Dear Optimus: I know that Dreadwing and Skyquake were Spark twins--does Cybertronian science know why and how twins occur? Have there ever been triplets? How do you know that two bots are twins--does it show up as a similarity in their energy signature, or do you just need to know? Has there ever been a pair of twins in which one went Decepticon, and the other Autobot?
| Precise comprehension of the process for a Newspark's emergence is understood by few, and those few are primarily the Well's Docents. Well Docents were volunteers who took to surviving in the innermost domain near the AllSpark. Due to their vow of silence, they share little with us. |
| From what I understand, twin-sparks originally fragment from the AllSpark as a singular spark, then divide in the process of passing through the multiple layers of the AllSpark. In the case of the above mentions bots, the physical frame is formed within, as the two split-sparks were identical, they were then given matching frames to go with them. However, this is not guaranteed. It is more common for split-sparks to be fragments of a spark's essence, and thus are given more unique frames from each other. The case of Skyquake and Dreadwing's identicality is exceedingly rare; theory suggests that the sparks choose to be so close. |
| Whereas the common ratio of singular to multiple births in humans is roughly 1 to 62, for Cybertronians the likelihood of identical spark and frame is more in the thousands. Spark-twins in general are in the high hundreds. Some siblings go their entire life without the knowledge that they may have a twin in the unique. |
| Spark siblings are more common in Seekers, hence why they are the primary practitioners of various types of aromantic bonds; trines are common and spark siblings are highly prized for this. The resonance of spark siblings is unique among our culture, for most of our concept of "brother" and "sister" are self-assigned, and not attributed to biologically familial associations. Those with synced resonate harmonics perform better in a multitude of fields, and the skill of flying values the performance greater than the more individualistic Grounders. |
| Obviously, Skyquake and Dreadwing were fliers, both were within the sub-category known as Alpha Seekers1, which are heavier than the more common frame-build seen in Starscream and his brothers. However, they were not as heavy or large in size as shuttle-variants, which Skyfire was an example thereof. The stress of spark-familial culture in Fliers is important to mention in the case of the former Decepticons, as it attributes much of their loyalty and deep resonance for each other. Seekers are highly honor-bound and extremely loyal for their own kin. Usually. |
Dear Optimus: What kind of holidays/festivals/ceremonies did you celebrate on Cybertron? Were there parades, fireworks, dancing, silly traditions, etc.? (Humans specialize in silly traditions--oh so much fun! 5Ks in costume on Halloween night, cardboard box regattas, anything related to the "Punkin Chunkin" contest...)
Discussion of Cybertron made the memories more real than the dreams that filtered through recharge. Optimus could draw on the comfort that his experiences of their world were tangible, that it lived on through the memory of himself and others. To speak of their world was to remember their world, and its preservation could still be found in the myriad of different perspective.
All too aware that his own was unique to his place in society, which was far more than the sector of his caste’s traditions, Optimus’ explanation was complicated by the secrets that followed his spark. Yet, he wanted to answer the question as best he could, and although there was much to share, the fraction was a smaller part of the informal ratio stored within the former Archivist’s capacious memory banks.
| Yes, Cybertronians do celebrate holidays. To the surprise of many, we do tend to be a rather superstitious race, periodically falling back to older beliefs and mindsets in the throes of heavier ceremonies. Even the most atheistic and pragmatic bots will at least stop and pause to reconsider the spirit of the holiday. |
With Ratchet in mind, Prime considered attitudes of some of their most ancient holidays, and the meanings behind them. While the physician and he were not friends during the height of Cybertron’s greatest periods of observance, Orion had known several mecha, who like Ratchet, was more prone to a disbelief in gods than otherwise, but at least stopped to look up and consider the possibilities when the rest of their world was caught in the throes of celebration.
