#It REALLY helped!!

[ezra-iolite]

Swiftwire Mutheru Bio- 2023 ver.

(Original template made by @stuckedwithstarscream, hopefully this will help me not make a SUPER LONG post about Swift for once. ;3; She deserves a proper bio. Original BLANK template can be found here: How to Build a Cybertronian)

Name?

Swiftwire Asya Zahara Mutheru of the Terran Maasai Tribe (Goes by Swift) [She/Her]

2. Age Level? (How long did your character exist?)

Young by Cybertronian standards, so to avoid suspicion Swift will usually claim to be 40 thousand years old, when really she's (currently) 45 in human years.

3. Alternative-Form/Vehicle Mode? (What´s the vehicle/animal they can transform to?)

An S-35 jet, which she most likely believes was stolen to make her body. She is unable to scan for a different jet for her alt-form due to her not having the scanning ability.

4. Where do they come from?

She was originally born in the far north of Maine in America, but has since rejected her birth nationality due to her past and considers herself a Maasai-Kenyan instead (her mother's nationality). She now lives in Vos on Cybertron and calls herself a Terran for simplicity’s sake.

5. Faction?

Autobot, but became neutral after she left her old job as a politician, scratching out her sigil upon belly plate as a symbol of her good faith but proof of her neutrality. She still wears it in memory of her adoptive father, Borealis.

6. Caste?

Mid-High Class: Post-War Politician turned Ombudswoman, but mostly works as an artist for income.

7. Personality traits?

Swift is entirely driven by her moral compass and instinctually follows her heart/spark over her mind, which has often led to her being a bit of an overbearing Mama Bear. However, when she isn't being the Mom Friend, she's usually dazzling the crowd and being a slightly vain “prima donna” the moment she enters a room. From her sparkly orange frame to her colourful Kenyan jewellery, Swift simply adores the spotlight and will happily help and support those she believes deserve to feel it too. Her lack of stage-fright also aids in her being all too happy to advocate for those who cannot voice their problems. Which is why she became an Ombudswoman of the Iacon Council after she quit her old job as a politician representing Vos, due to the racism and bullying she faced from the other Senators.

However, behind the loving, fanged smile hides a deeply rooted shame for what she is and the original purpose for her creation... which is why she is content to have lost her humanity over her sense of agency, even at such a hefty and traumatizing price.

(It's also worth noting that Swift is bilingual and will use any given chance to slip in a word or two of her native tongue, oftentimes calling those she cherishes "mpenzi" or darling, her catchphrase every time for everyone's nickname from her.)

8. What did they do before and during the civil war/War for Cybertron?

(Warning, this is a LONG read, so TL;DR: Swift used to be a human named Asya, but became a cyborg Cybertronian when she was killed to become the battery powering the spark of a reverse engineered protoform. If TALOS had won and Asya died at the hands of her own father, then she would have become Talos Alpha, a mechanical Hoplite or Spartan designed to kill all Cybertronians living on Earth, a dream Jeremy was determined to complete due to his hatred for the alien race, to finally gain his "perfect soldier". By sheer willpower or blind luck, Asya's soul held on and she lived to become Swiftwire, at the cost of her family.)

During the final few years of the Cybertronian war, Swift was originally a human on Earth, an eighteen year old at the time, named Asya Mutheru. Her loving mother, Gasira Mutheru, fell gravely ill and victim to the neglect of Asya's abusive father, Jeremy Omari, who was the head of a scientific-military division known simply as TALOS. He sent Asya away to a military boarding school the moment she was of age, forcing her to stay and be deployed as a soldier abroad, even after her mother died and had a funeral that Asya was forbidden to attend by her father to ensure she focused only on her studies and deployment. After serving her ten years and becoming a commissioned Sergeant, Asya left the army and returned home, now in her late twenties, and confronted her father for the cruelty he put his only child and baby-trapped wife through, before she came out as a transwoman during a shouting match. Their verbal fight quickly became physical and it ended with her beaten, bruised, scarred over one eye, and abandoned in a snowy forest to bleed to death.

