Fic: Zhū Què - Day 21
Title: Zhū Què
Day and Prompt: 21 - Promise
Rating: PG
Festival: Chūn Jié - Cybertronian take.
Jazz had never been to Praxus during this time of the stellar cycle and now felt very privileged to be here for this period. He had been to many local celebrations before, it was something he enjoyed and craved as his passion for learning about the many cultures of Cybertron drove him to immerse himself in nose deep.
He knew many basics about this event but for one reason or another he had not been able to be there until now, and he was surprised by the instigator of this visit no less. He had seen some of the minor celebrations on the admittedly small Praxian neighborhoods around the biggest cities like Iacon or Crystal City, but nothing he had seen before prepared him for what Praxus in full celebration was like.
Praxus had existed previously in a rather isolated state of its own, developing somewhat separately from other city-states and as such, ended up developing with little external influence save for few travelers that brought with them pieces of their own culture the Praxians took and adapted to their own uses and needs.
As such, Praxians lived for millennia in a completely different calendar and spoke a dialect much different than those developed by other city states. Their closest influence was Crystal City and from them they learned and adapted many things to work along their own traditions.
With the unification of Cybertron as a whole, Praxus assimilated well into the new order, but they maintained their customs and observances, only incorporating the unified civil observances to their existing way of life and adapted those that seemed at odds with their culture. As such, while Praxus celebrated the beginning of a new stellar cycle following the civil calendar of Prima, they also celebrated the observances of the Luna II calendar. The first praxians believed their origin was not in the metal of Cybertron but in the crystal of Luna II.
"Tell me 'bout that story again?" Jazz asked as he peeled his optics away from the scenery around him.
Prowl sighed but humored his companion. "The tale assures the first Praxian, Petrex, fell from Luna II, born from the first crystal that was planted in Cybertron having fallen from Luna II itself." Prowl led Jazz around the unusually busy streets of Praxus. "The myths claim crystals did not exist naturally in Cybertron but were instead abundant in Luna II, as we know, Luna II has the highest concentration of naturally occurring crystals, with Praxus as the only place in Cybertron where they grow naturally."
"So that's why so many things 'round Praxus seem to be related to or based around Luna II?" Jazz asked as he looked at the many Praxian homes and business hanging couplets around their doors and hanging other unusual decorations, all in the brightest red Jazz could think of, glyphs of unique Praxian calligraphy were painted in golden pigments, spelling only Primus knew what.
"Hey, now I'm curious...why almost every Paxian I've met has a red or golden chevron? I've seen 'em in many colors outside of Praxus but all the Praxians I know have red or golden chevrons." Jazz asked, not having realized that fact until now --every Praxian that had a chevron wore golden or red, and Prowl was no exception.
"It is considered a symbol of good luck. The legends mentioned Petrex had a dual chevron, with the top being red and the bottom golden. Pure Praxians will usually have a red or golden chevron, those whose chevron is not naturally either color are considered to be born unlucky so their chevron is repainted almost immediately. They typically carry a charm to chase away the bad luck." Prowl looked back at Jazz with a smile. "It's a superstition but for all we pride ourselves in our own advancement, we still latch to the sentimentalism of those old traditions and superstition."
"Yours is naturally red or painted?" Jazz asked curiously with a grin.
"Mine is natural, every mech of my lineage bears a red chevron." Prowl chose to omit the part about his line supposedly being direct descendants of Petrex by spark splitting.
"I still can't believe you invited me over to check this festival!" Jazz was beside himself with excitement, he'd been Prowl's partner at the Iacon crime lab for only a couple of stellar cycles but they got along very well and Jazz enjoyed to get to know more about him and his background.
"My custodian insisted, he was tired of me coming home alone and him having a surplus of red envelopes." Prowl sighed a little more dramatically than he originally intended. "He is concerned I will never get a conjux endura or something to that effect."
Jazz laughed harder than he meant to, but Prowl's long suffering was just too funny to hold back. "He's tryin' to get ya hooked up or something?"
"He's trying to expand our lineage and I am afraid I'm not making things easier for him by living away from Praxus and being kind of bonded to my job." Prowl smiled at Jazz when they were stopped by a young mech handing out little baskets with a collection of dusty wafers wrapped in a hardened red oil of sorts. "It's a confection given before the beginning of the Lunar cycle, it's covered in powder made of the great Pyrope in the middle of the Petrex fountain by the gates of the Helix garden. It's only harvested for these confections, so you will never see something like this during the rest of the Lunar cycle." Prowl explained as Jazz admired the single confection. "Senator Crosscut instated the practice of handing them out as a gift from the local government."
