#especially applying logic to shit like organic robots

[erigold13261]

Mechamaru as an organic cyborg later on in life… (dude looks up to Neon J)

You are close to what I have in mind!

They would be considered robots or androids though, not cyborgs (still organic though).

Cyborg would mean you were human/elementals or not robotic at all, but later was given robotics (cybernetics, bionics, stuff like that).

While an organic robot/android is someone who is literally born with mechanical skin and wired flesh (which is what Jade is).

Robots/androids are fully robot with no organics, or were robots who got upgraded with bioware enough to be look almost entirely human.

Cyborgs are people who were born human or as an elemental, and were then given some kind of inorganic component to them to help them live (or to make life easier. Not everyone uses the term "cyborg" though so you might hear people refer to themself as a person with cybernetics or something like that.

Same thing goes with bionics honestly.

But organic robots/androids are those who are naturally birthed and have elements of a machine to them. (There is a blurry line for robots who were upgraded enough to give birth themselves with their code turning into a type of DNA).

They can also naturally heal themselves while also not really being able to just "fix" themselves like you would a machine. A whole new line of bionics (and medical study/fields) will have to be made for organic robots because like, if a part of an organic robot stopped working/got sick, you can't just replace it like a machine, you need to match bionics to organic robotics now (like matching bloodtypes with organ donation).

Basically they are robot elementals. People like Matvey and Peni are very close to being organic robots but weren't classified as much because they were still very organic (and for Matvey robots weren't really a thing for most of his early life).

Robot elementals are very much a new world magic that is starting to emerge. Jade and Mechamaru are some of the first organic robots in the world (there are still quite a few of them by the 10 year point but there is basically none who are adults or elders by the time the Future act starts happening).

So yeah, robot elemental is pretty much the same thing as an organic robot which are naturally born, while cyborgs are anything not an organic robot or robot that got robotics put in them, and robots/androids are machines created by people (not birthed) who can upgrade themselves enough to be on the same level as organic but will most likely not be seen as organic by a lot of people.

Sorry if this is all a lot, I really loved the idea of adding organic robots and stuff ever since I created Matvey and Quida who are both organic metal elementals. Like 1010 will never be seen as organic robots, but if they upgrade themselves enough with bioware (once it gets to that stage) then they can have biological kids who would be organic robots/robot elementals.

I was also gonna say I think that specific elemental is tied to DNA/Code, meaning unlike how other elementals can pop up out of nowhere, robotic elementals need to have some organic robot or upgraded robot in their lineage for that elemental type to pop up, there is no way to genetically mutate that into a family tree at this moment in time.

However, I think as long as you are an elemental that is close to a robot elemental (electricity, metal, techno, anything like that kind of elemental) then you have a fair chance to have an organic robot as a kid (though it's only in recent years the magic or the world has been able to allow this). Otherwise you basically need an upgraded robot or organic robot to have more organic robots (at least for now, once more have kids and the magic spreads out into all kinds of areas, then robot elementals will be just as wide spread as other uncommon to rare elementals).

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte and reproductive themes: an analysis

your local medical scientist/biologist LJ dives into the complicated reproductive themes presented in tf: mtmte

ok so amongst my liveblogging I realized I still haven't given my reproductive biology thoughts, and now seems a good time since I couldn't fit it in during remain in light

so basically, ik everyone memes on jro for the mpreg and the general reproductive themes present in mtmte/ll, but honestly I see why he went that route? w/the repro themes, not the mpreg lmao. and even the reproductive stuff has some weird terminology/vibes so I totally get why everyone memes

anyways, basically...[puts biologist hat on] so from a purely scientific standpoint, there is this: the biological imperative is reproduction. as in, the entire POINT of biological species - the reason they exist, their main goal in their existence - is to reproduce and carry on their genes and their species

now obviously this is a bit general, and a lot of people would say ‘hey I don't agree with that, I don't want kids, etcetc’ to which I say, exactly! this is a scientific generalization, and another factor is that humanity is very advanced, especially compared to a lot of other biological species, so of course humans, with our capability for advanced thought and philosophy and whatnot, would not strictly adhere to this

biological species can be categorized as r-selected or k-selected - r-selected (think r = rapid) are species that reproduce frequently, have short lifespans/life cycles, and produce many offspring. example: fruit flies. k-selected species reproduce less frequently, have longer lifespans and life cycles, and produce only a few offspring at a time (so, humans).

