#//also I like to thing that the suits and armor of programs is also functional and not just cool to look at

[thedexcat]

VotV Speculation Megapost

(For posterity's sake, the latest major release is 0.8) (Also, buckle in. This post is a long one.) (Edit 9/20/24: Added Addendum 1) (Edit 10/14/24: Added Addendum 2) It should be extremely obvious, but spoilers ahead.

As we all know, Voices of the Void has a "story breadcrumbs" approach to its plot. Combine that with its alpha status, and we're left with a lack of hard answers. However, some pieces did seem to click into place. This is far from anything definitive, but here are some of the conclusions I've drawn. Let's start with everybody's favorite:

Part 1: The Arirals

god i want one to hold me like that

You know em. You love em. Like 90% of the fanart is about them. But the question is... what the hell are they doing here? Judging by the fact that they construct a campsite in the facility, they clearly expect to be here for a while. A common interpretation I hear from people is that the ones out in the facility are either political refugees, or just some sort of benign "tourist group". I've personally come to a different conclusion. Let's consider what they brought with them.

Exhibit A: The weapon (left)

The weapon they drop around Day 24 is no mere Star Trek phaser. If you drop it in the main building, pretty much EVERYTHING in the building is going to be sent flying from the resulting blast. Not only that, but the "human-wieldable" version that can be unlocked for the sandbox mode has one hell of a fire rate. Something tells me that there's no way in hell this thing is a civilian-grade weapon. And, as established in a previous post of mine, they're kitted out in full-body armored stealth suits.

Exhibit B: The stealth suit (Kerf dutifully remains there for scale)

These aren't tourists or runaways. They're goddamn Black Ops. But you're probably asking, "If that's what they are, then why do they have nothing better to do than to steal shrimp and prank you?" Don't worry, I'll get to that later. Eventually. Maybe.

For now, let's move on to a third thing of theirs: The letter to Kel.

Exhibit C: Esraniki's Letter (D-, see me after english class)

This is the letter left at the Ariral camp if you have maxxed reputation with them. There's one line in particular that's always stood out to me. "GET WE HOME YOU GET DEATH AVOID" So... why can't they go home? Let's review: A: They have perfectly functional spacecraft parked right behind you. Even if they were broken, surely some random Pre-FTL primitive wouldn't be able to help with a mechanical failure in their technology. Hell, they buzz you at the radio tower with one. So there seems to be nothing physically stopping them from leaving. B: They've come kitted out with some serious weapons and armor C: Something in the facility is drawing the attention of all manner of extraterrestrials (and ghosts and demons. are 'metaterrestrials' a good word for them?) So my take? They're monitoring something, waiting for an opportunity to act upon it. (In keeping with the Patch Note naming convention, I will be calling this unknown something "The Threat") Not only that, this 'opportunity' may only open up with the assistance of a human. But what could Dr. Kel possibly do that an Ariral couldn't? Well, I can think of one thing he can do better... Interface with human technology.

Exhibit D: Ariral Communique (quality: shit) Computer technology isn't some universal constant. You can't make a program and expect it to magically run on alien technology with an unknown architecture. This ain't Independence Day. The fact that the Arirals barely managed to send a heavily-garbled message to Kel's computer, quite frankly, speaks of an extreme amount of effort on their part. And it was all just to say the word "OUTSIDE".

If The Threat has some ties to human technology, then perhaps Kel actually could be more qualified to deal with it than the Ariral Black Ops. Hmm... An unknown threat with ties to human technology. Could it possibly involve...

Part 2: The Incredibly Suspicious Bunker

"I left a 'Do not enter' note on the floor. That'll stop people from investigating!" This damn thing is quite obviously, as TVtropes would put it, The Very Definitely Final Dungeon. It is my firm belief that this is what the Arirals were sent to monitor, and where The Threat can be found. But we can't really get much further in than a few doors. So... what's in there? An easy assumption to make is that it's some sort of fallout/storm shelter. But something nearby might tell a different story...

Exhibit E: *squints* ...Liberty Prime? If you take a metal detector over to the bunker entrance, you'll quickly discover a buried drive nearby. The image you just saw is its contents. It's clear that something is being depicted here. What exactly it is, well, that's hard to say. but if you look at that teeny tiny thing at the top, you'll see something that looks like the Alpha base and its radio tower

oh god we're getting into crusty duende video territory now

What this says to me is that there is a colossal something underneath the base. Some sort of mega-facility? Unnatural cave formations? Something else entirely? Or I could be looking at it entirely wrong. But the point is, it's very likely that something extremely expansive is down there.

What if we could just take a peek a liiiittle bit further in? Well, there is ONE way...

Exhibit F: The Least Cursed Elevator in Horror Fiction

Roughly around 3:33 each night, there is a chance that a camera inside the bunker will become active. It's monitoring what appears to be a heavy-duty elevator coated in blood. An elevator like this would also indicate something buried deep underneath the base. Say, this elevator seems familiar...

Exhibit G: Monique Santificer's Extremely Ominous Foreshadowing

...Huh. I'm sure that only means good things. So we have a Hellivator and evidence that there's some place that you'd need a Hellivator to get to. Are there any other clues around? Well, there's that handy instruction book on robotics. You can make your own little friend!

POV: You're 5'11 and she's 6'0 And... Oh! looking back at that camera, it looks like someone else made their... their own... friend...

Exhibit H: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- ...I don't think they followed the instructions to the letter. So it seems the people in the bunker were working on combining robots and, er, 'biomass'. I don't think our meaty friend here is The Threat itself, but I do believe that it is some aspect of it, or at least a result of it. And whatever The Threat is, it seems to be "leaking" out of the bunker. After all, this toothy bot here seems to have little siblings burrowing out from underground!

Exhibit I: should start running Kerfus. Kerfur. Whatever name they have, they love you! Such a shame that the flesh inhabiting their chassis does not.

they seriously recalled the ++ models over a little thing like this, smh Something deep underground, cursed flesh, and occult sigils. Hmm. Things would tie together neatly if there were, say, some sort of demon around associated with flesh and dark depths.

Part 3: Furfur (and conclusions)

"I WATCH YOU SHIT AT NIGHT" The Great Earl of Hell and raw flesh afficianato, it's Furfur! Demonology refers to him as a liar, but also a teacher of secrets. And he seems to really really like flesh. Not bones, though. He's always leaving those behind.

They say that if you burn an offering of flesh at his altar, he'll give you a marketable Furfur plushie!

The children who survived loved them! Interestingly, there's a certain location connected to Furfur: The bottom of the well. If you pass out at the bottom of the well, you will end up in a (dream of a?) mysterious structure.

Exhibit J: all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well

A few things of note in this place: -More demonic sigils -The only 'exit' is a tunnel leading upward with a broken ladder. And even if you could reach up there, Furfur's giant skull-face is blocking the way. -A unique knife, which when examined in the inventory, says that it was found "deep underground".

How very interesting that this flesh-loving demon has his own little place down in the depths of the earth. And you say the bunker reaching downwards has been spawning horrific robot-flesh amalgamations? Robots that are specifically of human design?

Well then. So here's what I think is going down:

no i'm not crazy it's invisible alien catgirls versus demon cyborgs you weren't listening were you?

-Some scientists from before did a Very Bad Thing in the bunker depths. If I had to venture a guess, it's that they bargained with Furfur for secrets of the flesh, perhaps in the pursuit of cybernetics, biocomputers, or somesuch. This resulted in the Very Bad Thing happening, thus creating The Threat. -The Threat was contained to some extent, but is starting to noticeably leak out. It is also severe enough to have drawn extraterrestrial attention. -The Arirals have sent a squad to monitor the situation and act if necessary. Seeing as there's been no urgent need to act as of yet, they are bored out of their skulls and taking it out on you. -The fact that the bunker hasn't been blown up by catgirl black ops already says to me that the situation down there is delicate, and a 'guns-blazing' approach would be inadvisable. Not only that, but The Threat seems to be tied to technology they have little knowledge of. They would most likely need outside assistance if they want a 'clean' resolution to the problem. -And wouldn't you know it? Right there in the facility is some nerdy, crusty, half-crazed twink that seems to be very proficient in handling human technology. How very convenient.

"average person eats 3 roaches a year" factoid actually just statistical error. Dr. Kel, who-

That's how I think this ties together, personally. Of course, there's always unaccounted for 'loose ends' that may or may not be tied to the Bunker Conspiracy (the rozital pit in particular has been bugging me with its vagueness). Plus there's always the chance that I misinterpreted things like a dumbass. There were a few other smaller things I wanted to cover, but my fingers hurt from typing, and my ability to hyperfixate has its limits. And sorry if the screengrabs are a bit mismatched, I've already spent hours on this post without having to get screenshots from the game myself. If anyone actually read through this monstrosity of a post, congratulations! If you're as deeply brainrotted as I am, feel free to point out the reasons I'm dumb and wrong :)

Addendum 1: Meta Aspects

no, not this. wrong place. wrong time.

Every now and then I hear talk of lore clarifications in Discord servers, Google Docs, etc. Will I be covering these?

(source) The reason? I want to give my impressions based purely on the work as published. Death of the Author and whatnot. The furthest I'll reach 'outside' the games are those ambiguous little teasers on YouTube, which you don't have to be in any 'specific server' or anything to see.

haha what if funni meme robot was irreversibly corrupted by the horrors?

Think of it as me giving a form of feedback on how the game is presented as an isolated work. Anyway, I'll be posting another Addendum later, connecting more demon stuff to the bunker. Fun! One thing I intend to investigate between then and now is a rumor of a very poorly documented... item interaction. As a little preview, consider this note.

It seems, in my pursuit of knowledge regarding a mysterious bunker in an incomplete videogame story, I find myself investigating a skeletal entity of ambiguous origin described as having a single glowing eye. God. Fucking. Dammit. Every time with this shit.

This always seems to happen whenever the protagonist is bullied by tall monstergirls

Addendum 2: Classified

Progress on my investigation has been slow due to a combination of poor RNG and real-life stuff. Fun fact: I've never encountered the fossilhound in my many months of playing, and it looks like that won't change anytime soon!

I'll get you one day, ya boney bastard. In the meantime, it seems that someone has leaked classified pokemon data communications from our employers...

And just who do we encounter within the first few weeks?

Our classified documents are their vacation photos

So it seems that at the very least, our employers seem to be aware of the Arirals. So to what end do they want to draw them out? And why would the Arirals show any particular interest in a human presence in this facility specifically?

They clearly seem to be hiding their presence from the world at large with their cloaking ships and whatnot, but they seem almost eager to grab the attention of anyone working at this particular site.

And, as everyone already knows, Arirals are certified Goobers. They form like 3/5ths of the Counsel of Goobers*. The ones we encounter at the very least are very much not what our employers expect to kill us. So our employers are also aware of the existence of some other threat, possibly even THE Threat. *the remaining members are Kerfuses and Dinguses

Truly an incomprehensible menace from beyond the stars. (source)

Personally, I feel like this all feeds back into my previous thoughts. There is clearly a Threat at this location, and the Arirals probably believe that they may need human assistance to do something here. Or maybe I'm just biased towards whatever random thoughts got cooked up in my head.

Anyway, hopefully next time I'll be back with reports of yanking the lifecrystal out from the Fossilhound's head and shoving it up its ass. I am so, SO sick of trying to get that thing to show up.

[osakanone]

Hi, I'm Osaka

I'm a hobbyist designer, and I research esoteric concepts on the periphery of mecha to find new views nobody else is writing about. I also am obsesed with trying to push the genre forwards.

I also took up programming to build a game faster than ACFA, more airborne than Ace Combat, and more "art of the blade" than Zone of the Enders 2 by studying mecha games through the lens of published declassified military grade airwar and psywar human factors engineering and psychology concepts.

I want to make this game about mechposting and the trans experience, but I need your help: not money, but to speak with you about mecha.

The writing is simultaniously equal parts thesis to microfic a lot of the time, so your milage may vary.

Scroll through the mess below and find what suits you best.

Please.

Mecha Theory Writing

A comprehensive explanation of the evolutionary path from conventional ground and air vehicles, including a comprehensive outline of a functioning control-design based on the inceptor/software model seen in unmanned drones and 5th gen aircraft, complete with explanations.

The evolution of the walking thing called “mecha"  (original)

Chapter 0: Establishing terminology & Concepts Part 1: Defining "the mechaness" of something: the 8 principles of mecha Part 2: Feisability: Mecha aren't realistic, but not for the reason you think

Chapter 1: How does "mecha" come into existence/why would you want one? Part 1: An evolution from ground vehicles of today Part 2: Skating, to walking, to running, to flight Part 3: “Why transform in the vacuum of space?”

Chapter 2: Cockpit & Software Design Control Theory Part 4: On Mecha Control Theory: Considerations Part 4a: On Mecha Control Theory II: OKAWARA Part 4b: On Mecha Control Theory III: TOMINO  Part 4c: On Mecha Control Theory III: NAGANO

The World of Armored Core

An exploration of the world of Armored Core, using research into real phenomenon and engineering systems to infer how the world may itself function

Kojima particle physics (part 1): What are they? Kojima particle physics (part 2): The Human Consequences NEXT cockpit design (part 1): AMS and Lynx NEXT Cockpit Design (Part 2): G-force Tolerance Technocrat is SpaceX, and the legacy of Musk’s father (lmao) I am a 4th gen douchebag, and I love it (love-letter to ACFA) 4th gen shitpost: white gopnik

How To Domesticate Your Pilot

A husbandry guide for handlers, consisting of opinions and thoughts from various trainers and operators, as well as pilots. Includes practices, procedures, articles, stories and snippets.

I'm currently testing the waters with snippets and will likely be posting it out of order. I am extremely hungry for any and all possible feedback

If anybody knows the original source of the image of the eyes (which I first saw in a youtube ad) I'd love to know. I very much would like to commission them.

Inspired by mechposting

Chapter 3: Do not Abuse Your Wolves (Psychological patterning) Part 1: Action patterning (Initial Phases) Part 2: Action Patterning (Risks) Part 3: Once upon a mechanism

On mecha design: My personal thoughts on the assemblies of shape, form in the context of motion, action and function 1. Does anybody else have physical characteristics they find the most appealing? 2. Thoughts on self-altering dynamic form, and proportion designs 3. Shoji Kawamori and Armored Core: designers hallucinate, but do they hallucinate too? 4. Why is Gundam Gquuuuux called Gundam Gquuuuux?

