#cybertron culture

[unicrons-chaos]

Hot Take on worldbuilding!

I think at least cybertronian transformers would have something like uncanny valley instincts. Because of things like Spark Eaters. Perhaps a mech with too much grey is uncanny valley due to the comparison to an offlined frame. Or an empurata victim.

Or shadowplay and how their processor and actions now are not quite the same and that could be dangerous cause spark eaters weren't acting the same.

Predacons(predaking's bros) and Insecticons are views close to this valley as well because the mechanimal heritage and coding to varying degrees and this made outsiders uncomfortable and thus the hate towards them. Beastformers too to an extent. They aren't exactly in the uncanny valley but to others they're close enough. (In my personal worldbuilding Predacons are ancestors to many and Vosians are closest descendant so this would imply to them as well in that sense. Might discuss that whole gig in another future post)

Anyways,

Perhaps Caminus and Velocitron didn't have to worry about this and don't understand why Cybertronians are uncomfortable with a mech that they've never seen before.

Empurata was an illegal practise. A crime and punishment to strip one of their humanity esentially and be deemed an outcast.

How? To make them look barley like the rest of them.

To make them just mech enough to be fear/aggression/concern inducing.

Big singular eyes in the dark of a helm and sensors or biolights that glow like sparking wires, sharp sometimes pincher like claws too sharp to be a mech's claws, a few too many revealed wires, no mouth or mask to give sense of a voice box, helms like darkness with antenna and blocky shapes not too unlike a spark eater's chest with something trapped inside.

[avocado62524]

[lets-try-some-writing]

Just a question, what do Cybertronians think about clothes?

I've thought about this a lot actually. For fic reasons obviously.

I do imagine Cybertronians are familiar with two kinds of clothing. 1. The Expensive Organic Slag. And 2. Metacloth used for the occasional sign of rank and expensive but not too out of the ordinary.

Getting organic material on a world of metal was an absolute nightmare before the war, so such material was reserved for the higher castes and served only to be a sign of status. Few bots actually enjoyed wearing clothing items due to how fragile it was, but status came before all else. And so most Cybertronians are very familiar with accenting pieces such a sashes, veils, and even loincloths or overcoats. The rich bots all had that sort of stuff on during important events, so seeing organic cloth on a bot tends to bother those who came from a lower caste. They do not think highly of the stuff, not unless everyone is wearing the oversized tarps that various humans have offered up over the years.

As for metacloth, that was a bit more normal but almost exclusively reserved for capes and the odd rain guard. Getting such things was always a hassle and required a special custom commission for it to fit the frame and model. It was all the rage for a while, but most bots found that a far more effective way of looking cool and keeping the rain from melting their paint off was through the use of protective overpaints. And so metacloth has largely been cast away, except for the odd ritual or in the case of the stubborn older doctors who still enjoy having metacloth suites around in case of infection. (Yes, Ratchet is one of them and he hordes his suit like a drake with a point to make). The general consensus for metacloth clothing is a collective shrug. Nice that a bot thought to get some done up, but not worthy of being given more than a side eye.

But when it comes to the humans? Well, Cybertronians as a whole aren't actually all that surprised. They've run into organic species before and it is widely known that most soft fleshed things enjoy being covered so they can regulate their body temperature. It's not all that concerning. However, there is a never ending ongoing debate regarding whether or not the squishy organics should pony up and get real armor like the average Cybertronian or stick to their soft warm coverings.

Smokescreen has been given quite the side eye from the team for his suggestion of just letting the squishies wander around naked since, in his own words "It's natural for them, right? We come out with plating, they pop out all pink and spongy!"

[witchofthesouls]

Humans not only from viruses can get sick but from stress alone too

Try to to do something about invisible threat (poor bots)

Funnily enough, they do understand stress-related illness and injury, especially with education on the line, but there's still a huge cultural clash (and arising misunderstandings).

On Cybertron, medical-related frames are regulated to a mid-to-higher caste in the system as Golden Age Cybertron highly values them and those fields. It stems from the Quintesson Occupation since their conquerors greatly valued intellectual pursuits (and ways to control Cybertronian biology and keep the population docile to their leverage).

That doesn't jive well with American business practices. To the Autobots, June Darby is their equivalent of a highly skilled medical practitioner, especially since she's acting as a trainer or as a head of a specialty unit. On Cybertron, she would be afforded more privileges in accordance with her rank and responsibilities: greater pay, final say on her core staff or floats, better access to fuel grades and a greater vareity of flavorings, off-premise housing on a discount, vacation pay, emergency/sick pay, access to parks, libraries, and more places dedicated to pure recreation (like amusement parks or plays), an allowance to decorate her hab to her preference, greater priority if she wanted to mentor a newframe or a sparkling from the Well (granted it had to share her own medical-frame), seating on public transport, discounted/free items and services through the hospital and university networks, and priority on networking and trade within the system.

Shoot, it's how Ratchet kept his clinic in the Underground alive for that long. He utilized all the privileges afforded to him as one of the best of the best until it couldn't be overlooked. Even then, Ratchet was afforded a heads-up about the raid long before it happened so he could clear out and wrap up any illegal treatment or training.

