#rvb trek

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*crawls in coughing and bleeding* have you guys heard of this thing called rvb trek

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me: haha it’s just a silly little star trek au. I promise I’ll be normal about it

me when it’s time for locus:

Fr the amount of lore I have stacked up in my brain for this man... all 3 of you who read these posts better be ready to do some scrolling because I am rotted in the cabeza. 

Here’s some feverish rambling about one of my favorite rvb characters (of all time):

- Locus is a changeling, courtesy of my most genius moment in this AU 2 years ago. At the time I was only watching bits and pieces of DS9 whenever my mom had it on, but I got enough to immediately know it was perfect for him. Like Odo, Locus is one of the hundred baby changelings who got sent out into the galaxy with no memories. But I think he probably floated in space for a long time before landing anywhere, so he is decently old physically. 

- As continued, Locus followed a similar path to Odo, but instead of landing on Bajor, he crashed onto Cardassia in the wild lands, where he lay for a very long time. Until one day, he was found by a Cardassian military group - which included Felix and Siris. Since the equivalent of the Halo Great War would be the Dominion War, that’s when this is set. At first, the Cardassians just think this is a mildly interesting slimy sample, but when set near their weapons, they find that it can transform into them. All of a sudden Locus becomes very important to the Cardassians, even more so when they discover he can change from one weapon into another. And that’s what they think he is at this point - some kind of shapeshifting weapon. This is also why they call him Locus - I’m twisting canon a bit, but I’m gonna say that a particular type of phase rifle that they use is a “Locus” model. 

- Eventually, one day as the squad is sitting around talking, they start to prompt Locus to change into one of the soldiers. To all of their utter shock, they discover he can do this, and is in fact a sentient, living creature. But they are in a war after all... and he is still a weapon. (can I get a you are nothing more than a suit of armor and a gun?) Locus becomes an unofficial member of the military squad, who manages to survive in ragged numbers. He’s used both as a soldier and as a physical weapon/armor, which as he’s known nothing else but these Cardassians, he accepts as a fact of life. After the war ends and Cardassia is ravaged, his story would proceed much like it did in canon - he joins up with Felix and Siris, working as a mercenary on distant worlds. I’ll talk more about Siris once I draw him, but at some point Felix and Locus end up working together without him and eventually make their way to Chorus. Which I’ll talk more about when I draw Doyle and Kimball. Goddamn the thoughts in this head.

- Just as Odo has limits to his shapeshifting, I wanted to give some to Locus as well. He does still have to periodically rest in his liquid state, because I think that’s very funny. But his main weakness is that he’s an incredibly good shapeshifter, able to mimic people and things down the smallest detail - he’s just an incredibly terrible actor. He can look like your friend, but if he opens his mouth he cannot convince he’s them. So Locus mostly does spying/background work, which makes Felix desperately he - the “people person” - was the one who could shapeshift instead. 

- Locus’s weird little obsession/mancrush with Wash is one of my favorite little details about him, and when you can literally turn into someone I think that leaves some very fun doors open. Just to explain that ridiculous second extra drawing I made. 

- During the equivalent to seasons 11/early season 12, Locus is fully presenting himself as a normal Cardassian, and he and Felix are riding on basically the same backstories they use in the show - old war buddies turned rivals, etc etc. I think Felix would spin himself as a soldier who was forced to do terrible things during the war, but is trying to redeem himself by helping out the rebels (who are Bajorans in this AU). However Locus, as he is wont to do, just plays himself as an ice cold mercenary who is neutral to either side of this conflict. 

- As time goes on during the late season 12/season 13 equivalent arc, Locus does spy work, frequently disguised as a Bajoran or a Human. He begins to favor these forms (as he grows more and more conflicted about himself), something that Felix absolutely hates. Post-season 13, he would rarely change into a Cardassian again. His scar is something that he keeps, though - originally he gave it to himself because the leader of the original military squad (the suit of armor and a gun guy) had the same scar, and Locus saw him as an authority/father/mentor figure. Post season 13, he keeps it a reminder to himself and to keep him in check. 

- God I can talk about Locus for hours. I’m so fond of changelings. Can I get a hell yeah for any pronouns Locus? Changelings are literally The gender fluid. 

Alright I’m done now, I promise I’ll be normal about the rest of this AU (lying). Next week is Siris!

