#Robot Planet Synthesizer

[technician-the]

[bioniclechicken]

since you've been posting your house of h/powers of h stuff again, i'm really curious to know more about your hf fanon, especially human makuro. what's up with that?

Okay damn, long post time:

Full disclaimer a lot of this shit is disjointed and me just redoing a lot of Hero Factory lore with zero regard for much of anything:

Basically, my version of Akiyama Makuro is that he used to be a teen genius who was a sidekick to a legion of galactic superheroes that he idolized. All of these heroes were killed in a battle against Black Phantom and his Legion of Darkness over the planet Quatros and its natural resource Quaza.

The grief-stricken Makuro would eventually research the Quaza and find that it can be imprinted with memories and brain-patterns, but after he figures out a way to synthesize it, Witch Doctor exiles him from Quatros so he and his allies won't desecrate it further. With the Quaza in hand, Makuro begins work on forming Hero Factory and using the Quaza to resurrect his heroes in the form of robotic sentries that will enforce law and order across the galaxy. Unknown to him, Black Phantom had also imprinted his own brain-pattern into the Quaza in Makuro's possession as part of an elaborate plan to get revenge on the sole survivor of the heroes that defeated him.

Hero Factory is soon formed, but Makuro's young daughter died from illness. In his grief, she ends up imprinted into the Quaza, and is later reborn as Natalie Breez. Makuro as a partial result of his despair would fully abandon flesh and blood and become a brain preserved in a cybernetic body. Meanwhile, Black Phantom's consciousness is born as Von Ness, who would later betray Hero Factory to become Von Nebula, an unwitting pawn to Black Phantom's ultimate revenge.

From here on, a lot of the same events as the original series happens, but with a bunch of other weird shit and different contexts because I felt like it:

William Furno is actually a duplicate of XPlode, the original William Furno who went rogue. Furno would eventually find the truth and abandon Hero Factory to become a vigilante.

A lot of the villains in general are secretly former Heroes who were effectively abandoned by the Factory and labelled as the bad guys. Von Nebula's gang is mainly comprised of victims of this and he's ultimately trying to avenge their mistreatment.

Recon Team is secretly trying to take over Hero Factory by exposing much of Makuro's past crimes, including the villains being former heroes and the origins of Quaza. They realize Daniel Rocka would be against the coup and tried to kill two birds with one stone by causing him to crash on Quatros and having his remains expose Quaza's origins. They don't know that they're pawns to Black Phantom.

Witch Doctor isn't Aldous Witch, he's a native inhabitant of Quatros trying to defend his home from those wanting to drain it of Quaza.

The Breakout has catastrophic ramifications as a lot of secrets coming out causes Hero Factory's standing to completely collapse; the villains effectively take over Makuhero City as its protectors while the Heroes either go on the run or join the villains.

And as mentioned before all of this is basically Black Phantom's elaborate plot to take down Makuro for defeating him decades ago. In fact, Black Phantom's been long dead. He's now basically an AI copy of himself piloting his armor, but since only his biometrics can make the suit function his skeletal remains are in there. My take on him is that much of a hater.

So basically, my idea for a Hero Factory fanon is that all that shit happened and now the Heroes (and villains) need to find a way to settle their differences and all their hangups about their origins to fight an evil French skeleton in a suit of armor before he can fully wreak havoc on a defenseless galaxy.

[mindblowingscience]

Using meteorites from Mars, an AI-powered robot chemist synthesized compounds that could be used to generate oxygen from water, scientists announced on Monday (Nov. 13). Potential future crewed missions to Mars will need oxygen — not just for astronauts to breathe, but also for use as rocket propellant. One key way to make such missions cost-effective in the long run is to use resources that already exist on the Red Planet to create the oxygen. That'd be much easier than lugging a bunch of oxygen, and oxygen-producing materials, all the way from Earth. The idea is promising because Mars does possess significant reserves of frozen water ice — because water is made of hydrogen and oxygen, scientists have been looking for ways to harvest the latter element from those Martian reserves. In particular, compounds known as catalysts are capable of spurring chemical reactions that "split" water molecules to generate oxygen and hydrogen gas. In a new study, researchers experimented with an AI chemist to produce some of those water-splitting catalysts — most importantly, these tests were conducted with materials found on Mars. The team focused on five different categories of Martian meteorites, which are rocks that crashed down on Earth after cosmic impacts blasted them off the Red Planet.

Continue Reading.

