#reminds me a lot of what little we see in bayverse of the hatchlings

[transingthoseformers]

I once read a fic that basically had sparklings be omnivorous horseshoe crabs who'd eat anything, including other mechs, to get the necessary materials for growth.

So I'm kinda into the idea of sparklings as things that might haunt a normal person's nightmares! The bots are all cooing over how cute it is but the humans are going get it the fuck away from me.

Especially considering it could easily kill a human by just curiously poking at them.

... random idea for sparklings? You got it! Decided to go weird and a bit dark.

So. Cybertronians have large litters. 15-20 are the normal amount. The thing is, sparklings are very prone to dying. The parent(s) only ever really get involved in protecting them from other bots and providing the occasional energon.

Sparklings are not intelligent. They're basically only thinking about fuel and growing. So they get into accidents and die. Get eaten by wildlife. Randomly die because something was wrong from the start.

At the end of this "infant" period, when they've developed enough, it's like a switch is flipped. They start to notice the world around them. Start to think.

It's also at this point the parents' instincts tells them to seek out their surviving offspring, who'll likely only number 1-2. They locate them with the help of special sounds, resembling no other common sound.

Now they'll be properly taken care of and loved.

Damnnn

That's always a fascinating approach, because you always gotta wonder how as their species advances they approach this, as it makes sense as a species they'd eventually try to lessen infant mortality rate. After all, humans did that right?? And in general it makes sense that sparklings are born in cities they're less likely to run into wildlife. Unless there's some sort of ~thing~ about carriers stepping out of the city to have their sparklings??