Synthetic Biology

Love it.

Concept. Dalek with a dinosaur shaped travel machine. Manipulator arm in the tail and gun within the mouth, chest area is where the dalek mutant is, the clawed hands are also for manipulating things(and hurting people) I have to admit I was high as fck when the concept hit me like a vision from  Hephaestus himself.

I tried.

Altmodes and sense of self

Hi there. I'm not exactly sure how to Tumblr, but hey, I have to start somewhere, haven't I?

I have recently created this guy as a bit of a proof of concept: it's possible for a cybertronian of a right size to take not a new altmode, but a different robomode. Well, it involves some Fallout, but for those that don't know -- top right is an assaultron, a relatively common enemy and sometimes ally in the series. Sorry for a messy pencil drawing, it was intended to be an inside for-roleplay thing.

Reineke has two alternate stories -- a damaged synth replacing parts with an assaultron armour or a stranded beastformer minicon. Both have a bit of an issue with what they are, but it's easier when your mask is just a mask, not your literal body parts.

Imagine being able to change your body to blend in (the existence of that blending in ability in cybertronians raises questions of their own, but of more or less ecological regard), and you change your face, too. Is that still you? You interact with other beings, trying to provide expected behaviour. Eventually this pretending becomes a second nature. Your character drifts and changes under the circumstances. Radiation can damage some circuitry and knock memories out of place. When you look into a mirror, you don't remember how you were before. Is that still the same you that took a different face some time ago?

Humans have strong connection between their "self" and their looks. New clothes might be wearing you, and I sometimes wear my favourite shirts as a little confidence boost despite nobody being able to see them under my jacket. Would that also be true for cybertronians? Would an earthen altmode affect the self-interpretation, since the root mode changes with new kibble, too?

Also, I know there is a distinction in IDW between "cold construction" (they can only assume alts similar to their natural one) and "forging" ("natural" way with an unrestricted altmode choice), but it's not true for every continuity (TFP Starscream implies that Knockout chose a grounder alt, and Skyquake's everything also implies not having wings to be an option despite being rather plane-shaped; he and Airachnid honestly imply that they didn't have an alt before, I think -- but I know that alien alts in the show would be costly). So in some continuities bots can, in theory, change alts and kibble drastically as often as they want. Would it be something frowned upon? Something "childish", what you do when you aren't sure what you want to be? How much your altmode defines *you*, and how much you would pick an alt because of who you are? Can "dramatic altmode change" be the same as human "dramatic hairstyle change" trope?

And then there are multiple alts and oddballs like Skylinx. I think they deserve a separate rant with questions.

Got an interesting take on eldritch horror for all you writers out there. It's a bit of a roundabout schlep to reach the actual idea, but writers tend to be readers so I hold you'll stick with me til we get there.

So, consider a 2D creature. Little flat dude, living on the ground. No concept of "up" or "down." He's 2D, he just doesn't parse the concepts and can't perceive them anyways.

He sees you. What he actually sees is just the 2D cross section of you where you intersect with his 2D world, which is probably your footprints. So, as far as he can tell, you are a pair of footprints that are.... apparently one being? He doesn't get how it works exactly, but it's not too far out there, so he just kind of accepts that, yes, humans are The Two That Are One. Spooky. They always seem to use the singular to refer to the pair of themselves, and only differentiate between themselves as Left or Right. But other paired instances of The Two That Are One are, in fact, separate entities. So they're only in sets of two, unless accompanied by a companion called "Cane," which they are sometimes, or even a pair of companions called "Crutches." When Crutches are present, sometimes one of The Two That Are One will be missing entirely. It's a little confusing.

But wait, what now? They disappear and reappear in sequence, teleporting in turns. He never sees them just move like a 2D being, always the stop-start teleporting. Apparently this strange power is called "walking," and its accomplished by The Two That Are One moving through an unseen dimension called "Up," through a process called "lifting" themselves and re-entering the real world farther away in the direction they wanted to go. He can accept the idea of unseen dimensions, and he vaguely gets the idea that one of The Two That Are One must remain anchored in the real world to prevent something called "falling," which is some kind of uncontrolled movement through the unperceivable dimension of "Down." Which is the same dimension as "Up," but...... backwards? Reversed? He's not really clear, but "Falling Down" is presumably bad, so The Two That Are One keep one of themselves here in the real world to prevent it.

