#tl: pilot

[devinwolfi]

TOHEEB JIMOH as SAM OBISANYA Ted Lasso S01E01 – Pilot

[spceboyz]

some personal hcs/notes about how i write the dib beast... ( pilot dib // show dib // florpus + comics dib // older teenage dib? ) ↓ ↓ ↓

∙ PILOT DIB

horrible seussian creature. absolute fucking maniac. no redeeming qualities at all. genuinely out for blood. i dont even know why im adding him here because i cant imagine i will ever write him because hes just way, way, way, too unhinged 😭 BUT I GUESS HE CAN BE REQUESTED???

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∙ SHOW DIB

show dib is a fun one, even though, TECHNICALLY, i haven't written him yet; i tend to lean more towards florpus/comics dib in regards to how i write him on this blog, but i do try to involve some show dib influence in there as well! this dib is also a little freak; commonly antagonizing both zim and any of the other paranormal creatures he comes across. dib seems to lack both sympathy and empathy, often times ignoring other peoples explicit words or emotions. this isn't because he's intrinsically uncaring or immoral; he's just so caught up with himself and his own prerogative that he rarely stops to consider anyone elses thoughts or emotions. despite this inherent selfishness he still desperately craves validation from his family and peers, and is quick to declare himself the only real intellectual while disregarding everyone else who doesn't see eye-to-eye with him.

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∙ FLORPUS/COMICS DIB

ah yes... florpus dib... my most normal (not by much) boy/my default characterization of dib! as i said earlier i tend to default to writing dib at like, 80% florpus influence and 20% show influence; i think its fun to keep dib as vaguely antagonistic but i like it when hes able to feel genuine human pathos as well which is where the florpus inspiration comes in 😭 florpus dib and show dib share a bunch of similarities-- mainly their unquestionable pride and heavy-handed passion, but what makes florpus dib different from the rest is that he is actually susceptible to empathy! :D! hes still generally antagonistic to anything inhuman but moreso in an excitable preteen way and less in a 💥💥📸📸📸 i am going to harvest your organs-kind of way. despite being relatively selfish and easily distractable florpus dib is a somewhat better son/brother and makes a slightly more earnest effort to meet his father half-way and be a better brother-figure to gaz. his rivalry with zim is just as intense and strong, but there are points where he'll be just a 🤏 PINCH friendlier if they have to put aside their differences for a time. this dib is much easier to befriend and is generally a nicer guy, but oooonly if you're human. otherwise hes gonna remain a freak, but he is at least more willing to potentially befriend a monster! it might just take some effort...

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∙ bonus: older/teenage dib?

the way i write teen dib is based on multiple factors-- namely whoever it is i'm writing against and my own personal hcs 😭 i feel like a canon teenage/YA dib would essentially be the exact same as 12 y/o dib but vaguely more mature, but i characterize him a little differently based on my own personal preference which might feel vaguely ooc but whatever teen dib is basically my oc anyway LOL so, anyways, my teen dib is an exceptionally tall, lanky, vaguely disillusioned vaguely punk/emo kid who is relatively more put-together and a little less of a maniac. somewhere throughout his high school career he decided he should be a better son and brother and started taking on a more responsible and familial role towards his family, doing his best to get good grades to prepare for a job at membrane labs. his fascination with the paranormal is just as strong as ever-- and so is his rivalry with zim, but he just doesn't spend every waking moment anymore trying to capture vampire bees and bigfoot and he treats zim a little less seriously and more friend-like, sometimes letting the alien hitch rides in his backpack so he can scheme while being higher up in the air. teenage dib is more mellow by a longshot, but he's still relatively antisocial and still comes across as generally creepy to his peers. he doesn't desperately crave validation from his fellow classmates as much anymore, and has actually been able to hold onto a very minute selection of like-minded friends. when his homework and studying are done he continues to keep tabs on the swollen eyeball community, as well as plan the rare and occasional ghost hunt. he smokes cigarettes occasionally after turning 17, getting nicotine hookups from his friends, but its something he tries to do in secrecy/something he doesnt do often because of how tricky they are to get underage. despite being more disenchanted as a teenager dibs pride and passion for his interests remain unquestioned and he still plans to achieve his paranormal-investigator goals ( and defeat zim ), just with a full time job on the side.

[kivaember]

Do you think Walter ever recieved augmentation surgery? Also, given how he sees it as part of the "carnival of horrors" his father created, do you think that he would've been against Michigan getting it?

(It's never directly stated, but I'd assume Michigan is augmented because he ranks directly behind Freud in the arena, so it would kind of make Freud less of an anomaly for being so good despite never recieving the surgery.)

okay i went on a long ramble by accident so cut it is!

In APV, Walter and Michigan are baseline humans! In fact, Michigan briefly considered getting augmentations when the "safer" Gen Seven augmentations came out after ironing out all the fatal flaws in the previous two generations, but Walter went on an anti-augmentation screed so intense that Michigan was just like "whoa fuck okay fine I won't get them."

(Later, Michigan was genuinely grateful Walter talked him out of it, because he realised that the augmentations didn't really give much benefits to a pilot's capability. Yeah, it gave them faster reflexes and better synergy with their AC, but that didn't trump good old experience and skill, which Michigan has in bucketloads. He found a lot of vindictive delight in trashing Arquebus pilots who had the most "modern" augmentations when he remained as a baseline human).

but as for a serious answer/ramble: AC6 is pretty upfront with who has augmentations in their arena profiles, so really it's just up to personal headcanons for those where it's not explicitly said (Michigan, Flatwell, etc). But usually I assume that if the arena profile doesn't say anything about augmentations, I consider them a baseline human... unless they're Flatwell and I augmented him for plot reasons in apv dhdshdf

like, it's my personal hc that late Gen augmentations are overhyped, likely due to aggressive corporate marketing to conceal how the late Gens are inferior to the Coral-augmentations. The hint to this was with Swinburne's arena profile, where it stated that the Gen Sevens didn't give the "usual" drawbacks to its user... but also gave negligible benefits ("This granted him enhanced aptitude as a pilot without the usual complications—but with no obvious indication of either efficacy or potential side effects, Swinburne's fears and doubts turned into an overpowering paranoia.") - and also V.VIII Pater's low ranking in the Arena.

Pater's a Gen Ten, the most modern augmentation that's commonly practiced by AC6 time, and Pater is... a painfully average pilot amongst the other named characters. He's sits at 16/C, where Chatty, Carla and Honest Brute rank higher than him, and they're not career mercenaries. In fact, quite a lot of augmented humans rank low in the arena comparatively to other pilots who don't have augmentations - Thumb Dolmayan doesn't have them, even, he's just a Doser who gained enlightenment by huffing so much Coral he accidentally made Contact, and he's 4/A.

tl;dr Freud is probably a notable figure for being a baseline human in the Vespers, because Walter introduced the Vespers as Arquebus's "in-house augmented human AC squad". The fact that V.I is a baseline human probably throws people for a loop, since the group is commonly known as a group of augmented humans - no doubt to showcase Arquebus's augmentations.

The corporations probably do a lot of barking about how augmentations make the AC pilot, because it's a marketing thing. But when you step outside of the neat lines of corporate warfare, it becomes more apparent that augmentations mean nothing if you don't have the experience or skill to back it up. A Gen Ten pilot used to conducting harassing operations against poorly armed union workers would find themselves floundering against n independent mercenary who's a baseline human that's cut their teeth against various opponents across the galaxy.

Oh hm this turned into a pretty big ramble but... this topic interests me, tbh! It's fun to think that the corporations make a big thing about their super special augmented humans, but it turns out that unless you put in the effort to properly train them or give them experience, they don't measure up against an ex-Doser running around in a souped up BASHO. The fact that people commonly think that augmented humans are superior pilots is because it's a shortcut to a boost in capability, and because the corporations are aggressive in their marketing and publishing successful results to ensure there's a demand for it.

anyway i hope all that rambling made sense sdhffh im very sleepy right now...

