The Gift of Language - Danny Phantom x Transformers Prime
Summary: Danny's been working on a surprise for his favorite seeker
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Notes
Set in a series where Danny finds Starscream one day and decides to start haunting the Decepticons. That's basically all the context you need but if you want more here is the rest of the series:
Haunting the Nemesis
Part 1: Chasing Stars
Part 2: Burning Rubber
Part 3: Adventures of the Decepticons' Pet Ghost Or Tumblr Master List
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Danny had spent weeks preparing, poring over Soundwave's old files and historical records from Cybertron before the war. Danny would slip into Soundwave's storage rooms whenever the communications officer wasn't around, sifting through his archives. There were hours of audio recordings from the city of Vos, where the Seekers originated, documenting their unique language filed with high tones and clicks.
He’d listened over and over, repeating the phrases to himself, experimenting with the cadence and pitch, trying to match the nuances of the language. The first few times he’d spoken aloud in the empty storage room, it had sounded all wrong. It was quite different from the language spoken by the other Cybertronians on the ship. And even more different from the guttural horrifying sounds of echoing Goulish. But Danny was nothing if not persistent. It had taken countless tries, stumbling over words, getting the clicking sounds just right, and learning how to make his voice resonate higher in his head for how high-pitched the notes made it.
While most of the language had been lost over the years Danny was able to uncover some recordings of snippets of casual conversations, war cries, and even poetry. Even though some of them were corrupted Danny had listened to everyone, picking up vocabulary and phrases, trying to get a feel for how the language changed with tone and context.
Danny wanted to surprise Starscream. To show him that someone cared enough to learn his language. And he was so excited to reveal all of the hard work he put into this. He just hoped the Seeker appreciated it.
Danny sat in his little designated area of Starscream’s room, waiting for the right moment, bubbling with excitement and barely holding himself together.
Starscream sat at his massive desk, his back turned to Danny, muttering under his breath as he sorted through datapads. His wings twitched with agitation as his, long, talon-like fingers drummed against the desk in a rapid, repetitive motion.
Danny stood up and moved closer to the edge of the shelf. With a determined smile. Swaying from foot to foot. “You’re always so stressed lately ,” Danny said, in flawless Vosian.
Starscream’s frame went ridged, his optics widening in disbelief. He turned his helm, gaze snapping to the small human across the room from him who had the biggest grin plastered on his face.
“What did you just say?” Starscream asked in disbelief.
Danny grinned wider, knowing that he had just thrown the seeker off completely. He crossed his arms and repeated himself, this time with more emphasis. “I said, you’re always so stressed lately. You should really take a break .” The clicking and high-pitched tone of the language was impossible to miss.
Starscream stared at him, completely silent for a few moments. His optics flickered and his wings twitched again, though now, Danny noticed, it wasn’t from irritation, but confusion. “You… You speak Vosian? ” His words came out more cautious now, less demanding, and more genuine bafflement.
“Yep! ” Danny nodded enthusiastically. “I’ve been practicing. Soundwave had some recordings I managed to weasel out of him, and, well… ” He shrugged nonchalantly, smiling at the seeker's baffled expression. “I thought it’d be cool to talk to you in your own language.”
Starscream stood from his desk and walked over to the small, overjoyed human, still processing what he was hearing. Vosian wasn’t just a language — it was something deeply personal, something he hadn’t had a full conversation in since the war began. His wings fluttered as he struggled to find the right words.
Starscream looked conflicted and confused as to why Danny would have put all this effort in. “Why? ” He finally asked.
Danny softened, understanding the question went beyond just language. “Because it’s a part of who you are. And I figured… it might be nice to have someone else who gets it. Who can speak to you in a way no one else here can.”
When Danny first died, he would accidentally slip into Goulish all the time. Jazz had spent months learning it, trying to get it perfect so that whenever Danny ended up getting too emotional and switching to the language she could understand. She may not have been able to speak it because she didn’t have the same type of vocal cords that a ghost has, but her being able to understand him, knowing that he had someone so willing to put in the effort to understand him… That was what was so meaningful, and he wanted to be that for Starscream.
Starscream blinked, and Danny could feel appreciation and joy spring up in the seeker’s field as much as he tried to stomp it down. “Well, I must say, your pronunciation is… decent. ” He looked Danny over, clearly impressed despite himself. “But it could still use some work.”
