Chapter Text
I wake up.
Or I think I do. Don’t really know what waking up is, but that’s what it feels like.
There’s warmth on me — in me — curling off... whatever I am. And I can feel. I can... feel. I can feel something pressing against me from behind, and I’m... lying down, and there’s something that feels like a heavy breeze brushing my... plating.
I’ve got a body! Yes! I have plating and there’s steam curling all around it and I’m... wow I’m warm. No, I’m hot.
I’m really hot.
Something whirrs, and I can hear it and feel it vibrating through me as something moves and flickers open, and flashes of light stab into me, and colour, all bright... bright... blue, but thicker. It’s so bright blue-green. I squirm and something else moves, the light getting blocked out, and I feel bits of me flex. It’s... it’s fingers, and an arm. And I see them.
And I see a big, glowing ball of light in the sky. It’s a giant spark. A giant... giant... optic. It’s an optic, staring down at me from way wayyyyyyy above.
It’s really bright.
I feel my... face? My face does something, and my own seeing things squinch, something thin and see-through flicking over them and they adjust to the bright bright brightness peeking between my....
Hey, those are fingers. Those are my fingers. They’re silver. And yellowy?
I have a body, a frame. It feels good.
Except I’m still kind of hot, but it’s leaking away as the whirring noise gets louder, and I feel bits of me open up, hisses shooting steam up to the sky above my optics and in my neck and further away down somewhere. On my back I think, and other places. My face does something, and I feel it... feel bits of it stretch, and I know that’s a grin. Because that was really cool.
I just grinned. For the first time ever.
I wanna move. Wriggling my fingers, I try to figure out what I’m trying to move, feeling sparking through me and I hear shifting and feel roughness scratching at my plating and I have legs too. I’m moving.
And I feel... I feel....
I thump down onto my front as the sky and blurry bits of something else I didn’t notice before whirl around, and suddenly there’s rough rocky ground up against my face. Dizzy.
Squinting at it, I squirm a little more before the dizzy feeling makes me stop, and I hear something hum low inside me. It sounds kind of sad. Why’s it making sad noises. And I can taste it, too. Tastes... yellow/light green/grey. Bleh. Sadness tastes terrible.
“Mrr.”
Bits of me on my back twitch, doing a sad little flutter. Can I move yet.
I turn my head, scraping it against the ground and hearing a... ow, that sounds bad. It hurts my hearing things — audials. Maybe I can’t move much just yet, but I can still look around a little.
And I see a different blue. And it smells/tastes/feels like... friendly. Like familiar.
I flick little see-through wipers over my optics — it just kinda happens, don’t really know why — staring at something that stares back. It’s lying on its back, and I know it’s like me. It’s kind of far away, but I... feel something. I know that glowy blue that’s different from the sky.
I hear a little chirp, and it clicks down under my helm somewhere in my... neck? Think it’s a little lower. A little rumble comes from further down and I feel bits on my back flutter again as I lift my hand and tap it on the ground, smiling at the blue optics.
They stare back, and sloooooooowly scrunch up until they’re looking at me funny.
A little rumble vibrates in me, and it feels... happy. I grin for the second time, feeling bits in my mouth move. Cos I have a mouth and I can smile. I chirp again, throwing fast clicks that slice through the space between us, tapping my fingers against the ground and trying to push up a little.
A little click comes back, and it sounds kind of... confused. Doesn’t it know me? I know it.
I wanna get over there. Feeling bits in my mouth lock together, I poke something out between them, tapping up against the top rim of the little hole in my face. The mouth, cos I have a mouth, and I already got that part. Maybe it helps me as I wobble up, trying to push my... peds against the ground. Yeah, peds. I’ve got peds, which means I can walk, right?
And a moment later I’m back on the ground again.
A little grumbling rumble stirs deep inside me, and I push down again, wedging one leg in front and one more behind and... and.... I kinda get halfway there.
Sticking my... tongue — it’s a sticky-outy thing — a little further until it brushes something else sticky-outy on my face, I try to work my legs to get me up off the ground, feeling everything going all wobbly and weird sounds whining inside me but I’m... almost... there....
Sound.
“Hey, easy there, little guy.”
A big sound.
It’s kind of soft, too, not loud, but it... it goes through me and it feels big. I like it.
I don’t like the feeling of something teasing at the plating behind my head, though. It... it tickles. Something back there tingles and it makes it click out. The rest of me goes all poofy and sticky-outy in a shivering wave with it when big things that feel like giant fingers curl around the back of the thing that popped out, and I go dizzy again when my frame suddenly gets lighter and things move and the ground—
Hey wait I was almost there—!
I try and reach out for it, kicking out for the ground and hearing a sound yelp from me.
A deep, deeep rumble vibrates all the way through me, and I feel my plating doing a shuddering poofy thing and snap in and out. The big thing sounds happy, though, and there’s something that touches me that doesn’t touch me, gently cradling around me with warm feelings and happiness. It tingles, and it feels like the big optic in the the sky — like life. Like feel/smell/taste.
