Sideblog dedicated to "Broken Like These Worlds" my old Borderlands Fanfiction, now abandoned, that acts like an archive for all the stuff posted. || Main: @queerzubat
so, uh- I won't delete this because I got attached to all the efforts I poured into this even if in the end I got the burnout and also I don't like anymore many things I did with the story...
What I'm going to do is a simple url-change and a rename, turning this into a sort of archive for all this old fic stuff that I'm too much of a sentimental hoarder to delete it.
I'm also thinking to recycle the "jtwlostechologs" url for a new sideblog more centered to the character in a sort of roleplay way so i could develop better the character instead of cramming lots of stuff spanning decades into notes here and there and ending up with inconsistencies and such (also bc I want to completely rewrite his whole bg because I hate it so much that it hurts lol).
TL;DR: this blog will be renamed into "Archive Old Brokenverse AU" and the url will become "archive-old-brokenverse-bl-au" to match. "jtwlostechologs" will be recycled for a new blog where i'll rework a good chunk of the character's backstory and stuff and I'll try to roleplay him for a bit to develop better the character. That's it, I guess.
Iâm really sad to announce that I reached burnout point with this fanfiction.
I was working hard to worldbuild, plot, etc... and I loved making all the OCs and writing drabbles... but in the end, I burned myself out and I canât write anymore for this.
Currently, Iâm trying to continue writing something different to get over this problem: you can find the new fic here. I started it as a random thing and now Iâm keeping writing it to see where Iâll arrive with the story.
Thinking back, even if I was not completely happy of what I was writing, I liked working on this fanfiction. It was my first fanfiction since middle&highschool (and that was waaay many years ago), my first fanfiction in the Borderlands fandom and also the very first fanfiction written entirely in English even if Iâm not an English speaker.
Honestly, after all the work I put into this Iâm sad to have to take it and shove it into the trash aka the folder of the things I abandoned.
There are some things that I could fix, maybe redo some characters and some other stuff but eh- I donât have enough energies for that, maybe one day...I dunno.
I also donât know if to delete this blog and the few things I posted also on Ao3 back in December... Iâll think about it, I guess.
@ the ones that stuck with me for all this time: THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!
I wrote this scene some weeks ago but I ended up never posting it because I always hoped to get some extra inspiration to continue it, but nope.
So, I decided to share it as it is! And yes, Iâm still shit at thinking titles so whatever I guess LOL
Itâs a simple Jamison & Katagawa Jr interaction, or a study of how the two could interact...and I was also inspired by this prompt I found stumbling on @hyperioninternsuggestionâ blog.
Lil note: I mention Katagawa Jrâs first name, but itâs HEADCANON. I just picked a name that to me sounded fitting him...and also his father, since searching online itâs said that our Kat has the same name as him.
Extra: I sketched Jayâs Maliwan-branded arm here
Jamison scrunched his nose and scratched his left cheek while keeping his good eye fixed on the panel in front of him. It looked like everything was correctly set up, then why it didnât work?
He sighed, lifting his right hand and staring for a few moments at his new prosthetic hand: even after a bit more than a week, that Maliwan prosthetic felt weird at an uncanny level. The movements and the reactions to the neural impulses were tuned so finely that it was like having back the hand he lost, had some simple receptors that helped with feeling the things he grabbed and held, but at the same time not properly feeling like a real hand would have felt.
The hand was made with a high-tech dark grey material, on the back there were some details in orange and green â main colours of the company â corresponding at the main joints and the knuckles. From the wrist, the arm had the classic sleek and futuristic Maliwan style, together with the typical colouring and, obviously, the logo.
On the palm, there was a green circular insert that worked as a holo-projector that could be connected to his Echo device or to whatever system Jamison was connected to⊠and for this, a little panel could be opened under the wrist, that hid a connecting port and a cable that could be plugged into a variety of electronic devices. Jamison didnât even remember all of the things they listed when they gave him the new arm.
The left hand moved to open the little panel and grabbed the cable that then extracted and connected to the machinery in front of him that didnât want to start.
As soon as it was jacked-in, the round device lighted up in a bright green before projecting in the air the screen of a software booting up. It was a matter of a few seconds before the engineer was able to start working. With his free hand, he tapped the icons that lead to starting a complete scan of the machinery not working to verify its status and what kind of problem could be hidden from outside view.