[dinosizedmintz]

started playing ovenbreak again *does the saddest whip and nae nae you've ever seen*

[caffinateddragon-blog]

Hi hi hi!!! Sorry to bother but I have a silly question:

I've seen some people rant about which mecha bot is stronger and from what I've seen many say Grendizer or Getter..curious to know your take on it? dndnnsn

My mind says Getter Robo but Grendizer as shown in MazinSaga is a goddess? (Haven't read it yet unfortunately 💔)

i have Also not read mazinsaga yet (mostly because i haven't got to it yet skjsdhf) but hmmm

it's hard to tell because there's many getter robos, but the original cat is, well. we saw its upper limit for sure and musashi paid the price

getter g is definitely up there and would stand a good fighting chance. i'd say it's skewed in grendizer's favor since getters are sorta glass cannons but in more of a 60/40 skew depending on environment and such

the TRICKY part is when you get to shin getter/getter dragon territory. what do you do when creatures of steel and pneumatic muscles can eat anything around themselves to repair

[helluvapurf]

idk if you're still doing the ship bingo thing, but what do you think of the blitz x m&m poly pairing (any combo)?

Another kinda neutral-ranked ship in my books... though ngl, sometimes I find myself a bit intrigued by their lil canon nudges at times lol :p

Like, its clear that Blitz always found Moxxie & Millie to be "hotties", and likes to hype up their "relationship goals" whenever he can (albeit, rather clingily-), so I mean... I wouldn't be too surprised if he actually had some sort of "legit" feelings outside of all the horny jokes? :o

Though, the thought of this actually leading to anything "significant"-wise in-canon... ehhh, not very likely imo given M&M's happily married status (+Blitz's other canon flings/relationship woes), buuuut maybe in an AU it could potentially work? .3.

[secretsoftheuniverse1987]

lots of questions about why ao3 stats bring the entire fic into the new year when you update it. or maybe just one question which is why? and also what if it weren't like that?

[krystal-kade]

What happened to Alastor being scary

The biggest thing I noticed in Hazbin Hotel that Alastor is not scary. He used to be mysterious, creepy, and intimidating. We didn't know what he was thinking. We didn't know how he was feeling. He was such a great character because we knew he was insanely powerful, but he didn't act like it. But now that the show has come out, he's not scary or intimidating. He's just an edgelord.

Pilot Alastor wouldn't make this. Here he's goofy, but in a bad way. Where's the mysterious Alastor? This guy's just like "HAHAHAH I'M SO EVIL >:)" but he just seems stupid?

He also says all these corny lines, like "This is your sign not to mess with the radio demon," (it was something like that) "I'm about to end your fucking life," and "Adam. First man, next to die." He sounds like he's a 12 year old role-playing a creepypasta. These aren't intimidating, he just sounds dumb, edgy, and cringy

ALSO he seriously needs to STOP saying FUCK. It wasn't popular slang in the early 1900's, so he probably would never say it, but it also doesn't fit his persona. A really unique part of him is that he doesn't swear much and he's always smiling. He shouldn't say "ornery old bitch" and he shouldn't say 'fuck you." They just don't fit him. If he wanted what he said to have impact, he would have said something like "she's such a bitter old woman, bless her soul." or when Lucifer says the hotel's name isn't very clever, he should've said "your highness, intelligence is in constant pursuit of you, but it seems you have always been faster" because subtle insults he thinks everyone else is too stupid to understand seems more like his style.

I'll excuse him saying fuck once or twice. Maybe when he breaks his staff, and once more in season two? But he says it too much to have impact.

TL;DR, Alastor's not scary because he's not mysterious. He's just an angry edgelord

[cavegirlpoems]

Violet Core Approaches

So. My close friend and collaborator Sarah Carapace has been working on Violet Core - a ttrpg about dykey mecha pilots in space - for the past few years, and that work is approaching its fruition. It's about to get kickstarted pretty soon, and I got a preview copy of the game ahead of that. So, preview/review I shall.

Disclaimers: I'm close friends with Sarah, was involved in some of the early playtests, and might end up doing a stretch goal for the game. So, I am of course wildly biased in Sarah's favour. Still, even if I wasn't, I figure this'd be my jam.

TL,DR: This game is really really good, back the kickstarter. For more details, read on.

The Basics:

Violet Core is set in the Nemesis System, an alternate scifi version of the solar system. The game follows the lives of spacers cut off from their home planet, Cerulea, as they face an oncoming disaster as escalating waves of comet-storms hit the system and everything starts to come apart.

Our characters are mech pilots for one of three factions of spacers - The Reach, The Homebound, and The Cosmic Embrace - each with their own perspective on what to do about the looming disaster. It's generally agreed that they need to escape, but where to and how is a source of conflict.

All three factions and their approaches have their merits. Although the Reach are positioned as more heirarchical and organised than the other two, all three are clearly scrappy tenacious punk-ish survivors who've been rejected and exiled to space by the dickhead bourgoisie of their home planet, Cerulea.

Luckily, you get to pilot X-10s, giant personalised mechs powered by a mysterious psycho-active (psychic?) crysteline core. This lets you get up to all the various activities you just pictured when I said that.

Tonally, it's Sarah Carapace through-and-through. Everything is purple and blocky, with CRT monitors and snaking cables and spray-paint. Riot Grrl mashed up with retro scifi mashed up with cosmic weirdness.

On The Humble D4

The game uses the oddity of dice - the humble D4 - as its main dice, with D8s scattered in here and there. It's a choice I really like, giving the game a feel that's a little angular and off-centre. It's a simple choice, but it does a lot to set it apart. I can't sum this up better than Sarah does, so I'll just quote her:

d4s are the most cursed of all dice.

They are awkward to roll.

They are pointy and can/will stab you.

Femininity is pointy, painful and powerful and so are these odd little polyhedrons.

Also, There is no standardised style for d4s. When you roll them, the result is the number displayed upright, either on the top or bottom. It varies from die to die.

Which I think gives you a good sense of the tone of the whole game, y'know?

The game cares about dice as physical objects deeply. Players can use the emotional connections between their characters to donate bonus dice to another character's rolls: the game suggests that when you do, you should pass her your physical dice, and use the motion of how you do it (including potentially how your hand touches hers as you hand them over) as a way of expressing the connections between characters, which is a fucking genius bit of design.

Anyway. Who do you play as?

Some sort of dykey space-gal x-10 pilot. To define who you are, you pick three things: the faction you belong to, your pilot type, and the X-10 you pilot. I'll go over each in quick succession.

Your faction determines your political alliance and likely goals, and the culture you grew up in, and each faction has access to a different set of X-10s. You pick between:

The Reach: the most organised and strict faction, and the oldest. Strict, heirarchical, and high-tech. You play here if you want to have a good The Man to chafe against, or to be that The Man for somebody else. The Reach are working on engineering humanity to be able to survive the coming disaster and thrive in space, and building a vast engine - the Overlock - to enable this.

The Homebound: the most rough-and-ready faction. A large population of working-class gals, and with too few resources to go around. They're working on repairing a giant machine, The Sling, to transport their people to another star system and flee the coming disaster. Unfortunately, The Sling and The Overlock are both adaptations of the same machine...

The Cosmic Embrace: the weirdo faction. The smallest, most mystic, and overall hippy-est. Short on space, people, and resources, but not on idealism and enthusiasm. They're poking the weird shit of the setting, and getting results. A little culty. In the playtest I was in, I played Cosmic Embrace, obviously.

Notably, you can have PCs all be in the same faction, or be split between them. If split, there's lines of conflict, but also room for alliances and subterfuge. PCs can, and might well, switch faction in play.

