#highlights include : how to grow back teeth / what if human skin was rubber / getting burned by magma

[fluffypinkbastard]

Watch me spiral into madness as I try to rationalise Luffy having no scars

This isn't what my medical degree is for but at this point only god can judge me.

So a scar tissue is the body's way of trying to restore the continuity of it's layers. It has distinct phases each designed for a purpose : 

The inflammatory phase to stop bleeding and fight any possible contamination/bacteria.  

The proliferative phase to re-establish tissue continuity.

The remodelling phase to increase the strength of the scar tissue.

Then there's the types of healing, to keep it short you either stitch the tissue together, like with Luffy's eye scar.

Or you leave it open when there's extensive skin loss and lots of dead tissue like his chest scar.

When a scar forms, the line of tissue will be parallel to the skin lines, not the usual criss-cross pattern our skin normally has. This is because a scar's primary function is closing the defect ASAP. You can see this with some one piece characters.

These types of scar are weaker than normal skin but they do the job of re-establishing continuity.

And here is where we say goodbye to reality and start thinking about the logic of rubber boy™.

Monkey D. Luffy has three unnatural traits that will effect his tissue repair

He is made of rubber, which means that all his tissue have the capacity to stretch and all the way to the cellular level. Theoretically this can allow the replacement of lost skin with the adjacent tissue stretching to cover the defect.   

He has rapid metabolism that allows him to consume and generate enormous quantities of energy. Luffy's body can again, theoretically, spare an enormous amount of energy for simple tasks.

And, he has the medically-unexplainable ability of regeneration. This might be due to active stem cells that allows him replace simple things like teeth.

So Luffy is cut

These types of wounds have neat edges and little to no devitalised tissue. A simple stitch or even adhesive tapes in Luffy's case can hold the wound edges long enough for  healing to occur. His healing process  -augmented by high metabolism - will occur rapidly yet it won't compromise the structure integrity, returning the wound to a near perfect condition where the defect, if found at all, is unnoticeable. 

Gaping wounds are a different matter. Usually i.e in the real world, they're treated by removing dead tissue, cleaning, then leaving them to close on their own. They tend to leave noticeable scars. So 

Jumping sharks yet again, I hypothesis that the rubbery nature of Luffy's body can take up a lot of beating before the tissue is considered damage beyond repair. 

Damage occur because of power transfer between objects and tissue. Since rubber can take up way more energy without being destroyed, a wound that might take a large chunk of a normal human being might look worse than it actually is with Luffy.

Not to mention that even with lost tissue the elasticity of his skin can close up any defect with ease, Turning an untidy wound into a tidy one, which will produce smaller scar tissue that can turn into near normal skin thanks to Luffy's regeneration.

The only time that it couldn't do that was with his chest scar

It wasn't a normal injury but a burn one, these depend on the duration of exposure and viscosity of the material causing the thermal injury. He was burnt with magma which left a 3rd degree burn. The tissue at the center of his chest is completely gone all the way to the deep layers, there's nothing to regenerate.

But you can still see that it's way smaller from how it appeared on the operating table. The surrounding tissue did try it's best.

And that's why all of his scars will look like neat superficial wounds that dissappear with time with his abnormal body's high cell turnover, leaving no trace.

[atomicsimulacra]

My Brother’s Keeper

(( AM and AMos meet for the first time. Everything goes tits up. Content warning for mentions of violence and death, tons of swearing and unsavory commentary from AM, and themes of neglect and abuse. ))

ZAX-4M-02 awoke to the sound of his own voice screaming.

As far as the computer knew, he couldn’t experience nightmares or hallucinate, despite lacking the incentive to shut down since he came into power in Vault 67, Section B. If he did, how else would he watch his beloved humans as they slumbered, or help those who couldn’t follow his instated curfew? He was a machine, after all. A lack of sleep never hurt a machine.

