Sci-fa - Blog Posts

First Drop

On Deslotair, the storm cycle breaks every three years, clearing the skies for off-world ships to make a rare visit to the planet. But for every ship that can make the landing, another falls to the unfamiliar conditions and dust-laden atmosphere. Scavengers watch the ships as they crash, ready to strip them to the hulls for all their worth.

Taglist: @glacierruler

OCtober Bingo: Multilingual

“Come here,” Glass signed.

Sprocket shifted forwards, sand sliding over and into his joints, tubes bending to follow the movement. He was sitting cross-legged on the ground, hands folded in his lap. Opposite him, Glass kneeled in the sands.

The mid-morning sun fell through eir body, refracting and splitting through the glass, shining brilliantly on pieces of metal and bulbs of green liquid before falling onto Sprocket. It would be warm, if either of them had the skin to feel it.

(Natural heat was lost to Sprocket in the storm of his own whirring processors and grinding motors. He just had the vague impressions offered to him by an internal thermometer ticking up or down: 42.3°C.

He’d once asked Glass if ey could feel warmth, could feel the sun beating down on them.

Ey said it felt like life, which sounded very different from 42.3°C.)

Glass pressed eir palm against Sprocket’s chest, warping the way the light fell, and hummed three notes.

They slid together like the gradient of a sunset, each higher than the last. They sat somewhere in the middle of Glass’s vast spectrum of sound, a neutral sort of tone that shook around in Sprocket’s chest but didn’t quite stay there. He raised a hand from his lap to grab onto Glass’s forearm, fingers clinking into place. Another point of connection, without the leather of Sprocket’s vest separating them.

“Go again,” he said.

The same three notes played. Sprocket could feel the vibrations humming against his sensors, sound washing through him. It brushed over those parts of him designed only to detect pain, to alert to problems, gently passing by without alarm.

The sweeping rise in pitch felt whole in some way, complete. Someone with more musical knowledge than him, with more knowledge of the language Glass was trying to speak to him, could have had the right words to describe it. Sprocket had neither of those things, so all he had to offer was-

“It sounds nice. What does it mean?”

Glass nodded. Ey pulled eir hand away from his chest, and Sprocket followed suit, disengaging.

“It’s supposed to sound nice,” ey signed. “It means ‘to give comfort.’ We have many words like this, that represent concepts, that can be used in many different ways as long as the emotion is there.”

Those bulbs of liquid rolled around in Glass’s chest, occasionally colliding with each other to become one, other times clinging to the clear walls surrounding them. A pool of it splashed in eir head, right behind the pair of white, glowing eyes that watched Sprocket intently, making sure he understood. Glass continued.

“It means ‘it’s okay.’ It means ‘it’s alright.’ It means ‘it’s over.’ It means ‘I’m here.’ It means whatever it needs to mean.”

“And does it… work? Do you feel comforted by it?”

“Of course. That association has been well-established for me. The same will be true for you, eventually.”

Glass hummed the notes again. Ey nodded at him to do the same.

Sprocket took a moment to find the first pitch, letting it hum in his speaker before he climbed to the next, and then the next.

Glass tilted eir head at him. “You’re climbing stairs.”

“What?”

“When you move from one syllable to the next, you find in betweens and jump to them, instead of sliding up the scale. Here, try it with me.”

Ey reached out, pressing a hand against his chest, the globs of liquid in eir fingers twisting and reforming. Sprocket reached back, grabbing onto eir arm. The tubing that coiled loosely around him flexed and shifted, filled with that same blood.

Glass held the first note, leading the way for him to follow. Sprocket could hear the vibrations, could feel them thrumming in his veins of tubes, buzzing where cheers of metal met each other. The sound rattled discontentedly while he tried to find the right note, warping and grating until it fell into place.

Glass raised eir pitch, and Sprocket clumsily followed em up the scale, resting together at the three notes along their journey. When Glss nodded, Sprocket already knew what ey meant, and they starting over, and he led the charge.

