Rehoming a Ferret

Log Title: Rehoming a Ferret

Date: February 24 2023

Summary: Ringtone makes it back to Cybertron and drops in on Swivel.

The Rollout Bar[]

The Rollout Bar's interior is designed to accommodate the widely varying scales of the universe. On the bar itself there's a section designed for humans, Junkions and those of similar scale, with their own bar which can be served either by the main bartender or a bartender of their own scale, should one be on duty. A spiral staircase grants access to the bar's surface for those who are small enough to use the secondary bar, with barriers high enough for most transformers high enough to notice protect those making their way from the doors to the bar itself. There are a series of bar stools of various sizes along the bar, allowing most Transformers to be able to sit comfortably at the bar.
Next to the bar, there are two doors marked "GAMES ROOMS". They are roped off, and from the other side, the sounds of building work can be heard. Warning signs mark them as "UNDER CONSTRUCTION"
Beside the doors sits a large stage, protected by energy fences should it be required. A fairly decent stack of amplifiers and speakers allows music of almost any kind to be performed there, by any species - space for a five-piece band of Transformers, or an entire orchestra of human-sized beings. There is a dance floor in front of the stage, and surrounding that one will find a series of octagonal tables with adjustable seats around them. Each table has a spiral staircase for those of human-ish scale to access the table top, where there are seats available.
The wall opposite the bar is lined with booths that allow four large Transformers to sit comfortably in relative privacy - and again, there is access to the table-tops for those of human scale. Each booth has its own window out of the bar, which can be closed with a curtain should it be required. They can also be enclosed within top-of-the-line privacy fields - Encore is trying to build a reputation at the Rollout Bar for absolute discretion and neutrality.
One wall is entirely taken up by a changing holographic vista, showing beautiful places from around the galaxy. The other wall is labeled "THE NEWS WALL", and is a huge bank of screens showing news broadcasts from across the galaxy, including Autobot News, Free Cybertron Press, and the Decepticon Propaganda Network, among countless others.
Encore himself usually tends the bar here. A sign behind the bar reads 'BARTENDERS WANTED: APPLY TO ENCORE'

<irc.dal.net><SysOp> <connects>

<irc.dal.net><SysOp> Top of the morning to you all! TGIF.

<irc.dal.net><Watcher> Greetings: Sysop. new name?

<irc.dal.net><Voidwalker> TGIF?

<irc.dal.net><SysOp> Oh, my handle is short for Systems Operator. Thank you for asking. I am a communications specialist and just stopping by as I do some research.

<irc.dal.net><SysOp> TGIF is short for Thank Grimace It's Friday.

<irc.dal.net><SysOp> Oh, forgive me. God. But I think Grimace is God.

<irc.dal.net><Voidwalker> ...this a refrece i'm not getting?

<irc.dal.net><SysOp> Hello, Voidwalker. I herd u liek mudkipz?

<irc.dal.net><Voidwalker> I am suddenly very triggered.

<irc.dal.net><Voidwalker> Do i know you?

<irc.dal.net><Icebox> Hello SysOp. Still on Earth?

<irc.dal.net><Icebox> Also, hello Voidwalker.

<irc.dal.net><Voidwalker> yo

<irc.dal.net><SysOp> I am on Earth. I behave on Earth, Icebox. It's what SysOps do.

<irc.dal.net><Icebox> Okay.

<irc.dal.net><SysOp> They do not cause fits or fights.

<irc.dal.net><Soldier> Welcome.

<irc.dal.net><Icebox> What is that thing I've seen people say... "You do you?"

<irc.dal.net><Icebox> I think that applies to SysOp.

<irc.dal.net><Icebox> I am just quickly logging on during a break.

<irc.dal.net><SysOp> I am just Belle Singh'l. I am tech support. Microsoft has asked me to call one some people.

<PM from Icebox to SysOp> Would you like me to pretend I don't know who you are?

<irc.dal.net><SysOp> I am not looking to cause problems or get people bad. No. I am just a good person who does not upset hairless monkeys because I am clearly one of them.

<irc.dal.net><Soldier> Ahh hello my friend. I know you.

<irc.dal.net><Soldier> OOC mischar :)

<irc.dal.net><Watcher> Ahh hello, my friend. I know you.

<PM from SysOp to Icebox>I knew you'd find me!

