#i also wanna do some more hidden city worldbuilding....

[qoldenskies]

Is Splinter still going to make Leo the leader in your wwww au?

Nooooo...... noo that'd be a horrible idea

leo is already going to have similar angst about this with draxum so i'd say it really just wouldnt be anything but redundant. i'd say that responsibility needs to be out of his hands more than it does raph because it tore him apart-- they're a lot happier settling into being co leaders at the end, because raph hasn't had anyone to be there as a line of support and leo has never had a big brother to look up to. there will be a lot of fights over taking control once theyre forced to work together, because BOTH of them are stuck in their old roles of being the oldest of their families/the ones that are meant to keep their younger brother in line, but they'll eventually get it together and come to that conclusion pretty early.

and as unaddressed as splinter's reasons are in canon, ive always seen it as him recognizing this untapped potential in leo (i kind of wonder if this was meant to be set up in many unhappy returns?) AND him understanding that raph needs some of the weight off his shoulders. they're not going to be able to flourish with raph there constantly fixing their mistakes and sheltering them, and that's really not a good thing seeing how much stress it puts on raph. i kind of see the trust fall as him giving up responsibility and putting it in their hands like that ngl

he wouldn't do this in wwww. mikey's still the littlest brother and family baby but he's already been established to be VICIOUSLY independent, and splinter really doesn't have any authority over donnie and leo. he's too lenient, too unlike draxum, and they dont like how he does see them as children. although donnie is kind of a suck up to him for approval because he's still donnie in the end and leo is more the type to lash out to test his patience/be "punished" because he doesn't trust him.

splinter doesn't really have the right to intervene, and they've settled into something great independent from him. i plan on giving him a more concrete emotional conclusion with raph because their relationship is extra complicated, though. like raph trusts LEO who is a category 5 freak that desperately needs an exorcism who also tried to kill him repeatedly with his problems more than he does his own father, and that's saying something. raph spent his whole life feeling like he had NOBODY except for occasionally april (who is closer to mikey than him) and that takes a toll on him. i plan on sinking my teeth into it more than canon does.

[amaiguri]

Love & Marriage in Yssaia

Nuclear familiesssssss cuz it's 3am and I wanna worldbuild… lezgo!

In Nouveau Thuille, a nuclear family unit is: --The head of the house --Their spouse --The head's siblings --The siblings' spouses --The head's children --The children's spouses This basically amounts to two generations. Once the head's child has children, they're typically considered the new head of the family and will help their parents move somewhere nice to retire. Obviously, not all houses are this big but they'll live near each other, in one apartment complex or farming complex. It is typically understood that the spouse marrying richer will take on the richer family name. Some young people break away to form new houses when they have children, of course.

In Saegenheim, there nuclear family is only: --Parents --Children

Marriage isn't really considered to make someone "switch" families, just to join two families together and everyone keeps their names -- it's the titles that get passed familially to eldest children (when relevant). That being said, the most important family are your shieldsiblings -- and you will all live together under one roof. (Or, in the case of a non-warrior caste, you'll gather with your colleagues or guild members.) When children are old enough, they'll either continue to live in the same Hall OR they'll seek out their own. Or, if they lose their eye or commit crimes, they'll go join the Sage Hall. Despite the communal sharing of resources, they don't really approve of the communal sharing of sexual or romantic partners.

In the South, you're supposed to consider everyone your family. But in reality, people maybe care about their town or city block… and even more typically, they will basically form polycules and the nuclear family is their partners and those partners' children. In Telethens specifically, dating your cousins is basically acceptable because they don't track family that closely BUT the Svanihk think this is either 1) Gross or 2) Snobbish because their Tsars would do it. So, in practice, it doesn't happen a ton. Marriage, however, is still technically illegal so this makes all these relationships pretty fluid and negotiable--people rarely cohabitate with their partners in big cities

Cuz see, in the South, marriages are legally outlawed--you're not supposed to be in such an exclusive relationship and instead value the needs of the whole state and the world above any individual family. However, this philosophy originated in Telethens and is wildly less prevalent throughout the rest of the continent.

Previously, a marriage ceremony would be prefaced by both sides bathing and wearing their nicest, white clothes. Women's hair would be put up in a fancy headdress and veiled, men would not typically do this (though in marriages between two men, hats would be substituted or sometimes, one or both of them would wear veils anyway). Then, they would then go to the nearest shrine to receive counseling in their marriage and blessing from the Illuminator there. Then, the veil/hat would be removed, symbolizing that there is nothing hidden between life partners. As many people as the couple can afford witness this bond. Typically, afterwards, there would be dinner and music, and then the two would sleep together that night.

In the North, the Saegen have a hand-tying ceremony and dance combination thing they do (though tbh, haven't thought about it too carefully). Someone carries someone over a doorframe into the new home. Something. In Nouveau Thuille, marriages are mostly about dictating who gets your stuff when you die and are a chance to flex on your neighbors with a party. Actually, this is also the case for Saegen marriages--they're basically legal affairs with some ceremony attached to them. You're not technically supposed to have kids (and therefore, sex) before marriage because then they won't get your stuff if you die.

Demons absolutely don't have marriage. They just have sex with whoever which is, despite the Telethenians hating them, is also what they do. They DO pick which kid gets stuff, though it has nothing to do with marriage.

Tl;dr--In the North, marriage is to pass on your stuff and has much less to do with love. In the South, marriage is for love AND stuff, but since you're supposed to love everyone and share all your stuff, marriage is technically illegal (but not everyone cares)

---

A Gallery of Families -- Found & by Blood -- in Yssaia

[severevoiddragon]

Some thoughts about my Minecraft world's lore / aka: me rambling about worldbuilding into the aether (note: this is the lore for my MC YouTube series, the channels called PixPickle if you wanna see, but this is NOT my headcanon for all worlds. Purely mine.)

Hidden under a read more so this Long Post does not take up Too Much Space

The Overworld is not a peaceful, idyllic, safe place to live. This is obvious because of the monsters and the lava on the surface and the water that can kill you. However, it is the most hospitable place for Players, Passive and Friendly Creatures and Villagers.

There is a distinction between Players and Villagers, not just because Villagers are AI. Villagers are humans, people who live in, well, a village. Players are more shapeshifters, with more advanced thinking. This is an Idea I'm fleshing out still so if you're reading this and have ideas lmk!

Zombies and Zombie Villagers are also different species. Zombies are, and always have been, zombies. Zombie Villagers are villagers turned zombie (wow, who'd have thought!) (Such an original idea ik don't murder me I'm making a semi comprehensive list)

Ancient cities and Nether Portals. Oooh this is Fun. So in my world, c!Pixie (my character) is alone, a lone Player. But there are shipwrecks, ruined nether Portals, buried treasure, and the Ancient Cities. Plus, there are Explorer's Guides. Any other book written is by the Villagers, but not the Explorer's Guides. The Ancient Cities used to be filled with Players. They built... Everything. So why are they gone?

