#gamma!six

[spacepoweredgiraffe]

I need to find me a cryogenic expert, to start getting an idea of how much space on the ship this suspended animation chamber is going to take. I'm plotting out the schematics for the interior, there's a decent amount of room in Delilah's hull to work with.

-Peter

[spacepoweredgiraffe]

Zan heads over to Walter Manor the next day, a bit nervous but eager to reacquaint herself with Peter's bots. Peering inside the front door, she knocks on the frame. "Anybody home?"

The sounds of music from a few rooms over dwindle down to a pause before a tall, slender bot makes an appearance in the foyer. "Why hello, there," Solar intones with a shallow little bow, "Welcome to Walter Manor, how can I help you today?"

There's a small whirr from the surveillance camera in the corner, and a moment later the intercom resounds above their heads, "It's Zan, the Spine. I'm down in the lab if you need me."

Solar inclines his head, doing a memory search for the name, and only returns with a small spark of recognition. "Welcome back, then, I should say. Sorry about my extended absence, I was studying in Japan for a couple years."

[spacepoweredgiraffe]

As it turns out, Hatchworth has been in Switzerland for quite some time, working with the scientists at CERN. I'm going to take a flight out tomorrow to join them there. Rabbit and The Spine are in charge of the Manor in the meantime.

-Peter

[spacepoweredgiraffe]

Good news in the works!

First off, my grant for robot-manned deep space travel was granted. We won't have issues with affording materials anymore... And maybe we could even hire some new assistants!

And secondly, I'm not sure which is more exciting, The Spine has come home. He's still recuperating from his world travels at the moment, but from what I understand he's amenable to the idea of escaping the planet for a while. I'll let you all know when I'm done upgrading him for our trip, then you can ask him all the questions you like.

[neubauje]

I was trying to get a bit of a visual down for how my headcanon Peter's face would work. His facial features would all fade in and out independent of each other, and their presence would be dependent upon his mood at the time. The more intensely negative his feelings are, the less face and more scars he has. These extremes can go all the way from looking almost normal around someone he greatly trusts, to being an eerily smooth and flat surface with no facial contours or structure or freckles or even blush, just completely riddled with brightly-glowing blue scars. That would be when he's especially scared or in pain or panicked. Sudden transitions in mood can cause the face to blink out of existence so quickly that it has been known to create a small pop sound.

The itching or pain that occasionally will crop up in the scars would be Peter's only indication of when he is probably blank, otherwise it's a pretty big mystery to him that is usually covered up by the mask anyway. He gave up on using mirrors to check and see after they all eventually just showed the blank canvas every time. Mirrors and cameras automatically trigger his self-consciousness nowadays.

The only hope he really has of ever seeing his own face again would be if someone (someone really close to him, like a significant other) were able to capture it on film while he was sleeping. Or if someone drew it from memory. And yes, I like to give my Peter a goatee. I like to think that either A. He doesn't bother with shaving anymore and that just happens to be the only facial hair that really grows in for him, or B. even though nobody ever sees it, he still fashions himself a little bit after his role model, Pappy Walter I with little touches like the goatee.

Pardon the inability to actually draw facial features or clothing, this is just concept art that hopefully gets the concept across.

Wondering why my Peter is so very self-conscious and insecure? Maybe read this fic.

[spacepoweredgiraffe]

Peter only stares for a second at the mental image of this other Walter’s invention, his head tilted off to the side a bit. “And uh… why would you want that, exactly?” He shakes his head quickly, realizing he’d probably just come off as rude, and goes back to explaining his work. “See at the top here, it’s specially fitted with the male counterpart of the socket described in the neuro-interface blueprint they published in Science Weekly last month. It should be able to interact directly with the nerves of an amputee, and function as a normal leg for them.” He cracks open a panel in the side of the disembodied limb, and indicates a few small pistons near the knee and ankle joints. “I replaced the super-powered pistons Racy needs to support his weight, since we don’t want a human to accidentally kick through walls or anything like that.” Peter replaces the panel and carefully jimmies off the bottom of the foot, which comes away with a little effort- the whole setup is connected to dozens of wires, running up all along the length of the prosthetic. “I’ve tried my hand at replicating some of Jaren’s sensory metal,” he explains with an almost rapidfire pace, near giddy with how close the project is to completion. “The wearer will be able to feel what they’re walking on!”

[ladybug-petervi]

"I.. I actually have no idea." 

Ladybug seemed struck by the question. He'd never thought of the reason for making things--he just created for the sake of it. Well, when he did create, he created for that reason. Nowadays, any and all time he had that didn't go to cleaning the house, repairing the bots, and trying to figure out whether or not he had enough food for the week was spent sketching out ideas for inventions he didn't have the money to buy materials for. All his ideas were little more than slips of paper, nowadays. Just wisps of what he could've made, in a better life. But that didn't matter right now. Right now, he was staring at a magnificent piece of machinery that was, if anything, revolutionary for this "Gamma" fellow's world. 

"That's absolutely fascinating!" 

He grinned, brimming with praise he couldn't put into words and pride that a version of himself could make something like that (although he supposed he could, to, if he hadn't had most of his intelligence whittled down to what was useful and what he still hopelessly clung to--unfortunately, with lack of money and the time to do delicate things like wiring, robotics was put on the backburner, crammed into the dark recesses of his mind to make room for lessons on living life on tiptoe). Although the names mentioned were lost on him, he knew well enough what the implications were. Spare parts and knowledge from outside parties was often a necessity for proper experimental work on an uncharted field. 

"Although I must say, sensory metal's a very tricky thing to work with when it comes to robots--although mine only have the basics--and humans must be even picker. Give `em a leg they can operate's all well and good, but once the novelty of that wears off, they'll get.. needier." 

A small frown, then a grin again. He didn't want to be a downer. 

"But that's besides the point. This is amazing, Peter! You've outdone yourself--well, technically you've outdone me, but that counts as saying you've outdone yourself, doesn't it?"

God, did it feel good to drabble again. 

[spacepoweredgiraffe]

((Did you want to be apart of the Six herd?))

Oh! Oh, somehow my inbox wasn't empty after all. Must have slipped my mind!

But yes, I always like having a sense of belonging... Is there some sort of initiation or rite of passage?