Mechsploitation thoughts

#Mechposting

My personal thoughts on piloting culture, and mechanical design

1. The eroticism of the machine: Megastructures 2. Beyond pilebunker: The Grind-blade and the legacy of Overweapons 3. FLAT/Touchscreens are an act of hate: I will teach you love 4. You do not need to pick between a big hammer or daggers if you are a robot 5. O'Socks combat mix (tw: substance abuse) 6. Team dynamics, addiction, conflicts of interest and marketing 7. Commuication is hard, and mecha feet are cool 8. Morrigan Aensland is mecha and you cannot change my mind 9. re: Last Exile is not dieselpunk; its post-steampunk deleuzian dreams 10. Mecha PMC promotion is back, in pog form 11. Bodies, corporeal schema, and the body language of pilots 12. The blessing of the hounds; main system engaging combat mode 13. Exotic doctrine: Grappling & Booster-fu // torsion, aspect and control 14. Osaka, why do you always want to talk about ACFA? 15. You walk, so they can run

# Miscposting: Immacullate vibe-topia Pilot, for you: Love. Love. The sound of the ideal cockpit Left Hand/Right hand [gone]-- Mechposting vibes soundwall 🇸​​🇮​​🇨​​🇰​​🇧​​🇪​​🇦​​🇹​​🇸​ ​🇹​​🇴​ ​🇸​​🇪​​🇪​​🇰​ ​🇦​​🇳​​🇩​ ​🇩​​🇪​​🇸​​🇹​​🇷​​🇴​​🇾​ ​🇹​​🇴​: A #mechposting playlist [ongoing] Cicatrix: A writing playlist Sounds for violence: Mecha games vs FPS games

# Pilotcore: Dress & attire 1. Attire concept (includes #mechposting patch list) 2. Crew attire for things other than piloting a giant robot 3. Singleton over-jacket 4. Radios, straps and whips 5. Wearable keyboard for pilots 6. What color should a flight-suit be? (#AskOsaka from @siveine)

The Learning Tree

Reading this will help you grow as a person, or ask questions

"I experience depression as a failure of resource allocation systems" Adult social skills 101, because the world broke our ability to understand eachother Mental health: Things I wish I knew in my teens, my 20's or even my early 30's ​Sex-positivity, associations, critical thinking & deradicalization Crossing the hrt libido event horizon without libido heat-death by making biscuits Fool!: Your nostalgia isn't real: Your past has been stolen from you! Why Linux diehards are morons, and so is everybody else too On the ecology of slurs and the evolution of language Individualism can mean many things. The three fetishes of the human condition The real meaning of "you will not be an anime girl, you'll be your mom"

Nothing, but content for contented malcontents

Insightful, but stupid.

The collapse of the anime ecology's biodiversity Cycles of Nostalgia: Nobody is going to be nostalgic for Corporate Memphis Europe doesn't teach the Odyssey: Americentricism's fetishism is already its downfall Feeling used: The eternal disappointment of the Sawano Drop Lame? Bitch please: Clubbing deserves to go extinct every pmdd transmasc is that badass hot painting of satan crying The reviewer made a major error The Maid's Paradox Bread real

The horrors

Robo ComBAT: Cactus Jaque (original)

The Fear

Concerning plunges into the ne plus ultra culture of tomorrow

Humbert complex: When people prefer what they imagine to what's really there White Diamond, fascism, projection, ego, how Steven Universe botched its end. Sandwich names: the internet sucks now and smartphones are to blame! Gatekeeping is weird and knowledge-checks are arbitrary nonsense "The internet feels gross now", a trajectory of human events Providing feedback is also a skill and not everybody has it. AI isn't evil but it does embolden the worst people economics is just twitter brain for worth Do you?

My actual projects:

Art (I'm kind of private about my output and don't post often, sorry)

Pixelart: A very silly computer design that makes me smile idk

Games:

Project Force: 6dof aerodynamic high speed robot action [ongoing] Inspired by Armored Core For Answer, Freespace 2, Zone of the Enders 2 & Ace Combat 3, this game aims to merge their elements into a high speed mech sim.

e: yeesh this pinned post is getting kinda huge, I should break it into sub-pages or something so nobody can ever see any of it lol

[murderbees]

Programs that are in the real/user world all have sensory issues for sure

I will elaborate gladly

So on grid? Everything is data or functions, or other computer stuff. It slots into their processors like nothing because it's how they're meant to function.

There's not a lot of extraneous information being sent, it would make The Grid inefficient. There's not really air or wind, or at least, not in the same way. Things can generate force, like fans pushing out, or the insect-like wings slowing programs descent.

Surfaces are generally smooth, there's not a lot of data input from them. The gridsuits and armor are like second skins, not much sensory input there.

The programs are also connected to the operating system and Grid on a deeper level. Pings race across personal displays and queries are sent with barely a thought. There's a level of interconnectedness with everything, even the ground. ISOs felt this even more. As children of the Grid, they have even stronger links. Like a 6th sense.

In the Real/User world? oh man,

There's so much information everywhere all the time.

Everything has a texture, especially clothes. Most programs go for skin tight clothing, it's the closest to their suit as they can get. Most can't decide between running their fingers over everything or trying not to touch anything at all.

There are sounds and smells everywhere. Yeah, they're on the Grid too, but not like this. It's almost an assault. Every single thing has a smell, and they can't filter out the inputs anymore.

Taste is somewhat new. The only thing there really was to taste was energy, and while it had flavor, it generally was more conceptual in nature than physical. Energy consumption connected directly to a programs circuits, cycling through and being processed within seconds. Food feels like the opposite. Adjusting to physical food is an ordeal for every program.

The absense of Grid connections makes them all uneasy. They can't send a message with a few flicks of their fingers, no, they have to talk. They can't feel the other programs like they used to and not having a personal display makes most of them feel inefficient.

It's basically a whole new set of senses to get used to, with the loss of half your previous ones. Yeah they all have their sensory issues for sure.

[the-punforgiven]

Necromancers are widely regarded as the 'Minion Guy' type mage, as in, characterized by having a separate entity they've created through magic that they control, but I feel like 9 times outta 10 undead are outclassed in nearly every way by like, basic artificer constructs

Like, undead are slow, frail, foul-smelling, and weak. Their strength and durability are roughly on par with an insanely tenacious human, (depending on what armor you outfit them with), and holy damage tends to melt them faster than my heart melts when I hear my girlfriend's laugh. Not only that, but by their definition, they're also just already damaged by the circumstances that lead to their creation, and constantly in a state of falling apart and decaying eternally, and requiring a constant dump of mana daily to keep them from going berserk. The only thing they've got going for them is that they're relatively cheap to make, and they can spread some nasty diseases if you're into that sort of thing (which, given the nature of disease, is such an indiscriminate force it provides a notable threat to the necromancer themselves, which isn't super great imo)

So, for the sake of comparison, let's compare that to a basic Steel Golem. A construct which is often (depending on its creator and their exact specifications) typically of adequate speed, incredibly durable, infinitely more hygenic, and very strong. Their strength and durability far surpasses that of mortal men with no weaknesses to any type of damage I can think of (Aside from something like disenchant spells, which undead are also weak to) , and many constructs have been known to continue functioning for centuries while still adhering to their programming, showing only basic wear and tear. Plus, they can be easily outfitted with tools/weapons that suit whatever purpose you give them, everything from metal detectors to shoulder mounted cannons to self repair systems, and an overall extra level of versatility that'd be much more difficult to do with undead.

So, aside from being a bit more expensive, I feel they outclass most undead minions in nearly every respect, with the exception of natural disease spreading, against which steel golems are immune to anyway.

My hot take is that necromancers are widely seen as the go-to minion guy but artificers could do that just like, straight-up better

But also yeah there's no way cishet wizards are the majority lmao

Hey who wants to hear my most controversial wizard take

[greatwyrmgold]

Building off my last two posts about a Parahumans/MSGWFM crossover (which I should probably name at some point if I'm gonna keep posting about it)...I want to sort out the details of Nora Samaya's powers and plans. And since they're heavily based on the plans of Elnora Samaya (aka Prospera Mercury) in MSGWFM, there will be indirect spoilers for that series.

Figuring Out Prospera's Powers

So, between the setup and what we know about GWitch !Prospera...Prospera's trigger event involves her daughter falling ill in the literal fallout of Gold Morning, her powers let her save little Eri's life, and either her powers or some other tinker she recruits can:

Build power armor (as an analogue to Aerial and other mobile suits)

Ideally, make that power armor fly (because Aerial, and also tying into one of the things Tempest!Prospero did)

Build what's left of Eri into the power armor somehow

Do...something with the armor that parallels the forbidden GUND format in some way

Clone Eri

Convince Prospera that uploading her daughter into the Machine Army isn't insane

Nora's trigger event fits what the Weaver Dice: Tinkers doc calls a Limit Tinker, triggers derived from either an abstract obsession or one which relates to a person. The examples given are an increasingly agnostic minister, a teen with an abusive father and a boy who goes on a vigilante quest to rescue his sister, but trying to find some way to save a daughter's life seems like it fits pretty well, too.

Unfortunately, Limit tinkers don't have very clear guidelines for how the triggers influence their power; they can or need to dip their toes into fields outside their specialty. And mixing other tinker categories doesn't help much.

The all-absorbing focus of hyperspecialist tinkers fits (and especially fits Prospera's canon characterization), but the focus on that core specialty clashes with limit tinkers' focus outside their specialty.

I could probably twist the situation to make a mad scientist trigger make sense, but the guidelines are pretty weak there. Power for a price; self-cyborgs, workaholics, loss of sanity through shard nonsense.

The chaos tinker's lack of information problem could definitely apply, since Nora isn't a doctor and doesn't know what she'd need to cure Eri, but the effects are some mixture of unhelpful for my writer's block and harmful to the story.

But I'm starting to get some ideas.

The relationship is the key factor here in determining what the condition or outside factor is in enabling or optimizing the specialty.

Okay. The relationship between Nora and Eri is one of a desperate parent and a dying preschooler. Nora is obsessed with trying to find some way to help her child, but each lead she follows turns out to be a dud, a waste of time as she becomes increasingly aware that Eri's time is limited. She starts to wonder whether it would have been better to just book it for the nearest portal and try to find a doctor on the other side, to triage Eri's problems rather than looking for a cure while she gets sicker and sicker.

Prospera's Powers

Prospera's primary tinker focus is on making drones...but her AI programming skills are mediocre, bordering on nonexistent. Like the reactor hyperspecialist, her technology is reliant on a single point of failure—Eri. Dipping into cyborgy stuff, Prospera can build a combination life support and drone control system around her daughter.

But she can't build complex drones. She can build a hovering chunk of metal with a laser gun or a shield or something, but not something complex or multi-function. She's limited in the number of drones she can build, since Eri doesn't get super-multitasking or anything. And most importantly, Prospera can't build anything nuanced enough to feel like a proper body for Eri. Nothing humanoid or even particularly articulated, just...things.

Prospera's Plans

Like some other limit tinkers, Prospera does not instinctively know her specialty or limitations; she had to figure it out through trial and error, and still doesn't understand everything. She assumes that, since she can build an Eri casket that lets her control her drones, she should be able to design something that lets Eri control other tech.

Maybe even the Machine Army, which clearly has the capability to construct complicated machines that mimic things found in cities. With the guidance of a human intelligence, perhaps they could even build a human-looking android.

Maybe Prospera tried something more reasonable (like asking Dragon for help), but was turned down (because Dragon didn't think Prospera could maintain Eri's robody and didn't have the resources to spare on something like that). But I wouldn't say that the Machine Army is her last resort; it's just a plan she jumped to once the most obvious and sane routes turned out to be duds. She doesn't want to endlessly follow potential leads to save Eri again.

Anyways, she finds another tinker she can work with—Belmeria Winston. Her power focuses on creating augmented clones, which she's using on behalf of [yet-undeveloped analogue to Peil Technologies], but also puts to work in Prospera's lab. They grow several Ericht clones for Prospera to build into more drone control thingies, as well as one free-roaming clone—partly because it's assumed she'll be able to use Eri-based technology better than most, partly as a template for the future Eri-droid that Eri's machine army will construct.

To accomplish this, Prospera joins Cathedra. (As mentioned in the previous post about this fic, Cathedra is a hero team in this fic.) Cathedra gives her resources, access to fellow tinkers' notes, and an insulation from outside disruptions. As long as she helps maintain Cathedra's stock of power armor, she can pursue her personal projects in peace.

Summary

Prospera creates drones, which she controls from a central server thing. As far as anyone knows, that's all there is to it. She works with another tinker to produce a clone of her dead daughter; around the same time, she coincidentally figures out how to run more or more complex drones.

Secretly, her drones are remote-controlled by Eri or some Eri clones. She's struggling against the limitations of her tinker powers, which prevent her from accomplishing her goal of bringing Eri back (in robot form). She plans to overcome those limitations by hijjacking a surviving cluster of the Machine Army and having their tech build a Robo Eri.

There's still a lot I need to figure out. Like, the justification for having Suletta exist feels kinda weak. I need to have Suletta (a GWitch fanfic with all the core cast except Suletta would be like a Ward fanfic without Breakthrough), but I don't want it to be obvious that I was obligated to write her in.

And I need to find some way to reconcile Prospera's involvement with Cathedra, Cathedra being based out of the Asticassia, and Suletta being both unfamiliar with the school and unfamiliar to its duelists (and other students). That, or adjust/discard one of those parameters to make things fit more smoothly. And I need to figure out what the actual plot is going to be, of course.

[locke-writes]

A Little Chaos In Life

Author: locke-writes

Title: A Little Chaos In Life

Prompt: "The risk I took was calculated but man am I bad at math" , A Knight's Tale and Cough Syrup -Young the Giant For: @aryn-the-bearheart​

Rating: T

Word Count: 445

Tony had returned from the desert a changed man, but really who wouldn't after all he had been through. The trouble was that he refused to open up to anyone about what had happened including yourself. From the age of three you and Tony had been inseparable and yet now he refused to answer your calls or to drop even the slightest hint about what he was working on. Pepper couldn't even tell you as she'd also been forbidden from entering the lab while he was working.

