two of my mega man fcs! the former, patch woman, whose full design i just finalized after eight years of just having her head down, and the latter, pilot man, who i’ve drawn quite often on this blog but never explained what his deal was
(more info about them under the cut)
Patch Woman (DWN-419)
(they’re laughing over the one time mega man slipped his ass and fell into a pit of spikes)
Well-trained with handling private information, Patch Woman can somehow wiggle into everyone’s business underhand, intercept any life-threatening affairs with saccharine prevarications, and make deals with the baddies (or the goodies!) over the information she has collected. That’s her thing—being the “reconnaissance” girl.
Her weapon is a cutlass that can activate her main attack: Thunder Slash. One slash of her weapon can generate an electric field in the form of a wave, which not only stuns her opponents, but it also neutralizes any energy-based attack made towards her. (It’s a better version of the Mirror Buster but without the mirroring effect lmao)
Patch mostly lives her life in the seas—off radar, where no one can catch her. She’s a dedicated sailor in her own little ship, and finds the seas a freeing place beyond boundaries. The ocean is her oyster, and no one can take that away from her.
Patch does have a mysterious past that only Wily knows...and prefers not to touch it when asked. Not that even she would know what she was like before Wily came into her life—it’s that she doesn’t care, and she prefers that this part of her life would remain untouched. Patch knows that whatever this previous life was, is sensitive info that she would not bear to be responsible over protecting, for her own sake. Information is information, and she recognizes how much of a big deal it is, so she does what she can to protect that and ensure no one exploits her for that. (Unfortunately, whatever her previous life was bleeds into what she does now, but she does a good job of using her network to deflect the attention away from her.)
Patch is very thankful to Wily, for reawakening her, for giving her some freedom, for maintaining her privacy of her previous life and never providing the details about it (by her own discretion), and most of all, for kindly asking her what she wants to be in this second life. Part of the reason why her favorite activity in collecting old toys and refurbishing them is that it gives a gentle reminder of her own existence and becoming. She strongly believes in invention and reinvention of the self, and it angers her when robots are given an expiry date.
Although her fashion sense is sharp, Patch’s sense of interior design is downright dreadful. Nobody has ever entered her quarters, but rumors have circulated that there is one thing on her walls where, if anyone looks at it, it would deconstruct their sense of decoration. (She thinks it’s funny though—there’s nothing innocuous on her walls except for one lone #LiveLaughLove canvas board.)
Otherwise, not much else is known about Patch, and she keeps to herself for the most part. But if anyone catches the whiff that she has a crush on Splash Woman, she will rip and tear.
Oh, and she hates mayonnaise. Why anybody would think whisking egg yolks into some weird awful tasting condiment is beyond her.
Pilot Man (DLN-097)
(the tiny robos are new recruits in his airport and Pilot made all of them watch Top Gun together as an exercise in bonding)
This man will take on any aircraft and fly it—no matter the size or age of the model, whether it’s the Queen of the Skies, your favorite vintage Piper Cub, or even the barebones Wright Flyer. (Or whatever the Mega Man universe’s variants of aircraft are, I guess!)
Except...he can’t really freely fly anywhere and anytime, because he’s always busy transporting goods (and the occasional curious customer) everywhere and running his airport. It’s all for a debt to catch up, in the form of several installments made over the years to the government, that he needs to pay off. (That will be explained later.)
During his free time, he likes to revamp and build new models of planes (although he keeps that a secret). What else is there to do with the accumulated information of all the aircraft hydraulic systems that he knows? And, it’s a fun, light bonding activity for him and his robo-underlings, after working constantly for hours on end. :^)
His weapon is the Pigeon Missile. It’s a heat-seeking explosive projectile based off of the very thing he loathes. It’s not a very powerful weapon despite that it can cause some concerning damage; the sensors of the Pigeon Missile can be easily thwarted with some flares or lasers, and their precision in aiming isn’t solid.
It’s a little ridiculous, and maybe even a bit extreme, that he would absolutely hate birds to the point of having a weapon based on them...but it’s related to his debt.
The company that made him entrusted a lot of faith in his abilities after observing his performance as a working pilot for a month since his activation. Since he was doing extremely well, they thought it might be a good idea to overload him with more duties as an on-site air traffic control (ATC); the idea was that he can also help out stressed ATC people with handling their jobs, while flying. Dr. Light didn’t think this was a good idea, but they proceeded on with it anyways, and a month after modifying his programming to handle those additional duties, a frazzled and an almost burnt-out Pilot accidentally mishandled a bird strike incident that caused a lot of causalities in the process.
