#gopher rambles

[gophergal]

Your Megatron is glorious btw. I appreciated him popping up on my dash twice. I see TFone influences!! Love your art style.

Thank you so much!!!!

[gophergal]

Headcanons: Transformers and Pronouns

Cybertronians are a cosexual species that reproduce through primarily asexual methods. As such, the gender systems of other sophont cultures tend to be strange for them, and do not map to their native language/language group, Cybex. When interacting with beings who speak gendered languages, Cybertronians tend to adopt the forms of address that are assigned to them by native speakers. For English, this tends to be he/him pronouns and masculine address. There are some examples of mecha being read as feminine by humans due to their frame type, coloration, vocal tone, affiliation with other "female" mechs, ect, though this is uncommon. As such, this leads to the incorrect assumption that "female" cybertronians exist, but are- for one reason or another- rare.

There are some cybertronians who have adopted the genders of alien cultures as part of their personal identity, such as Rosanna, who is a woman (She/Her) and goes out of her way to ensure that others see her as one. Some others have the opposite approach to the gender norms of humans, rejecting some parts of it as Broadside (He/They only), who experiences alt-mode frame dysphoria and has come to associate She/Her with his alt modes, does

Pronouns in Cybex, when they are necessary, denote other things. There are two broad categories of pronoun, "people" pronouns and "object" pronouns. People pronouns denote the subject's social status, relation to the speaker, affiliation with factions, ect. Object pronouns denote the subject's size, mobility, autonomy, origin, ect. Generally, while translating Cybex to human languages, People pronouns are translated to a neutral or, if that isn't an option, a masculine pronoun, while Object pronouns are translated to "it" or an equivalent, typically.

One should note that while a drone, a transport, a building, and a weapon are all "it," they are different forms of "it". It is also important to note that it is NEVER acceptable to refer to a Person as an Object. While it is relatively neutral to refer to fetuses and infants as "it" in English, even disembodied sparks and gestating newsparks are always referred to with Person pronouns in Cybex. At best, if you are ignorant of a being's personhood and refer to them as an Object, you will offend them. At worst, well, intentionally referring to someone as an Object is ground for a physical altercation for many mecha.

Since the beginning of the Cybertronian Civil War, however, the strict nature of Cybex pronouns has loosened. Among the Autobots, the preferred pronoun can be translated as "my equal," though the more familiar "comrade" or "brother-in-arms" are also sometimes used. Some do prefer to use pronouns of elevated status for all mecha, regardless of their rank (translated sometimes as "esteemed one").

Among the Decepticons, there is a divide between the older mecha, who stick closer to rank-based military address, and newer mecha, who use similar address to autobots.

Address for non-object-non-mecha is a mixed bag. Decepticons almost exclusively refer to non-mech sophonts as "object-autonomous-mobile" with variation for size, Autobots use people pronouns, and Neutrals have no guarantee of either. Animals- mechanical and organic- are a mixed bag even among Autobots. Optimus Prime prefers to use "my equal," though he won't correct mecha who refer to them as Objects. Beachcomber uses "esteemed one" for animal life, and will gently correct other Autobots to refer to them as "equal" if nothing else.

[gophergal]

(pencil emoji) Jazz?

Hell yeah! The Guy Himself! I don't have a lot of like, Complicated stuff about him because canon Jazz is just kinda Peak.

His Cybertronian name translates to "Breaks-Rhythm," like someone who marches to the beat of their own drum. He chose his name's localization himself after hearing jazz music

He's been in a relationship with Blaster longer than he's had a Tcog. They bonded over their love of music, despite the caste difference. They're best friends and lovers who don't exactly put a label on what they are to one another. Whatever it is, it's open and they often act as wingmen to one another.

Jazz wasn't exactly a troublemaker or a criminal when he was a miner, but he was constantly drawing the attention of enforcers who assumed he was Up To Something when he would loiter around clubs and music venues. Learning to disappear into the crowd and exert exact control over his EM field served him well in situations where this went badly for him

At the onset of the Cybertronian Civil War, Optimus immediately chose him to be part of command, since he's one of his closest friends and overall someone he can trust to get things done (even when that requires choices that Optimus would find unpleasant.) Unfortunately for him, Prowl- one of the enforcers he had encountered on a few occasions- was also chosen for a command position. Awkward.