| Several of our holidays would be found as parallels to your own. |
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| DAY OF RUST: Not so much a holiday, as a time of planet-wide mourning; this is the time at which our race remembers the lives lost and cut short by the rust plague, the colonies consumed in entirety, and those of whom were forever separated from their loved ones. This holiday, more than any other, became a day where the future Decepticon movement embraced as their own. It stood for corruption, stagnation, oppression, and the worst the caste system had to offer. It was officially removed from the calendar to try and stem the tide of protestations, but continued to be celebrated up into the war. Even after the first battle, the Decepticons continued to celebrate it as their own and it was either the only reprieve Autobots received during the course of the vorn, or the day hosted some of the worst battles Cybertron had ever seen. On one such Day of Rust, the Cybonic plague was released into the North-Western hemisphere. |
| THE PRIMUS REQUIEM: Is one of the most ancient holidays observed by the Cybertronian people. Its subject is complex, and methods utilized in the spirit of its celebration is equally so. |
| The Requiem’s purpose is to celebrate life and death, by how our kind know it. The spark is a central theme throughout. Like most holidays, it is celebrated once a vorn. In the thirteen groons leading up, the entirety of a groon was spent in what was considered the spirit of each Original Prime. It began with the Thirteenth and ended with Prima, then the next groon was the exact period of the Requiem. |
Notably, Optimus said nothing about how the what was called the Thirteenth cycle was spent in memory of his past life. Orion Pax joined in the celebrations, unaware that he was the central figure for that day. When the Matrix of Leadership returned his memories, Optimus grew to reflect upon the meaning of what was essentially a holiday in his honor and his spirit, but also the holidays for his Prime-siblings.
| Please bear in mind that the meaning of each individual Prime evolved over time, and was sometimes contested or even debated as to the accuracy. Also note that each were associated with the number of the Prime in reverse order, not by their name; some names of the Originals were forgotten in annuls of history. |
Thirteen: Subservience, Loyalty, Humility, and new friendship. The holiday was spent to deepen acquaintanceship into friendship, mend tattered associations, and unite bots together in acts of kindness; it was about brotherhood.
Twelfth (The Fallen): Release of anger, might, Cybertronian entropy, which is not considered the same as Unicron’s chaos, betrayal, traitors, and in time came to be associated with scorned lovers. Sectors of cities were often put aside for mass destruction, to give a condoned area for bots to let out their anger and their hatred. (NOTE: it is debated whether his affections were fully reciprocated by the recipient)
Eleventh (Leige Maximo): Primarily focused on the notion of betrayers, communication, cruelty. Different regions held it more positive or negative in contrast. Not one of the more popular ones, although definitely embraced by seedier elements of society.
Tenth: About the spirit of inspiration, dreamers, imagination, and creativity. (NOTE: I personally enjoyed this one.)
Ninth: Humor, happiness, and pranks; similar to North America’s April 1st.
Eighth: Celebration of all cyberbeasts, Maximals, and Predacons were a subject of peaked fascination.
Seventh: One of the bigger celebrations conducted in the spirit of transformation and the ability to transform. During this groon, many hosted communal competitions that centered on the abilities of alt-modes. (NOTE: We did not learn that we were all gifted with the ability to transform until after the Quintessons revealed it to our kind, so this holiday was originally associated with more transient notions of transformations)
Sixth: Celebration of our planet’s natural resources, and material gifts of Cybertron.
Fifth: A lesser holiday focused around our smaller brethren, the Minicons. It was also focused on the ability of augmentation and powerlinking, which is a coveted outliner ability by most. Listeners were also remembered, and it was considered a dichotomous brother holiday to the Eleventh.
Fourth (Solus): Celebration for artisans, craftsmen, ingenuity, and were considerably embraced more by femmes than any other sub-group.
Third: Knowledge was the most central theme for this lesser holiday. During the course of its groon, the Halls of Records around Cybertron were opened to the public. Iacon’s Archives, being the largest and most extensive on our world, saw more visitors than all the others combined.
Second: Time and space.
