#speculating

[isdantah]

How exactly are sparklings "born?"

(feel free to ignore if too complicated or uncomfortable)

I've read this and started rubbing my hands. Not really bc is spicy, but because I LOVE speculate on alien\fantasy\mithologic species, and speculate on how a robotic kind could actually reproduce is veeeeery funny for me. I'm also very fascinated by the complexity of how human (and organics) body works and the process of reproduction is... well crazy. And usually very simplified or poorly treated. AHEM, so, sit, take a tea, bc this gonna be long. IF i want to let my imagination run free and speculate about mechanical being like Cybetronians could actually reproduce interfacing, I would go for two ways: 1. The cabled one Which is the most logical for me. Actual PC and devices connects with cable, bluethooth, shared wi-fi, local connection. I simply love the idea of sharing feels, thinks, emotions with cables... and the idea of "we're not compatible because we're been build in different times" (Is like when you search an adapter for your old video recorder SCART to be plugged into a smart TV with a HDMI XD. I mean, think of somebody like Soundwave.) or "Our port has been builted only for certain frames" fascinate me A LOT. (also because is a good metaphor to narrate abt real difficults and the struggle of many of us in the LGBTQ+ community) GF sent me some fics abt and I really like that the cable interfacing is a thing for this fandom XD. 2."Wow that's looks like human s*x" way. ('cause I'm a monkey horny human and I still like human s*x on something that is very human shaped). For "The Sparkling deal" we're totally here.

Hypothesizing that many Cybetronian almost eat only Energon, this means that they don't have to process things like humans (even that many of them are "human\organic" shaped): their entire body is created to use energon for everything ("Energon is fuel, ammo, etc" remember?) so I can say that they have very different organs (Like the T-Cog), but especially, those works differently (ex: Cybetronians don't have breath system, but a ventilate system to regulate heat). Also, Cybetronian has not (canonically) human concept of gender, which brings me to go along the fan headcanon of a intersex species (with fem\masc\neutral concept usually but not always represented by the external frame, which often could be modified). If they possess both chances of being a carriers and sires, than being more suitable for being one or the other it's a frame thing. My headcanon is that bigger robots are seen (In cybetronian society) as more suitable for carring, since they usually are stronger, have bigger space and can protect and hide better the future life since are more solid (Yeeeah, going along this Bulkhead is like the *perfect* carrier. KEK). On the other side smaller robots are usually fancy, slender and considered more beautiful are seen usually as sires, and their point is to look appealing (pretty much as almost all bird species to say). So, even that Big & Small robots have the same organs, probably the firsts have a better Incubator Chamber*, while the seconds got a bigger Personal Data Energon Tank* (*see the drawings just a little below. This anyway doesn't mean that a small robot can't carry or a big robot can't be a sire. I think this could go along also with other mecha like Predacons, Maximals, etc. Here some confusionary (and not complete) sketchs about a piece of headcanon cybetronian anatomy :

*Main organs that play key role in reproduction (size and appearance may vary):* -Fuel Tank: Used to accumulate and assimilate Energon and directly connected to the Spark Chamber, the Incubator Chamber and the Filter Tank. Remotely connected to the Personal Data Energon Tank. The Fuel Tank transform Energon to Energy and distributes it in all the body for all his basic function (be awake, move, transform.) It constantly feed the Incubator Chamber if carrying. -Filter Tank: Depurate Energon and enrich with data. Used both to be retransmitted to the Neural Frame via the spine (becaming a sort of spinal fluid), or sent to Personal Data Energon Tank (becaming Transflux). -Personal Data Energon (or Transflux) Tank: Filtered Energon deposit here and become Transflux (Data Energon), which is accumulated for reproduction and activation and depressurization of the Spike in combination with a remote connection with the Fuel Tank (which send energon to the PDE Tank in order to push the Transflux+ Energon in the Spike) -Spark Chamber: Where is allocated the Spark, source of refined energy (from liquid energon to sort of electricity). The spark pulse send energy in the entire frame, emanating also the EMP field (usually amplified and decoded by the neural frame). -Incubator Chamber: This organ consist by a frontal and back side and is like a mini factory placed in the back of the Fuel Tank. The Incubator Chamber receives Transflux through the valve access wich is deposited in a mini tank in the frontal side: the valve tube is separated from the Chamber with a sigil, usually broken with the first interfacing (Some mech could actually avoid carrying closing this opening). When the mini tank is full, the incubator receive enough data imput to start working, sending the transflux both in the frontal and the back side. The frontal side start crafting components of the frame, wires and so on, while the back side (which receives also imput and radiation from the spark) craft the neural frame fused with the new spark.

Also, I've seen somebody on tumbrl post about cybetron gestation with factory gif and I really loved that. SO, I've gather some gifs to let you get the mood about creation of a sparkling!

-Incubation Chamber Front Size (Assembling the "bones" of the frame)

-Incubation Chamber Front Size ( Wires creation)

-Incubation Chamber Front Size (Basic frame creation)

-Incubation Chamber Front Size ( Joints connection engraving)

-Incubation Chamber Back Side (Injecting Spark Data in Motherboard components)

-Incubation Chamber Back Side (engraving the motherboard)

-Incubation Chamber Back Side (Creating Brain\Spark exposing a rudimental spark chamber components to Carrier's Spark field and energy)

-Mood gif for Cybetronian experiencing the carring. Sooo, reproduction is a veeeery exhausting thing, both in the initial act and worsen in the process of carrying: for a mech is literally having a mini-factory behind their stomach that is open 24h and is constantly working (I suppose you have to be a human and have an uterus and periods to imagine how the "great" is the feel XD). But bigger mechs endure the process better.

