What sort of moron closes the highway and DOESN'T post detour signs?! ARRGH!!
Title: The Nine Rings of Vos
A Transformers G1 Fanfic
Author: Sanjuno Shori Niko
Summary: Here's a Seekerlet, there's a Seekerlet, and another little Seekerlet!
Timeline: More ficness goes here!
=/=
(In which Soundwave meets the seekerlets)
Too young to remember a time without war, the Cassettacons stared with wide optics as they flew into the city. Broad platforms jutted out from the inner side ring walls and towers, sliding over the top of wide ridges that looped around the outer sides of the rings to make moving bridges. The crossings were sparser the higher you went. Seekers were everywhere, but there were some ground mechs as well. One black Praxus build with an eerie resemblance to the Autobot Second in Command looked up at them from the outermost wall, red optics glowing brightly in the gloom cast by the enveloping clouds. As they flew over the sixth ring, the Cassettacons realized that the centre tower was their destination.
“Hey!” Rumble shouted, pulling closer to the Battlechargers, “Where are we going?”
“To the High Tower.” Runamuck said in reply and started to point as he rattled off the half-credit tour, “Ninth ring is the High Tower, Main Medical Centre, and Crèche. Eighth Ring is the Temple’s main church, along with Military and Guardian Command. Seventh through fourth rings are Residential and Education areas that have smaller churches, guardian stations and medical clinics. Third ring is the commerce district, trading, and marketplaces. Second ring is Science, Research and Engineering. First ring is defensive and has the military barracks for the un-trined along with temporary residences for Trines on outer ring rotation.”
“Pretty nice place you got here.” Frenzy remarked as they touched down on one of the platforms located outside the centre tower, less than halfway up the spire.
“We like it.” Runabout said pleasantly, walking into the Tower with his twin and Soundwave in tow. The Battlechargers were being oddly considerate with Soundwave, slinging his arms over their shoulders and carrying him like an overcharged buddy rather than dragging him like an offline prisoner.
“So I noticed that nobody tried stopping us on the way in.” Rumble said casually as he looked around, memorizing their path, “How’d a couple of groundpounders get authority like that in a Seeker city?”
“We may be Flightless, and not sky-born.” Runamuck said icily, “But we are still Seekers.”
“Of course.” Runabout sounded amused in contrast to his brother, “It probably helps that we’re Imprinted on the Winglords.”
“Well yeah.” Runamuck said in a familiar, peevish way, “But that’s not the only reason we’ve got respect here. And it’s no excuse to go calling us groundpounders. Scraplet should know that! Didn’t Skywarp get Imprinted as his Primary?”
“So what if he did?” Runabout asked logically, ignoring the fact that the Cassettacons probably only understood about half of what they were talking about, “It’s not like Skywarp’s gonna go spilling Seeker secrets around groundpounders, and Darkmount ain’t a good place to teach winglets anything much else than how to stay functioning. Didn’t have ‘em for all that long either.”
“Suppose you’re right.” Runamuck sighed through his vents, “Plenty of chance to teach ‘em up good and proper now though.”
“Yep.” Runabout agreed as they hauled Soundwave into what was obviously the medical bay, calling out as they dropped their burden onto an empty berth and pulled the privacy walls most of the way closed, ~ “Medic!”~
~ “Just a moment!”~ Called a familiar voice, and Aerialion walked over, wings canted in surprise, ~ “Well! You two actually managed to do it! So what exactly happened to out telepathic friend here?”~
~ “Blackout.”~ Runabout said with a grin and a gleeful wiggle of his fingertips, using the stilted version of Seeker-cant developed for Seekers too damaged to use their wings, ~ “Got Soundwave from behind then got mobbed by the scraplets.”~
~ “I assume that the sparklings are all unharmed?”~ Aerialion asked archly, scanning Soundwave for any unseen problems before easily beginning the process that would bring Soundwave back to the land of the fully conscious.
~ “Ah, they’re fine.”~ Runamuck said dismissively, hitching his shoulder, ~ “You know Blackout can’t affect anything smaller than his arm without affecting the whole area.”~
“Hey! Speak normally!” Rumble yelled, not wanting to let on he and his brothers had picked up the Seeker language with varying degrees of proficiency, and climbed up on an empty counter to glare at the medic, “What’re ya doing to Soundwave and what did that Blackout guy do to the Boss?”