He claimed you would understand eventually yet you wondered if that was the truth. If he didn't open up to you, if he continued to hide away everything then you wondered exactly what he'd been willing to share. Were you ever going to know the full story of what had changed him so much when he returned or would you be forced continually to guess as though nothing had changed for him at all. You never wanted to break Tony's trust but you were beginning to fear for what he might do if he continued bottling everything up.

JARVIS forbade you from entering the lab but considering that you'd been present when Tony first programmed the A.I it wasn't hard to turn off the function that sealed the lab door. You were glad that you had for as soon as you opened the door you heard a crash and something fall from the ceiling. Rushing over you found what looked to be an entire suit of armor, more modern than anything but it certainly seemed to be armor. The helmet opened and Tony looked at you grinning.

"The risk I took was calculated but man am I bad at math"

"What the hell are you doing!"

"No Tony you couldn't be bad at math, you're an engineer." He spoke sarcastically as you helped him stand.

"Yeah yeah sure but what are you wearing? Again what are you doing? And is this why I wasn't able to be down here for the past few weeks"

"I made it. It's a long story. And yes."

"You're lucky you're my friend or I'd think you were doing something incredibly stupid."

"You don't think that already?"

"I do but we've been friends for years, you may have a good reason for parading around and pretending to be something you aren't and maybe even someone you're not. That and the fact that I've known you for years means I've already seen some of the more ridiculous things that you've created."

"How dare you insult DUM-E like that."

"I was referring to that time you drunkenly tried to design an automated bathrobe."

[cartoonyappreciation]

I was thinking about how a realistic support department would function in MHA/BNHA. My knowledge of how support companies work in canon is from like a few episodes and a lot of fanfiction 😓.

Sorry for the long post, i work exclusively on mobile on Tumblr.

Typically, it seems like each support student takes on full projects themselves. Hatsume creates arm bracers for Midoriya and she creates like a jet pack and stuff for the sports festival. When breaking down the steps required to create those items, we have the original concepts and theories, the blueprints, determining which materials have the properties that will sustain the intended purposes, the forming of the base parts (ie. shaping the metal or the bracers or Iida’s armor), we have the joining of materials (ie. Sewing, welding, even soldering), then we have the technical stuff. This includes paint and finishing techniques, as well at the really complex stuff like wiring and coding.

In fanfiction, we rarely (maybe never from what I’ve read.. and I read a lot) see the support department as it would most likely operate in a real society, so I’d love to have a discussion with anyone who wants to start some discourse about it.

As I see it, there would have to be a lot more specialization than most people expect. Being a hero seems like a large industry, and while their equipment would hopefully hold up well from battle to battle, they are constantly wanting to improve and upgrade the suits and tech. With the amount of hero schools as well, I think there would be two main sects of support companies: general and specialized. I’ve deliberated about this quite a bit because quirks vary so much from individual to individual, and in canon the gym uniforms seem like something unbefitting actual hero training, while the initial hero uniforms are specialized to each person.

In a realistic scenario, rather than gym uniforms, a uniform would most likely be provided that is made of a common material that would be tear resistant, heat resistant… basically a weak version of everything proof. In training, they would want to prepare for the extra weight, stiffness, and support their realistic hero costumes would provide. For heros with mental quirks or something non-invasive or specialized (ie aizawa and nighteye), these could also be used as a basis to be slightly modified.

Aside from that, another general basis would most likely be forming/shaping companies for various materials. For costumes made of metal armor like iidas, there would be one type of specialized company that support engineers would send their blueprints/CAD designs to. Likely another company, or sect of the company, would deal with more cloth-like forming and/or joining that requires things like cutting and sewing.

I can imagine that the main “support engineers” that come up with the actual designs for the costumes would have some sort of CAD or 3D modeling program experience, and then knowledge on joining procedures to make quick fixes and adjustments fo costumes. They would be the ones with the material property knowledge to create and propose the designs. Fanfiction and (maybe?) canon shows these engineers as doing a lot of experimentation, but realistically, the experimentation would be a lot less of each project. Testing would be done initially to determine what properties the gear needs to hold (ie for shoto: what temperatures the material needs to function at against his body) and then the design would be drawn up using known material properties. The actual experimentation would mostly be to test the final design. In Hatsume’s case with building something completely new like a jetpack, experimentation would be necessary, but not before careful calculations and theories are created. Materials and time are expensive and health and safety regulations would be a lot more strict than in anime. After coming up with a design, the support engineers would send in requests for all the necessary parts and most likely either have someone else in-house put it together. The support engineer would probably do final checks or something from what I understand about industry in general.

So basically, I guess in a realistic scenario, I would expect the UA support course to have a lot of specializations between design, forming and shaping (further branched into materials sects like metals and clothes), technology (coding and wiring), and then joining and building.

[trexy225]

Three Hearts-Chapter 26: Modifications

Summary: Olivia gets her assistants back, and her confidence

Authors Note: So I tried to make this as movie accurate as I could, but I mean we only got 7 min of Olivia, (which is NOT ok) so I had to make A LOT of stuff up, but I thought that her suit being more like T’Challas suit and Iron Man’s nano suit would be more reasonable, and I thought having the actuators surgically implanted would be more dramatic.

It took several months, but the assistants were finally rebuilt with a transparent reinforced vibration skeleton and silicone exoskeleton with her nanotech to repair it in case of any damage, as well as claw upgrades which had lab tools as well as some weapons, Rosie programmed a new chip that reduced the assistant's intelligence and she added a program that she hoped would prevent the actuators from creating their own programs, she spent weeks coding the most complex program ever to protect Olivia's higher brain functions. She also made them less chatty, but she knew that their personalities were important, and finally, she uploaded the new combat system with an adaptive AI, it would be able to counter, block and attack its opponent in an instant. It was going to keep her Liv safe. She also designed a nanotech armored suit made of the same materials for her to wear under her clothes, for sudden combat.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Rosie asked her as Dr. Connors walked in to complete the surgery.

“I need to do this,” Olivia answered as she squeezed her hand.

Dr. Connors put the anesthesia mask over her face. “Could you please count down from 10 for me Doctor?” He asked.

“10, 9, 8,7…” Olivia went under.

Rosie sighed as she handed Dr. Connors the assistants and the chip.

“I can take it from here Rosie. Although I do need the entire room” Dr. Connors assured her, holding up his prosthetic arm. “It may not be the real thing… yet.” He muttered.

“Thank you, Curt, I’ll um, get out of your hair.” Rosie brushed a strand of hair out of Olivia's face and went outside to wait.

After a few hours, Dr. Connors opened the door. Rosie jumped up.

“Is she ok?” She asked.

“Were you out here the entire time?”

“Yes, is she ok?”

“Yes, yes she’s fine. She’s waking up right now so she may be a bit loopy.”

Rosie walked into the room to see Olivia sitting upright, the assistants were already on, she could hear them chittering as they explored the room.

“Liv?” Rosie asked.

Olivia turned to her and smiled “Hello my Rosette.”

Rosie ran and hugged her.

“I’m so happy you’re ok! Are you ok?” she asked.

“I feel amazing.” Olivia pulled her into a deep kiss, and the two entangled themselves in each other, the actuators chittered excitedly.

“I’ll leave you two alone…” Dr. Connors backed out of the room awkwardly and the two women chuckled.

Olivia kissed Rosie again and she giggled.

“Doctor Octavius! We are at work.” She teased.

“I know that, just one more kiss?” She pleaded.

“When we get home baby. Then you can have me all to yourself.” Rosie winked.

“I can’t wait.” Olivia purred.

“So these are the assistants?” Rosie asked.

“Yes, they’re an improvement, it feels natural, like they were destined to be a part of me.”

“And you have full control?” Rosie asked.

“Of course I do, all thanks to my amazing girlfriend. We should give them names.”

“Well… I think that one of them should be named Agatha and another Alfred.” Rosie offered.

“I was going to name this one Otto, and this one Nessa,” Olivia said.

“They’re perfect. Should you put on that suit?” Rosie offered.

“Of course.” Olivia tapped the button on her new hexagon glasses, instantly the suit materialized onto her body, fitting like a glove.

“How does it feel?”

“It feels amazing, I-I feel so confident and safe.” Olivia hugged Rosie again and started to kiss her, Rosie giggled as Olivia planted little kisses along her neck.

“Am I interrupting something?” A deep voice asked.

Olivia immediately stopped and turned around. Rosie looked down at the ground. “Wilson! I thought you were flying back tomorrow-”

“What the hell is this? Why is there a hole in your window, and why the hell does it look like a tornado flew in your office and what the hell are you wearing, what is this? You look like an octopus.”

“It’s Doctor Octopus.” Olivia corrected.

“That’s a shitty name, how about Doc Ock?”

“That works. Back to your question, I had to build myself an armored suit and upgrade my actuators after-”

“After what?” Wilson growled.

“After Spiderman stole some of our weapon designs-”

Fisk slammed his fists on her lab table, breaking it in half.

“HE WHAT?! How the hell did you let him do that?” he stomped over to her, Rosie stepped in front of Olivia, but he shoved her aside, Olivia glared at him.

“Don’t you dare touch my Rosie.” She growled.

“This was the last straw, Octavius.” Wilson raised his fist and swung down, Rosie cried out, but there was no blood.

Wilson's eyes widened as Olivia’s actuator, Agatha stopped his punch, the others planted themself on the ground, Olivia smirked.

“L-Let go of me.” He struggled.

“No, I don’t think I will.” She said with a smug smirk, Alfred landed an uppercut which sent Wilson flying back.

Wilson roared out in anger, he fumbled as he took out his phone and punched something in. Olivia smoothly traveled over to him, the actuators kept her above the ground, she towered over him. “Sorry Fisk, I don’t think you can phone a friend.” She smashed the phone.

Wilson gave a smug smile. “He’s not a friend.”

Olivia narrowed her eyes at him until she heard a roar in the distance, her eyes widened.

“I told you what would happen if you disobeyed me, Octavius, what a shame too. You were making me so much money I was really-” Wilson fell to the ground, passed out, Rosie was behind him, pointing a tranquilizer gun at him.

“Where the hell did you get that?” Olivia asked.

“You never know when a wild Fisk is gonna come running in and fuck shit up,” Rosie smirked.

“You’re perfect.” Olivia swooned.

The two were interrupted by a much louder roar, Olivia swore she could feel a gust of wind.

“You need to leave my Rosette, it’s not safe for you here.”

“It’s not safe for you either! If you’re staying I’m staying!” “I’m the one with the weapons and the reinforced body armor! Go!” Agatha wrapped itself around Rosie and shoved her outside, Olivia could hear a pissed-off Rosie banging on the window. “Dr. Olivia Kathryn Octavius if you don’t open this door this instant I will-”

“Dr. Rosalie Morales-Davis Thorne I need you to trust me on this, trust yourself on this! I will be fine, you need to stay safe!”

“I LOVE YOU!” Rosie yelled angrily as she ran off.

“I LOVE YOU TOO!” Olivia snapped as she got ready to fight her old friend.

[jdkloosterman]

SQUAD A: Primary function--assault and destruction. Operative 07, codename ""Delilah" Previous attempts to recreate Hulk-like abilities have invariably met with disaster due to the accompanying berzerker rage.  The Section 11 scientists took a different approach and instead tried to replicate the work of Dr. Samson, tying the particular super-strength of the Hulk to the length of the subject's hair.  Trace genetic samples of the Red Hulk were used in experimentation on a test subject.  Project deemed a partial success, though "Delilah" still has high levels of aggression and can be difficult to control, particularly if her hair length is not maintained within optimal parameters.  Operative 01 has displayed a marked affinity for her, but so far experiments involving attempts at breeding have met with no success. [COMMANDER'S NOTE: "Breeding?" Are you serious with this?  Damnit, those eggheads are messed up.] Operative 08, codename "Waif" "Waif" is unusual in not coming from the usual pool of test subjects, but is in fact the natural daughter of one of Section 11's lead scientists, Dr. Yamanaka.  Her powers emerged at a young age uncontrollably during a traumatic car accident that killed one of her closest friends.  Her powers were uncontrollable and destructive until the implant could be successfully installed.  Though Dr. Yamanaka has attempted, since, to speak with his daughter, she does not seem to recognize him or anyone from her old family at all. "Waif" is one of the few operatives in Section 11 permitted to wear non-standard gear, as disruptions to her daily routine have been observed to have a negative impact on her stability. [COMMANDER'S NOTE: Guy lobotomized his own daughter.  No wonder she won't talk to him.] Operative 09, codename "Samurai." "Samurai" is a clone created by Dr. Akimichi, spliced with DNA from the metahuman Blob. His armor is developed based on intense study of the metahuman Juggernaut and his armor.  Though docile and responding well to direction, "Wamurai" has little initiative of his own.  He also does not speak, and only communicates through "Waif."  He has been observed to have a calming impact on her, hence why the two are paired together.  "Samurai" also carries a series of steroids and stimulants for use in high-stress combat situations, and has received military training. [COMMANDER'S NOTE: Love this kid.  Like a minature tank.] *Note: Given the volatile nature of the group, they require extensive coordination.  Dr. Nara's "Deer" AI has proven useful in this task, supplemented by Shadow drones capable of observing and compiling data.** **Further Note: Dr. Nara's "Deer" AI has been flagged for review after numerous incidents displaying near-sentience, including several statements curiously similar to Dr. Nara's late son.  Director Danzou has ordered an investigation into thJA)djs&(*Yhiue---------RECORD DELETED

