Author's Notes: Only a little late this time! But hopefully worth the wait, because wow does a lot happen in this one! First we see the end of the holoform adventure where Soundwave and Rhea figure out the human half of their strange alien relationship. Then Rhea drops by Griffin Rock to inquire more about this 'human simulator' they've heard so much about. Finally, after peeking into Steven's perspective where his new roommate gets settled in, Soundwave allows himself to be vulnerable in the presence of Rhea. And for the first time, our dear couple are able to share a physically intimate moment, much to Soundwave's uncertainty.
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Date: December 20th 2020
Rhea
It was night by the time she arrived back to her quiet apartment, leaving the chaos of the Autobot base behind in the portal as it vanished from her living room. She took a very well-earned deep breath before settling on the couch. She fought the urge to check Soundwave's location through the Translator. He was sure to have a lot on his mind.
She didn't have to wait for long, because maybe a minute after returning home, she got a ping in her device. He was probably waiting for her location to move back home too. Just as they agreed.
She opened her balcony despite the chilly air. The smell of frost and sea salty wind greeted her. As did a shadowed human figure in the quiet street. She was a little surprised to see the holoform still, but that was probably a good idea. When she extended the invitation back home, she hadn't really considered the logistics of his real body coming inside.
She hurried back inside, grabbed her keys and coat, and left from the front door. She opened the apartment gate, where Soundwave's human persona was now waiting.
"Where are you? Like, the real you," she asked.
"The underwater base on the coast. It is still well within this form's broadcasting range," he explained. Then he added with a slight smile, "Laserbeak was insistent to at least be surrounded by a Cybertronian environment the second time around."
"You didn't walk all the way here, right?" She said, a worried look aimed his way.
He shook his head. It was so odd how the illusion of his black hair salted gray, ruffled with the motion. "No. I doubt I would have handled well. If this day's events were anything to go by."
"Arcee actually complimented you," Rhea offered with a shrug, "I mean, it was sort of a back handed compliment… But it was progress."
She was rewarded with another one of those hard to read expressions. Maybe amusement. Or more irritation. "Well, at the very least, I have gained the nosy Autobot's approval."
"Star?"
She started at the nick name she had long since given up trying to correct, swirling around in response. Her elderly neighbor, Mrs. Fanzone, walking her equally ancient Chiwawa in the courtyard. Even with his tiny dog boots and red Christmas coat, the dog was shivering. It probably wasn't because of the cold. He would still be shaking even in the dead of summer. The elderly woman was also focused hard on Soundwave. She was maybe even a little suspicious. "Who's this fellow you got?"
Rhea looked back to Soundwave. He was basically unmoving, and of course silent. Less like a mysterious man by her side, and more like there had been a new statue installed in the courtyard. She turned back to Mrs. Fanzone. "Um, he's, my husband… The one I always say is away working?"
Mrs. Fanzone slid her shifting glasses back against her eyes. Rhea didn't really blame her. She had mentioned Soundwave (not by name) in passing to a few of her neighbors who asked about her relationship status. They also knew she was vaguely connected to the whole Cybertronian thing, but no idea how close. They either thought her nameless, faceless 'husband' was some higher up military agent, or he didn't exist at all.
"Hope it was in a church," she finally huffed, "None of this courthouse nonsense you youngens do. I know a good man, Father Shepard. He facilitated my wedding to my husband Carmine when we lived in Detroit. I can get his number for you. Carmine should have his number… He's still working up north-"
"Sound's great, ma'am," Rhea said, pulling Soundwave through the courtyard and back towards the stairs, "Have a good night!" she added as the elderly lady continued to ramble, undeterred by the focal point of her rant departing.
They also had to run into the building manager Lance, who gave the strange man Rhea was leading a triple take. This would technically be the first time he or anyone here would see her bringing a man home. She hoped they wouldn't think she was cheating on her maybe real husband.
"Star?" Soundwave echoed curiously as Rhea fumbled for her keys.
Rhea snorted a little laugh, "Yeah, she can't remember my name. But she does know I work in the 'space department.' She's nice, if not a little nosy…" She hesitated before adding, "She lives alone, so I tend to spend at least some time with her… Her husband she mentioned? He's passed away. She sometimes remembers. Early-stage dementia."
When he was silent, she glanced up at him. He looked a little upset. She tried to smile, "We humans and our many strange problems. She'll be fine." She opened the door and ushered them both inside before any more of her neighbors could pop out of the woodwork.
She locked the door for good measure and took another deep breath. Today was turning out to be a little too eventful for her tastes.
"In eleven years, this is the first time I have seen where you dwell," Soundwave acknowledged, maybe with a hint of guilt.
That wasn't totally true. He knew where she lived and had flown over it countless times and provided Ground bridges galore for her to get home. And Laserbeak sometimes snuck in through the balcony after contorting himself to fit, "Well, I guess physically, you haven't seen inside. No big deal, it's not exactly Cybertronian friendly."
He wandered further inside on quiet steps. Even with a different body, he managed a very light gait. But he looked uncomfortable to do anything but stand, not touching anything. She took him by the arm and gave him a brief tour. There wasn't much she considered interesting enough to show him, so they just ended up seated on her couch side by side.
"That technology Rafeal mentioned. I would like to try it." He confirmed after a long pause. She hadn't interrupted his staring match with the wall.
"Seems fun," she offered, and found his following expression of dread a little funny. She scooted closer to him. "I'll get it for you. And if you don't mind, I would want to join in."
"I assume I will need all the help I can receive," he sighed. He forced a smile, "I want you with me. I needed you today. My stubborn ego is insufferable sometimes."
She shrugged, "our egos are the downfall of us all," She leaned on his shoulder, feeling the crackle of electricity under her. It was so strange. Even the perceived clothes appeared so real. She reached out and rubbed the sleeve of his coat between her fingers. "You made this?"
He nodded coldly, "I overlooked errors in its design. I forgot to integrate a convincible temperature reaction while the holoform appears to breathe in colder weather."
"Hu," she just hummed, "Take it from a certified human. Nobody on the planet would have noticed you not breathing fog outside," she sat back up, tilting her head to the side and placing a careful hand on his cheek. "I don't see any 'errors.' It's really handsome, by human standards. Or at least mine. Almost as cute as the real thing."
Finally, she got a genuine smile out of him. It was absolutely mind melting seeing that calm grin on the face of a man…
Though his expression dropped again, and he mirrored her by running those odd electric fingers through her hair. "I don't know how to even approach this casually, so I will be blunt. May I inquire if you have any desire for producing offspring."
'MASTER?!' Laserbeak's voice pierced the tense moment and it actually made her laugh out loud. Welp, that brought him back into the conversation. It was also distracting enough to waylay her own shock. 'I protest any further discussion regarding this topic-'
Soundwave must have cut off the mental link because Laserbeak's voice dropped off mid shout. He would probably start the flight over soon, so Rhea had to make this quick. "Like, kids? Naturally grown, human kids? Absolutely not. I am a hot mess and do not intend to replicate this genetic recipe. Why do you ask?"