Awkward, but not an issue because- as he finds out during his first real conversation with the mech- Prowl is directive focused first and foremost. Enforcing the law was his directive before, but now his focus is handling the tactical aspect of the war for Optimus. So, not only is that a nonissue, but the two become extremely close later on.

That's really all the more complex thoughts about him at this moment. Otherwise, Jazz is just very competent and good with people.

Less serious things my sibling and I have said about Jazz include:

He would fuck it up on the volleyball court if his tit weren't in the way

He thinks Round Energon (liquid energon in a mug) is a Fun Novelty

Playing music over his speakers is his primary stim, and he just kinda does that constantly

We have an arc that we just keep calling "Jazz and His Three Babymamas." More about that under the cut

Learned how to win arguments purely by being annoying during his time as a miner, carries that invaluable skill into dealing with Optimus' Bullshit

[send me a ✏️ and a character and I'll tell you about them in Sparkweave]

Jazz's Polycule + a couple little ficlets I wrote from his perspective under the cut

Ok so real quick RE:Jazz's Three Babymamas. It's Soundwave asking him to sire his third child (the Shockwave cucking is a complicated situation that I don't have time to explain rn), Prowl getting Jealous™ and insisting on having a sparkling of his own, and then Blaster showing up like "Hey Jazz I think you knocked me up by accident. Just like fyi". That's literally it. Its so fucking stupid. It's not even his fault. Why do we make it sound like a quan millz novel

(also I'm sorry that both of the ficlets are Prowl related. He's just screwed up in a very fun way to me and I like to explore him through Jazz's more stable perspective)

"Who said that to you?"

"I came online with an incomplete emotional suite," Prowl announced one day without prompt. Jazz has simply been sitting with the mech in companionable silence- what went for silence with the sabetour, that is, with music bumping steadily from his speakers- his friend's declaration shattering that peace into jagged pieces.

The former enforcer continued: "it wasn't caught during my first vorn due to the tactical computer added onto my processor. I process social stimuli through it, and thus passed every psych eval I was given. But I am still … Lacking."

"Oh," Jazz said, queue catching up with what he was being told slowly, "oh, Prowler…" What else could he say? This was the sort of malpractice that one would expect to befall a member of the disposable class- someone who was expected to do no more than perform their function until their gears stripped. Not an upper-mid caste servant of the government.

"I apologize for withholding this information from you, Jazz. You have the right to know, though, in the event that you tire of wasting time on a mech no more caring than a drone."

"In case I what? Prowl, who… Who said that to you? "

Not The Jealous Type

"that was fantastic, but we need to talk, mech," Jazz began. "You know it would take a lot to convince me to pass up on the opportunity to 'face with you, but I've also gotta say that was a little…. Much from you, Prowler. You're not the jealous type."

"No, I'm not."

"Yeah, you've never had an issue with us not being exclusive, not that you've told me," the spymaster noted, "and you'd tell me if you did."

"I would."

"So how come you've dragged me to your berth to jump my struts right after I told 'ya that Soundwave's asked me to sire for him?"

"I…" Prowl tried, trailing off. He had an enormously guilty look on his faceplate, which doubled as embarrassment for him. "I would ask that you don't misunderstand, Jazz. What I lack is not trust in your faith in our relationship or your love for me. You are clan, and you know how much that means to me. But Soundwave is not, and I refuse to let him forget that. You are not his, you are mine."

"Aw, sweetspark, you're telling me you thought he'd steal me away from you?"

"The chance was nonzero. He is less likely to do so if you are otherwise occupied with parenthood."

"He doesn't want me the way he wants Shockwave, and I don't want him the way I want you or Blaster."

"Even though he is more compatible with your and Blaster's interests?"

"I wouldn't call what me 'n him have compatibility, mech…"

[gophergal]

I <3 coming up with symbols

but like if this looks like a pre-existing one could somebody let me know sjbfksejb

[gophergal]

✏️ anything about sparkweave shockwave or arcee

I've talked about Shockwave before, so Arcee it is!