Jazz admired the confection and kept the little basket cupped in his hands. "I had no idea Praxus had so many symbolic things goin' on for this celebration. It's cute!" He grinned with excitement, enjoying that Prowl was talking so openly about the traditions and culture of his home as the mech was usually more reserved and did not speak often about him or his origins.
Prowl led Jazz through the streets and headed for a rather well off area of Praxus, close to the gates of the Helix gardens. "This is home."
Jazz thought Prowl meant the luxurious apartment complex that faced a little away from the garden's until he heard a shriek and heard the thumping of a mech's coming from the large mansion right next to the gardens. "Prowl! You're here at last!"
Prowl barely had the time to brace for impact as he was pounced on by a mech that looked strikingly similar to Prowl but in silvery colors replacing the areas where Prowl was white. "Bluestreak, you're crushing me." Prowl sighed when his brother did not let go and took to snuggle against him and babble on about how much he'd been missed.
"I feel like I'm missin' something." Jazz whistled and looked down at the two near identical mechs, hands on his hips and just barely able to hold back a giggle at his friend's expense.
"Ah...I think I haven't mentioned my brother." Prowl did his best to extricate himself from Bluestreak holds and only then did the young mech realize they were in company and let go of his brother. "This is Bluestreak. And this..." Prowl gestured to Jazz as the other black and white mech helped him up. "Is Jazz."
"Oh! Is he your conjux to be?!" Bluestreak asked excitedly, thinking, incorrectly, that Jazz had followed a long standing Praxian tradition where couples about to formalize their intention to become conjux endura would have one of them paint in the other's colors. The one of lower social standing was usually the one to repaint themselves as they were to be absorbed into the wealthier family.
"No!" Prowl and Jazz both blurted at the same time, both blushing furiously at the dreamy fluttering of his wing panels.
"I mean...it's not like that, Blue, he's my partner at the Iacon crime lab." Prowl cleared his throat and tried to regain his usually cool and collected composure.
"Oh...it's a shame." Bluestreak visibly deflated, making Jazz feel a little uncomfortable. "Still! We're glad you came to visit! I hoped I could tell Spinel that Prowl was finally tying the knot."
"Ah...heh, sorry to disapoint." Jazz rubbed the back of his neck. He hadn't ever thought about his partner like that, even though he would be one of the first to admit he wasn't hard on the optics at all.
"No, no, no! It's okay! I just haven't seen Prowl in a while and thought maybe he was surprising us." Bluestreak took Jazz's hands and shook them vigorously. "I'm Bluestreak, I'm Prowl's twin."
Well, that explained why they were identical except for their colors. "Oh, split sparks?" Jazz asked curiously.
"Not quite, our custodian's mate spliced two whole sparks on the same cycle. I formed first, and Prowl formed a little later." Bluestreak grabbed both mech's by their wrists and took them into the regal home, several aides bowed in greeting to Prowl and Bluestreak as he dragged them through the house until they reached a living room of sorts. "Spinel, Prowl's home and he brought company! Sadly, not a conjux so don't get your hopes up!"
A mech very similar to Prowl and Bluestreak with a bulkier frame looked up from a pad, his lips were clamped around a wafer stick he was sampling when Bluestreak came to greet them. His red and gold frame seemed to be perfectly in tune with the colors of the Lunar cycle celebration. "Prowl, welcome home. And who is this friend of yours?"
Jazz smiled and bowed to the elder mech when he saw Prowl bow respectfully. "My name's Jazz. Pleased t'meet ya."
"It is good to see you, father." Prowl approached the mech and fell to his knees by the mech's low table and extracted something from his subspace. Jazz tilted his head to look at the object better, it was a small box full of confections brought from Iacon. "May this be a cycle of prosperity and good health for you and our lineage." Prowl murmured as he offered the gift to Spinel.
"Primus permitting, Luna II shall reflect its light upon you and light your path." Spinel replied with a smile and set the gift down, pressing his forehead to Prowl's head. He looked up to Jazz with a smile.
Jazz suddenly remembered Prowl had given him another box and instructed him to give it to Spinel when he was welcomed into their home. Jazz approached and mimicked Prowl the best he could and offered the box to Prowl's custodian, repeating the same words he heard from Prowl before.
Spinel accepted the gift and instead took a red envelope from a basket sitting near him and offered it to Jazz. "May you live in happiness and prosperity, young Jazz."
