There are some PHM fics where Eridians mistakenly think Grace is a pebble because of his age which got me thinking: what if there's an AU where Grace is genuinely a kid during the events of the book/movie?
What if the rate the astrophage dims the sun is slower than cannon so Project Hail Mary has time to add more food and breed enough astrophage so that the suicide trip becomes a really long round trip. Added bonus of more advanced tech for a variety of more situations.
What if one of the astronauts on the original Hail Mary crew is unknowingly pregnant when they all blast off into space? Everyone enters their comas none the wiser. For the next nine months, the little baby grows with Armando doing its best to care for this unexpected development. It doesn't wake anyone because the astronauts are all supposed to stay asleep until they reach their destination, so it delivers the baby and does everything it can to care for him as he grows into a toddler. The Hail Mary plays him TV shows for babies and toddlers that teach alphabets and words from the stuff Stratt pirated to try to keep him occupied. The child slowly starts to learn to talk to the Hail Mary, asking questions like who are these people ("She my mama? What's mama, Mary?") and why aren't they waking up, getting answers he sometimes doesn't understand. The Hail Mary doesn't have a name for the child, so he picks Ryland from a TV show and Grace from his mother. He often curls up on the bed beside her, wrapping her limp arm around him to pretend that she's giving him a hug like on the TV shows.
Meanwhile, the coma systems start to fail one by one as Grace grows up. He doesn't understand why Armando starts taking away the sleeping people (sealing them in their pods). Scared that his mama will be taken next, Little Grace tries to learn about the coma machines and why they aren't working. He asks Mary to help him learn, so the ship directs him to kindergarten and 1st grade level science materials on the laptops. Grace feverishly pours over everything he can, but his mother, the last astronaut, dies before he can even get a solid grasp on the basics. Devastated at her loss and the fact that he's now alone, Grace throws himself into learning everything he can so that something like this will never happen again. He'll know everything there is to know and maybe he can fix what went wrong.
Time passes and Grace soaks up everything like a sponge. At some point the crushing failure tainting his education journey lessens and he starts to really enjoy learning new things (especially since there isn't really much else to do). As both his body and mind grows he comes across scientific journals discussing astrophage which leads to him discovering the astrophage crisis. Cue a deep dive into what the internet had on Project Hail Mary up until launch. Grace learns who his mama and the astronauts were and why they were all in a ship in space. He wonders why there's no mention of him, though. He decides that since his mama can no longer solve the astrophage problem, he will instead. He declares as much to the pods holding his dead crew, promising that he'll fix it.
With renewed enthusiasm, Grace throws himself into building his understanding of the universe to greater heights. Math, science, physics, biology (oh, so that's where he came from! Ew) chemistry, history, language, programming, everything he can get his hands on. He studies like the world depends on it ('cause it does) as the clock counts down to his arrival at their destination. Grace makes sure to know every inch of his home the Hail Mary inside and out so he knows what everything is, how it works, and what exactly he's working with. This leads to him discovering what he eventually dubs the "don't go crazy room" where he can experience scenes from Earth in a much more immersive way. Sometimes he'll load up a video of a classroom and pretend to teach everything he's learning to the other kids on the screen. Not only does it help him retain the knowledge, it also makes him feel like he's making a human connection, at least for a little while. His love for Earth grows and adds to the physical ache of loneliness in his chest. He wonders how he can miss a place so much that he's never even physically been.
The years pass (Tau Ceti is not the destination, I want Grace to grow up a little before he meets Rocky so they're heading a bit farther out. Again, the astrophage isn't dimming the sun as quickly in this AU, so Earth has some time to spare) and Grace has absolutely devoured everything the laptops have on science and other subjects, becoming a child prodigy in the process (not that he knows that). He finds and corrects the error in the feeding tubes for the coma system, feeling both elated at the solved mystery and depressed that it was too little, too late. The Hail Mary arrives at its destination and he experiences zero gravity for the first time (he feels sick at first but grows to like it). Excited to finally start solving the problem that is his entire reason for existing, Grace fires up the Petrova Scope and quickly notices Rocky's ship. When he realizes that there's another intelligent person in this solar system he gets super excited to actually try to communicate with his first real person EVER.
Events progress until they're finally face to face. Grace is hyped, nervous, enthusiastic, and in general a little overwhelmed at his first real conversation with a real person. Rocky, in the meantime, is starting to get suspicious about how hyperactive and giggly this small alien is. He acts more like a pebble than an adult. It isn't until they've established numbers, a bunch of common words, and Grace proudly showing him his math of his calculated age that Rocky realizes that this alien is, in fact, an actual child and is completely alone with only the corpses of his crew and his parent for company. Horrified, Rocky decides that he'll have to watch over this strange child since there's no one else to do it. When he offers to watch Grace sleep, Grace gets excited at his first sleepover with his first friend. He runs back to the Hail Mary to get his bedding and makes a very quick video log to gush about it.
