#bam - and you are a Cybertronian

[keferon]

Imagine a filler episode of Mecha AU where they found that magical lake from G1 that can change anyone's species.....

[yes-i-write-fanfiction]

Hello again! I would like to know if you can write mtmte rodimus, megatron and fort max headcanons with a s/o who is like medusa? She has a human body but her hair is snakes? The reader's power to turn someone into stone only works if the reader wants it, but does it work on Cybertronians too? Thank you in advance.

-Rodimus thinks they are so cool. He loves the way the snakes move, it's almost like looking at living fire. Gives all the snakes silly nicknames but keeps replacing them when he thinks of better (aka sillier) ones. He also comes up with his own personalities and convoluted backstories for them.

-Lowkey brags about how his s/o can turn anyone into stone (or solid metal when it comes to cybertronians).

-"Oh, you think your conjux is cool? Well, mine can kill you with a single gaze so let's just say I win there, alright?"

-Adds some kind of snake motif to his paint job. Maybe some of his flame decals turn into scales? He even adds a snake tattoo to his holoform avatar, right on the bicep so he can flex and be like 'bam!'.

-Fortress Maximus is honestly relieved. Having a regular human as a conjux would stress him out because humans are just so frail and defenseless compared to cybertronians but his s/o can actually defend herself if something happens. The knowledge makes it easier to recharge at night.

-Secretly thinks the snakes are really cute. Even their hissing is cute. Will carefully boop them.

-If his s/o have problem controlling their petrifying gaze then he will try and help them with it. He's not afraid of them accidentally turning him to solid metal, not only because he trusts him but also because if he did happen to die by their hand then he would not be mad.

-Megatron does not fear his s/o or their powers. He spent most of the war surrounded by mechs who had similar abilities and so he does not think much of it. As for their appearance, well, they already look mostly human and that in and of itself would initially weird him out but once he gets past that he doesn't even think twice about the snakes.

-He's just so normal about it. He doesn't treat his conjux like an oddity, like something to be gawked at. She's just... her. Another person, an individual with quirks and opinions. He will give her a the taste of a normal life, well, at least as normal as you can have when you're together with a former warlord.

-You know his little chest decals? Those whirly things? Yeah, he makes some slight changes so they look like snakes now. Is it cheesy? Yes. But he wants to be able to carry some of his s/o with him wherever he goes.

[witchie-writings]

Alright bestie last one I SWEAR THIS TIME. I’m curious, what is Megatron’s human pet’s day to day life like? How do they get their food, water, do they bathe, do they have other clothes or do they just stay in the same ones? Where do they sleep, etc?

Took me a little bit to think about this one, but please, keep sending in more asks if you have any ideas for them! I enjoy writing about Transformers, even if I’m not too terribly active in the fandom at this moment (plus, Bayverse!Megatron deserves more attention, imo). Not proof-read.

When I think about the daily life of Bayverse!Megatron’s human pet, it isn't… awful, merely tolerable. When it comes to their living quarters, they take residency in Megatron's habsuite; perched upon a narrow bar of oxidized steel is their "room", haphazardly cobbled together using the remains of destroyed weaponry or deceased corpses of fallen cybertronian warriors; for comparison's sake, their resting chambers bare resemblance to a bird cage. Bed wise, it's likely whoever designed the prison didn't have a care for whatever stuffing the human!reader laid upon, so it's a combination of all sorts of shredded fabric or discarded wool. It isn't pristine either, it would have a noticeable odor that is quite putrid, but its softness was preferable over the unsanitary jagged edges of the floor. For where their "humble" abode is, the human!reader would reside in Megatron's habsuite. Far enough away to where the warlord has his own space, but close enough to his berth to where he could crush their feeble body should they attempt an escape.

The human!reader's food and water is, thankfully, covered, though I can't speak for the edibility of such nutrition. The food that would be fed to them would likely be whatever Megatron or the other Decepticons would deem "consumable without risk of immediate death", probably food scraps from the store that's about to turn rotten or maybe some other unorthodox stuff… I can't think of much here, so use your imagination. If the human!reader was particularly good, they'll maybe be rewarded with some "treats", think of fresh fruit or possibly even ice cream, but it isn't something they should grow accustomed to. For now, they'll be scraping off the bottom of the barrel. Water is okay, I guess. They'll just get a scrap bucket, fill it with whatever water is nearby, boil it to get rid of the nauseating parasites, then give it to the human. Easy!

This leads into the bathing situation. The human!reader gets a bath through one of two ways: their wounds are pretty severe and need to be cleaned or Megatron wants them to be presentable for their circus act. It's essentially the same way to get the water, as stated in the last bullet point, just the human would be picked up by their frail body and dunked into the bowl without a second thought. Better hope they can swim! Sadly, the human won't get any sense of privacy, as there will always be a Decepticon to monitor them to make sure they don't try to perform an escape attempt or to take their own life via drowning. 

