An Assortment of Happenstance (Random Events Wave 2)

[pumpkinhollow]

Pumpkin Hollow Community Bulletin

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It's been a while since the community board has been redone! The weather hasn't really been permitting long excursions into town square to do up the board, especially since the blizzard, but today is a clear day for once and Yorick is in a hurry to get it all set up for Merrymeet.

He helpfully posts a few announcements.

COMMUNITY GATHERING AT TOWN HALL TONIGHT

A community gathering is scheduled in Town Hall tonight for all new residents ("offworlders") to discuss their recent experience with a mass shared dream event. Locals who are native to Pumpkin Hollow will be present to listen, learn, and help make sense of this strange dream. The intent of the gathering is to ascertain the meaning of the dream and share details to create a bigger picture.

Sweet potato muffins will be provided, courtesy of Cecil. The meeting will officially commence at 6pm. Dress warmly!

MERRYMEET FLOWER QUEEN VOTING

Voting for the Flower Queen of our upcoming Merrymeet celebration is now officially open! Please cast your vote for one of the following candidates from our final pool of nominees:

Dahlia Leeds, town councilwoman and Historical Society leader.
Annabel Lee Whitlock, seamstress and chess extraordinaire.
Mary Dahl, shop employee and freelance theatrical performance artist.
Magne Kikiishi, Oak & Iron employee and Fight Club leader.
Zelda of Hyrule, captain of the Mipha's Grace.
Sally Boyle, chemist/herbalist and proprietor of the Blackberry Apothecary.

Merrymeet will be held on Saturday, Feb. 24th, so all votes must be cast by then. This year's celebration will also feature our first Flower Princess in a while, Bobbin Kaspbrak, escorted by her keeper, Eddie! She is a chicken. (Note: the last Flower Princess was Butter Poe, a cat. She will sadly be unable to pass on her crown in the ceremonial manner due to being a cat, but she wishes Bobbin the best of luck.)

[ Ballot Box ]

BOTTLE COLLECTION NOTICE

ALERT TO ALL CITIZENS: down on Tawny Beach there have been sightings of bottled messages washing ashore that appear to be addressed to various offworld citizens. Please scan the beach or check in with Jack's Marina Port Authority to see if there are any intended for you at your earliest convenience.

[ Those who go to the beach to investigate may find a bottle carrying curled parchment with their name on it. Within, they will find a letter from a loved one from back home. The messages read more like prayers or thoughts about their subjects, often in third person rather than second, but contain important insight about how the writer truly views the recipient that may guide them in this world. They are also obviously written in the handwriting of the person who sent them. It's unclear how they got here, but perhaps they can help. ]

After Yorick has long since walked away, another strange message also appears. Nailed to the bottom of the board haphazardly, a piece of twine with a large tooth tied to it and a piece of parchment. The text is written in a neat but jagged font, ink seeming to almost fray at the edges, outlining agreed upon terms for some manner of agreement. A shot that must be discharged within a lunar cycle, a soul to be taken from this plane by King Eligos, and a mandatory betrayal of trust. It is signed by both Eligos and Vika. A line in the terms is underlined.

For whatever purpose I deem fit.

Beneath the signatures a note is scrawled that reads,

"Never let it be said that syntax doesn't matter. You didn't think I was going to help you kill my own grandchild, did you?"

Those going to Town Hall for the community gathering will see that the Pine Devil skull that Vika had hung there is now shattered, and her notice gone. The Pine Devil is loose once more.

Comments

[lastofthefirst]

"My descendants. The ones who fixed me. The next version, cleaned up and battle ready. Idiots, both of them."

She holds her hand out for it.

[lovinglefthand]

Oh.

"It seems like they cared about you very much," First Aid says, and gives her the bottle.

[lastofthefirst]

It takes Vika awhile to open the bottle. She reads the transcript. Re-reads it. Reads it over and over and over and over and -

The glass is smashed under her fist; it doesn't shatter, it powders, ground to dust in a single blow. Her voice is jagged splinters of a dozen others: "Fucking m-m-morons. Th-thinking I'd watch them g-get hurt for a w-walking corpse like m-me. Who d-do they think they are?!?"

[lovinglefthand]

"Vika!" First Aid reaches out and wraps his hands around hers, trying to stop the grinding before she grinds glass right down into her joints and hurts herself. The glass scrapes at his paint, making him wince, but he doesn't let go. "They cared about you! You were family, maybe even their friend! And you'd been through so much. Is it so horrible that Nina wanted to protect you from even more suffering?"