Danny just grinned wider, seeing through the glass facade. “Well, how about you teach me then.”
Starscream huffed but couldn’t help the small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. For a brief moment, the atmosphere shifted. He hadn’t realized how much he missed hearing his own language, or how much it would mean to have someone else care enough to learn it. Even if it was this strange, reckless human.
“Perhaps… you’re not completely insufferable after all, ” Starscream muttered, his wings settling into a more relaxed position.
Danny laughed, leaning back. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
The rest of the evening, Starscream abandoned his datapads and left his work for future Starscream to deal with, as he sat down with the human across from him to properly educate him on the pronunciation of certain words and the correct lilt ascribed to each one. Danny sat and listened carefully before continuing. Eventually, Danny ended up passing out on Starscream’s desk, leaning up against the con’s arm. And the Con decided not to move the small delicate human – Primus knows that human never slept enough.
Random Worldbuilding/Character facts about Transformers: mobius run universe
Random facts about Neocybex (2-2/3)
Many Dialects of Neocybex - 2/3
Urayan
According to the linguists, there might have been a theoretical common ancestor of all dialects that exists on the planet. If this so-called "proto-dialect" ever actually existed, then Urayan is probably the closest among all its descendant dialects. For such reason, Urayan is ometimes referred to as "the firstborn of all dialects".
From pronunciations to grammatical structures, Urayan influence can be found throughout dialects that are spoken in regions bordering Uraya, such as Praxian, Altihexian, Protihexan and many more. Even Iaconian has quite a number of Urayan-originated words in its lexicon.
Cybertronians often say Urayan is one of the easiest foreign dialect to learn. Urayans can say the same thing about alomst every other dialects they come across.
Camien
A variant of Urayan spoken in the colony planet of Caminus. Camien originated from old Urayan, which was the dialect the first settlers used.
Thanks to the settlers' strong effort to preserve their Cybertronian heritage, the dialect could be preserved in near perfect condition for a very long time while the mainland Urayan went through various altercations. After some time, the difference between these two became distinctive enough to be considered seperate dialects.
One thing curious about Camien lexicon is that it contains words that even Camiens aren't sure what they exactly mean. For example, they have two words that describes their companions within their familial unit: 'Brother', and 'Sister'. They know who to call a sister or a brother, but when they are asked "why is this person a 'brother/sister'?", they can't provide any explanations. They know it by experience, but they have no idea why it works like so. It's like gendered nouns in European languages, where one knows a 'chocolate' is a 'female' but can't explain why it is so.
As to why there are words with such concept despite the fact that Cybertronians have no biological gender, it still remains a mystery to this day.
Vosian
Before the Grand Unification, All that's known about Vosian was that it is a 'language of flying barbarians'. But once the city-state's rich and uniqe culture was revealed to the world in forms of art, music, architecture and glamorous Vosian upper class lifestyle, the dialect also gained equal recognition and popularity.
Vosian has unique accents that makes the speech sound 'melodic' and 'elegant'. On the other hand, there are people who finds these accents rather 'distracting', or 'overly pompous'.
Vosian dialect is divided into two kind: High Spire Vosian, and Common Vosian. High Spire is the speech of royals, nobles, scholars and other people of high status, while Common is literally the speech of common folks. High spire sounds more smooth and refined, wheras Common sounds more rythmic and lively.
According to the survey conducted by several large universities across Cybertron, Vosian was recorded as third most popular foreign language to study, next to Iacon(1st place) and Urayan(2nd place).
Groundframes or flightframes without visible wings (i.e. Helicopters) may never be able to properly speak Vosian no matter how much they study. This is because there's another important form of Vosian other than sopken or written.
Vosian Wingspeech
Vosian wingspeech is a type of body language that is delivered through movements of back-mounted wings. Whenever a Vosian speaks, Wingspeech follows too.
In Common Vosian, the wingspeech is little more than gestures that emphasize certain meanings or feelings. Wing movements involved in the speech often happenes unconsciously, so even those who are not familiar with reading wings can approximate the meaning of the movement.