That was when she met and was rescued by Borealis the White Wolf (Bori for short) and his fellow pack of Maximals; Minerva the Deer, who patched Asya up and taught her how to be wise and maternally kind, Artemis the Hound, who taught Asya how to defend herself physically and verbally while also teaching her the true meaning of loyalty, the slightly insane Beetlevise the Stag Beetle who taught her how to be silly and have fun by simply being herself around those she trusts, and Azure the Peacock, a proud mech who adored his appearance and eagerly helped Asya through her transition into a woman, and taught her how to love and be proud of herself and her accomplishments, no matter how small of a step forward they were.

They soon became her family, with Borealis treating Asya like a daughter while the rest of the pack became her aunts and uncles, who were soon joined by a pair of Decepticons who originally kidnapped Asya to trap the Maximal refugees as prisoners of war… Only to befriend Asya due to their similarities and learning that life could be better without the threat to their lives by their warlord. Those two Cons soon joined the pack, with Knockout becoming their medic alongside Minerva, and his Conjunx Breakdown becoming their scout and protector. And due to their similarities, Asya fell in love with both Knockout and Breakdown and began a romantic relationship with them both, forming her first polycule~

However, when the Cybertronian war was announced to have finally ended, Asya was kidnapped and imprisoned by TALOS on the orders of her father, who planned on using her as a battery for the spark of his life's work... Project Talos Alpha, the mythological robot of his obsession made real through stolen Cybertronian body parts and technology, including a vat of Energon supposedly from the Well of the Allspark. Determined to finally be rid of his runt of a child, he shot her three times but only grazed her arm and leg, while the third bullet cut open her head from the temple along the side, before he finally shoved into the vat in frustration at failing to kill her yet again and sealed it.

Swift still remembers the burning pain of her body melting and breaking apart, of seeing the world vanishing into a black void as silver liquid metal engulfed her, then nothing. It wasn't until Bori's voice woke her up, allowing her first memory with new eyes to be meeting the gaze of the wolf she loved as a father, sensing something imprinting within her as her own eyes turned blue, and her large, silver hands breaking the vat that held her as she spilled at the feet of her father and her maker. Instead of a first breath, her transformation from a blank, smooth silver shell into a newborn Seeker came with a scream and the ripping of metal flesh to make way for wings and wire dreadlocks. The moment she gained claws for hands, she used them to kill her maker and the one who caused the most pain in her life, the taste of copper still lingering on her tongue when she suddenly awoke back home with her Maximal family with no memory of when she passed out... But from what Bori told everyone, all Swift could apparently see was red, and nothing could stop the hunt until silence and human blood filled the empty halls of TALOS.

Her old life as a human, alongside Jeremy's lifetime of work, was now dead and gone, her body nothing but a cadaver with its soul still bound to it, hidden deep within the spark of a handmade Cybertronian Seeker, with all her scars transferred over during the experimental process of her growth, both the physical and the mental kind.

9. Did they experience a moment of great tragedy or trauma that haunts them?

The final attempt on her life from TALOS still haunts her to this day... For even after she embraced her identity as Swiftwire, since she finally looked feminine and had the defining features she always yearned for on the body she wanted as a woman, her past was still chasing after her to take away everything she worked hard to gain.

Only a few months after Asya became Swiftwire and finally learned how to walk and get used to her new height and needs as a Transformer, Beetlevise reported strange readings all around the mountain and underground cave they called their base and home, signals that were the same kind used by the technology created by TALOS. Before Bori could order Artemis to track where the signals were coming from, the tunnels leading to the central command room erupted in a fiery explosion, sending rock, metal shrapnel and flames everywhere. One by one, each pack member helped Swift get to the entrance of the cave before they each fell to the crumbling rock, fire and the explosions of the bombs hidden throughout the cave, before it was only her, Borealis and Beetlevise left alive.

When Swift and Beetle made it outside, the Seeker saw Bori holding up a fallen boulder that would have crushed them had he not stopped it, the flames of the cave slowly spreading behind him. Swift pleaded for him to let them help, but as the fire began to burn through Bori’s fur and he started to struggle against the weight of the boulder above him, her father simply smiled and told Beetle,

“Take her to the stars for me, brother. Our home deserves her spark.”