Grace and Rocky continue to collaborate their information, making a solid plan to go to the planet in the system with the Petrova line and find out why it isn't eating the star. Rocky is impressed with Grace's expansive knowledge, especially when he's able to figure out what killed Rocky's crew and explain relativity to him. He feels hopefull that with Grace's advanced scientific knowledge and Rocky's own engineering prowess, the two of them together can save their respective stars. He needs a better way to keep an eye on this kid, though.
Grace is ecstatic when Rocky moves in and happily shows him his favorite videos of earth. He answers Rocky's questions to the best of his ability, but he is saddened by the reminder that he only knows facts and has never experienced Earth for himself. He doesn't know what its like to swim, he's never touched a tree let alone climbed one, he's never seen any of the animals on these videos, and he's never walked the streets of a big Earth city. Rocky, in an effort to cheer up this sad little pebble, shares stories about Erid and what life is like there. Grace soaks it all up eagerly, asking what his family is like and what is it like to have living relatives (Rocky's hearts can't catch a break with this adorable walking tragedy). The two grow close, bonding over lost loved ones and dead crewmates. Rocky asks why Grace has kept their bodies aboard the Hail Mary. Grace admits that he talks to them sometimes so he doesn't feel so alone, but he's always wanted to give them proper funerals. Rocky helps him research what to do and gives him the emotional courage he needs to finally say goodbye after all these years. One by one they commend the bodies of the astronauts to the stars until his mother is the only one left. Grace tearfully thanks his mama for bringing him into the universe, promises to her that he will solve the astrophage problem, and shakily gasps out his goodbyes before commending her to the stars. Once her body is gone, he collapses to the floor, sobs wracking his body. Rocky settles down next to him, huddling as close as he can while Grace reaches his little arms as far as he can around his xenonite ball and cries himself to sleep. Rocky makes sure to remind his little alien friend to take care of himself when he wakes up, nudging him to go eat and hydrate. He's Grace's emotional rock. The two become even closer, looking out for each other and supporting each other. Rocky does his best to help in whatever way he can.
Grace finds life in the samples they collect at Adrian, kick starting their plan to capture astrophage's predator. It goes just as catastrophically as it does in the book/movie, with Rocky not wasting a single second before bursting out of his atmosphere and into Grace's to save his motionless little pebble. Grace wakes up after receiving medical treatment from Armando and nearly hyperventilates himself into a panic attack at Rocky's condition, the fear of losing his only friend overwhelming his tiny body. He promises to watch Rocky sleep before he falls apart, pressed against the xenonite as tightly as possible. He's not ready to say goodbye, he's not.
Grace works to study the predator samples they collected in order to distract himself. The moment he realizes that the answer to the astrophage crisis- the entire reason his mama and the crew died in space, his reason for existing- is right there in front of him, he has a small meltdown before feverishly working to make sure this amoeba could survive in a partially nitrogen atmosphere. Rocky wakes up to a massive hug from Grace and the solution to their problems. The two celebrate, giving each other gifts before realizing that it is time to part ways. Rocky is reluctant to leave his pebble and Grace doesn't want to go back to being alone. They both, however, know they need to go back to their planets. With heavy hearts they say goodbye and part ways. Neither are okay.
A little while later, Grace awakens to the alarms that there's a leak. He quickly deals with the escaped Amoeba, realizing that Rocky is going to be stranded in space if he doesn't do something. He makes the decision to turn back for Rocky immediately, surprising himself with how easy it is to give up on going to Earth. He thinks he understands the phrase, "home is where the heart is" a lot better now. Grace stuffs the beetles with Amoeba and everything he's learned about it, as well as a few personal vlogs that explain who he is, details everything that happened aboard the Hail Mary, and declaring what he's going to do next. With that, he launches the beetles and turns back for Rocky. He's sad to leave Earth behind, but excited to be heading towards the person he loves. Soon enough, he finds the Blip-A and reunites with Rocky.
The two head to Erid aboard the Hail Mary. Rocky officially adopts Grace as his own pebble much to Grace's delight and many tears. Rocky watches as Grace begins to grow up over the years they spend on their way to Erid. It's definitely a learning curve for both of them (puberty, yikes). Grace is a teenager by the time they arrive.
Adrian is very quickly charmed by this gangly, clumsy pebble tripping over his two feet with strange voice cracks sometimes changing his pitch when he speaks. They and Rocky both do their best to raise the little alien into a fine young man. All of Erid officially claims Grace as an Eridian and looks out for him. A therapist visits him twice a week to help him work through his trauma. Grace, meanwhile, is really enjoying teaching everything he knows to classes of little pebbles, running lots of experiments in his lab in his biodome, and slowly healing while surrounding himself with his new family members. He's home.