Except if they do something called "jumping." Which consists of gathering up their power to hurl themselves through the Up dimension together to reappear together somewhere else in the real world. He isn't sure why they Walk instead of Jump, since it seems better to take both of The Two That Are One together at the same time, but okay.

Okay, what the hell, they can Walk through impenetrable barriers like the great wall of Sidewalk Chalk? How do they go through that? What? They went "Over?" The hell is "Over?" Like 'around' but through the unseen dimension of Up? But they couldn't Walk through the barrier of Wall. Why could they go "Over" Sidewalk Chalk but not Wall?

And they can't go between the four small obstacles of Refrigerator Feet. The area between them is safe from The Two That Are One, for the four Refrigerator Feet are connected to each other in the strange and eldritch dimension of Up. The barriers are too powerful to be moved by The Two That Are One, and it (they?) cannot enter the real world where it is blocked by such powerful forces.

Got all that?

Okay, now consider a 4 dimensional elder god and how we 3D entities would perceive them.

Keeper -- a short comic about an angel meeting a robotic lighthouse keeper that doesn't know the world has already ended. Made in about 18 hours for a 24-hour 24-page* black and white comic challenge (that I arrived late to, ha.)

*the actual submission does not include the cover, which was created after the fact for this post.

This was a really great learning experience as someone who's... never really made a completed comic. I ended up really attached to the story by the end of the project (possibly due to all-nighter deliriousness lol) and ultimately am very proud of what I made.There are some things I'd still like to change, particularly text placement, but in keeping with the spirit of the challenge I've elected to leave it as is.

Galarian and Gigantamx form Gardevoir

Wanted to do another doctor who inspired galarian form, can you guess what it is? ;)

Cyber!Earth AU TFP Headcanons

[Please Note, this was written before TF Earthspark was a thing, This has been sitting on my computer for forever.]

What if Earth was cyberformed but instead all life being destroyed, it hybridized with cybernetic biology. A Techno-Organic ecosystem in a primeval Earth envionment. Cyber!Earth AU

Or… Let's create a cybertronian death world that will make Magatron wish there was a few phase six'ers still online.

Environment ->

Most things are upscaled to cybertronian size: fauna, flora, and everything in between

Except humans, they stayed comparatively the same, adults ranging between 5-10ft on average, children being smaller than that

Most of Earths lifeforms would mirror its organic counterparts, poisons, diseases, bacteria all have to potential to harm both organic and non-organic life to varying degrees (For example, there are new viruses that Cybertronians have to deal now or animals like the jellyfish can sting a Bot' as much as it can a Terran)

Though the physiology of cyberformed organisms look like eldrich abominations of flesh and metal (which they absolutely are) in actually, all the components are hybridized at a molecular level, creating a truly unique class of lifeform

Energon is integrated into the ecosystem, in every aspect of life. On one hand, Cybertronians have options for renewable sources of energon, on the other, the same Cybertronians are now a part of the food chain

Imagine the horror of landing on Cyberformed Earth, only to realize anything can and will try to eat you (and they thought scaplets were bad)

Life cycles continue as it was, organism will die eventually through natural means (Without technological intervention, Terrans will still pass in as many years as their human counterparts)

Cyberformed Humans ->

Officially cyberformed humans call themselves Terrans

When spiteful, they call themselves the Children of Choas (After the horror of a civilization ending event, complete and involuntary body restructuring, and learning that their alien overlords equivalent to space-Saten is you planets core: people are going to wear that title with pride)

Terrans DON'T have T-Cogs, inbuilt blaster weapons, or sharp talons (Cybertronians make the mistake that these "new" humans are just as squishy and defenseless)

Nope! All of our natural survival adaptations are just dialed to 11: insane pain tolerance, robust immune system, high endurance, excellent mimicry skills, and the ability to consume nearly anything

Sure a Terrans' skin (really, it is more akin to a fine mesh) is just as sensitive and fragile as a cybertronians protoform and all of our major organs are still organic-like (in other words, we're still going to be little meat bags)

That will not stop a group of Terran's from hunting the local mega-fauna or giving some bot's a bad day

Humans of old were persistant hunters, our major advantage being that our bodies did not overheat compared to the game that we hunted. So how would that translate for a techno-organic? Temperature Regulation and Energy Conservation - what if a Terran's body had a better temperature to fuel ratio? We would be able to run for far longer with minimal energy loss