SQUAD B--Primary Function: Infiltration and Recon Operative 03: "Gemini 1" Gemini 1 is not suited to intense combat situations unless supported by Gemini 2.  Her primary skill set is stealth, infiltration, and cyberops.  Similar to Gemini 2, she possesses hyper-optogrophy and can see in multiple layers of the spectrum, including infrared, ultraviolet, and x-ray. Energy blasts from the palms are able to target internal organs. Tests have also confirmed a psychic link between her and Gemini 2, wherein information and even physical pain can be conveyed between one and the other.   Gemini 1 has also been observed to have a notable attraction to Operative 01, which might possibly be useful. [COMMANDER'S NOTE: Who authorized that test, and how was "physical pain" determined?] Operative 04: "Gemini 2" Gemini 2 is the twin of Gemini 1 and possesses all her abilities.  He has a much higher combat aptitude, and has been noted in field operations to have a particular protective instinct involving Gemini 1.  It has also been noted that Gemini 2's combat effectiveness dips noticeably when confronted with anti-citizens Kusanagi and Green Beast.  Confrontations should be avoided. [COMMANDER'S NOTE: Who did we get these twins from, I wonder. Probably from one of the "clinics."] Operative 05: "Weapon K" Weapon K is the most successful emulation of the Weapon X project thus far.  Though it is still difficult to maintain complete control, and the adamantium binding process was not entirely successful, still he retains the all-important healing factor acquired from Weapon X, as well as the heightened senses. Weapon K handles the majority of combat situations that Squad B encounters, though he is indiscreet and tends to leave a mess behind. [COMMANDER'S NOTE: Just something not right about this boy.] Operative 06: "Shino Entity" It has yet to be determined whether Shino Entity is, in fact, a budding psychic who was consumed by insects and gained control of them, or merely a strange collective of psychic insects under a shared delusion of once having been human. Investigation is ongoing, though attempts to isolate and inspect individual insects of the hive mind have been counter-productive, as Shino Entity has invariably become aware of the isolation and dissection of members of his hive mind.  Accordingly, invasive experiments have for the  moment been suspended to ensure his ongoing collaboration.  His skill set is incredibly valuable and unique, however, enabling mass recon on a almost simultaneous response, and while not suited to combat, is essentially indestructible. Shino Entity requires little care save maintenance of the containment suit and a daily piece of rotten meat.  This seems sufficient to have earned his cooperation, along with a curious affinity for the other members of Squad B--though it still has not been determined how he manages to speak. [COMMANDER'S NOTE: I don't really care where he came from.  As long as he keeps up his work, he can call himself Shino or Lord Nelson for all I care.] LEADERSHIP TEAM Commader Kakashi: Field Commander.  Last living member of the original Section 11 team, Commander Kakshi has been declared not fit for combat due to the injury suffered to his eye during the Apocalypse Incident.  He now serves Section 11 in a supervisory tactical role, planning out missions to accomplish goals as set by the rest of the leadership.  Though not strictly required, Commander Kakashi makes a habit of deploying with the Section 11 Operatives whenever possible, a practice which Section Chief Danzou has cited him for numerous times. [COMMANDER'S NOTE: Let the old man complain, I'm not sending kids out there without backup.] Dr. Tsunade: Head of Mutagenic Studies.  Dr. Tsunade left a promising career at Tokyo University to lead the medical and study wing of Section 11.  She is in charge of monitoring the operative's physical state and the nature of their mutations, as well as any new mutations that arise.  Dr. Tsunade's connection to the program is more than professional, as her grandfather was closely involved in its creation, a fact which may have weighed into her decision to join.  Dr. Tsunade also considers herself in charge of the operative's well-being, a matter which has also led her to clash with Section Chief Danzou. [COMMANDER'S NOTE: The lady should be in charge from everything I've seen.  Though what she did to the meeting table makes me wonder if her studies have been leading to more practical applications of mutagens, recently.] Dr. Inoichi: Section Chief Danzou's successful recruitment of the famous "Ino-Shika-Cho" team may be considered one of the great accomplishments of his administration. Dr. Inoichi joined the program out of desperation to find some solution to his daughter's newly awakened powers, and his two friends followed him.  A neurology specialist, Dr. Inoichi has done groundbreaking work regarding metahuman psychics and extra-natural brain structure.  He devised the device which currently helps his daughter to keep her powers in check, which is currently under development for possible use against enemy psychics. [COMMANDER'S NOTE: Why does the record note this as an accomplishment of Danzou's? Inoichi joined us because of his daughter's accident, Danzou had nothing to do with it.] Dr. Shikaku: Shikaku, a renowned specialist in artificial intelligence and computer learning simulations, joined the program alongside his friend. His algorithms run much of the training programs that the operatives use, as well as much of the predictive software crucial to Section 11's smooth operation.  The death of his son left him emotionally distant and he has a noted reluctance to meet with any of the operatives outside of Inoichi's daughter.  Much of his work since joining Section 11 has been on his prototype ASI "Shika" and its proxy drone. [COMMANDER'S NOTE: I swear, that thing almost seems sometimes like it's actually senti303@..%$)(~~~- ERROR DATA CORRUPTION... Dr. Chouza: The final member of the Ino-Shika-Cho team, Dr. Chouza's specialty runs more in the physical arena than either of his friends, primarily involving force multipliers such as the Hulk and Blob. His "Choji" clone program has potential to create an entire army once the formula has been perfected and the laboratory repaired. [COMMANDER'S NOTE: Chouza's heart isn't in this, and that laboratory will never be fixed if he has anything to say about it.] Section Chief Danzou: Despite his near-fatal injuries from the Apocalypse Incident, Section Chief Danzou has transformed Section 11 into an elite fighting force in the wake of his predecessor.  The current roster and focus of the division is entirely due to his guidance.  He has a noted tendency for keeping his plans to himself and frequently overrules his leadership staff. [COMMANDER'S NOTE: There is reason to believe that the old man has an even more dark-ops organization on the side, for missions he considers too sensitive even for Section 11.]

[masterjedilenawrites]

The Helmeted Hunter: Chapter 26

Boba Fett x Reader

Chapter Warnings: N/A

AO3 Link (In case you like it better over there, it’s okay, no judgement)

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Chapter 26: You’ll See (Reprise)

The perplexed look on your face made Krennic laugh some more. He was having entirely too much fun, reveling in your confusion, and it was starting to piss you off. You were about to abandon your plan of being cooperative so you could indulge in yelling at this man instead, but he spoke before you could.

"In the meantime," he said, nodding at the food in front of you, "have a bite to eat. I'm sure these bounty hunters don't serve proper meals to their quarry."

You looked down at your plate full of colorful vegetables and meat and bread and silently agreed; you hadn't had a proper meal in a long time. Boba only kept rations on his ship that were meant to be purely nutritional but tasted rather like cardboard. Your stomach gave an involuntary growl, and having no reason to believe the Empire would want to poison you after all the trouble to capture you, you went ahead and dug in.

It was only after you'd cleaned half the plate did Krennic speak to you again. He was nibbling at his own food, but seemed much more interested in your music player.

"Curious device." He turned it over on the table beside him, rubbing his fingers over the stickers on the back. "What is it?"

"It just plays music," you explained between bites. "Or at least it did. Doesn't work anymore."

"And it's yours?"

You nodded your head. "Boba took me to meet the other buyer but found it there instead. It was really weird. I packed that old thing away years ago. I don't know how that guy got it, whoever he is."

You'd decided with Boba there would be no harm in giving out the details of your failed quest to find the other buyer; it would only help sell Boba's choice to turn you in to the Empire. You did, however, exclude the parts about Maz, not wanting to drag her further into this mess.

Krennic was looking at you through squinted eyes. "So you don't know who placed the other bounty on you?"

"No," you said with a slightly dramatic sigh. "Like I've told literally everyone that's been after me, I don't know who the guy is. I don't know why he wants me, or how he got my stuff. I also don't know why you want me so bad, either."

You looked back at Krennic with a pointed expression, hoping this would segue into the conversation where you finally got some answers, the one you'd come here for. But Krennic's interest seemed to have now wandered elsewhere. He stared at the music player for a bit before placing it in a pocket along his belt and going for another swig of his drink.

You cursed internally. It had been a long shot, bringing that device with you. Boba had warned you it'd probably be confiscated but you'd hoped that maybe Krennic would let you be sentimental and hold onto it anyway. Not only had Boba replaced the inner workings with a tracker, but he'd also programmed the signal so that if you selected a song, it would play it aboard the Slave I. There was a song to let him know you were okay, one for when you were ready to be extracted, one if there was an emergency.... If you weren't able to play him anything by tonight, then he would only wait one more day before coming for you, regardless of whether you'd found your answers or not.

The door suddenly opened from behind, letting in a stormtrooper.

"We've arrived, sir."

Krennic nodded knowingly, dabbing at his mouth with a cloth napkin. "Take her down. I'll meet with them shortly."

Them. You gulped at the word, your mind racing between countless possibilities. Were there other prisoners you were being taken to? Did the Empire want you to work on something and you were going to meet your new coworkers? Did Krennic have a boss who'd be interrogating you instead - perhaps the Emperor himself? Or maybe you'd be walked out onto a stage with your friends and family, and told this was some elaborate game show and that everything you'd experienced the last couple of months was only to test your grit on live television? At this point, no idea was too far fetched for you to believe.

You were, however, secretly relieved that you were being taken elsewhere, rather than staying on this Imperial ship. It meant Boba wouldn't have to enact back-up plans #4-7 to get you out. You hadn't realized the ship had been flying this whole time, not being near any windows or having felt any of the usual movements that came from being in a smaller vessel. You were ushered into a shuttle, and it was an odd experience to then fly down toward this new planet. It was like the Imperial ship was a mini planet of its own.

"Where are we?" you braved asking the stormtroopers around you. There were three, one of them in darker armor than the others, and it was this one who answered you.

"Eadu," was all it said. As if the name alone told you enough.

The planet only had a faint blue hue to it, otherwise you couldn't distinguish any land or water features from the small shuttle window. Once you broke through the atmosphere, you realized it was due to the thick, tumultuous layer of storm clouds that blanketed everything. The shuttle shook and jerked as it moved through, the internal lights flickering spastically. The troopers around you didn't seem perturbed so you tried not to be worried, either, despite it seeming like you would surely crash or be electrocuted by lightning.

At last the shuttle made it through, pulling up abruptly at a landing platform in front of a complex built into the side of a jagged stone ridge, one of many that jutted up across the planet's surface. It was dark as you were ushered out onto the platform, only a few flood lights lit the way toward the facility doors. The air was thick with mist and a few sprinkles of rain began tickling your skin as you walked along. It also stunk, like soil and sulfur mixed together.

You inherently picked up your pace, not sure what was waiting for you on the other side of the doors, but needing to get away from this stinky, damp air. The darkly clad trooper swiped at a keypad and led you inside, the two other troopers flanking you just behind. The facility's interior was as stark and cold as the Imperial ship, lit with the same harsh fluorescent lights. You passed several other people as you followed the winding hallway. A few were in dark green military uniforms with smart looking hats. Others wore more plastic-y looking suits, almost like lab coats. They all looked at you curiously as you passed but did not interact.

The dark trooper eventually pulled up at a door on the side of the hall. It swiped at another keypad, the door swooshing open with a soft hiss. It stood to the side, indicating you should enter.

"The Commander will be with you shortly," it said.

You went inside, assuming this was like a waiting room until Krennic showed up. It was a moderately sized space, like a little apartment, with simple furnishings and supplies. You rounded a corner to get a better look at everything, to maybe see if there was a clue about what the Empire wanted with you. But you stopped dead in your tracks when you saw there was someone else in the room, too.

Every function in your body seemed to freeze. You couldn't feel your heart beating, couldn't feel yourself take any breaths. You weren't sure if there really was a deafening silence in the room or if you simply couldn't hear any sounds in your shock. Time seemed to stand still as you struggled to process the woman standing before you. You weren't sure you could speak, but you needed to acknowledge her, you needed to know she was real. So after a few beats, you choked the word out, a forced and hollow whisper.

"Mom?"

[plasticnightmaredoll]

Godzilla vs. Kong - Full Review

Ok, as promised, I have a more in-depth review for this film. My review is kind of all over the place because there was a lot to unpack, but not in a good way. The movie has all the potential there, and it got the two most important things right: the battles and the portrayal of Godzilla, Kong, and Mechagodzilla. However, everything else regarding the plot and characters felt rushed, like, a few minutes more here and there would have gone a lot way.

Anyway, this review contains all the spoilers, just a warning.

The Good

Godzilla, Kong, and Mechagodzilla were the most interesting characters in the movie. The very human charm of Kong, Godzilla's mercy towards Kong twice, and Mechagodzilla's sinister rebellion almost made up for the lack of character development from the humans.

Godzilla's display of mercy was key to his character development, and perhaps the first time a Godzilla has displayed such a trait. This Monsterverse Godzilla seems more focused on conquest only for the sake of the preservation of the planet, not to create terror and destruction. Defeating Kong was more a display of dominance, maintaining his title as King of the Monsters, than anything else.

Kong was actually like a person in his behavior, which was kind of funny but also just highlighted how uninteresting the human characters were. Kong scratching his butt after waking up from a nap was more entertaining than listening to most of the human characters speak.

Hollow Earth was like the Lost World, the land the time forgot. It's vast, beautiful, mysterious, dangerous, and fascinating all at once. The odd quirks with gravity add a surreal element to this world within the world, almost like it's something out of a dream. I honestly hope we get more movies in the Monsterverse so we can explore Hollow Earth further.

The fact that Kong's species crafted an ax from a Godzilla-like titan dorsal fin is expected behavior for a primate, but it's also pretty badass. It can absorb energy, which makes me wonder what Godzilla's dorsal plates are capable of.

All the fights were excellent: Kong vs War Bats, Godzilla vs Kong at sea, Godzilla vs Kong in Hong Kong, and Godzilla and Kong fighting against Mechagodzilla. The fight with Mechagodzilla may have been a little too short, but it was still very well done.

Some amusing music choices. I don't know why Kong got all the cool music cues but, maybe it has to do with him having more personality than any of the human characters.

I liked the reveal about Ghidorah's three heads using telepathy. I don't recall this being mentioned for other versions of this character, and it does make sense. Yes, they can talk to each other normally, but with the length of their necks, it would be easier to be able to mentally engage in conversations from time to time, especially in combat when there's so much going on and they need to coordinate fast.

I am guessing that the use of Kevin's (Ghidorah's severed left head from 2019's "King of the Monsters") brain for Mechagodzilla was the cause for his rebellion against his programming. It makes sense when you consider how he deliberately killed Walter Simmons, his "owner," and then went right after Godzilla. It fits the story that Ghidorah's brain would have taken over Mechagodzilla's body after receiving enough power to push the robot to its full potential. It also implies that Kevin may have been lying in wait until he was given enough power to take full control over Mechagodzilla.

Kong did lose to Godzilla twice, and honestly, it was inevitable. Kong may be more agile than Godzilla but he lacks tough, armor-like skin and fast regeneration. Godzilla is essentially a massive powerhouse of brute force and strength and can endure for much longer than Kong in a fight. Having Kong defeat Godzilla in the 1962 film from Toho just...didn't make much sense to me. It felt liked it was forced like the movie was meant to cater to Kong instead of Godzilla -- which I think was the point but...it didn't work for me.

