"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings."

~Daydreams~

What's a Daydream?

When I say "Daydream" I basically mean Things that COULD be story ideas, but that are either pretty out there in content or would need to take a long, multi-chaptered story to make any sense. (And thus will likely never happen) so this is mostly a page where I have an excuse to ramble (probably disconnecttedly) about random Transformers ideas like a 2000s kid who's just discovered the "upload text" option on Deviantart.

I could also have probably named this page "headcanons," but that implies that I think these things COULD be canon and that's not even close to true. It's more like smooshing action figures together and going "Wouldn't THIS be cool?" Which is how I tend to do fandom when I'm not writing, truthfully.

So have fun! and don't forget to

_{Now I just have to figure out how I actually want to write the things. . .}

(Note: These won't be very heavily edited. If at all. That's why they're here and not on social media)

Various Origins of One Rodiumus Prime

In Focus Ships: Kadewave(HeatwaveXKade) and RodiMags(RodimusXUltra Magnus)

Other ships are possible but not guaranteed

So the Daydream that I return to the most when it comes to Transformers is some variation of the basic premise "Heatwave and Kade have a kid and it's Hot Rod(not to be confused with Hot Shot, I hadn't seen Academy when I first started this daydream, and I still haven't watched enough to fuel daydreams) and shenanigans ensue."

Sometimes the shenanigans are simple "You guys HAVE KIDS??" variety. Where Sparklings (not from the Well of All-Sparks or the Matrix/All-Spark) are RIDICULOUSLY rare. There are several sub-types of this scenerio

Have a conversastion in the "Kade's trans and has just learned he's carrying the kid of his giant alien boyfriend" variety. Because it's funny

Don't worry, Kade'll be fine. Sparklings swing to the smallest mech possible size-wise, which, lucklily for Kade, is about the same size as a human.

Listen. I have SO MANY ideas for sparklings. Scroll down for general Sparkling stuff. NOW! Back to daydream!

Hiding 2 giant teenagers proves Problematic

SO! But Em, you may ask, does the fact that the sparkling is Hot Rod and not just a random Oc MATTER? And usually the answer would be no, since I just like to imagine different characters interacting in different ways. BUT! With this daydream(At least, the more recent incarnations of it) that is not the case! Because even after the kid drama there is STORY! And it starts when Roddy is a teenager(Sparklings grow ridiculously fast considering how long Cybertronians live, because it's easiest)

So! We open on Hot Rod and Minimus (Ambus, though he doesn't have that name here. We'll get into HIS origins later) arguing about a plan they're in the process of enacting(That, lets be honest with ourselves here, was ENTIRELY Roddy's idea) It's typical teenager in a story fare, they're sneaking out to do something they're not supposed to, namely sneaking into a Cybertronian hosted race/festival(Did I mention this was an Earthspark crossover? Because it is, 15 years post war and all), it's not immediatly appartent why they need to sneak into this event and can't go anyway, you here probably know the reason but I'll say it anyway, it's because Hot Rod is half human(And yes, I go back and forth in my head of what to call him, though Rodimus is a nickname given to him by Minumus in this particular daydream), and Minimus's origins are just. . .mysterious, even to him.

As it turns out, the Burnes haven't told Optimus about either of these now teenagers.

But Em! You say, that's kinda out of character for the Rescue Bots, isn't it? And I say no! Because as loyal to Op as they are, the thing they are MORE is protective! ESPESIALLY Heatwave. Since in this universe the Autobots human allies(not the Burnes, Ghost) are, well. . .NOT trustworthy, and they've gotten wind of that at some point, so it's less that they don't trust Optimus himself and more that they don't want Ghost to find the Younglings(teenagers)

How do they know that Ghost isn't trustworthy? Easy, because Optimus still hasn't told them ABOUT the rescue team, That's a pretty good metric for how much Op trusts someone, and they haven't met, or even TALKED TO any member of Ghost, even after years of peacetime, so they're not touching that with a 10 foot pole

Enough justifying! Back to the actual plot of the daydream!

So, they're sneaking to Witwicky to join this festival/race combo(Do they have a plan for how they're going to get back after taking the ground bridge there? No. Their plan so far for that is "Well by the time anyone notices we're gone we'll have already been there for awhile, so THEN we'll be able to drive back or something" Minimus HATES this plan. Because it's not a plan. But he's also REALLY curious about a large Cybertronian gathering)

So they've snuck into Witwicky!

