching too though. I couldn't help but giggle a bit in my amusement the third time Jazz twitched because I cracked my knuckles. I wondered vaguely if it reminded them of something breaking or something.
About a hundred counts after our last turn, we finally came to a stop and Jazz knocked on a door. From the other side I could hear clanging and then what sounded like an explosion followed by more banging and clanging before the door opened to let out a bunch of smoke. I waved it away and coughed a little, leading Jazz to lift me above the smoke. In front of us stood a mech that stood taller than Jazz, but shorter than how tall Orion was, and was covered in ashes. I could make out that he was white, with an orange and a green stripe. He also had what seemed to be a mask across the bottom half of his face and fins on either side of his face that flashed as he and Jazz spoke. Like the three I have met, he had blue eyes.
After a few minutes, or whatever the equivalent was, another bot showed up, this one clearly a girl. She had red armor and blue eyes like the others. I was starting to wonder if every bot had blue eyes. After all, every bot I had seen so far had blue eyes. After another brief exchange and it seemed that the smoke had mostly cleared, the three bots entered the building, Jazz holding me in his hands. They didn't converse anymore until we were in a back room and when they were done, Jazz gently set me on a surface and removed his hands. I could hear the sharp intake of air from the other two as they stared at me in momentary shock.
"Um, hi?" I said, waving my hand, feeling quite self-conscious, even as I removed my backpack.
Jazz waved back and the mech covered in ash waved back, looking curious, while the female just looked at me in confusion. The unknown mech suddenly got really, really close to me, his face literally right in front of me as he spoke in clicks and whirls, his fins lighting up brightly enough that I knew I would be blinded if not for my visor. I backed up and ended up falling over when he poked me. That led to something only a bit surprising. The mech backed up with an exclamation of some of kind, and I had the undeniable urge to laugh, though I couldn't tell you why. I did prevent myself from laughing though, which wasn't hard considering how confused I was.
~Normal PoV~
"Oh no! I broke it!" Wheeljack exclaimed, reeling back from the organic in shock. To his surprise, Jazz just laughed his helm off and he glared at the silver mech.
"I do believe it is just fine," Aerial stated from where she was looking at the organic as it poked its head up to look at Wheeljack in confusion.
"Really? Marvelous!" Wheeljack said, back to his cheerful self immediately. "But, where did you find such a specimen?" He turned to look at Jazz, who had just sobered.
"A friend of mine has been sheltering her for some time now," Jazz replied. "We came across her a few mega-cycles ago. We've figured out that her name is Minah. Other than that we can't communicate much of anything." He watched as the young organic leaned on her small limbs and looked between the three of them. He knew she was trying to make sense of what they were saying, because she seemed to really want to understand from what he could tell.
"So that's why you ask me here," Aerial said. "To figure out how to communicate with her better. But why, Wheeljack?"
"I figured he could create a sort of translation device with your help," Jazz said. "So we don't have to teach every mech or femme she comes across right away."
"No problem," Wheeljack said happily, his fins flashing brightly. "I'll just need the basics of her language."
"Alright, Aerial, that means you're up," Jazz said.
"Wheeljack!" a new voice sounded through the building as the door burst open.
"Oh, hey Ratchet!" Wheeljack said happily.
"What have you blown up this time?" Ratchet demanded as he stormed in, the noise and clear anger in him spooking Mina enough so that she squeaked and hid behind that bag of hers. How she thought it would protect her from Ratchet was beyond Aerial, but she didn't pretend to understand her reasoning.
The squeak was enough to draw Ratchet's attention from Wheeljack and he turned his glare to the source. His glare didn't remain as he caught sight of the small being hiding beneath and even smaller object. His optics widened and for a moment Wheeljack thought the old medic's jaw was going to fall off.
Jazz chuckled. "You might want to close that doc, before you find yourself swallowing ash," he said in amusement.
Ratchet turned to glare at Jazz, the cultural investigator not even being phased by it. "Where did you find it?" he asked in a deadly calm voice.
"As I told the others, a friend and I came across her about a few mega-cycles ago," Jazz said. "We've been trying to figure out how to communicate with her."
Ratchet paused. "How do you it's a 'her'?" he asked curiously, gazing back at the being with curiosity. She seemed to shrink at his attention and he frowned.
"She just seems like a femme," Jazz said. "Her name is Minah, that much we know."