It’s very happy. I don’t really know why. Maybe it’s because it found me. I like it though.
Dizzzzzzy.
Everything whirls around again and I look up into big glowing optics. Orange ones. Warm ones that glow with something that makes me feel safe. It’s smiling, too.
I smile back, something in me whirring and clicking and a chirp turning into something else. “H-hhhhhi! Who’re you?”
I think I just said words.
It grins as I blink up at it, a soft chuffy sound wrapping around me all warm and fuzzy, and I kick my feet back and forth a little in its grip, trilling something happy back — because it’s happy, so I’m happy.
“Already trying to walk, eh? And talk, too. Eager little one, huh?” The Big Happy’s voice isn’t really quiet, but it’s not loud and it doesn’t hurt, and it sounds nice.
I blink. “That’s a good thing, right?”
The Big Happy’s optics do a weird crinkly thingy, the metal scrunching up, and that makes them look even happier, warm buzzy feelings winding into mine. The rumble goes all warm and deep and vibratey, and I wanna do that. I try to echo it, my fans whirring a funny chuffing stutter thing and my rrrr isn’t that deep, but that’s okay. I can work on it.
“It’s a great thing, just a little unexpected,” She says in a way that’s... that’s... churr. I’m gonna call that a churr, because it’s got a funny vibratey edge that tickles inside me and makes me wanna grin more. “And you can call me TT — that’s who I am. Though my full name’s Tumble Treads.”
I squirm a little in her grip, feeling bits of me flutter, and I scrunch my optics back, giving the biggest grin I know how. “Hi TT! I’m new! Or I think I am. I just woke up a little bit ago. Think I used to not have a body but now I’ve got one.” I tilt my head, kicking my peds a little and feeling the points on my back droop. “Can’t walk, though.”
Which is kinda sad. I want to. Just can’t.
A little warm liquidy feeling curls into my sadder feelings from the Big Happy TT, and her optics go all soft, more layers in the colours, and she shifts her grip and holds me in both arms. It’s funny to look up at her from here, all cradled against her, but it’s warm and feels kind of like the cozy space with the Gentle Light. I like it.
“Aw, you’re adorable, byte — don’t worry, you’ll get it with some time.” She brushes the sticky-out bit — a nose — on my face, with a finger, and tilts her head, smiling. “Just need to test out those little peds a bit and get your gyros stabilised, huh?”
I perk up, or I feel all my plating go perky, anyway. I have plating and it moves, and it’s nice. Putting my hands on the warm metal that’s a little vibratey — and I can hear sounds from inside that sound nice and like a spark whirring, too — I grin up at her. “Can I? Really? D’you think I can now? Can I try it?”
A rumbly chuff goes through me. “Maybe not just yet, scraplet. Let me give you a little trial first, okay?”
She moves, and I feel and hear thumping. Is this what it’s like to walk? When I look back around her arms I see the world moving. And the world’s kind of funny to look at.
It’s got some little bots — like me? — lying down, and there are weird glowy half-gooey ones steaming in bubbly pools, and I can see sparks sitting down in melty metal, making it really hot. Is that what I did? It makes me... questions. Curious. There are these metal panel things stretching around in a wall everywhere, too, but they kind of pulse softly, and they’re glowy, and they’re not rough like the ground.
“Wha’s going on?” I wrap my hands as far as they’ll go around the big arms and try to look at all the sparks and the melty bots. Something moves, and I see other big bots walking — so cool — around near the panels, and little things zooming in the sky above the ground. “Are those sparks like me? Is that what I did? Are they getting bodies too?”
Something makes a sound way wayyyy down on the ground, and I lean over the arms, blinking down at blue optics that blink up at me. He’s sitting up now, his hands planted on the ground and his legs all funky cos he doesn’t know how to use them. I chirrup down at him and flutter my plating and grin. “Hi! I’m walking!”
“Talkative little punk.” TT does the warm wrapping thing again, a little pokey edge to it, and I squirm as it tingles, something deep inside me making a loud churring/purry noise — all... all... chiffly! Yeah, chiffly. “Slow down for a bit and I might be able to answer some of those questions, alrighty?”
She moves and we get closer to the ground, soft whirry sounds in my audials. “For a start, you’re right, those sparks are like you — though most of them are only just starting to forge and form frames. But they’re all sparklings, just like you and your little friend, here.”
The big blue optics of the Little Friend stare at us, and he tilts his helm, swaying a little. “You’re not walking.”
TT rumbles again, the sound loud and short and bubbly, and I wriggle, feeling bits of me flutter happily. She’s really happy at that, for some reason. Funny — it’s funny. We said funny things. “TT was walking for me. She said it’s a trial run till my legs work.”
His mouth turns down, and his optics squinch a little, clear shutter/wipers flicking over them, like mine. “That’s not walking. That’s... that’s being... carried.”
I feel and hear my fingers tippety-tappety on TT’s arm, and I think about that for a little. “Yeah, but it’s still walking! I’m just not doing it.”
TT rumbles again, more quietly, and the Little Friend smiles, one corner of his mouth going a little higher, and I see pointy silver bits. “But you said you were walking.”
