In a human? Pretty much nothing. Organics barely register as “people” to most cybertronians, and since there’s no instinctive recognition of “normal human” vs “aberrant human” you could be sprouting horns and breathing fire and they’d be like nah, nah, that seems legit, that seems normal. Humans do that, right?
Humans who are, say, under control of certain malevolent or otherwise unusual forces that cybertronians can pick up on would have some features that other humans might actually not pick up on, conversely- or there are even energy-based beings that can effectively “hide” as humans- generating their own holomatter avatar in order to interact with them. Humans who give off a notable cybertronian EM field would unsettle a cybertronian, and ones with EM fields that fall into a sort of “uncanny valley” effect for them would do so even more, or ones who give off a dangerous-coded EM field.
Buster, for example, can startle or unsettle bots- even though he basically outputs an overwhelmingly positive/pleasant/caring EM field and when he uses his powers with visual effects, the register as more or less the equivalent of “angelic” or otherwise benign, wondrous things to Cybertronians. But it’s still a human doing that, and that can weird them out.
(Think of a bot’s EM field/sparkfield as a sort of additional layer of awareness or sensation- it’s part of how they express emotional state, as an extension of body language.)
Of course, as for cybertronians- they find aberrant or otherwise unusual EM fields to be one of the first signs, and this can also indicate that a bot is sick or otherwise suffering some sort of spark-based malfunction. Other signs that would make them unnerved or frightened;
Unlit optics and unlit biolighting – A cybertronians optics almost always give off at least a dim light, unless they’re using shielded lenses, but a cybertronian with unlit or camera-like optics is considered very unsettling. Similar to entirely-black eyes would seem to humans. Sometimes referred to as ‘dead optics’ seeing as unlit optics often indicate when a bot has died completely.
A lack of a healthy paint layer –cybertronian ‘paint’ is continually refreshed by nanites- think of it as the outermost layer of their skin that helps to protect them. An unhealthy paint layer may be patchy, peeling, absent, or have a dusty, ashy gray color that leaves residue when touched- cybertronians who have died fade in coloration to varying degrees as a result of mass nanite death. Unicronians themselves have a ‘tarnished’ and ‘oily’ effect because their paint layer is maintained by unicron, as they have no more living nanite colonies.
Visibly exposed internals and damage would also be a strong sign that something was wrong- for the same reason it would be so in humans. While Cybertronians care capable of surviving with incredible amounts of damage, it’s still painful and uncomfortable and they’ll go out of their way to repair or at least cover exposed areas as soon as they can. Someone wandering around with a huge hole in their torso seemingly okay with it is…unsettling. Not necessarily bad, considering that they may be ignoring the pain in order to continue tasks or even unable to feel it at the moment, but still. That’s guts!
Actively ‘decaying’ metal goes with the one right above- not only does this mean rust or tarnish, but cybertronians contain nanites that help to upkeep them, but these nanites also are responsible for cleaning and removing waste material from the body- these nanites can turn on the body and begin consuming nonessential resources (such as armor) in order to repair or fuel systems, or as a result of tampering or illness. A cybertronian covered in small, oddly organic-looking holes and ragged edges is like seeing someone with chicken pox.
Unusual energon coloration or consistency might require someone to be injured, but a healthy cybertronian’s internal energon will generally be in a pink-to-violet range, or occasionally blue. A cybertronian with green, yellow, orange, etc etc energon is almost a sure sign that something is wrong, and that goes double if it seems to be leaking from them. Similarly, leaking coolant or oil (especially if they are also miscolored) is unsanitary and unsettling. Unicronians lack actual energon in their systems, and instead they tend to “bleed” a thick, black, oily-sheen sludge. And when they’re in particularly bad straits, this may also leak out the optics, intakes, basically everywhere. It’s vvvvvvv. gross.
man i sorta noticed an interesting thing abt tfa comlinks?? the autobots press their fingers against the side of their helmets in order to talk, while decepticons can apparently just speak into the air and it will register
which i mean! fits really well if we go with the whole “decepticons are military” thing, ‘cuz you might not have a free arm in battle to call someone
but it also means that decepticons are voice activity scrubs who don’t use push to talk
Does that imply that “callers” could listen in on a Decepticon? Is their comlink linked with their brain or is it all the time turbed on? This also can be very useful when captured. They could let their comlink line just open and other ‘Cons are able to hear where they might be captured or who is holding them somewhere. The fact, that Decepticons don’t need to push anything to just talk through their comlink is pretty cool and helpful. Though, if it is possible to be hacked, Autobots could use this to listen to any conversation the ‘Cons will have.
That’s a thing in TFP too! The Autobots always put their finger on the side of their helm, but in the scene where Starscream gets his arm shot off and calls for a bridge, he just yells into the air while holding his arm in his other hand. I always figured the ‘Cons had more advanced comms, since overall they seem to have more stuff, and Ratchet is always so impressed with their science.
