Charger is fairly androgynous, but somewhat mommy-like. That's pretty much the only reason why Charger's a femme.
Prowl – "2.5," barely pre-war
His crystal-green ball rolled slowly towards the pins set up on his creators' balcony overlooking Praxus. Prowl tensed up, watching the ball approach… the left front 'guard' pin. Irritated, Prowl snatched his ball and returned to his original position, glaring at the offending pin. He rolled the ball around a little until it was aligned with the left middle pin before pushing it again. This time the ball did bounce of the middle pin, only to spin into the middle right pin and stop. Stupid ball.
Charger chuckled from inside the door, watching her baby-blue painted sparkling trying hard to play Bowlpin. Her spark fluttered like every other time at the sight of her Prowl leaning against the ball, trying to align it with a pin using his whole body. Almost no sparking this young would attempt the game, but that never stopped Prowl when it came to puzzles and strategy games. But as the breems went on, her sparkling's frustration was quickly growing apparent. In fact, he was so focused and frustrated he hadn't even noticed her presence yet. Charger walked over and placed a comforting hand on her sparkling's shoulder before taking the ball. "Would you like some help, sweetspark?" Prowl looked at her, as if to consider her offer, before nodding.
Charger led Prowl back to his original spot. Kneeling down, she pulled Prowl between her reddish-orange and brown arms before giving him the ball. "Okay now, Prowl, noticed how the pathway defined by the 'guard' pins zigzags before opening up at the regular pins?" Prowl nodded, a little frown on his face as he listened, eliciting a grin from Charger before she continued on. "You need to bounce it off of the first middle pin so it hits the second middle pin at the right angle with the right amount of force so…" Charger pushed the ball, releasing it from both their hands. The ball bounced off the left middle pin, off the right middle pin, traveling through the mouth and into the first regular pin. It went down, knocking down the rest of the regular pins.
Prowl jumped up, clasping his hands together in delight. While Prowl was considered too young for this game it was still meant for sparklings. After all, when do sparklings not like knocking things down? The 'guard' pins defining the path just make it a little more challenging.
Together they set back up the regular pins before starting over. Charger explained the game a little more thoroughly before helping Prowl toss the ball a couple more times. Getting ready to toss it a third time, Charger suddenly felt optics burning into her back.
'Oh, goodie,' Charger thought warily, 'Exactly how I was hoping this day would go.' Outwardly, she gave Prowl a reassuring smile. "Prowl, sweetspark, why don't you practice on your own for a little bit, okay?"
Prowl looked up at her curiously before looking behind them. 'Oh…' Prowl nodded, knowing not to protest even though he really wanted to keep playing with his creator.
Charger stood up and turned to face her neutrally-colored mate, following suit as he moved inside, closing the glass door behind her. Charger smiled as kindly as she could before asking how his day was.
Blacksmoke wasn't having it. He jerked his head towards the door at their sparkling. They could see Prowl crouched over on his ball eyeing the 'guard' pins, getting ready to make his move. "Why do you insist on teaching him those strategy games?"
"He likes them. And he's good at them so I don't see a problem."
"It's not what he should be learning," the Enforcer growled, angry that his mate still refused to see his side. "He should be learning games that increase his hand-optic coordination skills and more mech-like games, not these… these pansy-aft 'strategy' games."
Charger clenched her jaw tight, fighting back her anger. Her mate had never been like this until Prowl started showing interest in puzzles over his G.I. Jax toys. She chose to support her lovely creation's interests, whereas Blacksmoke had clearly picked a different route. "Look, I've started including strategy games with some form of 'ooh, I destroyed something!' or hand-optic coordination aspects to it as a middle ground, but if you can't deal with that then go frag yourself." Maybe she hadn't held back all her anger as well as she thought.
Snarling back, Blacksmoke snapped, "A few games amongst the many doesn't make a difference. He rarely plays with the other sparklings, and when he does he's usually the worst because you aren't pushing him to be better!"
"I am pushing him to be better! At what he enjoys. Unlike you, who pushes him to be better at what you enjoy. He doesn't like playing with others because you keep pushing him into those stupid games he's not skilled at, and it makes him feel more insecure when he's around other sparklings!"
"Oh and how exactly is that?"
"Because standing around unsure what to do just feeds into his insecurity with others."
