Quick post.
I've got a question that's really bugging me. Who would the official quartermasters or 'gathering random stuff that someone needs' mechs be for each faction? I would guess Scavenger for the 'Cons, but I'm not sure if he'd be qualified to get stuff like highly technical scientific equipment. And for the 'Bots I have no idea. Beachcomber?
1. Wheeljack builds several sets of ‘Bot-sized rollerblades, and a few brave mechs test them. The cassettes steal some and bring them back, claiming that they have some sort of importance or bestow some type of power. Actually, they’d seen the testing and just want to see the other ‘Cons make fools of themselves. They turn in the rollerblades and give a highly-edited version of what they’d seen, then sit back and watch the hilarity unfold.
2. Someone gets stabbed. Someone else bleeds. (Bleeds energon, that is. What do you call bleeding when it’s not blood that’s coming out? Energeening?)
3. Someone goes a little crazy one day and decides to stand up for those who have traditionally been oppressed by Cybertronian society. He/She founds a third faction and gathers to himself/herself an army of femmes, cassettes, and glitches.
4. Red Alert knows that several ‘Bots are secretly friends/lovers of ‘Cons. Reasoning that the ‘Cons would do something rash without some sort of guaranteed neutral ground, he fakes a comm message from Sideswipe to Bluestreak with the coordinates of the perfect spot for covert prank planning. Knowing Bluestreak, the location of an unobserved area would make its way around the Ark within a week.
Red Alert then builds a large, deliberate blind spot in his camera network at those coordinates. The ‘Bots and ‘Cons are then free to plan covert meetings there, and Red Alert can be satisfied that no cross-faction meeting occurs without his knowledge (also, he now has a permanent source of blackmail material)… because the coordinates of the ‘accidental’ camera-blind area are right outside Red Alert’s quarters - which have been updated with a concealed window and recording devices.
5. Bonecrusher wants to build some sort of surprise gift or gifts for his gestaltmates. However, being a demolitions expert, he doesn’t know much about creative construction. Not knowing where else to turn, he builds an elaborate trap for Grapple and Hoist and then promises to release them if they help him with making his presents (or they could BE the presents).
6. Chromia is cheating on Ironhide with Powerglide. Shockwave catches them on his cameras and for the sake of old friendship and camaraderie (and destabilizing the Autobots), he sends the recordings to Ironhide.
7. G1 Perceptor/Animated Blackarachnia. Just how grateful would she be if she finally found someone who was both smart enough to restore her original form and kind enough to actually do it without stabbing her in the back? Of course, Perceptor has his own reasons for wanting to experiment with semi-organic technology…
8. Omega Supreme gets bored easily. He asks Blaster to fit him with a sound system.
9. Frenzy analyzes the close bond between himself and his ‘siblings’, and he decides that they might as well make themselves into a mini-gestalt. Motormaster and Scrapper hear of his unusual ambition and give him tips.
10. Elita-1 and Shockwave are about to have a sparkling. They’re terrified of how Optimus will react when he finds out (because the two of them are among the few who have seen Optimus truly full-out raging mad), so they recruit the most intimidating and dangerous ‘Bot they know to deliver the sparkling and be its godfather: Perceptor Ratchet.
11. The Constructicons are sick and tired of being on ‘medic duty’. Their skills were really only picked up from slapdash emergency repairs of each other after construction accidents (which happen more often than you would think). Megatron insists that a Constructicon continue to fill the post of head medic, and doesn’t listen when they protest that they enjoy building things, not fixing things. First Aid enjoys fixing things… and for some reason Scavenger insists that he would look good in purple and lime green.
12. (Related to a previous bunny.) Swoop and Laserbeak meet occasionally to chat about being unfairly relied upon, being underappreciated, being teased for having organic-based alt modes, being teased for not being ‘real’ fliers, putting up with rowdy teammates/siblings, etc. Swoop talks with pride about the medical training Ratchet is giving him, and Laserbeak (being rather intelligent) is the only one of Swoop’s friends who is both willing to listen and smart enough to understand Swoop’s explanations.
Swoop begins to deliberate whether using his increasing medical skills to reprogram Laserbeak into a ‘Bot would be wrong. Laserbeak is recording each conversation to use as an ace in case Soundwave or a cassette ever gets on Megatron’s bad side (a weak spot in the mighty Dinobot team would make a fine bargaining chip), but as time passes the condor-cassette starts to feel a little sorry for the lonely Dinobot.
13. Someone dies for Perceptor. The scientist feels so guilty, he lays down his experiments and scientific work and takes up the weapons of a warrior in honor of his fallen friend’s noble sacrifice. (Optional portion: Little does he know that the ‘fallen friend’ was actually a clumsy Decepticon spy who had outlived his usefulness. The spy’s last mission was to somehow trick Perceptor into abandoning a critical and war-winning experiment before the crucial test was performed.)
14. After an extremely confusing battle and an even more confusing battlefield surgery, Optimus and Megatron switch bodies. No, not like that. Ratchet and Hook accidentally put the two leaders’ temporarily-detached heads on the wrong bodies, and the two factions skedaddled before the error was realized. So they retain their heads (including the CPU, consciousness, and logical thought processes), but each has the body (including the spark and maybe some emotions) of the other. This also means that Megatron has the Matrix (but not the knowledge of how to exploit it or indeed, how to safely remove it), while Optimus gets to play with Megatron’s fusion cannon. Yes, I know what that sounds like it's come up before we don't need to discuss it again OH hi Megatron, no I wasn't discussing MxOP again well nice to see ya bye!