I tilt my head back and do the same thing with my mouth, trying to make my plating not flutter but it does anyway, and I blink. “I did?” Looking back around at TT, I stare up into her orange optics. “Did I say that?”
She looks like she’s trying not to smile while smiling, and her optics close a little as she looks back, a bit above one of them going up. “Pretty sure you did, scrappy. But—” She churrs over the Little Friend, shifting her arms around me and lifting a finger— “we can rectify that by giving you an opportunity to use those little peds of yours all by yourself, hm?”
Oh, oh those are words. Those are cool words. I don’t know what they mean, but it sounds cool — all overlapping tones and everything. And she just said I can maybe walk? I think?
My optics go super wide — I can feel bits opening as far as they’ll go and the world going a little brighter. “I can walk now?! Can I can I?”
She rumbles again and gently starts to move me, and I feel hands tighten a little when I try to wriggle for the ground and touch it and stand up by myself. “Whoa, hey! Rev it back, speedy! Lemme set you down and make sure you don’t fall straight onto your faceplates again, alright?”
I stop wriggling and chirp, trying to stop myself from reaching for the ground. “Okay!”
Slowly, sloooooowwwwly, she lowers me down until I touch the ground with my peds again, and set them onto it, feeling things go all vibratey especially on my back bits and twitching around my audials. “I’m standing! Look! See?”
I’m kind of still holding onto TT’s arm, and she’s kind of still holding onto me, but I know this is what it’s like to stand — I can feel it. Through my peds. And it feels cool, and I wanna actually walk next.
The Little Friend tilts his helm, and then tilts it further until his whole head’s sideways and he’s probably looking at the world stood up on its side. And squints at me. “I guess....”
“Not by myself, but I’m still standing! I’m not being carried anymore.” I tilt my own head back, bits of my denta clicking and moving as I grin. Twisting around to look at TT, I beam up at her, her arms tightening around me again just a little. “Can I walk? Can you let me go so I can walk?”
Her rumble shivers through me. “Hm, think you can do it all by yourself?”
“Yeah!” I bounce on my... on my... toeplates? On my toes — fluttering all the bits of me that flutter, which is a lot of bits. “My head’s not dizzy anymore! See?”
“But... what if you fall over?” Little Friend’s feelings blink at me, fluttery and buzzy. Worried?
I blink back at him, ruffling up my sticky-outy bits all up my back and helm and shoulders. “Then I’ll fall on you and you can catch me.”
“Brilliant strategy,” TT’s voice chuffles, all warm with a little bitey jokey edge. “Alright, I’m letting you go now, y’hear? Use those little peds, bitlet. I’ll pick you up again if you need it.”
“I won’t!” I plant them on the ground firmly and brace myself and scrunch my face really hard at the rocks, and the weird little fuzzy not-rock things also there. You’re not getting me, ground! I can stand now!
TT’s arms move back and away really carefully, and I take my hands off, too. And then I’m standing there, by myself. By myself. I grin, planting my hands on my hips and flicking my audial sticky-uppy bits up. “I told you I could do it!”
And then I try and take a step, and my ped doesn’t move.
“Huh?” I scrunch my face down at it, and almost wobble off balance, waving my arms and... and— yes, got it! Not falling over. I’m never gonna get off my peds again.
“What’s wrong?” Little Friend’s looking up at me, leaning on his hands and shuffling his legs behind him, his plating all vibratey.
I stick my tongue out and plant it against the top of my mouth. “My ped’s stuck. I can’t move it.”
I look up at TT way way above me. “Are my legs broken again?”
She’s holding a hand up to her face, her optics dancing with layers of happy light, like she’s churring/chuffling but inside. “No, bitty, you’ve just gotta relax those little feet of yours. The rock here’s got a fair bit of iron in it, so you’re probably sticking like opposite poles — just ease up a bit and you’ll be fine.”
...I don’t know what that means but she said relax. Frowning at them, I do... something, and feel something clunk/click. So I yank my ped up just in case it’s still stuck and—
“WHOA—!”
Krunk!
Uhhn where’d the ground go? I think it just slammed into my back. Maybe cos the sky’s up above me again and the bright light in it is spinning around in circles.
A face with orange optics and dark green plating pops into it, blurring in and out. “Alrighty there, little fella?”
“I think I unstuck it.” My voice sounds all funny, kind of groany and wobbling in and out.
“Sure did. Even did a full high kick, and you haven’t even been online a full breem.” The warm fuzzy feeling nudges up to me, and I purr. It feels weird cos the ground vibrates against me, and it sounds funny.
“Wha’s a high kick?” I nudge back at the feeling, kind of half-rolling over and flopping back on my front again, popping up on my hands like the Little Friend was doing. Except I think he was leaning forwards with his optics all wide like he thought I was dead, so he twitches back and falls over with a yelp.
I grin and bop over to him, almost bonking into his face with mine. “Hi.”
“What are you doing?” His face scrunches up.
I tilt my head. “Saying hi?”
