#android posting

[astrophyta]

if there is any character archetype I love equally to Angsty Solemn Hoyoverse Wind Boys(TM), it is most definitely the artificial human/cyborg/robot archetype, so imagine my joy upon realizing that the option to name the vidyadhara actor in the storytelling event “High Elder MK2000” is a direct appeal to that archetype and provides some interesting commentary on the role of vidyadhara high elders not just as leaders but as beings with utility.

the ~700 year rebirth cycle is very important to vidyadhara culture and their species’ sense of selfhood, with each individual reincarnation recognized as its own “life,” bearing no memories of their past life. but this isn’t the case for high elders. although their memories of their past lives are incomplete and recovered with time through their dreams, they are distinguished from others by this ability to remember, and it is this ability that makes them useful tools, if you will, to the vidyadhara remembering their past and connection to Long the Permanence.

the latest trailblaze mission takes this notion even further by implying that the high elder’s faces are unchanging through time. the imbibitor lunae has until now always resembled the person we know as dan heng. the high elder as an individual may be “different” from reincarnation to reincarnation, but their individuality is erased by the enchantment (so they say) that causes them to retain this appearance, elevating them to the status of an “idea” rather than a person.

this can also be seen through the process of passing a high elder’s title on to a new individual, in some ways. the xianzhou luofu has “always” had an imbibitor lunae, just as the other ships have always had their respective high elders, regardless of who actually holds the title. ayanami rei from evangelion is an artificial human, making her closer to meat than machine, but her internalized dehumanization reminded me of this process of inheritance for the high elders, both between reincarnations of one “being” (cue the screenshot of all the rei clones swimming in some godforsaken NERV tank) and between beings inheriting the title:

[lapistry]

18 is easier for me to draw bc she's like 17 but blonde

[liopsida]

"So what happened?"

"It was stocking some shelves and just went limp"

"Ah," the engineer said, pulling open the back panel of the android. Stripped bolts, dusty internals and old wiring...it was going to take a while to determine what happened. And even longer to guarantee it won't happen again.

"Frankly ma'am," she said, her hands tracing some of the internal fans with their bent blade and grimaced, "she could use some time in the shop"

The woman sighed, "I can't really swing that...can't you just get it working again?"

"I'll try," the engineer shrugged.

Laid out on the floor, there's only so much one can do with a box of tools and a bit of elbow grease but she got cracking anyways. Condensed air for all the lint from this dusty shop that's lodged inside her, the engineer finally got a good look at...huh. Those are really good parts.

Well, not anymore. But a decade ago she would've been a top of the line model. Nowadays she's been far, far outpaced by modern CCUs and Motherboards. Or PCBs if she's using the official term that avoids 'unnecessary personification of non-humans'...whatever. She shakes her head and gets back to her humble task of replacing what little she can with her on hand parts, bending what she can't fix into place, and silently apologizing wherever she can't do anything at all.

It wasn't long until she had done everything she could do with a screwdriver, plier, and a prayer, so she finally got to bust out her tablet. Jacking into the main diagnostic port, her tablet reads out all the personal details of the android still silently splayed out on the floor: an operating system that had its support dropped many many years ago, a bunch of proprietary peripherals (gods, was she stock even after all these years?), and a few read outs of her actuators that proved whatever was wrong was definitely a wiring issue and not a locked up joint.

Check. Check. Check. Basically everything about her internals passed with flying colors even if those standards far underperformed by standards today. Gods imagine the rush she may feel getting a couple supped up processors...the engineer bit her lip as she tried not to think things like that. The android didn't have feelings, so there would be no rush to be had...

Diagnostic done, she bolted up the panel and called her owner over.

"Ready for me to boot 'er up?"

"Sure," the lady said dismissively.

The instant that the boot up command was sent, the joints of the android went from disturbingly stiff to disturbingly lifelike, falling the short distance into a pose that made her look like she'd just collapsed. Then a moment later, she rose in a steady fluid motion, and once standing her eyes opened showing those piercing LED eyes.

"Resume task," the lady commanded.

"Certainly," the android said, picking up the box it had neglected on the floor and walking down the aisle of the small storage room.

"That's a relief, I was going to blow a lid if another thing broke in this gods forsaken station. You don't happen to do cryochamber repair too? Can't be that different."

"Oh, a-actually they are quite different see an andr-"

"No worries I figured. I'll send the credits over wire." the lady went back to her office.

Packing up her things, the engineer found herself right at the feet...or lack there of, of the Android now standing next to her. Looking up, those eyes bore into her and she began to get nervous...what did it think of her, someone who had just rooted around in her guts? Was she happy to be cared for after so long being neglected?