As well as your faction, you pick your pilot type. There's three broad types of pilots you can be:

Genebuilt, artificially created super-pilots with custom genetics to make them good in space. Divided into two rough types; the Violet Kind (for if you were a successful project, and inhereted mysterious abilities) or the Rat Bitch (for if you... weren't, and mostly just inhereted emotional issues). There's some interesting space to play with the idea of nature vs nurture here, or with the pressure of expectation.

Baseliners, aka normal humans who haven't been genetically engineered or tinkered with. Again, divided into two types; the Shining Star (for if you're keeping up with the best through sheer talent and training) and the Baseline Breaker (for if you're a normal person getting by with determination and adaptability.

And then, lastly, the Returned. People who died - or nearly died - and were brought back. The character creation section only mentions one sort of Rebuilt - the Returned, who have been remade by the power of humans science - but hints that other sorts might exist. And indeed they do, tied to the mysteries of the setting.

I ended up playing a Rat Bitch, who'd seen her best buddy get horribly fucked up in a training exercise and gone awol. It was great fun.

Lastly, your X-10. Each faction has three models of X-10, divided by function: Warriors to be brutal front-line fighters, Rogues to be mobile scout-types, and Witches that do weird shit and fight at range. Out of these, each faction has its own version of each of these archetypes. Some X-10 models are pretty common and mass-produced (like the Ogress, the Reach's warrior-frame), and some are rare or even unique (like the Hag, the homebound's rare and experimental Witch type that can fuck with time and space).

Each X-10 has its own Violet Core, the psychoactive crystal that's at the heart of the mech and gives the game it's name. Thoughts from the violet core filter through to the pilot, and visa versa. If you pilot a Hag for long, you'll start thinking Haggish thoughts, and your own emotions will start to seep into the core. It can get real strange real fast.

Each type of X-10 feels and plays extremely differently, in a way I personally found made your choice of frame a reflection of your pilot's personality. My pilot ended up in a Mermaid - the Cosmic Embrace's version of a Witch frame - that had the ability to shift space around it (her?), and 'swim' out of the normal world into sub-space. Which brings me to...

The Spaces & The Mysteries

As well as the material, mundane world - what Violet Core terms 'top-space' - there are two other spaces that exist.

Sub-space is a serene, empty (is it?) realm that lies below top-space. You can dive into sub-space in the right X-10s, and explore. Time and space are wierd and fluid here. If you dive deeply, you find... things. If you dive too deep, you might not come back the same, or at all. There are mysteries down there. Remember I mentioned there are other types of Returned you might become? Yeah. Remember those Violet Cores that power your X-10s? They're made from something called 'the fingers' found deep down in sub-space. Who's fingers? You see where I'm going with this.

There's also The Violet Realm. This is the psycho-sphere, the realm of dreams and emotions and mystical experiences. The violet core of your X-10 links you to the Violet Realm. You can meditate to experience it, to commune with what's within...

This is a setting with mysteries. There are things to explore, forces and powers beneath the surface. I won't elaborate. Partly because I don't want to spoil the discovery for you, and partly because I don't want to read it all and spoil myself before I can play this again. What I will say is that the bits I did read ahead on give you a lot to explore, and are explained in a way that make how they tie into the wider setting and plot. It's all coming together into something impressive.

Personally, as a player of rpgs (larp and ttrpg) I really enjoy settings which present you with mysteries and mysticism, which let you explore the underlying nature of this universe in ways that are at times rational and at times intuitive or mystical. It's an itch few other ttrpgs have scratched for me. Lacuna and Orpheus were, until now, games that achieved what I wanted; now I get to add a third game to the list in Violet Core.

In case it wasn't clear, this is high praise. This is extremely high praise.

Mechanics

I'm going to assume you're already sold. If you aren't, let me make a statement:

I'm mad I didn't think of these game mechanics.

The core engine is pools of d4s, in a way I believe is drawn from forged in the dark. However, unlike FitD, I really like how VC handles its rolls. Particularly - as I mentioned above - the way players can pull on the connections between PCs to offer each other dice, and the way this affects the game.

The core is pretty simple but has nuance. There are PbtA-style moves - things like Negotiate, or Hurt, or Shield - that trigger when you do a particular thing. You roll, and get a codified result based on the result. When you roll, you get a number of dice depending on how you're going about it. In person, you use your talents; things like Making Out and Using Your Head. In your X-10, you use the X-10's talents, things like Synchronising and Drawing Near. An example: You're piloting a Mermaid, and you see your friend (piloting an Ogress) is about to be struck by spiraling comet shards. To save her, you dive across to pull her out of top-space and into sub-space with you, dipping out of the material world to avoid the hazard. Since pulling somebody into Sub-space with your X-10 is Draw Near, you roll as many d4s as your Draw Near pool, and count how many hits you get. Since you're trying to protect somebody, you take that result and look at the Shield move to see what happens.

It's a simple core that's then built on with more detail, giving it a lot of room for nuance and expression.

Further, there's a neat little system for tracking the emotional connections between PCs and how they escalate over time. As they escalate, you pick statements to describe how you feel, pinning down the nature of the relationship, that will get deeper and more intense the further in you get. And the further in you get, the more potent it is when you hand another player your dice to assist her PC.

In play its such a neat, deep, evocative system that it made me really mad I didn't think of it myself. It's basically perfect.

Sorties, in which our cosmic purple space robots punch each other

Up front. Although your in giant space-mechs with giant space-weapons, combat isn't meant to be lethal and horrid. It's intense, and gritty, and emotional raw, but in the way that a bloody-knuckled fist-fight is, not in the way that a shootout is.

Fights aren't war. They're personal.

There's a lot of dancing metaphors in how the fights are described. You might be sparring or actually seriously going after each other, but either way, a fight is an interplay between two characters at their most intense. That thing where a fight scene serves the same purpose as a musical number? Yeah, that.

So. Each fight between X-10s is a Sortie. A sortie is divided into a series of steps, and at each step you pick an option for how you're fighting;

Lead, to be agressive

Sway, to be fluid and fucky

Follow, to be evasive

Sway hits follow, Follow hits lead, Lead hits sway. Its a rock-paper-scissors cycle. (If you get two Leads, both hit, and if you get two follows or sways, both miss.)

When you hit, you can trigger one of the moves as a result. It can get ugly and painful. It could concievably get vulnerable and emotional.

Critically, you have a limited pool of lead/sway/follow actions (depending on your X-10), that get used up as you use them in steps. IE: if you're piloting a Witch, you can use Sway twice and Lead & Follow once. So, you can count what you're opponent's used up, and predict their moves based on what they've got left. In really long sorties, once you've only got one option left to you, it resets.

A sortie is a sort of dance as you maneuver for the advantageous position, use that to fuck with your oponent, and get your fists bruised.

Damage to your X-10 can bleed through to you. Contact between two X-10s can bleed through to their pilots. Things can get strange, particularly when there's Witch X-10s involved.

I'm gonna quote the book again here:

Not all pilots fight to win. Some pilots fight to hurt.

The Gay Bits

As you might have realised by now, it's a really fucking sapphic game. Not as a focus, but in the way where all our PCs are assumed to be some sort of dykey queer type because that's just the kinda tone we're going for.

To misquote Sarah's fellow aussie: "This is my book motherfucker, they'll walk be lesbians if I tell them to".

Pulling It All Together

Tonally, it's a fucking slam dunk. The world bleeds with a very specific atmosphere, a sort of dykey grungey weirdness that draws on old late-80s to early-90s mecha anime, and Heaven Will Be Mine, and weird scifi.

The writing has a really strong voice. Sarah doesn't write like a typical clinical dispassionate ttrpg text, she writes like Sarah. There's little witicisms, emotional bits, slang. It reads like somebody passionately explaining how to play in person.

There's a lot of snippets of in-character text - chat logs, reports, records, recordings - that give you a sense of the sort of people in this world.

The art is all fucking gorgeous. Mostly Sarah art, with some guest spots.

