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glitch-after-dark · 3 months

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Animal Handler Rodimus/Merformer Thunderclash #4

More setup and a quick overview of the Rehab Center! Plus a surprise for Rodimus!

@sticky-mecha Not much Thunderclash yet, but he returns soon and we'll get more from his side!

@valve3nthusiast and @mychlapci, I hope you enjoy since it was partially inspired by the merformer posts.

Series TW: Noncon (Past), Treating a Sentient Person Like An Animal (Unknowingly on Rodimus's Part), Exhibitionism, Unwilling Public Sex, Abuse, Domestication, Kidnapping, Harassment, Stalking By Media, Mildly Genital Injury (Nothing Explicitly Described), Forced Orgasm, Mechpreg, Alcoholism (Briefly)

PART IV – Recovery and Reunion

Rodimus likes his new job, even if it does keep triggering moment of guilt and horror when he sees what an actual healthy setup from the studies should be. The Rehab Center doesn’t allow a lot of public visitors outside of the educational front area and small viewing areas, but there is nothing close to the actual merformers themselves. The facility takes up most of the west side of the island they are on, built into the ocean and cutting it off, allowing for large expansive areas designed for them as well as areas within the building. While it specializes in merformers it does have other animals rehabbing on the land facilities and Rodimus gets to meet them and sees the obvious differences.

The merformers in the facility as well are much healthier, plumper, more lively, less anxious, their colors and biolights brighter.

They have some that are temporary and intend to be released that they are more off hand with but others are more permanent due to injuries or socialization issues.

Drift is the most famous. After Rodimus got out and read more freely about merformers and the debates on their levels of sentience he heard about Drift who was famous for learning Hand though many debate it is a scam or due to the oddness of the field with merformers reading differently he isn’t communicating but just responding with the same pulses he’s receiving. They’ve tried to release him, he’s healthy, an experienced hunter, socialized, popular among his peers, but he absolutely refuses. He’s been caught before and was famously rescued from a merformers fighting ring by the head of he facility Ratchet and imprinted on him. When he was discovered years later caught up in a spill from a factory that caught up a nearby merformer nesting grounds he was evacuated to the Rehab Center for treatment.

While there he reunited with Ratchet and “imprinted” on him. He absolutely refused to leave despite all his group leaving (including Wing) and kept making courting behaviors and doting on Ratchet. He helps with socializing new captures and rearing orphaned pups to be released back into the wild after he raises them so he has a purpose there. Everyone jokes how he pined after Ratchet for years and only let him take care of him.

The Hand thing was a joke but he got so excited about it the interns showed him. They all knew he was intelligent and would come up with tests for him to do and tech but no one expected him to latch onto it and pick it up immediately. Or that once he learned some words he would terrify everyone by dragging Ratchet into the water to grab his hands and start screaming “RATCHET RATCHET RATCHET!” over and over with Hand while snuggling him beaming. Ratchet got things more organized and kept teaching him more and more complicated concepts and has been petitioning to change the sentience guidelines because Drift is proof just because merformers can’t speak Neocybex and have more instinct coding doesn’t mean they can’t communicate or have higher levels of thoughts.

It's been complicated due to them not being able to pass the Ambus Test and a lot of misinformation about Drift and lack of being able to repeat the experiment out of Ratchet’s facility because, as he keeps emphasizing, the merformers do not feel safe or inclined to account for them and some of the facilities are terrible. Dominus Ambus was actually involved as he was working to revise his own test to account for its own flaws which would he in his own alt mode couldn’t pass.

The other merformers in the facility except for Drift’s occasional pups also aren’t inclined to learn Hand. Most simply aren’t there long enough. Or don’t agree. Another issue with repeating the test.

Whirl refuses and his hands aren’t in a good shape for it though his caretaker Cyclonus is trying to adapt a different communication since he noticed that Whirl uses colors to communicate and Whirl is intelligent enough to build and rebuild things and socializes well with the janitor, Tailgate too. Whirl isn’t exactly one they want meeting the public though, given his general aggression.

Getaway is a menace who keeps breaking out every place they put him and has sired way too many pups. He was released but keeps showing back up in one of the cages whenever he wants, like a seasonal bother, during breeding season. Mostly to harass Skids, who is currently their other lead project trying to learn Hand from Drift. Though it has some difficulties because they are different subspecies which have different fields again so they are trying to adapt it and the fact they keep having to break due to Getaway knocking him up and distracting him. They’ve made some headway with a new Praxian hire Bluestreak adapting door wing language to match Skids’s fin wings.