It all goes well at first, they "sneak into"(aka they just walk in) the fairgrounds, which is the racetrack and the surrounding area, and everything's going great! It's full of Cybertronians, mostly formers neutrals/non-combatants and Autobots, and there are games and snacks!

It's going Suspisiously great actually, Minimus is suspicious, (which definitly prompts a "Don't worry Mins! Everything's fine!" from Roddy). All the other Cybertronian's are REALLY nice?? They keep getting free stuff! Along with a lot of "You take care, alright?"'s. They have SO MUCH Energon candy, it's great. Rodimus won a race! it's so fun!

Did you know that Sparklings and Younglings emit a VERY SPECIFIC Spark signature, since they can come in all sizes? Because these two idiots sure don't! (Have they been told before? Yes. Rodimus genuinely forgot, Mins was distracted by Roddy when they were told)

So literally everyone can tell they're younglings and they're really excited to see them! None of them has seen a youngling since the war left Cybertron and the factories were shut down! The odds of TWO showing up at the same time??? Two who don't seem to be Spark Twins? It MUST have been the Prime! Surely him and his team must've figured out a way to get Newsparks again?! And even if they haven't, a lot of these guys have millions of years of doting to catch up on! Bumblbee's the youngest Cybertronian still alive and HE gets tetchy when anyone but Optimus tries to give him stuff!

Minimus. . .No-name?

Or: Why won't you let the Burnses Adopt you you Ridiculous Child?

I forgot where I was gonna start this so I'm just gonna start writing and hope it sticks

On the Burns family's side, a small bot in the shape of a fox named Minimus wandered into the (uncompleted) Rescue Academy with no memory of where he came from, and fear reactions to things he has no explanation for.

Kid Hot Rod (technically toddler by age, but Sparklings tend the skip the actual "toddling" and skip straight to the "driving a tiny Alt mode and terrorizing literally everyone." phase) finds Minimus in his fox alt mode cowering next to some crates and decides this is his new best friend.

Minimus isn't sure what to think about Hot Rod at first, but he doesn't SEEM dangerous.

Hot Rod: Dada! I found someone!

Kade: What do you mean you found some- *sees fox Minimus* Yeah. Yeah. That is someone alright. *realizes he's a fox* I think.

Listen the Burns family is so used to seeing robot/technology/vehicle shaped things and going "Oh look. A guy." That that's their first reaction nowadays. Which is good in this case, since they're right.

Minimus stays in his alt form for the first couple months after they find him(Blades: It's a defense mechanism, he's scared, and this form's probably smaller.), but it becomes clear that Minimus is a different type of Sparkling than Hot Rod(And really, the fact that Hot Rod is as textbook Sparkling as he is is strange enough.). He's fully grown for one, and seems to have no trouble with language or motor skills like a Sparkling would, but he's definitly a Sparkling if you're actually paying attention. He's very strange for a child(*cough* Autistic *cough*), and he's definitly experienced some sort of unremembered tramua, but still a child nonetheless. (Think Fanon sparklings vs. the Terrans in Earthspark, more "undefined child" than "one-for-one to human ages" Hot Rod is actually ALSO "undefined child" until he reaches his teen years and becomes "undefined teen" Cybertronians in this daydream have four ages, "Newspark" the first week after creation, "Sparkling" up to around 14, "youngling" which covers teen and young adult ages, most Cybertronians start as Younglings, and finally "Adult" which is just the rest of the years they live.)

Minimus's relationship to Hot Rod makes little sense to everyone else(or, at least, to those who can't read EM fields), Minimus seems to detest the younger bot's antics, but is also attached at the hip with him. If asked, Minimus will say that someone has to keep the speedster out of trouble.

Hot Rod, on the other hand, will insist that at LEAST 50% of thier shenanigans are Minimus approved. Of course, he'll also insist that most of Minimus's griping is humorus, and the rest of the bots refuse to confirm or deny that fact, because they think the whole situation is hilarious.

Hot Rod: Come on! Mins is hilarious! Aren't you Mins?

Minimus:*reading a data pad* No.

Hot Rod: See?

Despite what he says, Hot Rod IS afraid that Minimus actually hates him, mostly because of one incident when they were still Sparklings, Hot Rod asked Minimus if he wanted to be his brother and Minimus punched him. He apologized afterward but refuses to talk about what made him so mad to this day. (It was a crush, he had a little kid crush on Hot Rod and didn't know how to deal with it properly.)

Minimus DOES desparatly wants to be a Burns. They've been taking care of him since he could remember, and ARE his family. But he's known what he wanted from Hot Rod since he was a Sparkling and will NOT jepordize it.

