And more
This... needs a title. It has one, on AO3, but it's not the RIGHT title. *sigh* Anyway, more of the OC'verse, tape-deck style!
She was Antiphonal, but even with an agnomen, with an awareness of the song, there was a lot for her to learn and adjust to. The song itself, for example. Antiphonal could hear it well enough, but she couldn't understand more than a quarter, maybe a third, of the information the song conveyed. Since the tape-decks seemed to mostly converse by singing, this was a problem.
Singing was not something she'd ever thought she'd be good at. She'd always enjoyed it, but she'd never been very good at. In this new form, though, Antiphonal found that she was good at singing. Not as good as the tape-deck singer, the entertainers, the ones who, even in a recording, made her want to cry with their voices. Never as good as that.
Of course, Glit told her, any tape-deck was a good singer by mech standards. And then, without prompting, the cassette had assured Antiphonal that she wasn't painful to listen to, or even a little unpleasant. She wouldn't be an entertainer, but very few were. He promised to, one orn, when she would understand, show her the tape-deck whose singing was painful. When she was ready, and even after a couple orns with him, she was tired of that phrase.
Another thing Antiphonal didn't know how to take was the fact that Glit kept hanging around her. It was very nice, having someone willing to explain things, someone who seemed to know what she would ask before she needed to. Some of that, Antiphonal was sure, was just because of the song which played from her chassis and her voice at all times.
It was, she was told, nearly impossible for a tape-deck to hide emotions from another tape-deck. When she'd asked, Glit had confirmed that he meant any, and even Soundwave was quite readable for them. Twincast was harder, Glit added. They were different...
And that was all Glit would say about Twincast.
Antiphonal found Glit's silence a little odd, especially since even his song said little. It made her wary when Twincast came to her door, though the iris colored mech only seemed amused by her mood. They nodded, staying politely out of Antiphonal's space. “We said we would return to help. Glit helps, but... we know how he can be.”
Antiphonal found herself laughing, and she stepped out. Cat, she hummed, not entirely intentionally, and nodded. “Yeah, he's... But anyway. What are we doing?”
“We are returning to med-bay. We need to scan you. You belong here, but we are not certain about your form. Or your powers of observation,” Twincast answered. Antiphonal had long ago noticed that tape-decks never seemed capable of a straight answer, even when they gave one, and so wasn't really surprised that the answer left her with more questions.
She worked on those questions, not in silence, never that, but by herself, as she followed Twincast. What had they meant by her form? It probably tied in with the barb about her observational powers, Antiphonal knew, but that wasn’t really helping things at the moment. In any case, she didn’t have to wait long to find out. Twincast did indeed take her med-bay, and promptly sat her in front of a computer before hooking various things up to her. Her reaction was purely musical, a trill of inquiry, but no fear. Tape-decks, from what she had seen, were loath to hurt each other, which did make a couple episodes she had seen… weird.
It only took a few moments of looking at the screen for Antiphonal to work out what Twincast had meant. The language she was reading was not English, but she understood it just as easily, and it was easier not to think about it. The answer to her question was that tape-decks came in more than one ‘model type’. And, since all three types were present here, that would explain the ‘observation’ bit as well. Antiphonal cycled her vents, since she couldn’t sigh any more. Twincast did have a point; she hadn’t noticed the differences, and they weren’t really that subtle.
There were satellite-type, massive mechs who were not designed for the bottom of gravity wells, though she was sure they could manage it. They could probably manage it and be completely bad-ass while doing so. She wondered what it was like for them, when so much of their communication was by song, to stay in silent space. Maybe, Antiphonal thought, she would ask one. Or maybe she wouldn’t need to ask, when she met one.
There were 'classical' frames, like herself, only they weren’t really classical. They were as likely to be vans as cassette recorders, and she wondered which she was. They didn’t look very different, with speakers and wheels and buttons and the clear glass cassette bay… They sounded different, and she didn’t even have to hear them to know that. Their cassettes, she read, were also similar- they all plugged in like what she would call USB, so it was only a matter of framing, but they were the same for these two, and could be shared. That seemed… Antiphonal wasn’t sure how to finish that thought.
Finally, there were the lithe, thin aerial-type, who hosted their cassettes on the outside, as armor, or deep within, around their very spark casing. They were strangest, newest, and even other tape-decks weren’t certain what they thought of the aerial types. They were often silent, aside from the song, and their cassettes were much closer to drones in programming. There was care between them, though, and so the tape-decks were inclined to accept them as just another variation of their forms.
