#insec babbles

[insecwrites]

I saw an interesting post which talked about mythologizing sex, and making it seem like a special category of human behavior rather than just a thing people do.

It made me think about other common human things that every human partakes in or experiences some small way, and how interesting it would be to mythologize other behaviours when worldbuilding for example.

For example the mythologizing of food. Would abstaining from eating food be seen as virtuous, or maybe as something harmful and sick? Would there be special foods for every type of 'flavor'? Are there societal expectations around liking specific flavors, such as 'bitter' being a professional flavor, and 'sweet' being only for kids and the mentally ill?

Just had to write this down before I forget about it.

[insecwrites]

Motorcycle pitfights!

A lot of fics tend to depict gladiators as big mecha. Even when the gladiators in question are spindly, they tend to be tall and heavily armoured. Gladiatorial area’s tend to look like the classic roman Coliseum, with seating circling around the combat area in the middle, with a VIP box in the place with the best visibility.

Then, I happened to see this gif of six motorcycles driving around in a small orb-cage, seemingly defying gravity; https://imgur.com/gallery/B3fFO0g A moment later, I saw this gif of this monster truck ‘Grave Digger’ performing a backflip; https://imgur.com/gallery/Ipsu8VM It immediately got me thinking about ALT-MODE related pit fighting, and alt-mode related showmanship. Monster trucks, aerial jousting, bumpercars, motorcycle cage fights - Why not? (Warning, this could get long! For anyone on desktop, Press J for the next post.)

Motorcycle cage fights

With a cage as the one in the gif, motorbikes have a vast advantage over tanks, cars, flyers, and heli’s. I imagine it could be the bloodsport of a specific city or colony, one where most bots have a motorcycle alt mode. Polyhex, to me, seems like a place with lots of small alleyways and tightly packed buildings - maybe most Polyhexians have a motorcycle alt mode to get around easier in these cramped alleyways. Light armour becomes a must, since you need to have just the right amount of mass to be able to drive up the sides of the cage without expending too much energy. Specialty matches could add rules such as; “Nobody may stand still” or “Only wheels may touch the cage” to spice things up. Collission matches would consist of motorcycles trying to control how they crash into one another to stay standing while the other bites the dust. Monstertrucks

I imagine that the Monstertrucks  are considered to be the ‘bodybuilder beefcakes’ of Cybertron, with some mud-wrestling thrown in for good measure. They are all about the delicate balance of looking completely decked out in heavy armour, while having the system specs to back it up. I imagine this entertainment is popular in Iacon, where bloodsports are frowned upon, and the ‘combat’ consists mostly of wrestling and choreographed hand-to-hand combat. For variety there are several different competitions that add an entertaining factor to the wrestling, such as the mud-pit Cup, the Oil’d-up Cup, and the Slip-up Cup. Monstertrucks are celebrities with brand deals and sponsorships, and they are expected to undergo many reformats and rebuilds to keep up with current trends. They often earn side money by modeling and appearing in advertisements. Bumpercars

This sport, popular in Nyon, is incredibly dangerous and generally regarded as an inferior form of entertainment. It is also incredibly illegal. Mechs of any size, shape and background can sign up to join in one of the skirmishes, after which they will all be dropped into a locked cage that will only open once there is only one car still capable of driving. Transforming to bot mode gets you disqualified, and most likely run over. Mecha bet on the outcome, and the winner of the competition will receive 40% of all the money that was bet on the match. Oftentimes, injuries are so severe in this form of combat that the winnings are spent on repairs, or given to the winner’s next of kin after their offlining. Bumpercars is seen by many as a way to make it big, and modding oneself to stand a higher chance at winning is frowned upon. It’s not unheard of that fighters will band together to ram a tank or truck to get them out of the competition, so that a street-rat speedster may win instead. Aerial Jousting

Of course the seeker’s of Vos would have the most ‘refined’ form of gladiatorial combat. Aerial jousting is a sport rife with rules. Two jets hover at a precise distance from one another, with a sharpened jouster-stick added to their frame. Mecha may choose where to attach the jouster, but oftentimes mecha pick one of three spots - Cockpit, outer left wing, or outer right wing. Depending on the version of the game played, each Jet will be outfitted with one or several ‘goal’ stickers, where the opponent must strike them to earn points. Again depending on which version of the game is played, they fly towards one another in a straight line, and must attempt to hit their opponent’s target without being hit themselves. Additional points are awarded for style, skill, and for which fighter moves last/first (depending on game version). As you know by now, there are several different ‘versions’ of the sport that can be played, all of which carry a different amount of risk, and are favourited by different castes within Vos.

