The Intergalactic Highway

I've never drawn a BW OC before. I attempted the canons a few times without much luck. But this time I really had him visualized and went for it. 8DDD

Meet Dr.

Mothis

(going along with the CHEETor, RHINox, TARANTULAs, WASPinator, etc theme..):

Actual image, I hope it works...
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Yep, he's a shrink! x3

Okay, so first of all, the art stuff:

His head is, obviously (for those of you who watched TFA) based off Perceptor's helm. n.n It seemed to fit, I dunno why. Wait. I do reember why. Remember the part in Thumbelina when she goes to the beetle ball and they dress her up? She has this big elaborate headdress that made her head look big and she looked liek a butterfly. SO...since he's a moth, I think I subconsciously associated it with Mothis here. LOL yay for self psychoanalysis, I love doing that.

I used Blackarachnia to help with the legs, Optimus to help with the hip area, Cheetor to help with the midsection, and Waspy for the general leg shape. Based on them, not exactly like them. BA's legs on him? o_O!!

I think his head is just sliggggggggghtly too big. The percpective on the leg is slightly off, as is the righter most wing. OTherwise, I think I did a pretty good job. Usually, I'm terrible at drawing a figure just standing. x_x Especialyl at an angle. So I liek it. About the background - LOL I hate backgrounds. n_nBut I like the mountains. It's very simple, very quick. I dunno where Tiger Moths naturally live so I jsut did one of te forests we see in BW a lot.

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Secondly, his character. I'll just write a quick profile to give you a general idea. n_n

Name: Mothis (pronounced MOTH - is . Whether the S is pronounced as a Z or not is up to you) but also called Dr. Mothis or just Doctor.

Beast Mode:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctiidae
-------------Tiger Moth--------------------->

Faction: Was Maximal before the BW, he's a Maximal during, as well. :3

Voice: He sounds like Sentinel, basically. His voice is about that same cool evenness, impersonal, and he annunciates things like most Sci Fi AI I can think of, like HAL. . . Or Sentinel...

Function: He's a professional psychotherapist. By that I mean he knows many different ways to help others overcome psychological troubles, not just limited to one area of expertise. I justify this large amount of knowledge by pointing out that as a robot, he can absorb a lot more information and put it to good use over his long life than any human could.

Skills: He's good at...psychology...>_>... He's a very fast learner and is proficient at understanding how major systems work, able to see things from a big picture POV but also able to zoom in on details and figure out how they work with the whole. As a result, he can quickly train in beginning engineering and mechanical maintenance work. I assume Rhinox would show him how. He's also a good listener ... and a good listener literally - excellent hearing. His optics are not built very well for sight, the majority of his learning and interaction being with sound.

Weapons: He really doesn't have weapons. D: He'd probably need to carry one of Rattrap's pistols if he left the base. Eventually,Rhinox might build him a radar gun that can emit sound so he can see with it and also be able to shoot. In Beast Mode he can emit various frequencies to mask his energy signature and appear invisible to scanners, making hi ma really good stealth flier.

Weaknesses: He has poor vision. He's nearsighted and can see in color, but after like 6 ft, the rest of the world literally fades to greyscale, then black. His hearing is still really good, only bettered by the fact that his beast mode has reconfigured his audios to be antennae and more sensitive to detection. He can use audible sound to see into that blackness and he can detect radar weakly, enough to know it's there. Audible sounds register in the blackness as echoes of faint white/grey light that gives him mental images of his surroundings that are fair in detail, but are not super clear. He cannot produce sound or manipulate it in robot mode, and in beast mode,his abilities are mostly limited to stealth. When he was built, he might have been meant to be a soundbased model, but instead got the hearing and nothing else. He had optics built in to be able to interact with macines and panels and color displays and whatever, but needs little holomatter 'glasses' to help his optics focus on glowing holographic displays and fix his nearsightedness so it's not blurry. (TBH it's hard to explain why a machine would have glitchy optics. I don't think it's common at all for a TF to need glasses. Like EVER. So...hopefully this works. )

Oh yeah, and he has no previous fighting experience. :/

Personality: Very aloof. He can be kind, helpful, interesting, and talkative, but he keeps distance between himself and others personally. The only smile anyone gets out of him is a small one; he's not a grinner. He's a very trapped-in-his-own-mind kind of guy. As a result, his personality can be seen as mysterious, even though he'd readily tell you what his favorite color is or whether he likes coffee flavored energon. Also, he might come of cold because he answers things concisely and doesn't really know how to respond to teasing or joking, which results in a blank look or other not very satisfying reaction. >_> In the right circumstances, his cool demeanor can be very scary, the 'sinister staring and unnaturally calm voice' kind of scary. In his office, with a patient, he's very collected and his even, gentle voice easily lulls and guides other bots into talking. He likes to listen to people and figure them out. Watching people is one of his favorite pasttimes, as creepy as that might sound.