<irc.dal.net><Watcher> Are you feeling better?

<irc.dal.net><SysOp> See, I am just Belle Singh'l. I am a French burlesque mistress from India calling to make sure that your Internet is working. That is why I am SysOp.

<PM from SysOp to Icebox>I am doing good! I am learning how to act like a smelly, dirty chimp.

<PM from Icebox to SysOp>Having fun pretending to be a human?

<irc.dal.net><SysOp> As you can see, my story clearly fits.

<irc.dal.net><SysOp> Hello, Watcher. For three bitcoins, you can have access to all my videos and tech support information.

<irc.dal.net><Watcher> Already have it but thanks

<PM from Icebox to SysOp>So why are you pretending to be a human?

<irc.dal.net><Voidwalker> ...oh

<irc.dal.net><Voidwalker> yeah i know you

<irc.dal.net><WhiteRanger> Oh what now?

<PM from SysOp to Icebox>Because I don't want to be in trouble or hunted anymore.

<PM from Icebox to SysOp>Who is hunting you?

<irc.dal.net><Voidwalker> where the rest the rangers?!

<irc.dal.net><SysOp> Act now and I will through in access to LEGION OF THE RED DRAGON.

<irc.dal.net><GreenRanger> <connects>

<irc.dal.net><WhiteRanger> soon soon. We'll gather again.

<irc.dal.net><SysOp> Hello, Voidwalker.

<irc.dal.net><WhiteRanger> Hey Greenranger

<PM from SysOp to Icebox>I was laying low so I can get to Cybertron!

<irc.dal.net><Voidwalker> -giggles-

<PM from Icebox to SysOp>Ah, I see. Well. Would you like some tips on laying low?

<irc.dal.net><GreenRanger> hey hey

<irc.dal.net><WhiteRanger> I think the family shold get together. Catch up.

<irc.dal.net><DarkWaveSylveon> Am I fam? ;)

<irc.dal.net><WhiteRanger> Hmm.. Do you want to be?

<irc.dal.net><DarkWaveSylveon> I alwaus wanted a cool uncle!

<irc.dal.net><WhiteRanger> Cool Uncle is about to explain if yu buy a gentleman a drink, it's a date to yet someone else..

<irc.dal.net><GreenRanger> Heeh. you guys are funny. Yeah. Im thinking of getting together with my family soon. Its been a while since we've had a meet up.

<irc.dal.net><DarkWaveSylveon> WhiteRanger has fam? That sounds awesome. I'm happy for the awesome florist. <3

<irc.dal.net><WhiteRanger> Soon GR. Fam OFC MIRL

SOME TIME LATER

The bar door swings open and there's no one there. Then finally, the ferret perches on a stool because he snuck in.

A familiar face is tending the bar when Ringtone sneaks in. Swivel, alert as ever, looks up and over. "You made it back!" Swivel smiles, finishing up with a drink she was mixing and passes it to the waiting customer. Then, towel draped over her arm, she hops down from the step stood she was standing on and walks over to Ringtone. "Good ter see you made it one piece."

The ferret smiles back at Swivel as he is caught. "Miss Swivel!" He rolls around on the stool and pulls out a small box from his subspace. "Here, I got you some shiny things and trinkets from Earth." He chirps as he looks around, "Tomorrow, I will help paint this place to look spiffy!" He curls up on the stool. "I am adopting and adapting."

Swivel clamors onto a stool next to Ringtone, turning to face him and resting one arm up on the bar. She glances about to make sure there are no other customers trying to get her attention, then she smiles and receives the box. Swivel holds it in her lap, unopened at present. "Wellum! No paintin' without Encore's permission. I just work here, I dun own ther place. But it's good you are trying to adapt." Swivel looks down at the box and finally opens it up, peeking inside.

Inside the box are some car magnets. Some say 'Best friend 4 ever.' Another item is an Employee of the Month plaque. The ferret looks at Swivel. "Oh, ok. I will scrub the walls." The ferret yawns and then curls up even more. "I can help you, I feel like I can be useful. After naps."

Swivel smiles at the magnet and the Employee of the Month plaque. "That's sweet. I'll hang it up in my room." Swivel raises her optic ridges as Ringtone curls up. "Well help cleaning I will take if you wanna - ah - I mean want to be useful." Swivel puts the items back into the box. "Sure you wouldn't rather nap in a room? You kin use the room they let me crash in if you loik, whoile I finish up my shift."