Of course, there were various cassettes as well, though they could change between the classes. Anyone could change between classes, if they wished. There were thinner cassettes who folded into sleek cylinders, usually for the satellites, sometimes working with the aerials. There were classic tape cassettes, although that was just appearance. It was just body-shape, for all of them, and the linkages didn’t change. Even with the strange, thick-armored and spindly cassettes for the aerials, the linkages were the same. Any cassette could, if needed, link to any tape-deck. Antiphonal wondered what would create that kind of a need, and she didn’t ask.
“You are fond of Glit?” Twincast asked abruptly, though the question didn’t interrupt Antiphonal’s reading. She was fairly sure they had waited on the song to tell her she was done. It was something that even she could do without too much difficulty. The fact that her answering yes was entirely nonverbal was intentional, and she felt proud of her success. Twincast seemed pleased with her game, and her answer, and she listened to them hum in thought for a while.
“Then there is no reason to change your form now. You may find a reason later,” they answered, nodding a little and removing the various hook ups. She had not noticed the scans, and Antiphonal made a mental note to at least try and pay better attention. There was a war going on, at least in some sense of the word, in some places. She still wasn’t entirely certain about that…
Twincast motioned for her to leave, and Antiphonal obeyed, because med-bay was like a doctor’s office, and as nice as Twincast seemed to be, she didn’t really want to stick around. With little idea of where to go, and no real desire to return to her rooms, Antiphonal decided to just… wander for a while. No-one would mind that, she was sure.
It took her a while to realize that she was feeling lighter. Frowning just a little, Antiphonal looked around, and saw nothing unusual. There were other mechs around, which made sense; she was in the public halls. They were, she realized, far more spindly, and some more massive… More satellites and aerials, fewer classics. She felt pleased that she had noticed the difference.
Continuing on, Antiphonal decided that she was definitively going ‘up’. And the reason she was feeling lighter was because gravity was decreasing. She almost stopped when she saw the hard light of the stars ahead of her, only to remember that she didn’t need oxygen. She didn’t even need an atmosphere, though she preferred it. Hesitantly, she took the final steps out of the cave and onto the surface.
Her first thought was that she was on the moon, but she could only see stars, and some other shapes near-by, shapes that also looked a lot like moons, but so very close. It wasn’t the moon, and the stars didn’t look at all familiar. This was no-where near Earth. It had to be a different solar system, maybe even galaxy. There was a slight, very slight, atmospheric haze, around this ‘moon’ and the others… And around the whole group of shapes were smaller objects, glinting in the star-light. Satellites. Her… kin.
“Quite a sight, isn’t it?” a voice asked. Antiphonal turned, and was startled by how close to her the mech was. He had sounded further away…
“It- yes. It… is…” she answered, and realized her voice was softer too. If there was less gravity… there was probably less air up here, she realized.
The mech, a magenta classic with yellow glass, smiled at her. “I’m Sonance. You’d… be the one everyone’s been singing about? It’s… different, isn’t it?”
“I… Um. Yeah. It’s very… different. Er… I’m… Antiphonal.” This was the first time, she realized, that she had spoken to a mech without Glit around since she had met the cassette. She hoped she didn’t mess up some how…
“Antiphonal. Pleased to meet you. ...I’m like you. I mean, from Earth. We all were- I mean, my cassettes and I. How… much about that have you been told? For that matter, who’s guiding you?” Sonance motioned a little, to a… bench. Apart from being giant-robot-sized, it was very normal, and Antiphonal looked at it in momentary confusion.
“Ah… nothing? I… it’s rather obvious that I’m not the only one… er… Glit is… I guess…” Antiphonal gave a little shrug, surprised by the new information. Yes, it had been obvious that she wasn’t the only, but she hadn’t really thought about it. Then again, she had been adjusting to a lot of other things. After a moment, she went for the bench Sonance had pointed out.
Sonance laughed a little, nodding. “I remember Glit. He didn’t really guide me, but he was the first cassette I docked. I think he’s the first cassettes most of us dock…” There was fondness in his tone and his song, and Antiphonal realized she was working very hard to keep from looking at the glass or the buttons. It didn’t seem polite. She did worry that Sonance would ask if she had ‘docked’ Glit, but that question also seemed impolite.
“So, what happened here is, quite a long time ago, someone showed up like us. The first few transfers didn’t go well, Autobots and Decepticons, everything I’m pretty sure you’re familiar with. It kept happening, and they finally just adjusted, and now there’s actually quite a large community of fans, and fanfics, and fan recreations, and… you get the idea. We can reach that data-net from here- that’s kind of what we’re good at, you know? But for the most part, well… we handle things differently.” Sonance nodded, then paused.
“I’ve noticed. I’ve… not really tried to look anything up or… anything…” Antiphonal admitted, looking up again. The sky was so alien, but it was also… lovely.