Godzilla and Kong teaming up to fight Mechagodzilla gave me what wasn't provided in "King of the Monsters." I was seriously hoping the 2019 movie would have Mothra, Rodan, and Godzilla fight against Ghidorah just like in the 1964 movie, "Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster." It's a personal favorite of mine because of the teamwork, but "King of the Monsters" sadly didn't go that route. Fortunately, "Godzilla vs Kong" did and it paid off.

I preferred Godzilla and Kong making amends at the end of the film instead of remaining enemies. If the movie had only been about those two fighting, it would have been disappointing. Seeing as how both characters are anti-hero types in the Monsterverse, it suits them better to come together to defeat a common enemy and put their differences aside afterward out of respect toward each other.

Godzilla's level of intelligence: he realized how Kong's ax worked after engaging with it once and charged the ax later to allow Kong to slice apart Mechagodzilla.

The science behind Mechagodzilla's functionality was interesting, even if we didn't get to dive into it.

I enjoyed Jia's friendship with Kong. It was very sweet. Much better than giving Kong a hot blonde woman to simp over!

The Bad

The villains were awful. Not just awful people but awful in terms of how they were written. What the hell was Walter Simmons' deal? I guess he was seeking supremacy? His daughter was even less memorable, proving to be as one-dimensional as a piece of paper and dying almost immediately after serving her purpose in the story

I thought Team Godzilla's subplot as a whole was terribly written. It was just meant to show us Mechagodzilla in action before he fought Godzilla but we couldn't have been given something more substantial than three idiots roaming around?

This felt more like a sequel to "Kong: Skull Island" since this movie focused more on Kong than Godzilla. Why?

None of the human characters were all that interesting, even pre-existing ones like Madison and Mark Russell. Jia was a very nice little girl and served as a means of easing Kong's mind. Everyone else, though, was just there to move the plot along.

The fight with Godzilla and Kong teaming up against Mechagodzilla was good but it felt a little short. If it had been a little bit longer, it would have been perfect.

The storm that wiped out Skull Island...what the hell was that about?

The convoluted and rushed explanation of Mechagodzilla's "brain" functionality was cool but I would have preferred we didn't get all that just tossed into our lap. The movie doesn't give you much time to process this information.

Then again, the movie moves too quickly to allow you to process a lot of what's going on.

The Ugly

Ren Serizawa didn't need to be in this movie as Ren Serizawa. It's never mentioned why he is working with Apex Cybernetics to kill kaiju. I mean, we can guess that maybe he's upset his father, Ishiro, sacrificed himself to help Godzilla in "King of the Monsters," but why? It wasn't like Ishiro was killed by kaiju. Did Ren just disagree with his father's beliefs about kaiju? The movie never discusses his motivations, and he's barely given any speaking lines. He didn't need to have such a specific detail attributed to him when said detail amounted to nothing.

I don't get why Josh Valentine's character was needed in the movie. He served no real purpose other than some comic relief.

Overall, "Godzilla vs Kong" is decent entertainment, but it's the weakest entry in the Monsterverse. The battles were fun, the CGI was excellent, and the three kaiju (Kong, Godzilla, and Mechagodzilla) were great, but the story and characters need some serious work.

Final Grade: C-

Godzilla (2014): A-

Kong: Skull Island (2017): C+

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): A

[thenixkat]

Voltron notes 1 (edited?)

Ep 1

No spoiler opening theme

Those are some skinny ass space suits. Shouldn’t they have like tethers and shit to keep them from accidently floating off?

Harvesting ice cores on Pluto or Kerberos or whatever

They wanna meet aliens

No one notices the ship until its right on top of them. Shiro just assumes its a hostile ship

Bullshit and lazy. Fuckin aliens speaking and understanding English

Also Shiro looks so much better with the darker skin. Like, bring back this look.

This ship is very green and that’s unusual compared to later lighting schemes 

Lance is a dick to his friend

Also, you’d think an air and space program would weed out the folks with motion sickness

Lance is overestimating the abilities of himself, the crew, and the ship

Welp, Hunk fucked up the electronics with the barf. Pidge fell from not using her seatbelt. 

Mutanious comments.  

Lance got the team killed

Iverson called them jackasses

I know I shouldn’t be mentioning stuff that hasent happened yet but like? How the fuck does Iverson not recognise Pidge? She looks just like her brother but tiny and that didn’t raise any alarms? She didn’t even dye her hair or anything? Also is her mom ok with this? Is she skipping out on her classes that she should be having as Katie?

Vomit is not an approved lubricant. Heh 

One of those chicks has green hair

Military exploration school

Pidge doesn’t know how to keep her mouth shut

Lance is a fuckin bro

Why is Iverson chewin out Lance for something Pidge said?

Poor Lance

Lights out by five? And it's already getting dark?

Ok but Lance and Hunk in civilian clothes makes them stand out so much while they’re trying to sneak around. WHy not carry backpacks with their regular clothes in them while they wear the uniforms until they find a safe place to change. 

Lance is that friend who gets everyone into trouble

Have I mentioned that I hate fat jokes?

Also these kids are shit at sneaking. They didn’t even wait a minute to make sure the patrol dude couldn’t just turn his head and see them. They also made a shit ton of noise.

Pidge is bad at sneaking too, didn’t make sure she wasn’t followed and didn’t keep an eye out for anyone who might spot her on the roof.

Hunk is scared of heights

Pidge is bad at lying

Hunk is nosey af

Lance is trying to be a good team leader

Pidge is trying to uncover a government conspiracy and picked up alien radio chatter. 

If a teenager with little funds and homemade equipment can pick up alien radio chatter than the people who listen to the stars for a living sure as shit picked this shit up.

Lance doesn’t believe in aliens.

Hunk is scared of aliens

School is on lock down

Holy crow. Lance is a potty mouth

Hunk didn’t believe in aliens either

Pidge and Lance jump at the chance to go check out a crashed alien ship. Hunk doesn’t like this.

How the fuck did Pidge remotely hack a camera feed?

Ok but like it makes total sense for them to quarantine Shiro. He might have space pox.

Also Shiro’s skintone changes between 2 dif frames

Hunk neither knows nor cares who Shiro is. And is trying to be the voice of reason

I’m taking that as a fat joke. So fuck you show.

Where’d Keith get the hover car?

Where does Keith get all the explosives? Does he make them?

Lance spotted his eternal rival and doesn’t want to be beat in rescuing the hero. Hunk knows who Keith is

Pidge doesn’t know who Keith is

Why’d they choose that ugly ass tone for Shiro there? He looks kinda grey

Lance was not important enough for Keith to remember him

They’re making Keith take them along for the ride. Also that is not a vehicle designed to carry so many people.

Keith’s got snark.

Pidge yer not doing anything else the least you can do is be useful and keep Shiro from falling off the bike.

Hunk can identify every teacher chasing them

Keith is having fun driving while everyone else screams in terror

So Shiro’s just wearing Keith’s dad’s clothes

Convenient amnesia

Also Shiro’s got a generic ass masculine face

Keith can sense energy

So, those markings and paintings had to have been made by some Native Americans. Which group? What’s the timeframe? Those paintings are showing Blue do stuff so how long was her pilot still around and kicking for? Did she have other pilots before going into lockdown and just chose to stay on Earth? How’d she get to Earth in the first place if fish dude probably died in battle with Galra forces?

Lance hesitates b4 shaking the mystery alien cyborg hand

Hunk is nervous that there might be an alien invasion soon.

Hunk is nosey as hell and a bit of a dick

If I point out everything that is or probably is a fat joke I’ll be here forever

Hunk is smart as hell

Matching a wavelength of an element to a terrain carved by erosion? What? That’s not how anything works

Wait, if Keith has pics of the murals why didn’t they start looking there?

Yeah no those kids are hurt, possibly dead from that fall

The Voltron

The eyes have no pupils and the head isn’t moving, how can you tell the eyes are following you?

So did all of the lions pick these kids and college student from seeing them through Blue’s perspective? How does the lion choosing thing work?

Hunk states the obvious

How is Lance supposed to read the screen when the text is constantly changing. That’s not how computer.

Lance takes Blue on a joy ride and even Keith is not having fun

Also Blue is just fucking up the poor desert

Hunk is a little bitch who thinks giving people what they want will stop them

Holy crow. Hunk has a potty mouth.

So there’s just like a Galra ship right at Earth. The Galra know where Earth is and probably invade it. We just gonna forget about that? Like yes that ship is chasing the lion but nothing is stopping more galra going to Earth.

Shiro is the senior officer so Lance defers to him

So the lions can open wormholes on their own.

Hunk vomits inside Blue

Lance why?

How did none of them notice the castle. Like that is a massive ass castle

They just didn’t check to see if the air was human breathable

Pidge, why the fuck would the steps be bigger if the control seat of the lion was human sized?

Alien tech speaks english

Why do they reuse Cree’s voice for so much

Why do aliens from 10000 yrs ago fucking speak english

Also fucking elves

Also fucking Europeans

Rude. Allura’s first response to meeting an alien is insulting his species looks

Quiznak. Coran has a potty mouth

Also how the fuck do you know anything about this alien’s biology? Why the fuck would a sleeper hold fucking work?

SO why didn’t Alfor use the ‘strongest weapon in the universe’ to fight Zarkon? What, did Black not want any other paladin than Zarkon?

Alfor lies to children.

So how did they send away the other 4 lions? Alfor probably got caught and killed but like from that flashback ep the other three og paladins weren’t in their armor nor shown near the lions or anything. Did the lions hide themselves? Did they have other paladins that piloted them away?

King of the Galra? Bitch he was an emperor well before his fall you should know this.

Convenient amnesia.

How long is the average Galra lifespan?

Could Haggar not? Sense the Blue lion on Earth? How?

Also Haggar really went and got herself a whole ass monster husband

Zarkon calls in the squad. Sends Sendak to fuck shit up

Lance is not good with numbers

Sigh

How do yall even know the food in the castle is safe for humans?

Coran how the fuck u know yall the last Alteans left? Did ya fuckin look?

How the fuck did some nasty ass mice get into the fucking cryopod? How did they survive in a cryopod calibrated for an altean? Why are the mice necessary to the story?

How do the alteans recognize a galra battleship after 10000 yrs?

Lance starts a fight with Keith for no reason. Shiro breaks up the fight.

Did I mention that I hate body functions humor? 

Why and how did Alfor connect the lions to Allura’s life force?

Coran just straight up called Pidge a slightly less stupid than average primitive. Racist as fuck.

Lion’s choose their paladin so Allura just fucking assigns lions to aliens she’s known for less than an hour.

How does she know anything about these aliens? Its been less than 5 mins since she met them.

How the fuck does Allura know here all the lions are but the red one?

How do we know Voltron is the most powerful in the universe? They ain’t seen the entire universe

How do the Alteans know how long an earth hour is?

So an altean brought Green to this planet?

What the fuck kinda dumb ass rabbits come out of hiding when they know strange creatures are near?

To be fair, peaceful might mean something else in Altean. They are fucking space Brits

Hunk asks good questions when he’s not stating the obvious

Also that is a barren ass planet. But it was formerly inhabited.

Hunk rewires alien machinery while under heavy fire

Why does it take so long for yellow’s murals to start glowing? Was Yellow thinking about whether or not she wanted Hunk as her Paladin? Yellow really said if you want me you gotta put in effort.

The Galra were this close to getting Yellow too.

Pidge asks questions.

Who built that pyramid for Green and why did they let it get overgrown?

Pidge somehow didn’t break a leg from that jump

So I’m gonna assume that Blue told Yellow what was up

How well can Yellow move through rock?

Green really wanted Pidge. Like she was lighting shit up immediately.

So Blue actually got pretty damaged from regular ship fire and hiding the ground wrong

Hunk would apparently have let Lance die

Pidge and Shiro are some lyin ass bitches

Lord of the Known Universe. Most of the Galra empire is empty space

It took 600 yrs between a grandfather and grandson altean?

Lance and Hunk vote run

Pidge votes stay and fight

Um. Why would the Galra fuck up Arus when yall are the top priority? Like, sure they can come back for it but the lions are a bigger deal and thus they would chase yall over take Arus

Hunk is making very good points

Also Keith, while Sendak could destroy Arus and then come after yall. It’d be a waste of time and resources. 

Keith votes stay and fight

Shiro chooses not to vote

Alfor’s hologram admits he fucked up with sending the lions away

Allura votes stay and fight and I guess Coran isn’t voting like Shiro

Fuck you show. Why did we need eighteen thousand fuckin fat jokes?

Coran is an asshole

Ok but like that doesn’t look like a good chest plate? Like it looks like if they bent over they’d get poked/stabbed by it? And what’s up with the high sides of the belts?

What the fuck Pidge?! That coulda killed Lance or taken him out for a good while?

Wait, if the ship has a thing that can like just fucking make suits? Why can't they just make more bayards? Why wouldn’t Alfor design something to make more bayards?

Why doesn’t the galra ship have rear view cameras?

Wait! How the fuck do you cut a hole in a space ship and that not fuck with pressurization or set off any safety allarms?! The fuck kinda bullshit is that?

Sendak? Why do you expect aliens to know what that beam was for if you didn’t tell them?

~False surrender is a fucking war crime b/c it removed the option of surrendering for real if the need arrives so it leads to more fucking people dying~

No they didn’t Shiro. Battleships are things that get mass produced. If this is the exact same ship u got put in after the green one then that is bullshit on a cosmic scale.

Shiro is ok with letting prisoners die. Pidge is not, granted it's probably b/c she thinks her family might be on there.

Poor Mrs. Holt. She just got fuckin forgotten by everyone.

So Pidge has an outburst and fucking disobeys the mission leader. Shiro decides to help her just b/c he might know one or two of the people he was willing to let die. And they leave Keith with no fucking backup.

Keith would have legit died if the guards remembered that they have fucking guns and can shoot him when he dropped his shield. Which means Keith would have died if not for plot bullshit b/c his teammates don’t particularly care about his health and safety. Pidge and Shiro care more about the male Holts than Keith and all of the other prisoners that might be on the ship.

Wow.

How does Keith not hold this against them?

No the mice were not necessary, not if either of these dunces whent and opened the control panel from the other side.

That sounds like bullshit. 

Ya know I didn’t have any problems with Hunk the engineer being able to operate an alien elevator or drill by hotwiring shit. But I do call bullshit on Pidge reprogramming a sentry pod thing by changing the connection of one wire.

