#//for some forsaken reason i love doing textbook entries for this cont's lore

[riseoftheradiotrons]

LOG: Sparklings

A freshforged is a Cybertronian that just recently went online. Despite cold-construction becoming a more widespread means of creating new Cybertronians, the term has not lost its meaning, and is still widely used.

A sparkling is the general term for a pre-polygonal-maturity Cybertronian, though other terms can be used for different development stages. Freshforged, as mentioned above, are the earliest possible development stages. When the adult body begins to take form, albeit in proportionally smaller polygons, they are in walkform stage. When the face begins to fully develop, smoothing out and allowing the eyes to protrude rather than remaining flat to the face, they are in tweeze stage. When the general adult body grows in size and smooth out to full polygonal maturity stage, but has not achieved polygonal maturity yet, they are in zincmold stage. A Cybertronian who has achieved polygonal maturity is known as a metamech.

Sparklings’ development is measured in polygons. They start with as few rounded surfaces as possible - usually none, with any roundness found in eyes that look almost painted on the head. As they grow older, their material will round out on its own time. If a sparkling is particularly round, it is a sign of good health and good physical development. If a fully matured metamech is all sharp corners and triangular shapes, this often means that they had stunted development, one way or another.

Another sign of a poorly developing sparklings are hands remaining in their mitt cusp state for too long. All hands begin like this, fingers in a solid triangle to reduce polygon count, but fingers will normally split as the child moves out of freshforged stage and into walkform stage. Painteyes can also be a sign of forced development - a condition where the optics of the Cybertronian do not properly protrude, and remain completely flat on the face as they do in freshforged and walkform stages. 

Transformation is not difficult for a sparkling, and, excluding possible monoformers and health complications, they are easily able to transform beginning from walkformhood. Their alt forms, however, are not functional until full polygonal maturity, and their size makes them look rather like particularly polygonal toys.

Below is a sketch of a walkform, drawn by Cybertronian development studies specialist Bulkhead, at its proper polygonal landmark. Any resemblances to any real Cybertronians in the following picture is entirely coincidential, as no photos of the model Cybertronian’s childhood exist.