“I’m merely rebooting his systems.” Aerialion said, looking amused, “Blackout’s Sigma power is simply that he can mask his presence from all forms of detection, up to and including psionic scans, and shut down any mechanism when their energy field intersects with his. Your fields are rather shallow and if you all jumped him at once I’m not surprised that he couldn’t deal with you.”
“Well yeah!” Frenzy jumped up next to his twin, posing triumphantly, “We’re not pushovers! We’re tough!”
“That you are.” Aerialion said indulgently, as only a medic than had seen them stripped down to core casings could, “Now it should only take a breem or so for his systems to completely reboot, and I had the High Trine paged when you came in. They should be here any click now.”
The Cassettacons clustered themselves defensively around Soundwave when the medics stepped back, keeping wary optics on all the exits. It was a very spacious medbay, they all noted in their scan, with high arched ceilings.
= “This place was made for Seekers.”= Buzzsaw sent to his siblings, surprised by how comfortable he felt in this strange place.
~ “Come over here with me you two.”~ Aerialion said to the Battlechargers, ~ “Let’s get you out of those ugly groundpounder disguises.”~
~ “Fragging finally.”~ Runamuck praised, and led the way over to the surgery, ~ “I’m slagging fritzed of not being able to talk properly.”~
Wingnut and Turbine exited one of the smaller, private cubicles and joined their wingmate in prepping the Battlechargers, closing the door to the surgery behind them. This left the Rainmakers behind to close the collapsible walls that had allowed them privacy during their examination.
“You’re supposed to be dead!” Frenzy exclaimed, pointing at them accusingly, “Did you betray the Decepticon’s too?”
“Don’t be stupid.” Acidstorm said after a startled moment of silence, “You can’t betray something you held no loyalty to in the first place.”
“We’ve always been loyal to Vos and the Winglords before all else.” Hailstone said proudly, raising his wings as he glared at the Cassettacons, “Do not accuse us on matters you have no knowledge of!”
There was an angry kreel in echo of Hailstone’s words, and an ice-blue sparkling climbed over the top of the blue Rainmaker’s upswept wing to perch halfway over Hailstone’s shoulder vent and chitter scoldingly at the Cassettacons.
“Hey, chill out guys.” Tornado looped his arms in his wingmates and snickered at the Cassettacons drop-jawed looks at the appearance of the smallest damn sparkling they had ever seen, “You’re upsetting Hoarfrost. Now c’mon, my sparklet’s Stabilized, and will be able to completely fission in a few megacycles. Let’s go, we have celebrating to do!”
Ravage watched them go with narrowed optics before turning back to his family.
“Situation: Interesting.” Soundwave said softly, much to the startlement of his creations, and sat up on the medical berth, “Sparkling designation Hoarfrost age: Approximately one orn.”
“Ain’t that ‘bout the time when the report on the Rainmaker’s being MIA came in?” Rumble asked in realization.
“Affirmative.” Soundwave got to his feet cautiously, wary of unknown after affects to the power that had taken him down, “Conjecture: Rainmaker trine desertion necessitated by desire to protect creation.”
“An astute observation as always, Soundwave.” Starscream said from just inside the main doors, flanked by his trinemates. All three Seekers were wearing odd, pleased looks at the sight of the spy family, “You will be happy to know that you are for the most part correct in your hypothesis, beyond the fact that they did not desert the Decepticons so much as be ordered out of action by a superior officer and returned home.”
~“Starscream!”~ With an excited squeal, Ratbat darted across the space between Soundwave and the Seekers, flinging his arms around Starscream’s neck and curling up under the larger Seekers chin as his wings vibrated in joy, ~“I missed you!”~
~ “Hello little one.”~ Starscream said in bemusement, curving a supportive hand around the little flyer, ~ “You seem well.”~
“Ratbat: Return.” Soundwave demanded, posed defensively with his other creations ranged around him, all looking startled by Ratbat’s actions. Yes, they had all wanted to see the Seeker’s again, but this seemed almost like a betrayal on the youngest’s part.
Ratbat pulled away from Starscream just enough that the rest of his family could see the furious frown on his little red face before he looked at Soundwave and, very deliberately, blew a resounding burst of static at his creator, “Don wanna! You took too long to get Matter back! Even when I helped!”
~ “Have you been plotting, sparklet?”~ Starscream asked with an amused laugh and a positively gleeful wiggle of his wings.