The flames vanished when the boulder fell and created a rocky avalanche, sealing the cave and their pack’s fate inside. The last thing Swift remembers of that day, and the same moment that haunts her dreams years later, was the sound of her own voice screaming as she pulled against Beetle’s firm grip to reach for the cave, her words echoing the entire forest as she wailed for her father,

“YOU PROMISED YOU’D STAY, BABA!! YOU PROMISED!!”

10. Did they experience a moment of great joy that´s still in their memory as a precious moment?

The happiest moment from her past was the day she had her first sparkling, and forming her now massive family of four spouses and eight kids… (Beware, another long one... there's a LOT of kids...)

Believing that she was infertile due to her being made by human hand, Swift’s dream of becoming a mother lingered in the back of her mind for the first few years she started living on Cybertron with her Conjunxes, Knockout and Breakdown, even more so after rescuing a teenaged Seeker named Conduit from surviving in the ruins of the Hydrax Plateau and adopting him as her son. In a twist of fate, after Conduit settled into his new life and began training under his fathers to become a medic like them, Swift and Knockout shared a moment together in a field of cobalt flowers to escape the chaos of their busy lives. A month later, the two found a second spark growing in Swift’s chamber, and Swift has never screamed as loudly with excitement and tearful joy as she did then. They named the little spark Sira, in memory of Swift's mother, Gasira.

However, when she was only in the middle of her second trimester, Swift suddenly felt a horrible pain as she began to bleed rivers of Energon from between the plates, her entire chest breaking apart plate piece by cracked plate piece. Conduit rushed her to the hospital where Knockout and Breakdown helped to deliver their daughter, but found that she was born without vocal cords, but was otherwise healthy for such a premature baby. And yet… For three full minutes after that, Swiftwire flatlined and became grey. When she returned to life thanks to Conduit’s electrical power shocking her very spark back to full brightness, Swift was left with permanent chronic pain and a scar of thin, lightning-like cracks all over her chest plates…. And the news that she would most likely never be able to have children again.

That was… Until she met Elbent and Verglaust (@tigracespace's OCs). After the miscarriage of Elbent’s firstborn child, Firefly, Swift began to use her political position to help the tiny Grounder in her research to bring back fertility to all Cybertronians, not just because she had fallen for Elbent… But because she too had miscarried a child she never even knew she had, one she named Hyacinth, who she lost only a week before she met Conduit. After that, the two couples became a married polycule that welcomed Ferrous and Indicolite into their family, making the headcount of kids add up to four. Many more came along through Elbent, Knockout and Breakdown as they played the role of the carrier to each child…

For after the twins from Verglaust and Elbent, Swift and Verglaust had Bori, a grey and turquoise dire wolf Beastformer that Knockout was the surrogate carrier to.

Then, after discovering that a child could carry up to four traits of CNA, Elbent became the carrier to hers, Knockout’s and Breakdown’s daughter equally, naming her Alexandrite after her purple frame that bore the blend of their three colours, before another colourful child was born between Elbent, Knockout and Swift; Empyrean, a spoiled brat of a daughter due to her sunrise ombre colours adding to the flawless beauty inherited from her sires, including Swift’s dreadlocks.

Finally, after begging her medically worried spouses, mostly Knockout due to his mother hen instincts, to stop worrying about her and allow her to simply try after all these years… Swift worked together with Verglaust and Breakdown to be the carrier of their final triple-CNA child, a white and blue dragon Beastformer named Grimfrost.

(In case you're stumped and need a recap of all the kids.... In the order of eldest to youngest: Conduit, Sira, Ferrous and Indicolite, Borealis, Alexandrite, Empyrean and Grimfrost) 11. Is your character able to drive a spaceship? Where did they learned it?

No, simply due to Swift having a jet form that’s able to traverse the depths of space easily. But she does take a ship when visiting other planets, simply due to how exhausting it is flying in lightyears by herself.

12. Did your character met one of the Cybertronian leaders? What were their thoughts about for example Optimus Prime or Sentinel Prime?

