#I thought about 'enforcer' Zim but this feels less... something

[abrthephantomq]

'Encoder' Zim AU Idea Thingy

ie, Cas is Trying to World Build this Invader Zim AU he wants Alicia and Steven to Write and the whole process has got him like this:

Putting the idea behind a cut but also tagging @paynomindtotheinsanity because this was heavily inspired by a conversation we had a few days about competent!Zim but also because her characterization of Zim is *chef's kiss* in Your Eyes Are Red.

So the real concept is that instead of “Invading” planets, Irkens are sent to various alien planets throughout the universe in order to study them. And then they “assimilate” them into the Irken Empire’s vast galactic Empire. 

The Irken Race are being guided by the “Control Brains” still – the Control Brains can do all the things that they can totally do in like – The Trial episode. But also note that Red (Savin) and Purple (Jazz) (like 00 version J&S where they are very, very sexually compatible but not necessarily compatible-compatible, especially as leaders, not that it matters because –) are basically puppet dictators – they know their role is just to be the public face for the Control Brains. 

The thing is – the Control Brains aren’t actually Irken. They’re humans who achieved immortality. I want to say two of them but honestly? I think they’re supposed to be the 8 richest human beings from this earth. They had so much wealth and power that they basically other humans into something unrecognizable…

Well, they turned them into Irkens.

Irkens are basically the like, Worker Bees of the giant Hive Mind the Control Brains worked really hard to create, and have been creating, for the past millennia. Irkens are used to MAINTAIN the hive. They go to planets and figure out what sorts of things its societies are doing “wrong” and how fractured each world is etc and learn the history / record the issues down and then pass the information to The Tallests. The Tallests then report this information to the Control Brains, who then decide the fate of those planets. 

(Read: The Control Brains then tell the Tallests that yes, these planets should be assimilated and that they need sooooo much help and guidance to learn how to have the besttttt livessssss ever and like…. the Encoders are supposed to facilitate that whole process, as well. Irkens live for many many years, they effectively don’t age because they’re genetically perfect, thanks to the cloning process, and the Paks make sure that everyone stays in LINE)

So rly – Paks keep Irkens Alive, they keep them In Line, and they essentially act as fucking thought police. 

Now – here’s where it’s gonna get a bit loopy. 

Irkens are Humans, right? The first race that the Control Brains assimilated into the Hive Mind? The same Hive Mind that essentially continues to feed the Control Brains desire to control EVERYTHING across the galaxy and continue to pile more and more money etc??? 

What happens if an Irken Encoder is sent, purposely, to Earth? 

Humans shouldn’t still exist, right? 

Yeah, tell that to planet Earth, circa year 2001. Humans are still there. Still “thriving.” 

Professor Membrane is studying Human Genetic Manipulation. He’s made two clones of himself – a boy, and a girl. They’re both him, they’re his kids, they’re fucked up. As all families are. 

Professor Membrane is also splicing Human Genetic Material with Other Species’ Genetic Material. 

Except he can’t test this shit on HUMAN subjects, because that shit’s unethical. 

Well… 

Except he can, though. 

He proved that he could clone himself, after all. Who’s to say he can’t just…. try to clone humans and manipulate their DNA that way? No one. He’s given free fucking rein because Dib and Gaz were the only “successful” human clones he’d produced, according to his research and the grants etc he was given to conduct this research, etc. 

Dib and Gaz may get to live long, happy lives (as they are human beings born with Privillege – Professor Membrane’s rich as fucking hell, obvs) – but they have an untold number of “siblings” they know nothing about. 

I can’t remember if it was Enter the Florpus that had Membrane working on a perpetual motion / energy machine? I think it was Enter the Florpus. 

Anyway, EtF more or less proves that the Earth IZ takes place on is part of a series of different AUs. Remember, there are other dimensions, too – A Room With A Moose, for example. So this isn’t all that weird of a thing. 