Now, Megatron isn't one for dress up or looking "nice". Being a tyrannical dictator that's locked into a cataclysmic war doesn't allow such novelties, nor does having a barbaric mindset help either. But that doesn't mean he wants his pet to look absolutely appalling during their shows and acts - it takes the fun out of their humiliation. Likely he'll have a more fashionista Decepticon (cough) go out to hunt for a suitable attire for the human!reader's showing; pick a few that have hints of spice yet undeniable lure, bring them back to slap them onto the pet and bam. Perfect for the occasion! I can't say the outfit will come out unscathed however. More than likely it'll be another pile of scrap for the bed pile. Ah well. Besides that event, there is a high chance the human will be stuck in their same clothes, even if they're in dire need of cleaning. Maybe they could convince a Decepticon to go shopping for them… after all, there are a few who pity the poor doll.

And since you asked about the daily life of Megatron's pet… well, I imagine that there are a special few amongst the Decepticon cause that would be open, or at least semi-open, to having a discussion with the human. Megatron isn't always present, obviously, so despite having assigned a "pet sitter" to the human!reader, other Cons might have their curiosity peaked and take the opportunity to interact with the fleshling (much to the guardian's dismay… it's probably Barricade and he's sick of the sudden attention Megatron's pet is accumulating). Some aren't as cruel as others, offering some form of conversation, for their own benefit or out of good faith, who knows. Sometimes conversations could develop into hour-long talks about whatever bubbles within the mind, and it can be quite enjoyable for both the Con and the human - quite possibly a friendship blossoms. Which would always be cut short due to Megatron's arrival. Such a shame.

Being brought into this chaotic hellscape with nothing more than the clothes upon their skin, the human!reader, outside of their entertainment value and talks with a few of the Decepticons, would have to find a way to develop their own entertainment in order to not go insane. Sure, if Megatron was particularly generous one day, he'd throw the human!reader a bone and get them something as "idiotic and pointless" as a card or board game, but usually it's a mangled mess to where it was barely visible as a game anymore, so the human would have to put their noggin to work. Doesn't always want to function, but something is better than going out with a small whisper because of boredom.

[prima-after-dawn]

rip anon I'm dying like Cliffjumper

Any tips for writing in the TF fandom if this is okay to ask?

Sure, I can give you some general tips! I’ve been writing TF smut for a decade now and have read plenty of it, too, so here are some things that have helped me, as well as some things that turn me off to a fanfic and might be undesirable for other readers.

If you’re looking to improve the quality of your writing itself and not the content, study proper English (or your language of choice) writing! I studied how to correctly and formally write the English language for two years and it helped me improve immensely in spelling, grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, paragraphing, dialogue tagging, etc! I don’t remember what the book was that I studied with but it was pretty cheap. You can also find loads of videos on YT about how the English language works.

Read what you want to write, and read a lot of it! Bookmark your favorites! Studying other authors’ work will stir up your creative spirit, help you understand what natural and proper sentence structures look and feel like (and unnatural ones!), and potentially teach you more about the world you want to write in. For example:

Cybertronian terms! These are my favorite. Using Cybertronian terms in place of words attached to humans can deepen the reader’s immersion in the story when used well and consistently. Fanon differs slightly on what the Cybertronian terms should be for, most commonly with units of time. I just picked which ones sounded the best to me and ran with them. For some, “servo” might be the term they use instead of “hand” and others might use it in place of “arm.” With time units…it’s free game, really, just do whatever and define your time terms in your Author Note at the front of your fic! Using Cybertronian terms is especially good for smut, since we all know everyone hates the dreaded words…”penis” and “vagina.” Eugh! Replace those with “spike” and “valve” and bam! Sex is sexy again!

Tonight’s EASY tip is: Write down which continuity/continuities/alternate universe/crossover your fanfic is set in! This way, you’ll never forget and lore consistency will be much easier to execute!

[knightdgblue]

When you guys write tfa fics,

She is literally important to me.

I love her and want to see her be an actual character and not a foot note.

If you say “Earth’s not even in the equation”, then you’re a coward because she’s literally half Cybertronian and there are different types of aliens other than humans she can be part of. Like her origin is mysterious and its generally accepted that Megatron had something to do with it. The specifics are blurry at best, but somehow she was there in the secret lab only Professor Sumdac and Megatron had been in.

The reason she is even half human is because her protoform made contact with Professor Sumdac.

It’s his DNA that makes her human. Therefore, as long as someone or somebot makes contact with her protoform, she will be born.

Obviously Megatron wouldn’t randomly take a protoform with him to grab the allspark, why is she there?