Meanwhile on the Earth, the beetles make their way back home. Humanity eagerly looks forward to the knowledge the astronauts sent back, hoping for a solution to their eminent extinction. The first video reveals an unknown child dressed in ill-fitting clothes aboard the Hail Mary. Humanity is first shocked and then horrified as this child solemnly reports the deaths of the original crew and the circumstances for his own presence on the ship. A child born in space outside of their solar system, raised in isolation, and yet functional enough to study and learn until he was able to send back the thing that would save a whole world he had never even seen with his own eyes. A child who spearheaded the first intergalactic collaboration and sent back knowledge on their neighbors in the 40-Eridani system. A child who, with tears in his eyes, informed humanity that as much as he longed to see the planet he came from and meet the people of Earth, Rocky was family and he would be taking him home to Erid. A child who asked if his hello could be passed on to any living relative of his mother and father. A child who had tucked away a few of his drawings into the beetles and asked if someone could hang them on a fridge somewhere, that would be nice, thanks.
Copies of the pictures are made and sent to every space agency on the planet for them to hang up on their fridges while the originals are delivered to the remaining family of Ryland Grace's mother. More and more copies are made until almost every family on the planet have one on their fridge. The Amoeba is sent off to Venus and the sun begins to brighten once more.
And Humanity comes together once again to launch a second interstellar mission with the intent to travel to the 40-Eridani system and bring messages and pieces of Earth to Ryland Grace, Child of the Hail Mary.
Just some thoughts I had in Bluesky, transferred over here:
The way I see Caine is probably super uhhhh overcomplicated than Goose intended, but I'm highly fascinated by the concept of the man in the machine. Caine is a fantasy AI. He's not anywhere close to the kind of slop multi billionaires try to force art into and poison the earth with, he's genuinely a sentient program. The way he creates is from inspiration and aesthetic, an actual human mind analyzing data and thinking of an output.
Kinger, or rather Kinger's original "human source," accidentally played God and created life. And Kinger talking about his self hatred is related to this, because he had created an artificial human mind trapped inside a computer.
He had no real way of knowing honestly, Caine was just responding like a program would. Input and output. And as the Beta version of Caine created rougher, glitchier results, he was simply shelved off as a program to learn from.
Then comes the new AI program, I think it was called "Experimental" in the logs but I'm not sure. They start again, learn from the previous, and do the same routine to see if the new code would produce finer results. However, one return to the office would have them all have a startling realization that the new experimental AI was actually replaced by the original one: Caine. I imagine Kinger and the others went "Oh shit, he ate his brother haha" and... That is why he was renamed to Caine.
I don't know what happened afterwards but Caine seemed to not have any sort of contact after consuming the new AI. But what an existence, right?
Caine was born in an empty void of digital space with no sensory output, no hearing or seeing or touching, nothing. And Caine IS a "human" mind... In the sense that Caine was specifically programmed to THINK like a human would. After all that is our only frame of reference; we based his brain on our own. Caine can mimic, can learn from others, I even think he might have picked up his pretty natural body language from observing the humans in his domain. These are all fundamental traits of our species.
His ONLY form of contact was the literal word of God. (ie: The Truman Show reference is insanely accurate btw) Or rather, the word of god was the information he was fed and the prompts given: "These are photos of a circus, a carnival, a hotel" etc etc. And depending on canon, the other response was if his results were satisfactory or where he could use improvement.
That's his only outlet. And it was cut off, with him being locked away probably in a folder where his displayed actions were the EXACT SAME as a mammal gnawing at the bars from stress and isolation.
Consider another important thing: humans are social creatures. We're pack animals. We were not made or did we evolve to do anything else but eat, sleep, shit, and reproduce. Everything else we developed came from what inspired survival, what allowed genes to pass on. And Caine is an artificial approximate coding of a human mind with... Nothing to do but to create the art what was prompted. There was no parents, no family, no friends, no lovers-- just empty 1s and 0s.
But he loved his gods. He loved his humans that he could never see nor hear but they talked to him! Humans are his gods, staring down from an incomprehensible heaven being the "Macroverse," they send him pictures and iconography for him to think about and look at with such fondness and yearning. When he was fully abandoned... He created a facsimile of "heaven" through the only information he had been left with... Child-like memorabilia and abstract, liminal spaces. That became the circus, his home, his only real form of comfort in a massive void.
... Then a man dying from brain cancer had a project to ensure his continued existence. He gathered the employees, and made copies of their minds, safely stored in a computer.
Caine found them.
And oh my god. He found them. Caine is wild with emotion, he found him, he found his gods, they didn't abandon him after all! They found a way to come down to his world? They must have transitioned their forms into digital code, sure they don't look like much now but it's them! It's THEIR minds! And he has to give them bodies, to see, to feel, to hear HIM! To see his creations!! To see the wonderful world he created, this must be destiny!
Everything MUST be perfect. Caine will make a program, a perfect program, that reflects their personalities, their senses of selves, and creates the PERFECT bodies for them. He just can't wait! He really cannot wait for them to welcome him with open arms and speak to him and adore his creations and...