"Only from my observations today. I saw children were common. Being a simbiote host myself, I could understand the charm. I did not want to steal anything from you."
She chuckled, "Yeah, I'm good. Plus, I sort of just assumed Laserbeak would be filling in the 'child' aspect of my life. You would never know he was like, a few million years older than me."
His human brow relaxed, at least a little. "Then, that is a weight lifted. I look forward to attempting the concept we discussed, regarding the simulation. At the very least, I can fake being human for you."
"I'll contact Frankie about it tomorrow. And there's nothing fake about any of this," She assured him. "Just a couple of aliens trying to fit into each other's worlds."
It got him to smile again. Soundwave's smile on a human face was interesting. And handsome.
And that was around the time the sliding glass door to her balcony magnetically unlocked and the much too large Cyberhawk squeezed in. Still cut off from the mental link, Laserbeak made do with squawking in the human representation of his master's face. She caught the gist of the rant in his coded sound based language, mostly consisting of the phrase, 'with all do respect, Master, you have clearly lost your mind!'
Date: January 10th, 2021
Rhea
She stomped on the ground with one foot. She didn't faze through the asphalt as she thought she would. The harsh slam radiated up her leg unpleasantly, just as it would in the real world. "This is amazing," she said, for probably the fifth time.
"Oh, I know it is," Dr. Frankie Green agreed with a grin from her place next to Rhea in the vacant street.
She spotted a rogue blade of grass growing through the concrete. She picked it up and felt its sharper edges on her fingers. "So, how much did this cost to develop?" Rhea asked on a whim, twisting the grass between her thumb and pointer finger.
Frankie snorted, "The great thing about Griffin Rock being a 'test facility' as apposed to an official township, we get money instead of paying it out in taxes. I could probably get you the exact amount for this lovely virtual world, but the invoice would be buried somewhere on my dad's desk."
Rhea walked to a store front. The establishment standing as an identical copy of the Pizzeria that existed on the real Griffin Rock, and on the same street. She knocked on the glass. Her reflection rattled with the window frame as she wrapped a few more times. No one answered her tapping. The thick accented pizza maker, usually at the till or manning the ovens with his wife, was absent. The seats were empty. And the same went for the rest of the town. There was ambient noises from the park like the rustle of trees and the cries of sea birds, but the two were all that existed in the strange virtual world. "It is amazing, though it's a bit lonely," she said.
Frankie appeared ready for that observation because she gained a coy smile. "Only if you want it to be," With a wave of her hand, a drop-down screen appeared in front of her in the air. She swiped through a few options, then clicked something called "AI populate."
Familiar chatter filled the streets that very moment. Rhea blinked, and now it truly was like the small island town Griffin Rock she had just Bridged too that morning, right before she put on the headset in Dr. Frankie's lab. People were now hustling about, some even making eye contact and smiling as they passed the two women on the sidewalk.
A happy baritone tune sung in Italian was muffled behind them. Rhea peeked back into the restaurant. It was busy, like any other lunch rush. The shop owner was active spinning pizza dough into the air as he sang to himself.
"Having every citizen of Griffin Rock already scanned and categorized was a very helpful plus," Frankie added. "More people can be added manually. You just create the avatar and download as much info as possible, and the AI fills in the personality. Or, you can let the simulation's internal program I have dubbed the 'Memory materializer,' do all the work. The system just scans your hippocampus, amygdala, and other structures in your temporal lobe, and it uses that info to create people from your memories, or an amalgamation of them. Basically, whatever you tell it to. And that's just for the human side. Boulder and Medix went in on this little pet project and made it compatible with the Cybertronian Nero net too. All functions I already mentioned work the same way, but the way it gets it done is just adjusted accordingly."
Frankie opened the door to the Pizzeria and waved Rhea inside.
She was a little hesitant, but she did follow her doctor friend's example. The moment she did, she was utterly astonished by the smells. Rich cheese and homemade dough slathered in thick sauce. It made her hungry. And she felt that hunger just as her real stomach would. For as realistic as it all was, there was no way this wasn't doing damage to her brain. She didn't voice that, as she would feel hypocritical. After all, she was constantly stuffing her brain into her Cybertronian body. What was a little more brain related shenanigans?
"Morning Mr. Marcello," Frankie greeted the 'man' behind the counter, just as she would any other day.
The spinning pizza landed gracefully in the representation of Mr. Marcello's hands, and he beamed at them both. "Ah! Dr. Frankie! Benvenuto! Welcome as always! The usual for you and your friend today?" and he wasted no time preparing it.
They waited, Rhea burning with curiosity (and a little hungry anticipation) to see if the pizza would taste the same as the real thing too. It certainly smelled like it would. She glanced around again, seated at a table by the large glass windows that overlooked the now busy street. "So… The simulation won't go crazy the second there is a power surge, right? AI people won't switch to kill mode if the load up sequence is wrong?" Rhea quizzed.
Frankie laughed in amusement, waving a hand to dismiss the concerns, "Nope. That already happened, and we worked out all the bugs. It's totally safe now."
Rhea would have laughed too, but she was fairly certain Frankie hadn't been joking. She tried to think of any other questions she had regarding the amazing piece of tech… "So, walk me through more of the details. Can someone on the outside wake us up if we had to be?"
Frankie hummed as she pondered that. "Well, we aren't unconscious, so there will be no 'waking us up' in the traditional fashion. Brains are totally awake, unless we went to sleep in here. But we are still conscious on the outside if that makes sense. Now, could someone who knows what they are doing pull us out? Actually, no. Not unless we authorize it. And we can also get out any time, via the drop menu," she again pulled the floating blue screen from the air with a wave, but dismissed it just as fast, "Or, if that breaks the immersion a little too much, there are also 'anchor points' I put into the simulation that work as exit and entry hubs. For this simulation of Griffin rock, it is in every fire extinguisher."
She got up from her chair and walked to the old fire extinguisher on the wall that looked like it hadn't had use in a while. They must not have burned virtual pizza much.
Virtual Mr. Marcello just continued humming, either distracted with his culinary craft, or programmed not to notice when someone was messing with his fire extinguisher. Frankie pulled the glass door open, and the illusion of a red extinguisher wasn't inside. Instead, it was a rougher stand in for the drop-down menu. She closed the glass door, and the illusion was back in place. "But really, you could program the anchor point to be anything or have as many as you wanted. Just don't forget where you put them. And preferably, don't put it behind something that locks," she said with a wink as she sat back down.
"Buon appetito girls!" Mr. Marcello cheered as he lowered the piping hot pizza before them.
Rhea had to blow on her piece before biting into it. Frankie was still wearing that proud smile, waiting for the reaction.
"Amazing," Rhea said once again between bites. Take out the drop menus or anchor points, she would have no idea she was in a virtual world.
"Again, I know," Frankie agreed before digging into her own slice.
"What can I do in exchange for-"
"Nope! Like all amazing inventions should be, this one is free," Frankie insisted, "And not just because we are friends, but because it is the duty of every good inventor… Though I wouldn't mind if you sent me the Comm for the Cybertronian scientist Autoclave. Apparently, he was trying to reach out, but there was some sort of interference."