“I can’t get up if you’re leaning on me!”
I blow air out of my vent-things, planting a hand on him and scrunching my legs up underneath me. He squirms and whines and prickles hurt-but-not-really-hurt feelings at me when I push up, flailing back onto my peds, but he’s okay. “I can help you up if I’m up.”
He glares at me. “Ow.”
TT rumbles a loud chuffy sound, and I almost fall over again. “You two are a right pair of sibs, eh?”
I blink wipers over my optics, wobbling a little on my peds and trying not to stick them to the ground again. Sibs? I tilt my head and look from her to the Little Friend and back again. “He was a little light, too.”
I remember them. Little lights floating everywhere, except they weren’t lights, because it wasn’t seeing. It was... it was... feel/taste/smell/hear except not. They floated and I floated, and then the Gentle Light and the big steady Lights came, and they pulsed with us. They were... nice. Not like the echo — the sound that cut through us and made us vibrate and hurt. That I tried to push away, I think, but it made me tired....
He looks back at me, tilting his head, and I trill a chirrupy sound. Quieter, he chirps back, the blue in his optics stirring and shifting and the white glowy bits in the middle settling.
I grin. “You do remember!”
He tilts his head. “I think so...”
Spinning around to TT and fluttering my plating, I almost fall over again, but don’t this time. I’m done falling over for good now! I know it! I look up into her optics, feeling mine go big, fisting my hands up. “Can we go find the others? I don’t know where they went — I tried to stay close but everyone was shuffling and it was too... too....”
Close? Crammed in? I stumble over my words and click-whistle it in feeling, making flutey tones. I remember now though. We felt it calling, and we were warm, and they all drifted away, because we all felt prickly and buzzy and couldn’t nestle up anymore and got separated.
TT stares at me, a weird deep look in her optics. “I don’t know if I could help you much with that, little spark, but....”
She stops talking and her optics go weird, like they’re looking past me at nothing.
I try and step forwards, wobbling, and plonk my hands onto her leg. “TT?” Chirruping up at her, I try to get her attention, poking her with my warmth like she poked me. “Did you turn off with your optics open?”
A deep rumble goes all vibratey through my hands, and she looks down at me and pats my head, a smile on her face. “No, proto, just got a call. Little bit of trouble with one of the sparks.”
I perk up. “Can I help?”
A soft whiny rrrr comes from behind me, buzzy feelings that make me want to twitch and scrunch my plating pattering up. “Are you leaving?”
Uh.... I look between Little Friend and TT, scrunching the ends of my fingers back and forwards. Something else is there, like when we were just Lights, like energy-buzz feel and taste/touch/smell/hear, like calling and knowing but without saying words because we didn’t have mouths and talky bits. “Can he come?”
She tilts her helm at me, and I feel her big hand patting gently at the back of my head, stroking. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to interfere, little one. The caretakers know what they’re doing, and us watching on might just distract ‘em, eh?”
It echoes, and it feels... it’s scared. I twist, trying to look over, and see a bunch of big bots over the steaming ground near something, weird panel-things blocking what I know is the scared Light. Lights. I remember two. Extra little Lights and pulsing, warm.... “But... they’re scared. They’re....”
I whistle the feeling softly, Little Friend whining a harmony. He feels it too.
“...The newsparks?”
“Something’s wrong.” I look up at her and reach my tingly warmth to her, an achey feeling deep inside me. And I don’t like it. It’s not... happy. It’s... maybe sad? But it hurts and makes bits on my back pull in. “Can I go? Please?”
“I want to go too,” Little Friend says.
Her optics stare down, all the orange swirling and shifting to a sad warmth that curls around me like the hand strokes my head. “Alright then, bitty. Think you can walk while I carry this little sparkling here?”
“Really?” I bounce back from her leg, flicking all the bits of me up and grinning at her. “I can do it!”
And I— the buzzy feeling inside me rumbles, and I spin around as she moves and scoops up Little Friend. There’s something I can do, I know it. Running! I can—! I kind of stumble and wobble, my peds all out of sync and my fingers brushing the ground. “Nn.”
“You alright there, little spark?”
“Mrrr.” It’s there, it’s in my head. I can see it and I know what it is. I can feel it. So why can’t I do it? “I’m good! I’ve got this!”
She makes a churry-chuffy sound as I wobble forwards again, her own feet steady and going slow. “Don’t worry, your frame’ll catch up with you. Takes a bit of time.”
But I need to get there. The little Lights are scared, and they feel blurred, but clear, like... like.... Like light blooming in optics and blue stretching wayyyyyyyyyyyy overhead filling everything. Except it’s flickers. It’s almost.
They’re almosts.
But they’re not, too. They’re... stuck. It feels like being caught in sticky thick heat, like sinking under but not coming up and seeing, and it makes me feel... prickly. It makes me feel scared. I don’t want them to be scared.
I bite my mouth bits — denta — together, hard, and make my legs move. There’s a rumble behind me, but the wobble doesn’t make me crash to the ground. Everything’s shifty and tilty, and it feels like I’m going to, but I’m not. My peds thump into the ground, and whirring sounds are loud in my audials.