History: He was working as a well off psychiatrist on Cybertron when, at some pint in his career, he was asked to join a crew on an exploration mission. He agreed and served well, so a couple other crews hired him as well. When the Axalon needed a Councelor for a long term mission, he opted to join them for a bit of a change in his life and temporarily cut his ties with his patients, referring them to other good doctors. He signed up and settled into his own stasis pod, only to be awakened by a giant magenta tarantula and a red ant, both of whom, he'd thought at the time, would make very interesting case studies. After a brief, but explosive battle, he was brought to the Axalon where he was acquainted with the others and attempted to continue his work as a psychiatrist. He is, however, often asked to help out in other useful ways. (As a side note: In Myverse, Transmetalization may or may not have occured by the time he arrived in BW, and might not in the future, leaving the bots to be realistic animal-looking forevaaaah! 8D Or something. lol, not sure. :'D If I was to intro him into this BW RP, he'd be intro'd later in the first season and not TMized later.)

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SO, there he is! Yayyy! That took quite a while to write. D: And for a little picture too. ;_; Sorry everyone. I hope it's not too long. n_n

Nice, that's a pretty original character right there lol. With wars breaking out left and right, it'd be nice to have someone to talk to in order to retain any resemblance of sanity. Are you planning on introducing Mothis to the RPG?

I recognized Perceptor when I saw the picture. Dr. Mothis is very well drawn.

And that is an awesome character!

Thank you! That's exactly what I thought. It occured to me at some point to draw a connection btw Beast Wars and Star Trek. Er, specifically TNG, since I haven't seen other. THey had Councelor Troi and I remember thinking "Gosh, on a long voyage, it probably would be required to have a psychiatrist on board. Being stuck on the ship wit the same people for a long time and all the WEIRD stuff they go through...omg, would Primal need a psychiatrist? " So I tried to think of what a BW psych would be like but no luck til now. x3 I like him! I'm glad he's fairly original. I see a lot of survivors, soldiers, etcetc but I hardly ever see psychologists or moths or visually impaired bots.

I really don't know if I'll intro him to the RP. I already have 2 charries. :bearhugsthem: I really like him, though.

Thank you, Blazemane! I now some people didn't like Perceptor (or TFA in general) but I LOVED him. I thought basing Mothis's hed on his would be more fitting than basing it off Thumbelina! xD

So.. basically your moth has Sonar vision? And not sure how well Ultra sonic attacks would work other then on Bat and hearing sensitive transformers (as that is what the Moth's defense is used for, to mess with bats.) But it is nicely done and a interesting character.

Hi! Thank you!!

His hearing is sonar based, but his attacks are not something to brush off. You know how whales can use their sonar to stun or even kill fish? And how a person can feel the vibrations from sound? Well, it's like that. It's a concentrated sound that acts like a powerful punch and it hits the whole body. And while the tiger moth can produce sound to confuse bat ultrasound, as a Cybertronian, Mothis can use it more powerfully and maybe he had the same ability before being a moth and, therefore, the Tiger Moth Suit just fit his form. So, when he does a blast thingy, it's like a giant speaker went off in front of you, but worse. It knocks you back, stuns your hearing, and deals physical damage.

...your comment brought me to another thought. Just what how does his sight work? And If he can see with sonar, why does he need vision or something? And... I realize I kinda made this complicated for myself, trying to fit a Soundbot into a more ... I dunno, Groundbot's kinda role, so how do I justify that?

I had a whole essay on that, trying to explain to you and myself how he'd be a sound-based bot like Soundwave but not able to or have practice wielding sound for his use. o_O But I didn't like it and it wasn't convincing. SO. I'm changing him a little bit. He is NOT a fully soundbased kinda bot, he can use sound, but he cannot wield it. Or something like that.

Therefore, I will make a change to his weapon ability. D: I liked it, but it puts him in a dubious category. I'll have to think of another weapon/defense, besides the ability to interrupt radar... There we go - he can fly completely undetected by soundbased scanners and to hide his frequency/signature. How's that? n.n He just got himself a recon/scout position. Yayyyyy!

As for weapons, he'd still need to borrow them...and train.

