Creating a sparkling is not an easy process.
There is, however –and this must be clarified from the first point– a vast difference between Creating and creating.
Being a Creator implies literally giving away pieces of both yourself and that whom you love the most, as, with the minor exception of split-Sparkers, only bondmates are able to kindle through spark-merging. The process can be uncomfortable for the Carrier and distressing for the Creator, as well as being dangerous for both; should the newspark attempt to merge back into its matrix, the Carrier would surely perish, a fate the remaining bondmate would be unlikely to survive.
Because of these and several other reasons, most mecha find it easier to become genitors through other methods.
Common creation, also known by many as Sparking, is the most popular way, if a little more costly. It is a simple matter of acquiring the base alloy for the protoform, arranging a Sparking date with the High Priests, transporting it to whatever city holds the AllSpark during that period and then bringing it to the temple to be given life.
Nevertheless, there is one reason mecha still choose to Create rather than Spark their offspring, and that is the fact that while Creating is more potentially risky, the resulting sparkling will more likely share the features and characteristics of the genitors. Creators coming from a line of groundframes are highly unlikely to produce a structure frame together, just as a Seeker trine is not expected to be able to Create grounded sparklings. Sparking, on the other side, is completely the opposite. Mecha who choose to seek the AllSpark's aid to create can never be certain of what their child will turn out to. And while it is true, in most cases that the sparkling will share some similitude with at least one of the creators, sometimes –.000000000000813% of the totality of Sparking– the expectant mecha will find themselves faced with an incompatible sparkling, at least where frametype is concerned.
Most mecha can learn to deal with the differences, learn to appreciate their creations for the miracle they are, be they groundframes to a Seeker pair or an Aerial to structures. Some sparklings, however, are not as fortunate, and will be either abandoned by their creators on a Youth Centre, or worse.
This, unfortunately, was one of those cases.
The sparkling was small, true, but still far larger than he ought to have been. Haste stared at the sleeping child, disturbed by the sight of the newspark-grey wings and inactive thrusters. They would not be able to function for at least 36 orns, rendering the sparkling effectively ground-bound until mechlinghood, but they were still there, undeniable and as permanent as Haste's own drillers.
To his right side, Impasse was talking to the Altihexian High Priestess, gesturing angrily as the femme stared blankly back at him.
"How can you expect us to keep a flier?!", Impasse demanded. "My bonded and I are grounders, and that sparkling is almost as big as a first-phase mechling–"
"A medium–size terrestrial transport frame mechling, perhaps", the High Priestess replied. "The newspark's frame is as big as it ought to be."
"That's a frag–" At Haste's alarm through the bond and the Priestess' sharp glare, the mech stalled, reminding he was still standing inside one of Primus' temples. "That's not a child, that's a piece of mass transport in need of an upgrade, and I will not take him into my home", Impasse growled.
The Priestess' optics blazed for a klik, enraged, her graceful silver wings flaring over her back like a looming mantle of dark, vengeful promise, and Haste stepped in before anything irreparable was said.
"Please", he interjected regretfully, looking into the cold, furious optics of the High Priestess. "My bondmate is not– he doesn't mean to offend, but we have not the least idea how to raise a sparkling like that." Behind him, Impasse fumed, a dark blur of distaste and anger seeping through the bond, but he thankfully remained silent.
The Priestess settled a hard glare on him, and Haste resisted the urge to shrink back from that all-too-knowing stare that took him in with a clinical sort of judgement.
After a moment, the femme spoke.
"You will leave this temple", she said, undeterred and unforgiving as the cold acid storms of Cybertron's larger moon. "And you will not return until both your sparks have changed and left those despicable prejudices behind. Until then, no child shall be put under your guard, least of all the one you have just pleaded be brought into the world."
Haste felt a chill curl over his spark at the words, but even through their shared regret, Impasse would not regret his behaviour.
'Maybe we are wrong', Haste thought, desperate, anguished, but Impasse sealed their fate, only a twinge of recrimination pushed at Haste's spark warning him before his bondmate spoke.
"So be it", Impasse replied, turning sharply on his heel and storming down the steps of the Chamber of the Sparked.
Haste turned to the Priestess with an anxious look, torn between following his bondmate and pleading for another chance, to be allowed to try and care for the child they had so thoughtlessly rejected. The Priestess' optics shifted as they glanced down at him, hardness simmering down into something regretful, understanding, but still unyielding.
"Go", the femme said, softer, like a guardian would talk to an unruly sparkling tired after a tantrum. "Go find your bondmate. Maybe with time, he will also be able to see the error of his ways."
"What of the sparkling?", Haste asked, vocalizer cracking the words, breaking them into static and regret.
The Priestess glanced to the still-recharging frame lying down on the temporary nest of the altar.
"He will be looked after", she promised –to him, or the sparkling, Haste couldn't figure out. "It may take some time, but he will find love, one way or another."