Scrabbling around someone lying on the ground — oh, hey, I know that one! — I beep at him and bump at his tingliness with mine as I scoot past, flailing and almost falling on my face and kind of going on my hands and peds for a bit before getting up on two feet again. And I’m running, and I’m almost falling, and I’m kind of skidding across the ground and—
My toe hits something and I screech straight into some big bot’s ped. Ow.
They’re closer though. They’re right here. I feel them, and I reach out, pulsing like I remember when the echo was there and we all hurt, curling around them with the others. A sound sings from me, flutey and loud and calling. I call.
But they’re quiet. They can’t call back.
“What the—?”
“Don’t worry about him, Synth. Wanted to come over for his batchmates.”
I feel TT and Little Friend, but I need to go forwards. Before the bot shifting next to me can move, I scrabble up past the other ones and duck through the panels, skidding on my hands and knees, and—
...Whoa.
I see them, the little Lights. They pulse and dance and spin and flicker, and they flicker quickly. It feels like... like the flickering inside me. There’s melty ground everywhere, and it’s hot. It’s hot like I was when I saw the sky and the optic staring out of it.
It ripples against me, melty ground bubbling and the little Lights fluttering together above it, glittery metal snaking up. Somewhere there’s voices that sound sharp and scared, but I reach out like I used to when I was just a Light like that. It’s easier than walking.
I touch them but don’t, and they flicker slower, listening. They should go into the pool — somehow I know that. They need to stop huddling and go apart.
But they don’t want to. They’re scared to be apart.
I tilt my head, watching the light bluish-greenish like the sky and the red-orangish like my frame flicker together, purple-pink. ~~But... you need to be apart so you can be together.~~
They spin and flicker and pulse, and I pulse back. It’ll be okay. ~~You’ll be okay. I know you’ll be okay. You’ll be like me, and you can walk and talk!~~
The flickering slows down, and they spin quieter, the bright purple-pink fading as they drift a little apart to their own colours. I smile, fluttering my plating. ~~See?~~
They’re quiet for a long while, and then the light blue-greenish drifts away, dipping down to the bubbly ground, and light sparks glow, silver bits threading up and dancing around and pulling it in. The other one flutters, going to the other one and then pulling back, and I pulse at it, bouncing on my knees. ~~You can do it!~~
It drifts to the metal and then pulls back, curling around itself and shrinking.
I reach out and bump my Light into it, making soft vibratey pulses like purring. ~~You’ll be okay — you’ll be like me!~~ The other one’s starting to look like a bot, glowing and bright and I can see a face with closed optics, silver melty metal winding around her head. ~~And like her!~~
It does a shaky pulse, and for a moment it just hovers there.
And then it dives in.
Uh. I stiffen up and lean forward, squinting against the bright light and feeling bits of me go spiky, my Light calling out. You’re not supposed to dive in—
Heat blasts against me, and I duck down, sticking my hands in front of my face, metal burbling and hissing and everything’s hot, but... it’s buzzy inside me. It’s like me, and I like it, but the Red Light wasn’t supposed to do that.
It cries out, and I twitch. It didn’t make a sound, but I hear it, the metal all bubbly and thrashing, and Blue-Green is struggling away, but the pool’s getting bigger, and she’s calling for the other one, but it’s hot and she needs to get out.
I scramble forwards and pulse to both of them. ~~I’ve got her!~~
Everything’s noise and loud voices behind and buzzing and hums, and I think I hear TT calling for me, but Red Light’s crying out, and she’s thrashing in the pool, all ripply silver threads.
I feel thick hot metal around my peds, sticky under them, and the heat dances in me. It’s all steamy, but I see red lights, and I reach out with my hand—
Another hand grabs it and I almost get pulled onto my face, except I’m bigger and she’s little. And she’s getting a frame really quick.
I tug back, and grab her other hand. “Nnnnf!”
And then the world whirls and tumbles. “Oof!” I roll over the crunchy not-melty ground, a really really warm frame curled into me and me curled around it.
For a while everything just whirrs, all misty and cooling down and a kind of quiet that makes me think of sparks that’ve frozen up and gone all sputtery. And then Red Light twitches and wriggles. So I plonk my chin on her head and purr. “Hi.”
Little clicks and whistles vibrate against me, and big red-orange optics blink open. She’s got kinda dark colours on her frame, like TT, except it’s black, not green, and she’s got red bits too. Not like Little Friend — he’s blue and yellow.
I click back, because she sounds kind of confused and shaky, and then I purr harder. “You’re really small.”
She just kinda clicks again, a little kinda rumble vibrating back. “Mrrr?”
I try the churr thing, and it’s not as deep and bubbly and warm as TT but it feels right, and I roll around back to sitting up. All the big bots are kinda just looking, and I blink up at them, flicking bits on my back in a happy bounce. “Hi.”