Thing is, these AUs exist together and overlap one another and Zim is sent to Encode Earth. Zim is a competent Irken Encoder; he has yet to fail at properly folding various planets in. He’s good at it. It essentially requires him to just conduct experiments on different races all day long and see how they work etc. 

He’s so good at it, he starts to notice weird shit about the Human Race, and about the planet in general. Features of it look familiar; bits of history sound familiar, etc. 

btw, he and Dib more or less have the SAME weird rival situationship happening – because Dib recognizes Zim as not a human being (“Does…. nobody see the alien sitting in class?”), and since Zim is competent at blending in and shit (and honestly? Yeah, he kinda IS in the show – at least with middle schoolers? he was REAL GOOD at getting the other kids to be on his side and not Dib’s). 

So Dib grew up the same fucking pariah in his class, with Zim like – falling into the “preps” – Drumline Captain for the marching band, etc. Like, Zim is popular. The girls want to date him. The boys want to be him, etc. Prom King material, right there.

They graduate. 

They go their separate ways. Dib becomes a paranormal investigator with the CIA (Swollen Eyeballs - Agent Mothman) and… 

Well, he’s given a mission to assassinate a certain scientist / researcher. Someone who’s putting too many puzzle pieces together and therefore threatens to completely collapse the human race and, quite honestly, the planet – especially if he ever gets his research published. Because this scientist / researcher has been working independently for at least a decade, and every single time he releases findings, Things Happen. 

The researcher / scientist / historian (lol) is Zim. 

Chaos ensues. 

[fakesurprise]

Debriefing and Destressing

The prequel stories aren’t really post-cyberpunk; cybernetics exist and are used, but definitely inferiors to Other Things. Basically, cybernetics is now so cheap the rich refuse to use it. 

My boss has an office. No one else bothered with such things: you just reportrf over the Edos Array and conference that way. But Alder had an actual an actual room with chairs and a table he insists on sitting behind. I’d heard of him before he was assigned my handler, so I never bothered to protest. It’s a waste of time even by government standards, but there were far worse ways to waste time.

I entered to discover that he has altered things since my last visit; there was a replica fireplace against a wall with two comfy chairs beside it and a small side table between them. The table contained a bottle of alcohol and two glasses, both of which erre poured.

“Stevens. Please join me.”

I walked over and sat down. My system were too efficient for alcohol to do anything to me, and I barely taste it, but I had a sip anyway as the chair groaned a little. Even without the cumbersome battle suite I wore earlier, I had far too many implants to be light. “Sir. You wanted my report in person?”

“You did survive meeting Lady Tower. That is our official designation for her; she has enough aliases and use-names in the Array and Network proper that we just made up our own name over her preference for locations high above the cities of Edos. We know she uses a medchair and has some older cybernetics, the latter at odds with the kind of repairs and aid she has offered to others. There isn’t another private contractor on record in our nation who can successfully reactivate any soldier who has gone civilian. So, yes, in person.”

Alder is older, but he’d seemed to be about seventy for at least thirty years. I had no idea how old he actually was; I suspected far younger than many thought, and that the penchant for antiquities like a desk and office was just to throw people off their game. But I had no proof, and thankfully no need to look for it.

I sat my drink down. “August Zim is dead, which we suspected. Lady said others have survived, though not the extent of what she was able to recover for them. She did claim it would be almost impossible to do the same for me, which fits with the record of not lying about what she can do. She had a small lab in a tower in the north-delta sector. I marked the location in the briefing I sent earlier, though I imagine she’s long gone. She accepted the deal to travel to Elmith and let us know the outcome of her activities to date, but only as it relates to reactivation.”

“Curious. We did not expect it to be so easy.”

“It wasn’t. The battlesuit was destroyed, and I only survived because I tortured a boy.”

“That you left out of the report,” he said dryly.