I still call bullshit on aliens speaking english and all atmospheres being 100% agreeable to humans. B/c that is bullshit

And why the fuck would the color of Rover’s lights fucking change?

… they only checked one fucking room for prisoners but that’s  it I guess? The fuck

Why did the Red lion let the Galra take her? Did she consider that one of the galra on the ship might make a good paladin for her?

Keith gets caught b/c his dumb ass starts shouting on a stealth mission

Keith, they already have the lion. Yer the one trying to take it

Like I said previously the guards forget they have guns and thus Keith lives.

So… how did Keith impress the Red lion? He fought people, lost and blew out the airlock. Which is still a loss if the lion didn’t feel like saving him.

Vore

Guards continue to forget they have fucking guns for plot reasons.

Hunk and the gang leave without destroying the enemy ship or making sure that its irreparably damaged

Coran, Lance, and Hunk have foul mouths

And this is why you fucking confirm yer kill

Why isn’t there a combine button?

Heh, Yellow’s face after slamming Red. Also Red looks so offended about being rammed. 

What the cheese

Hunk’s gone into panic mode and Keith has accepted death.

Shiro gives a speech and they form Voltron

Why are the bad guys giving them the time to form voltron?

Why doesn’t Voltron have a tail? Where does Black’s tail go? Voltron should have a tail.

Any other prisoners on that ship are dead as fuck

How did I watch this show  the first time? It's not good. It’s pretty but it is not good.

[tisfan]

Ring of Thorns, Cha 3

Title: Outsider, Outsider

Written by: @tisfan art by @feignedsobriquet​

Square: 3023 T1 - headset image

Rating: Teen

Triggers/warnings: horror

Tags: Fairy tale AU, Space AU, rabbits. lots of rabbits

Created for: @tonystarkbingo

Word count: 2,249

Link https://archiveofourown.org/works/23753566/chapters/60014938

Special thanks to: @skye07 & @fightingforcreativity

 Stardate 5239.283.09

When JARVIS activated the sub-aural communication system, scrolling words across Tony’s field of vision instead of speaking, Tony wasn’t too worried.

After all, they didn’t know this Bucky Barnes guy from Adam.

Well, not true. Tony knew Adam Warlock quite well, in as much as anyone could, in fact, know anyone else. File that, JARVIS, he thought, look up Adam. 

Because the saying must have meant something, right.

But Tony wasn’t worried. Barnes was fresh out of a long sleep, he was disoriented, babbling.

And JARVIS was always just a little more cautious than his maker. Tony wondered where he got that from, since Tony and caution were barely nodding acquaintances.

Detecting anomalous readings, sir, JARVIS typed. Suspect sub-terminal communications.

Barnes has hardware installed?

Detecting chipping mechanism in spinal region.

Well, that wasn’t new, it was old. Old tech, used to influence people. Ions only knew where it had started, but propaganda was always a thing. Just, in the last sixty years or so, it was made illegal (again, according to what Tony had been able to dig up) to do so in a manner that a victim couldn’t resist. Tricking people into believing their government was always right, that was still unfortunately considered a matter of caveat emptor. 

But as recently as a hundred years ago, chipping had been a manner in which less than moral companies and businesses had installed methods to control people. Sometimes it was subtle. A chip -- which would do any number of other useful things -- would have blackware on it. Sometimes just to buy certain brands of products. Other times, it was… well, more dangerous.

Override?

You’ll need to reach the source, sir. Shut it down on that end. Otherwise, the only method for a rapid recall is cranial realignment.

That was to say, hitting someone in the head really, really hard.

Not ideal.

Can it be removed?

Because still, he liked Bucky. Was decidedly attracted to him. He wasn’t even sure why; they’d just barely met, and still, the idea of having to fight him, or even just knock him out, bothered Tony. There was something childlike and innocent about the man, whatever programming was going on in his head.

I thought true love’s kiss was supposed to break the spell.

Are we believing in fairy tales now, sir?

JARVIS could just stuff it, Tony would be petulant if he wanted to be. Bucky was nice, Ions-storm take it. He didn’t deserve whatever was being forced on him.

Although, the longer it went on, the less Tony thought Bucky was aware of what was happening. That he didn’t notice the pauses while he was listening to his programming. It might even have been malfunctioning.

JARVIS, track down that source.

Yes sir. I am sending the Mark II combat suit for you.

Tony didn’t so much as wince. He didn’t want to fight Bucky. On the other hand, death was not the preferred outcome either. Keep it pretty far back, I don’t want him to get triggered into a defensive position.

Tony almost lost his cool entirely when Bucky started talking about the tank of liquid etherium. Etherium was a theory, it wasn’t real. Or so he’d always been told. Of course, he’d also been told that magic spells didn’t exist, and that true love wasn’t real, and that money made the worlds go around.

Okay, so it might have been real, but it wasn’t stable. On the other hand, they’d said the same thing about the energy source for the arc-reactor, and look what he’d done with that.

So, etherium.

Except, based on the way Bucky’s face twitched, there was either something wrong with the etherium, or it was where the source of his subliminals were coming from.

Nothing to do but go forward, though.

You could run, JARVIS suggested.

You know I won’t do that, buddy.

“Right, show me where this tank is of yours,” Tony said. He knew his mouth kept moving, he was talking with Bucky, being reassuring, he was scrolling with JARVIS, he was planning and plotting. It was a good thing that he’d spent most of his childhood learning to multitask efficiently.

Well, technically, it was time-slicing. Humans, even enhanced ones, were only barely capable of multitasking, but Tony could time-slice like a motherfucker.

Part of his brain was dealing with his companion, who was looking like he was ready to puke or something, another part was drawing on his nanites to give him control over the armor suit that JARVIS had on standby, and by far the largest part was wondering what even, the fuck, was Hydra, and did she have anything to do with the Etherium gas?

Probably.

That just seemed like too much of a coincidence to be dismissable. But coincidence was not causality, he reminded himself.

Just because it seemed like it couldn’t be one without the other, didn’t mean there was any relationship between the Etherium and the monster.

Whatever Hydra was.

The rabbits were--

The rabbits were lining the path. Not so even as to be called rows, but they were-- more and more of them, coming out.

To watch, or to guide, to protect or to attack?

Tony didn’t know. 

Coincidence is not causality.

I am a man of science. I don’t believe in magic.

Magic is merely technology which we cannot yet explain.

Despite that, Tony was feeling pretty goddamn superstitious. Like, the rabbits were a good sign, right? He didn’t think he’d ever heard any stories about evil forest animals, even when he was in cradle school.

The lights dimmed as they moved further into the station; Bucky swayed and Tony thought he was going to fall. He swept the man into his arms, unable to do anything else. He couldn’t let Bucky fall.

Tony had always wondered, in those hundreds of stupid holo-films that Rhodey loved so much, why it was the hapless hero or helpless heroine was driven to seek out the monster, the murderer. Wouldn’t it have been much safer to run away, to wait until day, to get reinforcements? But no, there was always some valiant idiot creeping through a dark tunnel, the murdering beast around the very next corner.

And here Tony was, being the exact kind of idiot that he yelled at on the screen.

Compelled, almost. He had to see what was down there, what was… doing this.

And maybe, just maybe, conquer it.

The Evil.

I am a man of science, he insisted. If there’s anything down there, science can explain it.

Tony was vaguely aware that JARVIS is screaming at him. Not just speaking in a sterner voice, not scrolling text across his retina, but actively yelling.

Bucky was also speaking, something ridiculous and useless. 

Tony ignored them both, stepping further into the darkness.

Something was calling him.

Something he couldn’t deny.

“Hail Hydra.”

*

Stardate 5239.283.09

JARVIS -- Just Another Rather Very Intelligent System -- was a created intelligence. He was not, in any standard definition of the word, alive. He did not have any biological parts, although Mr. Stark had offered on any number of occasions to make a construct that would allow him to experience a fixed form.

JARVIS had always refused. He did not see the need to be flesh and blood, to experience pain, to eat food, or do any of the other messy biological functions. No more than most humans -- or other life forms for that matter -- would see the need to experience true logic, pure calculation.

He was not human. He would never be alive.

He did not, according to many, have a soul.

A soul, JARVIS understood to be, that part of a life form that continued on after the biological form had faded. 

The mind, however, was a complex machine, that operates on the same physical laws as all other objects in the universe. If the soul existed inside the mind, then JARVIS was as ensouled as any living creature. He had a mind. He could think independently. He had obligations and protocol, certain living creatures he was more apt to go above and beyond protocol demands than others. 

It had been a matter up for debate many times; did Artificial Intelligences have their own free will. If they did, could they be punished for using that free will to commit crimes? Or was that burden on their creator? Ultron, Jocasta, the Legions. There were hundreds of examples of AIs that had committed crimes, sometimes on behalf of their creator and sometimes as a rebellion against their creator. And sometimes, it was just faulty programming.

JARVIS had, of course, submitted his own report to the collection of data that was maintained by Enoch, who was the chief librarian of the Chronicoms, an ancient semi-biological, mechanically enhanced race whose purpose was to chronicle all of life and history.

 All of this -- which was a mere portion of one cycle of computations, the process that made up JARVIS’s thoughts -- while he was attempting to determine what, the fuck even, was going on.

Sometimes JARVIS thought he’d taken too much of his creator’s personal idiosyncrasies for himself.

In this case, however, if the data fit the drive…

He’d been getting anomalous readings, completely off the charts. If there even were charts for the sorts of readings he was getting. 

A life form-- 

Not human.

Not rabbit.

Not-- not anything JARVIS had encountered before. There were new species protocols, but JARVIS wasn’t a first contact ship’s AI.

He didn’t have the staff aboard to initiate contact.

Technically, by that mandate, he should have left initial contact up to the other party. Preferably evacuating his human crew and their guest, and informing the First Contact Association staff of a potential new species.

JARVIS did not have time for that.

And he was almost sure that the unknown intelligence had contacted Mr. Stark first.

JARVIS wasn’t certain how Mr. Stark was being contacted. He could not detect any radio signals or waves. Just the growth of certain gamma radiations. 

JARVIS tapped the station’s computer. It was slow and stubborn, but deep in those databanks might be the answer JARVIS needed. When had the rabbits taken over the station? Did they know anything? Was there any way to communicate with them? They might have been witnesses, generations back. The form didn’t seem to have developed any sort of written or data storage communication.

JARVIS found a set of recordings, vast and untapped.

They’d started about a year after Barnes shut down the station.

Rabbits. Stamping. Their signal, from one beast to the next. Until the entire warren was stamping.

The station computer had recorded it. From the very first time it had happened, until this morning’s rendition when Mr. Stark had boarded the ship.

Communicating.

The rabbits were communicating.

JARVIS examined all the footage. Listened to it. Traced patterns, turned patterns into rhythms and rhythms into song.

The rabbits sang in percussion beats.

And it could be translated.

The rabbits thought of themselves as Insiders. The Insiders lived in the station, and everything else was an Outsider.

Mr. Stark was an Outsider. 

They didn’t really see JARVIS at all, didn’t understand that he was there, that he had a presence. To them, he was nothing but noise that followed Mr. Stark around. 

Outsider, outsider, outsider.

They followed Mr. Stark around, trying to understand in their little rabbity way. He was an Outsider. From Beyond the Door.

They knew what was Beyond the Door. The great Beyond-- the nothingness that froze and killed. 

Before today, they’d never known something could Come In.

They knew the Sleeper. 

They knew… the Watcher with Many Arms.

Hydra.

Another creature, lurking deep in the station. She really almost was the station now, living inside the conduits. A creature with no form, and every form. She was the devil, to rabbit-kin, as the Sleeper was God, kind, patient.

He who had Come In? They weren’t sure what he was.

Who he was.

What his purpose was.

They huddled together, nose to nose, paws barely making a sound. Like a whisper. Outsider, outsider.

And Hydra, the watcher, the waiter, she of a thousand eyes. Was watching them.

Had they ever thought they were free from her sight?

Outsider, outsider.

JARVIS slid a portion of his code into the Mark II. Used one metal finger to tap on the wall, imitating their sounds, their language. Their words.

Outsider listens.

Every single rabbit on the station froze, and as if with a single hive mind, lifted up on their hind legs, one ear twitching.

As if they’d heard the voice of god.

Outsider.

It started as a whisper, barely audible, until the station rang from their cries.

Mr. Stark and Mr. Barnes barely reacted, caught in their dreaming hallucinations, hearing the voice of Hydra.

Outsider. Outsider.

JARVIS paused. He was going to make for himself legal difficulties with the FCA and probably most of the various legal governments outside the Ring.

Listener. It was a correction. Mr. Stark was the Outsider. JARVIS was the listener. He needed them to understand that he was different; a part of Mr. Stark, yes, but no more the same being than Mr. Stark’s biological child, if he ever had one.

Listener.

 Listener.

Listen to me JARVIS thudded. Listen to me. Listen, and give aid. Listener is a friend. The Listener guards your safety and happiness. The Listener guards the Outsiders. The Listener is a friend.

We listen. 

[gold-eyes-vengeful-heart]

Biomech Lore Post

Because I may as well go about it already! (Though do note that these are referred to as “Weapons” in FFXIV-related universes; a coincidence of a project name, having little to nothing to do with the VIIth Legion’s Weapon program, given that it’s run by the IXth Legion instead.)

More under the cut!

I generally consider these guys to be fandomless, with various details tweaked to fit whatever universe or RP thread or etc they’re being used in. Of which there are a few...but one thing that’s consistent through all of that is that these guys are all, to varying degrees, part biological and part mechanical war-weapons, though their external appearances imply the latter over the former. They’re also all quite self-aware and sapient, even if for some of them, the way their telepathic “voice” speaks implies a more alien intelligence that has to actively bend itself to be understood by human pilots at all.

This telepathy is key to controlling a biomech; physical controls do exist, but a pilot (or pilots, plural, depending on the universe) must have a strong and consistent mental link with the biomech in question in order to truly utilize it beyond simple, slow movements such as those needed to move a biomech into storage. As for who exactly has this mental link of a quality high enough to pilot, this again depends on the universe: in some, the biomechs are built/grown “to order” for a specific pilot, and in others, the pilot (or pilots) have to be found in the ranks of the existing military. In the latter situation, it’s deemed far less than ideal to have this problem—there’s no guarantee that the military even has an appropriate pilot that can connect to it—but the benefits are considered to vastly outweigh the risks. Or, sometimes, the wider world situation (IE: ongoing apocalypses and/or specific enemies normal military hardware can’t touch) dictates that they have no other options.