TT breaks through them all, Little Friend still in her arms, and her optics are all wide and flickering and less nice warm and more sharp pale-ish. Red Light meeps when she plonks down in front of us, and a hand wraps my helm, all gentle and warm but her tingliness feels all tight and kinda buzzy. “Lights, proto! You okay there?”
I purr at both warm metals, Red Light trying to snuggle away into me, and flutter my pointy bits, patting her back and chirruping at her. “We’re fine! I helped.”
“You went zoom,” Little Friend adds, and he leans over TT’s arms, trying to look at Red Light.
Red Light’s still kind of scared. Except it’s sort of hide-away scared and not terrified-melting scared.
“Hey, these bots are nice. This is TT, and Little Friend! They’re fun.” I merp at her and grin, nibbling at her helm, and she explodes in a yelp-beep. But she does finally skrertch her helm up and blink at everybody else.
And keeps blinking, looking all around with big optics and squirming a little, a soft little flute-click vibrating against me. She sounds curious, except it’s kind of worried.
Oh, Blue-Green.
I snap up so fast I almost get dizzy again and something clicks that almost hurts. Wait where’d she go she’s not there anymore— “Where’s Bluegreen?”
I can feel her like I can feel Little Friend and Red Light, but she feels far away-ish.
TT’s fingers stroke gently at my head, and her tingliness pokes lightly at me, pointing off to the other big bots and— oh, she’s being held by one of the others. And trying to squirm over here. “Don’t worry, Synth’s checking her over. Gave us quite a scare, you two.”
I grin and flutter my plating. “It’s okay, I helped out! She kind of got stuck but I pulled her out.”
“Sure did.” She says it quiet, the orange in her optics going dark and melty-warm at the same time, almost like she’s sad.
I blink and open my mouth to ask, but she pats me on the head and her tingliness taps at me again. “Alrighty then, how about you two get over there so they can look over our newest little newspark and make sure she’s alright after all that, eh?”
“Okay!” I wriggle forwards a little and hold Red Light tighter when she chirps and growls and struggles, scrunching my face up a little and feeling bits on my back stiffen out. “I’ll carry you over like TT did for me! I’m great at walking now — we’ll go see her and you can be together.”
I nuzzle the top of her head with my chin and she stops squirming, letting me brace my feet and yank both of us up. Except she’s kind of too big to actually carry like TT’s doing for Little Friend, even if she’s way smaller. She doesn’t really mind me kind of hanging her off the ground under her arms, though, just cheeps and blinks down.
“See... I’ve... got you.” Wow, she’s heavier than I thought she’d be. I plonk across the ground, feeling all the whirring parts in me whirring harder, but I’m not falling.
“You alright there, bitlet? Sure you don’t want some help?”
“No I’m good!”
Red Light wriggles a little, a curious pulse poking at me and clicking, like she’s saying she can help walk. Maybe I can help her learn. I drop her a little, letting her feet touch the ground. “You want to walk? I bet we can get all the way over just by ourselves.”
She perks up, a cheep bubbling into a word. “Yes!”
Her peds are all wonky and not hitting the ground right, and she almost makes us both fall over. I grin and a loud chuffy sound shakes out of me. “Wait wait!”
“Gonna fall! Gonna fall!” She yelps, hot air blasting at me from all her whirry... vents. Yeah, those are vents. They look cool.
“Nope!” I hold her tighter, lifting her a little off the ground again. I’ve got an idea. “Move your feet with mine like this. See?”
I plant my ped next to her smaller one and scoot it forwards. She follows a little later, and I churr. “Yeah! You’ve got it!”
“Walking!”
“Yeah!” I grin so wide I think bits of my face are going to peel off, and I look up at TT as we shuffle-waddle over the ground. “Look TT! I showed her how to walk!”
“Very impressive.” She smiles down and the warm in her tingly not-touch makes mine feel like it’s going to pop out of my spark. And Little Friend isn’t in her arms anymore?
I lean forward a little and see him wobbling next to her, holding her hand. “Hey, you’re walking too!”
He grins back. “And I haven’t fallen over yet.”
I grin a little more denta.”Impr-essive.”
“Imp...imress...ive!” Red Light cheeps, getting all her tones mixed up. “Imrassive! Immisive!”
“Impressiveeee~” I flutey-tone it, drag the sound out... sing. Sing-song. And whistle a happy note. “See she’s nice, she knows a lot of words.”
“Big words!”
I nod. “Big words. Huge words.”
And then we stop waddling because we’re there, and Bluegreen blinks down at us. I blink back and grin. “Hi!”
The big bot holding her is looking at us kinda funny. Red Light chirps and reaches up, trying to touch Bluegreen, but he doesn’t put her down until TT comes up. Maybe she says something to him, because he blinks a little and then slowly puts her down.
Red Light blasts out of my arms, and I— “Unhf!” — I fall back onto my hands and back-ish. Maybe I’m still having a little trouble balancing. I grin anyway when Red Light wraps Bluegreen up and they kinda both tumble down in a little pile of happy twin, and little bits on my back flutter up and down. It’s a happy thing.
TT sounds happy too. I roll my head around and grin back at her and Little Friend, waving my peds. “They’re happy now.”
