#Protoform?

[yuukirita]

I am a HIGH believer of Bumblebee being the Sparkling of Optimus and Megatron. How I think Optimus was the one who ended up taking care of Bumblebee is because Megatron KNEW he couldn't take care of him while being the leader of the Decepticons so he gave the baby to Optimus before the war officially started.

[clevercrumbish]

Terfism is targeted at radicalising older-middle-aged women in order to sever the otherwise naturally-forming bond that makes trans women and older-middle-aged cis women the strongest of comrades via our shared interests and experiences.

[staticnonapus]

YOUR SOFT TUMMY OPTIMUS IS SO CUTE??? 😭😭 remembered the "are the bots ticklish" drawing with smokescreen...

Proud to say I gave that Optimus a soft tummy too 😌💕

[sweet7simple]

Mech Pregnancy and Protoform Development of Gestating Sparklings

Here is what I have compiled on Cybertronian "reproduction" from More Than Meets the Eye, specifically the Holiday Special and Volume 5:

Holiday Special:

So this would be the protoform development for a forged sparkling and it lends support to that, if Cybertronians gave birth to their own Sparklings, then they would likely be an egg-like form (yes, I know it's not actually a sparkling, but can we all agree that Swerve is strangely well-informed on protoform development for forged Cybertronians?)

So what would slide out from the gestation tank has no discernable features yet and still needs hours if not days before the protoform resembles an adult Cybertronian, but I still don't have an answer for the size of this thing - at what point does it reach its full size? Cybertronians before the war went to academies, so what point does the protoform receive an education instead of having relevant information jammed into its brain module right before deployment like a MTO cold construct?

(More under cut)

But, let's be honest, I am going out of order here. Let's go to Volume 5 where we encounter a hot spot of re-ignited sparks on the moon:

So this is being constructed cold.

And this is forged - as well as the official story for how cold constructed bots were made, which apparently differs from the truth. Here is the truth for how cold constructed sparks were actually formed:

So all cold constructs were made from the matrix - but what if they did come from igniting healthy sparks to make new ones?

What if you used the energy of two sparks to create an entirely new one and that sparkling attached itself to a parent spark for some time before it dropped to a gestation tank (this is common in fanfiction and I love it so much, it makes the most sense)? As these two orbs of immense power and life resonate with one another, creating waves of energy that can be interpreted as pleasurable for the interfacing bots, excess energy could gather itself into a separate orb that borrows the life code from both parents, becomes randomized, and this creates a new life code for a separate entity. It stays in the spark chamber for a period of time - I don't know, decoding or storing energy or something, I am very bad with electronics - before dropping down to an artificial gestation tank.

And this is where the valve/plug comes into play if you so desire because now we have the issue of, where is the spark going to go? It needs a protoform. It needs the materials to make a protoform. It also needs liquids.

Cybertronians seem to live off energon and anything you can make from energon, but there have been references and images in the comics of Cybertronians have oil as a waste product, so they need a separate compartment for oil away from their energon tank and they also are said to have (in fanfiction, at least): oral solvents, lubricant, transfluid, optic fluid, etc... All those will require their own compartments and they will all have either been diluted from the energon or will have an origin in a separate liquid that isn't mentioned. Let's keep in mind that they will also need some sort of oil for their hinges and their nanites for upkeep.

So I believe these gestation tanks are where the Sparklings develop their egg-like protoform with all these liquids that they themselves can't make yet, and I think they get what they need from nanite colonies as there is no umbilical cord (not unless you want the bots to have belly buttons). I like to think of them as nannyites - nanites that, once a protoform hits the gestation tank, have latent codes that becomes active and now have protoform-related tasks versus whatever tasks they did beforehand. The nannyites will likely take these resources from the carrying parent, everything from fluids to energon stores to living metal that the nannyites will adapt or make compatible for the sparkling.

So this carrying parent suddenly has fewer nanites colonies themselves, a thinner layer of living metal, and depleted storages of fluids.

Hear me out, hear me out: Valveplug interfacing helps the carrying parent because transfluid will contain necessary materials for the protoform.

I am going to take it a step further and say that it is that first shot of transfluid into the gestation tank during spark and valveplug interfacing creates input that electronically signals to the receiving parent to gather the excess energy from the spark play via centripetal force like a satellite and that force signals the excess energy to turn on life codes it recycled from both parents and create its own life code. That transfluid inside of the gestation tank also turns on those latent codes for the nannyites to get the compartment prepared. It's that first dose of necessary materials and every dose of transfluid after that is stored in the gestation tank for the protoform.

Which brings me to the idea that I have seen on AO3 where bots go into heat:

What if a mech goes into heat as a way to store transfluid from their partner?

I am largely talking out of my ass here because I don't know anything about how machines work, but I know there are a lot of hormones and signals and work that goes into human pregnancy.