Rhea rolled her eyes, "Yeah, that interference is better known as Starscream. Though I try to cut the guy a break. Autoclave is like, his only surviving friend. I'll get you his private comm info so you can work around the fussy Lord."
Frankie brightened, "Great! And I will send you a copy of this simulation and all its editable features, along with your own interface. All Soundwave will have to do is integrate it into his files like any other upload. Again, that part is thanks to Boulder."
"Thank you. He'll want to look at it once I get back, maybe even before," Rhea said with a sighing hum. Whatever made him more comfortable, she knew he was hesitant to bring her along on the now famous Holoform adventure, but only because he didn't want to appear out of his element. She understood, but lord was he hardheaded.
Oddly, Frankie lost her grin, "I would highly recommend he, or any other Cybertronian new to the simulation not go into it alone for the first time. I'm sure you more then anyone in the universe would know how world shattering it is to suddenly wake up in an alien body. But as we quickly found with our semi willing Rescue Bot volunteers, there are things a human does that a bot just has absolutely no context for. Breathing, being the biggest example. It freaked Hotshot the hell out the first time he logged on. Then there's blinking… Not having like a trillion sensors that help you walk, stuff like that."
"Fair enough," she agreed, though now was trying to figure out how to describe breathing to someone who had never taken a single breath, and was suddenly in desperate need to do so. Soundwave had wanted to explore the simulation alone first, but with this new info, she was sure she could convince him to reconsider.
A little bell chime came from somewhere, though she couldn't really identify the source. Outside, maybe the fake fire extinguishers?
"The ring was someone else entering the simulation," Frankie said, answering the unasked question, "I don't have it locked right now, so anyone else can come in…" she checked her drop-down menu, then added, "Or, any bot, in this case."
The door burst open, violently jangling the bells against the glass, and making the AI patrons jump. A girl maybe around the age of fifteen stood in the entrance with a gaping grin. The newcomer, whom Rhea didn't recognize as a local from her many trips to Griffin Rock over the years, was wearing a frilly tutu style dress that matched her wild blue hair which she had pulled up in two pig tails and tied with bells. In spite of the hair doo and fancy dress, she also wore a baseball cap with the Rescue Bot emblem over the rim. "Dr. Frankie!" the girl shouted, in the familiar and hyperactive voice of the Rescue Bot Whirl. Going by the dramatic entrance, the Rescue Bot sigil, and her overall, everything, Rhea probably could have guessed that was who this was.
It was funny, how different Whirl's interpretation of her human self was as opposed to Soundwave's. His had been designed to fit in, not draw any attention. Look the part at all costs. Going by Whirl's human form, it looked as though Miko may have had a hand in designing it. "Sorry to interrupt, but we couldn't get you on your cell. I figured you were here giving the virtual tour… Hi Mrs. Rhea!"
Rhea didn't have time to wave or feel old after being called "Mrs." by a being that was who knows how much older than she was. The human Whirl let herself in and sat at their table, gobbling down a slice of pizza before Frankie could ask if she wanted any. "No big deal. You could probably give good advice on how to acclimatize a bot to the simulation. Though, what was it you wanted-"
Whirl jolted up, now on her second slice, "Primus yeah! It is crazy! But, in a good way? I don't know, it's good to log out and be myself again. But at the same time, I never knew I was missing food until this, and now I realize it was the only thing Primus forgot to add before making us. No biggie. He was busy fighting the embodiment of evil. I'm sure it was on His to do list before He got distracted. But food is so great, isn't it? Like, you already know that. But I love how humanity was just like, 'Ok everyone! Let's all go off into different parts of the Earth and come up with different foods, and after say, ten thousand years we all invent the internet and reconvene to swap cuisine.' Fantastic collective idea as a species. Real class act.
"Oh! I forgot to ask, how is the Cyberformation going? You haven't shown us your Cybertronian body yet! Heatwave keeps saying Kaon is too dangerous to go and visit, but that just sounds like he isn't ready for a whirl wind adventure with us fun lovin' folks. Like, we are almost eleven years post war, and I know loads of Cons that could show me around, and duh! I have you too! Plus Grimlock, and Silverwing- OH! Did you know she has been here a few times and we helped her find more Predacon bones left on Earth so they can clone more back on Cybertron? She's coming back in a bit last I heard-"
Frankie had to snap her fingers in front of Whirl's face, bringing her focus back onto her and saving Rhea from the information assault. "You were trying to get in contact with me?" she reminded her gently.
Whirl blinked her human eyes, recollection dawning on her slowly. She chewed for a few more seconds, then swallowed. "RIGHT. Your dad and Wedge were working on that gravitational polarity thingy?"
"I recall," Frankie said with a hesitant nod, and a tone of growing apprehension.
"Yeah, well, it works! It also somehow reversed the tide of the whole southern side of the island. Something about tsunami risks. Professor Boulder said the words 'urgent' and 'all hands-on deck' and 'Whirl go get Dr. Frankie right away!' and other buzz words such as those."
Frankie pursed her lips thoughtfully. She looked to Rhea, who only shrugged. "The work is never done."
"Understatement of the millennium," Frankie sighed before pulling down the drop menu and starting their log off sequence. Whirl shoved another slice of pizza into her mouth before Rhea's vision went black. Then she was staring at the wall of Frankie's bright cliffside laboratory, Frankie, and Whirl in her proper bot sized form. She took off the small head set just as Frankie was removing her own.
When Whirl's optics' came back online, she looked down at her hands, seemingly disappointed the pizza hadn't followed her back out into the real world. But she shook off the displeasure soon enough and jumped to her peds, helicopter rotors swirling with excitement. "To the southern side of the island! How should we get there? Car? Helicopter? Either way, I am using my sirens and lights!"
"You pick," Frankie hummed, taking her time to pack a few large mechanical devices into a bag despite the apparent lack of time. Whirl then proceeded to play rock paper scissors with herself to determine which of her two rescue vehicles she would use to get them to the emergency. "Here Rhea, the simulation schematics. And you can keep that headset. It's already synced up to your brain waves."
"Thanks again," Rhea said as she accepted the drive and carefully packed it away in her own bag, along with the headset. "I really owe you."
"Just happy to help a friend. Especially if it relates to my amazing work."
"Best two out of three!" Whirl snarled at her own hands before starting over.
"I forgot to ask, how is the Memorial preparations going?" Frankie inquired, slinging her bag over her shoulder and starting for the lab entrance without Whirl.
Rhea walked alongside her, "All according to plan. All transmissions are sent, and many have already returned planet side for it. Of course, they haven't had as much time to focus on it as they would like, considering the Prion problem last year, that is still very much a problem, and the still unsolved ship disappearances."
"Prion. Is that the planet where the angry minicons are fighting to get to that relic so they can kill each other?" Frankie guessed.
"The very same," Rhea sighed, "But no worries. The relic has a protective field. Only a Prime can get through it."
Frankie's face fell, "But, there aren't any Primes left… Save for those trapped in nearby dimensions," she added with a wrinkled nose.