If Ratchet found out how poor the state of medical care in the U.S., especially the mockery it was twisted by insurance and private equity, the mech would be so infuriated that he would skip English and go back into Neocybex to the point all of his 'strongly worded letters' to many local, state, and federal committees would be in Cybertronian.

Plus, Ratchet is incredibly salty, bitter, and frustrated at the current state of the war... so he'll channel those emotions into the political and social scene on bettering healthcare and patient outcomes by coordinating many advocacy groups... and curating ties to organizations and individuals that have beef to pick over the state of things or have no qualms in upsetting social polite fictions.

Bottom line, Cybertronians are very familiar with stress-related injuries and illnesses, but they're absolutely astounded on how Earth (let's be honest, the U.S. since the Autobots seems to only sole ties to them) can be so forward, yet incredibly backward on things.

[alterspark]

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[This is my first time coining a flag, I'm sorry if I'm not formatting this properly. I'm also not using my usual coloured typing/font for this post so that it's easier to read.]

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Cybertroniankin/Transformerkin Flags And Symbol

I noticed that Cybertoniankins don't have a flag nor symbol so I decided to make them myself. Unfortunately I'm indecisive so there are multiple versions. The colours were picked with meaning in mind, I tried to choose features/experiences that all Cybertonians could relate to. I did include some references to the war in the symbolism since that is the main story that our source/cannon revolves around.

The symbol is a representation of a spark/spark chamber. Depending on the continuity spark chambers will look different but most of the time the sparks themselves are just pure light so i took some artistic freedom with this. I decided to take visual inspiration from the matrix of leadership, specifically the part that fits over/around the spark.

First version -

1 - Deep blueish purple for Interstellar travel/Space. Representing Cybertonians that live on other planets, were born on other planets, travel through space frequently/as a lifestyle, were displaced/had to escape during the war, or for some other reason aren't on Cybertron.

2 - Vibrant blue for Energon. Representing the energon that is our lifeblood, as well as the energon spilled in the war between Decepticons and Autobots.

3 - Pastel rainbow gradient for Transformation. Representing our defining trait to transform. It's what gave us the name "transformers" after all. It might be second nature to some, while others will struggle with it and how it impacts their identity. But at the end of the day our T-cogs and other systems evolved to let us change form and we should be proud in that ability.

4 - Pale ice blue for The Allspark. Representing the fact that regardless of how we look or who we are, we all originate from within the Allspark, without it new Cybertonians can't be born. The Allspark is also seen as a form of afterlife, which could tie into spiritual Cybertoniankin identities.

5 - Grey for Metal. Representing the physical aspect of being a mechanical lifeform. A lot of us - myself included - experience species dysphoria. Whether your kintype is psychological, spiritual or anything in between, the feeling of being made of metal is carried with us via phantom and sensory shifts.

✦

Second and third version -

I made these since I thought the rainbow gradient on the first one could be a bit too much. These flags also put the All Spark stripe at the centre giving it a bit more focus. The colour meanings remain the same except for the yellow stripe.

4/5 - Golden yellow for Transformation/T-cog. Almost identical meaning as the gradient stripe on the first version but with more emphasis on the T-cog itself. The colour comes from the fact that although the way the T-cogs look depends on continuity, most of them seem to have some golden/yellow/orange elements or glow.

✦

Here is the symbol by itself:

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The symbol and all of these flags were made by me [alterspark]! They are free to use!

@kin-flags @woozywaspy

[flexingtyger99]

Transformers 2007

[no-hhamani]

Cybertron and Earth coexisting would be rad, but one thing I had thought about is a symbiotic race

Cybertronians in their alt mode with their visual feed blinded and fully trusting their human driver to race them in a track and its from the human say or the cybertronian's instinct to initiate energon boost or any abilities the cybertronian has

Humans are basically the transformer's eyes

[transformers-the-hunted]

Cbertronian religion

Across the meny cultures of the cybertronias, there are meny different religious beliefs, but one thing that remains consistant it the worship of the Great Three.

Triplet gods above all others:

PRIMUS:

God of creation / the past (one's birth is always in the past) Worshiped as a main god, by inventers, artists and Emergence assistents. If you want something new you pray to primus.

The prophet of primus is Optimus prime

GEAE:

God of existence / the now (you always live in the now) Worshipped by few in current times, When you want things to stay the same you pray to GEAE

The prophet of Geae is the Mistress of Flame

UNICRON:

God of destruction /death / the future (ones own death is always in ones future) Worshiped by warrirors and the impoverished, he has become very popular in mordern times. When you want something to end you pray to UNICRON

The prophe of UNICRON is Galvatron

Together they re the divine trio never one without the others

[sweet7simple]

Transformers: Dark Cybertron, Volume 1 - Nightbeat psychoanalyzes Cyclonus and that is just a bad move.

Also, some questions I had about how Cyclonus reacted to Tailgate's imminent death (such as, why did he scar his own face? Why did he only attach the horn Tailgate had made for him after Tailgate was cured? Why did the scars heal after Tailgate was cured?) get answered by Nightbeat just being so busy pulling a Sherlock on Cyclonus that he fails completely to preserve his own wellbeing:

(More under cut)

You ever have some dead guy tell your ship's captain and the former leader of the autobots about how much you love your best buddy and how worried you were about losing him? Well, Cyclonus has and it apparently sucks.

