#Mecannibals

[askvectorprime]

to the wise and mighty Vector: is Primus known only to the Cybertronians? Or do other mechanoraces (Ammonites, Junkions and such) revere him as well?

Dear Godly Generality,

In realities where Primus incarnates as a planet, he is known to many species:

Lithonians aware of Cybertronian spiritual beliefs refer to him using epithets such as "Diamond Marble" or "Holy Gemstone".

The Junkions have incorporated Primus into their own syncretic pantheon, alongside other spiritual figures such as Weirrall, Thor, Frijoles, and ALF.

The Ammonites considered Primus to be a lesser god in comparison to their deity Quadrus, roughly four times the size of Cybertron and able to combine with other planets.

The Mecannibals allude to Primus in their discussions of the afterlife, as "The Big Buffet in the Sky".

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic #527 - "Remembrances"

Originally posted on August 9th, 2010

Story - Franco Villa Art - Tomoko Edits - Zac DeBoard Thanks to - Gianluca Gamba, Davide, Peter Istyle

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005

Later revised and annotated for Transformers: Seeds of Deception

wada sez: As always, see above for full annotations for this strip. Peter Istyle was credited solely in deviantART description, not on the strip itself. Preview, clean colors and Italian translation below.

[thenamesblurrito]

finished this and then forgot to post it whoops!

so everybody knows scraplets are harmless little omnivorous pests, hungry buggers but only likely to chew on you if they're absolutely starving. comparable to rats, they're adaptable, decently intelligent, and even friendly if you're careful. Whirl hides steel woolies under his bunk to feed a growing scraplet colony he affectionately refers to as his children. but, much like everything else in SNAP, all it takes is a little supernatural interference to turn docility into danger...

in s1e10- An All-Consuming Hunger! An Upgrade to Friendship, something new stalks the streets: mecannibals. bigger, hungrier, and meaner than regular scraplets, they don't seem interested in eating trash so much as eating living metal. skittering hordes of them swarm Iacon, treating people like prey, and worst of all they seem to be able to socialize with other scraplets and infect them with their hunger, spreading the mecannibal menace. the heroes drive them off by the end of the episode, but that isn't the last we see of them

by s1e13- All My Friends Are Food! An Upgrade to Cannibals, the undercity of Iacon feels... wrong. junkers have been going missing, more than usual, and even Enforcers are noticing shapes skittering in the shadows. an uptick of missing persons cases reaches its crescendo with the reveal of Stinger, a sapient, self-contained swarm of mecannibals, a rat king ready to build an underground empire of gnawed struts and spilt energon. Stinger's organized army is much harder for the heroes to combat this time. a lot of ordinary folk are forced to fight back themselves, or flee for their lives like bitty Bumblebee. even when they do succeed, mecannibal bites leave lifelong scars. it takes desperate coordination and teamwork to bring Stinger down and end the reign of hunger, but hunting down every last feral mecannibal is the work of months

the stragglers keep popping up every so often. they make nice snacks for Gatoraider, and prove to be yet another threat for junkers just trying to survive. it's not until s2e08- See Things My Way! An Upgrade to Triptych that the last of them are finally flushed out of hiding in one final swarm, pouring into the halls of the JAAT itself

[wemblingfool]

Money Hasbro has left on the table:

1) Emirate Xaaron

Titans Return Perceptor is about as perfect a mold as you'll get. And it was never used again.

2) Mecannibals

With mild retooling, you'd get a perfect mecannibal out of the Titans Return sharkticon. And perfect troopbuilder size.

3) The Last Autobot

A titan scaled Last Autobot from the Ark is just all kinds of wrong, and reeks of "we just did Omega Supreme, and we absolutely refuse to do something new." But Siege Jetfire is perfect. Right shapes, right size. Minor retooling and it's perfect.

4) Frenzy (movie)

We're getting two G1ified Barricades, in "WfC." So why not his little friend? Siege Battlemaster Rung is a perfect cheap repaint. Even has a sawblade-like circle on it.

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime, has anyone ever considered stopping, or at least stalling, the threat of Unicron by revealing his location to the Mecannibals?