Sonance hummed reassurance, also looking up. “I would say don’t bother. All of that’s just a data-set, and those are pretty easy to incorporate. At least, again, for us. Focus on learning us, understanding us… You’ll have to leave Homeworld eventually, we all do, but while you’re here, you have time. Use it.”
She wasn’t sure what she thought of leaving this place, but Antiphonal didn’t say anything. Her song betrayed her, but Sonance ignored it. It was nice, though, to just… sit with someone, someone who understood. Antiphonal did have to admit, though, that she kind of missed Glit’s presence. He would probably just curl up for her, let her treat him as a cat, but it would be… nice.
“Would you like to meet them?” Sonance asked after a moment. He waited for Antiphonal to look at him, and trill inquiry, before clarifying. “My cassettes. They’ll like you, I think, and somehow I suspect you haven’t had much contact with cassettes past Glit…” Amusement, and fondness. The song was becoming easier to Antiphonal.
Antiphonal paused, cycled her vents, and allowed herself a brief mental break over the concept of ‘docking’ and its relation to the very much mech in front of her. Not, and she knew this on some deep level she would have called instinct before, that being a ‘mech’ meant anything the same as being a ‘man’ had meant, on Earth. She was the odd one, and she wasn’t entirely certain if she actually classified as ‘femme’ or if that was just a habit from humanity. Right now, it didn’t really matter, and Glit would offer advice on this, she was sure. “Yes. I… think I would like to meet them.”
It was pretty much exactly what G1 had taught her to expect. Sonance didn’t press a button, but his chest slid open and two small forms came flying out, transforming in mid-air. One landed on the rocky surface, the other hovered in the air on small jets- or anti-gravs, more likely. The flying one caught her attention first, the form not at all what she had expected. It was a dolphin, and now appeared to be swimming, quite contentedly, in the air. The other was an ape. Antiphonal thought ‘miniature ape’, at first, and then realize that the cassette was probably larger than any real ape.
“Flashdrive is my mech-frame there, and the scale-frame is Tailspin. And you two have been paying quite enough attention, so you know who she is,” Sonance introduced.
It was the dolphin who spoke, undulation slightly in the air. “Ah, hush, Son’,” she said, keeping the ‘o’ long. “Of course we listen. It’s what we do.” She gave a particularly deep undulation, which seemed to be a nod, and then turned a little to look at Antiphonal. “Hello. Pleased to meet you.”
She knew the ‘animal’ forms could speak. Glit spoke all the time. It was still a little strange, and she knew the little femme could hear that. “Hello,” Antiphonal said, trying to ignore how she felt. She’d get used to it, she was sure. Why, she wondered suddenly, had a human- former human- chosen an animal cassette form?
“Because it felt right to me. I started a mech-frame, all whites and pink. This orange and yellow works better, doesn’t it?” Tailspin said, answering the sung question with amusement. She had probably had to explain quite a lot, Antiphonal realized. She felt a bit ashamed of making Tailspin go over it again.
Tailspin didn’t want shame, though, or anything else. Antiphonal cycled her vents again, and nodded. “I think… yes. Orange and yellow works… well on you.” She paused, then looked down at her own leg and laughed a little. “I guess, maybe, I’d be… expected to say that, huh?” She… did like her own colors, though, Antiphonal thought.
“Not if that’s a first paint,” Flashdrive said, voice far deeper than his frame suggested.
“...It… is,” Antiphonal answered, feeling out what he’d meant. This was the paint she’d woken up in… “But I do… like it. ...Of course, I like Sonance’s colors too…” Did that sound like she was flirting? But if it did, it would be obvious from her song that she wasn’t, Antiphonal told herself. Sonance, she noticed, was amused, and he did smile at her, but didn’t seem to take her compliment as flirting.
They continued talking until Glit came to tell Antiphonal that it was getting late. Sonance seemed happy to see the miacia-frame again, but didn’t keep them, promising to see Antiphonal again as he collected his cassettes and left. Antiphonal was left alone with Glit, who was indeed curling into her lap as she’d expected.
“You enjoyed your meeting with another?” Glit asked after some time. Antiphonal didn’t need to verbalize her affirmation. They were alone on the bench, even with the Satalites circling the asteroids. She could hear the song, but it was faded out here, and she wondered again about silence. It didn’t seem that appealing to her.
“Have you considered maintenance?” Glit asked again, after more time. Antiphonal hummed inquiry. “There is more to your maintenance than keeping clean and fueling. You needn’t… worry about them, quite yet. I shall probably be with you still when you do.”
Docking, Antiphonal thought. Glit heard, but Antiphonal didn’t address it. “Your maintenance, then?” she asked. She hadn’t felt any ‘urge’ to dock him, unless generalized curiosity counted. Then again, she wouldn’t be particularly surprised to learn that it did count.
