One Of Two Characters I Will Put Through The Wringer Out If Love: P.M.U Or Pim Is The Autopilot That

Dr. Wade Urbanczyk

new oc, leader of some sort of prosthetics development department for a catastrophe lab. I think he stuffs the consciousnesses of his dying coworkers into digital appliances in the hopes of keeping them alive til better days come along… But maybe he should just let them die.

kinda obsessed w/ him actually

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Outside of the scavengers group, she's very shy and withdrawn.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.

Thoughts on robots and people and how maybe the little rituals we do to show we care don't have to actually mean anything, brought to you by Sprocket and Alonze.

Worldbuilding notes: Under normal conditions, you wouldn't be able to see the stars from the surface of Deslotair. However, this takes place during drop season, when the skies are cleared of storms. Since Deslotair is a planet that's somewhat behind developmentally and lacks a lot of big cities, it's fairly free of light pollution. Scavengers traveling the deserts have an especially nice view. The planet is also in a fairly... cluttered(?) solar system, so there's a lot of comets passing by and bits of space debris burning up in the atmosphere. Most of this is natural rock and mineral, although some is space trash from neighboring planets. But hey, that's a bonus if you're scavenging, right??

Taglist: @glacierruler

The decay of the mechanical.

My webcomic FACING THE SUN has a new update

Read on my website | Read on WEBTOON

Embroidery sketching! Working on another patch project right now, and since this one is a little more complicated than the black hole I finished a while ago, I thought I'd share my process for mapping out what I want to embroider. (The people that draw straight on the fabric are too brave to be me.)

To do this, I start by drawing out the design with paper and pencil, and then I pin it to the fabric I want to transfer it to and stab a bunch of holes. (I used the sharp end of a drawing compass, but you can use a pen or pencil or whatever your heart desires.) Then, I used a white gel pen to create dots where all the holes were.

This results in a MESS of little spots against the background, so hang onto your original template so you remember what you're doing. But from there it's just an extra-confusing game of connect the dots! I started with the biggest shapes first, and slowly our boy Sprocket started to emerge. Excited to actually embroider this one :)

glass

The sun of Deslotair burned bright above. Stark white blended into yellow, infecting the sky around it. Rays of light stabbed the sky like burning knives, searing the air, cutting through that which crossed their path. Anything that stood in their way bled shadows, patches of darkness spreading from their touch.

The glass robot did not bleed shadows, ey did not feel the burning heat of the sun. Those deadly knives passed through eir translucent skin, shining off the machinery inside, swallowed by the burbling liquid that flowed through eir body. The tip of a spear was held low at eir side, its point gleaming.

No sun stabbed through the skin of the glass robot, but sharp gazes burned holes in eir back.

Whispers floated in the footsteps of the traveler. Suspicious words accompanied by fleeting glances trailed after the figure like wisps of smoke. The glass robot returned their glances with a blank curiosity, unbothered by the restless murmurs of discomfort. Ey simply observed, and walked.

The wooden doors of an old saloon swung open with whining creaks, announcing the presence of the traveler to those inside. Few heads turned, all new blood (the regulars were accustomed to the creaking of the doors, and to the uninteresting passerby they so often brought). Yet they started another round of whispers, and more heads turned to the glass robot, boisterous conversations morphing into a suspicious hiss at the arrival of the newcomer.

The glass robot turned eir head this way and that, returning the gazes of staring strangers with eir own gleaming eyes. Outside the eerie glow was swallowed up by the sun, but here it cast a white halo around the traveler’s face, surrounded by the gentle green glow of the vitrel  that flowed inside of em.

Ey walked.

The glass thudded against wooden floors, steps going unbroken as the small crowd parted to make room for the traveler. Ey nodded eir appreciation, and approached the bar. The bartender stood up straight. The robot she had been talking to, sitting on one of the hourglass stools with an untouched drink in front of him, remained perfectly still.

“Well,” the bartender started. She set down the empty glass she had been holding, put it upside down on the counter so its rim kissed the wood and left a ring of moisture. “What can I get ya?”

“Nothing to drink, thank you.” The glass robot spoke with eir hands, the fluid inside of them twisting and shifting with each movement.

The bartender eyed em warily. “Uh, sorry, I don’t know what you’re sayin’...”

“Nothing to drink, thank you.” The glass robot repeated the same motions as before, only slower, hands making clear arcs through the air.

“Ey doesn’t want anything,” the robot spoke up, nodding to the bartender before turning to address the glass bot. His eyes glowed a faint blue, piercingly contrasted with the hazy brown light that filtered through dirty glass bulbs above them. Tubes curled around him, jutting out from the fabric of his vest and wrapping around his joints. “What are you here for, then, if not a drink?”

Saloon

Glass and Sprocket's first meeting, way back when. Added a couple of ports for Sprocket's tubing to flow through, which makes a hell of a lot more sense than them just kind of sticking out at his joints or junctures in the plating. Better for consistency's sake too.

Tags: @glacierruler

I think it's funny when robots in fiction are just,,, super old and they outlive multiple generations of humans and are kinda treated as functionally immortal but irl tech is like "Your car is 20 years old???" or "I get a new smart phone every two years!"

Lemme see old ass bots who are mocked for being all ancient and outmoded and then when someone asks "How old are you??" it turns out they're like five.

As someone who is trying to write their own story, I'm so happy that there are author's out there who have written books with disabled rep, who have written books with queer rep. Because I am both of those things, and it really helps to know that mine won't be the only one like it.

Deslocar Playlist!

Still very much a work in progress, but long enough I figured I'd share. Filled with strange tunes, some western stuff, character songs, and some story themes if ya know where to look.

Tags: @glacierruler

"This is the land of the glass bots. We abandoned them, abandoned their lands, and instead of staying dead like they should have, they turned into walking memories."

And now, finally, Glass (ey/em), linguist, translator, and traveler of the desert.

Info:

First to join the group, joined Sprocket a while ago.

It was just the two of them for a very long time

Glass' main role on the team is as a protector (ey wields that spear well) and as a navigator

Before Sprocket, ey was a translator

Glass lived with other glass bots, and worked closely with their king

When humans needed to interact with the glass bots for any reason, Glass would act as a translator

Because Glass people speak in frequencies humans can't always hear and cannot learn to speak any other language, Glass learned sign language, which ey still uses to communicate now

Ey also became a kind of negotiator, learning how to translate what the King had to say into mannerisms and politeness that the humans would view favorably, and vice-versa

This regular involvement with humans grew Glass's fascination with human culture and languages, something not necessarily appreciated in the glass bot world

Of course it was Glass's job to understand these things, and ey was respected given eir high-ranking position, but ostracized as well

Eventually, this fascination with the outside world, resentment in eir own community, and disagreement with the King's rule drove Glass to leave and strike out on eir own

Soon after, ey met Sprocket, who offered em a job

Out of the group, those two are probably still the closest

They had a lot of time out in the desert to grow this bond, learning about each other, about each other's worlds

Glass is a very curious person, and often has many questions

Ey is very passionate about languages, and always eager to learn more, as well as teach people

Glass is an excellent teacher as well, eir patience makes em well-suited for it

Once Desmona joins the team and they have an actual human mouth to feed, ey also discovers a love of cooking!