[thatturtleleon]

cybertronian sign language <3

[headphones-lifeform]

Working on my Star Trek/Transformers crossover AU has got me thinking.

Cybertronian architecture and vessels are made out of metal. The Cybertronians themselves are also made of a metal, though theirs is organic.

Would a Cybertronian who knows about Humans but has never been to Earth assume Human architecture is fleshy?

[dweamdoodles]

after binging all 16 of the skybound issues in one night I can confidently say that A) Elita-One is completely justified and I like her character a lot and B) for the sake of themes and narrative cohesion we will know when the run is ending when Soundwave can FINALLY FIX HIS CAT

[koorinokujira]

Transformers thoughts that wouldn't leave me alone - Forgotten melodies of eld

I have a bit of a tendency to overthink my favorite media and make strange associations with other things, and Transformers is no different right now. Those robots are spinning in my head like leftover pasta in a microwave. Anyhow, last night I was thinking about Cybertronian music.

(Ramble incoming! Also I might get stuff wrong, I am still fairly new in the fandom, after all. So please, forgive my potential ignorance.)

Now, there usually isn't that much lore on it from what I've seen, which absolutely sucks and I need more. What I've also noticed is that there often seems to be more of a focus on the musical instruments (which I also definitely need more lore on), rather than vocals. And hoo boy do I have thoughts about that specificallly.

Cybertronians have voice boxes, right? And considering their mechanical anatomy, it's pretty safe to say that they can hold on for way longer than our vocal cords. After all, it's not like a computer or its speakers start breaking down after a few hours of music being played continuously. Of course, such a voice box would be more complex, and there are definitely some more unique ways for it to break or damage, but... I generally like to think they are pretty durable when they are used for speech or song. Which brings me to the concept which I decided to call "mechanical elves", or something to that effect.

Now, what does that even mean? It's simple; I was inspired by the portrayal of elven music in various fantasy media, like J. R. R. Tolkien's works. Songs that reach the deepest parts of your soul in an ancient, ellegant language, voices that sing heartwrenching ballads for hours on end about tragedies that happened millennia ago. And I thought... wouldn't that work for Cybertron? Or at least, Cybertron in its beginnings?

You have a race of giant, mechanical beings, many of which have lived for millions of years. And they do love their music, even if we often have no idea what it's like and get only snippets from their culture. You have people like Blaster, who is literally nicknamed "The Voice" in the IDW1 comics and uses his voice to inspire his fellow Autobots, among other things. Just their voice boxes alone have so much potential, and that just makes me feel stuff, honestly.

Why wouldn't they sing for incredible amounts of time without stopping, at least when the times weren't so complicated just yet?

Did the first Cybertronian who ever hummed a melody feel so much joy that he simply kept going and couldn't stop, before excitedly teaching others? When a friendship started to feel more than it already was, did the night start with a passionate serenade sung by a singular voice, which, as the hours went by, turned into a duet full of affectionate words to one another? When a Cybertronian died for the first time, did his brothers sing for his memory, and to survive the sorrow as they had no tears to weep?

Mechanical voices crying out in raw emotion to let the world know they're there, only for others to answer. Languages and dialects no longer spoken, beautifully haunting melodies long forgotten. And as the time went on, the world started to get more and more quiet, before the old compositions finally gave way to the new ones. Perhaps the Titans who yet live still remember a few notes or words once sung.

All that's left of the beginnings now is a requiem doubling as an ode to hope.

Its words?

"'Til all are one."

[lets-try-some-writing]

In your professional opinion: what would be some Cybertronian Superstitions? Like do the miners hit the entrance of mines after someone dies inside it to help free their sparks from their tomb? Do people not say Unicron’s name after dark for fear it’ll summon him? Is there a name(s) that you can’t say inside the Iacon Hall Of Records or else you’ll be cursed with bad luck????

Please feel free to go hog wild with this.

Oh boy I LOVE the idea of that sort of thing. Honestly, I can see all sorts of little superstitions existing due to mythos and history.

Miners make it a point to never leave their tools unattended. They take them everywhere. To recharge, to fuel, even to get repairs. As for why they do this? There is a certain belief that the tools carry a bit of the luck and wisdom of those who held them previously. And since most tools are handed down from one fallen miner to the next, miners treat their tools with reverence. Many have carried the same pick, and each has left their mark. It cannot be disregarded.

Additionally, miners refuse to enter a deep tunnel system without whistling down it first. The habit has been long since made null and void by tunneling improvements, but there are stories of miners getting lost in the dark, before they adapted to it. Many died before their optics were augmented to the low light conditions. Great swaths of miners still believe that the wandering sparks of those lost in the dark linger there, scared and alone. Whistling down the tunnel before entering gives the lost spirits of the dead something to cling to, a guide to the afterlife in a sense.