“I am, of course, a medic, and better able to perform self-maintenance than many others,” Glit answered. It answered both of Antiphonal’s questions. “And of course, this is all still very new to you.” He paused, and she heard the spike of humor a moment before Glit said, “I daresay you haven’t even fully explored yourself yet.”
And now he was speaking of masterbation, and Antiphonal found that tape-decks certainly could blush. It was more of a squeal and a whine in her song than a physical heating, and she was momentarily distracted by the desire to hear Soundwave ‘blush’. Glit chuckled, kneeding into her leg and butting just under the glass of her empty, never-opened, docking bay. Then he jumped off, and Antiphonal followed him ‘home’ wordlessly.
That night, thinking of what Glit had said, Antiphonal dared to touch herself. She wasn’t really trying to find pleasure right now, just because the idea was still too new, too strange. But she really didn’t know her body, aside from the blindingly obvious- and after Twincast’s comments, she wasn’t even sure about that.
Her buttons, she found, were not as sensitive as fandom had made them out to be. It felt nice to have touch on them, or even to push them, but it was more the niceness of a massage than anything. She had to get past the fact that parts of her, machinery deep inside, reacted to the buttons- which answered at least one set of questions. Kibble and alt forms were fully functional, not merely decorative. She wondered what she might play if Glit were in a position to be played, and then pushed the idea away. It was too new.
The glass of her dock, when she got there, was equally insensitive. Antiphonal was rather glad of that, since it was so prominent. She might have lived most of her life with sensitive zones on her chest, but not having them… wasn’t bad. It also wasn’t really a fair comparison. Opening it could be done manually, with the shoulder button, but she also felt commands for doing so in her processor when she hit the button. That made sense, she thought; the other buttons seemed likewise under conscious control.
Reaching past the yellow glass, Antiphonal could feel the docks themselves, and those were sensitive. They weren’t overly sensitive, not like she expected something inside of her to be, but she could feel her own hands acutely. The docks were sunk into her frame, a parallel row of them, enough for maybe eight cassettes, and they didn’t feel nearly deep enough to hold one. They also didn’t exactly feel like they ‘ended’, either, and she put that on her list of things to ask Glit.
The idea of transforming occurred to her, curiosity of just what her form was. In her life, now past, she had played with tape-decks, and camera-forms such as Reflector. She wasn’t entirely sure where the other forms had come from. Antiphonal rather suspected that she would be a true tape deck, because that was what was familiar, and because her buttons worked. After a moment, she gave in to the impulse, executing the command the thought had brought up, and trying not to think about the way she shrunk.
She did wish she could see herself. For that matter, Antiphonal realized slowly, she rather wished she could… see. Optics were hidden behind armor, and she wasn’t even sure she actually still had her face, and she did her best to fight off panic. This was normal, she was made for this, and it wasn’t like she was sense-blind! She could even still see, in a manner of speaking, and that was the first time that she realized the echoes of the song had been guiding her as much as her optics down here. That helped her panic to recede, as did the sound of pede-falls, and the familiar song of Glit.
“Well, I can’t deny that I invited this…” the miaciaframe observed, curling around Antiphonal’s form. The contact relaxed her, and Glit hummed a little. “I would have stopped you, if I had realized you were going to transform alone. Most panic- I heard that. Ah… you’re not thinking much about it. Good.”
“I also don’t think about how much you can hear, and no-one says that’s good,” Antiphonal muttered, abruptly feeling a bit sour. The human in her still wanted privacy, even though the idea of silence was scary.
“That would be because we don’t think that you would think about it,” Glit answered. Everyone could hear everyone, it was how it went. “I am going to suggest I not dock, in case you were thinking that.”
Antiphonal scoffed quietly. She actually had gotten so distracted by her form that docking had completely been forgotten. “That doesn’t help matters,” she answered. A tentative attempt at moving showed that she was, well… immobile, or close enough, and she fought down another wave of panic.
Glit moved immediately, pulling away from her. Antiphonal didn’t think, reverting back to the form she had learned since waking here. Then she hunched, curled in on herself, and cycled her vents harshly. “Okay. So I… don’t think I like that…” she managed to say after a few clicks. She needed to say it, even though she could hear that Glit already knew it.
“Then we change it,” Glit agreed. “...Do you think you can manage until tomorrow?”
“I don’t want- I didn’t notice the other forms. I didn’t recognize them. I-” Antiphonal cut herself off, keened, and we’re supposed to be tape decks. Not cars or satellites or planes… she sang, the notes pure in distress.
Glit pressed his head to her shoulder, rubbed his cheek against her corners. “Then we don’t change it. It’s up to you. There are even those who reformat every groon.” She had only seen the first of the OCs’ canon, the white cassette surmised, but it didn’t matter. As long as she could sing, they didn’t care what form she took.