For a short time, she worked alongside Rodimus when he first became Prime, helping to finalize the details for the new council of Cybertron and attending the same congress meetings as him about the mundane issues across the planet, now that it was settling into a peaceful new era. But, she saw him less and less as he began his plans for his quest, his thirst for adventure and a legacy driving him out of the role of a political leader and into the spotlight of a celebrity seeking a legend. She does miss their playful banter and exchange in past-life stories of their shared experiences on Earth sometimes, but like Rodimus with the crew of the Lost Light, she found her life's meaning in her frame paintjob and canvas art studio, A Touch of Terra, and has never regretted leaving her old job since.

As for the more famous names... No, she has never met Optimus or Megatron or any other past Prime. But she has learned to hate the face behind the emblem she still wears due to the war doing more harm than good.

13. Best Friend(s)?

After marrying Knockout and Breakdown, it was originally Rodimus before he left Cybertron. Then it became Elbent and Verglaust before they formed a polyfidelity married group, or a polycule strictly between all five of them.

Beyond her family, Swift is close to her surviving uncle Beetlevise and is doing her best to befriend Elbent's friends, Nicole and Drillburst.

14. Greatest Enemie(s)?

Her birth father, Jeremy Omari, and all those who survived her mad slaughter of the TALOS group.

15. Preferred weapons?

Her Seeker claws, her fangs and her dreadlocks. Her dreadlocks have the ability to stretch to unmeasurable lengths and move like snakes, just like Medusa's hair, due to the fact that they're wires coated in a soft, rubbery casing that are connected to her brain. It takes only three of them to lift her up off the ground, and oftentimes she uses that ability to prank others by crawling up to the ceiling and popping down suddenly while hanging upside down. When used in fighting, they can be shot like javelins when kept straight, or like whips when allowing them to bend and move freely. Her main heavy attack is often an aerial one using her dreadlocks, where she will fly in jet form as high as she can go, then go back into her root/bot form and spin in either a curled up (Sonic the Hedgehog) ball or in a circle while standing as she falls back down, becoming a circular saw capable of cutting through armor if she has enough momentum and speed. Another ability they have, due to the Talos Alpha Project's design, is their ability to tap into any and all forms of technology with a computer or terminal, with each dreadlock bearing a port key of every known piece of technology Swift has seen in her lifetime... including the brains of Transformers. The last time she used this ability was when Conduit was kidnapped by protestors who demanded that Swift be removed from her seat in the council. After finding and capturing a protestor, Swift pierced his eye and searched his memories for where they hid her baby boy, lobotomizing him into a frozen but conscious state where his bodily functions were still working but he would be trapped in his own mind, unable to speak or move forever.

Out of guilt from the Mama Bear anger that drove her to such cruelty, Swift tried to destroy the dreadlock that bore the psychic patch needle, but found that if she had succeeded and damaged the interior of the dreadlock, she would suffer major brain damage and possibly die from the shock of the pain it would bring her... so now, under her full mop of dreadlocks, there is one with a tip that is black from fire damage, a dreadlock she has since sworn never to use again.

16. Do they have a team, a partner, or someone that´s often with them?

The entire MnM Gang or her polycule!! Knockout is the one who often spends the most time with Swift, but if it's not him due to work, then it's Elbent. But, no matter what, Swift always tries to spend time with all her spouses equally.

17. Do they have sibling(s)? How´s their relationship to them?

As far as Swift is aware, she has no siblings.... However, one of the few survivors of the TALOS slaughter was in fact Jeremy's son from another lover he had before Gasira died.... Swift's half brother, Zaire Omari. The two have no idea they are related through the same man that Swift killed before his eyes, and Swift has no intention on returning to Earth until she truly feels homesick enough to do so. But so far, she is happy where she is.

18. Do they have a sparkmate? How did they get to know each other?

Again, Swift has four Conjunxes. Knockout, Breakdown, Elbent, and Verglaust. See above for how they all met, but to put it simply here....

As Asya the human, she met Knockout first when he kidnapped her as a prisoner of the Decepticons. During her imprisonment, she stood her ground and was sassy and flirty with Knockout and Breakdown, until the three of them simply started speaking and growing closer emotionally until her rescue. After that, they began to meet in secret where their feelings grew and developed despite their species, until the end of the war came and Asya helped KO and BD to be free of the Cons and join her family. Their relationship soon became romantic, even before she became Swiftwire.