Gladiators have a particular set of beliefs revolving entirely around the concept of honor. They know that their work is bloody and often cruel, and so they have developed a strange set of beliefs. Every gladiator, before combat, will take a stick or something equally useless, and snap it in half. They will give half of their broken instrument to a trusted comrade and march off to fight. If they return alive, the two pieces are to be put back together and promptly crushed into powder to be cast out upon whichever mech or beast died so that the gladiator could live. A sign of respect. However, if the gladiator were to die, their comrade is obliged to gather up the fallen's half of the instrument and have them run through their funeral rites with the joined object. This is done out of a belief that the dead must be honored, lest they linger in the living realm to haunt those who killed them (in the case of the gladiator surviving) or to stay with the other piece of their spark (in the event the gladiator dies).

Gladiators also have a firm belief that going into battle without paint will inevitably lead to bad luck coming upon them. They take meticulous care of their accenting paint, tracing swirls and jagged lines with delicate touches meant for those of higher castes. Some believe the marks distract enemies. Others say that the marks ward off attacks, letting otherwise lethal combat situations turn in their favor. No one really knows what they do. It is just something that must be done. Failure to go into battle without paint has led to more than a few gladiators meeting their end. Seeing such things has left the rest preferring to not take chances. Megatron himself went into battle without paint one time, and he quickly learned never to do that again when he returned with a brand new scar on his shoulder.

Amongst dock workers, there are various superstitions revolving around cargo in particular. It's bad luck to look at someone's cargo if it has a written letter attached. It doesn't matter what is in the box, it is considered a stain on one's spark to witness the usually rather sappy interactions between those who bother with sending hardcomms. Additionally, dock workers have long since grown to fear any box that comes in solid black. There was exactly one incident where a black box appeared amidst the cargo and disappeared without a trace, taking several other cargo pieces with it. Since then, any black boxes are either thrown right off the truck with a collective agreement that the loss will be signed off as an accident, or said boxes are loaded up with one unfortunate spark to transfer alone. Black boxes being delivered by one mech are often found missing, the driver and the box itself having vanished without a trace. Black boxes are terrifying, and not one dock worker is willing to risk it.

It is also notoriously bad luck among dock workers to deny the youngling with golden optics a ride. They will appear anywhere and at any time without rhyme or reason. When they appear, they never say a word, instead coming up to dock workers and pointing toward whatever transport they are loading up. Dock workers have long since learned to quietly nod and promptly ignore the youngling as they load up alongside the cargo. Interacting with the youngling results in the worker in question befalling some unfortunate end. Ignoring the youngling entirely leads to a similar situation. This superstition began long ago, and many younglings have abused it relentlessly since no one knows what the mysterious youngling from the myth actually looks like aside from their optics.

Low caste mecha as a whole have a strange superstition revolving around the concept of truth. They are notorious for keeping information to themselves, but low caste mecha never ever outwardly or blatantly lie. They are very careful to leave even the smallest grain of truth in their words. Why? Because telling lies brings the whispers of Liege Maximo. What are the whispers? No one is exactly sure. It is an evil omen, one that has led the low castes to develop odd honesty. They don't want to risk Liege's touch, not when he was stated to have been torn apart during the first age for his manipulations.

Low level soldiers hold the belief that giving away their names to one another is bad luck. Since they can all die at any given moment, they find it easier to remain nameless around one another. To them, remaining without a name in the optics of those around them ensures that survivors of battle can move on without fear. Giving a name means binding oneself to another. Their sparks might linger if they are attached, and that could lead to pain for both themselves and their comrades. So to get around this, soldiers don't do the name thing. Instead, every soldier refers to each other through characteristics or words of endearment. "Yellow" for a mech with yellow plating. "Comrade" or "Brother" for a mech they have served with frequently. Anything except a name. It would be cruel to bind the dead to living and the living to the dead.

Soldiers also have a belief that leaving a corpse to rot is incredibly bad luck. It doesn't matter whose corpse it is. It can't be left out. If nothing is salvageable, the spark chamber must be removed and taken to be given proper funeral rites. Not a spark wants to risk and angry spirit lingering because the body was not tended to properly. This belief extends to the point where soldiers will actively tear out their own spark chambers if they know they are going to die (or request others to do it for them). They don't want to linger and haunt those around them, so its best that the core of their frame is guaranteed proper rites.

Flyers of all kinds simply refuse to fly when Luna 1 and 2 are fully aligned. There are a thousand stories telling tales of fliers crashing, being killed, hit by rogue shots, and everything else. They won't risk it, and instead of flying, flyers will instead actively hide from the moons on such occasions. Usually unwilling to be locked in tight spaces, such cycles are the exception. To be seen by the moons is to be hunted. They won't risk it. Additionally, flyers have one particular stretch of Cybertronian landscape they all avoid like the plague. Mecha have been known to go in and never come back out, or if they do return, they are changed. They don't want to mess with that place, not for anything.