She was kindled on Cybertron while the Ark crew was in stasis. She belongs to Elita's polycule- more specifically she was Moonracer's brilliant idea about what would bring light and hope back to their group. It was, as you can probably imagine, a lonesome and difficult childhood, but her family loved her very much.

Elita was, in some ways, more of a commander than a parent. Not that she was uncaring, but her way of showing care for her offspring came down to preparing her to live in the cruel world she'd been brought into. She began training Arcee after her first transformation- roughly the developmental state of a four year old.

By the time Arcee reached adolescence, she was already a fantastic scout and spent most of her free time surveying the ruins of Iacon- returning to base with salvage and information. During one such excursion, she came upon the stasis-locked frame of Ultra Magnus- who had been missing in action longer than the Ark crew had been. In return for her rescuing him, he took her on as an apprentice- though he became more of a bodyguard/babysitter to her. By the time she's a grown mech, he would let her get away with murder. He's that wrapped around her finger lol

She met Hot Rod and Springer when the Wreckers (who had raised the two of them) made contact with Cybertron and returned planetside. She dated the two of them (separately) for a while, but ultimately decided that she preferred being their friend. Honestly, that history has only made the three of them more tightly knit than they'd be otherwise

That's mostly what my sibling and I have discussed about her. It's not a lot, but we also haven't decided much about the "g1 season 3" era, tbh. We've figured out how the plot would work out in spkwv, but have been slowly working out what everyone's doing lol

[send me a ✏️ and a character and I'll tell you about them in Sparkweave]

Bonus unedited ficlet about Arcee meeting Ultra Magnus under the cut:

Arcee's wheels tore across the expanse of flattened metal as she zipped between the crumbling structures that had long since began reabsorbing into the planet. Chromia had once told her that it was Primus retaking what they had finished borrowing from him- it was why they had to rotate bases every few cycles, after all: to ensure that their god knew they were not yet finished borrowing those resources from him yet. They had been creaking, crumbling heaps since she had first seen them. Even when her sire had taken her to the ruins after her first transformation, their world had already been destroyed. Often the little pink mechling wondered what it had looked like before. She had asked, of course. Her creators had willingly shown her the image captures that remained through the eons. However, something told her those hazy, artifacted captures were no comparison to rolling through packed streets, plate brushing past plate, the song of life in the air as mecha clamored to and fro.

Other mecha. That was another thing she had no frame of reference for beyond the memories her creators showed her. It had always just been Arcee and her parents and the decepticons on the husk of a world, spinning through space like recycling nanites fruitlessly crawling around a piece of discarded armor.

It wasn't as though she had seen the decepticons beyond distant sightings that resulted in immediate retreat to base. They hardly felt real to her most of the time. In fact, they only held slightly more presence to her than the comrades her creators had shown her from their memory banks. Mecha they had once known, before the four of them had formed a family and Arcee had been conceived. One of them, the one in the most captures, stuck out to her. She wanted to ask more about the red and blue mech, she wanted to ask more about everything, but her creators' fields had held sadness she had never felt from them before. And so she held her tongue.

Scouting the ruins made for a good time and place to think about these things. At least until something caught her interest, as it often did. This time, it was a flash of color as she crawled past a particularly damaged structure. Something inside shown blue in a ray of Hadeen's light, streaming through the destroyed ceiling. The mechling transformed and crept closer.

Beneath a pile of rubble, she could see the blue object. No idea what it could be. It was a deep color, even through the layer of shimmering grey powder that had settled over everything in the ruins. She set to work uncovering it, delicate fingers probing the debris to pick away only that which was already loose. It was slow going at first, but each piece unlocked more with its removal. Crystaline optics shot wide as she uncovered the thing. Well. The arm.