"Rhea sort of exhaled sharply through her nose in place of a laugh, "Yeah. I guess if we get really desperate to get that relic, we'll give Megatronus Prime a ring."
"He still rings us," Frankie said seriously.
"Really?"
"Oh yeah. We get his transmissions off and on, though there has been more interference than there was before. We try and keep track of it. We also have no idea how he hasn't run out of Energon. Best Boulder and the others can figure, it has something to do with the long pauses between transmissions he takes. They think he is going into some form of advanced prolonged stasis to conserve Energon. Then again, even taking that into consideration, he still should have run out, considering the first message he sent was ten years ago. Medix has pointed out numerous times the stasis lock bots go into to conserve Energon isn't something you can just wake yourself back up from whenever you want. It's still a mystery how he's doing it."
"Hopefully we crack it soon," Rhea said, trailing off as Whirl shouted.
"GOT IT!" and the excitable bot rushed past them for the door, "So it'll be helicopter, but I want to try to bring out my wheels on the sides too so they can spin as we fly!"
Frankie rose a brow, "That sounds like it would be painful in the best-case scenario, and structurally damaging in the worst case," She pointed out.
Whirl waved off the warning, "I am a professional Cybertronian and a double changer! How hard could it be?" Cue her giving it her best shot, the familiar gear changing sound of a transformation followed by a very not so familiar metallic pang somewhere in the shifting form that used to be Whirl. "Ow…" the helicopter car amalgamation whimpered where she crashed into the ground.
"Should we call for a Bridge? Maybe a medic to check you out?" Frankie offered.
"No. Just, give me a sec," Whirl then started to huff, straining to bring herself out of the tangle of metal plates and wheels and rotor blades.
Frankie wordlessly pulled out her phone and sent a quick voice text, "We're going to be a little late. Don't flood the island until we get there."
As they waited, she turned back to Rhea, "Oh, speaking of Megatronus, something else odd has been happening. Cody has been having trouble with the frequency coming onto his personal radio. Which is strange, considering he isn't involved with the frequency transcribing team."
"Hm?" Rhea hummed, voicing her shared confusion regarding her other Griffin Rock friend. Cody Burnes, who had taken up his dad's mantel as police chief. Smart in his own way, but he would be the first to admit it wasn't on the same level of smarts as his friend Frankie or the other scientists on the island. "Was his radio tuned into the frequency accidentally? My translator was, and Soundwave had to turn down the sensitivity, so it stopped picking it up."
"It wasn't, initially. And we have had to do that too. That's what's crazy. It tunes itself back up. And his is the only one that does so."
Rhea's stomach twisted, as if the fake pizza she had eaten wasn't sitting right in her very real gut. "This is something we haven't spread around, but only because it is so fantastic it is hard to believe. Megatronus is able to manipulate certain things in the real world. We have no idea how yet, but tuning up a radio frequency seems like something he could do."
Frankie made a face, "Creepy. But so far, it's all he's done. Cody is just getting sick of it. It's getting in the way of his job."
"Next time it happens, have Cody tell Megatronus he is too damn busy being police chief to a borderline techpocalyptic town to deal with any otherworldly shenanigans," Rhea suggested with a grin.
Frankie laughed, walking forward as Whirl finally got herself back together and came out as a helicopter, no wheels in sight. "I'll pass that along. See you around Rhea. Oh, and we will definitely make it to the Memorial this time. No excuses," She promised as she jumped into Whirl's cockpit.
"Yeah, last time we missed it because our prototype unburnable volcanic sub started burning…" Whirl reported, "Probably not the best week for us to have tested that, hu?"
"Well… there will be that unsinkable ship launching the same week as the Memorial…" Frankie realized, then noted Rhea's risen brow and shook her head, "We will just push that project back to the week following the Memorial, just in case. Tell me if the tech needs more tweaking! It should be perfect. Basically." She gave a confident thumbs up which Rhea mirrored when Whirl's rotors became too loud to continue shouting over. The two soon left Rhea behind as they headed off into the sky, no spinning wheels, but Whirl did at least get to have her emergency lights flashing.
Date: Present day, September 29th 2021
Steven
He unlocked his front door, then stepped aside so Ben could saunter in. At once, the young ex-soldier started looking around with his big goofy grin leading the way into the house. "Cool you live on Base. I wonder if I had a place like this? That would be awesome," Ben thought out loud.
Steven shut the door with a sigh, "This comes with a good deal of military service. You would most likely have had a living arrangement with bunkies in a barracks."
Ben put down his very small duffle bag on the living room couch. It mostly consisted of knick knacks he had gotten from the hospital and friends he had already made there. "Bunkies sound cool too. I wonder if they are worried about me? I really need that committee to figure out all my back story so I can get access to stuff like phone numbers."
Steven didn't respond to that train of thought beyond a passive shrug. Ben continued to forget that committee he spoke of could come to the conclusion he had abandoned his post. Amnesia or not, that would end with him in custody for treason against the US. He either continued to forget due to lasting brain damage Dr. Combs had missed, or he was choosing to ignore that reality.
"You can stay in the guest room," Steven offered flatly, then started towards the hall. Ben retrieved his bag and scurried after him.
"OH!"
Steven whirled around, half expecting one of his nightmare monsters to be attacking the poor kid.
No, it was something much more down to earth. Ben had stopped following him and instead wandered into the kitchen. "Sorry, I saw the kitchen and got excited," Ben admitted sheepishly.
Steven rose a brow, "Are you fond of cooking?"
Ben opened the oven, then shut it and opened it again a few times before shrugging, "If I did, I wouldn't remember. But I mean, how hard could it be?"
Steven again found no words. The kid had the attention span of an overly excitable puppy. He was very quickly regretting this venture, because Steven's own patience was like an exposed nerve.
He managed to get Ben back on track, but only long enough to reach the hallway. Because the kid was again stopped before the right wall, staring with his mouth open. "Who's this girl?"
Steven's whole body shuttered. He didn't have to turn around to know which picture on the wall Ben was looking at, and which 'girl' he was referring to. "That, is my girlfriend. Rhea."
Ben snorted a little laugh, "Girlfriend? What are you guys, in high school?"
Steven felt like he should be mad, but Ben had a point. Much as every one of Rhea's friends had when they were looking for her still. She had been his 'girlfriend' for a very long time. "Point taken," Steven sighed in defeat.
"I'm just kidding, really! But whatever works, right? Does she live here too?" Ben continued to quiz him.
A reasonable question for someone temporarily moving into a new place. But it hurt like hot daggers even still. He had to take a deep breath, because this would be the few times he admitted this truth out loud, "She had been, until a few weeks back. She, I am unsure how to explain this," he admitted. Ben was now giving him a worried look, and Steven forced himself to get it together. "She is gone. At least, she left, though there was no indication how or why. I have been looking for her whenever I have a free moment."
"Oh damn," Ben said before he could think of something more eloquent. "I'm sorry," he tried again.
