About

Personality

Flicker is kind and honest young Autobot who, despite the many difficulties he's faced and struggles he's had, never gives up on his dream to become a Rescue Bot. He's insecure about himself and may doubt himself easily, especially if he makes a mistake, but at the end of the day, he knows that he wants to help others and works hard to become a bot who's capable of protecting others. To his friends and family, Flicker is extremely loyal and caring to the point of putting others before himself.

Flicker looks up to and respects Rescue Bots, and he began to dream of becoming one of them when he arrived on Griffin Rock. After he met the members of Rescue Force Sigma-17, they accepted him as a new member of their team and made him a Rescue Bot recruit. Now Flicker has been training alongside the rest of the team for some time and he's grown fond of his new family. Chase has become a father figure to Flicker who couldn't be happier for finally having that loving parent he never was able to have during his childhood.

When you look at Flicker, it's obvious he wasn't made for war. He's peaceful by nature, he can't handle pain, he's physically smaller and weaker than most of the other bots and he gets easily scared or anxious. He can't fight for his life and he had to flee Cybertron at very young age. Fortunately Flicker got used to his new life on Earth very quickly and he loves the local humans, animals and nature.

Back Story

Flicker was born to two bots back on Cybertron: a mech named Echowave and a femme who he can't remember. Apparently Flicker's mother left very early on and Flicker was left alone with Echowave. As far as Flicker can remember, Echowave has always been heavily burdened and unpredictable mech. Throughout Flicker's childhood there's never really been any other bots around, so he didn't have anyone he could've asked help from.

At first Echowave seemed to really try to take a good care of Flicker. Echowave was harsh on him and held high expectations of him, which led to many disappointments when Flicker was unable to meet them. Nevertheless, Echowave made sure Flicker was safe and that his needs were met. But slowly things started to go off the rails; Echowave started to see Flicker as nothing but a failure, and he made sure Flicker knew that. He seemed often distant and when Flicker tried to get his attention, Echowave blamed him for everything or threatened to hurt him. Flicker learned to stay away from Echowave when he was in this mood, even if it meant he had to go hungry.

Echowave hit Flicker for the first time when he asked about his mother. After that Echowave started to abuse Flicker, sometimes verbally, sometimes physically, but mostly both. At first it happened once in a while, but it became gradually more frequent until it happened on a daily basis. Whenever Echowave had finished beating Flicker up, he left for hours, sometimes for a full day. And every time when he returned, he apologized for what he'd done, explaining how miserable his life had been and how everything in his life had gone wrong. Sometimes he described how he wanted to kill himself in great detail. Flicker felt bad for Echowave and tried everything to make him feel better, but nothing ever seemed to be enough. Sometimes Echowave was clearly asking for Flicker's sympathy, while other times he downright punished him for trying to make him happy.

Flicker wasn't sure how long he could survive like this. He was afraid of Echowave, but he feared more what might happen if he'd leave. He could only imagine the things Echowave would do to Flicker if he found him... or to himself if Flicker actually managed to escape. However, after one of these incidents when Echowave had beaten Flicker up and left, Flicker realized he couldn't put up with it any longer. Once he had regained his consciousness and realized that Echowave hadn't returned yet, he snuck outside.

It didn't take even an hour before Flicker started to regret his decision. He had no knowledge of where he was and how he would survive on his own. He felt bad for Echowave who, despite everything what he'd done, was suffering every day and might end his own life without Flicker around like he'd threatened many times. It took Flicker several hours of going back and forth, torn between his feelings, until he decided to return. He hoped that Echowave would've realized Flicker could've left, but he didn't because he cared about him and things could be different. Flicker was wrong; when he got back home, Echowave beat him up senseless, screaming at him to never leave or do anything ever again without his permission. Flicker can't remember anything but drifting between the sleep and reality, hazy nightmares and continuous pain from the following weeks. Apparently Echowave did treat his injuries because he got slowly better, but he still didn't hesitate to torture him both verbally and physically: now he was just careful he wouldn't end up killing Flicker.

Flicker wasn't sure if his situation got better or worse after he'd tried to escape. Echowave didn't beat him up so badly anymore, but he still continued to mistreat him. On top of everything else, Flicker wasn't allowed to do anything without his permission anymore, and if he didn't ask for his permission first or ignored his refusal, Echowave punished him.

One night Flicker went to rest with Echowave's permission, but he couldn't sleep. Echowave hadn't allowed him to eat for who knows how long and he was starving. Flicker was genuinely afraid he was going to die at this rate, and when he heard Echowave settle in for the night, he got up. It took Flicker a long time to move through the place slowly and silently, afraid of waking Echowave up while searching for energon. However, it turned out there was nothing left. Flicker was starving so badly he decided to take the risk of continuing his search outside. Only after he'd managed to exit without alarming Echowave, he realized this was his chance to escape. He left and didn't turn back.

Flicker felt guilty for leaving, but he was more afraid of dying. He might have died of hunger if he wouldn't have happened to find an escape pod ready for use. It contained the basic materials for survival, including some energon, and Flicker, too hungry to think straight, couldn't help himself. Once he'd finished the energon, he began to examine the escape pod. He realized this could be his only chance to leave Cybertron - and Echowave with it - behind. With a heavy spark, he set the escape pod to take him to whatever its automatic destination was. Flicker ended up on Earth.

Although Flicker haven’t seen Echowave ever since, the nightmarish memory of him remains. Sometimes Flicker is afraid of the possibility of meeting Echowave again, and he hopes that that day will never come.