Dear Enemy Engager,

One time, Swindle tried to do so. General Gullet simply responded by saying, "We're not that stupid," and went back to pouring arsenic sauce on the unfortunate Combaticon.

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic #356 - "Conquest"

Originally posted on March 18th, 2009

Story, Art - Jessica Segaard Consultant Dude - Invid

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

wada sez: The girl in the first panel is a “self-cameo” for Jessica Segaard. Her sibling, Invid, had some input on the strip, and posted a commentary explaining the story; I’ve mirrored it below.

I talk somewhat frequently about Transformers, but I haven't mentioned that the large, active fan community has embarked on a project called Transformers Mosaic. It features fan artists and writers creating small pieces exploring characters and moments in the Transformers multiverse (warning-site currently down). Why wait until now? Because my sister's Mosaic, "Conquest," went up today.

A few people have expressed confusion (on comments pages where it was posted) as to the time period and continuity of the piece, so I think I'll provide a bit of commentary. Yes, that's more-or-less G1 Megatron. It's kinda mixed continuity. See, in various continuities, Megatron is a gladiator. In other (similar but unrelated) continuities, early Cybertron was ruled by the Quintessons (the tentacle thing, although most Quints don't look like that), and they had Transformers fight in gladatorial combat for their own (and here, their paying customers') amusement. This is not set in post-Beast Machines continuity. The Mechannibal (the huge demonic thing) in the crowd is a G1 creature, and the three crowd members who resemble Beast Machines protagonists are actually just crowd fillers, used because Sis wanted something easy to draw that would amuse people and fit in a bit. (Note that the one that resembles Black Arachnia is actually wearing clothes which aren't part of the original character model.) The others are mostly just random alienish things. There is an exception, if you look closely. (The one in the middle at the bottom of the second panel.) And Megs is "holding tentacles" with the Quint because it's the referee, and is declaring him the winner. Because he totally just killed some guys. (And once again, I put "self-promotion" in the tags, even though this isn't mine, though I was credited as "consultant." Funny how I do that.) -Signing off.

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime,

Since your species lives so much longer than most organic life, has there ever been an instance of invasive organic species escaping onto Cybertron and evolving into new forms within one cybertronian lifetime?

Dear Cladistically Curious,

Yes; Cosmic Rust and Mecannibals alike first started as harmless interstellar bacteria that we hardly noticed.

There are some hardliners on our world who wish for Cybertron to be "organic free". Their arguments usually boil down to "Sure, things are fine now, but in 3 million years who knows what you're going to get!" I often counter with the fact that we observed homo sapiens evolving for the last 9 million or so years and they are sometimes welcome visitors to our world. My opponents, however, see humans as proving the exact opposite, as they tend to accelerate our timelines from the scale of millions of years to, well, years.

[thenamesblurrito]

lol maybe, i'd have to be in the scene to figure if it fits

honestly most of the eating-people stuff is going to come from the mecannibal episode, but funnily enough it won't be cannibalism since mecannibals are mutated scraptlets. haven't decided if they're sapient/can talk yet, so idk if they'd crack a joke like this...

is Robogore like that possible in Snap? just in case someone gets peckish?

like the art i just reblogged?

i mean, yeah i guess, cannibalism is possible, in the same way human cannibalism is possible. the mechanics of it aren't too different, it's just horrific and violent and potentially a follow up to murder, so like. you aren't gonna get a lot of people willing or happy to do that. i talk about it in the seventh ask here and a follow up here. i don't think i have anyone legitimately ripping somebody apart for consumption on screen in SNAP, but the concept and hints of off screen cannibalism or even autocannibalism are there

non-cannibalism specific robogore is just a norm though like this is about a buncha superpowered kids fighting each other and sometimes dying over it, there's a reason this blog has an established robogore tag

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic #15 - "Business Lunch"

Originally posted on September 24th, 2007

Story, Art - Melissa DeHaan

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | TFArchive | BotTalk

wada sez: Melissa “Wayward Martian” DeHaan is the creator of Insecticomics, a classic photocomic which I have yet to get around to reading. This comic is set squarely in Marvel continuity, referencing two of Bob Budiansky’s best stories. Firstly, “the boss” is none other than Lord High Governor Straxus, and Bombshell complains about the smelting pool; these all debuting in issue #17. Meanwhile, the red monsters are Mecannibals, stars of the two-part story from issues #52-53. Melissa gives them spherical disguised forms in the earlier panels. She also gives Shrapnel his speech quirk from the cartoon, where he echoes the last words in each sentence. Finally, Kickback is seen springing around like a grasshopper. Seriously, though, look at the presentation of this strip, done up to look like a scan of an old copy of a late-era Marvel UK comic, right down to the credit byline! See below for a Japanese translation by Barricade 643.