The Explorer's Guides are still relevant, as the world hasn't changed much. The mechanics of the world haven't, at least. Ancient Cities didn't used to be underground, and the skulk really hadn't invaded so much.

Onto my favourite bit of worldbuilding so far, The Nether. The portals aren't safe methods of transport, they're tears in reality. The larger a portal is, the more unstable it is (yes, this includes the weird portal in the ancient city). The larger a Nether portal, the more Nether creeps in. This only works for activated portals.

The Nether wasn't always red and corrupted. But, as time wore on, it became hostile to people from the Overworld, with Insane temperatures, both hot and cold (only in Soul Valleys). Likewise, the atmosphere is so different that the Overworld is hostile to Nether creatures.

I've made another post on most of my Nether worldbuilding and if I find it I'll add a link here: Nether

Wither Skeletons are corrupted skellies, and Piglins & Hoglins are mutated pigs, with Piglins evolving first. Magma are slimes adapting to the hot environment, while blazes and ghasts evolved naturally.

Endermen. They are the only creature who can safely inhabit all 3 dimensions. (Second place is skellies who can safely inhabit 2 dimensions!). I dunno what to do about endermen lore-wise so. That's all for now.

The End!!! Strongholds were made by the Old Players in order to access the End dimension. Some people decided to move to the end, and created the Giant Cities and Boats. They evolved to be able to inhabit the End, but now they're gone and only the shulkers remain :( (shulkers evolved naturally, and were there before the End Players, only recently moved into the empty cities tho)

The dragon was an egg left to hatch in order to guard the End. Had the Old Players (inc. End Players) not disappeared, the Dragon would have been tamed to guard the End on their behalf.

C!Pixie has a basic knowledge of how things work, she's just stumbling around this crazy world they've found herself in. They're not really sure how she got here too, and neither am I (hope this helps)

Skulk!!! Is like the Nether!!! Both are corruption!!! Fun!!!

Except Skulk infects internally, so you don't notice it's infected until you cut it open and oh god it's dead, while Nether corruption is Very Visible on the outside (skulk blocks visible show Very Corrupted skulk things)

I haven't even got on to the topic of Wardens or Withers huh.

Wardens are skulk-corrupted Advanced Iron Golems. How much was the Old Players experimenting with Iron Golems to make a Very Powerful security system, and how much was the skulk? Ig we'll never know.

Soul sand. Skulk having souls in them. Those souls in the shriekers. All the same thing yep.

The Wither!!! I have no thoughts so come back to me later.

That's all I can think of for now, if you're reading this far please let me know because I'd be interested to hear your thoughts!!!

[jeromefart]

HELLO. I PLAYED JEDI SURVIVOR TODAY

i just left coruscant and im chilling in the mantis. its late and i have a busy day tomorrow so i dont wanna stay up all night. heres my first thoughts

it is visually STUNNING!! i was genuinely so shocked at how beautiful the home page is. all of the uis are stylized similarly to jfo, but its polished and new in a way that i really appreciate. a standout addition in the options menu was an arachnophobia safe mode. i think its awesome how they’re making this game accessible to people with phobias like that. i don’t know what this spider monster will be like, but it must be kinda intense to warrant an option like that. but it also made me think, “why just arachnophobia?” because including something like this opens the door to other pressing phobias that can prevent people from playing. i have thalassophobia, and the venator crash section in jfo was very dimly lit and it was so much i almost wasnt able to get the 5 or so chests hidden away in there. underwater sections in games can be a nightmare for me if they aren’t lit well and it freaks me the hell out. i wonder if they considered other phobias like mine, or what exactly drove them to this decision. i guess i need to just wait and see.

the graphics and worldbuilding are incredible. its so beautiful and the level design is noticeably upgraded. i have only been through a short linear area, but it’s great so far. everything is very very seamless (the gameplay to cutscene transitions.. fuck its perfect). there were some portions where the interactable surfaces blended in a bit too well, and i was also not used to the way they looked, and i found myself a little stuck in some parts. not to where its an issue, this happened in the jfo tutorial as well, but it was all just very seamless. coruscant is fucking beautiful and the vast cities, neon lights, and other little design details made me so happy. half my gameplay was just me gawking at the scenery around me.

let’s talk plot. i noticed that a lot of these first cutscenes closely follow what we saw in the first teaser trailer. that man (forogt his name..), cals lightsaber in the case, him losing a battle to an inquisitor, beautiful beautiful coruscant. the only thing missing is the character that cody fern plays, who is clearly very important to this game. but despite his importance, they’re keeping every detail they can hidden from us. i havent seen him yet as i’m not even in koboh, but i can’t wait. i love cody fern and i know he will do a great job in this game. that aside, from what i’ve seen so far, i’m really happy. i absolutely love bode and was not prepared for how much i would enjoy his and cal’s banter. and knowing me, of COURSE i couldnt help but make jokes over and over again about romance between them. my worst one was probably, after the reveal that bode’s baby mama died, i gasped and said “YAY!!!” ..anyway. i FORGET HER NAME but the girl that was apart of cal’s crew stole my heart. i thought she was so cute and i loved her personality and dialogue. and then they killed her off 😭 i knew i shouldnt have gotten attached but i couldnt help myself!!! rest in peace girl whose name ive already forgotten.

the customization is such an upgrade. and it also leaves for some hilarious results. you know i went all out with the blindingly pink lightsaber and blade. i did it to bd too and he looked crazy and i felt bad so i gave him a pink and purple look. i got the deluxe version so i have the luke and han outfits along with some blue and green color choices, bd parts, and lukes lightsaber. im gonna hold off on customizing my lightsaber too much until i get some more parts. the joy of this game is being able to mix and match! and for cal, the no beard option is genuinely scary and he looks naked😭

gameplay is so smooth and SEXY. loving the two bladed sabers so far. i am a double lightsaber girl because of darth mauls influence but i know its better suited for crowds of enemies rather than one on one (in jfo at least). i might upgrade it a bit though because wow the animations are just beautiful for that stance.

i think thats about all i have to say. oh cal is absolutely GORGEOUS. excited to play more of this tomorrow and i am just really happy depression cured 10/10 game

[the-river-person]