Flyers also hold the firm belief that one must keep their optics in perfect condition. They run tests all the time to ensure that their optics function without issue. Some even go so far as to get goggles or visors built into their frames just to protect them. Most chalk this up to a simple desire to not go blind. But flyers think differently. They won't get their optics replaced even if its an option. Why? Because they hold the belief that they carry the optics of a mech who didn't get to soar. Every flyer who has ever lived has had the optics of a grounder who will never get to grace the skies. For flyers, they see their optics as something sacred. They fly not just for themselves, but also for whoever their counterpart is, living or dead. They honor another through their sight, and so they must maintain their vision at all costs. Some call the phenomenon something akin to soulmates. The flyers state that it is the price they pay for their gift of flight.

(Note: Starscream and many of his people do not subscribe to the above thought process. Thundercracker is the only notable exception. Most chalk this up to his love of romance novels.)

Enforcers have many little quirks depending on city, but one they all share is the universal habit of naming their weapon of choice. It is a strange not quite religious belief for them. Whatever the thought process actual is, Enforcers rely heavily on their weapons, and as such, they must appease the weapon itself. They have to bond to it, make it an extension of themselves so that they can move it just as easily as a limb. They go about this through naming, and once named, they never get rid of the weapon in question. Even if its outdated, old, or broken. The weapon stays. If it is obliterated or lost, the Enforcer is obliged to get a copy of their prior weapon for the sake of their continued success. For this reason, most Enforcers fight with inbuilt weapons until they settle on something, and then they buy several copies just in case.

Enforcers will also never actively say "goodbye" to one another. Doing so would imply that there is a possibility of not coming back from the next patrol. So Enforcers simply don't use such language. "Good luck" or "Get those slaggers" are common supplements. Surprisingly, Enforcers only dodge around "goodbye" while on duty. They will casually wave off companions when not on the clock without a care in the world. However, if an Enforcer really does not like someone while on the clock, they will say "goodbye" as their polite version of a middle finger.

It is not exactly a rule, but Archivist as a whole simply do not refer to the Primes by name most of the time. There is a belief that uttering their designations aloud will bring their gaze upon whoever spoke. That can either be good or bad depending on the context, but since Primus's chosen can never really be predicted, most Archivists won't risk it. Instead, if they must say a Prime's name, they will tap a nearby surface a few times to supposedly draw attention away from themselves and hopefully keep the Prime in question from seeing them. It makes no sense, but even Orion Pax kept to the habit. Although some, like Orion, usually worked around this by coming up with slightly different pronunciations of the designations of Primes to hopefully avert their gazes.

Archivists also refuse to read anything relating to relics after a certain time. There is a longstanding belief that doing so can drive a mech mad. Hidden knowledge comes at Primus's chosen joor. Sometimes Archivists will reach grand discoveries at this specific time after delving into records of relics. But more often than not, Archivists have been noted having mental breakdowns, crying, losing their minds, or otherwise going haywire. Medical professionals chalk it up to exhaustion and mania. The Archivists believe it is a warning. They refuse to read about relics during Primus's joor. Obviously, there are some thing between the veil they are not meant to know.

Medics won't come within a ten mile radius of the smelting pits where most of the dead are dealt with. They believe it is a bad omen to linger in places of death, and that the wrath of the deceased can stick to their frames, making other patients lose their lives. This has led medics to make it a habit to remove dead mecha from hospitals as fast as physically possible, handing them off to medical students to carry to the pits. Medical students hardly ever do anything of note with the patients, so the professionals don't feel bad dumping all the potential bad luck on them. The only medics who actively hang around smelting pits are morticians and mecha focused on autopsies. They think lingering around the dead will help them understand the dead. That way, they can better diagnose just what killed a mech. Such medics are usually avoided by the rest who work with the living.

Medics have very sensitive servos. There is a longstanding belief that if a medic is to retire or happens to die, he or she must give up their servos to a younger medic in training. This is to pass on skill, at least in theory. It is also a sign that a medic in training is skilled and worthy of note. To take the servos of an old medic is to take on their legacy. Similarly to the miners, medics take honoring those who came before them very seriously. They will go above and beyond to keep their servos in perfect condition so that whoever comes after them can have the vital sensors that come with a medic's servos. Ratchet is one of the few mecha to not have inherited his servos from anyone. He has also never signed up to have anyone get them after he dies. Most take this to mean he never will die. And considering how long Ratchet has lived, a good chunk of the population firmly believe that Ratchet is eternal.

[witchofthesouls]

I'm going to follow up on the fantasy-horror thoughts to be expanded Transformers, so-

Medical/Biological Horror

I haven't really seen takes about established Cybertronian medical biology and the complications with the "humans into Cybertronians" trope.

Like we see the heavy emphasis on T-cogs across the iterations and how it's deeply connected to independence, identity, and person-hood, so how about an ex-human that lacks a T-cog?

Ironically, T-cogs have a lot of emphasis on that particular organ is similar to human hearts in terms of emotional, cultural, spiritual, and physical capabilities and significance. Similar to how humans are capable of donating hearts to others, Cybertronians can perform an equivalent procedure with T-cogs. (On a related side note, the phenomenon of 'cellular memory' has to be extremely appalling to the mechanical species. Not in the sense of upcycling parts, but in the sense that the organs, frame, and equipment still retain the echos of the last person to the point that it influences the new body.)

