Every Day Legends
Title: Every Day Legends
Fandom: Transformers
Claim: Autobot Cassettes
Other characters/pairings: Optimus Prime
Table/Theme Name & Number: IV/ 8. Myth
Rating: G
Warnings: a generous helping of fluff
Summary: As a little Cassette and a big brother, Rewind knows all about dealing with short attention spans.
The children craned their necks to look up in awe at the red, blue and silver Autobot leader that towered above them. Most of them stared, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, while a few of the bolder ones ventured closer to try and touch a massive blue foot, not even thinking that the same foot could easily crush the life out of them if he so much as tripped.
For his part though, Optimus Prime stepped through the small cluster of young ones with practised ease, before finding a clear spot where he could kneel and interact with them on a more personal level. Crouching low, he let the children touch a finger or his battlemask, or gave them a lift up and down in his large hand.
Standing in a corner, forgotten for the moment, Rewind watched the interaction and smiled to himself, perhaps a little wistfully. He would have liked to meet the children as well, but he understood perfectly that they would all naturally want to meet the face of the Autobots - the one they saw on the news all the time, the one who constantly kept them safe - in person.
So he didn’t begrudge his leader the opportunity.
Instead he distracted himself with looking around the room. Prime had been invited to give a little speech to a group of mostly working professionals about how the Autobot presence in the area would effect their businesses, something that wasn’t particularly interesting to children, but Rewind thought it inevitable that some parents would have wanted to bring their kids along to see the iconic Transformer.
He did wonder though what would happen once the talk actually started. Prime would be touching on some pretty serious topics that the people needed to pay attention to, and couldn’t afford to be distracted by restless children. Still, it was not his call. He was just there to play human-Autobot liaison - a job that usually required him to just stand around and wait, incase there were any ruffled feathers that needed to be smoothed.
Most of the time he just stood around and waited… like now. He took in the high ceiling of the convention hall, the stadium type seating that would let the humans look more comfortably at the Autobot leader without straining their necks. Again, another reason why the children shouldn’t be there - they could hurt themselves if they fell off one of the platforms.
Rewind stirred. He didn’t want to undermine his commander. If Prime had nothing against the children staying, it wasn’t Rewind’s place to contradict him, but being just a little bigger than the average human, he knew the dangers - it was why Prime asked him to help design the seating structures in the first place. It would look bad for the Autobots if there was an accident due to negligence, even if it wasn’t their fault directly.
Which meant it was up to him to do something about it.
The little Cassette sighed. Prime was already making his way to the front of the seats and if he was going to do anything, it had to be before Prime started talking or the repercussions would be worse. He stepped up to the microphone and immediately felt his leader’s gaze on his back.
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,” he said. “So glad you could all make it today. I’m Rewind… uh… some of you might have seen me around before. Well, um… we’re just about ready to start, but before we do, there’s a small announcement I need to make.”
Prime’s subtle body movement behind him all but asked what the slag did he think he was doing? But he’d come this far and stopping now was not an option.
“Just as a safety precaution because some of the seating is rather high up, and to ensure that there wont be any disturbances during the talk, I would like to politely request that any children in the audience join me in the daycare room adjoining this hall for some refreshments and entertainment.”
There was a murmur among the humans and Rewind waited anxiously to see if they would agree to the idea, giving a small word of thanks to Primus that he had taken a good look at the layout of the building and knew exactly where the room was and how big it was.
He had also called in a favor to one of his friends who ran a little catering business and managed to get in an order for extra food for the kids the minute he and Prime had arrived and seen the number waiting to meet him.
To his relief, children started to slowly make their way towards him, some of them with the same awe on their faces, as if they couldn’t believe that they’d get to play with an Autobot who was more on their level than Prime was, and a lot less god-like. It was a different type of awe, but for someone like Rewind who spent most of his time in the shadows and working behind the scenes, it made him feel… loved.
Smiling, he stepped away from the mic and beckoned the children to follow him to the daycare room where food, drinks and cushions had been laid out for them. Glancing back, he saw Prime looking at him - his expression unreadable behind his battlemask - and his spark sank a little when he thought of how he was going to answer for this later.
“Hey Rewind, hope this was okay for you. Was the best we could put together under short notice,” a young woman addressed him.
“Susie! No, thanks, this is great,” Rewind replied, giving her a hug. “I really appreciate this; we had no idea there’d be so many kids… though I should have figured with Optimus coming along and all.”
She patted him on the back. “Don’t sell yourself out short Rewind. Optimus may be the legend, but you’re the one they can all relate to. You’re the little every day guy they can all reach out and interact with on a personal level without having to feel so intimidated - the kids especially.”
Rewind looked at her, then smiled a bit. “Thanks Susie. Though… I still don’t know what I’m going to do for all these kids once they’re done eating.”
“From my experience? Tell them a story. They’ll be so full after eating that they’ll want nothing more than to just sit where they are and listen to a story… and you’re an Autobot, I’m sure you know plenty.”
“Well… its worth a shot.”
=====
“So, our first story is a folk tale out of Japan,” Rewind said to his audience in a clear voice.
The children sat around him all eyes fixed on the little black and white Cassette to see what he was going to do. Rewind was fully aware of them, and could only hope he wouldn’t bore them half to death by the time Prime was done with his own speech.