Worldbuilding Tangent Part 2

First bit here. Now I wanna talk about the Forest and Snowdin Town. Obviously the name is a pun based on Snowed in. But why is there snow there? They’re underground. It shouldn’t work like that. This one is gonna be a bit long because I’m prone to rambling, but I had fun... so yeah. (Also, a reminder that these are my own observations and analysis of the Game’s text and that despite my obsessive researching of caves and such, as well as my attention to textual evidence, it is still only my interpretation of how this area MIGHT work if we attempt to apply real world systems to a video game world that was almost certainly not made with reality in mind. It’s also possible that I misunderstood or don’t know enough about the trees or natural systems described and that things couldn’t work that way without some kind of magic, whether that of the Monsters or some natural source of it.) I’ve heard some theories about snow falling through openings in the mountain above them, and while I do think such openings exist, they aren’t likely to be the direct cause of the snow. This is because snow falling through them would need to be in single spots or piles directly beneath the hole and not evenly spread out like a winter wonderland. A second bit of evidence for this is that when we go to fight Papyrus, or in fact pass through that exact spot even later in the game, we are subjected to a fade out screen with a snowy pattern, which is implied to be a snowstorm of some kind. So some kind of weather exists here Underground. This lets us know that the specific cave Snowdin sits in is big enough to have its own weather system which gives everything a fairly even level of snow, freezes ponds into patches of ice, and coats the pines of the forest with a dusty white. When you first exit the ruins and have the purple stone wall behind you, there appears to be a thick forest of trees on on both sides, the right side appearing to be a drop off until you pass trees that go between screen and controllable character, indicating that this side has the same trees as the opposite side of the path. The trees of this part of the forest have no hint of green leaves or needles on them, which might suggest that they be high up on the tree itself. After some research on trees that could survive very cold temperatures and were fairly hardy but still seemed to match the image I see on screen, I’m guessing that these are either a fictional species of conifer, or they are White Spruce Trees which have lost their lower branches as their upper branches grew thicker to catch any sunlight streaming from holes and openings in cave ceiling. It is possible that these trees might be petrified and very old, but its unlikely as we see ordinary pines growing elsewhere in the Forest. There has to be natural openings for light enter into the Underground which are not enough for someone to see stars through, yet are big enough or plentiful enough that light for the forest to survive is possible. Due to the river we see in this part of the forest there is plenty of water for the trees to survive. Since there is no tree in the world that can survive a permanent winter, and no new trees can grow without some kind of melting of snow and ice, we are left with a few options. Either the trees are very old, which is possible since the average age of White Spruce is 250-350 years but trees up to 1,000 years have been found, or Snowdin Forest area has some kind of seasonal cycle with a very short warm season and a long cold season. However there are some problems with the idea of a cycling season. We know in the books of Snowdin Library this passage is found, “Fearing the humans no longer, we moved out of our old city, HOME. We braved harsh cold, damp swampland, and searing heat... Until we reached what we now call our capital. “NEW HOME.”” By which we know that the different biomes of the Underground existed before the Monsters lived there and are not a result of their magic. And though none of the Monsters we’ve seen actually require a permanent cold environment to survive, there is no mention at all of a warm season. Even the name of the area and the town is Snowdin, indicating that the snow is probably perpetual. So our cave must be big enough to have a weather system yet cold enough to maintain snow and ice for a long time even with openings in the roof for a Taiga Biome forest to survive. Ice Caves are naturally occurring cave systems that reach cold enough temperatures to form Ice and Permafrost. Several factors can cause or contribute to the formation of Ice caves. Two relevant types of these are Evaporative Cooling and a Cold Trap. Because the trees we see had to have had a period without snow and ice in order to spread their seeds and begin to grow before the eternal Winter of Snowdin, we can probably guess that at one point this cave was quite warm. It had a significant amount of water, though it was unlikely to be as wet as Waterfall. It was also home to mountainous areas and vast lowland areas as well as mostly limited sunlight. The Cavern was big enough to contain a weather system of its own, allowing for rain and humidity. Since we know that to reach the entrance to Snowdin Forest in the game we have to go down the stairs in Toriel’s home, this puts the First section of the forest at the same level as the ruined city we saw a glimpse of earlier in the game. But this part of the forest is actually situated on what might be some sort of cliff or mountainous area. The game’s path leads across the flat peaks of the area, but allows you to see brief glimpses of vast valleys with forests made from a more Christmas Tree like tree than the ones we see immediately outside the door to the Ruins. We also see the river briefly at the very beginning, but not during the long period where we are traversing the peaks. When it reappears immediately behind Snowdin, which is indicated to be at the other end of the cave with the rock wall immediately on the other side of the river, its becomes likely that the river followed the wall of the cave all the way around and that the player went the opposite direction across the highlands. The valleys themselves are far lower than the peaks you traverse, which would put them lower than even the City of Home in the Ruins. If Frisk climbed the mountain and fell to the Ruins, and the level below those is Home and the Snowdin Highlands, then the Snowdin Valleys are probably well below the normal ground level of the Surface world outside the mountain. Some have suggested that like the bridge into Snowdin Town, the background of valleys might also be painted murals done by Papyrus or some other monster. Due to the moving sprites of the tiny house and its occupant as seen from the cliff next to the Mysterious Door, as well as the fact that the landscape moves differently than the rest of the setting as the player walks, it’s absolutely certain that it is a real landscape and not a painting. Returning to the Ice Cave idea we have sufficient moisture to begin Evaporative Cooling, which involves water being warm enough for evaporation and causing warm moist air to flow out exits of the cave and cold dry air of Winter to enter the cave. Its possible that some of the entrances are high on the mountain, only allowing cold air to enter, but since the cave is so vast there would need to be multiple sunlight allowing entrances in the ceiling, and they can’t all be in the highest snowy peaks but in various places on the mountain and in the foothills. Our water would have been warmed by the same processes that keep Waterfall from freezing over from Snowdin’s cold in the present day, the thermal forces of Ebbot’s Volcanic core. That and sunlight would have caused Evaporative Cooling to kick into gear. Normally Ice Caves caused by Evaporative Cooling have yearly cycles where the flow of air reverses and warm air is sucked into the cave instead of cool air. Which at one point was probably how the cave worked, allowing for the growth of trees that would flourish in the Taiga like conditions that would have begun to form. The larger trees of White Spruce and the smaller trees, which are probably Douglas Firs because some varieties are estimated to live at least to 500 years and well beyond 1,000 at most, would have been able to grow from seeds fallen into this area and possibly enough to seed more. But then something happened which stopped the process. The area grew just cold enough to form a Cold Trap. This operates on a lot of the same principles, with convection drawing cold winter air into the cave while any warm air is sucked outward. The difference is that due to the cold air in the cave being significantly colder than the air outside during all points of the year, the process doesn’t reverse but remains static during the Summer and continues drawing in cold air during Winter. But how did the cave get cold enough to start that process? It was likely that the volcanic activity of the Mountain was greater at that point and then as time went on the Magma either cooled or receded further from the area, letting the evaporation stop during the coldest part of the cycle, kicking off the Cold Trap. So by the time the Monsters arrived it was growing cold and most plant life in this part of the Underground was dead or hidden in smaller warmer caves. The river flowed too fast to be frozen solid, and the trees were able to survive but not put out new seeds because no new warm season ever came. It’s possible that the Snowdin Cavern will grow colder and colder as time goes on, or it might maintain its temperature. I’m not sure exactly as far as that goes. But I do know that unless something changes the perpetual winter in the area all the trees will eventually die and the Forest will probably just be a lot of dead frozen trees, or they’ll rot with a bit of moisture and come crashing down. There are areas here and there as you make your way through Snowdin Forest where we see only the tall trees with mostly barren lower trunks within the screen’s view and only blackness beyond them. Both before and after these sections we catch glimpses of the vast valleys and hills of the cave, which means that these patches are not cave wall, but areas of mountain top forest so thick that the light is being obscured. One theory might suggest that the trees are attempting to grow towards the openings in the cave ceiling to get as much light as possible, or that only the huge trees in the areas directly beneath the openings were able to survive, leaving the smaller Firs to take over the lower valleys and hills, which makes sense since that species needs much less light than the White Spruce trees. Now that I’ve established some plausible explanations (Hopefully) for how this cave might work, let’s take a quick look at how much space is being used. We know that the Town itself is on a cliff at the edge of the large cave. In fact its partially inside the cave that leads to Waterfall.We know this because the River, which joins up with us again behind the town, has a natural rock wall behind it, suggesting that the town is actually more enclosed than most of Snowdin’s peaks, even if it is connected to them by a bridge. Our peaks are probably gigantic groups of stalagmites formed who knows how long ago and flattened or broken at the tops somehow, allowing for forests to take seed on accumulating soil. (It is possible that they are Hornitos or some other type of volcanic formations from Ebbot’s volcanic activity, especially since areas of the Underground were almost certainly initially carved out by flowing magma and then altered as water and weather took their toll over time. But most volcanic based Speleothems are significantly more fragile than limestone and water based ones, so its possible, but not likely. Aside from the town and the single house we get to see in the valley, we see no signs that this area is being put to significant use. It’s not a matter of not enough Monsters, because we know that hundreds of them dwell in the Underground and that more and more are crowding to the city, mostly in hope that they’ll be free to escape to the surface soon. There are some monsters and animals living in the forests themselves, but for all the sheer size of Snowdin Caverns, it seems mostly empty. There could be instances out of sight where Monsters have made their homes. Small caves dug into the side of cliffs and plateaus could be made into perfect little houses, and groups of houses, factories, or even greenhouse farms could be set up in areas the player can’t see in game. But it would all be conjecture as there is no in game evidence that this is so for the Snowdin Cavern.