So, please to comment with... anything you notice.
She was Antiphonal, but even with an agnomen, with an awareness of the song, there was a lot for her to learn and adjust to. The song itself, for example. Antiphonal could hear it well enough, but she couldn't understand more than a quarter, maybe a third, of the information the song conveyed. Since the tape-decks seemed to mostly converse by singing, this was a problem.
Singing was not something she'd ever thought she'd be good at. She'd always enjoyed it, but she'd never been very good at. In this new form, though, Antiphonal found that she was good at singing. Not as good as the tape-deck singer, the entertainers, the ones who, even in a recording, made her want to cry with their voices. Never as good as that.
Of course, Glit told her, any tape-deck was a good singer by mech standards. And then, without prompting, the cassette had assured Antiphonal that she wasn't painful to listen to, or even a little unpleasant. She wouldn't be an entertainer, but very few were. He promised to, one orn, when she would understand, show her the tape-deck whose singing was painful. When she was ready, and even after a couple orns with him, she was tired of that phrase.
Another thing Antiphonal didn't know how to take was the fact that Glit kept hanging around her. It was very nice, having someone willing to explain things, someone who seemed to know what she would ask before she needed to. Some of that, Antiphonal was sure, was just because of the song which played from her chassis and her voice at all times.
It was, she was told, nearly impossible for a tape-deck to hide emotions from another tape-deck. When she'd asked, Glit had confirmed that he meant any, and even Soundwave was quite readable for them. Twincast was harder, Glit added. They were different...
And that was all Glit would say about Twincast.
Antiphonal found Glit's silence a little odd, especially since even his song said little. It made her wary when Twincast came to her door, though the iris colored mech only seemed amused by her mood. They nodded, staying politely out of Antiphonal's space. “We said we would return to help. Glit helps, but... we know how he can be.”
Antiphonal found herself laughing, and she stepped out. Cat, she hummed, not entirely intentionally, and nodded. “Yeah, he's... But anyway. What are we doing?”
“We are returning to med-bay. We need to scan you. You belong here, but we are not certain about your form. Or your powers of observation,” Twincast answered. Antiphonal had long ago noticed that tape-decks never seemed capable of a straight answer, even when they gave one, and so wasn't really surprised that the answer left her with more questions.
She worked on those questions, not in silence, never that, but by herself, as she followed Twincast. What had they meant by her form? It probably tied in with the barb about her observational powers, Antiphonal knew, but that wasn’t really helping things at the moment. In any case, she didn’t have to wait long to find out. Twincast did indeed take her med-bay, and promptly sat her in front of a computer before hooking various things up to her. Her reaction was purely musical, a trill of inquiry, but no fear. Tape-decks, from what she had seen, were loath to hurt each other, which did make a couple episodes she had seen… weird.
It only took a few moments of looking at the screen for Antiphonal to work out what Twincast had meant. The language she was reading was not English, but she understood it just as easily, and it was easier not to think about it. The answer to her question was that tape-decks came in more than one ‘model type’. And, since all three types were present here, that would explain the ‘observation’ bit as well. Antiphonal cycled her vents, since she couldn’t sigh any more. Twincast did have a point; she hadn’t noticed the differences, and they weren’t really that subtle.
There were satellite-type, massive mechs who were not designed for the bottom of gravity wells, though she was sure they could manage it. They could probably manage it and be completely bad-ass while doing so. She wondered what it was like for them, when so much of their communication was by song, to stay in silent space. Maybe, Antiphonal thought, she would ask one. Or maybe she wouldn’t need to ask, when she met one.
There were 'classical' frames, like herself, only they weren’t really classical. They were as likely to be vans as cassette recorders, and she wondered which she was. They didn’t look very different, with speakers and wheels and buttons and the clear glass cassette bay… They sounded different, and she didn’t even have to hear them to know that. Their cassettes, she read, were also similar- they all plugged in like what she would call USB, so it was only a matter of framing, but they were the same for these two, and could be shared. That seemed… Antiphonal wasn’t sure how to finish that thought.
Finally, there were the lithe, thin aerial-type, who hosted their cassettes on the outside, as armor, or deep within, around their very spark casing. They were strangest, newest, and even other tape-decks weren’t certain what they thought of the aerial types. They were often silent, aside from the song, and their cassettes were much closer to drones in programming. There was care between them, though, and so the tape-decks were inclined to accept them as just another variation of their forms.
Of course, there were various cassettes as well, though they could change between the classes. Anyone could change between classes, if they wished. There were thinner cassettes who folded into sleek cylinders, usually for the satellites, sometimes working with the aerials. There were classic tape cassettes, although that was just appearance. It was just body-shape, for all of them, and the linkages didn’t change. Even with the strange, thick-armored and spindly cassettes for the aerials, the linkages were the same. Any cassette could, if needed, link to any tape-deck. Antiphonal wondered what would create that kind of a need, and she didn’t ask.