It is extremely purple, so purple its even in the name.

In conclusion:

Listen I am wildly biased because I've been friends with Sarah for yonks, but even if I wasn't I'd be incredibly enthusiastic about this game because:

a) it seems to have been carefully fine-tuned to hit my tastes.

b) it's really fucking good. Really fucking good.

It's an idiosyncratic personal work that also has a huge cosmic scope to it. It fucks around with the medium of dice-based ttrpgs in interesting ways. It's gorgeously written. It's got a setting that makes me want to dive in and explore it.

You should go back the kickstarter when it goes live, and tell your friends about it, and I am not kidding. If this game isn't a wild success there is something wrong with indie ttrpgs. The kickstarter is here, I believe it's due to go live in a couple of days.

If any bloggers are interested in getting a preview copy of their own, hit me up and I can hit up Sarah and we can sort things out.

[talxns]

Wait why do you say "reject modernity (dick under 10)" when he was 8 in his first appearance? Dick was meant to be a child at first. He gave younger comic book fans a character to see themselves in. Older dick is the more modern idea

Dick was not 8 in his first appearance. This is a very common fandom misconception.

Dick was not given a numerical age for YEARS. DC did not want to give him a concrete age because if years passed, why wouldn’t Robin be growing up? No, it’s better to leave it ambiguous, and that’s what they did for a long time.

What we knew for sure was that Dick was a Youth. He was a boy as opposed to a man, he was a student, he was a minor in the eyes of the state, he still needed a legal guardian, and he was depicted as being “compact” in size.

Dick Grayson, the character, is actually older than the term “teenager”.

So they described him with words like juvenile, boy, junior partner, adolescent, etc. It was left up to interpretation and speculation. Given that Bruce trusted Dick to drive the batmobile, pilot the batplane, perform surgery on him, etc, we can assume he’s older than an elementary school student. This makes Dick capable, reliable, a competent partner to Batman, without needing to be coddled. Easy to self-insert for a young boy reading these comics!

Modern retellings of Dick’s origin story, of which there are plenty, insist on giving him concrete ages, some saying 8, some saying 9, some saying 12, etc. The thing you have to remember is that no age can be the end all be all “correct” age. Batman media constantly contradicts and reboots itself. But the modern TREND is to skew extremely young.

I believe they do it to subtly enforce a father-son reading between Bruce and Dick and dissuade any kind of romantic reading between them that was popular through the 20th century. They also remove Dick’s competence, his maturity, and his status of being Bruce’s most intimate domestic relationship, and give all of that to Alfred instead.

Personally I don’t think Dick Grayson was supposed to depict a child under the age of 10 originally. He was way too competent. I also don’t think Bruce would let anyone under the age of like 13 actually go out and fight crime with him. There has to be SOME level of believability. But that’s just my own thoughts.

TL;DR: Dick being explicitly 8 years old when meeting Bruce is a modern story element. Traditional Batman did not give him an exact age (but tended to depict him as if he were a young teenager)

[emelinstriker]

{Eternal Servants AU} Wukong & Macaque ♡ Obedience

Art drawn by me + the OC is mine... Also the mentioned OCs and the AU itself.

My LMK AU's first ever fic, lezgooo- :D

This one's mainly just showing off the relationship between the monkeys as well as the Reader. The AU actually does feature some input from that one OC group of mine, even if they mostly operate in the background. Some of them do occasionally show up. It wouldn't be one of my universes if they had no input since they're all connected by this group of individuals... A good example would be CM from Castle's Pet, if any of my ancient old Quotev/Wattpad Undertale X Reader fans are reading this.

[TL;DR] Just your monkeys being wholesome while murdering another demon.

♡ ~ Fluff ~ ♡

Seated on your throne, you sighed as you waited for your purple champion's return. You sent out Macaque to retrieve an ancient artifact a demon stole from your palace's storage. Usually it wouldn't take him long to hunt someone down. After all, he was used to tracking down any that would oppose you and would bring them to justice. However, something must've happened since he obviously wasn't back yet. This was highly unusual for either one of your champions.

'Did he get into an accident?', you thought to yourself, now getting worried.

Your blue champion seemed to notice your sudden change in mood. He didn't even need to feel it through your eternal bond, he could just tell by looking at your concerned expression. He leaned down a bit as he obediently stood next to your throne, looking at you with his void black eyes. "Master, is something bothering you?"

You turned your head a bit to look at him. "It's just... Where's Macaque?"

"Unfortunately, I'm not sure whether or not he's still occupied with the thief." He responded flatly with little to no emotion. You hummed in thought for a moment before you turned to face him again.

"Wukong, I want you to check up on your brother... Help him if he needs help, but at least just make sure he's not hurt or anything." You said firmly. The monkey in blue moved in front of you and bowed.

"As you wish, Master."

And with that, he summoned his somersault cloud and hopped onto it before swiftly flying off into the direction of where his sworn brother left to hunt down the thief.

Across the land, a giant smoke monster could be seen fighting a giant demon in green and black. It seemed like a tough battle as the demon the monster was fighting was very aggressive and wild in its attacks. When suddenly, a blunt hit to the back of the green and black demon slammed the demon in green and black face-first into the ground of the clearing they were fighting in. Its body created a giant crater. It was still alive, but just barely as it laid there motionless. It seemed like the battle already weakened it and the blow to the back was too much for it to handle.

The simian piloting the giant smoke monster panted a bit from exhaustion as he smiled darkly at the fallen demon. But then he turned towards the direction of his ginger-furred brother, who was standing on his cloud with crossed arms, and huffed. "Thanks, but I could've taken him down on my own. It just would've taken a bit."

"Master told me to make sure you weren't hurt." Wukong stated as-a-matter-of-factly.

Macaque's smile turned from maniac to apologetic as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, with his giant smoke avatar mirroring his motion. "Oh man, did I take too long again? I didn't mean to make them worry... I just kinda got caught up with stopping the thief. He used the artifact he stole and it turned him into a feral titan." He added as the giant smoke monster gestured towards the other demon on the ground. That's when the monkey on the cloud quickly zoomed down towards the unconscious demon's body. It took him a few seconds, but he quickly spotted the artifact hanging from the titan's satchel. After he took it away from the giant demon, the demon's body seemingly shrunk back to its original size, still unconscious in the ginormous crater. The simian carefully held onto the artifact, as to not accidentally trigger its power, before his cloud flew back to his sworn brother. After Macaque saw the other demon's now normal-sized body, his smoke monster avatar disappeared around him as he stretched with his feet now touching the ground again.

He grinned at the ginger-furred monkey, seeing him hold the artifact the thief stole. "Guess now we also know what thing does... Did Master say anything about wanting us to kill the guy, or to place him in the punishment wing?"

Wukong shook his head in response, his face still not holding any emotion. Macaque sighed. "Well, damn... But I guess we might as well end him now than risk having him try to steal again, right?" He chuckled as he slowly walked towards the unconscious demon's body. The dark-furred monkey gave the demon a wicked grin, not expecting a response as he summoned his shadow staff. "Nothing personal, dude. Just making sure our beloved Master is forever safe and comfortable! Any who are at risk of opposing them in any way must be eliminated..."

And with that, he smashed his staff's thorny end down onto the demon's head, ending his life with one last strike. Wukong just gave the corpse a bored look before he uncrossed his arms. "Do you need a ride back?" The Monkey King asked, referring to Macaque's exhaustion after battle. He could just help the other monkey relax and calm down with his somersault cloud, after all.

However, Macaque just waved his hand dismissively as he took a deep breath. "Nah, but thanks. I'm a bit tired, but not enough to stop me from using my powers. Do you want a ride back though?" He grinned before he summoned a shadow portal on the ground next to himself. Wukong's mouth just faintly twitches upwards for a split second, but it was enough to make his the dark-furred simian chuckle in repsonse. "C'mooon, bud~ We both know my method's faster! Just hop in already!" If Wukong's eyes weren't like a fully black void, his playful eyeroll would've been very much noticeable. He hopped off his cloud, letting it disappear as he approached the portal, straight up jumping into it. Macaque soon followed after, closing the portal once he went through.

