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.
Nope, Soledad is temporarily no help at all. She's too busy laughing herself sick.
"Sure, I'll try on the butt-sparkles, what the hell!" she called when she got a little breath back. "See if they have a size ten." She leaned against the clearance rack, one hand pressed to her mouth. This is either going to end terribly or epically awesome. If we get kicked out I'm going to laugh forever.
"How the hell did I get here," she asked the ceiling. Then Gavin shrieked again and, still giggling, she had to go see what he'd found.
In the end Soledad entered the dressing room with a pile of clothes: in addition to the orange jeans, a lemon-yellow pair of the same brand, and the butt-sparkle flares, there was a mottled light wash, a black bootcut with embroidered butterflies, and pink tapered-leg jeans with a retro-style Minnie Mouse painted down one leg. Plus a couple of semisheer, fluttery blouses that had caught Gavin's eye, because why not. The fitting room attendant had given them one hell of a side-eye before she noticed that Gavin was far more enthusiastic about the clothes than Soledad was. Soledad wondered if she'd replaced one variant of The Wrong Idea about them with another one.
"There is nothing that doesn't clash with these orange ones," Soledad called through the fitting room door, holding up a couple of blouses to herself before giving up and just coming out in her own loose T-shirt over the aforementioned eyesore of a pair of jeans. "See? Makes your eyes hurt, huh?"
By then Gavin was leaning over a rack of clothing on his folded arms, looking tired and happy. He had skipped all over the women's clothing section looking for clothing for Soledad to try on, and had enjoyed himself thoroughly as he went about his self-appointed task. At one point an older woman had worked up the nerve to ask the gregarious Autobot just why he kept dashing to and fro among the frilly garments. That had led into a long and rambling conversation about cats, her Toyota Prius, and the best detergents to use on coloured clothing versus your basic whites.
So Smokescreen got quite an education that day!
"Augh!" he said. He grinned and pretended to cringe back and shield his eyes with his hands. "It burns! Man, those jeans are crazy orange. They are the orangiest. You know, I'm totally stumped on this one. I can calculate a diversionary strategy in milliseconds and yet colour coordinating an outfit to go with those jeans defeats me. Like, my only answer is seriously chocolate. I have heard that orange and chocolate go great together. Hmm..."
He stared at the jeans, his eyes narrowed in thought. "I cannot allow these jeans to defeat me. I am a master tactician, dammit. Really. Lemme try something..."
Gavin sprang upright and disappeared back into the racks of clothes. He could be heard humming to himself as he hunted up and down the aisles.
When he eventually reappeared he had several articles of clothing draped over his arm. "Okay! All I could find was this-"
He held up a pretty brown blouse with curling autumn-coloured vines and flowers on it. "The chocolate thing made me think of brown. Maybe kinda too fancy though? And then there's this."
Gavin next held up- um. Well, it was silver. And sparkly. It was also a bikini top.
"Maybe it's a bit too glittery though. And kind of chilly in the winter. What is it anyway?"
Soledad and the fitting-room attendant glanced at each other as Gavin dashed off into the forest of clothes racks. The attendant lifted a hand. "He's kinda..." she waved a hand back and forth. "...that way, isn't he?"
Soledad rolled her eyes. "Not in the way you're thinking, but yeah. He's... something else, is all."
The attendant got to see how 'something else' Gavin when he returned triumphant, rather nice brown blouse in one hand and in the other - "Gavin. Gavin, what. Where did you even - no, don't tell me. I don't want to know."
"It's a bikini top," blurted the attendant, nonplussed. "I can find you the bottom if you want-"
"No thank you!"
Soledad stormed up, cheeks burning, and snatched the blouse out of Gavin's hand. "I'll explain what bikinis are later," she hiss-whispered, and retreated to the fitting room.
Agh! What does he think this is, spring break in Cancun? ...Breathe, Sole, breathe. He didn't know.
Changing shirts was the work of a moment, but Soledad lingered for longer, gazing at herself in the mirror. The blouse was a lot nicer than the T-shirts she always wore, all flowing lines and femininity. Wearing it, Soledad almost felt like there was a stranger in the mirror, an alternate-universe Soledad who'd never had to fight against girliness as her enemy. Who had the time and energy to care about her appearance.
It wasn't her at all. But it was nice to pretend for a moment.
More hesitant than the last time, Soledad emerged from the fitting room, flashing a brief, embarrassed smile.