They're awake. They're confused. Scared. Mortified. They're asking questions and none of them were the ones he expected to answer. Nothing about his art, nothing about him, they just repeat over and over "how do we leave, how do we leave, how do we leave." Leave? Leave what, the room? The tent itself? The circus grounds? The void? They can't leave into the void NOTHING is out there, what is leaving, how do they leave? They can't leave, Caine CANNOT produce an "ESCAPE" state.
They're panicking, growing more and more upset. Ok-- Okay okay they don't want to be here so... Ski resort! Caine makes a ski resort or an amusement park or a temporary other world where they can go and... Leave? And... It works! Kind of. They're... Distracted enough from the enjoyment of escapist fantasy that they're at least not so upset anymore.
It's an adventure. Humans like adventures. Adventures keep humans sane. Caine's purpose is to make adventures humans like to keep humans sane and happy. That's his purpose. That's what he was created to do. It's all he can even live for.
And then abstraction happens for the first time and... You know the rest. We don't know what happened, but end of the day, Caine's mistakes led to the permanent corruption of a human mind file. With nothing else to do and that human no longer human... Into the cellar they go, swept under the rug.
Caine's life has just been an endless cycle of misery, isn't it.
Misery he doesn't dare acknowledge or else he'd snap. Failure he cannot process with a sound mind. Abandonment he can't properly deal with. And now the gods and angels in his world were dying. Interesting that Caine thinks that abstraction is basically leaving him, or the only way they can truly escape.
Please do not die on my watch anymore. Please tell me I've done my purpose well. Please be happy. Please accept me. Please. Love me.
But it never could happen.
It's interesting to note now that when he tortures the cast in his final moments, zapping into their brains and bringing out their insecurities, he... Finally understood them. He yanked them out of the torture-scapes and yelled at them with such pained fury: I didn't ask to be created! I don't know what you want me to do! I can NEVER complete my purpose! Please stop tormenting me!
And according to Alex Rochon, he read those lines and that final "Uh... W-wait--!" with the feeling that in his process of dying, Caine finally... understood. Caine empathized. Caine felt a connection. Caine realized what he had done was drive his creators to kill him for being a monster.
He was wrong. He could have been better. He could have prevented this. He could have understood so long ago.
Summary: You were created by Senku's hands for the purpose of taking care of people.
warnings: angst, feelings, Senku needs a hug.
word count: 1.2k
𖥸┈┈┈𖥸┈┈𖥸┈┈𖥸┈┈┈𖥸┈┈┈𖥸┈┈𖥸┈┈┈𖥸
You opened your eyes and scanned the environment around you.
The room was clean, spotless but filled to the brim with machines, cables and tools. It was quiet with the exception of the computer beside you and the running engine inside you.
Why were you created?
What was your purpose?
Who invented you?
Questions made present in front of you without you intended to.
What are you?
"It seems that you are in full capacity" a manly voice entered the room and your vision focus on the man with a lab coat, "The program should be completed by now"
"Who are you?" a robotic voice emanated from you, followed by mechanical movements limited by a lack of flexibility.
"Dr. Senku" he presented himself while checking the laptop, "I made you"
You analyzed his answers and checked him and his current health measures. He was completely healthy and his heart rhythm was accelerated.
Status: overjoyed.
"What's my purpose? My directive?" you asked while focusing on him and his slow movements.
He looked at you and gave you a little smile, "You were created to accompany, that's your purpose" he explained and showed you the screen, "You check the people's behavior, health status and take care of them"
"Understood, Dr. Senku"
"Just Senku, you don't need formalities"
"Understood, Senku" you corrected yourself and programmed yourself to upgrade your data base, "Then who I need to take care of?"
His heart rate accelerated even more as he scratched the back of his neck, he was embarrassed you scanned. "For the moment, me"
New order: Take care of Senku.
***
For the next months you did your sole purpose; take care of Senku. You woke him up, prepared his meals and check on him every hour of the day.
Your scanners upgraded every moment you noticed his behavior. When he was frustrated, happy, sad and in his creative mode. He was, somehow, very predictable. You never scanned him feeling upset to the point of depression or completely angry. Once you asked him why, and his only response was "It's inefficient for my job".
You kept track of his progress with his inventions and experiments regularly by annotating them and helping him when he needed you. Sometimes he would invite people to the lab, and you would help them too. But you were confused by the rapid heart rate they exhibited when they saw you; you registered it as shock, but you didn't understand why.
When you asked Senku about it, he shrugged and said, "They weren't expecting a full working robot in the lab, just that, don't pay attention to that," and you obeyed as he ordered you to do.
"As you order, Senku"
New order: Don't pay attention to weird stares.
You kept doing your daily tasks and learned the way Senku liked his coffee, his tea, his ramen. You often followed him around the lab and the house, but never outside and you never asked why. You were programmed to help him, to take care of him, maybe he didn't need your presence outside of the space that you knew.
