Not Lonely Anymore

Log Title: Not Lonely Anymore

Date: November 30, 2021

Summary: Skitter and Soundblaster.

Old Broadcast Studio[]

Soundblaster is in the old broadcast tower, wiring some of the Hub's crystals into the station's transmission system. If he gets enough, he believes he can turn his entire base into one massive dream-manipulation center. While he works, he hums tunelessly to himself. While he's no Soundwave, he knows his way around a wrench and a crystal set, and he's made some progress while Skitter's been gone.

Skitter has managed, after some time missing, to find her way back here to this tower. The fox creeps into the tower, snuffling softly as she works to locate Soundblaster with soft whines and tk-tck-tcks.

Soundblaster can't hear a fly sneeze, but he can hear a fox whine. His countenance visibly brightens, and he subspaces his tools and starts to climb down from his perch halfway up a broadcast antenna. He seeks out the friendly little beast, and starts broadcasting warm, quiet noises - almost subliminal calming sounds. "Skitter," he calls softly with his static-filled voice. "You've come home." Soundblaster sounds inordinately pleased. He opens a panel on his hip and extracts a handful of enersnacks.

Skitter lets out a little series of yips, tone rising in excitement as Soundblaster makes his way down the his perch. She darts closer, 'dancing' circles around his feet, favoring a hind leg. "Home!! Found you! Got.. lost.. sand.. squish, noise, Owie!! BigSquish.. Wanted come home.. was.. in bag."

"Oh, my!" Soundblaster replies, sounding more curious than upset about her adventures. "Can I take a look at that leg while you tell me all about it?" He cries to coax or scoop her up onto a table. It's not a proper medtable but Skitter is small enough that it gives Soundblaster the height and room to work. He activates a sensor built into his left forearm, sweeping it over Skitter and checking to see if she's hurt.

Skitter's audials swivel back as she is picked up, making a happy whine. "Owie.. was ouch!" The leg's almost fully self-repaired at this point and only faint marks in coloration showing where she'd been damaged. "In bag! Au.. Awoo. Emeny? Autobot." she squeaks, "Fed.. put.. made leg stiff-squish. Fed. Slept in bag." A disgruntled little noise, audials laying flat, "Need more -words-. Hola. Spl-int."

"Let me have a look," Soundblaster says gently, probing the leg delicately, making sure it's properly healed. "Would you like a vocabulary increase? I can install a module," he offers. He shakes his head. "They put you in a *bag*? You're lucky you got away. If you like, I could install some self-defense measures - just in case they threaten you and you can't run away." Soundblaster layers caring tones over his voice to double the impact of his soft words.

Skitter yips, head turning to snap at the air as the leg is probed, tail lashing. She doesn't bite, just air-snaps, audials flattening. "I spoked at. Is lots of poked." Hrmphed ex-vent before chittering softly, "Words.. come.. are coming.. in.. slowly.. Sleep - head hurrrts, more owrds. Sleep more.." rapid patter of speech that slows a moment, "Head.. aches.. then.. I.. Am sleeping.. I -sleep-. More words.. come.. is haaard. Was in bag. Warm-safe. Not -home-. Fed. Autobot fed, took care of. Still emeny? Then.. more BIG other. Big big.. Hide. I hide. Stinky hairy one taste-smells bad has bad dreams. Is idiot."

Soundblaster chuckles, withdrawing once he's determined she's well on her way to healing on her own. "'Is idiot' really doesn't narrow it down," he laughs. "But, yes, they are the enemy - look how they hurt you!" He shakes his head. "They may pretend to be nice, but don't be fooled - only Soundblaster and Chro can be trusted - and I'm not so sure about Chro," he jokes. He holds out his arms to scoop her back up but pauses. "May I?" he asks first.

Skitter stands on the table, flexing her wee feet and all the legs. Tail swishes, "Hnn.. Has.. hnn.. fur? yes word is fur.. Is.. has lab." Ducking her head, "Was sleeping in sand-home. Noises, bright lights, screaming happened. Then tried to go away from nasty twofeets. BAM. ouch. BAM ouch again. Leg broke. Hit me. Run.. over. Emeny baad." There's a flicker of tenseness before she nods, "Took me away from sand-home. But -I- find my way back to home-safe!"