[whooshsoohw]

You know when Daniel says that thing about Alice dyeing her eyebrow brown when it was blonde, and that he preferred it when she left it alone? And that we suspect it might actually be a veiled memory of Armand wearing brown contacts to hide his orange eyes? If that is what’s going on, then I think he probably used to do that because he liked feeling human. Like he did it because the contacts and Daniel helped him feel that way, because I think there isn’t really a more practical reason for him to wear them, since we’ve seen him go around with his real eyes exposed already. And that also gets me thinking that while Armand is enjoying feeling close to humanity, Daniel feels the opposite. He’s frustrated, infatuated with the fact that Armand is a dangerous vampire, and desperate to belong to that world, growing angry at being denied. It’s romantic that they both like the other for their true nature, but tragic that neither of them likes themselves for that same nature, and instead want to be exactly the opposite of what the other appreciates about them. True love, but passing each other by in terms of wants and desires.

[heavensgaze]

Who do you guys think will end up being the MothDreamer kits' teachers? We are getting close 👀

[bakahimesama]

I legit woke up in a cold sweat because something just hit me. At the beginning of the game we have zero idea how long we were unconscious while in Kuras' care, and he is powerful enough to reattach limbs. Which means this man could have done any number of things to us and we'd have no idea.

I'm confident that the only reason there are stitches on our arm is because he knew it'd be too suspicious for us to wake up with no sign of injury. Which means he had who knows how long to inspect our hands, investigate what we are, experiment on us, take samples if he wanted, and then heal any evidence away with nary a scratch to tip us off.

He brushes off the whole "fascinating patient" comment, but it clearly stems from something he realized/discovered about us. What did he find out and how? Leander got to experience our curse through touch, and Vere likely smelled something deeper about it off of us, but Kuras has already gotten the chance to study it, via methods I can't even imagine. And I'm not sure I want to know what he's about to do with what he learned.

[fuzzygraphics]

Something about these three being the ones with real-card counterparts, and also being the three given bowling balls during intermission time. Pomni, Jax, and Kinger are going to have SOMETHING in common, whether good or bad. Kinger’s path will still diverge from theirs, possibly being a sacrifice, given his being knocked off the board and being out of the game.

Idk what this means for Ragatha, Gangle, and Zooble. Maybe they escape while the other three stay? Or maybe there’s an instance where Pomni Kinger and Jax help spare the other three circus goers from something, and Kinger makes the final sacrifice to save Pomni and Jax too.

[strangebiology]

I watched your deer slaughter video and I think I big part of what's getting people is that they probably genuinely don't realize how quickly it's "lights out" for the animal. Looking at the eyes and respiration, that deer was probably dead damn near instantly, the leg motion displayed is likely the result of residual nerve twitches.

People are really, really unfamiliar with death, I've found. So many people performing slaughter for the first time want to eat the meat imediately, for example... But that's how you get tough, near unusable meat. Why? Rigor mortis. The beef you get in the store was rested for about 10 days before it got to you just to let the muscles relax - it takes that long for your muscles to stop muscling.

You'll even see strangr post-mortem movements in human corpses, part of the origen of zombies. My own grandmother even did a full Lazarus sign, which was admittedly horrifying since we were very certain she was very dead and we didn't expect it.

I know I am preaching the choir here, mostly just wanting to back you up.

That makes sense. Interesting stuff.

Just speculating here, but I wonder if there is a psychological/cultural aspect to people's misunderstanding of how things die. Death is as scary as it is inevitable, so we tell ourselves and our children that it's just a sudden, peaceful, painless sleep, or there's an afterlife. To protect our minds from the incomprehensible concept of eternal nothingness--for ourselves, our loved ones, and for the animals, especially the ones we kill.

Or, maybe it's an industry thing that has set a standard that's wrong, with the hopes that the public in general would not actually see how things die?

I think about the number of people who say, "Oh my uncle kills deer/cattle/etc, and when he does it, it's instant!" Even though the reindeer and other livestock, when stunned/shot/bolted in the brain, do stop feeling near-instantly (ideally,) and the people making these claims never saw their uncle kill the deer/cattle/etc.

In fact, the uncle may have never said that their animals died instantly, and maybe the people making the claims just wanted to believe "Uncle Joe is so nice, he must do something nicer than killing in a way that involves pain or blood!"

One memorable comment on that video was someone bashing this Indigenous Sami reindeer herder because "Native Americans have a way to kill them instantly!" I asked them to show me a video of this amazing insta-death method that is apparently employed by everyone in their imagined monolith of Native America, if this claim is so real. They sent me a video...of someone who is not Native American talking to the camera about Native Americans, and never so much as mentioning any method of slaughter, let alone showing it. It was just a bunch of nice words.

So, I wonder if people just think "that person I know/that group of people are great and perfect, and that means that if they kill animals, it must be perfect and nice and somehow painless and bloodless and pretty!"

And, when they see real death, which isn't so pretty, they insist, "But there must be something wrong with that one!"

I don't know, just speculating.

[hallucinatinghalos]

Does this earlier promo clip look like it's from the same night as the IGN promo to anyone else?

Could it be he's a make-up artist or working backstage at a theatre in Montreal to occupy himself before he learns of the book and spirals?