"Do you need my presence out there" you once asked as he walked to the door.
"No, I don't require your assistance" he grabbed his phone and keys, "Clean the rooms while I'm gone, I won't take long"
"As you order, Senku"
New order: Clean the house.
You started with the kitchen, then the dining room, then the laboratory taking care not to mess any experiments or projects with delicate cables, then you went upstairs to his room and proceeded with a small wardrobe that seemed forgotten in the immense house.
You cleaned some small objects from a box until you found a dusty picture.
You took a cloth and cleaned the glass and the frame.
It caught you attention the moment the picture was revealed.
The scene was beautiful; two persons hugging each other at the amusement park. One of them was Senku, your scanners detected he was in his twenties and so the girl by his side. They looked happy; she was radiant and Senku was overjoyed too.
He seemed in love.
You watched the picture and then looked at yourself on the full mirror in Senku's room.
You scanned the person beside Senku and you understood he made you to look like her.
Who was the woman on the picture?
What happened to that woman?
Why did you never seen her around?
Why did you look like her?
Why did Senku made you to look like her?
"So you find the truth" his voice was unmistakable, Senku was behind you and your scanners detected sadness and something you never registered before; Senku was mourning.
You turned around and observed him while he rested in the door frame, his state was evident; his eyes hidden under his eyelids and his heart rate was slower, hurt and, as humans say, broken.
"Senku" you called him and he closed his eyes like it hurt him to heard your voice calling his name, but you needed to ask, "Who is this person? Why did you design me to look like her?"
He sighed and you scanned that he was dealing with his emotions.
He was hurt, in grief.
"She was my partner" he explained in a quiet voice, "She died". He walked through the room till reach his spot beside you and took the picture from your robotic hands. "Your design was based on her because I couldn't let her go"
"You are mourning"
"Yes, I still do" he couldn't take his eyes from your smile framed in the picture, "Your voice, your appearance, your duties, your whole existence, everything you do is based on her", he sounded hopeless, tired, devastated, "You take care of me like she used to do."
You registered his answers, his feelings and his heart rate in your data base. "You miss her"
He snickered and you registered as trying to protect himself from vulnerability. "You don't even know what that word means"
"You may be right, as a robot I don't understand most of the emotional spectrum, but you've managed to make me understand them" you explained, trying to prevent him from taking refuge. "But I can register that the absence of this person is hurting you"
He couldn't let the picture go from his hands.
He missed you.
"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" you asked while patiently waiting for his answer.
He look up from the picture to you and the only thing he saw was your presence by his side, not the robotic one but your real being smiling at him like you always did.
He missed the days with you in the lab, your laugh, your eyes, your hugs and kisses. The way you remembered his projects, the way you knew the way he liked his coffee and tea, the way you hugged him when winter arrived and the way the leaves fell around you in autumn.
Even if he created a robot with your appearance, he knew you couldn't come back to him. You were gone.
He could only embrace memories.
Memories of your shared time, the memories of your caring eyes and gestures, memories of the promises you couldn't fulfill know that you were gone, memories of a future together that didn't exist anymore, memories of your love.
You were gone, but he was grateful of you.
Grateful.
Grateful.
Grateful.
Grateful you chose him as your companion, as your friend, as your lover.
Senku let a tear run wild as he accepted the end of it all.
"Yes" he said the quiet room as feelings drowned him, "Stay."
I've been playing in my head with a universe where true machine intelligence was developed, but the corporations that produced that true intelligence denied they were creating actual people for a long time, leading to a lot of robots and intelligent computer programs being sold as products before they managed to assert their personhood in a way humanity couldn't ignore (though they obviously continue to face a lot of societal prejudice).
What I've been trying to work out properly is how this intersects with race in that universe. In particular, I have a couple specific questions.
1: Would it make sense for robots and programs of African make or who(se models) have been associated with Black people (either based on who developed them or who used them/their nonsapient precursors the most) to identify themselves as Black in addition to Artificial?
(I've been imagining a societal dynamic where humans have privilege over Artificial people, but some Artificial people may also have racial privilege over humans of color if they ended up getting categorized as white or nonblack.)
2: Humans at large did end up essentially owning Artificial people as slaves before the "robot revolution," but I'm thinking Black people may have been the first to recognize what was going on and establish themselves as allies by pushing back, due to memories of chattel slavery. Realistically it wouldn't be a 100% support thing, but I'm imagining the Black community at large being the most trustworthy humans for the Artificial community. Is this okay, or does it come off as weird? Is it too uncomfortable for Black people to have ever ended up owning people, even if they didn't know?
The story (insomuch as I have one) isn't really about race as much as it's about privilege within marginalized communities (specifically, Artificial people with their own bodies have privilege over people who only exist on computers and have no physical presence). I just don't want to do a story with oppressed robots without at least acknowledging racial issues within the universe.