He kept the right hand lifted, palm up, looking at the screen while the program did the full scan, and stuffed the left one inside the pocket of his Maliwan-branded boilersuit. Weirdly â he mused â it felt nice being back at work⊠even if working for a different company felt a bit off. Even if he was working at Maliwan only because he owed a couple of favours to his father that now was their big investor, after having left the fallen Atlas. Why his father didnât remain with Atlas now that it seemed that someone was building it back, Jamison didnât know. But, honestly, he didnât care.
Anyway, it was going to be a few months gig, but having a sort of new daily routine seemed to do wonders for Jamisonâs mind. He had things to do, had responsibilities and duties, he was busy enough to keep his mind focused and away from self-destructive thoughts. He also started to cut down the drinking and started to take more care of his health. Working kept the man working.
A soft ping from the software recalled Jamison from his thoughts and returned to give full attention to the holographic screen. His brows furrowed when he read what was the problem: whoever worked on that thing before him, connected the wrong cables for the power supply and it didnât receive enough energy to start.
Jamison grunted and disconnected himself from the machine, climbed back down and moved to reach the alimentation panel that then opened. The cable where blatantly the wrong ones, they were able to hold half the voltage needed by the machineâs engine. Jamison turned back on the device in his hand and tapped the icon to connect to the inventory of the partsâ storage, he then proceeded to tap a few of other icons to filter his research and then tapped the cables he needed from the list he pulled up, sending the data to the nearby digistruction console.
In the same amount of time he would have needed to go to the storage, find the cables and get them back there, he was already halfway done with the fixing. He completed the change of cables and climbed back on the machine to start again the activation procedure. And, to the engineerâs delight, everything worked as it should.
The man grabbed the piece of cloth hanging from his back pocket and used it to clean the grease from his hands.
«So itâs true that you joined the family, Jay» chimed a male voice, a slight smugness in the tone.
Jay turned towards the direction of the voice, seeing a man in a pricey fitted business suit in the colours that recalled the corporationâs ones. He was tall and slim, probably some years younger than Jamison, his face was made of elegant sharp lines, his black hair was neatly slicked back.
«Only for some time» replied the engineer, putting the cloth in the pocked and descending the metal ladder that leads to the machineâs controls.
«Oh my» added the younger man, gaze fixed on the mechanic that now was walking towards him «Surely time hasnât been kind with you»
«I know» commented Jamison, stopping in his tracks to raise his head a bit «and looks like you have grown a lot in these years» back in their childhood days, it was the other that had to strain his neck «Youâve grown into a fine man, Saburo.» added, a faint smile on his face.
«Not to brag, but I am.» he purred, a proud smile glinted on Katagawaâs face, hands running on the lapels of his jacket.
«So, whatâs the motive behind this meeting?» asked the engineer, abruptly. Katagawa Jr blinked a couple of times as if he was honestly surprised by that question «Motive? Canât I just want to chat with an old friend of mine that now works for my family?»
Jamison raised a brow «An old friend?» commented «I remember you tagging along even if I kept telling you to fuck off. You were an annoying ankle biter.» Jamison snorted a laugh, before starting to walk again, surpassing the younger man.
The lower lid under Katagawaâs Maliwan-branded echo eye twitched, but he kept smiling and turned to walk alongside Jamison.
«Come on, Jay! That was a long time ago, we are both adults now.» he slung his left arm on Jamisonâs shoulders «We have both matured since then! Youâre a skilled engineer and I am an admired executive of a great corporation.»
Both men walked out of the hangar, under the faint light of the Promethean day. They were on the backside of the hangar and currently no one was around that area. It was weirdly calm, even for a hectic metropolis like Meridian.
Jamison proceeded to dig out his pack of cigarettes from an inner pocket of his boilersuit, but as soon as he put a cigarette between his lips, Katagawaâs right hand took it and threw it away.
«Hey!» complained the older man
«No smoking here.» replied Saburo «Also, looks like I have to remind you that you are breaking a couple of points of our dress code»
Jamison grumbled under his breath, putting away the pack of smokes, before throwing an interrogative look at the other «What?» said «How? Iâm wearing and using only Maliwan gear during work hours as expected.»
«Hair should be kept short» pointing at Jamisonâs bicoloured hair tied in a low ponytail «And also you should shave that horrible patchy beard.»
The engineer clicked his tongue, left hand absent-mindedly running on the week-long beard that grew unevenly on his scarred face. «Iâm an engineer, I spend most of my time in one of your factories or hangars, no-one would notice.» then he threw a glance towards Saburoâs clean face «Sure that itâs not because you canât grow one?»