This link, however, does not come without some risks. It’s particularly intense on single pilots, and in some universes actually causes a great deal of brain damage or mental deterioration from the neural overload if not spread out over multiple minds (whether this takes the form of a Drift-style multi-pilot setup or something more akin to a pilot hive mind). This has led to more than one rumor amongst rank and file personnel that biomechs steal their pilots’ souls...which in a couple cases in particular may not be unsubstantiated.

As for what a biomech is grown out of, that is kept a tightly-guarded secret. But it’s always (with only the FFXIV ‘verse being exempt) some variety of elder dragon or dragon-monster, hence their draconian appearances. (For the FFXIV ‘verse: they’re either grown out of or cloned from a concept-creature of the Ancients’ world, which took the form of a giant squid-like being.) They‘re essentially lab-grown into their mechanical shells and systems, and once fully integrated with them, then awoken. This process varies, again depending on ‘verse, and can be as simple as a Frankenstein-esque shock of immense power, or as complex as ritual magic. Their brains are not considered to be in their heads but in their “cores”, which are grown and built first to be buried in the biomech’s chest—meaning that, even though a headshot or decapitation would be traumatic for all involved (including the pilot) and remove a significant amount of sensory input, a biomech can indeed continue to “live” without a head and can, even, have one regrown. These cores are also part mechanical and part biological, taking the form of a mechanical shell over a biological inside, but very few have ever actually seen one outside of lab technicians.

Their personalities are considered set in stone, however. Even on the rare occasions that a biomech has been re-grown—as in cases with known pilot refusals—their general temperament and thought processes remain the same, though the regrowth process is supposed to obliterate their actual memories. (Supposed to. It’s known to have mixed results.) Pronouns and monikers used to refer to biomechs are generally the biomech’s call and are projected as a wordless overlay on the weapon’s thoughts (so the people hearing it or staying close to it “just know” what a given biomech wants to be called), save in the cases where the biomech itself genuinely does not care—in which case the pilot picks something.

While the military would like to consider biomechs as just tools, of course, there are in fact entire sheaves of ethics and legal arguments surrounding them, given their self-awareness and their status as ultimately manmade creations. This can sometimes cause fairly intense political struggles in certain ‘verses.

Though individual biomechs vary in their combat abilities, a few are fairly standard: they’re resistant to mental and physical corruption, have some self-repair ability (though severe damage requires human repair), and have some variety of energy-based shielding that can be deployed on command. They also all have a mouth-based cannon, though the strength of said cannon varies between individuals: in some cases (such as Hemlock’s) it’s basically intended as a last-resort self-defense weapon that’s fairly weak in power, and in others (such as Blue’s) it’s actually intended to be the primary offensive weapon. Biomechs are also intended to all have some degree of flight capability.

As for some lore on individual biomechs, in order of ascending age:

BLUE. The “youngest“ biomech of the lot. Is considered to be a “he”. Personality is best called “chirpy”, and either somewhat dog-like or child-like depending on who’s asked to describe it; he isn’t particularly eager to get into a fight unless he has to. Thought patterns mostly described in terms of feeling like water—splashing, flooding, “like raindrops on their mind”, and so on. Has two main armaments outside of those intended for melee combat:

Mouth cannon. This fires either a laser-like stream of raw energy (or aether in FFXIV), or can also fire a high-pressure stream of water capable of slicing steel. Can be used without any bracing or foot-locks, and pilots are well-advised to learn how to aim it straight mid-flight.

ARIL cannons. These are positioned on the back of the biomech, taking the form of two loosely-attached “spears” on either side of the biomech’s midline, with an unusually biological growth on the fronts of the spears. These cannons are capable of unleashing concussive blasts capable of throwing foes of a biomech’s size considerable distances, but Blue must be standing braced to use them in order to not get thrown in the opposite direction. It is also highly inadvisable to use these on biological constructs; see below section on the ARIL.

The growths in question are collectively called the ARIL, and their substance was also extruded into Blue’s wings and are directly responsible, through unclear mechanisms, for his ability to fly despite his wings’ ragged appearance. What the ARIL is, unfortunately, is also not clear, but it’s considered to be an ancient biological artifact that interacts strangely both with gravity and with biological matter.

Overall, Blue is considered to be a “jack of all trades”-style fighter, capable of long-range attacks while being well able to function in mid or close-range combat as well. In that same vein, his armor is considered middling in strength; enough to protect him from most things but certainly not enough to block rapidly-repeated or severe strikes. His preferred mode of combat is to stay in flight and strike at a distance until an enemy is weakened, then to finish off the foe at close range.

MORRIGAN. The next youngest biomech. Goes by “she”. Very reserved and almost slothful in personality, to the point of serving as a mental “damper” to more violent or energetic minds. Does, however, quite enjoy using her guns and will actively prod pilots to do so, which leads to some only half-jokingly noting that she might be a bit addicted to shooting things. Thought patterns usually described as a slow-moving smoke. Has a great many armaments:

Main cannons. These are positioned on her back, either side of her mid-line. These are exceptionally powerful and capable of punching through all but the thickest armor and the strongest of shields. These do, however, utilize physical shells, and so can and do run out of ammunition. Contains a dozen shots at typical maximum capacity, but this can be expanded by extra equipment. Does require bracing or footlocks to fire with any accuracy.

Mouth cannon. In Morrigan, this takes the form of a powerful, thin, and concentrated energy/aether beam. It is not, however, intended for continuous fire like, for example, Blue’s; it functions in a manner vaguely akin to a sniper’s rifle, its shots short in duration but huge on power. Due to this, however, it’s highly advised to fire from a stable platform of some kind to avoid mis-aiming.

Missile pods. Scattered all over Morrigan’s body. These function as, of course, pods for firing ordinary missiles. Can be fired in sets based on location on the biomech’s frame (head only, arms only, etc), or all fired at once for a devastating barrage. These are locked onto target via either Morrigan’s built-in Radar suite (preferred) or by visual targeting (less preferred, since it requires intense concentration on the target in question by biomech and pilot alike). The number of pods and number of missiles in each pod makes out-of-ammo situations unlikely but possible.

Small tail cannons. Shoot fairly low-intensity defensive energy/aetherial beams, and can swivel approximately 120 degrees to the left and right of biomech midline. Intended solely for deterrence of foes from rear or side attacks.

Tail gun. Composes the entirety of the end of Morrigan’s tail. Can be used for deterrence of rear or side ambushes, but can also be swung around to provide offensive fire at, effectively, any angle. Can shoot either shells or energy/aether shots, depending on pilot selection.

Wing guns. Positioned on Morrigan’s wings, one on each. Fires energy/aether shots of average strength, and can be used in continuous more laser-like fire. These also contain Morrigan’s extra thrusters, required in order to maintain level flight.

Morrigan is intended to be a “turret” of a biomech, planting herself in one spot and firing at long-range on foes. The slowness from her weight and heavy armor makes close combat difficult; in such situations, it’s best advised to get away and back into effective gun or missile range. Flight is mainly intended as a mode of transportation over a means of fighting, but her wings are also intended as a way to stabilize pilot aim.

RED. Goes by “he”. Very nervous and high-strung personality; this is considered to be a fault in a war weapon on multiple levels, including by anyone maintaining the jumpy biomech’s hangar bay, but he’s also considered too large an investment to simply discard (amongst other concerns about the ethics of bluntly destroying a thinking being). Notable for being one of the only biomechs without wings composed of either physical materials or energy/aether, due to a persistent glitch in growth patterns despite multiple attempts to reset it—therefore, is very much of the school of (design) thought of “anything can technically fly if you put enough active thrust behind it”. Thought patterns described as flame-like and flickering. Has only a few weapons:

Mouth cannon. Functions as Red’s main gun, and acts similarly to Blue’s, though with the secondary option of napalm streams instead of a water cannon.

Arm blades. Positioned on Red’s forearms. Has a dual purpose of both providing extra armor and providing an extendable and devastating cutting weapon, whose blades can be superheated to slash through armor layers like butter.

Tail blades. Composes the entirety of Red’s tail. Can also be superheated in the same manner as the arm blades, but are much thicker and stronger, lending themselves to large and violent swiping attacks. (This does, however, mean that any given pilot or pilots should be heavily resistant to motion sickness, given that this requires a large amount of whole-body spinning.) These are quite flexible, allowing a significant section of them to be whipped around to the front like a spear or a thrusting sword.

Armor spikes. All biomechs have some degree of spikes on their armor, but Red’s is particularly prominent. It serves as not only extra protection but can be wielded in a melee situation for extra damage.

Of course, Red is mostly intended as a close-range physical fighter capable of moving at incredibly high speeds, courtesy of the large amount of high-output thrusters attached to his frame. He also has fairly heavy armor because of this intended use. His sensitivity to change, however, also makes him decent at sentry functions.

HEMLOCK. Varies between going by “he” or “she” or sometimes “they”. Thought patterns generally described as serpentine and sinuous. Considered to be the biomech with the most developed sense of humor, though biomech standards for “humor” are very low indeed. Definitely the most prone to trickery. Weaponry includes:

Mouth cannon. Mostly intended as a short-fire backup weapon.

Acid spray. Located in the two “spikes” pointing forward on either side of Hemlock’s jaw. As the name might imply, they’re capable of firing compressed streams of acid of sufficient strength and composition to melt armor. Has what is described as a “startling” amount of range by most pilots.

Back cannons. Located on Hemlock’s back, either side of midline. Also contains Hemlock’s main thrusters. Fires either physical shells or energy/aether depending on pilot selection. Used as Hemlock’s main guns, and are considered fairly powerful (though they pale in comparison to, say, Morrigan’s).

Overall, Hemlock is intended as a more stealth-oriented biomech, capable of speedy but short bursts of movement in order to greatest facilitate ambushes--usually of a physical sort. Hemlock also has an optical cloaking ability that, while incapable of making such a large machine invisible, does disrupt the biomech’s outline so much as to make visual firing on it rather difficult. It also heavily disrupts non-visually-based methods of targeting.

LEVIATHAN/”NIGOKI”. Name varies slightly depending on ‘verse. Second of two prototype-level biomechs. Has no preference for how to be referred to. Significantly more “alien” in thought pattern than the later production-type units, who were deliberately built to be less intensely intrusive; tends to project single-word thoughts at most, preferring to project whole concepts instead. Most infamous for supposed “soul-stealing” of its pilots (and in one ‘verse is actively fueled by half of a long-departed soul, forcibly attached to the biomech through foul magic). Personality is best described as varying degrees of rage and anger, and rarely deviates from this. Weapons include:

Mouth cannon. Main weapon. Can be adjusted to fire wide sprays of energy/aether or single more powerful beams. Curiously, both prototype biomechs’ energy/aetherial usage takes a brilliant orange color.

Hind leg claw. One on each rear leg, behind the foot. The physical claw can, of course, be used for gouging and slashing, but can also channel energy/aether into a vicious blade-like protrusion to better hack through shields and armor.

Energy/aether manipulation. Unlike most biomechs, both prototypes are capable of utilizing energy/aether to create various offensive constructs, though they’re typically only intended for use in close quarters combat (and take the form of blades, claws, fangs, etc). While in use, however, the otherwise incredibly powerful shields cannot be utilized (with the sole exception of when this energy/aether is used to create wings).

Telepathic offense. Also unlike most biomechs, the prototypes are capable of using their telepathic abilities as a weapon, instead of just as a means of communication with their pilots. Most dangerous to those already sensitive to such things, but even the telepathically insensitive can sustain damage from a concentrated enough assault, barring intervention from another source (such as another biomech, magic, specially-designed tooling, etc).

Leviathan/Nigoki serves mostly as a proof of concept for the biomech design, and most ‘verses attempt to avoid using either prototype whenever possible due to the biomech’s propensity for flying into berserk rages.

SILVARRE/“SHOGOKI”. Name varies slightly depending on ‘verse. First of two prototype-level biomechs. Has no preference for how to be referred to. Significantly more “alien” in thought pattern than the later production-type units, who were deliberately built to be less intensely intrusive; tends to project single-word thoughts at most, preferring to project whole concepts instead. Unlike its brother, however, Silvarre/“Shogoki” almost never shows any extremes of emotion, only reacting strongly to any perceived danger to its pilot—even when said pilot is outside of the cockpit, which makes Silvarre/“Shogoki” rather dangerous as a war weapon even to its own side, given its idea of “danger” to a person can be significantly less qualified than an ordinary human’s. Weapons are identical to Leviathan/“Nigoki”s, and include:

Mouth cannon. Main weapon. Can be adjusted to fire wide sprays of energy/aether or single more powerful beams. Curiously, both prototype biomechs’ energy/aetherial usage takes a brilliant orange color.

Hind leg claw. One on each rear leg, behind the foot. The physical claw can, of course, be used for gouging and slashing, but can also channel energy/aether into a vicious blade-like protrusion to better hack through shields and armor.

Energy/aether manipulation. Unlike most biomechs, both prototypes are capable of utilizing energy/aether to create various offensive constructs, though they’re typically only intended for use in close quarters combat (and take the form of blades, claws, fangs, etc). While in use, however, the otherwise incredibly powerful shields cannot be utilized (with the sole exception of when this energy/aether is used to create wings).

Telepathic offense. Also unlike most biomechs, the prototypes are capable of using their telepathic abilities as a weapon, instead of just as a means of communication with their pilots. Most dangerous to those already sensitive to such things, but even the telepathically insensitive can sustain damage from a concentrated enough assault, barring intervention from another source (such as another biomech, magic, specially-designed tooling, etc).

Back spikes. Located either side of midline, three to a side. Can be superheated to cause immense slashing damage.

Nose spike. Located on Shogoki’s snout. Can also be superheated, but is intended for stabbing over slashing.

Silvarre/“Shogoki” is mostly meant as a proof of concept for the biomech design, and its usage is also avoided wherever possible in most ‘verses due to its unpredictability.