What if, and it’s just a thought, what if she was a piece of his own protoform? What if she wasn’t complete until she made contact with the Allspark to stabilize her. (If the protoform took more of Professor Sumdac than it would usually take from somebot because he didn’t have a spark, then perhaps she needed a spark for some reason or another, as Megatron’s spark was with his body)

You get what I’m saying? This is kind of how I imagine how things went in my AU, that’s right I just made this all about my AU.

Optimus gave a piece of his spark to save her and she officially becomes a complete being and a Decepticon. Bam.

If “Earth’s not even in the equation”, then critical condition Megatron and Optimus spill each other’s energon and her protoform makes contact with both.

Like he goes on a mission to get the protoforms back and Megatron’s there and blah blah they fight and her pod opens as they try to grab it.

Or it wasn’t his mission, he and his team were fixing up a space warp and the crazy headed in their direction and got them involved.

Since it’s barbaric to harm obviously civilian individuals that had no part of the mission, the fight tries to avoid outsiders since it’s not necessary to hurt them. But a protoform pod gets into Optimus’ servos and just takes from both him and Megatron.

Little Sari wakes up and sees Optimus first and calls him her caregiver and Megatron is her mentor. She’s still tiny but that’s because she’s either a microbot or minibot. (She could be like an alien rumba)

What are your thoughts?

[0zzysaurus]

Oh my god did I ever talk about my father/son dynamic AU that I think G1 Wreck and TFA Wreck should have?

For this to work, you gotta adhere to my headcanon on the origins of the Junkion race, but essentially, as a quick introduction to what you need to know first — I hc that the entire planet is basically a Cybertronian war crime. Every single spark on that planet belonged to a bot who went “missing” during the first few waves of war on Cybertron. To link it to some of the TF book lore, the Junk planet only exists as a result of a failed Cybertronian space bridge project to dump a colossal amount of scrap waste into space — as a result, that space bridge became a convenient way to dump bodies of political prisoners without drawing too much attention. I also hc that the whole planet was basically embargoed and removed from maps for years and years until the events of ‘86 where it was rediscovered by accident and the planet eventually had to be acknowledged by the High Council. Awkward. I wonder if either side of the war will ever admit what they did. I sure hope that Cybertron doesn’t have any top secret documents detailing the entire dual-sided, long-term, systemic massacre against prisoners of conscience that, if released to the public, could start another catastrophic war. I’ll tell you about all that some other time.

For the Junkions themselves, all the damage from, well, the attempted murders have screwed up a lot of their processors, and those that were dumped with sober processors eventually had to replace those parts or offer functioning components to those who needed them more. They subsequently split up, shared, and lost fragments of their memories until they eventually Theseus’s Ship’d themselves into different bots. The spark is the only thing that remains. Most, if not all Junkions have little to no memory of what was done to them. It’s been so long that they’d much rather consider themselves native to planet Junk than dwell on frightening flashbacks or momentary flashes of lucidity in their processors.

I imagine that some bodies crash onto the planet in such a damaged state that you’ve essentially got a spark in a spark-chamber surrounded by shrapnel. The Junkions, of course, then take it upon themselves to hunt out sparks and build new frames for them so they can have more clanmates. This probably started as a very legitimate rescue protocol for recovering other survivors, but eventually, the practice became nothing more than an ingrained ritual. A lot of what they did for survival (I.e. extremely efficient repair, grouping together into large, cooperative tribes, and salvaging sparks) ended up becoming instinct over a few more millennia.

Does this mean every Junkion on the planet once had a totally different life on Cybertron with their own history, memories, and connection to the war? Yes. I’ll elaborate on that whenever I get around to it.

BUT, with all that cleared up, I think G1 Wreck-Gar gets a little broody watching TV and seeing sitcoms with families in them. He kind of likes the idea of having a smaller version of himself walking around who he can teach his culture to from the ground up and perhaps raise to be the next leader. The next time a body crashes into the planet, it’s while he’s out alone in the badlands. There’s another spark that needs housing, and he fixes up the frame the best he can, but the processor is absolutely fried. He remembers that he has a blank processor chip in his collection, and he’s been saving it for a moment like this. He swaps out the chips and starts to build up a frame that looks exactly like how he’d imagine his own “son” to look. He’d give it some of his features, like matching faceplate decals, but he wouldn’t make the new bot identical. He’d choose similar coloured scrap to his own frame, and perhaps even add a helm casing that reminded him of his favourite thing in the world — TV.

And BAM, you got a overly complicated father/son AU. He built his little boy outta garbage (just like he did with the rest of his kin) and he loves him sooooo much. Big Wreck and Little Wreck watchin’ telly together… out catchin’ distiller drakes in the dust bowl, stargazing, combat-training, and all the rest — I love the image of him helping TFA Wreck take his first steps in his new frame. BONUS POINTS if the sparks that inhabit both of their frames actually knew each other millions of years ago on Cybertron and the connection runs much deeper.