Other members of the Rehab Center include: Overlord (who is kept carefully under lock and key and is not to be approached unless by trained and approved individuals, because he was a mech killer and actively hunted them. He was slotted to be put down before someone decided, in Ratchet’s words, to make him their problem), Sunstreaker (who was injured and grew attached to an Insecticon recovering in the land facility and they bonded and refuse to leave so they had to make a hybrid enclosure), Tarn (a siren-type with a similar backstory to Overlord and is one of the only times one with his ability was captured alive and is under strict care), Nautica and her sorority (slotted to be released though with how much Nautica has bonded with Skids and her caretake Velocity she is likely going to voluntarily stay), etc.

Rodimus meets many of them and is excited to help out. It makes him feel like he’s making up for accidentally mistreating Thunderclash. Then when he gets read in on the they are probably sentient as we are but that’s being debated and meets Drift, things get even more wobbily for him emotionally. He has a lot of dreams and nightmares mixed up with memories about his time with Thunderclahs. Ratchet and he bond though Rodimus is a little terrified of him finding out about his past.

It’s very good for him and he is making friends and a life for himself, but his libido hasn’t died down and if anything has gotten worse, leading him to regularly hookup most nights and still feels weirdly unsatisfied and craving something. For all he’s mentally recovering he is also eating a lot more and emotional regulation wise he’s getting occasional mood swings, sore back, and he’s started to have his pain dull and get exhausted as the craving in him increases that his hookups are not satisfying.

Ratchet’s the one who finally sits him down to confront him, having been a former doctor in Iacon, and tells him he needs to talk to his doctor because its obvious he needs to increase his transfluid donations because they are not meeting his frame needs and if this keeps up he’ll start cannibalizing himself. Ratchet after enduring Rodimus’s obvious confusion realizes Rodimus doesn’t know he is pregnant. The facility had all kind of largely known because of Drift’s treatment of him. Drift is good for pegging when someone is carrying and treats them accordingly. Since Rodimus wasn’t talking about it though they were respecting his privacy.

Ratchet takes Rodimus to the hospital and hooks him up with a doctor, they estimate how along he is and realize he is much, much too small and behind on building materials so he is put on a strict diet and twice daily donations unless he want to abort. Ratchet calms him down and lets him talk out his emotions and Rodimus figures it happened during his post-trial sex marathons. After awhile thinking about he decides to keep it, Orion, despite Rodimus’s protests, did set him up a trust fund so he never feels pressured to fall into a bad situation again and Rodimus hasn’t been touching it due to complicated feelings but it would allow him to support himself. Plus he likes this area, far away from anyone who knows him and Ratchet goes ahead and tells him they were planning to offer him permanent position once his trial ended and his certificate was granted. The facility has a onsite daycare something Ratchet pushed for when he was pregnant with Medix and Minerva, his sparklings.

Rodimus has a support system and slowly tells everyone, getting healthier (but still feeling unsatisfied sexually), no longer seeking out hookups as often (it was mostly the cravings and the island is a bit too small population wise to keep things from getting awkward and people are more wary now that he has a belly unless they are really into it), and dealing with everyone openly being happy and supportive for him and weirdly enough the merformers reaction to when his belly pops changing.

They are all, without exception, preening for him or doting on him in equal measure. His coworkers explain that it’s a pretty normal reaction and merformers themselves commonly find signs of fertility attractive and, they point to Drift and Ratchet, are known for cross species attraction. There are quite a few jokes about how Drift was when Ratchet was pregnant that people then skirt away from when Ratchet approaches. Drift is the most excited for it and grabs Rodimus’s hands to project congratulations and even pets his belly, before grinning, crookedly and pressing Rodimus’s hand to his own and feeling a hardness there. Rodimus is startled but supposes that for all Drift’s imprinting he does still socialize and share the pool with other merformers, who Rodimus has learned are not shy about public sex and it is incredibly common to the point he’s desensitized at this point and visitors have to sign waivers to acknowledge they might see them getting frisky.

Things are actually going pretty well when they get news about a transfer request from another facility. Rodimus doesn’t think much of it until Ratchet sits Rodimus down and explains, seriously, that it would be Thunderclash transferring.

Rodimus feels like he’s been hit by a truck but says he’ll be fine especially after hearing the reason behind the request is that Thunderclash has health issues, and they want him comfortable because they are convinced he is going to die from complications and Ratchet’s Rehab Center is famous for care. Rodimus is deeply upset because he’d made a point to not investigate it at first and when he’d tried later couldn’t find out and couldn’t bring himself to mention it to Ratchet because that would mean telling about his past. Ratchet, during the talk, reveals he already knew. He just had been respecting Rodimus’s privacy.

Rodimus braces for Thunderclash’s return and hopes for the best. He’s taken to talking the Drift about his feelings while doing rounds and confesses everything that happened to him while Drift makes sympathetic chirps and coos and eventually grabs Rodimus’s hands to convey just pure comfort and support wordlessly, which Rodimus appreciates.

#valveplug #rodiclash #merformers #animal handler roddy/merformer thunderclash au #mech preg #past noncon

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