Deviation Actions
Literature Text
The Autobot Files fanfic notes
This is still my favorite story in the series. I really enjoyed getting into the different characters and letting their individual personalities shine whenever I could. I felt like I knew them better after writing this and I hope the readers did, too. This story also made it very easy to add any side and background notes I wanted into the fic without leaving out too much. As such, surprisingly, the notes to this long fic are quite short.
Stranger Part 2
*Within this fanfic, life only comes from Vector Sigma and only certain older generations of Cybertronians, like Alpha Trion, knew how to properly locate and use Vector Sigma to bring life into a robot shell. By this time in its history, Cybertron has lost nearly all of those of that generation, the cause of their disappearance is not entirely known. As such the Cybertronian culture lost their ability to reproduce. This crisis became apparent in the middle of the war as soldiers were being wiped out and there weren't as many to take their place. Before then, the disappearance of the older generations were not widely a concern.
With the problem identified, both sides began researching methods to increase their numbers. The Decepticons took injured soldiers off the battlefield, rebuilding and reprogramming the sparks. Most of those were turned into the mindless seeker drones. (See the Thundercracker Spotlight comic of mine.)
Autobot scientists tried to recreate life by building their own sparks. In the particular facility where the Dinobot sparks were built, much of Alpha Trion's notes were used and they were considered the most likely for success out of the different methods that were going on at the time. A Decepticon attack demolished the facility and only five of the "Faux Sparks", as they were called, survived in tact.
At the time, other facilities were having success with their faux sparks. Though the new lives seemed a bit primitive, there was room for them to learn and grow. With that knowledge, Optimus Prime took the five sparks with him on the Ark expedition in hopes that, where ever they landed, they would find materials to build bodies that would be helpful to them on that planet. It was only after the Dinobots were built did the Earth Autobots learn that the faux sparks left on Cybertron eventually began to disintegrate. The new beings grew angry and violet, consumed by madness until they were either killed or their sparks went out. It was such a horrific failure it is considered against the law on Cybertron to even attempt to create a faux spark again.
The Dinobot faux sparks are the only ones of their kind and the Earth Autobots were very lucky they've had only as many problems with them as they do.
Brother
*There's a reoccurring theme in the chapter repeated in the dialog of loving what one's brother loves and protecting what they protect. This is paraphrased by Bluestreak, then Smokescreen, then spoken as a full phrase by Sunstreaker at the end. It comes from an ancient Cybertronian ideal of brotherhood. It's one of those saying heard over and over since they first came online as part of their culture.
The family unit (a creator living with or staying close to his or her creations), while not unheard of, is not as common or as expected in the Cybertron culture as it is our own. Often times, the newly sparked will see their creators only the first few days of their lives and then never talk to them again. It all depends on how much the creator wants to be involved with a creation that functions as an adult from day one.
Without family units, the Cybertronian society places a high value on friendship, brotherhood. Often individuals will find their own family units, thinking of those closest to them as brothers and sisters. Hence, there are many old sayings such as that one that speak of that subject.
Broken
*Slight notes about Red Alert's past. Most of it is hinted at here and there, but this is it in a nutshell. Red Alert pretty much came out of nowhere when he joined the Autobots. Unlike Prowl who specialized in security as well as military tactics, Red Alert had no formal schooling whatsoever and was quite a bit younger. While Prowl was considered a genius at what he does, Red Alert was a prodigy.
When Red Alert first joined the Autobots, there was a bit a rivalry between himself and Prowl, though no one ever spoke it out loud. At the time, Prowl was trying to stretch himself over several departments at once as the Autobot faction grew. He was unwilling to give up on any of them at first, considering himself to be the best one of the job for all, especially when lives were on the line. When Optimus Prime told Prowl to allow Red Alert oversee the security of Iacon, he had a hard time letting go. Prowl, however, had no choice but relinquish control to go out and direct the troops on the field.
By now, Prowl has outgrown that rivalry and he seems to be grooming Red Alert to take over even more of his responsibilities. As brilliant as Red Alert is, Prowl may even see him as second in command material if he can get his confidence back. As Red Alert's military career continues to rise, he's becoming one of the youngest Autobots to have such a high rank. The only one who has beat his record is Optimus Prime, who is currently the youngest Prime to date.
Gentle
*This chapter gets into gender roles of Cybertronians and what defines a mech from a femme. I don't feel I need to reiterate what the chapter goes over. It does a pretty good job of explaining the definitions. I just want to talk a moment about how I see gender for the Cybertronian culture. I've seen fans argue that they have no gender merely for the fact of being robots. Some say they don't need genders because they don't reproduce the way we do. Others say they don't need gender because they do reproduce, but it doesn't have to be with one "male" and one "female". These are valid arguments.
