#protoform

[sweet7simple]

Mech Pregnancy and Protoform Development of Gestating Sparklings

Here is what I have compiled on Cybertronian "reproduction" from More Than Meets the Eye, specifically the Holiday Special and Volume 5:

Holiday Special:

So this would be the protoform development for a forged sparkling and it lends support to that, if Cybertronians gave birth to their own Sparklings, then they would likely be an egg-like form (yes, I know it's not actually a sparkling, but can we all agree that Swerve is strangely well-informed on protoform development for forged Cybertronians?)

So what would slide out from the gestation tank has no discernable features yet and still needs hours if not days before the protoform resembles an adult Cybertronian, but I still don't have an answer for the size of this thing - at what point does it reach its full size? Cybertronians before the war went to academies, so what point does the protoform receive an education instead of having relevant information jammed into its brain module right before deployment like a MTO cold construct?

(More under cut)

But, let's be honest, I am going out of order here. Let's go to Volume 5 where we encounter a hot spot of re-ignited sparks on the moon:

So this is being constructed cold.

And this is forged - as well as the official story for how cold constructed bots were made, which apparently differs from the truth. Here is the truth for how cold constructed sparks were actually formed:

So all cold constructs were made from the matrix - but what if they did come from igniting healthy sparks to make new ones?

What if you used the energy of two sparks to create an entirely new one and that sparkling attached itself to a parent spark for some time before it dropped to a gestation tank (this is common in fanfiction and I love it so much, it makes the most sense)? As these two orbs of immense power and life resonate with one another, creating waves of energy that can be interpreted as pleasurable for the interfacing bots, excess energy could gather itself into a separate orb that borrows the life code from both parents, becomes randomized, and this creates a new life code for a separate entity. It stays in the spark chamber for a period of time - I don't know, decoding or storing energy or something, I am very bad with electronics - before dropping down to an artificial gestation tank.

And this is where the valve/plug comes into play if you so desire because now we have the issue of, where is the spark going to go? It needs a protoform. It needs the materials to make a protoform. It also needs liquids.

Cybertronians seem to live off energon and anything you can make from energon, but there have been references and images in the comics of Cybertronians have oil as a waste product, so they need a separate compartment for oil away from their energon tank and they also are said to have (in fanfiction, at least): oral solvents, lubricant, transfluid, optic fluid, etc... All those will require their own compartments and they will all have either been diluted from the energon or will have an origin in a separate liquid that isn't mentioned. Let's keep in mind that they will also need some sort of oil for their hinges and their nanites for upkeep.

So I believe these gestation tanks are where the Sparklings develop their egg-like protoform with all these liquids that they themselves can't make yet, and I think they get what they need from nanite colonies as there is no umbilical cord (not unless you want the bots to have belly buttons). I like to think of them as nannyites - nanites that, once a protoform hits the gestation tank, have latent codes that becomes active and now have protoform-related tasks versus whatever tasks they did beforehand. The nannyites will likely take these resources from the carrying parent, everything from fluids to energon stores to living metal that the nannyites will adapt or make compatible for the sparkling.

So this carrying parent suddenly has fewer nanites colonies themselves, a thinner layer of living metal, and depleted storages of fluids.

Hear me out, hear me out: Valveplug interfacing helps the carrying parent because transfluid will contain necessary materials for the protoform.

I am going to take it a step further and say that it is that first shot of transfluid into the gestation tank during spark and valveplug interfacing creates input that electronically signals to the receiving parent to gather the excess energy from the spark play via centripetal force like a satellite and that force signals the excess energy to turn on life codes it recycled from both parents and create its own life code. That transfluid inside of the gestation tank also turns on those latent codes for the nannyites to get the compartment prepared. It's that first dose of necessary materials and every dose of transfluid after that is stored in the gestation tank for the protoform.

Which brings me to the idea that I have seen on AO3 where bots go into heat:

What if a mech goes into heat as a way to store transfluid from their partner?

I am largely talking out of my ass here because I don't know anything about how machines work, but I know there are a lot of hormones and signals and work that goes into human pregnancy.

The downside of this is that, if all bots were once forged and now they are, let's say, "birthed", then these constructs would be artificial: the gestation tank and the fertile centripetal force with its satellite sparkling and the interface array with its gestational passage and the nannyites and the transfluid. These would have to be constructed cold and surgically added, and you would have to create codes that turn on these cascading or stacking protocols (I don't know the correct computer term for when one event triggers another event triggers another event and so on) and you would have to manufacture filters and tanks and lines for the creation of gestational lubricant and transfluid.

This is just me rambling because I can't stop thinking about all this, but I am not ready to write a mechpreg story.

