How to make a Cybertronian baby!
Well, I was re-reading the More Than Meets The Eye books and I realized some of my 'conception methods' actually fit with that canon, go figure! I'll probably post the 'protoform' part if anyone wants me to write it down -can't scan slag right now, my dad kidnapped the scaner, but I can write it down.
Endless Waltz Continuity: There's three 'basic methods' to go about having sparklings on this one but all ultimately go to the same basic essence.
- The first one involves female and male cybertronians conceiving together. During sparkbonding or spark connection the male spark 'splits' a little bit of itself and is nestled under the female's spark where it'll begin to 'suck' energy until a small fragment of the mother'sspark is pulled to merge with the 'parasitic' bit. After the male and female fragments are merged the new spark remains huddled in the mother's spark chamber and continues sucking energy from it to mantain itself alive.
The parents then place a small CR chamber with a basic protoform within the mother's body. It can be placed anywhere but renders the mother unable to transform none-the-less. The baby spark is transferred to the new protoform and developing sparkling will stay in the CR chamber contained in the mother until the spark has finished formatting the protoform into the 'definitive' appearance of the sparkling. Once the new protoform is fully developed it can be removed from the CR tank and the tank can be removed from the mother. Chances of developing a functional aberrant spark -mutated- are high and can produce twins, and the protoforms are often a basic body, parents rarely construct or design the body of their offspring through this method. The spark alone determinates the look of the new Cybertronian based usually in the design of the parents. Sparklings created this way are always male. Prowl and the Lamborghini Twins were created this way.
The 'sampling' method is used by male/male parents and single male or female parents wishing to conceive. This process takes place entirely in a medical facility and neither the spark or protoform are ever kept within either parent. The sampling performed by two male parents requires medical staff to manually remove a tiny piece of the spark of each parent and force both pieces together. This process is bound to fail often, as the spark pieces tend to repel each other and return to the original spark. When a merging attempt is successful, the new spark is kept in a cmall chamber that nourishes the spark while a protoform is made available for it. In this case it's often parents will construct the fully designed body of the offspring and its alternate mode, but some still allow the spark to determine the look of the sparkling. Two male parents can sometimes produce the rarity of female sparks. Jazz was created this way.
For single parents the process is similar minus the forced merging of the spark pieces. A larger sample must be taken from the parent, which is basicaly like cloning the parent. This process is the one with the lowest success rate and often produces aberrant sparks, many of which end up in heavily defective offspring. Either with very low intelligence, easily decaying bodies or the spark extinguishes very early in the sparkling's life. However, some aberrant sparks produce different mutations that do not necesarily affect the sparkling's development. Most of the sparklings created this way are placed in pre-constructed bodies since the spark is too weak to reformat a basic protoform on its own. If the donor of the sample is too old, chances for success are way too low and almost always developes an aberrant spark. Seekers are prime examples of sparklings created on this method. Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp were created this way.
Aberrant sparks are those that have 'mutated' and grant special/unique abilities to the Cybertronian that aren't included on their desin. Skywarp's teleporting ability, for example is granted by an aberrant spark. Prowl's advanced logic centers are product of an aberrant spark. Almost everyone in the Ark and the Nemesis have functional aberrant sparks. Skywarp would be one with a slightly defective aberrant spark because his intelligence is lower but he's still fully functional.
Nameless AU: Sparks here are produced by one and only source, Primus. The sparks aren't granted left and right and each one comes straight from Primus' essence, mixed with the essence of the parents, hence why some sparklings inherit traits from their creators.
Sparks are granted only by the influence of the High Priest, in this case, Sunstorm. The High Priest has some sort of psychic link with Primus and can 'talk' with him and plead for the granting of sparks. It's through the High Priest that Primus can 'see' the parents and determine if they're deserving of the sparks for their offspring.
Once a spark is granted they're gathered in a specially designed chamber in the High Priest's lair where they're stored and nourished until the parents provide the body. The bodies can either be pre-designed and constructed in robot mode, ready to be infused with a spark, basic protoforms that will be reshaped by the spark itself or pre-designed in alternate mode.
Certain families favor the pre-produced robot bodies to mantain a look among its members. This would be the case of Sunstorm's and Octane's offspring. Other families allow the spark to manipulate the protoform to design the body on its own. Smokescreen's and Chromia's children are some relatively rare cases where the offspring resembles one or both of the parents so heavily.
Blaster's and Soundwave's children, Rumble and Frenzy were given pre-designed bodies in altenate mode by Soundwave's especificatios. He built them as cassettes so he could store them inside of him to provide them shelter at all times. When the bodies are infused in this form, the spark will design the bodies based on what the alternate mode can allow. Sparklings 'born' in alternate mode remain in that mode for the equivalent of two Earth weeks. Then they can transform for the first time.
Sparklings born in robot mode stay in robot mode for several vorns until the bodies have gained enough mass to allow them to scan new alternate modes and for their processors to mantain full control of their original alternate modes. (This is why Mirage went crazy on the Seekers when Starscream forcedhis transformation. In Mirage's baby mind he was 'crawling/running' to them. He had no intention of run them over... well, not at first. He got so much fun from their reactions he started doing it intentionally.)
In this case, any cybertronian with special natural habilities has either inherited them from their parents or gained them as special modification, or because Primus granted that special ability to that spark. Mirage's Invisibility, for example is a Primus-granted ability.