so r-selected species are more likely to adhere closely to the biological imperative - fruit flies exist so they can produce as many offspring as they can before dying, and since their lifespan is so short they spend almost all their time alive working towards this goal

now, back to the alien robots - so, cybertronians are NOT biological. so it stands that the biological imperative of reproduction above all else wouldn't apply to them. which, as we see from canon, seems true. most cybertronians don't really care about reproduction or carrying on the species

and this isn't as big of a problem when your species is basically immortal. it becomes more of a problem when your species goes to war for 4 million years and most of you die

then it’s like, oh shit, a lot of us died and also we don't have any sort of easy, obvious way to make more of our species (unlike any biological species)

which is why it makes a lot of sense that cold construction was invented as a way to create more cybertronians once the hot spots stopped popping up

cybertronians are also interesting bc they don’t easily fall into k-selected or r-selected categories (makes sense, since they’re not organic). in terms of being r-selected, they are capable of rapid reproduction (MTOs) through artificial means, and they have short life cycles (no sort of ‘childhood,’ unlike k-selected species), but for k-selected, they DO have very long lifespans, and they don't put nearly as much focus on reproduction as most r-selected species (which, again, they’re not organic, so trying to classify them with these terms is arbitrary)

so it makes a lot of sense that after the war is over, a lot of cybertronians would shift focus towards the question of, ‘how does our species continue on when most of us died and we have no way of reproducing?’

so what I’m saying is, jro IS valid bc this is a logical question that would arise in post-war times

also, it makes me wonder what the cybertronian/mechanical imperative would be - is it ‘war’? that seems pretty harsh, but that could be interesting as a theme in-text, with a lot of the organic aliens hating cybertronians, and cybtertronians having a reputation for being a war-mongering species 

oh man also. reproduction and religion are typically closely tied (think about with christianity and the virgin mary, and all the other bible stories about birth/pregnancy/babies) - because a big question of religion is ‘where did we as a species originate from?’ and different religions answer that in different ways

for cybertronians, it makes a lot of sense that they would have a variety of religions with their own unique takes on where the cybertronian species came from...it’s also a good alternative to the idea that the cybertronians were BUILT rather than born/created by a god/gods

like the g1 origin where the quintessons built them - which, yknow, that’s a different continuity, and also it’s g1, where the transformers were much more robots/cars rather than aliens/living mechanical beings...but it’s interesting to think about the quintesson origin being a bit of a horror story to the idw tfs; the idea that they were created as machines by another sentient species is pretty fucked

anyways that's digressing. the point - even though cybertronians aren't biological, it seems safe to say that as a sentient species, they would have some slanted interpretation of that biological imperative in place - namely, that cybertronians would want their species to continue. secondary to this is reproduction itself - could cold construction be considered reproduction? are sparks springing up in hot spots reproductive? is ‘reproduction’ defined here as a new life being created, or as an act between one or more individuals that leads to the creation of a new life?

interestingly, that second definition would put cold construction in the ‘reproduction’ category, but not hot spot spark production. 

more digression...basically, it stands to reason that cybertronians would have some drive to continue their species, which manifested in the creation of the cold construction method (and later, the construction of MTOs is a war-based slant on that same philosophy)

but during the war, reproduction largely took a backseat to fighting - MTOs were produced to aid in the fight, not necessarily to continue on their species in any significant way

and now that the war is over...it makes sense that reproduction would become more of a priority, especially considering what a huge dent the war left in the cybertronian population

cybertronians...are like certain fish species. some fish species breed semi-rarely, but are designed to live very long lives and get super big and ancient. and if they breed often enough, and the older ones live long enough, you have a nice balance of old-ass fish that can breed to newer fish that don't breed

the problem is fishing - a lot of these species have been heavily fished, and the big fish - the breeding fish - are the ones taken to eat. this leaves the population skewed towards young fish, which isn't how the species is supposed to be structured

this is why some fish have an upper length limit as well as the typical minimum length (like striped bass) - bc the DEM wants the really big breeder fish to stay in the ocean where they can make more fish 

lmao how did I end up talking about fish. anyways

so basically. cybertronians are like this - they live a long ass time and don't reproduce (via hot spots appearing) very often, which creates a good balanced population - or it’s supposed to, if you don't go to war for 4 million years and decimate a large chunk of the population