Please talk to me about Cybertronian reproduction, I am not normal about this.

[quibbs126]

Okay, I think I’m FINALLY done with these designs. Well okay, I said Megatron might need some reworking, but shush, I’ll do that another time

I was not expecting this to take as long as it did. Apparently I started making this at 9 in the morning, and it is now 9:30 at night. Optimus, I am almost certain this is your fault

Anyways, as mentioned prior, the idea here was to give the Earthspark Cybertronians protoform designs like the Terrans, what they might look like when they were in this stage, because I haven’t seen anything to claim Cybertronians in this series don’t also have this stage, unless I’m wrong

I mean theoretically, Cybertronian protoforms could look entirely different from Terran protoforms, but we don’t know at this juncture, so I used the Terrans as my main references

Pretty much the main thing was trying to turn their blocky features smooth, while also taking out a bunch of their little details, like their antenna and horns

Honestly I still think Elita turned out the best, which is maybe a bit sad considering she was the first one I finished, but oh well. I don’t think everyone else was horrible, but I think she just looks best

I think Bee’s design is fine, and it was honestly refreshing after struggling so much with Optimus, but I can’t help but feel like his eyes are still wonky

Like I’ve said, by the end of things I think Megatron came out the worst. He was the second one I did, so I wasn’t sure, but by now I think he is. The real struggle with him is that his entire helmet is comprised of angles, when I need curves. And then there’s his side things, which I still do not know how to translate here. The idea I was trying to go for here is the top half goes around his head, while the bottom half is attached at the ends, but it’s the bottom half that looks weird. But ah well, hopefully I can fix it later

And then there’s Optimus. The majority of the time I’ve spent on this was him. It was mostly the struggle of his vents and trying to make them un-blocky. It was getting really frustrating particularly because I couldn’t think of anything new to do with them to change them, drawing the same thing over and over

But then I remembered, this Optimus was once Orion Pax, a fact I was planning to omit. But that meant I had something else to draw on

And it’s what finally got my brain to make his side things into the curves you see now. It’s also why his middle thing is solid black, like how it seems to be in the picture above

But yeah, I wouldn’t rate his design as the absolute best, but it’s serviceable and I’ll take what I can get

But aside from trying to change their designs, I think I had fun. I noticed by the end of it that they all have different face and eye shapes, and that’s pretty fun

Speaking of which, I notice with this how small Optimus’ eyes are here. They may not look it in my drawing but they’re a lot smaller than the others in the show. Is that one of the reasons his design looks so off? Like I know it looks weird, I just can’t place how exactly

But yeah, take these designs, the culmination of my drawing abilities for the day. I’d like to do more with them, I just don’t know what. Best I can think of is like, a fic premise where the Cybertronians somehow get reverted back to these protoform stages, and the Terrans now have to help them out

[greasybandit]

I also forgot to post this

Starscream with baby Supernova (based on my oc x canon fic)

[fruitful-gummies]

Cybertronian protoforms from one of my specbio fan continuities :]

[mrpowerglide]

the fact that dreadwing and skyquake are twins also has some implications for how transformers are created in this continuity. we know that protoforms exist because of starscream’s clones, but these guys are twins, not clones. so how did this happen? did some transformer out there (presumably their parents) decide to make two of the same bot for shits and giggles? do female transformers give birth and protocols are a separate thing? not only that, but being twins means that they are siblings, which implies that other familial ties exist in cybertronian culture

hasbro release a detailed report documenting the transformer reproduction process in excruciating detail i fucking dare you

[nira-mirror]

Remember that time an artist on Twitter birth AI Prowl? Yeahhhhhh

(Might delete later)

(That later never came)

[mubthemoff]

A bite of protoform lore for my diet tfa au

[transformers-the-hunted]

Cybertronian growth cycle

sparkling stage: Cybertronian life starts in a small pocket (called an ignition point) at the bottom of a Titan infused water pool called a Spark Spring. In the form of a bodyless spark called a sparkling. While in the ignition point the sparkling will develop it's spark casing. Then it is released into the Spark Spring water.

Bitlet stage: After being released in the water it will begin to develop its actual body while slowly rising towards the surface, where it will wait until adults come and preform the emergence ritual.

Protoform stage: newly emerged as a Protoform it will receive a mentor/s to teach, house and protect them. Protoforms are grey, with soft plating and without the ability to transform. After an amount of time, the Protoform will mature into a Mechling.