“The boy was young, with an electromesh of military-grade quality both he and Lady Tower could use effectively. A shunt in his stomach for food, and difficulty breathing both pointing to damage from gasses. Also an artificial voicebox that was almost good enough to fool a decent asi. He also sold his eyes to her, and they were used as cameras. I am uncertain if that was another arrangement, but she did wish to preserve his life and refuses to leave Edos until she has finished making his voice work successfully.”

“The latter is unexpected.”

I nodded. “We knew she kept victims or veterans of the wars at her homes as servants and weapons, but not that she actually cared if they died. I am uncertain if she did or simply wanted the contract finished as a matter of professional pride.”

“Someone, ah, gifted with an electromesh would benefit more from having a stomach and other parts regrown than a shunt and artificial voicebox.”

“I thought so as well, so I looked into the issue. The mesh would interfere with growing new organs. Connecting them into it would be very expensive, and ensuring they could survive the mesh would mean testing that would drive the cost up to levels even the military would hesitate at paying out. The lack of a voice drastically limits interaction with an assistant, personal or otherwise, and the Array and technology in general. There are artificial voiceboxes and voice modulators that can work with an assistant, but this one also has to survive a mesh and controlling the mesh requires a very good assistant, hence the problem.”

“That is a complicated outlier, and one i imagine just selling your eyes does not pay for.” “I suspect she has taken it on as a challenge. I plan to return later today and see what is left of the Tower. If the boy has been left behind, he can at least explain some things.”

“And the Lady?”

“Did use a medchair, but had perfectly viable cybernetic legs, and an arm she pretended had latency issues it did not. I can only assume it is for matters of practicality, and helps attract people like the boy.”

“Ah. So that hey believe they are helping her, and she uses outlier cases to experiment on?”

I nodded. “It does seem likely, sir.” I had another sip of the drink because Alder was waiting for me to.

“And you felt there was no reason to terminate the target”

“Not in this case, no. I used a civilian battle suit, which was – limiting. I retain most of the enhanciles I had during the war; it reminded me of not having them. The Lady is hardly unique in what she offers, or the desperate veterans who want what they feel are their bodies back. To be rendered slower, with less senses, less awareness, less strength: to go from grace to a clunky body so expensive to maintain. It is a hard transition with so much of what was meant for war disabled.

“And even if they are activated somewhat, weapons run out and bodies require repairs. Ironically even more once those systems are active again. Over twenty enforcers were lost taking down  Li-owen a month ago, which led to this investigation. But if Li-owen had been left to just show off and be clever and not forced into battle with government forces –.” I shrugged. “A week. Two at tops before things broke that needed repairs that could not be afforded.”

“Which was what led to to the attack by Li-owen on the hospital and the resultant deaths, Stevens.”

“I am not saying Li-owen was in the right at all. Far from it. Some veterans cope just fine with civilian life and limits. Others do not, and some system must be in place for them.”

“Your mandate is purely investigative. But continue.”

“Let them retain enough to not feel – limited. And limit them to occupations that suit those skills. People would pay decent credit for cage fights, Anders.”

Anders took a slow sip of his drink. “There are many illegal ones, but making them legal would – lose that outlet for people.”

“Something like that might work. I don’t know. Do you need anything else?” “No.”

I nodded and left, heading two levels below to a gym. It was small, not quite military-quality. But the targets were solid and fast, and I spent a good half hour killing fake enemies and pushing myself. Reminding myself that I wasn’t limited, getting rid of how even my eyes had been less in the battle suit by shooting targets for a good five minutes.

I didn’t break anything, which should appeal to the psychbot assigned to me.

I put my weapons away, heading to a locker for a simple outfit and then back out into the city to check out what had become of the Tower.

Not needing to sleep had uses, but unfortunately I was exempt from overtime pay. Not that the pay mattered in this. We do what we must, and only after do we deal with it with.

I wasn’t intending to deal with anything I didn’t have to. The past wasn’t anything I was keen to embrace again. But that didn’t keep it in the past.

And the war cast shadows that nothing I did might ever erase.