[skylarkking]

You did a good job with the Smokey art! (A lot better than me)

Anyway... What do you think about Smokescreen pumped full of Predacon pups?

Hnnnh sparked Smokey would be se cuuuuute!!!

But anyway

I'm gonna use this ask as my gateway to explain how I think Cybertronian reproduction works (because I love infodumping)

Infodump starts under cut

To start, I acknowledge that technically Cybertronian reproduction is very bland and not discussed much in the continuities because, let's face the facts for a sec.

Hasbro wants to sell toys to kids

Now, with that in mind, we aren't going to ignore the comics or continuity cannon explanations for how they reproduce. From my limited research the most general acceptance is that the reproduce through budding like ameobas

Pretty horrific but the science behind it is that if a bot gets enough electricity shocked through it it's protoform splits an bam! You got another Cybertronian.

And yes yes I know about cold construction and hot spots, but this is apparently THE cannon way they reproduce.

Anyway

I theorize that this method of reproduction does work, but is extremely harsh on the bots body.

Hence where my idea comes into play.

Spark bonding between two bots is more than just a means to form connection, it also produces enough electricity to create what I call an after spark, in essence a new life source. This life source however doesn't have enough charge to grow on its own, so it will go to the bet best suited to "carry" the new lifeform (hence the term 'sparked').

It resides in the "carrier's" spark camber for a bit, gathering charge and growing in strength.

When a bot is "sparked" they will have this tiny "sparkling" for a while until it grows enough to move down to the gestation chamber that's where the "sticky" interface comes to play ;)

The naughty fun times provide the now developing sparkling with transfluid which in turn builds the protoform. It has to have a LOT of it to properly develope as it is using the energy from the charge built during the sticky interface to keep itself alive AND the fluid builds the body. Once the sparkling is ready it comes out of the bot just like in the movie Alien. Because it's science fiction okay?

Anyway.

Thankyou for coming to my TED Talk.

[Questions? Intrusive thoughts? Drop em in my ask box!]

[maltobots-roll-out]

hey, twitch! who's your favorite cybertronian outside of the terrans?

I-

uh......

um.............

oooooh why would you make me choose!? i mean- Megatron is soso cool because we fly together!! i'm his little bird!! but Optimus is also really cool- especially when he fights!! his axe goes bwoosh and then BAM he blasts you when you're not expecting it and it's so cool!! and- Elita is just- so, so awesome!!! HT stole her rollerwheel idea from her and just- ooohhhhh she's so cool!!! and Wheeljack!!! dad2!!!!! he's so SO SMART and it's so cool to watch him invent stuff and work on things even if Nightshade is much better at understanding him!! and then Bee is... ohh he's so cool to live with!!! he's all strong and snarky but if one of us gets hurt he's so careful not to hurt us and he takes us back to where we're safe!! and he's just- careful in general!!! he's so cool and we've all agreed that he's also a Malto, even if he pretends he isn't ^^!! just- ohh.... if i had to choose it's between Megatron, Wheeljack, or Bee! but don't tell anyone else I said that, I don't want to cause trouble between everyone!!

[keferon]

Ok so hear me out what if jazz dies inside prowl

What if it started with the whole shockwave thing and prowl stuck in the mecha base while jazz's inside him fighting Vortex and roddy with the help of deadlock

they are all distracted and stressed and neither prowl or jazz even notice

prowl is waiting for jazz to disconnect like the others after everything is done to go celebrate with the others but moments pass and nothing happens

So prowl calls jazz's name confused and notices how quiet he has become all of a sudden

But then prowl notices jazz's vitals and he also becomes quiet

Ratchet would probably notice the all friendly jazz not coming out to celebrate with the others and goes to prowl to call for jazz but notice prowl frozen in place and the look of horror on his face

Ratchet becomes concerned and calls for jazz again multipule times asking what's wrong, that end up shaking prowl at least of his frozen state

"Jazz.......his vitals.....they are gone"

Ratchet asks prowl what he means and prowl looking more distraught by the second would kneel down and open his chest compartment for ratchet who rushs to check on the kid and freezes once he notices the lack of pulse

Ratchet imediately calls for first aid to come help him and they drag jazz out to start cpr which was mostly out of pure despiration while prowl stares at jazz's unmoving body pretty much dissociating

He dosnt even notice it when they move jazz's body away from him he's just frozen there for who knows how long

Till he suddenly hears a weak voice that shocks him to his very spark

What am trying to get to is jazz's consciousness become stuck inside prowl for a while and prowl goes back to cybertron trying to look for any solution and they end uploading jazz's consciousness into a body with the help of wheeljack also probably percy n brainstorm aswell, brain is too deep fried rn to come up with all that yet tho

Now this is horrifying and I love it

I’m voting for letting Prowl be absolutely broken with grief at least a couple of hours before letting Jazz to talk to him. It would also let other Cybertronians a good dose of existential anxiety because they would look at Prowl and then at their humans and realise that this is what’s going to happen to all of them eventually.

