More Than Meets the Eye: Volume 5, Issues 17-22 - the Cyclonus and Tailgate edition.
This is the volume where Tailgate learns he is dying from cybercrosis and he is living on borrowed time. And I have read the AO3 stories from Tailgate's point of view where it seems like Cyclonus is pretending not to care or possibly doesn't care for real. I would like to share the string of events from Cyclonus's point of view - in other words, he actually cared so damn much.
When Tailgate first tells Cyclonus and Cyclonus leaves their shared hab suite:
(I don't know enough about Cyclonus/his culture to explain why he clawed his own face as a response to his grief.)
(More under cut)
(The only way Rodimus was going to get Cyclonus on the Seething Moon, a structure seething with sparks and that had been lost for who knew how long, was by letting Tailgate come along with them.)
Later, when Cyclonus is fighting one on one against Star Saber after Star Saber killed Dai Atlas:
"He lets the best of us get sick and die while degenerates like you go on forever." Tell me he isn't thinking about Tailgate right here. Tell me he isn't fighting for Tailgate.
After the baddies are beat, they find a cure, and they are back on the Lost Light, we get this:
Cyclonus was singing for him until he passed out.
Tailgate being in so much pain that he asks Cyclonus to kill him hurts me.
But not as much as the next page hurt me:
They show you THIS page before they explain WHY Cyclonus did this. And that hurt so bad because I thought, 'Oh, Cyclonus has lost all hope and is going to kill Tailgate after all.'
Then you keep reading and:
WHIRL SAVED TAILGATE'S LIFE. WHIRL SAVED TAILGATE'S LIFE.
(Also, Cyclonus is wearing the horn Tailgate made for him finally).
(He also saved Cyclonus's life earlier, which was quite funny:)
(It was not Whirl that stabbed Cyclonus, just to clarify.)
Y'all wouldn't have Cygate if it wasn't for my main bastard child.
Since Transformers're living beings, they obviously get sick, and diseases definitely exist. That's why there're medics. However, how do they get vaccinated, and do they even need to?
Dear Contagion Concerned,
In the same way that your own immune systems seek out and eliminate pathogens before they can infect your body, so too are our own internal workings protected by intricate, interconnected mechanisms that you might call an “immune system”. Our brain modules are heavily encrypted and secured behind what you would call a “firewall”, while our physical bodies are protected by a complicated system of ultra-thin, electrostatically charged plates that attract and filter out environmental hazards like sand, dust, and rust flakes.
However, these systems are not perfect, and in an ever-changing world Cybertronians must constantly update their software—and, in extreme cases, the hardware itself. When Cybertronians arrive on new worlds, their internal systems analyze the atmospheric conditions and geology of the local terrain and adapt their system accordingly. However, these kinds of ad-hoc reconfigurations are not enough to withstand the very worst diseases known to our species, and in these cases more drastic measures must be taken. In times of postwar prosperity, these campaigns take the form of “Quantum Cycle Upgrades”, where both Maximals and Predacons receive mandatory hardware and software packages that would bring them up to a consistent standard. By the time of the Spark War, the Maximal Imperium and the Predacon Alliance had, over the course of multiple upgrade cycles, worked together to stamp out 73% of all Transformer diseases, including Cosmic Rust, cybercrosis, and Corrodia Gravis.
However, in times of war, where the Cybertronian race is scattered across the galaxy and the worst of our kind concoct monstrous bioweapons, this kind of "herd immunity" is impossible, as is any kind of organized, species-wide response to a disease outbreak. Depending on the resources at hand, individual Cybertronians might have to adopt entirely new bodies in order to fight off an infection-as was the case when the Earth Defense Command transferred the minds of many Autobots and Decepticons into custom-built Binaltech bodies in order to stave off a debilitating Cosmic Rust infection, or when the Oracle reformatted Optimus Primal's Maximals into technorganic frames immune to Megatron’s transformation virus.
Dear Vector Prime, Cybertronians seem to have immense lifespans of millions of years, as seen by the fact that when the Primax Ark and Decepticon ships crashed, many of the same Decepticons and Autobots were still living on Cybertron millions of years later, and this makes me wonder, what is the lifespan of most Cybertronians?
Dear Deep-time Dabbler,
Due to our technological nature, it is typical that a healthy Cybertronian with access to replacement parts to live for at least several million years. There are diseases of old age such as cybercrosis or sentio metallico mortis, but the sad truth is that, due to our long-lasting wars, we rarely experience those maladies. I will be able to give you a more accurate estimate once peace is obtained throughout the universe.
anyways hey, I have to go do school things in about an hour but I might as well ask y’alls opinion: of the second two color styles, with the first color scheme for reference of ‘healthy’ colors, which communicates the presence of cybercrosis more effectively? which one looks more sickly?
