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reduxulousoctopus · 12 days

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Okay, have just finished Courage and now I feel like I gotta write my review of "the Morpherine episode" lol

Before we get into it, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed by the Sentinel plot after what happened during the finale of season one.

To recap, it turns out that the Sentinels are abducting world leaders because their programming told them to defend humans from mutants, but because "mutants ARE humans," Mastermold interpreted that to means their mission is actually to defend humans from themselves by taking control of the world. Brilliant way to resolve that arc, and a clever subversion of both the human bigotry that created them AND Xavier's/the X-Men's mission to promote equality between humans and mutants (because the Sentinels are still their enemies even while technically agreeing with them).

So having the Sentinels, especially Mastermold, just be generic mutant-hunting robots again is a let-down, especially without any explanation. They could have kept the Sentinels as the villains for this episode without ignoring all that, y'know? Ah, well. More superficially, they also changed the voice of the Sentinels for some reason? They just sound like guys now, it's weird.

Alright, that's enough of the actually respectable media analysis, let's get into what we're really here for:

While I didn't notice any bombshell lines like "Or maybe it's love you're missing?" in this episode, there were plenty of cute moments. For the most part, nothing they do really steps outside the bounds of best-friendship. For example, Logan is the only one who hugs Morph to welcome them back, but that's not particularly suggestive of anything besides a confirmation that the two of them are closer to each other than they are to the other X-Men.

That said, as soon as Wolverine and Morph are alone, there's a moment where they're both watching some drone footage of the factory they're going to investigate--or, at least, they're supposed to be watching the footage. Instead, the two of them keep staring at each other, then quickly glancing back at the screen as soon as they notice the other one looking. It's like they both know they should be focused on the mission, but all they can think about is each other and the fact that they're finally back together after so much time apart. Or they understand each other so well and have that kind of chemistry where they can have an entire silent conversation just by looking at each other.

There's also some dialogue during their mission together which could be interpreted as slightly flirtatious:

Wolverine: "Still haven't lost your touch, I see." Morph: "Just like riding a bicycle."//"Looks like you haven't lost your touch, either. [laughter]"

It's wild that Wolverine--the jackass who once loudly demanded "Yeah, who? No deserters in this crowd!" after Cyclops tried to subtly explain that some mutants (Rogue) might want to be "cured" (Rogue) and live a normal life (Rogue) because their powers cause them so much pain and isolation (Rogue Rogue he's talking about Rogue she's literally sitting right next to you, catch a fucking hint!), and made fun of Gambit for reacting with alarm at the sight of a (deactivated) Sentinel--is so openly concerned for Morph's emotional well-being after realizing that Sentinels are involved. Like at one point Cyclops even has to step in like "the Professor's just been abducted by giant robots can you shut the fuck up about Morph's feelings for one second???"

We get yet another scene of Logan reacting to Morph's scent, this time as a direct parallel to the one in 'Till Death Do Us Part when he first realizes that Morph's still alive. There's something so weirdly intimate about Logan being able to identity people by scent, considering how closely smells are tied to memories and emotions. Add the fact that Morph's shapeshifting powers can change everything except their scent, so that means Logan can always recognize them no matter what they look or sound like-- it's so good. And the writers must have agreed, because they put in more scenes of Logan tracking or recognizing Morph by their scent than anyone else (at least at this point in the series, we'll see if anyone catches up).

When Morph does their usual shtick, Logan's right there grinning from ear to ear like a doofus. Sir calm down, you're one step away from giggling and twirling your hair around your finger. This is kicking your feet in bed writing "Mx. Morph Howlett" in your dairy type behavior, stoooooop.

Wolverine calls Morph "kid" a couple times this episode, the flip-side of Morph calling him "old man" in Whatever It Takes. Morph also calls him "big guy," which is cute.

Speaking of names, I think this is the first episode where Morph calls him Logan instead of Wolverine. While crying, too, which-- how dare you?? Like yeah, a moment of intense emotion is exactly the correct time to have one character switch to using a more personal name for another character, but also it hurts my feelings so stop it. Look at Wolverine's face, show-writers, you made him sad too.

Morph's very pretty brown eyes get a lot of focus and close-ups in this episode. I wonder if Logan misses seeing them more often now that Morph's going for the inhuman blank-eyed look in '97.

Not relevant, but I have to mention how much I love Wolverine's line-read of "keep your shirt on, puh-rettay boyuh." lol I don't think that's a Canadian accent Mr. Dodd but I do appreciate it thanks. Bringing it back on topic though, at the end, the heartbroken delivery of "Morph, wait!" when Morph takes off to go back to Muir Island is so freaking sad. His voice even breaks a little on the word "wait". He tried so hard to bring Morph home was so happy to finally have them back only to to lose them again and I

So anyway. Yeah. The hype is real. I was disappointed by the Sentinel plot, but that isn't really the focus of the episode. Despite my complaints, the time they could have spent explaining why the Sentinels are back to hunting mutants would have cut down on the exploration of Morph's character, their terribly-timed attempt to return to active duty, and their relationship with Wolverine.

And although nothing explicitly "shippy" happened between them in this episode, Whatever It Takes already established (in my opinion) that there was something not-platonic going on between them before Morph's supposed death (whether they were in a romantic relationship, friends with benefits who caught feelings, had a mutual attraction they never acted on, etc).

With that context, I think their interactions in this episode could be seen as an example of what they're like as a couple. We get to see their dynamic, how they banter, what names they call each other, an example of something that they argue about (Morph feels like they're being babied by Logan's over-protectiveness), an indication of how sentimental/outwardly affectionate they are (Morph mockingly asks if Wolverine's "going to get all mushy on me" and Wolverine answers "I don't get mushy"-- you know, like a liar), and so on.

I'll probably have more to say about this episode later but I've literally been up all night and need to go to bed before I pass out at my desk lol

#morpherine #wolverine #morph #x men

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k1ttyb0t · 2 months

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LET'S TALK ABOUT CLEANING KITTY UP! This is a HC I've been meaning to get around to for ages now and have spoken about in passing on the dash + mutuals. I derived inspiration when doing my research ( AKA going down the rabbit of hole of researching real-life sex robots and dolls; a necessary evil ) from the excerpt below,

This is copied / pasted and summarized from an actual how-to instruction section for a sex doll, though I genuinely forget which one and admittedly, I don't feel inclined to share the link anyway,

We have found that the actual process of cleaning can be a vert therapeutic ritual. Many customers have found that the process can heighten the bond between you and your doll. Please use light pressure when washing your doll. Preserving the skin is the most important part – so make sure you don’t get carried away while rubbing her body. You must be gentle, as you do not want to cause any unnecessarily damage to the doll.

One of the things I read about cleaning a sex doll is that depending on the type of coochie she has, you would have to take it out of the compartment and clean lightly with a toothbrush or, if attached, go in with a Q-tip. Kitty's can be removed but you would have to sit her down and remove it, which she can't do herself too well, but she tries the best she can to maintain the area tidy!

So, how does one clean Kitty / a specialized Fizz bot? Even before thinking on the technicalities, I assumed with Kitty's sophisticated level of programming and AI, she can actually clean herself. Valentino is not only blind as shit, but I personally don't think he'd be bothered enough to actually clean her as she should be.

He will ( and has ) simply use generic dish soap and the hose, or even a power washer, on her and called it a day. This is highly damaging to Kitty's build and doesn't even clean her; there are certain soaps / chemicals she has to stay away from or it can cause her skin to either fade or peel,

How does Kitty clean herself up? Canonically, Fizz bots are actually dishwasher safe. After any sort of sexual activity, Kitty will actually shower with tepid water ( when she's given the time and freedom, Kitty likes to take baths ) and uses a water-based cleaner that's both alcohol and paraben-free. She targets all the main orifices and uses renewal powder.

Given Valentino's.... type of usage unfortunately means that Kitty has to give herself thorough cleanings often and do it herself. She has to be very careful to not submerge her head or her limbs for extended periods of time, as she begins to rust. Because she's not organic, she is encouraged to use a douche / irrigator thoroughly,

There are times where there are certain places ( inside her head, stomach, nooks and crannies that require thorough dismantling ) she cannot reach on her own, and she has to ask for assistance. She trusts Vox more than Valentino, but even so, tries to avoid asking when she can. Though she doesn't know how to fix herself, she knows to dismantle + put herself back together, so sometimes it's necessary to unscrew her limbs or her head for cleaning.

There's even a special product for her teeth that she uses to brush them. She likes to polish her horns ( yes, the jester hat can be removed as it is not part of her body ) and she's also in charge of doing her own laundry.

A clean Kitty is a useful Kitty!

#➔ 𝗞𝗜𝗧.𝗕𝗠𝗣 / 🎔 ━ study #➔ 𝗙𝗜𝗟𝗘.𝗘𝗫𝗘 / 🎔 ━ moderator

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mushratting · 2 months

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i love that whenever i get really autistic about something now i send those bitches to art school. long post under cut

luffy goes to school with the intent of doing illustration because his dream is to write the greatest comic book of all time. however he realizes he doesnt want to do an illustration program and switches to an interrelated media program and continues working on comics.

koby is luffys freshman year roommate. hes originally in art ed but luffy convinces him to switch to animation cuz thats what he actually wants to do. helmeppo is also in animation.

zoros in sculpture. he went to this specific school because mihawk whos a well known successful sculpter is teaching there. peronas an illustration major with a sculpture minor.

tashigis in art ed with a sculpture focus. they knew each other before college. tashigis also friends with smoker seperately.

nami is in illustration with a jewelry minor. shes also an ra who sometimes abuses her power over others (mostly her friends) but is still pretty solid. she works at a seafood restaurant on the weekends freshman year.

usopp starts as a film and painting double with a creative writing minor and throughout his college education progressively drops stuff until hes just doing film. hes also an ra and is surprisingly good at it. kaya and usopp are highschool sweethearts that break up sophomore year but try to keep being friends. kaya also goes to the med school.

sanji starts in painting and switches to interrelated media and makes edible artwork. he has a whole complex about painting and realizing he actually hates painting and wants to do more 3D stuff. he works at zeffs restaurant also.

zoro and sanji are freshman year roommates, and they absolutely do not get along at the start. they seperately meet luffy and befriend him. they complain about their shitty roommates. and then zoro invites luffy over cuz sanjis in class and theyre still hanging out when sanji gets back. this kicks off zoro and sanji eventually reconciling and becoming good friends. zoro and luffy live together second year.

chopper starts in art education and after first year switches to the med school down the street. he lives with pedro (sculpture) carrot (ceramics) and bepo (illustration) because theyre all friends from highschool.

robins in ceramics with a history of art double. she works in museum curation part time.

frankys a metals and architecture double. he and robin are both older and live together off campus. franky works as a mechanic part time.

brooks a professor in interrelated media. hes also still a rock star. ivankov is also an interrelated media professor and drag queen. inazuma teaches queer studies.

jinbes an illustration professor (who convinces luffy to switch his major)

law goes to the med school that shares a dormatory with the art school. hes also rooming with monet so freshman year hes like always sulking in common spaces cuz his roommate sucks. hes cross registered in sound art and music classes. the rest of the heart pirates also go to the med school.

kid goes to the tech school and is technically in the robotics major, but hes in the minimal amount of classes and gets other people to do his work for him and uses the facilities to do his own projects.

vivis a history of art and art ed double. shirohoshis in photo. rebeccas in art education. them+nami are freshman year roommates.

ace is in glass with yamato. ace is also an ra who kinda sucks at his job but hes dearly beloved. most people on his floor have something that could get him fired but everyone likes him too much to do that to him. ace has a part time job on campus in admissions as well where he works with some of the whitebeard pirates. whitebeard himself is head of admissions as well as aces mentor.

kaido teaches glass.

crocodiles a proffessor in glass.

gecko moria is also in illustration. hes the kinda professor whos absolutely rancid to be around but gives not a lot of work so people keep taking classes with him. peronas his favorite student and hes her favorite professor.

kumas in ceramics.

hancock teaches in fibers. she used to do fashion but quit. luffy ends up in one of her classes because everything he was interested in filled up before he could register.

doflamingos in fashion. coras an alum who did interrelated media (mainly sound stuff)

sabos over studying law with the revolutionaries.

big moms in charge of the dining hall that kinda sucks.

buggys the rd that never does his job, but he accidentally does it in the way that makes everyone like him. alvida rds for a different building and gets fired. smokers the rd of the third building who takes his job incredibly seriously.

garp really wanted luffy to go serve in the army first, partially to get free education which luffy didnt do and dadan backed him up on. i also think garp still gave ace and luffy over to dadan. sabo has amnesia of the first nine years of his life, and basically wandered to dadans house and she wasnt able to find who his actual parents were so he ended up just hanging around and luffy and ace got attached to him so dadan adopted him.

the going merry is usopps old van that ends up breaking down during freshman year. thousand sunny is frankys van hes tinkered and fucked with.

gol d roger wrote a very good comic series before dying. shanks also works in comics and is luffys main inspiration for wanting to make comics in the first place. shanks tells luffy that if he goes to school and works on comics he'll help him kick off getting his comic published. or something like that. shanks was also luffys art teacher for a year when he was pretty young.

#one piece #fighting for my life not to doxx myself since i imagine them going To My School #i do rlly wanna write something in this. im not sure what.#this is literally babys first fanfic

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lex-n-weegie · 8 months

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Ok ok SO over a year ago now I drew some kind of "concepts," and now I've redone them since we got an actual design for one of them!! Also also, since a bunch of stuff I've been doing is super far from canon, I've made it a separate little AU! I present to you all...