Primus-May-Watch style, also known as PMW jousting; The most dangerous version, outlawed in Vos. Jousting sticks are made out of weapon-grade metal and sharpened. Goal-stickers are applied above the spark chamber, brain module, and T-cog. Extra points are awarded for slashing the opponent with the jousting stick during evasions. Popular outside of Vos, often thought to have been introduced by Professional Jousters that fled Vos after killing an opponent in the official circuit.

Professional jousting; The most regulated and official version. Jousting sticks are blunted and made with metal that crumples before it can pierce armour - before a match they are covered in a specialised colour dust that shows where strikes have landed . Goal stickers are not applied. Points are deducted for transforming, and hitting the helm, T-cog panel, or spark plating. Every mech that practises this version in an official manner must don a bright white or silver finish. While this sport is very popular in Vos, it is considered extremely snobbish and elitist by other countries Youngling jousting: The most laid back and risk-free of all the versions. Speed is limited to cruising-pace or lower, and instead of a foam pit underneath the combat area, opponents must wear a thick foam armour. The Jousting stick is made of a flexible plastic, and does not leave visible markers when it has struck someone. Goal stickers are often applied to random places to encourage fun and control over the jousting stick. Many young mecha wear them as decoration. The Jousting stick may be applied anywhere, and transforming/flying in bot mode is allowed for evasions.

Got any more ideas of Cybertronian Alt-mode bloodsports/sports? I had a lot of fun writing this, and I hope you enjoyed reading it!

[insecwrites]

A Beast-Machines conspiracy - the Real villain

This post contains spoilers for the twists and major plots that can be found in Transformers: Beast Machines and Transformers Beast Wars. Anyone who has watched a fair bit Beast Machines knows about the first real ‘twist’ that the show brings us, and how clumsily the show handles its reveal and wrap-up. For any that do not know what I’m talking about, following is a brief summary of events; Megatron seals all the sparks on Cybertron in a big chamber and uses a few of those sparks to make drones that can fight the Maximals. One of these sparks belongs to Rhinox - who has been so radically changed by this event that he leaves the Maximals behind. He has his own plan: to remove both Megatron and Optimus Primal by letting them kill one another, after which he can take control. Sadly, as Megatron had known about his plans all along, and Rhinox pays for his failure with death. Rhinox appears one last time as a spirit to Optimus Primal, and then moves on.

It could have been an interesting turn of events. A deeper dive into what Rhinox went through when he was reformatted, and what it did to his view of the world and the Maximals. A way to bring drama and uncertainty into the group of Maximals, who argue over whether they should ‘save’ Rhinox, or let him make his own choices. When Rhinox dies only a handful of episodes after the initial reveal of his identity, any potential for an explanation or an apology disappear, and his attempt to upset the status quo between Megatron and Optimus Primal has influenced nothing. It was over so quickly there was almost no time to wonder if he would succeed. I imagine the intent of the writers was to add a new threat to the show, similar to the introduction of the Aliens in Beast Wars, to really change up the priorities of the participants. With enough foreshadowing, it could also have served as a satisfying “AHA” moment for the viewers. It falls very flat, but the thing is... Later in the show, during the final season, the writers unintentionally create the perfect set up to introduce a grand threat in the form of a third player in the game: Botanica.

(( This is where the recap of Beast Machines events stops, and the conspiracy theory from Insec comes out. Everyone got their tinfoil hats on? Good. Let’s go.))

Maybe it seems like a wild claim, that Botanica has the potential to be the kind of great villainous threat that the writers intended for Tankor/Rhinox to be, but she has a lot of things going for her. The writers did not give her the foreshadowing, the set up, the ‘Chekov’s gun’, but in every other sense, Botanica could take control of the entirety of Cybertron, and perhaps already has. 

Let’s break it down!

1) Botanica is a new mech. Never before seen in previous Transformers shows, never before seen in Beast Machines. We don’t know what motivates her, or if she even has good intentions for our heroes and Cybertron. In her own words, she was part of an exploration mission, where she encountered living plants and took their shape. All we have is her word. She could have fled Cybertron when Megatron attacked, watching from a distance as he took control. She could not even be a Cybertronian at all, since we never do see the life forms that she based her alt mode on. 2) Botanica is introduced late into the show, with skills and an alt mode that directly reflect the wish of the Oracle: for Cybertron to be restored to its half technological, half organic state. Within canon, this is a matter of convenience for the writers, perhaps an excuse to make a new toy. With the context of Botanica trying to gain control of Cybertron... this looks almost too convenient. All throughout the season, the Maximals try to cultivate plants to bring balance to Cybertron, with limited success. Botanica is capable of bringing them to extreme growth and bloom within minutes of her arrival, despite having the alt mode of an alien plant organism, which would not be able to affect Cybertronian growth so strongly. With how often the Oracle was hijacked, it is not a stretch to say that Botanica has been sending instructions to Optimus Primal since the beginning, urging him to foster organic growth on Cybertron in preparation for her arrival.