[tripleglitchwriting]

Hello! Hope youre doing well :D Hopefully I'm not late for the open requests! (if so do ignore/delete this)

Is it okay to ask for something platonic/fluffy with idw Drift or Tarantulas?

Whoever you feel more comfortable writing! I'm not picky.

Anyways, have an amazing day <3

Thank you for requesting! This is my first time taking a request, so I apologize if it’s not up to par with any expectations. I haven’t actually read much fluff either but I tried my best :-)

I decided to pick Tarantulas for this one because I know him better than Drift (also, spiders are cool.) I based his personality off of Earthspark Tarantulas, but this story doesn’t necessarily take place in that universe.

Spider’s Cove

CW: A little fear and stress at the beginning, but it’s fluffy other than that.

As a rule, Tarantulas didn’t interact with humans. That is, any human other than you. It’s not that he hated them or held something against them it’s just… well actually he did hate them and held something against them. Before you showed up he’d been hiding away from the whole planet, ready to scare off anyone who got too close to his cave. Yet… the night you arrived changed his outlook forever.

Rain pelted the forest like bullets in a war zone, thunder clapped behind dark, angry clouds. You were running, looking for anywhere dry enough to make a fire or to even just take a second to breathe. It felt like a miracle when a sizable hole in the side of the mountain entered your vision. Looking back on it now, it was a miracle of sorts.

You stepped inside shivering, cold damp air still pierced your drenched jacket. Despite how it may have looked the cave was leagues better than you could have hoped, perfectly dry enough to begin setting up some sort of camp. However, as you took out your supplies, a horrible realization dawned on you. Your fire starters, kindling, and matches were all too wet to be useful. At that moment, the stress of the day began to set in. Your breathing came out quick and ragged, tears began to add to the water already covering your face.

Because of this, you didn’t notice the skittering noises coming from deeper in the cave. You didn’t notice a shadow begin to creep up on you, and you didn’t notice when something very, very big towered over your crumpled form.

“Human.”

You shrieked.

“Why have you come here?” It asked, voice shaking you to your core. Turning around to look at what it was, you realized why nobody ever came out here. There was a spider. A giant spider. A giant spider that looked to be partially made of metal. A giant spider made of metal that was not happy with you.

“I- I was trying to get out of the… the rain it was… I was… please don’t hurt me…!” You saw the spiders body slump just a little bit. As you pleaded, your words came out bumbling, you expected to be crushed or eaten or something. To your surprise, no pain came.

“I… I was going to ask you to leave. However, I see why you are here.”

“Wh- what?”

“As much as I dislike your race, you… I can sympathize with your plight. If you cause no trouble, I will allow you to shelter here until the storm ends.” The spider boomed.

“…really? But… but what…”

“I wouldn’t argue if I were you.”

And so you didn’t.

And neither did he.

You spent the night in his cave, discovering what he was, who he was, and why he was here. Turns out the spider was called “Tarantulas”, and he was a scientist of sorts. He was trying to get away from others of his kind, and ended up hiding in the cave you found him in. He could also transform into a robot rather than just being a spider, which scared you very bad the first time he did it.

Tarantulas kept his promise to shelter you, even going as far to provide a “bed” made of some sort of synthesized spider silk. You chatted with him the whole night, no matter how much he insisted you sleep. Eventually, a question you asked seemed to catch him off guard.

“Why do you hate humans?”

“Well, they’re, or, you all are pests that keep messing with my plans. I can’t risk having one of you lead an enemy here. Simple.” He fidgeted with various pieces of technology strewn about his makeshift home.

“Then… why did you save me?”

“I- well, I… I couldn’t just leave you there.”

“Yes you could’ve.”

“Well, I didn’t. Maybe I just didn’t want to deal with a dying human in my home.”

“Well, thank you for helping me anyway.” He simply nodded at you. “Hey, you know, Tarantulas?”

“Yes?”

“You said some of your kind is hunting you down, they think you’re evil, right?“

“…Yes.”

“You haven’t told me too much, but I don’t think you’re evil.”

“What makes you say that?”

“For a guy who claims to hate humanity, you have a knack for making very comfy beds.” You smiled at him, and he nodded back, quietly accepting your inference.

For the next couple hours, he softened little by little. The storm went on for longer than either of you had guessed, so you did what you could to pass the time: talk even more.

You told him about your life, your opinions on humanity, and how you ended up in the cave to begin with. He found the idea of “camping” ridiculous, which made you laugh more than it should’ve.

