#I thought it would be a good idea to do it on tarn since it's just a portrait of him

[numbbrainstrorm]

Can I request a Tarn drawing if you’re still doing them?

*ahm * accept?

I squeezed you in (my Now full, "time Calendar") just so I could make this joke ( my top tier joke)

Anyways

Torn

[tinydefector]

Hi Tiny, all the sparklings and babies talk are so sweet to read. But, what if Tarn and their little human get the news that they are expecting sparklings (I thought that having twins would be so much funny). Would the DJD take it good or they will all start panicing at the idea of two sparklings roaming around the Peaceful Tyrany.

And just for the giggles, I imagine the reveal something like this:

Nickel: well yep, there is no denial. There are two sparkling in development.

Tarn: But, but, how did this happened in the first place?

Human: well Tarn, we where both in your berth and...

Nickel: PLEASE STOP RIGHT THERE!!

Tarn's Sparklings

Warnings: mention of pregnancy, pregnancy issues, (slight mention of abortions)

Ohhhhh this is something I was excited to talk about since I have some stuff over the biology of humans and cybertronians. Such as how rare it is for bots to ever have twins due to the danger of carrying a sparkling, time it takes for one to develop. And I think it be amusing for them to witness how kinda carefree a human is hearing they are having twins.

Info is over in this piece from

Human Effects

Also, some other information since I thought I'd add the difference for time between humans and cybertronians took me a while to make this so hope you enjoy. (Ps this is what took this request so long XD)

- Nanoklik - 1 second

- Klik - 1.2 minutes

- Breem - 8.3 minutes

- Groon - 1 hour

- Joor - 6 hours

- Orn - about 1 day (20-25 hours)

- Cycle - 1.2 weeks

- Orbital cycle - 1 Earth month (29.5 days)

- Deca-cycle - 3 months

- Stellar cycle - 1.3 years

- Vorn - 83-100 years

- Mega-vorn - over a million earth years

________

Tarn is terrified when he gets the news, mind you Cybertronian and human biology is quite different and he's panicking over the fact this his human is not just carrying one spark which in itself is a very dangerous process for a Cybertronian but they are carrying two. So he's on the verge of a system meltdown.

Nickel looks over the scans as worry slowly takes hold on her face. " it looks like a split-spark sparkling." it makes Tarns field nearly cry out in agony. His little human was sparked with his bitlet, but it was a split spark. No one knows what to really do it's the first time they have really dealt with this situation.

The human just kind of sits there stunned for a moment. "I'm pregnant?" They ask in shock, wanting to see the images, "Please show me, " they ask while Trepan and Nickel both give weary glances to each other and then to Tarn. He gives them both a slow nod to let his little lover look at the scans.

Their eyes are so wide and bright as they look over the scans, fingers slowly tracing the outline as Nickel slowly explains what has happened. She's trying to be subtle about the face of the split spark situation. "If you look here, you can see the outline of the other," she says softly, and it makes Tarn take a deep vent as he watches his human excitedly trace the outline of both protoforms. "I have twins!, woah they are so small," they state in excitement. Turning to Tarn with the biggest smile he had ever seen on their lips.

"Nickel, how did this happen?" He asks rather grimly even as he watches them excitedly look at the scans. "In truth, I don't know, human DNA shouldn't be compatible with us, and how the split happened, it's mostly due to the different in species," she explains.

The rest of the DJD are walking on eggshells because of this. Nickel is doing everything she can to make sure that at least one of the sparks survives this process, Trepan is actually called into help, he maybe a mnemosurgeon just at this point Nickel and himself are the only ones with some sort of doctorate.

The Peaceful Tyranny is in absolute chaos, but no one is willing to say anything because if Tarn has a crash because of this, the whole ship and crew is in danger. And it gets even funny because the cybertronians are rushing around panicking, trying to figure something out, and the human is just sitting there like. "Woah, this is great, I haven't had morning sickness. Half the shit people told me I'd have hasn't happened" and non of the cybertronians can figure out why the human isn't panicking over the fact of have a split-spark sparklings.

And then, one day, Nickel is nearly barging in to get Tarn. "Sir, this is important. I need you in the medical lab now," and he reluctantly leaves his lover's side, who is still curled up in blankets on his berth.

Tarn follows Nickel to find out what's happened, worried it's news about the split and the need to terminate. Nickel pulls up new information with the fact of some rather recent human cybertronian relationships involving the human having a sparkling. "These records have only just been released, I was starting to think we weren't the only one in this situation and asked around, don't get mad but I got into contact with some others in the medical field, kept it very vague. But there have been a few human-cybertronian sparklings, " she states, and it makes Tarn go stiff in silence, not knowing whether to be angry and relieved.

"I've also done alot of research into human biology due to your situation, I believe the split spark is viable, there have been thousands of recorded cases of humans carry not only two but up to five young at once. It sounds strange but my recommendation is to go about it the same way you would if it was a single spark with a Cybertronian, they will need transfusions, surprisingly the human body temperature is the perfect temperature for sparkling" she explains while finally relaxing into a seat as Tarn just stares.

"There's records... how long is gestation?" He asked wearily. " less than 3 stellar cycles, that's over multiple different records I've found" it's news, news that Tarn wasn't expecting at all most cases of Cybertronians with sparklings the gestational time was a Vorn, but to be less that 3 stellar cycles sounds like it was a lie. he's been watching his lover waiting to see the signs of frame deterioration, but so far, he hadn't seen any. He lets out a low sound as if in thought.

"Are you positive?" He finally ask, despite wearing a mask, he was terrific underneath it, originally he wouldn't admit to being in love with his little human but everyone knew he was, he knew so too, and he was terrified of losing them. "Tarn, I can't say for sure, but their species seem the best suited for this. But if they don't get the fusions needed for growing sparks, it will be an issue, protoforms need fuel. And enough for your field to be able to know that you are their Sire. " Nickel finishes, it was a lot to take in, a lot to take on a whimp of information.

And that's how the next three humans years went, him very cautious, watching his lover making sure they had everything needed, it became the most inactive the DJD had been. He slowly watched the way his lover's stomach swelled, feeling the field of his sparklings calling out to him whenever he ventured too far from his human.

But the day they were born will stick with him forever, he thought his human was dying, listening to them cry out in pain, he had them at medical faster than anyone would expect for a Tank frame, he doesn't pace, he sits there watching the sweat bead down their forehead, it's only when Nickel hold out the two tiny Protoforms does he nearly crawl his way over to hold the two little forms. It's almost like instinct and he has them both settled in his sparkchamber wrapped around his spark.

And they he's checking his little lover tracing his digits across their face, trying to calm them and let them know they they did amazing, both their little sparks made it and had latched onto his spark.

The months after are true chaos, as the two sparklings develop more, they get more time away from Tarns Spark, and their frames begin to take form. He watches the way to curl around their carrier, chirp, and coo in delight. In truth, he never saw himself in this position being a sire to young sparks, yet watching the way these two little bitlets grow over time, he wants nothing more than to make sure they are safe he himself curls around his little family pulling his lover closer as the two sparklings scale his frame cooing in delight.

_______________

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[witchofthesouls]

So, uh, this little memory just suddenly popped up out of no where and I figured it would serve as good(?) ‘world-building’ material.

So, when I was in my private all-girls Catholic high school (that’s how you know it’s going to be a good story) girls would soak their tampons with vodka to get drunk. Some where more successful than others, but some where also less fortunate when their near fatal encounter of alcohol poisoning and nasty-ass vaginal infections where known throughout school.

My question is; do cybertronians have a similar method of madness like the vodka tampons?

And my second question; did Cybertronian’s have their own version of an all girls catholic school? And if they do, what kind of crazy shit went on there?

I can tell you so much about the crazy shit that went on there; the illegal gambling ring, the bi-curious and lesbi-curious girls who were convinced that they liked/loved another girl and stalked the poor girl, some of the shady male teachers, the secret LGBTQ+ club (which was actually kind of wholesome and I was apart of), the bullying (sweet Jesus was there a lot of bullying and harassment), some nuns were Grade A+ assholes who would wack our hands with rulers and have affairs with some of the male teachers, and there’s was a…uh,…secret orgy/cunnilingus club too.

It was the nineties, what would you expect?

Oh wow. I heard of things in private, religious schools from a friend, but hot damn that's wild!

I did go to a religious university. They had a weekly chapel where classes were suspended and all students were required to attend. I did start a tiny alcohol ring in the dorms. Nothing nefarious or crazy binging, just enough in plastic bottles to use in cooking or sipping for a secret meat meal in the rooms. I came from a time when weed was still illegal, but damn I never thought it would prepare me for smuggling meats into a strictly vegetarian campus.

So going back to the questions:

Cybertronians do have alcoholic goodies for popular sex play. Unlike humans, their reproductive system is a closed loop circulatory-wise, and they don't need to worry about poisoning themselves. But for an experience similar to humans doing stupid things for that drunk-high is the equivalent of a wine enema into their afts. That's because their "asshole" is actually a medical port that has components connected to their pelvis structures; meaning, they can get off really well with that alcoholic enema. Yeah, you don't need to be an expert in alien biology to understand that pouring drugs into a hole that's connected to your nervous system can be a stupid bad idea.

Get ready for a lot of worldbuilding:

Education on Cybertronian is severely restricted to caste due to edicts based on Functionism where frame dictates function in society. Some city-states like Vos and Tarn get away with public schooling by citing it as a necessity component of their citizenship and to the benefit of Cybertron as a whole. Vos stylizes their system as a military academy since Seekers are typically slotted into such hierarchies and citizens are drafted into the Air Force during wartime; whereas Tarn is famous for its factories and mines. Sparkling armature is too fragile for the unstable environment, so keeps the workforce much more docile that the bits too big for the holds are kept away and provides leverage as a union-busting technique. Accidents happen.

There are the old traditions of apprenticeships and mentorships for mecha that catch the attention of a well-established professional. Each decade, the number dwindles as more fees are added such practices, such as "alt-mode exemption for education" and "Form Ed-98A-3432d: Exemption to mentor a student two castes below."

Higher education typically functions as private entities with very high-stakes testing. If a student fails to pass progress exams to move to the next module, then it's game over. There's no retakes or repeats or any sort of second chance. They're permanently expelled from completing education within the city-state.