Imagine that once human inside a medbay as the medics tutted and sadly inscribe their new medical file about their new monoformer status. What a shame, they said. They could have been an excellent addition to (insert whatever frame kibble visible that correlates to a function), they said. Poor thing! With that kind of extrasensory equipment, they'll be a walking target, they said.

So that monoformer with no kibble or those visible beastformer traits without the means to completely escape... What. A. Shame.

Until a random Cybertronian sees that monoformer casually wheeling around with heelies. It's easy to wave away as a reinvention of training wheels, but then they notice those heelies disappear back into the monoformer's frame. The ex-human still has no T-cog. Sweat breaks out because said ex-human had done the fucking impossible.

They're paying closer attention now. They're seeing little micro-transformations happening. The subtle signs of a frame shifting to accommodate an area or space, the way fingertips would sharpen too easily with a file or with a raw cut as a tip is used to scrape away at something, the seams expanding and contracting, so something is happening, they just can't tell...

While this can overlap with the body/psychological horror aspect, I say we should take it more extreme. There had been takes with dysphoria, particularly with the play between mechanical parts and human organs, the differences in senses, and if 'sticky sexual interfacing' is part of it, then sexual hardware of both sets.

However, what about acceptance? The exploration of feeling truly at home in your own new skin? Even if it's high-tech and something out of a sci-fi film/video game with a platform that's incomprehensible because you don't understand the language it uses, but guess what? You can download a packet to fully comprehend a new language. You may not be fluent or comfortably at ease with speaking, but you can read and understand what's being said. A possibility of delving into human disabilities that translate into something easily curable or nonexistent or have well-established accommodations in a Cybertronian framework. Something like hormonal disorders or gastrointestinal issues due to upset gut biome would be wiped clean. Poor/limited eyesight can be compensated with a visor that can't be easily removed or taken away or the additional sensors that provide environmental data. Cybertron has a form of sign language with chirolinguistics where communication is done "by stimulating the nervecircuits in the fingers, wrist and palm of their conversational partner. It seems to be fairly common to know at least a little hand." TFWiki page And it pairs well with internal comms that double as cell phones or an unique user on platform where a Cybertronian can live chat or text another.

A massive tradeoff for this kind of comfort? You now have a visible soul.

Think about it, your soul can be directly handled, as in someone can physically go mess with your most distilled sense of self.

Humanity had long debated the existence of it via philosophy, spiritually, scientifically as well. The heart is the most recent popular choice, but major historical contenders had been the stomach and the mind as well as arguments of the soul isn't found in one specific organ but rather the bridge between them.

People swear by souls and the afterlife. There are many myths and legends that involve souls. Even the most doubtful had been deeply raised in a cultural framework of the concept via media usage, figurative speech, religious imagery, and depictions in art.

That has to be the most mind-blowing and deeply unsettling reality a former human must accept.

I see the comparisons of sparkeaters to vampires as they both prey on the living, but the more apt description should be the product of Harry Potter with Dementors as those Dark creatures eat souls.

So this touches on another genre-

Supernatural Horror

Human adaptability combined with the Earth transformation myths/magic would deeply terrify modern Cybertronians as those new cybered beings don't fit the established medical reality they function with.

This can easily tie very well with expanding Cybertronian folklore of otherworldly beings of their version of fae, demons, spirits, or yōkai. Beautiful, terrible beings that mimick Cybertronians too well... unless to look closer: the shadow missing or not matching (can be tied to Unicron), conflicting kibble, EM fields too wild with a chaotic rhythm no one else can match, colors that change to suddenly, a strange wardrobe (made of dead creatures) that ripples and warps without a breeze, an mechanimal with too much intelligence glittering in its optics...

I'm not even fully delving into the rampant chaos of ex-humans having a host of adaptations suited for tolerating far more ranges of environmental stress and disease-resistance due to the rapid evolution by organic life compared to Cybertronian fauna. Remember, humans are animals. Highly intelligent apex predators that specialize in endurance/persistent pursuit with strong social and communal behaviors, and the cleverness to suit the environment from aquatic to deserts to wetlands to forests to grasslands to tundra. Humanity found ways to not just survive but to thrive in those biomes.

This opens a potential storyline where cybered humans become Cybertron's extremophiles, so that can easily translate into those beings capable of manipulating their own selves to a multitude of frames and shapes.

The example above with the human to monoformer was a show in how transformation mechanisms could be different between the species. If T-cogs are an inherently modern Cybertronian biological trait, then cybered!Earth natives should be either throwbacks or have another approach to it.

And that's the more muted fuckery, but what about straight-up transformations that were deemed unthinkable? Where unnatural formations keep twisting upon themselves, collapsing just to rise higher and higher? The sudden appearance of not one or two extra limbs, but dozens, even hundreds without a sequence as they try to compute how the hell they pull all that mass from nowhere? Armor plating, sure and steady, then turning into a substance that swallows everything and anything as a solid becomes a liquid.

The repression technology may or may not even work as it targets the frame's T-cog. What can it do to a mecha that doesn't have one?