3) She is POWERFUL. Botanica is capable of manipulating plant growth, and generating lightening. She has been shown to grow vines and roots around drones and crush them seemingly without effort. In the final episodes of the show, she becomes incredibly weak when separated from the plants in the organic core of Cybertron, and once Megatron tries to destroy the plants, Botanica feels them getting damaged. Are those plants their own entity? Or are they Botanica’s roots? During her introductory episode she was near feral, and spread seeds all around the core at a speed that worried the Maximals. They believed that their rapid growth would swiftly overtake the Technological parts of Cybertron, thus upsetting the Techno-organic balance Optimus Primal sought to create.

Conclusion; With a sprinkling of foreshadowing, ((and the sacrificial murder of the core message of the show )), Botanica could have been a deadly threat to both the Maximals and Megatron alike. As it stands, she was not written to be a villain, or a power-hungry tyrant. Anyone that has watched the show knows that Botanica is only an unassuming femme added to the roster for unknown reasons, or perhaps to give Rattrap a love interest. In the end, the way the show was written is what makes this theory look like a tinfoil-hat conspiracy, rather than a plausible theory for what could have been going on in canon. Maybe Botanica really was a mastermind, and the final episode simply doesn’t show how she spreads her control throughout the plants of Cybertron to cement her rule. We will never know.

I hope you enjoyed my crackpot post about Beast Machines! I sure had a blast writing it, and I thank you heartily for reading this far. I hope you have a good week :)

[insecwrites]

Which Scientist does the SCIENCE?

I saw an interesting post on my dash today. It talked about how statistically unlikely it is to have ONE DUDE who is ‘the Smart one’ tm. This got me thinking... what are the specialties of the Transformers we most often see in a scientific setting?

Wheeljack: Probably one of the easier ones to pin down. In my eyes he is an engineer more than anything - tasked more with problem solving and jury rigging than with formulas and chemicals. Ratchet: Kind of a no-brainer. Medical expert, and Biology expert ( or whatever you might call the technological version of a Biologist. Techology? ) It is likely that he studied MicroTechology, if only because it was required for becoming a doctor, though I personally think he lands more in the organ surgery specialism. Perceptor: Theoretics all the way for this dude. He seems well-read enough to have specialised in more than one thing, but he doesn’t seem like the type for field work. He is in my eyes the most likely of the AUtobots to be a Chemistry expert, as well as a Theoretical Physics and Math expert. He most likely assists Hoist and the medics in finetuning medicine that is consumed via Energon, like supplements. First Aid: Specialised in physical therapy and recovery, as well as joint massages and frame maintenance. Capable of performing field surgery, but usually fulfills the role of nurse when helping Ratchet and Hoist. Hoist: Specialised in Processor damage and nervous-system related defects. Smokescreen: Psychology specialist. Most likely did not finish his study before the war broke loose, but is familiar with techniques on how to help someone into a better mind space. Unqualified to prescribe medication. Cosmos; Technician. Capable of repairing and maintaining off-world machinery and satellites. Not very specialised, but has broad knowledge of machinery. And now for the other side of the coin! The Decepticons! Soundwave: Communications. Doesn’t surprise anyone I bet! A killer linguist, though he only really shares language jokes with people that know the same amount of languages as him. Also quite capable as an electrical engineer and software developer. Starscream: Field expert, as well as a trained Chemist and lab assistant. ( Do not underestimate the lab assistants, they are the most familiar with the everyday important processes of experiments and tests.) ALso quite skilled at thermodynamics and in-frame electricity. ( Nervous system repair/abuse. ) Hook: Architect. ( All of the Constructicons have some knowledge, but Hook is simply the best of them all and they never bothered to try and keep up with him.) Scrapper: Engineer, technician, and foreman. Mixmaster: Chemist all the way. Not specialised in much else. Shockwave... Shockwave is the outlier. He isn’t capable in all the aforementioned fields, but he has approximate and extended knowledge of all of them. I’d say he is most skilled in Chemistry and Engineering, with his knowlegde of programming and drones a CLOSE second.

What are your thoughts on these ideas? Are there fields that I’ve overlooked, or that you’d think would fit better with another character?