They can probably just activate it by thinking about it.
anyways headcanon that human made viruses are almost cold/fever viruses for cybertronians. complete with their version of sneezing (rapidly expelling air through body vents), heating up, and excessive energon consumption. vehicons especially have problems with this as theyre not exactly “tech savvy” since theyre basically throwaway soldiers.
soundwave is in a constant state of exasperation at having to deal with the newest virus a vehicon caught because they attempted to torrent undertale or some dumb shit like that off the internet
knockout reaches a new level of “god why” when breakdown ends up in the medbay after attempting to torrent undertale so he could see the blue fish lesbian who punches things
There’s a few scenes here and there that hint at how fucking creepy Shockwave’s anatomy is, so I had to draw out what it might look like at a different angle and internally, cuz his TFA design is so damn creepy! And I need to show my appreciation for it somehow
I’M GONNA PROVE THAT CYBERTRONIANS ARE CLOSER TO PLANTS IN ANATOMY THAN MECHANICS AND ELECTRONICS AND I’LL FUCKING PROVE IT USING BITS OF CANON
SO FAR FUNGI ARE DOING BETTER THAN PLANTS IN BEING CYBERTRONIAN LIKE
– complex cell structures while still having a cell wall rather than just a membrane (my main argument for cybertronians being non-animal organics; their metal is extremely hard cell wall structures)
– can reproduce both sexually and asexually; in Marvel they’ve shown to reproduce via budding
– grows well in damp acidic areas; cybertron has acidic rain and in uh… some continuities cybertron just doesn’t have a sun anymore
– We don’t know what Primus is in the continuities he’s cybertron itself, energon could be a waste product that the cybertronians can live mostly off of,
BLEASE google “dimorphic fungi” because i feel like it will make your day + help your theory to know that there are types of fungi that can totally change forms (cough… transform)
like there are plenty of species that turn from a mold/hyphal form into a yeast form. sometimes they change based on temperature, environment, other physiological stuff… sometimes we just dont know…
fungi are so cool and i support this “transformers as fungi” theory
HELL YES THANK YOU FOR YOUR ADDITION TO THIS PSEUDO SCIENCE THEORY
I love plants and animals and all sorts of life and fungi isn’t something I know a TON about compared to, say, my general knowledge on bugs, so this is really useful thank you 😀
This is a tricky one, and one that forces us to loosen up our thinking a bit. Because the Transformers are robots, and because the spark is a tangible concept, we expect their mechanical biology to be more explainable, but really – it’s not.
Think about a human being. It’s an endless and unanswerable philosophical debate over what the difference between the “mind” and the “soul” are, and if those things are, or are not, distinct and separate from the ideas of the “consciousness,” and exactly what relationship they have to the physical “brain.”
Well, Transformers are the same. The spark is the “lifeforce,” the animating energy that makes them actually living creatures and not just machines, which as a tangible concept is more “knowable” and “provable” than the ethereal concept of a human soul. But they also have brain modules that contain the programming that is their “mind,” called a “core consciousness” in Beast Wars that was a concept distinct from a spark, which made up who they are as a person.
And the relationship between the two is just as undefinable as it is for humans. Even in Beast Wars alone, seemingly contradicting what we were told about core consciousnesses, Optimus Primal’s disembodied spark was transferred from one body to another alone, taking his mind and all his memories with it – but that happened in the same story in which Rhinox was able to project his core consciousness – his mind, not his spark – out of his body and into the Matrix. And then later in Beast Machines, we’d see multiple sparks moved from body to body, consciousness travelling with them each time. So where does consciousness lie if both these things are possible?
Presumably, the spark is what “fills” the brain module with that personality programming upon a Transformer’s activation. But, it is just programming, and it can be overwritten – Beast Wars used shell programs, while in Energon, Megatron could do it himself, and did it to Inferno, who only escaped by destroying his physical body and having his spark – unaffected – moved to a new body.
And how connected the mind and spark are once that initial birthing is forever in question. If you can alter a mind without altering a spark, must they then be considered separate concepts? In Binaltech, for example, Wheeljack was able to “resurrect” the dead Prowl by loading the programming from his mind into a new body, and using the lifeforce of Chip Chase in place of a spark. And it’s possible to have robots who have “just” programmed minds – no sparks – who are totally indistinguishable from normal Cybertronians in all cognitive functions, appearing just as sentient and alive as anyone else (Beast Machines’ Diagnostic Drone, Afterburn from the Animated comic) – but who are just considered… not, purely because they don’t have sparks.
So you see, sparks and brain modules co-exist with these philosophically-intriguing overlapping qualities, and exactly which truly makes a Transformer who and what they are is…. open to interpretation. When Megatron transferred his mind into Bumblebee’s, he was essentially moving programming from one piece of hardware to another. Did he remain “alive” in Bee’s brain because of Bee’s spark, providing animating force to his body? Or was it because his own spark remained alive inside his own body, his intangible “soul” transcending any kind of physical limitation, in the more abstract sense we might think of if a human character were to do the same?