After the death of her family by the TALOS bombs, KO found an old ship and brought the surviving family members to Cybertron to start fresh amongst their own kind, where Swift first travelled around the planet for the sake of her mental health but instead both lost and gained her first child, before she returned to her family and moved to Vos to train as a politician for the sake of a better future for her children, and to help promote her vision of building equity for all, no matter a person's origins. During her training, she was told to hire a bodyguard, and the biggest one there who caught her eye just so happened to be Verglaust, a giant mech who immediately made her spark flutter with familiarity and attraction (cue Moto Moto song~) purely because he was a Beastformer, the only kind who had ever shown her love. Swift, KO and BD soon married, had Sira, and during a gala to promote her vote for becoming a Senator in the Iacon Council, Swift was introduced to Elbent on the day she lost Firefly. After KO and Conduit helped Elbent to deliver Firefly's stillborn body, Swift was finally able to reunite with Elbent and got told of what happened... The grief became their link to forming their bond, as Swift used her Senator position to become a patron to Elbent's research, and soon enough the two femmes fell in love and introduced the idea of forming a polycule.

Thus the MnM gang was born.

19. Overall Look?

(Right here~)

(Her earring needs a minor change, just to represent her spouses: Red for Knockout, Dark Blue for Breakdown, Light Blue for Elbent, Green for Verglaust, Orange for Swift ..... Also heels. She deserves killer heels that can echo with every step.)

20. Bonus: What´s the song that represents your character the most?

¬w¬ You know damn well why this works... We all know why, don't we mutuals?~

[puppyeared]

filipina miku!! my mom helped me with her outfit ^_^

[demonboyhalo]

collection of useful things tumblr has taught me:

even if you can't fall asleep, laying down with your eyes closed will still rest your body

you don't have to brush your teeth standing up

you don't have to do any chore standing up, from dishes to showering

you don't have to shower with the lights on

if you can't brush your teeth, flossing and a tongue scraper gets rid of plaque and bad breath

if you can't do that, mouthwash kills a lot of bacteria

eating "unhealthy" food is better than eating no food

you can make the same meal everyday for however long you still want it

some pills come in syrups or chewables if you can't swallow them

kids nutritional shakes can be a quick way to get fuel if you can't eat/don't have time

if walking hurts/exhausts you on a regular basis, canes and rollers are for you, no matter how young you are

we have free will—if doing something "out of the ordinary" makes life easier for you, do it

if you have even a dollar to spare, please consider donating to Alaikum's family.

they're a large family at only 10% of their goal to evacuate, and could use any help you can give!!

[hauntedhotel]

Me, on the welcome desk in the library: Good morning, how are you today?

Customer: I have welcomed Jesus into my heart and so I am well today and every day.

Me, a little unnerved: Okay then! Is there something I can help you with?

Customer, digging around in his bag and pulling out an iPhone in a box: Unfortunately, Jesus can't help me with this fucking phone, so I came to the library.

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

as an aroace person with limited sexual experience, no interest in watching porn, and poor sex ed as a teen, there IS something simultaneously funny and vaguely tragic about being 28 adult years old and realising how extremely tiny your frame of reference is for genitalia and deciding you should expand this to better understand bodies (yours and others). and then you're just there like "okay so what the fuck do I even google right now, anyway"

[fly-chicken]

A Pragmatic and surprisingly comforting perspective about the Trump 2nd Presidency from the ACLU

***Apologies if this is how you found out the 2024 election results***

Blacked out part is my name.

I’m not going to let this make me give up. It’s disheartening, and today I will wallow, probably tomorrow too

AND

I will continue to do my part in my community to spread the activism and promote change for the world I want to live in. I want to change the world AND help with the dishes.

And I won’t let an orange pit stain be what stops me from trying to be better.

A link to donate to the ACLU if able and inclined. I know I am

[stil-lindigo]

they're burning ballots in the US now btw. in case you wanted to know where things are at.

Edit: to clarify, locations mentioned are Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon. This news story does not involve Canada.

Important info: Context: Dropbox location was Fisher's Landing Transit Center near Southeast 162nd Avenue Hundreds of ballots lost, voters should contact the Clark Auditor ASAP Clark Auditor contact info: clark.wa.gov/auditor (Washington voters) can confirm your ballot was received on: vote.wa.gov (Oregon voters) can confirm your ballot was received on: sos.oregon.gov General Ballot tracker: voteamerica.org/ballot-tracker

[sunbentshadows]

Hey all, you know how internet searches suck now? When the results are awful, full-of-AI, death-of-the-internet levels of bad?