[lastofthefirst]

"T-talk more sh-shit you fucking pacifist!" Vika stands, suddenly, wrenching her arm back, trying to free her hand. "Y-you weren't there! S-someone was going to s-suffer, s-someone had to run up f-front, t-take the sh-shots, n-navigate through the d-death traps, f-face down the hordes first, you weren't there, n-nothing but f-fire and ice and death everywhere and wh-what's the p-point of m-me if I let the ones who g-got to be HAPPY D-DIE FOR ME? HUH?"

[lovinglefthand]

First Aid lets go, legitimately afraid that if he doesn't Vika might try to pull her own arm out of its socket. "But why does it have to be you?" he asks her in anguish. "You always talk like you're the one who has to take all the hits, make the hard choices, coat your hands in blood so everyone else can stay clean! But why does it have to be that way? Nina didn't want that for you -- why don't her desires matter? What's the point in protecting her if you're just going to add to her pain?"

[lastofthefirst]

Vika stands frozen for a moment. The look on her face is all shock; mouth hanging open, eyes - functioning and unmelting - staring wide, fingers clenching shut...

And then she decks First Aid full in the face, shrieking in a voice that's nothing but splintering static.

[lovinglefthand]

Glass breaks beneath her hand. First Aid yelps and topples, his own bottle spinning out of his grip as he goes down on one elbow.

His visor falls to the ground in pieces.

For a moment he just sits there, plating chiming against itself as he shakes. Then he raises his hand to carefully feel at the gap in his face. Behind the remaining shards of glass there is -- nothing. Just blank metal.

"You blinded me," he says quietly, out of shock.

[lastofthefirst]

"...Who fucking designs you people." The distress is high in Vika's voice, but at least it's getting closer to being a voice. "Point them out when they get here so I can fold them into a fucking unicycle, but in the meantime sit down and shut the fuck up."

Stomping. Closer.

Hand on First Aid's shoulder. "You're so f-fucking paternalistic and then you ask stupid questions like that. Why's it have t-to be me? Why? I'm their ancestor. I'm already scrap. Our f-f-fucking FATHERS certainly aren't going to give them a shot at a decent life, so it falls on me and Jest. I'm. Too. Ruined. To be happy. But th-they don't have to be."

"...Let me know when you want me to haul your ass to Bart."

[lovinglefthand]

"I'm supposed to be unhackable," First Aid says, dazed. "First priority is protecting my patient files from Decepticon theft or interference, not my own functionality. It's part of being a doctor..."

Vika's hand on his shoulder, and he shuts up. Listens to what she's saying.

"...Vika," he finally sighs. "With all the love in the universe: you're a fucking hypocrite. You have no right to call me paternalistic and then turn around and say things like that. It's not fair to your descendants or yourself."

He carefully pushes himself to his feet. "I'd like my bottle back, please. And then I want to go back to the Winterbottom Clinic. I need Chris's help with this, not Bart."

[lastofthefirst]

"My point is you should have understood in-instantly, idiot. Y-you insist on d-dealing with my b-bullshit out of some s-sense of sh-sheltering the poor little baby robot, don't you?"

The hand is staying on his shoulder, with the exception of a brief pause to scoop up the bottle and press it into his hand. "...A-and an-another th-thing while I'm on a t-t-tear, wh-why in the f-fully automated fuck did you want me reading your private business?"

[lovinglefthand]

"You're my patient. I'm always going to steer you towards considering your own welfare."

There's nothing wrong with First Aid's gyros (he hopes) but he still feels off-balance. He tucks the bottle in close to his chest and puts his other hand on Vika, as protection against staggering away from her. "I thought it might help you realize that you don't have to be alone," he says quietly. "That we have more in common than you might think."

[lastofthefirst]

"...Hand me the damn bottle. Preferably after you stop walking. Cannot fucking believe they had Apple make your eyes."

[lovinglefthand]

First Aid laughs so hard that he has to stop anyway and bend over for a minute, holding himself up with a hand on his knees. "Fucking...Apple?? Really? Oh my god," he wheezes. "The look on Ratchet's face if he heard you say that... and Wheeljack! I think he'd actually cry."

He quickly forces himself to stop when the broken leads in his helm start throwing off sparks. "Fff -- here," he says, holding out the bottle in Vika's approximate direction. "...It's...I'm pretty sure it's a sensory dump from Defensor, translated into a visual format. The rest of my team must've tried to combine."