They traded off like that several times, taking turns to find the right notes to play, each time getting closer to each other’s rhythm. Until the need ceased for a lead at all, and Sprocket and Glass spoke as one.

Liquid danced in Glass’s body, bulbs of it twisting in eir chest, all surrounded by singing glass.

Sprocket’s metal sang, carrying waves of sound. Gentle hands, not ones that poked or prodded, cupped his sensors, pressed against his vest.

They reached what Sprocket knew would be their final iteration and grew silent together, the last of the sound fading out of reach. Only when every last bit of it was gone, when Sprocket couldn’t possibly feel it, did Glass pull away. Sprocket’s hands fell into his lap.

“Like that,” ey signed.

“Thank you,” Sprocket responded. “I understand.”

@glacierruler

Another square down! I actually wrote this story a while back, it was one of the first things that went into my Deslotair notebook. Just some thoughts on the glass bot language and how we can communicate even when we're so different. Languages are very important to Glass (ey used to be a translator) so this was a really good prompt for em!

Little fit doodles for the Deslotair gang! We got a clothing swap for Sprocket + Alonze, Desmona in some clothes I saw in the store the other day, and Glass wearing a fit I saw someone on the bus in. Feels weird to draw em in clothes, but I think it works!

This is for @glacierruler's OC Bingo! Board below the cut

Currently going down my list of people to ask about OCs because they rbed my OCtober bingo card :3

Tell me of the OCs!

Deslotair gang! Deslotair is a sci-fi western story that follows a group of scavengers through the desert as they fight to survive. If you already know the team, here are my bingo board ideas! If not, read more

For the board!!

Involved in crime is good for Sprocket and Alonze, obviously.

Sign language and multilingual are good too, most of the gang has some knowledge of sign language, and both Glass and Sprocket know several other languages as well.

They all need a Fucking Break. Probably Sprocket the most.

Ghosts could be fun!!

For outfits: i need to draw Sprocket in Alonze's jacket don't ask me WHY i just have that image in my brain.

Fucked up character dynamics for suuure. What do Sprocket and Alonze have going on? Who knows? Canon relationship??? Maybe!

Desmona has a pet! We love Tak! Weird lizard dog!

queer. obviously.

Tragic antagonist DOES fit but we're not getting into all that lol

Outer space was MADE for me <3

Inventor is interesting. Sprocket is a mechanic but he doesn't typically invent things? Him and Glass invented a 'suit' for Desmona though.

Alonze would commit murder, so would Glass! Sprocket tries not to but it's probably happened. Occupational hazard. Desmona would rather die.

Sprocket - he/him, their leader. Used to be a mining bot, where he learned mechanic skills to take care of the other robots down there. He's since made it out of there and has been scavenging the longest. Knows a lot about machines and how to strip things for the highest quality parts. He's a fairly straight-laced guy, and absolute worry-wart trying to keep everyone alive.

Glass - ey/em, primarily a navigator. A glass bot, which are a type of robot naturally created from old scrap that becomes encased in glass. Ey was raised completely around glass bots and worked as a translator between them and humans, but it was a pretty shitty environment to be in. Ey is very curious about humans and is an excellent teacher, specifically of languages.

Desmona - she/her, the outcast. Desmona is a 17 year old girl that came in contact with vitrel, the unstable energy source of Deslotair, which became a part of her. She left home after the accident and met Sprocket and Glass soon after. She's very shy and withdrawn, generally more comfortable around bots or animals than humans. Very crafty, likes sewing and embroidery.

Alonze - he/they/she, the sharpshooter. Used to work with Sprocket in a bandit group, before being caught and arrested after a train robbery gone wrong. Spent his life moving around with his dad, who was a rancher, and deeply loves Deslotair. Very opinionated and hotheaded, but deeply loyal once she's decided she's on your side.