Because of this, coercion is a common phenomenon, especially to snap up specific connections or talented individuals under the school's domains or their related patrons. Skill was the means of trade among the faculty and students as well as the ability to cultivate it. Money could be both everything and nothing within these facilities; it was as meaningful as the parties in agreement made it. This was a strange world compared to what was outside the walls as it blended all the castes and frames and cultures and reduced it to what a person could bring to a table via their own hands or their future. Make no mistake, it wasn't a utopia. It was a cutthroat arena with deep tensions that were mitigated by the faculty and student council as they all battle to polish diamonds from the rough, force people into cohorts, and seal alliances. If done right, a low-caste sponsered can be taken care of for the rest of their lives or die back on the streets with nothing.

Ratchet managed to get away with his old clinic doing illegal free services by utilizing this strange culture. The relationships he cultivated with his old mentor's ties into their own university as well as Ratchet’s own ties via teaching will cover his tracks and provide some funding as long as he takes in "chosen" medical apprentices to train in such conditions and documents the long-term effects of poverty at those sunless levels. Ratchet was only able to trace a few of his benefactors in his project, Senator Shockwave and Counciler Alpha Trion.

Because it was a different world with so much on and off the books, the really secretive clubs would be the "heretics" with worship to certain Primes, Titans, or Unicron, sex clubs that cater to xeno-related kinks, and those with dysmorphic frames, either by force or assigned (cold construction, lab-grown sentio metallico, or noncon frame overhaul), trying to find themselves without anything set on legal paperwork.

(Knockout took advantage of that.)

[brandwhorestarscream]

Reincarnation AU

Poor Mom of Triplets Rodimus so Exhausted. Luckly the Lost Lighters have heard the phrase "It takes a vilage to raise a child." Suprisingly Whirl is up there in compatition for most beloved uncle with Drift. Seriously who knew the Psychocopter was really good with bitties.

It's probably a good thing since Roddy wasn't the only one to fall to the Reincarnation shenanigans. He was merely the first. When Drift, Ratchet and Megatron all fall pregnant the call back to Cybetrton reveals Optimus, Starscream, and Prowl are all greatly gravid.

[Meanwhile somewhere off stage Tarn is feeling Things™️. He kept his array pure for Lord Megatron The Cause. And somehow he is experiencing the mechpreg.]

He's having such a hard time lmao. Even tho the crew adores the bitties and are always happy to help out their captain, they're still very young and can't really be away from their carrier for too long. Offers to babysit last perhaps a megacycle, tops, before the bitties get squirmy and cranky and their tiny sparks begin reaching for their maternal bond, and Rodimus has to hurry back to them

Funny enough, he actually gets the most rest when he's not by himself: though he trusts Drift and Ratchet completely with the triplets, and go an extent Ultra Magnus as well, Roddy struggles to actually relax when he's alone in his habsuite or office and his kiddos are elsewhere. It's like a reflex he can't control: whenever his sparklings are out of sight it's like a switch just flips in his mind. His thoughts swirl around them, always insistently pulled away from whatever he's supposed to be doing. Wondering if they're alright, if they're hungry, or if Pinky is getting anxious without him like he tends to, or if Maroon was still trying to choke himself by sucking on his own fingers. What if they miss him, what if they're too much for their sitters to handle, what if they think he's abandoned them, what if they trip and fall and hurt themselves and he's not there to make sure they're ok?! What if something terrible happens, like what if they fall down the stairs and break their cranial casing? What if there's another psychotic sociopath hiding aboard somewhere that takes his sparklings hostage when he's not there to protect them?! What if they get attacked by space pirates?! What if they DIE?! Of they die it'll he all his fault and he's the worst mom ever and-

On and on it goes. Whenever the exhausted carrier tries to nap by himself, his thoughts just spiral and throw him headfirst into a fit of anxiety. Rodimus has some of the worst imposter syndrome we've ever seen, and i think that would carry over to how he sees himself as a parent: he has no idea what he's doing and he loves these sparklings more than life itself; the only thing he wants, more than anything, is to do right by them. To give them the life they deserve, to be the mother they deserve. He's scared to death about raising them, honestly, so afraid to make a mistake and ruin their lives. He'd never forgive himself if he let them be hurt or, worse, if he hurt them. Having them out of sight exacerbates his anxieties, because he can't possibly know exactly what they're getting up to.

And because of all that, exhausted mama Rodimus gets his best sleep either on his berth with the three ragamuffins puppy piled on top of him, or in common areas when someone else can keep the kiddos occupied and he can keep an eye on them. Knowing they're safe and right in front of him but also knowing that he's not the only pair of adult hands available, the combination let's his body finally relax and he is out. Either helm down on the table or crashing onto the nearest shoulder, Rodimus drops into such a deep recharge so fast the first few times it happened the crew worried he had actually fainted. And when I say out I mean out, face completely limp in exhaustion, mouth open, and snoring. Everyone in the vicinity is happy to let him recharge, Primus knows he needs it. Drift makes sure to get him a blanket, and it's not long before the triplets are lured in by the warm softness and their mother's form, getting all comfy in the little blankie nest at his side 🤭

Sorry, that Rodimus part went on waaay longer than I expected it to, I just love him sm ok 🥺

BUT HOO BOY THE NEXT ONE

Ratchet and Drift and Megatron all at roughly the same time? Damn. I feel like idw Megatron would be quietly horrified because, in his (probably correct honestly I love him but I shouldnt lie) opinion, he is not fit to be a carrier. Ratchet is crabby with Drift when he finds out, grumbling about outdated contraceptives and overly affectionate conjunx, until he's able to actually do a paternity test at Rodimus's prompting. His babies don't have a sire, so maybe...?

Ratchet is surprised and suspicious when the same turns up for him. Once is a random occurrence, twice is a coincidence, thrice makes a pattern. For the three of them to all turn up carrying at roughly the same time was already very unlikely, but for two out of the four pregnancies onboard to be asexually conceived... the chances of that happening randomly is astronomically small. He pulls Drift in for the same test, and wouldn't you know it? No sire. Same story with Megatron. When they get in contact with Cybertron, he finds they're all thankfully on the same page. Starscream had pegged it as incredibly statistically unlikely, though he hadn't had paternity tests performed to determine the lack of a sire. It's almost surreal, once said tests are done, hearing that every single one of them is expecting what is, essentially, a naturally occurring little clone of themselves.

Final closing thoughts because I've rambled enough: I'm still incredibly amused by the idea Tarn in labor, high as a kite from the epidural, tell Nickel, "Nooo don't touch my seal, that's for Lord Megatron" 😂 poor Tarn man, saved himself for all these years, only to get slapped with virgin mary syndrome and BOOM, magic baby. He gets all the pains of childbirth without even experiencing the act of conceiving the baby in the first place. Press F

[dannymultipersonaje]

ohh sorry for my garbage ideas, I love this fanfic, it's art

Warning, although I labeled this as Megop, I really talk little about Megatron and Optimus, this is more of an idea that arises from a fanfic where they are actors and from that I got another idea of "what if they had a dubbing in other languages?" and then to "what if their voice actors were married?", I don't want to mislead you, so read at your risk

I'm reading A Prime Performance again, and I can't stop thinking about my fanfic that I wrote based on that story (Link here, it's in Spanish), which is based on the theory of the different languages of Cybertron, especially the Tarnian translation (which for me is the closest thing to the Latin-Mexican dubbing) then I had this idea: Tarn (the one from the DJD, also known as Damus/Glitch) is the voice of Megatronus in the RoRo dub, and Orion's voice was done by a voice actress, a femme, and not a voice actor, mech. So here I go to throw out my headcanon garbage on this fanfic because I'm honestly obsessed.

PopKart is the name of Orion Pax's voice actress, she has been since season one and is the only female voice actress who has played Orion (for so long at least, there were scenes dubbed by a Tarnian) -Damus (I won't call him Tarn) is a big fan of Megatronus and when he discovered that he was dubbing it in Tarnian, he was shocked.

[Interview extract] PopKart: "How did you know you were the voice of Mega?" Damus sighing: "Well, I did the test and a month later I was checking Instacam, I noticed that CrackJr had tagged me in something that was like <<'Tarn' will be the voice for the incredible Megatronus>> I thought it was a mistake and then. .. they kept tagging me in things like that, I had a small short circuit in my living room after 50 posts" -[Finished extract] (Actual anectote of the voice actor of Yor from Spy x Family in the Latin dub) -Popkart is not an actor, she is a singer, she was born in Tarn but spent a large part of her life in Kaon. -Damus / Tarn got his nickname after dubbing a character in a police series, Tarn de Tarn, where he was very similar to the actor.

PopKart and Tarn have been married since season 3, but it was not known until season 5.

[Video excerpt] PopKart with the voice of Orion: "sit down and sign, dear" Damus in the voice of Megatronus: "You take the fun out of life, my hadeen"

[End of extract]

Yes, they make a lot of tiktok videos for MegaOrion fans.

Damus is a great MegaOrion shipper. -In his life PopKart sang the RoRo Ending song and forced everyone to do it, Damus was delighted.

Honestly, no one understands the obsession of these two with the program.

2 Extra:

TerraSpark would be a canceled series where Damus refused to voice Megatronus just because he turned good, PopKart had ended up convincing him to do it (as a favor to a dubbing director), but it was canceled and Damus still counts That's like a victory. -PopKart is a fan of the RoRo comics in WDI, which are for a larger audience (what would be called teenagers) and his favorite character is the one inspired by her conjuntx 'Tarn' from DJD, he ships it with 'Nickel'

[nuclearjacks]

12 for the fandom ask game !!

What's the funniest or craziest AU idea you've ever come up with?

Apologies for taking a bit to get around to this- had a very busy weekend and needed a day or two to recoup jdjdjddj

But Ouughghghgh you’re making me think here cause I’ve got so many in my head that have never seen the light of day djhfdjdjdj

It’ll all be under the cut cause I *will* be unapologetically neurodiverse about this vvv

A bit suggestive but nothing explicit - and not one of mine but is far more entertaining than anything I’ve come up with since I’m an angst whore™️ jdhdhdhr was probably a silly strip club au that an old mutual of mine back in 2020 brainstormed. If I remember correctly it was something like the autobots and deceptions ran competing strip clubs and of course the deceptions wore bedazzled and glittery speedos and booty shorts and were slay as fuck sjdhdhdh

There wasn’t much to it other than that, the deceptions slayed and that’s what I cared about most iedniencein

Otherwise-

My craziest (crazy in the sense that, this-is-the-thing-I’ve-thought-most-about-and-put-the-most-effort-in-because-holy-shit-everything-fits-so-perfectly-and-you-can-tell-this-is-peak-fandom-crossover-indulgence djnfjeehbd) is my TarnMaRat Phantom of the Opera inspired AU. Spoilers ahead for mtmte and Lost light just in case too.

