#methinks the soundwave doth protest too much

[kytherion]

I do not adopt everyone I care for that I am not romantically or sexually involved with.

I am allowed to have platonic feelings about people without thinking of them as my creations.

The fact that I normally don't is not relevant.

I can recognise that a rare individual of an alien species is developing outlier abilities much in the same way that I would have done if I had been allowed to do so naturally, without Jhiaxus' involvement, and freely decide that even if this individual is doing their level best to oppose me and the group with which I am aligned, they are too valuable not to protect, because people with these inclinations and persuasions are rare.

(Ravage. Stop laughing. The fact that I have fallen for almost every single one of your lovers is not relevant. You just have excellent taste. How could my spark-mate not? And why wouldn't I love someone Jazz also loves? Or care for a fellow non-afthelm Prime?)

I am also capable of discovering unattended, unsupervised and unhomed sparklings without deciding that they are my children.

It hasn't happened yet, and the Newsparks' Welfare Committee has pointed out to me in no uncertain terms that there are people in Sanctuary who would like to raise offspring who don't already have four of their own biological children and one adoptee, and that at least some of them could do so as well as I and my family can, so Sparkthief had better be the last.

Can I help it if he managed to become attached to me before I had finished combing through the newsfeeds to see if someone was missing a baby?

I do recognise patterns of relationship other than "lover," "mate" and "parent".

(If you don't believe me, ask Cosmos, but please be nice to him about it. I care for him but he doesn't trust me and we are romantically incompatible. I also have platonic relationships with all of Ravage's siblings and their offspring. Howlback has helped me in Ravage's absence but we are absolutely not 'lovers'.)

Anyhow, while Rafael had loving parents, they do not understand them, and while Charlie is Bumblebee's conjunx, she is not a datapath.

Humans normally only live for a vorn. Rafael has already lived 25% of that time period and they will require protection and mentorship to reach their full capability within the limited time they are allotted to spend with us. It's only absolutely natural that I should ensure this.

And sometimes very annoying to Rafael, but until their power is further developed they will have to accept that sometimes I sense dangers that they cannot.

So. Don't be one of those dangers. That's all.

I'm sure my bubbe gets it.