#cybertronia obscura

[elfdragon12]

Another in the series of individual Astro Squad members with human OC, Ettie! Inspired by @cybertronia-obscura prompt "recoil".

Ettie, as a medic for Cybertronians (not qualified to do more than first aid on humans), didn't have much experience with energy/laser firearms. Resident combat enthusiast, Barrage, decides to help her out.

[cybertronia-obscura]

October Prompt List

Size

Dedication

Aim

Return

Pilot

Gag

Loud

Perch

Recoil

Spirit

[heartsandsparksshipweek]

Thank you for another round of Hearts and Sparks Ship Week!

I will be keeping an eye on the tag and for any @ notifications for the next week for any who caught on late! If not, this is a twice a year celebration of these ships and the next round will be the last week of February!

And, for a shameless plug, consider checking out @cybertronia-obscura, a blog dedicated to characters who don't get much love at all. There's a new feature character and list of 10 prompts every month!

[elfdragon12]

Hey, did you know that the tfwiki page for Flip Sides mentions that she manages remote-controlled drones and hey! Wouldn't you know it! "Drone" is one of the prompts for @cybertronia-obscura! What a perfect fit! We all need more Flip Sides in the world!

[elfdragon12]

Another piece for @cybertronia-obscura! This time, it's Twirl, originally a minicon from Unicron Trilogy comics with the prompt "performance"! She's super adorable and, apparently, her personality was based on Elle Woods from Legally Blonde and I love her! She loves to dance!

[elfdragon12]

Come Together

A short story of the Astro Squad with my human OC, Ettie. Some backstory building and some practice writing their interpersonal dynamics.

Inspired by the "team" prompt from @cybertronia-obscura.

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In the far off year of 2004...

If he was honest with himself, Missile Master wasn't sure on how grateful he was that the medic that Ultra Magnus had chosen to assign to his squad was a human. As he and 3 other members of his squad were classed as minibots and only two standard sized bots, the smaller dexterous human hands were more beneficial than other bot medics. However, humans were notorious for following their own rules and those little fuel pumps in their chests called "hearts".

At least this little human seemed to be keeping with his pace at the moment as they walked through the halls of Autobot City. He was only twice her height, so she wouldn't have had to run as if he were the Prime's height.

"This way," he said as he turned to the right. "The rest of the team is waiting in room AA125 to meet you."

"Yes, sir," she replied. Her voice sounded on the lower side for human females. Good that she could respond to a commanding officer right.

Soon enough, they reached the meeting room.

His team had been relaxing in their various ways when the two entered. Barrage had once again convinced Blast Master to a game of reflex with a ball; Missile Master was pretty sure it was called a "basketball". Heave was sitting at one of the computers hooked up to Metroplex's systems. Phaser was going through their projected ship manifest on a data pad. Moonrock was gazing out a window.

"Attention!" Missile Master called out. "Time to meet the new member of the team!"

Blast Master got pelted in the helm with the ball in his rush to turn around, but the others turned without incident. The ball pinged off his helm harmlessly before bouncing around the ground.

"Team, this will be our new medic, Loretta Caruso. Ultra Magnus thought we might benefit from a human medic on our upcoming expedition."

"Oh!" Phaser turned down to the manifest before back to the human. "This would explain why I was forwarded a human supply list! I was about to send a comm to Hoist about a mistake."

The leader nodded. "Correct. Medic Caruso, this would be my second in commander, Phaser. He is completely reliable and, anything you need, he has probably already has it on the list. Before we leave, I suggest the two of you go through the manifest to double-check as we will be away from Earth for quite some time." He gestured to the other standard-sized bot who waved enthusiastically. "That is his partner, Blast Master. While we travel through space, these two will be our ship and, thus, only available through communication." He looked back to their new medic. His optics narrowed behind his visor. "How much has our squad been explained to you?"

The human blinked up at him. "Oh! Some basic stuff. You're a team dedicated to deep space travel, mapping out new areas and general exploration," she said, "First Aid did explain that you guys were a team of two bot combiners? And he tutored me on the special treatments combiners tend to need."

"Good. We don't need as strict maintenance as he and the other Protectobots might, but we do require more care than single bots do. As I said, Phaser and Blast Master are partners."