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HEYY squad... as a holdover while I get all my various projects back on track I just remembered I did some meme redraws with RvB Trek so here they are in the meantime until I get back to the sheets!!

All of the original photos I got from an “out of context Star Trek” account... but sadly I can’t remember what the name of it was anymore :,)

Characters in order are: Tucker, Wash, Donut, Felix, Kimball, Simmons, Grif, Sarge, and Meta

I still have 5 more photos I planned to redraw so I will do a part 2 whenever I get around to it!

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Sooo remember how I said I wasn’t gonna do fully rendered reference sheets for the Blues and Reds? Well I LIED. And also realized that because they all have like, 1 personality trait, I can basically just make them my OCs at this point. Too late, RT, my blorbos now. 

SO here’s some info about CRONUT! Who remembers Cronut? Me and the other 3 Season 15 fans, I’d say. 

- My main premise for the Blues and Reds is that they’re all inversions/opposites/related to the Reds and Blues in some way. In this case, Cronut is a Kzinti while Donut is a Caitian. They’re both cat-people species, but Kzintis are known for being much more warlike and aggressive than Caitians.

- Where Donut is more of a fun mischievous cat who’ll like, bite your ankles but also is nice to you, Cronut is the cat who will sit in the corner staring at you and planning your death. I think it’s so fun to speculate about his motivations, like; in canon, he’s basically got the same personality as Donut, but he’s also working with Temple to do these extremely horrible things with a chipper smile on his face. He’s a little messed up guy! What’s going on inside your brain Cronut!

- Here’s another couple little things about Cronut’s design. Because Donut has the plasma grenade scars on the right half of his face, Cronut has animal attack scars on the left half of his face. His pose is also mirroring Donut’s, if you were to go reference my Donut sheet. And his sash is blue, because I want each of the Blues and Reds to have some blue accent to indicate that they’re much more subservient to Temple than any of the Reds and Blues are to each other. 

- Within the general setup of Temple’s squad, Cronut fulfills the bruiser/brawn role. He’s the one who Temple sends out if he needs a job done very efficiently and probably messily. 

I feel like the only person who cares about Cronut this much, and that’s... okay. Sorry but also not sorry for stealing your character and making him mine, RT. 

Next week is Gene!

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This one isn’t quite as personable as my previous entries, but it’s hard to make computer consoles look friendly!! It was still pretty fun to trace out all those little symbols on the screen. 

Here’s my thoughts about these two robotic friends: 

- I messed with the canon of both series pretty heavily for Lopez and Sheila. On the Trek side, these computers are much more sentient than they normally are. Maybe they’ve been given extra personalities by the Director to engage the Reds and Blues more. And on the RVB side, they’re much more similar than they are in canon, and Lopez is pushed closer to Sheila’s characterization. He’s also not in a body until the equivalent of around Season 7, instead being onboard the Scarlet. 

- Exocomps are fun little designs, and I felt it was both a good translation of the gag with Lopez only having his head for a lot of the seasons, and it was one of the only recognizable “robot-y” Star Trek designs without straight up making him an android. I wanted to separate him from AIs like Church and Tex. 

- Like in canon, at the end of the Season 5 equivalent Sheila is destroyed in an explosion inside of the Cobalt. Lopez would then have been transferred out of the Scarlet by Sarge and into the exocomp. 

- The “R” and “B” in the FILSS acronym are pretty simple; they just stand for Red and Blue. I guess this implies that there are Lopezes and Sheilas in every single Red and Blue ship in this universe, which is interesting. But our Reds and Blues are surely unique. 

I also included my little sketchy designs for the ships. I feel it would be silly for unqualified soldiers like the Reds and Blues to get access to big, Enterprise-class ships, but runabouts are the perfect size for a realistic living space, but still small and inexpensive. It’s like living in a submarine. These are the little details I translated into Trek:

- The spray paint decals are referencing the design things that they had on their armor at some point. For whatever reason I just could not find a picture of it, but I swear I’m not crazy and that was a thing. So I just did it from memory. 

- “NCC-24110″ is a reference to 2-4-1-10 from the song Contact. 

- The Red’s Warthog has been translated into a detachable shuttlecraft (I imagine the Blue’s command shuttle has been fused into the main body and can’t detach), and the extra ammo is referencing the ammo jokes. 

- The Blue’s tank is translated into photonic cannons that their computer, Sheila, operates. 