"But that's all we know until we figure out her language," Wheeljack supplied.
Ratchet sent another glare Wheeljack's way. "You aren't off the hook," he said. "If the High Council find out you're doing blowing things up, it won't just be your loss."
"Don't worry Ratchet," Wheeljack said. "I know that I'm not supposed to be doing this when I'm in the medical caste, but I won't let you take the blame."
Ratchet gave him a wary look as Wheeljack just looked on happily. Honestly, he had no problem with Wheeljack's interest in science. It was part of the medical field, just Wheeljack held more interest in the kind of science that usually the other science castes took on, with only some input from the medical caste. He disliked the caste system cause it kept bots like Wheeljack from reaching their full potential and sometimes even happiness. Shaking his helm, he turned his attention back to the small organic, his gaze softening when he saw the nervousness in her frame. It was probably overwhelming for her to be surrounded by four bots, three of which she didn't really know.
"So," Ratchet said. "You brought her here to find a way to communicate?"
"That's right," Jazz said. "You see, Aerial here is a linguist, so I thought she might be able to help. And then Wheeljack could make a translator device or something."
"Well, by all means," Ratchet said. He couldn't deny that he was curious as to where this organic came from.
Aerial took the following silence to mean she could make her attempts now. She leaned down to eye level with Mina, who looked at her from behind her visor. Aerial tried different dialects, but when it didn't work, the small organic seemed to get an idea, probably sparked from Jazz's insistence that she brought her electronics, and pulled said devices out of her bag. Aerial scanned each one and her optics brightened with understanding before she began talking to the organic in her language.
The three mechs just stared as Mina started emitting a noise that seemed like an organic form of laughter. It was shortly after that Aerial gave the three the information she had gathered, allowing them in on the conversation.
~Mina's PoV~
I was both surprised and relieved when the female bot started speaking English. When she gave her name I was happy to understand more than just that part of her sentence and I told her that I found it beautiful. When she relayed the same sentiment about my name, I couldn't help but giggle a little. Then she informed me that Orion and Jazz couldn't have done that because it wasn't part of their caste. Then she let the mechs in on the secret of communication. The white bot with fins had immediately exclaimed something akin to 'eureka!' and got to work on something at a table nearby.
Well, someone had a eureka moment, I thought to myself, watching as he worked enthusiastically.
"So, now we can actually talk," Jazz said.
"About time too," I said. "I never was good at charades."
"Charades?" the large white and red one that had entered in an angry fashion asked.
"It's a game where you're not allowed to speak and have to try to communicate what you mean through gestures and stuff," I explained. "Some people are really good at it, but I'm not." I shook my head.
"I see," the mech said.
"This is Ratchet, by the way," Jazz said, putting a hand on the mech's shoulder, earning a glare from him. "He's from the med caste."
"Caste?" I asked.
The bots then explain the caste system to me as well as they could. Apparently, when they were born, or created or whatever, they were immediately given a caste and given guardians from said caste to train them up in the job. Jazz was a cultural investigator in the investigation caste while Aerial was in the linguistics caste and Orion was a data clerk. Ratchet and Wheeljack were both in the med caste, which meant they were like doctors. Wheeljack held more interest in other sciences though, but because of the caste system, he was stuck as a medic.
"That isn't right," I said, looking up at the bots with a look of annoyance. I shook my head. "Shouldn't he have a say in what he does? I mean, it's his life, isn't it?"
Ratchet sighed. "I do not how it is like on your planet, but here we do not have that freedom," he said, giving his comrade a regretful look.
I shook my head. "It's not a whole lot different back on Earth," I said. "There are many places on Earth where people are not given the freedom to choose either. Where I live…lived, though it was different. We had a say in what we do. It was, is, a freedom many take for granted. And many died to give us that freedom and still die to protect it." I sighed sadly.
"So, to the point we really need to know," Jazz said. "What are you doing here?"
I looked at the silver mech and sighed, taking off my visor and staring at it. "That, I do not know any better than you," I said. "I was just walking home from work a couple days before my birthday, there was a loud boom, a flash of blue and next thing I know I'm waking up in a giant metal city." I looked up at Jazz, pleading with my eyes that he'd believe me.
He nodded. "I just have one more question," he said. "What's a birthday? Is that like a creation day?"
