milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Karkat is one of the first to discover Cubefall this year; it begins just as he's beginning to get sleepy, nocturnalways. At first he is diverted by the toys; trolls have a natural instinct and a cultural obsession with construction from a very early age, and some of these are new even to him. Eventually, though, he visits the bar for a refreshment, and is faced with a choice

It doesn't take very long.

Whenever you get around to waking up--robots don't need to sleep--there will be a metal kid with horns in the bar, building and deconstructing things almost too quickly to follow with his crazy fast robot hands.

The main thing he is working on is a huge clockwork mechanism that takes up most of a table, but he keeps zooming out around the perimeter to experiment with different gadgets that mark twelve equidistant locations around the edge. If you thought it was a clock, you would be... closer to right than wrong. But you would still be wrong.

Feel free to kibbitz. For once, he will probably not take it the wrong way.

~~After all, robots don't have feelings.~~

He is, moreso than ever before, signed in as chirurGeneralist.

Pony images swiped from fanart--originals are here and here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Feelings depend on the robot model in question. So much.

"That's pretty elaborate."

Nope, he is a tin can. Robots don't have feelings.

"IT NEEDS AN ESCAPEMENT." The robot doesn't look up, because he is busy rummaging through a chest of weird science toys for what he wants. He comes up with a small, dense ball of white plastic, hundreds of tiny little connectors all piled up on each other in intricate ways.

Ah. Well then.

"Clockwork isn't one of the things I've looked into a lot. I usually end up building a small fort or something like that."

"I BUILT SOME FORTS." He waves a hand at... some forts, erected in the brief space since Cubefall began. Sort of a Maginot line of forts, zigzagging across the floor by the fireplace. You would have to be insane to fuck with that fireplace.

Or not very, very tiny.

"YOU ARE LOOKING AT SEVERAL HOURS OF QUIET ENJOYMENT COMPRESSED INTO A FIFTEEN MINUTE BURST, I AM BEING EFFICIENT AS HELL WITH MY HOBBIES TODAY. IT IS PROBABLY BEING THIS AWESOME ROBOT THAT DOES IT."

He toss the Hoberman sphere up into the rafters; when it floats back down, it has expanded to a skeletal sphere a couple yards across.

(He is not very good at mechanisms, really, but the challenge is keeping him occupied.)

Compressed enjoyment?

"A robot with superspeed is pretty awesome."

As opposed to fangs for the backup power system that runs on blood.

"Are your eyes different than normal? I have extra colors today."

"You mean like infrared or whatever? Yeah I guess. everything looks really weird."

He clicks through a variety of visual options. "HOLY SHIT."

Wow, that is some... impressively obscene graffiti only visible in the ultraviolet wavelengths someone scrawled all over that wall.

"What? I've only got infared and red-blue-green imaging. I think it's a human design."

Well, and a black and white intensity level that ignores most of the wavelength issue.

His blank LED gaze shifts around the room. "SOMEONE WITH ULTRAVIOLET CHALK AND A REALLY FUCKING FILTHY MIND HAS BEEN RUNNING AROUND THIS PLACE LEAVING SOME INCREDIBLY DIRTY INVISIBLE REMARKS... AND LIMERICKS... AND YEAH OKAY I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT'S A PICTURE OF BUT IT IS PROBABLY SOME ALIEN GENITALS, JEGUS."

"Now I kind of want some UV goggles or something so I can see it."

Even if it leaves her wanting a bucket of soapy water and paranoid about what is actually on that white wall for a while.

"IT IS PRETTY HILARIOUS."

Karkat forcibly disengages the UV-vision and looks back down at his machine. "YEAH SO THIS IS A PRETTY FUCKING AMAZING HOLIDAY."

"Of all the ones I've had in Milliways it's my favorite," she agrees, "Hmmm. It's been a while since I've seen any Cybertronians though."

Which is too bad.

"SOMEONE SAID THEY CAME FROM A PLANET OF ABIOGENETICALLY ARISING ROBOTS. OR...

AMECHNICANO...

FUCK THIS SENTENCE, A PLANET OF SPONTANEOUSLY EVOLVING ROBOTS, WHICH SEEMS FUCKING MORONIC BEYOND BELIEF, WHAT IS THAT BULLSHITERY ALL ABOUT?"

While he talks Karkat peers at something up in the rafters, then kneels under the table to rapidly swap out a couple of gears driving the zoetrope/pinhole camera/project in the 9th position.