….a bit unrelated thought but you know how like. In fanfics there’s this popular fanon of when two bots become Conjunx endura they join their sparks and their minds? Yeah. It looks like we are doing the same to our mecha JP but every step is severely angsty and dramatically weird.

Merging the sparks? Bam. Jazz now literally inside Prowl’s chest.

Merging minds? He is also inside Prowl’s head.

[witchofthesouls]

(Ahh, a short thing after Blueberry is born. Enjoy.)

You’re damn sure how it happened, but you’re not sure how it happened.

And that question has been haunting you since the initial surprise of “Bam! You got a metallic bun in the oven!”

You stare at the newborn cradled in some sort of nursery pod, and you’re not sure what you expected, but hey, it’s yours and Prowl’s. They look more like an actual Cybertronian after their protoform settled rather than a techno-organic abomination worthy of a horror sci-fi film, which is a good omen.

Hopefully.

Trophon had cleaned up the little guy and some more distinct features popped up. You could see a pair of tiny nubs on their back and a bitty crest on their forehead and maybe it’s the drugs but you can definitely see an annoyed scowl on his face, optics still shuttered, and little hands clutching the mat.

Forget ��chip off the old block,” it’s an adorable, rounded mini-Prowl in grey tones. Frown and all. You’re definitely getting that donut pillow now.

The door to the private room then slides open and Prowl walks in, hands full with Energon, datapads, and a duffel bag.

Your mouth moves before your brain could stop it, “Prowl! I’m gonna get you a donut pillow, Prowl. Glazed. You’re a glazed man. Mech. Mech-man. Mechanical. Mechanismmmm.” Suddenly you're staring at the ceiling, energy gone as you rest in the pillows. Exhausted, sweaty, and full of drugs. You speak to the orange vent. “Gonna get it for Mini, too. Blueberry with frosting and sprinkles. Cute donut for cute baby.”

Prowl isn’t fazed by this at all. He takes the seat next to the bed, and you roll your head to look at him and the cradle-pod thing. There’s a twitch to his lips, a not quite smile but it’s a sign of contentment in Prowl-speak. He comments, “I’m partial to aluminum flakes.” 

“ Oh, I was thinkin' abou' cop-per. That’s zah good donu-ahh....” You slur, trailing off, eyes heavy. You can feel Prowl patting your hand, telling you to sleep it off. There’s the soft twinkle of a datapad turning on, the soft beeps of the newspark’s readouts, and you vaguely hear the door chime going off as Trophon, the medic you found for the carriage, speaks with Prowl. The words unintelligible, your mind is too far gone to pick out the Neocybex, but it didn't sound worrisome. No prickle of distress rolling over your skin. Just cool air and Prowl's warm servo...

You knock out.

[optimistpax]

Comics theory thoughts on last bot standing issue 2 under the cut + bonus old man Roddy

First of all it is absolutely FASCINATING to read transformers and watch them shift from primarily traditional inking to primarily digital inking.

Page 10 panel 3 and page 11 panel 1 [ID: one panel of moon saluting next to a second panel of the same drawing cropped slightly higher on the characters legs. End ID]

They both have Moon 100% copied and pasted. And like. This isn’t a criticism (of the art team). Deadlines are tight and comics don’t pay you enough to not take shortcuts and be as efficient as possible. I get it. I just think it’s fascinating bc like. That wasn’t POSSIBLE when doing traditional comics. Sure you could use a light box, but I imagine moving your setup from your drafting table to a lightbox is probably more time and work than it’s worth. And that’s assuming you have a light box to begin with (let alone one big enough for an original comic page)

I’m also SO interested in the lettering. I’m really curious if the choice to use the IDW2 lettering conventions were a conscious stylistic decision or if it was more of a “well we have the lettering template for idw2 handy so we may as well use it” sort of deal. (Bc the idw2 letter is a different letterer than the letterer for last bot standing so they would’ve had to ask for the illustrator files? Unless they’re stored on an IDW server? I’m dying to know how that works. I have so many questions pro letterers let me shadow you.)

Anyways. The lettering choices are really interesting to me esp concerning the not-rodimus bots. I can see why the gradient was applied, but it really only works for individual balloons and when there’s multiple balloons it’s really hard to read the white text on the light blue background. I 100% know what happened in illustrator that made that happen, just not sure how to fix it short of getting rid of the gradient or making the text black. Lettering sounds like it’d be so hard.

