The Diego Diaries: Shadow Box 31 (Edited for boo-boos) :D
-0-The next orn here, there and everywhere
*Knock knock* Enter.
"Hi. About time you came by. We were feeling abandoned."
Ratchet grinned at his fathers-in-law as they sat at their dining table finishing breakfast. "Aw. Poor sparklings. Want to sit on my lap?" Ratchet asked as he pulled out a chair.
"Fork her over," Alor said with a knowing gaze.
Ratchet popped his hold and pulled Hero out handing her off to her doting Grannies. Of course, they didn't know they were 'grannies' but that was beside the point. As Alor exclaimed over a brightly smiling Hero, the door opened again. Ravel and Tie Down entered with smiles.
"Pull up a chair, Tie, Ravie," Blackjack said with a grin. "You might even get to hold the sparkling if you're lucky. I have hope myself."
Ravel chuckled and sat along with Tie Down. "Where's Ironhide, son?" he asked Ratchet.
"He's getting the hoodlums to day care. He's going to meet us for the conferences," Ratchet replied.
They would chat away until it was time to go, then walk as a group to the underground trains that would take them to Praxus, Orion and their conferences.
-0-At the same time
They ambled from the Youngling Day School and made their shambling way to the underground train. They reached the entrance to the Metroplex Station #2 that was just outside the Tower District where they had left Sunspot to go to his own day care. Conferences would take up two orns and the infants would be cared for by the schools. The little Seeker mech had waved happily and once inside the big room gathered with his voluminous number of friends for the orn.
Ironhide felt immense contentment as he picked up the sparklings, carrying them in his big servos down the steps to the platform. An orange train had already left so most of the sparklings were gone. He timed it that way. In five minutes, the next would come and he wouldn't take that either. It would be the last train from Aerie Hill with its precious cargo of infant Seekers. A smirking Starscream usually passed him as they winged through nonstop as all orange trains did so he fixed his own smirk firmly in place. When the Aerie Hill train flashed past, two goober grins were exchanged between unlikely allies and friends.
"Atar."
"What?"
"Go bye?"
"Uh-hmm."
"Like go bye. Orion like bye-bye."
Dutifully recording words and sentence construction, they chatted a bit.
"Atar, why she?" -Orion, pointing to the ceiling where something was noticed that only he could see.
"Because."-Ironhide
"Atar, why he?"-Orion
"Because."-Ironhide
"Atar, me my?"-Kaon, having a go at chat
"Because."-Ironhide
And so it went with both sides satisfied with their questions, statements and answers.
Oddly enough.
-0-Trine own self be true
"Have you got them ready yet?"
"Just about, Bluestreak."Sideswipe popped his helm around the corner. "You ready to go?"
"Yes,"Bluestreak said as he put the last toy away in Kaon's room. "We're supposed to meet your genitors there and they will bring Ravel, Tie Down, Alor and Blackjack. Prowl is bringing Miler, Venture and Optimus."
"Optimus is coming anyway isn't he?"Sunstreaker said looking up from the download of images of the family that he was making at the computer terminal in the 'office'.
"He is but he has stuff to do and Prowl is going to drag him out. You know how he is with duty." Bluestreak paused and grinned. "Did you see the smilie war that Ratchet and Ironhide had on the chat line last night? The comment section under the 'Magnus and Arcee bonded' thread has the cutest little war. Did you know they made smilies of themselves just for it?"
"No,"Sunstreaker said pulling up the images. They all stood and looked at it, grinning. "Ada is a maniac. Atar is out of his league."
"Why don't you say so? How hard is it to make a smilie of yourself?" Sideswipe asked. "Make one of all three of us, Sunny. Then we can add our own comments."
Sunstreaker nodded and complied. Then they added their own touches...
-0-On the way to Terra
Ratchet felt the ping inside his mail alert file from the smilie war thread the night before. He hadn't remembered to disable it so he pulled it up. His grin spread slowly as he read the replies …
A small Bluestreak smilie walked out onto a stage all by his tiny self and smiled at the reader, his tiny pert wings a real caution. He unfolded a banner. "Ratchet and Ironhide, their Great Love" it read. With that, he stepped away.
A Sunstreaker smilie stepped forward, sat down at a grand piano and began to play. Instead of music, there were words.
