Working on the vessels that are trapped within Machina's realm
The Shadow vessel, Valerie (Val for short) was a nurse who had been pulled into Machina's realm while reading the IDW comics as she enjoyed the Sonic series for a quite a few years
She's become sort of the mom of the group, taking care of the younger vessels as she had kids of her own prior to being dragged into the realm. Val in particular is one of Machina's least favorites, they absolutely despise her and would rather have her dead than continuing to exist within their realm but she's proven herself to be quite a problem. Being trapped as long as she has, she's learned how to use a bit of Shadow's powers making it harder to kill her. Most other EXEs would probably shame Machina for allowing a vessel to become that much of a problem but it does enjoy the challenge. It just wishes she'd stop intervening with almost every kill it makes
They are constantly fighting and Val has been responsible for tearing out several of Machina's teeth (Luckily for Machina their teeth grow back) So far in their constant battles, Val has successfully chased off Machina on a few occasions leading it to sulk for a period of time before returning to observe the vessels until it strikes again. The times she has lost, the saving grace that has kept her alive for so long is the other vessels aiding in the escape to the one place in Machina's realm that it cannot watch them. It doesn't know about this location and it cannot hear, see or even locate them while in there. While the vessels would hide there more often they risk comprising that location by staying there for too long
When in their false form, Val barely tolerates Machina's presence. They're an annoyance who is more than likely only acting out the "Sonic" part to lower their guards or to pull in another unsuspecting victim. New vessels assume that this is just regular Shadow and Sonic banter until Machina's true form and intents are revealed
Don't mind the disappearance, had heavy art block and spent a good while hanging out with some friends on a discord server
During that time I did manage to get some doodles out, one being a slight tweak to Machina.EX design. They still can hide the mouth and eyes but I really enjoy the idea of them having a visible face at times
I've been changing its lore ever the slightest with it now being a hell of a lot more powerful than they were before (thanks to about 2 different discord servers for this decision)
It makes sense with them being more powerful considering the amount of vessels they own at once and the sheer size of the world that Machina.EX made
(also here's some funny doodles her)
And I may not be big about Outcome memories anymore but I did make a shop icon for how I'd imagine it'd look if Machina.EX were in the game. I like the idea of him lookin like they're trying to crawl out of the icon the way they crawl out of the comic panels
as the Only Other Person with a Phantom Rider EXE may I ask to see or know more about yours? just from that very short description you commented he sounds quite interesting. yk definitely not so I can draw him and Phantom Walker interacting noooo/j
Terribly sorry about the lateness to this. Holidays have kept me busy and Tumblr neglected to notify me of any and all notifs I have,
I actually have a few Phantom Rider exes, like the Kolossos rendition and "Burning Phantom" who's more of a horror au EXE Sonic. My favorite and most used being "Machina.EX"
Machina.EX is a more grumpy EXE having come from the void originally hating all modern based Sonic media until it eventually found its way to certain parts of the series like IDW and found itself having quite an interest in Phantom Rider specifically. While it's not a fan of some other EXEs deeming quite a few annoyances only liking some, it does like a few who share similar interests and similar hatreds for some EXEs. Lord X is especially one it dislikes due to Lord X's proclaims of owning all humanity, it finds such claims to be greedy and signs of a power hungry creature. Machina themself doesn't see itself as a high power being as it's well aware that there are other EXEs who could kill it, although the only entity it would truly fear would be Sunky.Mpeg of all things because of being able to be wiped out in an instant over cereal of all things.
The way it works for attacking and dragging humans into its realm varies, its preferred method of dragging humans into its realm though is by going into those "read free" comic websites. It's not a place one would suspect to locate something like that there. As the target is reading through the IDW comics, Sonics appearance will be different slowly but surely as it seeps into their device. Maybe his eyes moved to stare at the reader while they were looking at a different panel? Sonic isn't quite in the same pose he was in a moment ago. Did he get closer or was that just a trick of the eye from staring at the screen for too long? The longer you stay on that website the more power it gains until it eventually drags you into a twisted digital recreation of the world within the IDW comics. It almost seems like you had fallen asleep while reading or your daydreams took a weird spin. The cast acts fine although some are vessels. The characters who don't have vessels act too strange almost fake. They're just creations waiting for a vessel. They see nothing wrong with the world they're in and to them it's just the normal Sonic world until becoming a vessel for whichever human is placed into them. Sonic himself seems to act fine but at times he'll give a strange glance or you'll find yourself in dangerous situations, you have to act fine and pretend that all is fine especially to the none vessels. Once the facade is up or Machina grows bored and wishes to hunt, both Machina and the world twists into its true self leaving the vessels to fend for themselves. They must survive against Machina.EX as it begins to hunt them down. They won't find help from the none vessels as they see nothing wrong with the world around them. They don't even question why Sonic seems to prefer wearing the Phantom Rider gear, when asked he'll just reply that it's comfortable and "looks cool."
