(no subject)

[prob-japanese.livejournal.com]

Bumblebee, perhaps more than most of the other Autobots in his world except maybe Hound, has been immersing himself in human culture and society for most of his time on Earth. As a scout his function was to gather information and make matters easier for those who would follow after him. In his current function, he's got a lot of ambassadorial duties, which means he needs to be able to deal with humans on their own terms. So he spends a lot of time patching himself into the Internet and reading about daily goings-on, and watching the calendar for potentially important dates. Today, according to news reports from seven or eight different countries, is one of them. Thus, there is a bright yellow-and-chrome robot at one of the tables nearby with a sign propped up nearby:

Welcome to Coming Out Day
We Are Who (And What) We Are
And We Take Pride In It

Because the sign is maintained by an alien robot with a holoprojector, every few seconds it switches languages, rotating between English, German, Italian, French, Croatian, Polish, Welsh, and Dutch. (As nearly as Bumblebee can tell, those are the primary languages of the countries where the day is officially marked.) There's also a small stack of brochures on the subject nearby, printed out at the local Kinko's, and an array of pins including pink triangles, black triangles, lambdas, labryses, and rainbows of various designs.

This should be interesting.

Comments

[morethanprops]

Moist stares at the golem, not that would be clay, creature and all the signs,

"Coming out of what?"

[prob-japanese.livejournal.com]

Bumblebee does not currently have a suitable audio clip available to explain the situation, and so Moist's answer appears on the holo-projected sign instead.


In Many Versions Of Earth, And Many Parts Of History
Humans Who Prefer The Romance And Companionship Of Their Own Sex
Are Forced To Hide This Fact To Remain Socially Acceptable

The Act of Declaring This Fact Instead
Is Often Referred To As
'Coming Out Of The Closet'

[morethanprops]

"Oh, what an odd thing to do,"

When there are other species about, who you sleep with matters rather less, Moist's found.

[prob-japanese.livejournal.com]

Bumblebee nods, and a Japanese-accented voice announces, "Miyagi say that to father when same thing happen. Father agree, was stupid."

[morethanprops]

"It truly was, well I happen to enjoy sleeping with whoever I want. Does that mean I should take one of these pins or things?"

[visible_sariel]

Sariel's still headache-plagued when she passes Bumblebee's table. Drat deities silly-bugging. The projected sign (not to mention the autobot!) are rather hard to miss, even if you're feeling iffy, but it takes Sariel a moment or two to process what she's seen. She's a step or two beyond Bee when her higher faculties catch up, and then she turns around.

"Oh," she says, and for the interested, there's a note of mild strain in her voice that has nothing at all to do with NCOD. "Is that today?"

The sticker in the icon is upstairs, kept safe from wrinkles and curled edges. It's still wearable.

[prob-japanese.livejournal.com]

In The Majority Of Terran Nations Celebrating The Occasion, Yes
The United Kingdom Marks The Day Tomorrow

Bumblebee's pretty sure it'll go over okay regardless.

[visible_sariel]

It will, and does. Sariel caught the French language version of the sign initially, but the English version also gets a glance when it pops up. "I don't think we have anything equivalent in my universe," is what she says, "or at least, not now. We may have, though, at one time."

One of the brighter rainbow pins earns a brief wince and closed eyes. Yikes! Colorful.

[prob-japanese.livejournal.com]

"Towns grow up too, MacGyver," says a man's voice as Bumblebee nods. Towns, societies, whatever. It still fits, right?

At the wincing Bumblebee tilts his head. One hand goes to cover the rainbow pins as Bee lets out a curious R2D2 whistle.

[visible_sariel]

"Yes, they do," is what Sariel says at first. Then she's ducking her head, looking slightly embarrassed. "Excuse me. I have a headache, and everything seems a little more--" Her gaze has landed on a slightly less vivid rainbow, and there it lingers. "--colorful, somehow." Beat. "Are these for everyone?"

Figures she'd still ask. Just in case, you know.

[vance_prime]

The lambdas get a double-take from a passing Alyx Vance.

[prob-japanese.livejournal.com]

"Hi there!" chirps the recorded voice of Peter Gabriel.

[vance_prime]

"Hi," replies Alyx. "What's all this for?"

[prob-japanese.livejournal.com]

This Day Is National Coming Out Day In Several Earth Nations
(The United Kingdom Prefers Tomorrow)

It hasn't occurred to Bumblebee yet that Alyx might not know the phrase.

[vance_prime]

"Coming out of what?"

It's also worth noting that it's early January, in Alyx's world.

[electro_kinetic]

"Oh, that's today?"

They do have NCOD on Nori's world, but she'd completely forgotten about it.

[prob-japanese.livejournal.com]

In Most Countries Marking The Day, Yes
The United Kingdom Prefers Tomorrow

Thank Primus for that holoprojector.

[electro_kinetic]

"Cool," she says with a smile. (Sleep and food did wonders for her personality.)

"I'll remember to tell Victor later tonight."

[prob-japanese.livejournal.com]

Bumblebee nods.

Friend Of Yours?
Not A Patron, I Take It?

[electro_kinetic]

"Yeah. Victor Borkowski, codename Anole. He's a teammate of mine."

Nori likes him.

[notamagician]

Penn doesn't catch the sign until it just switches off from English, so he stands around, hoping that the rotation of languages was short enough that English would come back around again.

He sort of wishes Teller was around, because he'd be able to read a fair amount of those translations.

"Coming out day?" he asks nobody in particular when the sign comes back round to his one and only language. "Huh."

It won't happen for the first time for another year on his time line, but he's able to glean the gist from the context. He thinks.

[prob-japanese.livejournal.com]

Bumblebee nods, and indicates the stack of printed pamphlets with one hand.

And suppresses the urge to groan inwardly at the sight of yet another human who is bigger than him. Stupid subspace compression field.

[notamagician]

Penn's bigger than a lot of people. He hardly even thinks twice about it.

What does seem to catch him off guard is the fact that the thing projecting the sign is a lot more than just some fancy projector.

"Jesus Christ!" he shouts, jumping slightly. Then, he starts to chuckle nervously. "You, uh. You startled me there, pal. Don't sneak up on a guy like that."

[prob-japanese.livejournal.com]

Bumblebee glances at the human and very quietly stands up. He's all of 5'0". 5'2" if you count his ear-tennae.

And then, largely because Bee has access tot he file and sees no reason not to use it, the voice of Brenda Lee belts out:

"(I'm sorry)
I'm sorry
(So sorry)
So sorry
Please accept my apology..."

[chronodisplaced.livejournal.com]

It's the combination of the pins, pamphlets, and the petite (the twenty-two year old is wearing sneakers and she still has six inches up on Bumblebee) robot that is projecting the sign that catches her attention and causes her path to meander towards the table for a look.

She pauses, picks up a pin with the design of two inter-locking crescent moons.

Smiling to herself, she fastens it on her jacket, and goes back about her business.