~ “Yes!”~ Ratbat giggled, leaning in as Starscream chortled and nuzzled his face, ~ “Was hard. Much waiting. Not like waiting.”~
~ “It is annoying, isn’t it?”~ Starscream sympathised, rubbing noses with his Seekerling.
A razzing noise came from behind Starscream’s wings as a mostly white with red Seekerlet scrambled up to perch with his pedes on the edge of Starscream’s wing and both hands on one vent as he peered down at Ratbat. The affronted expression on his black face was almost comical, if it were not identical to the look of indignation Starscream often wore, or the annoyed face Ratbat had made just clicks earlier.
~ “Who’re you?”~ He demanded of the smaller flyer, ~ “And why are you snuggling my Matter?”~
~ “Yeah!”~ Another Seekerlet, this one purple and white, popped into view atop Skywarp.
~ “Tell!”~ Demanded yet another in blue and white as he clambered out from behind Thundercracker’s wings.
The Seeker’s looked amused as the three little jets glared jealously at a surprised looking Ratbat.
‘They are probably the same age as Ravage.’ Soundwave realized with some shock, ‘From the density of their fields, they would have had to have been put into stasis around the same time I placed Ravage into the drone shell.’
All three sported the slighter frames of flyers as opposed to the heavier build of ground mechs, and had unmistakable resemblances to all three adult Seekers. Trine sparked creations, they must have been, but three all at once? Soundwave had never heard of it. Twins were rare enough, to the point where only three sets currently existed. Triplets were considered to be impossible.
~ “Runaway, Sonar, Jetstorm.”~ Starscream chided the three Seekerlets gently, ~ “Don’t pick on Ratbat, and be nice to your new siblings. They’re family.”~
Like someone had flipped a switch the Seekerlets blinked at Starscream, looked at the assembled Cassettacons, and all of the hostility they had been radiating vanished as if it had never been in the first place.
~ “Oh.”~ Runaway leaned further forward over Starscream’s vent so he could see Ratbat better, ~ “Sorry about being mean. Didn’t know you were family! Don’t worry; we’ll take care of ya winglet. It’s in the Code!”~
~ “Gotta take care of family.”~ Jetstorm said firmly.
~ “Family’s important!” Sonar exclaimed with a bounce that nearly toppled him off of Skywarp.
~“With that taken care of.”~ Starscream looked up at Soundwave with a grin, well aware of how he appeared. Skywarp giggled coquettishly and Thundercracker purred, their optics bright as they too looked at the telepath, who experienced the sudden approach of doom.
“Would you care to come up to our quarters?” Starscream tickled Ratbat under the chin, making the Seekerling squeal happily, “I know for certain our berth is far more comfortable then the ones down here.”
‘Oh yes.’ Soundwave thought morosely as he stared at the sparkling bedecked Seekers, who were all sporting the exact same expressions they had worn just before jumping his circuits the first time, ‘I’m doomed.’
(Word Count: 2010)
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And since arahsi insisted, here's more worldbuilding geekery.
Vosian Terms of Affection/Relationships
1. Windkin: Used by any Seeker to refer to any other Seeker. A form of address normally used prior to introductions or in situations where name-basis conversation is unfeasible. English equivalents would be “Countryman” or “Friend”.
2. Framekin: Used to imply a small degree of relation; same base model type. Such as Contrastes to Contrastes or Zephyr to Zephyros, but not for Vardar to Gregale. English equivalent would be “Cousin” (used in the no relation sense) or “Comrade”.
3. Wingkin: Used to imply a second-degree bond relation. Used in regards to a mech who is bonded to one you are also bonded to. Such as your bondmate’s brother’s creations. Sunstorm is wingkin to Starscream’s offspring; through the sibling-bond he shares with Starscream, but has no direct bond with the sparklings himself. Human equivalent would be “family member” (uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, grandparent, grandchildren, cousin)
4. Bondkin: A direct bonded platonic relationship (not to be confused with “bondmate”). Such as brother to brother, or creator to creation (Imprinted relationships also count as bondkindred). Starscream is bondkin to Sunstorm, Soundwave is bondkin to Ravage, and Skywarp is bondkin to Rumble and Frenzy. Human equivalent would be “blood relative” or “blood brother”.