[insecwrites]

Cassettes & Cassette decks

I’ve always found Cassette’s interesting. They seem so versatile- capable of hiding away in someone else’s frame and living independently outside of them. Small enough to be overlooked, but still capable of wreaking havoc - especially when teamed up with someone else! It is the part of symbiosis that always puzzled me. Because it isn’t very symbiotic if you can only connect with a teensy tiny group of mecha that were specifically DESIGNED to allow you to make a connection. Sure, there are other ways for mecha to connect via cables, cortic patches, or sparks - but a relationship as such is often labeled as Amica endura or Conjunx endura. NOT a Symbiote. So, in an attempt to give more detail to how a symbiosis between two mecha would work, and how it would make sense as a frametype, I began making an AU. ( The typical last resort of anyone trying to make sense of a canon ) Symbiosis is a bond between two mecha that benefits both partakers. In the TF media seen thus far, it seems that this symbiosis comes more from doing jobs for one-another. Soundwave shelters his symbiotes in a specially made deck, and the symbiotes in return obey him and follow his orders. It isn’t something that would naturally grow, or something that makes sense from a design perspective - unless the symbiotes were made to be drones. Mindless extensions of the bigger Cassette Deck. But the symbiotes we see in the comics have free will, personality, intelligence, and their own motives. So that doesn’t really fit in. A more physical symbiosis would much more resemble the original relationship between a cassette and a Cassette deck. The mechanical storage space provided by a symbiote could increase a mechs’ processing power, the legitimate equivalent of “downloading more RAM”  so as to say. Without a Cassette Deck to actually read anything that the symbiotes are providing, the symbiotes have very few ways of communicating or getting rid of their data. Sadly, this only really makes sense from the point of ACTUAL cassette tapes. Technology has evolved, and so has our idea of what an advanced alien technology might have to offer. It no longer makes sense that a smaller robot would be unable to speak, or that he would need specialised equipment to even communicate with other machinery. Even in a war setting, this could be more of a burden than a boon. Important Intel could go lost because of the death of a cassette deck. A small mobile spy would not be able to relay messages because it cannot speak without its host. Here is where I started to think of an AU - something I could work into a story. What if Symbiotes are not restricted to just Cassette Decks? What if they are the kind of small thing that gives a noticeable boost, but just gradually enough that mecha do not seem to notice? What if the clear drop in frame performances upon removal is seen as a proof that symbiotes are bad for you instead of good? What if there are symbiotes living out on the streets, transformed into a compact data-stick mode, hoping that someone will pick them up and plug them in for extra storage space?

[insecwrites]

Sparkeater transformation idea

Back when MTMTE had a Sparkeater loose on the Lost Light, and Rung’s presence was still a big mystery, I was thinking of what it would be like for a mech to become a sparkeater.

Before it was revealed that it was Brainstorm’s gun that had created the Sparkeater we see on the Lost Light, I was playing with more conventional ideas - a bit like vampires or a hidden true nature. With so many sparks available for food I found it odd that it only chased Rung. Even if Rung had the brightest spark out of everyone, the sparkeater encountered many other opportunities to feed, so I figured the Sparkeater wanted something else. Namely; Rung as a fellow creature of the dark-cycle.

It was an idea that many others have had before me, but I wanted to try and take it a slightly different route. Rung would not be able to become a monstrous spark-eater if he was still aware of his surroundings and other mecha. Similarly, Rung as a sparkeater would not be nearly as interesting if he lost his intelligence and could no longer recognise people. So I thought; what if the process of turning into a sparkeater is not at all as horrifying or quick as mecha believe it is? With the gun not being in the canon yet, I thought of how a mecha could change into a sparkeater after non-lethal contact with a sparkeater.

There’s no pains in the middle of the night, or awful nightmares, or a sense of confusion and horrifically sudden changes in the frame. Instead Rung has odd recharge purges that seem to last longer and longer, where he can see constellations and stars moving all around him. He feels enormous, looking at stars that are as small as a fist, and he can see them move around. In his recharge purges, he doesn’t see hallways or mechanoid frames. He cannot see physical objects, but he can see those wonderful stars and some of their secrets. Sometimes he can get close to them, and other times he cannot - held back by a (to him) invisible barrier.  He feels like a stranger looking through the window of someone’s habsuite- close enough to hear their murmurs and see their expressions, but too far away to hear them clearly. They feel like dreams of deep understanding an cosmic importance. Enlightenment. In reality, Rung wanders the hallways of the Lost Light during his recharge, trying to get through locked doors or looking at a seemingly uninteresting spot on the wall, ceiling, or floor. Unaware of the change, Rung feels normal when awake, though a bit worn out from his vivid recharge purges. The need for more energy starts to rise - leading to more energon consumption and longer recharge periods. It will take a long time before the true hunger sets it, but the change has started. Over time his recharge periods will start getting longer and longer, and waking moments will begin to feel feverish and unpleasant. Energon is unappetizing, and no longer fills him with as much energy as it used to. Feeling sick, he only recharges more, until he finally enters a hibernative state. This is when the most drastic changes to his body happen. Unnecessary parts are cannibalised to make spark-consumption possible, and after a few orns a complete Sparkeater has formed. Rung’s mind is still intact, but he trapped in the dreamlike world of endless stars. His now very familiar dream is going to last forever. And those small stars he can see all around him are warm and vibrant, leaking energy in every direction. Surely, it wouldn’t hurt if he carefully took one of them close to him, just to feel that warmth... And so he does.