Things are different in High Spire Vosian, where the wingspeech is called "Courtyard Speech". It started as some fancy form of secret handshake that royals used to communicate without nobles overhearing them, and then later widely spread to the upper class in general.
The speaker moves their wings consciously in a series of complicated motions, as if building a sentence in spoken language. Thanks to this, a Vosian noble can speak two different things at once. Often the nobles would speak something and then speak something that contradicts their spoken words. In this case, it's better to bet on the Wingspeech being the real message.
There's only one kind of groundframes that can learn Wingspeech, and that's Praxians. Thanks to the doorwings they are born with, they can learn how to speak Wingspeech up to some level. They are surprisingly good at reading someone's Wings, despite the fact that Praxians themselves have never invented their own wingspeech.
Hello you are being divebombed and tackled by the reigning seeker tag champion.
| Yes hello he’s been expecting you. || Ark takes the tackle in stride and rolls with the momentum, taking care to block grabbing claws as they skid across the floor. He waits until Sparky’s on top of him, before kicking out with both legs to send the scrappy seeker flying. Soon as he’s free he’s up and back on his pedes, practically vibrating with anticipation as he turns and faces his ‘assailant’. |
“You waste no time bláznivé krídla~ So, does this mean I get to come after you now, or do you want to have another go at me?”
While most in Vos are well cared for and allowed to live their functions the way they wish, this does not stop crimes being committed. Intriguing and intellectual property theft are the most common and murders are almost unheard of, but only because the successful ones are expertly executed. Only amateurs get caught. In Vos, even crimes are committed with an artistic and poetic flare.
Sometimes entire prefectures have been locked down, rationed and put on probation, if the crime is notorious enough.
House arrest, community service and demerits are punishments for petty crimes. The offending seeker is also forced to wear a humiliating, ostentatious paint job as a further behavioural deterent.
Vos is the only city-state where one can be fined for disruptive paint jobs. Too reflective? Fined. Wearing another factions color? Fined. Wearing restricted colors?Fined.
If you want a crime committed but don't have the resources to do so, or want it traced back to you, you can always grease some servos from the factionless ghetto. But be warned, they may be lawless but they stick together.
Vos isn't one for wasting resources but if a crime is committed that threatens the security of Vos and it's people a few things could happen:
1. The culprit is tried by a jury of their peers and sentenced.
2. The culprit is risked away and intergrated for more information, then effective disposed of.
3. The culprit is tried then discreetly given an occupation that bests utilizes their conniving ways.
4. The culprit is tried and exiled from Vos never to return.
I want to believe that Vos has a very eastern aesthetic. Bells, ribbons, flags and wind chimes being heavily utilized. Any things that moves and flutters in the breeze. Emphasising wind and air, two things seekers are very familiar with.
Towers would be decorated with tassels and ribbons during festivals and celebrations.
Dancing, flying, and singing are very admired in this culture. There are entire districts dedicated to expressing and perfecting the vosian aesthetic.
When it comes to music, i feel wood wind instruments, there were a variety of large and small drums, gongs, chimes, flutes, and stringed instruments, such as the imported mandolin-like biwa, the flat six-stringed zither, and/or the thirteen stringed koto. Drums would be used to represent sonic booms created by jets surpassing the sound barrier. Their music could be light and airy or thunderous and loud.
Most seekers are painted to standout in the crowd but not to be garish. They follow color theory and tend to choose complementary colors.
Depending on the circumstance, Picking a new paint could be a casual affair or a political statement.
For their military personnel, they are painted with camouflage in mind. A light underbelly and a dark top, they would be difficult to see from above and below. Certain colors were only allowed to be used by active service members such as red accents and yellow for the Sky Lord.
When it comes to Vos’ overall architecture and design it’s very similar to Art Nouveau, very decorative and filled with curved and twisted motifs that mimic the movements of an aircraft in flight.
But less gold. It’s more Silver.
Expect skylights and colored glass to be prevalent. Fliers do like to have an unbroken visual of the sky. And lots of colors.
I've been avoiding some of the negative aspects of being a Seeker and how they are viewed by other bots.
Some stereotypes about seekers are:
That they all cloud cuckoo landers. They're weird and different so they must be crazy too, right.( I have a headcanon that compared to grounders, seekers are more comfortable with neurodivergent behaviors)
That they are shallow and vain. Why else would they care so much about how they look?( seekers have high self-esteem and self respect for themselves, they enjoy looking nice even if it's just for themselves.)