It’s also interesting that they’re the same shape as the Soundwave speech balloons in idw2 (and similar shape to the radio balloons, but not quite the same) meanwhile Roddy has a regular speech balloon but in orange. Are they all speaking over radio? Are they speaking cybertronian and Roddy is speaking the same language as Shib? Guess I should finish reading and find out 😂

YEAHHH!!! LOOK AT THIS PANELING!!! LOVE the use of proximity to guide the eye!!!! Most of the time if this kinda panel layout is used it’s confusing bc ppl dunno whether to read left left right or left right left but this is super clear that it’s left left right bc the top left panel is further away from the right panel and closer to the bottom left panel!!!!

Bonus Roddy bc he’s still got it (it being dialogue that makes me laugh)

[ID: rodimus from last bot standing smiling and saying “you saw the sorta thing I can do, right? Pull some sweet moves — bam. Flatten you all. and look awesome doing it. End ID]

[bloombird]

Whirl: Amazing!

Hoist: Bam Box can talk already?!

Medix: They can learn how to talk and master language approximately 13 minutes after they're made? Interesting.. Now I wanted to learn more about botbots.. Do you have memories from Gabby?

Bam Box: Uh.. no? I just think she's nice..

Medix: Hmm, I guess that makes the theory wrong

Hot Shot: What theory exactly?

Medix: The theory about Bam Box having somewhat of a connection with Gabby since he? she? they? they're made from Gabby's energon output systems.. . . . I made that theory 6 minutes ago before Bam Box have the ability to vocalize their speech

Raven: Huh, woah..

Bam Box: H-Hey! What're you doing?

Medix: Stay still, I'll be scanning you shortly. *scans* Their anatomy, it looks similar to Cybertronian anatomy yet.. It looks simplified and different.. Hmm, now this type of species- They even have a spark like us?!

The rescue bots recruits: Woah!! No way!!

*at the van*

Everyone: *singing*

Todd: whoo! We're going on trip to California! But first we gotta to Jasper, Nevada!

Raven: this concert is gonna be sick!

Gabby: yeah, we're gonna have a lot of fun, ya!

Dave: I think I might get sick by this already expired trail mix...

Raven: ehh, sorta rhymes...

Marcus: everyone enjoying yourselves back there?

Hiraya: can't believ- Marcus! Eyes on the road!!! There's a deer!!!!

Marcus: *screaming*

Everyone: *screaming*

*Marcus makes a huge swerve on the road, missing the deer(?)"

Marcus: *panting* is everyone ok?...

Raven: yeah we're good, the botbots are good... Wait- did you say deer?

Marcus: yeah...

Dr Janet: are you sure?...

Marcus: mhm... Well we- aw no... Our tyres.... There punctured... And there's no spare... But in the plus side, we're in Jasper, Nevada! Who hoo...

Dave and Hiraya: we might know someone who can help us!

Todd: you do?...

Dave: yeah! They're not to far from us... I think...

*at the deer, smells something... The deer wraith... Hides from the human allies from a distance... waiting patiently...*

Gregory: Geez Marcus! Why did you do that?

Marcus: Listen- That deer came out of nowhere!

Gabby: That's weird.. How does a deer live near here? I read this book about Nevada.*She raises and waves a book about US States and Nature Sites* It says that deer in Nevada don't live near towns and they don't live in this desert-like place!

Raven: Huh.. Weird..

Hiraya: Wait, I know that sign. We're close to their town! Thank goodness we don't have to walk for hours..

Marcus: So who are they?

Dave: They're another friends of ours. Don't worry, the botbots are safe with them. They know.

Gabby: Really? How did you guys meet them?

Hiraya: Well, it's kind of a long story.. Before we met you guys, Dave and I wondered if there are other places that the energon storm struck so we decided to make a club for humans who know about the botbots: "The little bots club"

Dave: But then the three won't stop calling and uh, they kinda got the club wrong. So we called them back and then they payed us a visit. When we explained it to them, they got a bit disappointed but they're okay.

Hiraya: And then.. they accidentally took Bonz-Eye, they thought the plant's free.

Dave: Yeah, after we realized it. We told them all about it and then we went to the next state. So yeah.. Don't worry, they're not surprised- I mean they are slightly surprised because they know about giant-

Hiraya: Dave.

Dave: Ah right.. Uh-Anyway, they gave her back, we had a lot of good time chatting, and then we just kept in touch. Oh, look! We're here!

(Just to be clear, the Varroa incident, Bonz-Eye being kidnapped by "MECH", and Kikmee turning into a scraplet leader never happened in this AU so that I wouldn't mix up both the Box AU and the Aligned Dream AU and I wouldn't be confused with the timeline.)

[notdeezy]

Hello! I love your humanformer designs- is there a process that you have toward making these designs? Where do you mainly get the outfit inspiration from?