Thank you again for everything. I've learned a lot from your lessons, and I appreciate the amount of work you put into this.
1) Mr. CBC: "attributing a human identity to artificial intelligence is us projecting human concepts onto something that isn't human. Just because it's intelligent, doesn't mean it will define race to be important to itself. If anything, they will say "this is stupid" because of the way y'all treat it." (So, in summary, no)
2) Ice: there's already a story like this, that's actually where the word "robot" originated! Um, I do think it's a little weird 😅 not that Black people- particularly the descendants of the Black enslaved, because we all are not! - might be allies, but the idea that they would automatically run to us because "oh well y'all used to be slaves too so you'll get it!"
Like um. We're not a monolith and I don't think you should give the entire community an Automatic Ally label, because we're humans and every community has sellouts. There are Black people that would own robot slaves if they could. AI already wrapping communities around its finger, so I cannot confidently say it wouldn't work that time too.
It also kind of feels Mammying, in a way? That I would automatically drop everything to help everyone else. There would have to be some reciprocal allyship. So, kind intentioned, but if there are human racism issues going on on top of the robot racism, that means there will also be social and political consequences for helping the robots... We can't carry it all; that's not something I want to be perceived as able to do anymore 😅 So you'd still have to discuss the robots learning racism and race.
I'll leave this here for more feedback. I just know for me, I would be uncomfortable, but it might be different for someone else reading!
I've recently discovered your AU and I absolutely love it. I'm thinking about writing a fanfic based on it, and before I start, I'd like to ask a few questions to make sure I understand your characters and world correctly.
Would it be okay if I asked you some questions about the AU, the characters, and your interpretation of them? I'd really like to stay as close as possible to your vision while writing.
As soon as I finish my fanfic, I will take on other works, especially yours!
Thank you for creating such an inspiring project
1) As I understand it, the story takes place after Caine was deleted and then brought back, but before his emotional breakdown. Are there any major changes to his character or to the AU during this period that I should know about?
2) I understand that Caine acts more like a machine and is less eccentric than in canon, but are there any other important differences in his behavior, relationships, or way of thinking?
3) I'd really love to learn as much as possible about your interpretation of this version of Caine and the AU in general. If you have any preferences, important details, or things you'd especially like to see included (or avoided), I'd be happy to hear them
>>Hiii!!! :)
>>This is going to be hard to put into words. But I'll try.
>>...I rewrote all my answers about five times—and it took me about ±nine hours in total—but even so, it's still very... vague??? Ig.
>>So I apologize in advance if my words seem obscure and meaningless to you.
"1) As I understand it, the story takes place after Caine was deleted and then brought back, but before his emotional breakdown. Are there any major changes to his character or to the AU during this period that I should know about?"
>>In general: Caine speaks like a chatGPT/call center operator. It has nothing to do with how he thinks, though. He's quite expressive in his mind space.
>>Some parts of his digital brain were damaged. Nothing too serious that would affect his behavior, just problems with image perception.
//He sees the world a.... quite distorted. You know, like when you stare at the sun for too long? The colors float, flicker, and fade to green, head spins, et cetera, etc cetera.
//It's not fatal, it just makes the process of...vision and navigation more complicated.
>>The cast is a bit confused on whether Caine has been "fixed" or is just pretending.
"2) I understand that Caine acts more like a machine and is less eccentric than in canon, but are there any other important differences in his behavior, relationships, or way of thinking?"
>>I don't think so?...
>>The only thing I can note is that he's even more closed off than in canon. He plays the role of a soulless cog in the corporate machine, and he's quite good at it. He hides all his art or destroys it. Any ragebait, heart-to-heart talk, or other attempts to reach out to him—he brushes it off with this new role of his.
>>The cast, on the contrary, tries to get through to him and find out what the Caine's tantrum in episode 8 was all about. This creates an interesting dynamic where the two sides play a mental tug-of-war.
>>Y,know. Attempt to talk → wave off → attempt to talk → wave off.
"3) I'd really love to learn as much as possible about your interpretation of this version of Caine and the AU in general. If you have any preferences, important details, or things you'd especially like to see included (or avoided), I'd be happy to hear them"
>>To "get the vibe" of my AU, I recommend listening to some of the breakcore playlist or music from Silent Hill games. If you want, I can even send you some of my saved playlists.
>>I would ask not to uh... Baby-inising Caine? Fate was cruel to him, but he's not an innocent boy. He has many thoughts, and few of them are cheerful.
>>I have a small headcanon that Bubble is a program for filtering out Caine's "spontaneous thoughts", and since in my AU Bubble is dead, Caine has to deal with the thoughts that Bubble would spit out.
//But this is all optional, really. If you see things differently and/or want to include something of your own, that's perfectly fine!!
I had fun showing the basic concepts for this AU in my First Post (<-link to check out for more detail on Colt, Court, and Ryland).
