#Ratchet's age probably isn't meant to be something you think too hard about

[justafoxkit]

TFP Agere Headcanons

Human edition!

🚁Agent Fowler:

🚁Father Caregiver!

🚁Kind of confused at first, but Lord help you if you insult any little/pet in his care.

🚁Very good at setting up routines for littles who benefit from it.

🚁He finds the biggest stuffed animals in existence bc his Gramma showered him with toys as a kid and he'd be damned if his kiddos didn't deserve to be spoiled too! (Even if said kiddos are 70+ feet tall)

🚁The kind of CG who loves to watch movies with the little ones, he just has to remember that horror movies probably aren't good for regressed kiddos.

🏥June Darby

🏥Mama Caregiver!

🏥Total doting Mama: cute nicknames, gentle tones, forehead kisses, the whole nine yards! Raising Jack was a hard time for her since her husband left, so reliving motherhood is very healing for her (similar to Ratchet)

🏥Very good at dealing with meltdowns, June has a very soothing presence that helps to calm any overwhelmed or upset kiddo.

🏥Tag teams with Ratchet to keep little ones safe; she may be small, but all she has to do is say something and they instantly stop.

🏥Has nicknames for everyone, and they love it! She makes each one unique to them.

🏍️Jack Darby:

🏍️Big brother caregiver!

🏍️Like Fowler, a bit confused, but if it helps Arcee feel happy and safe, he's all for it!

🏍️He cares deeply for Arcee as his partner and friend, but absolutely adores her when small!

🏍️He becomes Arcee's official caregiver rather quickly, and Jack encourages Arcee to talk about her regression to help her feel more comfortable with it.

🏍️Like his mom, uses a lot of nicknames; he calls Arcee Putty Tat(and immediately got her hooked on Looney Toons bc she had no idea what it meant.)

🏍️He takes care of the other little ones as well, and is good at talking down an upset kiddo. He also makes amazing snacks for those that eat!

🎸Miko Nakadai:

🎸 Caregiver/little sister regressor! (Age range: 5-9)

🎸She was absolutely all for the whole regression thing; she thinks Wheeljack being a wolf regressor is the coolest thing!

🎸At first she was only a caregiver, but found that she really enjoyed slipping into that smaller headspace. She had a lot of expectations laid on her as a kid, so being able to just relax and be a kid is a nice feeling.

🎸If you thought she was hyper as a big kid, look out! Little Miko is a calm and sweet baby one moment, then a ball of energy the next.

🎸Miko is definitely the "don't tell your mama about this" type of caregiver. Mama Bear Ratchet always finds out though. She still doesn't know how.

🎸She absolutely has to be near Bulkhead when little. Miko still has nightmares of the incident with them getting trapped in the abandoned mine (which she hasn't told anyone), and if Bulkhead isn't in her line of sight there WILL be a meltdown.

💻Raf Esquivel:

💻Toddler regressor!

💻Since he has a big family, Raf often doesn't get any exclusive attention from his parents. Because of this, he enjoys being little at base and just being cuddled and loved.

💻 Bumblebee acts as a big brother for Raf, as usual. This dynamic is magnified when they're both regressed.

💻He actually doesn't like using the computer when small, he prefers to color or play with the toys they stashed at base.

💻 Nobody can say no to him; if he puts his arms up to anyone, they're immediately scooping him up. He most often goes to Miko(because she spins him around to make him giggle) and Ratchet(because he feels so small and safe when Ratchet cradles him close)

💻It's hard to understand Optimus because he has a difficult time talking when small, but Raf is one of the few besides Ratchet who can understand him. Because of reasons, no one really questions it.

Nicknames:

🚁Agent Fowler: Flower (an adorable mispronunciation by OP), Dad, Papa Bear.

🏥June Darby: Mom, Mama.

🏍️Jack: Jackie, Bro, Big Bro.

🎸Miko: Sis, Little Monkey, Wild Child, Rockstar.

💻Raf: Baby Boy, Honey, Sweetspark (courtesy of Ratchet)

Hope you enjoyed these, Decepticons next!

[omega-sentinel]

@the-shy-lonely-weirdo because we wanna continue our previous tennis-match analysis while also preventing the posts from getting too long

On the subject of warframes, we’d like to point out Warpath is still an Autobot (a member of the Elite Guard, in fact) in this timeline, and it would feel odd if he was literally the only warframe Autobot in existence. (Not counting Omega Supreme, which is a cultural analysis in himself). But they’re defiantly rare.

But when it comes to the why- especially when you throw in Flightframes into the mix. As a kid, given that they always say ‘Autobots have spacebridges and Decepticons can fly’, we thought that the ability to fly was something Decepticons discovered after the war started- either making whole new ‘Cons or converting preexisting ones. It’s even possible that any ‘warframes’ we see were converted into such, and makes you wonder if the reason you see so few of them is that Cybertron made it illegal to give those upgrades to regular civilians unless their the ones doing the experiments coughcough JetstormandJetfire coughcough.