Swivel gets a look from the ferret. "I'm just looking to rest and then be helpful." The ferret shrugs, "Though, I'm thinking of getting back into being a ferret. I mean, I can charge people for me to get data that they need."

Swivel tilts her head and thinks a moment or two, but that looks she gets causes her to hesitate. She then shrugs and smiles, slipping off the stool. "Well I'll leave you to rest, then." Swivel finally concludes as she heads towards the cellar to place her gifts someplace safe. Ish.

The ferret tries to get up but he seems drained. "I'm sorry, Miss Swivel. My energy is not there yet." His optics dull slightly but then they warm. "I wanted to come home to say hello. Deliver what I brought with my own money." He nods, "I didn't steal anything."

Swivel pauses after walking behind the bar as Ringtone seems to struggle and strain. "You just rest now. Sounds loik ye been dealin' with a lot," Swivel says. She sets her box on the bar and peers at Ringtone, studying the ferret a moment or two. "Thank you fer the gifts you bought with yer own money. It really means a lot to me."

"I made the money by finding shinies and selling them to recycle," comments Ringtone. He perks up. "Friendship means a lot. I think. I can't steal friends. Can I? Did I steal you?" The ferret wags his tail. "Also going to need to figure out how to hide."

Swivel begins using her towel to polish the bar counter as she listens to Ringtone, nodding. "Well, no, you don't usually steal friends. Someone moight accuse someone of stealing friends, but I always thought that kinner silly. A person can choose who to be friends with. They aren't stolen." Swivel eyes the wagging tail. "As I choose to be yer friend."

The ferret falls off the chair and then puts himself back on to it. "What's our plan? Are we going to resign to living at bar? We weere meant to sail the seven spaces!" He seems happy.

Swivel looks up, scanning for any customers approaching. Satisfied she isn't needed to mix any drinks, she refocuses on the ferret, laughing at his antics. "Wellum! I crash in a room here when I pull late shifts or shifts close together, but I got a small pad in New Harmonex that kin be our base of operations," Swivel begins to say. She pauses for a moment or two and tilts her head. "As for explorin', well, I dun got a ship. I can't afford one. So the plan is earn enough for a ship." Perhaps by then, Swivel hopes, Ringtone will change his mind about setting off on adventures in space. "Maybe we kin spelunk together instead!"

"I can steal us a ship," says Ringtone. "Or get us one somehow. I think I can figure that out." The ferret curls up tighter on the stool. "I need to recharge soon but I'm here." The ferret stretches his digits with a yawn. "How have you been?"

Swivel shakes her head. "Well I also don't have a place to HOIDE a spaceship once its stolen," Swivel says. She pauses as a customer comes up and orders a drink. Swivel smiles and hops back behind the bar, quickly pouring some dark, broody looking engex concoction and sliding it over. Turning back to Ringtone, Swivel smiles even as she says in a firm yet gentle tone, "...and I don't want a stolen ship. I loik workin' hard fer things and feelin' good about havin' them. Not constantly tryna hoide it or protect it from folk wantin' it back." Swivel begins polishing glasses, using a step-stool to reach things. "And I been good. Better now that I know yer here and safe."

"I work hard to take the things that are now ours, Miss Swivel." The ferret nods. "How have been things for you? Did you find a place to... Um..." The ferret shrugs, "Hide a space ship yet?" He snickers. "I'll get us one."

Swivel whistles a few notes of a merry ditty, and shrugs her shoulders. "Things are usually pretty good fer me - when I'm not thinkin' about the terrors that are headed towards Cybertron and oh my Primus I wish I did have me own spaceship I could flee in terror on." Swivel says this all really quick, her face shifting from jovial to concerned to terrified in rapid succession. But that doesn't last as she sets down the glass she was working on, takes in a deep vent, slowly lets it out, then forces on a new smile to replace the old one. "But I don't so... I'm jus' gonna take it on faith the folk around here kin protect us."

The ferret curls up and looks at Swivel before he drifts to sleep... dreaming of stealing ships.

Not wanting to interrupt anyone's recharge cycle, Swivel quietly goes about her work.