Bunnies, bunnies everywhere
1. Brawn only pretends to scorn Perceptor’s scientific work, because:
A. He’s bitter and jealous. He was once a second-rate scientist, and aspired to Perceptor’s level of intelligence, looking up to him as a hero. When Brawn first joined the Autobots he wanted to serve in a scientific capacity, but he wasn’t quite smart enough so he had to upgrade himself into a warrior;
B. He’s happier as a warrior. He doesn’t want the Autobots to realize that he’s qualified to be the lab assistant Perceptor’s been asking for;
C. He and Perceptor were old friends and he knows that Perceptor works better if he’s being challenged;
D. He’s a Decepticon spy, but he likes Perceptor. He has to continually downplay Perceptor’s usefulness so he isn’t ordered to kidnap or harm him;
E. Before the war, Brawn was Perceptor’s bodyguard. The way he makes fun of how Perceptor doesn’t fight is just a playful old argument between them;
F. In private, Perceptor mocks Brawn’s brute-strength approach to war just as harshly as Brawn mocks Perceptor in public;
G. Brawn is secretly copying Perceptor’s advancements and sending the records back to Cybertron to be copyrighted in his (Brawn’s) name.
2. The Lambo twins aren’t twins. Well, technically, they are twins - they’re just not each other’s twins.
A. Maybe Bumblebee is Sunstreaker’s twin and Cliffjumper is Sideswipe’s twin? Or the other way round?
3. Optimus pretends to treat all of his Autobots equally, but that’s very hard to do. He still remembers how some of them treated him back when he was Orion Pax, the lowly unskilled laborer. Sometimes it makes him sick, when he hears those same mechs going on about the ideals of equality and fair treatment. Where were those ideals when those future 'Bots were hanging out by the docks with their friends and decided to blow off some steam by beating up some dock worker whom no one cared about? And how can he not feel like a hypocrite, when he stands next to those mechs on the battlefield and stares across at the 'enemies' who had once saved him from dying in a dark, lonely alley so long ago?
4. Beauty is pain, and pain, beauty.
5. Someone ties a noisy, shiny metal object to Ravage’s tail.
6. Inferno knows very little about his creators. He was taken away from them when he was very young by the inefficient and under-funded Youngling Care department. From his vague memories, Inferno believes (correctly) that one of his creators gave him a personality similar to his own, such as his mostly laid-back demeanor, his patience, and the strong immune system which protects him from semi-contagious glitches and infections. Of his other creator, all that Inferno can recall is a strange golden glow and the crackling of flames - sensations which Inferno has found oddly comforting his entire life.
7. Perceptor can see everything - even where Skywarp goes when he warps.
8. Perceptor used to be just one of Shockwave's tools. Shockwave tried to harness the power of Primus to boost the power of his optic, so he could see all over Cybertron, hunt out the Autobot femmes, and guard the whole planet for Mommytron. The experiment was working, but Primus knew that Shockwave shouldn't be allowed to harness his power, so at the last second he diverted the power from Shockwave to the little microscope next to him. Shockwave realized what happened, and tried to manipulate Perceptor to use Primus' power...
9. Inferno has to leave the Ark for a long mission, and Red Alert can't come. Inferno starts contemplating which ‘Bot he should ask to watch over Red while he’s gone.
10. 2007verse. Megatron, frozen and semiconscious, observes as the Internet is invented and slowly develops. Hey, it’s probably better for him that he wasn’t fully aware when he saw some of the weird stuff humans put on the Web…
11. Optimus as a demagogue.
12. Megatron gives a speech on Decepticon ideals that would actually sound good to an Autobot.
13. No one would ever label him as the type to rally a crowd or lead a battle. In general, he was a soft-spoken mech who tried to avoid any sort of verbal confrontation. Despite this, from the moment of his creation he possessed the instinct and charisma to command and be obeyed. These talents had lain hidden for millennia as he kept his head down and earned his reputation as just another soldier, more comfortable following orders than giving them. But the time was fast approaching when those around him would lose faith in their leaders and search for a new source of guidance - and if he did not rise to the occasion, there were other unassuming mechs who were more than willing to seize the opportunity…
14. The debate has raged between the two factions from the moment some twisted mech thought up the weird idea of cross-faction bonds… Which is the dominant ‘trait’, red optics or blue optics?
15. Soundwave somehow gets shrunk to his cassettes’ size.
16. Every mech ever sparked has a ‘twin’; Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are rarities not for being twins, but for actually finding their twin within the course of their lifetime.
17. Teletraan-1 gets addicted to Internet RPGs.
18. A three-legged race.
19. Wheeljack had a shipment of important apparatus coming through, but the Insecticons intercepted and ate it. Wheeljack’s got a score to settle. Say hello to the Mosquitobots!
20. Optimus gets captured. Megatron visits him in his cell to gloat. Optimus is in the middle of a nice “I’ll never give in to your demands, freedom is the right of all sentient beings, you’re ugly and yo momma was a trash compactor” spiel when all of a sudden, the Matrix electrocutes him. How embarrassing.
21. Skyfire is every bit as vain as Starscream. He just hides it better.
22. Megatron’s too busy dealing with Starscream to pay much attention to the other ‘Cons, so he asks Shockwave to come visit. The plan is that Shockwave will disguise himself, pretending to be a former prisoner converted to the Decepticon cause, to get an idea of what the morale in the ‘Con base is like. So Shockwave goes incognito and settles in among the ‘Con forces on Earth; and he’s not conspicuous at all because his new form is pretty much your average, everyday, not faceless ‘Con. Problem is, Shockwave is pretty old and he was quite used to his original form. He has some trouble adjusting to having two optics (as opposed to one), an olfactory sensor (as opposed to none - why would he need one on Cybertron?), and a vocalizer that requires movement of the mouth.
23. Someone finally tells Megatron that normal construction vehicles aren’t lime green and purple. Megatron insists that the Constructicons get a makeover.
24. Sideswipe, Frenzy, Rumble, and Skywarp trade graffiti tips and stories.
25. Ratchet isn’t the only medic to threaten to give unruly patients humiliating alt modes… and follow through on the threat.
26. “DIBS!”
27. Art. A pantheon of Autobots and Decepticons staring at the viewer with weirded-out expressions.
28. Someone stole Unicron’s horns. Unicron is upset.
29. What’s the Cybertronian equivalent of coal? (As in, what you get for Primus-Day if you’re bad.)
30. “Heh heh heh…”
“Hey, what’s that you got there?”
*shoves object in mouth* “Um, nothing…”
31. Soundwave is disappointed when Rumble and/or Frenzy don’t follow in his footsteps.
32. A certain mech or mechs hear about the terms “Hawtobot” and “DeSexiCon” and, to the dismay of everyone around them, use the new vocabulary with glee.
33. (Modified quote from GG) “Look at that!... Back then, ‘Made in Iacon (/Kaon/Cybertron)’ really meant something!”
“…It meant death and destruction.”
“That’s something.”
34. Seekers are often compared to Earth birds. Does that mean they eat Insecticons?
35. I’ve seen the ‘bird-Seeker’ metaphor extended to giving Seekers ‘nesting’ instincts, but I’ve never seen Bumblebee get the urge to build a hive.
36. The nature of a microscope isn’t necessarily to see things, but to extend the vision of others. Perceptor himself can’t see everything, but he can help others to see what they otherwise would not.