“That they are, scraplet.” Her huuuuuge hand reaches down and ruffles the little plating bits on my head, and it feels nice. “Good work helping them out, there.”
I squint one optic, still grinning. “I’m a good bot.”
She laughs. “That you are.”
Her hand moves away and in front of me after a little, when all the bots have stopped looking at Red Light and Bluegreen, her fingers wiggling. “And it looks like we’ve got somewhere to be. Want me to carry you, or would you like to walk, hm?”
I look up at her warm glowy optics. “Can you carry all of us?”
She laughs, and the wind suddenly whistles in my audials and I’m getting yanked up. “Sure can, little fella.”
I blink, mrrrping as I get plopped on her shoulder, and my sticky peds and hands keep me from sliding off. Bluegreen and Red Light get snuggled into her arms, too. I grin, kicking my feet and purring down at them. This is fun! “Wow, you can carry a lotta little bots.”
I can feel the deeeeep rumble that chuffles through her, vibrating all up through my frame as we start moving and she waves to the others doing something with all the weird stuff by where the melty pool used to be. “I was built for it.”
I sway with her steps, all big and thumping, as we walk closer to the walls. Hmm, wasn’t there other sparklings, though? I met somebody when I was running, but I didn’t get to say hi.
I twist around, trying to look for him, but I see a lot of other newsparks getting carried the same place as us. I lean against TT’s helm, rubbing a little against the warm metal cuz it’s warm. “Where are we going?”
She hums, and I feel one of her little pointier plating bits shift under my chin. “We’ll be getting you some fuel, little ‘uns. You’d have to be hungry after all that.”
Hungry? I feel something kind of scrunching in my middle, and I rub at it, feeling all the little bits I can’t see grinding. Hungry. Yeah, yeah that’s hungry. “I’m really hungry.”
Little Friend’s glowy optics blink up at me. “How do you know if you’re hungry?”
TT bounces a little as we walk through the hole, and the hole keeps going deeper. “You know it by that feeling inside you, like your tanks are low and your mechanisms are rumbly. It’s a funny feeling, isn’t it?”
“Ohhh.” He blinks down at his own middle, and I grin as he pokes at it because TT’s feeling feels all warm and bubbly, like chuffles that are stuck inside. Amuseedddd. It’s funny, because he’s being dumb.
Red Light and Blue-green are just purring, blinking at both of us. Maybe they’re not hungry because they just got new frames and they’re full of melty metal.
We step into a bigger space and suddenly it’s all open again, and there are bright lights, but there are more lights in the sky? And the sky is closer down? There were lights in the hole, too, so maybe this is just a deeper place inside the hole. Cave. It’s a really square cave, and there’s stuff everywhere.
And that’s the little sparkling I saw earlier! And— hey, I know that one too!
I scramble off and hit the floor, stumbling a little and sticking for a moment to the floor because my hands and peds like to do that. TT makes a noise behind me, her feely feeling poking at me like a spark twitching. “Hey, proto, careful there.”
“Sorry!” I half-run over to them, throwing out my own feeling like a bubble. “Hiiiii!”
They perk up, their own feelings buzzing back, and it feels like when we didn’t have frames again and we were just floating, chasing each other and pulsing.
I purr, whacking my face into Big Red and strangling Black-gold, who yelps because he’s like that. Big Red purrs like TT, he’s so loud. And they feel happy. Though maybe Black-gold is a little less happy because he huffs and grunts and pulls at my arm, whining.
I just sparkle at him, smiling big and clinging to both of them with a chirp because I can.
“Some new friends, eh?” Big pedsteps stop behind us, and I beam up at TT as her orange optics glow down at us from her shadowy head. She’s smiling in feeling, and it’s nice. All of this is nice. This is where we’re supposed to be and we’re all together now, so it’s... perfect! Yeah, perfect.
I rumble so loud my whole frame shakes. “This is... um.” I chirp their feelings, because they’re not called Big Red and Black-gold, but I know their sparks. “They’re cool.”
I kind of feel like we’re missing one, though....
“Well then.” She crouches allll the way down, looking up at another big bot that was near them and then swirling her feeling a little, smiling back at us. “How would ya like to come with me over to the kitchen?”
“There you go, breaking the rules again,” the other big bot speaks, and I twist around to see him shaking his helm at her.
“There’s no rule on this and you know it. Just guidelines.”
I don’t know what a kitchen is but I wanna go. She’s nice and I’m not letting all of us get left behind because she’s ours now. I chirp, scrambling up on her and helping haul the others into her arms before she revs and crouches lower to let them get in easier, laughing. “’Sides, look at the little fellas. They’ll be helpful, won’t ya?”
“Yep!” I rev loudly in a not-quite purr that’s kind of chuffing and feels like mine.
“Careful, you’ll end up adopting them.”
“I’ll be honest, I think they’ve adopted me.”
I hop back up to her shoulder and trill, sticking my hands firmly on her warm metal and fluttering my plating. Yup, she’s ours. We’re adopting her.