"O-oh...thank you." Jazz accepted the envelope and bowed graciously, remembering Prowl advised him not to open the envelope in Spinel's presence as it contained a gift of shanix. Prowl received a similar envelope from Spinel which he tucked into his armor for now.
"Your room is ready, Prowl, I'm afraid I didn't know you had a guest coming over so I won't have a room available for him right away." Spinel bowed to Jazz in apology.
"My room's berth is large enough, I'm sure Jazz won't mind sharing it for the night." Prowl bowed back. Now Jazz understood why Prowl was ever so formal in most occasions.
"Are you two sure you're not promised to each other already?" Bluestreak teased, fluttering his wing panels with a rather dreamy look.
"Blue..." Prowl glared at his brother though there was no real anger or annoyance, mostly concerned they would be making his friend uncomfortable.
"Just joking!" Bluestreak giggled and took to grab the pair by their arms and helped them up, leading them to Prowl's rooms in the massive home. "I'll have some outfits brought over for Jazz, we'll dine at the usual time, if you want to refresh yourselves I will have the outdoors tub prepared for you."
Jazz wasn't sure what was happening until they were all but shoved into Prowl's room and Bluestreak all but fluttered away, babbling happily to himself. Jazz looked around the room and whistled. "Wow. Why didn't you tell me your family was loaded?"
Prowl sighed and looked back at Jazz with a small, embarrassed smile. "I didn't think it was important."
"Not important." Jazz raised a brow behind his visor and chuckled. "Well then...what do we do now?"
"We wash and dress up." Prowl pointed at a few layers of red and gold fabric laying on his ample berth. "It is customary to wear adornments of this kind during the preamble and through the celebration of the new Lunar cycle."
Jazz helped Prowl to wash and in turn was helped to clean up, after that ordeal, it was time to wear the cloths, sashes and adorned sleeves were wrapped around them and Jazz accompanied Prowl to the family's dinner.
The dinner had been rather comforting and the chatter made Jazz feel like he was already a part of the family, he felt welcome and did not feel like a foreigner amongst them at all, almost as if he'd been a family friend coming over for a long time.
After the dinner, they headed to the family's garden behind the structure of the mansion, where they kept a private crystal garden of their own. Prowl led Jazz to a dark red crystal that Prowl later identified another polished growth of a pyrope, surrounded by a collection of natural crystals that formed a gradient from red to completely clear towards the entrance of the garden.
"Why you have a pyrope in these gardens?" Jazz asked as he admired the stone that had been polished and cut to allow the light to traverse it and bathe everything in a beautiful red shade of light.
"Crystals are natural of Praxus, but so is pyrope, the legends clamor when Petrex fell from the Luna II, around his landing crater a pyrope was produced by the impact." Prowl touched the flat, polished face of the family's pyrope. "The large one you find in the Helix garden was cultivated by the very first inhabitants of Praxus, and this one was cultivated by my oldest ancestor as wish of good will and prosperity to the family's descendants."
Prowl turned to Jazz and took his hand to lead him outside. "Come, the neighbors are about to release some fire crackers."
Jazz enjoyed the rest of the day watching young mechs light firecrackers and chant melodies in their sing-song dialect that Jazz found intriguing and beautiful. The next few days were also full of celebration, each day having different activities and topics, but each one was as enjoyable as the next one.
On the last day of their celebration, Prowl took Jazz to a shrine built under the government tower and there, he helped Jazz to craft a balloon like red lantern where a solidified oil deposit was set aflame, illuminating subtly the lantern as it was hung on the canopy of the shrine.
"It's beautiful..." Jazz murmured in awe at the beautiful display, finding it soothing and solemn, yet it held a sense of hopefulness.
"It is...come, there is something else I want to show you." Prowl led Jazz back to his family's home, his custodian usually held a small party on the streets outside their home for the neighbors and his staff where they enjoyed the last day of the new Lunar cycle's celebration.
As Prowl expected, neighbors were already in the streets, dancing amongst them to traditional praxian instruments Jazz had never seen or heard before.
Jazz watched and listened as he swayed to the rhythm of the melody, clapping lightly as if in encouragement to those dancing, feeling the call of the music as he tapped his foot and swayed more and more. Prowl smiled, well aware his friend was very musically inclined. "Go on, join them." Prowl pushed Jazz gently towards the dancing neighbors, who happily took his hands and began to show him the basics of this dance.