“You are fond of Glit?” Twincast asked abruptly, though the question didn’t interrupt Antiphonal’s reading. She was fairly sure they had waited on the song to tell her she was done. It was something that even she could do without too much difficulty. The fact that her answering yes was entirely nonverbal was intentional, and she felt proud of her success. Twincast seemed pleased with her game, and her answer, and she listened to them hum in thought for a while.
“Then there is no reason to change your form now. You may find a reason later,” they answered, nodding a little and removing the various hook ups. She had not noticed the scans, and Antiphonal made a mental note to at least try and pay better attention. There was a war going on, at least in some sense of the word, in some places. She still wasn’t entirely certain about that…
Twincast motioned for her to leave, and Antiphonal obeyed, because med-bay was like a doctor’s office, and as nice as Twincast seemed to be, she didn’t really want to stick around. With little idea of where to go, and no real desire to return to her rooms, Antiphonal decided to just… wander for a while. No-one would mind that, she was sure.
It took her a while to realize that she was feeling lighter. Frowning just a little, Antiphonal looked around, and saw nothing unusual. There were other mechs around, which made sense; she was in the public halls. They were, she realized, far more spindly, and some more massive… More satellites and aerials, fewer classics. She felt pleased that she had noticed the difference.
Continuing on, Antiphonal decided that she was definitively going ‘up’. And the reason she was feeling lighter was because gravity was decreasing. She almost stopped when she saw the hard light of the stars ahead of her, only to remember that she didn’t need oxygen. She didn’t even need an atmosphere, though she preferred it. Hesitantly, she took the final steps out of the cave and onto the surface.
Her first thought was that she was on the moon, but she could only see stars, and some other shapes near-by, shapes that also looked a lot like moons, but so very close. It wasn’t the moon, and the stars didn’t look at all familiar. This was no-where near Earth. It had to be a different solar system, maybe even galaxy. There was a slight, very slight, atmospheric haze, around this ‘moon’ and the others… And around the whole group of shapes were smaller objects, glinting in the star-light. Satellites. Her… kin.
“Quite a sight, isn’t it?” a voice asked. Antiphonal turned, and was startled by how close to her the mech was. He had sounded further away…
“It- yes. It… is…” she answered, and realized her voice was softer too. If there was less gravity… there was probably less air up here, she realized.
The mech, a magenta classic with yellow glass, smiled at her. “I’m Sonance. You’d… be the one everyone’s been singing about? It’s… different, isn’t it?”
“I… Um. Yeah. It’s very… different. Er… I’m… Antiphonal.” This was the first time, she realized, that she had spoken to a mech without Glit around since she had met the cassette. She hoped she didn’t mess up some how…
“Antiphonal. Pleased to meet you. ...I’m like you. I mean, from Earth. We all were- I mean, my cassettes and I. How… much about that have you been told? For that matter, who’s guiding you?” Sonance motioned a little, to a… bench. Apart from being giant-robot-sized, it was very normal, and Antiphonal looked at it in momentary confusion.
“Ah… nothing? I… it’s rather obvious that I’m not the only one… er… Glit is… I guess…” Antiphonal gave a little shrug, surprised by the new information. Yes, it had been obvious that she wasn’t the only, but she hadn’t really thought about it. Then again, she had been adjusting to a lot of other things. After a moment, she went for the bench Sonance had pointed out.
Sonance laughed a little, nodding. “I remember Glit. He didn’t really guide me, but he was the first cassette I docked. I think he’s the first cassettes most of us dock…” There was fondness in his tone and his song, and Antiphonal realized she was working very hard to keep from looking at the glass or the buttons. It didn’t seem polite. She did worry that Sonance would ask if she had ‘docked’ Glit, but that question also seemed impolite.
“So, what happened here is, quite a long time ago, someone showed up like us. The first few transfers didn’t go well, Autobots and Decepticons, everything I’m pretty sure you’re familiar with. It kept happening, and they finally just adjusted, and now there’s actually quite a large community of fans, and fanfics, and fan recreations, and… you get the idea. We can reach that data-net from here- that’s kind of what we’re good at, you know? But for the most part, well… we handle things differently.” Sonance nodded, then paused.
“I’ve noticed. I’ve… not really tried to look anything up or… anything…” Antiphonal admitted, looking up again. The sky was so alien, but it was also… lovely.
Sonance hummed reassurance, also looking up. “I would say don’t bother. All of that’s just a data-set, and those are pretty easy to incorporate. At least, again, for us. Focus on learning us, understanding us… You’ll have to leave Homeworld eventually, we all do, but while you’re here, you have time. Use it.”
