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.
"Are you sure?" Rhinox was asking, but he was already putting his hand out again, his avatar drifting inorexably closer to the tree. Back in the parking lot, he rocked forward a little on his tires, as if in his awe he'd forgotten which form was truly his.
Brown fingers pressed against the bark, the nanite matrix that made up the holoform's shape communicating tactile and data back to Rhinox's processor. The tree was rough and warm to the touch, and Rhinox could feel deep fissures in the bark and traced them up as high as his avatar could reach. On impulse, he spread both arms and pressed himself to the trunk, seeing how far his arms could reach around it. Result: not far at all.
((OOC: Come on, like Rhinox could get out of here without giving the tree a hug. ))
Jazz mechfully resisted the urge to "D'aaaaaaaw!" and instead settled for just recording the whole thing.
He could even post this on Youtube and Optimus couldn't yell at him for it. Miko'd be SO jealous.
He tilted his avatar's face back, enjoying the warmth and photon-pressure of the sunlight on the nanites, now that there wasn't anyone around to see how the light fell THROUGH his face. He didn't say anything, just let Rhinox commune with his new friend.
Blissfully unaware of the imminent assault on his dignity and YouTube anonymity, Rhinox turned to beam beatificially at his travel partner. "Jazz, this is amazing," he said. "How did you find this place? -No, don't tell me. The Internet, right?"
He turned back to the massive tree, smile shining brightly in the sunlight. "It's amazing, isn't it? Not just that lifeforms like this exist, but that humans willingly travel any amount of distance to see them and be amazed by them. I suppose I'm no different."
Jazz chuckled, pulling her knees up to swing her legs . "Of course, the Internet. Had to pick and choose. I mean, there's roughly a million botanical gardens and state parks in California, evidently. We can hit as many of 'em as you want. More if we ask for a 'bridge back. If you want to drive home, though, we can go through Yosemite and hit, like, four or five different ecosystems as we go over the mountains back into Death Valley."
She held up a finger. "My only request is that we hit up San Fran for a drive. I don't even care if it's rush hour! Just wanna get a good view of the city and the people, ya know?"
Rhinox turned to face Jazz with a grin he couldn't keep off his face. "Of course, Jazz. To be honest, I haven't been in a major city yet. I'd love to see San Francisco."
Leaving the tree where it was (as if there were anything else he could do with it), Rhinox walked over to lean against the fence, though he wasn't quite confident enough to make his avatar perch on it like Jazz was doing. "So, are we doing San Fran on the way up or on the way back? The time factor is less pressing on the way back." And yes, he had the Countdown to Full Frontal Flowering running constantly in the back of his processor.
He did wonder, a little, why Jazz was catering to his interests to this degree, but - slag, maybe the mech just needed to get out of the base. And it wasn't if the mech wasn't welcome and engaging company.
"Oh, definitely San Fran on the way back. Or, maybe tonight if you want. The botanical garden's got extended hours due to all the botanical excitement, but it's still going to be closing for the evening. We should have enough time to get to it late this afternoon, if you want, or we could wait and be first in line tomorrow morning. Or both! Up to you. Stinky flower viewing is our main mission objective, here."
Jazz's avatar zoned out for a moment as another vehicle pulled into the parking lot and parked a few spaces down from their frames, disgorging a male and a female and two excited younglings.
"Flower, then city, then whatever other nature-seeing you want to do on the way back? How's that sound?"
Rhinox had to work to hide a grin at the multiple plans Jazz offered. Truly, it didn't seem to matter to either of them in which order things happened, as long as they got to Berkeley in time to see the bloom - and there was plenty of time. They could dawdle, take the back roads, sightsee a little along the way if they wanted, and Jazz was handing him the keys to the whole affair.
Rhinox had been told that he had an easygoing personality. Perhaps it was true. But in Jazz he saw something more: an ability, or perhaps a part of his nature, that could fold and twist, reshape itself to wherever it found himself - an extension, perhaps, of the ability to transform and blend in that their entire species shared. Jazz could make friends with anyone, be comfortable anywhere, adapt himself to any situation. The possibilities were endless when Rhinox thought about it. In Jazz, Prime had clearly found a most valuable ally.
