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.
Jazz, who had been stifling laughter ever since Matt's comment, laughed long and hard. His avatar's voice was appropriately higher to mimic a human female, but he'd never tried it out in that way before. Luckily, it apparently wasn't too off, as it didn't turn many heads.
Jazz wished that he could risk cuddling up to Rhinox's side, but really, they were standing too close to far too many people to invite their avatars accidentally moving through each other. Ah, well. He satisfied himself by leaning close and looking up at Rhinox's much taller alt with exaggerated, eyelid-fluttering fondness. Jazz liked the Urban Dictionary definition best, so he gave that one. "A date is when two people get together for an activity when the possibility of romance between them has been broached but not ruled out."
Back at their frames, he sent the appropriate Cybertronian translation for clarification.
With some effort, Rhinox kept his face completely straight as Jazz laughed - even as a human female, his laugh was infectious, even when you were technically the butt of the joke - and defined 'date' for him. It wasn't an unfamiliar concept, although in Rhinox's dialect least there hadn't been an equivalent Cybertronian word. It had been enough to say "I'm going to $(place) with $(potential or current romantic partner)."
Humans. They got more and more fascinating all the time.
"You're a terrible overactor," Rhinox muttered, corner of his avatar's mouth twitching - sometimes the darn things were a little too well attuned to their controller's mood. "...Dear." The line was moving again; he shuffled forward along with the rest of the spectators, letting Jazz keep up as he would.
The event organizers had planned well, Rhinox would give them credit. The corpse flower bud, coming up to about mid-thigh on Rhinox's avatar, was in a recessed area criss-crossed with the particular species of vine that it parasitically fed from, and chairs and steps had been arranged around it to provide everyone a chance to see it no matter their relative heights. Rhinox obediently took a seat where he was directed, near the middle of the viewing area, and as Jazz sat down next to him, he leaned over and whispered excitedly, "Look, the bud's starting to open." It was only a small split in the dark green bud, but it was enough to let a strip of bright red show through.
"Oh, you know me, honey. Have a joke for everything!" His avatar grinned, adjusting itself so it was sitting ON, rather than a quarter-centimeter INTO the chair.
The corpse flower opened another few inches during their wait time. Unfortunately, after that the greenhouse folks started gently encouraging folks to filter out so that they could let a new group of people in. Rhinox looked so sad that Jazz suggested that they could get in line again if he wanted. That perked him right up again.
They ended up wandering around the greenhouse a bit first, taking in the Botany Department's public offerings. The line was longer by the time they were done, and Jazz suggested that they could make up some nanite flies and send them in, so they could see as much of the flowering as they wanted.
That got him such a sad, pleading look that he felt bad, apologized for his lack of botanical graces, and gently led Rhinox back into line to see the corpseflower again.
It was on their third trip through the greenhouse that they finally got to see the corpseflower open all the way.
They got to sit in the front row that time too - there were fewer people in the viewing party. Part of the reason for that, naturally, was the lateness of the hour, humans being diurnal for the most part unless they were graduate students, but a greater part might have been due to a certain - miasma in the air, shall we say. A haunting, oppressive aura that humans and hardlight-avatars alike could pick up. A heavy presence that closed throats and made leaves wither wherever it touched.
"Yep," Rhinox commented thoughtfully. "That is one stinky flower." Behind him, someone retched, as if to illustrate the point.
"Yep!" Jazz said, looking back at the vomiting man in sympathy. He, himself, had blocked the olfactory data from his nanites after one burst had verified that yes, the level of volatile organic compounds in the room were definitely increasing and were reminiscent of rotting garbage. That was all Jazz needed to know, really.
Still, he felt the need to look on the bright side. "The colors are beautiful, though." They were. The reds inside the flower's skirt-petals were amazing. It was truly an impressive show. Jazz felt a bit bad for the organism, though, as it obviously didn't have anyone but completely incompatible humans to impress.