"Thank you. You don't have to concern yourself with that while you're here." Steven assured him, and tried to hint with his shuffling body language for them to continue towards the guest room. But Ben was glued to the carpet, staring at the picture of Rhea and Steven on the beach. "So, did she like, just vanish one day when you came back from work? Did she take anything?"
"No. It was during the night. And she did not take anything. Not even her personal belongings."
"Hu," Ben thought, popping his lips a few times in contemplation, "Odd she wouldn't take her stuff."
The kid was being nosy, but oddly enough, the simple remark made Steven feel vindicated. Ben was the first to acknowledge the circumstances of Rhea's disappearance. His remark wasn't dismissive, like his friends, or accusing, like Detective Ironside. It was genuine. He looked down the hall to meet Steven's gaze, and he was oddly serious. "Do you really think she left you?"
Steven swallowed the lump in his throat. He willed himself to stay composed, but honest. "No. I do not believe she left me. I don't know what happened, but I truly don't think so."
Ben's stone face cracked into a much more familiar smile, "Then she didn't leave and it's something else. Trust your gut. I'll even help you look for her. What else am I doing with all this copious free time?"
Such was the young amnesia-stricken soldier, Ben was grossly optimistic. But maybe Steven needed that right now. If nothing else, having Ben around would be a fantastic distraction from his crumbling mental state.
Ben finally uprooted himself from the place before Rhea's picture and hurried down the hall to throw his bag onto the guest room bed. "But before we start looking, we should grab a beer! Share all we know now that we're best buds."
Steven rose a brow, resisting the urge to smile himself, "It would be all my secrets being spilt, considering you don't have access to many of yours. Plus, I am not much of a drinker."
Ben was only halfway through laughing at the first quip before the second admission caught him off guard, "You don't drink? Everyone in the military hospital said that was the only way you get through the service! How have you survived this long?"
"Discipline?" Steven offered.
Ben blew a sarcastic raspberry, "Nope, that ends tonight. You said you had off for a while? We are drinking at least a little bit! And I know I don't have access to my money, so you can just keep a tap for me and I'll pay ya back, promise I'm good for it."
Steven watched from the door as Ben riffled through his small bag, found a coat someone must have gifted him, and yanked it over his white undershirt. He spun around and smiled at Steven expectantly. His body language suggested he was all ready to hit the town.
In a very rare scenario for Steven, he didn't have to report to work for the next week. Much like Ben, his schedule was totally clear. And finally, he realized the only place he hadn't asked around for Rhea was the small bar overlooking the water. As he mentioned to Ben, he didn't drink and neither had Rhea. There had been little point looking for her there. But gossip did tend to travel among drunks with loose lips. If anything, the trip would make Ben happy.
"Alright. But I do intend to keep a record of how much money you'll owe me at the end of this."
Date: February 7th 2021
Soundwave
The world shifted under him with every involuntary movement. But the texture was wrong. The ground wasn't stable, pieces of grit somehow slipping into his internal framework. That wasn't happening, but it was how his mind was interpreting the sensation.
What he felt was new, and even without context, he understood it was uncomfortable. His HUD didn't alert him to the problem. He couldn't pull up his internal scanners manually. There was only darkness and this alien feeling that was growing in uncomfortable waves. And he was still sinking into the ground.
He knew what was happening. They had talked endlessly about it. He had researched it and downloaded scores of data on the subject from both human and Cybertronian sources until even his impressive data banks were getting full. He had been so confident he could handle this.
And now here he was, and the panic was setting in fast. All because he couldn't figure out how to breathe.
Pain? That was what it was, wasn't it? It was different from firing Cybertronian pain receptors, but he recognized it because of its unpleasant nature. That was a similarity most species across the stars probably shared.
Putting aside waxing poetry regarding the differences between living entities, he felt like he was trapped in a cage. A cage that was shrinking, and it was going to crush him into a hunk of twisted metal and Energon. That was the feeling pulsing from his torso, yet it still wasn't enough for him to make it stop. He needed to assess and work the problem. How could he do that if he couldn't activate his optics?
He felt something attach to him. His face plates? He couldn't tell, without his HUD he couldn't get a good read on it… It also didn't feel like anything he ever experienced. Again, he should have been ready for this. Because his armor and thicker outer plating should have stopped whatever this was from reaching his inner self, but that was what it felt like.
Purely relying on instinct at this point, he reached across the Bond and willed Laserbeak to help him.
Nothing.
Where was Laserbeak?! For the first time since he merged their Sparks into a Bond, he didn't feel his minicon. He hadn't felt that connection snap, so Laserbeak was still online, right? He had no way of knowing.
The thing that was attached to his face plates moved, and so did he. The movement, on his part, had been involuntary, and he couldn't replicate it. It was purely a panic response. All it did was prove two things. One, whatever was touching him had in fact not 'attached' to him. And second, the growing pain was now burning in his chest, and his movement had made that pain worse.
"Soundwave? Love? Can you hear me?"
He knew that voice. Even heard through a format that made it so strangely quiet, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not turn his audio sensitivities higher. But it was something grounding. Rhea's voice was like a shock in his systems and logic injected back into his mind. What was on his face was flat with five long appendages. It was her hand. Rhea was touching him. That meant Rhea was there with him, right beside him in this darkness. How could he report to her his distress?
"I can shut it down," she promised him.
No. The world shook in the dark, left to right. He had done that. Shaken his helm with sheer force of stubborn will in order to communicate his want for her not to shut down the simulation. He had already put it off almost a whole month following their acquiring of the technology. He could conquer this. But that resolve was starting to crack as it felt like his Spark was engulfed in the flaming plasma of the hottest sun.
Another of her hands came to rest on his chest, right above the pain. They didn't feel like her hands. Usually small and radiating little pulses of heat from her pumping blood. Now he couldn't register any temperature difference….
"You need to inhale. It's here you want to focus on. Right in your chest. Pull in air," Her fingers on his cheek left and tapped his mouth plates, but there was a worrying give when she did so. Another tap above, right between where his optics should be, "It's like a really deep in vent. Through your mouth or nose. Either is fine, but you need to start or you're going to pass out." She was calm, but very stern. She would know what she was talking about in this case… He also needed to stop thinking about his anatomy with Cybertronian terminology, because it did not currently apply.
His mind was going fuzzy, losing focus and somehow the dark was starting to spin. He assumed he was 'passing out' as Rhea forewarned. Why was breathing so damn hard? He clung to her advice, trying to activate his vents to pull in the surrounding air. His vents weren't activating, and panic was bubbling up again.
Something hit him. It hurt, but was not at all similar to the flame in his chest. It was also an external strike, right below his chest. It shouldn't have been an effective attack, but as it sunk in, far too deep into his mesh, he realized he was missing all of his armor that would have usually bounced off a blow so laughable.
But the attack had done something useful. The strange alien body he found himself trapped in had an involuntary reaction to the blow, and through a hissing gasp of a sound he admitted, the pain washed away.
"Sorry for the punch. But now you have to let all that air out and do it again," Rhea's voice reported.