5. Bondmate: One whose spark you chose to link yours with in a romantic manner. Translates as “Most Beloved”
6. Wingmate: Term of endearment meant to imply a degree of closeness. Translates as “Dear friend” or “brother”.
7. Trinemate: A more formal address that still retains affection. Translates as “Husband”, “Wife” or “Spouse”.
8. Winglet: lit. “Little Wings” An affectionate diminutive used to address juvenile Seekers.
9. Sparklet/Sparkling: lit: “Little Spark” An affectionate diminutive used to address juvenile Cybertronians.
10. Scraplet: Diminutive form of address. Translates as “(little) brat”. Can be used in affection or scolding.
11. Creator: Form of address from juvenile creation to the one who produced their spark and codes. Use implies degree of closeness in relationship.
12. Formatter: In multi-caretaker family units, the Formatter is usually the primary caregiver or carrier of the juvenile, and is (usually) always to one to aid during the post-upgrade adjustment period. Can be shortened to ‘Matter’ by the less formal or more affectionate.
13. Imprinter: A caregiver who forms a creation-bond with a juvenile through wilful intent on one or both parts, or a caregiver who acts as Formatter during or after a period of stress for the juvenile. Translates as “Foster parent”.
14. Imprintee: Translates as “Foster child”.
15. Imprinting: When the spark energies of an adult and a juvenile Cybertronian synchronize, a creation bond is established between previously unrelated sparks. Small amounts of the caretakers source code are absorbed by the juvenile and small changes in identifying features such as facial configuration, voice, or colour are likely to occur. Despite rumours to the contrary, Imprinting cannot happen by accident and must be a deliberate, if subconscious, choice that is accepted by both sides of the bond.
16. Claimant: One who has had a Seeker declare a desire to bond. No other Seeker, excepting the trinemate(s) of the claiming Seeker, will approach the Claimant with romantic intent until the claiming Seeker retracts the claim or is rejected outright by the Claimant.
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Yarr, so I've been somewhat distracted by the "sparkling art meme" on DevART. But soon realised that many of my answers contained spoilers, so it won't be posted until after this story is somewhat finished. Also, as shiny as my new tablet is, it's not much good for drawing. It colors very nicely, but isn't sensitive enough to draw with. So I'm still doing pencil and inks by hand. Which is fine! I enjoy doing so, but it'd still be nice to be able to do art meme's on the computer.
So, please play spot-the-typo just in case I missed something. And lemme know how many of you guessed who the indentities of the High Trine's Seekerlets correctly before reading.
Ciao. ^_^
A Transformers G1 Fanfic
Author: Sanjuno Shori Niko
Summary: Here's a Seekerlet, there's a Seekerlet, and another little Seekerlet!
Timeline: More ficness goes here!
=/=
(In which Soundwave meets the seekerlets)
Too young to remember a time without war, the Cassettacons stared with wide optics as they flew into the city. Broad platforms jutted out from the inner side ring walls and towers, sliding over the top of wide ridges that looped around the outer sides of the rings to make moving bridges. The crossings were sparser the higher you went. Seekers were everywhere, but there were some ground mechs as well. One black Praxus build with an eerie resemblance to the Autobot Second in Command looked up at them from the outermost wall, red optics glowing brightly in the gloom cast by the enveloping clouds. As they flew over the sixth ring, the Cassettacons realized that the centre tower was their destination.
“Hey!” Rumble shouted, pulling closer to the Battlechargers, “Where are we going?”
“To the High Tower.” Runamuck said in reply and started to point as he rattled off the half-credit tour, “Ninth ring is the High Tower, Main Medical Centre, and Crèche. Eighth Ring is the Temple’s main church, along with Military and Guardian Command. Seventh through fourth rings are Residential and Education areas that have smaller churches, guardian stations and medical clinics. Third ring is the commerce district, trading, and marketplaces. Second ring is Science, Research and Engineering. First ring is defensive and has the military barracks for the un-trined along with temporary residences for Trines on outer ring rotation.”
“Pretty nice place you got here.” Frenzy remarked as they touched down on one of the platforms located outside the centre tower, less than halfway up the spire.
“We like it.” Runabout said pleasantly, walking into the Tower with his twin and Soundwave in tow. The Battlechargers were being oddly considerate with Soundwave, slinging his arms over their shoulders and carrying him like an overcharged buddy rather than dragging him like an offline prisoner.
“So I noticed that nobody tried stopping us on the way in.” Rumble said casually as he looked around, memorizing their path, “How’d a couple of groundpounders get authority like that in a Seeker city?”
“We may be Flightless, and not sky-born.” Runamuck said icily, “But we are still Seekers.”