She wasn’t sure what she thought of leaving this place, but Antiphonal didn’t say anything. Her song betrayed her, but Sonance ignored it. It was nice, though, to just… sit with someone, someone who understood. Antiphonal did have to admit, though, that she kind of missed Glit’s presence. He would probably just curl up for her, let her treat him as a cat, but it would be… nice.
“Would you like to meet them?” Sonance asked after a moment. He waited for Antiphonal to look at him, and trill inquiry, before clarifying. “My cassettes. They’ll like you, I think, and somehow I suspect you haven’t had much contact with cassettes past Glit…” Amusement, and fondness. The song was becoming easier to Antiphonal.
Antiphonal paused, cycled her vents, and allowed herself a brief mental break over the concept of ‘docking’ and its relation to the very much mech in front of her. Not, and she knew this on some deep level she would have called instinct before, that being a ‘mech’ meant anything the same as being a ‘man’ had meant, on Earth. She was the odd one, and she wasn’t entirely certain if she actually classified as ‘femme’ or if that was just a habit from humanity. Right now, it didn’t really matter, and Glit would offer advice on this, she was sure. “Yes. I… think I would like to meet them.”
It was pretty much exactly what G1 had taught her to expect. Sonance didn’t press a button, but his chest slid open and two small forms came flying out, transforming in mid-air. One landed on the rocky surface, the other hovered in the air on small jets- or anti-gravs, more likely. The flying one caught her attention first, the form not at all what she had expected. It was a dolphin, and now appeared to be swimming, quite contentedly, in the air. The other was an ape. Antiphonal thought ‘miniature ape’, at first, and then realize that the cassette was probably larger than any real ape.
“Flashdrive is my mech-frame there, and the scale-frame is Tailspin. And you two have been paying quite enough attention, so you know who she is,” Sonance introduced.
It was the dolphin who spoke, undulation slightly in the air. “Ah, hush, Son’,” she said, keeping the ‘o’ long. “Of course we listen. It’s what we do.” She gave a particularly deep undulation, which seemed to be a nod, and then turned a little to look at Antiphonal. “Hello. Pleased to meet you.”
She knew the ‘animal’ forms could speak. Glit spoke all the time. It was still a little strange, and she knew the little femme could hear that. “Hello,” Antiphonal said, trying to ignore how she felt. She’d get used to it, she was sure. Why, she wondered suddenly, had a human- former human- chosen an animal cassette form?
“Because it felt right to me. I started a mech-frame, all whites and pink. This orange and yellow works better, doesn’t it?” Tailspin said, answering the sung question with amusement. She had probably had to explain quite a lot, Antiphonal realized. She felt a bit ashamed of making Tailspin go over it again.
Tailspin didn’t want shame, though, or anything else. Antiphonal cycled her vents again, and nodded. “I think… yes. Orange and yellow works… well on you.” She paused, then looked down at her own leg and laughed a little. “I guess, maybe, I’d be… expected to say that, huh?” She… did like her own colors, though, Antiphonal thought.
“Not if that’s a first paint,” Flashdrive said, voice far deeper than his frame suggested.
“...It… is,” Antiphonal answered, feeling out what he’d meant. This was the paint she’d woken up in… “But I do… like it. ...Of course, I like Sonance’s colors too…” Did that sound like she was flirting? But if it did, it would be obvious from her song that she wasn’t, Antiphonal told herself. Sonance, she noticed, was amused, and he did smile at her, but didn’t seem to take her compliment as flirting.
They continued talking until Glit came to tell Antiphonal that it was getting late. Sonance seemed happy to see the miacia-frame again, but didn’t keep them, promising to see Antiphonal again as he collected his cassettes and left. Antiphonal was left alone with Glit, who was indeed curling into her lap as she’d expected.
“You enjoyed your meeting with another?” Glit asked after some time. Antiphonal didn’t need to verbalize her affirmation. They were alone on the bench, even with the Satalites circling the asteroids. She could hear the song, but it was faded out here, and she wondered again about silence. It didn’t seem that appealing to her.
“Have you considered maintenance?” Glit asked again, after more time. Antiphonal hummed inquiry. “There is more to your maintenance than keeping clean and fueling. You needn’t… worry about them, quite yet. I shall probably be with you still when you do.”
Docking, Antiphonal thought. Glit heard, but Antiphonal didn’t address it. “Your maintenance, then?” she asked. She hadn’t felt any ‘urge’ to dock him, unless generalized curiosity counted. Then again, she wouldn’t be particularly surprised to learn that it did count.