"There once was a pair of dolts
Who were constructed of nuts and bolts
Hugs and kisses and other near misses
made everyone just want to ralph."
The Bluestreak smilie came out and looked crossly at the Sunstreaker, who was smiling gigantically. A banner unfolds: "What are you doing? That doesn't rhyme. Ralph? What does that mean, Sunstreaker?"
A banner over Sunstreaker unfolded: "It sounded nicer than puke and means the same thing."
Sideswipe's smilie rolled out on a scooter and ran circles around the two already there. Stopping, he hopped on the piano. "Let's try it again," a banner said over his tiny smilie helm.
They turned and began to recite, the piano laying out their words.
"Our old folks live in the City.
For those who know them, its a pity.
They're both certifiable,
They're both truly liable
For the insanity that runs in the family."
Bluestreak's smilie curtsied and grinned. "Close enough," the banner said over his helm.
The three then climbed onto sideswipe's scooter and skated off together leering at the screen as they did.
Ratchet snickered.
"What?"Alor asked with a grin.
"The twins and Blue replied to a thread that Ironhide and I had going on the chat board last night," he replied.
"I saw that. Cute smilies," Alor said as he tuned in. A moment later he was grinning bigger. "That's very cute. Clever, our younglings."
"Is there any other way they can turn out? I offer that remark myself since Ironhide isn't here to be so bold," Ratchet said as they walked down the stairs into the subway. Whatever followed that was lost underground.
-0-At the school
Optimus, Miler, Prowl and Venture holding Miracle stepped off the train and crossed the platform to the elevators that would take them to the Sparkling School above. It was a short ride to the lobby of their floor where they were gathered with other genitors and their families.
"What do we do, Prowl?" Miler asked as he took Miracle from Venture.
"We wait until they call us. Then we go back to the Youngling School for the mechs and their reports."
"Can we ask questions?" Venture asked.
"They encourage it," Optimus said.
Ironhide who had spotted them waved them over and they joined the big group that was waiting for the word to go in as well. Ravel stood slightly intimidated by his surroundings. He had spent time in the infant's classes as family. It had been intensely gratifying to be able to help the youngest members of his family to get their education. It also underscored the near miss of their own son's opportunities.
"This is so exciting, Ratchet. I wish we could have provided an education like this for you," Ravel said looking around.
The entire group looked at the sweet mech with a pained spark. "We are honored that you are here to help us with the new infants, Ravel. You have so much good in you to give to others," Ironhide said quietly. Everyone nodded.
Ravel looked at them, at the Prime and then Ironhide. "I am so happy to do this, Ironhide. All of these wonderful younglings. They need everything don't they. We have to help them."
Ironhide nodded as Ratchet hugged his ada. "What a great orn this is. Maybe Orion is going to get a good report."
"Doesn't he get them?" Ravel asked with innocence. "I can't imagine that little mech being anything but lovely."
Grins were had by all.
The door opened and Roto stepped out. He grinned himself. "My next victims."Ratchet and Ironhide blanched from habit as the others grinned. "Come on in. I am delighted to see the extended family too."He stepped to one side as everyone associated with Orion and Praxus filed into the conference room. The door closed. Miler grinned. "I wonder if Ratchet and Ironhide will ever look forward to these?"
"I don't know." Prowl grinned. "Poor Ratchet. Loser."
Snickers were had by all. Including Prime.
-0-Inside at the meeting
They all took a seat as Roto got his overhead monitor and datapads ready. He looked at the intense group before him. "Welcome, Ravel, Tie Down, Blackjack, Alor, Ratchet and Ironhide. I think we'll begin with Praxus."
"Is that because Orion is such a hellion that you're lulling us with the easy one?" Ratchet asked in spite of himself.
Roto quashed a grin. "Yep."
When someone says that in a moment of near death you see your life flash past your optics, its true. Ratchet's did and even though there was plenty to ogle, he was trying to keep upright and missed the view. Ironhide on the other servo grinned. "Ratchet, relax."
Roto who was snickering glanced at Ironhide. "You are truly evil."
"You didn't have to agree," Ironhide said with a chuckle.
Ratchet looked at both of them and backhanded Ironhide. He sat rubbing his nose assembly with a big grin, the pain more than offset by the humor. "You are a slagger, both of you."