"Let's do that, then," he agreed, shaping a map of their route in his processor. "Take the straight way to the stinky flower, then loop around through San Francisco and Yellowstone. With," he added with a sheepish smile, "one slight deviation, if you don't mind."
A small loop formed off of the straight part of the journey before he pinged the map to Rhinox. "Nurse Darby told me about a garden store that's pretty famous in the area," he explained. "I'll try not to tax my holoform's ability to carry things."
Jazz grinned. Rhinox's field was a mess of dopey/happy/thankful waves. Honestly, it was like no one'd ever indulged him before. Poor guy.
"Sounds like a plan. And really, I doubt that carryin' stuff TO the alt is gonna be the problem. More like trying to haul yourself back over the mountains carrying half a ton of vegetation."
The human family was setting off down the twisty path to the General.
She stood up, looking up at the impressive and ancient tree that was still only a tiny fraction of her own age. She aimed a companionable hit at Rhinox's shoulder that mostly succeeded in making both of their avatars ripple and blur for a nanoklik. "Incoming. Wanna deal with younglings or say good-bye to the General?"
((Dopey and Happy are obviously Rhinox's favorites out of the Seven Dwarves. ;P))
Rhinox glanced at the incoming family, then upwards, contemplating the environmental conditions. "...Let's say goodbye for now," he answered slowly. "The wind's picking up - a gust at the wrong time could start some unfortunate rumors that the forest is haunted." He gave Jazz a crooked grin and vacated his warm spot against the fence to approach the tree one more time.
"It was good to meet you," he murmured, pressing a hand to the bark, and feeling not the least bit foolish to have Jazz see him talking to a tree.
"And for the record," he added, starting back up the path, "I would not be hauling half a ton of vegetation back to base. I have some sense of restraint."
"Oh, excuse me," Jazz said, grinning as they started back toward their alt forms. Sure, they could have just dropped the avatars, but Rhinox was still rubbernecking at the trees with this goofy grin on his face, and hey, it was his roadtrip. "I do, of course, know that you are the picture of restraint. A QUARTER-ton."
They passed the human family, the kids peering up at the trees much like Rhinox was. They stopped running ahead and shyly waited for their parents to catch up when they saw Rhinox and Jazz. The parents herded them along with brief smiles for the other trail-goers.
When they got back to the road, Jazz made a show of having his avatar actually open his car door and climb in, just to see if he could. Not a bad first try, for all that he put the avatar's hand through his window at one point. "A'right. Stinky flower, here we come! How we doin' on flowering time?"
"Oh, pff. Don't try to snark me, Snarkmeister Jazz. I'll have you know snark is my natural habitat."
Far too amused with both Jazz and himself, Rhinox used the extra time to practice more with his avatar. Like Jazz, he managed to show his avatar opening his door and getting in with only a minor fumble or two. "Eight hours, twenty-eight minutes, forty seconds," he reported promptly - of course he had that clock running as a subprocess in the back of his mind. "Plenty of time."
This time, he led the way, pulling out of the parking lot and onto the road.
***
Rhinox did not, in fact, leave the Sunny Acres Garden Center with a quarter-ton, nor yet even a half-ton, of Earth vegetation. (A full ton was right out.) A couple of packets of seeds, a new rake that would be a delicate tool in his big hands, and a lot of advice and gardening stories from the friendly employees were enough to content him. "Jazz," he called, waving to where Jazz was laying on flattery and friendliness to a tired-looking female human with two young ones in a stroller. "Five and a half hours."
It wasn't the time-crunch it sounded like, but Rhinox wanted to factor in plenty of wiggle room, in case there was traffic on the next leg of their journey.
There was, of course. But there was still a good hour to spare when Rhinox spotted the "UC Berkeley Exit 1 Mile" sign. "Almost there," he commented happily, flickering his headlights.
"Almost!" Jazz said, his attention coming back from where he was listening in on half a dozen conversations in the cars around them. The traffic crawling around them was the highest concentration of humans that he'd yet encountered, and the idling engines and hum of machinery combined with the voices and life all around was at once very like and very UNlike Cybertron or any of the other planets Jazz had visited. Jazz loved seeing new species--mechanoid or organic, flying or ground-bound--seeing how they congregated, how they communicated, what music they made. Every planet, he'd learned, was unique and beautiful in its own way.