I’m not the first person to see the parallels between the Phantom and Tarn absolutely not (there’s actually a gorgeous Tarn print I’ve found on eBay of him as Phantom that I will put the link to here), but I *might* be the first (still highly unlikely with how old this fan base is sjchdjdj) to see the parallels between Christine and Pharma and Raoul and Ratchet (and many other characters who I’ve found a way to weave them into for the sake of this AU jdjxjd)

For example, Christine is stuck in a ‘no-good-way-out’ situation due to the manipulation of a man who threatens those she loves if his terms aren’t obeyed. Very easy to see the parallels between Pharma’s situation on Delphi and how he had to steal t-cogs in order to keep him and his staff safe from the DJD. But even Christine’s deteriorating mental state throughout the musical is very similar to Pharma’s through out the Delphi arc. She’s a fairly isolated individual whose mainly only known the Opera for most of her life, she’s been trained to be the next big star by the Phantom and is pretty suddenly thrust into said position to the point she becomes very overwhelmed when things begin to get more and more complicated and terrifying with her understanding of her ‘angel of music’ and the world in turn. Just like how Pharma suddenly found the DJD on his doorstep one day and was suddenly a t-cog supplier to one of the most deadly decepticons and had to start managing how to keep supplies coming in, keep his staff safe AND possibly find a way out of said situation that might get him and the others out as safely as possible. Which causes him to isolate the Delphi station from everyone until First Aid calls for Ratchet. Also very similar to Christine, they both latched onto people from their past who they felt safe with, possibly thinking they could protect them or help them.

That’s only a taste of the analysis I’ve done of these characters cause I didn’t even get onto Ratchet and Raouls ego complex’s or Tarn’s obsessive behaviours over Megatron, that, for the sake of the AU, I switched up to an obsession over Pharma to better suit the parrells between Phantoms obsession with Christine eunceicheuhc

Instead of this au being a ‘I just put these characters in the other characters place so yay! The robots do opera now lol’, I instead took the same storyline and applied it to the Delphi arc and mish mashed things in from the Lost Light comics too. Honestly this would probably make a really good psychological thriller fic the more I think about it iendiencein

Some of this is still pretty wibbly-wobbly but the basic gist is that Pharma is still running the Delphi site but for a much longer indeterminate amount of time so he’s kinda known as the Doctor who runs Delphi. He was thrust into the position straight after graduating med school (cybertronians still have to go to med school for this shit right??? DJXJDJDJ) to match the overwhelming nature of Christine’s position as Diva. Delphi is also a much larger hospital in this AU with a reputation for 50% of its patients going missing/dying/etc, causing it to be severely underfunded, but somehow still able to run and operate. Which later when Ratchet pops around (since I’d like to think this whole AU would be from Ratchet’s perspective, again, very similarly to the Delphi arc in the comics, to increase the level of horror and mystique around Delphi) learns it’s due to the DJD’s involvement who have been uncharacteristically generous to the hospital. Which later Ratchet learns is because Pharma treated a mech by the name of Damus back in the day when the hospital’s mortality rate was much lower. A mech who mysteriously keeps appearing in hospital records for coming in for treatment of seemingly superficial injuries, notes specifying that he’d always request for Pharma, until these appearances just stop one day out of the blue. And the mortality suddenly spikes a few months later.

The rest of the AU is basically ratchet figuring out the mysterys of Delphi while also trying to find a way to get Pharma and co out of this situation as more and more important characters (sorry, Ambulon doesn’t make it in this universe either jcjdjdjd) are killed off by Tarn. With background Pharat and a one-sided Tarnma.

I’d love to do more with this AU in the future whenever my next bout of creativity is, I have so many feelings about them all🥺🥺🥺💞💞💞

[abysshydra]

Hellooo... Wanted to reach because of your tags on post.

Honestly, asking your comfort character to help isn't sign of faking and just imagining it. Tho it can feel blurry, yes, since it all happens in your brain, and you're very used to think you're in control, even if you don't.

If it works for you, it's good! Defining him as imaginary may help you (have more control, less anxiety, etc), or not. Defining him as headmate may help too (with communication, connection, making him more separate, and communicating with your body or needs). Or not. Every person is unique! I know traumagenic systems (few even) where they got their most comfort character as a headmate, and it helped them to survive very rough, dark times. They didn't front, and wasn't typical alter.

And there is the fact, that, yeah, our brain can know, what to do, already. But it needs to get out there somehow. Brain is like a hardware - may need help with settings, data restoration, viruses, etc. And headmates can help with it, as other user would.

Even singlet, as a person, is created by brain to help body survive, and grow, they're mental construct of the brain. Headmates aren't less just because they aren't so different from the start, or don't front as much, etc. They may be here for same purpose, and help accomplish it. Sometimes one mental construct brain constructed (from birth) need help and don't accomplish as much, and brain creates new one, to help, and communicate things first one can't figure out. Using comfort character talking included. And it's helps many, to not belittle and trust them, because they, in some cases, not having all same memories and emotions as you, can notice patterns, other ways to solve problem you'd never be able to figure up yourself as fast, or without help. And you don't even need to go out of house or pay for it, just ask, trust them, and listen!

Wanna hear a funny thing about us? I have intrusive scenario thoughts, almost daily. Not like, distressing, related to my issues, fears, or insecurities. And i don't intentionally imagine it.

where i try to comfort some random person i can't even see in this scenario, about thing that stresses them (not me! Ex: i can comfort someone about being insecure about not getting gf almost for 10 minutes, while I already have long, happy relationships). It ain't someone who i know, or fav character. Probably somewhere in multiverse Tarn got this going on too. Who knows.

It feels so weird reading it when he's ominously watching from behind our back, as if he's gonna kick me (gently) if I let a single doubt into my mind, lol.

Honestly, our intrusive scenarios are usually random moments of arguing with someone, and at night I rarely make consciously something related to falling asleep or going unconscious, depending on my mood. Just asking someone for help, especially my comfort character wasn't something I did if ever. More than that, Tarn WASN'T my comfort character, I just kinda liked him, I would've expected anyone else but him.

And he usually appeared only to replace me in physical front to go through physical work like walking. Mind you, I assumed I was just taking his characteristics and something. Literally, no idea why and how I thought "I like his style" just out of nowhere, why I didn't question it before, lol.

I still don't remember when we came to a conclusion that he IS our headmate, it kinda just flew out of our radar. He kinda started joining to break us from front in conflicts or notify others about my absence in front, only then I started calling him, although I don't remember exact times when I did that.

He is very different from me as a person. Now if I try to think of him as imaginary I just get slapped with a feeling like I am insulting him. I mean, we were always hit with people ignoring everyone and focusing on host, so it is something that triggers us sometimes.

I completely missed the point of my rant, but, anyway, yeah, it wasn't a sign of faking us being a system, I just thought it was because I was (and sometimes still am) in a denial. You know... It kinda just shows how actually blurry the line between singlets and multiples is.

[camp-mithril-lake]

A Voice Soft As Thunder

Hot Rod/Damus, IDW1, Ao3 Link

Sometimes Rodimus thinks of Damus.

He'd always be Rodimus of Nyon. Nyon had raised him, made him who he was. He'd loved Nyon and her people. As one of her few survivors, he couldn't let it disappear. 

But he would always be Hot Rod from Alyon as well.

He'd known that since he'd first came Online in a secret, quiet place hidden away from the Council. He'd come Online too early. The doctor helping them with the procedures (Ratchet) hadn't been there to welcome him like he had so many.

Instead, Hot Rod had sat up and seen Damus. Oranges and reds and yellows like fire. He hadn’t known what an Empurata was or that it was meant to be Bad. All he'd seen were bright colors in the gloom and thought Damus the prettiest being in the world.

Hot Rod, still gooey and forming, had flushed with mirroring colors just as bright  and watched Damus, fascinated senses coming Online. His voice was the first thing he heard, smooth rolling and beautiful as he read from a datapad tired but clear in the middle of the nursery.

"–are all equal. And we have a right to decide how we live our lives." Damus said and then gave a long stretch that made his fiery colors glisten. "Orion was right. He is good. Ratchet's probably going to complain about my choice, though. He'll say I'm 'radicalizing you from inception'. Life will do that just fine, so I'd say it's giving you a pede up. And what does he expect me to do when he says 'talk to the protoforms'. I hope they fix the music player soon. My ramblings can not be good for your processor development."

Hot Rod had just watched him lazily as he chatted at them, letting his startup protocols integrate and begin breaking down the words into meaning. He had grinned when his social protocols finished booting up, and he realized how to use his voicebox and what to say to someone.

"HELLO!"

Damus and screamed and tripped as he jumped to his pedes, servos glowing.

Hot Rod hadn't been sure why, but he'd laughed. When Damus got to his feet, Hot Rod had finished with his next sentence thrilled when he found the glyphs he wanted in the lexicon.

"YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL! WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"

Things had escalated quickly from there, an embarrassed Damus grabbing Ratchet and Hot Rod and the other new protoforms being slipped into Nyon. Hot Rod had tried to catch Damus's attention and sought him out when he could, always delighted by how flustered and stunned he was with each interaction. It had made Hot Rod's Spark feel warm and swollen.

Hot Rod managed to bully a contact code out of Damus before he left, swanning off to continue fighting the government already some dashing hero in young Hot Rod's eyes. He'd messaged him daily and eventually managed to contain himself to weekly after some advice from older mechs.

And Damus had responded.

Damus had been the one he'd eagerly whispered Nyon's secrets to as he discovered them. Damus had been the one who'd told him larger than life stories and myths of Knights and Primes when Hot Rod was cold and curled up somewhere the factory they had found him work at having closed down. Damus was the one who told him about Zeta Prime and the changes and his own doubts. Damus had been the one who'd given him the idea to organize the others and mentioned the Decepticons with somewhat reluctant admiration and read to him from Megatron's works.

Ratchet had been the one to call him when Damus went missing. When all Hot Rod's desperate pleas and attempts to connect were met with static.

Rodimus would think of Damus sometimes.

Close his eyes and hear his voice.

He knew it in his Spark.

He knew it now as Tarn of the DJD began to speak.