"That's your answer for everything," Blacksmoke sneered, "'his feelings'. How this and that affects 'his feelings'. Before you know it, we'll have some emotional grownup sparkling on our hand with the way you coddle him! And then you know what'll happen? He'll get his aft pounded in because he'll be a pathetic Enforcer. He won't be able to handle any situation because his emotions will get in the way!"
"Who says he has to be an Enforcer like you? Why can't he pick what he wants?"
/-
Prowl huddled over the ball, not really paying any attention to the game anymore. He never mentioned it to his creators how one of his feeble attempts at a game his sparker approved failed horrible, damaging the balcony door. Since then the door never quite clicked shut, leaving it slightly ajar towards the bottom. He could hear his creators arguing again over him and it always left him feeling upset and like a failure. His sparker was rarely happy with him no matter how hard Prowl tried.
Thing was, whenever his sparker was displeased with him or his creators argued, they never raised their voice. Instead they actually lowered their voice. Like now. Prowl knew what those voices meant, and it frightened him a little. His creators' arguments over him had increased lately and he knew it stemmed from his repeated failures to please his sparker. He had tried countless times but he just wasn't any good at those games. Not like the other sparklings.
Leaving his ball, Prowl quietly walked over to the corner outside their view and curled up, his doorwings drooping a little. He didn't like making them upset. He promised himself he'd do a good job tomorrow.
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Feeling a little uneasy that following afternoon, Prowl glanced around nervously at the other sparklings. Most were slightly bigger than him. He felt his sparker tug on his hand and Prowl quickly followed him. He couldn't keep his optics forward though, noticing how many additional sparklings there were on the playground than normally.
Blacksmoke stopped when he reached the other adult mechs and femmes, causing Prowl to walk right into his leg. Glancing down he made sure Prowl was okay. Once satisfied, he turned towards his co-worker and friend, Juniper.
"Hey ya," Juniper greeted easily, "see you got Prowl fer the day."
"Yeah, Charger needed to cover a shift."
"Oh right, 'cuz it'd be horrible if Air Traffic Control was down one little flight strategist assistant," Juniper muttered sarcastically. Blacksmoke 'harrumphed' in agreement before Juniper continued on, this time talking to Blacksmoke's sparkling. "Hey Prowl! How's it going, little buddy?"
"… Okay." While Juniper generally liked the sparkling, Prowl was a little too timid for his tastes. Still, that didn't stop him from trying to encourage the sparkling to play with his own sparkling. Juniper pointed over towards one section of the playground. "Why don't you go play with Snapclip?" Prowl nodded before running off towards Juniper's sparkling. "Jeez, Blacksmoke, does Prowl look like Charger or what?"
Blacksmoke watched his son take off, before answering, "Yeah, he does have Charger's structure that's for sure. I'm not too particularly pleased with the doorwings; those will be more of a weakness on an Enforcer than anything else."
"He's also kinda timid, just like Charger."
A harsh laugh barked out from Blacksmoke before he gave Juniper a wryly grin. "I wouldn't call Charger timid. Prone to emotional outbursts? Sure, but definitely not timid. Seeing what 'we' decided on Prowl's structure and paint color could've told you that."
Juniper laughed. "Yeah, okay. At any rate, some of the other mechs and femmes were thinking about teaching the sparklings dodgeball in about a joor."
Although Blacksmoke hid it he was concerned. Prowl playing simple chase games without decent basic coordination skills was one thing, but dodgeball was an entirely different matter. It would be nice if Prowl could play such a game – it'd help build his character and skills up to be an Enforcer – without Blacksmoke having to worry because his son can't take care of himself in simple situations. Annoyed, it also didn't escape his attention that he was worried about Prowl playing a simple game when the other creators weren't.
Sensing his friend's unease, Juniper reassured him there wasn't any chance of Prowl getting harmed. "Don't worry, the floor mats and balls are those new soft spongy materials. Wouldn't even hurt a turbofox. Not to mention we're not giving them that many balls to begin with anyways."
Surely his sparkling could handle that. "Well, alright then. Need any help setting it up?"
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Prowl had failed. His self-made promise was broken because he had completely and utterly failed at the game. The dark apprehensive look in Blacksmoke's face as he pulled Prowl along told him his sparker thought along the same lines.