Logically, he knew that. He got the mechanics of breathing. But Primus, really? He hoped every inhalation of air would not require Rhea's punches to jumpstart his simulated lungs. Feeling the sensation of air entering him gave him much needed and vital context. The batch he had trapped inside was starting to burn again, and this time, he released it. She was right, it was sort of like an ex-vent. Vaguely.
He felt himself shrinking, the air that alleviated his pain released like a valve. Just as fast, he pulled more in, scared he would forget how the whole process worked and the pain would return. In and out. Meticulous. This would also replace his voice box. He needed air to talk in this form… Should that be the next hurdle? Maybe figuring out how to open his optics… Eyes.
"Good job," Rhea praised gently. She was close to him, next to his helm.
Something in his chest, where his Spark would be, jumped at the sound of her soft rumble. Was that pain too? It was uncomfortable, but somehow not unpleasant. That was wildly confusing.
Her fingers, he assumed that was what he felt, were touching his face again. Gentle little strokes over his inactivated eyes. There was sensation over them too. The lid coverings that protected human eyes. Cybertronian optic lenses didn't have sensation, so this was new.
"You can't 'turn on' your eyes. You physically have to just open them. Like, raising your arms up. Just do it with your eye lids," She explained.
It had not been the first time she told him this. It was not the first time he had read it. Yet here he was, floundering as if he hadn't been preparing for it. But this felt like an easier task than breathing. Right, he still had to breathe. His chest was starting to hurt. That first. Then his eyes.
The light hurt too. That was sort of familiar, but it took far longer to adjust now. But it was worth it, because he could finally see. And he could see Rhea. She looked… So odd without her usual color spectrums. Like an artwork, capturing the beauty of the subject with only half the available color pallet. Really, at this point, he didn't care if she was in black and white. He was just happy to see her smile.
"Want to try talking?" She offered with a grin, "Or maybe, we should hold off on that."
He tried nodding. His focus bounced, so he assumed he had moved his head again. His eyes were also starting to burn… was there something wrong with them?
Rhea's hand shifted to his eyes, and her fingers pulled his eye lids down to drape him again in darkness. "You have to keep blinking too. Same with Breathing. A little more than fifteen blinks per minute. Twenty breaths in that same amount of time. Tedious? Absolutely, but you get used to it. You don't even think about it after a bit. Pro tip, you breathe and blink preferably before it starts hurting, not after."
He opened his eyes again, wanting to see her. But he kept that advice in mind. Going by the little chuckle she tried to hide on her last statement, he was doing it wrong. He decided he was close enough and wanted to sit up. He knew he was on his back, because Rhea was looking down on him. That was also a very strange perspective. Not her Cybertronian avatar, but her human self, seated higher than he was…
Her face was apprehensive as he struggled. She probably knew what he was trying to do. He had managed movement, but it wasn't getting him to rise. She may have been considering pushing him back down. But she didn't. She took him behind his back and gently pulled him upwards with a heave. She could move him. That was so strange.
Gravity felt three times heavier. Like Thunderblast had swiped the Polarity Gauntlet along with the Apex Armor from the Autobot's vaults and activated it behind him. He sat up, and instantly was pulled forward by his inability to control his body. Rhea caught him, his head landing on her shoulder. Her arms wrapped around his form. He felt her totally against him. No armor to separate them. From this perspective, his face was brushing against her own, and he was now fully aware why his mind could not wrap around the sensation of his missing armor. He was feeling her skin, with his own skin.
Covered in a thin layer of organic dermis that was easily pliable, far more than mesh. It was so easily pierced and ripped and other unpleasant words that described the depths of its vulnerability. And as if in a mocking assurance in place of armor, something wrapped over his current form. His human persona was clothed, and the substance was even more malleable than his skin was.
Frustrations aside, he let himself be still in Rhea's embrace. Because even with her body currently at the same level of vulnerable as his own, there was something solid in her presence. The alien feeling of her skin, he could feel her pulse, not as strong as he usually could, but he did. A strange thought occurred. Perhaps he was feeling his own?
What he experienced next, he thought was something similar. At least until he took a few more purposeful breaths, his face still pressed to her neck. He could normally smell Rhea using his olfactory sense. And that was just one more piece of biological information distinguishing her from other organisms. But her smell now was so different. He couldn't pick up hormonal differences in her body. In fact, he couldn't really determine anything useful from her scent, other than how much he liked it. It made him feel safe, in spite of all of the bodily horrors occurring to him. It made it so he wanted to stay in her arms.
Still breathing, still blinking, still feeling her, he wanted to get closer. He forced his strange body to move. And under pressure and silent threats aimed at himself, he found his arms. He managed to slide them up and around her back, locking them together.
She responded in kind, holding him just a little tighter.
This was worth it. He was horrified, and confused, and he still couldn't feel Laserbeak, or even the Bond at all, but he knew this was the right thing to do. He had to experience this.
Where were they anyway? Technically, they were on Cybertron in his quarters at the top of the Northern Tower in Kaon. That was where their real bodies were. But here, in the simulated reality that swapped his mind into this perfect human form, Cybertron might as well have been a fantastical place in a flux. This place, where they sat in each other's arms, was Earth. Rhea had picked it. It was a beach, one located near her home town. There also weren't any other humans around. As if they were the only two left on Earth. He very much appreciated that detail of the simulation.
Being able to see, and using context, he saw why the world had seemed so unstable. The shifting sand under them was warm. He recognized the temperature difference now. The small grains of rock slipped into the pantlegs of his avatar's clothes, in-between… what are those on his peds? Toes. Primus this was strange. But it was not a bad sensation. He even released one of his hands from Rhea's back to fold down into the sand. It slipped between his fingers. The heat was only on the surface of the sand. It was cooler underneath. That was pleasant too.
Wind from the ocean ruffled his clothes, his hair? It made his skin pucker in small pinpricks of sensation. The small hairs he couldn't really make out in microscopic detail stood up. A reaction from humanities more primitive instincts, no longer useful in a modern world.
His mind's silence was loud. Without Laserbeak, most silence was very noticeable. He had wondered if this experience would dampen the Bond, but he hadn't expected it to completely cut him off from it. He supposed that made sense, considering the parameters of the simulation, meant to replicate the real 'human' world. Humans did not have other organic creatures symbiotically connected to their body and subconscious. The Bond just didn't have any place here. How it would have translated if Laserbeak had come into the simulation with him, that would forever be a mystery, because Laserbeak had made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that he would NEVER go into the simulation. He didn't want to experience it, he did not want to see Soundwave as a human. He didn't blame his poor minicon. This moment with him laid out defenseless in the sand would probably be traumatizing.
Rhea stirred. Right, she was probably bored. He needed to hurry this up and get acclimated to his new form. No… She wasn't pulling away. She inhaled, then as she released her breath, she hummed a long, single note. His skin prickled again. He felt the vibration of her voice against his cheek. After a few more humming sighs, he understood what she was doing.
He followed her example and took a deep breath. It took him a few tries. But on the fourth attempt, he managed to replicate a similar sound. He felt the rumble, a vibration in his throat. It helped him locate the human voice box.