"We are the only two who are same size and all!" Blast Master interrupted, a big grin on his face.

"Yes. Do not interrupt me," Missile Master corrected. "My own partner is Moonrock." This received a wave from said bot. "Barrage and Heave are the final pair. Barrage is our combat specialist while Heave handles our intergalactic communications." Barrage gave a short nod as Heave sat up to attention.

The little human nodded, her hair bun giving a little bounce. "Got it! So, as he said, my name is Loretta, but you can call me Ettie since we've going to be together for a while! I went through training here in Autobot City. I did classes with Sparkplug Witwicky and Raoul Delgado Herrara and then advanced classes with First Aid, Hoist, and Ratchet! I'll be able to take care of you without a problem!"

"Hello, Ettie," Heave said. Even with the face plate, his smile was audible. He always seemed to be more put-out than the others that the squad didn't get to spend as much time on Earth as other bots. Getting to work alongside a human was likely an excellent runner-up for him. "I'm sure we have lots of questions for each other."

"Speaking of," the human's voice trailed for a moment, "mind if I ask about the combining thing? From what I've been able to tell, some combiners seem like they've always been together while others act like that was something they chose later. What is it with you guys?"

Heave nodded. "Barrage and I have been together for only a short time, at least when it comes to us. You humans would think we've been together for ages! Phaser and Blast Master have been together the longest." He paused just long enough for the two to confirm. "I'm from the Burthov city-state, doing most of my studies there, and went to the Altihex research facilities later on. That's where I met Phaser and Blast Master. I didn't meet Barrage until after we started our first expedition together. I originally transformed into an individual rover vehicle."

"Full shuttle class bots are not as common as we'd like," Phaser explained, "so I volunteered for a combination program. We were partnered by the program director. It was thought that our personalities would balance each other's out."

"If it wasn't for me, Phaser would spend so long double-checking things, he'd never get off the ground!"

The flattening of Phaser's optics were enough to tell how he felt about that description. "And, if it weren't for me, Blast Master would have rushed off into space somewhere and gotten hopelessly lost."

Medic Loretta Caruso laughed. It was a nice sound. She looked back to Heave. "So how did you and Barrage meet?"

"I," Barrage finally spoke up, "got separated from my original crew. There was a planetary evacuation order--there was some sort of civil war and the captain didn't feel authorized to get involved--and I was too busy helping out some innocent civilians and missed the launch."

"Either way," Heave continued, "we picked him up when we came across the planet ourselves. We couldn't leave a comrade behind, after all. As for how we became partners, ah, well-"

Leaning forward, Barrage grinned. "Turns out he's something of a trouble magnet, so I decided to stick with him. Get him out of the trouble he gets into."

Heave mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "now it's worse".

However, Missile Master had no time to get into that when their little medic looked up to him with interesting brown color humans have. "So what about you and Moonrock," she asked, "I've barely met you and I can tell you're pretty different."

Moonrock, in an unusual show of forwardness, gave a low chuckle. "While we were studying in Altihex, I would allow him to lead on all our shared projects and I've been his favorite partner ever since," he said.

Missile Master's face plate warmed up. "Our dynamic is beneficial to both of us," he said to rephrase the unflattering explanation. "As our expeditions tend to take us into deep space where we rarely have access to timely back-up, we agreed to undergo the reformatting process to combine into a larger and more powerful vehicle." He cleared his vocals and turned to look down. "Any further questions or shall we get to our final preparations underway?"

"Seems like we've got plenty more time to know each other on the way, so let's get this show on the road!"

"We'll be in deep space, Medic Caruso, it's unlikely we'll get many shows on the road."

"We'll do a crash course on human expressions too."

[elfdragon12]

A piece for @cybertronia-obscura using the "weather" prompt! Moonrock of the Astro Squad with my human OC, Ettie! I think (non-acid) rain may be one of Moonrock's favorite weather patterns. He find it meditative.

[elfdragon12]

Finally got all single pieces of the Astro Squad and Ettie! This time, inspired by the @cybertronia-obscura prompt "navigator"!

Missile Master enjoys when Ettie asks him questions because it helps him feel like a better leader.

[elfdragon12]

I made a Scrounge piece for the @cybertronia-obscura July prompt "sneaky"! He's just too sneaky with his very special arm like no other! (...)

