#nebulan

Scotta Sun-Yutara Dia never knew her full name. Her parents and her home were a mystery to her. From a young age, she had been alone, the memories of her mother and father hazy and indecipherable. She had been moved from city to city, from group home to orphanage, the names of which she didn't remember well. Everywhere she went, her mixed blood had brought her shame. No normal Nebulan had warm-colored blood and a mat of hair on their head, and an odd otherworldly aura surrounding them. Scotta had a Nebulan parent, but who was the other? How'd they make someone so strange? Hairy, odd-blooded, freak... all were names she had become familiar with. And if she wasn't treated like an undesirable, she was treated with fascination, like an anomaly. To be called out for her appearance made her self-conscious, and she often found herself hiding her hair and mouth with scarves, cloaking her abnormalities as she traveled. Because of this, she kept mostly to herself, and explored her fledgling interests: throughout her childhood, she had become fascinated with nature and space, carrying different books with her to pass the time if she needed to. Despite her hardships, Scotta's eagerness to learn never subsided, and truthfully, neither did her compassion for others. They were simply hidden if need be, as the Nebulans she'd come across rarely reciprocated it.

Scotta lived as a drifter, in and out of orphanages and group homes until she was sixteen years old. It was then, on one fateful day, when her life would change forever: as she traversed the Nebulan wilderness, she came across a wounded Autobot who begged for her help. Nebulans already knew who cybertronians were, due to a history of the two planets collaborating scientifically; and with her desire to help the cybertronian in any way she could, she said yes--and suddenly, she was Pimpernel.

Pimpernel was incredibly disoriented at first. The longer Scotta stayed in the suit, the dizzier she became; and eventually, she keeled over and fainted. It was around this time when a group of Autobots, granted permission by Nebulos to patrol the area, stumbled across Pimpernel. The group leader was Aftertouch of the Pious Pools, an elite Autobot commander with an affinity for alien life, and a known empath. Upon attempting to read Pimpernel, he sensed something was wrong; he couldn't detect the emotions of the Autobot, and concerning still, a haze of static filled his processor when he did. His team returned to his ship with her, and it was there where she was checked for any injuries. They detected minor ones, but nothing that would cause her to faint, and they didn't detect energon deficiency either. They also didn't detect the organic tucked away in the head of the strange Autobot. Left alone by the others, Aftertouch interrogated the waking Pimpernel. What was her name? Where was she from? What unit was she assigned to, and where was she meant to be? Receiving no clear answer, he was unsure of what to do. He ultimately decided to let her stay with him until he found where she belonged; but when her head would suddenly detach from the body, transforming into the suit of a tiny organic, Aftertouch finally realized why she had been unable to read.

Their conversation was long, with many questions still left unanswered; but ultimately, aware of both their fears of a small organic in a cybertronian environment, Aftertouch insisted Scotta stay inside the suit, detaching from her transtector Pimpernel only if she was alone or if her situation proved too dire to remain hidden. Scotta agreed, and with the help of her new guardian figure, created a cybertronian identity for herself. The once nameless transtector was named Pimpernel, and she adopted the Pious Pools designation from Aftertouch. Finding a way to integrate her into a low risk environment, she became a mechanic for the fleet’s low-priority ship-related issues. While it was difficult at first for Scotta to adopt her new persona and connect with the other Autobots under Aftertouch, she eventually found new friends and even family, staying true to her word of keeping her organic self a secret.

One lingering question would remain though, to Aftertouch, as his days with Pimpernel would go by. The Nebulan essentially didn’t know who she was, where she was from, or how she found herself in this strange transtector suit. This frame that looked so much like a cybertronian, it was practically lifelike. Who was Scotta, and how did she get here? And what is Pimpernel?

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The story of Pimpernel begins not with the transtector, but a Cybertronian by the name of Cepholos of Nova Cronum.

He attended the Tetrahex Institute of Developmental Science and studied mnemosurgery, graduating near the top of his class. He was reported to be calculated and efficient, and showed signs of mastery earlier than most of his contemporaries. However, all this prowess would be put to the side, as Cepholos found himself devoting more and more time to organic research. After pursuing organic studies, he became a pink alchemist: a cybertronian who collected and harvested organics in order to turn their blood into energon. While it was a Decepticon practice, Cepholos kept his neutrality during the operation.

