Apparently my motif for The Thirteen are “spooky energy beings with angelic imagery” and i still got like eleven of these demigods I haven’t drawn yet
I’m all about this spooky aesthetic so have a Solus Prime, the Inventor! I figure I’ll actually put this over on the tfm blog when I write up a thing about each of them.
She has lots of little tool-arms that come out of her chest to work on stuff.
There is a thing known by many titles and names. The Deep Void, the Hunger in us all, the Pit-Mouth, the Devourer, some whisper a name long forgotten- Unicron, they breath. The end given form.
It’s a silly myth, nothing but a representative force, a nameless adversary used to fill in for the threats faced by beings of legend. Nothing more, just a silly superstition, an explanation for the starless patch of sky or the ravings of madmechs.
Unicron does not appear in history, after all.
Nothing so vast and terrible could exist.
Ancient depictions of a winged planet devouring solar systems are nothing but metaphors, a visual, visceral impression of perhaps conquest or exploration or simply a commentary on how many species live on the cusp of death, such brief lifespans. Still, one has to wonder…why this image?
And why do these impressions unsettle all Cybertronians, so?
(Unicron seldom appears in art, or as pictographic runes, but as all good corrupting eldritch forces do, whatever you illustrate or describe it as…It may not stay like that should you look away. In illustrations it appears something like this, a weakened tangle of chaotic limbs/wings that is defeated and dispersed into nothingness.
Modern Cybertronians generally don’t believe in Unicron, or think it was killed ages past, but they like a good spooky story and there’s little spookier than something so ravenous it must consume planets and people, souls and all.)
How does Cybertronian cooking work? Do I just stick “Energon” in front of any random food like Energon nachos, Energon corndogs, Energon fries and stuff???
Idk, TFWiki has a list of canonical Transformer foods, and the fandom has come up with a few staples (e.g. Mercury rolls, though no one can really agree if these are like cinnamon rolls or something else), but I think most things would work if you added ‘energon’ in front of them? I personally have looked into chemistry experiments and wondered if transformers could eat the results, like aerogel.
I know that energon is similar, physically, to honey in Matrix, so there’s a variety of flavors and textures it comes in depending upon trace elements and how it’s crystals form, or how it’s treated, but actual cuisine in Matrix revolves more around anything else they need- certain minerals or chemicals they need to ingest, metals they might supplement their diet with, etc
Though on Earth that winds up less “cuisine” and more, uh.
There was an art to climbing a Cybertronian. It wasn’t like a tree, or a climbing wall at the gym, or even like climbing fences, walls, piles of abandoned cars- suffice to say, Spike Witwicky had great experience climbing things. Keeping his feet safely on the ground was considered to be the hard part, by those who knew him, and it was only a matter of time from his first fateful encounter with the Autobots to him learning to pull himself up onto their backs and shoulders without hesitation.
Said matter of time was really a few hours.
Now, months later, he was a veritable expert.
Fortunately, they didn’t mind, for the most part. Smaller bots climbing upon larger ones was natural, easy- a sort of symbiosis that they all adhered to- Spike had observed and asked questions and understood well, now. Smaller bots climbed on larger ones for transport, to reach new heights- and to groom them in return, and larger bots happily assisted- Optimus Prime in particular had a habit of scooping up those smaller than him, only made easier when said smaller beings were humans who fit neatly into his cupped servos.
The first step was to learn where it was safe to grab. Nobody wanted pinched fingers, and nobody wanted fingers shoved into seams that housed sensory organs, so observing your climbing target first was key.
Then came ensuring that they knew you were there- jumping onto an unaware cybertronian turned out to be a good way to startle them into jolting you off- a shout or a small, benign touch usually did the trick. Unless they were Optimus, in which case you simply hopped on, since he had no qualms about being used as a jungle gym.
Third, you paced yourself. Minibots had no problem scrambling thirty feet vertically. Prowl could literally jump most of the height, but humans? Spike generally found that going steady got him further up Optimus than trying to push it. A good resting spot along the transformation panels of his lower back was ideal, when you needed to give your hands a break.
And you wore gloves. Cybertronians weren’t…textured, quite like anything he’d touched, but metal blisters still happened, or you were rubbed raw by a patch of irritable nanites where they were healing fresh paint. Bumblebee bought him the nice climbing gloves, and he made good use of them.
There was a final rule, to this art he’d mastered. Able to scramble up any of the Autobots easily (and admittedly, he’d managed it on a few Decepticons at this point, too) and to find the right spots on shoulders or back struts to put himself. The final rule, of course…was to relax. To enjoy it. To pick at peeling paint and rub grit off their armor where you saw it- to let them enjoy it too.
After all, it was only fair when you were using them as a climbing wall.
Red Alert: I lost, like 2000 pounds.
Hot Shot: Wow! What’s your secret?
Red Alert: I had my arm cut off.
Cybertronian Database 