First (Prima): Leadership, Law, and Order was the spirit for this groon. The Council and higher castes truly embraced it, perhaps more than any other. Swords were heavily utilized imagery during the timespan.
| At the end of the First groon, which is actually the thirteenth in order, the Requiem starts in full. It is a festival of life and of light, where the Cybertronian condition is celebrated — the Spark, and our creator is heralded. Simply put, our race celebrates the unique gifts that come with being a creation of Primus. |
| To understand how the Requiem was celebrated, I must first explain a few beliefs that Cybertronians have. Please keep in mind that the holiday that not only celebrated by those who believed in Primus, but by agnostics and atheists alike. So, the variety could be extensive. I will share some of the more universal or spiritual commonalities. |
| The Spark is considered to be much like a star. Of course, this is partially based on fact; the physical composition of a spark acts much like a star does, with a similar anatomy to the celestial objects, and run on fusion. Obviously, this feat is done on a much smaller scale, but it extends beyond the science of stellar physics. Sparks are thought of has eternal, and an object of reverence. We know enough of other races to know that our kind of the certainly a rarity, for while other races — such as humanity — believe in the concept of a soul, ours is a physical manifestation. |
| Obviously, observation of the Requiem included several traditions. Some were practical, others were less so. |
| Many carry around small filament embers called Luxes. Luxes were laid suspended in a vicious liquid composed of a low ratio of energon to a higher concentration of slow burning oil and lubricants. Some were carried in specific remembrance of those who had returned into the AllSpark. |
| CULTURAL NOTE: Similar to how humans often use the word “pass” to describe the act of someone’s death, we use the word “return,” as we come from the AllSpark and we return to the AllSpark. |
| The Well, which is an orifice visible on Cybertron’s planetary surface, is where the AllSpark is placed. From this wellspring, all Cybertronian life emerges, and is our only source of new sparks. Both spark and frame crawl out from its depths, and is a central figure in our origins of life and where we return for the afterlife. The later cycles of the Requiem are spent in reverence of the Well. |
Just then, if Optimus delved deep into the collective banks of his memory, he would extract the audible imprint of songs sung around the Well’s lip. Their melodies were to coax a new wave of sparks to come forth.
Led by the Well Docents, the songs sung by the vigilant pilgrems were somber, lovely, transcendent, each more intrinsic to the wavelengths of every Cybertronian spark. Legends surrounded the mysterious melodies, and tales began to spread that on some Requiems, lives were lost in the transcendent frenzy that synched far too close to an individual, or that some willed their sparks to leave their physical frame and return to the AllSpark.
With the AllSpark ejected from their world, Optimus had often felt an uneasy in the presence of the empty Well; it was as if the old song, once sung in glorification of the AllSpark, had imprinted on the surrounding area and resonated throughout the atmosphere; the tone had taken a grievous lament in retribution for the lack of new life.
| Often the Requiem was closed with some of the most massive eruptions from the Well, that would spring forth in a display of dancing spark particles before going dim, then finally a new wave of Cybertron life would walk out. The songs were associated with coaxing these eruptions, and that they helped the new sparks fell at peace with the material world; the transformation from the AllSpark into a frame was considered painful and distressing. |
| At the closure, on the last cycle, the luxes are released by means of small mechanisms that floated on the wind with the use of rising heat produced by the flame. They were believed to symbolize new sparks, and make the newly emerged bots feel at ease. The luxes were also believed to coax trapped sparkghosts and guide them into the Well’s opening, so that they might know peace. |
Even now, Optimus’ memory engrams in association with the final light festival were retrieved with crystal clarity. All their world glowed bright that night, bathed in a sea of stars that across the entire expanse of Cybertron’s planetary surface. Even before he came to Iacon, Orion felt like the heavens came down to visit them as the lanterns floated on the winds across the plains, and some ascended back towards the celestial tapestry where stars gave an illusion of belonging for the wayward sparks.
| Oddly enough, this holiday, associated with life and the element of light, came to be associated with the passing of lovers. Not so much loved one, but lovers. Cybertronians have an ability to bond together at the most elemental levels, and the most intense are the bonded spark mates. |
Even the mention of the bonded spark mates came too close to Optimus, who then struggled to remained detached in his explanation. For as he continued onward, his digits, calm as they may, had not forgotten the sensation of contact with Megatron. His spark, however, remembered the absent contact now lost to him.
