Nexus. The Black Dog. So A Guy Walks Into A Bar...

[tigereyedrogue.livejournal.com]

...with a talking tiger cub supported by one arm and an eeny tiny 'bot cradled in the other. He's moving in about the way that your average medical Bot would if attempting to carry a human infant: that is, very very very carefully and with a slight look of "eek" on his face. "Hang in there, little guy. If anything, we can get you fed here."

"Wooooooow, there are lots and lots of robots here!" Junior wiggles with excitement, voice gleeful. "That's so awesome!"

"This is a Cybertronian bar, Junior. Around here we're like Hobbits at that Human inn. Now remember your promise. No getting underfoot. You gotta stay near me."

"Uhkay."

Daimon is careful to stay out of the path of the larger patrons as he looks around for someone he knows.

Comments

[random_xtras]

Megatron finds himself snuggling, though he doesn't really understand the action. One small hand closes over a handful of Daimon's shirt as he looks around at all the massive bots, and then he gasps and hides his face against the organic as a white bayformer femme with friendly blue optics comes to kneel in front of them. "Are you here to refuel?"

[tigereyedrogue.livejournal.com]

"It's OK. It's all right. You're safer than you think." After all, it's your OWN faction that was being urged to kill off their cutelings. I doubt the Autobots are inclined, even toward an enemy. "Hullo!" Daimon's in Dad mode, and cradles the littles a bit closer as he feels the bittybot tense. "Um...well...that would be a start, yes. I don't suppose that you have energon in reall, really tiny vessels?" He lets the femme have a glimpse of eensy metallic squee.

[random_xtras]

Archiva's optics widen slightly as she realizes what the tiny spark she'd been reading is. "Ohhhh, a chibi? Or a sparklet? Does he need a bottle? And would you like to sit on the bar or under the plants in the corner?"

There is someone young and furry up on the bar, though a good deal bigger than Junior and Megatron. He's watching the other fuzzy though, with curious blue optics.

Yes, that's the black dog of the sign.

[tigereyedrogue.livejournal.com]

"I...think...he's a chibi. But he's tinier than I've ever seen. I think he literally just got reprogrammed and...um...I'm still a noob to all things Cybertronian." He offers a sheepish grin.

"Oo! O! Dad! Dad! They have a puppy! Can we sit at the bar, Dad? Can we?" Junior wiggles so excitedly that poor Daimon nearly drops him.

"OK, ok, I guess on the bar is good." He pauses to check on His Bittyness, and then follows the Femme to a seat.

[random_xtras]

"He's not really a puppy. That's the boss's creation." She leads him over, then stoops and offers him a hand up as Pooka trots over and looks over the edge.

"Hey," he says in a child's voice, those bright optics on Junior. "Do you wanna play?"

And Megatron is just being very very quiet as he clings to Daimon and hides. No bitty here, nope.

[tigereyedrogue.livejournal.com]

"That's ok, I'm not really a tiger cub!" Junior squiggles free, hops into the femme's palm and then scrambles onto the bar top to sniff noses with Pooka. "Hi! Okay, that sounds good. I was gonna play with the little guy but I think he needs to calm down first."

Daimon nods as he climbs up as well, cradling the former genocidal dictator carefully. "Take it easy. We'll get you something to drink and give you a chance to get used to the place."

[random_xtras]

Pooka does the nose sniff, but then gives Junior a slurp right across the face. "Yay!"

"Remember," says a dark green bayformer femme with optics the colour of dried blood. "He's even more organic than you. Don't feed him energon. Or calcien. Or silicon."

"Yes, Mama." Pooka wags his tail.

There's a very slight nod from Megatron, and he dares a peek, then pauses and frowns at that green femme behind the bar, trying to figure out who she reminds him of.

Nemesis, for her part, listens to what Archiva tells her, and then mixes a mild energon and calcien mixture sweetened with a little carbon. Pouring it carefully into a cup with a lid and a spout, she sets it on one of the human-sized tables that are parked on the bar.

"What about you?" she asks Daimon.

[tigereyedrogue.livejournal.com]

"I like blue milk," Junior says helpfully. His tail wiggles around. "gonna be a big tiger some day. D'you only look like a puppy part-time?"

"Blue milk for me and the kid, his in a bowl. Thanks, ma'am." Daimon goes over to the table, sits down, and takes up the sippy-cup.

"Bet you'll feel better with some of this in you, kid."

[random_xtras]

"I'ma... like Mama." Pooka puts a paw on the smaller fuzzy and nuzzles him, then yips and bounces away, his curly tail fanning the air.

Nemesis nods, then calls to one of the cyclopean drones that's playing waiter out on the floor to go to the store and grab a bottle of the milk and to bring it back via PINpoint.

"Kid...?" Megatron frowns up at him, but there is nothing of anger and everything of overwhelmed confusion in the tiny bot's expression as he hesitantly reaches for the cup.