"Um," I said. "Possibly. It's basically the day, er cycle?, that you were born in the year, or whatever the equivalent is here." I tilted my head. "It basically the day you celebrate when you came into existence and living through however much of your life you've lived through by then."
"It is like a creation day then," Ratchet said. "But it sounds like it is more important to your species than ours."
I nodded. "It's very important to most humans," I said. "It's basically the day you go 'yay, I survived another year of this crazy thing I call a life' without getting looked at weirdly." I chuckled some. "And usually it's also celebrated with gifts and special parties. I was supposed to go to this concert this year with some friends, but you see how that turned out. Instead I got a trip to another planet." I shrugged.
"Concert?" Aerial asked.
"Yeah, it's basically where a bunch of people gather to listen to live music," I said. "It's pretty great, but I hadn't ever been to one before, so some friends of mine were going to treat me."
"Music?" Jazz asked with a grin. "That sounds cool. You got any samples?"
"Well," I said and pointed to my iPod. "I have a lot of music on that, but it's dead and I don't know how to recharge it without the usual way of doing so. I don't have the cord that connects it to that, which is also out of battery power. So they're both pretty useless right now…"
"We can fix that," Jazz grinned. "Wheeljack can take a look at it."
I gave him a wary look as I stuck my visor on top of my head. "Are you sure he won't just blow them up? I have valuable stuff on that computer," I said. "Well, valuable to me anyway. And music kept me sane those first couple of cycles before the battery died."
"Hey!" Wheeljack exclaimed from where he was working. "I'll have you know, I am really good at this stuff."
"Ok, ok," I said, holding my hands up in surrender.
Our conversation was cut short when my stomach growled, quite loudly. Every bot in the room look at me and I rubbed my head sheepishly.
"What is that?" Jazz asked.
"My stomach," I said. "It means I need food. Nutrition, of some kind. That stuff you've been bringing has worked fairly well, Jazz, though I gotta tell ya, it doesn't taste very good."
Jazz chuckled and pulled some of said substance out of…somewhere and handed it to me as I made a face. I then took a bite and made another face.
"So that's what that expression's about," Jazz said.
"Yup, horrible taste," I said, sticking my tongue out. "But it keeps me from starving. And I don't feel like I'm missing any important nutrients so far. I wonder what this stuff is made of…" I looked at the bar curiously.
"It is made of…" Ratchet replied to my musing with a lengthy list of what it was made of and I tried very hard to pay attention to him, but he trailed off in his own language and lost me.
"I have no idea what you are saying," I said, sighing.
"I apologize, our knowledge of your language is limited," Ratchet said.
"Understandable," I said. "Just like I will likely never be able to speak yours. Humans can't really make noises like those." Then a thought occurred to me. "So what's gonna happen to me now?" I looked at Jazz. "No one's gonna like…experiment on me or anything, are they?"
It was Ratchet that a response came from. It sounded like he growled. "Absolutely not," he said. "We won't allow it. You are a sentient being, not a…" He said something in his language.
"I believe the term you are looking for is 'lab rat'," I said.
Ratchet sighed and pressed his finger to his forehead. "Yes, that," he said. "Point is, you are safe with us."
"And others?" I asked. "How do you I know you're government won't want to do stuff like that? Would they see me as threat?"
"Probably," Jazz replied. "But Orion and I already discussed this and the High Council will not learn of your presence here."
"High Council?" I asked.
"The High Council is the ruling body of Cybertron," Ratchet explained. "They're the ones who give us our castes and tell us what we can and can't do."
I huffed a little. "I don't like them," I said. "They shouldn't be controlling your lives like that."
"Even if the High Council agreed with you," Jazz said. "They have to answer to the Prime."
"Prime? I take it you aren't talking about prime numbers," I said. I got the mental image of a bunch of bots taking orders from prime numbers that ran around with stick arms and legs and large eyeballs and had to restrain my laughter.
"Huh?" Aerial asked.
"It's math," I said. "Sorry, I was a math tutor back home, I might have a tendency to make references to it. Prime numbers are numbers that can't be divided evenly, such as one, two, three, five, seven and more. I could go on a lecture about it, but I'm sure there are more important things."
Jazz chuckled. "The Prime I'm talking about is the leader of all Cybertronians," he said. "He's the one who put the caste system in place well before any of our time."