His interest was piqued when he learned of plans for an Autobot-backed organic research program, known as the Headmaster Program, that was meant to find a way to bring willing organics into the war against the Decepticons. The research was to develop suits made from constructed, sparkless cybertronian bodies that would host the organics; and Cepholos, due to his experience with organics, became the head of the research division, second only to the lead supervisor. Their experimentation and engineering on prototype suits proved successful--however, understanding that bringing organics into a Cybertronian war could have amoral consequences, the Autobots pulled their support from the project, and many of the researchers and engineers working on it left. Only those who were devoted to seeing the final product were left, Cepholos among them. The lead supervisor who remained grew discontent with the Autobots, believing he didn't need them to achieve his scientific goals; and Cepholos, his close second, also believed in the pursuit--but one day would suddenly change what he saw in his research.

It was around this time when Cepholos learned of his terminal illness: an incurable, processor-related disease that, while taking a long time to become lethal, was incurable and would guarantee the death of the cybertronian. Cepholos, believing to be nowhere near the prime of his life, grew paranoid of death, and found himself looking for any way to cheat it.

His optics turned to the supervisor and the Headmaster Program. His decades to centuries of organic research and pink alchemy had given him plenty of knowledge regarding the processor of a cybertronian and the brain of an organic, and he devised a theory: if an organic consciousness could successfully merge with a cybertronian processor, then the cybertronian could potentially use the organic's brain as their own. Yet this theory would require a set of experiments before it could be applied to the Headmaster Program's prototypes, and so, using his cunning, Cepholos persuaded his supervisor to develop technology that would experiment on live cybertronians instead. If he could prove that living cybertronian bodies could work as conduits for organic processors, then he could cure his illness. The head supervisor, gullible and determined to make his scientific achievement, greenlit the next step in the program. Numerous researchers volunteered to be the first living transtectors, undergoing a brutal surgical process that moved their brain modules to their chasses, implanting an artificial T-Cog in the place where their processors had once been. The process was proven to be lethal in its first few runs on live subjects, and when researchers began to grow hesitant to volunteer, Cepholos persuaded his supervisor to force them to undergo the process instead. What were once willing participants were now kicking and struggling on the medical table, as a giant machine hovered over them, sedated them, and cut them open. Many more would perish to this procedure, but eventually, the program began to see successful conversions. Live test subjects were no longer adding to the body count, now able to walk freely as if nothing happened; and that was when Cepholos finally knew it was time. Volunteering himself to be the next subject under the machine, his processor was moved, and an artificial T-Cog was implanted, successfully turning him into a living transtector.

Unfortunately, the procedure would negatively affect his illness, weakening him considerably. Yet, his goal was complete, and he found no more use in the Headmaster Program anymore. One night, he convinced his supervisor to throw a party for the coming success of the program, inviting every researcher for food and drinks. Cepholos, on one end of the table, gave a toast to prosperity and progression, and they all drank from their glasses.

Days would go by without a word from anyone, and when the facility that the program operated in was located, every last researcher, engineer, and manager were found dead, even the leader of the program himself. Cepholos's body would be found in the morgue, alongisde the other failed live experiments.

Yet Cepholos was not dead. Slipping away, he left Cybertron to begin the next step of his plan. Now that his frame had been successfully converted into a vessel, all he needed was a host...

...a host he'd find in a lone Nebulan who looked unlike any other, with naivete and a compassionate heart despite everything he'd soon learn of her past. By the time he found her, he had weakened considerably due to the side effects of the procedure on his processor, but he found that he had no need to struggle to remain autonomous. All he needed was a silver tongue to convince his future pilot, and when she agreed, he was no longer Cepholos.

His brain module and Scotta's organic brain formed a binary bond, linking the two into one. Cepholos's bodily functions gave, save for his spark and his processor, fully entrusting them to the Nebulan as his pilot.

All temporary, however. Cepholos does not want Scotta in his head. All he wants his her brain, her mind, to serve as his. A way to preserve his life, at the expense of her own. Of course, it may take time, and he is nowhere near the strength he must be in order to take over, but perhaps he will, in time. He already has half of what he wants; and once he has everything, he will finally be whole again. For now, he waits as a voice in the back of Scotta's mind, guarding her deepest of memories and feeding her the subtlest of thoughts. Now that his ill processor is no longer an issue for him, Cepholos has all the time in the world to wait for the day when he is finally free... and he can be incredibly patient.

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Misc trivia:

Scotta has been with Aftertouch for 6 years, making her 22 years old.

The only other Cybertronian who knows Scotta's secret is Glare, who would become her second guardian figure.