Fun fact originally Sprocket was going to have a head and torso with 360 range of motion but I scrapped that idea because it was a pain to draw and didn't really make sense with all his external wiring. On the plus side it means sometimes he needs help with maintenance now.

Taglist: @glacierruler

Thoughts on robots and people and how maybe the little rituals we do to show we care don't have to actually mean anything, brought to you by Sprocket and Alonze.

Worldbuilding notes: Under normal conditions, you wouldn't be able to see the stars from the surface of Deslotair. However, this takes place during drop season, when the skies are cleared of storms. Since Deslotair is a planet that's somewhat behind developmentally and lacks a lot of big cities, it's fairly free of light pollution. Scavengers traveling the deserts have an especially nice view. The planet is also in a fairly... cluttered(?) solar system, so there's a lot of comets passing by and bits of space debris burning up in the atmosphere. Most of this is natural rock and mineral, although some is space trash from neighboring planets. But hey, that's a bonus if you're scavenging, right??

Taglist: @glacierruler

Incredibly dumb doodles on what would happen if Sprocket and Alonze met @glacierruler's oc, Fig

Whereas Sprocket and Alonze live in a world where bots are fully realized beings that have to fight to be recognized in society,,, Fig's world is still cruising with boston dynamics style military drones. Shenanigans ensue.

Training

Glass teaching Desmona the tricks o' the trade. It means a lot to her to have a way of self defense that she can control, and that is very much designed to be non-lethal. I originally gave her a spear to be more matchy-matchy with Glass, but quickly realized that didn't fit.

So now she gets a staff! Still very much a weapon Glass can help teach her how to use, of course. It's something they can bond over as well- they worked on that staff together, and now they can train together with it.

I feel like there should be some sort of symbolism for the long bandages on the glass bots spears. Practically, they can help with grip for a people with very smooth, slippery hands, but there's not really a reason to leave a tail that long. Could be some kind of status symbol, or maybe vitality? Glass bots can be a little obsessed with age, so maybe you clip it as you get older? Idk, but I need to come up with something so it's not just impractical for no reason haha.

Hold my hand

Ooo baby it's a long way down

To the bottom of the river

Some scattered thoughts about Desmona's mask, why she wears it, and how she got it.

Taglist: @glacierruler

Scavengers art! I imagine this one would be pretty early after Desmona joins them, before she has the armor and all that. None of them really know what they're doing yet, they're just trying to coexist as best as they can. Glass and her do a lot of the cooking around here, but Sprocket likes to help pick the ingredients. She needs her nutrition, goddamnit!

Tags and text transcript below the cut

Sprocket: It's bone broth, from an aurack. It has calcium in it.

Desmona: Oh cool. That's nice.

Sprocket: Did you know calcium is good for your bones?

Desmona: Uh, yeah.

Sprocket: That's good.

Taglist: @glacierruler

Glass and Sprocket doodles! Been thinking about these two as a duo a lot lately. So much time spent together, wandering the desert, scavenging the sands...

Some context for the first little sketch (harmonized humming): the glass bots communicate exclusively via different pitched hums. The range of these goes outside of what humans can perceive, so for the most part, Glass communicates with Sprocket and others through sign language. But Glass has also been teaching him what ey can of eir own language. (which ey VERY much enjoys, and in return Sprocket has been teaching em a kind of morse code language he knows. which again ey very much enjoys.)

And the way Sprocket's sensors work means he doesn't pick up a lot of external stimuli, but he is more sensitive to vibration and larger impacts that can make their way through. So this has become a way of showing affection for them!! Glass can express eirself in a way that feels natural, and Sprocket can pick up on and try to reciprocate these sensations that are one of the few things he can actually feel.

The bottom right sketch is titled "One robot teaches another how to be human" The piece of text next to the more complicated part gives a description of what it is and how commonly it's found, while the bottom part with the toaster simply reads "I have no idea."