"Ok, that makes a lot more sense in my head now," I said. "I think I understand now. So, is it normal for bots from so many castes to be friends?"
"No," Ratchet said. "This kind of friendship is often discouraged and anything beyond is punishable by law."
"So like, if Aerial and Jazz liked each other more than as friends, they could be put in jail?" I asked, gaining a weird look on my face.
"That, or offlined," Jazz said.
I staggered back a bit, shaking my head. "Now that's just wrong," I said, waving my arms in front of me. "That's just like the idiots back on Earth who think a rich person can't marry a poor person no matter how they feel about each other. Ugh! What is wrong with the universe when love takes a backseat to politics or money?" I sighed and face palmed.
Jazz chuckled. "So I take it things like caste never mattered to you," he said.
"Even the ones back on Earth," I said. "It's not as bad as it seems to be here, but our society has its own form of castes. Some look down on others and others just don't care and some believe we should all be equal. I just always said screw it cause I never fit into any of those groups anyways and besides, I don't think I would want to hate for no better reason than someone's not like me. If everyone was the same, life would be boring!"
"Exactly!" Wheeljack exclaimed from where he was working and listening in.
Ratchet rolled his eyes at the two of us as I grinned at the finned mech. Jazz laughed loudly and Aerial simply looked unsure. As they all were still reacting to my speech, I calmly cracked my knuckles with a loud popping noise coming from all four of my fingers on one hand and three of them on the other. The sound had every bot looking at me in concern and I noted a little extra concern from Ratchet, which made sense seeing as how he was a doctor.
"Why do you do that?" Jazz asked.
"Oh," I said. "I'm just cracking my knuckles. You see, some liquid that usually floats around in the blood stream sometimes get caught in the joints, which can be quite uncomfortable, so to alleviate the feeling I crack whatever joint it happens in as that releases the stuff back into the bloodstream and its movement is what causes the popping noise. As long as I don't do it too hard, it doesn't hurt anything. It usually is in the knuckles for me," I indicated where my fingers met my hand, "but it can happen anywhere there's a joint. My toes and feet will sometimes crack, but not as loudly. I've also had it in my wrists, shoulders, neck and back." I indicated each while I explained. "I have heard that it is a sign of dehydration, but I am not one hundred percent sure as I'm not really a medical knowledgeable person." I shrugged and cracked my knuckles again, though the pops weren't as loud this time.
"It sounds like you're breaking something," Jazz said, even as I shivered as a tingling ran through me and Ratchet gave a thoughtful 'hmm'.
"Trust me, you'll know if I break something," I said, sighing. "Broken bones are very painful. The sound is a bit different, more like a cracking instead of popping. A dislocated joint might sound similar, but if I did that, you would also hear me cry, not just a disturbing sound."
"You know a lot about breaking things in your body," Ratchet said, pulling something out of nowhere and handed it to me.
I was surprised to find that it was water, but grateful as I took an experimental sip. "I broke my arm before in the past," I said. "It was a painful experience." I rubbed at my right arm, remembering how painful those weeks in a sling were. "It didn't help any either, that the doctors didn't put it in a proper sling for my broken elbow. The doctor who finally got it all right called the others all incompetent idiots."
Ratchet chuckled. "I like that guy," he said.
"I did too," I said. "Next time we needed a doctor, we didn't waste time with the others."
Jazz chuckled that time. "Sounds smart," he said.
We continued to talk for what seemed like several hours, but I wasn't sure the precise amount of time since I had no way of telling. They told me more about what life was like on Cybertron and I told them what my life was back on Earth. I found out that the amusement park looking place I had seen from Orion's window was indeed an amusement park. I also discovered that none of the bots in this room had ever been there before. Apparently those of their castes just never saw it.
"You mean your caste affects whether you can go to an amusement park or not?" I asked in surprise.
"That's right, little femme," Jazz said and I made an odd look again.
"Huh," I said. "Amusement parks aren't the cheapest places to go back on Earth, but anyone can go if they can get the money. Even I've been to one and I was what would be considered an outcast."
"Outcast? But you're so nice," Wheeljack said as he walked up with a tiny little device in his hand.
