SO. My homie (@gayrobotsmi) and I were talking on the phone, and they gave me a headcanon that I really enjoyed! Our brains literally melted at this lmao.
Seekers court each other by following these simplified steps:
1: Public game of tag
2: Catch mech interested in
3: Fly high into the atmosphere
4: Interlock hands
5: Spiral downwards
Adding onto that: they court ground frames by giving them shiny objects and rocks, similar to how penguins court each other.
Guess who has written a fic for each of the three Kanera2k17 Round 1 prompts??
He turned his mind back to his most pressing troubles.
Hera.
When he’d met her, he’d fallen for her voice. He’d fallen for her voice, but, honestly, it had been, at first, only sexual for him. She was attractive. Force, she was attractive. That had been the start of it. He’d let her drag him around Gorse, let her draw out those parts of him he thought he’d buried, because she was attractive. She’d been attractive and he’d been lustful. But then… she’d gotten under his skin. She was why he was here. She had inspired in him the spirit of rebellion he’d kept tampered down, she gave him courage to be the person he’d wanted to be, the person he thought he’d never be again.
The Jedi part of him whispered that the Force had pushed the two of them together. Hera was the Force’s way of getting him off his ass and back in the game.
He exhaled and let go of that thought.
The brawler part of his mind chastised him. Meditating might help him organise his mind, but it wouldn’t solve his problems for him.
Neither would alcohol.
He had to actually….face this problem.
He was in love with his captain.
Hera was beautiful, it was true. But she was also brave, and fearless, and ridiculously selfless to the point of being stupid. She was the best pilot he’d ever seen, and she was a leader, even if she let him take the role among their little group. And she was wise, and kind, and her eyes had a twinkle in them-
And he was in love with her.
Love.
The Jedi had never taught him about that.
It was bad. Attachment was bad. Attachment led to fear, fear to anger, anger to the Dark Side. That had been drilled into him from day one.
So I basically created my own silly lil lore stuff for how new mechs are brought about and created. It's not much, but it's something. I'm putting it all under a cut. But feel free to send in questions about anything that comes up! This is a WIP, after all, so I will be occasionally going back and adding things/making changes.
-General Idea-
Upon a batch creation of sparklings, an event called the Batching (or Batchening if you wanna get silly about it,) a guardian will be waiting to choose one or several sparklings. Once one or more guardians have chosen a sparkling or more to take care of, the sparkling(s) officially becomes "under the name" of said guardian(s). This is an open-to-interpretation or an emergency contact type relationship, in which case the guardians and mechs can be seen as a parent/child relationship, an older/younger sibling relationship, or, arguably the most common, a mentor/apprentice relationship. When you take someone under your name, some paperwork needs to be filled out as soon as possible so the sparkling can be registered as an official citizen.
-Created Without A Guardian-
When batches of young mechs/sparklings are created by Cybertron (for whatever purpose or reasons it has) and crawl out of the Depths of Cybertron, they are usually greeted by mechs looking for apprentices. Or, as mentioned before, the mech is looking for a child to raise as their own, or a sibling to look after. Each time a new batch is ready to emerge from the Depths, this event draws in mechs of all kinds in the area to watch, although most mechs are there to find a sparkling to take under the name. Sometimes sparklings find their way into places that aren't expecting them, or there are too many younglings for the amount of mentors. Sure, there are systems and agencies formed to help support mechs without guardians, but they shouldn't be completely relying on these systems as not every system is for every young mech. They are flawed, and not every system is infallible. These include adoption agencies (talked about in Other Options) and pairing agencies.
Pairing agencies, like adoption agencies, are designed to help pair sparklings to a mech or family of mechs. What makes the agencies different, however, is that pairing agencies typically aim more toward mentors looking for apprentices and apprentices looking for mentors. They are just as popular as adoption agencies; it just depends on what you're looking for.
-Other Options-
While most mechs attend the Batchening, some cannot make it or choose not to go. There are, however, two (2) main options for those wishing for a sparkling: adopting or producing one. Adoption is as it says; the mech(s) that wish to be a guardian must file the proper paperwork when adopting. Producing one, while possible, isn't always 100% guaranteed. There is a ~70% that this method does not work. This is why you'll be told by other mechs that attending the Batchening event or going through an adoption agency is the best choice of action. Some, however, are willing to take that risk.
My thoughts say it doesn't matter what resources you have, everyone has that same 70% failure tied to them. High-wealth cities are built more around the larger batching area(s), while poorer cities are in the "worse" batching areas, meaning they may possibly have to make a journey to the nearest high-wealth city/city-state. But by "worse" that just means that there are few sparklings as compared to the high-wealth cities. You'll likely have to make a journey if you're in the "worst of the worst" areas where there's no access to a batching area at all.