The plane that had bird-striked before colliding into another turned out to be one of his own, from which he was automating, which prodded the Mega Man universe’s version of the FAA and the government to open up an investigation on this incident. The company pinned the blame on Pilot, Dr. Light had no clue how to handle this, and it ended up with Pilot getting sucked into a class-action lawsuit from the victims’ families and having to owe a ridiculous sum of zenny; he ended up being reprogrammed (again) by the company to handle this situation by himself. The whole thing traumatized the young bot, who had to grow up quickly and learn about the workings of the wonderful world that is capitalism. The only thing that was lucky for him was Dr. Light and his reputation, who vouched for his existence and prevented his early retirement. And because of this, it causes him to be extremely demanding and careful about his job, perhaps to a fault.
The one thing that keeps him alive, both spiritually and physically, is flying, and because of this he’s still an upbeat and passionate bot.
(I should note that he does have two designs and I like them both, even though the second is more based on actual pilots haha)
goddamn it anon she leaked my credit card info my ssn my birthday AND she stole my amazon prime membership. how am i suppose to tell this to my wife and two kids
hi random question but are there any flowers you associate with the rkns + quint? how about the stardroids or your ocs? if no, then what flowers do you think would be good?
gonna put this under a read-more since my explanation is going to be extremely long, but tl;dr:
rkns+quint: daffodil, gladiolus, forget-me-not
my fcs: sunflower to pilot man, dahlia to patch woman
i'm not going to elaborate so much about the stardroids because: (1) i haven't spent that many braincells thinking about them, (2) they're quite varied within a group so i'd choose a flower per stardroid individually, and (3) i've already exhausted a lot of hours researching into these flowers and their associated mythology / etymology and this post is getting too long… so i'd like to invite anyone to try to answer this ask for the stardroids!
daffodil
i associate this flower mainly just to enker, but also to quint and to ballade. here are my reasons:
depending on the variety, daffodils tend to bloom sometime from late winter to early spring, although they can survive the winter months as they're known to be particularly hardy; the daffodil variants in japan, for example, are known to bloom from december to january. the yellow daffodils thus symbolize resilience, because of this quality. how does this relate to enker? well if you squint at his profile overall, there’s a recurring motif one can pick up: his cold exterior and gloomy nature. being into new year’s eve (a winter holiday) and nabiyaki udon (a hot-pot dish often served during the winter season). his jpn catchphrase, “grit your teeth and bear it” (hardiness). do you see that all of these things are associated to winter and the cold season, and the commonalities shared with the daffodil?
in addition, here's some fun facts about daffodils: daffodils can accelerate the death of other flowers when placed into a vase with them. all parts of a daffodil are poisonous, but one kind of daffodil also has strong emetic effects and can cause headaches, just by being in a closed room with a bunch of them inside. it's quite a toxic flower that needs to be handled with care in order to cooperate with its flowery compatriots… which reminds me of a certain character…oh…wait…that couldn't be enker, could it...
i think it’s also worth mentioning that the scientific name for the daffodil genus, narcissus, is linked to (but not known to be originated from) the greek myth of narcissus, a hunter who rejected all romantic advances and was eventually punished for that by being led to his reflection in the water and falling in love with it so much that he drowned, where a daffodil sprang from where he died. the part which, i think, relates to enker; not so much about him being narcissist (in fact i hc to be very far from that), but rather, with him circling around in a never-ending state of reflection that distorts the image of his identity and his place in the world (which i suppose is ironic, considering the name of his weapon).
the violet daffodils represent selfishness in honor of narcissus, which isn’t what i would associate enker with (i don’t think he’s that selfish), but on a more positive note, they symbolize self-esteem, and can be used to give to someone who has self-doubts. which, i think, is perfect to give to him (and to quint) really.
the meanings of the daffodil are usually pretty positive, but i think the associations to these can be pretty…bittersweet. one of the meanings of the daffodil includes rebirth and new beginnings. interestingly enough, these meanings are also what pluto symbolizes in astrology—which is associated to the origin myth of the seasons: the greek analogue of pluto is hades, who was known to have kidnapped persephone, the daughter of the demeter (the goddess of harvest and agriculture), by luring her with daffodils, and when demeter found out about this, caused the vegetation and flora of the world to wither, before some negotiation happened where persephone can spend some time with demeter but only up to eight months (namely, spring and summer).