First the vambrace and joint, then down to the tips of the digits, this was unmistakably a mech's arm. That really wasn't a surprise. For as long as Arcee had been scouting the ruins for supplies and for fun, she had been finding the crumbling, greyed remains of fallen cybertronians. But that was just it. This was intact, vibrant armor, and it was connected to something more beneath the larger debris. With renewed determination, she tugged at the less cooperative bits of the wreckage. Her spark whirred frantically as she struggled with a piece much larger than she would have attempted normally. It tumbled free, falling on her foot and drawing a yelp from her as she hopped on the unharmed one. Dented. Carrier will be having words with me again, she thought with a grumble. Then turned back to her task. The large lump's fall had uncovered a helm the same blue as the arm. The mech's pale faceplate was slack, their optics dark. Arcee needed help for sure now.

[Base to scout,] Chromia said, soothing voice slowing the spin in Arcee's chassis, [nature of request?]

[I found a mech- er, survivor located?]

A moment of pause over the moniter frequency as Arcee's parent processed the statement, [Survivor?] She paused, as if looking for confirmation.

[They're blue,] was all Arcee said, then, [and in stasis.]

[Sending two units to your location, scout,] Chromia announced. [Stay safe.]

All that meant was "sit and wait," so Arcee continued exhuming her survivor at a slower pace, careful not to cause them any unnecessary damage. All too soon, the pile covering the mech contained only rubble that she was too small to move alone. It would take her creators time to get to her. Arcee's excursion had taken her jours away from their current base, and it wasn't unlikely that whoever Chromia had dispatched had been patrolling in the opposite direction. Arcee was already getting bored.

She studied the stasis-locked mech, trying to guess their designation, their alt mode, their personality. It sharpened the needling of her curiosity. All the parts of them she saw were in tact and there was no blackened energon residue among the rubble. If they had been wounded in a life threatening way, they wouldn't still be vibrant, right? An emergency ration burned away in one of her compartments and her fingers itched to grab it. Finally, she gave in and popped the storage panel open to grab the fuel within. It glowed in stripes of pink and purple, smelling of pure energy and mineral fortification. Her intake watered, but she resisted. She had fueled that morning, and would again after returning to base. How long had it been since her stasis-locked friend had fueled?

Gently, she pried their intake open and popped the compact stick of fuel in. As they were so much larger than her, the whole piece fit inside the mech's mouth easily. She waited.

There was a creak as stiff plating slowly closed around the ration in response to base survival code. A couple kliks later, the mech's optics lit up with a hesitant flicker and shuttered once, twice. The hand flexed and the rubble trembled as the mech tried to shake themself free of it. A moment later, their helm jerked, optics landing on the mechling.

"I couldn't get you out by myself, sorry. We're waiting on help," she explained.

"Where- what… Who are you, little one?" They rasped, vocalizer unused for so long.

"I'm Arcee, Autobot scout," she told them. Though her carriers had banned her from wearing the autobrand until she was fully grown, she was an autobot through and through, she said as much with pride. "What is your designation?"

"I am Ultra Magnus, Autobot commander."

[gophergal]

✏️ Skyfire!!!!!! (that space shuttle can fit so much grief in him...)

Oh man, where do I even start (and as always, you're super welcome to jump in for anything I've forgotten):

He was kindled, growing up on a crystal farm far from any major population centers. A farm kid. He's actually a second generation kindled mech, as his carrier, Geode, was the child of a couple who had been ignited for a cancelled colonization project. They're continuous tracked transports, like NASA crawlers. Geode met Skyf's sire, Jetfire, when they put out an ad for a job on their family's farm, looking for a fast flier to help out. Jetfire was a prototype deepspace capable seeker who had been decommissioned after an experiment left him traumatized and unwilling to leave Cybertron's orbit.

Skyfire grew up learning about colony worlds and the wonders of space, despite his family's complicated history with those matters, and he was enamored with idea of visiting those fantastic alien worlds himself. Given how uncommon sparklings were at this time (arox. 15 million years ago, before the Second Quintesson War), he didn't really have "friends his age" and was rather isolated regardless.

So moving to Iacon to attend the Academy of Science is like. A major culture shock. There are SO many mecha! And most of them are so much smaller than him! That's where he met Starscream. On that Culture Shock note, he originally assumed that most mecha had parents, like he did. So, when one of the seeker's "brothers" (trinemates actually, as Skyf would soon learn. TC and Skywarp) called him "Star-Cries-For-Attention" (Screamer), his first thought was "what kind of parent would give their offspring such a mean name?" And from that moment on, Skyfire was Starscream's pet hayseed lol. Best friends, lab partners, "lab partners," and Matched Set, Do Not Separate.