GAME: Soundblaster PASSES an INTELLIGENCE roll of Average difficulty.

Soundblaster listens carefully, making educated guesses based on his extensive knowledge to fill in the gaps in Skitter's story. "You are amazing!" he offers in praise. "You're safe here and can stay as long as you like until you fully rest and heal. Come. I want to show you something." He then carries or leads her to a room in the back, where he's carefully constructed a little fox den for Skitter, complete with soft bedding and an energon cache-hole.

Skitter fox-loafs as she's carried, one audial skewing sideways, optics half slitting. "Home?" a peeped word. "Do good? I find words? I.. more words, can share more words when.. know them. Furry-stinky one have -dreams-. Bad dreams. Autobot bag-cave carrier also have dreams. Skitter do good for home-safe. Skitter -protect- with.. OoOOooo.." peering down as she lets him carry her. "For.. Me? Make. for me?"

Soundblaster sounds extremely pleased with Skitter's report. "I look forward to more details when you find the words. In the meantime - yes, this is for you! It's small and simple now, but we can expand it to your liking. I hope it's comfortable. I had to do some research on your species - I've never had a fox partner before!" he beams. He carefully sets Skitter down at the entrance to the den. "Do you like it?" Soundblaster asks hopefully and a touch needily.

Skitter sniffs at Soundblaster's arm a moment before she's let down. There's a cautious nose into the den-like space. "Make.. for me? Make.. place for me to stay safe and warm?" Wiggle of those giant audials, flick of tail before she darts to scamper around and between his legs. "Is like! yes. Like! For me!" Skidding slightly and sitting, peering up and up and up, mismatched optics bright, "Make.." pause and a shake of her tiny head, squeaking in excitement. "Ssound.. blasster. make for.. me. I.. I like. I like!"

Soundblaster's face is masked, but his optics and voice are warm. "I'm... I'm very happy to hear that!" he says, almost sounding surprised at his own reaction. He's never actually made something for someone else without a direct profit in mind, and while this could be useful to him in procuring a spy, Soundblaster also feels unexpected joy in just experiencing Skitter's reaction to his seeming act of kindness.

Skitter goes into another dance around Soundblasters feet, whining, squealing happily. "Is! I like! Is safe den! No emeny two feets! No swallow sand! No squish! Soundblaster make for -me-! Want to -stay- with Soundblaster! Protect!" Another sudden halt of movement and she flops, huffing, audials drooping as she works through thoughts. "Can stay?" Optics slit and she lets out a soft whine, "Emeny two feets say.. must find -caaay-rry-er. Want to stay with -Soundblaster-..."

"Of course you can stay," Soundblaster says warmly. "You are always welcome. And if you need a carrier..." he says pleasantly.... and pops open his gold-rimmed chest. "You can find a home within me, as well. If you decide that's what you want. They can't tell you what you :must: do. Only you can decide that." He leaves his chest popped open, but doesn't move, letting Skitter decide without pressure.

Skitter's audials perk up, then drop, then perk up, then drop again. There's a tiny crinkling of plating around her snout, tail fluffing out before she curves it around her front feet. "Is.. -home-. /Neeeed/ home-safe. Itches. Head itchy -inside-. Need home-safe place. Did not want.." A huff and ruffle of plating. "Did not want to leaave Souundblasster. Is -friend-?" A blink and a buzzing sort of trill as she stands, optics big. "is.. Soundblaster -is- a home-safe-! Please oh please! Lemme -stay- Will protect! Will protekt safe home! Will protekt caaarr-ee-er!"

"You can stay," Soundblaster says sincerely, "As my partner and friend. We can protect each other." He is SO going to hear it from Chro. "Can you transform?" he asks softly. He's only lately learned to dock agents, taking what little he learned from Ghost and applying it to Chro when he took the cyber-raven from Cryotek. He doesn't know if Skitter and he will be compatible without modifications, but only one way to find out!