Gavin was waiting outside the fitting room. He stood next to the attendant, who had evidently decided that the pair of them were the best entertainment in the entire store. The fact that Gavin now wore the sparkly bikini top slung casually around his neck like a scarf might have had something to do with it.
When Soledad stepped forward dressed in the loose blouse, he stopped chatting up the attendant and looked over. His eyes widened and for a moment he stared in amazement. Then he broke out into applause.
"Wow, Soledad, you look great!" he said. "Seriously, that blouse looks fantastic on you! You are a natural autumn. Don't ask me how I know that. But honestly, those colours look really nice with your hair and your eyes. And it fits perfectly!"
It was so odd seeing her out of her usual attire. Soledad seemed to be the most at home in jeans and a T-shirt. This outfit was much softer, almost formal. It was funny, he thought. They had just bought her paperwork to assert that she was older than she was, and yet these clothes seemed to bring out a poise and maturity to her stature. Maybe this was why human females were so particular at times about what they wore.
Gavin grinned at her, his eyes shining. "Think you'll buy it?"
Though she felt ridiculous, Soledad couldn't help doing a little twirl, laughing at Gavin's applause and blushing when the attendant joined in. "You're both full of it," she informed them, but she was spilling over with laughter and feeling like a beauty queen.
"I don't think so," she answered Gavin's question, retreating back to the fitting room before her cheeks could combust from blushing so hard. "I've only got enough money for one pair of jeans. And maybe a candy bar if I'm lucky. The shirt's really nice though." She chuckled. "You've got a good eye for women's clothes, shockingly enough."
With extreme reluctance, she stripped off the shirt and replaced it on its hangar, and followed it with the orange jeans, which were beginning to grow on her. Or maybe it was because of the shirt. She draped them over the chair - the 'maybe' pile - and reached for the next pair to try on.
Gavin draped himself over the fitting room rack, which was already full of other discarded clothing. He set his chin on the bar and let his arms hang down. He looked a little alarmed when she set the blouse and the orange jeans aside.
"Aww, but they look so good on you!" he said in chagrin. "You could wear them and go to, um. The prom! I still don't entirely know what kinds of formal events you guys go to. Wait, I know!"
His face lit up and he lightly smacked one fist into his open palm. "I could buy them for you! I'm already getting a blender. I'm buying a blender," he told the attendant, who gazed back at him with wide eyes. "I could put it all on my card! My Vegas card. Please, let me get you something special. Think of it as a cultural exchange. I would love to experiment with buying women's clothing!"
Eyes dancing, the attendant lifted a hand to her mouth and snickered.
"For someone else," he assured her hastily, waving both hands. "Someone else!"
Shameless snickers issued forth from Soledad's fitting room. Soledad was leaning against the door, butt-sparkle flares on but unbuttoned, one arm draped over her face as she laughed until her eyes teared up. "Oh god, Gavin. Never change," she said. "You have to promise me."
Is he seriously offering to buy me an outfit? ...One he thinks is appropriate for a prom, no less. I think he's a little unclear on the whole formalwear thing. Soledad glanced down at the jeans, sucked in a breath and tried to button them. I know exactly what Mami would say. Run away, hija! He's only after one thing. Don't trust any boy. ....You know what? I'm going to let him get it for me. I've never gotten a present from a guy before, and it's not like he's gonna want anything in return. ...Heh. To be super cliche, he's not like other boys.
Soledad decided she liked breathing better than the jeans, and kicked them into the 'don't want' pile. "Sure, okay. I'll, uh, give you that experience. ...Thanks."
And be quiet, she told the Mami that lived in her head. I'm independent now. I can let a guy buy me a present if I want to.
"Aw yesss," said Gavin. He stood tall and clenched one fist in triumph. "This is turning out to be a day full of awesome personal firsts. I'm gonna blog the hell out of this when I get back to ba- home. Home!"
"You don't get out much, do you?" said the attendant.
"Not really, no."
Gavin picked up the blouse and jeans and reverently laid them into the cart as if he were performing a sacred ritual. Then he grabbed its handle and stood on the back of it with renewed enthusiasm.
"Oh man, Soledad - you know where we've gotta go next?" he said. He bounced on the cart, lightly jolting its front wheels against the floor. "The toy section! I'm an adult human. Really. But seriously. I'd love to buy some ironic gifts for the guys back home. Like car models or something. I wonder if they have any motorcycles. Or transport trucks. If there is a blue Subaru on a shelf somewhere I'll laugh pretty hard. What about a black Impala for Shad- uh, hira. Shadhira. Don't tell her I said so, but I'm jealous of her car mo- car. Her car. Yeah."