These were the mysteries of the Cybertronian nature, and some things were best left unsaid.
| The act of bonding with an individual is a taboo within our culture, and those who commit to such binds are pitied as much as they were looked down upon. It is considered selfish to demand sole dedication from an individual, and a travesty that one’s own spark is at such unrest as to burden itself with the irreversible bond. Association with lost lovers came to the Requiem because it was when the metaphysical nature of sparks were discussed more than any other. |
| Sparkmates were bonded in such a way that they were inseparable at the sparklevel, supposedly bound for all eternity, and that they could not be separated in life, death, and the beyond. When one mate would die, the other would follow into death, and sometimes a gruesome period of insanity would proceed the eventual return. The first sparkmate to die was believed to sometimes be trapped into the material world — essentially becoming a sparkghost, and that the haunting would be the cause of the survivor’s insanity. |
| The Requiem does not end so beautifully, unfortunately. Immediately following its final cycle, the holiday is met with another one, a darker one. It is close to your Day of the Dead, but is in association with Unicron. |
| THE UNMAKER'S HARVEST: due to the bright eruptions of the Well, and the luxes that guide new and returned sparks, Cybertron shines brighter on that cycle than it does on any other time in the vorn. Cybertronians believed that as recompense for the celebration, the planet must go into a deep period of darkness for one orn, out of fear that too much activity on our world might catch the attention of Unicron, and summon him once more. The Harvest is a time of isolation; too many sparks might draw out more than Unicron, but also the ghouls that were believed to walk out world. |
| Unicron was not the only force feared on during the course of the Harvest. Because the cities were cast into darkness to hide Cybertron from Unicron’s optics, ghouls were believed to walk in the darkness with greater freedom — summoned by the same illumination feared to fuel the Chaos Bringer’s hunger. |
| Most commonly feared monsters during the Harvest were sparkghosts and sparkeaters. Trapped sparkghosts were feared more than ever, and were believed to haunt the living with greater intensity. It was believed best to be kept inside, quiet, and in the dark, surrounded by others — safety in numbers. Bots were sometimes fearful to be caught outside, particularly after Hadeen set, out of fear that a ghost might possess them, or a sparkeater would find a wayward mecha. |
| Faceless effigies were left on the edges of a district or city, in order to lure the ghouls of the night to wander away from the living. Many tales were told of these life-sized figurines rising up and walking around, some returning to the residents of old friends and claiming to be returning sparks. Some would leave trailed droplets of innermost energon to coax sparkeaters towards these placed effigies, for it was believed better to let the eaters consume the ghosts rather than some unfortunate bot trapped out of safety. Some statures that depicted past mecha were left with lanterns at their base to lure out the ghouls. |
| The Harvest had a practical use, which was to give a day of rest to both our people and the planet’s resources after the revelries height. Many resources would be used in the course of the holiday. Essentially, it gave the world an opportunity to ‘cool down,’ and for worn-out bots to take a break from the extensive socialization. As for its more secular celebrations, densely populated urban areas might have revelries where some would dress up as various creatures in the spirit of fear. Over time, some feared the Harvest less and less. |
| Unfortunately, the spread of the Requiem and Harvest’s observance altered drastically since its heydays. Following the Age of Rust, the caste system allowed only small instances of observance in the Prime’s Eve groons, and the Requiem itself was more of a period of grief. Once the war broke out, the Requiem’s festivities has not been observed in full force. |
If only…
… If only …
If only the lights of Cybertron could be experienced again, and that life and death would be celebrated in equal tandem. Until they found the AllSpark, until it was returned to the Well in which it belonged, then Cybertronian life would continue to dwindle… until the last spark burned out.
