MTMTE. Terra. Garnak.

[dens_extra_pups]

Ratchet: *sitting outside the shopping area of Terra that smaller lifeforms frequent, has Kriti, her hugmonster, and his own hugmonsters snoozing on him, and he's enjoying the sunshine. Doctor Roxanne's sister has come by for a visit, and he was the one to suggest going shopping downtown. All in all, today's been a pretty good day*

Esther: *face is bright and happy as she looks at the different people that her sister points out. Is nearly identical to Roxanne, except that her eyes are a gleaming golden hazel, and she's got a small white scar on her forehead from a childhood shortcut out of a tree* *laughs softly at something Roxanne just said, and then looks at her sister's husband to include him in the conversation*

Ratchet: *soft hum of a chuckle. Nods to the two women, part of him noting the similarities and wondering if they're twins*

Kriti: *sleepy babble to the hum, snuggaDaddy*

Roxanne: *looks up from her bone cake and then gives Ratchet's arm a quick hug* What is it?

Ratchet: *blinks and looks to Roxanne* I was just noticing how similar you and Esther look. *pause* Are you two twins?

Roxanne: *quiet chuckle of her own* In a way, you could call us fraternal twins. But there were fifteen of us in the litter.

Esther: And four of us were brown girls.

Ratchet: *blink. BLINK!* Oh. *very surprised*

Roxanne: Only ten percent of JD women can carry children. And even those only do it once. Our litter was two less than the average.

Esther: *laughs* And most of us were girls!

Ratchet: Oh... That's not very common?

Esther: *cheery shrug* It's just funny.

Roxanne: There was ONE more girl. *shakes head and grins*

Esther: Ten brown kids and five tan ones. Remember how badly Johnny wanted to be brown?

Roxanne: *sobers slightly, though she's still smiling* Remember how dad fell over when he saw Johnny covered in shoe polish?

Esther: *sputter behind her hand*

Ratchet: *snerks*

Roxanne: *glances toward the street* *smile turns to curiosity* Ratchet, isn't that Garnak?

Ratchet: *blinks and looks*

Esther: *looks too and gives a soft squeak*

Garnak: *standing and frowning uncertainly at a nosey shoulder angel with its nose in his face*

Ratchet: ... That is him. *trying to get baby and four hugmonsters situated so he can get to his feet*

Roxanne: *arms out for Kriti and a monster* Set them on the table. Buh? *watches sister jog out toward the big green man* What are you doing?

Ratchet: *moving to do so, blinks and watches Esther's progress*

Esther: *fourteen foot lady stops in front of twentyish foot tall man and grins up at him* Hello, friend. Is your name Garnak?

Garnak: *blinks down at her as he socks the shoulder angel out of his face* Yeah. ...Who are you?

Esther: I'm Lt. Esther Cunningham, of the IGP. *hand to her mouth and looks down shyly*

Garnak: *blinks* Are you okay?

Esther: *squeak* Yes. Um. Do you know Ratchet of the Lost Light?

Garnak: *perk* I know Captain Rodimus of the Lost Light. Do you know where he is?

Esther: *points toward the space port, then looks up, squeaks again. And hits the pavement*

Garnak: Whoa! *down to one knee to pick her up, his expression showing his confusion and concern*

Ratchet: *has transferred babby to Roxanne, and set hugmonsters on the table. Is getting up to come over and help*

Garnak: *looks up as the white bot comes up beside him* *perk* You're a doctor, right?

Ratchet: *nods, scanning Esther* I'm CMO Ratchet of the Lost Light.

Garnak: Oh. Okay. *gently hands over the lady* I guess I'll see you there. *up onto his feet and walking away the direction that Esther pointed*

Esther: *is fine. Just very solidly fainted!*

Roxanne: *trying not to shake Kriti up with her laughter back there*

Ratchet: *nods* See you later, Garnak. *will gently cradle Esther and bring her back over to her sister*

Kriti: *sleepy little clicks, mugging her hugmonster now*

Outsider: *eyes half open as he wriggles sleepily*

Roxanne: *looks at her sister, and the laughter gets away from her* Good grief!

