Hi! I got to thinking earlier and was wondering - is there a specific way your version of transformers keep themselves energized? Do they just drink energon and all other variants or do they require a source of electricity?
This one I actually have a pretty solid answer to! In short…they can do lots of things! Very few cybertronians require pure energon, and most can “digest” a fair amount of other fuels, converting them to energon internally or just burning them for energy as needed. But they can also supplement their necessity for energon with external power sources (to limited results), other fuels, or even sharing energon with other mechanisms who might be able to convert energon in excess- many types of cybertronians even produce excess energon that’s then stored internally for the future or can be given to others.
Cybertronians are a bit like bees in that respect.
On Cybertron, various forms of energon were readily, naturally available (as are inorganic oils) and can be treated or found with other materials needed to keep the body running smoothly. Cybertronians who can’t convert other fuel sources to energon by themselves are, well, exceptionally rare post-war, because…energon sources get real limited, real fast. To the point where even hardier portions of the population started starving en masse before they could get off-planet to greener pastures.
Directly receiving electricity would be more of an emergency medical (or in some cases, a supplemental) thing. It’ll keep a spark alive, for the most part, same with a processor, but any other functions that might eventually need actual physical materials will start degrading. Without nanites or the ability to refresh lubrication, moving parts start to suffer and damage builds up. Even the spark itself can’t last indefinitely without something to actually convert to energon, and while it can do that to some degree with raw energon, it generally won’t be enough in the long run.
On Earth, they mostly just consume whatever fuel sources are availible! Most of them can digest gasoline (even if they don’t like it) or straight up oil, and some of them even get odd tastes for different things. Arcee likes peanut oil and other cooking oils, for example, as treats, and certain minerals and metals make for a handy treat or can be digested to refresh internal stores of raw material. Fortunately, both the ARK-01 and the Nemesis can produce energon, if not in significant quantities currently, so even if someone has higher fuel requirements they can at least mix with energon.This is where Bumblebee and Megatron wind up lucking out- as the two of them have the hardiest digestive systems- Megatron being designed for offworld use meaning that he can eat a pretty wide array of fuel sources (although he avoid organic materials) and Bumblebee being partially Insecticon means that he can eat, well…pretty much anything.
Mind you, though...just because they can live on Earthly fuels? Doesn’t mean anybody should. It’s not a great long-term diet, though it’s liveable, but it does have some minor medical consequences for most of the cybertronians on earth.