[itoldsunset]

i think looking back at the whole thing my main problem with ipytm is that it packed too many plot points into five short episodes and it didn’t go all the way on any of those points (except jai which ofc makes it a sore spot for a sequel with many other potential directions 🙄), and that really detracted from our ability to feel/connect with the story and it especially feels jarring when we compare it to itsay, where p'boss let every scene run its course no matter how slow or silent, which then made us feel everything.

also, pet peeve: why were the ipytm episodes so short, when there was so much more dialogue and context needed for everything they were throwing at us?? we were robbed of some necessary background/explanation.

at the end of the day it was probably not a good idea to cram five years of their lives into five episodes and that kind of fucked over ipytm in a big way. there was a lot of potential that felt somewhat subdued to me, like they could have pushed it further. i would have loved a deeper dive into the commentary about gender expression and sexual orientation: oh-aew being called girly in the casting, and mangpong saying he and plug were "girly" friends (the "girly" part wasn't translated) and he didn't expect them to fall for each other. in some ways it's nice that this was subtle, but in other ways i kind of wish it was more out there. meanwhile all the details about the entertainment industry and comm arts ended up taking way too much screen time relative to its role in driving the central conflict, which really comes down to teh once again not knowing himself.

we needed to see the jump between the end of ep2 and the start of ep3, how did teh go from crying in oh-aew's arms, to no longer wanting to invite oh-aew to plays with him? i can put the pieces of the puzzle together, but i shouldn't have to. we needed to see more of what oh-aew was going through this whole time other than having the time of his life and being the perfect partner to teh. (though i kind of get it in a way, since oh-aew and teh have always represented the expectation vs. reality meme to me).

and despite how much i love oab and how well he did here, we needed to see way less of jai. i'm honestly not even mad about the cheating plot itself but knowing how unpopular they are, and how risky they are, it's the kind of thing where you really gotta nail the execution to pull it off and with only five episodes, they couldn't do it justice. i see the parallels between teh/tarn and teh/oh-aew here, i really do. and i see teh giving his everything to perform well to make jai's dreams come true, the way teh gave up his spot in itsay to make oh-aew's dreams come true. but the fact that so many of us were left thinking "what the fuck, teh??" means there are unanswered questions about how he arrived at that point, which is not something we want to feel about the major breaking point in their relationship.

anyway, i love the central messages of ipytm, even if i think they were too mean on teh in bringing him here. i know the middle part was kind of a mess but i love where teh and oh-aew ended up. it felt real that teh had to date airy to figure out that he was wrong about what he thought he wanted, and it felt real that oh-aew had to be alone for a while to figure out how to love himself without teh and be okay without him, so that oh-aew can choose teh again freely this time. i love that this episode was all about oh-aew, after everything, CHOOSING to love teh because he knows that that's what makes him happy. and teh just being the absolute luckiest guy in the world to have fallen in love with someone who is that perceptive, patient, and understanding. and i hope he’s learned his lesson and is ready to be the partner oh-aew deserves.

[earthstellar]

uh oh I had a MegOp dream based on my experiences as a punk and now I have to write about it

I had a dream last night where punk shows were held in the gladiatorial arenas in Kaon after-hours 

then I was like, what would a punk venue in Kaon or Tarn look like, holy shit 

and I immediately thought of this venue I used to go to regularly called 12 Bar on Tottenham Court Road here in London 

unfortunately it’s now closed down, but it looked like this, just a great small grungy venue full of great jams and the single nastiest bathroom I’ve ever seen (I loved it) which was covered in graffiti, magazine collages, stickers, beer, never had toilet paper, and sometimes had no toilet seats so good luck: 

and this vibe is exactly what I imagine Kaon bars would be like 

just super small stage and almost zero room space around it with a dangerously precarious upper level seating area (I used to sit up there and draw the band/audience members), but a pub-like bar area with outdoor smoking area where weirdos harass everyone, the occasional audience member going way too hard on ska punk night, illicit t-shirt sales laid out on the floor so everyone has to fall over them to get inside, probably high fire hazard risk, rotating gigs so the vibe was different every night 

everything you want in a solid punk venue built into what used to be a small Victorian era two-story shop 

and like, imagine if Megatronus brought Orion Pax to a place like this 

Megs: Orion, in order for you to better understand the culture of the lower classes, you need to experience our social hubs and cultural centres. Allow me to propose an idea.  

Orion: That sounds like a valuable learning experience, Megatronus. I appreciate your offer; What do you have in mind? 

Megs: I would like to take you to a popular music venue, visited by all manner of lower class bots from Kaon to Tarn; I must warn you, we will be out long past recharging hours and the music may not be to your delicate tastes, but it will be an immersive experience for you. I trust you will see the value in it. 

Orion: I am sure my “delicate tastes” will not be offended; My friend Jazz often takes me to similar venues at the rim of Iacon’s borders. 

Megs: You may find this experience to be rather different, my friend. 

Orion: Then I look forward to learning more about the cultural differences of my fellow Cybertronians. Do you have an idea of what bands might be on? 

Megs: All show lists are subject to change; However, it is likely you will get the opportunity to enjoy some of the Heavy Chrome music so popular amongst the Tarnian population. The Interfacers, Burnt Out Diode, Fried Circuits, and Rotor Decapitation will be headlining. 

Orion: Ah. Unfortunately I have never heard of any of those musicians, but I look forward to seeing them live with you.

Megs: Excellent! We will meet at the Central Junction; Here are the coordinates. It has been too long since I have seen you, little archivist. 

Cue Megatronus picking up Orion, then taking him back to his berth room in the arena to dress him up for a hardcore Heavy Chrome gig, fuck yes 

Orion would be scared at first but as he gets familiar with the venue and the audience, he gets into the vibe and really enjoys himself-- It’s unlike anything he’s ever heard, and the audience is definitely out of control but there’s real comrades in this bar tonight 

like he sees a mini-mosh kick off, and someone gets knocked over-- he just about panics, until a construction frame immediately picks the smaller bot back up and makes sure he’s OK 

a femme bot is sitting nearby just drinking some engex and watching the show, but without her upper torso armour, and it makes Orion blush until Megatronus explains that it’s perfectly fine; the femme bot is a machinist at a local refinery and her work strains her torso, so she’s relieving some of the pain by removing her outermost armour plating 

this is gonna be another thing in my fanfic drafts isn’t it 

[robots-and-writing]

A Cold Night In With The DJD

(TW: Cards Against Humanity, general dirty talking)

Tarn shivered in his office, a fuzzy blanket draped over his shoulders. It didn't do much, with the heating on the Messatine out for the day until repairs could be done. For now he would focus on paperwork to take his mind off the cold. He had personal reviews to read, repair papers to sign, the work had started piling up on his desk.

"Tarn?" Helex ducked into the office, the heat from his smelter warming up the room.

"What can I do for you, Helex?" Tarn let the blanket fall to the floor. Helex's warmth was enough to keep him comfortable.

"The others are in the rec room trying to stay warm, do you want to join us?" Tarn had been previously invited to join his team to stay warm and play a few card games. "I know it's not your favourite game, but we're about to start a round of Cards Against Cybertron." Hm. Helex was right. Tarn didn't like that game. But, he mused to himself, it will be valuable team building experience.

"I'll go." Helex's face showed a brief flash of surprise before he spoke.

"Sweet! I'll head back to the rec room, the others are waitin' for me." He gave a wave with one small hand and left. Tarn grabbed his data pad and soon followed suit. It wasn't too long before they had arrived at the rec room door, the lively conversation taking place inside audible through the door. The door opened to sighs of relief as the warmth of Helex's smelter returned, and the room started heating back up again. The other DJD members seemed surprised that Tarn even bothered to come, and even more surprised that he would participate in the game.

Kaon dealt out ten white cards for every player and put the black cards in the centre of the circle. "I'll be the first card czar." Drawing a card from the pile, he read out the prompt.

"I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty sure what you're suffering from is called… blank." 

Tarn looked at the cards he had in his hand. They were:

Unfathomable stupidity.

Having sex for the first time.

An older bot who knows their way around a spike.

The blood of primus.

Shaking a sparkling until it stops crying.

Poor life choices.

Licking things to claim them as your own.

Fellowship in primus.

Soundwave talking dirty.

A live studio audience.

Hmm.Tarn decided to play it safe, and tossed Poor life choices into the pile of white cards. He was still deciding if he was going to seriously play the game. Tarn could go with the typical responses. That meant likely not winning a single card. Or he could relax. Go with what he wanted to do. It is a team bonding exercise after all, it only makes sense to participate fully. 

Soon, everyone but Kaon had tossed a card in the pile. Kaon cleared his throat and read the card.

"I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty sure what you're suffering from is called…

Land mines. Yikes." Tesarus stifled a giggle.

"A microspike." Helex, Nickel and Tesarus laughed. Kaon only sighed in feigned exasperation, hiding a smile.

"Poor life choices." 

"Ghosts"

"Being rich." Kaon took a second to think over his choices. 

"Come on!" Tesarus chimed in. "The microspike has got to win." Helex was full on laughing at this point, Nickel was smirking next to him. Kaon glared as best as he could at Tess before declaring his verdict.

"Who played the Microspike?" Nickel raised her hand to nobody's surprise.

*********

"Do not go here! I found blank in my energon!" Helex read out. Tarn considered his options and decided to put The blood of Primus in the pile. Once again, it was time to read the cards.

"Do not go here!" Helex read out " I found…

"Some goddamn peace and quiet"

"Prisoners of war?" Kaon chuckled at that card. 

"The blood of primus." Helex saw the next one and hit his fist on the table and laughed. The suspense of not knowing what was on the card was tense. Vos chattered on in Primal Vernacular with an impish look to his eyes.

"My- my neck, my back, my valve and my aft." Everyone but Tarn laughed, though he did smile ever-so-slightly behind his mask. He stopped when he realized it though, he didn't want to give off the impression that he was that… uncouth.

"I think it's obvious who won this round." Nickel said. "Who played that last one?" Vos reached for the black card, triumphantly hissing as he took it in his hand.

*********

It was Nickel's turn next. Helex passed her a black card, which she read with a humorous smile.

"As the carrier of five rambunctious sparklings, I'm no stranger to… blank." Tarn had the perfect card for this one. He had picked up a two new cards since the beginning:

Insatiable bloodlust 

Sucking spike in a back alley

He didn't want to piss off Nickel, he knew he would pay for it later. So Tarn put in insatiable bloodlust. It's not that he was afraid of her. No way. He just had a healthy respect for her capabilities, that's all. Definitely. She took the cards and shuffled them, then picked the top one up to read it.

