Day four
Disclaimer: All that I've come up with for photocats are based off a single line in a G1 episode. "A real photovoltaic pussycat." It was in reference to a pleasent disposition and that's it, everything is extraploated from that one little phrase.
*playing with colors*
Photovoltaic pussycats, or simply photocats for brevity, are autotrophic lifeforms with parts of their life cycle taking a plantlike form in which a single photocat splits itself into four identical, but independent, individuals.
1) A single photocat.
2) It is unknown which is the cause and which is the effect; all we know is that when a photovoltaic pussycat is ready for planting itself, it's colors fade a little and their tail doesn't glow quite as bright.
3) A firmly planted and already metamorphizing photocat, there is no removing the animal/plant at this point. Below the surface are tendrils reaching for energon and hard materials for it's use. You can see the strips of metal being pulled up around it that will later become it's trunk. And it's solar panels have spread open in a conical formation, no longer folded up neatly.
4) An unmistakable photocat tree. The panels have split into four groups, as has the single tail become four. You can see, beneath the panels the structures that are to become the bodies of the new generation photocats. The solar collection panels are a marvel, with energy collection cells packed on one side and acid resistent on the other. The panels are spun so that each side is exposed to the appropriate weather.
5) Once mature, the fruiting bodies expand, revealing the flexable neck and mid-body, and then drop off. The trunk won't be abandoned, it's a handy shelter and post for maximum solar energy collection. In resource rich areas you can find forests of bare photocat trunks, some even being the cats in growth.
This was fun, I've been trying to find a way to show how plant like these guys can be and having it as their reproduction cycle is rather perfect. Also, the reason the tree is bent so far is that I didn't bother making the file size larger and I had to make it fit. For the new watchers, red dude is my autotroph scientist OC Rotary. His altmode is a lawnmower, and he studies anything and everything that can derive it's own fuel directly from an outside energy source.
*playing with colors*
Photovoltaic pussycats, or simply photocats for brevity, are autotrophic lifeforms with parts of their life cycle taking a plantlike form in which a single photocat splits itself into four identical, but independent, individuals.
1) A single photocat.
2) It is unknown which is the cause and which is the effect; all we know is that when a photovoltaic pussycat is ready for planting itself, it's colors fade a little and their tail doesn't glow quite as bright.
3) A firmly planted and already metamorphizing photocat, there is no removing the animal/plant at this point. Below the surface are tendrils reaching for energon and hard materials for it's use. You can see the strips of metal being pulled up around it that will later become it's trunk. And it's solar panels have spread open in a conical formation, no longer folded up neatly.
4) An unmistakable photocat tree. The panels have split into four groups, as has the single tail become four. You can see, beneath the panels the structures that are to become the bodies of the new generation photocats. The solar collection panels are a marvel, with energy collection cells packed on one side and acid resistent on the other. The panels are spun so that each side is exposed to the appropriate weather.
5) Once mature, the fruiting bodies expand, revealing the flexable neck and mid-body, and then drop off. The trunk won't be abandoned, it's a handy shelter and post for maximum solar energy collection. In resource rich areas you can find forests of bare photocat trunks, some even being the cats in growth.
This was fun, I've been trying to find a way to show how plant like these guys can be and having it as their reproduction cycle is rather perfect. Also, the reason the tree is bent so far is that I didn't bother making the file size larger and I had to make it fit. For the new watchers, red dude is my autotroph scientist OC Rotary. His altmode is a lawnmower, and he studies anything and everything that can derive it's own fuel directly from an outside energy source.