On the other side, you anxiously waited on your throne. While you didn't think any of your regular servants would harm you, you still felt a bit uncomfortable without at least one of your champions around. After all, a human ruling over an army of demons wasn't exactly a common thing demons respected. Only those who were already your servants in other lives would respect you fully... probably. And you had no recollection of any of your previous lives.

Your anxiety faded however once your two blue and purple champions emerged from a shadow portal in front of your throne. The sworn brothers didn't hesitate and kneeled upon seeing you.

"Apologies for the wait and for worrying you, Master. The thief ended up using the artifact and I ended up having to fight him to stop him." Macaque says, somewhat sounding ashamed of himself. He didn't like it whenever he didn't meet his Master's expectations. Even if something was out of his control.

You smiled softly as you leaned back. "It's fine, Mac-Mac. It was inevitable if that guy refused to face justice... I'm just glad you're alright and came back to me alive and well." The simian's frown turned into a bright smile as his tail swayed happily behind him. If you used that nickname for him, then he must've done everything right!

Afterwards, you smiled at your blue champion. "Thanks for finding him and taking him home again, Wu-Wu. Great job." You praised him. Now his tail was also swaying more happily. He nodded his head and grunted quietly in acknowledgement. Despite him not talking quite as much as his brother, and usually not showing emotions, you knew he was just as happy and content as your purple champion. His gentle tail sways were enough to understand.

The ginger-furred monkey then pulled out the artifact from underneath his cloaked side, still kneeling as he stared at you expectantly. "Shall I return this to the storage? The Archivist wanted to check on the items later today."

You scratched your head in thought for a moment as you hummed. "Guess that would be the best idea... If the Archivist shows up, then it's best if we have all the items that we borrowed... I don't wanna deal with his colleagues again, to be honest." You admitted, physically cringing a bit at the memory of your last encounter with the group the Archivist was involved in. They weren't happy when an eternal branding iron you used on your servants was stolen. Especially the Judge...

Wukong, knowing what you meant, nodded again as he stood up and bowed his head. "Of course, Master." Then he turned and walked away towards the palace's storage. Meanwhile, Macaque continued to smile brightly at you.

"Do you have another task for me to complete as well, Master?" He asked, eager to follow your every command like an obedient puppy. You hummed in thought again, but before you could respond, you heard the familiar voice of a certain mysterious figure in a black cloak and a fox-like mask...

"They do not. I have a task for you instead, Six-Eared Macaque."

The cloaked entity with the fox mask revealed himself as he walked out from behind your throne... When did he get here? Then again, he was one of the Archivist's colleagues, so you didn't question much anymore due to all they were able to do... You raised a suspicious eyebrow at the masked entity as you spoke. "...What task?" Those cloaked beings weren't to be trusted with how they operated. And while the Oracle usually spoke of the truth and was one of the more gentle-sounding members, you could never be sure whether or not there was malice behind anything their group did.

He responded in a blank tone, as if it were obvious. "The task involves going to the Underworld and retrieving the Scroll of Memory." Macaque visibly flinched slightly as one of his ears twitched at the mention of the Underworld, yet he avoided eye contact and remained quiet. The masked entity continued. "It's not the scroll itself that you might be interested in, but rather the curse that is bound to the scroll. That curse would be an extremely great addition to your palace's security." The entity added.

You grimaced a bit in thought, looking at him with uncertainty as you propped up your head on your hand. "Mhm... Are you sure this is worth it? Macaque isn't exactly fond of the Underworld, and I don't wanna make any of my servants, especially my champions, uncomfortable... Maybe Wukong could-" "NO!" Your purple champion suddenly cut you off as he looked at you, his void black eyes were wide open in panic, practically begging you to hear him out. He coughed awkwardly before bowing his head in a bit of shame and embarrassment for cutting you off.

"M-My apologies for interrupting you, Master... But I'd like to take on this mission myself, if I may." He said firmly, determination clear on his face as he tried to avoid this uncomfortable feeling of having to return to the Underworld. But he really wanted to prove himself worthy as one of your champions. He outwardly expressed his love and devotion towards you so much more than his sworn brother, and yet Wukong usually ended up getting more missions than him despite that.

You gave him a concerned look. "Are you sure? I know you don't like the Underworld after... Well, you know..."

He nodded his head without hesitation. "Yes, Master. Please let me retrieve that scroll for you."

After another short moment of uncertainty, you sighed in defeat. You stood up and moved towards your purple champion, petting his fluffy head. "Alright, fine... But if anything makes you feel unsafe or uncomfortable, I want you to just come back... Okay? I don't want you to get hurt, Mac-Mac. I'd rather have you here with me without that scroll than have the scroll without you." You said softly as you kissed his forehead. The dark-furred monkey blushed as his breath hitched at your touch and words.

That was all the motivation he needed.

His bright smile returned as he joyfully saluted. "Yes, Master! I'll make you proud!" You chuckled at his sudden eagerness. Almost immediately, a shadow portal opened up beneath the simian as he dropped into it, vanishing. Upon the closing of the portal, you raised an eyebrow at the Oracle.

"...Is this scroll really necessary?" You asked quietly, to which the entity silently nodded. You sighed as you pinched the bridge of your nose.

"It's not just for your safety, Your Majesty. It's also required to garner enough attention for the future paths to be connected to the present path." He responded flatly, which confused you. But again, you didn't question his words due to his occupation. And soon enough, Wukong returned from the storage. The monkey in blue walked up to you and bowed, as if to say he had finished his task.

You petted him as well, also kissing his forehead with a little smile. "Good job, Wu-Wu." And just like his sworn brother, his tail started to sway in a happy daze as he blushed despite his still expressionless face. He clearly also loved it when you called him by that nickname. The Oracle, upon seeing the Monkey King return and being showered in affection, quickly bid you farewell for now as he still seemed to be busy with other matters. Meanwhile, you continued to pet the ginger-furred monkey, waiting for his brother again. You even decided to continue petting him while your were seated on your throne.

However, at some point while petting your blue champion, a thought crossed your mind...

"Wu-Wu... If your brother isn't back within the next three hours, I want you to go look for him in the Underworld... And help him out if need be." Wukong's eyes were closed as he leaned into your gentle, addictive touch, while his tail swayed slowly behind him. He simply nodded without opening his eyes.

"Understood, Master."

[ Masterlist ]

[thelivingautomaton]

MANNNNNNNNN ok. not to get my SEVERANCE brainworms all over the place but i literally cannot stop thinking about this show. also i keep reading theories on reddit and some of them are really good and some are unbelievably stupid/media-illiterate. so i am dumping my wild predictions/theorizing/thoughts on season 2 here. Please Enjoy Every Bullet Point Equally(TM)

OKAY let's get the big one out of the way: it seems pretty apparent now that cold harbor (and maybe all of the datasets mdr is given to "refine") is binning memories/experiences/brainwaves into severance chips, likely in order to reformat or rebuild someone's personality from the ground up.

this reddit post sums a lot of the evidence up but tl;dr you see an electron microscopy image of neural axons, as well as an etCO2 statistic, which is typically used to monitor respiration of someone who's in a coma or on ventilation