“I am, of course, a medic, and better able to perform self-maintenance than many others,” Glit answered. It answered both of Antiphonal’s questions. “And of course, this is all still very new to you.” He paused, and she heard the spike of humor a moment before Glit said, “I daresay you haven’t even fully explored yourself yet.”
And now he was speaking of masterbation, and Antiphonal found that tape-decks certainly could blush. It was more of a squeal and a whine in her song than a physical heating, and she was momentarily distracted by the desire to hear Soundwave ‘blush’. Glit chuckled, kneeding into her leg and butting just under the glass of her empty, never-opened, docking bay. Then he jumped off, and Antiphonal followed him ‘home’ wordlessly.
That night, thinking of what Glit had said, Antiphonal dared to touch herself. She wasn’t really trying to find pleasure right now, just because the idea was still too new, too strange. But she really didn’t know her body, aside from the blindingly obvious- and after Twincast’s comments, she wasn’t even sure about that.
Her buttons, she found, were not as sensitive as fandom had made them out to be. It felt nice to have touch on them, or even to push them, but it was more the niceness of a massage than anything. She had to get past the fact that parts of her, machinery deep inside, reacted to the buttons- which answered at least one set of questions. Kibble and alt forms were fully functional, not merely decorative. She wondered what she might play if Glit were in a position to be played, and then pushed the idea away. It was too new.
The glass of her dock, when she got there, was equally insensitive. Antiphonal was rather glad of that, since it was so prominent. She might have lived most of her life with sensitive zones on her chest, but not having them… wasn’t bad. It also wasn’t really a fair comparison. Opening it could be done manually, with the shoulder button, but she also felt commands for doing so in her processor when she hit the button. That made sense, she thought; the other buttons seemed likewise under conscious control.
Reaching past the yellow glass, Antiphonal could feel the docks themselves, and those were sensitive. They weren’t overly sensitive, not like she expected something inside of her to be, but she could feel her own hands acutely. The docks were sunk into her frame, a parallel row of them, enough for maybe eight cassettes, and they didn’t feel nearly deep enough to hold one. They also didn’t exactly feel like they ‘ended’, either, and she put that on her list of things to ask Glit.
The idea of transforming occurred to her, curiosity of just what her form was. In her life, now past, she had played with tape-decks, and camera-forms such as Reflector. She wasn’t entirely sure where the other forms had come from. Antiphonal rather suspected that she would be a true tape deck, because that was what was familiar, and because her buttons worked. After a moment, she gave in to the impulse, executing the command the thought had brought up, and trying not to think about the way she shrunk.
She did wish she could see herself. For that matter, Antiphonal realized slowly, she rather wished she could… see. Optics were hidden behind armor, and she wasn’t even sure she actually still had her face, and she did her best to fight off panic. This was normal, she was made for this, and it wasn’t like she was sense-blind! She could even still see, in a manner of speaking, and that was the first time that she realized the echoes of the song had been guiding her as much as her optics down here. That helped her panic to recede, as did the sound of pede-falls, and the familiar song of Glit.
“Well, I can’t deny that I invited this…” the miaciaframe observed, curling around Antiphonal’s form. The contact relaxed her, and Glit hummed a little. “I would have stopped you, if I had realized you were going to transform alone. Most panic- I heard that. Ah… you’re not thinking much about it. Good.”
“I also don’t think about how much you can hear, and no-one says that’s good,” Antiphonal muttered, abruptly feeling a bit sour. The human in her still wanted privacy, even though the idea of silence was scary.
“That would be because we don’t think that you would think about it,” Glit answered. Everyone could hear everyone, it was how it went. “I am going to suggest I not dock, in case you were thinking that.”
Antiphonal scoffed quietly. She actually had gotten so distracted by her form that docking had completely been forgotten. “That doesn’t help matters,” she answered. A tentative attempt at moving showed that she was, well… immobile, or close enough, and she fought down another wave of panic.
Glit moved immediately, pulling away from her. Antiphonal didn’t think, reverting back to the form she had learned since waking here. Then she hunched, curled in on herself, and cycled her vents harshly. “Okay. So I… don’t think I like that…” she managed to say after a few clicks. She needed to say it, even though she could hear that Glit already knew it.
“Then we change it,” Glit agreed. “...Do you think you can manage until tomorrow?”
“I don’t want- I didn’t notice the other forms. I didn’t recognize them. I-” Antiphonal cut herself off, keened, and we’re supposed to be tape decks. Not cars or satellites or planes… she sang, the notes pure in distress.
Glit pressed his head to her shoulder, rubbed his cheek against her corners. “Then we don’t change it. It’s up to you. There are even those who reformat every groon.” She had only seen the first of the OCs’ canon, the white cassette surmised, but it didn’t matter. As long as she could sing, they didn’t care what form she took.
So, please to comment with... anything you notice.