I throw the thought down at everyone else and their optics blink back up, agreeing with a synced purr that makes the whole air vibrate.
“Okay little guys.” She laughs like this is the funniest thing ever, and I kick my feet, grinning, poking you’re adopted at her. “Let’s head off before the rest of staff dissolves, mm?”
She walks off, and I twist over her shoulder, poking my tongue out at the big mech who was talking to her before, grinning at his blinked smile.
And then we’re in a different space away from all the chirping and bumbling around other sparklings and cooing big mechs, and this is cool! “Whoa. There’s so much stuff!”
TT stops by a space off the floor in the middle where some funny-shaped rocks are. “Alright, sparks, you get off here, and you can help me pour the mix into the containers. The lot of you came a little early—I only had half the stuff mixed when everyone decided to pop out the ground. Little impatient bunch, eh?”
I chiffle when she pokes at me, kinda like it’s my fault. But everyone else forged, too. Sliding off, I make a perfect landing on my peds and my hands, tumbling away from Little Friend tripping and Big Red sprawling out of her arms. I skid a little on my back, laughing, and wave my peds in Little Friend’s face.
“Hey there, not too close to the edge.” A gentle, big hand scoots me closer in.
I flutter all my little plating bits, sitting up and poking at one of the rocks. Except it’s... not hard? “Why is this soft? What is it?”
“It’s a nutritional mineral mix. Take a set amount, mix it into a container of energon, and up pops the newspark.” Her finger ruffles at my head, making a little chiffle rumble inside me.
“But what’s it for?” I drag it over, hefting it up, and fall over because it’s heavy. It’s also kinda squishy and nice to hold. I hug it and purr, not really able to move, but that’s okay.
“Snuggles!!” Red Light squeaks, and then I’m oofed by her squishing me on top of the squishy rock. And oofed again by Bluegreen also squishing me and purring loud with all the sparkles in her feeling aura thing.
“Don’t squish him too much, little ones.” TT’s laughing somewhere I can’t see because there’s nutritional mineral mix in my face and I can’t move.
My vents wheeze.
And then everything’s pulled off me, and I get to pop up again, huffing a big vent straight into Red Light’s face and making her squeak. Which is funny.
I grin, but TT hums and her feeling aura turns thoughtful-swirly, a hand on the back of my neck. Is there something wrong? I blink up at her, and she tilts her helm back at me. “Were your vents blocked, little one?”
“No?” I scoot up higher, pulling up the nutritional mineral mix and dumping the floppier end on Bluegreen with a grin, pinning her feet down.
“Hm, seem to be running fine now.” Her hand pats me, and she moves away. “Alrighty, protos, who wants to try mixing a bit of energon formula?”
“Ooh me me!” Red Light hops up and down, and I bonk her on the helm when I’m standing again. “Ow!”
“You’ll just try and spill it.” I grin at her, the pointy bits in my mouth clicking to be pointier. “Little Friend is good at stuff.”
He blinks at me from where he’s being squeezed by Big Red and can’t escape. “But I haven’t done anything. How am I good at stuff?”
I shrug. “You forged.”
Red Light wasn’t doing so good at that before I pulled her out, so. Little Friend nods, all understanding, because that’s right.
She buzzes unhappily at me, and I ruffle her helm, giving her a grin. “You’ll be good at stuff too when you’re better at it.”
“Goes without saying,” TT murmurs.
I blink around to see her taking one of the nutritional mineral mixes out of the pile and then she pops it open. Just like that, it splits at the top and there’s a little poof of cloudy stuff like steam.
I scramble over, all buzzing in my frame and all my little pointy bits sticking up. What did she do? How did she do that? That was so cool. “Is that stuff inside that?”
She chuffs, holding it up. “This is a bag, little spark. You put things inside it and it keeps them from spilling out everywhere.”
Oooooh. “So the nutritional mineral mix is inside the bag?”
“Yep, sure is.” She ruffles my helm again, plonking it down in front of me. “You’re a smart little hoover.”
I pull the edges of the split open a little further, peering into the bag and sniffing at the stuff that made the bag squishy. Smells kind of... itchy.
“Can I have some?” Red Light chirps, bouncing over, and smacks her hands into the bag.
And the whooooole thing explodes, poofing up in my face.
I yelp, tumbling backwards and blinking really hard to get all the dust off my optics with the wiper things, an itch... itch... a-a—
“ChoFWOOOF!”
Um.
I think I just set something on fire.
Red light blinks at me, a little flame flickering on top of her helm where all the dusty mineral stuff piled up.
Okay, that’s funny.
I laugh until my whole frame shakes and snort hard out of my vents, blowing out a little extra steam curling up from all of them. It’s still kind of itchy. Keheheh. Everyone’s optics are so wide.
Because nobody else is doing it, I wobble back onto my peds and pat out the little flame on Red Light’s head, blowing off the burnt nutritional mineral mix. And grin up at TT who looks kind of like a statue. “Can I put some in? It tastes good.”
She blinks, and sighs. “Scrap, I really am going to have to adopt the whole lot of ya.”