[askvectorprime]

Vector Prime, can you tell us the origins of the Mecannibals and how common they are in the multiverse? And are they the top of the robotic food chain, or is there a worse metal munching predator out there? I'm hoping they're as bad as it gets.

Dear Mecannibal Master,

Of all the myriad races in the galaxy, I feel that the Ferrophagii are perhaps the most unfairly judged—feared by other mechanoids, and despised by organic lifeforms, they are a secretive race who have largely shied away from the galactic community, leaving its worst members to taint the opinions of others.

While we Cybertronians can subsist upon energon, Nucleon, and other efficient fuel sources, some crucial flaw in Ferrophage biology means that these fuels are not compatible with their systems. Instead, they must rely on primitive mechanical analogues to the organic digestive system—a trait that has stymied their evolutionary and social development by a significant degree. While most species eventually reach some kind of unified planetary government before developing space travel, the Ferrophagii have divided their planet into a series of hives and sub-hives, who alternately cooperate and squabble to secure food and territory under the authority of their reigning Master Mouth.

Where they came from is a mystery, even to me: their homeworld is marked by the scars of some prior civilization, and I suspect that the earliest Ferrophagii cut their metaphorical teeth upon the detritus of their fallen cities. Having long ago exhausted most of their planetside food sources, however, the Ferrophagii now compete with one another for the vast mineral wealth of their local asteroid belts. Dedicated teams of scouts and harvesters regularly tow the largest and densest planetoids into orbit around their homeworld, providing great feasts to celebrate the glory of their respective hives.

It is worth noting, however, that the savage “Mecannibals” you know are not quite representative of the race of a whole. Many Ferrophagii are driven by hunger, it is true—but the majority are able to keep their instincts in check. However, rogue individuals or sometimes entire hives might travel offworld specifically to sample the “forbidden tastes” of other mechanical lifeforms, and in doing so have earned the species its unflattering nickname.

[thenamesblurrito]

Record: Bumblebee about meeting one of the heros?

Record: give us an in-character blurb about x thing or event in this AU, from history, from the plot, etc!

Here ya go, the very first time Bumblebee meets one of the heroes! Can you guess who the hero is by the end? This fic occurs in S1E13 All My Friends Are Food! An Upgrade to Cannibals.

Now on AO3!

Content warning: child in peril

Bumblebee lost track of what turns he had taken. He’d never been this far from the compound without another Pax member with him! His suspension jostled painfully on another hard skid around a corner, leaving tire marks clear enough to track. He hoped someone would follow his trail and find him soon… someone that isn’t the creature hunting him right now.

A shimmer and a click gave him enough warning to roll out of the way of the monster’s lunge. Its jagged magenta armor scrabbled against the street where he had been just a second before. Bumblebee transformed to scramble up a ramp to an access port in the nearest building’s maintenance tunnels. He was small, and fast, and he could get away. He had to get away. All the streets were empty and all the windows were dark. He had to get away.

The close air in the tunnel made his already whirring vents work harder. His mouth hung open, but he made little noise, having shut off his vocalizer awhile ago to try and keep from crying. He didn’t know how to turn it back on. Aunty could do it for him, if he could get away.

If Aunty was still there when he got back.

His quick pedefalls echoed in the small space, but not loudly enough to drown out the shifting, buzzing, cackling thing chasing him. The whisper of a thousand moving needle points filled his audials like static. He shook his helm, but it wouldn’t go away. He kept taking random turns down different tunnel branches, but it still wouldn’t go away. Why, why wouldn’t the monster just go away!

Something caught the tip of his doorwing and sliced. His engine squealed and he stumbled over his own pedes. It hurt! The tunnel went fuzzy with pain for a second but he kept moving. Something made a delighted hiss, and he glanced back for only a moment.

