#gosh i think so hard about plurality in transformers

[icyrambles]

right so a friend of mine gave me a massive idea for a transformers fan continuity, so i'm gonna share it!

the headcanon is plural/system optimus prime for a fan continuity i'm working on. please note that these are just my own headcanons spawned from a friend helping me out with this fan continuity. so be nice!

orion pax emerges from the well of allsparks and is assigned as a dockworker. he is the host, the one on record. the guy everyone knows about. below the murky depths of his conscious mind, a fragment lurks. it doesn't say anything, hell it doesn't even have a name or a face or an identity to call its own but it is there

after many many vorns of work, of rough, punishing work hauling cargo and shipments from the docks of the mithril sea to the majour cities of cybertron, orion is given an upgrade. he is taken in by alpha trion, the head archivist of cybertron, who had found young orion's works on the intranet and captivated by the passion of this young worker, decided to take him on as an apprentice.

orion becomes very well researched, particularly fascinated by the many datapads regarding cybertronian mental disorders, especially the ones regarding plurality and the existence of seemingly multiple mecha within one frame. he's not really sure why exactly that sort of information intrigues him so much, but he notes it for later and continues on in his work.

many stellar cycles later, orion meets megatron; a miner from tarn who rose up to become one of the greatest fighters in kaon's great gladiator rings. they bond over poetry and their vast thirst for knowledge and slowly, they fall in love. and then.... orion is summoned by the prime himself, sentinel.

megatron urges him to take the opportunity, to potentially request that the prime try to dismantle many of the oppressive systems that now shackle people like megatron and to some extent, orion (who remember worked as a labourer for a good chunk of his existence before being taken in by alpha trion)

so orion travels to meet the prime and that's when everything goes wrong. he arrives in iacon, the great shining beacon of cybertron and he is immediately ushered into a private room with sentinel. and the prime is not happy, ranting almost nonsensically about "a successor" and "it's not my time to step down, it's mine"

when orion tries to get a word in edgewise, tries to tell his prime about all the torment and suffering that mecha like megatron and so many more suffer under, how their planet is being bled of resources, sentinel dismisses him. he tells orion that the system is working exactly as intended and that mechs like megatron are but dirt beneath his and orion's pedes.

orion is confused and very angry because megatron is his lover. he knows that the system shouldn't work this way and he tells sentinel as such. sentinel opens his chest to reveal the matrix and snaps at orion that "the system is working just as intended, otherwise this would tell me otherwise. primus chose me and clearly he is more than satified with the way i've been running things"

orion leaves iacon, defeated and angry and filled with a sense of rage that feels so unlike him. megatron tells him its not his fault and the two of them agree that something has to be done.

so they visit the well of allsparks, probably the most religious location on all of cybetron. something calls orion to the well, something deep inside him. its similar to that rage he felt earlier, like its someone else in control.

my version of the matrix is unlike other continuities. it is a religious artifact that sentinel has in his possession for most of the time but he returns it to the well of allsparks for religious holidays and such. this version of the matrix selects the leaders of cybertron, tailored specifically for whatever the mecha of the planet need at that time. and they need a leader, one who will listen, one who will fight. and that mech is not orion.

the matrix calls to orion. he ignores the many guards surrounding it, almost entranced. megatron tries to stop him, tries to get him away because what good has the matrix done anyways, we don't need it. but orion ends up touching the matrix, letting its light consumes him. and the mecha who returns to the well of allsparks is not orion pax, but optimus prime my version of optimus prime is a dormant fragment that got lost in transit while orion's full consciousness was forming.

orion is the host, he's the one who was in control for most of the pre war era. optimus on the other hand, is a mech whose identity is formed by the matrix' overwhelming need for a being who will fight against the corruption that has burned through cybertron's very core. megatron, meanwhile is freaking out. his friend, his lover just vanished in a flash of light. he's being interrogated by guards when another flash of light engulfs the room and then a mech who looks similar to orion appears. he's bigger, taller, with more armour and a battle mask snapped firmly over his face plates but that colour palette and the way he speaks sounds just like orion.

"i am optimus prime." the new mech says and then he collapes.

my version of optimus and orion are a duality. i am a fan of creating themes of characters who are opposites to each other. orion is the thinker, he is the one who reads and absorbs information. he craves knowledge. optimus is a fighter. he's built to fight and is heavily armoured and is very much willing to take on the system of cybertron if it means a better future for everyone else i think that orion has a lot of identity issues when he finally comes to and is told what happens. on the one servo, that explains why exactly he was so curious about plurality and felt a kinship with many of the first hand accounts he'd read. but on the other servo. there's literally a whole other person, one hand picked by primus himself to fight now inhabiting his frame alongside him. and that's a lot to take in. my version of orion grapples with the reality that he is never alone anymore and isn't that wonderful but also it'll never be just him anymore and that's terrifying. he also has to cope with the very real possibility that optimus might injure their shared body very badly in a fight

optimus is rather confused about the whole situation. mostly because he's existed for only a few minutes as a full person, not as a random fragment floating around in the depths of orion's processor. but he knows why he's here and what his goal is. he needs to help cybertron and he's more than ready to do his duty. the handsome gladiator that his headmate managed to bag probably isn't such a bad thing either lmao

megatron probably handles it the best. he's almost entranced by optimus, someone who is bigger than orion both in body and mind, who can grapple with megatron without straining a strut with that matrix granted strength. he's down fucking bad for the both of them is what i'm saying. he helps orion through the identity crisis and is there to assure and council both his lovers through all their problems. he is a bit shaken up when it first happens because he's honestly not sure if he'll ever seen orion again.

optimus and orion exist in a state of co-fronting and only one of them around for a long period of time. when its the both of them, their identities merge and warp and become close to something like one individual for the most part. they still exist as themselves but something about having their minds so close together for long periods of time blurs the line between optimus prime and orion pax. however when it's just one of them on their own, they are very much themselves.

orion, as mentioned is a thinker. he's the strategist, the diplomat and he's the one in front for the periods of time when the army is on their own on earth. he loves the life on the new planet and he is the one responsible for charging rewind to create a detailed history of their people

optimus is the one fronting for most of the time they are fighting. in a way he almost craves it, the thrill of combat, the glory of battle. he likes to interact with the army to, he gets to know most of the soliders and doesn't shy away from getting his servos dirty. he interacts with the troops and gets to really know his soldiers on a deep personal level. he's a very down to earth kind of guy and tends to not get caught up in emotional stuff as badly as orion, though he's got a lot of repressed feelings regarding stuff like the matrix and primus but it's better for him to just not think about that kind of thing

anyways i really like thinking about plurality in transformers. i'm a singlet (so not a system) but i'm friends with quite a few systems myself (one of which got me into transformers) so making plural headcanons (and by that i mean my massive brain friends make the headcanons and i immediately incorporate them into my belief system.) i get rather nervous posting my headcanons so please be nice <3

reblogs > likes (if ya like my headcanons give em' a reblog)