who was also kidnapped? quint. who also encountered a "rebirth" and "new beginnings"? ballade. who also stands on the threshold between two different worlds, one in the past, the other in the present, like persephone? well…i can argue both quint and ballade do, because i think quint still retains his memories of him being rock and is powerless to do anything about them now that he's quint, and ballade…well…i headcanon to be experiencing the brunt of grief and sorrow of being reborn from the other killers+quint, or rather, being born to a space his old self once occupied and now feels pressured to fill in.
anyway, i’m just ad libbing associations here, but this is my argument for why the daffodil is the flower for both enker, quint, and ballade.
gladiolus
the name of this flower, gladiolus, originates from the latin word gladius or "sword," referring to the sword that roman foot soldiers used in battle. it should also be noted that in ancient greece, this flower was called xiphium, which comes from the greek word xiphos for "sword." both of these refer to the sword-like leaves; this is the flower for fighters, and indeed, that's what the rkns are.
the meanings of the gladiolus are integrity, honor, faithfulness, and strength. i mostly associate these qualities to punk for some reason, since we know he prefers to have a fair-and-square fight and he believes in his own strength—but this also somewhat applies to all rkns, as each upholds their own version of some moral code when fighting, and their devotion to the cause is what defines them as a group.
furthermore, these meanings of the gladiolus seem to come from what roman gladiators stand for. going back to the naming etymology of these flowers, they refer to the swords that roman foot soldiers use. after the martial reforms for the roman military were enacted, these soldiers were given a shield, some javelins, a sword, and a dagger. in battle, they would wield the sword and shield for close combat after breaking their enemies' defenses and formations with the javelins—so in some sense, the sword is used a secondary means of offense and defense against enemies. which is the role of each of the rkns + quint as well! in the gameboy games, they're always the enemy you fight after fending off the robot masters from the main series or the stardroids. which, i think, is fitting.
as a last addition to this, it should be noted that these soldiers must follow the oath of allegiance, or sacramentum militare, that they have to swear once they enlist. this is a pledge to loyalty towards the consul of the roman republic in the republican era, or towards the emperor in the imperial era, of the roman republic. breaking this not only becomes an act of disloyalty against the state or the emperor, but also against the other members of the unit—which serves as a deterrent against revolts, despite the numerous records of civil conflicts arising from betraying the oath. i think these conflicts are also at the heart of the rkn—automatically programmed to swear their allegiance to an empire just to kill one small boy is what also defines the group, and what might also threaten the integrity of it; how each of them uses that devotion to the cause, or rather, how much they stick to it is what defines them individually, and it's an interesting thing to look into when considering each rkn as an individual and their place in the group. such themes, i believe are relevant, and this is what makes me choose the gladiolus as a flower for them.
forget-me-not
this would be the flower mainly associated to ballade, but also to quint.
the etymology of the scientific name for its genus comes from the ancient greek term for "mouse's ear," but its actual name supposedly comes from a german folktale, about a knight and a lady strolling along the riverbank. the knight fell into the water in an attempt to pick up flowers for the lady, and before he drowned, he cried out the name of the said flower and threw the flowers he picked up to his loved one, and since then, in grief, she would wear forget-me-nots in commemoration for him.
throughout the world, forget-me-nots would be used for remembrances of those who died in wars (especially the world wars), as well as from well-known disorders like dementia and alzheimer's disease.
and that's what the forget-me-nots symbolize: remembrance and memory.
just like the knight in the folktale, ballade saw something, something beautiful in the last moment he faced rockman, and it led to the end of that brief span of life that ballade has occupied up, which wouldn't be easily forgotten by the other rkns + quint. he might've been just one flower, one casualty, plucked out in a long series of unnecessary wars between two roboticists—and sure, he might've been rebuilt afterwards—but the rkns + quint don't see it that way as just one robot who died and was reborn. he was somebody—maybe a fucking idiot beforehand, but at least he was their idiot.
similarly to quint: he was rock(man) before, and the moment wily reprogrammed him is the moment those two identities have died. him meandering through life, through the halls of the wily fortress, trying to reconcile with the death of his past self... don't you think he deserves some of these flowers to commemorate what he was? i don't think he's ever completely processed that himself. i think these flowers are also for him.
sunflower
when it comes to the sunflower, their meanings include optimism and strength, warmth, and unwavering faith. all of which describes pilot man; his good quality is his ability to make the best of a situation no matter how bad it gets, and he's a pretty warm dude if any character gets to know him.