Ratchet: *amusedly* I think she saw pretty.

Roxanne: *nods, her laughter increasing*

Outsider: *beep of laughter as he and Kriti get shaken*


a few minutes later, at the Lost Light


Rodimus: *having a quiet family day with Tambora, Minimus Ambus, and Strongarm. Is currently being used as a berth by Tambora, and a pillow by Strongarm, who is holding Minimus Ambus as the Micron man sleeps and soaks in the sunshine*

Garnak: *stops at the edge of the dent where the W.A.P. died and looks around helplessly as he wonders how he's going to tell which of these ships is the right one. Then he spots a bot that he thinks looks kind of familiar, though too big and too dark. Will walk over for a closer look*

Rodimus: *unshutters an optic as he picks up on Garnak's approach. Then he's grinning happily* Hey, Garnak.

Garnak: Cap! It is you! *hurries over, thinking to hug*

Tambora: *sits up and looks at the big green man with interest*

Garnak: *BRAKES!* Uhhh. What?

Tambora: Hi! :D *hugs his pets*

Rodimus: This is Tambora. He's my son. *proud papa, yes*

Garnak: *goes down to one knee to look cautiously at the little guy* ...You guys can spawn?

Rodimus: Not like organic people. There's these areas on worlds called hot spots, where new sparks start off, and they'll call to the bots they're related to.

Garnak: Ohhhhh. *tilts his head to study the little guy some more*

Tambora: *gives chiproach and chick to Grandma, and then gets to his feet to give Garnak a flying tackle glomp!*

Garnak: *flies backward, falls and skids on butt, and looks afraid to hug the little one back despite what the baby just did* Uhhh...

Rodimus: *trying so hard not to snickerfit, because that would wake Minimus up* Tambora's strong like his mom.

Garnak: *surprised look at Rodimus* His what?

Rodimus: My wife. His mother. Her name is Nightwish.

Garnak: *forehead wrinkle* I thought you found him in a hot spot.

Tambora: *is a snuggly snuggle*

Rodimus: He was found in a hot spot. The tradition here is to register two parents for each newspark, and Nightwish and I were already in a relationship.

Tambora: And I am related to them. God made me that way.

Garnak: *quick look down at the little one, and then puts his arms around him* You do kinda look like the Cap.

Minimus: *sleepily* And Rodimus kept trying to love on Tambora when they first met.

Rodimus: *seriously* All kids need loved on.

Strongarm: *gently elbows husband* You decided not to talk before you woke up, remember?

Minimus: *sleepy blinking* Oh... yes. I did.

Rodimus: *soft snerk* Go back to sleep, Minimus.

Minimus: *bleary frown* What are you trying to hide this time, Rodimus? *half-awake now*

Strongarm: *sits up and sets the little pets on Rodimus' chest* Actually, he's trying to keep you from embarrassing yourself. *gently pulls husband into a sitting position* Let's go inside. You're probably going to get creaky from sleeping out here.

Minimus: *more frown, then he'll nod in agreement* Very well, then.

Rodimus: Have a good nap, Minimus.

Strongarm: *picks husband up in her arms* It was nice meeting you, Garnak. Tambora, your pets are sitting on Rodimus. ...Neither of them heard me. *turns and carries husband past Garnak and up the ramp*

Rodimus: *soft snerk, will turn his attention to Garnak and Tambora, giving the latter's pets shelter with his hand*

Albert: *hand is house! Will sing happily and preen*

Tambora: My mommy's beautiful. And she helped Daddy get his nice new body. He's not crazy colour anymore now that he has it.

Garnak: *frown* Crazy colour?

Rodimus: Yeah... Turns out that around here and in other parts of the Quadriate system, paintjobs like what I had before my upgrade are how they mark people who are crazy.

Garnak: *frown deepens* That's crazy. You aren't crazy.