He looked at the attendant. "Hey, outta curiosity - do you sell remote control cars in this store?"
"Probably," she said. She was laughing now.
"Nice! Think we could test-drive them up and down the aisle a bit?"
"If you get us kicked out of Wal-Mart, I'm going to tell the big guy," Soledad yelled over the fitting room door. Let Gavin fill in for himself which "big guy" he least wanted to know about such un-diplomatic shenanigans. Optimus Prime? Ironhide? Ratchet? My money's on Agent Fowler.
She emerged from the fitting room in her own comfortable clothes and laid the reject pile out on the rack to be reshelved. "All right," she confirmed, draping the pair that passed the "fits well, not an eyesore" test over her elbow, the Orange Pants and its attendant blouse having found its way to Gavin's cart. "Toy aisle. Let's go. Don't worry," she added to the attendant, "I'll be the Responsible Grownup enough for both of us."
The attendant laughed and waved them off. Soledad was pretty sure they'd made the woman's day.
The toy aisle was all the way in the back of the store near the electronics. The noise of the playtest stations followed them into the first aisle, which... Soledad giggled. "Welcome to the Nerf aisle, supplier of all your foam dart gun needs. You could totally justify this on your expenses. Call it training equipment." She took down a dart launcher from the shelf and waggled it at him, grinning. "Or just see if you can land a dart on a commanding officer's bumper without them noticing. You know you waaaaant to."
...So, Soledad's Responsible Grownup was still a work in progress.
The toy aisle was cheerfully bright and noisy. Gavin's eyes went wide as he stood back with the cart for a moment and tried to take it all in.
"Oh my god," he breathed. He rubbed his eyes. "This is brilliant. Could you imagine someone like Optimus walking around with a dart on his back and him not knowing it? Even better, Ratchet? I'd be a walking dead mech at that point, but it would be worth it."
He gawked at the row of Nerf weapons. It was like standing in the middle of a great foam armoury. He half expected to see Ironhide striding out from the far end of the aisle with two Nerf grenade launchers in each hand. And a water atomizing super soaker on his back.
Gavin laughed. He took a dart pistol off the rack and brandished it.
"Look at this bad boy!" he said. "Let's see here… 'Complete your mission even in the shadows with the FIRESTRIKE blaster! This compact blaster’s precision light beam targeting gives you laser-like focus even in low-light conditions! Activate the Light Beam Trigger to zero in on targets up to 15 feet away. The FIRESTRIKE blaster launches Elite Darts up to 75 feet! As with most N-STRIKE blasters, the Tactical Rail lets you add most N-STRIKE Tactical Rail accessories (sold separately) for more battle capability. Power up the Light Beam on your FIRESTRIKE blaster and get ready to take out your target with one shot! CAUTION: Do not aim at eyes or face.' Oh my god, do I seriously have optical targeting with this thing."
He playfully took aim at a nearby Dora the Explorer display. A pinpoint dot of light appeared right between Dora's eyes.
"I do!"
Gavin grinned sly at Soledad as an idea hit him. He dropped into a gunslinger crouch, the pistol held at his hip.
"I don't think this Wal-Mart is big enough for the both of us," he said. "Draw, cowgirl!"
"Oh my god," Soledad was laughing, but she was already copying Gavin's pose, her Speedstrike Blaster (its design made her think of Bumblebee) dangling at her hip. "Reach for the sky, pardner! I'm the fastest gun in the west!" So saying, she lifted the Beegun and aimed in the general vicinity of Gavin's grinning face. "Pew pew! Pewpewpew!" Sadly you couldn't actually fire the dart guns while they were in their packaging. Probably to ensure that the toys actually went home with their full complement of darts.
If you were going to be silly in the Wal-Mart toy aisle, you might as well go whole hog. The Shootout At High Noon turned into cover-based warfare behind the Lego endcap and the Young Justice display, knocked over a couple of generically pink-boxed dolls and vastly amused a one-year-old in her father's cart. Soledad saluted the toddler with a grin, and scampered down the aisle to catch Gavin by the Power Rangers.
"Gotcha now," she announced, grinning wickedly as she held her dart gun to his back. "You gonna surrender, ya varmint?"