Playing with others was difficult enough. He was always one of the slowest, gawkiest sparklings in the game and he knew it. He'd try but his doubts always got the best of him, giving the other sparklings something to tease him about. But now those same sparklings got to pelt him with balls. They didn't hurt but Prowl couldn't dodge so he was almost never in. Towards the end he was finally in long enough to throw a ball at another sparkling. He missed and the angry sparkling, already bigger and older, got his friends in to attack him all at once. The spongy balls actually managed to knock him over, with a resounding "smack!" His aft hurt a little.
After the game, Blacksmoke yanked Prowl up and they left in silence. Prowl knew the silence meant his sparker was too upset with him to trust voicing his thoughts. It would come though.
They were about halfway home when Blacksmoke finally spoke. "How did you trip over your own peds when you were running away?"
Prowl looked to the ground doorwings slightly droopy. "Tried dodging and running. Couldn't do it," he mumbled, vocal processor still not quite correctly pronouncing all the letters.
Looking at his sparkling, Blacksmoke noticed his droopy doorwings. "Pull those doorwings up. A real Enforcer would never wear their emotions on the outside like that," he scolded.
Prowl instantly drew both his doorwings and shoulders high up. It hurt his back a little, but he wasn't going to let his sparker down again. His sparker continued to lecture him on the importance of "proper Enforcer stances" and the training games they'd play when they got back.
When their building was finally in sight, Prowl's spirits finally perked up a bit. Soon he'd get to see his carrier because she said she'd be home a few joors after they got back. Feeling better, Prowl watched the building slowly grow with a little skip in each step.
"Hey, Blacksmoke!"
They both stopped and turned around, seeing Juniper running up. Prowl was instantly irritated (he wanted to be home!) but kept his face and doorwings from showing it.
Blacksmoke greeted Juniper when he reached them. "What brings you out to this district?"
Juniper jerked his thumb back towards the direction of their job station, "Ran into 'Lift. Told me he was goin' in cuz there's been a rebel development in the commercial district."
Blacksmoke instantly tensed up. "Exactly how developed of a development are we talking?"
Juniper grinned. "Like we could really nail a few of those slagheads if we pull off an attack just right."
"And when's that?"
"Dunno. That's why a bunch of us are going down there in case the order comes soon."
Blacksmoke looked down at his sparkling, into his curious optics. On one hand he could spend time with his son, improving his coordination skills. On the other hand, he was being presented with an opportunity to protect his city and hurt the rebel alliance working against good civilians.
Sighing, he looked back at Juniper. "I can't leave Prowl home alone. Charger won't be back for three more joors."
"Not a problem," Juniper dismissed with his right hand, "M' mate and sparkling are getting some energon goodies near the station. He'd be glad to watch Prowl for you."
"Alright, I'll let Charger know. Let's move quickly."
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Juniper's home was a lot more decorated and luxurious than his own. Of course, anyone who knew Juniper's mate would expect that. It was also spacious, but that was another one of his mate's things. Whereas Juniper's mate thought life was about living, Blacksmoke thought life was about serving. Just before Prowl's creation he moved the entire family into a comfortable but minimal living environment because he felt anything else was a waste of time and money better spent. Times like these Prowl found himself alone, studying all the shinny and unusual things he'd never seen or touched before. Snapclip would always wind up wondering off to play with his carrier, his fascination with the objects inside the home long gone giving Prowl plenty of time to think and play with his new environment.
Normally Prowl would be ecstatic to study these unusual materials underneath his fingertips or stare at the strange images before him, but his joy was dampened by thoughts of his sparker. Why didn't his sparker like him more? They use to spend a lot of time together but now his sparker seemed unhappy at the mere sight of him. Was it because of his nervousness, or his tendency to be the worse sparkling in the game? Or was it because Prowl wasn't nearly as interested in the things his sparker cared for?
Right now Prowl felt like his inability to get over his emotions was the cause of his sparker's unhappiness with him. If he stopped letting his fear get to him, he could probably be a better player. He could do more things his sparker was interested in if Prowl put more attention into them instead of getting distracted by some new puzzle.
Prowl sat down, pulling his legs up to his chest. Yes, maybe if he did all those things his sparker would finally like him and they could play again.
Okay, I know you would never teach a 2 year old dodgeball, but these are robots with an entirely different culture, so I think I can get away with it. Plus Blacksmoke is basically a Captain America - wannabe with bad family skills.
Bowlpin was essentially bowling + pinball.
FYI, I'm planning to post two chapters for the next update, so let me know what you think! :)