In this scenario, a Terran could keep pace with a cybertronian in its root mode, and outlast said cybertronian on fuel (the assumption that the hotter a cybertronian burns, the greater amount of fuel that it needs)

Unlike Bots', Terrans have the capacity of consuming anything remotely organic or living metal (tree bark, leather shoes, loose wires, raw minerals, semi-organic cabling, all of it, yes. And if not, boiled in a stew)

I imagine some cyberformed plants would become something poisonous to cybertronians and the the Terrans are like, "Nah man, that's just a mango, only the skin is toxic.." and the bot's are once again mortified by the cybertronian equivalent to chili peppers

Terrans have their own form of adrenalin too, in the form of red energon (cyberformed humans can convert the energon in their semi-organic frames into red energon, overclocking their systems to hyperspeed)

Like a adrenaline rush for a human, a Terran could over extend themselves in such a state, even if their bones are as durable as armor plating

Oh. My. Gosh. Thank you very much.

Considering the last part, by @marsvs-thesun. It's kinda interesting how seekers are usually depicted full of themselves and looking down on everyone. This might be a human writing deal, or maybe flight is such an advantage the closeness to earth is irrelevant.

Or. Or. Maybe, just maybe, it is a side effect of getting overall further from Primus. There is a great inert good, and whoever believes in him is equally inert and inept. So decepticons rise up from the bog. They rise up and leave stagnation (although I think it's mostly because there are a lot of fliers amidst the Cons, but also the phrase doesn't help their case). Nova Prime leads people up and away to spread, and leaves the catacombs of old cities deep below, to allow the population to grow. Being further away from the universal parental figure starts being progress, and while it comes with a cautionary tale, Unicron is only one planet in the wide and wast space. What are the odds? What are the odds of encountering him?

And then a species of organics come around, who pray up and humble themselves by getting to the ground. And they dig into, and fly outto, and they believe in no one god, but in many. That's not that uncommon in the grand scheme of things, but there is a catch. Every one of them so far lives on Unicron. Just under 30 km worth of debris there is metal and dark energon of an ancient transformer god.

Each time the cybertronians pray down, as they do, he gets a wisp of power. Without those wisps Primus stagnated even more. Things start getting odd. Humans get agitated and more chaotic, being at least somewhat attuned to the planet. They found their cautionary tale right underneath their pedes. Whoops?

Also, some continuities have constellations. This would be an interesting point to add to common phrases. Like "that pattern used to look like Logos' sigil" or something, so some of stars get involved and associated with different figures. Maybe prayer down is to Primus, and up is to Primes/other figures.

Cybertronian Colloquialisms - Primes Edition

So we've all heard "By the AllSpark!" or "What in the Pit?" or "Oh Primus" in our TF media. However, I feel like TF writers are missing out on the goldmine that is colloquialisms invoking the different Primes. So, here is a small collection of such colloquialisms, and please, feel free to add more if you have any of your own you use.

"Primus below!" - Exclamation similar to "God above!", invoking the fact that Primus is the core of Cybertron.

"Vector give me patience" - Often paired with "because if Prima gives me strength, I'm going to need bail money." The go-to for when somebot if getting on your last nerves.

"To Alchemist!" - A popular drinking toast, to thank Alchemist Prime for inventing high grade.

"The Three Below" - Refers to Solus, Onyx, and Micronus, the three Primes who formed the Well of AllSparks

"Maximum Blessings on you" - a stealth insult/curse from some dialects, where "Maximum" and "Maximo's" are nearly indistinguishable. As Liege Maximo was the Prime of Lies and Trickery, it's a fitting way to wish someone ill.

“Solus’s slag pit” - Used for something incredible, awful, and incredibly awful. Often used to refer to the latest high society fashion mess.

"Find peace or take it up with the Fallen." - In other words, calm down or screw off.

“As you say, my Liege” - A condescending remark towards a person who’s attempting to lie, cheat or mislead.

Again, if you have any primal colloquialisms you use for your fics, reblog and share them with the rest of us.

No #1 conways game of life furry fan over here

Y'know when you're doing a quick painting study and get all swept up in the moment 😅 I didn't know this would turn out so hyper-realistic, I'm suddenly nervous about AI accusations for the first time in my art journey (fuck AI, to be clear)