However, I think we keep trying to define their genders to our standards as organic beings. But the problem is, they are not like us so how can we expect them to either meet our definitions or not exist? I believe they have genders set by their own standards as non-organic beings. Just because they don't need genders for the same reason we need genders doesn't mean they can't have them or don't need both to be a complete race.
Romance itself is viewed differently in the Cybertronian culture than in our human culture. For us, romance is everywhere. It is in our books and movies and even in our holidays. Often times, our culture considers a life without ever finding romance an unfulfilled one. This is not so much the attitude of Cybertron. Living in a romantic relationship is merely one kind of life-style choice. Many Cybertronians live very fulfilled lives without a romantic relationship and do not feel like they have missed out on anything.
Especially with the rapid decline of the female population. Without possible companions, the males don't often pine for romance unless they are thinking about a previous romantic interest. There are even some, like Megatron, who find the presence of females more distracting than helpful and purged the gender from his ranks. Without any females in the Decepticon faction, the males merely put their attentions back to their other responsibilities.
There is actually a cluster of systems and programming in the body that regulates the physical and emotional attraction to the opposite gender. Without the presence of that other gender, the system goes dormant. There are even rumors that soldiers in the Decepticon faction had those systems removed either by their own choice or under Megatron's orders.
But with the reintroduction of the opposite gender, the systems become active again when one starts feeling attraction for another. Likewise, those who have been part of a previous romantic relationship are statistically more likely to actively seek out a new one than those who have not.
In their culture, it is just as acceptable socially to be in a romantic relationship than to be without one or lack any interest in attaining one. However, when both genders are present, it is more often than not that Cybertronians tend to pair off. With each gender giving off an opposite frequency that attracts the other, it does, indeed, seem like they were built to find each other.
*Ironhide, realizing he has very few pictures of Chromia, asks Jazz if he had any. This is a bit harsh on his pride since Jazz and Chromia used to date. It was, however, not a very serious relationship before Chromia even knew Ironhide. She had Jazz were pretty much friends curious to see if they were compatible for a romantic relationship. But it was casual at best. When Chromia met Ironhide, she knew this was the right relationship. Jazz knew he wasn't meant to be with Chromia either. They are still friends and happy where they are right now. Neither pines for the relationship they might have had together.
Incomplete
*During Smokescreen and Prowl's face off, two different parts of their past are mentioned. One has to do with their creator, the other has to do with the femme Nightshade. The story involving their creator is covered in the Smokescreen spotlight I currently have drawn the cover pic for, but I haven't posted any pages yet. I would really like to get back to work on that some day. The part of their past with Nightshade will be covered in more detail later in the "Rising Generations" fanfic.
Sugarcoated
*People keep asking me what happened to Nightbird. I thought it was quite clear in the story. Jazz tore her up pretty good. No doubt Dr. Fujiyama received whatever was left of her. She is pretty much permanently out of commission.
Unique
*Track's line to Sunstreaker of "Why don't you just spark-bond with her and get it over with?" is him pretty much saying, 'if you like her so much, why don't you marry her?'. Though there is really no such thing as marriage in Cybertronian society. Spark-bonding is as close as one can get on a physical and emotional level. But legally, there is no ceremony or paperwork to sign. For one, the spark-bond is extremely personal, and for two, Cybertronians don't think about family units like we do. There is no need to legally bind unions together just merely because they share living quarters. Nor is there such a thing as an inheritance because of the Cybertronian's long life spans and the fact that they usually don't stay as family units when a new Cybertronian is built.
The act of spark-bonding is something a couple will do only if they have been together for an extremely long time and plan to spend the rest of their lives together. It is an intimate act in which there is the sharing of energy coming directly from the spark. Because of this, the couple cannot just spark-bond off the bat even if they wanted to. The two have to be around each other long enough for their spark energies to sync properly with one another. Jumping the gun on this process is extremely dangerous for both partners and is a step in the relationship considered with much seriousness.
It is also a practice that is almost in extinction during the time of the war. During peace, there was much happiness and bonding and no one really understood the full consequences of a spark bond. When the war came, if one of the bond was killed, the other often died soon after. The cause, scientifically, was hard to determine. The spark of the surviving member would simply go out. With these new findings, new bonding couples happened less and less. At the height of the war, spark-bonding was considered more like making a suicide pact than being the practical next step in a relationship. At the time of Cybertron's relationship with Earth, finding a bonded pair still in existence was next to impossible. Most romantic pairs are perfectly happy to live a nonbonded life style while the war is still going.