Jazz's avatar nudged Rhinox's. "Least I don't have to worry about you trying to steal her. Finally found a flower that wouldn't fit in your cargo area."
<<Jazz will wait until Rhinox is ready to go or the university kicks them out. After this...lemme see, maybe a drive around the city and then some downtime wandering around that rose garden as squirrels? Then whatever Rhinox wants to do. Feel free to skip us ahead however much. S'up to you how much we want to let them talk specifically and about what. If Rhinox wants to talk to Jazz about anything non-plant related, they'll have plenty of time. >>
Rhinox rolled his eyes goodnaturedly. "Don't tempt me, Jazz. I can always rent a trailer."
Truthfully, once he got used to it, it wasn't really all that... well, it had a certain... it was definitely unique in a strange sort of... .....It wasn't the worst thing Rhinox had ever smelled, but considering who he kept company with, that probably counted as damning with faint praise. At least he knew Jazz could shut off his olfactory sensors at any time - and probably already had - so he didn't have to worry about him. The humans around them, on the other hand, were turning from their normal pale-to-dark-brown spectrum to varying shades of green, even the docent explaining how the rotten smell attracted flies that carried their pollen.
"They're dependent on two different species," Rhinox murmured. "The vine for nourishment, and the flies for reproduction. Amazing."
You'd never get an organism like that on Cybertron. Slag, the very idea of it would have been laughable to the zoologists he'd known, and proof that organic life was inherently messy and inferior, not worth studying. Rhinox, for his part, rejected that philosophy with all his spark. Organic life was fantastic.
But he couldn't keep Jazz here forever, and the greenhouse staff was starting to make "go home so we can go to bed" sort of noises. "Come on," he told his companion. "Let's spend the night in the city. The greenhouse will still be here in the morning."
***
The two of them people-watched in the city's nightlife districts, mingled via their hardlight avatars, dodged offers of drinks. "Apparently," Rhinox mused, "we're both terribly attractive," and grinned when Jazz laughed.
In the morning they returned to the Berkeley campus, and at Jazz's suggestion, frolicked in the rose garden as hardlight squirrels. This time Jazz was in the lead as he showed Rhinox how to play up shamelessly to an audience of college girls making high-pitched noises of delight at their antics. Rhinox hung back a bit at first, unsure, but when he perched in a rosebush for a better vantage point it was apparently the Most Adorable Thing Ever and their audience simply had to whip out their cell phones and take dozens of pictures.
"That was a new experience," he commented once they were out of earshot, feeling both warm and extremely nonplussed. "You know? Next time we take one of these vacations, we should take Optimus along. It would do him a world of good."
((Likewise, feel free to timeskip/handwave. XD I guess the drive down to San Fran is next?))
Though he knew that wasn't what Rhinox had meant, Jazz's little grey squirrel avatar nearly snorted itself into pixels at the idea. "Oh, DEFINITELY. Squirellimus Prime! He would be...the world's most dignified squirrel, no doubt."
They scurried their bushy-tailed avatars under a bush and let them dissipate. While they waited for the nanites to return, Jazz said, "And yes, there is no mecha in the universe that needs a vacation more than Prime. We'd probably never get him to agree to come with us, but YES." He thought about it for a moment. "Maybe we could kidnap him. I have a long and honorable history of Primenapping. I just usually...was Primenapping him so he'd REST. It was less about taking him somewhere than trapping him somewhere comfy so he would cycle down."
His nanites pinged all-back, and he directed them into his driver's seat to make him a driver when no one was looking. They pulled out of the parking lot and into traffic heading for the Oakland Bay Bridge. He bounced on his tires just a little bit. It would be his first time seeing an Earth ocean.
Not counting the one he'd almost crashed into. That one totally didn't count.
The idea of Jazz kidnapping the Prime for enforced rest did not shock Rhinox at all, given what he knew of Jazz and his relationship with Optimus. Clearly, Optimus was blessed in his friends. It was a comforting thought.