so the whole...mpreg baby thing also kind of makes sense bc, there’s kinda a population crisis going on, so its logical that various cybertronians would explore a myriad of ways to reproduce, including looking to organic species for inspiration, since organic species generally have built-in reproductive capabilities (and those reproductive capabilities come in many different forms) 

think invertebrates performing parthenogenesis because there’s a skewed female population. generally in the biological world, sexual reproduction > asexual reproduction, because sexual reproduction garners a much higher level of genetic mixing (which is a healthy thing for a population, generally)

but under duress, some species can perform asexual reproduction as a failsafe in order to ensure continuation of the species, even if sexual reproduction would be preferred 

so it would make sense that the cybertronians would be attempting to explore all of their options, because they’re pretty much in the red in terms of population 

ok that’s all I've got tonight folks. feel free to talk to me anytime about this stuff or any biology/science wooooo

[rekkingcrew]

The Drax Krieger Files: The Fortress Pt 2 (Mystery Solved!)

This is a summary of me DMing one on one for Drax.

(part one is here)

Fresh off having to sign a gauntlet of non-disclosure agreements about “the incident” from his corporate employers, Drax returns to his office with Nu and asks his secretary bot if there are any messages. (Player destiny point) There is one, and it’s important!

The message is from Patch. Drax tells Nu he’s taking a shower to get some privacy while he listens. In the shower he listens to a long, rambling, apologetic message that can be summarized as follows: Patch knows he’s working on something now, and he isn’t sure he should be taking this outside of the mercenary company, but he wants to hire Drax for a missing person’s investigation. He has a batchmate clone he invited into Violet Sun, and they haven’t arrived yet. It’s been a couple of weeks. No one has seen them. Drax towels off and he and Nu get to working to scan the footage. The other investigators have had longer to look, but Drax’s search is directed and that’s helping make up for some time.

Specifically, he’s looking at Tripwire and Patch’s entrances and exits from the secure second ring (the other three Violet Sun guards are non-clone humans). He notices two important things. First, Patch never appears in the log. Every time he goes through the scan it reads him as Tripwire. Second, Tripwire exits more times than he enters by one. Looking at the odd grouping, video from the outer ring shows Tripwire, as Eyel described him, speaking on a com and walking out to meet with someone. The room he walks through has a number of people milling about, many of them clones in similar armor. You could be forgiven for missing that he never comes back, especially since, when the alarms sound, he’s there, emerging from the second ring with Patch, gun drawn, looking for whoever shot his boss. Zooming in on the footage of “Tripwire” leaving, Drax is able to discern two things- this person is not wearing Tripwire’s modded armor, and what’s in his blaster holster isn’t a blaster. It’s a piece of something bigger. A review of earlier video footage allows them to determine there’s no time during the meeting the second Tripwire could have entered, but checking the security records, Drax learns Tripwire was the inspector Violet Sun sent to check things out, arriving alone after the Hutt and Corpsec inspectors. With minimal security because no one important was there, he was able to spoof the security system and stay inside the second ring (continued investigation here would have shown that the assassin and Tripwire worked together at the inspection, and Tripwire even made a point of talking to the employee on duty and then visibly leaving while his accomplice stayed, unobserved, but that was a detail it would have cost some time to pursue).

Drax sets Nu to find and analyze everything she can about the Violet Sun, while he makes some calls. As she is, among other things, a corporate business robot, she’s able to find all of their public contracts (legal) and also hack into their company accounts (illegal). The money flowing from the first to the second matches for a long time, then there is a decline in contracts with the money declining commensurately. Then the contracts keep declining, but the money makes a sharp increase and keeps going up. They also recently, before Vadst’s death, accepted one more contract that’s going to require a lot of them to leave within the next couple of hours. Drax calls up a money launderer he knows (using a class skill in which a successful roll requires the DM to give him one free clue). The money launderer is currently in the process of shredding documents in preparation for a long vacation, but he gives Drax one vital piece of information: Violet Sun maintains a second, smaller, completely off the books facility. He gives Drax an address in a warehouse district not far from the spaceport.

Drax calls Queen and offers to trade her information for the duros kid. Queen tells him it had damn well better be good information. When Drax gives her the facility address she laughs in his face. “I know where the facility is, Kreiger. It’s where Desjilic put that specialist.” She doesn’t know what specialty the specialist was, because her bosses have decided she didn’t need to. She tells him not to bother her again unless he’s got something useful.

