i started working on these months and months ago but only just came back and finished the rest so i'd have some extra reference material for artfight - classic-styled sprites of all my robot master ocs! left to right the palettes are nes colours, nes without palette restrictions, and colourpicked right from their art
[click for quality since i imagine tumblr will butcher my perfectly good nearest neighbour upscaling]
I would love to hear about hex woman, if that’s ok
[note: this ask was sent before i decided to make hex ace nonbinary, so it wasn't misgendering them!]
and i would love to infodump about them!! hex ramble under the cut
hex does repairs on space stations and other satellites! they usually work in earth's orbit, but they've been called to help out with spacecraft on or around different planets and moons. their body is held together by a personal electromagnetic field, letting them move their limbs independently of a physical joint structure and even suspend themself in midair if they have enough power for it. this makes them really well-suited to low-gravity environments, but any disruption to the field quickly renders them completely immobile. they have built-in shielding against the gentler electromagnetic disruptions that naturally permeate outer space, but anything more direct or powerful is pretty dangerous
they aren't exactly malicious, per se, but hex is about as mean as they come before they get decommissioned out of fear for public safety. they're snarky, sarcastic, and smug, and don't outwardly show a lot of compassion. their favourite thing to do when they're around people is to play pranks, which are always physically harmless, but they don't have a good sense of where the line is between a friendly joke and just plain harassment. in their defence, they'll stop if you ask them to without putting up much of a fight, but their default setting is to wake up and choose violence
their official serial number is DLN-00G - they're from the same line as time and oil! there's a whole bunch of headcanon stuff there but basically i think those two have letters in their serial numbers because they're from a slightly different line to the usual robot masters, dedicated to robots made with technology that's more experimental and requires a lot more testing before they can be safely assigned to a job. hex is definitely experimental enough to qualify for the line, what with most of their body being made of electromagnetic nonsense. i don't know who 00C through 00F are [i arbitrarily picked g for ghost lmao], but hex is at least friends with their two brothers! them and oil routinely team up to annoy several years off of time's lifespan
although they don't mind the work itself, they absolutely hate how lonely their job makes them. space is really quiet and empty, and even when they're working in the presence of other people [which isn't too often, since most satellites don't carry astronauts on board] they don't get much opportunity to interact with anyone beyond very formal radio conversations. outside of their creator and their closest brothers, they don't really have a social circle at all, and the loneliness gets to them at times. their meanness and affinity for pranks are definitely attention seeking behaviours, developed as a direct response to that chronic loneliness. they're so desperate for interaction that they'll take whatever they can get, even if it's just 'dude what is your problem'
while they're stubbornly against admitting it, even [especially] to themself, hex really loves their work, if not the side effects on their mental health. they actually enjoy taking in the sights and the feeling of space before the existential dread sets in, and they genuinely find it really satisfying and rewarding to successfully fix something - even when it's got nothing to do with their job, they can often be found fiddling around with broken bits of machinery and trying to get them to work just for fun. they're really handy and good at problem solving, and kinda like to show off about it lmao. they probably make horrifying frankengadgets by soldering chunks of gameboys and lawnmowers and led lights together into a single awful contraption that somehow does one specific thing absolutely perfectly
they're weak to pixel firewall because it's basically just a solid wall of electricity, which again would be super bad for the delicate field holding them together. to fit with their ghostly nature, every weapon that they aren't weak to [and isn't the mega buster because that'd be unfair lmao] phases right through them without doing damage at all. they're also weak to their own weapon! again, since eerie pulsar is just an electromagnetic pulse tinted purple it's really dangerous for them to get blasted with that. also i'm going off of pokemon logic, ghost beats ghost
also the anon who told me that hex is 'very gender,' before i even retconned them into being nonbinary no less, knows what's up. i've been using they/them and the 'ace' modifier - which a friend of mine once suggested as an equivalent to man/woman for nonbinary robot masters - throughout this post just for consistency, but hex is agender and accepts any pronouns or gendered terms! they don't care for gender one bit but they absolutely live for the confusion people tend to have trying to figure out what theirs is
i think purely design-wise hex might just be my favourite of the bunch, if only because of how blatantly self-indulgent everything about them is lmao. i like ghosts and i LOVE outer space, so of course i made a ghost robot and put them in space AND made them nonbinary to boot. it's the responsible thing to do! i started with a name and theme and kinda worked backwards from there. how is a robot a ghost? maybe they've got some kind of personal antigravity field! why do they have that? maybe they work in space! why does the spaceship repair robot have to be a ghost? suspension of disbelief, babey!!!!!
that's about it for the hex infodump! as mean as they are, they're a fiercely loyal friend if you're lucky enough to get to know them. love is stored in the hex ace even if they won't admit it and i adore them so much. once again, here's their art without any special effects!
🍍 - despite his complicated relationship with it, hex is actually at their most relaxed when they're chilling in space between assignments. obviously they can be contacted when she needs to be teleported out to a satellite, but it's mostly an environment where he doesn't have to deal with interacting with people and can just go no thoughts head empty for a bit. while her happiest moments are usually when they're on earth goofing around with their brothers, she mostly feels uncomfortable when he's down there because he isn't as used to the extra gravity and greater need to interact with others
🍓 - the boring answer is that they don't have a sense of smell because she's a space robot who doesn't need one, i don't really have a good answer to this one lmao. i think astronauts have said that space has a distinctive smell, maybe he'd have a strong opinion on that scent?
