insecuriosity

@harutemu sent me this wonderful little post about the introduction of a new bee Queen to a hive, and of course a bunny came into being!

Just imagine a poor Vehicon - sloppily operated on and then stuffed into a cage. There is no door to the cage, only a large hard energon-wall to protect him from the raging Insecticons on the other side.

Poor mech is springing a leak as they try to rip him apart through the bars, apparently enraged by whatever Shockwave has installed inside of him. They are howling and throwing their weight against the cage - … and they are gnawing and clawing their way through the energon goodie.

It takes a while, of course, but not long enough to finish the five stages of grief. By the time our poor vehicon is begging towards anyone willing to listen, the energon goodie breaks apart, and an Insecticon barges inside to rip him to shreds and-….

…-groom him?

Still terrified out of his mind, the vehicon is deftly passed on from Insecticon to Insecticon until they find him a nice and warm spot in the hive, well-guarded by the strongest warriors.

""Do you have anymore Insecticons headcanons? Insecticultures always intrigued me thanks to RID15."" - Asked by Sedasan on Tumblr

I loooove Insecticons, oh yes.Regular Cybertronians are already very versatile, but Insecticons allow for even more out-there ideas, headcanons and cultures.

I usually pick between two different origins for the Insecticons, depending on what kind of story I want to tell. Sometimes they are a part of Cybertronian Wildlife, grown way too numerous after the ecosystem was destroyed. Sometimes they are an experiment made by Shockwave, much like Predaking in TFP, and sometimes they are BOTH. Depends on what works best for the story I am writing ;)

In A New Queen ( an older fic of mine ) , they are part of the regular Cybertronian ecosystem. Living off crystallised energon and underground pools and deposits, the war and the energon crisis hit them very hard.
Just like earthen insects, the speed of Insecticon reproduction is one of their biggest strengths. It is still very slow, and requires a ton of fuel over a longer period of time, but when compared to Cybertronian reproductions the Insecticons win by a long shot.

As opposed to every insecticon having mating capabilities, I headcanon that there is a singular Queen that is capable of carrying CNA with them for a longer period of time and create eggs that with enough care and food can grow into Insecticons. There’s really no security net for when there is no more queen, or any brood that is capable of turning into a queen. Before the war decimated Cybetron, a queenless hive would disperse and join other hives - ensuring CNA variety and keeping the species alive.