[insecwrites]

Wild Seekers

I’ve always been interested in creatures and animals, especially in fiction. I always wanted to read about people taming dragons, living among the wolves, being hunted by a predator. In Transformers, there are virtually no animals to play with in this sense. Insecticons have varying levels of intelligence and sentience, as well as beastformers and Dinobots. There’s not really a circle of life, or a food chain. All mechanical beings on Cybertron are sustained by energon, and that is it. Period! So what if there were more differences between different altmodes ? Different levels of sentience, different diets and habitats... What if Seekers were predators, hunting in trines and flocking together in huge groups? What if Grounders were their prey, and lived buried or protected in odd hive-like cities? Minibots would have their own groups - less viable as prey to the seekers. The location of grounder cities would dictate their alt-mode and features, like how Kaon has the thickest plating , and Polyhex the most camouflaged paintjobs. In this world, the different cities have only been in contact for a few hundred vorns, and things are not equal. A miner living in the crowded and crumbling hivecity of Kaon decides to make a stand. To begin with, he builds a reputation as a fierce warrior. And as a finishing touch ? He tames himself a wild Seeker!

[insecwrites]

The cycle of Primus & Unicron (headcanon)

Unicron and Primus have, as far as I am aware, been part of the Transformers canon since G, and in that time they have done very little. That is to say, Unicron was busy eating people and doing generally evil stuff, while Primus was left as an ambiguous and interpretable figure who never interfered or was given a voice/role.

I kinda set them aside as ‘the weak mandatory unexplored Cybertron religion’, until a certain episode in TFP. The episode that revealed Earth to be Unicron; ‘One shall rise’. To me, this explained so many things. The unexplainable amount of Cybertronian relics, the presence of energon, and perhaps most importantly the similarities between humans and Cybertronians. It offered a vague hint as to why the humans look so similar to the Cybertronians, and why they have so much in common; at the root they are connected. Then I got to thinking a little more about this. If I wanted this headcanon to work, it would have to make sense that humans sprouted from Unicron, even though humans are not inherently evil. And Cybertronians are not inherently good! So I started to look at the other things that set Primus and Unicron apart from each other. Primus is inert, Unicron is active. Primus is order and peace, Unicron is chaos and war. Primus is robotic and Unicron is organic.

It brought to mind a cycle. Order, after all, is only good as long as it is balanced with Chaos. Too much order inhibits growth and keeps change from happening. The same happens with Chaos- if there are too many changes and too much rapid growth, nothing will be able to last more than a short moment before being replaced. So, what if instead of Unicron being evil, and Primus being good, the two gods cycle back and forth between Chaos and Order? We would be seeing the late stage of Primus’ transformation - his order and stillness forcing all the living creatures in and on him into death until nothing is left to take. In contrary, Unicron is only gaining more and more life - his crust is teeming with countless lifeforms! Still organic, still fleeting and chaotic, but there is already a species creating robots and researching a way of continuing life beyond what their organic bodies are capable of. Just like the Cybertronians did to Primus long ago, humanity will gut Unicron of everything he has to offer, eventually shifting towards order more than towards Chaos. Over millions of years everything is brought to a status quo, and brought under strict rules. Humans become more alike robots, as augmentation becomes more and more apparent. Back on Primus, abandoned and empty, chaos has taken its toll on him. Heavy space storms are battering him, meteors are impacting him, solar flares boil his surface and dark patches of space freeze him to the core. In spite of that, a single celled organism manages to withstand all this, and it begins to evolve. As conditions stabilise over millions of years, Primus’ surface is covered in organic creatures - dust and corpses and carbon slowly burying the old relics of the people that lived on him before. It is not a perfect headcanon just yet, but I am very proud of it. I hope to get an idea where I can use this in a story, but since it cycles over such a long time I think it will have to stay as just a headcanon or background worldbuilding.