[tigereyedrogue.livejournal.com]

"Uhkay!" Junior goes scrambling after him, eyes on wavy!tail. He makes a bound toward it, falls short by a little, lands on his nose, gets up and keeps running.

Daimon sighs. "I'm sorry. Your cuteness powers have addled my brain." Otherwise you'd still be hiding under that couch, I suspect. "Would you prefer I use your full formal name in present company?" Proooobably not.

[random_xtras]

He gets a tiny head tilt as Megatron drinks hungrily, and then the little Decepticon takes the cup from his mouth to say, "I'm unfamiliar with the term."

And here is blue milk. Complete with a little paper brolly.

[tigereyedrogue.livejournal.com]

"Cuteness powers? They are what inspires caregiving behavior and embarrassing squeaky noises in humanoids and the odd other species."

He eyes the paper umbrella, and snertles. "I need to bring Danica here. Bet this stuff wouldn't kick her blood sugar into overdrive. Thanks!"

[random_xtras]

"No... 'kid'." Megatron regards the umbrella with tiny covetousness.

[tigereyedrogue.livejournal.com]

"Oh. That's a slang term for a child, especially one old enough to hold a conversation with.

"The truth is that my formality of speech isn't very good...though I've an Oxford-educated Israeli marksman friend who would probably find you charming." Daimon removes the umbrella, wipes it off carefully and offers it. "Here you go."

[random_xtras]

See pure unadulterated adorable Megatron glee as he carefully accepts the pretty toy and examines it. "Am I a child?"

[tigereyedrogue.livejournal.com]

"Sort of. You have been...returned to what my spiritual friend Ezra would call 'a state of grace'. You cannot harm anyone, and yet no virtuous person could stand by and allow you to be harmed. And you're cute, which conveys certain advantages.

"You may be feeling a little clumsy in your body, but your mind may find it many times easier to learn things than an adult."

[random_xtras]

"Ah whoops." The bitty looks down mournfully at the brolly that is now under the table as his shaky hand betrays him and drops it.

[tigereyedrogue.livejournal.com]

"Oh, don't worry, I'll have Belle get that." The tiny pony has been napping in his hair again. **Mind, dear?**

Kay! She buzzes down, grabs it in her teeth and brings it back for the bittybot.

"In a way, I envy you. Many people long for a second chance at having everything be new and fascinating again."

[random_xtras]

Adoring gaze toward the colourful little pony as he accepts the brolly back with thanks. But then he tears his optics away and looks up to Daimon. "But things are frightening, too."

Over on the other end of the bar, Nemesis has her own fuzzy by the scruff and is offering a hand to Junior so that she can set them and their drinks on the floor behind the bar.

[tigereyedrogue.livejournal.com]

Belle settles down near Megs, and refolds her wings, letting out a cheery little whistle.

"I'm sorry about the frightening part. But I am afraid that that is your karma, and is something I can't shield you from much. Things will become less scary as you meet more kind people. Not everyone is antagonistic, or out only for themselves."

"Thanks Ma'am! Wow, that must be what a hamster feels like," Junior comments as he hops down from the femme's palm.

Karma indeed, Daimon thinks as he watches them.

[random_xtras]

Megatron looks at the pony again as he remembers his sippy cup and offers Daimon his brolly so he can try to get it. "Among the Decepticons the small and the weak do not last very long."

He shivers a bit as he says it, then squeaks fearfully as a shadow falls over them.

[tigereyedrogue.livejournal.com]

Daimon shrugs and tucks the umbrella behind his ear. "I'm overopinionated. I think that's a tragic waste of potential. Everyone was small and weak at one point. And there are...other sorts of strengths."

He looks up at the caster of the shadow, assuming that no one put up a building while he wasn't looking. "Hullo."

[random_xtras]

The femme bot is massive, and well nigh hideous, her red optics alight with a scowl of suspicion as she looks down at the organic and the tiny being in his arms.

Megatron, on the other hand, as soon as he gets a good look at her, gives a cry of joy. "Blackout!"

She startles at that, her expression going confused. "..My lord?"

[tigereyedrogue.livejournal.com]

...ugh. And she's probably got a personality to match. I hope she's safe around the little guy.

He offered a polite smile that he thoroughly expected wouldn't be returned. "So you're Blackout. He's been asking after you since we found him. Thought this would be a good place to start looking."

[random_xtras]

The femme glares mildly at Daimon, uncertain as to how to respond or what to do.

"He's my friend, Blackout," says Megatron, his tiny face alight with affection and happiness. "He saved my life."

Blackout looks at him, then shifts her gaze back to the organic as Megatron reaches eagerly toward her. "Then you're my friend too. ..What happened to him?"

There may or may not be a gentle little rumble back there behind the bar. Pooka's certainly yapping enough for there to be, but the noise could just be all him.