What if Cybertronians had an instinctive reaction to tentacles- an ancient and supposedly pointless line of code that, depending on the bit, either instills them with a phobia of them or a fetish or, in many cases, a passivity response.
So a bot wrapped up in tentacles relaxes and gets a lil heated at first and yepppp turns out its a gross ancient response built in by Quintessons to make them easier to handle and manipulate.
I need Quintessons in valveplug I’m fuckin gross but u know you’re all sinners with me and would groove on Quintessons seducing and fragging Bots into submission.
I am super down for this. Fuck yeah, ancestral Quintesson slave coding.
And also tentacles.
Someone said tentacles?
Sign me up for this.
I would read that…;)
I want to play with it so badly TuT
Like medberths having tentacle-like straps to restrain patients, playing on that passivity response. Mechs who can’t sleep properly discovering they CAN relax enough to sleep when rolled up in a few hundred meters of draughtstop. (Discovering THAT by being very very tired when doing maintenance, getting tangled up in loose tubes and dozing off while waiting for someone to come get them out)
… Bluestreak with a life-size plushie colossal squid deliberately tucking the tentacles around him before trying to recharge and if he falls asleep at movie night someone goes and gets the squid and drapes it over him so he doesn’t wake up from nightmares
WHEN THE FUCK DID THIS GET SO MANY NOTES I SAW TIS COME UP ON MY DASH AND ALMOST GOT ORANGE JUICE UP MY NOSE HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS YOU REALLY WANT SOME HOT QUINTESSON ACTION
Good thing, becuase so do I.
Bots watching videos of earthly cephalopods and being oddly entranced by the smooth, undulation motions of the tentacles. SOme bots feel a deep, unsettling pang of fear at the sight and don’t know why.
The worst is bots who have a passivity response and a fear response, so they panic…but can’t do anyting about it, becuase they relax and go slack while internally worrying.
That, or you’d have the ones that react severely negatively and these would be the ones that the Quintessons were trying to find and route out, but were unable so some of that aversion CNA made it through frame lines.
And they can’t understand why the others are so entranced while they’re repulsed.
This is a headcanon I could get behind. Pieces of that are really cute, others are appropriately disturbing.
(just a smol fic here, not edited or anything at all)
Jazz wished he took a better look at that codeing the one orn he came across it. It was just sitting their in his sub-core programming, connected to his motor relays not doing anything. And when he poked it, it lit up for a second and settled down back into it’s dormant state, completely harmless. So he went over it and forgot to look at it again. It was currently his biggest regret ever.
The tentacles
that were wrapped around him squeeze a little bit, like a hug, and his frame went lax again against his will from the tension that had built up from his thoughts. He was suspended in the air, not a part of him not supported by the many appendages the creatures around them had. The codeing had flared up when the creature had taken a hold of him from behind.
They had been fighting, there ship had landed not at all far from where there base was and started to outright attack them. They were at war, and so they knew what to do. But when the hatch opened to show the creatures, confusion broke out, and it wasn’t good at all. But most of the bots kept fighting anyways and, and… what again? One of the appendages had caressed his helm, gentle and smooth against his sensitive auido horns and warm. He leaned into the support, optics flickering off when the tentacle stayed where it was, the warmth of the appendage comforting in the cool air around him, all the tentacles
really, keeping him warm in the cool air.
Then they were moving, he was gliding through the air, not caring, but he did care, and he tried his best to reactivate his optics, seeing a glimpse of another creature, one with three faces, cradling Bluestreak like a new spark, wrapped much like himself in
tentacles. Beyond that he caught a glimpse of Prowl, being attended to by two of the creatures that had one face each, like the one that was carrying him, both of the ones at Prowl very attentive to how aroused he was looking with the tips of the appendages wiggling they way under his plating, holding his secure there. He tried to look more, at the sound of someone scared and frightened but he was tilted, going up the ramp of the ship, past some more creatures that had swiveling faces, and a oval looking frame, they to had plenty of
tentacle appendages.
The last one in line stopped the creature that was carrying him. It changes faces five times, he thinks, he couldn’t for the life of him keep his optics on longer than for a few short klicks at a time when the five face one began to caresses him also. He shifted hands, well,
tentacles when the five faced one took him from the one faced creature, a new set of appendages shifted around him and took him down a different hall than all the others were being taken. He to was cradled against this new five faced creature, but the codeing was held fast against all his prodding and probing. They enters a very brightly lit room, and despite being let go and and onto a medical like berth, his frame was still limp against his will, and when the creature pried away the cover of his medical port at the nape of his neck, and pluged in what ever wiring, it didn’t hurt a bit. He lost the battle, optics shuttering, and he entered recharge.
AAAAAAAA EVERYBODY READ THIS YOU WONT REGRET IT!!!!!!!!!
Speaking of Quintessons I’m rebogging this fic again because AAAAAAAA
Cybertronian Database 