Tarantulas was sweet, even when he needed to work on whatever sciencey project he was occupying himself with. He kept you on his shoulder while he worked in robot mode, and you get to see all of the impossible equations and indecipherable text he was reading. You didn’t understand one bit of it, but he appreciated your confused attempts to help anyway.

When the rain finally stopped and the sun came out from hiding, Tarantulas took you outside to see you off. However, the storm did more damage than previously thought. Branches lay soaked in the mud, entire trees snapped in half like twigs, and a good portion of the land around the cave entrance was flooded. You and Tarantulas looked at each other, and without a word he stepped back inside the cave.

After what was a dozen long strides for him, you were back in the lab. He set you down carefully, kneeling to make the trip easier. This giant, the same that had scared you out if your skin a day before, then let you know you could stay however long you liked.

You giggled, smiling from ear to ear, wrapping your arms around his oversized leg the best you could. He seemed… shaken up by your hug, but after a moment he took one giant finger and placed it on your back.

“Thank you, Tarantulas. I knew you were a good guy.”

“You don’t know how long I’ve waited to hear that.”

[quinnred]

A bunch of old concept sketches for a lil thought exercise me and my brother had of re-imagining Halo 4, ignoring much of the 343 lore.

A big part of the re-imagining was changing Requiem from being a Shield World imprisoning the Didact to being a Shield world holding a ruined paradise world. Within the protected planet would be an active ecosystem of animals roaming grasslands, forest, and abandoned structures. A genetic scan would reveal that every single animal on Requiem is related to Humans/Forerunners, one of many strange mysteries within the ancient machine world.

Later in the story, deep down in the depths of Requiem, would be the replacement for the Prometheans: The Perditions. Requiem was run by multiple AI who were reprogrammed during the ancient Flood War to come up with solutions for not defeating the Flood but surviving it, using Requiem's population as test subjects. The animals were one such experiment, with Forerunners being re-engineered and bred as animals to be potentially ignored by the sapience hungering Flood. The Perditions were an experiment in creating a form to preserve the Forerunner mind that would be immune to the Flood. Created through a hybrid of the robotics of Sentinels and the nanotech biology of Engineers with a Forerunner mind synthesized within it, the Perditions were kept in a complex of opulent living quarters to leisurely survive the war. As time passed the Perditions went insane due to the isolation, immortality, and inability to create genuine offspring. Their forms became warped over time as they tore themselves apart and rebuilt their bodies, increasingly deviating from the Human/Forerunner form, causing the AI to mark them as failures and imprison them in the bowels of Requiem. With the ability to manipulate gravity and never truly die, the Perditions are deranged biomechanical ghost that have warped their monolithic and beautiful dining halls and libraries into a maze of scarred metal and twisted monuments. Reality itself feels almost as violent and deranged as the inhabitants with gravity shifting hall to hall. The Periditions themselves have been splitting themselves into mindless machine clones in an attempt at reproduction, or have consumed others to build upon themselves. If these tortured immortal things were let loose from their prison, Requiem would be devastated, and perhaps more.

[steambot-shenanigans]

Crash Landing

Here’s something I wrote for my oc Sparky a few weeks ago. I spruced it up a little for you guys though!

Peter Walter VI heard a sound one day while he was just waking up. It was not unlike if a meteor could scream. He rushed to the window just to see the flaming mass crash into his front lawn, making a large crater. The unidentified falling object couldn’t have been bigger than a person.

He rushed to the front yard and saw the smoking crater was littered with burnt and jagged metal and scraps of clothing scattered about in the general shape of a humanoid robot, along with broken human bones that seemed to radiate faint red light.

The only thing unscathed was a blue matter core, light swirling inside it but protected by the reinforced crystalline glass on the octagonal boiler plate on which a switch rested. Swirls of red tinged the areas around them towards periwinkle. The switch was flipped in an upper position, such that it looked like the letter M.

The pieces were already starting to put themselves back together, centralized around the core. metal joined metal, all wrapped around bone.

Eventually the automaton had enough pieces together to think, look and see, and she got a good look around herself.

“Ah scrap, I broke my plasma revolver.” She sounded disappointed but not too concerned, and her voice carried a bit of a British accent. She opened her mouth and fitted the last jaw hydraulic in place after she spotted it on the ground. The pieces that were too damaged to go back in place were left behind, and her self repair systems started synthesizing new ones.

“Sparky. You don’t need a plasma revolver here,” Six gently reminded her. He hadn’t seen her since he turned 18, but he still remembered how she tended to be like after getting back from space.

