What is Budding? (An Explanation)

What is Budding?

Okay, so people keep asking me about my sparklings, questions like "Who's the Daddy?" and "Who sparked them?"

The direct answer is nobody, other than the parent carrying the sparkling. It's a process called "Budding" that was utilized in some of the canon Transformers Comics, most prominently G2.

However, I have taken the process and altered it just a bit, and gave it a more scientific-sounding name (Unibot Reproductive Syndrome, or URS). So to have an answer for everyone, here is an explanation in my own words.

This will be split into two parts, because there are two different types of budding in my stories. So we'll start with the first one, which I call...

Traditional Budding

Traditional Budding follows closer to the original method of Budding from the comics. In a short explanation, it is the formation of a new bot inside of a pre-existing bot, "male" or "Female".

The programming for it is existent in all cybertronians, but on Cybertron itself, a subliminal signal is emitted that keeps the programming inactive. Thus, all bots born on Cybertron are from the Well of Allsparks, and that is the only form of reproduction most young bots know of. This being said, most if not all births from budding occur off-planet or the process was started off-planet. (An example of this would be Knockout and Wildbreak. Wildbreak was born on Cybertron, but the process was started before they returned to Cybertron from Earth, though Knockout was unaware at the time.)

The process is explained simply as a secondary spark being forged beside the main bot's own spark, as well as excess protomatter building up inside of the parent's body until there is enough to form a new bot. Most of the time, the protomatter remains liquid, but sometimes it hardens before the expulsion, but that usually happens with the second kind of budding, so we'll get to that later.

The process only takes a few days typically, during which the parent feels an increasing pressure in their joints as the protomatter fills up room and pushes on their plating. The process can be slowed if the bot should return to Cybertron and the programming is affected by the subliminal signal, but once started, it cannot be stopped completely.

After a few days, the protomatter all collects in the parent's chest compartment and envelops the infant spark, which then provides data on what form of sparkling to take. The parent's body then expels the protomatter, which hardens into a solid form. It may take a few minutes for the new body to activate, depending on the kind of bot it has been turned into. Once active, the sparkling will be somewhat helpless and will need to rely on their parent a lot, much like a human infant.

Now on to the second form of Budding in my stories...

Compromised Budding

Compromised Budding is started by the same programming as Traditional Budding, but is affected by the physical properties of the parent's physical form and abilities. This method is mostly seen in bots that possess an animalistic appearance (Dinobots, the majority of the decepticons in RID2015, etc.). The term "Compromised" references to the effects the instinctual programming has on the budding programming, changing its processes.

Depending on the bot, the programming can have varied effects. Dinobots are usually locked in dino mode until after the sparkling has been born, and expulsion is done from the lower torso and not the chest plates. Also depending on the animalistic instincts, the sparkling will either be laid in an egg composed of energon or be "born live", but either way, the spark, and protomatter harden into the sparkling inside of the parent, and are typically smaller than traditionally budded sparklings, to lessen the strain on the parent. The sparkling remains in a stasis-like state during incubation, their processor only saving data after birth or upon needing to break open their eggshells.