MOREOVER, the four aspects of mdr's data line up with kier eagan's four tempers (woe, frolic, dread, malice -- i've also seen it pointed out that this aligns with the four mdr workers, and in the original pilot script there's a reference to "needing" four workers, but iirc they all work on separate files??), and apparently one of his Whole Things(TM) was the idea that you can neatly sort a person's entire personality into those four boxes

the numbers provoke an emotional response in the refiner based on their interpretation of the data, which we can surmise is likely neural/electrical signals of some kind, specifically from brains that have been frozen or cryogenically preserved and are slowly being thawed. hence all the stress over "finishing" files on time, before they "expire" (i.e. brain thaws too much)

the opening credits for season 2 places a HUGE emphasis on big swollen misshapen heads, on brains, and also on ice...including a blink-and-you-miss-it glimpse of a crashed car sinking into the ice, which takes us into our next big point:

gemma obviously didn't die in the car crash BUT!!! lumon taking her and (presumably) replacing her body with a double (mark says he identified her but that she was also "burned" so that's obviously questionable) was actually something of a random fluke. for whatever reason the circumstances of her death made it so that she was ideal to use as a guinea pig for "part-time employment"

again, kind of going off the s2 opening credits here and the image of the car sinking into the ice -- obvs mark visited the tree where she crashed, but i feel like i remember he had to drive on a bridge overlooking a body of water to get there? maybe gemma and the car both fell in and were frozen (since everything in SEVERANCE apparently happens in the wintertime, lol)

i mean, it wouldn't surprise me if we learn that the car accident was "arranged" by lumon??? (either purely to harvest bodies or potentially if gemma turns out to have been involved in anti-eagan stuff on the DL) but idk, i don't love the idea cos i don't like it when shows try to tie LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE THING together into the big overarching mystery, y'know? like, some things are really just down to dumb luck and chance

i also don't think miss casey herself is a clone of gemma, so either her body was WAY less fucked up by the car crash physically than we might otherwise think, or lumon has some top-secret super-healing tech on the testing floor. maybe both!

ANYWAY, remember "allentown"? mark s's first-day fluke, where he completed a file in one day? that was him refining gemma into miss casey the first time around. YADDA YADDA LOVE TRANSCENDS SEVERANCE he literally put the splintered icy fragments of his dead wife back together again because she LIVES IN HIS VEINS guys. and now he's doing it AGAIN with cold harbor. this is why lumon was so desperate to keep him around even while they fired irving and dylan at the drop of a hat: they know he can get the job done, ESPECIALLY when it comes to working on gemma/miss casey. (see also: mark w commenting about how his team from the branch that shut down never made quota)

i've seen the idea tossed around that all the refiners are assigned to someone who was emotionally close to their outie (e.g. irving's deceased father) but i really don't think that's the case -- like, dylan says mark's freshman fluke let lumon devise new techniques for refining to cut down on the time it takes to finish a file, and istg i can see it perfectly in my head: cobel asking mark s how the FUCK he managed to do that and him just being like "i don't know, the numbers looked...scary??????" and her just. rolling with it.

(also i feel like that's why dylan's generally a good refiner -- he can read people! his outie knew what to say and how to act to impress the door factory guy in s2e2!)

so lumon really really needs cold harbor to work. if it's not because they care about gemma SPECIFICALLY for some secret reason, it must be that they care about the technique. lumon (i.e. the board and/or the eagan family), like so many corporate overlords before them, are selling immortality.

i'm on the fence about whether they're trying to resurrect/immortalize kier eagan specifically -- like it would make the most thematic sense, and they have a ton of material FROM his life certainly to work with, but he's supposed to have died in 1939 and cryonics tech just wasn't advanced enough at the time. but also the world of SEVERANCE is pretty distinct from our own so i guess it's plausible

i feel much more confident in saying they're trying to get the technique working specifically for the sake of current ceo jame eagan, who is an old decrepit fart. imo the "revolving" he mentions to helly in the s1 finale is key to this -- like, it kind of sounds like eagan-speak for rotating through/swapping into a new body???

this MIGHT be where the idea of cloning becomes involved, which i can see supported by the emphasis in the s2 opening credits on babies (including baby kier at the end ofc), but i also just had the even more fucked up thought that what if the end goal is to upload the eagans' personalities (and those of their chosen cronies) into the bodies of severed workers. hence the continued necessity for a severed working underclass as well as their ruling higher-ups -- it's a body farm, an endless cycle of severed workers toiling away to let the rich live on and then having their bodies/minds/souls co-opted when they've lost their other utility. oh my god helly was right THEY LITERALLY ARE LIVESTOCK

guys holy shit what if the season ends with jame (or KIER) eagan's personality getting uploaded into miss casey's chip and overwriting miss casey (and also gemma?? idk i feel like mark scout/mark s are both going to have to come to terms with the idea that gemma as she was is capital-g Gone, even if her body and brain are still sort of alive). and then season 3 has dichen lachman chewing the scenery as creepy old man eagan. I THINK IT WOULD BE FUN AND ALSO FUCKED UP

okay so what about cobel, right? like, obviously she's been drinking the eagan kool-aid, she is All In on immortalizing kier (or jame or whoever). but there's more to it than that!!! she's the one harping on about reintegration being real and possible, AND she's desperate seeking for any signs of it during mark s and miss casey's wellness sessions. why? cobel wants to revive her mother charlotte (we see her medical tag on cobel's eagan shrine), but she wants HER MOTHER, not a blank slate -- in other words she's rooting for the chips to not function properly in order to truly resurrect someone who's been dead

in particular i think this is why she flipped her lid on mark at the end of s2e2 when he asked what she knew about gemma -- like, idk maybe it's confirmation bias at play but to me her primal scream felt like it was coming from a place of...jealousy? like, "how DARE you ask me that, how are YOU the one who's allowed to get your loved one back and I'M being promoted up the ladder so lumon can get me out of the way even though MY motivations are pure". that kind of thing

cobel's attitude towards lumon and helena in s2e2 is SUUUUUUPER ambiguous -- i think she's going to turn from outright enemy into kind of a weird "enemy of my enemy is my friend" thing this season?? especially since i got the feeling that she really did kind of care about mark and devon in her own supremely weird, fucked-up way

oh god you guys. what if her "mrs selvig" persona was cobel imitating her own mother, mid-atlantic accent and corny outdated references to clark gable and all. FUCK

also the fact that she's looking for miss casey and mark s to remember each other implies that reintegration is possible even without outside interference with the chip itself (i.e. however reghabi reintegrated petey). and you know what?

i think she's right.

THE BIG BOY THEORY: MARK SCOUT AND MARK S WILL START TO SPONTANEOUSLY REINTEGRATE THIS SEASON

i will live and die on this hill, ben stiller i swear to FUCK

what's the overriding symbolism in the season 1 opening credits?? the line between innie and outie is porous (or "mushy", if you will). black sludge seeping from the trash cans that's made of all your other selves (also reflecting how irving dreams of his outie's black paint). mark's innie and outie selves constantly chasing circles around one another until at the end they both collapse on the bed...and then collapse together as a single person.

what's the overriding symbolism in the season 2 opening credits???? not just "mark scout, i.e. mark in red pajamas, delving into lumon's mysteries", not just "mushy confusion of innie and outie feelings re: helly and miss casey" -- mark's innie and outie selves working together. innie mark pulling outie mark out of the severance chip. innie mark hoisting up the curtain dividing outer and inner worlds to let outie mark through. innie mark CARRYING OUTIE MARK IN HIS ARMS. do you see the fucking vision.

of course that's also coupled with the final image of the credits: mark bursting through and out of his own head. which i think emphasizes that there's going to be conflict as well as cooperation between mark's disparate selves (especially when it comes to everything involving the helly/mark/casey love triangle)

why did mark look like he was having a goddamn seizure when he was coming down the elevator. why did he glimpse a mysterious figure following him in the hallway. WHY THE FUCK WAS HIS VERY FIRST INSTINCT TO BOLT FOR WELLNESS AND LOOK FOR MISS CASEY!!!!! (okay this could also conceivably be due to him yelling to devon that she was alive literally one second ago but still)

i think mark's "spontaneous reintegration" is also more or less an insane fluke, basically a product of the fact that he's now working on gemma/miss casey's refinement data AGAIN and both his innie and outie selves are starting to blur together regarding their shock and turmoil over the realization that gemma is alive (and probably loads of other stuff too while we're at it).