In his robot mode, I won't change his vision much. He has terrible vision! D: Like I said, he's nearsighted and then the rest of the world literally fades to black. His hearing is still really good, only bettered by the fact his east mode have reconfigured his audios to be antennae and more sensitive to detection. He can use audible sound to see into that blackness and he can detect radar weakly, enough to know it's there. Audible sounds register in the blackness as echoes of faint white/grey light that gives him mental images of his surroundings that are fair in detail, but are not super clear. He cannot produce sound or manipulate it in robot mode, and in beast mode,his abilities are mostly limited to stealth.

Hmm...I like that. I will change his profile then.

Simply awesome, Dal! I love it. You did a GREAT job!

Well, from what's been told of blind humans using sonar, they can detect large shapes to a degree. So to something using "sonar vision" I'd assume they would be able to see 3D shapes and textures, but not ink print, or screen monitors. I used to have a character similar in a sense and even required glasses to do things like read as he had bad vision.

Sound attacks are interesting, and you mentioned the Echo location attack used by Whales and Dolphins, it's a bit easier for them to do because the attack is underwater. Water's density makes it so when you produce a pressure wave or shockwave, the force of the water is included. Thus animal stunned. In a thinner atmosphere, you can do that, but the effects arn't as intense. It is possible however to put flames out with soundwaves, and even possible to produce heat with soundwaves (In an enclosed environment, thus how Acoustic refrigerators work). But it is possible to do a focused sonic attack

Not sure why he would be able to detect Radar, it's a form of Radio wave. Detecting Sonar seems more likely. Many Moths developed ears as a means of detecting bats as many insects are deaf. Though Moths suffer from ear parasites, which atleast always make sure the moth has at least 1 functioning ear before attaching themselves..

Using Sound canceling technology is also possible, but considering animals like owls have that ability, probably be easier to just have the wing scales of the moth modified for acoustic dampening like the owl wings. Radar on the other hand being radio waves is rather easy to mess with, and would be simple enough to have some sorta Ram(Radar absorbing material) coating on your moth.. but you would then have to take into consideration.. Your moth is a Therapist, why would he need equipment that would make Rattrap envious?

You mention making the character want to be like a BW Soundwave, but Soundwave's function was Communications Officer. When developing a character, it's best to take into consideration the function of the character, that would then effect what the character would find useful as an ability. Plus going by the natural abilities of the animal. (Tiger Moth being the defense against bats, which is similar to banging pipes together.. Sonar based abilities are easy to mess up simply because they rely on using bouncing soundwaves. Though Moths also have the ability to see in the UV light spectrum, and those long antenna are very powerful olfactory organs giving them a great sense of smell. As well as light based navigation (It's theorized Moths use the moon or sun's orientation to tell where they are, which is why the act so weird around lights or fire.)

Considering the psychological nature, using hypnotic suggestion or Subliminal messages through sound based attacks would seem fitting for such a character. Besides the defensive value, it'd allow him to calm patients down and bring down their personal defenses in therapy sessions. Or even do the "Jedi mind trick".

Thank you OOP!

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Naitokage...


:/ Primus, you bring up good points. Alright, I understand. I view sound and light as being the same thing when it comes to sci fi (and science, technically, which is weird and really cool...Uh, off topic, but - Did you know that no one REALLY knows the color of the sun!? D8 I didn't know that until fairly recently.), essentially, so I figured all those things were the same. The attack, as I think about it, also resembles ... what was her name? I dunno her name, but in X-Men: The LAst Stand, there's that one mutant who claps her hands and it sends out shockwaves. It's not scientific to refer to that as a reference, but it is sci fi and I'm talking sci fi here. Either way, I replaced this ability because it didn't fit.

By BW Soundwave reference, I meant being a soundbased Transformer. As there are Seekers, and other models, there seems to be Soundwave and Blaster as other models that are similar to each other. That model being a a giant sound...thing. Each of them can expertly wield sound to their advantage. By drawing that comparison, I was merely saying I was trying to make him a soundbot when his personality and previous experience doesn't back that up. I can't imagine every soundbot in TF existence, OC or not, being solely a Comm Officer. I do not think he'd do well as a soundbot though, so I'm starting to purge all that.