“Of course.” Runabout sounded amused in contrast to his brother, “It probably helps that we’re Imprinted on the Winglords.”
“Well yeah.” Runamuck said in a familiar, peevish way, “But that’s not the only reason we’ve got respect here. And it’s no excuse to go calling us groundpounders. Scraplet should know that! Didn’t Skywarp get Imprinted as his Primary?”
“So what if he did?” Runabout asked logically, ignoring the fact that the Cassettacons probably only understood about half of what they were talking about, “It’s not like Skywarp’s gonna go spilling Seeker secrets around groundpounders, and Darkmount ain’t a good place to teach winglets anything much else than how to stay functioning. Didn’t have ‘em for all that long either.”
“Suppose you’re right.” Runamuck sighed through his vents, “Plenty of chance to teach ‘em up good and proper now though.”
“Yep.” Runabout agreed as they hauled Soundwave into what was obviously the medical bay, calling out as they dropped their burden onto an empty berth and pulled the privacy walls most of the way closed, ~ “Medic!”~
~ “Just a moment!”~ Called a familiar voice, and Aerialion walked over, wings canted in surprise, ~ “Well! You two actually managed to do it! So what exactly happened to out telepathic friend here?”~
~ “Blackout.”~ Runabout said with a grin and a gleeful wiggle of his fingertips, using the stilted version of Seeker-cant developed for Seekers too damaged to use their wings, ~ “Got Soundwave from behind then got mobbed by the scraplets.”~
~ “I assume that the sparklings are all unharmed?”~ Aerialion asked archly, scanning Soundwave for any unseen problems before easily beginning the process that would bring Soundwave back to the land of the fully conscious.
~ “Ah, they’re fine.”~ Runamuck said dismissively, hitching his shoulder, ~ “You know Blackout can’t affect anything smaller than his arm without affecting the whole area.”~
“Hey! Speak normally!” Rumble yelled, not wanting to let on he and his brothers had picked up the Seeker language with varying degrees of proficiency, and climbed up on an empty counter to glare at the medic, “What’re ya doing to Soundwave and what did that Blackout guy do to the Boss?”
“I’m merely rebooting his systems.” Aerialion said, looking amused, “Blackout’s Sigma power is simply that he can mask his presence from all forms of detection, up to and including psionic scans, and shut down any mechanism when their energy field intersects with his. Your fields are rather shallow and if you all jumped him at once I’m not surprised that he couldn’t deal with you.”
“Well yeah!” Frenzy jumped up next to his twin, posing triumphantly, “We’re not pushovers! We’re tough!”
“That you are.” Aerialion said indulgently, as only a medic than had seen them stripped down to core casings could, “Now it should only take a breem or so for his systems to completely reboot, and I had the High Trine paged when you came in. They should be here any click now.”
The Cassettacons clustered themselves defensively around Soundwave when the medics stepped back, keeping wary optics on all the exits. It was a very spacious medbay, they all noted in their scan, with high arched ceilings.
= “This place was made for Seekers.”= Buzzsaw sent to his siblings, surprised by how comfortable he felt in this strange place.
~ “Come over here with me you two.”~ Aerialion said to the Battlechargers, ~ “Let’s get you out of those ugly groundpounder disguises.”~
~ “Fragging finally.”~ Runamuck praised, and led the way over to the surgery, ~ “I’m slagging fritzed of not being able to talk properly.”~
Wingnut and Turbine exited one of the smaller, private cubicles and joined their wingmate in prepping the Battlechargers, closing the door to the surgery behind them. This left the Rainmakers behind to close the collapsible walls that had allowed them privacy during their examination.
“You’re supposed to be dead!” Frenzy exclaimed, pointing at them accusingly, “Did you betray the Decepticon’s too?”
“Don’t be stupid.” Acidstorm said after a startled moment of silence, “You can’t betray something you held no loyalty to in the first place.”
“We’ve always been loyal to Vos and the Winglords before all else.” Hailstone said proudly, raising his wings as he glared at the Cassettacons, “Do not accuse us on matters you have no knowledge of!”
There was an angry kreel in echo of Hailstone’s words, and an ice-blue sparkling climbed over the top of the blue Rainmaker’s upswept wing to perch halfway over Hailstone’s shoulder vent and chitter scoldingly at the Cassettacons.
