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Cygnet wrinkled their nose when they saw the food spread on the table. It was completely wrong.
For a party of this size and caliber, there needed to be at least twice as much. They were going to run out! There also wasn't a single energon goodie on the table that they would put anywhere near their mouth. The food reeked of over-processing. The color looked fake with some clever additives.
They glanced across the table to see a seeker stuffing his face full of them. The mech's cheeks were comically full of the stuff, and when he smiled at Cygnet, there was some energon peeking through his denta.
Disgusting.
Cygnet tried to keep their face impassive. This party was to celebrate the anniversary of the end of the war, and Cygnet wasn't going to be the one to ruin it by sneering at a former Decepticon. Things were certainly calmer between the factions, but it was all still very strained.
Calmer. Strained. Boring .
Cygnet could see it on the faces of the other guests. This was a party that no one seemed to be enjoying. It was too stuffy, too high-class, too formal for mechs that had been at each other's throats for so long.
Well, at the very least, Cygnet would make sure they didn't run out of decent food.
They decided to walk away to give some of the wait-staff a piece of their mind, but they accidentally bumped into the familiar green and black plating of his roommate, Inaudax.
"Sorry! Sorry, apologies, I'm- oh. Cygnet," Inaudax said, breathing a shaky sigh of relief.
"I ran into you, 'Dax," they said gently. "You don't need to apologize; I should apologize to you. I was distracted by- well. A less pleasant former Decepticon."
"There are a lot of them here," Inaudax replied, slightly cowering in on himself. "I'm not even sure why I was invited-" He stopped speaking abruptly, and his frame tensed up as someone else decided to join the conversation.
"Hi, my name is Blitzstorm," the cheeky seeker from before said, grinning merrily, energon still glowing on his denta. He looked Cygnet up and down and focused on his shoulder. "And holy slag, do you really turn into a swan? Can I see? I've never met a beastformer before.”
Cygnet's face froze for a moment, and they rapidly tried to think of a pleasant way to answer. "Well, I know I look like a beastformer, but that's not my alt-mode." How many times did they have to explain this? "I turn into a swan-boat."
Blitzstorm's jaw dropped, even as his face started to contort into a smile.
"Uhm, w-who did you serve under?" Inaudax tittered nervously. Cygnet knew he was desperately trying to change the subject for him.
"Directly to Megatron," Blitzstorm said, without even looking at Inaudax. He was still looking at Cygnet with a mixture of shock and amusement. He had a stupidly wide smirk. "Like… you turn into a paddle-boat?"
Cygnet was already irritated by the food, the boring atmosphere, and the sedate mood of the other guests, and now they were doubly irritated because of Blitzstorm's lack of etiquette. "I realize you were likely a Decepticon and therefore lack manners, but you don't just inquire into someone's alt-mode upon first meeting them."
Blitzstorm smirked wider. "Oh? Am I… ruffling some feathers?"
Cygnet flared their nostrils. "No. I don't have feathers. But you are annoying, so I think this conversation is over." They drew their shoulders back, standing tall, and started to walk away.
"And what do you turn into, spindly? A chicken? You're certainly nervous enough for it."
Cygnet looked over their shoulder to see Inuadax looking smaller and smaller, turning in on himself. He looked so uncomfortable as Blitzstorm continued to tease. "You're quite the scaredy-mech, aren't you? And you were a Decepticon? I'm surprised you weren't used as cannon fodder."
Cygnet usually had a wealth of patience. They used to ferry rich noble mechs in their alt-form, listening to the inane chatter and self-righteous hypocrisy, yet they managed to keep their mouth shut. But somehow, as Blitzstorm started to move closer to Inaudax, physically intimidating him, continuing to make fun of him, he had found the right button to push Cygnet over the edge.
"Uhm, I- medic?" Inaudax continued.
Blitzstorm narrowed his optics. "What, do you need a medic? I'm not even hurting you!"
