We are a literate, intermediate to advanced AU Transformers RPG Based off of the first season of TFP with dashes of other incarnations sprinkled here or there. Characters from any continuity are welcome however must be restyled to match the TFPrime universe.
Active, with ongoing plotlines, we are always willing to integrate new characters into storylines once incorporated into the setting.
Mistake, Shadow berated herself, attacking her left wrist rotor with a scrub brush. Shouldn't have reacted. Should have just let the little glitch run his vocalizer. Slagging stupid mistake. Just like thinking of this place as home.
She dug caked dirt from between delicate gears with enough ferocity to make herself wince, a static hiss of pain emerging from her vocalizer before the ring of heavy steps approaching caught her attention. She shuttered her optics, venting long and slow as she forced her EMF away from her frame, longwave and relaxed. Nothing wrong; she'd apologize to Rhinox for over-reacting, and there wouldn't be anything anyone would need to hear about.
Rhinox felt the flutter of EMF before he saw his target - sharp and brittle against his armor before smoothing out far too quickly. Must have heard my approach. Not made for stealth.
He kept his step even, as if he hadn't sensed anything strange at all, and halted a respectful distance away from Shadow to resonate apology/rueful/tentative olive branch at her. "Sorry about Rattrap," he offered. "He never learned the fine art of self-censorship."
Rhinox's apology surprised Shadow, though she didn't let it show. She did, however, offer him a smile, a little rueful humor of her own slipping into her field. "It's all right. I'm just," a dozen pejoratives ran through her processor, "difficult. It's a known personality flaw that I'm supposed to be fixing."
Rhinox smiled, letting some relief show in his face and field. "No, not at all. You handled it very well," he assured her. "I'm used to people tossing him into the nearest blunt object they can find. Sometimes that's me."
He claimed the next showerhead over, sighing in relief as the warm cleanser spray started its work on the streaks of mud still clinging to him. His EMF went positively placid with bliss, and a low hum issued from his vocalizer. Ahhh... heaven.
Rhinox's presence was surprisingly soothing, and if Shadow was still manufacturing most of her own good mood, at least it was getting easier to keep up the lie. She flared her plating, twisting under the spray, and said, "The clay content in this muck is ridiculous. Next time you want to rescue plants, pick some that are growing in something that'll be easier to wash off, okay?"
Rhinox chuckled and reached for a brush that would fit into his smaller joints. "I'll keep that in mind. Next time we'll rescue flowers from someplace with a high loam content."
He worried, still, about the sunrays, shoved in a crevice outside. Maybe he should go check on them in a bit. Though he didn't relish having to explain what he was doing sneaking out during shift change to go look at a toolbox full of slightly sodden plants.
"Speaking of our floral refugees, what are you going to do with them?" Shadow dropped to one knee, turning her brush on the joints of her leg. She could feel grit scraping with every move, and suspected no matter how carefully she cleaned, she was going to spend the next week with her joints scraping themselves raw. "I'm guessing from the name sunrays that they won't be happy if you try to keep them inside the base."
It was a few long moments before Rhinox answered beyond a thoughtful hum. "Next patrol," he said, "I'll find a good place to plant them. Assuming it's not raining," he added with a rueful smile at nothing in particular - his optics being off. "And I'll see if the humans know anything about flowers, so they can help me make sure the replanting goes smoothly. Apparently they can grow all kinds of plants wherever they want pretty much at will - it's called gardening." A wistful flutter in his EMF. "I wonder if Optimus Prime would let me have a patch of ground outside the base, so I could try it."
"Not going to happen," Shadow said firmly, before she thought better of it. "That kind of activity near the base would be too risky." A slight brush of apology against his field. "Not saying you won't get your garden, just that it'll probably have to be at the end of a ground bridge."
Rhinox's shoulders slumped, though his field responded with warmth to Shadow's wordless apology. "Oh well. I hate to use up base resources bridging back and forth to a garden. Maybe when... conditions are different."
When the war is over escapes him in his field, to his own surprise. He hadn't known he still believed in an end to the war. It wasn't that it was outside the realm of possibility - logically, all wars ended, even if only with the death of the warriors - but the idea of him living to see it, or able to consider a future beyond it, was strange.
"It's not my call to make," Shadow said. She shifted position so she could scrub at her other leg, humming thoughtfully as she ran calculations based more on risk of detection than conservation of resources. "But given the present amount of ground bridge use, I doubt adding one more round trip per day would put a strain on our resources." Primus knew, she and Bumblebee put the bridge to at least that much illicit use.
"I think you should talk to Prime about it. If he clears your garden, I'll scout the areas you pick until we find one that's secure enough for routine use."
Rhinox's field brightened with hope; he favored Shadow with a smile. "I'd like that. Thank you." He nodded and straightened, reaching for a brush with a longer handle to get his backplates. "I think I will talk to Prime," he said, and arched against the bristles with a deep engine-purr. "The worst he can say is no."
The warm rush of hope through Rhinox's field made Shadow smile in return. "If you think you need more backup, talk to Jazz first. He seems to be in favor of people having hobbies." She chuckled a little, straightening, plates across her back and shoulders flaring in another attempt to get the cleanser spray at the last of the mud. "Just don't grow anything that'll give him an excuse to send us all out at harvest time, because that is not the kind of team building exercise I want to participate in."
"And Jazz seems to be able to talk Prime around in a lot of cases," Rhinox observed wryly. "He's a valuable ally."
He twisted a little, letting out a grunt of effort - but it was no good. He could still feel the mud itching on his back, and he couldn't bend his arm back enough to reach it. He huffed in defeat and offered the brush to Shadow. "You scrub my back, I scrub yours?"
If you can get him as an ally. Something more complex than bitterness accompanied the thought, and Shadow was careful to modulate it out of her field. She tipped her helm back under the spray, buying herself a klik before she had to answer.
"Jazz can be persuasive," she finally allowed. Not always a good thing, but in Rhinox's case it might be. "Even when you know what he's up to. It's what makes him so good at his job."
She chuckled a little at Rhinox's request, turning of her spray and taking the brush from him. "You're a little taller than I am," she pointed out, gesturing toward his mud streaked shoulders. "Little help?"