Since Skyfire was a kindled shuttle rather than cold constructed, he lacked the deep space social protocols (spacecraft are almost exclusively asocial mecha by design. It prevents them from being driven mad by the total isolation of long journeys), so he had to apply for accommodations in regard to space flights. Namely, a flight partner. Well, he already had a perfectly good lab partner. A flight frame lab partner. One who was studying the stars himself...

He had actually taken Starscream to meet his family. And would you believe that they found him quite charming? He was a very different mech at this point. Wonder why. Anyway, Jetfire was especially happy with this development. There was one thing they never wanted for their son, and that was for him to be alone. Jetfire was seeker kin after all- though his trining instinct was perhaps a bit dulled, and there is a part of him that saw a partner in flight as second only to a true trine.

Right so we know how all this goes for Skyfire. Unlucky trip to Earth long before the dawn of man. Frozen like Captain America for millions of years. Wakes up on an alien planet. And now he's a part of a war he knows nothing about. Once he's pulled out of the ice for a second time (A FUCKING SECOND TIME) and has the time to process it all. Yeah he's not doing so well.

His whole family is most likely dead. On Cybertron he was already larger than most infrastructure was designed for, but on Earth he may as well be interacting with a paper diorama. His best friend (maybe they could have been more? maybe, maybe, maybe. Now they'll never have the chance) is vicious, cruel- entirely unrecognizable from the bright, curious person he knew so well. Worst of all is the silence. Constant conversation from the person he cared for and trusted most one day, radio silence the next.

And what's worse is that he can't express that grief, not with all the justified hatred the other Autobots have for Starscream. To his surprise, the Prime (only one? A new one?) seems to understand better than anyone else.

[Send a ✏️ and a character and I'll tell you about them in Sparkweave]

[gophergal]

why the fuck do I torment myself. who allowed that

[gophergal]

Goph!!! Question!!! Opinion on Beastwars? Do you incorporatw to sparkwave? No?

I don't know a ton about Beast Wars if I'm honest skbfskbjf. The designs are slightly offputting for me (uncanny valley adjacent), so I have yet to really delve into that part of the franchise. The TFWiki diving I've done has only left me more confused about BW. However! Corey and I have discussed incorporating BW into SPKWV:

So, first of all, some context. "Beastformer" is an umbrella term for mecha with beast alt modes (like the Dinobots, Insecticons, the brothers Ambus in IDW, ect), beast root modes (such as Ravage and Laserbeak), or beast traits in their root mode (the only official tf example I can think of is Onyx Prime in any designs. In spkwv the two major examples are Soundwave [feline traits] and First Aid [rabbit traits])

Beastformers have historically been an oppressed group, likely stemming from the cultural influence of the First Quintesson Occupation. It's why beastformers who can pass for "Standard" (Beastmarked- who have minor traits in their root mode, such as beast-like audials/finials, slit-pupil optics, clawed fingertips, or tails) typically hide these aspects of themselves and why you don't tend to see Beastframed (where the beast form is their root) mecha in prestigious positions.

That only became worse with the increasing corruption of the Senate, so during the Second Quintesson War and subsequent Occupation under the rule of the False Prime (Sentinel), many beastformers- specifically Beastalts and Beastframed- chose instead to remain on the surface, hidden among herds of mechanimals, rather than flee underground with the rest of the population.

OK NOW WE GET TO BEAST WARS' INCLUSION SORRY. Basically! The Maximals (perhaps the Predacons too, though we haven't decided that for sure) are such a group of Beastformers hiding in plain sight. Given the unrest that followed the execution of Sentinel and the start of the Cybertronian CIvil War, most of them just kinda went. "Fuck you we're having no part of this shit." and refused to join either side. Most of them who have survived to the modern era (that is, when the Ark crew awakens from stasis on Earth in 1984) left Cybertron to resettle abandoned colony worlds as neutrals, though there are definitely still some in isolated pockets on their homeworld, trust.

[talk to me about my AU]