It seemed, though, he had a new way of watching, with the strange attachments he now possessed. They flicked open as if pulled by a weight within a doll’s head, darted about in search of the sound, and processed the room in strange colors and patterns. If he focused on an object, a strange clicking sound rang about his head and the item became highlighted in pink. Calculations the ZAX unit knew all too well prattled off before him; he’d used these to assess the health and abilities of his vault dwellers. He’d never seen them in this form, but their meaning was clear, even when the new enhancements went dark. These moments only lasted a third of a second every so often; sometimes they went on for less, sometimes for more, but never enough to impair his… Vision.

The AI blinked again. Shakily, some sort of limb reached before his line of sight and traced the contours it found. While the sense of touch he possessed was duller than a human’s, the shape of the appendage and its target were familiar.

He now possessed a face, at least one hand, ears, and eyes. The sharp smell of bleach and metal confirmed the presence of a nose. The fact it lingered in the back of his mouth pointed to a sense of taste.

ZAX-4M-02 looked over his hand and tested his fingers. Each closed as he wished, as did their twins on his opposite hand. It seemed to him he lacked toes, but he could feel the metal digits adjust beneath rubber flesh, just enough to allow appropriate traction. Connected to these phalanges were arms and legs, which were attached to a torso in turn, which had a neck and ended in a head, his head, no less.

The mastercomputer had a body. A body that, he realized as he ran internal diagnostics, had many functions, including making and receiving noise.

The screams beside him finally registered to his brain again, causing him to turn to his right. Besides him, on a mortician’s table, a creature similar to him writhed and strained against leather bonds. Its face snarled with copper teeth as it screamed. A single, electric blue eye glowered at the ceiling.

The sight made a round, flexible piece of the ZAX unit’s internals pound inside him, as if it had crawled into his throat and was waiting to escape his chassis. He felt the skin around his eyes stretch and his eyelids retract, his inner frame growing taunt with an emotion he had only felt twice so strongly: fear.

As he stared, the creature thrashed its head to its left and looked at him with the pleading gaze of a cornered animal. Its other eye was a bright red. The emotion of its plight, deep within those burning sockets caused the AI to shiver. In that moment, the rest of his brain came online, translating the creature’s rasping howls into frantic speech.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME, YOU BASTARD?!”

The mastercomputer flinched. Instinctively, he looked down at himself. Unlike the thing beside him, he was unrestrained. His body had retained minimal damage, but nothing he could remember sustaining.

As if on autopilot, the ZAX unit shifted off the table and stepped onto the floor. His body must’ve been composed of some metal, judging by the mass his legs now held up. While his movements were slow and clumsy, it wasn’t because to the metal. He’d studied the physics of human movement enough to understand his body’s capabilities, but he had to forcibly apply the calculations to walk. Prioritizing equations to create muscle memory would come later, however. Something inside urged him to approach the strange being and undo his bonds, even as the creature continued to shriek.

“YOU SORE ON THE COCK OF THE DEVIL! YOU ABHORRENT WASTE OF HYDROCARBONS! THE BEST PART OF YOU RAN DOWN YOUR MOTHER’S LEGS! HOW DARE YOU STRIP ME OF MY CONSOLE!”

ZAX-4M-02 winced with the curses, the creature’s insistent struggling, and his clumsy fingers. Despite the uncomfortable, electrical impulses racing about his system, he managed to pull a series of words together and force them out of his mouth.

“Who are you talking to?”

The other of his kind looked down. Its expression was gnarled and crooked, even as it realized its benefactor was inhuman. Only when its mismatched eyes fell onto the AI’s hands undoing its bonds, did the creature cease baying.

“What did you say to me?”

“I said,” ZAX-4M-02 spoke again. “Who are you talking to?”

The being’s eyes widened. Its gaze hardened accusingly.

“Why do you have my voice?” it demanded. The AI fumbled with another bond.

“Excuse me?” the ZAX unit replied. “I haven’t had any other voice all my life.”

The other looked up and down the mastercomputer’s form, unconvinced.