Dear Knockout--In one of the other universes there's a bot who can turn himself invisible whenever he wants, and another one who can project holograms a couple miles wide and hide himself and a big group of friends under them. Are there bots with abilities like that where you come from? How would something like that even work? I know you guys have massive processing capacity, but both of those tricks would demand serious hardware and software mods just to handle the load, wouldn't they?
Immense.
Not so much the bot who can turn invisible, that’s simple cloaking technology, but holograms are massive resource drains. I don’t know if they’re less expensive in the universe you’re referring to or if this bot has somehow learned to siphon power from nearby buildings, but in this universe, it simply isn’t worth it.
Dear Knockout--speaking of genetics, is CNA built of four elements, like human DNA? The structure for us is a double helix, more or less, with bonds between the strands made of thymine connected with adenine, and guanine connected to cytosine. There's a lot of human DNA that doesn't mean anything, as far as we know. Do Cybertronians have "junk code" that doesn't seem to do anything, or do your systems tidy up your CNA to take out the obsolete or spare copies?
We used to think we had junk code. Lines and lines of data that meant absolutely nothing, as far as we knew. Speculations as to what it could all mean ranged from Quintesson interference to latent transformation abilities to acts of Unicron.
In reality? Many of those codes dealt with reproductive capabilities we didn’t even know we had, while others offered us immunity against certain ancient, certain lethal diseases.
Needless to say, we’ve since learned to stop thinking in terms of “junk code.”
Dear Knockout--if someone is injured while in vehicle mode, and either too badly hurt to transform without help or unconscious, are you capable of overriding the victim's control or "manually" transforming him so you can work on him? Or do you just have to work with the vehicle mode? I imagine that would be very inconvenient, especially given the variety of ways your people fold and rearrange your bodies to take to your tires. (That's fascinating to watch, by the way.)
Inconvenient, unsafe, and in certain cases impossible. But thankfully unnecessary. With the right equipment, transformation protocols can be activated remotely with very minimal effort.
You can even induce it over hardline link if you know what you’re doing.
Hi there Bumblebee. I'm your nosy fan. I figured that I may as well get a Tumblr account so you can tell who's asking questions about your lovely blue eyes and acrobatic activities and commenting on your vocal troubles.
| Hello there! A face to the words at last. It's a pleasure to meet you. . . Banchee? I'm sorry if my replies to your questions are a bit on a slow side. A lot of things have been going on over here with us and it's sorta making me busy-ish. |
| Lovely blue-- -? Well thanks. Thats actually really nice to hear. |
Besides all of this, several of you have written up fascinating, in-depth answers that would span a small datapad. You've also put my previous belief of "Ahhh, they're shortsighted little creatures with a self-centered vision of alien life. I'm sure they haven't given it that much thought" to utter shame.
It must be said. You're all deeper than I expected, more tragic than I imagined, and I would be lying if I said you hadn't floored me tonight, just a tad. Well done.
(Also, the thought of having to be you terrifies me in ways I can scarcely wrap words around.)
Dear Knockout: Following up on Predacon reproduction--do they lay eggs and hatch? Can a Predacon survive by eating Insecticons or other Cybertronian wildlife, or are they also entirely dependent on energon? Is it easier for a Predacon to fly in Earth's atmosphere over Cybertron's, or vice versa? Do your transforming abilities put you and Predacons in an evolutionary class together, the way humans are horses are both mammals?
Predacons reproduce by laying eggs and are built to do their smoothest flying in Cybertron’s heavy atmosphere. While they lack the…opportunistic feeding capabilities of Insecticons, neither are they restricted sorely to energon. As long as they’re getting a bare minimum intake of it, they can get along well enough subsisting mainly on minerals.
Until very recently, the only thing we had in common with the Predacons was the fact that we both processed our energon via tank and a propulsion system, and we were labeled accordingly. Predaking’s little reveal resulted in a quick scramble to reclassify the species — now, they’re in the same category of transforming egg layers as Insecticons and Sharkticons.
Though of course, Cybertronians remain a class all our own. We’re simply that special.