:/ Hmm...I do not mean to make him a stealth bot. .. Hm. I don't know what Airazor, Tigatron, (I'm not counting comics or retrostuff as canon here) Inferno, and Blackarachnia and the like were supposed to be when they signed up on the Axalon, but on an exploration mission, I doubt they were all fighters. They came out of their pods with the ability to combat to some degree and in ways that derived from their beast mode. I tried to do the same here, is all. (Hey, maybe everyone who signed up was required to have combat experience, I don't know.) Besides, even if he was the only one meant to be civilian, I don't want him to the completely useless. :/ If Optimus needed him to patrol, he needs to be able to fight back should he need to. I plan on this happening with borrowed equipment and help from his fellow Maximals, of course. But maybe he can avoid detection altogether in the first place, which would help keep him safe. That's where I'm coming from when I say he has these abilities, then. His beast mode is part of the character developing process (Cheetahs are built for speed, falcons are built to dive at high speeds, T-rexes were built to bite, and both spiders can produce better-than-the-organic-brand webbing and venom) as well as the fact that I don't want him to be useless. He can learn to fight, which makes him less useless, but everyone's beast mode's got something enhanced by their roboticness so I figured I'd go with it, since this moth has that ability to confuse bat sonar and beast ability-enhancing is canon.

The explanation behind whatever ability he might have is another thing entirely. I can make it scanner reflectors or some such in his wings or the things you said. I don't know. Technically, I don't have to explain it. In Beast Wars, you state that Rampage has been eluding MEgatron's scanners, which means he's presumably underwater, and therefore the ocean canonly prevents the ship's scanners from locating you. :/ However, to get technical on a realistic basis, yes, maybe he has shielding on his wings that can deflect sonar and/or reduce the sound he makes as he flies. (I did that on another OC. She's a barn owl. >_> ) To be honest, because the argument I presented earlier in this paragraph, I didn't even think about explaining it yet. He's brand new and I haven't even RPed him or written him even a little bit yet. xD He's still in the making and this profile was a quick one, not the final edit. n.n Your points are proving valuable in helping me define him. So thanks. The RAM on his wings could work, but I'll think some more on how that works on a psychiatrist.

As a side note, I'd like to mention The Other Dr. Mothis, dundundun. The other Dr. Mothis is reprogrammed to be Predacon and is still a psychologist. The mind games! The mind games!

I did not now about ear parasites. I think I will have nightmares now.

When developing a character, it's best to take into consideration the function of the character, that would then effect what the character would find useful as an ability. Plus going by the natural abilities of the animal.

:twitch: =_o I know that.

When I first made him, I really started out with a beast mode, which came to me rather easily, surprisingly. I didn't sit there for 5 hours to come up with a good, useful, interesting beast mode, it just came to me. Yayyy! At first, he was going to be a communications officer (that was his first incarnation) and then I modified him to be a psychologist. But, as you saw above, I didn't think that fit - a sound officer conflicting with his psych profession. Doesn't add up, unless the psych part was a side dish to the comm officer main dish...Therefore, he is modified. Al lthat is left is explaining his antennae-audios-sight impairment in some manner. This might undergo some revamping as well. I like the idea of his glasses, but I'd like to execute the idea with a good fact to back up their necessity.

n.n I read about that theory of how moths see. I was wondering if I should do something with that, but I don't think it'll be a major component of his character. It might be a quirk, but he has other more reliable navigations systems he can use instead. >_> I can see it now.

"Log Entry 11, Day 15 Since Reactivation: It seems I've found myself with a new affinity for bright, shiny lights...I hypothesize that it is because of my beast mode, but private experiments have proven impossible. For my first few experiments, I collected some wild moths and set them free in my storage closet. I then shut the door and switched on a bright light, at which time we, my fellow moths and I, all become very disoriented, to the point I cannot find my way to the door. And yet...something tells me I need that light..."

I love Soundwave. Fave G1 character. 'Nuff said there.

For his lingering sound abilities, I was experimenting with what you mentioned right there. His voice is specially modulated to be calm and calming. I mean, take Sentinel, the Axalon's defense system not Prime or whoever else might be Sentinel in the multiverse. When it speaks, it's clear, very calm,very cool. That's how Mothis speaks (except he sounds...alive. >_> Not like a computer.), but when he's speaking to a patient his voice is a little more...caring? Or it has the appropriate emotion he wishes to convey to that patient to help them open up. It's like the subliminal messaging you mentioned,a soft manipulation of one's emotions by modulating the voice to sound upset, hurt, whatever. He's got a silver tongue, this guy, though I didn't mention that before, but it crops up as I think about his characterization. But I don't know if that should still be a sound ability that a soundbased bot would have, or something he was built with custom??? Or a mod? I was thining of it as jsut his normal, original voice...

Hmm...perhaps he has really good hearing and impaired vision, but he doesn't see with sound? This would further eliminate his "soundbot"ness, although how did you explain your character's poor vision? I can't see why a machine wouldn't just get new optics. :/ I will think on that more. When I develop a new charry like this, I like to put them in all kinds of situations in my head before finalizing their character. n.n This way, all edits can be done.