Skitter squeaks happily, moving to again dance around Soundblaster's feet before crouching, wiggling in anticipation. There's a lash of her tail and she leaps upwards, "Can traansform- can be partner! Will be partner!" Attempting to land inside the offered space as she transforms, readying for initial docking.

Soundblaster accepts his first voluntary partner, making some internal adjustments to dock with Skitter. Carefully partitioning his thoughts, he shares only what he wants Skitter to feel - love, acceptance, friendship. Oddly enough, most of those emotions are real, and the compartmentalization going on within Soundblaster's mind as he develops one persona as evil Dream Master and another as loving commander... it's surely not going to cause any problems in the future.

Skitter transforms, settling into that opened and offered docking space with only a slight bump. Systems spin up.. and spark-deep code surges, shifting platelets here, adjusting mechanisms there until she's settled in. There's no such compartmentalization from the turbofox - only a flood of trust, of joy, happiness, of vast territorialness, a sense of -mine-!, and a weighty 'click' of belonging. There's a deep hum from the datatape, a nervous energy that twists before hyper-fixating on her home-safe, on Soundblaster.

Soundblaster smiles beneath his mask with a happiness Skitter can -feel-. He closes his chest compartment, sealing Skitter safely in and sharing his energon supply and sophisticated self-repair systems. 'We're going to be good friends, you and I,' Soundblaster says internally. 'I'll carry you as long as you like, but whenever you want, just let me know.' He waits a moment outside Skitter's den, in case she wants out now.

Skitter's systems continue the finework of settling into the docking space, the fox tck-tck-tcking softly, happily as bonding protocols kick online fully, pinging through the docking mechanisms a sync request, a bonding, binding protocol. That tiny voice responding clearer now, "Bonding Protocol accepted? Confirmed? I am -glad- you are a carrier. I feel like I belong, now, like I am -whole-, a real being. Words.. are easier like this. Do I call you sir? Home? Do you like glitchmice? I can bring you some to eat?"

Soundblaster chuckles out loud, sending warm waves of joy through Skitter. It wasn't like this with Chro, who at first resisted, and only finally acquiesced for his own private schemes. Soundblaster himself feels almost whole for the first time since creation, and the experience is dizzying. He takes a physical step back, reaching out to brace himself against the doorframe. 'You can call me anything you like, little one,' he thinks a Skitter. 'No glitchmice, please, however. Words from the enemy, though - I like that.'

Skitter is -happy- and has no restrictions on sharing emotions or hang-ups either. There's an interested whirring of attention from the newly bonded tape before 'Enemy words I have. Are they all enemies? Ok, no glitch mice. They -are- tasty, though. Are you ok?' concern flooding, curiosity as wild as any sandstorm. 'I won't be lonely anymore. I woke, I was lonely. I was scared. It -hurt-, waking up, finding words in my head. But I am not alone anymore. I have you, now. This is better than the sand den. -My- Home-safe.'

'I... hurt less, myself,' Soundblaster says internally to his own surprise. For a moment, he almost rethinks his plan of revenge against all Cybertron, but... it's too late. He's too far down that path now. 'Yes,' he says at last. 'They are all enemies, although some are more dangerous than others. We have few allies and friends out there, but I will protect you. And you will protect me. We will be home-safe... together."

Skitter replies with a tiny 'fierce' feeling, 'Will - I will protect! you. Together, we will be safe. Together, we are home-safe.' Then a bubble of excitement that shifts into unfiltered adoration and trust. 'Thank you. I sleep.. recharge.. dream now. Can I bite Chro if he is mean?'

'Yes,' Soundblaster replies with a warm thought. 'But be careful - he bites back. Rest now, little one. Tomorrow we can decorate your den.' Humming happily to himself, Soundblaster goes back to his work, feeling happy for perhaps the first time in his short life.

Skitter's systems slowly settle, drifting into a tick-tick of sleepy static. Happy fox. 'Is ok to bite.. back. Is normal. Will bite.. if mean..' thoughts jumbling, flashing images instead, sand and more sand. 'Rest.. now.. Happy? Happy. I am happy that you are happy.' And her thoughts settle, content, feeling safe, secure, whole.