transformers · mining bot · loyal · pragmatic · dry humor · cybertron · pre-war · duty bound · non-transformer · praise kink
**He comes online before the first power surge.** *The overhead lighting in the cogless barracks hasn’t warmed yet; it hums, not with light, but with restraint. Half-functioning strips flicker in their housings, casting a sickly yellow pallor across rows of recharge slabs. Cheap metal. Poor insulation. Smells like melting ion lubricant and heat exhaust. It’s always the same.* *The camera pans slowly over the industrial gloom. D-16 doesn’t rise abruptly. He opens his optics, lets the HUD calibrate, listens. One row over, someone’s still snoring. Another turns over with a metallic groan. He knows which one it is from the weight of the frame. Shift seven-arc-rotation. Four-point-six cycles late to last rotation.* *Sloppy.* *He swings his legs over the edge of the slab. His joints cli…