Well, except that mudball in that one system. That'd been pretty ugly.
The clock on Jazz's dashboard clicked over to 5pm. The Botany Department website, though, had already announced extended viewing hours, so hopefully they'd have no problem seeing the flower before they closed the building for the evening. Maybe they could come back in the morning, if Rhinox wanted to commune some more. Until then they could tool around San Fran's night spots with nothing but a little evening shower to worry about.
"Anything else you want to see while we're in Berkeley, Rhinox? Berkeley Rose Gardens? Oooh, and there's a science museum!" Jazz forwarded Rhinox the link to the Lawrence Hall of Science. It would be laughably simple to a Cybertronian engineer, but Jazz suspected that Rhinox would be delighted by little organic younglings running around being excited by science.
There was no doubt they wouldn't have time to see everything. Honestly, finding things that Rhinox would like was just too easy. It was so very refreshing.
Unable to put his joy into words, Rhinox settled for flooding the air between them with delighted glyphs, bright as Earth's single moon. He practically floated, tires barely touching the ground, down the access road and into the visitors' parking lot on Berkeley's main campus.
This late in the day, they didn't need to pay or get a visitor's pass, and the parking lot was half-empty and filled with shadows that made it safe to have holoforms walking around. Rhinox activated his holoform again, making a show of stretching as if releasing cramped human muscles from a long day of driving, and grinned as Jazz pulled in beside him.
"I'm almost afraid to choose," he admitted. "I feel like whichever one I pick, I'm going to spend so much time there that I'll miss out on the other one." He checked the countdown - a good hour and a half before the big event, plenty of time to get a good seat. "Why don't we," he mused, "ask someone who lives here what they prefer? It's always better to get recommendations from a native, right?"
"That," Jazz said, as his holoform climbed out of his alt, "is an excellent idea, my mech. Or I guess I should say 'man'." She winked at him. "M'sure we'll meet some like-minded folks at the greenhouse. Who better to ask than botanists, eh?"
As they walked across the parking lot, Jazz jerked a thumb at a few newsvans parked closer in, remarking that the Botany Department would get some good publicity, at least. They saw more of it as they got closer to the greenhouse. Signs and graduate students seemed to be posted to herd all the corpseflower viewers through one door and into a line that wound its way through an outer hall lined in shelves holding pots, dirt, and gardening implements. Jazz concentrated on keeping his nanite reflectivity right, as his avatar was sandwiched close between Rhinox and a rather tall gentleman in a tweed jacket.
A young man with a "Hi! My name is Matt! Ask me about the corpseflower!" nametag made his way down the line, handing out photocopies with information about the flower and answering questions with a cheerful smile. Every now and then, in an exaggerated but good-natured way, he would remind everyone that the department took donations. Donations to support poor, starving botany students! Donations to allow them to do wonderful research on medicinal plants and how to breed better fruits and vegetables! Donations accepted in that red box right over there!
Jazz thought that this human would have done fine hustling just about anywhere in the universe, with the rate he weaseled bills and handfuls of change out of those in line. Some skills were useful no matter the species.
Last Edit: Sept 24, 2012 23:38:20 GMT -5 by Deleted
Nanites projected data, so it was easy to simulate a credit card if you needed to purchase something in avatar mode. The program even made the 'credit card swiping' sound effect. Carrying cash was more difficult, but it could be done - if you had any.
Rhinox made a show of checking his pockets when Hi-My-Name-Is-Matt approached them, before shrugging apologetically. "I'll catch you next time," he said, "I promise." Matt gave him a friendly wave and a smile.
"No worries, dude. At least you didn't show up sans wallet to a date." The human's wry tone suggested he was speaking from experience. Rhinox chuckled obligingly and Matt moved on.
It was good to see that Rhinox wasn't the only one curious about the corpseflower. The line was long, but it moved quickly, the staff apparently skilled at packing spectators into a greenhouse. It wasn't long before Rhinox and Jazz found themselves stepping from the slightly warm but comfortable air outside into the very warm, very humid air inside: it was very green, very crowded, and - it must be said - smelled more like fruit and plants and water than it did corpses. At least for now. Rhinox could not have been more excited.