"No, I a-uh-"
"Uh? Your vocalizer fritzing? Primus, I can't believe you're at this party; you're so incredibly boring-"
Cygnet exvented, then grimaced. They turned around and stalked back to the pair. They leaned down, sweeped Blitzstorm up, and lifted him up from behind. He was heavy for a seeker, but Cygnet was a large boat-alt and had plenty of strength to match. Blitzstorm squawked in surprise as he sailed into the air above Cygnet's helm. He clearly hadn't anticipated Cygnet's strength.
Or that he'd be taking a dip in the fountain nearby.
There was one frozen moment in time where the rest of the guests noticed the commotion. Their faces ranged from shock to absolute elation, and one observer even pulled out a device to snap stills. Inaudax looked up with his mouth agape, his servos flexing in abject terror.
With a heave, Cygnet threw Blitzstorm through the air and into the fountain that gurgled innocently nearby. He hit the water with a splash, the water displacing and spilling out of the basin to hit mechs that were standing around it. Cygnet's vents were heaving as they tried to cycle them down to a more manageable level.
Blitzstorm blinked for a moment as the water ran down his face. Another seeker nearby broke into a choked laugh, bending in half as he braced himself on his knees. The rest of the crowd was speechless, just staring at Cygnet and Blitzstorm.
For the briefest moment, a flicker of hurt embarrassment crossed Blitzstorm's face, and Cygnet almost winced in sympathy. Perhaps they had made a mistake.
Blitzstorm's face darkened as he started to stand up, and based on Cygnet's experience, he was getting ready to attack him. He stepped out of the fountain with water cascading out of his vents and stalked forward.
Another mech jumped up on a table, loudly exclaiming, "Finally! Let's get this party started!" He threw himself on some mechs below him and began to punch them, inciting a brawl. There were raucous yells of assent as everyone started to flip tables, throwing the energon goodies and energon into the air. Mechs were yelling for backup, smiling, smirking, and lobbing delectables as if they were high-precision weaponry.
Blitzstorm looked confused and then ducked as a cube of energon glided through the air past his helm. Inaudax was glancing around with rising panic and then skittered out of the way of a haphazardly thrown tray of expensive delicacies.
Cygnet saw the food and internally growled. That looked like passably good food! And now it was being trampled over by mechs who were starving for some action.
Blitzstorm ducked again and then leaped forward towards them with his claws outstretched. Cygnet’s optics went wide, not really prepared to take on the full force of a battle-hardened Decepticon. They held their ground, throwing up a shoulder that Blitzstorm ran right into. That knocked the vents right out of him, but Blitzstorm recovered quickly. He ducked under Cygnet's shoulder, grabbing them about the waist, trying to bring them down to the ground.
They grappled for a little while, trading blows. After a few moments, Cygnet was smiling, and Blitzstorm laughed when a good punch landed on his face. They scraped together, only half-serious in the brawl as the chaos continued to erupt around them.
Slowly, they noticed they were the only ones left still fighting. The other guests that had been fighting were laying on the ground, their frames still in forced stasis. They were still laughing, though.
Cygnet furrowed their brow before noticing Inaudax's shriek and flying tackle of Blitzstorm. He took the seeker down and then introduced a medical stasis puck onto his neck, and Blitzstorm went rigid. "Oh, it seems you have some bearings after all," he said,falling to the ground with a smirk.
Cygnet arched both of their optic ridges, surprised that their friend had taken such drastic measures. He exvented harshly, glaring at Cygnet, and started to move forward with another medical stasis puck.
"Hey, Inaudax, I'm good-"
Inaudax stopped and then glared up at Cygnet and handed them the medical puck. "I'll let you do it to yourself then. It wouldn't be fair to leave you out since you started it."
Blitzstorm guffawed from the ground. "This was the best party I've been to in eons."
Cygnet swallowed and sat down on the ground, engaging the puck on his neck. Their frame stiffened as it went into stasis, and they noticed Inaudax and a few other medics that were present began going around to all the downed mechs, checking for injuries and patching them up.
Everyone was smiling, and Cygnet found themselves smirking. "I'd say it was one of the better ones as well."
Blitzstorm smirked back. "I still wanna see your paddle boat-alt."
Cygnet rolled his optics and wished they had gone to stasis somewhere else.