[cassatine]

Could we get a bit more of a peek into the fic? You're so vague and i'm so curious!

weeell I’m vague because I don’t wanna say too much and I’ve been working on it since forever and a day and it’s changed a lot from the initial plan and probably will again, if I don’t end up shelving it once more. Also because I can’t help doubting there’s much of an audience for weirdass alternate grounder history fics for the 100, especially one(s) with a 99% OCs cast (the 1% left is Becca + Cadogan, although technically they’re both dead) so when I do, I mostly talk about it in messaging.

Anyway, idk what kind of peek you want? I don’t have a summary or anything like that yet. Without revealing too much I can say there will be vicious grounder politicks and an unnecessary amount of worldbuilding, unreliable ladies as unreliable narrators and unpleasant people with uninspired names, some truly egregious abyss-gazing, various event such as a burial, a Conclave, a kidnapping, a shoot-out, and a range of crimes going from petty vandalism to multiple murders and conspiracy. 

I posted the opening paragraphs for a meme way back when, so I’m adding that too

Twolong days had passed since Becca had began dying.

Lionly wanted for her to hurry up with it. She’d spent all her tears before theend of the first day, and done her best to care for Heda – it was an honour asmuch as a duty to share those final moments with her. Li knew that. She justhadn’t expected how long it would be, how useless she would feel, how Hedawould grow to smell like she was already rotting. She was cold and tired and miserable,and the guilt of it sat like a stone in her gut.

bonus recent (re)written bit because i like the imagery

For yearsand years the room at the top of the Tower – called the Main Room for reasonsno-one remembered – had served for all things official, and Li had been withinits walls many times. As a child she’d been part of the crowd, watching ceremoniesand announcements, small groups of people solemnly sent off to explore a worldmade anew. She’d listened avidly to the stories they had to share when theymade it back too: glowing forests hidden in folds of the landscape andfive-legged tiger cubs, ruined cities with their hidden treasures and greatshoals of strange fishes along the coast, underground mazes chock full of rottingbodies and canned food.

Soonenough it was whole families Li had watched being sent off to establishoutposts and settlements – be fruitfuland multiply, the Old Cadogan would say, both a blessing and an order, andBecca would look away and say nothing.

[roseymoseyberry]

Knocked Out (1/?)

Guess who got in her head about writing dialogue heavy fics, so she took a break by diving head first into the plot idea with language barriers?

Surprise, it’s me.

Consider this my attempt at a barbarian au. Not as worldbuilding heavy as a lot, since it’s much more fluff and getting to know each other and also being surrounded by your nosy friends kind of content, haha.

Shout out to @meridianbarony for the title. Cheesy but fitting haha.

Title: Knocked Out

Series: Transformers: Prime with the constructicons shoved right in there, and just a sprinkle of ideas pulled from tfidw

Pairing/Characters: Breakdown/Knockout, joined by Bulkhead and the Constructicons

Warnings: Robot injuries (nothing super gory), sexual jokes, language barriers, and fluff. Oh the fluff.

Fic Summary:

And so there Breakdown found himself, with an injured barbarian in his arms who turned those dazzling crimson optics towards him, and for a split second Breakdown felt as if it was his knees that were injured because boy did they feel weak.

Barbarian AU where the citymech unwittingly does the kidnapping.

Chapter Summary:

“Me? A kidnapped mate? Have you even seen me? It’d take a whole tribe of them to even carry me! Two if they decided to go for Bulk here!”

|Chapter 1|Chapter 2|Chapter 3|Chapter 4|Chapter 5|

It always amused Breakdown that when he told people about his work, they never pointed out the actually hard parts. He could tell countless stories about construction site accidents, about when jobs would dry up for months at a time and he would have to scrape by until the boss would finally call with his next assignment, and about never having one city to call home because he was damned lucky if the next job happened to be in the same city as the last.

But no. Every time, mecha of all shapes and sizes would gape at him and ask about the dangers of travelling outside the walls of civilization.

And they never did believe Breakdown when he told them that he had never, in all his functioning, even seen a barbarian, let alone been attacked by one.

But it was the truth. Breakdown and his coworkers had traveled from city to city for construction jobs more times than any of them could count, and not a one of them had dealt with any barbarians. The simple fact was that despite the rumors and old-mecha tales, barbarians generally avoided roads used by city mecha. Most parties on those roads were armed to the dentae with every type of weapon they could afford, so they weren’t exactly easy prey. The few attacks that Breakdown had heard about were cargo shipments, where the reward actually outweighed the risk.

But a group of big, hulking construction bots travelling with just the base necessities?

No mecha would risk fighting them for so little, barbarian or otherwise.

Inevitably, when Breakdown would explain this, somebody would crack a joke about how a barbarian might want to drag one of them away to be their mate.