"As the carrier of five rambunctious sparklings, I'm no stranger to… 

"Sunshine and rainbows." Nickel chuckled. "Hah! As if."

"Letting everymech down."

"Insatiable bloodlust. Seems more likely, I already have to deal with five full-grown mechs, I definitely couldn't handle that many sparklings without at least a little murder!" The others chuckled a little before she continued.

"Judging everyone." Nickel grimaced at the next card and sighed.

"Maximal insertion?" Everyone but Nickel laughed a little, even Tarn. Helex and Vos on the other hand, were laughing the loudest at the card."Whoever played that card can go frag themselves to the pits. Frag this, Insatiable bloodlust wins. You all suck." Tarn smugly took the point, knowing he hadn't angered the tiny medic. She was currently glaring daggers at the others. Perhaps, he thought to himself, this isn't all that bad. He was quite enjoying himself after all. And it was his turn to judge now. He picked a random black card from the stack and read it.

*********

"The DJD now tortures traitors by subjecting them to… blank." I wonder what the odds are that of all people, I would be the one to draw this card? The others certainly seemed to find it funny, chuckling quietly to themselves as they searched their hands for the perfect card. Now that Tarn wasn't looking for a match as well, he could truly pay attention to the other DJD members and how they acted.

Nickel had a sharp gaze like a bird of prey, carefully judging each white card for the right play. Kaon however didn't seem to even be reading them, leaving it up to chance. He was the first to put down his card. Helex and Tesarus were smirking to themselves as they searched their hands for a good play. And Vos, well he was constantly talking to himself. Tarn could it pick out a few words, but not many. Soon they had all put their cards in a messy pile in front of him and left him to start reading.

"The DJD now tortures traitors by subjecting them to…"

"Semi-automatic weaponry." Makes sense, though maybe a little too much sense to be funny.

"Glitter." 

"Cuddling." While he did find the idea of going gentle on a traitor despicable, Tarn smiled at the thought of it. But the next card soured that rare smile.

"Two mechs one cube." Everyone else found it hilarious. Even Kaon was laughing, small sparks coming off his Tesla Coils. They were all a little tipsy at this point, even Tarn was feeling the effects of the alcohol, but he still cursed under his breath at the fact that he had to read that sentence out loud.

"Mutually assured destruction." Tarn recovered quickly from the last prompt and pondered his choice.

"Well at least we know there's no way I'll win!" Helex chided in loudly. He always got drunker than the others on game night, surprisingly being a lightweight.

"I'm guessing the weaponry one" Tesarus was also quite tipsy having finished a few shots of strong engex. "It's Tarn we're talkin' about!" Kaon agreed, and Vos nodded along too.

"Helex?" The table was silent as everyone looked at the four-armed mech then back at Tarn. 

"Yes sir?"

"Point well won." The table erupted into laughter and cheers. And this time, Tarn joined in.

[thanksjro]

More Than Meets the Eye #32 - Nobody’s Ever Actually Dead in Comic Books

Our band of merry guys-who-weren’t-on-the-Lost-Light-in-issue-#1 approach the shattered husk of the Lost Light, in a gruesome scene that is only slightly marred by the graphic design.

Font doesn’t really suggest danger, does it? Here, for comparison, is something I slapped together in fifteen minutes (including recreation of background) using a font I got off a free font site.

Now, one could say that my version is rather derivative, flat, and arguably cliche, but you know what else it is? Appropriate for the fucking mood of having found a destroyed, hemorrhaging ship after everyone you knew disappeared.

I’m available, IDW! Hit me up.

Theorizing that this is the ship that the Coffin Rodimus came from- remember that? It was a few issues ago- the gang flies in for a closer look. The ship blood is actually something called quantum foam, which allows for quantum space travel to happen. It’s not supposed to be outside of the quantum quills, but the ship’s pretty junked up, so it is.

Because the ship is so very full of holes, the gang can set down for repairs pretty easy. They land in Swerve’s, finding it in less-than-pristine condition. They also find evidence of Crosscut having gotten creative, as a poster for the play he was working on is hung up in the room. Considering he was still writing it when he disappeared, this might seem a bit odd. But then you remember that this is a ship from the future, and it stops being so odd.

Because this is a future ship, with evidence that Crosscut did some stuff, it stands to reason that, at some point, everyone is going to come back from being disappeared.

Just to die.

Which is a bummer, but one crisis at a time.

Megatron disembarks the Rod Pod, with Ravage following, and everyone is just a touch put off by the duo. Everyone but Nautica, who proceeds to commit a microaggression.

Nautica, that’s Soundwave’s father you’re petting like a common animal.

Ravage, angered by this over-familiarity, swats at her. Skids questions letting an active Decepticon roam around, but Megatron brushes off these concerns, saying that finding any still-living crew members is more important. With that, the search begins.

The gang splits up to look for clues, despite Riptide thinking this is a horrible idea. They’re on the clock for this one- the quantum foam is liable to explode if it touches anything, and there’s an awful lot of the stuff floating around right now.

Nightbeat and Nautica leave the rest of the group to their own work, seeing as Nautica has the most appropriate alt-mode for traversing the gaps in the ship.

Man, that’s pretty cool. Wish Nautica hadn’t been regulated to being “girl best friend” for her character arcs, I would have loved to see her do some neat stuff for her own development. Guess that’s what happens when you get introduced as main cast late, and have to compete with all the faves who had dozens of issues to be established and who also don’t have to deal with the whole “token girl character” thing.

The rest of the gang- Megatron, Ravage, Riptide, Skids, and Getaway- start looking in the area they’re already in. Seems a little lopsided, but whatever.

Ravage finds someone almost immediately, identifying Ultra Magnus through smell alone. Only, it isn’t just Ultra Magnus.

The Magnus armor lays not terribly far away, having had its hands cut off to prevent the recall signal from being activated before being gut-murdered.

Gut-murdered wiTH A FUSION CANNON, MEGATRON

Of course, Megatron was forced to destroy his fusion canon after it was decided he would be joining the Lost Light, but you can buy these things off the black market like it’s nothing. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if Brainstorm had a few stashed in his lab.

As it currently stands, nobody can trust the guy who has a storied past of killing Autobots, on a future ship where the only folks who could stop him are dead. Megatron, at least, has the good sense to not argue this fact, and suggests that the boys lock both Ravage and himself up until they suss out exactly what happened.

Meanwhile, over with Nautica and Nightbeat, we run through all the weird shit that’s happened in the last day or so.

Nautica, you’ve been on this ship for months now. How did you miss the fact that the only couple within 800 miles got annihilated by way of Phase Sixer? I feel like that attack might have come up at some point.

Since they’re on the subject of spouses, Nightbeat asks Nautica if she’s married, or if she has friends. Though noting that such a direct line of questioning might get him slapped with someone else, Nautica reveals that she is single, though she does have a best friend. Nightbeat is also single, probably because he pulls shit like this.

While this conversation is going on, Nautica uses her Sonic Screwdriver wrench to open a door with the literal push of a button. Brainstorm tricked out her wrench so hard it turned into a magic wand, which is good, because they’re going to need all the help they can get now that space is literally warping around them thanks to the quantum foam.

Nautica kicks something on the elevator, and that something turns out to be Brainstorm’s mysterious briefcase. Too bad Swerve is gone, he was so invested in what it contained. Luckily, Nightbeat is just as interested.

Back over on the other side of the ship, it seems as though Megatron kept his word about not resisting, as both he and Ravage have been locked in a cabinet. Wonder how that’s going for them.

Oh, better than I expected.

Ravage is fucking pissed that Megatron joined the Autobots, thereby turning his back on everyone who supported his cause during the last four million years. Despite this grievous betrayal though, the Decepticons haven’t stopped moving. Turns out, Galvatron’s in charge now.

But only if Autobot Megatron isn’t some sort of ploy.

It’s at this point that we learn just why Ravage is here to begin with- to see if Megatron’s truly given up the Decepticons, and if he has, to murder him. But first he’d like to know why this is happening.

Megatron views himself as a monster, having perpetuated a war that ended the lives of billions, destroyed the Cybertronian way of life, ostracized his race from the rest of the universe, and killing just to have something to do. He doesn’t like feeling this way about himself, so he decided to walk away from that life by joining the other team.

Don’t think it’s quite that easy to do, but okay.

Ravage isn’t so sure that this change of heart is going to stick, still convinced that Megatron will snap back to his old self with just a bit more time. Problem is, Megatron may not have a ton of that resource left.

Didn’t they build that body in like an hour so you wouldn’t die? Yeah, no wonder it feels as ill-fitting as a twenty-dollar suit. Thing’s probably made out of pig iron and duct tape.

The lights come on before further self-reflection can be done, and the duo realize that they’ve had guests this whole time.

Someone put the kettle on.

Obviously some fucked up shit happened on this ship. Megatron isn’t so sure that it’s him who did these dirty deeds, however, as he reaches into Ratchet’s mouth and pulls out his brain. Which feels like something that doesn’t really absolve one of guilt, but okay.

Also, ew.

Back with Nautica and Nightbeat, things are getting weird.

Now, this sequence might seem confusing at first blush, but this is because the laws of reality are collapsing around them. Going by clues in the background, we can find the proper, linear progression of time, and thus is conversation. This is what is actually happening:

With the mystery of Brainstorm’s briefcase eluding us once again, we move on to see more graphic aftermaths of violence. Poor Tailgate has been nailed to the wall with a chunk of a metal beam that’s almost as big as he is. The mood lighting for this scene is gorgeous, but I’ve hit my limit for exposing y’all to gore for this issue, so you’ll just have to trust me on this one. Then they find something even more interesting.

Who’s ready for Under Cold Blue Stars… 2!

Back over on the opposite side of the ship, Riptide’s found something nasty. It’s a bunch of dead bodies!

Including, uh, Pipes.

Who already died a while ago.

Hm.

All the bodies in this room are in their alts, and it looks like they’ve all been shot and drilled into, for some reason. Skids brings up that he had a friend who could identify the placement of any robot’s brain module just by knowing what they turned into. Then he reaches into a corpse to see what the drill-hole’s all about. It makes him sick, though maybe not for the reason you might think. He gets on the phone with Nightbeat, who’s called to tell them that they’ve found Overlord.

Still locked in his weird body harness.

And decapitated.

Megatron is on the other line, calling because he’s figured out the same thing Skids has. Someone paid a visit to this ship. Someone nasty.

The gang regroups, and Nautica gets the basics on the DJD, because I guess nobody’s mentioned them even in passing in the last six months, either.