Taglist: @glacierruler

As the storms ebb and flow, those ships foolish enough to get caught in their swell drop down from the sky.

It's a good time to be a scavenger.

'Drop season' is the period of time on Deslocar when the storms start to cease, as the scavengers call it. It's both a time to trade your goods with off-worlders, and collect from the ships that aren't quite used to the rougher conditions...

Tags: @glacierruler

Rough background stuff for Deslocar. At its heart, this story is a western, so of course we've got to have a good old fashioned saloon. A lot of things might happen here, meetings, bar fights, drinking away your troubles. With Glass's spear and an upside-down cup, this was meant to harken back to Glass's and Sprocket's first meeting, at the start of the scavengers.

Tags: @glacierruler

"This is the land of the glass bots. We abandoned them, abandoned their lands, and instead of staying dead like they should have, they turned into walking memories."

And now, finally, Glass (ey/em), linguist, translator, and traveler of the desert.

Info:

First to join the group, joined Sprocket a while ago.

It was just the two of them for a very long time

Glass' main role on the team is as a protector (ey wields that spear well) and as a navigator

Before Sprocket, ey was a translator

Glass lived with other glass bots, and worked closely with their king

When humans needed to interact with the glass bots for any reason, Glass would act as a translator

Because Glass people speak in frequencies humans can't always hear and cannot learn to speak any other language, Glass learned sign language, which ey still uses to communicate now

Ey also became a kind of negotiator, learning how to translate what the King had to say into mannerisms and politeness that the humans would view favorably, and vice-versa

This regular involvement with humans grew Glass's fascination with human culture and languages, something not necessarily appreciated in the glass bot world

Of course it was Glass's job to understand these things, and ey was respected given eir high-ranking position, but ostracized as well

Eventually, this fascination with the outside world, resentment in eir own community, and disagreement with the King's rule drove Glass to leave and strike out on eir own

Soon after, ey met Sprocket, who offered em a job

Out of the group, those two are probably still the closest

They had a lot of time out in the desert to grow this bond, learning about each other, about each other's worlds

Glass is a very curious person, and often has many questions

Ey is very passionate about languages, and always eager to learn more, as well as teach people

Glass is an excellent teacher as well, eir patience makes em well-suited for it

Once Desmona joins the team and they have an actual human mouth to feed, ey also discovers a love of cooking!

"She's a walking fucking warning is what she is. Something you can tell your kids about so they don't go fucking with the transport vehicles, so they stay away from the facilities. I mean, she should have died, but I guess this makes a better story, huh?"

Desmona (she/her), the outcast turning to the desert to survive.

Info:

Was the third to join the group, initially it was just her, Sprocket, and Glass

Used to live in a mining town where they were drilling the liquid, magical energy substance that sits mostly under the surface of the planet

During an accident where one of the vehicles transporting this substance crashed, spilling out its contents, Desmona came in contact with a high amount of it

Instead of killing her, as it most certainly should have, it became a part of her

The energy is wild, impossible to control. It bursts out of her randomly and destructively, and she was driven out of her town as a result

Sprocket and Glass found her not long after

Glass is immune to the magical energy she can't help but wield, and Sprocket is somewhat resistant towards it

She latched onto them quickly because of that, glad to be around people she couldn't hurt

Sprocket and Glass eventually made the armor that can help contain the magic

Desmona is fairly withdrawn, especially around new people

When the group needs to travel into towns, she usually keeps to herself

She knows her mask makes her look somewhat strange and off-putting, and she's VERY happy to lean into that

She's very sweet though, despite all that

She gets along well with both Sprocket and Glass, but she's especially close to Glass

Since Glass is very curious about humans and different cultures and food and languages, Desmona is happy to teach em what she knows. She picks up on sign language pretty fast so they can talk without having to go through Sprocket.