Another aspect overlooked is the animal-human relationship in domestication of wild animals or how communities form symbiotic relationships with different kinds of wild fauna. Combined humanity's collective love for highly dangerous creatures... Wouldn't it be absolutely sick as hell if cyber!human got a sparkeater as their companion? It's still a wild 'animal,' not a fully tame one like a domesticated animal, so they're trying to tedtalk on a human's approach to curating a stable relationship with a predatory species while the rest of the Cybertronians are basically dead-white from sheer fright.

Or on the opposite yet equally delightful spectrum of said exhuman caring for orphaned creatures that reminds them of human pets (like a bunny or a mouse), but those 'cute babies' usually cause massive structural damage to city-states and a known mech-killer. Something like a Scraplet (because, let's be real, deep in your heart, you know a person that would try to keep it as a pet and succeed at it), so their tedtalk about behavioral training, 'reasonable precautions,' and emotional/physical fulfillment is filled with scientists who's curiosity (slightly to completely) overtakes any sense of self-preservation.

[thenamesblurrito]

ask dump fourteen(? pretty sure it's fourteen)

haven't done this in a long time! for new followers, this is all questions about SNAP, my magical girl tf fan canon

lore topics this time are: pollution, spambots, the Onyx Triptych's powers, v-tubing, Depression era food, squishing Optimus, monoformers, Rodimus's flames as a shield, hero transformations, and Ariel vs boar

uhhhh probably pretty similar to what creates pollution here on Earth, just with different effects since it's not an organic ecosystem? "adapted to it" is kind of impossible to answer though, considering how many forms of "pollution" there can be. strip mining, pumping liquids or gas, and excessive drilling will end up dumping a lot of dirt and byproduct into the surrounding area, only it's less likely to be toxic. more like covering the area in rubble, runoff, or mudslides than "pollution", bc heavy metals are the norm there, and leaving large valleys, caves, or empty cavities in the crust that may make the area unsafe to navigate. one of the usual bad effects is accidentally or on purpose diverting the flow of energon in the area, or even damaging hotspots and leylines. on Earth this would be the equivalent of damming/draining a river, messing up the water table, removing citywide plumbing, or cutting power for weeks/months with no fix. their landfills aren't pollutants so much as they are recycling on a planetary level

airborne pollution is less of an issue, not bc they don't have a lot of "pollutants" in their atmosphere but bc the mixture of gasses is less important to their ecosystem than it is to ours. they've got weather control stations scattered around Cybertron (first ask here) and some of that work is air purification/atmospheric preservation. fine grit and dust can have negative effects, in the same way volcanic ash getting into machinery or blanketing roads can be detrimental, and they often have issues with heavy precipitation causing floods, so those are the usual culprits for airborne elements

probably the thing most widely considered to be pollution is rust, even tho it's a perfectly natural part of Cybertron's ecosystem. the Rust Sea is like that naturally and should be like that, but the harsh effects of rust still give it a cultural connotation of a polluted wasteland. huge patches of rust, oxidization, or other enbrittlement outside of the Rust Sea can be a sign of environmental degradation which may be caused by pollution, but not necessarily. the other big one is organic material, often fungi, molds, or bacteria that have adapted to live on metals or plastics and form big colonies that outstrip the ecological balance of the area to the point of "pollution". this can happen with invasive species from Eukaris or Caminus as well. actually speaking of which, Eukaris as a technoorganic ecosystem and Caminus with some native organic flora would be more susceptible to the kinds of pollution we're familiar with than other planets

GOD. FROID REALLY WOULD, THE LOSER AHFHGKF. i'm taking this ask as an online suspicious ad/random phone call asking for ur credit card info type of scam and not just any situation of someone lying

first of all, Soundwave and minicons would be the scammers, of course. uhhh Rodimus is p easy to dupe if it's about the right thing or if he's not paying attention. Windblade has her moments of naivety which would make her a potential scam target if her cityspeaking didn't often give her a heads up. Chromia WILL click on ragebait just constantly and really needs to invest in an adblocker for this reason. Hellscream, if he spent his time on a computer, may get suckered by beauty scams and consider buying into an MLM. Ariel can be convinced that she broke some rule or another fairly easily, but the trouble is that can't be used to scare her into participating with a scam bc she thinks breaking rules is a fun pastime

Orion is susceptible to begging and playing nice by ppl irl like Sentinel but not rly online scam stuff. Minimus would accidentally pick up the phone for an insurance scammer and then spend the next hour lecturing them about how this is not how anything works and here is every single law and procedure about it. Blitzwing would accidentally pick up the phone for an insurance scammer, realize it, and then scream and pretend to die in a car crash to freak them out. Makeshift would probably do the same

as for non heroes: Oil Slick has definitely gotten his credit card info stolen like, seven times. TG unironically believes in MLMs. Swindle is an even bigger scammer than Soundwave

could not locate the post this is quoting rip. i'm certain i mentioned this somewhere as a one off but i cannot for the life of me find it so! lemme just say it all here