but idk, maybe spontaneous reintegration also occurs naturally over time? irving is also having some bleed-through and iirc he's been at lumon the longest of all of them

shit dude. what if outie burt ALSO has bleed-through and that's why he followed irving and was crying. honestly what the fuck was even the deal with that, i don't know!!!!

anyway i imagine that "spontaneous reintegration" would really put a kibosh in lumon's plans to permanently rewire and wipe the brains of severed folks in order to pave the way for an immortal ruling class. also i thought the way they did petey's hallucinatory flip-flopping between his lives/selves was awesome and i would like more of that, please. (also: i miss petey, y'all)

i think if they do end up going this route it's gonna be spoonfed to us pretty slowly though -- like, s2 will slowly build up the mystery of "what the fuck's going on with mark reintegrating", then s3 is his two selves coming to terms with...All Of That

those are all of my big idea theories but i also have some smaller bullet points to address:

dylan's gonna visit his family in the """visitation suite""" and it 100% is going to be paid lumon actors. and the giveaway is gonna come at the end of the episode when we cut back to outie dylan's life and his wife (or one of his other kids, who knows) is terminally sick (maybe wheelchair- or bed-bound?), hence outie dylan's desperation to find another job post-firing

that is one million percent helena eagan down on the severed floor (although i can see the argument for it being helly r and she's just not comfortable sharing her real experience on the outside). her shady story aside, i think britt lower is CRUSHING IT as "helena pretending to be helly but it's kind of off-putting and fake because it's helena's idea of how helly would behave". like, it's giving me the same vibes as in FRINGE when fauxlivia pretends to be olivia and then seduces/sleeps with peter. real ones know

RICKEN IS NOT A FUCKING SECRET EAGAN!!!!!! DEVON IS NOT SECRETLY IN ON ANYTHING (besides keeping her brother safe)!!!!!! HIS FRIENDS ARE JUST PRETENTIOUS SHITHEELS!!!!!!!!!!!!

as much as i would literally chew glass (positive) for mark s and miss casey to be A Thing, i feel like narratively and thematically it's not gonna work with the show's overarching themes of like, struggling to process grief and selfhood and figuring out what makes you you (or someone else their own independent self). gemma is Gone and you can't bring her back and you can't cut yourself off from the grief and the pain. mark has to reintegrate (literally and metaphorically/emotionally) in order to resolve his issues and move on

this show is so!!!!!! OOOOOUUUUGGGGHHGHGHH

[omgthatdress]

A little transparency

So, several months ago, I made some posts asking for donations so I could get a business license for a cemetery preservation non-profit.

Due to stuff outside of my control (tl;dr I was working with someone who ended up becoming genuinely the worst person I've ever met.) that idea is no longer going forward. All the drama went down MONTHS ago so this isn't an impulsive decision. I've been thinking about it.

There are several things I can do at this point.

I can give the money back (if you want your money back, message me)

I can donate to another cemetery non-profit (Andrew Lumish AKA the Good Cemeterian, who cleans old headstones for free and is actually a decent person)

I can use the money for other things I'm trying to advance in my life (specifically: screenplay competitions for a TV pilot I wrote)

Or I can fuck it all and buy myself some nice Bakelite jewelry.

I want you guys who gave me your hard-earned money to be the ones to decide.

If you're involved in any volunteer work or community activism, do yourself a favor and learn what a communal narcissist is & how to identify one. I have no regrets with my experience and I'm incredibly proud of what I was able to accomplish, I just wish the person I partnered with was a completely different person.

Tryin' not to be a scammer on Tumblr the scam website!

[snowthedemonfox]

Okay so we're at it again with me posting another theory, this one I haven't seen anyone else point out yet so I might as well post about it. This might be a bit long, so prepare to do some reading

TL;DR: CAINE'S OFFICE IN EP 4 IS CONNECTED TO THE OFFICE AREA WE SEE IN THE PILOT

I'll explain under the cut because THIS WILL TAKE A BIT:

ONE: Even if Caine was playing the part of upper management this episode, I don't think he made this office area just for the sake of the adventure.

There's heaps of books in the background, ranging from info about Gloinks, a Murder Drones parody, a reference to the Pilot, and a book that's called "MatPat Theory". You can see a small version of the Tent next to his monitor, along with various drawings on his desk and on the pinboard in the background.

I think this is Caine's ACTUAL office, where he goes to work on any upcoming adventures he's making for the cast. I've said in a previous post that after this episode I believe all future (or at least most) adventures will be based on suggestions from the suggestions box. (To make a long story short, Ragatha seems to like baseball, and the season 1 trailer showed us a WIP version of a baseball stadium. Would not surprise me if she's the one who suggested that.)

Yes, we see Caine throw away the box after deciding on the Spudsy's adventure, but Caine logic is Caine logic and it wouldn't surprise me if he just /tp'd that box to this out of bounds office area for him to look through later. His main priority is making sure that EVERYONE likes his adventures, and it makes sense that he would take advantage of the suggestions box (after being reminded it exists), especially after his therapy session with Zooble in episode 3.

He's in his office because he's decided to scrap his current list of adventures and instead make adventures based on what the humans seem to want. It'd also make sense that this is the one adventure where he actually decides to use his 'all seeing eyes' to watch the cast throughout the day. He's seeing if they do better on a suggested adventure compared to an adventure HE came up with. That's why he's got all the photos of them throughout the day, and is keeping track of their scores on his computer (An AI having his own computer? A computer within a computer?). And based on the scores he gave them, he doesn't seem to notice that nobody really had the best time on a 'realistic' adventure.

It's hard to make out since the screen is blurry, but I'm pretty sure the spreadsheet has the character's names on it (Kinger, Zooble, Jax, Ragatha, & Pomni) along with their scores in the second column. Hard to read what the last one says though. Maybe it's just for additional notes? Gangle most likely isn't listed yet because Caine's talking to her in this scene. He'll write down her score once she leaves.

(Side note, but Caine probably repurposed his horror adventure for Kinger to have fun with while everyone else was at Spudsy's, which would be why his A+ score doesn't count towards the whole 'checking if the humans prefer suggestted ideas more' thing. Kinger didn't do the horror adventure Caine had planned.)

TWO: If every map has a 'backrooms-like' out of bounds area, wouldn't it make sense for this office area to be the out of bounds area for the Tent?

If you compare the office area to episode 2's out of bounds area, they look pretty similar, like a giant maze. We saw that episode 2's out of bounds area still had little areas of importance, like storing the character models, so why wouldn't the office area also have these small rooms? We have the notable computer we see at the end of the pilot, and now Caine's office.

If this area is still connected to the Tent, then it'd make sense for Gangle to know how to leave. Caine probably has a door he spawned in for them to leave through, similar to the Exit door from the Pilot. If I had to guess, it's probably connected to either one of the various doors on the side of the Tent (where we see Pomni checking looking for him in the Pilot), or to one of the bigger hallway doors we see on every floor (which I talk a bit more about in this theory).

Speaking of that Exit door, though- We know Caine never actually finished making that exit. If he had no idea what to put on the other side, wouldn't he just put a placeholder there instead? Like, I don't know, maybe lead it to the out of bounds area directly connected to the Tent? Where his office is? So he can still keep an eye on it?

It's probably why his wackywatch never picked up on the fact Pomni was there until she ended up in the Void. If Gangle can walk freely through the office area to get back to the Tent, then Caine probably has no reason to be alerted if someone's there.

It's not like they're not supposed to be there EVER, and if they got lost, he could find them anyway! (Referring to Kinger's line in ep 2 when talking to Ragatha about Pomni being lost) Someone just tells him that there's a person missing, he tracks them down, and brings them out of the office area.