"H-hi," she said, timidly as she closed her toolbox and stood up. That gaze locked on her her whole ascent. Face to face with the thing her eyes darted off to the side and back into those near blinding lights. Was she sweating? Surely its just hot in this unconditioned room.

"Excuse me human,"

"Y-yes!?"

"Would you please move to the side."

Right. The box. She was standing in front of the box she needed to move.

"A-ah...good day," she said, excusing herself.

"Likewise," it said, automatically. As the engineer stepped aside, she tried to hide her red face. And when she left there were no eyes watching the engineer that muttered to herself about how she's really the broken one here. No human eyes at least.

[snarf-and-dotheworm]

gonna have to start making my own android posts huh.

who's gonna overload my system and fill my ports with unauthorized substances and download illegal bugs into my motherboard???

[androidposting]

beep boop

The name's Wyatt / Lukas, this is mainly a DBH / robot / general electronics-themed blog. Feel free to hang out :⁠-⁠)

I don't repost/post NSFW/T / Hankcon content. Just here 2 chill

DNI + boundaries below the cut 👍

DNI if you're a terf, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, the basic dni list ┐⁠(⁠ ⁠∵⁠ ⁠)⁠┌

Header image by @/overflow8!

That's all for now I think? I may update my pinned every once in awhile. Thanks for reading 👍

[nagathewhiteserpent]

Snapshots

In a Romanian village, cut off from the world, Donna Beneviento puts on a puppet show for the children of lycans-to-be. The Four Lords dance around like Punch and Judy. It's a promise, a hollow one, that there is nothing to fear. Her doll, Angie, energetically tells the tales, while Donna's smile is hidden behind a dark veil. There is nothing to fear in the Village of Shadows In a small city outside Seyruun, Naga the Serpent...fearsome mercenary for hire and noted 'dark sorceress' entertains the outside the pub, sharing songs and dances from across the Red World and telling tales of magic and adventure to the local children. She holds in her hands crackling fireworks and glimmering illusion. Makoto Niijima stares out the window at the snow falling, and melting upon the pavement outside her boyfriend's attic apartment. It's been a long year. A hard year. A year of changes. She smiles to herself. She's finally become who she always needed to be. The smell of coffee and curry is heavy in the air. There's still the final battle ahead...but here in this moment she shuts her eyes, and allows herself to relax. Everything will be okay. Atop the monastery at Garrag Mach, Edelgard Von Hresvelg sips tea while sitting upon the Archbishop's balcony, looking out over a land she one day hopes will be free of the tyranny of crests. Far below, she sees the ruin of the monastery walls...the damage her war has done. She sees the place she lost her professor...the dining hall where she celebrated their victories...and now, right here and now, she sees people she went to school with mere years ago clashing in the training yard. She knows they'll be ready...They'll survive. In a quiet town far from the front lines, an android watches an old comrade cast her fishing line into the water. She wonders...why does her friend fish, when she cannot eat? Why does she sit there for hours when there's the threat of war? She sees her old comrade carry the fish to the humans of the small village. The way they smile is strange to her. They treat Androids as peers. Her comrade is a provider, loved. She wonders if one day people will see her the same way. Mystique sits alone in the X-factor office. Her fingers curled around the handle of a coffee mug bearing 'X-Factor: Mutant Acquisition Department' as she raises it to her lips. She hates it here. She hates seeing the smug looks on the fed's faces when they remind her that they've implanted a failsafe in her brain. She hates Kyle's irritating voice. And then there's Sabretooth....and then..there's Sabretooth. Her fingers tighten around the coffee cup with a soft intake of breath, and she finally sips. In the dying Town of Gorkhon, Aglaya Lilich looks into the sky and sees the faces of children staring down at her. She knows them as gods. As the arbiters of everyone's fate. She hates them with all her heart. She averts her gaze instead to her grim duty. The Guilty have been presented for her judgement. The time of the God's judgement would come. And she already found them wanting. Snapshots. Not of every life, or every moment. But of parts of lives lived and experiences held long ago. Thoughts I've had flit through my mind that were worth writing down.

[nagathewhiteserpent]

You know...soon I might decide to write up a big thing. Last night I watched Black Widow, which delved into some of the brainwashing/training the girls had to undergo in the Red Room, and.... **yikes** did it remind me I've been wanting to make a post about that kind of thing for a while. From a living weapon created by Those Who Slither, to the brainwashed agent of the soviet state, I've been in rooms like that. It's been weighing on me a few days now. Maybe it's finally time to pull the trigger, I dunno