Rodimus: *snerk* I'm more sane than a lot of the Quadriate citizens that are considered sane. The bots think being shot in the face is funny. And Capture-The-Flag is a major sporting event.

Garnak: *frown vanishes into interested confusion* What's Capture-The-Flag?

Rodimus: *will explain the game, both the Earth version (which is more peaceful), and the Quadriate version*

Garnak: *boggling* They rip a guy's wings off, and then run around shooting at each other and knocking people off the street?

Rodimus: Basically, yeah. And if a bot shoots the guy carrying the pirate that got captured and made the flag? They get their head taken off, kicked around, and then put back on.

Garnak: *even really dumb guys can go into DOESN'T EVEN mode*

Tambora: *worried little pat pat*

Rodimus: It doesn't get played too often. Most of the pirates know better than to let themselves get captured.

Garnak: ...Yeah. That's crazy.

Rodimus: Yeah. Especially for the flag... *sounds like he's had experience*

Tambora: But Daddy survived.

Garnak: What??? *anger in the usually cheerful voice*

Rodimus: *sheepishly* I kinda did something dumb, and the local Brainstorm threw me into the ongoing game.

Garnak: *eyes narrow* So where's this Brainstorm guy?

Tambora: *little gasp of worry*

Rodimus: Probably at home with his wife. Leave him alone. I deserved it.

Garnak: How could you deserve bein' used for a medok ball?

Rodimus: I scared a bot who doesn't understand a lot of things, because of a programming problem...

Garnak: *confused frown* Accidents happen, right?

Rodimus: *seriously* If you're mean to Torque or Kaon, you get dealt with quickly.

Garnak: *doubtfully* You did it on purpose?

Rodimus: *hunkering down a bit* I was mad about something stupid.

Garnak: *frowwwwn*

Tambora: Daddy, let's take him to Swerve's!

Rodimus: *expression brightens* Hey, that's a good idea! *moves to carefully sit up, holding Joy and Albert carefully*

Albert: *sing!*

Joy: *happy happy happy! Peeeeek over the edge of the hand*

Albert: *singmore! And peck her friend*

Garnak: *also rises to his feet* What's Swerve's? *looks from Rodimus to Tambora*

Rodimus: It started out as the ship's bar, but now it serves more than drinks. Swerve's been getting fuel for everyone, and recipes, from the local merchants.

Tambora: It's the place in our little bitty city where good noms are.

Rodimus: *nod of agreement, moves to lead the way back into the Lost Light* Yeah. Swerve knows what he's doing with fuel.

Garnak: *grin* Sounds good! *pauses and looks over his shoulder* Oh, it's the doctor and that woman that fell over.

Rodimus: *blinks and looks* Fell over?

Garnak: Yeah. She came over to say hi, and then fell over.

Rodimus: *worried now* Huh...

Garnak: *watches the doctor and the two women wave to him cheerfully* She looks okay now.

Tambora: She's okay. *waving back*

Rodimus: *nods* Why don't we invite them to come with us to Swerve's?

Tambora: I will! *slips free and runs over to bounce around the trio till he's handed the frantically clicking Kriti. Brings peeps and bitty friend over!*

Garnak: *quiet, sideways whisper* What's she doin', Cap?

Rodimus: *looks, chuckles* Kissing him. Kriti is really fond of Tambora. *and he thinks it's super cute*

Garnak: D'awww.

Ratchet: *big grin as he walks up* Last one to the bar gets the tab!

Rodimus: No PINpointing! That's cheating.

Ratchet: I'm not that old and broken down. *grabs his wife and books it up the ramp*

Tambora: :o

Rodimus: *laughs and grabs Tambora and Kriti, then moves to book it up the ramp* Hurry up, Garnak!

Garnak: *blinks with confusion, but then stoops and grabs that last lady and follows* Wait for me, Cap, I'm broke!

qBrainstorm: *watches them go from the lip of the crater, pronounces them all *beeping* nuts, and then walks off to see where the toad went*

((Written with random_xtras))