Mechling stage: having just gained an alt mode and colour, a Mechling is visually indistinguishable from fully grown Cybertronians. But their plating still isn't as strong an adults, and their EM field is underdeveloped.

full grown: a fully mature Cybertronian. ( larger sizes take longer to get to this stage)

Old timer: though Cybertronians live for a very long time, they still have a limit, eventually even they will begin to slow down.

Art diagram below

[rescuebabiesau]

"Mama?"

"Yes, Hotshot?"

"Are you and Dad... Okay? Are you still in love?"

"O-Of course! Why would you ask something like that?"

"I mean, you guys live on different planets, and the Earth TV Uncle Blades shows me says that if your parents love each other, they live together."

"Oh... I see. Well, the reason we don't is because fuel is expensive right now. I work here on Cybertron, your father works on Earth, and so to be traveling back and forth for one of us would be too costly. So I live here, he lives there, and we come together in person periodically."

"Like today?"

"Like today."

Quickshadow left the conversation at that, hoping that Hotshot wouldn't ask- again- why his father always came to Cybertron and they never went to Earth. She was running out of excuses, out of half-truths to explain herself, instead of being completely honest with him... That it was for his own protection.

[twilight-enby-art]

The Emo Chaos Terran lol - I used the design cues from my Aftermath protoform design, with the purple plating and red biolights, and made the decision to give Spitfire red eyes rather than the canon magenta eyes she had. I just like the idea that the protoforms all match eachother in colours and get distinguished when they choose their alt mode.

Other than that, this is very similar to the canon Twitch protoform design so it wasn't hard to design but rather hard to make look right. Twitch and Spitfire's proportions are kinda wacky lol

Ooh! I also added a little detail - the scar on the chest is referencing spoilers in season 2! I'm technically drawing these because I was procrastinating on my post-season 2 fanfic, so that's why its there lol

Anyways! Hope you enjoy this drawing :)

[redsea8me]

Chromatin that is NOT how to hold a baby and you know it 😭 you’re literally a doctor wtf girl

[sweet7simple]

Breastfeeding, but make it Cybertronian

I saw a post about how there are strip clubs on Cybertron because the Beast Wars TV show said so. The link to that post is below:

What had my attention was that one of the mechs says that they walk around without their chest plates, "if you know what I mean," which implies that walking around without chest plates might make you half-nude/indecent.

So I thought, is the spark chamber for Cybertronians (the thing protected by chest plates) like breasts for humans? You can let them out in certain cultures, but that's public indecency in a lot of places?

Then I thought about a carrier/foundry trying to breastfeed in a public park, their chest plates split open and a protoform pressed against their spark chamber. But they don't have breasts and protoforms don't need milk, so what's going on?

Then I thought about the incredible source of energy a spark is and how much energy a protoform needs to accomplish their final form.

So I am thinking that protoforms spark-feed by having their whole birth metal pressed against their creator's spark chamber, slurping up that good energy the same way we charge some of our devices: Induction charging. Just by pressing our device against some sort of charging surface.

(image credit: https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/discoveries/wireless-inductive-charging/)

The idea of full-grown Cybertronians spark-feeding their egg-shaped protoforms hit me so hard in my depraved brain that I sat down and made this post at work.

(Panel from Transformers: The Holiday Special)

Specifically, this egg-shaped protoform (yes, I know it's a group of scraplets pretending to be a protoform, but it fooled Swerve, so it has to be an accurate representation - let me have this).

[greasybandit]

Itty bitty sparklings

Solarflare and Supernova

[cozzzynook]

So, I have a few questions about how Protoforms work in your head cannons.

Do they act like normal sparklings despite coming from a Hot Spot or The Well?

Do they age quicker or slower?

And are they super squishy?

Hi 👋🏽

So in my headcanons it varies but often protoforms age the exact same as emerged sparklings and they only appear when the right bot meant to be their creator is near.

Many protoforms are created that way and share the cna of the bot meant to be their creator but sometimes the creator abandons them or leaves them or gives them up much like in reality.

They age normal and have a low chance of receiving an outlier.

They are very squishy yes but some less squishy than others depending on the material they’re forged with.

Some have hard metal in their future and some soft.

As protoforms they haven’t grown the strengthened metallico necessary for survival on their own but some are not as soft as others. One protoform may be forged with lava resistant metal but still be softer than their adult counterparts while some are forged with water resistant metal and much softer than their adult counterparts.

Hope this makes sense

[ladyphoenix404]

Transformers OC

Why didn't I post this earlier? I do not know....

By the way, this is my OC - Darklight/ Darcy (with TFP design)

Bonus:

+ Human version

+ Old desigh

+ Protoform

[oldfantasticfan]

Trans-scanning and Protoforms

(Transformers: The Movie Guide/Transformers ROTF: The Movie Universe)