It took some practice, and without his HUD or internal clock he had no idea how much time passed. But he managed to make more notable sounds. Perhaps there had been a cheat built into the simulation for Cybertronian participants, because he was gleaning speech much faster than he assumed was possible.
"Do… You always… have to… breathe… while talking?" he strained through the sentence.
She laughed, and with her help, he managed to sort of sit straight so they could look at each other. "You get used to it. Really. It becomes second nature. How are you feeling?"
"Terrified…" He huffed, and he also exhaled a few laughs of his own. But that was part of this experiment. Being vulnerable. The other part was, in a roundabout way, justifying Rhea's transformation into his species. He wanted to understand her better and know what she was sacrificing for him.
He fell into a rhythm. Breathe in and out along with the ocean tide. He was fairly confident he had the basics mastered, enough not to kill this human avatar at least. Rhea's fingers rubbing up and down his back to the same rhythm wasn't a bad motivator either. It was helping him not spiral down into too many dangerous thoughts. Like how this body felt so, strange. Instead of being an amalgamation of well-tuned and fortified pieces all working in mechanical unison, he was just this strange… Single thing. He had no idea how to picture it. Not having the ability to scan within and really identify all that he was currently made up of was uneasy as well.
Focus on Rhea. Focus on breathing. Nothing else. Maybe how odd the sand felt too. If he pinched into it hard enough, the individual granules stuck in his skin. That was… Gross. He could feel his own skin too. Leaning against Rhea's shoulder, he ceased scratching at the sand long enough to instead investigate the flesh of his arm. It moved and was pinchable, which hurt, and stretched as he clenched and unclenched his hands.
"Alright," he huffed, though was put off again when his voice in this form didn't quite register as his own. It was very similar, but lacked most of his usual subtle pitches, making it much flatter. Plus, the sudden lack of a distinct tremor that was standard for a Cybertronian voice box to produce. He was distracted again… Get back on task, "I'm ready to walk. Then you can share with me everything you have wanted to indulge with me as a human."
Rhea gave him a remarkably pointed look, "Um, let's put all of my 'wants' to the side for the time being and see if you can stand first. There is no reason to rush any of this." She shifted, and he had to clench his body against the sudden lack of support as she stood, just so he didn't topple over. She dusted off the sand from her pants, then she reached out to take both his hands into her own. "No idea if it will be the same for you, but I found walking as a Cybertronian a bit easier than talking. Must be similar piston to muscle structure. I'm hoping it translates the other way too for you."
Simple enough. With her there to provide the force to pull him up, he could just fall back on more instinctual skills to remain standing. The plan went well enough until the time came to lock his knee joints and actually stand. Something went wrong. He buckled and fell back into the sand. Thank Primus Rhea was the only living Spark around to have witnessed that blunder. And between the give of the sand and Rhea's continued grasp on him the short fall hadn't been damaging to anything but his ego.
But what went wrong? He tried again, and came against the same problem. Why couldn't he get this? Glaring down at his human peds, legs, the realization hit him rather fast. During her first few Cyberformations, Rhea found the ability to walk easy, because her Cybertronian form matched her human one. Soundwave's chassis matched many others of his kind, utilizing an inverted knee joint alignment. That had no equivalent in a human form. He didn't have to just learn how to walk as a human, he had to learn how to walk in general. Fantastic.
Seated back down, and now annoyed with himself, he let Rhea help him again with the basics. Learning how it felt to bend the strange joints of this new form from the relative safety of the ground. Rhea was endlessly patient, even cracking jokes at her own expense as she regaled him tales of her own Cyberformation process. Of course he had been there for every single test, but hearing her thought process as she had worked through those first few tests was interesting, and helpful. This really was nothing more than a Cyberformation but in reverse. Just as Autoclave had been theorizing was possible. The old scientist would be very interested in this tech indeed. As long as Soundwave was not the main focus for that experimentation.
This time, he pushed himself off the ground. The sand of the beach was wonderful for breaking falls. Not so great for providing solid footing. But Rhea held onto him, and finally he was upright. They stood still, his simulated heart pounding in his chest as he struggled to keep his non inverted knees to cooperate. "Good job," Rhea praised.
Such a simple remark. But it made the drumming in his chest more noticeable again. He could only hope that was a normal human response to praise, because he had no idea. "This is taking too long," he grumbled. The annoyed air in which he said it was not aimed at her. Only himself.
She gave him that look again, "Did I take to long when I was learning to walk as a bot?" she countered.
"Of course not," he insisted.
"Exactly. Because learning how to be a whole different other thing from a whole different galaxy is damn hard. So, stop being so hard on yourself. You're doing just fine."
He probably should ask her about the odd palpitations his heart was demonstrating. But he decided that could be left for another time. Instead, he focused harder on his new legs, willing them to move him over the uneven ground. One after the other. Just like breathing… His chest was hurting again, frag, he forgot to keep breathing too. That first, then the next step.
They settled on a very slow pace, but at least they were moving. One of his arms was draped around Rhea's shoulders for support, but he no longer was in danger of flopping down. He hoped so anyway.
"Still terrified?" she wondered.
He glanced her at the corner of his limited human vision. She was curious, but still had that carefree smirk. It was a good question. He wasn't, really. Perhaps he had just forgotten his terror in place of stubborn determination. That was a favorable trade. "I think, that is abridged, at least for the moment. Or at the very least compartmentalized for a later date." He admitted. She should ask him when the next simple human activity threw him into another mental tailspin. His opinion was sure to change again.
He stopped, Rhea following his example. Glancing at the sky, he noted the sun's position had fallen a good few notches. He couldn't glean much, as he quickly realized human eyes could not easily withstand direct UV light for more then a few kliks. Without his internal chronometer, all he knew for certain was a considerable amount of time had passed.
"I'm worried about Laserbeak," he admitted. "Not feeling him at all is very uncomfortable… I assume it is the same for him." In truth, it really was like the Bond had just been severed. He hoped that had not been a permanent side effect of this little venture. He doubted that very much, but not having that familiar link was so uncomfortable. At least with them cut off, Laserbeak would not be able to feel the insane feedback he had been experiencing.
"Want to call it a day?" she offered.
He really didn't want to because that was admitting defeat. And besides that, even he could confess… He had passed the initial shock and horror of the whole experience, and now he was curious. They were not totally cut off from the outside world while in the simulation. Laserbeak could contact them, as could others. That had yet to happen, so his minicon was holding his own. Soundwave could manage if Laserbeak was.
"No. I am fine to continue," he finally said.
She smiled at him, "Then come here. I want to show you something cool."
Apprehension in the form of those strange pinpricks appeared along his skin as Rhea led them to the water. Salt water. Not ideal for a Cybertronians metal alloyed body. Far from devastating, but if not cleansed in a timely fashion, rust between joints and under plating was inevitable.
Of course, there was no metal to be found on him now. But old habits die hard, as many said.
And even without his normal scanners, he registered the warmth of the sand change as they approached the shifting waves. It was in his feet, feeling the texture of compacted sand. Cool and… This was wet, as a human felt it. He had no idea how to describe it to himself, other than how alien it was. But he continued to follow Rhea closer to the water, his hand still clinging to hers.