"I'm sorry, Ratchet. He made me do it," Roto said with a chuckle.
"Frag that. You are going to need me sometime and I will remember," Ratchet said sitting back and crossing his arms.
Roto grinned. "Let's see how Praxus is doing." They began. They learned:
Praxus was growing leaps and bounds on all the motor skills, fine and gross. He was getting to be a very good dancer in dance class, an innovation created and taught by Neo and Laret. He was skilled at the use of paint and clay, liked to eat paste and was a champion at going down for his naps. He was floating on his back now without help from his handler, liked 'cut and paste' and was a whiz at listening to the storytellers and all oral directions. He hadn't been in the Chairs of Doom ™ one time this learning period because he played like a champion and shared his toys. He liked to do well and praise was a glorious delight to him. He was a very attentive little mech and was an asset in groups because he wanted to 'help' and actually was good at it. He had taken it upon himself to be El's valet and do for her as he could. Her chair was always hung up on the little peg hook beside his own.
They saw his 'cut and paste' pictures, his servo prints in plaster, his sweet silhouette framed and ready for hanging as well as his first attempts to write glyphs with crayons. They listened to a recording of him saying things, repeating statements and words posed by his speech therapist and a number of short videos of his efforts to build structures from blocks, dig in the sandbox, help others, 'read' to El, comfort others that were upset, stare incredulously at one of the three he tried to comfort who had slapped him for his efforts, his tears following being slapped, the failure of teacher intervention to reach detente between him and his targeted 'sad' baby and all of the times he had achieved his bead stringing, peg board plugging, hop, skip and jumping goals that were filmed for this very moment.
His entire extended family sat enraptured, watching ever tiny video, every sweet smile, every nice thing this very kind sparkling would do in the course of his own learning. If a tiny bot needed something, he would run cheerfully to get it. If he had something and someone else 'liked' it, he would give it away. He shared, played gently, especially spent time with El and enjoyed his teachers.
He was amazing.
He was also academically at or slightly above his charted levels, advanced in speech, physical development, social skills and all around excelling for a sparkling his age. Roto sat back and grinned at the group.
Ironhide was misted over, lost in the foggy Himalayas of his overwhelming love for his little mech.
Ratchet was alternating between his own tears and a lingering desire to punch Roto and Ironhide in the face plates.
Ravie looked like he had been told his grandson was really The One. Which to him he was.
Tie Down stared at the little servo prints that were laying on the table with the sort of look one gave when shown platinum and gold. Neither to Tie would come close to the value of the little plaster cast. He would make copies of it in stainless steel for each of the grandparents to have one too.
Alor was smiling gigantically as he gently rocked with Hero in his arms.
Blackjack looked gruff and weepy at the same time. His little mech had excelled.
"Are there any questions?" Roto finally asked.
Alor looked at him. "Are there any suggestions you can make that will allow us to help Praxus? He's rather overwhelmed sometimes by his brother, Orion. We want him to be a confident mech who knows his own worth without feeling maybe he has to be a rival for Orion in some level of his thinking."
"They are very close, these two. They love each other madly. Orion is a strong personality. Just encourage Praxus to be himself. He actually can make Orion cry with a single sad expression," Roto replied.
They all nodded. "We have noticed that. Both the babies have soft sparks, the little angels," Ravel ventured helpfully.
Everyone looked at Ravel for an 'awwww' moment, then Roto picked up another datapad. "I think that the two are helping each other develop and if you keep an optic on it, you can catch those moments when Orion overwhelms Praxus which will help Orion understand better how behavior affects others. Praxus is not shy about letting us know he feels upset about something."
They all nodded.
Roto grinned. "Let's talk about Orion now," he said.
Everyone sat up straighter to listen. Especially Ironhide and Ratchet.
-0-Elsewhere having just about as much 'fun'
"The Magistrate's Court is called into session. Will everyone please sit."
Judge Semi sat down and stared at the contrite younglings sitting in the 'FELONS SIT HERE, THE SLAGGERS! HANG THEM ALL' row in front, their angsty, seething, mortified genitors sitting in the seats behind them. Semi grinned in spite of himself. "Well, well, well … look who is here. Again."
No one in the front row bothered to look. They all knew better.
Again.
-0-TBC
2013 (2) For Pip