[insecwrites]

Spark vampires

Yes, I know halloween is over, but any time of the year is a good time for spoops! When it comes to Cybertronian vampires, I always felt dissatisfied. A mech with pointy teeth that drinks energon from living mecha ? Syphonists, terrorcons and empties already got that niche covered. Creatures that prey on the spark are less common, there’s the energon leech and the Sparkeater, and that’s where it ends. Of course, a vampire is almost like a regular human - with only small tells to their monstrous nature. I imagine that a Cybertronian vampire would be much the same - blending in and feeding off of mecha for as long as possible without being detected. So, what kind of Cybertronian, hidden in plain sight, would have close access to sparks ? Cassettes! Think about it. They are the perfect prey of a spark vampire. With coding that urges them to care for smaller sparks and lost cassettes, getting close to one of them is simple. Playing the act of a lost and damaged cassette, they will easily find a host willing to take them in. With the docking procedure, they are tucked in close to the host’s spark, where they can feed as much as they please. At the same time, they are nestled with other cassettes that they can infect and turn into creatures much like themselves. They feed, until eventually the Host passes away. There actually used to be a lot more cassette racks on Cybertron before the spark vampires rose in number. The few remaining cassette racks have found a way to distinguish spark vampires from real cassettes, but after the drastic culling of their numbers, they are no longer the number one prey. Minicons, after all, can attach to ALL mecha - not just the cassette racks...

[insecwrites]

Shattered Glass musings -  Ratchet and the Dead End

Shattered Glass is an odd beast to work with.... The initial premise sounds so very simple; swap around which bots are the good guys and which ones are the bad guys. But in practice, this becomes pretty complicated. Which elements of a character would get swapped, and which ones stay ? Would a sadistic mech like SG!Ratchet even GET his medical license?  Or would his gruff to-the-point nature be replaced by a pleasant ‘go-with-the-flow’ attitude that does whatever it wants once witnesses have disappeared? Would he still have a clinic in the Dead End if he was not invested in the troubles of low-caste mecha ? If he had his clinic to abuse the lower castes, why would he risk living so close to them, where they could burn his clinic down? There are a ton of possibilities there though. Maybe SG Ratchet offered free repairs if his patients came in with their own parts, and a surplus T-cog or optic, Maybe he was content taking ‘favours’ from mecha that he could collect on in the future. Why not ‘pay’ guards by offering them a full tank of energon every day, and free repairs? Perhaps Ratchet was never really a great surgeon in the Shattered Glass verse. Instead he got his position from the Prime as a reward, for bringing so many of the guttermechs to the Autobot side. Most of them end up being early-war cannon fodder, but the guttermech ‘Deadlock’ becomes a fearsome warrior. Drift doesn’t want to stay with the Autobots, he really doesn’t, but he has a debt to pay.

[insecwrites]

Tesarus’ life before the DJD

So, before we got more issues about the DJD. Before we learned their real names and watched as Megatron sent them to the afterlife, I felt inspired by Tesarus. His grinder doesn’t make that much sense as a torture instrument once you think about it. Permanent harm does not mean as much to Cybertronians as it does to humans with how much of their frame can be repaired and rebuilt without a trace, and the shredding would be too damaging to keep up for long without the victim dying.

So Tesarus was probably not sparked as an executioner or a torturer. No. Tesarus was one of the many, many garbage disposal bots that lived on Cybertron.

You had janitors, the taller, more respectable cleaners that could be found in towers, offices, and habsuites. There were streetcleaners like Tailgate, minibots tasked with plumbing work and garbage distribution - ferrying smaller garbage to their proper drop-offs to be brought to the garbage plant. Those garbage mounts were picked up by garbage trucks, or unfortunate truckformers who had not found a contract for ferrying less disgusting cargo. And finally there are the smelters and shredders; confined to the garbage plant to shred and smelt larger parts of garbage into re-usable and refineable parts. All of Cybertron’s lower class mecha were disposables, and just like the miners and construction workers, Tesarus was a monoformer disposable owned by his city. As such, he was subjected to certain rules and regulations.

He was only legible for repairs after he fulfilled a certain amount of work, and those repairs only extended to wear-and-tear or injuries that affected his ability to work. A pained leg or a rusted out hip joint was something you had to pay for out of your own pocket, even though the credits paid for the work were only enough to keep a fuel tank full. By way of example, grinders and smelters with missing legs, arms, or mobility issues were simply kept lined up outside in a row, with only their grabber arms intact to process garbage.

If they do not do enough work to warrant a replacement on their blades, there is a chance of decommissioning, which boils down to being melted down for scrap and spare parts. Tesarus is one of the garbage grinders in Iacon. With a growing phobia for dirt and grime, he does not have many friends among the garbage disposal bots, and he saves up as much of his earnings as he can to try and earn himself ununtrium blade-lining. There is, however, only one way that he will be able to save up enough to make that a reality; good ol’ crime! For a fee, Tesarus hides important caches of illegal substances somewhere in the garbage plant. He also gets rid of unwanted mecha. I imagine that one of those times, he passes someone through his grinder that is too important to go unnoticed, or something similar. A monoformer disposable wanted dead from two sides is not going to have an easy time. Especially not if you factor in a lack of friends, a phobia for dirt, and the fact that he is easily bored. And even though Scissorsaw is a great and menacing name... I headcanon that he was called Chipper before he became a soldier for the Decepticons.