They are emotional and high-strung. Look at how they act when you touch their wings!( lease treat other peoples beliefs with respect, and for the love god, don't touch them without their consent. They have every right to be angry.)
They are sensual and provocative. Look at that frame. (Seekers look strange and exotic, and are often subject to objectification, they also arent righteous prudes)
They are hopeless romantics and are always looking for the "one", or two. (Finding trinemates is an important part of seeker culture, it's about finding life long companion(s) and having someone to be vulnerable with)
They aren't very bright and have nothing interesting to say.(I thinks this mentality comes from the fact that the average Vosian seeker is way more qualified for their chosen occupation than a grounder from any of the other city-states. It's an ego thing.)
They are needlessly complex and ornate and don't understand the simple life.(this isn't far from the truth but seeker have a different idea of what the 'simple life' means.)
They are uppity and pompous. They scoff at exports from other cities and think they are the best and have the best. The wankers...(thiiiiis comes from the seeker philosophy of quality over quantity, and my own disdain of cheaply made products with high price tags. Ugh.)
They are hedonistic and sexual deviants and their bathhouse are used for orgies. (This unfortunate stereotype came from the deliberate disregard for the rules of a Vosian bathhouse. A foreign guest slipped away from their assigned guide and wandered into one of the privately rented baths and...the rest is history. The offended patrons were offered a full refund and a discount on their next visit.)
They are frivolous 'little', relative, twits that love to sit and soak in large tubbs of energon! How wastful.(while yes seekers enjoy a good soak, this, particular 'bath' was actual a spiritual cleaning ceremony that all seekers take once a cybertronian year)
They have prostitution and whore houses! Scandalous!( This is ironic considering every city had some form of prostitution but for seekers this wasn't as commonplace. Intimacy and companionship was highly sought after in Vos. Geisha entertainers and oiran courtesans had a special place in vosian society. But there is one big difference between them. Grounders had a hard time telling that difference which offended many an entertainer)
That being said seekers have their own stereotypes about ground bound cybertronians as well:
Seekers can be framist(predjudiced?) Toward grounders. Emphasis on can be. In most indigenous cultures when outsiders are introduced they are met with curiosity but overall treated with respect. Only when that respect is not mutual, do problems arise. Like disrespect toward the culture and it's people. See Colonizer culture (Wakanda forever).
Seekers are very specialized and their features are unique. Lots of assumptions would be made about why they look the way they do. Like a seekers wings and the way they venerate them. Grounders don't have a point of reference for that sort of worship toward their own frames; in Grounder culture ever bit of themselves is interchangable so theirs no point to get attached unless you're sentimental like that. With seekers it's common to modify their frames to better align with their aesthetic but their wings are forever.
Seekers find grounders to loud and brutish. Why they feel the need to be rambunctious everywhere they go is a mystery to them. A bothersome mystery.
Seeker feel that most mechs from other city-states are stifled and repressed. It causes most of Seekers to treat them like younglings, not to be dismissive but to better communicate more complex topics. It isn't their fault
Seekers find grounders to be a homely group. They take it as a sign of humility though some believe them to be simpletons.
Like the rest of cybertron, Vos has its own castes, but they have a different connotation. Each are optional and it's completely fine to switch castes as long as one goes through the proper channels.
Their are six main factions, corresponding to the six cardinal directions:
Centre/Up (c)Gold🌟- The Empyrean/ruling
North(n)Black✴- The Sagacious / religious
South(s)Red🔺️- The Dauntless/military
East(e)Blue🔷️- The Elysian / Artisan
West(w)White⚪- The Erudite/ Intellectual
Center/down(d)grey 🔲- subterfuge/ the outcasts
There is a sixth faction but it is not spoken of in polite company.
🌟The Empyrean ruling class- these are the ruling elite, the best of the best. Each caste sends a worthy representative(s) to sit on the Heavenly council. They act as the legislative and judicial branches of the Vosian Government. They are elected by their peers within their respective castes. Any law to be pasts must be voted for by the majority within each indvidual caste.