Alternatively, perhaps the Allspark is the thing that grants new life the ability to adapt and chose their forms, while without it you’ve gotta rely on cold constructed/made-to-order type frames seen in IDW. With what you’ve already mentioned about fear and control, no wonder they’d wanna keep picking peoples frame types for them, just in case. Who knows, perhaps they were keeping an eye on the pre-jet jet twins because, had they been allowed to pick their forms, they’d have become jets naturally. Maybe getting their wings for the first time was like finally stretching a limb they hadn’t even realized had been aching, half-dormant protocols to jump and zip around and get as much air time as possible finally making sense for ones, adapting to flight in a third the time it took them to learn to drive.

Or- let’s deviate for a second to talk about Ratchet’s age- he’s old. And yet, other ‘bots from the same era never seem as old as he does, even if they should be older. On one hand, maybe Warframes- like we see composing most of the Decepticon army, just live longer. Which would also explain how rare they are in modern Cybertron- not just making less, but the ones they are trying to make are taking longer to ‘cook’ and taking more resources to do so, explaining why they’d look to transitioning Autobots into these new forms rather then make them from scrap. On the other hand, that doesn’t explain the other Autobots we see from around the war times that are still ‘young’ in modern day, other then say Ratchet was already many, many vorns older then all of them. 

We’ve seen people throw out the idea that ‘Bots can upgrade and replace parts over time- and given Ratchets past experience with the war, his many years of medical experience, and Lockdown specifically, it’s no wonder he’d step away from the idea of hacking off his own parts and replacing them. Maybe he shares a bit of Yoketron’s believes not to use resources that could aid/create future generations just to keep yourself going. Which, speaking of Yoketron in what is definitely not a forced tradition-

We see him die- and come back in a New body when Prowl transfers the spark to a new protoform. A procedure Prowl doesn't even need to stop and think about, and never seemed to think Yoketron would be against. And when rewatching the series recently, we had to stop and rewind at that spot. Cause, and maybe it’s just us looking to far into things- do you think his new body looked younger then the old one? Less lines on the face? Despite being his old mind and spark, it’s a new body. And that, that could be the difference. 

For bots like Ultra Magnus, he could have led the Autobots for several generations in the the terms of a Cybertronian lifespan. Super ingrained in the old ways, and so established that it’s a real blow to the system when he’s knocked off his perch (and leaving everyone a bit floundered on how to go about replacing him). And for Ratchet, well, after everything he’s been through, it’s not really a surprise he’d turn down a protoform so a new spark could find it’s home.

But you also gotta keep in mind they lost a lot of protoforms to Lockdown (the decepticons could keep themselves going for a long time), and they had a lot of bodies to recover after the end of the war. Plus, if they had the frames to spare, they’d probably have given one to Ultra Magnus when his condition went critical. And when you read up what they planned with the scrapped season and Arcee teaching Sari- it’s heavily implied that she didn’t just not have students to teach cause of her memory loss- there weren’t any students. Even when she was gonna teach Sari, they were gonna draw attention to the fact she was the only student in class. That it’s not just that the Decepticons have stagnant numbers- the Autobots have been dwendling in how many new bots their able to make in the first place. No wonder they need civilian frames to step up and assume the position of war frames. 

Of course you also have to wonder how you make protoforms- we’d assume the All Spark has something to do with it just cause that would be fitting- but let’s be honest, the All Spark was a Plot Device that the writers never actually planned to have a deeper connection to the rest of the story, or really define in any way. It was mostly just ‘hey, we wanna do this fun and weird plot line. How’d it happen? Eh, and All Spark Shard did it or something’. 

And you know what? While a lot of people lean into the idea that Shockwave used to be on of Megatrons generals serving with him from the start of the war- he’s always seemed to young to us. The way he acts, referring to Ratchet as an ‘old’ model, his interactions with Lugnut come across like the latter is meeting this ‘competition’ for the first time, and who knows, perhaps the crossroad being young and his special ability was the reason he worked as a spy in the first place- if they scanned him, his spark and systems wouldn’t have a couple million years more on the clock then they should. And if they had all the protoforms, they could make as many new ‘Cons as they wanted. 

While the Autobots talk about the Decepticon cause like it’s a bygone problem, that all the ‘Cons would be old and run down by now- their doing just fine. Ready to attack whenever the moment arrives. And the Autobots are no where near prepared. 

(Also, depending on what the Allspark actually Is to the Cybertronians, Ratchets imminent reaction of ‘put it back where it came from or so help me’ can be various levels of dickish. But honestly, not out of character.)