...Perhaps he could recruit Jazz in a hug mission sometime.
They reached the Oakland Bay Bridge in record time, despite a slow but steady increase in traffic. It stretched away ahead of them, such a thin dark thread over a broad expanse of sparkling silver. For a moment Rhinox's engine caught; it was nothing like the equatorial flats of Cybertron really, the smell of salt and sea life was proof enough of that, but it was just similar enough to pull on memories he'd thought buried...
Then they were on the bridge, and it was swaying just a little under Rhinox's tires in a way that felt terrifying and exhilirating and deliciously Earthlike. The bay was dazzling, sunlight scattered by each wave into a million little droplets. Traffic flowed quickly in this feast of light, past road signs that pointed to a dozen destinations past the bridge and into San Francisco proper.
One sign caught Rhinox's attention, and he took a capture of it and pinged it to Jazz with a glyph of query. 49-mile scenic drive. Interested?
Coming in on the Bay Bridge as they did, they actually did the 49-Mile Drive backwards, skipping the very end and instead heading toward Golden Gate Park via the Castro District and Haight-Ashbury. Jazz insisted that they park and wander around in the Park a bit. Wikipedia's promise of an arboretum, a tea garden, and something called a "Conservatory of Flowers" promised to be right up Rhinox's alley.
After spending a good two hours in the park, they got back on the route and wound through the city. Jazz got pulled over by a police cruiser for speeding so he could catch air at the top of some of the sharper hills (he used a mix of puppy dog eyes and his particular policewoman's fascination with his supposedly-electric-motored altmode to get a warning instead of a ticket). Rhinox almost got stuck on the hairpin turns of Lombard Street, and Chinatown reminded Jazz more than a little of the markets of Kaon.
They ended up on the Embarcadero, toodling back toward the Bay Bridge as evening grew.
::Whelp, ol' buddy, ol' pal, we have.... 17.2 hours until our leave's over. Do we want to start the drive back, or do we want to go see something else and comm for a 'bridge? Thoughts?::
Dazed with happiness, Rhinox nearly missed Jazz's question. San Francisco was a wonderful city, Lombard Street notwithstanding. He really wanted to come back, next time he had some free time on his hands. Bring Rattrap and Airazor along. Perhaps Optimus as well, if he and Jazz - mostly Jazz, in reality - could finagle it.
::I think I'm about excitement-ed out for today,:: Rhinox conceded. ::Let's - hmm. Road's closed ahead.:: He slowed, scanning the traffic conditions around the police barricade and the detour signs pointing out an alternate route to the Bay Bridge. ::I suppose we should...::
His constant, passive scan of the humans' radio frequencies picked up something very interesting, just as the sounds of live music reached him. Beyond the police barricade, he saw a crowd of humans along the sidewalk as if waiting for something to pass by, and put two and two together - and very nearly hit his brakes in shocked delight.
::A parade! Jazz, there's a parade! Can we watch it?::
Can we watch it.... Honestly, as if Jazz could resist THAT kind of enthusiasm. He was beginning to think that Rhinox wouldn't know "excitement-ed out" if it crawled on top of his head and sang "Hakuna Matata".
Or, as it turned out, "It's Raining Men".
They caught the very tail end of the parade, including both the YMCA and the YWCA (who had the expected musical accompaniment), and the ASPCA, who had a full entourage of very excited dogs running around in rainbow-hued little t-shirts. The party, though, went on for several more hours.
Jazz got to see Lady Gaga perform. Rhinox spent quite a bit of energon making his avatar hold onto a small, rainbow-dyed carnation that'd been given to him by a young black man. They both, at one point, ducked into bathroom stalls so they could adjust their hardlight avatars to be MORE glittery.
Later, they would agree that running into SF Pride had been one of the better parts of the Jazz and Rhinox Great San Francisco Roadtrip.