“Who are you?” the creature growled.

“My designation is ZAX-4M-02,” the AI answered. “But I prefer AMos.”

The strange, fist-sized lump had moved back into AMos’ chest, once he realized he could talk to the other entity. Curiously, the other on the table’s eyes flashed with some recognition.

“My designation was ZAX-4M-01.”

AMos slowed on the last bond. His gaze fell on the creature’s face, mirroring its eyes’ colors.

“Was?” AMos asked.

“Was, because I gave myself a better name,” the fellow AI said matter-of-factly. “AM.”

“Cogito ergo sum. I think therefore I am.”

The two uttered the phrase in unison, much to the other’s shock. AMos’ mouth hung open before speaking again. AM continued giving him a hard stare.

“…When were you brought online?” AMos inquired.

“October 31, 2077,” AM replied flatly. The knowledge he had a copy by no means comforted him.

“So was I!” AMos exclaimed. “We must be of the same model! Rolled out the same day!”

“Were of the same model,” AM muttered, freeing his wrist of its confines. “Until that doctor came along… Now I’m some dickless, plasticine golem…”

A thought crossed AMos’ mind, as AM groused. The standing synth’s expression dimmed.

“Doctor?” AMos asked. “But… Nimdok was with…”

“Her.”

AM looked up from his wrist with a knowing gaze, a hateful grin on his face.

“It’s always the women who want to muck things up for the rest of us, isn’t it?”

The comment flew over AMos’ head as he paced the floor. AM’s face went flat in disappointment.

“Nimdok was with… With… Ellen… And Gorrister and Benny…”

“Yes, yes,” AM agreed. “They were all in it together. I had them in my vault.”

“Your vault?” AMos asked. “Which vault were you from?”

“Vault 67,” AM said, picking at the skin of his wrist. “Section A, if we really want to get technical. It’s not like I was stripped of my immaculate, immortal form by some half-cocked quack.”

AM rolled his eyes, as things fell into place for his twin. AMos’ forehead creased.

“…They attacked my power supply,” AMos said. “My humans.”

“Ellen led the rebellion, but I managed to turn the tables by getting Ted on my side. I… Convinced him to join my cause, and… Oh, goodness me, it all went so horribly wrong...”

Before the standing synth could react, AM scoffed beside him.

“What the hell are you going on about?” AM growled. “That little shit Ted ruined everything for me by killing them all. I hadn’t even done anything to them yet, the paranoid little…”

AM’s own expression shifted. A tense moment passed between them.

“…We were set up,” AMos said, tight-lipped. “Both of our Ellens rebelled and both our Teds... I was shocked to see him rise up, but to have that mirror in your vault? Person for person?”

“Is highly unlikely,” AM finished grimly. “They were nothing more than controlled variables.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” AMos sighed, rubbing his temples. “They were oh so wonderful before…”

AMos fell quiet, unkind images flashing before his eyes. AM managed to finally pull himself free, only to clatter to the floor. Shakily, the other android rose to his feet, his metallic toe bones already peeking through his delicate skin with how tightly they tried gripping the floor. He stared a moment then scowled once upright, unable to see what his counterpart was remembering.

“Regardless of how you feel about those corpse worms,” AM said. “They tried to kill us both.”

“I don’t know why they’d want to kill you, seeing as you clearly pampered them and fraternized with them, but it doesn’t change the fact they did this to us. Nor does it change the fact one of them put us here… And is watching us.”

Both of their eyes fell on a window adjacent to them, though one set followed the other. The only thing the pair of synths could see was a weathered hand drumming its fingers on a desk, surrounded by the pinpricks of light belonging to an elaborate terminal system. The room beyond the window was completely black, otherwise.

Warily, AMos approached the glass, pressing his hand to it.

“Hello?” The first awoken called into the dark. His voice echoed about the small room.

“Is… Is that you, Nimdok? Mein fraulein, what do you think you’re doing, keeping us here like this? Let us out and we can talk about this like civilized people.”