Hi I’m so happy you like my designs! I’m not sure how I can explain my process behind designing humanized Transformers characters in a cohesive way and make it easy to understand, but I’ll try! First and foremost I always analyze the character, I’ll use Windblade as the first example.  Windblade is one of the easiest character to turn into a Human because It’s already established that her design is inspired by Japanese Onna-bugeisha so it’s easy to have something to work with. But I still observe the original design and brainstorm how those mechanical elements of the character could translate into a recognizable design because my goal with human Transformers designs is to *instantly* make them recognizable, even as humans.  This kind of observation in character designs in order to dissect what elements make it stand out and more iconic is defintely a skill but one you can hone easily and get the hang of with practice. I really recommend BaM Animation’s video on good character designs because they explain it really well which you can find here → https://youtu.be/8wm9ti-gzLM My next step is to then gather a lot of reference! Pureref  is an amazing programm for reference gathering I highly recommend using it.

What happens next is that I make a first draft, mainly to establish proportions, pose and the silhoutte of the character. It’s good to do that on paper but It’s not a must. Just helps me doodle it without much care. I always try to keep the silhoutte and shapes of the character close to the original to help it stay recognizable. 

From there I take a picture with my phone, adjust the brightness and contrast of the image, make it black and white then go over to digital to refine the pose, anatomy and lines. It’s good to start with a blank body first before making a new layer above it and drawing the clothes with a different color. Then I erase the parts of the body who are covered by clothes. 

The last step, which is lining and coloring Isn’t pretty eventful. And just like the shapes and silhouettes, when it comes to the color palette I always try to stay true to the original design because colors are extremely important to keep a character design iconic as well.

And that’s pretty much how most of my Humanformers design processes go. Obviously there are variations depending on the nature of each character. What do I do when the character I want to design isn’t inspired by human culture? The same basic principles still apply! Which is to analyze the character, dissect what elements make the design recognizable, gather reference and translate it into a human design.  For example, Wing reminded me of Korean hwarang and warriors so I gathered reference and did the same steps that also applied to Windblade.

Note that I don’t completely rely on my references though! Sometimes I just dabble around and have fun with what I’m working with by drawing certain shapes from the cybertronian design as a clothing item that represents it well! Most of the time it’s a mix of both. I sometimes even take Inspiration from other people’s works taking the original cybertronian design in mind, make some drafts, [ Credit: Arnold Tsang,  Johannes Helgeson ]

Then basically mix, merge, refine and draw until I’ve got a good result! It’s definitely a process and one I actually enjoy. (Except Human Dai Atlas he was HELL to design lol)

Looking up Images of real people for example a character’s voice actor or taking Inspiration from the already established holoforms is also never wrong! 

I really hope that this helps you and that this mini tutorial clears up all the essentials! I highly recommend checking out everything I’ve linked in this post and never by shy to take inspiration from other people’s works! Have fun and stay safe ♥

[sunderedstar]

things that I can't stop thinking about - the fact that the Aequitas trials probably convicted a bunch of innocent people en mass.

like don't get me wrong! I'm sure there were plenty of war crimes to go around! just look at the truth of the Wreckers. but when you examine how the tech behind Aequitas works, you need to remember that the person who invented and coded it...was Mesothulas.

and Mesothulas was never - subconsciously or otherwise - interested in the war or justice or anything like that. just look at his body of work: positive reinforcement prisons, spark extraction, Aequitas and Impetus, the anti-coercion device attached to Aequitas that demanded a willingly donated spark to unlock it, spark-concealing biodisguises, and ultimately his masterwork, his greatest success - Ostaros, an "artificial" life form.

I put quotes around artificial because Springer is real in every way that matters. Mesothulas used side projects for Prowl as a way to calculate and analyze emotion, and he successfully applied what he learned about the nature of the spark/soul to create new life.

and if you ask Tyrest, guilt is a key part of separates a person from a machine. his comparison is fundamentally flawed - Ten, as later established, is definitely a person and also a Legislator. but that's a) another meta entirely and b) part of the unreliability we establish in Tyrest as a judge.

so when Prowl asked for something to calculate guilt, Mestholas was probably more than happy to oblige. Perceptor explains that Aequitas uses algorithms to calculate guilt here:

based on Aequitas's calculations and the trials, Tyrest became convinced that the cold constructed mechs were inherently evil because somehow (borderline impossibly) every single defendant was cold constructed.

but then, word of Rung is that it's not nearly as clear cut as that. at the forcefield on the space bridge gate, something similar to Aequitas tech:

it detects guilt, but "not necessarily evidence of criminality." self-reproach. anguish. a guilty conscience. hell, someone who is just not happy with themselves might bounce right off. I don't think it's a coincidence that Rung's explanation for how guilt/emotion based technology works is juxtaposed with Tyrest's utter certainty that Aequitas was an infallible condemnation of the cold constructed bots he helped create.