“Me? A kidnapped mate? Have you even seen me? It’d take a whole tribe of them to even carry me! Two if they decided to go for Bulk here!”

And Bulkhead would laugh himself hoarse every time because the very idea of dozens of barbarians trying to lift his huge aft off the ground and away to be their communal conjunx always ticked his funny strut just right.

Barbarians were the least of Breakdown’s worries.

“What the scrap is that?”

Breakdown glanced over to see Scavenger in his root form and looking down into the ravine they were walking by.

“Probably nothing, like everything else you get distracted by,” Scrapper grumbled. Hook’s engine rumbled in agreement as his hook snagged the closest piece of Scavenger’s frame he could reach and tugged him away from the ledge. “Stop slowing us down.”

“Hey, frag off!” Scavenger snapped as he dug in his pedes and squirmed to try to escape the hook dragging him away. “I mean it! There’s mecha down there!”

“What in the pits would anyone be doing down there?” Bonecrusher said dismissively

“You’re seeing things,” Longhaul agreed.

“Maybe if you’d actually look around for once you’d see something too, ya glitches!”

The constructicons looked to be ready to start another idiotic argument when Bulkhead transformed and walked over to the ledge himself and Breakdown followed. It was best to just confirm or deny Scavenger’s story to nip the yelling match in the bud.

Breakdown had assumed deny until he leaned just enough to look down.

“Scrap,” Breakdown muttered under his breath. Indeed, a long ways down the ledge was level ground where about ten larger mecha were leading a group of four smaller frames. It was hard to see much from the distance, but there was no mistaking the way the larger frames surrounded the smaller ones, forcing them forward along their hidden path. Cycling his optics to try to get a better look revealed what looked like they might be shackles and chains connecting the prisoners to each other.

“Those gotta be barbarians, right?” Scavenger asked, staring over the ledge now that he had been released. The rest of the constructicons were finding their own places to look over from, argument forgotten.

“Can’t think of any city mecha stupid enough to stray far from the roads.”

“You think the little ones too? Or you think they were from an attacked party?”

“Don’t be stupid! They’re not carrying any energon or anything, so why attack city mecha who didn’t have any goods? Gotta be different tribes.”

“Unless maybe they took them to be mates?”

“Nobody got any proof any city mech was dragged off to mate, you moron.”

“Breakdown?”

“Yeah, Bulk?” he replied, glancing over to see Bulkhead’s typically jovial expression hardened as he stared down.

“We gotta go down there and save them.”

Breakdown’s optics cycled wide as he said, “You wanna get us killed?”

“No, but I can’t just let whatever’s happening go without helping,” Bulkhead insisted as he straightened up onto his pedes. “You gonna help?”

With a heavy ex-vent, Breakdown grumbled, “You’re heroics are gonna get us killed someday.”

“Nah. There’s nobody strong enough to take on the two of us,” Bulkhead insisted as he pounded his fist into his other servo with a smile on his face.

Breakdown couldn’t help a small grin in return at that, and was about to reply when Bulkhead was already moving. He grabbed Hook by the mechanisms on his back, whirling him around until he was facing away from the ravine. “Hey, guys, hold onto Hook for us, would you? And Break, you hold onto this,” Bulkhead insisted as he pulled on Hook’s namesake and held it out to Breakdown.

“What the frag are you--?”

As soon as the constructicons had gathered around Hook, their expressions as puzzled as Breakdown’s, Bulkhead grasped onto the wire just above the hook with one servo while yanking Breakdown by the shoulder.

Yanking him back and over the edge of the cliff.

Breakdown shouted a curse and clung to the hook as suddenly he and Bulkhead were barreling downward, their descent only slowed by the speed that Hook’s wire released. It could have been called rappelling if they weren’t going so fragging fast. Not to mention the fact that the only reason they weren’t hurtling towards possible death was because the constructicons had to have all taken a hold of Hook to keep him from being pulled off the ledge with Breakdown and Bulkhead’s combined weight.

All of the mecha at the rapidly approaching bottom of the ravine were staring up at them now in what Breakdown could only imagine was horror.

The wire jolted to a halt, the impact feeling as if Breakdown’s arm was being yanked off his frame, but his grip held firm long enough to ride it out before letting go to drop the last bit to the ground.

And bitter as he was about the stunt, Breakdown had to give it to Bulkhead ��� the almost thunderous clap of their heavy frames as they landed was incredible.

Better yet, it was definitely as intimidating as it felt considering the way the barbarian’s optics were wide and bright enough that you might have thought they were looking at the Unmaker himself.

Up close, they were nearly as tall as he was, but their frames were much slimmer, probably half his weight. All of their plating was dull tones that blended with the environment, and around their waists and shoulders there was fabric slung and knotted to stay in place. By all accounts the very definition of barbarians. Their prisoners, on the other hand, were brightly painted and shiny, though with obvious blemishes from the scuffle that found them here. No fabric on them either. No doubt they were indeed city mecha.

“Alright guys,” Bulkhead started, straightening up and staring down the barbarians, “let’s just make this easy. Let them go and nobody needs to get hurt.”

“Unless you want to, in which case, we’d be happy to oblige you,” Breakdown added, shifting his servo into a hammer and swinging it warningly.

Unfortunately, the words were apparently meaningless as the tall barbarians looked at each other, chittering something Breakdown couldn’t understand, before raising their weapons.

Their very gun-like weapons.

“Slaggit.”

One of the barbarians shouted something at them, no doubt to back off. Breakdown looked sideways at Bulkhead and muttered, “You got any other big ideas?”

“You go for the prisoners, I’ll try to fight them off, and hopefully some of the cons’ get down here to help?”

“Fine. But next time I make the plans.”

“Job’s all yours.”

And just that like, the situation exploded into chaos.

Breakdown had to dodge out of the way of a shot, rolling closer to the prisoners and hoping that the barbarians would be dissuaded from using guns when they were in danger of shooting each other or their prisoners in such close range. It must have worked since instead of a muzzle in his face there was a fist, and fist fighting was much more his forte. With a swing of his hammer and the satisfying crunch of metal against faceplates, Breakdown sent the barbarian flying back. The second barbarian jumped him fast enough that Breakdown had to settle for elbowing him hard and watching the mech stumble back with servos pressed to his abdomen, the plating there denting in towards more delicate wiring and tanks.

Normally Breakdown would have taken the chance to finish the job, but considering the other barbarians were busy with Bulkhead, this was his chance. So he grabbed the shackles of the mech closest to him – the poor guy stared up at him with the widest, brightest optics – and shouted, “Come with me!” as he pulled and started to run from the fray.

Luckily, the mech was quick to follow, along with the others behind him.

Double lucky was overhearing Bonecrusher’s whooping followed by the shrieking crunch of his frame, true to his name, crushing a barbarian under his weight. Backup had made it right on time.