Katagawa Jrâs smug smile vanished in an instant, leaving its place to an angered expression. The businessman in a swift movement lifted his left hand from the engineerâs shoulder and grabbed him by the hair, pulling and forcing the other man to tilt his head back. Right hand grabbing the collar of the boilersuit.
«Watch what you say, Jamison.» he hissed «You arenât in Hyperion anymore where you did what the fuck you wanted. Also, let me remind you a thing: I am your fucking boss, not an idiot that you can insult. So, keep your trap sh-»
The sound of a metallic click prompted Katagawa to interrupt his speech and move his gaze from the engineerâs face to his right hand⊠that was holding an opened switchblade pointed towards him.
«A⊠a knife? Since when you go around with a knife?» the businessman was aghast «Youâre threatening me?!»
«I always keep a knife on me. Yâknow, keeps the higher-ups jumpy.» replied the engineer «And Iâm not. I simply reacted instinctively.»
The two kept that stance, Katagawa Jr continuing to keep his grip on Jamison and Jamison keeping the switchblade pointed towards Katagawa Jr, for an undetermined amount of time until the older man decided to break the silence.
«If you take back what you said, then Iâll do the same.»
«You first»
Jay lifted a brow «Donât you want the honour of being the wiser adult?»
Katagawa seemed to think over it for a few moments before exhaling a «Fine. Iâll take it back.»
«Good. And Iâll take back my insult, and the knife» stated Jamison, lowering the right arm and moving his fingers to close the blade and put it back in the side pocket of the suit. Katagawa lifted his grip on the other and freed him.
Jamison stretched a bit his neck and shoulders «Man, you may have grown up but youâre still a fuckinâ brat»
«And you are still a jerk»
«Not to brag» smirked Jamison, hands running to fix his jumpsuit «but I am»
«Oh fuck you Jay!» exclaimed Katagawa pushing the man by the shoulders, this time in a playful manner.
«What? Wanna fight kiddo?» laughed Jamison
«Like the old times?» giggled Katagawa.
«Mh⊠I guess that now Iâll need to put more effort to get you in a headlock.» Jamison studied the other, pensive, before adding «But I could certainly get ya»
Saburo laughed «I donât think so»
«Sure about that?» but Jamison was able to move only a step towards the other before his new Echo device â Maliwan-branded, obviously â pinged. He took it from his jumpsuitâs belt and checked the message on the screen, an alert about some other mechanical thing that needed a checkup.
«Maybe Iâll play with you another time, kid» he sighed «I have to go back to work». Jamison stretched a bit, then with his right hand patted Saburoâs shoulder «Glad to see that ya grew a pair, finally» laughed, turning around and starting to make his way back to the hangar.
«Actually» chimed Katagawa, without moving from his spot «I came here to collect you»
The engineer stopped in his tracks and turned to face Katagawa Jr «What? Collect me?» eyebrows arched  «And for which fucking reason?»
Katagawa Jr smiled again, moving to get closer to Jamison «I need you for a meeting, it will be in uh- A couple of hours, just the time needed to» left hand vaguely gestured at the older manâs face «clean you up. I hope that you have a suit, surely I canât let you show up there in that dirty jumpsuit.»
Jamison blinked and frowned, a puzzled expression on his face. «What now?»
«Did you hear me? Youâll be going to a meeting with me.»
«No, I heard that» he raised both hands «But why?»
«Well...» the younger man took a deep breath, smile still on his face. But this time the smile seemed the one of a child that did something wrong and was proud of that «Letâs say that I have got a hold of one of my brotherâs future clients and Iâm going to meet him to see if I can make him sign a contract that will make Maliwan earn great advantages...»
«But you know little about technical stuff so you need someone to guide through that without making the client notice that you have no idea of what youâre doing, right?» dived in the other.
The smiling façade creaked a bit «Yeah⊠that.»
«And you canât go to one of the other engineers?»
«What if they report it to my brother?»
«You could threaten them, usually that does the job.» shrugged Jamison «Or bribe âem, that could work too»
«Well, yes, I know that. But I still wonât trust someone even if they swear that will do what I want.»
Jamison arched his brows, eyes widening a bit in surprise and confusion «And you trust me that much?» asked «What makes you think that I wonât tell your brother or your father?»
«Because even if you always shoved me away, called me ankle-biter, annoying and other things, you still brought me along?» Katagawa smiled lighted up again «Because even if you complained, you still put up with me?»