“Ah you’re right. I could probably take out most of the mortals on this planet with my bare hands. Even if I die a few times in the process.” She found her arm and attached held it near her shoulder, her systems getting the message and connecting the springs in her shoulder joint until it looked good as new. She moved the arm around a little to make sure it functioned good as new too.

“Well you don’t need to take any mortals out. Because that’s murder, which is, you know, illegal.” Six offered Sparky a hand to help her get out of the crater, which she took, standing up to see what was left of her clothes.

“Eh, laws are just for people who care about consequences. I can’t die and I could break out of any prison.” Sparky looked around for her signature purple wig and sighed when she found it burnt beyond repair. “Looks like I’m going to need all new clothes. That crash landing was not kind to any of my belongings.”

“Yeah, I was going to ask. Why come crashing down from the sky?” Six asked, tilting his head in confusion, since his mask prevented him from conveying it with his face.

[t-cognoscente]

At risk of over loading your blog with questions what is Energon exactly? It seems like a currency, food, space fuel, and status symbol all at the same time. I guess I'm wonder the specifics of where it comes from how it's obtained and why it's so integral to transformers life.

Energon has taken many different forms over the course of the Transformers franchise's existence.

Originally, energon was just a fuel storage medium that could convert any kind of energy into something safe for Transformers to consume. These are the glowy energy cubes you see in the Generation 1 cartoon. In the cartoon, Transformers can produce a sort of cube-shaped force field which can trap any kind of energy inside it. Oil, electricity, heat, raw kinetic energy, you name it.

Then Beast Wars came along, the successor to G1, and with it a whole host of new lore including the fact that energon could be found as a naturally-occurring substance on some planets. Unlike the processed energon cubes of G1, this energon took the form of radioactive crystals, toxic even to Transformers in large doses.

Later, the Japanese Transformers cartoons wrote Energon as being far more magical in nature. In these shows, Energon was the creation of Primus, the robot god, and possessed transformative and life-giving powers. Transformers could use energon as fuel, to give themselves new upgraded bodies, to create new life and to resurrect the dead. Some of these continuities even depicted energon as the base element that Transformers were made of, the way you and I are made of carbon.

Most of the lore introduced in the Japanese continuities hasn't fully caught on, though much of it persists in the new form of the MacGuffin known as the Allspark from the Bay movies. Some comics have tried to compromise with a substance called Rarified Energon, which is different from the normal energon that Transformers consume as fuel in that it possesses all the supernatural powers of the Japanese continuities' energon.

Then the IDW2005 comics happened. The IDW2005 comics were written for adult fans of Transformers, instead of small children. This allowed it to tackle much more mature themes, and the fact that all of the characters were robots meant that it could get away with a frankly extreme amount of gore. To properly convey the level of horror that the writers wanted, IDW2005 needed their Transformers to bleed. So they re-wrote Energon as not only being Transformers' fuel, but their blood. Once they consume it, it becomes a liquid that flows through their "veins" (and can be splattered up a wall).

All of these disparate versions of what energon is were synthesized in the Transformers Prime cartoon, and have remained relatively consistent since then. It goes as follows:

Energon is the fuel that Transformers consume to live. It's very difficult to produce outside of planet Cybertron, but can be naturally found on alien planets such as Earth in the form of unstable, explosive crystals. Once a Transformer consumes energon, it becomes a liquid that they can bleed when injured. It is the lifeblood of the robot god Primus. Most energon is simply fuel, but there are a few rare types of energon that possess supernatural powers.

Also, it can be made into fun rainbow colored robot candy! Yummy!

[supraxstcllas]

Random lil tidbits about Ven-Ghan:

he doesn't understand the concept of humor.

he was trained by another bounty hunter named Raynok, but when Ven-Ghan supposedly 'stole' his bounty, they became bitter rivals.

because he needs to wear a mask to survive and the fact he doesn't have vocal cords that can create sounds like humans, his voice is technologically synthesized by said mask. it leaves him with a monotone, robotic voice.

he's the last of his kind, being the only survivor after his planet was destroyed by the evil Makino.

he can teleport through wormholes he can create at will, and his vest acts as his life support. if his vest is nonfunctional or damaged, he cannot teleport.