I sighed and kicked at the ground. "I was not very popular back home," I said. "I never conformed to the social norms, so many didn't like me, because I was different. People don't like what's different, it doesn't matter if you're nice or not, if you didn't believe or acted like they did, they didn't like you. Because I wasn't ever afraid to be myself, I kinda made myself an outcast. I had few friends and never really fit in anywhere, because most people around my area looked down on me for my….eccentricities, which means differences basically. Like a lot different."
"Similar to how castes don't typically socialize with each other," Ratchet observed. He looked around the room before back at the organic. "You have friends here, Mina."
"Yeah," Jazz said. "The four of us and Orion are your friends now."
I smiled. "Thanks," I said, feeling genuinely happy now that we could communicate.
"Anyway, I am finished," Wheeljack said and handed the tiny device down to me. I took it in my palm and stared at it. There were two pieces, one that looked like a necklace and another that appeared to be an earpiece. "Put this one around your neck and the other on your audio and it should act as a translating device. If it works that is."
"One way to find out," I said. I paused then. "Are you sure it won't blow up? Cause, despite everything, I'm quite fond of living."
"Um," Wheeljack didn't look completely sure.
"Perhaps we should wait until you have tested it," Ratchet said, taking the device from me.
"I suppose," Wheeljack said and he looked really disappointed.
"Don't worry Wheeljack," I said. "I'm sure you can find a way to make sure it won't explode without attaching it to my head!"
"Yeah, you're right, thanks Mina!" Wheeljack said happily and I grinned as he practically skipped back over to his work table.
"Anyway, Orion should be here soon," Jazz said. "I sent him a comm. when he got off his shift so he would know where to find us."
"And I can finally talk with the mech I've been living with!" I said happily. I paused and blinked at the amused looks of those around me. "You, anyone from back home would take that the completely wrong way."
That caused Aerial and Ratchet to look at me in confusion, but Jazz just burst out laughing.
Journal Entry #34 New Friends
Finally!
I could not tell you how refreshing it was to spend a day talking with those around me without us all guessing at what each other was saying. When I told the mechs and single femme this I got a mix of understanding and amusement. All of them were amused, because I seemed to have a way of saying things in ways that will amuse anyone. Well, Ratchet was hard to tell, as if he was amused he hid it well, but I had a feeling the mech was always like that.
Anyway, apparently my comment about how cracking my joints could be a sign of dehydration, Ratchet had performed a minor medical scan on me and saw my body was indeed trying to make up for lack of enough water in my system, along with lack of some other nutrients that we would have to work together to figure out what they are. Hence why he had pulled water out of his subspace-so he called it.
Subspace-apparently a 'pocket' of some kind that every bot possessed, but could only access their own 'pocket' despite it not being physically attached to their frames. Apparently it could hold any number of things with no known space limit. The only thing he said they couldn't put it was living beings. Supposedly some bot accidentally put a retro-rabbit in their subspace once and when it came back out only seconds later, it was suddenly sick and soon died.
I think he decided never to tell me of animals dying again after hearing my sob of 'poor bunny'. Well, once he knew how come I called a retro-rabbit a bunny. Who knew our animals were so alike yet so different!
Wheeljack and Ratchet both asked me endless questions about humans and other life on earth. I was perfectly happy giving them answers as they answered every question I asked.
Until they asked me how humans reproduced.
I don't think my face had ever been that red before in my life.
I think I gave Ratchet a heart attack as he started freaking out when he noticed my drastic rise in temperature and the sudden concentration of blood in my face.
It was only made worse when Orion walked in to find the medic hovering over me.
My roommate was not pleased.
Until he figured out Ratchet was only concerned over my well-being because of sudden changes in my temperature and face color.
Then he started fusing as well.
That is, until I finally spoke up and said I was fine and advised the two guilty mechs to never ask me about human reproduction again. Or any kind of reproduction actually, as humans were very sensitive about the subject.
Then I realized a small detail I had forgotten. I had to retract what I had said, but said I would only tell Ratchet since he was a doctor and only because I just realized that I had an issue.
That one just couldn't wait, so Ratchet chased all the others out of the room for me to explain a lot just for us to figure out some solution to my dilemma. After all, I didn't want to bleed all over Orion's apartment…
God, why'd I have to be a girl?
Ratchet was actually disturbed and concerned over the fact that the loss of the life blood was normal for females of my kind. That opened up a whole other can of worms.
I just told him it was woman's curse and left it at that.
I hope I never have to have that conversation again…
~Mina Castina