God, what do they even talk about on this ship? Certainly not their feelings.

The reason that one room was filled with alt-modes was because of Tarn’s addiction to transforming; t-cogs are easier to remove when they’ve been used recently.

We get a quick 4/5ths-page gore-fest, then it’s back to making it all about Megatron.

Maybe you should have thought about that before you FUCKING DEFECTED, YOU POOL NOODLE.

Nightbeat’s beginning to put two and two together. There’s an Overlord in the basement. That shouldn’t be, because Overlord got exploded by Chromedome when he mercy-killed Rewind. Something is off about the past of this ship.

Before he can establish his MTMTE everybody-lives-but-then-dies AU though, the quantum foam fucks with the ship. These sons of guns need to get the hell out of here, pronto.

Oh god, what now?

Ravage smells someone inside the Magnus armor, someone who isn’t a part of the usual nesting doll lineup. Megatron reaches into the Crackerjack box and pulls out one hell of a prize.

HE LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVES

Chromedome would be so thrilled, if he still existed.

[gilly-bean]

Final thoughts on ipytm

I didn't have the proper time to sit down and form cohesive thoughts about ipytm as a whole during the weekend but now that I have some time, I think I wanna say something since the show has pretty much occupied all my thoughts for the past 5 weeks and some of this stuff needs to just be released from my brain for my own sake if for nothing else. So buckle up, it's going to be a long one.

I'm gonna premise this by saying that itsay meant the world to me. It’s one of my favorite pieces of media ever. I have waxed poetry about it so much that this time the only thing I will say is that I felt seen by it in a way that I have never ever been seen before. P'Boss said that it was made for queer people and that's what it felt like. I think that more than anything made me feel safe and cared for by a TV series, which is a thing that can happen apparently.

Now ipytm. Ipytm I found mostly difficult. It's not because I couldn't find it relatable - it was - painfully so. But episode after episode I felt like I was being relentlessly reminded of all the worst things in my life, things I would rather not be reminded of, things that did not end well, things I found no source of joy in seeing represented onscreen. I found ipytm difficult not because it was badly made (although there were things that I think could have been done better) but because it made me feel like shit. Most of the time. Episode 5 is the only episode I can say I enjoyed every second of and it's also the only one I have rewatched.

Mind you, I don't think the people who wrote ipytm own their audiences anything. I also don't think a sad story makes it a bad one nor do I think a story without real conflict is ever going to be an impactful one. I don't even have a problem with the story they ultimately told, I think it's a good story. But the way it was told made me mostly question what is all this suffering for? Real as it might be, the way they decided to focus only on the bad stuff made me struggle to see what kind of a story they really wanted to tell here? What is all of this worth if the relationship is the center piece of the story and there's nothing in the storyline to indicate that the viewer should want the relationship to work out? What kind of a story is this is what I kept asking ad nauseam.

Suffering in my life sometimes has made me a stronger person but sometimes it has been pointless, a thing that happened without any silver linings. Like I said, it's not that ipytm doesn't feel real. But what I do know is that pointless suffering is not something I wanna consume in my free time. Episode 5 showed me that there was a point to the suffering - to make these people grow up - but for four episodes I struggled to see that point and I can't just say trust the writers when there is nothing textually making me see what their goal is. I’m sure the point was shrouded intentionally to keep the viewers at the edge of their seat until the end but knowing that does not make my frustration any less potent. Writers 100 % of the time do what they want to do and even good writers can and will write stuff that you personally dislike or even hate. And for me personally, realism has never guaranteed that I would enjoy a piece of media.

This sounds like I hated ipytm. I did not. I could never hate anything that PP and Bilkin do, they own my heart. And what got me excited for ipytm way back when all we had was the trailer was the idea that they could show how hard relationship can be but that if you keep choosing each other no matter how much you change how strong they could be too, and I think that was the story they told in the end. I absolutely loved the fact that Oh-aew decided to give Teh another chance not because it made sense but because he felt like it. 'Cos that's what love is, there's nothing logical about it, you never end up together with the people who make sense on paper but with the people that make you feel like you want to keep trying. And that’s true for Teh too, Oh-aew would have never gotten to that point if Teh hadn’t gone all the way in crazy land to get him back. And that's all that matters.

I just wanted to see more of that throughout the show. Teh and Oh-aew choosing each other despite stuff being difficult. I wanted to be reminded that they actually loved each other. Teh's confusion about their relationship only felt confusing to me. I don't think I ever fully grasped what exactly he was feeling. Was he distancing himself from Oh-aew because he felt like he was being abandoned by him by virtue of Oh-aew abandoning acting/ostensibly changing? Was he slowly falling out of love because he was rehashing the Tarn/Oh-aew dynamic of his life again with Jai i.e. does he want to be with someone who he thinks is just like him, with the same ambitions and goals in life? The promise, the petty complaining of all the external changes that Oh-aew was going through, the insistence on how he never thought about breaking up, the text messages, make me think it's the former case. His relentless and shameless pursuit of Jai and the fact that he tries with Airy makes me think it's the latter case. Or is it that the former point was the underlying reason that made him question the second point (and forget that he did actually have this debate with himself already in itsay) which is kind of the impression I get from his play?

Even though I know cheating rarely happens only for one reason for the purpose of a cohesive narrative, I do think they needed to pick one lane. And if not, they at least completely missed the opportunity to make this connection clear in the bridge between ep 2 and ep 3, causing whiplash that’s bound to make viewers confused and angry. Then it’s compounded by stuff like Teh going from confessing his love to Jai to begging Oh-aew to not break up with him, which at best makes you confused about Teh's state of mind and at worst makes you think he's being disingenuous and manipulative. It’s a lot to ask from the viewer to wait and see if the writers will make it make sense later on. So, while cheating as a storyline is not a breaking point for me, it does need to be better executed than this for me to think it was the right choice.

Now, after rambling on about this for more than 1000 words (ridiculous), the conclusion I got is that I loved the overall story, (mostly) hated the way there. But if nothing else I am not above admitting that I’ve been absolutely obsessed with this show, in a completely unhinged way, in a way that has actually distracted me from real life and I can only remember og skam doing that to me. So well done show. Well done. It’s going to take ages for me to move on from this and I will surely never forget it.

[pastelpaperplanes]

Okay so i kinda lost count- are there multiple couples with the same characters? (Lockdown has two kids with someone i forgot and swindle right?) Gosh i hope my confusion doesn't come off as rude or something but i'm really interested in this AU and i just wanted to know the basics on the relationships. Like who is who's partner etc. (You don't have to tell every single couple jfksbd just how it works. Like past relationships or is making-children not a big deal? :'))

OKAY SO 😅 I know it gets hella confusing with the two AUs—so I’ll make it plain and simple for the Crack AU: literally no two bots who had a sparkling together are in a steady relationship in that AU!! It’s chaos but hey that’s what that specific AU was made for!

As for the Cybertron’s Future AU, I’ll breakdown all the current Creators’ relationships just for context, a handful are unique anyways:

Optimus/Rodimus: (Envoy & Laurel you’ll meet her eventually) Happily Conjunxed together for a long while now. Both know when and where they need to be serious, but they really are a goofy couple no matter how old they are or how busy their jobs get.

Drift/Ratchet: (Reiki) Conjunxed a bit later into their relationship, Drift had some self doubts for a long while and held back from bonding, but those have been resolved with loving patience and reassurance, Reiki is their only sparkling.

Megatron/Shockwave: (Tremor) These two are not conjunxed and will probably never be. Tremor was not planned as their little off and on, mutually beneficial arraignment was supposed to be to blow off steam, ofc Tremor came along and both took responsibility. They had a co-parenting relationship from then on and nothing more!

Megatron/Sentinel : (Shamus) They didn’t even have a relationship to begin with, just a mutually really really bad idea—Shamus was not planned at all. Megatron escaped prison soon after and Sentinel would’ve rather died than contract Megatron and tell him about his condition, the two haven’t spoken since.

Percy/Wheeljack: (Datum) They’ve been conjunxed since they both completed Academy, even after Percy’s incident and being distanced through war all that time, theyre still going strong. Datum is their only sparkling!

Sentinel/Throwback: (Vedette) Pretty much the definition of the booty call relationship with the eventual baby momma situation lmao. The two met while Sentinel was a hired security guard at one of Throwback’s shows, from their they met up every now and then for the fun of it. They’re not conjunxed and probably won’t ever be.

Prowl/Lockdown: (Cozen) Prowl and Lockdown probably would not have gotten conjunxed, but they did have plans to run away after The Uprising to raise their son together, this obviously did not go as planned.

Lockdown/Swindle: (Bunco) Those two don’t have the sweetest relationship even if they do meet up frequently for deals that are NOT intimate. They could possibly bond to each other in the future, but even after having a son together they still find excuses get in eachother’s faces—MAYBE ONE DAY

Blitzwing/Bumblebee: (Katydid & Mayfly) Blitzbee is VERY happily conjunxed, their banter still puts their relationship off as if they’re still in that dumbass flirting stage. May and Di wont likely be their only two.

Blaster/Jazz: (Razzmatazz) Conjunxed after many years of dating, Razz and the Twins (now adults) and on top of their work, they won’t be having another sparkling for some time, Blaster wants a big family!!

Tarn/Pharma: (Rongeur) Pharma was the DJD’s on board medic for a long while, he was replaced by Nickle when he went back to the ‘winning side’ (the Autobots) but quickly found out he was carrying his ex captain’s sparkling not long after. Not wanting to have anything to do with the DJD OR Tarn again, he kept Rongeur’s Sire out of the loop. Rongeur doesn’t know that he’s got the coding of one of the most feared Mechs in Cybertronian history on his side.

Cyclonus/Tailgate: (Whirligig) Happily conjuxed for a long while now, they’ve got one of the strongest relationships by far and they love each other dearly. Cyclonus doesn’t like to socialize with anyone other than his conjunx and their sparkling’s godsire, Whirl.

Ultra Magnus/Master Yoketron: (Satori) They were conjunxed on secret far too early for their own good, both were young and thought it was love until their stark moral differences quickly became apparent as the Great War began. Their relationship ended nastily, but they kept their future interactions civil for the public eye. Yoketron went off the grid for a long while to hide his carriage from Ultra Magnus, fearing that their Sire would twist their sparkling into his same image. Satori ended up being raised by Wing in Crystal City. Yoketron and Ultra’s bond broke when Yoketron was later murdered, Ultra wished that Yoketron could’ve understood his methods of war and eventually stand at his side, this obviously didn’t happen and Ultra regrets everyday he didn’t ask for forgiveness from his mate. Both Creators are now with the Allspark where they can hopefully speak again and let Ultra have that chance.