Gosh, that was more than I expected I’d have to say! I’ll have to trim it down for Instagram. Anyways, next is Tex!

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red... and blue... and in space? makes you think...... 

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Saving the biggest for last! Maine was never my favorite RvB character, but I can always appreciate him as the first real villain of the series. Plus, as a dragon kid, I do love drawing a big funny lizard. 

Here’s some information about this silent scaly spectre:

- To get the obvious out of the way first, he’s the least humanoid out of any of the characters thusfar. I personally really like the Gorn, and I think they’re an underappreciated species. Post-TOS Trek doesn’t seem to appreciate their characterization as an intelligent species! I wanted to play with that for Maine’s character; he seems to fulfill the stereotype about Gorn as animalistic and beastly, but really he’s just quiet and very strong. He’s got that methodical cleverness that Meta really displays in the show. 

- One of my other favorite things about making Maine a Gorn is the wonderful justification for his canon growling communication. It’s much simpler than in RvB; after the fall of Freelancer, his universal translator broke, and he didn’t have the resources or motivation to get a new one. So he’s really just speaking in his own language. The reason Wash can understand him is because when they were friends in the Project, they each learned some of the other’s native language outside of translator specifics. (their friendship really means so much to me,,)

- Meta is on the opposite spectrum of Borg experiment failures like Wash, because Meta was fully plunged into a Borg hivemind state. Except it was a little successful, and along with the rampancy of the assistant AI programs, Meta went completely off the rails and is now seeking to assimilate any other lifeforms he comes across. Of course, since he’s not really part of a Hive, this usually ends up pretty bloody, and he’s also after the missing AIs like in canon. 

- One small note about Maine’s uniform is that it had to be custom made by PFL, since he’s much bigger than anyone else in the Project, and also has knees that face a different direction. I based his uniform off traditional Gorn clothing, with the leather materials of the other PFL uniforms. 

- Something I wanted to explore with Maine/Meta’s character was the tragedy of it all, especially in relation to him being a Gorn. The Federation seems to have a lot of stereotypes about the Gorn, and Meta ends up being twisted into a lot of them by the abuse at the hands of the Project. Because of the damage to his brain by the Borg tech and the AIs, he can’t control his salivation, and his universal translator was destroyed, meaning he can’t communicate. Maine as a person is quiet and smart, a good teammate and a hard worker. As the Meta, he’s a growling creature blindly seeking out destruction, and that’s how he dies.

 What the hell! Why is Project Freelancer so angsty! I miss my silly little Reds and Blues. 

But speaking of which, Maine is the last of the Freelancers! I know I haven’t technically done all of them - but this is also my own AU and I can do what I want. CT and Wyoming are both very boring to me, and I didn’t have interesting for Florida. The Director and the Counselor both look the same as they do in canon, so there’s not much point to drawing them. 

Next week I’m starting on the Chorus arc! Felix is up first >:)

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BE PREPARED. GENE TIME

So, Gene is not my Blues and Reds blorbo du jour (that honor belongs to Temple) but he IS for @donutssafeword so I decided to go all out in their honor. Specifically it’s based on her “what if Gene was Simmons but like. time travel shenanigans” AU which is very fun. I just Star Trek-ified it and tweaked it a bit for the narrative purposes of this AU. 

Anyways, here’s some information about this petty jerk that’s not in the second slide:

- "Jiyn” is just Gene but I wanted it to sound a little more like a Vulcan name. It’s pronounced the exact same way. 

- The reason he has scars on the left half of his face is because when he went undercover as Jiyn, he pretty roughly removed his own cybernetic prothesis, and replicated himself a new ear (which is why it’s slightly discolored). However, he still has the pattern for the cybernetics, which is why he can replicate it to disguise himself. He also replicated a blue contact lens so he can cover up his Romulan gray eye. 

- In this AU, Simmons specifically has identity issues surrounding being a Romulan, because he lied to get into Starfleet and is pretending to be a Vulcan at the start of the series, which is when Jiyn/Simmons would have split off from him. So although normal Simmons went on to resolve a lot of those issues and accept more of himself, Jiyn would’ve went oops! all repression

- If you’re familiar with Star Trek, just imagine this is like a William Riker/Thomas Riker situation. Temporal transporter clone yada yada. I love Star Trek, you can justify literally anything. 

That’s all I got for this man! Next week is Surge!