"This Is The Land Of The Glass Bots. We Abandoned Them, Abandoned Their Lands, And Instead Of Staying

if you're trying to get into the head of your story's antagonist, try writing an "Am I the Asshole" reddit post from their perspective, explaining their problems and their plans for solving them. Let the voice and logic come through.

Lineart for what will eventually be a painting of my latest DnD character, Xylem!

Xylem is a wooden robot traveling through a post-apocalyptic, mushroom filled landscape. As they go from town to town, they write down what they see, interview locals, and record the story of a world living in the shadow of what it once was. She's accompanied by a weevil friend, Phloem, who has decided she's close enough to a tree, and bores holes in her outer casing to reside inside.

DMed by the great @glacierruler :)

"I wouldn't say I hope for the crashes. They simply happen, whether we're there to harvest the parts or leave them to rust in the sands. Might as well make something good out of it."

An old mining bot gone rogue, Sprocket (he/him) is now the defacto leader of our little group of scavengers.

Some info:

Was originally scavenging on his own, but started the group when he picked up Glass (another member)

Bounced around in different jobs as he found a spot to settle down on Deslocar after his mining days, the most important of these being his bandit and mechanic days

He still isn't quite settled down now, but there's certain towns and cities he floats between a lot

Very much an engineer, knows his way around all sorts of machines and is great at fixing stuff, including himself

Has made a lot of adjustments and modifications over the years

accidental dad friend

Freaks out HARD when anyone gets hurt, and has a habit of offering the humans water when they complain about literally anything because like??? that's what people need right?????

Not super a fan of violence, but he does what's necessary. Tries his best to keep the crew out of shit, when he can, especially after it's not just him and Glass

The tubes running outside of his body help maintain his temperature- robots run on a liquid power source and it gets hot

Works like rabbit ears yknow?

His eyes emit a light glow, it's hard to see in the daytime but very noticeable at night, some say to an unnerving degree

He has slats above and below his eyes that he can use to emote

Talks through the speaker on his face, but also knows sign language and can flash his eyes to speak in a kind of morse code

He taught it to Glass a while back, and they use it to communicate sometimes, either when its convenient to be able to talk without talking or signing, when they dont want anyone else to understand them, or when Sprocket just feels like it

It's soooo funny to me when people draw robots kissing and they're just sort of smashing screens or cameras against each other. What is that accomplishing? What is that doing for them??

Although on the other hand I think it's kind of significant how this shows bots mimicking human actions even when logically it doesn't make sense. No one taught us intimacy but I guess this is how it's done. Do you feel it? No me neither but I've never seen another way. Maybe if we keep trying the right sparks will fly. I'm trying to tell you I love you by the way. If that can be enough.

Fuck. What was I saying?

Planet Deslotair is super cool, tell me more about Desmona if you want

-g

I'd love to!!

So Desmona grew up in a vitrel harvesting town called Sagal, where vitrel is pumped from the ground and then shipped off elsewhere so it can be properly processed. Processed vitrel is still pretty toxic, but it isn't nearly as reactive as the raw stuff. Desmona's dad worked for the harvesting company, and when she was 16 she got a job working there as well. Nothing super dangerous, she was just behind a desk helping with paperwork and whatnot, but she was on site a lot. She was actually really fascinated with how vitrel was moved and gathered, and wanted to study material sciences when she got older.

But before she got a chance to do any of that, there was an accident. A vitrel transport truck crashes, and Desmona is right on the scene. Her dad is the one to pull her out of the mess, contaminating himself in the process. He would later succumb to his wounds and die, she would not. She wakes up, and runs.

Desmona spends about a week out in the wilderness mostly by herself. She lives in the plains region, Deslotair’s finest, but it’s still hard to make do, to survive. She drinks from rivers and chews sweet grass into a pulp between her teeth. The pain under her skin settles, but the energy does not. Eventually, she finds a fallen ship, and starts to camp out there. She meets a vitrel dog, names him Tak, and sleeps a little easier. She meets two bots, fails to push them away, and sleeps through the night. The vitrel that lashes out from her skin can't hurt any of them.

Outside of the scavengers group, she's very shy and withdrawn. The armor helps contain the vitrel, but it also acts as a shield from the world. She's very aware that the mask makes her look strange and off-putting, and she leans into that as much as possible when interacting with new people. Once she does warm up to people though, she's really sweet. Has kind of a smart-ass sense of humor with Sprocket, and immediately becomes really close with Glass. They cook together, and ey teaches her sign language while Desmona tries to teach em to sew. It takes a while for the group to find their rhythm, but eventually the three of them (four with Tak) are inseparable.

A problem I've been having lately is that while I'm working on a piece of writing, I absolutely love it, and then the moment I'm done it's like a switch is flipped and I can't stand the thing. I feel like it's because you suddenly lose all that potential. While you're working on something, it can be anything, it can be so many things, but the moment it's done all of those alternate routes are gone. In comparison, what you're left with feels disappointing.

WIP of a Deslotair comic I'm working on!

Glass and Sprocket doodles! Been thinking about these two as a duo a lot lately. So much time spent together, wandering the desert, scavenging the sands...

Some context for the first little sketch (harmonized humming): the glass bots communicate exclusively via different pitched hums. The range of these goes outside of what humans can perceive, so for the most part, Glass communicates with Sprocket and others through sign language. But Glass has also been teaching him what ey can of eir own language. (which ey VERY much enjoys, and in return Sprocket has been teaching em a kind of morse code language he knows. which again ey very much enjoys.)

And the way Sprocket's sensors work means he doesn't pick up a lot of external stimuli, but he is more sensitive to vibration and larger impacts that can make their way through. So this has become a way of showing affection for them!! Glass can express eirself in a way that feels natural, and Sprocket can pick up on and try to reciprocate these sensations that are one of the few things he can actually feel.

The bottom right sketch is titled "One robot teaches another how to be human" The piece of text next to the more complicated part gives a description of what it is and how commonly it's found, while the bottom part with the toaster simply reads "I have no idea."

Taglist: @glacierruler

Keeper -- a short comic about an angel meeting a robotic lighthouse keeper that doesn't know the world has already ended. Made in about 18 hours for a 24-hour 24-page* black and white comic challenge (that I arrived late to, ha.)

*the actual submission does not include the cover, which was created after the fact for this post.

This was a really great learning experience as someone who's... never really made a completed comic. I ended up really attached to the story by the end of the project (possibly due to all-nighter deliriousness lol) and ultimately am very proud of what I made.There are some things I'd still like to change, particularly text placement, but in keeping with the spirit of the challenge I've elected to leave it as is.

Wooahh look another robot oc by yours truly. Shocking, I know.

This is 5TR1P W1R3, or just Wire for short, who is the sharpshooter and medic for @glacierruler and I's crew of space pirates!

Wire was originally made for a caretaking/nursing job, but grew to hate this role the longer they had to endure it, until they eventually ran away. To fully lean into this change, they removed most of their smooth, friendly plastic paneling to revel the mess of wiring and motors underneath, although they have kept some to protect more vital areas. Wire can only communicate through various beeps and trills, and the only person that can understand and translate for them is the engineer on board who is... just the sweetest and doesn't want to pass along half the shit they say. Trying their best to be a serious pirate amongst all the shenanigans. Big fan of getting to shoot things, not really enjoying the fixing people part.