Eventually Hot Rod got SOME sort of explanation from him about the incident. That explanation did NOT help the misunderstanding.

What Minimus says: I don't want to be related to you.

What he thinks he's saying: I like you and want to be with you.

What Hod Rod hears: I hate your guts so much that the idea of being even distantly related to you fills me with rage.

Hot Rod absolutely has a crush on Minimus and has NOT realized it

Minimus has a crush on Hot Rod, and of course, HAS realized it, and has a Plan™

• Step 1: Become adult(no on seems sure WHEN Sparklings are officially "Adults" so he's going with 18 Earth years. That's such a long time as it is. And he's more patient than Rodimus, after all.
• Step 2: Ask Rodimus to be Conjux(He is under the impression that Rodimus has already agreed to this. He is wrong.)
• Step 3: FINALLY become Burns and live happily ever after with love of his live and his family

He will NEVER admit he has this plan. Not only is it ridiculously short and vauge, it's also incredibly cheesy and embarrassing(He is a teenager after all)

Obviously this plan falls apart when the plot happens, because now he has to contend with his creators, as well as the knowledge(If still not the actual memories) of his past and role in the war

Also, in this story, Minimus never gets his memories back. Because I like the idea of him having to deal with that, along with having a disconnect over apparently BEING this great war hero that he used to admire, how do you deal with it when your heroes are YOU? And you certianly don't think you live up to your own expectations. (Magnus was such a bastion of stability and order! You're flighty and scared and unreliable!

Listen Minumus having to contend with the differences between "Magnus" and "Minimus" and having to accept that they're BOTH him! But in different ways! Is SUCH a good theme! I eat that scrap up ok!!! It's a perfect metaphor for Autistic masking! You're not lesser for masking! You're not lesser for NOT masking! You're the same person who has value either way!!

On the Autobot's side, there was a large mech with with a semi truck alt mode that appeared called Ultra Magnus, claiming to be a former neutral who had traveled to Earth to join the Autobot's. No one really questioned this, beyond suspisions of him being a spy, numbers were in short supply, and they certainly couldn't have guessed the truth.

Ultra Magnus became a war hero, he was one of the strongest mechs on their side, some even say he could only match the Prime himself in strength!

On Brainstorm's side, he realizes he PROBABLY shouldn't have given that Sparkling the suit he wanted, in his defense, the kid had seemed REALLY determined. Like, walk into battle completly unarmed and immeadiatly get trampled before anyone realized he was there, determined. AND he didn't realize the suit would hide his Spark signature! He thought the kid would walk up to Optimus(In his nice, SAFE, suit!) and be immediatly whisked off somewhere safe on Optimus's orders! The kid seemed like a stickler(Except for the. You know. Trying to join a war effort thing.) He'd probably listen to reason from the big guy!

And ok, MAYBE he realized the kid was a bonafide point-one-percenter load bearer and he got a little. . .excited. But it wasn't every day you got to build a suit like that!

The point is he was GOING to snitch on him! But-well. By the time he realized that no one was gonna figure it out and made the decision he was already. . .Well "Ultra Magnus" was dead. But the suit was empty, and he didn't know what happened to the kid (had he even ever said his name?) He was looking for him on his own, but the last thing he wanted was. . .well. Someone more softsparked than him finding him. (Would anyone even be able to tell he was a Sparkling without a Spark? The kid hadn't exactly looked like what a Sparkling should look. Or act, for that matter.)

Note: I don't pretend to understand Brainstorm. But I THINK this scenario is in-character for him. Or at least in-character enough to be, "This character, but slightly to the left" b/c of different continuity.

Where the Heckle-Frickle do Sparklings come from?

Because I couldn't stay on topic and just talk about the Sparklings themselves, I had to tell where they come from first

(Ignore this paragraph here, I'm keeping it here to add to the actual "About Sparklings" part of the page later.)These are the rules I tend to use in all my daydreams to do with Sparklings, whether they include the implication of sticky or not(And if you don't know what that means. . .don't ask me, I'm pushing my T rating by mentioning it as it is)