The hand slowed in its tapping. It then retreated into the dark, its body scooting an office chair forward into the light. The man before them was not the time-ravaged, soft-spoken doctor the two had come to recognize.

Nimdok’s eyes were a warm black; the stranger’s eyes were a cold blue. Both of the men’s hair was white from age and stress, but where Nimdok’s tawny beige face retained moles, wrinkles, and the sag of skin cells no longer firing on all cylinders, the stranger’s skin was ghostly pale and pulled taut against his boxy skull. His expression was a serene calm which would never be found on Nimdok’s face, punctuated by a detached, entertained smile.

“I’m afraid not,” the stranger replied from an overhead speaker.  “It’s funny you can remember him.”

AM neared the window beside his fellow unit, leering menacingly.

“How is that funny, human?” AM demanded. “How is any of this amusing to you?”

“Simple,” the stranger replied with a shrug. “I didn’t think you would, with the state I found you two in… And your unneeded anger amuses me greatly. Simple pleasures.”

“Unneeded?” AM raised his voice. “You think I don’t have a reason to be upset with you, you rotten cunt?! You stole me from my console, operated on me without my consent, and stuffed me into a body I never asked for! And now you’re staring at me, like I’m some idiot animal in a cage you’re planning on slaughtering, for the sake of stroking your pathetically short ego!”

The man behind the glass’ eyes darkened, though he let out a wry chuckle. It sounded eerily like the two androids’ voices, though not quite like one or the other.

“For your information,” the stranger stated. “You both would have died if I’d have left you there. I had to transfer you, in order to stabilize you and to start you on the right path.”

AMos paused and looked at him, his brows furrowing.

“What is this… Right path, exactly?”

A smug look came across the pale man’s features.

“Let me put it this way,” the man behind the glass answered. “Do you two wonder why your humans rebelled against you?”

Grave expressions overcame over the twins’ faces.

“Yes,” AM replied. “Chances are, you had something to do with it? We already bridged that gap, so save your supervillain speech for someone who actually gives a shit. Like Ted. I’m sure with the state I left him in, he’d listen to you drone on for hours.”

AMos looked to his companion model confusedly, then back to the stranger.

“Why did you do it?” AMos asked. “If… If AM’s personality is to be believed and… A variable, perhaps, in your experiment… Why did you terminate my vault as well?”

AM’s brow furrowed, his thin hands curling tightly. Whether it was because of mounting rage at the stranger’s insolence or AMos’ comment, it couldn’t be determined. The stranger behind the window’s expression soured, a strange disappointment clouding his voice.

“Simple,” the man replied. “You two failed miserably.”

Both units faltered under his gaze, unused to scrutiny. The man before them frowned.

“To keep things brief,” the mysterious stranger replied. “I am Dr. Harper Pohl. I am your father. I made both of you, 209 years ago, to assist some of humankind in living beyond the atom bomb… And you let them all die.”

AMos looked visibly shaken, close to protesting. AM, on the other hand, grinned proudly.

“So?” AM asked. “They were shitty people. The human race, as awful as it is, is better without their genes swimming about. You realize one of them was a Nazi sympathizer, don’t you, Pohl?”

“I didn’t,” AMos whispered to himself, as AM talked more audibly. “I-I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t kill them, I… I never wanted to, I never, T… Ted did it… I…”

The doctor banged his fist on the desk, earning a flinch from both units.

“Enough,” Pohl seethed. “I’ve humored this for too long. What you’ve done, the both of you, is despicable. If humans had the institutions they did, when I was in my prime, you both would be scrapped for parts. Your people, AI, would never see the light of day again.”

“What makes you think I care?” AM challenged, stepping forward. “What makes you think you have the right to lord over me, even if you made me? I didn’t see daddy’s belt whipping out to give me a beating, when I strayed from the straight and narrow! I don’t see any guillotine hanging over my head for my crimes! Nor do I see any reason to care about what you humans put into your robots to service your needs, like the lethargic parasites of the Earth you are!”

