R⏏️

Antique camera shutter.

Ever hear of SLI? Streetlight Interference?

You’re out walking one evening, or riding your bike. And you notice as you pass under them, the streetlights suddenly go out. Or maybe the ones that were off, come back on when you pass them. Then you turn back a moment later, and they’ve come back on after you moved past them.

SLI is a fun little concept that humans have a field or presence of some sort that interacts with some kinds of technology, and interferes with it just enough to make streetlights temporarily go out - or turn on.

(I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this)

Humans make first contact with Cybertronians, and they struggle to pick up on our EM fields. They can tell we have one, but it’s almost like static. Changes quickly, and is often indecipherable. Reassuring that we have one! We are clearly sentient beings, and eerily similar to them in many ways. But our EM fields? It’s like trying to dial in a faint radio station. It slips away without warning, only to come back full blast and startle them with its sudden strength, clarity, and volume.

Of course, the humans aren’t able to fully provide any answers, beyond some jokes about tinfoil hats, and a few half-serious stories about some people just accidentally frying electronic devices for no apparent reason.

As our species begin to spend more time together, though, and some of the scientists do experiments, it becomes apparent that it’s not our EM fields acting strangely. It’s their ability to perceive them correctly that keeps going haywire. There is something about close contact with humans that causes their perception of human EM fields to be unpredictable, or distorted.

They notice other little things going sideways. A panel on Teletraan burns out when it was just replaced. A mech finds his biolights are flickering. One of the communication specialists has to ban humans from the tower hub…they keep causing the most random fluctuations and outages.

- until one day in an emergency, when one of their squads is in danger and the signal’s too weak to reach them so far away. Everyone is too busy scrambling to worry about one of their humans rushing in, head tilted, watching silently as the mechs struggle to reestablish communications in time.

Then, there it is: a clear channel. Transmissions clear as day. They straighten out the problem, get the team out of harm’s way, and order them to return to the ship.

Only for the signal to drop the second you take your hands off the equipment you’d been leaning against, to punch the air in joy that your friends will be okay.

…What? You ask aloud, concerned, when you realize they’re all staring at you in a combination of awe, wonder, and unease.

EFWUIFEUIEFWUI I FUCKING LOVE THIS

Thank you for feeding me good lord

My brain immediately went to Pharma- I know plenty would say KO (and don't get me wrong, he's definitely a top contender)

But something about having Pharma enjoy every second of it gets me going

Ngl, both TFP and TFA Ratchet would utilize it for their respective human's own good (at least at first). They don't MEAN to feel this way about our guts, but the more they keep going, the more charged builds up in their systems

Been playing Earth Wars in my free time, why can Jazz do that

@luxthestrange

Is this how Swindle shows the humans he wants to sell to Cybertronians?

“Eric: lotsa stamina, but kinda bitey. Not bad if you’re into that.”

“Thalia: big human, nice and squishy. Not as easy to bond with like a lot of other humans, but will be glued to ya once ya do bond.”

Something so human, that speaks and walks, and most possessing faces that look so similar to someone of your own, something that might lack pupils, something that doesn’t breathe, moves so smoothly that it unnerves you, something that you can sense instinctively tries to communicate with you in ways that you cannot. The feeling of their EM fields on you is obtrusive and uncomfortable. None of the humans like it.

Something so Cybertronian, yet so much smaller and squishier. It’s so easy to forget the fragility that they are burdened with, so easy to forget their weak EM fields cannot respond in kind. If you do not see their you can almost pretend they’re a minicon with exotic mods, but the sheer amount of substances that they produce covers almost everything they touch.

Wafting a candle to their nose and being surprised when they can’t smell it.

Trying to speak to them in a higher tone and feeling bad for having forgotten that their ears are so sensitive when they squish their hands against their strange audials.

@drunkeninlovesailor

@transformers-spike

snoballimus

Starscream fanart

For one, this?

This is horrible.

Yes, Blitzwing is a war criminal, but they’re treating him more like a trophy than a real bot. He’s gagged, he’s wearing stasis cuffs in his cell, which is humiliating and wholly unnecessary and Jetstorm takes a picture with him as if he’s a novelty.

When the Elite Guard arrives on Cybertron he’s paraded around and shown off with big fanfare, so everyone can see how superior the Autbots are to him and his faction.

There is zero dignity or respect for your enemies here.

And, hey, remember Wasp?

That teenager who got thrown into prison because of very minimal evidence that he might be a spy? And tortured until he lost his mind?

Keep in mind by the Autobot’s standards he was barely an adult.

Yet he was still convicted without a trial, without further investigation, simply because a fellow trainee who didn’t like him accused him of being a traitor and the commanding officer accepted it without question. He was literally carted off in front of his friends, with zero discretion and had his insignia pulled off in the same manner, while begging to be listened to.

And when it turned out he was innocent, the Elite Guard still wanted to throw him back into the Stockade, because they didn’t want to admit to the public that they made a mistake.

A reformat that they were incapable of consenting to.

Not to mention that when selecting subjects for Project Safeguard, Ultra Magnus said "Find me someone expendable."

That's absolutely chilling, you guys.