The engineer sighed heavily, left hand running on his face.
«So?» insisted Katagawa Jr.
«...fuck you, Saburo.» exhaled Jamison lowering the hand and returning to look towards the other.
Saburo slapped his hands on Jamisonâs shoulders «Iâll take it as a yes.» then he pushed the other to get back moving and leave the place.
«Now, Iâll send someone else to fill your place for that job you got and letâs go get you to look like a proper human being and not like a cleaned up hobo» added Katagawa
«I should have let that Tyrant eat you, back then» grumbled the engineer, shoving his hands in the pockets, walking along with Saburo.
«But you didnât!» laughed Katagawa Jr continuing to keep an arm slung around Jamisonâs shoulders, as if to be sure that the other man didnât change idea along the way.
Yo, kiddos! Even if in the last days I wasted my time in my essay-rant about the inaccuracies of the planets of the Borderlands (and itâs still a work in progress lol), Iâm still working on the fanfiction donât worry!
I corrected some old posts and uploaded them on AO3 this afternoon, and now Iâm working on a couple of things that Iâm planning to add in the fanfiction story...probably will end up as a sort of filler but Iâm currently liking it, so why not?
Anyway, my inbox is still open so feel free to drop by if you want!
When you wanted to do a bit of research for some worldbuilding headcanons, but your two special interests (aka the space stuff I always loved and the recent Borderlands stuff) clash together and you end up writing a lengthy paper analyzing Borderlandsâ astronomy and getting angry at all the inaccuracies you find.
Also, Iâm angry bc I canât use all my old space books because they are widely outdated. My encyclopedias and atlas are all from way before 2007 or 2010 LOL And looks like when I was working on a sci-fi I never made a copy of my researches and I cannot find them anymore (but, again, theyâd be outdated since the project was from like 2013 or around that year).
Iâll ever end this thing or Iâll be able to stop before itâs too late and Iâll already reached an awakened status where nothing has sense anymore? Who knows?
Here the studies of Jayâs arm that I anticipated in a previous post!
Well, they probably arenât really studies but more something that for me should work more as a reference since I never defined the shape of the parts of the robotic arm and I just went with the flow(?) in the drawings. Probably I did something more detailed only in the sketch made for the scars study... anyway, I used this reference on a low-opacity level to design the two robo-hands.
And other than the usual Hyperion-issued arm, I also added a new one because I had a small idea for the story (that I still need to work on and fix so I can add it in the plot I jotted down some time ago)... and yeah, thereâs Maliwan involved.
Since I had to resize the image bc it was a bit too big, Iâm going to rewrite the main notes so theyâd be readable (also bc I always revert back to cursive and I have some fucked up letters when I write...and probably I messed up the English idk)
Hyperion
Uses always this one
Original colour: Hyperion yellow.
The colour now itâs dull and rusty looking -> probably was also recoloured with random paint found around
Back of hand used to have Hyperionâs logo
More advanced and pricey probably than Rhysâ arm bc it would have been able to do detailed work on machinery & robots + generic heavy work -> Still, less advanced than Timothyâs âwinning handâ
Has no âfancyâ functions except being more resistant than basic prosthetics and can have a stronger grip than a human hand.
Used to have the option to swap out parts with others that included tools (e.g. screwdriver, pliers, soldering iron, etc)
Maliwan
Realistic look with well-blended tech details
Maliwanâs colours always present
TOP OF THE LINE (or almost)
great resistance also to elemental damage
most similar to a real hand when it comes to movements, response to neural commands and dexterity in general
Holo-projector that connects to the Echo interface, to the system youâre connected with and the likes. Almost a computer in the hand.
The top [of the orange part] is a small openable panel that has a port and a cable to jack in with different electronics (computer, bots, etc)
Checking all the character posts to upload on AO3 is a big work, but it's kinda helping too bc I'm finally fixing typos and all the errors or fucked up sentences I wrote back then lol
Okay, I uploaded the two posts for JT, and the ones for Venom, Mack and Cream Bun.
Now I was thinking to dig around the asks and the likes to see if I could make a chapter with some of the questions and the likes before continuing to post the character breakdown posts and the headcanons.
Or I could work on other stuff like the studies for the robotic arm or the worldbuilding posts. Or finish that darn Jackpot Heist what-if that I started the other day. idk.