[cybertronia-obscura]

Welcome!

In the world of Transformers, there are a great many characters that populate it! Some are incredibly popular and well-known and there are others who are less popular, but still quite well-known. They are interesting with multiple takes on their personality and appearance.

This blog is not for them!

This blog is for the characters whose tfwiki pages look like this:

(Missile Master of the Astro Squad, introduced in 1990.)

And whose fanmade material search results look like this:

(Scrounge, introduced in 1986.)

It's not their fault. Their toy bios (if they happen to have one) show a spark of fun character that no one has taken the opportunity to explore yet and you believe more people would love them if only they knew this character even existed.

This is an art blog to share the love for these characters!

How this blog will work:

Each month will have a set of 10 art prompts to add a creative nudge. Following prompts is not required.

There will be a featured character of the month. It will not be expected to include them in any art or fics you make.

If you would like your art to be reblogged, please @ or add the tag "cybertronia obscura" to your post so it can be reblogged!

Art or prose is perfectly acceptable! They just need to feature these obscure characters.

Have fun! Whether it's full-blown art or some silly sketches, let's just shine some light!

Feature Character of the Month

Prompts of the Month

[elfdragon12]

Across The Universe

A short story featuring the Astro Squad and my human OC, Ettie, getting into more personal interactions. This is inspired by the "loud" prompt from @cybertronia-obscura

-----------

Heave was going to check on their new human companion, but, to his excitement, she came to him first.

"Hey, your name is Heave, right?" Loretta, she said they could call her 'Ettie', asked. "You do the communications stuff?"

The mech adjusted his seat to face her more fully. "That's correct, Ettie! I make sure that we're able to keep connection with at least one Autobot outpost or, at the very least, be aware where the closest one is to our location. I also make sure to send off data packets of our reports at regular intervals," he explained.

Ettie stood up on her tiptoes, a cute organic trait he thought, to look at all of the screens, dials, and buttons. "What about incoming? Could we possibly get broadcasts from Earth?"

His engine hummed as he thought it over. As he turned back to the instruments, his chair squeaked. Quick calculations ticked in his mind. "Possibly," he finally said, "I doubt we could get a consistent signal, but we might get it sometimes, depending on the source." His head tilted towards Ettie. "Is there someone you want to hear from back at your home?"

"I wouldn't mind," she replied, "but I was hoping we'd be able to get Blaster's radio show out here." Her face brightened as she kept talking. "I really like it and that was the main thing I was going to miss on the expedition."

"Oh!" Heave's tone picked up. "Getting broadcasts from Autobot City will be much easier. Our instruments already have those frequencies preset! Would you like me to set up timers so we can try to tune in?"

The grin seemed way too large for her little face, but it was pleasant to see. "Really? Thank you so much!" Ettie held her hand out to him, palm up.

Taking a guess, Heave held his own hand out in a similar fashion. It had to have been the right choice be she jumped and slapped their hands together. His spark whirled in his chassis. "Happy to help, Ettie." He leaned his elbows on his knees. "Anything else I can help you with?"

"Oh yeah, so Phaser said to ho to the cockpit to talk to him if I need to while we're traveling, but what about Blast?"

Heave opened his mouth to speak when a voice boomed over it.

"Just call my name!" Blast Master announced. "You were talking about me, right? I don't mind if you call me Blast, by the way. My full designation can give the wrong impression about me, I think."

Ettie giggled. "Good to know."

"As you might guess," Heave said, his tone leaking deadpan, "there's not much privacy on this ship. Be mindful when talking to Blast Master as he can throw us off course if he gets too caught up in conversation."

"It doesn't happen that often!"

"Once is enough," Heave replied.

A laugh from their human cut the argument short. "I'll keep that in mind! But yeah, thanks, Heave!" She patted the closest wall. "Thanks, Blast, I won't let you get too distracted when I want to chat."

"Good luck with that," Heave muttered.

"I heard that!"

[elfdragon12]

Another piece of one of the Astro Squad (Blast Master) with my human OC, Ettie. For this one, I decided to use the prompt "Wreck" from @cybertronia-obscura. Blast Master is gung-ho and often rushes in, so it was a fitting prompt for him.