There's a few other methods I use/intend to use on my fics. But for now I'll leave it at this. I've babbled long enough.
Endless Waltz Continuity: There's three 'basic methods' to go about having sparklings on this one but all ultimately go to the same basic essence.
- The first one involves female and male cybertronians conceiving together. During sparkbonding or spark connection the male spark 'splits' a little bit of itself and is nestled under the female's spark where it'll begin to 'suck' energy until a small fragment of the mother'sspark is pulled to merge with the 'parasitic' bit. After the male and female fragments are merged the new spark remains huddled in the mother's spark chamber and continues sucking energy from it to mantain itself alive.
The parents then place a small CR chamber with a basic protoform within the mother's body. It can be placed anywhere but renders the mother unable to transform none-the-less. The baby spark is transferred to the new protoform and developing sparkling will stay in the CR chamber contained in the mother until the spark has finished formatting the protoform into the 'definitive' appearance of the sparkling. Once the new protoform is fully developed it can be removed from the CR tank and the tank can be removed from the mother. Chances of developing a functional aberrant spark -mutated- are high and can produce twins, and the protoforms are often a basic body, parents rarely construct or design the body of their offspring through this method. The spark alone determinates the look of the new Cybertronian based usually in the design of the parents. Sparklings created this way are always male. Prowl and the Lamborghini Twins were created this way.
The 'sampling' method is used by male/male parents and single male or female parents wishing to conceive. This process takes place entirely in a medical facility and neither the spark or protoform are ever kept within either parent. The sampling performed by two male parents requires medical staff to manually remove a tiny piece of the spark of each parent and force both pieces together. This process is bound to fail often, as the spark pieces tend to repel each other and return to the original spark. When a merging attempt is successful, the new spark is kept in a cmall chamber that nourishes the spark while a protoform is made available for it. In this case it's often parents will construct the fully designed body of the offspring and its alternate mode, but some still allow the spark to determine the look of the sparkling. Two male parents can sometimes produce the rarity of female sparks. Jazz was created this way.
For single parents the process is similar minus the forced merging of the spark pieces. A larger sample must be taken from the parent, which is basicaly like cloning the parent. This process is the one with the lowest success rate and often produces aberrant sparks, many of which end up in heavily defective offspring. Either with very low intelligence, easily decaying bodies or the spark extinguishes very early in the sparkling's life. However, some aberrant sparks produce different mutations that do not necesarily affect the sparkling's development. Most of the sparklings created this way are placed in pre-constructed bodies since the spark is too weak to reformat a basic protoform on its own. If the donor of the sample is too old, chances for success are way too low and almost always developes an aberrant spark. Seekers are prime examples of sparklings created on this method. Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp were created this way.
Aberrant sparks are those that have 'mutated' and grant special/unique abilities to the Cybertronian that aren't included on their desin. Skywarp's teleporting ability, for example is granted by an aberrant spark. Prowl's advanced logic centers are product of an aberrant spark. Almost everyone in the Ark and the Nemesis have functional aberrant sparks. Skywarp would be one with a slightly defective aberrant spark because his intelligence is lower but he's still fully functional.
Nameless AU: Sparks here are produced by one and only source, Primus. The sparks aren't granted left and right and each one comes straight from Primus' essence, mixed with the essence of the parents, hence why some sparklings inherit traits from their creators.
Sparks are granted only by the influence of the High Priest, in this case, Sunstorm. The High Priest has some sort of psychic link with Primus and can 'talk' with him and plead for the granting of sparks. It's through the High Priest that Primus can 'see' the parents and determine if they're deserving of the sparks for their offspring.
Once a spark is granted they're gathered in a specially designed chamber in the High Priest's lair where they're stored and nourished until the parents provide the body. The bodies can either be pre-designed and constructed in robot mode, ready to be infused with a spark, basic protoforms that will be reshaped by the spark itself or pre-designed in alternate mode.
Certain families favor the pre-produced robot bodies to mantain a look among its members. This would be the case of Sunstorm's and Octane's offspring. Other families allow the spark to manipulate the protoform to design the body on its own. Smokescreen's and Chromia's children are some relatively rare cases where the offspring resembles one or both of the parents so heavily.
Blaster's and Soundwave's children, Rumble and Frenzy were given pre-designed bodies in altenate mode by Soundwave's especificatios. He built them as cassettes so he could store them inside of him to provide them shelter at all times. When the bodies are infused in this form, the spark will design the bodies based on what the alternate mode can allow. Sparklings 'born' in alternate mode remain in that mode for the equivalent of two Earth weeks. Then they can transform for the first time.
Sparklings born in robot mode stay in robot mode for several vorns until the bodies have gained enough mass to allow them to scan new alternate modes and for their processors to mantain full control of their original alternate modes. (This is why Mirage went crazy on the Seekers when Starscream forcedhis transformation. In Mirage's baby mind he was 'crawling/running' to them. He had no intention of run them over... well, not at first. He got so much fun from their reactions he started doing it intentionally.)
In this case, any cybertronian with special natural habilities has either inherited them from their parents or gained them as special modification, or because Primus granted that special ability to that spark. Mirage's Invisibility, for example is a Primus-granted ability.
There's a few other methods I use/intend to use on my fics. But for now I'll leave it at this. I've babbled long enough.