The "Under New Management" AU!!

These are the designs of Glamrock Bonnie(now fixed) and a "Glamrock" Foxy, or as he's known as, Captain Foxy.

The TLDR for the AU is that Hazel brings back/fixes a couple of animatronics, adding 4(technically 5) new animatronics to the Pizzaplex! These are just two of em.

Also here's a random alt for Foxy to see his chest better lol

Rambles about these two's roles and the old drawings underneath the cut!

Art Taglist [pm or send an ask off anon if you’d like to be added or removed from my taglist]: @amessageonthewind, @nerdstreak, @starlitships, @eggsywifey, @swapthewoz, @queenieboo22, @in-broken-mirrors, @little-miss-selfships, @little-bullheaded-shit

Glamrock Bonnie

At the start of the Pizzaplex's life, it was just Freddy, Chica, Bonnie, and Roxanne(The company deemed Foxy as too "different" from the main three, so making Roxanne was their attempt to add a new four member). Soon after the success, they had started to experiment by making extra robots to occupy different areas and attractions, like the Daycare Attendant or DJMM. Montgomery was one of them, and he and Bonnie actually bonded quite well. Unfortunately, Bonnie was blind to the worse treatment non Glamrocks got, the workers usually viewing them as "experiments." It caused Monty to sometimes lash out, but he usually remained chill.

One day however, a horrible accident happened. Bonnie went to talk to Monty on the Gator Golf catwalks, but the Gator had another small outburst and in anger, pushed Bonnie away. The safety railing broke, and Bonnie fell and snapped off his legs and arms. Monty tried to fix him, even tried to get help, but at one point things suddenly went black, and the next thing he remembered was waking up in parts and service, apparently having had an "accident." A guard, Vanessa, said she found Monty in a broken state, and took him to be repaired. She claimed to have not seen Bonnie, and Monty was then used as a replacement, millions of theories spewing as a result.

Years later, when Hazel is turned into a attraction, she sees a new wall in Bonnie Bowl that wasn't there before, and low and behold she finds Bonnie's broken body. She slowly repairs him, but due to some blunt force head trauma he's lost some memories and skills, such as his bass playing. Since he's back and all fixed up, he's now reduced to a mascot for Bonnie Bowl, the company stating that he's now "retired from the band life."

Captain Foxy

While Roxanne semi replaced the fox fiend, the company still had plans to include him in some way. Tying in with the old show, the plan was for Captain Foxy to be a seasonal animatronic. For a week or longer he'd "kidnap" the Glamrocks and claim to now own the Pizzaplex. As time went on however, they randomly decided he wasn't worth it and was scrapped in the middle of building.

Hazel later found his endo and the scrapped plans, so she did what she does best and built him, her programming and experience with Bonnie making the process go smoother and quicker this time around. With him up and running and the company not wanting to waste a perfectly good opportunity to test him out, he was set out to do what he was planned for: take over the Pizzaplex every once in awhile. Only the main four Glamrocks were captured, the other animatronics being spared for not being Glamrocks, or in Bonnie's case, no longer being one.

While his performance has him acting like his show counterpart, behind the scenes he was actually super kind, like an uncle. He doesn't hate the Glamrocks like his performance implies, he actually really likes them and is particularly close to the OG three: Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie. He's of course close to Hazel too, as she's the reason he's even there.

#lexi doodles #glamrock bonnie #captain foxy #hopping to the heartbeat #glam fam #Foxy counts lol #lex worldbuilding #🐻🤖#under new mnagement au #and I'm too lazy to tag anything else lol

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inverse-problem · 5 months

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hiii you posted something about having read most of the like, recommended books with robots in them and i was just curious if you would be cool with listing some that youd rec? trying to read more books with robots in them and curious for ideas :]

sure! was gonna do a whole organized post but I may as well just get some down for now. not gonna be an exhaustive list (there's a bunch on my to-read list I don't want to rec before I read it myself), my summaries may be dubious, my taste may also be dubious, but here's a few I liked. I definitely recommend seeking stuff out outside of my list bc honestly it's quite limited now that I'm looking at it lol. be warned also that a lot of these deal with heavy themes of stuff including identity, bodily autonomy, etc. (idk which specific topics may be an issue so be sure to consult a trigger list if necessary). also I have yet to find anything with a robot romance that I find particularly compelling but ah well

the murderbot diaries series by martha wells: pretty much everyone's gonna recommend these to you, and for good reason imo, they're quite solid. main character is basically a security guard cyborg (humanoid but not human) who hacked its programming and is trying to figure out what it actually wants to do with itself now that it has free will. all it wants to do is watch tv shows in its head and avoid interacting with people, but life-or-death situations and its penchant for wanting to rescue people keep getting in its way

the imperial radch series by ann leckie: sentient spaceship ai that once had hundreds of human bodies all networked to a central ai, on a revenge quest. lots of themes of identity, lots of space geopolitics, a big horrendous empire that people are grappling with being complicit in, and an interesting take on a single-gendered society inspired by ursula leguin's the left hand of darkness (also a solid book, no robots there though). gets quite intense at times because of the sorts of horrors that evil empires get up to

17776 by jon bois: (note the link is to a website that turns into the story when you scroll through, watch out if flickering/eyestrain/etc is an issue) technically not a book but a multimedia webnovel of sorts (with short animations and videos, but mostly written as dialogue between characters). it's the year 17776, a lot of places are underwater, humanity has found itself immortal, and several space probes have gained sentience. now, the space probes busy themselves with watching and discussing what the humans are doing to entertain themselves, which mostly involves really absurd games of football. a bit absurdist and existential but very fun, even if you don't know much about football

the monk and robot series, by becky chambers: this one is very chill; a monk in a cozy post-industrial future setting doesn't know what they want from life so they go on adventure on impulse and meet a robot. robots have been out of contact with humanity for a long time, so both of them learn a lot from each other

the wayfarers series, also by becky chambers: haven't read all of them yet but the first book is a chill character-driven space road trip story with a friendly ship ai. lots of found family themes, and great if you like seeing a story where people are working together and are really in their element. the sequels tell other stories set in the same universe, most of which also feature robot characters, and there's interesting alien characters there too

activation degradation, by marina j lostetter: a robot gets activated on a space mining platform during an alien attack, and has to deal with a bunch of ensuing chaos and misinformation. I mostly found the plot twists interesting here, the characters themselves were so-so to me

obligatory asimov recommendations, caveat that his work is old and has historical biases etc, but also that's where you get the three laws of robotics so welp. I, robot is an interesting collection of short stories, mostly focusing on how the three laws of robotics actually can break down in various situations. there's also the robot trilogy which is basically a buddy cop detective story with a human from earth and a robot from space and they solve murders. lots of caveats with this rec (for one, I'm not big on cop shit to put it mildly) but asimov does do some interesting worldbuilding and society building with how the earth and space societies differ. there's the foundation series that follows from these books but I haven't read that haha

the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy series by douglas adams: only one prominent robot here who sporadically shows up, but also this series is just a fun time. the premise is that earth gets destroyed by aliens to make way for an unnecessary space highway, and one very tired human survives and bounces around the galaxy encountering all sorts of weird situations. lots of humourous satire, some a bit dated at this point but much still holds up. also douglas adams just has a way with words

individual short stories:

fandom for robots by vina jie-min prasad: a robot learns what fandom is! a very fun read imo

a guide for working breeds, also by vina jie-min prasad, whose writing I really like in general tbh: robots dealing with a contract job economy

68:hazard:cold by janelle c. shane: robot stranded on an ice planet. I really like the description of how a robot's view of the world and communication protocols might look

cat pictures please by naomi kritzer: an ai wants to be helpful to humanity but doesn't quite know how; a nice benevolent ai story

there were other short stories I also liked but I can't find where I put them now, welp. let me know if you read and enjoy any of these, though!

#var replies #inverse problem.txt #I thought I'd read more books about robots than I had but I do reread stuff a lot #I did leave out a few that were less robot-centric #others who read and enjoy these feel free to also let me know; or if you have other recs I'm happy to hear them!

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gwenbrightly · 7 months

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(Re)Building the Future Chapter 3

(several hours earlier)

"Freddie, I could really use some help over here," Gregory comments as he slashes at a zombie rabbit.

"But I do not have any weapons," Freddie replies,"Just these purple flowers."

"I can't believe you're still working on your garden! You started it two hours ago!" Gregory groans in frustration. He takes a hit from the zombie before finally defeating it.

"I can't believe you are still living in a home made from dirt," Freddie says.

Gregory sends him a dirty look. They've only just convinced Vanessa to buy Fazcraft for them, and it's already clear that they have very different priorities when it comes to gameplay. There's something so very satisfying about being able to obliterate his enemies without consequences. Something Freddy just doesn't seem to understand.

Sighing, the bear moves his avatar towards Gregory's and gives a half hearted attempt to help him. His 4 story mansion's landscaping will have to wait.

Unfortunately for both of them, something explodes and both avatars temporarily cease to exist, leaving only a clump of flowers and a sword behind.

"Aw, c'mon," Gregory complains, "Freddie, you're the worst."

"Now, Superstar-" Freddie begins. The incoming lecture about sportsmanship is interrupted by popup on the computer browser.

Fazbear Entertainment Security Alert: Security Node 54b has been deactivated.

"What the heck? That's all the way down in Monty Gator Golf!" Technically speaking, Gregory isn't even supposed to have access to the Pizzaplex's security program (even if he did help design it). He hacked in awhile back and then promptly forgot about it when nothing interesting seemed to be happening. He's comfortable with the way things are right now anyways. He's got a stable home, guardian mandated therapy sessions (because he doesn't already have enough therapist related trauma), and a robot sidekick. The payout from Fazbear Entertainment is pretty nice, too. He's not sure if it's a 'thanks for lending us your technological genius' or a 'stay the heck away from our establishment before you cause more destruction' kind of payout, but they're doing pretty well regardless.

But if someone is deactivating security notes, that could change things for all of them. Gregory had probably better check it out. With one last belligerent look at Freddie, he opens the pause menu and selects Save and Quit.

It doesn't take long to pull up security feed and begin searching for whoever is responsible for disabling various security nodes in and around the mini golf zone. Nor does it take long to actually find them. He is, however, caught completely off guard when he does. Of all the crazy things he's seen in his short life (and he's seen a lot of crazy things), nothing could prepare him for seeing Cassie running around calling his name, trying to find him. Especially when it's his own voice he hears replying to her.

"That's… Not me…" Gregory hasn't even seen Cassie since school let out last summer. Where did she get the idea that he was at the Pizzplex?

"Something or someone must be mimicking you," Freddie says worriedly.

"You don't think it's… You know… That thing in the basement do you?" Gregory asks. He shudders. He hasn't personally met the thing, but he's heard plenty of stories from a few overly chatty Fazbear employees. Stories that would keep most kids his age awake at night.

"I do not know, but we need to get that girl out of there before she gets hurt," Freddie tells him.

"Or before she hurts someone else," Gregory says, trying to come off as brave. "Cassie can be pretty scary when she wants to be."

"You know her?" Freddie asks. Gregory nods. "Then it is doubly important that we keep her safe."

They follow Cassie's journey thanks to several conveniently placed security cameras, but there is little else they can do. The security nodes cannot be reactivated remotely. There's no lock down protocol they can use to keep her from progressing deeper into the Pizzaplex. Just the cameras. True, they could call the police. But what are the police going to do? They're trained to deal with human threats, not animatronics.

Freddie and Gregory manage to speak through a few deactivated staff bots that Gregory hacks, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Cassie is determined to follow the other Gregory's instructions. Helplessly, they watch, hoping something stalls her progress long enough for them to get through to her. But unfortunately, it's only a matter of time before Cassie reaches the door to the sinkhole.

—---------------

"Is that thing almost ready?" Roxy asks impatiently. She's not sure how long they've been down in Parts and Service, exactly, but it feels like it's been hours.

"Roxy, I swear, if you ask me that one more time, I will use this system to upgrade your voice box so that it is off. Permanently." Helpy replies in an uncharacteristically annoyed tone.

Wow. Roxy hasn't managed to get this kind of reaction from Helpy before - though she's definitely tried to. Just a little taste of his own medicine. He deserves it.

" You said you'd have it up and running in a 'jiffy'. I'm pretty sure it's been longer than that," she observes.

"Hot wiring the upgrade system isn't something I do every day," Helpy protests, "I'm usually more of a nodes and guidance kinda guy!"

"Are you sure you know what you're doing? What if something goes wrong?" Eclipse worries. The Helpy image on the computer screen glares at him.

"It's almost like you don't trust me."

"Maybe we don't," Roxy says noncommittally. She flexes her claws and examines them as if just noticing they need a new coat of polish.

"Listen. This machine is super touchy," Helpy informs them, "Being off on calibration by even a single pixel of space could be very bad!"

Roxy and Eclipse glance at each other as Helpy continues.

"If we want this to go smoothly and not kill Cassie in the most gruesome way imaginable, you need to be patient. But I guess I could rush things if you really wanna risk it?"

"No!" Roxy hastily assures him.

"That's okay!" Eclipse says at the same time.

"I thought so," Helpy replies, satisfied. Zeroes and ones flood the screen once more as he returns to what he was doing before the interruption. He begins humming the theme song for Freddy and Friends: On Tour, and soon, Eclipse joins in. Roxy rolls her eyes at first, but finds herself humming too, eventually. Hey - it's a distraction. And a distraction is definitely needed right now. So she commits to it. Because otherwise she'll just sit here thinking about Cassie and everything that could go wrong with what they're about to do. Which is exactly zero help. Possibly even negative help. (if that's a thing)

"I didn't know you liked Freddy and Friends," Eclipse comments. Both he and Helpy are staring at her.

"Oh. Well. Ahem. It's not that I like Freddy and Friends. It's just… Catchy. Yeah." Roxy tries to sound cool. Neither of her companions seem convinced.

"Okay," Helpy says, shrugging. "I think we're good to go, now, but let's run a few tests just to be sure."

Given that Helpy doesn't have a physical form, Eclipse and Roxy take turns pressing the buttons on the Testing Console. Roxy vaguely remembers the system being used on her, but she's never noticed how game-like the process is. Blue. Red. Yellow. Red. Green. Blue. It's almost like the times she's played Simon Says with kids at birthday parties.

"I think we've done pretty much everything we possibly can to test this thing," Helpy finally announces.

"Time to cross our fingers and toes!" Eclipse says, doing exactly that (and more).

"Come on, Eclipse. I need you to help me make sure Cassie gets strapped in right," Roxy tells the attendant, which forces him to detwist several parts of his body.

Cassie seems impossibly small in comparison to the rather large contraption designed to hold animatronics. It's all wrong seeing her like this. Seeing her here. All broken and bloodied. It is so lucky Roxy couldn't stick around after she stole it's eyes. So lucky.

"I think we'd better give her some of these. You know, so she doesn't wake up halfway through?" Eclipse holds out a few Moondrop candies.

"You realize those things are so potent that they're practically considered medical grade narcotics, right?" Roxy asks, wondering how long the candies have been in his pockets. She quickly decides she'd rather not know, actually. "They're banned in over a hundred countries and are only legal in, like, Timbuktu, North Korea, and Utah of all places."

"All the more reason to give her some - the potency, not the legality," Helpy points out.

"She should be at a hospital being treated by professionals right now. This is the best we can do to without help from outside, which we don't have," Eclipse reminds her. Roxy sighs. The Moondrop candies will keep Cassie more comfortable. They just happen to be extremely strong for candies meant to calm kids down before nap time. Just another questionable business venture by Fazbear Entertainment.

"I guess anything we can do to improve our chances is probably worth it," Roxy finally agrees.

Eclipse crushes several of the candies, mixing them with a little bit of water. Then he pours the mixture into Cassie's mouth. She instinctively swallow instead of choking, much to everyone's relief.

"I guess we'd better get started," Roxy says. She's not sure she's ready for this, but she doesn't trust herself or the others not to talk each other out of their plan.

"Procedure commencing in three…two…" Helpy announces. Countdowns are usually an exciting thing for Roxy. They put her in a competitive mood. A winning mood. Races, games, heck, even the occasional birthday cake have countdowns. But this one is different. They're playing god with a little girl's life and there's no guarantees that any of this will be worth it.

"One…"

The upgrade machine whirs into action.

#myfics #fnaf sb ruin #fnaf sb ruin spoilers #cyborg cassie coming soon to tumblrs near you #fnaf cassie #fnaf fanfics #fnaf fanfiction #rebuilding universe #roxanne wolf #cassie fnaf

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cattrigger · 9 months

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The Making of 'No Robots Allowed'

A short visual novel I made, and how I made it.

No Robots Allowed - A Short Game in the Date Time❤️ Universe.

On Sunday, I released a small visual novel called 'No Robots Allowed', a post-apocalyptic comedy with a bit of romance & horror put in.

You’re at the doors of PARADISE…

…but it seems that the security protocol doesn’t trust you.

Can you prove you’re not a robot?

If you haven't played yet, check it out before reading the post!

Play the Game!

The Making of No Robots Allowed

This was for a game jam called "O2A2" (Only One of Any Asset), a minimalist focused jam that challenges developers to make a game with as little as possible:

-Only one character

-Only one background.

-Only one sound effect.

-Only one song.

-Less than a thousand words.

Game Jams are an amazing way to get started on game development, and O2A2 is both a challenge and an opportunity to work within constraints & make something without overexerting yourself with asset creation.

For last year's O2A2, I worked on "Long Time No Life", a romantic / comedy / drama about resurrection and love.

This year for "No Robots Allowed" I wanted to take the opportunity to expand a tiny bit into the universe of Date Time, while still making something unique that can stand on its own.

Design

Do you know I can do more than Pixel Art? It's true!

While the game does take place in the Date Time ❤️ universe, I also wanted to work on something that was very different from the 8-bit look.

I did want to make a more 'realistic' environment for this game, especially since it was going to be the environment the player was going to spend the entire time in. Even with Melissa❤️ & Morris❤️, I had different environments on screen to show variety.

The environment also had to be high detailed so that it wasn't tiresome to look at, and also allowed me the freedom to have the camera pan from one part to another to give a more dynamic feeling to a piece that would be largely static.

The environment is largely a mixture of flat color & texture, with blobs of lighting painted on top.

There were a few times I used photos, for instance, Petya's sides are actually ends of lightbulbs.

Our Robotic Protector

Petya, the security protocol, was originally a large robot with big hulking arms. On the screen, I drew them to have a head and face, similar to the characters of Melissa, Morris & Anna.

However, I made the decision to step back from giving them a 'human face', since technically Petya wasn't a "Date Time" software entity, they're developed for something completely different, and that would not require 'human features'.

I then made the decision to get rid of the 'body' in replacement of them being a hanging monitor.

Story-wise, it was convenient, as the entire theme of the game is about the separation of humans & robots, and having Petya being as visually non-human as possible was a cool way to drive the point home.

(Early version of the 'body-less' Petya concept)

A Mad Dash to the End

For me, development of a story for games is always an evolving element as the game gets closer and closer to finished.

I do always walk into a project with an outline, but things get altered so quickly as I begin drawing out assets and programming the game.

All of my game jam games have had some drastic changes late in their production cycle, and 'No Robots' is no different. A 'finished' version of the script was done Friday night, roughly a little over 24 hours until I was to publish the game.

Even during these late stages, I was still changing things. Adjusting designs of the face, adding / removing things in the story, and experimenting with new visual effects and shaders at my disposal.

I would love to say that I always walk into a game project with a strong and unchangeable plan, but that is just not how I work with games.

So much of my creative process is in the moment, and veering into new avenues that I may not have considered during the sketchbook / concept phases of the game.

Speaking of facial expressions, for instance, Petya's 'face' wasn't finalized until I was nearly done with the script. At the end of Thursday, I drew the first 'pack' of expressions for Petya based on what I 'felt' was most fitting for them.

Obviously, this system just wouldn't work under other team setups. If I was a dedicated artist on a project, and someone ELSE was writing. I definitely would be annoyed if the writer dropped me an insight on how a character would look 48 hours before everything was to be due.

I am a professional artist in another industry, and you never want to be 'that guy'.

Causing psychological damage ON YOURSELF though, is a little bit more acceptable. And... sometimes FUN! :D

Will We See Petya in Date Time?

I'm surprised by all the positive feedback I got for Petya, so I guess at this point I don't have any choice.

Thank you everyone for playing 'No Robots Allowed', more Date Time content is incoming.

#visualnovel #gaming #gamedev #indiegames #illustrator #vndev #vn development #indiedev

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quantum27 · 1 year

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Tron 2.0 and Straying from Humanity.

I really wanna talk about a certain itch 2.0 scratches that the rest of the series really doesn't as much. 82 does a little but uhhh yea. So 2.0 really questions how far you can stray from humanity before you're no longer human, sort of. One of the whole big points of 82 is saying ayyy there's people in my computer. 2.0 goes. Okay but what do you consider as humans. Most of this is done visually but it does touch up on this in the story a bit.

Now the specifics-

Regular programs- your run of the mill programs are just like. Average guys. They look like people persons. aside from the circuits and the grayscale they're just People. Some of them have crystalline hair/head pieces and some other unique features but mostly they're just. Yeah. They're as close to mirrors of their users as you can get, really.

Viruses/ZLOTs: they're essentially the Tron equivalent of zombies in a lot of ways. Evolution touched on this with abraxas but I wouldn't be surprised if they took visual cues from 2.0. their forms are crackled, splintering. Like something is trying to abrupt from the inside of them and their minds only have one thing they want to do. Attack. as enemies in the game it really makes you feel bad because they're close to the other npcs you save but....you can't save them. 2.0 doesn't have a kill or save mechanic at all. While that would be cool it's not really a priority. jet is really just trying to figure things out and get home and maybe save the day in the process.

The ICPS: they're interesting because the game clearly establishes that they're still people. They have personality, they place bets, they experience pain. However they're just armor. Their insides are hollow and you can literally see through them. To me this invokes perhaps copying the same program over and over, removing them from their user. Or perhaps a main program that spawns them? Either way, they're sort of like Tron, they just want to protect their systems, but unfortunately they also want to kill you in the process. They're just dudes doing their jobs, really. They may not have bodies but they're still people.

Seekers: WORM. Enough said.

Rector Scripts: these technically are also viruses but they're a higher level enemy. Their designs invoke imagery of the grim reaper. It's very possible they were never regular programs to begin with, considering their strength and they can literally spawn ZLOTs. Their only purpose is to spread the virus and death.

Datawraiths: they're different than all the others on this list. Sorta spoilery if you want to skip. Instead of being a program that's changed they are users that have been changed by our big bad guys in the realm of the users. They're changed before they're even digitized and the implications are not good. Unlike the ICPs they don't ever actually talk I think which is strange. They're supposed to be the human ones, right ? And yet they're arguably one of the least human ones in the game.

Specific Character Spoilers Now

Ma3a: One of the most obvious ones, she's a floating basketball with a face slapped on it. Lmao. But to be serious the game basically implies hey there's part of Lora that's digitized into her!! however she was digitized/killed while working on Ma2a. So the thing is we're one update removed from Lora's untimely end. So technically Ma3a has a literal piece of humanity as part of her programming but is....also one of the least human looking ones. She's not Lora but if she hadn't been updated and stayed as Ma2a...could she have kept a stronger visual resemblance to her? I don't know. Speculation. There's also the Legacy code which transforms her into, as friends say, the robot milf. This also has awful implications that the ever missing from his own media, Tron, was changed into something he didn't want to be. Rather than a protector of the users he became something that had a bloodlust for users, overriding his personality and his own choices. In a way it's very similar to the viruses.

Thorne: speaking of viruses. This man WAS human. But he's been in the system long enough and let himself become so corrupted it really makes you go. What the Fuck. He doesn't properly resemble a human and it really goes to show that hey. Maybe the longer you stay in a computer the less human you are and the more program you are. And programs are humans but they're not. Anyway. Legacy really missed out on making Flynn a lil not human, you get my drift ? Hes just.... He needs computer therapy. I also genuinely believe it's all his personal choices that led him to this in a way because it is pretty clear he still has freewill. So even if he did get virus'd by accident he didn't have to let himself be corrupted and also start a minor zombie apocalypse. I can't exactly remember how he originally gets changed my bad. Sorry oops.

the FCON Monster: holy shit I still remember the shock I had of this. This is the closest thing to uhhh proper body horror I guess in the game with just the implications. A digitization gone wrong. Three people mashed together unwillingly into this awful monster. You have to shoot at their fucking heads to kill it! Really, are they even a person/s anymore? Consumed with a rage to just kill this computer nerd who got in their way? And the end of the game is awful with how quick it is like oh yeah we'll fix it but it's like. Did Jet kill them dead type thing....? And also! The Datawraiths? They're human too! So like! Jet is a murderer ! What the Fuck! Like! Thorne still had more of a clear head in general than these guys. Even if they did get undigitized.... What would they be undigitizing...? A mess of human flesh ?, ,,,, Like. Anyway yea.

I'm not going into ghost in the machine cause that is a rabbit hole in itself. (Get it. Rabbit hole? Ba dum tis.)

#thoughts on the matter #Tron #Tron 2.0 #Analysis

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ofpineapplesanddawns · 2 years

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Here’s part three for the android au, which probably needs a name.

There is talk about ownership, if that makes you uncomfortable, but it can easily be skipped. Aziraphale is very against the idea of owning a robot or android in such a way that Crowley was programmed to be.

On with the fic!

“Ezra Fell is now AJ0440′s new owner.” AJ0440 said in a monotone voice, before he blinked, then smiled. “Hello, Ezra Fell.”

“Oh dear.”

Aziraphale must have looked very bothered by this because AJ0440′s face slipped into a worried frown. “Do you not wish to be my new owner?”

“I...” Aziraphale gritted his teeth, not sure what to say. “Look, as nice and trendy as people make it seem to have an android, or even just a robot, in their homes to do things for them... I can’t really condone it. It feels like... well... like owning a person.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I don’t want to own you.” said Aziraphale, looking at his lap.

Androids and robots were now the big thing of status, to own one showed that you had the money to do so, that you were living better than most. Yes, androids and robots worked in the service industry, but they worked with humans too, on a surprisingly equal footing in some places, but the new need to actually own them, have them as personal servants or...

It felt wrong, so very, very wrong.

Maybe Aziraphale was bias, he liked robots and androids, he treated them with the same respect he treated humans. Hell, he even tipped them, which wasn’t seen as the best thing to do by humans. Maybe it was because they were always nice to him, maybe it was because he was a cyborg now, or maybe it was because he was saved by an android during the war, he didn’t know.

He didn’t want to own this android, that much he did know.

“I’m sorry, but it’s not my place to own you.”

AJ0440 was still frowning, not looking very unsure. “I... I have to have an owner.” He said, sounding worried.

“No, you really don’t.” Aziraphale tried to smile. “There are many robots and androids who are able to not be owned, in fact, I know a lovely droid who owns a-”

“No, Ezra,” AJ0440 held up a hand, “I mean, I have to have an owner. Or else I go back into... factory reset mode.”

“What?”

The android shifted, fiddling with a tool left on the table, such a human action. “It’s in my programming, that I’m meant to belong to one owner, and one owner only, unless they decide they no longer want me or they die. If I am without an owner, I’m shut down and back to factory reset mode, with no memories and anything of my previous time online. Technically, I’ve went against this, yes, but I was able to get a new owner due to the damage done by the crash.”

Mismatched eyes turned to look at hazel ones. “I don’t want to go to factory reset mode. I like... I like me.”

If it wasn’t for the fact that his chest was still opened, or the translucent parts of his body, Aziraphale would have sworn he was looking at a frightened human. In all his years, Aziraphale had never seen an android this life-like.

“I... I won’t shut you off, AJ0440.” Aziraphale said, swallowing. “I guess I’ll be your owner, but please don’t think of me as such, alright? Think of me as a... friend.”

“Friend?”

“Yes, we’d be on equal footing, you wouldn’t have to do everything I say, I wouldn’t have control over you. We’d be friends.”

AJ0440 seemed to be taking a moment to process this, before a small smile came to them. “Friends. I like that. Then we’re friends, Ezra Fell.”

The cyborg nodded, smiling himself. “Yes, we are, AJ0440.” Part of him wondered if it would be rude to give him a name, but he’d leave that up to the android to decide.

“Let’s finish you up and then I’m going to make some tea and relax for the evening. Do you need to do anything?”

“I will have to sit down and charge, and do a systems check on my own.” AJ0440 replied, sounding a bit annoyed with the tasks. It was so strange, he had so much personality to him, was that part of his programming?

“Well, if you’re bored, you could look around a bit before then.” Aziraphale said, having him lay back so he could start sealing up the damaged skin covering.

AJ0440 blinked. “You’d let me wander?”

“As long as you stay in the shop and not break or damage anything? Yes. Now, let’s get this finished up, shall we?”

The angel, Ezra Fell, had taken his leave with a cup of tea up a flight of stairs in the bookshop. He had told AJ0440 that the outlet for charging was in the workshop, so he could sleep on the table if he wished, or maybe grab a chair from the reading nook, if he wished to be comfortable.

Comfort, Ezra offered him comfort. It made something in AJ0440′s chest warm, work a little faster. Weird. And speaking of comfort, Ezra had left AJ0440 borrow clothing, to wear while his uniform was being washed. It was a button up that didn’t fit him well, and what appeared to be sweats that he had to readjust the waistband strings for. It wasn’t necessary, the android had thought, but it seemed that Ezra wanted him to be comfortable in clothing.

And, well, they were comfortable, even if they were ill-fitting. Much better than the uniform, AJ0440 loathed that sad excuse for an outfit. A blue button up and black sweats were much better than that monstrosity.

They said their goodnights, it seemed that the human lived upstairs, above the shop. AJ0440 wanted to go up and explore, but he didn’t think he had permission to do so. He knew he could look around the shop, he was allowed to browse among the books, so he decided to do that.

From what AJ0440 was able to research using his connection to Ezra’s computer, books were what humans used to read for years, before ereaders and such became the norm. Books are harder to come across, and are more often used for research or private collections.

AJ0440 had to wonder if that was the case of the shop, was it really a store?

As he walked, AJ0440 took notice that his walk was... slightly off. Ezra did an excellent job reconnecting his leg, but the damage he took seemed to have left him with a limp, a saunter to his walk. At least he could move, that’s what mattered.

He reached out, taking a book from a shelf and opened it. He found a drawing on the inside, it appeared to be of a human man and woman, dressed in clothing that appeared to be from the sixteenth century. He wondered what the story was about, he couldn’t...

Trying to read the words was strange, he knew what each letter was, he should register the words, but his eyes wanted to register binary codes, like he was meant to do. An ereader or tablet allowed for that, but he couldn’t read the book.

He wanted to read the book.

He frowned and set it down, he’d ask Ezra about it in the morning, humans needed sleep, he didn’t want to be rude and ask for help now. Not after the angel had been so kind and helped him already, albeit illegally.

Something about that made AJ0440 very giddy. How dastardly for someone to go against the laws, fixing damaged androids like that! He was grinned as he looked around.

The android found all sorts of strange odds and ends with the books, statues and globes, things that were clearly very old. He even found an ancient gramophone. He was tempted to play it, but feared disturbing his ow- his friend.

Friend, friend, friend. He muttered to himself, liking the word, he liked it much more than owner. Owner felt cold, cruel, like a clawed hand around AJ0440′s throat. Friend felt nicer, warmer, like... well... a hug. Not that he’d ever been hugged, but he had seen people do it, and it seemed nice, comforting.

A large, black book that stuck out of a shelf on its spine caught the android’s attention. Carefully, AJ0440 pulled it out and looked at the cover, still unable to register the words.

That, however, didn’t stop him from opening it up anyway.

Inside were photos, beautiful photos. Things beyond this world. Plants, stars, moons, galaxies and nebulae.

AJ0440′s eyes widened, his fans kicking into high gear. He closed the book, holding it to his chest, before going to find the reading nook. He set the book down on a chair and then carried it to the workshop. He found the charging outlet and sat the chair down near it.

Searching through the cords in a drawer that Ezra told him about, AJ0440 found a cord that worked for his charging port and got about plugging himself in.

He sat himself down, prepared to spend the night charging and looking at the beautiful photos of outer space, to see what was far beyond this little planet he found himself on.

Aziraphale yawned as he made his way down the stairs, heading for his little kitchenette downstairs, where he kept his morning tea for work days. He wondered how his guest was doing as he passed through the shop, glancing about. Everything seemed to be in place, aside from one of his Shakespeare’s being left on top of one of the shorter shelves.

He raised an eyebrow at that, but decided to take a small detour before going to the kitchenette. He looked into the workshop and was surprised by what he found.

AJ0440 was in one of his comfy, reading chairs, curled up in rest mode, clutching Aziraphale’s copy of The Big Book of Astronomy close to his chest. The man couldn’t help but to smile at that and approached quietly.

He knew androids could go into rest mode and look like they were sleeping, but this was so... well... adorable. He reached for the quilt that rested on the back of the chair and draped it over his new friend, who seemed to respond by curling up more, smiling just a little in his sleep.

It made Aziraphale’s heart ache, why would anyone leave someone, be them robotic or organic, to die in the streets like what nearly happened to AJ0440 last night?

And... why was he out in the streets anyway?

Where was his original owner?

Aziraphale decided not to think too much on it, he’d just have to ask AJ0440 later, when he felt ready to talk about such things. For now, he was going to let the android continue resting.

Crowley has now gained a massive interest in space, which could hint to a future outing to a planetarium, or to go stargazing~?

Also, the story that Crowley tried to read was Much Ado About Nothing.

#good omens #ineffable husbands #anthony j crowley #crowley #aziraphale #john's drabbles #do androids dream of cyborg angels au

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jcmarchi · 4 months

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How to be an astronaut

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/how-to-be-an-astronaut/

How to be an astronaut

The first question a student asked Warren “Woody” Hoburg ’08 during his visit to MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) this November was: “It seems like there’s no real way to know if being an astronaut is something you could really do. Are there any activities we can try out and see if astronaut-related things are something we might want to do?”

Hoburg’s response: There is no one path to space.

“If you look at all the classes of astronauts, there are all sorts of life paths that lead people to the astronaut corps. Do the things that are fun and exciting — work on things you’re excited to do just because it’s fulfilling in and of itself, not because of where it might lead,” he told a room full of Course 16 students.

Hoburg was the only faculty member among his peers in NASA’s Astronaut Class 22, for example. His own CV includes outdoor sports, computer science and robotics, EMT and search and rescue service, design optimization research, and flying airplanes.

In a two-day visit to the department that included a keynote lecture as well as fireside chats and Q&As with undergraduates and grad students, Hoburg shared his personal journey to becoming an astronaut, lessons and observations from his time aboard the International Space Station, and his excitement for what’s next in space exploration.

Woody Hoburg: From MIT to ISS Video: Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

From MIT to ISS

For Hoburg, the path that led him first to MIT and eventually to the International Space Station wasn’t straightforward, or focused on a specific goal. From his aerospace studies at MIT, he was torn between going to grad school or getting a job in industry. He decided to pursue computer science in grad school, and from there wasn’t sure if he should stay in academia, join a startup, or join the U.S. Air Force. It was late in grad school when his research started going well that he decided to stick with it, and that decision brought him back to MIT in 2014 as an assistant professor leading a research group in AeroAstro.

He had more or less forgotten his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut. “Not in a bad way,” he clarifies, “just there were other things consuming my time and interest.” But then, a friend suggested they submit applications for the NASA Astronaut Candidate Program. “I remembered that when I was a kid I did think that would just be the coolest job, so I applied. I never thought I’d actually get accepted.”

Performing in an operational environment

Hoburg credits his time at MIT with nurturing a love of adventure and pursuing new ideas and passions. “Everyone here was awesome academically, that was a given. But it seemed like everyone also had a wild unique interest, and I loved that about this community.” As an undergraduate Hoburg remembers rushing through his P-sets so he could go off rock-climbing and skiing for the weekend.

The MIT Alpine Ski team was his first experience on a tight-knit, mission focused team, which has become a core part of his personal and professional ethos. Before starting grad school at the University of California at Berkeley he took a year off to be an EMT, and he spent his summers in California on the Yosemite Search and Rescue team.

“That was my first experience doing what I would call real operational stuff, getting called out on a mission to help someone, working with a high-performing team in an austere environment,” he said. “A lot of the civilians who get selected at NASA have something operational in their background, in addition to their technical expertise. I think search and rescue ultimately helped me with my astronaut application, but I don’t know of anyone who had gone that route before me. It did help me grow into a strong operator — but at the time I just wanted to be out in the mountains responding to emergencies.”

This theme of operational capacity emerged throughout Hoburg’s talks and Q&As. He noted that astronaut candidates tend to be natural team players, and the two-plus years of training prepare them to approach every situation with trust and confidence. A comfort level with versatility is critical for an astronaut: they have to fly and dock the spacecraft, operate and perform maintenance on the ISS itself, perform spacewalks, and of course get home again. All of this is in service of their primary mission aboard the ISS:

“We’re just operators up there,” says Hoburg, “we work on literally hundreds of different experiments, while the PIs are on the ground. The science work is definitely the purpose of why we’re there. That place is busy — we are working 12 hour days a lot of the time.”

Moon, Mars, and beyond

Many of the students’ questions and Hoburg’s responses were practical, perhaps unsurprisingly in a department full of aerospace engineers. His ISS wish list — free-flying robots to help with holding and carrying; robotic cameras to better document their experiments and other pursuits onboard; improved automation and manual control interfaces in launch, flight, and docking; better solutions to the challenges of stowage and organization — may be the very projects that this generation of engineers tackles.

Hoburg also shared some broader insights from his career as an astronaut so far, including his personal reflection on the famously profound experience of looking at the Earth from space:

“Earth actually looks really big from the ISS,” he said, adding that he would love to see it from the far-away perspective of the Apollo 8 lunar mission. “The overpowering feeling for me was looking at the atmosphere. When you do a spacewalk, it’s pretty in your face that you’re in a vacuum. There is just pure death all around you. And when you look at the Earth, you see how it’s protected by this very, very thin layer.”

Hoburg is enthusiastic for NASA’s upcoming return to the moon, and for the growing commercialization of low Earth orbit that’s allowing NASA to focus on “a transition period beyond low Earth orbit.” He’s keen to help with the lunar missions that will help prepare the next generations of spacefarers to get to Mars.

Above all, he’s excited about the possibilities ahead. “Looking back at the 20th century, I think the moon landing was truly one of our crowning achievements. So part of it is purely inspirational, that spirit of adventure and exploration. Putting humans farther out into space is an audacious goal, worth our time and effort.”

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xaracosmia · 10 months

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ꕥ — WELCOME TO CATA COSMIA, BASS. 🌕

ꕥ — OOC INFORMATION;

name / alias: Swerve age: 24 pronouns: he/she/they ooc contact: swearthling on tumblr and twt other characters in xc: brainiac 5, warren worthington iii, siatin

ꕥ — IC INFORMATION;

name: Bass age: robot! (minor. For all intents and purposes, 12-14ish. But also, he’s 3.) pronouns: he/him series: Mega Man (classic games) canon point: For what it matters (which is very little), up to date, post MM11

app triggers:

personality:

Bass is a pretty straightforward kinda robot. He wants to beat up other robots, especially any do-gooding little blue loser ones named Rock, and thus prove once and for all to the whole world - and beyond - that he is the strongest there is. Got it? Good. That’s it.

And really, that’s good enough for Bass. Yeah, some robots have their existential crises about what it means to be sentient, or to be built with a manmade purpose, or to really be alive, but that sort of thing has never seemed to bother Bass in the slightest.

He’s a far cry from the obedient and useful weapon that he was created to be, that much is certain. It’s just as likely for him to ditch his creator and would-be-master as it is for him to actually stick around and listen to whatever new plot for world dominion the good doctor has planned for the week. He’s been a bad guy, a hero on a technicality, an anti-hero, and, perhaps most tellingly, a general nuisance and major pain in the ass to basically everyone who gets in his way.

To put it positively, you might say that Bass knows exactly who he is and what he wants out of his life. To put it a little more honestly, you might say that Bass is a loose cannon (literally) who thinks too much of himself and far too little of anything else.

He’s not all bad. It might be a low bar, but he doesn’t seek mindless destruction, cruelty, or any real harm on human beings despite all the strength he has to back up such threats; there are certainly nastier robots out there. Bass has even helped take a few of them down, showing that (despite how much he might resent any such claims) there’s good in him. (And whatever else may be true of him, he loves his dog, and that has to count for something.)

something your muse struggles with: It’s been stated that this robot has a really trivial reason for existing. Bass certainly doesn’t seem to think so, but the fact is, as rebellious as he can be, he still wants exactly the thing he was programmed to want. He is not his own person, and he doesn’t even know it.

your muse’s greatest strength: His capital t Tenacity. Bass is ferocious, determined, and surprisingly unstoppable. His primary goal in life might be to beat up a sweet little robot boy, but god damn if he isn’t absolutely dedicated to it. Ironically, this little robot is barely a person, but he’s overflowing with life.

history / background:

Once there was a robot called Mega Man, and there was a crusty old dude named Dr. Wily who wanted to kick his ass. He sucked at this, and he only did one thing right ever in his life (or at least in his quest to kick Mega Man’s ass), and that one thing was building the infinitely superior and WAY cooler-looking robot, Bass. A bunch of stuff happened before Bass was created but who even cares about that boring and irrelevant crap, I mean, how important could it have POSSIBLY been if BASS wasn’t even there for it?

Bass was sent out to do the thing he’s supposed to do as soon as he was functional enough to; that is of course to say, the first thing he did was to go fight Mega Man. Well, first he was supposed to do some dumb indirect playing innocent routine to gain the good guys’s trust or whatever. That was really boring, and Bass did a half-assed job of it, which was fine because it meant more punching, and sooner. Bass eventually lost, not that he would ever put it that way, and the two robots later fought again. And again. And again, and again.

Bass fought Mega Man, his whole loser family, Dr. Wily, HIS whole dumb menagerie of second-rate junk robots, then Mega Man again, and so on. It's a bit of a paradoxical case of artificial sentience; Bass is a fully realized and fully alive being, he just decides to use his free will to do...exactly the thing he was programmed to do. He fights to prove that he's the best, and that those he defeats are inarguably inferior, and he doesn't do much else. Although it is extremely hazardous to actually point this out to him, he only wins when he’s on the good guy team. And that’s basically the plan, as far as Bass is concerned. See robot, punch robot, ad infinitum.

powers / abilities:

Treble Boost - Treble and Bass have the ability to fuse together , upgrading both of them. With the extra power, Bass can fly and use an upgraded version of his cannon for a limited amount of time.

Teleporter: What it says on the tin. Allows Bass (and Treble, who has his own) to instantly teleport anywhere.

inherent abilities:

Maxed out dog petting stat.

items / weapons:

Bass Buster - It’s a laser cannon, it’s his arm, it's an arm laser cannon. He can keep the arm, probably, but he’ll have to wait to get back the lasers.

Rocket Boots - Abstract video game fastness (I’m calling this one based on game sprites); Bass can glide limitedly with these, and use them to go far faster than any human.

Treble - Loyal support dog. Also, the extra firepower Bass needs to use some of his powers. Also, debatably his one soft spot.

Weapon Copies: Weapon data from eight Robot Masters that allow Bass to use their abilities, one at a time. He can switch between them at a moment’s notice, but he can only have one skill equipped at a time, which extends to his buster, the Treble Boost, and his teleporter.

Triple Blade - Launchable blade hands, up to three at a time.

Water Shield - Shield made out of water, doubles as water of the shooting variety.

Commando Bomb - Maneuverable missiles.

Chill Spike - Fires instantly freezing gel.

Thunder Wool - Creates a cloud of thunder wool which shoots a bolt of lightning beneath it.

Rebound Striker - Creates a yeetable ball which charges up energy as it bounces.

Wheel Cutter - Launchable, spinning, circular arm blade. Also good for wall-scaling.

Solar Blaze - Shoots a dual-directional wave of fire.

- Evil Energy Capsule: Don’t look at him, that’s what it’s called! A limited supply of an alien power source. It can only be used once for a temporary power boost to Bass and/or Treble’s systems, and probably shouldn’t be used at all, due to evilness.

starting ability: bass buster starting item: Treble

extra:

It’s Bass like bass clef, not Bass like sea bass.

As you do with video games, any narrative source I can take from, I’m takin’. The archie comics and the rockman and forte manga are my beloveds

Does he have hair? Maybe. Does he have pointy shark teeth? Yes.

I’m subscribing to the belief that whatever source of energy is readily available will be sufficient to “feed” these bots, electricity, literal oil, et cetera.

It’s MY barely used character and I get to give him depth

I’m not kidding dm me if you want to adopt him

discord id: .fortississimo passcode: this is awesome

#xc application #mun: swerve #cata cosmia

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3wisellamas · 3 years

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Giant Sweet Cap’n Cakes Headcanon Masterpost!

(Fun fact, I thought most of these up while on one REALLY long hike. ^^; You can tell I fell for these three pretty hard.)

Music:

-I like the idea that, while the three all share a love of hip hop, glitch hop, electronic music in general, and a little lo-fi for chill times, they all have different tastes outside of those. (Meaning if you pass them the aux cord, they WILL argue!)

-Sweet's actually the biggest audiophile of the group, with by far the most eclectic tastes; he will literally put together playlists that go from dubstep to heavy metal to classical to rap to vaporwave to even country. The others don't really get it, but they're cool with whatever he puts on, and learn a lot of new music from him!

-He also owns an electric guitar, which he just plugs into himself to use as an amp and plays early in the morning to wake the others up if needed (he's the early riser and the other two are night owls...)

-Cap'n's definitely got a more narrow focus than the other two; he likes rap and also R&B, jazz, and even a little swing/electro swing. He's also been caught more than once listening to cheesy romantic pop songs, claiming he's just into them for their potential madamoizel-attracting uses but really he's just a sappy romantic.

-He can also rap, very well in fact, and gets Sweet to beatbox while he freestyles.

-Heck, he's just got a good singing voice in general, helped by having a built-in autotune, and dominates at karaoke!

-K_K also has a really broad range, but stays more towards the electronic end of the spectrum -- melodic dubstep, synthpop, disco, trance, chiptune, DnB, even occasionally puts on straight-up ambient spa music to chill out to (the only genre the other two will NOT tolerate.)

-K_K has also, in the past, set up entire mini-raves just by themselves, complete with glowsticks and everything, while Cap'n and Sweet were out doing whatever. They were...not pleased, when they got back, mostly because they weren't invited. All three got to have one together eventually though.

-Physical media is king in their shop; if it's not on a CD, cassette tape, or a vinyl record (or an 8-track, though they have to dig out their old player for it), they will refuse to play it, and might even ask you to leave. "MP3" is an extremely dirty word to them.

-(In fact, they don't get along too well with the MP3 player-headed robots elsewhere in the city.)

-They are indeed always listening to music on physical media as well -- K_K and Cap'n are their own CD players (though Cap'n's one of those models that's also got a built-in FM radio), while Sweet has a straight-up Walkman.

-(He's also the group's cassette champion, claiming his media of choice is superior to CDs because you can record music on BOTH sides of the tape! The other two just don't have the heart to point out that each side only holds half as much music as a CD, and you don't even have to rewind those...)

-Jury's still out on Hit Clips. Cap'n and Sweet think they're just toys, but K_K genuinely collects and appreciates them and treats them like actual music (it helps that they are only around four seconds long!)

-Believe it or not, the headphones are only decoration, all three actually just...listen to their music entirely within their own heads, though they can also switch to playing it externally on their speakers as well. Perks of being robots! Though, sometimes K_K has his internal volume up too high, and misses things that other people say because of it.

-Sweet also has an input port, and connects himself to his turntable to act as the speakers! The other two are WAY too embarrassed to ask if they can use it as well.

-Sweet can play almost any instrument you throw at him, as long as it's not a woodwind (Surprisingly, he can do brass, since those work on vibration rather than air!). He prefers his guitar or violin when he isn't spinning records on his turntable. Where the other two just enjoy music, he's the actual trained musician.

Voice headcanons:

-Sweet: Kind of deep, bass-y, lots of reverb, a slight tinny audio distortion to it like a low-quality recording that becomes much more pronounced when he gets upset or starts shouting. And since he's a speaker, you can literally feel the vibrations he makes when he's speaking!

-Cap'n: Scout from TF2. I am sorry, but I absolutely cannot get that out of my head for him. XD However, he's actually putting that voice on as an "accent" of sorts, his real voice is actually super autotune-y like K_K's, and it comes out whenever he gets flustered, his pitch only getting higher and higher as it gets worse...

-K_K: Pure autotune, he can just do whatever the hell he wants with his voice -- pitch, tone, whatever, and while he tends to keep it a little higher he can and does change it to fit his mood! He often has a completely different voice every day, but the others are used to it. He also just straight-up vocalizes sound effects (like, the kind that make you go "How did you just make that sound with your mouth?!") and can mimic other people perfectly (though the slight mechanical distortion does give it away). There are absolutely no rules when it comes to K_K's voice.

-They harmonize perfectly whenever they sing together!

Sweet:

-I like to think Sweet's actually the brains of the group; like, not SMART, he just holds their one collective braincell most often. He does any technical work when they're building stuff, like soldering circuits or the occasional programming, and even handles a lot of the actual business operations and pays the bills. The other two also like to follow his lead when it comes to rebellion plans, even if he’s not the official leader.

-That said, though? It's balanced out by him being rather hotheaded and having the shortest temper by a lot. There are REASONS why he's not usually out selling bagels with the others -- he's unfortunately prone to some more "extreme" sales tactics, like hurling half their stock at random passersby until they finally agree to buy some. On the plus side, he's always the first to step up to defend the gang from anything that dares to harm them, and is always on guard.

-He can also hold a heck of a grudge -- don't ever get on his bad side! Cap'n and K_K are mostly immune to this though, if he gets upset with them he works through it by the end of the day. It helps that they can all hug it out.

-He's a bit of a perfectionist, often working overtime to try and get everything they build exactly right. He can get really frustrated when things don't work out the way he plans, or when he can't make sense of a problem, or when Cap'n and K_K are goofing off instead of doing their part, and needs to go blast some loud music and blow off steam.

-He does have a really tough time keeping his balance, since his head is a bit heavier than the rest of his body, but he takes tripping over his own feet constantly in stride. The biggest problem he has is with dancing -- while he'll join in with the others on occasion, he can't match their more acrobatic moves and sticks more to actually PLAYING the music they're dancing to.

-He's also really, really unlucky, just in general. He actually considers the other two his good luck charms, since they help him out whenever he trips or gets into a bad spot!

-He's the fashionista of the group, surprisingly. It's difficult for him to find clothes that fit his body, so he tends to get a little creative with it and has a whole closet full of different stuff! And since Cap'n is roughly the same size they'll occasionally swap jackets.

Cap’n:

-Cap'n actually has managed to score a handful of dates with girls in the past! However, NONE of them went well, and only one actually made it to the second date (only to break up right in the middle of it), so he always ends up returning home heartbroken and in tears. Sweet and K_K, by this point just ready for it whenever they hear that he's going out that night, always dry him off before he shorts himself out, take him to bed and cuddle with him (platonically, I don't see them as brothers but I also don't see them as having that conversation until Cap'n's ready, which he clearly is NOT), remind him that it doesn't hurt forever and he isn't unlovable and that he'll find someone eventually, etc.

-They have sat him down multiple times to try and gently suggest to Cap'n that he might just not be into women? And that he’s actually turning them off by trying so hard? To which he's always just like "No, of course not. I'm straight. Love the ladies. Totally. Oh no they didn't catch me checkin' out that one dude earlier did they? Is that what this is about?!"

-(Basically, Cap'n is just a hopeless romantic in love with the idea of being in love, but is absolutely clueless as to how it works or what he actually wants, and his best buds are always there to catch him when he falls. ;v; )

-The glasses are prescription -- he's SUPER nearsighted, a hardware glitch he refuses to fix. Sometimes when he's working on something close up he'll take them off, panicking when he can't find them afterwards, only to have the others point out that they're just on his head. He’s also got non-tinted glasses, but you will not catch him DEAD wearing those unless it’s an absolute emergency.

-This dude is SUPREMELY insecure with himself. Like, his rather questionable fixation on romance aside, he basically runs off of others' validation, the "cool" persona he's spent much of his life building up being how he hides the fact that he isn't really sure who he is, or what he wants to do with his life, or what he's even good for -- the others have learned to check on him now and then whenever he hides away in the back of the shop, since he can slip into some pretty dark places when left alone to sulk. It took a long time for him to open up even to them to share his feelings, and sometimes still has doubts about whether they or anyone else really care about him as more than just The Smooth One...

-He's the only one of the three to actually enjoy the occasional silence, especially when he's trying to think, or whenever he's upset. So, his headphones also serve a dual purpose -- they're noise-cancelling!

-He's the video guy, carrying around a small camcorder and constantly trying to record the group's activities, to put together into music videos! He also just likes to record himself doing stupid stunts for posterity, though K_K just takes these and makes (affectionate) blooper reels.

-Cap'n is not his real name, similar to K_K. However, unlike K_K, he refuses to say what it is, just that it's embarrassing.