UHH: In the profile, when I said Function, I meant more like "the job he commits his life to" not function as in what he was built for. I don't think that counts in BW.

(Hmmm...hey, hypothetically, if I was building a new ship out of leftover -postBW- Axalon and Darksyde parts in a fanfic, would you help me if I asked? n.n )

Sure I could help out with that.

And your right, there were others that had sound abilities. Thundercracker had the ability to project focused sonic blasts to drive people nuts from his hands, or when he flew by. Jazz had an ability involving sound and light as a distraction.

Sound really is more comparable to water, it's a pressure wave vibrating a fluid. Well, in air's case a gas, but gas and water physics are rather similar, main difference being density, which effects the speed of sound. But I understand, many people do mix that sorta stuff up.

Sorry about all that, I just happen to be a bit of a science nut, and used to do alot of audio and video editing and heavy research into those things..


Ah, the reason he had vision problems was because he was a Fusor of a Bat and a Starnosed mole. Starnosed moles are blind for the most part. He focused on using his other sensory systems and would wear ridiculous Coke bottle frames when at base to read or watch a monitor. He had other glitches as well as he practiced Circuit-su, which basically caused damage to his body since it was an ancient martial for G1 transformers. (Originally in the comics Circuit-su was the art of channeling internal energies to project electric currents through the user's body. These days.. who knows. They changed it so much it makes no sense. In any case, considering how much voltage is required to force electricity through the air, melting or damaging circuits,body parts, etc was very likely.)

Didn't Jazz upgrade his speakers to the point where they could be considered as weapons? He forced the Decepticon army to retreat and shattered a rocket ship with them in Attack of the Autobots (I think it's this episode...). Granted, he's much larger than most of the Maximals and Predacons and only few would be able to carry speakers that big. If Mothis were to have sound-based attacks, he could create a weapon similar to the modern day LRAD to stun or disorient foes. He doesn't sound like much of a fighter so a stun weapon would be a great asset to him.

Thank you, you guys! n.n

Naitokage, the info on the science stuff is very informative, than you. n.n

Hmm, so you went with bad vision because of his beast mode? That could make sense, though I'd be pretty darn angry if I scanned a mole and everything matched up with my previous alt mode fine except I couldn't see. D8 lol, I was pretty mad back in 7th grade when I suddenly couldn't see right. I love my vision! Dx Nooo! Dx
Being a very visually oriented learner, I think writing Mothis would prove a challenge. -A- Wether he could see with sound or not.

Alak, a stun weapon or ability sounds good. It would have come in handy on Cybertron, too, like we have tasers and pepper spray. A friend of mine has an OC where her index and middle fingers can be activated as (robot effective) tasers. I don't want to copy him, but maybe I can do something similar with his moth alt mode? Not an electric pulse but a sound generated one, maybe? Stun...sound..stun in general... -.- Hmm..

You mean like a Stungrenade, which discharges a loud sound temporaly disabling someone's hearing, plus a flash for blinding, and the pressure wave coming from it can be rather intense.

Either that or maybe a low voltage electrolaser pistol. (Science has figured a way to make a lightning gun, shoot a high powered laser in a thunderstorm, the air burned by the laser turns into a channel of plasma easily allowing even weak voltages of electricity to move through it.. but currently doing those sorta tests results in the laser being destroyed.. figure out how to project the electricity and laser from the same device and you have a winner.)

Hmm...of the two, I an see Mothis using the stun grenades and they're moth themed or something. Since he can't shoot well.

I was thinking of changing the pattern on his wings to more like an inkblot. :'D But I decided against it because that would tempt me into giving him, rather than a stun grenade, a way to scare off those bigger and stronger than him using something where he opens his wings and emits a sound that makes them afraid of him or something I dunno. Wait, well that doesn't sound bad. Wait. I'll think on it some more and compare to Canon. That sounds more befitting of Beast Machines, if that. :/ It doesn't really sound Beast Warsy, even though it sounds cool... Make him into a BW Mothman and creep people out...

I'll probably make that into an riginal character for my own thing, although it's probably been done before. Ah well, whatever.

.......The make a laser, that makes lightning...and the lightning hits the laser? o_O LOOL Cool, though!

Yeah, it was a study some scientists did. Seems to be the only way to make a gun that shoots lightning I guess.(Well, one someone could possibly hold.) Using the wings as speakers isn't that crazy, surface mount speakers allow walls and any surface to become a speaker. Ink blots are possible as well, though that would probably be more like the Morpho species of Butterfly since they refract light with their wing scales for their iridescent effect. Moving scales to make different colors.. Probably make good Camo.