Prowl approached Spinel who offered his son a red box containing a traditional fiddle, a part of Prowl's life he chose to leave in Praxus to keep him coming back along with his family. Prowl sat by Bluestreak who happily plucked at the strings of another instrument using some claw-like plastic nails. Prowl sat the fiddle on his thigh, adjusted his strings and bow and began to play along with the other musicians.
Jazz, surprised his friend played such instrument, danced around and laughed, filled with the joy of a new stellar--lunar cycle to begin and carry through with the hopes of a good time and happiness. He'd asked Prowl before if he'd ever bring him over again, and Prowl accepted, promising next Lunar-cycle's eve they would come back to his home together again.
When the melody ended, Prowl whispered something to Bluestreak, who in turn chatted with the musicians playing with them. When Jazz was about to return to take a seat with Spinel, who watched from the steps of the home's porch, he could hear one of the wind instruments begin to play and was immediately pulled back by the dancing neighbors to join them in a rather different kind of dance.
The melody was very different, and Jazz recognized it as something he'd heard from Vosian festivities. Praxians lacked the same kind of turbine heels Vosians used to accompany their melodies with their own steps, but they made up for it by tapping their feet harder. Jazz had spent much of his formative years in Vos due to his own custodian's work in the area and he'd come to learn these dances when he'd participated in festivals around Vos and knew these dances by spark.
He was certainly surprised the Praxians were familiar with them to the level they danced them with as much precision and skill as the Vosians themselves, but he certainly was not complaining, laughing happily as he danced with the neighbors that joined them for the end of the celebration.
When the proverbial dust settled, Prowl and Bluestreak thanked the musicians and the family's staff distributed some engex to refresh themselves and enjoy the rest of the final day amongst family. Jazz was still ecstatic after the dance and gladly accepted the glass of engex and sat close to Spinel. "I didn't know Praxians knew Vosian dances."
"Vosian traders were the first to visit Praxus a long time ago, they brought along some of their culture and we adapted what we liked from it. Some Praxians have Vosian heritage." Spinel patted Jazz's shoulder.
"S'that why you and your offspring have wings?" Jazz asked, wondering about the flightless winged Praxians.
Spinel shook his head. "Oh, no. Petrex had wings, I believe Vosians had legends or fables about the flightless one. That was Petrex. We have had very few members of the lineage that have taken mates that aren't at least partly of Praxian descent." Spinel gave Jazz a knowing smile. "Not that I would mind it if one of my children chose to take one."
Jazz cleared his throat. "What 'bout Bluestreak, isn't he promised to someone yet?"
Spinel shook his head. "Blue harbors many crushes, and takes many dates but hardly anyone intends to be serious with him. My hopes were with Prowl." He chuckled. "He is so selective of his friendships and to whom he'll dote his time and friendship with, that I know someday, despite his line of work, if he ever brings a romantic partner home, there's a good possibility it would be an intended conjux."
"Is that why Bluestreak thought I was Prowl's intended?" Jazz fought back the furious blush threatening to overtake his pale faceplate.
Spinel chuckled and patted Jazz's arm. "Not really, it's the fact you and Prowl share similar colors. It's a tradition where the mech of lower status would repaint to match their intended's colors. Given our family, it's very difficult for someone to be of higher status than Prowl is, so Blue just assumed you repainted yourself to match Prowl."
"Oh...well, no, we were just the same colors since we met at the crime lab." Jazz smiled and looked over at Prowl, chatting with Bluestreak and the other musicians still. "We had a bit of a rocky start at first, I was too out of the box for his taste but we've since worked it out and he's one of my closest friends. Maybe even my best friend I'd say. Though I admit this is the first time I've seen him be so...joyful, and smile so much."
Spinel looked back at Prowl and then back at Jazz. "You make him happy, and here at home, he's free to show his happiness more openly. He restrains himself while at his work due to his choice of profession, but if you're here it means Prowl trusts you and you bring happiness to his life." The older mech looked at Jazz with a small smile, so much like Prowl's were it not for the unusual facial marks above his lips, like a mustache. "I'm glad Prowl brought you this time, Jazz. I sincerely hope you will find it in your spark to join us on the next Lunar cycle."
"If Prowl let's me, I'd be delighted to." Jazz murmured as he watched his friend's happier and relaxed expression. "Yeah...I'd like to come back."
"Take care of my Prowl back at Iacon, will you?" Spinel stood and dusted off his red and gold cloths and turned to head inside.
"I will. I promise." Jazz murmured again, lost in watching Prowl, wishing that he could see him like this more often, looking forward already to the next celebration already.