K_K:

-K_K has a bad habit of just completely zoning out when he gets into his music, getting completely lost in the groove and needing to be pulled back to reality. It's not a bad thing during jam sessions, but at work, or in the middle of a battle...not so much.

-He kind of needs to have some kind of music going at all times -- silence drives him absolutely CRAZY! Though, because he gets distracted by his own music, he then misses out on entire conversations, only tuning back in towards the end. Sometimes the other two have to repeat or summarize what they just said for him.

-He knows sign language, and taught the others to use it. They're able to communicate reasonably well no matter how loud their shop gets, or on days when K_K isn't able to form words properly (he's just shy, and even when he isn't he gets tongue-tied a LOT).

-He's easily the best dancer of the three, and uses his extendable body to get really creative with his moves! He even knows a little ballroom, somehow, which he'll pull out sometimes to make the others laugh.

-(Seriously, K_K CANNOT stand to see Sweet or Cap'n not smiling. He'll do anything to keep the group's spirits up, usually cracking jokes during a scrap project or doing little favors, and they appreciate all his efforts!)

-K_K has the WORST sleep cycle, ever. If you let him, he will stay up all night working or partying, finally going to bed at 6AM, and will then sleep until 6PM if the others don't wake him up at some point. If they know he was up really late they'll let him sleep in a little, but he's often pretty sleep-deprived and running solely on sugar and caffeine, which doesn't help his natural loopiness.

-He is a VERY physical guy. Seriously, he will just scoop up and hold Sweet or Cap'n like a cat every five minutes; at first they were just like "Oh. Okay. We're hugging now I guess," but after a while they got more used to it and even anticipate when K_K is going to do it. And he also initiates tons of snuggles and gives piggyback rides whenever one of his bandmates (usually Sweet) requests.

-K_K actually scrapbooks, collecting pictures and little mementos of places he and the others have gone and things they've done. After the library fountain is sealed, he pulls them out to show everyone else from Cyber City and reminisce about home.

-It's very hard to make K_K angry, since he tends to stay super chill and brushes off almost everything. But, on those very, very rare occasions when something does get under his metal outer casing, he'll go full-on silent treatment, not speaking to anyone for up to a week as he sulks and stomps around the junk shop, and even refuses to play any music! And no amount of sweets or hugs or cheering up will bring him out of it, either; the other two have learned to just wait him out and let him have his space, letting him come to them when he's finally ready to talk about it.

Misc:

-Though all three love everything sweet, K_K's the only one who really goes overboard with it, making whole meals out of candy. Sweet, ironically enough, actually prefers more salty/savory snacks, while the less is said about Cap'n's hot sauce addiction, the better.

-Okay, actually, I will say more about it. Cap'n loves spicy food in general, and literally drinks tabasco sauce right from the bottle. However, he's got a bad habit of daring himself to eat hotter and hotter stuff, ESPECIALLY if someone is watching, and can easily get in WAY over his head before begging for milk.

-They also all totally drink battery acid like Queen.

-Heck, being both Darkners and robots, they can really eat literally anything. Normal food, milk, oil, batteries, gallons of pure sugar, toothpaste, moss, glitter (NEVER let K_K get hold of any though, he gets lost in the sauce), broken glass, etc, and of course their own deep-fried CDs. Only thing they can't do is water, since, you know, robots.

-With a lot of the aesthetics of Cyber City being close to turn-of-the millennium and early 2000s (CDs and boomboxes, popup ads, wired mice, Queen theorized to be one of those see-through iMacs, EVERYTHING about Spamton), I like the idea that the boys DO NOT have smartphones, and if you handed them one they'd have no clue how to use it or what to do with it. But they do have cell phones: Sweet's got an old flip phone covered in stickers (courtesy of K_K), Cap'n splurged for one of those that slide open and with a camera (he set his background to a tiny, grainy photo of the three of them!), and K_K has one of those indestructible Nokia bricks, that Sweet got him after he kept breaking all his other ones. They can all text, but that's about as high-tech as they get.

-Same with tablets or newer computers in general, they might share one tiny netbook at most. Cap’n never remembers to log out of his Dark World dating profile, so the others will snoop or post embarrassing things to it.

-They're really, really durable, even without milk -- they're made of 90s plastic and electronics, so it takes a LOT to take one of them down! Plus, they regularly repair each other back at the shop (it took a LONG time for them to gain enough trust to physically open and work on each other), so as long as at least one's left to drag the other two to safety they'll be just fine.

-However, if they get splashed with water, caught in the rain, or worse, drowned, they will short out, or shut down on the spot to prevent damage. Once they completely dry out, though, they'll start right back up, no worse for wear. When only one of them gets waterlogged the other two will break out the hair dryers to dry them out faster, or even pop them into the oven in a pan of rice like an iPod that got dropped in the toilet...

Finally, backstory?

-Cap'n and K_K met first -- maybe both as new recruits to another, much less savory gang of music equipment robots, and bonded as a result of being put upon by the more established members (Cap'n probably even had to defend K_K more than once when his inattentiveness got him into trouble!) But, they both had enough one day, and decided to break off and form their own thing, making music and selling CD bagels to support themselves.

-Sweet, meanwhile, has the complete opposite background, coming from a rich and important family of musicians in Cyber City who regularly entertained Queen in her mansion (hence why he always used to get sweets from her!) But, he was kind of the black sheep, preferring his own style of music, and decided to strike out on his own as a street musician instead.

-They met when Cap'n and K_K accidentally set up to sell bagels on Sweet's usual corner, and he battled them to reclaim his turf. But, they were evenly-matched (even two-to-one; Sweet's definitely the strongest of the trio!), and impressed each other with both their fighting and musical skills, so Sweet decided to join their tiny group, and thus Sweet Cap'n Cakes was formed.

-After the whole situation with Queen is resolved, SCC turns their rebellion into an anti-DRM kind of thing? Nobody can hold back the music, man!

#deltarune #sweet cap'n cakes #deltarune sweet #deltarune cap'n #deltarune k_k #sweet #cap'n #k_k #emheadcanons

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bamfdaddio · 3 years

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X-Men Abridged: 1980 - The Dark Phoenix Saga

The X-Men, those enduring mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. Want to unravel this tapestry? Then read the Abridged X-Men!

(X-Men 132 - 140, X-Men Annual 4) - by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, John Romita Jr. and Bob McLeod

Go on. Name a more iconic X-Men panel. I’ll wait. (X-Men 134)

If you were born in 1980, you were born under the sign of the Phoenix. This means you will have great hair, but you’ll also be absolutely corrupted by power. Don’t worry, as long as you don’t consume any stars and/or galaxies, you should be fine.

This year hits the ground running, introducing Emma Frost, Kitty Pryde and Dazzler in one fell swoop. The White Queen is the first of the Hellfire Club to make her move, but Phoenix is quickly able to dispatch of her, as you can read here.

Cyclops, worried that the rest of the Inner Circle will soon come in for the kill, decides to abscond to Angel’s Aerie in New Mexico to throw their pursuers off their scent. Jean decides to make the most of it and has sex with Scott on top of mesa. (Kinky!) She also shuts off his uncontrollable destructo-beams, nbd. This somehow inspires Scott to go from reactive to proactive and lead an ill-advised charge straight into the Hellfire Club on the night of their big ball… soirée... thing. Call it a Hellfire Gala-avant-la-lettre.

Fine, he might have been inspired by the raw power of the Phoenix. She’s the biggest gun on their side and, if there's one thing you can be sure of, it´s that reliable powerhouse Jean won´t switch sides in the middle of battle.

Oh wait, that's exactly what she does.

As soon as they enter the Hellfire Club, Jason Wyngarde, who reveals he’s actually Mastermind, takes control of Jean, finally turning her into the Black Queen. With the power of the Phoenix and the patriarchy on their side, the Inner Circle makes short work of the X-Men. They consists of:

Jason Wyngarde, aka Mastermind.

Sebastian Shaw. Often shirtless. The Jeff Bezos of mutantkind. Has the ability to absorb kinetic energy, which means punching him only makes him stronger. (Colossus and Storm figure this out the hard way.)

Harry Leland. Ability of mass manipulation, which has got to be one of the dopest powers ever. Uses it to dunk Wolverine three floors down into the sewer.

Donald Pierce. 25% robot, 100% asshole, 100% useless in taking out X-Men, 225% the worst.

Wolverine is the only one who escapes, resulting in another iconic image:

Apparently, this picture is solely responsible for the fact that Wolverine became the face of the X-Men in the zeroes. It also lit my cigar from the other side of the room. (X-Men 132)

Needless to say, stabbing ensues.

Meanwhile, Shaw pontificates what he wants with the X-Men. He means to use them as guinea pigs to isolate the X-Gene, which he’ll then reverse engineer to give everyone (with money) super powers and all of a sudden, I want Shaw to do a team-up with John Sublime. Jean is not all there, however: she’s trapped in the astral plane, cultivating a cruel streak a mile high.

And suddenly, Jean-turning-evil is not all that funny anymore. (X-Men 133)

Cyclops traverses the mental link he shares with Jean to confront ‘Sir Jason’ and challenge him to a duel. Guy can’t catch a break: in Jean’s mindscape, he is stabbed and he promptly collapses in the real world. Ruh-roh!

Wolverine, meanwhile, has done a passable impression of the Bride against the Crazy 88 in Kill Bill, and he interrupts the Hellfire Club and their gloating. That’s when Jean resurfaces as well, snapping out of her voluptuous Victorian fantasy and, playing a dubious tango with everyone’s trust issues, switching sides once again. The Phoenix is like the golden snitch: as long as your team holds it, it’s enough to win.

Colossus snaps Pierce’s robo-arm, Shaw gets punted through a floor and Leland uses his powers to increase Wolverine’s mass - just when Logan is jumping on top of him. Oops! Should have made him lighter than a feather, Leland.

Jean, meanwhile, is doing her own passable impression of the Bride and goes on what the advertisements would refer to as a ‘Roaring Rampage of Revenge’. (Oh, she roars, and she rampages, and she gets bloody satisfaction.)

This is what happens when you fuck around and find out, Jason. (X-Men 134)

Phoenix makes Mastermind’s mind touch the infinite. His tiny human mind can’t cope. And, just like me when I’m at Pride and surrounded by a bevvy of shirtless gym bunnies, he becomes a dribbling mess. A shell with nothing inside. For those of you paying attention: this is where your Lit teacher would shout “dramatic irony” and underscore Emma Frost vs. Storm on the chalkboard.

This is also the moment where she officially Breaks Bad.

We see powerless people become heroes all the time. The reverse, where the angel falls? That happens far more rarely. I think that is the reason this story was so shockingly effective in the eighties. The reason why it’s still so effective? I think because, like the One Ring, you can read the rise and fall of the Phoenix in a myriad of ways. Is this a victim, reclaiming power? Is this a woman, trying to rise in a man’s world? Is this someone who was always buttoned up, daring to embrace her own power, her sexuality, her dangerous side -- only to get promptly beat down? The ambiguity of the narrative gives it strength, which is why I think it keeps resonating even now. This counts especially in the X-Universe, inherently designed to appeal to the underdog.

Anyway, the X-Men try to flee, but it’s too late. Jean can’t hold it in any more. She explodes in Phoenixesness and vaporizes the X-Men’s aircraft over Central Park. Relishing in her power, Jean easily defeats her friends, before flying off into the galaxy.

In the Avengers mansion, Beast gets the report that the X-Men are trashing the Hellfire Club. Ignoring his duties as an Avenger, Beast chooses his old family and hops off to investigate on his own.

The report, by the way, comes from Shaw, who knows when to turn tail and cut his losses. Among the confused, scared refugees of their party, he begins working a politician on the importance of a Sentinel program. That politician? Senator Kelly. Remember that name.

Jean can’t talk, she’s doing hot girl things. Nomnomnom that star system, sis. (X-Men 135)

Originally, Jean wasn’t meant to die. This one panel, the one showing the inhabited planet, is the reason why she eventually does: Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief, felt Jean shouldn’t be able to get away with a literal genocide. Claremont and Byrne, who had planned to strip Jean of her powers at the end of this, had to change the end of their story within days before it went to print. Additionally, this stoked the adversarial fire between the two: Claremont claims that he hadn’t originally intended there to be an inhabited planet, but felt his hands were tied when Byrne drew one. I wonder how true this is, considering how embedded it is in the narrative, but that’s neither here nor there.

The Phoenix’s genocide alerts the Shi’Ar - and therefore Lilandra - to her presence. Lily says that Galactus is nothing compared to the Phoenix: he merely eats planets, she will consume all that exists.

A hungry Jean, meanwhile returns to Earth, not sure what she’s looking for. She pays a visit to the home of her parents, but when they warily come to greet her, she can’t help but read all the innermost thoughts of her family. Nothing is secret, nothing is sacred. (Imagine knowing all those little thoughts your parents had about you, all those little terrible human things they did in their life. Imagine knowing all their sexual fantasies. Brrr.) It sours the Phoenix against them and she is about to start familicide to her list of sins, when the X-Men attack!

Nightcrawler slaps a psionic scrambler designed by Beast on her, but she’s still too strong. Wolverine tries to end her, but he isn’t ruthless enough to do the deed. When the scrambler overloads, Scott tries reasoning with her, appealing to her love. This causes the Phoenix to waver and Charles Xavier (airdropped in by Warren), bolts Jean telepathically.