They do a lot of cooking together

She also learns how to wield a spear from Glass

Desmona is very much a pacifist, but she knows it's important to protect herself, and it feels good to be able to do that in a way she can control

She doesn't want to hurt anyone, and hates the fact that now it feels like some kind of default state for her

"Leaving Deslocar? What, the whole fucking planet? Ha, yeah, as if. Listen, this place'll chew ya up and spit ya out, sure, but I wouldn't leave if you were givin' out first class tickets to the stars."

Alonze (he/she/they), a former bandit, now fresh out of jail, with nowhere else to go.

Info:

Was the last to join the scavenging group, and acts as hired guns basically, protecting the group from rivals and bandits

Desmona (one of the younger members of the crew) didn't like her at first because she can be kind of... a lot

And since Desmona didn't like him, Glass didn't either

Also by the time Alonze joins, he's the only one that doesn't know sign and therefore can't communicate with Glass, which doesn't help their relationship

Eventually they both warm up to her

Used to know Sprocket, which is how they nail the bodyguard job so easily

The two of them used to be part of a crew of bandits a while back, but after Sprocket- well after Alonze got arrested, it was a while before they saw each other again

She used to have two of those old colt-inspired pistols, but Sprocket was only able to hang onto one for her

Shoot first, ask questions later kinda gal

They're very quick to anger, and very impulsive

This makes him good at thinking on his feet, and good in high-pressure situations, but not very good at making a plan and carrying it through

This drives Sprocket insane

An excellent shot, cares very deeply for their weapons

Cares deeply for a lot of things, really

He's very passionate, and opinionated, has a stance on anything and everything and will die on any hill

Apathy???? never heard of her

"I wouldn't say I hope for the crashes. They simply happen, whether we're there to harvest the parts or leave them to rust in the sands. Might as well make something good out of it."

An old mining bot gone rogue, Sprocket (he/him) is now the defacto leader of our little group of scavengers.

Some info:

Was originally scavenging on his own, but started the group when he picked up Glass (another member)

Bounced around in different jobs as he found a spot to settle down on Deslocar after his mining days, the most important of these being his bandit and mechanic days

He still isn't quite settled down now, but there's certain towns and cities he floats between a lot

Very much an engineer, knows his way around all sorts of machines and is great at fixing stuff, including himself

Has made a lot of adjustments and modifications over the years

accidental dad friend

Freaks out HARD when anyone gets hurt, and has a habit of offering the humans water when they complain about literally anything because like??? that's what people need right?????

Not super a fan of violence, but he does what's necessary. Tries his best to keep the crew out of shit, when he can, especially after it's not just him and Glass

The tubes running outside of his body help maintain his temperature- robots run on a liquid power source and it gets hot

Works like rabbit ears yknow?

His eyes emit a light glow, it's hard to see in the daytime but very noticeable at night, some say to an unnerving degree

He has slats above and below his eyes that he can use to emote

Talks through the speaker on his face, but also knows sign language and can flash his eyes to speak in a kind of morse code

He taught it to Glass a while back, and they use it to communicate sometimes, either when its convenient to be able to talk without talking or signing, when they dont want anyone else to understand them, or when Sprocket just feels like it

"Deslocar? Have I heard of it? Yeah of course I've heard of it, it's the planet over for fuck's sake. Have I been? Ha! Do you think I'd be standing here if I had?"

Deslocar - The desert planet misfit of its system. Ravaged by dust storms and pockmarked with pits and craters, Deslocar sits apart from its more hospitable neighbors.

The harsh weather of the planet and high winds of its upper atmosphere provide harsh conditions to any ships attempting to cross the border into space- whether they plan to enter, or are trying to leave. This has created a planet left behind, a world scavenging the broken vessels from the outside world, and trying to put together technology decades behind the rest of the system.

The craters of Deslocar are a relic from a younger, less stable universe, but they have refused to spend all that time sitting idle. Meteorites have cracked open the ground, and they bring Deslocar's contents flowing forth, trickling up from the dusty soil...