Having more sparklings under your name is mainly a sign of wealth. It shows others that you have the funds and the resources to raise more than one, and having more than one is seen as a good thing…for those with the wealth and/or social status to do so.
-Being Removed From Being Under The Name-
While there are many reasons you can be put under the name of a guardian, there are just as many reasons you can be removed from being under the name. The most common reasons are: (1) the guardian(s) thinks you are ready to take care of yourself on your own or (2) your guardian doesn't want to or can't take of you (such as due to lack of funds.) If the sparkling is still young, such as fresh out of the Depths, to take them out from under the name, some paperwork must be filled out beforehand.
-Extra-
Sparklings are created gray at first to which they either develop color or paint themselves to express themselves. They are also created as mostly mature beings with no life experience. This would be the human equivalent of a teenager around 16 or 17 years old. But, if two (2) or more mechs manage to successfully produce a sparkling, the sparkling in question would be the human equivalent of a small child around 7 to 8 years old.
Since the Guidelines for the Kanera2k17 Trope-Athon mentioned posting teasers, and I’m not used to having to wait to post something up after I’ve written it....
There was a silence and then...
"Can't you use the Force to warm us up?"
There it was. He hadn't even realised he'd been fearing it until she'd said it. Flashbacks, for just a second, overwhelmed him. The streets of Kaller. The fear. The hunger, the thirst, the overwhelming tiredness and the knowledge deep down, even though he hadn't recognized it then, hadn’t understood it, that he could never go home. The desperate clawing in his stomach, searching the dumpsters of Plateau City for the smallest speck of food, the Force pulling at him but him having nothing to give it. Wishing desperately over and over again that the Force would provide for him, that the Force would stave off the needs his body craved to be filled. It didn't. He had been alone.
He sighed finally. "That's not how it works." Then again, he'd only been a Padawan for three months. There was a lot Depa never taught him. Never got the chance to teach him. Maybe the Jedi had special heat powers. It wouldn't surprise most folks. Listening to the early Imperial Propaganda, Kanan had been half convinced he had the ability to blow people up with just his mind.
So apparently if I don’t post up my fics immediately like I normally do, I end up with a lot of self doubt. I did not know that about myself. So have a teaser from my second Kanera2k17 fic...
Hera walked into the room, scarf wrapped alluringly around her neck, dressed in soft blues that only served to complement her green skin in ways he'd never even thought to think about. If this had been Gorse, every creature would've been on her in a second, cooing and vying for her attention. Kanan might even have joined them. Well, if it had been Hera, he'd've been first in line. But instead, they all gave her approving looks and went back to their business. Kanan noted all the people whose eyes lingered a little too long in the back of his mind. Just in case.
Hera wandered up to the bar and planted her elbows on the bar. "Corellian Ale," she requested, a hint of something promising in her tone. Kanan smiled and stepped over to her, pouring the requested drink, tamping down on the urge to woo her with a party trick. A tiny bit of flare. A glass toss here, a little bit of a force push.... But no, instead he'd go with -
"Big drink for such a pretty girl," he murmured to her.
i posted this on my old blog, back when i was still a persona of cameron’s that had thoughts sometimes, but i feel like it’s especially relevant to right now, too.
the more i think about it, the more i realize just how good of a metaphor a black cloud/black fog is for sadness vs. depression.
both block away the outside world, leaving only you and your mind. and for us, that’s me and whoever’s in co-con. and you think, when will the next exciting thing happen to me, when will i see past the black fog again, because when you were little, you had times when you were stuck in a black cloud and you got out of it, you always did, ice cream or a bandaid helped you every. single. time. but then you realize, that fog and a cloud are different. you knew the cloud was coming, and you knew what caused it. it was over quickly, and on to the next thing. but now you’re stuck in the fog, and you don’t know when it started, and you still can’t see anything, and you can’t reach out because no one’s there. at least, you can’t see anyone there, because remember, you can’t see. you can’t fucking see. and when people try to help you, you still can’t see them, all you can know is that there’s a hand there. and it’s touching you. and you didn’t ask to be touched, all you did was exist. and you don’t know if this person wants to lead you out of the black fog or farther into it because they can’t see it. they will never see it. they don’t know where it is. and meanwhile you’re still stuck in the black fog and you feel helpless because everything is the same and you don’t know how to make it different so you take a knife and try to cut through the black fog but that only swirls it around, and the knife can see but you still can’t. so you let the knife lead you until it’s the only thing you have. but it only drags you deeper, but you so desperately want to believe that it’s leading you out that you keep following it. and suddenly the knife and the fog offer you another way out. and it terrifies you but it seems like it’s the only way. and you don’t want to do it but you know you can, it rests in that place between where the fog ends and you begin, and does that place even exist anymore because you’ve grown so used to the fog that the fog is now a part of you, it does not end, it’s never ending.
and i swear to god so many times this has happened to me.
but i’ll stay here. not because i want to, but because i have to.