When unrolled, the paper proves to contain an image, drawn in straight, clear, right-angled lines, as if with a robotic hand. All in red, like the color of fresh blood. A blocky Cybertronian looks down the length of its own chest, at a three-quarters angle: its left arm is clearly missing.

"Before I woke up here," First Aid explains, "A human unleashed a spore-based plague on Earth, in an attempt to wipe out all Cybertronian life. He didn't realize it would infect humanity too. My team was infected while trying to recover our previous leader's body...and from us it spread into the rest of the human population..."

"...I guess you probably think I'm pretty naive, to keep loving humans even after that..."

[lastofthefirst]

"You're not exactly arguing against letting squids inherit the Earth, no." Her voice is...gentling. "But I imagine you're going somewhere with this."

[lovinglefthand]

"Only the same point I've been trying to make all this time. I do know how cruel humans can be. I know the lengths they'll go to hurt someone they've decided to hate. But they'll go to great lengths for love, too. And I think it's so much more important to foster love than to avenge the harms done by hate."

He puts his hand back on her shoulder, in a gesture that isn't quite, but could become a hug. "When we're done here, and Pumpkin Hollow's safe again, I'm going back to my home universe. Rodimus Prime escaped with the Matrix of Leadership and Optimus Prime's body. There's a small chance that he might be able to cure the plague. And if that happens, I want to be there. I want to help rebuild and prove to humanity that we're still their friends, no matter what some of them try to do to us. Because protecting the ones who choose love is always worth weathering the hate."

"I know I don't have the whole picture, but...it sounds like Nina wanted to choose love. Maybe not for the humans, but for you and Ace. I think there's something beautiful in that. What if, instead of choosing to die, you chose to live instead? For her?"

[lastofthefirst]

"...You really don't get it. I don't have the choice to live, First Aid. They're going to hunt me down and put me back in a lab. I'm an investment." Vika rolls the picture back up into the bottle, and recorks it. It takes some time.

"While I'm busy on my rampage the kids can go to ground. Find some of those loving people who will help them. If I don't act, none of us get away. Someone's going to die. Might as well be me."

[lovinglefthand]

First Aid shakes his head sadly. "You're so set on sacrificing yourself that you won't even consider other options. But three people are stronger than one. Or -- no, wait, you mentioned a Jest too, right? Four people. Nearly a full combiner team." There's a small smile in his voice as he says, "What about all the things you could accomplish, if you stayed together? You could protect each other, fight for each other. Nobody would have to die if all four of you were watching each other's backs."

[lastofthefirst]

"Four isn't enough to face the world in arms, First Aid." Vika gives him the bottle back, and returns to guiding him. "...I really wish you understood that. Humans might seem defenseless to you. Any number of tanks larger than like...nine...is a problem for me."

[lovinglefthand]

"Does it always have to come back to fighting? What about hiding and diplomacy? There must be some humans on your version of Earth that would be sympathetic to your plight..."

While First Aid is still working through this train of thought, the two of them finally reach the clinic. He hears the door open and, knowing Chris is on duty, calls out, "I'm okay! It was just an accident!"

[thelatechrisfreeman]

"I don't like the sound of that," Chris grumbles, before looking up toward the door.

Their eyes scan the pair then jump to First Aid's face, and -- his visor is broken. No wonder Vika is here to lead him. Chris leaps up from the reception desk and cries out, "What happened?"

What kind of accident could cause this?

[lastofthefirst]

"I really do not understand why you're lying to Freeman," Vika grumbles. "...I got emotional and punched him in the face. Admittedly expecting that his optics and general head structure had been designed by someone other than, say, Walmart, but here we are."

[lovinglefthand]

" -- Exactly," First Aid insists, trying to ignore the oncoming bus that Vika just threw him under. "You didn't intend this, so it was an accident. And I'm really okay!" he tells -- the, uh, the wall behind Chris's desk. "It's just superficial damage. We just need to pop in a new visor like we talked about before and I'll be fine!"

In other words, he needs a completely new set of eyes. But it's totally just superficial damage!

[thelatechrisfreeman]

Chris's own eyes go cold. "So hurting him isn't enough for you, is it, Vika? You just have to continue with the insults, too?"

They reach out, and take First Aid by the hand. Their voice is still a little flat when they say, "Come on. Let's get you into the back, and I'll clean you up."

First Aid should know that tone means that Chris is trying to keep their emotions under control. Vika probably wouldn't, though.

[lastofthefirst]

"I was surprised when he both understood and laughed at the first one and now I can't stop thinking of them." Vika looks away. "...I was outta control. Shouldn't have hit him. Pointless."