• Newsparks(Newborn sparklings, but the word it also used other ways) are about the same size as a human newborn
• They used to be more common, but no one's sure why, and most don't actually remember it
• The gestation chamber is usually located right next to the spark, slightly behind and to the left
  • The location can change, depending on the size of the mech
  • Most mechs don't know what it's for, if they even notice it at all, but since it doesn't cause problems most think it has something to do with the Spark Chamber
  • They're not TECHNICALLY wrong. A transfer of spark energy is one of the few known requirements for Sparkling creation
• Most assume the requirements for making a Sparkling are either extremely complicated and esoteric, or spiritual/emotional in some way.
• They are wrong, as quickly becomes clear once they start mingling with humans more.
• Humans and Cybertronians are. . .wierdly compatible.
  • Like there have been three known Human/Cybertronian relationships and ALL THREE have sparklings
    • (The three are my fav human/cypertronian ships obviously. Kade Burns/Heatwave, Cade Yeager/Optimus, and Bumblebee/Charlie Watson. Why does Transformers keep using the same like 5 names I swear. Don't ask how they're all there, action figure rules for this one)
    • (These two subpoints don't ALWAYS happen, just sometimes, when I feel like fucking with the characters a lot)
• The ACTUAL key to creating a Sparkling is something that they didn't really have a way to measure without the right pieces

• Once they start looking into it they start noticing that humans put out a radiation that's slowly reactivating gestation chambers with enough contact(Ones with romantic/physical relationships to Cybertronians just tend to get more of it at once)

• Turns out it's not necassarily humans themselves who are MAKING this radiation, they're just really good at adsorbing and outputting/enhancing it

• No one knows WHY they do that, the amount of it just around is less than microscopic, and doesn't seem to benifit them at all. They also have no idea what the radiation actually IS, or, more importantly, why it's on EARTH. It's driving literally every Cybertronian scientist on both sides absolutly NUTS. This could be the key to staving off extiction and they know NOTHING. They know even less than they THOUGHT they did. Someone help them.

• They find out that the radiation has two forms(I know nothing about radiation go with me here). One that activates gestation systems and one that deactivates them(This isn't exactly true, there are actually two types that work together to run gestation, and one that deactivates, but they don't know that.)
• Which one you get depends on the current mental state of the human outputting it. You'll never guess what type a happy human emits! (The first one)
• Whether this actually stops the war (Even temporarily) depends on either which Megatron I feel like playing with (Well intentioned who let things go WAY too far or cartoon villian megalomaniac), or if I don't feel like playing with ol' Megs at all and have a Starscream/Soundwave duo kill him for a chance at a Sparkling each

• This has gotten off track. I'm descriping the daydreams themselves now, but I was getting to an important point, what was. . .Oh, Right!
• The REASON it's like this is Unicron. Savvy readers probably already figured that one out. Earth is Unicron everyone!

• The reason HUMANS put out this radiation is ALSO because of Unicron. He woke up ages ago and found that his body had been populated at some point, he decided to sit and observe them for awhile while he regained his strength, it's not like he could move anyway

• However he finds that he's becoming. . .FOND of these creatures? They're messy and violent and gross but they're also. . .compassionate and soft and sweet. They remind him of better times.
• (And I realize I'm probably ignoring a lot Unicron lore here but I'm playing. I like to play and mix my little clay figurines)
• Should I just put these in paragraphs at this point? Probably! But I won't

• SO! The reason Sparklings used to be more common is because this radiation sticks around a LONG time, but Cybertronians aren't the best at absorbing it unless it's in high quantity. (They're VERY good at storing it though)
• You need three things to create a Sparkling
  • A large amount of Spark energy(Usually you need two Sparks to get enough, but single dad Soundwave is proof that that's not a RULE)
  • Radiation from Unicron/Earth
  • Radiation from Primus/Cybertron

• So Cybertron used to be covered in radiation from Unicron, but as it faded Cybertronians started having less and less Sparklings
• The reason that happy humans help and scared/upset humans turn eveything back off is because Unicron is FOND of these messy creatures! How dare you threaten them!
• (Eventually they find out that humans only give out the detrimental radiation when around Cybertronians. No one knows what to make of that one.)
• The "radiation" is actually Unicron/Primus's version of an EM field
• Unicron has covered these small squishy creatures that aren't HIS but he's taken for his own in his EM field to warn away potential threats.
• He wonders if this is what Primus felt about his own tiny creatures
• The answer is yes. Because he's done the SAME THING, even after the the war and the depletion of the Well he STILL loves his tiny little creations
• Listen the idea of the God of Destruction from old legends learning to love something SO MUCH that it saves the species that his former lover created and cared for till his dying breath GETS ME ok??!
• I did this to myself. I'll never stop thinking about it and it's MY idea. I can't freak out to anybody else about this unless I write the story or give a super long explanation first! GAH!

• Anyway Primus isn't completly dead he's just Rung now because I NEED a reunion(also I want the canon characters to find out about THAT particular piece of lore, it's always fun.)