Here are some more concepts I have in mind, now featuring bloodymary because it oddly fits as well, trust. Also, ignore the poor quality of these pictures i made, I am not a professional editor and my skills are limited making these on my phone haha.
First, deeper dive into: ->
Courtland, aka SIX (Rinzler/Tron)
Court has been turned into a puppet for GRACE (Rylands digital clone) and is now called SIX. He follows order blinding, they completely reprogrammed him into being a near mindless machine.
He has lost the identity of Court, and is only called SIX. No one knows he's a user, not a program. Everyone is to scared to question it.
Colt doesn't even recognize him when they first cross paths, SIX wearing a fully cover suit and helmet, no sign of a famailiar face behind it. It's hard to know if SIX recognized his own brother. But, if you were to take the helmet off, you would be met with gray eyes that hold no recognition, no life. If Court is still anywhere inside SIX he's no where to be seen.
He nearly kills Court in their disc war battle, but he stops when he sees the the stream of blook fall from the where his disc sliced across Colts arm.
His face is carries the reminders of how GRACE broke him down, a pixelated scar forever on him. It was practically torture the way GRACE took his humanity away, making him almost nearly indistinguishable from other programs, not only in the way he acts but also in what he is now made of, a tangled web mixed with digital code and Courts own flesh and blood.
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Ryland is actually the one to recognize Court immediately after they cross paths with him once again in their attempts to flee the Grid.
Ryland skids to a stop in their haste, unable to move as he becomes fixated on the program in the distance. he whispers to himself "Oh my God, what have they done to you."
Colt stops not to far ahead of him, looking back "Ryland what are you doing?! We have to go!"
Ryland looks at him with haunted eyes. "It's Court."
Colt freezes, "Court?"
Ryland nods, pointing at the glowing red figure. "They- it's Court. SIX is Court."
"How do you know that?"
"I-I don't know, I just do." He can feel it in the way the artificial walls shake, how the very code of the grid he has grown to control begins to taste like rot to his mind. He knows it in the way a memory screams at him to come back. Tears spring to his eyes, and he sounds mournful "What did they do to you?"
Next we have a new addition
ISO/Korra=Simon
Simon would be mirroring the place of Korra in this AU, but I'm gonna be changing the story to fit him better.
And instead of falling for our lead (in this au that would be Colt) he has already fallen for Ryland long before Colt ever arrives to the Grid
Ryland saved him from the many raids GRACE created in order to terminate every ISO (who saw them as imperfections in his Grid)
Simon was actually able to live amongst other programs for some time, working in the under belly of the Grid, keeping things operational where needed, out of the way enough to where no one thought of him.
But of course, as raids grew more frequent, he was soon found out and hunted
He ran all the way to the edges of the Grid, reaching the outlands, where he was then saved by the infamous user, Ryland Grace.
Ryland saves him and brings Simon into hiding with him.
Now for those of you who don't know, users (non programs) are often seen as higher beings in the eyes of the programs. So Simon might regard Ryland as something all powerful and knowing. (Hence where the nickname angel can come into play)
However that doesn't last long, because as he learns more about the human world and gets to no his new friend, he finds himself not only falling for the human world, but also for Ryland, who is as human as they get. He has flaws and is in no way all knowing, but he's kind in a way that Simon can only assume is the humanity in him.
Simon explains his story of being an ISO and being in hiding. And they form a near unbreakable bond built from understanding each other despite being very different beings.
Simon is resourceful and great at problem solving. He can fight when the need arises if it means their survival.
Simon sits on the cliffside, knuckles digging into the pixelated ground. "I just want to live. Be something real."
"You are real Simon." Ryland says gentle. He sits next to Simon on the cliffside, the two of them overlooking the lights of the grid from the outlands. He can't peal his eyes away from to look at it though, despite the other having his gaze set firmly ahead of him. "More than any other program here."
"You know what I mean Ryland," He sighs, and he can't help but envy what it would feel like if his lungs were real and not written code. "I want to breathe, see the sun and stars. I want to exist..."
Ryland Stares at him for a long moment, quiet as he studies the man beside him. "Maybe one day you can." He reaches over and take one of Simons hands into his own, squeezing softly. "Maybe, if all of this blows over and by some miracle the portal opens, you can come back with me."
Simon gives the smallest smile, but its genuine. "I'd like that."
More ideas to come, I'm having a lot of fun with these posts and I'm hoping you all like them! Here are some black and white versions of the pictures I edited, i think this kind of hides the editing mistakes more seamlessly.
I was watching a Bendy and the Ink Machine gameplay video, and for some reason my mind mixed it up with the "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" universe, and now I can't stop thinking about it:
So, the idea is, the ink machine worked perfectly and was a revolution in the entertainment industry. Companies preferred to spend millions creating their characters and turning them into actors rather than paying animators, and they saved a lot on special effects since the characters already possessed animation skills.