[halcyandaze]

OC THREAD HI ENJOY

been a long time since I been here so I wanted to reshare my blorbos and scrimblos with y'all, plus some newer faces that my older tumblr audience may not recognize! links to their toyhouse pages included to read more about them or check out their artwork

bonomo

a friendly 1980 something prototype companion robot! he loves retro tech, old school computers and synthesizers, collecting old media, and being your pal! absolutely friend shaped, will give hugs, best friends and roommates with his alien friend nova. he is the blorbo of all time

nova

ex criminal from space hiding on earth, strange and feral. they like learning about human culture and punk music. can be unpredictable, but is kept in line by their best friend and robot roommate bonomo. they're my scrunkly scrimblo and they honestly just need a free coupon to therapy

shearz

alien dog creature kept on an isolated icy planet far far away. her DNA's unstable nature makes her a fine experiment for genetic scientists around the galaxy to torture play with. sweet and silent, also needs a free coupon to therapy, her and nova's stories are more connected than you might think

birch

not in the same universe as my other ocs, birch is a multi-dimensional traveling reverse jackalope (deer with rabbit traits vs the other way around) with a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms whoops I think all of my characters need to go to therapy tbh

enjoy my cringy lil creachers I love them dearly

[strangedisciple]

OKAY SO I FEEL MENTALLY ILL ENOUGH TO DO THIS /silly :3 here comes an infodump about twrp, let's fucken goooo (most of these are headcanon/fanon based)

SO. the band started in 2008 actually. but lore-wise, doctor sung (vocals, synthesizer/keyboard) met havve hogan (drums) three millennium ago, at a drum camp. people headcanon them to be connected by mental link (as havve hogan doesn't talk). also at their quarantine live stream shows, they began calling havve martha, as in superman's mother's name MARTHAAA. it makes me giggle so much.

but at the same time, meouch was,,, space pirating around. and among the space pirating he did, he traveled and brought the drug version of funk to lord phobos' planet, causing mayhem. in his drug addled haze, he severely hurt phobos (we headcanoned phobos as a moth-based alien before his EP phobos II, where he began talking and was described as a robot, dunno how the lore makes sense but. who knows)

and somehow they became friends, and now are vibing as protectors of the universe and rock'n'roll best friends (a great song by them btw)

also luna is sleeping on my arm so i cannot continue this atm but my brain is also sludge. enjoy <3

omg more twrp info!!!! /vpos

this is all so interesting :D

i've still got to go and read stuff about them but omg this is all so cool thank you for telling me!!!!/genuine/vpos

[burlveneer-music]

Twoosty Mayonez - Carmin - Polish duo in a “Non-standard-jazz approach combined with the search for strange sounds”

Things don't always go your way, especially when your plans involve space travel. In the case of Captain Harrison Focus's expedition, it started innocently, but no one was prepared for an emergency landing on the mysterious planet Carmin. Only then did the real fight for survival begin. This record tells the story of a dangerous expedition into space that began on February 6, 2023. Twoosty Mayonez consists of Bartosz Wolert (drums) and Dominik Kaniewski (bass guitar and synthesizers). "Carmin" is their debut album, which is released primarily on vinyl by U Know Me Records. Twoosty Mayonez is something your grandfather would listen to with your younger sister. Non-standard-jazz approach combined with the search for strange sounds, resulted in the concept album "Carmin" created by Bartosz Wolert (drums), and Dominik Kaniewski (bass guitar). The trio closes with the 80GN4 robot, which was programmed to play a synthesizer part. Graphic design: Kacper Pieniek

[uncaaj]

Fanfic: Blade Runner Starring Donald Duck Chapter 1 - A Hot Meal in a Cold City (DuckTales x Blade Runner)

chapter 1 | CHAPTER 2 | CHAPTER 3 | CHAPTER 4 | CHAPTER 5 | MORE COMING SOON...

READ NOW ON AO3!

Early in the 21st Century, THE MCDUCK CORPORATION advanced robot evolution into the Y phase - a being virtually identical to a human - known as a Replicant. The 5Y Replicants were superior in strength and agility, and at least equal in intelligence, to the genetic engineers who created them. Replicants were used Off-World as slave labor, in the hazardous exploration and colonization of other planets. After a devastating mutiny by a 5Y combat team in an Off-World colony, Replicants were declared illegal on earth - under penalty of death. Special police squads - BLADE RUNNER UNITS - had orders to shoot to kill, upon detection, any trespassing Replicant. This was not called execution. It was called retirement.

+++

Duckburg. November 2019. 

Not that the month matters. Seasons don’t change in this city, not anymore. 

The overgrowth of buildings in this ever-expanding urban jungle helps to foster a deep-seated chill that's always there, always on the move through the cracks and crevices, just like its citizens. The rain, slightly acidic from our own technological hubris, is so omnipresent that everything, be it structure, machine, or duck seems to sag with the humidity, even when it’s not raining.