Drax curses. Of course the Hutts are in on whatever’s going on with Violet Sun.

With limited time to find Tripwire, Drax singles in on a mercenary bar near their main base. It’s frequented by Violet Sun members all the time, and even if Tripwire isn’t there, someone who knows him well will be. He gives Nu the address and they get in to drive.

In the car, he gets that call he’s been waiting for from Selvin, who demands to know where Drax got this sample. Drax tells him it doesn’t matter, but he needs to talk fast. Selvin explains that the sample wasn’t stable; it degraded quickly, but it’s an absolutely revolutionary regenerative agent. He was able to apply it to a biopsy and speed grow almost a whole new organ. He opines excitedly that if this compound was stabilized, it would be able to save so many lives. (He does not say, make so much money, but Drax knows it). He also says that the base biotechnology here is like nothing he’s seen since the war: specifically it’s Caminoan.

He reminds Drax the Caminoans are incredibly proprietary about their boitechnology and if this is stolen Caminoan tech, it’s a big problem. Drax tells him not to worry and hangs up. And this is where Drax figures it out, because aside from Camino, the universe has one large repository of Caminoan biotechnology: inside the bodies of the clones. If he wasn’t sure from Selvin’s analysis, Patch’s missing clone is damning evidence. Vadst provided the clones, Kadjah provided the specialist, Bol’lan bought the product, and when Tripwire found out what they were doing, he and his accomplice killed them all. (These conclusions are a combination of player problem solving and good rolls to direct Drax’s intuition). With no one else who seemed to know what the meeting was about, that leaves one involved part he needs to tie up loose ends on.

Drax tells Nu to give a new address to the driver, they’re going to the second facility.

At the facility, they’re greeted with inept blaster rifle fire. The specialist has barricaded himself inside and is shooting at anyone he doesn’t know, because he’s worked out that all his bosses are dead and there’s a very good chance he’s next. Drax attempts to open up a secondary entrance to the underground parts of the facility, rather than taking him on in a frontal assault. While he’s unable to do so, his efforts get the specialist to stop shooting long enough to ask who they are (failure with a triumph). Drax explains himself and introduces Nu. The specialist says he wants passage out of Hutt space and he wants to take all his research notes. Drax says all right and Nu very quickly agrees. The specialist unbars the door and begins frantically packing. The specialist is a ill kept Utapaun with “property of Desjilic” tattooed in Huttese on the left side of his face. He’s not technically a slave, but the cartel has made it very hard for him to go anywhere else.

Nu starts to interface with the specialist’s datapads. The specialist says “hey, no, what are you doing,” and the thing that Drax has been waiting to happen happens. Her hands turn to knives, but Drax is able to get a shot in on her before she impales the specialist, and, seeing him as the larger threat, she turns to attack Drax. One consolation he has is that he knows that since they reached the facility, she has not transmitted information.

Shedding her robe, Nu unfolds into a seven foot assassin droid. She’s fast and incredibly deadly, and when Drax throws up an armored forearm to stop a hit, her claws go right through his plating. Whatever she’s made of, it’s insanely tough. Additionally, the crossfire has already destroyed some of the research. Drax manages to retreat far enough to throw an ion grenade, which misses Nu, falling down the stairs behind her and destroying more of the computers below. For most of the fight he’s in retreat, trying to stay out of her range in the small space of the lab, with the specialist taking ineffectual pot shots at Nu whenever she isn’t right on top of Drax. Nu nearly corners him at one point, but he manages to roll away and bring up his gun faster than she’s expecting. She lunges and his next shot cleaves a laser path across her center mass. He’s able to retrieve a black box memory core from her sparking corpse. 

The specialist is still alive, and it occurs to Drax to wonder why that is. Tripwire had plenty of time to plan killing Vadst and this guy was the next logical target. The only conclusion he can come to is that Tripwire didn’t know where this facility actually was.

That’s when he hears the rifle blast take out the driver. The car had a tracker on it (DM dark side destiny point some time ago) and Drax did not notice (player roll).