THREE: If you compare the two locations, a lot of things seem to match.

The lights on the ceiling look near identical, the only difference being that the Pilot's version has some kind of filter... air conditioner thing? I don't know what those are called but if this is a general employee area, it'd make sense to have that there.

There's the same cabinets and even the exact same plant model. The office area in the Pilot already had a lot of re-used models, so if Caine's office is directly connected to it, it'd make sense if it also had these re-used models.

The only thing that doesn't match exactly are the computers.

The monitor Caine uses has little buttons on the bottom of it, while the Pilot computer doesn't. But you could argue that's because the computer seen in the pilot is much older. So if it's been there for a while (Since I can only assume this entire office area is based on the office the actual computer hosting the game's server is in), then you could argue that whatever office this was, just, never upgraded this computer specifically. All the other computers look much newer and more clean, but it's hard to tell if they also have those buttons on the monitors.

If it weren't for the fact we see the C&A logo in Spudsy's as well I'd argue that's also a thing the Pilot and episode 4 have in common, but since we DO see the logo in Spudsy's, I can't really make that argument.

But it's still worth pointing out that Caine uses a computer with the C&A branding on it, and the Pilot's office area has a giant C&A logo on one of the walls. Again, not the strongest piece of evidence here, but I think it's still a good idea to mention it.

Still have no idea on why Caine started glitching out at the end of the episode, though. Hope he's okay.

[s-wave-entertainment]

Okay I'm doing it I'm making that long-winded post about N-

Your honor, this boy never Actually Wanted to kill.

Now for most of you, I'm sure you already knew this. It's not all too hard to perceive, seeing as we've really only seen him in full blown kill mode twice, and there's a hypothesized good reason for the first and an ACTUAL good reason for the second. But I'm making this post anyway because this little murder robot has a heart core of gold, and he makes me so fucking sad sometimes so I just have to scream about it. MOVING ON:

Exhibit A: The Landing

Both times we see N in full blown (worker) kill mode* were in the pilot; once when he first landed back at the spire and attacked Uzi, and the other when he raided the bunker pursuing her. I'll refer to the first time here as "The Landing (TL)." In this sequence we watch him slam down onto the ship, finish off the oil in some poor sap's head, then attack Uzi as soon as he realizes she's there. What's my reasoning for this? Hunger.

N says, a little more than 3 minutes later, that he kills for one of two reasons:

1) If he doesn't, he dies.

2) It's his job, and he wants to be useful.

Now take this next take with a bit of salt, as it's completely headcanoned, but I personally think that N dislikes hunting as a whole. Despite his desire to be useful, it still means he has to kill - which I think if he CAN avoid at a given time, he will. Thus, in my opinion, N only hunts either when J forces him to, or when he knows he's at risk of overheating. Overheating does shit to robot brains, as we saw with Uzi in episode 4, so if N was out HUNTING - which he does when he's close to overheating - when TL occurred, it's only NATURAL that he sees a worker in his space and his first thought is "kill." He was ALREADY in hunting mode - I imagine it doesn't just "turn off" the second they satiate the initial urge. If it did, that wouldn't work too well for The Solver, now would it (yes I know that when the Earth AND the gala massacre occurred none of them had any jurisdiction over their bodies/actions, but the Solver openly admit to allowing them to keep their personalities, and knowing N I think the whole "killing for sport" thing doesn't work too well with his)?

So of course he attacks Uzi - he was likely still hungry, and hungry means risk for overheating, which can translate to death. I will admit, he did seem to toy with her just a little before going for the kill, but actually I think the whole "throwing her across the area with his tail" was more to disorient Uzi, as from the dodge he had just witnessed her perform could signify to him that she's more competent in a fight than the first appeared, even disarmed. Thus, the need to both injured and discombobulate her arose. I'll talk more about N's fighting style in the second incident here:

Exhibit B: The Bunker

Now the bunker has a different reason altogether: protection of his fellow squad mates. Don't believe me? I was hoping you'd say that:

He only goes AFTER Uzi after he realizes that she's made off with the weapon that took his head off. Yes, she missed and he was able to regenerate, but if Uzi had hit just a little bit lower, she would have hit his core - which would have permakilled him. Surely realizing this, he runs off and attacks the bunker with what given reason?

It wasn't about him. It was NEVER about him. It was about V. He wanted to keep HER safe, he wanted to make sure Uzi wouldn't shoot HER with that gun. Now, why all the unecessary carnage then? In THIS case, I think he defaulted to wanting to be useful and thus making all of the kills that he did. Though, it could also be argued just as fairly that he was consuming so much oil/matter to ensure that if she DID shoot him again, he would be able to get back up faster. The gun has a cool down, yes, but I don't know if he knew that. Or if he did, he couldn't have known that it only lasted for 30 minutes. Now about that fighting style I mentioned - this is why I think the reasoning here was purely for utility: N appears to have a very cut-and-run fighting style. If he has a choice, he doesn't prolong his kills - the first guy he stabs through the chest then immediately takes his head off, the second dies via missile, the third N just tackles and kills himself (we only hear the guy scream fir a second before N is seen drinking oil from his neck, which leads me to believe that the death was quick), and Braxton dies via super accurate cutting-you-in-half laser (which was probably meant for Uzi, but he couldn't see them when he fired as he was too busy drinking, so he probably just latched onto the voice that he heard and fired). All deaths which were extremely fast and without any toying, despite the multitude of weapons used. Now to me, this implies that he has a style, and he sticks with it. And that style is just to /get the damn thing over with./

And that's it! Those are the only times we see him in worker kill mode. Now we do see him switch into a "general" kill mode when he takes "Tessa's" head off, but it's pretty plainly obvious that that took every ounce of his mental strength to do. I mean shit, he basically collapsed as soon as it was over and didn't regulate until Uzi took his hand. Now I guess it could be argued that that was "his friend" so of course he's more hesitant to kill her, but I think part of the reason it was So Hard is because he ALREADY doesn't favor killing, and now he has to behead the only human who ever showed him any kindness. AND THEN IT WASN'T EVEN HER, SO-

And don't bring up the episode 8 fight - OBVIOUSLY he's gonna fight to kill, he's recovering the memory of everything this thing has done to him and now he has two new motivators: love, and WRATH. I make exception for that fight because quite frankly if he WASN'T fighting to kill at that point I would be worried. Though I do wanna bring up that he was very obviously conflicted about the whole thing. And before you argue:

Even against THE SOLVER ITSELF, he was still incredibly conflicted about killing. Again, that used to be his friend (and is wearing the SKIN OF THE ACTUAL HUMAN HE THOUGHT HE KILLED NOT EVEN A CANON 20 MINUTES AGO FOR THEM), but even still, my earlier point of "already doesn't favor killing, forced to kill" still stands.

In conclusion - your honor, N is a sweetheart. Always has been, despite everything he's been forced to do. And the amount of guilt he probably feels for the oil (and blood, now that he remembers that) on his hands is probably so, so much. Too much. Why do you think he copes with repression and positivity?

*"Worker Kill Mode" specified because I acknowledge that he kind of has two kill modes - one where he's in control and one where he's Not, as the Solver's puppet.

[etanow]

Since Ragatha is some kind of doll powered by a battery, does that mean she's technically a robot? Or is she a cyborg since there was a document that revealed she does have organic cells.

Of a sort!! Ragatha started as a brain cell organoid to be used in a supercomputer (sort of like DeepSouth, irl, pretty interesting concept albeit horrifying to think about). Brain cells crave input so much that they will sometimes literally grow their own optic cups/eyes. The scientists cultivating the cells that became Ragatha kinda went off the deep end of this "craving input" and made her a body to see if said brain cells could adapt and grow the same neural connections mimicking a human's brain.

TL;DR Ragatha is pretty much a brain piloting a plush/robot suit don't think too hard on it b/c this is just for funsies, and I ain't a scientist