A skittering swarm of scarlet scraplets made up the monster now, a hundred permanent grins filling the tunnel top to bottom, gnawing at a small, yellow, familiar piece of shrapnel.

He couldn’t feel his left wingtip all of a sudden.

A hard crash into a mesh vent covering knocked him flat on his back. The tunnel terminated here at the other side of the building, a wide street visible just beyond the cover. Even if he had been looking where he was running, it wouldn’t have helped him. The only path was back into the smiling fangs of the monster. He grabbed at the mesh, trying to tear through fibers too tightly woven for even his small claws, and felt his vents hitch over and over. The rustle of too many legs and grinding dentae made his audials ring. There wasn’t anybody on the street. His vocalizer wouldn’t turn on. His caretakers were missing.

He shook the mesh over and over, armor rattling in lieu of sobs. Where was everybody? He just wanted help!

A scraplet nipped at his pede and he kicked it back into the swarm.

Somebody! Aunty! Star Convoy!

A dozen more started creeping forward. He plastered his back to the vent cover, doorwing leaving droplets of energon against the mesh.

Orion!

A rumble and a snick was the only warning he had before the world fell out beneath him.

He was jostling, and moving, and wincing at a million shrill shrieks drowned out by a deep bass roar, and tumbling backwards entangled in suddenly loose mesh, and then he felt the familiar steady grip of someone carrying him in one arm.

“Far from home, bitlet?”

His optics opened and he saw a smouldering crevasse in the wall of the building he had just been trapped in. The tunnel was blown wide open, scraplets charred black littering the space as far back as the light could reach. Not one of them twitched. He gaped through the smoke at them.

Fingers larger than his arm curled into his view and he was lifted up to the warm purr of a chestplate he’d never seen before. He could see his own shocked face in the shiny windows. Looking up, he saw a mech as big as Aunty, with smiling optics, broad pauldrons, and a solid presence that made him start shuddering in sudden relief.

“Hey now, Bumblebee,” the mech hummed, bringing his other hand up after folding away a still-glowing cannon. “You’re alright. The mechannibal is gone. You’re just fine.”

One finger brushed over the missing wingtip and he spasmed away from the touch with a gasp. The mech’s expression darkened. “You will be just fine.”

He turned and strolled down the dark street, sparkling in hand. Very few lights had come on even though it was dusk, and shadows draped themselves across every available surface. Several corners and crannies had shapes of greyed metal peeking out, but Bumblebee could never get a good look before the mech turned and blocked his view. His engine was very deep and steady, even compared to Star Convoy, so he leaned in to rest his audial against the armor and just listen.

After a moment the mech started talking again. “Your Compact is okay. Star Convoy got most kids away from the swarm in time, and Aunty kept them back long enough for everyone else to get to safety. You were the only one who got cornered. Aunty wanted to come after you, but they had started to nibble her.”

He jerked up, clutching at his own stinging doorwing in sympathy.

“She’s got much thicker armor than you, she barely noticed.” He rapped his chestplate with the knuckles of his free hand. “Almost as good as mine.”

Bumblebee opened his mouth to ask something but only the click of his glossa came out, and he remembered his vocalizer was shut off. His face screwed up in frustration as he pawed helplessly at the seams of his neck.

The mech’s brow furrowed. “What’s the matter, bitlet? Glitched your volume control?”

He shook his helm and tried to act out the decision to turn off his voice with only his face and servos. The mech snorted, and he scowled. How else is he supposed to talk without words!

“Hm. Open up for me.” One huge fingertip gently tapped his tiny chestplate.

Bumblebee obliged, folding away the highest panel of his chest and collar. He had to tilt his helm all the way back, just like when Aunty did this. With servos that large, there wasn’t much interior medical work that could be done, but something about it just helped him. The mech was very careful, pressing lightly at the top of his vocalizer box. Bumblebee tried doing a hard reset and spat out some static.

“You aren’t fractured or overheating… have you tried turning it off and back on again?”

He huffed. It’s the second part that’s trouble!

“Try again.”