Drax tells the specialist to get to the basement and hide, and puts in a quick call to Queen to get here as fast as she can. He peeks out, expecting Tripwire and his accomplice, but sees only one clone, so well hidden he almost missed him. Stealth has never been Tripwire’s specialty, so Drax assumes he’s the accomplice and starts talking (and rolls a triumph). The clone confirms he’s the assassin and agrees with Drax’s rundown of events. His name is Ghost. Drax says the only thing he can’t figure out is the weapon and Ghost removes a gauntlet to show a cybernetic arm; one piece of the gun was in his blaster holster the other was attached to his body, rigged by Tripwire so they could be assembled and fired. Drax comments that Tripwire was kind of a shit when he knew him, but it seems like he’s really matured into a leader who takes care of his people. Ghost’s reply is “anything for a brother.”

Ghost is alone and he’s wearing Tripwire’s custom armor. He’s taken every conceivable precaution to pass as Tripwire if he gets caught, presumably so the real Tripwire can get away. (Other lines of investigation might have revealed Ghost has, in fact, stunned Tripwire and packed him up on the departing ship in order to take the fall for him).

Ghost tells Drax he knows him by reputation. He doesn’t actually want to kill him, and he believes Drax will keep their secret, so if Drax will just step out of the way and let him kill the specialist, Drax is free to go. Drax says he can’t do that. Though he doesn’t explain himself, he’s hoping to trade the specialist to Queen for the hostage Duros kid; he’s running low on cards to keep her from killing him. Ghost says to Drax, “don’t try to stop me, you know what I am.”

Drax figures the fight is inevitable, so he kicks it off himself. “You’re vat grown trash,” he replies, “and they boil you down into medicine.”

That does it, and now it’s a gun fight. There’s an exchange of fire. Both of these men are excellent soldiers. Drax lands a hit that takes out Ghost’s rifle, and he swears and retreats behind the car to assemble the gun arm he used to take out everyone at the Fortress. Drax knows enough from seeing the effects of the weapon to guess it isn’t going to be accurate except at close range, but it’s strong enough that accuracy isn’t quite as big a factor as usual. Drax throws a grenade to give himself some cover and dashes out of the door to a second location where he can line up a clean shot. When Ghost pops back up again, he shoots the door where Drax was, obliterating it. Drax catches him in the side with a clean shot, but he’s still up. He’s a clone soldier and they’re very tough. Ghost sees where Drax is, but he also sees Drax isn’t between him and the specialist anymore, and he takes off at a dead run for the facility, sliding into it and out of Drax’s line of fire. Drax swears and pursues. He’s not able to shoot Ghost but he is able to grapple him so that he can’t shoot the specialist, and once he’s got a hold on him, he pulls out a knife and tries for melee while maintaining the hold. Ghost’s gun arm makes him deeply ineffective in a fight where an opponent is inside the space between him and the barrel, and after a brief try he gives up on fighting Drax and focuses on throwing him off. He manages to do so and gets his gun up against the cowering specialist’s chest.

And Drax shoots him through the back of the neck.

When Queen arrives with her thugs and her hostage in tow, looking like something out of Mad Max, Drax says he’ll trade the specialist for the kid. Queen says he’ll have to do better than that. He gives her a nearly accurate version of the plot, except he tells her the body below belongs to Tripwire and that the missing clone Patch asked him to find was the accomplice. He says Nu killed the latter, and was trying to kill the specialist, steal the data, and cut the Hutts out of the deal. He tosses her head out to Queen. Queen can tell he’s not giving the whole picture, and she lets him stew on that for a minute, but it’s enough to satisfy her employers, and she says this plus the specialist earns him the Duros kid. They exchange prisoners and Drax books the kid a shuttle flight out of Hutt Space. He takes from the kid’s hostage account the balance of what NuTech would have paid him after his retainer, and sets him up with someone who can forge him a new identity.

NuTech call him. They haven’t heard from Nu. Drax says she’s dead. There’s a pause and they say they still want the report. They remind him he’s signed nondisclosure agreements. He hangs up on them in disgust.

He writes a heavily edited report and refuses to accept money from them. He makes a copy of Nu’s memories as blackmail material if they ever come after him and melts down the original, then he leaves. He wants to spend some time just not being on Nar Shaddaa anymore. He flies aimlessly around space. He gets an invitation from an old associate to come and celebrate a recent success and a possible new job, but Drax is in no mood for celebration and he doesn’t acknowledge the call. He gives up on going through his datapad bit by bit to erase pictures of his past, and simply blasts it out the airlock.