Checking all the character posts to upload on AO3 is a big work, but it's kinda helping too bc I'm finally fixing typos and all the errors or fucked up sentences I wrote back then lol
Little random update: even if in the last two evenings Iâm spending time playing CP2077, I still try to do some work on my fic when Iâm not being a dork in Night City or busy with real life things.
Iâm planning to upload all the character breakdown and headcanons posts I made on AO3 as a multichapter thing (so a chapter = a post lol) and I noticed that Iâm going to have to re-read all the posts and take notes of all the stuff I need to tag on the work. And looks like there will be a lot of stuff. Urgh.
And I guess that itâd be better if I throw some of those posts on grammarly bc the earlier ones didnât go under proper spellcheck bc I mostly wrote them on notepad instead of Libre Office (even if LO spellcheck often failed me lol).
Other than these things, on the 9th while dowloading CP I started doing some studies of Jayâs arm and when Iâll be finished Iâm going to post them on here... also I got some ideas of stuff to add in the story, but I need to elaborate it a lil bit more...
Iâm also thinking on writing down some proper worldbuilding things a post related on the religious stuff in the AU, because I feel like I have to expand a little bit on the basic stuff I wrote for this ask a couple of months ago, (maybe it wonât be really relevant but maybe having a better idea of that could help understanding the societies? Maybe? Who knows...also I need to understand more how tf a pyramidal system like the Twinsâ cult works); a post about the planets of the Borderlands universe because since I this post I feel the need to research and analyze better how stuff works or my inner nerd wonât let me live, (but I need to hunt down my old science-y notes for this); another one is an idea related to Carnivora dated months ago (I cannot find the post where I first mentioned the idea) that is still in my backburner.
Iâll be able to do all of this? Idk but Iâll try. Letâs only hope that my brain juice wonât run out while Iâm working on all these things!
Iâm thinking to upload my fic snippets & drabbles on AO3, if I figure out how to do it ofc.
Iâd love to start putting there also the whole âBroken Like These Worldsâ fanfic, but Iâve not progressed much and Iâd like to have more material before starting to post anything⊠yâknow, since I write quite slowly having some more stuff ready would be nice lol
Okay! So, I got around uploading on AO3 the first three drabbles I shared on here as a series!
Iâm thinking to add to the drabbles also the headcanons I wrote, maybe I could post them as a multichapter thing with each chapter being an headcanon thing or a character breakdown post. Iâm still not entirely sure, but letâs see what I can do LOL
Iâm thinking to upload my fic snippets & drabbles on AO3, if I figure out how to do it ofc.
Iâd love to start putting there also the whole âBroken Like These Worldsâ fanfic, but Iâve not progressed much and Iâd like to have more material before starting to post anything... yâknow, since I write quite slowly having some more stuff ready would be nice lol
Iâm still working on that âwhat-ifâ to get it out of my head to be able to go back to properly work on my fanfiction, so I thought that it could be a nice idea sharing some snippets of what Iâm currently writing LOL
Disclaimer: I still didnât do any kind of spell check or grammar check, I plan to do it when Iâll be finished. So there could be errors and such in the screenshots.
About the âWhat-Ifâ: I decided to follow the previous what-if I wrote some time ago (snippets here and here) where JT found that one of the chips he got from scraps and the likes was the echo-chip that contained A.I. Jack. This what-if could be seen as a sort of continuation of the previous one. The plot is the following: Holo-Jack asked Jay to go to the Handsome Jackpot to remove from there Pretty Boy and get back control on the casino. Weegie supported the idea because the little robot thought that it could be a good idea to keep Jamison away from falling again into bad drinking habits. Jay in the end accepted because of the simple âwell, I donât have anything else to do and itâs not like thereâs anyone that will notice that Iâve been awayâ. Then there finds Timothy that he hasnât seen in ages and the quest âletâs get the casino backâ gets transformed by Jay in âLetâs save Timmy and kick Pretty Boyâs buttâ. Everything takes place around BL3 events, so Moxxi, the VHs and everyone else is focused on the Twinsâ shitshow.
So, if you want some snippets just go take a look under the cut!
Btw I still havenât reached the âmeeting Timothyâ point at the moment: Iâm at 4k words currently and still no Timmy [sad noises]
^ How the what-if currently starts.
^ Jack, sorry, but showing off your Holoport recordings is a bit cringey
this piece up here ^ was already posted but I wanted to include it anyway
^ Uno reverse, my dude
^ Weegie, the meme-loving robot, couldnât resist some fresh cringe.