“Hey, chill out guys.” Tornado looped his arms in his wingmates and snickered at the Cassettacons drop-jawed looks at the appearance of the smallest damn sparkling they had ever seen, “You’re upsetting Hoarfrost. Now c’mon, my sparklet’s Stabilized, and will be able to completely fission in a few megacycles. Let’s go, we have celebrating to do!”
Ravage watched them go with narrowed optics before turning back to his family.
“Situation: Interesting.” Soundwave said softly, much to the startlement of his creations, and sat up on the medical berth, “Sparkling designation Hoarfrost age: Approximately one orn.”
“Ain’t that ‘bout the time when the report on the Rainmaker’s being MIA came in?” Rumble asked in realization.
“Affirmative.” Soundwave got to his feet cautiously, wary of unknown after affects to the power that had taken him down, “Conjecture: Rainmaker trine desertion necessitated by desire to protect creation.”
“An astute observation as always, Soundwave.” Starscream said from just inside the main doors, flanked by his trinemates. All three Seekers were wearing odd, pleased looks at the sight of the spy family, “You will be happy to know that you are for the most part correct in your hypothesis, beyond the fact that they did not desert the Decepticons so much as be ordered out of action by a superior officer and returned home.”
~“Starscream!”~ With an excited squeal, Ratbat darted across the space between Soundwave and the Seekers, flinging his arms around Starscream’s neck and curling up under the larger Seekers chin as his wings vibrated in joy, ~“I missed you!”~
~ “Hello little one.”~ Starscream said in bemusement, curving a supportive hand around the little flyer, ~ “You seem well.”~
“Ratbat: Return.” Soundwave demanded, posed defensively with his other creations ranged around him, all looking startled by Ratbat’s actions. Yes, they had all wanted to see the Seeker’s again, but this seemed almost like a betrayal on the youngest’s part.
Ratbat pulled away from Starscream just enough that the rest of his family could see the furious frown on his little red face before he looked at Soundwave and, very deliberately, blew a resounding burst of static at his creator, “Don wanna! You took too long to get Matter back! Even when I helped!”
~ “Have you been plotting, sparklet?”~ Starscream asked with an amused laugh and a positively gleeful wiggle of his wings.
~ “Yes!”~ Ratbat giggled, leaning in as Starscream chortled and nuzzled his face, ~ “Was hard. Much waiting. Not like waiting.”~
~ “It is annoying, isn’t it?”~ Starscream sympathised, rubbing noses with his Seekerling.
A razzing noise came from behind Starscream’s wings as a mostly white with red Seekerlet scrambled up to perch with his pedes on the edge of Starscream’s wing and both hands on one vent as he peered down at Ratbat. The affronted expression on his black face was almost comical, if it were not identical to the look of indignation Starscream often wore, or the annoyed face Ratbat had made just clicks earlier.
~ “Who’re you?”~ He demanded of the smaller flyer, ~ “And why are you snuggling my Matter?”~
~ “Yeah!”~ Another Seekerlet, this one purple and white, popped into view atop Skywarp.
~ “Tell!”~ Demanded yet another in blue and white as he clambered out from behind Thundercracker’s wings.
The Seeker’s looked amused as the three little jets glared jealously at a surprised looking Ratbat.
‘They are probably the same age as Ravage.’ Soundwave realized with some shock, ‘From the density of their fields, they would have had to have been put into stasis around the same time I placed Ravage into the drone shell.’
All three sported the slighter frames of flyers as opposed to the heavier build of ground mechs, and had unmistakable resemblances to all three adult Seekers. Trine sparked creations, they must have been, but three all at once? Soundwave had never heard of it. Twins were rare enough, to the point where only three sets currently existed. Triplets were considered to be impossible.
~ “Runaway, Sonar, Jetstorm.”~ Starscream chided the three Seekerlets gently, ~ “Don’t pick on Ratbat, and be nice to your new siblings. They’re family.”~
Like someone had flipped a switch the Seekerlets blinked at Starscream, looked at the assembled Cassettacons, and all of the hostility they had been radiating vanished as if it had never been in the first place.
~ “Oh.”~ Runaway leaned further forward over Starscream’s vent so he could see Ratbat better, ~ “Sorry about being mean. Didn’t know you were family! Don’t worry; we’ll take care of ya winglet. It’s in the Code!”~
~ “Gotta take care of family.”~ Jetstorm said firmly.
~ “Family’s important!” Sonar exclaimed with a bounce that nearly toppled him off of Skywarp.