the binomial nomenclature of the sunflower, helianthus annuus, comes from the greek words helios ("sun") and anthos ("flower") and the latin word annuus ("annual"), referring to how the sunflower quite literally looks like sun and how it is a perennial flower that blooms in the mid-summer until fall. often, when i think about where pilot works, he's always under the rays of the sun, running around from hanger to hanger, ensuring that things in his little private airport are in operation...and also, his best work on building plane models comes out during the mid-summer months, when things aren't as busy for him as they are in the rest of the year.
it's also thought the reason this flower gets its named is how many believed that it is heliotropic (that is, the sunflower head tracks the sun). note that i said "believed." sunflowers aren't truly heliotropic; only the immature flower buds, leaves, and the stems do orient themselves in the direction of the sun. this reminds me of a very young pilot man, bouncing with vigor and always eager to work with the company that created him and have his abilities tested as much as possible, to the point where both the company and pilot believed he can do so much more, until they... flew close to the sun, y'know?
(which…reminds me of the greek tale of icarus, who he and his father daedalus, a master craftsman, escaped from imprisonment by flying with the winds daedalus created using wax, feathers, and blankets. icarus was warned not to fly close to the sun, lest the wax melted, nor close to ocean they were flying over, lest the dampness of the sea weighed his wings down; icarus unfortunately fell into his own hubris by doing the former. which is pretty close to the disaster that happened with pilot within a year of his activation, due to his company's hubris, haha.)
but mature flowering buds actually only face east, which is still pretty interesting to note; the earth rotates in such a way so that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, but such buds continuously look in the east—it's like they always expect for the sun to rise no matter where the sun shines or goes, without so much following the sun's direction. to me, this says much about an over reliance of faith to take over things can overshadow the true gifts of life, instead of having just a little of it, which can go a long way...it's reflective of pilot's outlook on life prior to and after the disaster.
dahlia
this one is chosen purely out of symbolism, haha; the differing colors of the dahlia and their individual meanings actually do represent different facets of patch woman.
some meanings to the dahlia include inner strength, staying graceful under pressure, and elegance. patch woman's work is constantly her being under pressure, because her job is to tap into connections, find some interesting information about a company or a person whose life she's gonna destroy, and leak it into the world without leaving so much of a trace or negotiating with other parties about this information or wiping such information from everywhere if she feels it's necessary (often a big decision to handle). she handles this with a quiet sort of dignity and poise that can leave others baffled into how she's not...fizzling out from handling all of this info and intel.
dahlias with mixed blue/green colors represent fresh starts and big changes. part of patch's origin story is that she was originally [redacted] and prefers to keep that part even unknown to herself, lest bad parties might use this against her—and the fresh start wily gave her is what drives her to go on (and sometimes influences her decisions handling such intel).
the negative connotations of the dahlia also represent patch woman as well. in particular, the black dahlia symbolizes betrayal—which, yes, one should be careful when around patch because once a piece of information about oneself is thrown into the well that is patch's information network, one better watch their back because she may as well use it to step on them for her own purposes. in fact, betrayals, compromises, and deceit are what fuels her and gives her repute in the dark world of info.
there's an interesting little historical tidbit (or possibly myth or tale, unclear) about dahlias, related to empress joséphine, the empress of the french. she was well known to be into botany and was overly protective of her garden at the château de malmaison. having been offered some dahlia tubers from the french minister, she fell in love with their bloom so much that she wouldn't permit a single seed or root from the garden to exit the malmaison. except...a polish count visted the malmaison and bribed the gardener to dig up a hundred of those dahlias to propagate, making the empress extremely angry and having her destroy the remaining dahlia tubers. it's a funny little story exemplifying how value works: when one values something so much, it can be easily used against them. it's a key principle that patch keeps in mind when handling intel, and it's something which patch deals with on a daily basis.
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okay, alright. this was way too damn long, but i appreciate the pretty cool and thoughtful question; it was certainly a fun writing exercise to be thinking about over this past weekend. thanks for indulging me!
which oc was created first? patch woman or pilot man?
hmmm...technically, patch woman would be the first one, but i actually never finished her design when i first created her! i only had her headpiece down, but it was only just last year when i completed her design and had an idea of her story. anyway here's the first drawing i have of her:
(the reason she's holding dolls is because her weapon was going to be bombs that look like matryoshka dolls, but i decided to do away with that once i finished her design)
in terms of completed designs, pilot man would be the first one even though he was created the year after. here's the first (available) drawing i have of him:
