#also yea i have lots of ideas about how v1 and v2 think of them

[cherubchoirs]

character notes on v1's design team mel, cas, and belle......mel was the head and originator of the project, the one who developed blood-absorption plating and largely conceived of v1 as a counter to the earthmover. cas was software lead, who was able to produce a new generation of supreme machine intelligence suited to fighting in the earthmover. belle was the hardware lead, who understood how to make v1 lightweight yet sturdy, and integrated a proper system to actually work with mel's new plating.

mel is an eccentric who has been ill most of his life due to severe lung and skin damage resulting from pollution and fire exposure without proper protection. his poor health has caused him to be consumed with his creative pursuits, v1 being the culmination of a near decade of dedicated work and dreaming...as a result, acutely aware he has little time left to know it, mel cares deeply for his creation and does everything he can to connect with it. he is viewed in many ways as unstable, but cas and belle can see mel's genuine enthusiasm and confidence in what they have made, what was born from so much isolation and late nights pushing his declining body to its limits. his interest lies in the art of what he has made, not so much conceiving the end of the war but instead simply wanting v1 to create an irreplaceable new generation of machines. one that cannot be outdone, immune to obsolescence. however, he dies before the new peace is established, never knowing his child was shelved without ever having a chance to prove itself the way he knew it would. cas and belle are the ones who advocate to save v1, just in case, not wanting to see mel's dream die with him even when it's been rendered obsolete under the one condition mel couldn't have predicted. they oversee v2's creation, hoping it will carry mel's torch, and terribly let down when it goes the same way as the first. too expensive. too unnecessary. it can't be sold.

cas is the most existential of the group, aware of the machines' capacity for sentience and knowing v1 will be much more capable than most given how he programs it. it gives him terrible anxiety and insomnia, haunted by creating something so perfected for war yet that could know itself, could develop an identity in the horror of its reality. he finds little comfort in mel, who wishes more than anything to see v1 become much more than any other machine, to truly achieve that standing of "supreme", while belle thinks little of such things as long as it ends this damn war. it makes cas much stricter about protocol, attempting to prevent what he believes to be the cruelest fate imaginable for v1 - no treating v1 as anything other than a war machine, keep to drills, to training, affirmatives or negatives to its performances. cold grades, nothing else. this, of course, fails terribly - it comes to a head when, during one-on-one training with mel, v1 calls the medics for him when he passes out due his oxygen running low. cas knows how he programmed it, he knows it was never taught to give assistance...it saving mel proves it's already thinking outside of his parameters, and he can't stop it. in addition to preserving mel's legacy, cas insists on v1's storage rather than dismantling it because destroying it now would be too cruel after he made it this way.

belle is largely a utilitarian, though she is often angry and rough in her approach because she's exhausted by war. she works very closely with mel, putting her genius together with his to make anything he needs a reality as she believes this is their last ticket out. the earthmovers are killing everything, killing them - she often feels like she must have lost her mind, the way so many others take this never ending war as a given, as the default for humanity. she puts everything into making v1, her skill enabling it to work at full capacity on just 1% of blood. she develops the feedbacker, perfectly complimenting mel's blood plating and the quick, clever brain cas has programmed. she's lightning fast with her fixes and she places her dreams on v1 in a way similar to mel but without the sentimentality - she needs out, she wants it to be done, and she's willing to do anything to push through her own limits to get there. belle is shocked when the new peace is achieved without any implementation of what they all worked so hard for...and while she can't be upset about her one wish being granted, there is something bittersweet in seeing their prototype now go to waste. she endorses the creation of v2 as a way to see their work at least continue on to maintain the peace, but is aware of how much of a longshot it is. still, she is forever proud of v1 and v2, believing they truly had created the best.