However, where Breakdown had hoped there would be a turn or really anywhere to take cover with the prisoners, there was just straight flat metal earth and sheer cliff walls. That left him with few options beyond just getting far enough away from the fight that he hoped the barbarians wouldn’t turn their focus back on him while he worked.

So finally he stopped, and quickly had to dig in his pedes when the prisoners tried to keep running. And damn, they were small, but they had some of the most powerful legs Breakdown had ever encountered considering they nearly pulled him over with the velocity of their escape.

“Whoa, wait, wait!” Breakdown hissed, holding firm, even when the prisoners all turned and glared at him. He kept his free servo gripping the chain while gently waving his hammer servo. “Let me get those off of you first, yeah?”

They still just stared at him and at his hammer before turning to each other. And that was when Breakdown noticed they weren’t speaking in common Cybertronian. In fact, for all his travels, he couldn’t quite place their language at all. There were few places he hadn’t been, so his best guess was maybe they were speaking Vosian. They weren’t flyers though from what he could see, but they were certainly all pretty enough.

The red one turned to look at him, brilliant crimson optics looking him up and down while his finely sculpted faceplate shifted with consideration.

Definitely pretty enough to be Vosians. This one in particular was possibly one of the prettiest mecha Breakdown had ever seen.

Talk about unfortunate circumstance.

Whatever the red mech saw convinced him as he turned back towards his comrades and said something, and the first mech in the line – a blue mech with a distrusting look on his face – ex-vented sharply before holding his servos out towards Breakdown.

“Fragging finally,” Breakdown said before grabbing the servos and tugging them towards the ground. “Put the chains on the ground so I have something to hammer against, would ya?”

The mech must not have understood because he looked confused as he was more or less forced onto his knees so his servos were on the ground. Great. Definitely Vosians then – Breakdown had heard that the upper classes there sometimes didn’t even bother to learn common. It didn’t make complete sense when he could literally see the wheels on the mech’s frame, but then again, Breakdown had never actually been to Vos. Maybe there was a larger grounder population than he had realized.

Shrieks of pain and the cacophony of metal hitting metal reminded Breakdown that time was short. Bulkhead and Bonecrusher were incredible brawlers, but if those barbarians were able to get a shot off, they were fragged.

“Hold still,” Breakdown warned before raising his hammer. The Vosian flinched, but Breakdown’s grip kept him in place, and it only took a single smash to shatter the chain between the shackles.

Three pretty faces stared at him with shock.

The fourth -- the red mech with the prettiest face of the group – grinned wide and victorious, and he said something awfully haughty sounding to the others.

It took another smash to disconnect one of the shackles from the chain that all the mecha were attached to. One mech free, three more to go.

The blue mech only said a couple words to the others before standing and suddenly bolting away.

Breakdown’s jaw dropped.

He had seen fast mecha – he had made his fair share of bets on mech races – but this was beyond anything he’d ever seen.

A red servo on his shoulder pulled Breakdown back to notice the red mech pointed at the next Vosian in the line already placing her servos on the ground to have the chains broken. “Oh, right, sorry,” Breakdown said before lifting his hammer again. It was pretty quick work to get the second Vosian free, and she was off like a shot like the one before her.

The chain between the third Vosian’s shackles was cracked open when Breakdown heard Bulkhead shouting his name. He barely had enough time to glance up to see a tall, furious looking barbarian pick up the long chain that trailed behind the red mech before she braced her legs and ripped him towards her. The red mech yelped as it yanked him away and off his pedes to slam and be dragged along the ground, and the other Vosian with one shackle still attached was jerked along as well.

“Oh no you don’t!” Breakdown shouted, reaching out to grasp the chain connecting the Vosian to the red one and slamming his hammer down to break him free. Breakdown expected him to bolt like the others so he didn’t give him a second glance as he charged the barbarian, keeping the smaller link of chains connected to the red mech in his grip so he couldn’t be dragged any further away.

The barbarian hissed something foul sounding at him and Breakdown just yelled back at her. The red mech had dug his pedes into the ground, twisting his helm to shout at the other Vosian who was shockingly still standing there and yelling back at him, frightened, and the commotion was enough that Breakdown was able to grasp the chain still connecting the red mech to his captor. With a full swing of his arm and gritting his dentae as he tightened his hold, he slammed his hammer down and managed to snap it.

“Go!” Breakdown roared at the two freed prisoners, throwing the short string of chains still connected to the red mech’s shackle at him as the barbarian practically howled at him and lunged forward. Breakdown couldn’t lift his hammer in time to block the first blow, but it sent him skidding back and gave him enough seconds to lift it when the second came so he could throw one of his own. The barbarians were slight, but that didn’t seem to hold them back from packing a mean punch.

But Breakdown knew he could throw a meaner one.

When he saw the opening, Breakdown abandoned his hammer to have two servos to grapple with, tackling the barbarian to the ground and landing his full weight on her when he did. She hissed in his face as her servos scrambled to find purchase on his frame, but Breakdown brought a fist down on her face before she had a chance, stunning her.

Shouting caught Breakdown’s attention though, and when he glanced up at the source, he was shocked to see the red mech sprinting towards him and then leaping over him—

A gunshot whizzed past his helm and hit the ground right beside where Breakdown’s servo was braced on the ground, and the thunderous echo of it nearly shattered his audial from the close distance.

Primus, had one of the barbarian’s snuck up behind him to shoot him point blank?

Breakdown slammed his fist against the barbarian beneath him one last time to completely knock her out while his audials tried to reboot. That done, Breakdown shifted onto his knees and turned to look behind him to see the red mech straddling another barbarian. He couldn’t do much more than stare, shock immobilizing him as he watched the mech he had assumed to be some high class Vosian hissing in the barbarian’s face, the chain still connecting his shackles together pulled taunt and shoved against the barbarian’s neck right under his chin. The red mech was smaller than the barbarian, but that didn’t seem to stop him from strangling with enough strength that even from the distance Breakdown could see energon lines being crushed.

“Frag me sideways,” Breakdown murmured to himself, entranced.

Until he noticed the barbarian, in desperation, lift the gun in his servo and bring the butt of it down on the back of the red mech’s knee with a crunch. The red mech yowled and Breakdown scrambled to his feet.

Despite the pain that had to be flooding him, the red mech never loosened his hold, and by the time Breakdown snatched the gun up, the barbarian was only spitting static and his optics were dim.

Bringing the butt of the gun down on his helm was enough to finally have the barbarian’s frame going limp.

The red mech held a couple seconds longer before taking a deep in-vent and settling back on his heels, though he hissed immediately and reached towards the injury. And, up close, it was pretty bad. Breakdown couldn’t see much in the twisted mess, but he did notice a cylinder had been snapped from an anchor, leaving it hanging useless and twisted, and energon was starting to make a small pool under the wound.

“Slag,” Breakdown hissed. He glanced away though to check out the rest of the scene, and was relieved to see there was only one other barbarian still on his pedes. With Bulkhead and Bonecrusher both circling him, there was no doubt he’d be out soon. “Come on, pal. Can you stand on that?”