One last fritz of static and Bumblebee’s vocalizer was back on. He buzzed a few times to get used to it and then beamed. Before the mech could draw his hand away, he used it as a stairstep to launch himself bodily at his face, going for the biggest hug he could muster.

“Thank you thank you I thought I’d have to wait all the way ‘til we find Aunty again ‘coz the monster kept laughing when I cried so I turned it off but I can never figure out how to turn it back on again!”

His loud laughter was even nicer to listen to up here than through his chestplate. “Oh, now you’re the one jumping me? Bumblebee, how could you!” His hands came up to cup his back so he didn’t fall.

“You’re too big to hug all at once!” He sat back with a gasp at a sudden thought. “You knew my name already!”

“I did.” The mech’s optics were twinkling.

“Did you know about me before you came to get me?”

“I did.”

“Am I famous?”

The mech couldn’t stop his surprised snort. “Your caretakers certainly told me enough when they asked if I could find you.”

“Have I met you before?”

“Perhaps you have.”

“What’s your name?”

“You’ll figure it out here soon.”

“Why do you have five fingers?”

“I—” He blinked and flexed one of his hands, puzzled. “Well why not?”

“Are we home yet?”

With a roll of his optics, the mech muttered, “I knew you’d ask that eventually.” He plucked Bumblebee from his collar and tucked him back in the crook of one arm, never changing the steady pace he’d been walking at the whole time. “Give it a few cycles, bitlet. We’re almost there.”

Bumblebee settled back with his audial against armor, listening to his engine thrumming. His injury still stung but it had crystallized now, no longer leaking. Soon enough, mecha started appearing on the streets again, peering inside broken windows and switching lights on. They all watched as the large mech passed. Even an Enforcer stepped aside with a nod. Despite fewer lights than usual, he recognized where they were now.

A familiar wall appeared around the next turn, scored from many sharp needle legs, but still standing. Rocketing out of the gate, Star Convoy drove towards them before transforming and skidding to a halt on his pedes before them, already reaching for Bumblebee. He giggled at the impressive move and leapt into his patron’s arms to be crushed in a hug. He let Star Convoy’s relieved murmurs just wash over him, suddenly exhausted.

“His left doorwing was bitten, and his vocalizer needed a hard reset, but otherwise he seemed perfectly fine on the surface,” the great mech rumbled. “The mecannibal has been taken care of.”

“Thank you sir, thank you,” Star Convoy said, not loosening his grip on Bumblebee. “We didn’t know how to track him down. Thank you.”

“Anyone left without a means to help themselves should be provided assistance, no matter who they are. Sparkling or adult, junker or noble, all frames and functions.” His voice was no different than before, but it filled the street all of a sudden, and Bumblebee lifted his head to watch and saw several bystanders do the same. “No Enforcer barricade should stand between a child and safety. What kind of person would stay and do nothing if given the power to choose the moral thing instead of the legal thing?”

The mech ducked his head to catch Bumblebee’s optic and held out a fist. Bumblebee tapped a giant knuckle enthusiastically, and he quirked a smile.

“What kind of Decepticon would I be?”

“Thank you, Galvatron,” Star Convoy said again as the mech turned to leave, unaffected by the gazes of everyone around him.

Bumblebee watched him go, drowsy but fighting off recharge. Decepticon, huh?

Maybe he could be a big heroic Decepticon one day.

[thenamesblurrito]

oh no that's a good idea actually ghfhsd. but the mecannibal episode is in season one, and Cheetor doesn't show up til season three.... idk, maybe i can have one or two mecannibals survive skittering around just for that

is Robogore like that possible in Snap? just in case someone gets peckish?

like the art i just reblogged?

i mean, yeah i guess, cannibalism is possible, in the same way human cannibalism is possible. the mechanics of it aren't too different, it's just horrific and violent and potentially a follow up to murder, so like. you aren't gonna get a lot of people willing or happy to do that. i talk about it in the seventh ask here and a follow up here. i don't think i have anyone legitimately ripping somebody apart for consumption on screen in SNAP, but the concept and hints of off screen cannibalism or even autocannibalism are there

non-cannibalism specific robogore is just a norm though like this is about a buncha superpowered kids fighting each other and sometimes dying over it, there's a reason this blog has an established robogore tag