They stopped just short of the lapping waves. He was slowing down, now very apprehensive. Gently, she let his hand slip between her fingers until they were no longer connected. He was only now a little wobbly, but he was confident in his ability to stand without her help. He watched with an odd tension in his shoulders as Rhea walked into the darker sand until the water lapped over her bare feet and ankles. She reached out to him, a smile encouraging him to come to her.
One final hurdle to really test himself. Walk on his own and meet her where she was. He started forward, reached out, and took her hand. Water washed over his feet, and he went rigid in Rhea's grasp. His skin reacted with more pinpricks, every tiny hair standing rode iron straight. What in the Pits was this?
How was the temperature so drastically different? This was more than 'cool' he was feeling. The water clung to his skin, even after retreating back into the ocean. It sank him slightly deeper into the sand. He used the brief respite from the waves to close the small distance between himself and Rhea and took her other hand. She drew close to him, head resting against his chest. He enveloped her with his strange arms, and finally just gave up trying to figure this all out. He pressed himself into her, nestling his mouth and new nose to her hair.
He was overwhelmed, but he didn't fight that feeling. Like the water, he let it wash over him. He got lost in the scent and strange yet appealing feel of her hair. What word could he describe that? A few human descriptors fit, but he had no clue what those entailed until now. Soft, was one. It described her well. How her scent mixed with the strange wafting air of the ocean and sand. The shock of the water's cold touch was waning, his body adapting to it with each lapping wave.
It was overwhelming, so he just closed his eyes, retreating into the darkness so he could cherish the feel of Rhea against him.
A soft chime managed to grab his attention through it all.
That was one of the alarms to alert them of outside communication. Someone was trying to contact him in the real world. He was actually surprised when the idea of logging out left him with a pang of disappointment. But he opened his eyes regardless and found Rhea with a similar look of mild displeasure. It made him feel guilty.
"Duty calls as always," she sighed, "My money is it's about Prion."
Just as she was about to pull down the drop menu from the sky and activate their log off sequence, he gently took her hand in his own to stop her. "Wait. One more moment… I want to try something we discussed."
She raised a brow, but nodded, letting her hand fall back down to remain intwined with his. "What did you have in mind?"
"When we melded fields, you expressed a desire to kiss me. We can do that now, before we depart," he explained.
Oddly, she appeared apprehensive, "You ok with that?"
Well, now he was confused. Over the course of their courtship, she had kissed him and even Laserbeak countless times. A simple human ritual he didn't really think much of, no more or less than any of the other silly little human tendencies she had.
"Why would I not be ok with it now?" he finally asked, voicing the simplified version of that whole mental point.
She hesitated as she appeared to be fishing for the right words, "I mean, I just sort of assume it is going to be different for you like this."
"Well, my feelings are irrelevant. This experience is for you," he said with a snicker.
Her face became very serious, and her hand came to rest on his cheek. His body gave a little involuntary tremble at her touch. "Your feelings are never irrelevant to me."
Why did the human heart feel so like a Spark in moments such as these? It was only meant to pump blood through the circulatory system so the body would not cease to function. Yet it appeared to have a mind of its own at the most inopportune times.
"So that being said," Rhea huffed, and her thumb caressing his cheek was making it hard for him to think for some reason, "Is it ok if I kiss you?"
He had to inhale more air, though he was unsure why his body needed it at this moment. He just trusted the instinct.
He nodded.
Rhea licked her lips, and even with his advanced sight gone, he did notice the slight tinge of a color change in her cheeks. She shifted from her place before him and stood on her toes to bring her face closer to his own. Their sudden proximity was, for some reason, causing him to tense in his strange muscle structure. That was odd, considering she often spent time inside his alt mode and any thousand other ways to be closer to him. But she had been right. This did feel different.
He forced himself not to flinch away, because he had just stated he was fine. It was only this odd human body he was still getting used to.
Her arms came to rest around the back of his neck, and her lips pressed to his. And he thought his heart had been doing flips before. He was suddenly dizzy, the weight of some unseen force pressing on the back of his head and making his stomach twist. He was almost scared to move, not sure what other insane emotions would stir from the simple new touch.
He focused on her instead. Her eyes fluttered closed, and he was able to experience that new soft texture in the form of her lips. A warmth settled in his stomach as it continued to spiral. He had to move. Do something that wasn't standing still as a terrified statue. So, he settled very hesitant hands around the small of her back. Locking them closer together. Because the feelings were so dramatically alien, he felt like he had whiplash, but he decided it wasn't bad enough to make him want them to stop.
Her lips parted ever so slightly, moving against his, drawing his breath gently from him. Now came a new sensation he hadn't been ready for at all. His own mouth must have parted open, maybe blindly following her lead, and it was what allowed this different phenomenon to occur. Something like scent, but this time, the texture danced on his tongue. Research indicated this was probably taste, but much as every other experience, he had been completely unprepared for the reality of it. How did the taste of Rhea's lips mimic the feel of high-grade entering his fuel lines so perfectly?
The sound his human voice box produced had been involuntary. A sharp little gasp that hinted to his inner feelings of being utterly overwhelmed by this experience. Her warmth against his body, her soft and gentle touch that drew him in like they were magnetized, all juxtaposed to the coolness of the water slowly sinking them into the damp sand.
She pulled away, leaving his lungs rather desperate to inhale more air faster. Her eyes were again open on him. He could not verbally contribute or comment. He felt totally intoxicated by her.
"What… What am I feeling?" he finally managed to ask, because he was very lost.
The tint in her skin had yet to depart from her, and she smirked. "Can you describe it?"
He could not. After the events that just transpired, he was unsure if he could pilot his new body any better than he could when he first logged into the simulation. But he had to at least try, if he wanted any meaningful answer to his question. "I, that moment, when you first felt the field in a Cybertronian form. That feeling that I sensed in you when you looked at me. It's this intense want to have, more." That had been very vague and not at all helpful, but he was still grasping at whisps of logic. His mind still felt melted.
Her grin gained a knowing glint. "It's desire. Welcome to how I have been feeling for you for the past eleven years."
So, this was a normal human thing. Good to know it wasn't wrong. But Primus, it was intense.
The chime rung again, and with its tone came a little bit of clarity. She was squeezing his hand. "Probably enough for today. It could be urgent outside, and you look traumatized… But, thank you."
Again, he found no meaningful words. He could only nod, watching her bring the menu from the air which would whisk them away to the real world.
He studied her face as she tapped at the final few choices that would set them free. He mirrored her movements from before and licked his own lips, a whole new kind of odd, but it reminded him of their kiss. How he already wanted to repeat it.
He had always thought Rhea was beautiful, in her skin or chassis. But now, it was a whole different feeling that sent shockwaves through his body that he did not have time to process before the world was suddenly dark… and those odd feelings snuffed out.
He was suddenly back in his quarters in the North tower above Kaon. Left feeling oddly hollow in his much more comfortable mesh and plating, he only had the recent memories of surreal intimacy to cling to.