===

All art here by the lovely @saintgale​! Thank you again, for finally bringing these guys to life in visual art. <3

[floatingcatacombs]

Top 10 Sexiest Mechas

12 Days of Aniblogging, Day 4

Mecha is one of the most intimidating genres for anime newcomers. The plots seem overly complex, the episode counts too long, and the giant robot war settings difficult to relate to. I think that all of these are valid concerns, but that mecha often gets a bad rap when most people don’t even want to try it. What both newcomers scared of the genre and hardcore mecha fans often fail to recognize, though, is that on top of the messages of the series, mechas always represent bodies. They are giant robotic representations of their pilots, the visions of their creators, collective psyches, and/or the work’s central themes. The degree of anthropomorphism, the level of abstraction with which the pilot controls the mecha, the colors and shape and size…all of these bodily elements directly tie back to the mecha’s role in the story. Of course, if mechas are bodies, then they are also vulnerable to sexualization. So let’s take all of that into consideration and chart the top 10 sexiest mechs! I’ll be keeping it capped at one entry per series, and will talk about all media, not just anime and manga.

 10. EQUUS from Concrete Revolutio

Starting off the list we’ve got a pretty weird pick, but I wanted to make sure that I shouted out this show. Concrete Revolutio is a kaiju and superhero-deconstructing delight, but when it comes to mechas it really plays things by ear and aims for the coolest setpieces possible. The protagonist’s mecha is essentially a Transformer that unfolds from a car into a centaur mecha. While the car body middle leaves a little to be desired, overall the design is a very good synthesis of Car and Horse. It’s certainly a better implementation of the centaur mecha design than say, Overwatch’s Orsia, who has a very visually muddled walking pattern because her legs are far too tiny and packed closely to each other. I’m especially a fan of the wheel joints on the knees and hooves on EQUUS, as well as the unicorn horn. Much as a centaur is an identity crisis between man and beast, Jiro is constantly in self-conflict over whether he can be a heroic protector of all superhumans or if he’s just a monster in disguise.

 9. Metal Gear Zeke from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Metal Gear Solid is one of the most iconic mecha series out there, so picking one specific Metal Gear over all the others proved challenging. The classic boxy REX, the smooth aquatic RAY, the upright Sahelanthropus, the arachnid EXCELSUS…there’s lots of good ones to pick from! It was a tough battle, but ultimately I had to go with ZEKE, the first named Metal Gear chronologically. Designwise, the railgun and Z-shaped legs are a nice touch, but it’s the story arc around ZEKE that interests me the most. A lesbian-sourced war crime machine, ZEKE was created by MSF, the nationless nation of soldiers run by Big Boss. It ended up being hijacked by terrorists from within and nearly caused a globally eradicating nuclear exchange, which is as good of a metaphor as they get for why deterrence is a fucked ideology. Accidents happen, stockpiles become more and more sunk costs, and sometimes anime girl triple agents infiltrate your military base and steal your cool robot.

8. Char’s Zaku II from Mobile Suit Gundam

Confession time: I haven’t actually seen any Gundam. I’m more of a Macross gal myself. But I felt like not having any Gundam on this list would be like ignoring Star Wars on a space opera list. Anyways, Char seems like one of the most awful bastard characters of any series ever, so I’m happy to use a spot on this listicle for his mecha. The Zaku II is infamous for being “three times as fast” as its generic counterparts despite its only difference being its red paint, but c’mon – that’s Char’s absolute moral purity buffing his ship. You deserve that stat buff if you’ve Never Betrayed Anyone In Your Entire Life, Ever.

7. Deus Ex Machina from Promare

--Promare spoilers ahead--

Promare ends, as all Trigger works should, with a whole lot of Act 3 Bullshit. Plot twist after plot twist until all of the themes dangled at in the first half no longer matter, with nonstop fighting getting more ridiculous by the second. At our protagonist’s darkest moment, their problems get handwaved away and they are handed a deus ex machina of a mecha literally known as….Deus Ex Machina. A fusion of Lio’s jet black triangle armor and Galo’s knightly firefighter mecha, the design of this mecha represents their connection and understanding of each other. Yes, of course they’re gay. Why else would it be glistening in rainbow colors?

6. Terminus typeR909 from Eureka Seven

Another mecha anime I’ve hardly seen.. but one that I definitely want to get around to! Eureka Seven just seems like a genuinely delightful time, and I’m a sucker for romance-based mecha shows as well. Anyways, the piloted mechas in Eureka Seven are named after Roland drum machines, with the typeR909 is named after the classic TR-909. They’re nicely proportioned and there’s something sweet about the cutesy magenta robot of the fleet being piloted by a 30-year old man. I guess I’m just a sucker for the gentle undoing of gendered associations and music gear.

5. Eva Unit-01 from Nylon Genesect Evangelical

All of the Eva units are quite tall and bestial and wonderful, but it’s Eva-01 in particular that really stands out due to its conspicuous tendency to disobey its pilot and go berserk, fully unhinging its jaw. NGE takes the “mechs as bodies” thing pretty damn seriously, but throws in the delightful wrench of “what if it’s not your body that’s being represented?”

4. VF-1 Valkyrie from Macross

Macross was the first popular mecha series to utilize transforming robots. What makes Valkyries so sexy is that they’re not just limited to Spaceship and Gundam forms – they have an intermediary form. In GERWALK mode, the cockpit remains exposed having not folded into the mecha headpiece yet, and the wings are still popped out. However, the Valkyire has sprouted its arms and legs already, making it capable of landing, walking on the ground, and wielding a gun pod as a rifle.  It’s kind of adorable! Stuffed to the brim with weapons and tech, Valkyries are the perfect blend of stylized and realistic robots. The Itano Circus will live on forever in our hearts as the go-to tactic when you have plenty of talent on your animation team and your mechas are armed with way too many missiles.

3. Jehuty from Zone of the Enders

While the VF-1 mecha is sexy because of its utility and folding form, the Orbital Frames of Zone of the Enders are sexy because…they’re designed with a sexual angle. They’re famous for their literal cock pits, but combined with their broad shoulders, slim hourglass waists, and pronounced thighs, they exude a strong androgynous energy. Jehuty is one of the most recognizable frames simply by virtue of being the playable mecha, but definitely one of the hornier ones too. Case in point: at the end of Zone of the Enders 2, it receives an upgrade after absorbing its sister frame to become Naked Jehuty, a stripped-down but ridiculously powerful mecha with gold sections emulating bare skin. Yoji Shinkawa’s brain is simply too big.

 2. Bohrok Pahrak

Look, I can’t just not include any Bionicle on this list. They’re some of the most formative lil’ robots to me. But which one is the sexiest? That’s not really something I’ve had to consider before. While some of the titan sets such as Roodaka and Axonn have a certain sexual angle to them, it feels contrived, carrying the same kind of creepiness as horny OC designs. The Great Spirit Robot might be the super robot of the series, but its design is rather barebones and reminds me too much of The Iron Giant. So I ultimately settled on the Bohrok, the hivemind villains from 2002’s story. While most Bionicle are a combination of biological and robotic, the Bohrok are strictly mechanical – and piloted by the masklike Krana, making them mechas! You really shouldn’t fuck the Bohrok, but there’s just something so perfect about their design. They’ve got it all – not only transformability and an orb design, but transformability into an orb design. Their hunched-over stature reminds me of GERWALK Valkyries – it’s cute and functional! As for why Pahrak in particular, well, the shields it wields are vibrators. Just ignore the fact that they’re powerful enough to seismically level mountains, and you’ll be set.

1. The Entirety of Heaven Will Be Mine

You can tell that Aevee Bee and Mia Schwartz did their homework for Heaven Will Be Mine. They understand better than anyone else that a mecha is a representation of the pilot’s psyche and body, and that damage to the mecha is indistinguishable from that to the pilot. This is reinforced by the mechas being referred to as Ship-Selves – they are literally an extension of oneself more than anything else. By looking at a ship-self, you can almost immediately infer what kind of person the pilot is, what her position in bed is, and what her fetishes are. The layer of abstraction between pilot and mecha ranges from wafer-thin to nonexistent depending on the character. The side effect of this is that since HWBM is about a bunch of gay girls in space having sloppy ideologically charged hookups, the mechas have to be designed just as sexually as everything else. And by god did they deliver on that front. Some of the ship-selves, such as Mare Crisium and String of Pearls, take clear direct inspiration from Zone of the Enders frames. The Krun Macula takes some inspiration from Char’s Zaku II in terms of color and shape, but its face chimes give it a uniquely divine and powerful feeling with no mecha parallel. This perfectly mirrors Pluto’s powerlevel advantage over all of the other pilots, and her humanoid-but-not-quite ship-self perfectly represents her faction’s goals. On the other hand, the assimilationist Memorial Foundation believes in ending the space program and grounding all ship-selves to prevent the splintering of humanity. Their mission manifests literally in that each member of the faction wears some form of bondage gear to represent their shackles to the Earth, and even their Ship-Self has a spreader bar. Heaven Will Be Mine is ridiculously horny, and it has the vision, design, storytelling, music, and everything else to back it up. Truly, the best of all worlds. And if anyone who worked on the game is reading this post.,.thanks.

[bigfan-fanfic]

Everybody’s Favorite Stark 2 (Male!Stark Reader Headcanons)

*SPOILERS FOR SLIGHTLY FEWER YEARS OF MARVEL THAN BEFORE*

The next few years are gravy, honestly.

Researching and taking down Hydra bases, boosting your resume with what basically amounts to a high-level job at SHIELD.

Although something about working with the spy organization doesn’t sit well with you, though you can’t tell exactly what.

On a whim, you have JARVIS upgrade all Stark’s security in a secret update, protecting everything from SHIELD.

Your dad jokes that Fury’s backups have backups, but it makes sense to you to be prepared for anything

So many “I told you so”’s later :)

Then comes that mission in Sokovia.

And you get worried, because your dad comes back paranoid and secretive, and pushes you away, which he has never done before.

The reason Tony goes to Bruce to help him with Ultron instead of you is because you have told him in no uncertain terms that it is impossible, and indeed, shouldn’t be possible to “put a suit of armor on the world.”

So Ultron is born, and you are... well, you’re pissed.

But you work on repairing JARVIS

Unlike your father, you are capable of setting aside your anger when the situation calls for it.

After the Sokovia Crisis is resolved, you have a big argument with your dad that he can’t push you away like that.

You’re Starks. You’re passionate. You say things in the moment that you regret later.

So really, when the Sokovia Accords are drafted, things can go either way.

You’ve got to make a big decision. If everybody’s favorite Stark is on Team Cap, continue reading. If the Starks stick together, scroll on until you get to the Team Iron Man section.

Team Cap Ironkid - The Iron Knight

You and your father have disagreed often in the past.

What color to paint the newest suit of armor

Why he has to give Happy a raise instead of just an apology

Whether or not it’s worth it to fly to California for an In-N-Out cheeseburger or just stay in New York for White Castle.

Whether or not it time travel is physically possible

But this seems different.

And you can’t bridge that gap.

So when Steve asks you for your help in proving Bucky’s innocence, though it means defying your dad and the soon-to-be-signed Sokovia Accords, you show up in a pirated suit, painted rust-red and midnight black, and you shoot red lasers to intercept Iron Man’s blue ones

But other than that, you hesitate to engage with your dad.

And the Iron Knight is born.

Natasha and you work together to bring down T’challa, and then you, Steve, and Bucky head to Siberia.

You don’t learn until later that Uncle Rhodey was injured.

Tony is devastated, and he nearly kills Sam instead of knocking him out.

You’re jealous of Peter

How long has your dad kept a replacement kid on standby?

You might be the one to *accidentally* drop a building on the kid.

You sigh with relief when it seems that your dad has come to his senses. For a moment, it seems like all will be well.

But then you see that Hydra had the Winter Soldier kill your grandparents.

You’ve never met them. It doesn’t effect you as much.

And when Tony strikes, you are there to grab his fist.

You still can’t quite bring yourself to attack him, so you instead remote hack his armor to distract him.

FRIDAY does a good job keeping the suit functional, but you’re still able to briefly take control of the language settings and grant Steve some openings.

And when Steve disables the armor, you realize that you have made a decision that cannot be taken back.

You don’t piggy-back on Steve’s message.

You send no word to your father.

Instead he sees on social media that #DarkIronMan and #IronKnight trending, and there are countless videos of you in your stolen suit, using it for vigilante work.

And though he misses you dearly, and feels betrayed, he is still so proud of you...

Team Iron Man Ironkid - Alloy

Yes, you and your dad have fought in the past.

But you’ve always gotten past it, and this time is no different.

Even if you don’t agree with the Accords, what better way is there to affect change than from within?

So when your dad asks you to help him bring Bucky into custody so that an investigation can be conducted, you agree.

The two of you go to meet Peter.

You distract May while Tony talks to him. If you’re closer to Peter’s age, you claim to have visited Peter’s school and become friends with him. If not, you claim that you’re in charge of the September Foundation Intern and Scholarship Program (or SFISP, pronounced suh-fiss-puh) and recommended Peter for the internship from a large pool of candidates.

BTW, Peter has some level of hero worship for you, too.

The Y/N Stark is in his house!

Eventually, you will be a hands-on mentor to Peter compared to Tony’s distant approach.

“Peter, don’t call her Karen.”

“Why not? She sounds like a Karen.”

“...okay, but that’s besides the point.”

You’re a little leery about bringing young Spider-Man into battle, so you resolve yourself to protect him during the battle.

You get a superhero name - Alloy.

Not only because it refers to metal, and you know, Iron Man, metal?

But also because it sounds like Ally in a Cockney accent.

Iron Man and his Alloy = Iron Man and his Ally.

Blame Tony - he came up with it.

You’re the one to subdue Wanda while she’s occupied with Vision

“That’s for making my dad make Ultron!”

You and Peter have a tag-team move where he web attaches to your armor and you swing him around.

But Captain America and Bucky get away

And Uncle Rhodey is hurt. You take charge

You order Tony to get Peter and the others out while you wait for emergency response for Rhodey.

You are the one to clue Tony in to the fact that Zemo is up to no good

And you go with him to Siberia.

In an uneasy alliance with Cap and Bucky

Until you learn that Hydra had the Winter Soldier kill your grandparents.

You can’t blame Bucky.

You don’t blame the chemicals when they explode, you blame the dumb scientist.

So you do not attack him or Steve.

You try to convince Tony to stop, but to no avail.

You help Bucky get away from the battle after his metal arm comes off.

And you send Cap off with him.

Then you fly Tony back home.

He doesn’t agree with you about letting Bucky go, but he understands why you did it and respects you for it.

Because even though you’ve disagreed before, you always get past it.

He is so proud of you, and he thinks you might be a better mentor for a certain young man in underoos...