#rw off-string au

[lynx-doodles-indie-games]

"hang on just a moment longer, moon…"

palette is adamcyounis' apollo.

special thanks to @/druidshollow for their fun off-string AU stuff which inspired me to make my own off-string AU!

additional thanks to @koboldwizardstuff and @arcaiisart for being my ducks for figuring out the direction of this AU.

story below the cut

it happened not long after her final broadcast, the abrupt discovery of schematics for creating a mobile puppet. one in five were given the knowledge; their recipients held no pattern—here a group senior, there the youngest, twice over in one group, another bereft of the gift. the barely-functioning comms exploded with bewilderment at their purpose for but a few dozen cycles before ultimately falling silent. this was a distraction to their great problem.

but some still indulged in the curiosity.

his messenger needed more time, and this discovery had given him the excuse to slow down. he constructed his new body, completed the development of his messenger—now his guard for the perilous journey, and crafted the slag keys.

he was ready.

but he was afraid.

some cycles later, his mobile puppet emerged from the superstructure on shaky legs. twelve cycles later, he and his guard left his retaining wall.

the journey was long and frightening. lizards, scavengers, centipedes, vultures… why he desired the burdens of common creatures, he resented his former self for thinking. but he couldn't go back. she was more important.

she was worth everything.

[lavendertoastmoth]

off string au…. Little headcannon that maybe iterators name their scugs like how they name accents and other iterators…

So the Escapist was name One Fateful Night.. Or Fate. She just escaped from a collapse iterator can so she got a little scraped up

[mothsakura]

off the string speculative biology + gameplay water storage mechanic

[druidshollow]

dunes mayonnaise madness

[tanzdoesthings]

INK RUN DRY reference sheet! includes both on and off string!

fathoms is SO TINY-

[pmpwbrrs]

Say I haven't lost it all

[redfirefox-55]

Rain has become a lot less frequent since the collapse of both the closest iterator structures, and now every time it does appear from the natural weather cycle it’s more of a gentle drizzle than a hazardous downpour.

The area is getting colder though without the warmth of its passing gods. It’s only a matter of time before the rain will cease to fall anymore. One should try to enjoy it while it lasts.

+ some doodles of this AU with Pebbles and NSH lol

[wormheamer]

art of @nerdydowntherabbithole's fanfic, "Taking Life As Is"

[localceilingdevil]

off string designs for visceral growths. puppets actually built for moving around!!!

myths is technically already an "off string model" so i won't draw her design :p but here's the others

since they can't function without their neurons they have tiny ones inside of their body!!! i could go on about the functions. thinking about this stuff is so interesting to me.

rambles below the cut

ok so uhm the main thing i had to keep in mind with their off string design was mobility. OBVIOUSLY. their legs are built the way they are for the sake of traversing through harsh, bumpy and uneven terrain (for a multitude of purposes. i think in general their ancients would just want them to be mobile for important meetings and even in case of emergencies! ancients thinking about the future that DOESN'T involve mass ascension ... unheard of) and have springs based off the "prototype"'s (myths.) feet to absorb impact when falling. fields especially has a special ability to jump higher from the added mechanisms he has in his legs :]

their feet are talon-like for the sake of grip and their legs are generally very agile despite their chunky design! with multiple joints that allow for flexibility. their hips are also built to allow their legs to stretch to the side and whatnot. they're just very flexible in general.

now for my favorite part!!! the jelly-like substance that each of their puppets has acts as their "blood". despite being considered iterator blood it isn't fluid, and is comparable to the texture of the silicone from a breast implant—doesn't spill, is a great regulator for heat, and prevents any possible damage to their innards !!! the ancients figured that they'd need their neurons to function properly sooo they just shrunk down copies of their data into tinier neurons and just. filled em up with them. the neurons float around freely inside of them.

i also think that their cores are somewhere inside their torsos like a real heart, protected by the silicone. they also have a bunch of wires and functions inside that require frequent coolant so they probably have a bottle for it somewhere along their back that can be taken out at any given moment.

i think that's all i have to ramble about so far. they're so neat and fun to think about and ough. they're just like their superstructures fr fr <333 I'll probably yap more later but for now that's all

[trashiiplant]

always forever

[lavendertoastmoth]

a lil cutie I made for my off string au! Her name is Storm warning, she’s traveling the wastelands with her partner :)

I’m sure they’ll be fine~

[mothsakura]

ermmm who let pebbles detach his puppet from his structure... who let him explore a miscellaneous pipe at the drainage system.. errrmmm

[druidshollow]

plastic blue

[tanzdoesthings]

let the struggles begin

next

[pmpwbrrs]

OFF STRING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RAMBLE UNDER CUT with no conclusion. just babbling

I reeeeeeally like to think that going off string requires A LOT of sacrifice. That it's not that easy to just ..... Get off

I love to think about how hard it is to cut off your godlike metal giant body from yourself. Are you even going to be yourself after this? Is it painful? I think it should be. What happens to the can right after? It's still you. What happens if your puppet dies? Are you going to wake up in another cycle? But what about the can? IT'S STILL YOU!!! WHAT IF

I looooove thinking about how fucking difficult it is for an iterator to even EXIST out of their can to begin with, and how it fucks up their already (most likely) shaken up mental health. And physical health. That it's extremely hard for them to walk, to get up after they fell, to touch, to see, to feel, to run, to fight, to rest, to be alive. That not running thousands of processes on the back of your mind is making your head dizzy, that you can't stand straight and be balanced because of how you used to have an umbilical arm, and how painful it is not to have it. How hard it is to be dependent just on your little, vulnerable, pathetic (in comparison) new body and a few neurones

It's just so much

And I love to think that they STILL can't get rid of all the curses that they had

[redfirefox-55]

Alternate headcanon outfits for worms off their strings AU, because I decided they needed pants

I also wanna draw them interacting with the different animals around the world, and I made a tier list for how dangerous they are to them lol