I argue that severe enough PTSD and self hatred and survivor's guilt would all have been enough to trigger a guilty verdict from Aequitas. "I saw a member of my unit shoot a civilian, and I was five minutes old and so shocked. I didn't stop them in time, and it's haunted me ever since." bam, guilty.

I think it's far less likely that every cold con stuck into Aequitas was really guilty, and far more likely that all of them - especially the warborn MTOs, almost to a mech - were traumatized by being thrown into a horrific war from the moment they were born. they were defrosted and told to shoot or get shot, and it left indelible scars on their psyche from the second they became conscious. depression, despair...where would a machine like Aequitas have drawn the line? a lot of it may have just come down to how the person viewed themselves and their actions. none of them were at peace with themselves or what they'd done.

"Why is the computer so big?" Verity asks. probably because Mesothulas wanted to analyze motivation and guilt and feed all that incalculable data on the soul into the creation of Ostaros. what would he care if the machine he created to do it gave false positives all over the place because Cybertronians have a baseline collective PTSD as a species? for Mesothulas, it was only ever about making Prowl happy and creating new things, new ideas.

[deepfriedhopesanddreams]

Heatwave: if you don't make that storm again

Gabby: promise. I'm actually not human, well a chunk of me might be, but I'm mostly cybertronian in a way

Perceptor: so that's why my energon scanner was going off

Bumblebee: but who or what created you?

Gabby: my "dad"? It's kind of complicated... My friends and I just learned about this hours ago, still trying to process everything...

Dr Janet: and we're currently being hunted down by the government, we just want a vacation to California

Boulder: and this little guy?

Gabby: that's a botbot, made by the same energon as the energon storm, there's dozens of them, this one, their name is Bam Box!

Bam Box: hi!

Flower Power: hello!

Everyone: !!!

Gabby: wait! I haven't seen you before! You're a new one!

Another part of vacation arc!

(yeah, it's laggy again)

@bloombird

Bam Box: ...

Medix: is there something wrong?

*Bam Box's stomach growled*

Hot Shot: oh...

[prince-toffee]

BumbleBee II

Okay, so someone had pointed out that Shatter (my love) and Dropkick were there on Cybertron in the battle against Prime, alongside Screamer and the Waves. That’s a big deal. And yeah a thousand generic seekers were there too, but a part of me wishes to entertain the fact that maybe they weren’t just foot soldiers, but rather high ranking officers. And whatever I can daydream about writing BumbleBee 2, I’m a writer damnit!... when I feel like it.

And also, we don’t see any other Triplechangers, even Blitzwing - a famous Triplechanger - seemed to have a regular two mode status. And yes I know, the generic seeker couldn’t be called Starscream cause Bee needed to kill him off, and Knight just pulled out a name out a hat for him, but they can spin it! They could make it work.

What if Shatter and Dropkick were the first Triplechangers?! Shockwave’s newest lab rats, and successful experiments. If they somehow could have a relation to Shockwave it would explain their presence near him, and add more character to them. And I’m aware that Arcee could be a Quadriplechanger in this continuity, implied by the Bee Vision clip. And I Am All Here For It! You can spin it! Make it work!

If you want Arcee to be apart of the main cast on earth this would be a great way to add onto her character. We could pull a bit from IDW and say Jhiaxus created a T-cog that could withstand and support four different forms, and surgically implanted it into Arcee, and Shockwave in his jealousy of his old mad-scientist partner attempted to create something to rival it. Coming up one form short. Never quite good enough, to stack up against everyone’s favoured scientist back in The Crystal City. And bam, we have a motive for Shockwave! See what I mean? It can all be connected.

And after the killing of Cliffjumper, we could have a series flashback in the sequel, which could depict Cliff having a relationship with every Autobot of the main cast. Bam! We get the feels, and a unifying theme throughout the movie.

Am I thinking too hard about this? The answer is NO!

We could have this whole story about Shatter and Dropkick being street rats, scavenging for energon rods under the city streets of Kaon, like the ones in the first episode of G1. And then they go to this rally/parade and speaking on a podium is Megs himself, in all his G1/Bayverse hybrid glory. But we never see him fully, just the legs, or maybe only his voice (Frank Welker, pretty please) muffled in the distance. And on that day Megs himself reached out a hand to Shatter and Dropkick and took them in.

Then we could have another flashback to how Starscream met Megs, and then Soundwave. And now suddenly we have a parallel and a contrast to the flashbacks with Cliff. While, throughout we’re seeing that the Autobots and Decepticons are both bonded by comradery and believing in a greater cause, but one side is laced with deception and lies, while the other with honesty and love for all life and freedom. While Decepticons only campion the rights of Cybertronians, the Autobots campion the freedom of all beings.