[cybertronia-obscura]

September Prompt List

Underground

Team

Transport

Excitement

Charisma

Speed

Six

Partner

Time

Weather

[elfdragon12]

Rock This Town

A short story featuring Lifeline and Quickslinger. It can be read romantically or platonically. No warnings.

Inspired by the "Rockabilly" prompt for @cybertronia-obscura

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Autobot ships landing on Paradron were never a good thing and this time was no better.

It was a full ship of a hundred soldiers with a small group of extra personnel. They had just come from a skirmish with a Decepticon ship. It was on some asteroid. According to the lead engineer, their sensors picked up an uncommon mineral ore in the space rock. They'd decided to stop and mine quickly when they were attacked by the passing ship. They'd only just managed to escape and limp over to the nearby colony, Paradron.

Paradron, for remaining out of the Great War, would not turn away the injured who needed help.

Quickslinger was glad that she recognized no one on board as her former comrades. It made the non-stop work trying to save who they could.

They lost six of the patients.

After she cleaned off her servos, she went out into the corridor of the hospital. Her optics shot straight towards a medic with white and teal plating.

"I think all the critical patients are stable," Quickslinger said as she took a seat next to the medic, "at least all the ones we could save. How are you holding up, Lifeline?"

Lifeline sat back, stretching her arms. "Okay. I'm trying not to be too in my head about this mess, but you know."

She did. It was the whole reason she came to Paradron in the first place, to leave behind this never-ending war. Once everyone was well enough, they'd go right back out and get shot again.

A notification popped up on Quickslinger's HUD. Her mood brightened after reading it.

"Hey!" She hopped back up. "Instead of just hanging around here, let's go out! I just got a notification that one of the oil houses is having an Earth music night! Want to go?"

"Earth music?"

"Yeah. It's becoming more popular on the intergalactic frequencies. It didn't say what kind, but what I've heard sounds good."

Lifeline considered it for a moment. "Sure," she said, holding out her hand. Quickslinger took it and pulled her up. "Is it close?"

"Maybe a few breems, but it'll go fast."

Soon enough, the two were at the oil house. They grabbed a cube of Energon each and a seat. Quickslinger kept a watch--for old habits died hard--as Lifeline shared some story about the hospital director. It turned out she had three different lovers. Quickslinger couldn't imagine having the energy.

The music shifted into a new song. It started with strumming on a low octave stringed instrument, sounding like a electro-bass but more mellow. A guitar, sharp and bright, cut in to contrast the sound. The song kicked into a high energy tune and Quickslinger couldn't resist tapping her ped.

She emptied her cube in one last throwback and held her hand out. "Come on, Lifeline! Let's dance!'

With a smile, Lifeline took her hand and, for the rest of the night, they forgot their troubles.

[elfdragon12]

A piece for @cybertronia-obscura! Noise and Graphy for the "brawl" prompt! Noise's tfwiki article mentions that he's hyper-violent and is a big Grimlock fan, so I had the thought he and his combining partner, Graphy, would enjoy going to wrestling shows!

The symbols behind them are CWF, Cybertronian Wrestling Federation.

[elfdragon12]

your latest post is so real... true underrated tf characters for me is bluestreak and moonracer, not elita (who i love, but she is past being underrated now thank god) and cyclonus (who is a very important character on mtmte the most popular idw comic) the way some ppl talk of ''underrated'' characters they will call soundwave one next time bcs his popularity isnt the same level of megatron or starscream 😂🤣

There are so many underrated characters in the franchise! Some are decently well-known and others are quite obscure (which is why I created a monthly prompt blog focused on obscure characters @cybertronia-obscura, shameless plug!) WHERE IS BLASTER?!?! His toys seem to be selling well! He has a built-in rivalry with the extremely popular Soundwave! WHY ARE WE NOT USING HIM MORE?!?! (I also have, like, 10 of his toys now and only 2 are bootleg.)

The CBR list was half a good list. The other half being fairly well-known, popular, and/or relatively well utilized compared to 90% of the characters in the franchise. Like, why are we not seeing Chromia or Ironhide more? Why not Hoist or Tracks? Why not Inferno (who was on the Lost Light but there's weirdly not a single scene of him with Red Alert?) Again, Blaster? There are so many characters who are actually underrated.