The downside of this is that, if all bots were once forged and now they are, let's say, "birthed", then these constructs would be artificial: the gestation tank and the fertile centripetal force with its satellite sparkling and the interface array with its gestational passage and the nannyites and the transfluid. These would have to be constructed cold and surgically added, and you would have to create codes that turn on these cascading or stacking protocols (I don't know the correct computer term for when one event triggers another event triggers another event and so on) and you would have to manufacture filters and tanks and lines for the creation of gestational lubricant and transfluid.

This is just me rambling because I can't stop thinking about all this, but I am not ready to write a mechpreg story.

Please talk to me about Cybertronian reproduction, I am not normal about this.

[thewiglesswonder]

Boogie woogie woogie—

[fourphoenixfeathers]

I already touched on some of this before but i wanna have my stuff in one place so. What if Transformers Animated but Shattered Glass?

TFA has so many moments where the decepticons are being deceptive and manipulative, but I really wanted to see a world where it wasn't an act (🥺), and the Decepticons were fighting for their freedom against the autobot regime without the whole. War crimes thing.

Soundwave gets to be a big brother for Sari, bc Megatron is actually a sweet guy and helping Sumdac with his daughter's birthday is a good distraction from Megatron's grief over his own lost sparkling :') just wait until he finds out

The space bridge crew plus Prowl the draft dodger are technically civilians, and hanging out on Earth is a good opportunity for them to finally be out from under the thumb of the government and actually start to think for themselves. They've got a long traitor arc coming for them.

[paradimeart]

What would Sari look like as an Orb-baby? If she was one

like a weird hybrid between a regular baby and a protoform

as she aged her body adapated more to "blend in" + take on her scanned form (human being) more closely until by the show time where she just looks like a regular little girl with an unusual hair color

[delicateartisantrash]

”Better Translation: I love you.”

yep, still on my hype train of hyperfixating on a story muse :D

More fanart for the adorable and spicy fanfic Making Bread by @ss-shitstorm

other versions + sketch below the cut

Someday i will properly draw his armor

someday

until then enjoy pinstriped bare chested Soundwave

[th3e-m4ng0]

imagine transforming while covered in dirt or mud.. that's gotta be like walking with wet socks eughhhghghf

[thenamesblurrito]

Creation of the Maltos

another piece I drew specifically to be a print at TFCon! you have NO IDEA how long I spent going through episodes frame by frame to get references, especially for Twitch and Thrash hoooghhgh. super proud of this one though!

get it as a print here!

[shapeofmetal]

doodling some earthspark Sari o3o

[celestite-caroline]

I'm not even gonna sugarcoat it

Rolling Thunder redesign

[twilight-enby-art]

The Emo Chaos Terran lol - I used the design cues from my Aftermath protoform design, with the purple plating and red biolights, and made the decision to give Spitfire red eyes rather than the canon magenta eyes she had. I just like the idea that the protoforms all match eachother in colours and get distinguished when they choose their alt mode.

Other than that, this is very similar to the canon Twitch protoform design so it wasn't hard to design but rather hard to make look right. Twitch and Spitfire's proportions are kinda wacky lol

Ooh! I also added a little detail - the scar on the chest is referencing spoilers in season 2! I'm technically drawing these because I was procrastinating on my post-season 2 fanfic, so that's why its there lol

Anyways! Hope you enjoy this drawing :)

[redsea8me]

Chromatin that is NOT how to hold a baby and you know it 😭 you’re literally a doctor wtf girl

[transformers-the-hunted]

Cybertronian growth cycle

sparkling stage: Cybertronian life starts in a small pocket (called an ignition point) at the bottom of a Titan infused water pool called a Spark Spring. In the form of a bodyless spark called a sparkling. While in the ignition point the sparkling will develop it's spark casing. Then it is released into the Spark Spring water.

Bitlet stage: After being released in the water it will begin to develop its actual body while slowly rising towards the surface, where it will wait until adults come and preform the emergence ritual.

Protoform stage: newly emerged as a Protoform it will receive a mentor/s to teach, house and protect them. Protoforms are grey, with soft plating and without the ability to transform. After an amount of time, the Protoform will mature into a Mechling.

Mechling stage: having just gained an alt mode and colour, a Mechling is visually indistinguishable from fully grown Cybertronians. But their plating still isn't as strong an adults, and their EM field is underdeveloped.

full grown: a fully mature Cybertronian. ( larger sizes take longer to get to this stage)

Old timer: though Cybertronians live for a very long time, they still have a limit, eventually even they will begin to slow down.

Art diagram below

[deskraven]

The fact that every Nightshade Jawbreaker interaction in Season 1

is basically this:

Except this one! Thank you Jawbreaker.

(In the meantime, poor Hashtag is just very resistant to falling from heights.)