Knockout/Breakdown: (Wildbreak & Dominiza) They were conjunxed mid-war while still being tied to the Deceptions, they risked their lives to ensure that their first born, Wildbreak, would be given a life far better than one growing up on a ship and born into a set faction, the two are still going strong and now love their two sparklings to death.

Hope that kinda helps anon :D

[ryansjane]

ok so this will be probably all over the place but I genuinely need to vent about ep3 I didn’t expect such a huge slap in the face towards viewers not from this show at least...teh kissed jai because he’s bored of oh aew and he had sex with oh aew because jai told him too fuck I mean he probably even thought about jai while doing it it’s so disgusting just beyond words for me also their kiss got better lighting and angles than any of the teh oa kisses which is another misunderstanding for me

like they’re genuinely trying so hard to make us hate the main couple and there’s gotta be an explanation for this they won’t end up together in the end right? because how could they if oh finds out about all of this mental betrayal I mean he will be crushed 💔 I can’t imagine them getting past this it’s huge huge betrayal mental and physical their relationship at this point doesn’t make sense it’s toxic

i've seen people say this is in-character for teh and others say the opposite. kinda made me realise that he's done this before to tarn, he cheated on her with ohaew cause it was something different. he also flattered ohaew to get him back and did stuff with him just to turn around and go back with tarn. so it's like he's had no growth/maturity, like he has not learned to not play with people's feelings or string them along until he figures out what he wants. quite disappointing writing :/ did not expect ipytm to be better than itsay (they set the bar pretty damn high) but this is just 💀💀

also the fact teh and jai kissed more passionately than any on-screen kiss between teh and oh-aew…when i was watching it i was literally like “why would they direct them to kiss like that if they weren’t trying to suggest teh was never really that passionate about oh-aew” because you’re always left to assume they’re just choosing to keep the kiss scenes in the show more ? idk the word but like modest/teen viewer friendly. but clearly they weren’t because teh and jai had a proper makeout. why would they direct the main couple to have a less passionate kiss that the affair?? it literally feels like they’re taking a dump on season 1 by entirely reframing it in a context where teh was never really that into oh-aew. bring bas back lol

hi anon, I put all of your asks together bc I'm pretty sure they're all from you, I hope I'm not mistaken! I knew since the trailer that teh & jai would have something AND I prepared myself mentally for literal weeks to endure the pain, yet it still was a slap in the face for me. so it's okay to be upset. I agree with everything you're saying, especially about teh's lack of growth. he was already lowkey toxic in season one, yet first of all he was in high school therefore immature & more forgivable, but also it was heavily implied that he had an emotional & maturity glow up in the last episode... which is all undone by this sequel. also teh & jai's kiss being that good is definitely not a subconscious decision. I think they might have wanted to try showing that it's a kiss out of pure lust, but still... it's just so sad to see oh-aew & teh having sex for the first time in a while & remembering their first time together being sandwiched between teh discovering his attraction to jai & then kissing him... even though I didn't expect ipytm to be anywhere near as perfect as itsay was for me, it's just so fucking sad to undo all the beautiful work done in season one for angst & drama... also I have no idea if they’re gonna try to put them back together, but both the director & the script of the show have been hinting at a sad ending so like.... 💀💀💀

xxx

[shikai-the-storyteller]

Mae Catt’s Cyberverse Q&A

Here’s a neater version of some key Q&A responses from Mae Catt’s Cyberverse stream. 

Please note: not everything is verbatim, and also note that Mae Catt said “Don’t take things I say as the end-all be-all.” She’s a big supporter of fanfic writers!

This Q&A session contains spoilers for Season 3 of Cyberverse. For a (somewhat) more comprehensive transcript, please refer to this post.

Q: Megop rights?

“Oh absolutely, duh.”

Q: What does Optimus do when he’s not giving speeches / being a leader when they were all hanging out on the ARK?

I think he reads, he seems like a heavy reader. It’d be cute if he read really bad Earth romance novels. He seems like a guy who needs a break from everything.

Q: Does Optimus have hobbies?

Not to borrow from Rung, but doesn’t it seem like Optimus would make model ships? Very quiet, very focused detail-oriented hobby. *pauses* Oh duh, he also plays basketball.

Q: How did the Decepticons learn to stream? 

Because they’re deceptive! Megatron knew he should dedicate some time to winning the hearts and minds of humans. Starscreams’ funeral was not the first time they streamed. Optimus would use the official media channels (like the news), not a streaming service. Megatron would try to speak more directly to the people.

Q: Is Optimus the type of streamer who would take 10 minutes to figure out how to un-mute his microphone?

Optimus is a dad. He has no idea what’s going on with streaming. Optimus would say embarrassing things while Bee and Hot Rod were in the middle of streaming something.

Q: Is Megatron dead?

In discussions we wanted to kill him. We wanted to do a reverse Optimus death. However, in the final product, I kinda enjoy the ambiguity rather than the final decision. Can’t remember if we were decisive about that in the script.

Q: Did the Titan mind Decepticons living in them?

The Titans want to be cities. They want citizens. They want to be lived in, that brings them joy.

Q: Does Megatron do anything for fun or is he too angry?

I want to say he’s too angry, he has fun beating people down but I don’t think he’s had fun for a long time.

Q: How would you feel about a female Optimus Prime? 

[GAY LAUGHTER] 

The question is: do you turn Optimus Prime into a woman, or do you take characters like Elita One and uplift her? I would want to lean more into giving Elita One more oomph, I do love how Optimus doubts himself and if he’s worthy of being a Prime.

(Mae Catt talked a lot about representation and later mentioned how there's more pressure to write the girl characters well, especially because of the need for better representation. They wanted more girls in the show, and they planned to have Jazz be a girl).

Q: Elita prime when?

All the time, in my heart!

Q: Did you plan to have ___ character in the show?

Almost every character was discussed at least once. 

She really regrets that they didn’t get to have Beast Machine Obsidian or Rumble and Frenzy in the show, and says she would’ve loved a MTMTE-style Ultra Magnus / Minimus and Transmutate. She didn’t know what Obsidian’s personality would be, it was just a “Look how cool he is!” sort of thing.

(Note: We have Mae Catt to thank for Whirl getting into Cyberverse)

Q: What was your favorite episode?

“I Am the AllSpark” because of the Megatron and Starscream dialogue (which she wrote). Also S2 04 Soundwave and Shockwave.

I enjoyed writing Starscream most, Clobber and Hot Rod became a joy, S2 E4 was my first episode, and it was fun getting into Hot Rod’s voice. It was hard doing Optimus’ voice, I’d always pass it off to someone to look at it.

Q: Did you ever plan to have Hot Rod become Rodimus?

Rodimus was never considered for the show because Optimus dying has been covered to death, but we were adamant about portraying Hot Rod as someone who wanted to be a leader. Hot Rod is someone who is learning to be a leader.

(On that note, when someone asked if she thought Bee would ever become Prime, Mae Catt said:)

I don’t think Bee would be a Prime. Windblade and Hot Rod would be a better Prime. He wouldn’t want to be a Prime. He’s the #2 to Primes!

Q: Did Megatron always plan to return to Cybertron?

Megatron’s priorities changed when he saw his doppelganger. Realizing he was a horrible tyrant, that scared him enough to return and not kill Optimus and make peace no matter what.

Q: Which death hurt you the most?

Starscream. (Slipstream’s hurt too).

We didn’t want to kill people off willy-nilly for shock value, but in certain instances it made sense. Like, the audience will fall in love with Slipstream because she’s becoming good, so she has to die. (She apologized for that sounding harsh). We killed Prowl because it was Shadow Striker doing the killing and he’s a self-sacrificing lieutenant. I almost wanted Starscream to emerge from the Judge’s head untouched, but I’m ultimately glad that idea got shot down.

(She circles back to this comment later, so I’m making note of that here since it wasn’t a direct response to a question)

When I was desperately trying to save Starscream’s life even though I brutally murdered Slipstream, I wanted Starscream to have amnesia and have a redeption arc. I wanted him to have a Windblade shard and have it be kind of like Castaway, where the only person he talked to was that (and the shard only had 5 phrases it could say). Eventually Bee would befriend him and he’d wind up with the Autobots.

I wanted to write Starscream kind of like an abuse victim who expects the worst of the Autobots, but I wanted him to warm up slowly to them. I wanted to have a Starscream and Optimus episode where Starscream messes up on something and Optimus is like “you did your best and that’s what counts”, a response which is totally new to Starscream. But obviously we didn’t have time for that.

Regarding redemption arcs (a continuation from the previous question, and a huge highlight from the stream):

Re: the potential for Starscream’s redemption arc “A redemption arc needs to be facilitated by a character acknowledging that what they did was wrong. He would have had a laundry list of excuses for it, even if there was all that evidence to the contrary, but the character needs to acknowledge that reasons don’t matter because people got hurt [by their actions]. [The character] needs to intend to do better. Let them try and let them fail, they don’t need to do a 180, it’s hard work to be a better person.”

NOTE: Mae Catt also made a few more comments re: the idea of a Starscream redemption arc on her Tumblr page.

Q: Did Megatron really kill Starscream?

The Starscream beatdown was super severe and they were like “holy frick they’re really going for it” when they saw the storyboards. According to Maecatt, Megatron didn’t kill Starscream when he slammed him down (which is a bit confusing since the show definitely made it seem like Starscream died). 

Q: Did Drift die? Why was he a double-agent?

According to us, Drift did not make it, but I fully endorse whatever you want. We needed a double-agent, someone who would (seemingly) kill Hot Rod. (She says they went with Drift because of his history in the comics).

(Later on in the stream)

Maybe Drift is alive, maybe he’s rethinking his decision and he’ll come back later. Drift would’ve been helpful in S3 for sure, maybe he’d come back with Repugnis or something.

Q: Why are you so mean to Percy? 

He's so mature and pragmatic that he can take it, and is willing to take one for the team bc he understands that it's what he needs to do. (In response to someone’s comment about his personality) Yes, he’s calmly feral.

Q: Is Skullcruncher Percy's bouncer now that he's running Maccadam's? 

Oh totally.

(She later mentions that Percy has permanently taken over Maccadam’s. Also: Skullcruncher is a lady! She misses Mac, but Percy takes good care of her).