Of course, the red mech just stared up at him, clearly not understanding his words. But the servo that Breakdown was offering was easy enough to understand, and after a moment of consideration he took it. It was easy to see though almost right away that his left leg was slagged – it just hung from his knee, pede twitching a couple times but that seemed to be the full extent of its motion.

It was going to take a damn good doctor in a damn good clinic to get that working the way it should again.

Almost immediately, the only other remaining Vosian was up next to them, chittering away at the red mech, face contorted with concern. Judging from the expression on the red mech’s face when he replied back, he knew how slagged he was too.

Nevertheless, when the Vosian reached out to take the red mech from Breakdown’s hold, he let him.

“Everyone alright over there?” Bulkhead called, his pede falls giving him away as he jogged up to Breakdown’s side. Breakdown turned to give him a once over and then Bonecrusher as the constructicon joined them. Bulkhead was covered with dents and one of his optics had a small crack, but that was all easily fixed. Bonecrusher was grabbing at his right arm though which had energon seeping out between his digits.

“I’m fine,” Breakdown insisted, “though it looks like you’re not doing so hot, Bones.”

“One of those slaggers got a shot in it,” he explained with a shrug, his mouth briefly tightening when the motion moved his arm. “But I broke his in return so it’s fine.”

“Hook will be steaming though.”

“When isn’t he?” Bonecrusher replied, and while his lips stayed a straight line, there was humor to his tone.

“Oh scrap, is he ok though?” Bulkhead asked worriedly, moving past Breakdown. He turned to see the Vosians still standing there, streaks of energon dripping down the red one’s shins, and they were clearly arguing about something. The red mech’s face was pinched, somewhere between irate and panicking.

“I don’t think so. One of those fraggers got the back of his knee,” Breakdown admitted, frowning. “I saw at least one of the cylinders got smashed outta place. Might even be totally slagged. Oh, but, they don’t know common, so trying to talk with them isn’t gonna go great.”

Bulkhead stopped in his tracks, clearly having planned on asking the mech.

“They don’t know common?” he asked, shocked.

“Nah. I think they might be Vosians?” Breakdown shrugged his shoulders, optics flicking back to the red mech. “Some of them don’t know common, right?”

“That’s not Vosian,” Bonecrusher said. “We worked a project there once. It’s all clicks and whistles – enough to make you wanna bash your own skull in, if you ask me.”

“How else would they not know common then?”

Bulkhead glanced at Bonecrusher and then back at Breakdown before saying, a little quieter, “I mean, they could be barbarians too, right?”

“What?” Breakdown hissed under his breath, his optics widening. They couldn’t be – could they?

“They have different tribes and all though, you know,” Bonecrusher said, helm cocked to one side. “I mean, it’s sure as the pits no language I know, and I’ve never met a mech with common sense who refused to have common added to their language banks. So gotta be barbarians. They could have been war spoils or something?”

Breakdown was staring the red mech down now, following the curves of his frame when the other Vosian – barbarian? – tried to shoulder him and get him to start walking. Breakdown almost hoped he would find the answers in sleek red armor. Unfortunately, the pieces were coming together, but not quite the way he had hoped.

“I mean, he did choke out one of those fraggers.”

“Vicious little guy, huh?”

“Barbarian then,” Bonecrusher concluded to himself. His helmed tilted more as he looked at the red mech’s leg. “Which means he’s not gonna last long. Can’t imagine some backwater barbarian doc can do much for that kinda an injury.”

Breakdown’s spark clenched tight in his chest.

“That bad?”

“Oh yeah. I mean, Hook would know better, but we’ve seen our fair share ‘cause of him.”

Breakdown frowned deeper before, with a nod, he made his decision.

“Right. Then we’ll just have to bring him with us to Praxis.”

“Right—wait, what?” Bulkhead stammered. He didn’t stop Breakdown though as he walked up to the two barbarians.

The uninjured one jerked when he noticed Breakdown’s approach, hissing to the red one as he tried to tug him away. That just set the red one off though, snapping at him while his good leg hopped and wobbled dangerously under his weight. However, he didn’t look much more trusting when Breakdown held out his servo to him.

“Uh, hey,” Breakdown started, trying to smile as he let his shoulders droop, hoping he might make a less intimidating picture that way. “I know you can’t understand me, but I just want to help. See, your uh, your leg” – he gestured towards the injury – “that’s pretty bad, right? It hurts?”

The red mech stared at him blankly, though the angle of his lips suggested he was irritated by the lackluster game of charades interrupting the argument he had been having.

Breakdown winced, but he didn’t back down. “Look, this is gonna sound crazy, since you can’t actually understand, but you need to come with me. To see a city doctor.” The stare remained unchanged, though to Breakdown’s credit, the red mech didn’t move away either when his companion tugged at him, whispering fervently in his audial. “Right. Ok. Let’s try again. You” – Breakdown pointed at the red mech – “need to come with me” – he used both hands to reach towards the mech and then curled his arms in towards himself, as if gesturing him closer – “to see a doctor” – he mimed placing a mesh bandage over one of the scrapes on his arm, and then pointed at the red mech’s leg again before repeating the mesh bandage movement. “Does that make sense?”

The red mech’s stare was still confused, although his lips had curled up. He at least looked amused now.

And he started talking back. While the words were meaningless to Breakdown, the red mech’s voice was smooth and confident and honestly a joy to listen to. With only one servo to gesture with since the other was braced on his companion, the red pointed at Breakdown, made a similar mesh bandage movement as Breakdown had down, and then pointed at his injury, all while speaking in his own language.

Breakdown grinned.

“I think he gets it!”

“Or he thinks that you’re saying you could fix it,” Bulkhead said.

“Oh. Right. Ok, so, yeah, your leg can be fixed,” Breakdown said, again pointing at the leg and then making the fixing motion, “but not here.” He pointed at the ground under his feet and shook his head. Then he stopped and turned to Bulkhead. “You think shaking your head means the same thing to barbarians?”

“No idea, Break.”

“Slag. Ok, well, anyway. Here is a no go,” Breakdown insisted, pointing to the spot and then shaking his head again, hoping maybe the pitch of his voice would help. “You have to come with me to the city” – he gestured up towards the road they repelled down and the sideways, trying to point in the general direction.

The red mech’s optic ridges furrowed and his mouth was dipping back into a frown. He spoke again, slowly (as if that would help Breakdown understand), pointing at Breakdown, his leg, and then the ground between them.

“No, not here. You have to come with us to the city.” After cycling through the gestures again, Breakdown added, “But uh, once you were fixed, then I guess I could bring you back here,” while finally gesturing back between their feet.

The red mech heaved an ex-vent, scrubbing his face while muttering.

“I don’t think it’s working.”

“Thanks, Bulk,” Breakdown grumbled, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck and trying to figure out how else to try.