the Onyx Triptych mask is primarily an othersight related relic, which is sorta a catch all term for any kind of vision-like extrasensory perception like Drift, Soundwave, Cyclonus, etc. each of the three masks can hone in on different things. Mournsong sees the trails of sparks moving thru life to death ala sunrise to sunset, and can see them going to/existing in the Well. Predator sees into those sparks, into the person they are, what they have done, the ripples they have left, and so on, and then track them that way like a bloodhound. Farsight sees… potential? or metaphors made real? or places and times and realities that aren’t this one shaped by the concept of people, in a confusing and dazzling display of Everything that (probably) means Nothing. it doesn’t matter which face Triptych is wearing at the moment, those visions are technically available to him all at once, the masks each are focusing tools that block out a “spectrum” of othersight so he can pick the right thing to look at

the way he sees sparks, dead or alive, isn’t like seeing ghosts! Drift sees them as people, faces and frames and echoes of who they were and what they did. Triptych sees literal sparks, zooming around like comets, leaving afterimages looping back and forth wherever they go like infinite comet tails. kind of like looking at a long exposure photo with those long light trails! and it’s just sight, it’s not interaction really, unlike Drift who can “feel” the ghosts in a way that lets him speak with them if they’re strong enough to sense him back. Triptych uses his othersight more to hunt down living people (or at least, the living ppl with sparks he manages to identify in all that visual noise. they’re just balls of light, they don’t come with name tags!) bc he can see where they’ve been + what they might be doing + what kind of creature they are no matter the distance. it’s handy when he shows up late to the monster of the week and has to track down the other cons

the experience of being Triptych is basically the visual equivalent of this song, and explains why he’s so… like that. even tho Blitzwing tries rly hard to be a chill guy and manages his triple fracture pretty well, it all goes out the window when he powers up and leans into the crazy. this is uhhh kind of detrimental to his mental health, and he knows it, but who said teenagers make wise decisions???

re: the ghost interview thing, that’s more likely to be a Deadlock moment, since his form of othersight and empathy is much more fitting. comparatively, he can’t actually see into the afterlife like Triptych can tho!

i mean... i guess? something about my brain means i hate watching videos that aren't movies/documentaries (and sometimes even then) so streamers and youtube in general aren't my forte. i'd imagine generating a virtual avatar for a mech is a lot quicker and the use of it a lot smoother, especially via object interface, so yeah sure! i know nothing about the world of v-tubing tho so that's kind of all i can comment on?

i missed "era" the first time i read this and really went geez what depressed person is making peanut filled onions in the depths of their apathy???

it's probably going to be just the staples of iron (and other metals) and energon in various forms, most conveniently a silted shake, and if they're lucky enough to live anywhere edible cyberflora grow, some supplemental fruits/veggies. they can mix up the form and presentation for personal preference, like crystal energon vs liquefied fuel, etc, but that's always going to be the cheapest and most necessary things to eat that are easy to acquire. heck, plenty of people who aren't poor or suffering a depression economy live exclusively off silted shakes just for efficiency

uhhh if i'm going for realism, no he couldn't survive being squashed literally flat bc that would destroy his body and rupture his spark (not that Optimus dying is a big deal tbh)

if i'm going for a funnie cartoon logic gag which would definitely fit in this magical girl anime genre, then sure! Pancake Prime roll out!

the most relevant analogue to monoformers in SNAP would be Mutacons, an actual frametype like triple-changers. people who have lost the ability to transform due to injury or the like (ala Terminus and his loss of mobility) aren't really called monoformers, they're just called disabled. or some other less savory terms, depending on if the speaker is a bigot, i suppose

considering functionism is all about sorting people according to both useful body types and social connections, people who are unable to transform get the short end of the stick by a big margin. if their function doesn't require transformation, if their support network is solid, etc, then they will probably be okay, but it won't be fun. and there isn't really a "monoformer movement" here either, for a variety of reasons. maybe surgically removing the t-cog was something that occurred in the past, maybe voluntarily or maybe at the command of a despot, idk, but it's not a thing currently

oh sure. depends on the speed/material of the projectile, but Rodimus could certainly spew enough flame to burn something away or at least change trajectory with the heat/wind/pressure. for some examples, if it's like uhh... Cheetor at top speed? no way, some fire isn't going to do anything to someone moving that fast. if it's Optimus barrelling thru in truck mode? mmmm probably not going actually stop him, it's just fire and not an actual explosion or physical force that could push Optimus back, but the heat would do some damage and the light may sour his aim. bullets? i'm actually not sure about this one, he could definitely get it hot enough that bullets melt midair but the splatter of molten metal may not be great either. nets or other capture gear thrown by Enforcers? oh sure that's a piece of cake to burn off

huh, i hadn't even thought of this before... i think they could absolutely go from kid root mode to hero alt mode, or vice versa/whatever combination thereof. considering their hero forms are, technically, straight up different bodies that they manifest and inhabit when powering up, the root and alt modes of both aren't necessarily linked (and aren't even equivalent for folks like Blackarachnia or Deadlock who become triple-changer heroes, or Makeshift who has no alt mode)

(post this is referring to)

she's kind of hardcore so she would actually try going up against a beryllium boar! would she win? debatable. her odds are much better now that she can become Elita 1. assuming she could successfully slaughter a boar, she may not know exactly what to do from there, as she's more on the violence side than the culinary skills side, but she would at least be able to stomach killing/processing/eating an animal!