Q: If Tarn is the perfect Decepticon who's the perfect Autobot? 

A firetruck alt mode, and an Autobot insignia as a face. Nat (her fiance) and I talked about it a lot. Optimus SHOULD be a fire truck, it makes the relationship between him and Ratchet a little more fun since Ratchet is an ambulance, and Optimus has an ax. It just makes sense! 

(She agreed that the perfect Autobot would be Thunderclash after the chat said that).

On that note, Mae Catt said they used Tarn for the show because: “OBVIOUSLY (the perfect decepticon) should look like this guy. A faceless mindless Decepticon that only serves Megatron”.

Q:  What sort of documents DID Optimus work on in the archives? 

Probably historical archives and working on stuff about all the Primes. Something like the French / American revolution equivalent, which informed his speech writing for Megatron and his own ethics.

Q: Did you always plan to make Optimus socially awkward? 

We “found” the social awkwardness for Optimus. Optimus was depicted as a father figure in S1 (implying it’s because S1 is from Bee’s perspective), S2 / S3 we were able to explore more and found the limits [writing him] and found it was hard to maintain that level of heroic dialogue. Optimus would feel awkward about it too. Randolph did an impression of Optimus’ speech for the Party Down episode. “[Optimus] can’t not be in war-mode.”

Q: Were Optimus and Megatron ever friends, or did they just work together on the speech stuff? 

Oh hell yes, I think [the story] is always enhanced when they’re friends and when Optimus really believes in what Megatron was working on. Optimus’ rejection of Megatron is what pushes him over the edge, his best friend rejecting him pushes him into a place where he becomes a tyrannical person.

Q: Does Maccadam know we love him? 

Mae Catt: *puts hand over hear heart and looks off into the distance dramatically* Yes.

Q:  What’s the best selfie Arcee’s ever taken? 

I like the one with the giraffe. Or maybe a selfie with some humans. I like the idea of Arcee having a bunch of human friends. 

Q: What do the Transformers think of the Florida Man? 

They can’t really tell the difference between humans, they don’t really get it. It just sorta looks like all the normal stuff they see on Earth (or something). 

Q: Who’s the Florida Man of the Transformers? 

Rack ‘n Ruin. But he’s too nice. Hmmm.

Q: What was most important to you personally to put out in each episode? Like humor/characterization/arcs 

I wanted to make sure I didn’t write dialogue that was condescending to kids, wanted to be true about the character. Dialogue needs to be true to the characters, and gay. (Laughs)

Q: Do Transformers know what memes are?

They know what they ARE, but they don’t get it. We wanted Hot Rod to be super into Earth culture (winning races and driving off before humans could realize no one was in the car), but we never had time to really get into that.

Q: What music does Soundwave like?

We had a cut joke from S2 E5 [where Megatron and Optimus are popping through portals all around the world trying to find the All Spark] . Soundwave pops into Brazil where there’s a music festival and he crashes the concert and hang out. He likes EDM the most? 

His favorite song is Despacito. He thinks its so sad.

Q: Were you surprised that Jake Tillman was in his 20s listening to his Optimus voice the first time?

She apparently listened to his vines a lot when he was in his teens so meeting up again like that was a cool coincidence. 

Q: What other dimensions or places did you want to be in the show?

I would’ve liked to have the other Transformers series show up (TFP, TFA, G1, Shattered Glass) but we don’t have those assets or budget. 

“This will quickly become unclear to audiences who aren’t (you people).” They couldn’t have all these references when some of their audience wouldn’t get it. 

Q: What about ____ ship?

Mae Catt says she doesn’t want to yuck anybody’s yums. For example, someone asked about Arcee/Grimlock, and while she said she sees them more as friends, she didn’t say they can’t be in a relationship. (Mae Catt also said she doesn’t ship Bee with anyone because she sees him as a little brother).

As she said several times in the stream, “Don’t take things I say as the end-all be-all”!

That being said, she did say she likes Dead End / Perceptor and Windblade / Slipstream.

Q: Why are there no humans in the show?

From the show’s conception, there were no plans to include any humans. They didn’t want humans distracting from the Transformers.

Q: Why did the Scientist collect Soundwaves?

He collects Soundwave because Soundwave is COOL! Wouldn’t you collect a single father of 5 who carries them around in his chest?

Why does anyone collect what they collect? “That’s a really angry dad who’s got five children he carries around in him and he plays music. Gotta have that!”

(Later on, she circles back to this question)

All the Other Universe Soundwaves the Scientist collected also had their own Laserbeaks. I wonder if the scientist would’ve taken them out. He might’ve just gotten rid of them.

(And of course, here are the boyfriend questions from the stream:)

Q: Is Dead End a good boyfriend?

Dead End is a work in progress, but maybe Percy is patient enough to get him there

(Mae Catt says she really loves the Deadceptor ship. She knew people would ship it, but she didn’t ship it herself until she saw the fanart for it).

Q: Is Astrotrain a good boyfriend?

No, no...he’s not a good person, really.

Q: Is Percy a good boyfriend?

Absolutely--WAIT HOLD ON. He’s very blunt, he doesn’t mince words, if you can handle his bluntness then you’re good. He is what he is and you have to deal with him.

Q: Is Soundwave a good boyfriend?

Soundwave is not a good boyfriend. He’s a good casual romance but he’s not a good boyfriend. Soundwave would be a terrible listener. He hears a lot but he’d tune you out.

Other information tidbits:

- If Thunderclash was in the show he and Jetfire would HATE each other. Thunderclash would be a rival reality star (maybe) to Media Fire.

- Mae Catt said “A lot of intelligent life is inherently mechanical” in space, explaining why so much of the non-Cybertronian life we saw in the show were robots.

- Knock Out was considered for the show, but every Transformer under the sun was discussed at some point in the writer’s room. (Ex: “Rumble and Frenzy are always considered in my heart, but there wasn’t enough time or space or assets to do so”).

- “The brand team had grown up on the toys as we had grown up on the ‘toons, so we just wanted to make the best thing imaginable.”

- They decided Optimus would be in the Other Universe’s Matrix and have a plinth because they wanted to show he was dead. “Logical backflips because he needed to be among the 13 to talk to Windblade.” 

- Dead End’s eyes are white.

- The team wanted Jazz to be a lady (!!!!!!!)  

- These characters have their own lives that we don’t see. Lots of stuff happening between episodes that we don’t always necessarily see.

- Developing Sky-Byte’s character was simultaneous with Jetfire’s character. “We knew we wanted Sky-Byte to be a poet, and we wanted him and Megatron to be chummy”.

- Percy did permanently take over Mac’s bar.  

- Her favorite VA is Jeremy Levy, he’s a really cool guy.

- She thinks Starscream and Cheetor could become (not necessarily friends, but connected?) because of their connection to the All Spark. Mentions how Starscream acknowledge Cheetor as the “Guardian of the Allspark”.

- Mae Catt describes Starscream as an “Awful gremlin” several times.

- Astrotrain and the Insecticons are from Megatron X’s universe.

- She thinks Cliffjumper and Bee wouldn’t get along, solely because of the IDW2 comic stuff. (They had a cut joke about someone telling Bee he should paint himself red and Bee saying, “But then everyone will think I’m Cliffjumper!”).

- Cyberverse got 26 episodes for season 3 because they had the 4-part episode movies.

- Megatron cares about his troops, but not in a way that we would notice that care. 

- AcidStorm is genderfluid. 

-  Cold Construction doesn’t exist in this show. When asked why all the Seekers look the same then, Mae Catt says “Maybe there’s one jet mode all the seekers really like”.

- She loves the idea of Wild Wheel robbing Astrotrain in train-mode, totally Wild West-style.

- One of the things she’s proudest of was turning Lugnut into a gal (and having so much body diversity and gender-neutral designs for a lot of characters). They wanted to include many more girls in Cyberverse (Nickel and Lightbright among them). She also mentioned that  Shadow Striker is taller than Optimus or is his height.

- She describes Cosmos as “R2D2, but a Transformer!”

- Maccadam looking like a buff Rung was just a strange coincidence.

- Blurr really was the fastest.

- Mae Catt says we absolutely SHOULD write fanfic. Fanfiction made her into the writer she is today. She wrote non-stop Matrix fanfic from the age of 12-20 years old. It helped her learn a lot about writing.

- She uses “They” pronouns for Rack ‘n Ruin when referring to both of them, but says that individually they both use “he”.

- She’s really sad that Skywarp didn’t get a speaking line.

- Mae Catt won’t say whether Ratchet finished medical school or not. (She laughed when someone commented "I don’t believe that man has ever been to medical school”). She also says she wants “I choose to believe Ratchet has never been to medical school” on a T-shirt.

- When asked why Rack ‘n Ruin were captains of the Ark in one universe, she says they’re probably the Prime in that one weird universe (lmao).

- She loves the idea that Transformers have siblings / families.

- In a world where they had an unlimited budget, it’d be fun if Cybertronians were constantly shape-shifting and changing their forms. Example: she’d like having Transformers who “grew a beard” and decided to “shave it”.

- She doesn’t understand cycles or astrocycles, she doesn’t understand the weird Transformers time stuff. (mood)

- She loved Beast Wars Inferno, she loved that Inferno called Megatron a Queen. It was played as a joke because the 90s weren’t very socially conscious, but she liked that Megatron never corrected him or beat him down.

- Shockwave altered his spark to have maximum bad vibes to destroy the All Spark.

- She said it’s hard talking about writing a show because you’re designing the experience and you have to make sometimes what sounds like cold and pragmatic decisions (eg: "we need a cold and spunky female”) which sucks, but they need to balance out the show. She says she’d never do that just for the sake of doing it, but it’s part of something that they do need to be aware of while working on a show. “It starts from a weirdly cold pragmatic place, but we try and put truth in it”.

- They didn’t want to have Unicron in the show since he’s the default “big bad”, but if he was in the show, Mae Catt says “If you put the proverbial budget-gun to my head, I’d keep Unicron in planet-mode because it’s more mysterious, but I want both alt modes”.

- Her favorite Megatron is Beast Wars Megatron.

- She doesn’t like Sky Lnxy’s design, it’s creepy. “He talks in the G1 episodes and the voice makes it worse.” She can’t get over his face.

- “I’d love to see more jets [who aren’t our usual gang] and find out all jets are kinda snobby, which explains why Starscream’s the way he is”.

- Everyone on the Autobot side are friends with each other.

Thanks for your time Mae Catt! We’re lucky to have you. Thank you for all your hard work on this amazing show.