Side notes, the eye on his stomach is one of their actual eyes. It's not exactly a weak point but you can irritate it by poking but that risks being bitten as it's most literally in a part of its mouth. The way the mouth functions is a way it consumes souls of the victims it's grown bored of. It does on the occasion eat other foods like chili dogs simply for the love of Sonic things and to keep up the act of being Sonic for the facade it plays. How it eats despite the eye being there? The world may never know, EXE logic so it just rejects the laws of physics ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It's fake appearance seems almost uncanny with darker fur and wide eyes that seem dull and lifeless. They almost never blink and he doesn't seem to breathe but one can simply say it's the suit making it look that way. His smile almost seems a bit too wide like it's not real and it brings a feeling of unease especially if it lingers on you for too long. If you stare back for too long you might see the eye on it's stomach open as telling you to stop
Got bored and redesigned my Exe a bit. Not a heavy redesign but I liked that one doodled I did a little while ago that changed up the suit a bit
One may question why I always draw a front facing Machina, I like the way the stare looks with that angle and using the symmetry tool is good for making refs and the stare itself
Don't mind the absence, a very close friend of mine came back from bootcamp and we've been catching up while they're free on weekends during the navy schooling. They're actually the one who made one of Machina.EXs biggest rivals (MechaX if you've seen that exe on tiktok)
In response to my silence, have a Machina doodle and their full on base lore. I'll write about their world and the other vessels as I finish up their references and designs. The other few vessels lore is already planned and written down but I gotta finish drawing them. Two vessels planned to be spoken about soon are O'Malley (Jet vessel) and Icarus (Blaze vessel)
Machina.EX:
(gender is yes, they don't care what it's referred to as. The most common pronouns used by the vessels are he/they/it)
A writhing abyss of an entity filled with countless teeth crawled out of the void as many others had before. In the beginning it was lost, not quite aware of its own existence nor what it was capable of. Time passed and in that unknown amount of passage of time it grew in power eventually finding itself in the presence of humans. Wretched things it thought although the way they fought one another in their game of wars and over the simplest of things fascinated it. Few things these humans did struck it as interesting but those things that did, stayed with it. One being the same thing that has caught the fancy of many other entities from the void, a certain blue hedgehog. (It also has a love for Theatre. Like plays, opera, etc. Specifically the really old ones, modern ones just don't do it. Yes there's a reason I brought this up)
Within time it learned how to mimic the appearance of the hedgehog it had come to fancy, while not a perfect imitation it was still to their liking. As many other entities had begun to target the humans, it too took on that role. Many of the games were taken and it found those games to be bland. While it was fun to lurk within, there wasn't much to get. With the games needing to be passed around from disc to disc or download to download it was harder to gain the attention of humans so Machina took a different route. It began to lurk within the websites for comics of the blue blur. Many sites had these comics for free so many humans flocked to these websites to read the stories of the hedgehog making them easy targets. It wasn't hard to start pulling in the humans and feasting upon their souls. Eventually just feasting wasn't enough, it wanted to have fun with this newfound power leading to drag in these humans trapping them within the realm it had created, forcing them to play a part in a game of make believe. A play for its own entertainment. If the human did not play their part, then the curtains would close for them and their soul would be pulled into the gaping maw of Machina leaving nothing but an empty slate awaiting a new human soul to reside within it. Its claims of salvation from the cruelty of the world was merely a facade for its twisted theater.
(Machina is fully aware it's not Sonic, it just likes to pretend to be him for the fun of it)
Their name most literally plays a part in what they do. It's a reference to the term "deus ex machina" in the ancient Greek theaters. A machine that carried the actors usually in a "divine intervention", or in Machina's case, they "carry" the humans into its realm claiming to "save" them from the way the world is and all that it asks is for them to play their part within its realm. (Said realm is very dangerous and known to have left the vessels scarred and hurt for not playing their part)
When not in their false form, they speak in a formal manner. It carries an elegance to it, their movements are almost equally as elegant yet dramatic only fitting further to their theatrical ways.
Also if you actually read all of this congrats, here, have whatever the hell this doodle of Machina is