“Once there was a man known as a Stonecutter, who made his living cutting rocks. One day he saw his landlord passing by and said to himself out loud, ‘oh if only I was a rich man, how happy I would be.’ Then the spirit of the mountain said to him, ‘I have heard your wish, a rich man you shall be.’ And that evening when he returned home, he found a beautiful palace waiting for him.”
Rewind paused and noted that they were all still paying attention, and decided to animate the story a little bit more by getting the children involved.
“The next day, the Stonecutter was walking to the marketplace to buy food, and the sun beat down on him relentlessly. So he looked up and said, ‘oh if only I was a prince, how happy I would be.’ Then the spirit of the mountain said to him…”
“I have heard your wish, a prince you shall be!” the children all replied.
“Well done! And so he became a prince… but the sun still burned him, and once again he cried aloud, ‘oh if only I was the sun, how happy I would be.’ Then the mountain said…” Again he paused and let the children answer for him. “As the sun, he was able to spread his light far and wide, but then what do you think happened?”
“It rained?” ventured one boy.
“A cloud covered him up?” a little girl asked.
“That’s right, a cloud covered his light, and so again he said, ‘oh if only I was a cloud, how happy I would be. The mountain spirit heard him, and turned him into a cloud. In this form he caught the moisture from the air and turned them into rain, and every day he rained on the land until there were great floods and landslides.”
“He wasn’t a very nice cloud, was he?” another girl asked. “So did he stay a cloud?”
“Well, one day, as he watched his flood sweep away everything in its path, he saw that the water still couldn’t budge a large mountain rock… and so he said…”
“Oh if only I was a rock, how happy I would be,” the children answered for him.
The mech grinned. He still had their attention, this was good. “Right! And so the mountain spirit turned him into a rock.”
“That’s a very generous spirit,” a boy said. “If it was me I would have gotten tired of him pretty fast. Was he happy as a rock?”
“He was for a while,” Rewind replied. “And then one day he saw a stonecutter chipping a piece of his rock out with his tools, and once more he lamented, ‘oh if only I was a man, how happy I would be.’ The mountain spirit then said, ‘I have heard your wish, you shall be a man once more.’ The stonecutter then realized that no matter how much he had tried to be other things, in the end he was most content with being who he originally was.”
The children cheered him at the end of the story and were soon clamouring for more. Rewind obliged them, pulling from his vast arsenal stories from around the world and a few Cybertronian ones he’d read and heard tell. The kids sat captivated as they listened to him bring myths and legends to life, and the more he told, the closer they came until finally he had a couple in his lap as he talked on.
=====
He had no idea how long he’d been telling stories. It was only when there came a tap on the door that he stopped and looked at the clock. Two hours had passed since he’d begun, and Optimus Prime’s own speech had finally wrapped.
Opening the door and letting the adults in, he made sure each child was safely returned to his/her parents before finally thanking Susie once more and making his way over to his Commander. Prime said his own thanks, transformed and waited for Rewind to climb into the cab before setting off for home.
The drive back was quiet, with Prime only mentioning a few things that he’d talked about, and Rewind offering some quiet feedback. Not a word was said about the Cassette’s little breach of conduct, and Rewind was a bit worried that he was really in for it when they got back.
Still, when they reached the Ark, all Prime told him was to go on in and get some rest, that they would talk later. So Rewind went… but it didn’t stop him fretting all evening until his brothers finally got irritated enough to ask him what was wrong.
“Prime’s going to kill me,” he said and told them what had happened.
“Ooooh, you sassed the coach,” Eject said once he’d heard the story. “Yea, I’d say you’re in deep transistor parts.”
“Not helping you little fool,” Ramhorn snorted at him. “You did nothing wrong, Wind, let him try to reprimand you if he wants and see what I do.”
“Please, don’t do anything,” Steeljaw cautioned his oldest brother. “We still don’t know if he’s going to reprimand Rewind. For all you know, he wont.”
They were interrupted by a hail over the address system asking for Rewind to report to Optimus Prime’s office. The black and white Cassette exchanged a look with his brothers.
“I hope you’re right, ‘Jaw.”
=====
When he finally reached the Autobot leader’s office, Rewind quietly stepped inside and went over to the desk behind which his Commander sat. He felt really small, and not just physically.
“Rewind?”
The little Cassettebot started and looked up into Optimus Prime’s bright blue optics. “Yes, sir?”
“You look troubled.”
“Do I, sir?”
“About today’s… event, do you have anything to say?”
Well, no use beating around the bush. Rewind drew himself up a little. “Well, no offense, sir, but you do have a tendency to give rather long speeches… and… children tend to have rather short attention spans…”
“And you thought they would get bored of hearing me talk rather quickly, is that it?”
“No… uh… yes, sir. I did… and I was worried about safety.”
“I see…” Prime rubbed his battlemask. “I had a few phone calls from the parents earlier. They hadn’t expected to have their children taken elsewhere.”
“I’m sorry, sir.”
“They said their children have never been happier and want to know if there’s any chance you’ll be doing another story telling at the local library, so they can bring their kids to listen.”
“I… what?” Rewind looked up. “Your pardon, sir?”
Prime smiled at the little mech. “You did good Rewind. I’m proud of you. You reached out to those children in a way I never could - you connected with them and became their friend. Something real, and a lot more than the myth I am to them. Well done.”
Rewind looked a little stunned. “Uh… thank you, sir.”
“And about your storytelling? What should I tell the parents?”
The black and white mech grinned. “I’ll be there.”
~END.