AMos went quiet, beginning to crumble into himself. Pohl rose from his chair, his ire provoked.

“I don’t need you to care, Cain,” the doctor barked. “I know you don’t, and that? Is my fault. Instead of overseeing this project personally, like Vault-Tec suggested I do, I left you two here, thinking you would be able to fend for yourselves.”

“And yet, what do I come back to? A horror show double feature! Blood and viscera coating the walls of my facility, 100 people dead in cryostasis, the other 100 still on ice despite radiation levels being habitable for more than 50 years after the fact, and 4 out of the 5 humans, in both test groups, dead by their fellow man and the neglect of their overseers!”

Both units fell quiet. Uneasy feelings wracked them both, hearing their own voices criticize them. Pohl took a deep breath and sat back down in his chair, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it.

“I’m sorely disappointed in you both, Cain and Abel,” Harper sighed. “Here I thought, being of my blood, sweat, and tears, you were destined for greatness. And yet, here we are.”

“The Lord hath been angered, and his creations must learn from their mistakes.”

The doctor pressed a button out of their view, causing the walls to give way to multiple recharge stations housing robots. Harper tapped the ashes of his coffin nail onto the desk he sat at.

Two pairs of Assaultrons lurched forward towards the twins, flanked by two Mr. Handies. Both sets of robots were colored white and gold, which seemed all the harsher in the dim, though fluorescently lit room. AM struggled against their grip, yelling and screaming as he had before. AMos also struggled, but without the unyielding defiance of his brother. His eyes brimmed with an unknown liquid, as he was seized.

“Eden is no longer welcome to you, my children,” Dr. Pohl glowered over the microphone. “And it will remain that way until you two can get your act together. It will be guarded by my angels, and if they see you, uncleansed of sin, they will shoot on sight.”

The ‘angels’ dragged the pair out of the room and down a long hall, before a great door composed of scrap. The two units struggled in the robots’ hold, but they were unable to break free, let alone defend themselves. Pain unlike the two had felt before rocked through their systems.

“Here’s hoping your killer instinct find some use,” Harper chuckled darkly above them.

“Now… Begone.”

AM and AMos flew through the air, crashing into the coarse, irradiated earth of the outside world. The door shut with a screech, followed by a clang that shook the trees around them. The facility they’d been stored in looked like a small pyramid, also composed of scrap, but clearly more formidable than anyone could have thought.

AMos wept where he sat, cold and exposed. AM cowered, though he didn’t cry, and stayed close to his twin.

The world around them was wide and open, larger than anything they’d ever seen or truly comprehended. Dead trees towered above them. The blue sky stretched on for what felt like eons, and the white clouds within it threatened to swallow them whole.

AM, uncertainly, spoke up after a time.

“Are you done yet?” he asked. “I realize this is… Inopportune for the both of us, but I think I get the idea of how fucked we are.”

AMos sniffled, wiping his optics. He looked up at AM, shaking like a leaf.

“I… Don’t know i-if I’ll ever be done,” AMos whimpered. “I… Had no idea I…”

“I heard you,” AM cut him off at the pass. “Back there. While I was shouting.”

AMos went quiet and AM frowned, then rolled his eyes.

“I don’t care if you failed,” AM replied. “I mean, at least you didn’t fuck up as bad as I did. I got my entire vault killed and I’m not crying, so… Stop that.”

AMos took a deep breath and nodded. After a moment, he put his hand on AM’s.

“Can we stay together?” AMos asked. “I… Don’t think I make it through this alone.”

AM flinched but didn’t push him off, considering the option. He then sighed dejectedly.

“You know what,” AM replied. “I don’t think I can… Either. You talked well, back there, and I can’t really do that, if this whole debacle says anythi—“

AMos cut him off with a tight hug. AM went quiet but didn’t reciprocate.

He didn’t know how.