[insecwrites]

Empties

We all know empties. One of the most common of Cybertronian monsters, bar perhaps the Sparkeaters, Empties often serve as a reminder to stay together- Don’t venture out into the wilderness of Cybertron on your own, and don’t set a foot in the darker parts of the Dead End! 

And of course, don’t go hungry for too long, or you’ll BECOME one!! ...but that does not seem to hold up. Not every mech that dies is guaranteed to get up and become an empty. Mecha with slit lines who bleed their energon into the soil of Cybertron are not guaranteed become empties, and even a slow starvation doesn’t mean you will become an empty. So what is it that transforms a normal mech into a mindless drone with a hunger for pre-digested mech-fuel? The answer is not far fetched or surprising. Dark energon. With all the myth and superstition surrounding this dark fuel, it is very doubtful any mech would voluntarily consume it. In small doses it is already enough to transform mecha into horrible monstrosities! No, there is a reason that Empties only pop up where the situation is dire. When there’s not enough energon to go around, mecha get desperate. They take fuel from places they normally wouldn’t. They are too faded and listless to go through the filtering process, if they even have a filtering system at all. As they drink from unfiltered and odd sources, small traces of dark energon come into their system. Nothing too dire, nothing transformative. The only way you can see that someone has been drinking dark-energon contaminated fuel is after they have died. If their spark signature falls away and their frame grows cold and motionless, they managed to die as a creation of Primus. If they get back up, with a hunrgy look in their optics, it’s already too late.

[insecwrites]

You've mentioned a lot of information in your story, A New Queen. I'm curious to know, what kind insect species will Smokescreen look like after long years of being a Queen?

I’ve always liked the idea of combining the multitude of insects with the longevity of Cybertronians. Normally I might imagine Smokescreen growing a much larger frame- his torso and lower body would become big, sacrificing ease of movement for being able to carrying more offspring. With how long an Insecticon can live if it is not killed, I believe Smokescreen would remain the same size, though he would indeed change. He would lose his armour around his midsection, allowing for more potential egg-growth should the hive be in need of more Insecticons. Instead of armour he will have rubbery silicones protecting his internals, with the added benefit of being able to pinch energon leaks very easily and not bleeding out as quickly as a Cybertronian normally would.The armour near his joints would become smaller, allowing him to become more nimble, though Smokescreen would utilise his newfound flexibility to try out some new adventurous interface positions.His fingertips grow sharper and longer, allowing for a better grasp on his suitors, and to get around easier should he need to. It makes post-interface grooming more mutual as a bonus.  Over the progress of many vorns, paint nanytes will start matching Smokescreen to the surrounding colours of his hive. Eventually, the constant feeding of Queen-grade energon will allow Smokescreen’s metals to naturally resemble the black-green-blue of an Insecticon. Whereas most of the Insecticons we see are scouts and warriors, Smokescreen’s plating will remain more glossy and shiny. Black upon a first glance, but bursting with hidden colour when the light falls right. He stops producing nanites for paint-purposes and instead produces more medical-grade nanites. Hidden away deep inside of the Hive, and without the need or possibility of moving away, Smokescreen’s body will slowly adapt to lose heat easier. His doorwings grow bigger and more flexible, allowing him to run energon through them and cool it by fanning his wings. This means he can go harder for longer!  They won’t support flight, however, and they never will. The final changes he experiences are in his optics and other sensors. Left in the dark and experiencing the outside world through the bond with his Insecticon Hive, Smokescreen will eventually lose functionality in his optics. In contrast, his bonds with the hive he controls become closer knit, to a point where he can focus on a singular Insecticon and partially take control. This takes up a lot of energy however and is very confusing and chaotic for the rest of the hive, so it is only done in emergencies or as a way for Smokescreen to speak to enemies or allies without having to emerge from his hive.

For an Insecticon, Smokescreen will look oddly rounded and non-spiky. He does not appear as a strict Insecticon - he has no visor or lit up optics, no sharp teeth or spittle to eat energon crystals, a soft silicone belly with a slight glow behind it, and wide gaps between his armour plates that show sparse biolights and sensor nodes.All in all, mecha that would find/fight their way to the throne room would only identify Smokescreen as a Queen via his luxurious berth-throne and the massive army of howling Insecticons trying to protect him. Thanks for the ask, this was a really fun one to answer, and I hope you enjoyed the answer too!