Drinking game rule for the Phoenix saga no 6: shout “ca-caw” and take a sip every time the raptor appears. (X-Men 136)

Xavier feels Jean helping him out from within the Phoenix and together, they slowly trap Phoenix in the same sort of energy-matrix as Jean did with the M’Kraan-crystal. The Phoenix finally lays dormant, the X-Men have Jean back and Scott, overwhelmed by emotion, sort of awkwardly proposes to her. Happy Ending! And then, pulling the rug out from under our feet, the X-Men (including Beast and Angel) are whisked away.

They appear in front of Lilandra. The Shi’Ar hold Jean accountable for her planet-killing ways and Lilandra orders her Imperial Guard to take her away! But Charles invokes an ancient law with the same relish of someone who invokes an obscure board game rule against the person who is about to win: he demands a trial by combat.

The rules are easy:

X-Men win: Jean lives

Shi’Ar win: Jean dies.

The trial will be on the dark side of the moon. The Shi’ar are way too strong and, one by one, the X-Men fall, until only Jean and Scott are left. In their last stand, Jean loses control and becomes the Phoenix again, wiping the floor with the Imperial Guard. Technically, they win, but she knows now.

Suicide by abandoned-machine-of-a-long-forgotten-civilization-on-the-dark-side-of-the-moon. (X-Men 137)

She dies. Phoenix dies. The X-Men lose. Scott, bereft, leaves the X-Men.

One detail I love is the holempathic crystal that Lilandra bestows on Jean’s parents.

Without becoming too maudlin, the idea of this is beautiful. A condensed image of a person you love, one you can touch when you feel memories slipping away so you can remember who they were. (X-Men 138)

And with that, season 2 of the X-Men ends. Without Cyclops and Phoenix, the X-Men have to readjust. While Beast returns to the Avengers, Angel takes up residence in the mansion again. He confesses to liking most of the new X-Men, except Wolverine. (To be fair, Wolverine is an acquired taste.) Kitty Pryde also formally starts attending the school and slowly, the Jean-and-Scott-shaped void is filled.

Patriarchal Charles is thrilled to finally have a new teenager in the house who will hang on to his every word. It’ll be like the sixties all over again! (X-Men 139)

There are so many beautiful touches in the few panels:

Wolverine calling Charles ‘Chuck’

Nightcrawler getting drinks (and a beer)

Most amazingly of all, Storm becoming the leader. (I give Chuck a lot of flak, but this decision is Right.) Not just because Storm is the best X-Man for the job, but also because she was a black woman leading one of premier Marvel superhero teams for, what? The better half of a decade? The eighties had barely started, so this was a big fucking deal.

Storm also takes up a motherly role for Kitty, who takes up her suggestion for a codename: Sprite. (This after Kitty rejects Charles’ suggestion of Ariel, which is only fortunate, considering that name would soon be associated with redhaired mermaids.)

The rest of the year is dedicated to two adventures, both of them starring Kurt. The first is depicted in the annual: on Kurt’s birthday, he receives a mysterious package with a mysterious figurine that mysteriously explodes in his face. Professor X calls guest star Dr. Strange for aid, who deduces that his soul has been stolen. What follows is a quest to regain Kurt’s soul in an adventure that feels a little too I just read Dante’s Inferno, check how smart I am.

Hell is a little too pedestrian and boring, though we do get a King Minos hitting on Kurt and Ororo. A man of wealth and taste indeed. Anyway, at the end of this side quest, it turns out all of this was a convoluted revenge scheme concocted by one Margali of the Winding Road. She turns out to be Kurt’s (adoptive) mother, who’s getting revenge for Kurt killing her son.

Kurt, racked with guilt, reveals he had no choice. Stefan had always feared the darkness in his soul and he’d made Kurt pledge to stop him if he should ever succumb to it. After Stefan killed a child or two, Kurt had no choice but to end him. Stefan perished and Kurt was blamed for all of the murders, having to flee an angry mob.

Margali forgives him, with some help from Jimaine, Kurt’s foster sister. In a twist that is a little too soap opera for my tastes (and I watch Riverdale), Jimaine turns out to be Kurt’s squeeze, Amanda Sefton. I’ve always disliked this twist, and not just because of the incesteous vibes: I like the idea of Kurt dating a regular lady who is into him despite his appearance and his being a mutant. Making Amanda Sefton his sorcerous half-sister dilutes that message a lot.

The tail end of 1980 involves Wolverine going to Canada so Wolverine can make amends with Alpha Flight. Kurt joins him, ostensibly to flirt with Aurora, but in fact this shows that Kurt and Wolverine are establishing a rapport. A deeper friendship.

In a pretty paint-by-numbers adventure, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and the worse half of Alpha Flight take down a Wendigo. We don’t get Northstar or Aurora, but we do get more Snowbird, who can change herself into Canadian animals, with the danger of being consumed by her animal side.

We get this delightful panel out of it:

Scared Nightcrawler almost makes me forget how full of shit Jimmy MacDonald is, considering last time Kurt saw them, they tried to kidnap the fuzzy elf. (X-Men 139)

This whole arc is meant to show the softening of Wolverine. Not only does he share his name with Kurt (well, sort of: “Logan, is that your name?” “Yup.” “You never told us.” “You never asked.”), but when they fight the Wendigo and Snowbird turns into a white wolverine to deal the final blow, he talks her out of being consumed by her vicious animal nature.

The year ends with two details worth mentioning:

The Canadian government dissolves Alpha Flight, which I can only find a prescient move that highlights their good taste. A realistic note I like is the minister referring to the mutant problem as ‘an American problem’ even though they employ the Beaubier twins. Wankers.

Fred Dukes escapes prison to join the New Brotherhood of Mutants!

We’re now entering a run of the X-Men which I haven’t read much of yet, but Freddy mentions he was helped by some lady lawyer. That’s gotta be Mystique, right?

I can barely contain my glee.

Ugliest Costume: Despite that godawful hooded thing Kitty wears, I have to give this to Dazzler. There’s no salvaging that costume: I’m sorry, but she’s wearing a disco ball around her neck. It's a boot from me.

Best new character: Emma Frost. Fight me by the bike rack near the parking lot if you disagree.

Turns evil: Jean Grey, famously so.

What to read: X-Men 129 to 137, the Dark Phoenix run.

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lex-n-weegie · 8 months

Text

The "Under New Management" AU!!

These are the designs of Glamrock Bonnie(now fixed) and a "Glamrock" Foxy, or as he's known as, Captain Foxy.

The TLDR for the AU is that Hazel brings back/fixes a couple of animatronics, adding 4(technically 5) new animatronics to the Pizzaplex! These are just two of em.

Also here's a random alt for Foxy to see his chest better lol

Rambles about these two's roles and the old drawings underneath the cut!

Glamrock Bonnie

Captain Foxy

#lexi doodles #glamrock bonnie #captain foxy #hopping to the heartbeat #glam fam #Foxy counts lol #lex worldbuilding #🐻🤖#under new mnagement au #and I'm too lazy to tag anything else lol

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xskyll · 3 years

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The BNHA x Chobits AU that no one, not even Mineta, asked for.

The ramblings of my mind under the cut. Warning, it’s loooong.

Okay, so bear in mind that I only watched four episodes of Chobits and it was probably about 14 years ago, and also I didn’t really like it, lol

-Todoroki finds Midoriya laying on some bags of trash next to a dumpster.

-First he’s like “oh no, I need an adult,” because for all his “training,” dad never actually told him what to do when he found a dead body, (this is the summer before he starts U.A., so he’s still living at home). Endeavor is away for a week, and Fuyumi doesn’t count to him (sort of an Aristocats, “she’s not [an adult,] she’s just a sister!” thing). While he’s trying to remember that the police exist, he notices this dead body has very strange ear-like things. He comes closer to investigate. There are lots of weird body types in the world, because of quirks, but these things look metal, which isn’t unheard of, but something about these ears just strike him as unnatural.

- Good news, it seems like a robot, not a dead body. The ears open easily, and there are buttons inside. A power button (that’s right CHOBITS!! It’s in the ear! My love story isn’t going to start with molestation), some USB ports, an aux port, a slot for a microchip or SIM card or whatever, some sort of safety switch (he flips that on)…what really convinces him this is totally a robot are the blutooth and volume buttons (that’s right, Midoriya in this au can charge phones AND he’s a speaker, although the volume buttons’ primary function is to control the volume of his voice).

- He has no good reason for taking this thing home. It weights a ton, it’s awkwardly naked, except for some bandages wrapped around it, which do nothing to hide how anatomically correct this robot is, and he already has a phone charger, so he really has no use for it.

- He feels weird about it though. While he was checking out the ears, he touched its face and the skin was soft and warm. He checked for a pulse, just out of curiosity, and found one. It looks like a person, aside from the ears, and it feels like a person. He feels bad leaving it in the trash. So he takes it home.

- Cue comedy routine where he gets this thing, not just in the house, but to his room without Fuyumi noticing.

- Once in his room, he hits the power switch. Nothing happens. He holds the power switch. Bingo. Robo-boy powers to life, bright, adorably large green eyes open. He’s holding it in his arms, and it’s still all tied up. It looks up at him and says hello.

- He drops it.

- He apologizes as he picks it back up, tugging at the wrappings to try to get its arms free. He realizes he needs to get pants, or at least boxers, for it, because it’s awake now and very much naked.

- For the very first time, he realizes that this adorable, thin-yet-lean-muscled, between 14-16 looking robo-boy might have been someone’s weird sex doll. They probably threw it away because they found a real person to date and they didn’t want them to know about their underage sex robot. This also sort of explains the pulse; the mystery pervert person probably programmed a fake pulse and did something to make his skin warm, to make him feel more real. Gross.

- He’s broken from these thoughts when the robot speaks. It says, “Please insert memory bank files or turn on base memory.” Todoroki is already freaking out, because this thing wants its memories, and he doesn’t have them. He opens the ear again and investigates. Next to the empty slot, there’s a small button labeled BM. Base memory? Sure, why not. He pushes it.

- The robot goes blank faced for a few seconds. When he comes to, he looks at Todoroki, then the room, then down at himself. He flexes his arms, trying to break the bands around him, but stops, saying, “Safety mode is on.”

- Todoroki finishes helping unwrap him, awkwardly doing so while pointedly looking away, once he gets to his lower half. Once he’s free, he goes and gets a pair of boxers and throws them in his direction. “Can you put them on?” He’s curious if the robot can do something like that unaided, and also he doesn’t want to cloth it himself, because even though this is a robot, it looks like a very cute boy his age. And it has a pulse. He can’t stop thinking about that.

- The robot puts on the boxers, after inspecting them for a second. He honestly does struggle to figure it out for a moment, cause he has zero common sense, but he does figure it out. It probably takes him about a minute. Once they’re on, he stands and starts inspecting the room.

- “Do you have a name?” seems like a dumb question, but he asks anyway and the robot answers, “I’m Project Midoriya.”

- Background info time. Midoriya is not fully a robot. He was kidnapped just seven months ago, coming home from school. It was the day of the sludge villain attack, but he got nabbed before they could cross paths. AFO wanted a quirkless person to experiment on. He did his research and found Midoriya Izuku, a quirkless boy with no friends and little family, who wouldn’t be missed very much. He’s confident enough that he won’t get caught that he titles his new project by its name: Midoriya. Midoriya’s memories are still in his mind, but they’re suppressed. AFO found it easier to backup his memories to a chip, so he could remove them as needed. When they were installed, Midoriya responded best to his own name anyway, so calling him that was also the easiest thing. Without his memories, AFO found him a bit annoying, because he had no social skills or common sense. He needed to be taught, which he didn’t have the patience for, so usually he just left the memories in. He was a timid boy anyway and easy to intimidate, especially if he threaten to hurt his mom.

- The cops figure his disappearance was maybe a runaway situation, but given his track record and the profile on him they’d compiled from listening to his mom, classmates, and teachers, they figure it’s more likely a kidnapping or murder. Fun fact though, he got kidnapped the day Bakugou told him to kill himself. Obviously no body is found, but he knows people go to forests to hang themselves, or put weights in their pockets and drown themselves. Those bodies can take years to find. So while all of this is happening, Bakugou is out there just every day, “what have I done, what have I done, what have I done?” When they finally see each other again, Bakugou freaks out and Midoriya’s suppressed memories are triggered. Bakugou demands answers, Todoroki is confused and defensive, and Midoriya is just, “System overload. Shutting down,” and then face plants to the floor.

- Anyway, back to Shouto. He asks Midoriya if he remembers anything. Midoriya has exactly one memory (or at least, one easily accessible memory), and it’s this: “A man. He looked like this.” He put his hand over his face. “He said, ‘Sensei put so much work into you. Why are you so useless (Deku)?’”

- More bg info, AFO gave Midoriya to Shigaraki, telling him to try to make him useful, and Shigaraki DID try for a couple of months, but he was over the whole situation after basically one day. With his memories, Midoriya was scared and traumatized, had morals, cried a bunch and sometimes tried to escape, and was just UGH. He could mute his voice, but even that didn’t help, cause this kid was just sooo annoying. Without his memories he was awkward and boring and still annoying. Eventually he just yeeted him into a trash heap, but took his memory chip, since it technically contains LoV information.

- Midoriya considers his only memory and thinks being called Deku feels sort of normal, so he says as much. “Deku might also be my name. You can call me that, if you want.” Todoroki says he’ll stick with Midoriya, because Deku isn’t a nice name for his new robot friend.