Though that line of thought trailed off when he noticed those crimson optics alight, looking him up and down rather openly as he said something to other barbarian next to him, sounding almost like a purr. His companion balked at whatever it was, chiding the red mech.

Breakdown could feel his face heat at the possibilities.

And then the moment was shattered with a piercing howl from behind him.

Breakdown spun around to see one of the barbarians – well the bad barbarians, he supposed – had come around and had his helm tilted back as he let loose another howl from his vocalizer. It echoed down the ravine, long and low and loud.

“Cut it out, slagger,” Bonecrusher grumbled as he jogged over and kicked the barbarian in the head, silencing him again.

“That was creepy,” Bulkhead said.

“Yeah.” More than creepy – Breakdown could feel dread starting to build in his spark.

One look at how the red mech’s optics went wide and panicked as he and his companion had started talking with each other furiously didn’t help. The other mech was tugging, trying to drag him into moving again, even as the red mech hissed at him.

“Guys?”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Bulkhead agreed, turning to Bonecrusher. “Tell Hook we need him to pull us up and outta here, because I think we might have unwanted company headed our way.”

“‘Bout time.”

Bulkhead looked at Breakdown, then at the now loudly yelling barbarians, and then back as he said, “He’s not gonna make it outta here in time on that leg.”

Breakdown grimaced but he knew Bulkhead was right. While maybe before he had been as fast as the other prisoners when they had run, now he was down to one leg, and there was no way that his companion would be able to shoulder him away quickly.

“Hey, buddy,” Breakdown said, reaching out to tap the red mech on the shoulder. The barbarian whipped his helm around and snapped at him, the tone biting and definitely panicked. Breakdown winced, but he didn’t back down. “I don’t have time to explain so I’m sorry about this, but you have to come with me.”

Breakdown grasped the red mech’s arm and tugged – noticing briefly that the shackles were still connected and that he’d have to break those once they were out of dodge – until he could reach around his back and get a good hold under his shoulder. From there he only had to bend down and hook the barbarian’s knees under his arm and lift him up to carry him. The red mech squawked, his servos quick to dig sharp claws into his chest plating to steady himself and cling as if for dear life. Once it was clear though that Breakdown could carry his weight, the pinpricks pulled back a bit.

Bewildered, wild optics stared up at Breakdown while the barbarian spat an unintelligible question in his face.

Which was nothing compared to the other barbarian who was practically screaming at Breakdown.

“Our ride is here!” Bonecrusher shouted, one of his pedes on the hook while his good arm gripped the wire. “I’ll head up first to make sure we got enough counterweight to get you and your new pet up in one go.”

“Great,” Breakdown grumbled, gritting his dentae a bit as the red mech slapped his chest and repeated its question and the other barbarian continued to shriek.

Luckily though, as the wire started to pull Bonecrusher up out of the ravine, the barbarian in his arms at least stilled and watched with wide, considering optics. There were definitely some calculating going on in his processor. When his companion tried to get his attention, he shushed him and, after that didn’t actually quiet him, spoke in hushed tones with him until he finally did.

And then the red mech reached out with one servo, tapping on Breakdown’s chest to bring his gaze down towards him. Primus, but those optics were striking as they stared up at him, full of intension.

He spoke then, slowly, poking at Breakdown’s chest and pointing over his shoulder, in the direction that Breakdown and the crew had come from, and then pointing two digits down and swinging them, almost like they were legs walking. Finally, he ended with pointing at the spot they were standing.

The words didn’t mean much, though Breakdown could tell it was a question.

“Are you asking if I came from a city?”

The red mech ex-vented tiredly, optics rolling – at least that had universal meaning – before repeating the gestures and speaking in singular words. Pointing at Breakdown, pointing back towards the general direction of Tarn, the walking motion, and then pointing at their spot.

You – from there – walked – here.

At least, that was Breakdown’s best interpretation.

“Yeah, that’s what I – right, you didn’t understand,” Breakdown said, cringing. He cleared his vocalizer and said simply, “Yes,” while nodding his head, hoping that the word, the motion, or his tone might get that across.

Red optics blinked at him.

“Yes?” he parroted back, and despite himself, Breakdown’s spark warmed and he nodded eagerly.

“Yeah! I mean, yes!”

The red mech’s lips curled into a hopeful smile, and suddenly he was talking again, pointing at himself and then Breakdown, then up where Bonecrusher was disappearing over the ledge, and Breakdown said, “Yes, that’s right! I’m taking you with me.”

Seemingly convinced, the red mech turned his helm back towards his companion. While still obviously fretting, the other barbarian did take a step back when the red mech gestured him away with confident sounding words, and another when it was repeated. Finally, the barbarian looked up at Breakdown, growled something that sounded suspiciously like a threat, and then turned on his heels and fled.

And so there Breakdown found himself, with an injured barbarian in his arms who turned those dazzling crimson optics towards him and for a split second Breakdown felt as if it was his knees that were injured because boy did they feel weak.

“Noc.”

“What?”

“Noc,” the red barbarian repeated, this time pointing at himself as he said it.

“Uhh—oh! Is that your name?” When the barbarian just gave him an exasperated look, Breakdown chuckled weakly. “Right, sorry. Simple sentences and charades.” With his servos full carrying the mech though, Breakdown had to just tip his helm in his direction and repeated back, “Knock?”

“Yes. Noc.”

“Makes sense,” Breakdown commented, grinning as his spark swelled in his chest. “I mean, you are a knockout.”

Optics narrowed as the barbarian stared at him, mouthing the word knockout in confusion. From next to him though, Breakdown noticed Bulkhead groan long and tiredly.

“Come on, Break. He doesn’t even understand you and you try to flirt?”

Breakdown’s face heated quickly as the realization of what he just said settled.

“Whoa, no, no, I wasn’t. It was just a statement – pointing out the obvious!”

“Yeah, that you’re obviously checking out the ‘knockout’ barbarian.”

“That’s not true,” Breakdown groused. Unfortunately that was the moment that long clawed digits gripped him by the chin and pulled his face back towards the barbarian’s.

“Noc-out?” he asked with raised optic ridges, and Primus, Breakdown wondered if the barbarian would be able to feel the new rush of heat to his face.

Given the way his lips started to curl deviously, Breakdown feared it was too late.

“No, sorry, forget that. That was inappropriate. Just uh, frag, let’s start over, ok?” Breakdown cleared his vocalizer. “You’re Noc. I’m Breakdown.”

“Ahm Brekdown?” the barbarian tried, letting go of Breakdown’s chin to point at him.

“Breakdown,” he corrected.

“Breakdown?”

“Yes.”

The barbarian grinned. “Breakdown,” he repeated, and then turned his digit to point at himself. “Knockout.”

Bulkhead burst into howling, knee-slapping laughter and a slag-eating grin split the barbarian’s face, digits quick to stop Breakdown from looking away as his face twisted with embarrassment, optics bright as they drank him in.

What the frag had he gotten himself into?