honestlyvan:

S/O to @deformed-car for helping me overthink this comic, b/c it let me work out for myself how resting works for Transformers.

So we’d both heard “defragging” – which refers to “defragmentation”, process of moving data around on a hard drive to better segment it – used in the context of sleep before, and they lined it up nicely with the theory of sleep that one function of it in humans is to analyse and structure memories. That kind of got me thinking that “recharge” probably has several phases to it, sort of how a sleep cycle has multiple parts to it.

Starting with just initiation, all the basic frame control systems start to shut off, all non-critical systems get depowered, and the self-repair system is initiated to run its own checks and start working on repairs that are too resource-intensive to do while awake. If the system is too backed up, there’s a chance the rest cycle initiation fails, which necessarily won’t stop the other systems from intiating, it just means that the processor never moves on from “awake” tasks, resulting in difficulties falling asleep or getting any actual rest.

The aim of initiating a rest cycle is to eventually run down all other system that needs management, leaving the core systems idle so that they also can undergo repairs and maintenance – such as memory defragmentation. “Deep repair” requires that the system run internal checks every now and again, which brings some of the subsystems back online to run those checks, resulting in periods of deeper and more shallow rest.

Powering down to “recharge” also means that there’s a maximum amount of fuel available, allowing even intense maintenance to be run – especially in continuities where recharging is done by tethering to an external power source. The need for rest might also just be a direct consequence of the system being unable to efficiently run self-checks while the processor is occupied by “awake” tasks. You can forego rest, but it’ll start causing slowdown after a while.