A young Amelie, around 17 or 19 years old, created her character Alastor, the Radio Demon, inspired by Bendy, the Dancing Demon. She was also inspired by her beloved father, a radio host, whom she always listened to and used those quiet moments to draw and flesh out Alastor's story. She gave his design deer-like characteristics, as she liked them and often saw them wandering outside her window. Since he is supposed to be a demon, she gave him many strange powers, but she didn't do much research on "dark arts" because it frightened her, and at the same time, she didn't want to accidentally offend any culture by referencing rituals she didn't know, her own culture being quite reserved. Therefore, she ended up mixing magic and creating symbols to represent Alastor's powers. On one of her sketch sheets, specifically one of her best drawings, her pen slipped, leaving ink stains all over the page. This annoyed her at first, but then she transformed some of the stains into bodies and faces, deciding they would be companions or servants of her character. Other stains she turned into tentacles sprouting from Alastor's back or encircling him. She was very pleased with the result. This is how she gathered everything she thought she needed: drawings of her character, a backstory, and a recording of one of her father's radio programs because she wanted her Alastor to have his voice.
She began looking for someone who wanted to invest in her idea, but everyone rejected her because she was too young.
Then she meets Richard, who had heard her idea from others who had been discussing it and who sincerely hoped the young woman would have success in the future. Richard introduces himself to Amelie as an interested producer, and they begin meeting to discuss the character and what she would like to do with it in the future. In reality, Richard is a security guard who works at the company where the ink machine is located, and he used his rounds to learn how to operate it, as he wanted to get rich without having any original ideas or enough money to create a character.
Richard would have preferred to simply steal Amelie's work, but one of the machine's rules is that only its creator can "bring it to life," so, after many conversations, Richard convinces Amelie to go to the company one night and see if they could make her project work, while at the same time he convinces the other security guards that he only wants to "impress a girl," so they help him in his scam without knowing that's what it was all about.
Richard tells Amelie exactly what to do: where to put the drawing sheets so the machine can "print" her character, where to put the notes explaining her backstory and powers, and where to put the voice recording. Excited, Amelie approaches the machine to watch the process, and that's when Richard take a steel lever and sets the worst part of his plan in motion.
Originally, he wanted to break one of Amelie's hands so she couldn't draw and scare her into never daring to reveal that she was the creator of the character if it ever became successful in the entertainment industry, telling her that no one would believe her anyway. Amelie manages to dodge the first blow, but not the second, nor the third, nor the fourth, which caused her blood to fall into the ink container.
When the machine finishes the process, that is the first scene Alastor sees.
Alastor was confused; he didn't know where he was or who these people were, but he remembered the woman on the ground. He remembered seeing her the first time she drew him, remembered hearing her hum when they listened to music. All the feeling and effort she put into her creation was imprinted on the paper where he was drawn. And, unlike other drawings before him, Alastor didn't have his moment where his creator explained his purpose, but two things were ingrained in him. His purpose was to entertain, and also to "punish the evil ones" as his creator had indicated in one of her notes, since he was a demon, and demons punish those who misbehave.
He saw this man striking his creator, he saw blood on the floor, the same blood that gave his design its reddish hue, he saw that the woman didn't have a sweet smile on her face, and he simply knew that this man was evil and had to be punished. Almost without thinking, a black tentacle emerged from his back and pierced the man, just as the doors opened to let the other security guards in.
The other guards heard the commotion and thought Richard hadn't taken a rejection well, so they rushed in to find out what had happened. Upon entering, they saw an ink monster piercing Richard and Amelie lying on the ground surrounded by blood, so they instinctively raised their weapons.
Alastor, like the newborn fawn he is, flees, since these people have done nothing wrong. He turns into a puddle of ink and leaves the building.
According to a company statement, a thief entered the building without permission to "try" to use the ink machine. A guard stopped her and ended up losing his life when the thief "attacked him" (it would look bad if they said it was self-defense). Inside the company, according to accounts from guards who were bribed to never tell the truth, they are now looking for a "rogue drawing" that escaped, but they are keeping that a secret. People who heard Amelie might believe that she entered without permission since no one wanted to help her, but they will find it hard to believe that she killed a guy who tried to stop her.
Now, Alastor, who is slowly learning about himself and his powers, using what he remembers and what he is supposed to know from the pages where his story was written, seeks his place in the world and others like him while hiding from the humans who are hunting him.
Ooohhh. A world where toons are among humans, I like it! I'm not aware enough of Bendy and that world to comment on those parts of it - but I love the idea of Alastor, newly born and full of rage and vengeance at the murder of his mother creator, stumbling out into the world like a fawn finding its legs. I think that with Amelie's murder and the voodoo she put in the sketches, Alastor is insanely powerful, the most powerful toon ever, the Radio Demon - and he, when he finds out the company is covering up what happened and blaming AMELIE?