Start appending date constraints to your searches - "before:2023".

My results have gone from 90% AI bullshit to ~60% usable - which frankly at this point is a huge improvement.

[filibusterfrog]

types of wizards :)

[merrigel]

Everybody do the wenis!

Gif alt:

[formlessvoidbeast]

newbie fic authors, shooting themselves in the foot: This fic is bad haha I suck at writing lol I am being mean to myself in the hopes that you will be nice to me but actually am dissuading anyone from even clicking on my fic because all I have done to advertise it is tell you why you shouldn't read it

me: I am King Big Dick of Fanfic Mountain and I have arrived in your fandom with the Express Intention of writing my Very Favorite Fics, which I will generously allow you to read. You're welcome.

[spaceistheplaceart]

thinking about what mabel and ford have in common <3 sweaters, diaries, and bad breakups.

[captainjonnitkessler]

You know I used to think "tumblr's absolute refusal to actually engage with the Trolley Problem in favor of insisting that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is just a short-sighted idiot is really fucking annoying, but I guess it's not actually doing any harm".

Anyway that was before we asked tumblr at large to decide between "guy aiding a genocide but making progress elsewhere" and "guy who would actively and enthusiastically participate in a genocide and would also make everything else much, much worse for everyone elsewhere" and the response was that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and that anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is a short-sighted idiot.

[telltaletypist]

the beatles are an infuriating band to me as a relentless contrarian. liking them is cliche, hating them is cliche, being indifferent towards them is cliche. it's impossible to have an novel or interesting take on the beatles in current year. like how am i supposed to win here?

[uncanny-tranny]

I think so many people are so deeply alienated from themselves that they have no clue how to exercise their free will and autonomy. For some, this alienation runs so deep that they are afraid of their own autonomy and humanity. It is completely understandable why one would have those feelings, but it can be worrisome.

I want to help others who feel this way, so here are small things I have done to exercise my free will:

Add "guilty pleasure" songs to playlists and actually listen to them (I have a ton of late 1990s-early 2000s music I listen to now proudly that I never listened to in the past out of shame)

Getting the décor item, bath set, bed spread, ect. in the patterns you like, even if it's "childish" (I got a dinosaur-themed wastebasket from the kids' décor section and I adore it)

Taking a new route to get to a place you go to often

Eat dessert first

Celebrate well, and often

Collect things that are "odd" or don't seem like an "acceptable" thing to collect (somebody on my "for you" page collects dandelion crayola crayons and it was so cool!!!!!!)

Incorporate one new piece in an outfit you wear frequently (e.g., a new chain, a necklace, ribbons, bracelets, ect.). Challenge yourself to add onto the outfits if you feel up for it.

Sing along to songs without worrying that you sound "good" or your intonation is completely accurate

Read a book from a genre you weren't allowed to read as a kid (comics, thrillers, mysteries, anything!)

Walk without having a specific destination or goal

Pick up a new craft without expecting yourself to master it or to ever be "good" enough. Get your hands messy.

I don't want to shame anybody for not feeling as though they have free will or that they are exempt from exercising it. However, I wanted to give ideas so that you might read this list and find your own ways to express your intrinsic autonomy and will. You deserve to be a person, to feel alive, not just living. That is what our lives are for.

[exilley]

I do sort of wish western anime fans would analyze anime and manga from a framework of japanese historical and cultural context. Specifically a lot of works from the 90s being influenced by the general aimlessness and ennui that a lot of people were experiencing due to the burst in the bubble economy and the national trauma caused by the sarin terrorist attack. I think in interacting with media that’s not local to our sociocultural/sociopolitical sphere it’s easy to forget that it’s influenced and shaped by the same kinds of factors that influence media within our own cultural dome and there ends up being this baseline misalignment of perception between the causative elements of a narrative and viewer interpretation of those elements. It’s a form of death of the author that i think, in some measure, hinders our ability to fully understand/come to terms with creator intent and the full scope of a work’s merits