~“With that taken care of.”~ Starscream looked up at Soundwave with a grin, well aware of how he appeared. Skywarp giggled coquettishly and Thundercracker purred, their optics bright as they too looked at the telepath, who experienced the sudden approach of doom.
“Would you care to come up to our quarters?” Starscream tickled Ratbat under the chin, making the Seekerling squeal happily, “I know for certain our berth is far more comfortable then the ones down here.”
‘Oh yes.’ Soundwave thought morosely as he stared at the sparkling bedecked Seekers, who were all sporting the exact same expressions they had worn just before jumping his circuits the first time, ‘I’m doomed.’
(Word Count: 2010)
=/=
And since arahsi insisted, here's more worldbuilding geekery.
Vosian Terms of Affection/Relationships
1. Windkin: Used by any Seeker to refer to any other Seeker. A form of address normally used prior to introductions or in situations where name-basis conversation is unfeasible. English equivalents would be “Countryman” or “Friend”.
2. Framekin: Used to imply a small degree of relation; same base model type. Such as Contrastes to Contrastes or Zephyr to Zephyros, but not for Vardar to Gregale. English equivalent would be “Cousin” (used in the no relation sense) or “Comrade”.
3. Wingkin: Used to imply a second-degree bond relation. Used in regards to a mech who is bonded to one you are also bonded to. Such as your bondmate’s brother’s creations. Sunstorm is wingkin to Starscream’s offspring; through the sibling-bond he shares with Starscream, but has no direct bond with the sparklings himself. Human equivalent would be “family member” (uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, grandparent, grandchildren, cousin)
4. Bondkin: A direct bonded platonic relationship (not to be confused with “bondmate”). Such as brother to brother, or creator to creation (Imprinted relationships also count as bondkindred). Starscream is bondkin to Sunstorm, Soundwave is bondkin to Ravage, and Skywarp is bondkin to Rumble and Frenzy. Human equivalent would be “blood relative” or “blood brother”.
5. Bondmate: One whose spark you chose to link yours with in a romantic manner. Translates as “Most Beloved”
6. Wingmate: Term of endearment meant to imply a degree of closeness. Translates as “Dear friend” or “brother”.
7. Trinemate: A more formal address that still retains affection. Translates as “Husband”, “Wife” or “Spouse”.
8. Winglet: lit. “Little Wings” An affectionate diminutive used to address juvenile Seekers.
9. Sparklet/Sparkling: lit: “Little Spark” An affectionate diminutive used to address juvenile Cybertronians.
10. Scraplet: Diminutive form of address. Translates as “(little) brat”. Can be used in affection or scolding.
11. Creator: Form of address from juvenile creation to the one who produced their spark and codes. Use implies degree of closeness in relationship.
12. Formatter: In multi-caretaker family units, the Formatter is usually the primary caregiver or carrier of the juvenile, and is (usually) always to one to aid during the post-upgrade adjustment period. Can be shortened to ‘Matter’ by the less formal or more affectionate.
13. Imprinter: A caregiver who forms a creation-bond with a juvenile through wilful intent on one or both parts, or a caregiver who acts as Formatter during or after a period of stress for the juvenile. Translates as “Foster parent”.
14. Imprintee: Translates as “Foster child”.
15. Imprinting: When the spark energies of an adult and a juvenile Cybertronian synchronize, a creation bond is established between previously unrelated sparks. Small amounts of the caretakers source code are absorbed by the juvenile and small changes in identifying features such as facial configuration, voice, or colour are likely to occur. Despite rumours to the contrary, Imprinting cannot happen by accident and must be a deliberate, if subconscious, choice that is accepted by both sides of the bond.
16. Claimant: One who has had a Seeker declare a desire to bond. No other Seeker, excepting the trinemate(s) of the claiming Seeker, will approach the Claimant with romantic intent until the claiming Seeker retracts the claim or is rejected outright by the Claimant.
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Yarr, so I've been somewhat distracted by the "sparkling art meme" on DevART. But soon realised that many of my answers contained spoilers, so it won't be posted until after this story is somewhat finished. Also, as shiny as my new tablet is, it's not much good for drawing. It colors very nicely, but isn't sensitive enough to draw with. So I'm still doing pencil and inks by hand. Which is fine! I enjoy doing so, but it'd still be nice to be able to do art meme's on the computer.
So, please play spot-the-typo just in case I missed something. And lemme know how many of you guessed who the indentities of the High Trine's Seekerlets correctly before reading.
Ciao. ^_^