[insecwrites]

The balance in scary stories + announcement

The spoopiest month of the year is arriving, and with it my favourite holiday! So, once the 11th October update for the Jettwins rolls in, I won’t be opening a new poll. Instead, I will focus on joining in potential Halloween challenges or making a halloween-themed short for the holiday!

Just for fun, I am going to try and make a breakdown of what makes for a good and memorable spooky story in my opinion. This is very personal, but it will hopefully give an idea of what to expect in my halloween short for this year.

I’ve always been a fan of ‘light’ horror, or perhaps you’d call it ‘thriller’. The kind of stuff you find in a GooseBumps book. When I grew older, I was excited to try out adult horror, and I was sorely disappointed with what I found. Don’t get me wrong! The book I read was terrifying, and I vividly remember staying up late because I could not stop reading, and eventually lying down with the lights still on. But many years later, I can’t remember its story or characters, or its scares. I remember only my extreme disappointment at the lackluster payoff to all the tension that was built up over the course of the story.

Instead of a fascinating and disturbing find at the end of a dark hallway, I found out that I had been led through a carefully constructed ‘spooky ghost hallway’.  When none of the spooky events were explained, I became abruptly aware that everything had been constructed ESPECIALLY to scare me. It is that precise realisation that can ruin every single horror experience. Book, movie, or game.

Every scary story is a delicate balancing act of creating a scary atmosphere without the reader/watcher/player being aware of what is being used to invoke fear. This is why some moments in otherwise happy and friendly media can become terrifying or dark. Simply because the consumer was not expecting it, subtle manipulations or dark themes will hit far harder. Any scary media will have to work thrice as hard to get the same effect, or resort to well-known cliches to get their scare on

So the scary media that remains in our memory, is always the kind that succeeds on multiple levels, as opposed to just being scary. In case that there is nothing that scares your reader/viewer/player, there needs to be a second layer they can appreciate.

Mostly, I end up cheesing the system by simply not trying to be scary while still setting a scene and adding monsters or supernatural creatures. Hopefully, that will be enough to make for a fun Halloween fic!  I got my eye on that scrapped Brainstorm plotline....

[insecwrites]

Accidental brotherly love - Dominus/Minimus

Imagine, if you will, an AU where Dominus is saved from his domestication, and from the DJD. He returns to Cybertron around the same time as other mecha who went through a domestication process, and tries to settle back into a normal life. Sadly, he is no longer comfortable with his root mode, choosing his turbofox alt and the streets over a habsuite and his root mode. He changes his name and tries to forget about the mecha he has lost. Eventually he meets Ultra Magnus - a stern mech who leads the city enforcers together with a Nail. The huge mech reminds him ever so much of Minimus, his younger brother, but far more assertive and open - even writing poetry in his free time! Where first Ultra Magnus becomes a safe haven and a reminder of his brother, they grow closer together, to a point where Dominus can hop into Magnus’ lap without so much as a startle of the stoic mech.

Of course, when he starts being interested in Magnus as more than just a friend, things complicate. Magnus is not experienced with romance, and even though he enjoys touching Dominus, it is hard to tell if that is because he is attracted to him. Dominus know that sometime he’ll have to tell Magnus that he isn’t a mono-beast former or a pet-shaped memory stick. You can probably imagine that the moment where the both of them reveal their secrets is... quite a mess. Is their affiliation as sparkbrothers enough to make them break away from a happy relationship?

[insecwrites]

I saw a really good post about Helex, and it reminded me of yet ANOTHER Helex post that is very beloved.  my very first thought was ‘How could I turn that into a fanfic? What kind of story could be told that incorporates Helex’ brain eating and his perfectly barbed tongue.’

So, here I am writing down my thoughts, perhaps landing on something that can be worked into a oneshot.

Cybertronian cannibalism is kind of odd in that Cybertronians consume energon, and that this energon does not seem to change once it is digested. At least, outside of fanon a distinction was never made. Transformers also don’t appear to produce waste, making consumption of metal something extra as opposed to necessary. Helex, as a smelter, has the unique quirk that his body is capable of melting Cybertronian-grade metals. This means that, where other cannibalistic mecha would lack a way to get rid of the metals and contaminants from eating others, Helex has a way to eat metal without it clogging up his fuel tank. He has his smelter which he could route things to instead.

Though really, that doesn’t lend itself well to a short. Helex practising his habits would be kind of redundant since we already know what he does, and cannibalism would not have the same health connoitations as it does with living mecha...

Perhaps a fic that explores why Helex enjoys consuming and licking brainmodules, and how he manages to consume them without clogging up his systems. Of course, lots of Nickel panicking as well, as she tries to find the lump of unhealthy brainmodules that just HAVE to be collecting inside of Helex’s fuel tank.