🍰 - hex isn't exactly mx. stable moral compass but they're fiercely loyal to anyone they consider a friend, so hurting said friends in any way would probably do it. there's all sorts of other, more minor things he'll justify burning their chances of friendship for, but it's more a self destructive thing than an actual moral hangup
🎂 - i guess that they're a ride or die super loyal friend if you have the patience to stick with his intense personality and trolly nature? hex is a very what you see is what you get kind of bot, they look like a bastard [affectionate] and act like a bastard [affectionate] and are indeed a bastard [affectionate], but she's got just as much hidden emotional depth as anyone else
🍩 - not counting his actual canonical crimes, which are hijacking government equipment and violating several osha laws in the process: if they could pick any crime, some national-scale prank that doesn't hurt anyone but makes a lot of people very confused and miffed and technically counts as a breach of the geneva convention. realistically, he gets on pretty well with drum and sweet and would probably end up in hot water for using a high-security government communications link to send them memes even after being reprogrammed again
🍻 - it depends on where her stress is coming from. if they're angry and need to work it off without hurting someone in the process, they'll teleport back to earth without directly telling anyone and work on whatever combination of mechanical scraps he's been most invested in lately until they've blown off some steam. if it's a more existential kind of stress she prefers to just drift around in space until he gets either over it, too bored to be sad anymore, or called back into work
🍕 - again, usually either floating through space or cobbling together some wacky frankengadget. if they've been sent back for repairs or are otherwise likely to be on earth for a while she usually ends up hanging out with oil and time! their own schedules can get in the way sometimes but all three of them [including time, he will die before admitting this] really love each other's company and the opportunity to goof around as The Shit Brothers for a while
🍟 - honestly i'm not a huge fan of the term 'guilty pleasure' as it's commonly used so i'm gonna misinterpret this one a bit - hex is fully aware of their tendency to push others away and burn bridges at a moment's notice, so she's often plagued by feelings of guilt over accepting compliments or having friendly interactions that they feel like they'll inevitably disregard for the sake of being aggressive. there's no way he'd admit this if you asked though, she'd deflect the question with a joke answer like 'whoopee cushions' or 'chugging an e tank when i don't need one' or 'voiding the warranty on video game controllers i find at the dump'
hooooo this is gonna be a long one babey!! [that's a good thing i love hex ace and talking about them :)]
😱 [any fears?] - honestly hex doesn't scare too easily. between all the Weird Shit that naturally happens in space and how much they close themselves off emotionally, she's pretty unaffected by the kind of stuff most people would be afraid of. their fears are more on the abstract, existential dready side - stuff like abandonment or isolation rather than anything concrete - and he deflects them with anger hard
🤝 [approach to intimacy?] - they're VERY resistant to intimacy, and even on the rare occasion where she doesn't instinctively reject it they'll try to worm their way out of the situation. responding to sincere compliments with less committed ones or trying to casually deflect them, pushing away hugs that go on for more than a few seconds, immediately following up any indication that they care about the other person with something lightheartedly mean to balance it out, that kind of thing. he might need intimacy but they sure as hell want to convince herself that they don't!!
🐱 [pets or thoughts on animals?] - spending as much time as they do in space, hex doesn't have much experience with animals at all. he probably runs into the support units at the lab sometimes, but they only very rarely get to meet actual biological animals. she's utterly fascinated by them due to that unfamiliarity, but he doesn't have much emotional attachment to them
👗 [fashion sense?] - since most of their body isn't solid, their options for clothes and accessories are realistically bracelets and nothing else, so he doesn't bother thinking about it. in theory though they'd probably like loose floaty clothes if that makes any sense, as well as some goth/emo fashion staples like platform boots and dark colours and gratuitous accessories [disclaimer: i do not know my fashion subcultures at all. this could be a blatant misdiagnosis]
🤷♀️ [approach to strangers compared to friends?] - hex isn't the friendliest to new people, under the self-perpetuating idea that since she doesn't have much success forming relationships there's no point trying in the first place. they usually waste no time getting into the snarky remarks or harmless-but-annoying practical jokes, unless they've been explicitly told why it's a bad idea with a certain person. while they don't have many people they consider friends [it's pretty much just time and oil + any other siblings from the powered up line, and eventually glass man when the events of wily scheme number whatever lead them to meet each other], he makes considerably more of an effort to not be mean to them, although there's still so much affectionate ribbing and trolling in the equation that it can be hard to tell the difference bkjngjkb
🐺 [thoughts on being alone?] - HOOOOO boy is this pandora's can of worms. most of hex's issues stem from being chronically lonely, and while they defensively pretend that everything is fine and actually they WANT to be by themselves so suck on THAT, they really hate being alone as often as they are. whether she's physically far away from people or not doesn't make much of a difference, since their problem at its core is that they feel emotionally isolated and struggle to connect with people. it's a complicated issue that runs pretty deep and isn't as easily solved as just having them interact with humans or other robot masters more often
🧸 [any sentimental keepsakes?] - probably not; he isn't the sentimental type. i can see them maybe hanging onto broken bits of the satellites they repair, but it's more of an oh hey this looks sorta cool type of thing than any kind of emotional attachment
📚 [taste in books?] - most of hex's reading list consists of very long and dense and obtuse manuals on engine parts that never saw commercial use, so they're a little put off by reading in general. if she ever took it upon herself to give fiction a try [i can see glass man introducing them to books that aren't work related] i think they'd LOVE horror literature, as well as having fun with more tongue in cheek stuff like the hitchiker's guide to the galaxy