"I think some versions were escaped appliances and war machines from another race," offers Ako, "But given that there's supposed to be an infinite number of universes there's no reason why they all have to make sense."

Or even most of them.

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crabbycustomer - 2012-05-30 16:36 (UTC) - Expand

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seat_five_girl - 2012-05-30 18:03 (UTC) - Expand

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crabbycustomer - 2012-05-30 18:31 (UTC) - Expand

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seat_five_girl - 2012-05-30 18:40 (UTC) - Expand

Karkatbot's work has drawn the attention of a troll he's never seen before. One a sweep or two older, with streaked hair, three horns, a highblood's fins, and a sweatervest with a familiar emblem on it.

Ordinarily the sight of a seadweller--an unfamiliar sea dweller--in the bar would have Karkat terrified and furious, nauseous with sudden adrenaline.

Fortunately, he's a tin can right now. Robots don't have feelings.

On the other hand, robots move and think fast. He blurs around the table and jams on the brakes up close. "MY ROBO-PROCESSERS OR WHATEVER THE HELL ARE REPORTING A NINETY-NINE POINT A SHITLOAD OF NINES PERCENT CHANCE THAT YOU'RE ACTUALLY SOME ASSHOLE TEMPORARILY SHAPED LIKE A TROLL.

Y/N?"

"Karkat, it's ***me,*** Twilight." She points to the six-pointed star on her sweatervest. "Remember?"

It's the hair, more than the sign, that clicks into place. His red lamps gutter and flare in the robot equivalent of rolling his eyes. "jegus, give me a break, it would be kind of a big terrifying deal if the Empire found this place. and it's not like i've spent that much time studying your ass."

Whoops that is suddenly a lot more awkward of a thing to say.

"It's also my chat emblem," she says crisply. "I assume you've seen ***that*** a few times now."

"IT IS NOT THE FIRST THING ABOUT YOUR CURRENT FORM THAT CAUGHT MY EYE, ALL RIGHT? THE VAST MAJORITY OF SEA DWELLERS WERE INCREDIBLY HOSTILE TO PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING, IF I WAS NOT CURRENTLY A KICK-ASS ROBOT I WOULD HAVE BEEN HALF WAY ACROSS THE ROOM BY THE TIME I CONSCIOUSLY REGISTERED YOU WERE EVEN THERE, ON INSTINCT."

"BUT OF COURSE YOU ARE A BRINESUCKER, THIS IS EXACTLY LIKE WHAT I WAS TELLING LUNA THE OTHER DAY."

Edited 2012-05-31 01:30 (UTC)

"Even if I were from your world, Security would--wait. Luna? As in ***Princess*** Luna?"

"SECURITY WOULD DEFINITELY GET INVOLVED AFTER YOU KILLED A GUY OR FIVE, YEAH, AND IT WOULD BE MY PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY TO NOT BE ONE OF THEM."

Shut up Karkat everyone knows you would get involved.

"YES, THAT LUNA, WE HAD A MULTICULTURAL EXCHANGE ON WHY I HAVE A RAGING BEEFGRUB IN MY CRAW ABOUT CASTE SYSTEMS EVEN WHEN THEY ARE REPORTEDLY BENIGN." If by multicultural exchange you mean 'window-rattling screaming match,' which he pretty much always does.

"...she used the Royal Canterlot Voice on you, didn't she."

Houston, we have a facepalm.

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS, SHE GOT SOME PRETTY GOOD VOLUME, THOUGH, MY AURICULAR SPONGECLOTS HADN'T STOPPED WHIMPERING BY THE TIME I TRADED THEM IN FOR ROBOT AUDIO PICKUPS."

Edited 2012-05-31 02:26 (UTC)

"That would be it." Twilight scowls. "For crying out loud, I ***told*** her that royalty doesn't do that anymore..."

"YES, THAT IS WHAT THE ARGUMENT WAS ABOUT, SHE WAS PRETTY OFFENDED AT MY USUAL LACK OF RESPECT. BUT I DID NOT PULL ANY PUNCHES FOR HER TROLL EQUIVALENT AND *SHE* WAS DATING MY BEST FRIEND, WHICH WAS A LOT BETTER INCENTIVE THAN BEING A PRINCESS OR HAVING A HORN *AND* SOME NIGHTMARISH FEATHERY WINGS AT THE SAME TIME."

"ANYWAY THINGS GOT PRETTY TENSE, BUT IT IS ALL TAKEN CARE OF NOW. THE DARK MAJYKKS OF PONY FRIENDSHIP CLAIMS ANOTHER PAIR OF VICTIMS."