✴The Sagacious/ religious- the pious few. They are the spiritual center of vosian society. They act as priests and nuns overseeing births, deaths, spiritual healing, and mental and emotional health along with being civil servants. They keep Vos clean and it's people happy. While most would find this tedious and unfulfilling, these mechs are completely at peace with their duty. They are highly, and begrudgingly, respected in Vos.
🔺️The Dauntless/ military- this faction has the largest seeker population. They are the First line of defence in the safety of Vos and her people. When not engaged in armed conflicts they act as Vos' militarized police force and Prefects within the individual districts. They are expected to be well versed in leadership and political matters but also be able to manage a 'civilian' populace.
🔷️The Elysian / Artisan district- all seekers strive to look beautiful but these seekers take it to a whole other level. They aspire to be beauty in carnate. They like to consider themselves living works of art. There are numerous artisan guilds that specialize in different areas of art and art forms from graphic design to architecture. The vosians of the artisan faction work together to make Vos into the Crown Jewel of Cybertron. The Crystal City? I don't know her...
⚪The Erudite/ intellectual- this is where the brightest seekers go to expand their CPUs. They are quick witted and clever and love giving impromptu lectures, much to everyones chagrin. Erudite seekers were the first castes allowed to travel to other city-state when vos opened its borders. They were quick to take note of the other city-states technological advancements, legally and illegally.
🔆The Sky emperor/Emperess is a spiritual and political position. They are to embody everything Vos stands for; an efficient war machine, a living work of art, the vision of wisdom and enlightenment, and learned in all ways of the universe, and subtle enough to never to be overwhelming. It is a very difficult position to be nominated for as few mechs have the the fortitude to take up the Celestrial mantle. It is common for the Heavenly throne to go empty for some time before a new ruler is chosen as the process to become a sky monarch is a long one. Once the throne is filled a new Dynasty will begin.
The reason there are Four factions and not just one big military group is because even though Seekers, as a whole, are technically war frames, as individuals that might not be the case. Some might want to be writers and artist, others might want to be engineers and scientists, and a few might want to get in touch with their spirituality, you never know. The military factions is one of the larger groups but it is full of Seekers that want to be there.
Every faction is considered equally and important to the flourishing of Vos. Does this stop them from placing more importance on the own faction? No.
Seekers are fiercely independent and do not like outsider encroaching in their territory. Its why seeker chose to remain isolated from the rest of cybertron. Grounders, and more specifically autobots, can be very aggressive when it comes to settling in new found lands.
The bad blood between seekers and grounders stems from the very first time the two cultures met. These proto-autobots were searching for large enough energon reserves to sustain their growing population while the proto-seekers were expanding to create new settlements.
Seekers are specialized for finding energon in all it’s form where as grounders have no such adaptations so, it is relatively easy for seekers to discover an energon deposit. Grounders had a much harder time until they developed the technology to do it for them.
Of course when they first made contact they were wary but cordial toward one another. It wasn’t until the proto-seekers began excavating the energon did the proto-autobots become hostile. Manifest destiny reared its ugly head and they were unwilling to share the resources that primus had given to them.
The skirmish that followed left both sides with casualties, with the seekers having the most as they did not anticipate the aggression. The proto-seekers fled and conceded the energon to the proto-autobots, they could find another, but this transgression would be remembered for ages to come.
While the proto-autobots had won the battle, they had lost to war. When the Proto-seekers learned of the grounders aggressive colonization of surrounding provinces, grounders, of any kind, were not welcome within seeker territories for fear of causing a resource war. Seekers had been able to strike a delicate balance with their energon supply and energon consumption, never use more than what was needed.
Ironically, the proto-autobots were surprised to learn that they were not welcome in this new land and took it as an affront to Primus’ Cause. They even attempted to start a religious war with the flying heathens, until they realized that their earlier victory was a stroke of sheer luck and were severely outmatched by the seekers fire power and coordination.
The proto-autobots continued to explore and colonize, remembering to avoid the seeker inhabited areas. At some point, the autobots settled down and began developing their culture and society and the seekers remained isolationists. It wasnt until more recent times, did the seekers finally open their cities to outsiders, in those trying times it was best to have allies, fellow seeker or no.
At this time, seeker culture was completely foreign to the rest of cybertron and was met with disdain and fascination.