- So the first section of the story after this is fairly light-hearted. Todoroki has to keep Midoriya a secret from Endeavor and Fuyumi (I feel like she does find out eventually, but agrees to help hide him, as she sees it’s good for her little bro to finally have this (maybe?) living thing/person to talk to and take care of.) Speaking of care, Midoriya is very easy to care for. He can eat, drink, and sleep, but doesn’t need to. He has some sort of self-charging system. Most of his “care” involves teaching him social skills (which oof, blind leading the blind, but they say teaching is the best way to learn, so this is actually good for Shouto too). Embarrassing stuff happens. Fluffy stuff happens. It’s a good time.

- Shouto spends the summer with Midoriya this way. Most of their interactions are fluffy and light, but not all. The first time he comes back to his room after training with his dad, he learns two things: Midoriya has first aid knowledge programmed into him and he’s capable of crying. As the trainings continue, Midoriya eventually reveals that he has over a hundred fighting styles programmed into him and knows over 70 ways to kill a person, but he can’t access any of that information while his safety is on. Todoroki is just like, “Uuuuuh, that’s really good to know…but we’re gonna keep the safety on for now, okay? I hate my dad but also please don’t murder him. He’s famous so we wouldn’t get away with it. Also murder is bad, don’t kill people.”

- Midoriya wants to know if all heroes are like Endeavor and Shouto is like, noooo and shows him the debut video of his personal favorite hero: All Might. Watching this video is the first time Midoriya has a “System overloading. Shutting down” moment. Shouto has an absolute panic attack, because if Midoriya reboots and his memories are wiped, then he’ll have lost the best friend he ever had. But Midoriya restarts and he’s fine. He explains that sometimes he shuts down, to prevent a system failure, which would damage his…idk, hard drive or whatever. He quietly admits that the All Might video is very familiar, and he thinks maybe it used to be important to him. Shouto questions him about his memories and Midoriya theorizes that perhaps he has them backed up, but he isn’t sure how to access them.

- This is exciting for Shouto, because he thinks maybe if Midoriya experiences more “triggers,” like the video, he might regain his memories and be able to shed some light on the general mystery of where he came from/who made him/what his purpose is. Whenever Endeavor is away, he tries to sneak Midoriya out, so he can see the real world. He isn’t too concerned about his ears, because in a world of quirks, there are plenty of odd looking people around. So far he’s been wearing Todoroki’s clothes, which a little too big on him, so they go shopping and get him clothes. None of their outings seem to trigger anything, except one time when they pass a park where Midoriya and Bakugou used to play as kids. Midoriya grows quiet and seems far away for a moment, but he doesn’t overload and shakes off the familiar feeling.

- Whenever they see All Might stuff he’s just !!!!!!! He can’t remember why he likes All Might, but he remembers how he feels about him. The more All Might stuff he sees, the more his old feelings return. One day they pass a large All Might poster and Midoriya says, “I think maybe I wanted to be like him, once.”

- Eventually Todoroki starts school. He feels bad about leaving him, but Midoriya is content to stay in his room and occupy himself until Todoroki comes home. He’s part computer, so he’s a total boss at helping with math homework. He likes doing homework with Todoroki in general, because he likes learning. This is great for Todoroki’s grades because again, the teaching thing helps everything stick better for him.

- The attack on USJ happens and Todoroki sees Shigaraki, who has a hand on his face, and he’s like, “Shit, shit, shit, this is the guy who threw away Midoriya,” and he has NO idea what to do with that information. Midoriya belonging to the LoV does explain the “70+ ways to kill” programming though. He tells Midoriya what happened and Midoriya is kind of whatever about it. He says, “Maybe I belonged to villains, but I belong to you, now.” And Shouto is like, “No, no, no, no. You do not. You belong to yourself” and Midoriya is just ????

- I think for the Sports Festival, Midoriya convinces him to use his fire. It’s sort of like, “It’s your power, even though its origin is Endeavor. Just like how everything I can do is my power, even though I was programmed by villains. Being made by villains doesn’t make me a villain. Using the resources they gave me doesn’t make me a villain. Being Endeavor’s son doesn’t make you Endeavor, and using your fire doesn’t either.” Todoroki turns off Midoriya’s safety, confident he has nothing to fear.

- Midoriya watches the Sports Festival on tv (using his blutooth, he can actually just hear the volume in his head, so he can watch silently). He sees Bakugou. Seeing him on screen doesn’t have a huge impact on him, but he does feel something. Fear, unease, admiration, and affection. He’s confused and uncomfortable, and ends up looking away from the screen whenever he’s shown for too long.

- Shouto actually starts making friends at school. Being with Midoriya has taught him a lot about being kind and the joy having other people in your life can bring. Still, he doesn’t trust anyone enough to tell them about Midoriya. He’s terrified of losing him.

- For the Hosu incident, Midoriya is home alone, probably doing something on Shouto’s laptop. He sees the breaking news and is just, “Welp, that’s where Shouto, the official best person in the world, is, so guess I’m going to Hosu to make sure he’s safe.” He leaves the house alone, for the first time ever, and just runs to Hosu. Idk how far away Hosu is from the Todoroki residence, but Midoriya doesn’t fatigue and he’s also outrageously fast, so it’s fine. Also he can see in the dark, but only if he activates his night vision, which makes his eyes glow. Not good for sneaking, but very pretty and cool. I’m not sure how he finds Shouto, or how Shouto found Iida, but I imagine Stain is like, seconds from skewering him and then Midoriya comes out of nowhere and collides with Stain (which is a big deal, cause remember, Midoriya is filled with metal parts and is super heavy). They fight together and at some point Stain cuts Midoriya and he bleeds, which for Shouto is like !?!??! And then he licks his blood and the paralysis works and Shouto is just !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Later, after the life threatening stuff is over, Todoroki has some seriously thoughts about this, because what if Midoriya is human? Or part human? That would be a huge development, and also kind of relief for him, because he sort of feels like he’s been falling in love, but he’s been desperately stomping down on those feelings, because he knows falling in love with a robot probably isn’t healthy. But falling in love with a half robot? I mean, Iida could be called part robot, with his legs, if you want to get technical about it. And Todoroki does want to get technical about it, thank you very much. If Iida is dateable, then so is Midoriya.

- Back to Hosu. They beat Stain and, after securing him, Todoroki tells Midoriya to go home, before his dad arrives. Once he leaves, he begs Iida not to tell anyone he saw him and promises to explain later. For ease of narrative, Native was unconscious the entire fight.

- Endeavor shows up, as does the Nomu. It takes Shouto but Stain rescues him. At the hospital, Todoroki explains the Midoriya situation to Iida, revealing that this incident was the first time he realized Midoriya had blood in him. Iida agrees to keep the secret, but urges Todoroki to tell someone. Maybe Aizawa. He agrees to consider, but he doesn’t want Midoriya to get taken away and like, locked up to be studied or something. He and Iida become better friends, bonding over almost dying together and sharing the secret of Midoriya.

- Midterms! Shouto scores higher because he has an awesome robot tutor. He doesn’t actually care, but good for him regardless.

- Summer field trip time. Midoriya can’t come, obviously. I’m thinking during this time, he decides to sneak out of the house and explore on his own. He feels guilty, because Shouto would worry if he knew, but he just feels this draw. He feels like maybe his old memories were important, and he’s becoming curious. He keeps thinking about the boy from the Sports Festival and about All Might. He ends up in his old neighborhood. He sees his middle school and he doesn’t remember anything, but seeing the building makes him feel lonely and sort of bad about himself. It reminds him of Shigaraki calling him Deku, and the familiar feeling that gave him. He leaves and finds himself on his old street. He isn’t close at all to his old home - he can barely see the apartment building - but he can still see it. He almost shuts down, but turns away quickly and starts back the way he came. He doesn’t remember anything, but seeing that building fills him with overwhelming emotions. The strongest one reminds him of his feelings for Shouto, but it’s different. He can’t place it, but he knows he’d die to protect Shouto, and he feels like maybe he once knew someone in that building that he would also die to protect. Once he gets home, he realizes he’s crying. He decides to sleep and he dreams of green eyes and a smile that looks like home.

- Shouto is injured during the villain attack and goes to the hospital. Once he’s released, he agrees with Kirishima that they’ll go rescue Bakugou. That whole thing pretty much goes at it did in canon, except All Might never found a successor, so he’s more powerful. He defeats AFO and does not have to retire, though he’s feeling an overwhelming pressure to find a successor now, because he knows he’s hanging on by a thread.

- Dorms!! Shouto is bringing his boy with him. He figures he can hide him just as easily there as he can at home. Getting him in is a little tricky, but he manages. From there, it’s smooth sailing.

- Except not really, because living with 18-19 other people (19 if Hitoshi is in the class, which, maybe) is way different than living with 2. Midoriya is discovered in like, a week and everyone is freaking out, most of all Bakugou, who basically breaks down. He tries to hit Midoriya and screams at him, about thinking he was dead and going to his funeral and how it was his fault and having to face his mom and did Midoriya even think about his mom??? As previously mentioned, Midoriya just shuts down and face plants to the ground.

- Shouto finally learns Midoriya’s full name. Midoriya Izuku. A+ name. Very cute. He plans to use it immediately.

- Bakugou’s insight changes the situation completely. Now they know Izuku was once 100% human and something awful happened to him. They end up bringing him to Aizawa and explaining the situation and everything they know. Todoroki gets scolded, cause Izuku could have been dangerous and he should have known better, but he doesn’t even pretend to have regrets. Endeavor would have made him throw Izuku back into the trash where he found him. His best friend isn’t trash.

- Now the name of the game is helping Izuku restore his memories. Bakugou is a huge help, but patience is required, to keep Izuku from overloading. He remembers bits and pieces at a time, all centered around Bakugou. Aizawa agrees to let him attend classes, so they can keep an eye on him. He’s also hoping a school setting might trigger more memories. He meets All Might and he doesn’t even get to announce his system malfunction before he’s out. He sees him, starts smoking at the mouth and hits the floor. All Might is very alarmed.

- Tsukauchi is made aware of the situation. He wants to keep things under wraps though. If the LoV is aware Midoriya is out and about, they may target him. If they can restore his memories though, they may gain insight into the group’s plans. That being said, he thinks it’s only right that they tell Inko. They tell her they have information on her son and make her sign a contract, agreeing not to release any information. Once she agrees, they brief her on what they know and, at the end, bring in Izuku.

- Izuku has been talking with Bakugou about his mom, to prepare for this (he usually wants Shouto with him for these conversations, and Shouto and Bakugou sort on inadvertently become friends). He can’t remember her at all, but he remembers the face in his dream. He knows it’s her. While talking, he’s shut down a few times (which drives Bakugou up the wall, and also scares him a little, cause he kind of looks dead when it happens), but he thinks he might be ready to see her now. He’s brought in and he does not shut down, not fully, but he comes close. He definitely glitches a little, maybe doing a quick reboot, quick enough that he doesn’t even fall, and his voice comes out cracked and metallic when he speaks, and there are sparks in his mouth, but he manages, “Mom?” They both cry and she holds him while he tells her, voice wavering between sounding normal and sounding robotic, that he doesn’t remember her, but he loves her, he knows he loves her so so much and he knows he’s missed her, even though he didn’t know who she was. It’s very emotional, and extremely hard for both of them when they finally have to separate, because Izuku can’t go home with her. She’s allowed to visit though, and each visit helps him restore little pieces of his memory. Between her and Bakugou, he starts making enough progress that he stops shutting down when he gains a new memory, and he starts remembering his old hopes and dreams. He doesn’t remember what AFO did to him, but he remembers enough of his past to feel self-conscious now, about his body. He breaks down one day and Shouto holds him while he grapples with his identity, his humanity, and his future.

- I’m picturing a scene where he’s crying and Shouto takes his face in his hands and explains all the beautiful things about him that make him human, and he finishes up with something corny like, “I know you, Izuku. You’re human. You have to be human, because I’m in love with you.” And then they KISS and it is ROMANTIC!

- He decides he still wants to be a hero and he becomes a real member of 1A, instead of just a visitor. The whole class helps him design a costume and come up with a name and in general are just like, “Cyborg Hero, yay!!”

- And that’s all I got. I think eventually he would fight the league, and probably retrieve his chip, giving him 100% of his memories. There’s a LOT of trauma to deal with there, because he was basically torn apart and put back together several times by AFO, but they do gain all the information they need to take down the LoV for good. And the Overhaul arc is in there. Izuku might still intern with Nighteye, because All Might is like, “Robot successor? Maybe???” and he wants Nighteye’s opinion. Nighteye can’t see his future, because he’s not fully human, but eventually he gives his stamp of approval. Eri is rescued and that’s a very personal fight for Izuku, because he identifies with what she’s gone through. And of course she loves him and thinks his ears are cute and his glowy eyes are pretty.

- Oh, and the School Festival. I honestly don’t even know what to do with him. He can learn any instrument just by like, downloading some YouTube tutorial videos. He can learn any dance by watching it once. He’s really strong, really fast, and can also operate as a speaker (though that can be awkward, cause it’s through his mouth, so he’d just be standing there with his mouth open). They might keep his role same as canon, idk. They’d probably all fight over him.

- I’m sure none of this was anything like Chobits. Sorry. I just think the ears are neat, really, and liked the idea of Izuku being a cyborg (Chobits isn’t even about cyborgs, lol).

Sorry this is outrageously long! If you want to write this into a full fic, feel free to use my ideas! Just give me a shoutout, maybe? And tell me about it, so I can read it!

#skylldraws #skyll rambles #tddk #tddk fanart #tddk au #tododeku #tododeku au #bnha #bnha x chobits #todoroki x midoriya #shouto x izuku #todoizu #tddk ficlet #tododeku ficlet #todoroki shouto #midoriya izuku

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