Not much natural light shines through to the streets anymore. The buildings, smog, and general unease slowly filter away the little warm glow the world has left to offer. But don’t worry. The abundant and colorful neon signs, and massive video screens on floating blimps and skyscraper faces provide the city with its own kind of plastic shine.

This was my domain, where cultures blend into a gray, indeterminate sludge and people grow their living like a fungus taking their fill of a stinking carcass. 

To my left, a salesman shouting above the cloud of chatter surrounding their cart of fur. False fur. The killing of animals for pelts was outlawed by penalty of death years ago. To my right, a club leeching its magenta light, loud music, and shallow promise of pleasure out into this cramped yet bustling side street. Behind me, a storefront window covered in ancient snowy screens, hiding a graveyard of every piece of gadgetry that was once on top of the world and suddenly casually tossed aside for the next big thing. To my front, the newspaper in my hands, full of classifieds attracting any joe schmoe looking for the latest addiction more potent than any drug, natural or synthesized: a steady paycheck.

Pity they don’t advertise for killers in any newspaper. That was my job. Ex-cop. Ex-blade runner. Ex-killer.

My stomach rumbled, hollow with hunger. I looked at my watch. It was about the standard time for a meal. I stood up and adjusted the collar on my trench coat. The noodle bar I had my eyes on was just a few feet down the street. Any protection from the dreary dampness of the trickling rain was welcomed by anyone, especially me without an umbrella in a sea of them walking by. I stepped out from the canopy I had taken shelter under and made the journey using the folded-up newspaper as my umbrella. My black shoes clunked on the asphalt and splashed puddles up onto unsuspecting ankles.

The hum of a video blimp passed overhead and I looked up. It was showing the same tired advertisement of a family sitting back and grinning while their own top-of-the-line robotic servant did the housework. The cheery voice-over reiterated this, “Use your new friend as a personal body servant or a tireless field hand -- the custom tailored genetically engineered humanoid replicant designed especially for your needs!” Empty hope for those that couldn’t emigrate Off-World, whether for lack of money, or abundance of stubbornness. I envied those people. At least they had something to strive for-a better life, either for them or their fellow duck.

Like a fly to the light, I was drawn to the paper lanterns dangling over the metal canopy of the noodle bar. The magenta and cold blue in my peripheral gave way to the clinical white of the kitchen as I claimed an empty stool and shivered at a passing breeze. The chef was speaking Japanese at someone down the bar. Not my second, or even third or fourth language, but I could pick out a word here and there. A benefit of living in a melting pot. You knew every language and none of them at the same time.

As soon as he looked my way, I nodded at him and said, “Gimme four.” 

He gave me a curious look and said something I couldn’t understand. The only word I picked out was “two.” 

“No, four,” I corrected, holding up four fingers. “Two, two, four.” He repeated himself and I didn’t bother to press the issue, except to add, “And noodles.” I sat down, ignoring the next thing he said, whatever it was.

I was casually but emptily glancing about the joint when not 20 seconds later, a steaming bowl of soup was set down in front of me, two slices of some brown substitute protein floating atop the noodles. Reminding myself to brush up on my Japanese for next time, I snagged some chopsticks from a canister, broke them, and rubbed off the splinters. Sucking in a mouthful of noodles, I savored the broth’s salty umami (another stray word I knew). The rich flavor profile was a simple pleasure in a necessary step to sustaining a wayward life.

I heard strong footsteps approach and stop behind me. I recognized the tone of police-issued combat boots. A glance over my shoulder confirmed my suspicions. Duckburg PD. A voice spoke a potpourri of many languages. I bit into the soft protein and waved the chef over.

“Duckard-san,” the chef said, pointing to the cops, “He said you are under arrest.”

“Got the wrong guy, pal,” I responded loosely.

The voice said something different in the same mishmash of tongues, a side effect of the melting pot boiled over in this city.

“He said you are Blade Runner,” said the cook.

“Tell him I’m eating,” I insisted, slurping up more noodles. This was starting to get on my nerves, not that it wasn’t a common occurrence, up until the person behind me mentioned one name in his next jumbled sentence. The noodles turned mushy and acrid in my mouth. I turned slowly, taking in my persistent botherer in full uniform, his wiry hairs sticking out of a familiar maroon stocking cap poking out of his helmet. 

I should’ve known.

“Mallard, huh?”

“Hai!” said the cop.

I swallowed. 

Fishing my billfold from my coat, I paid the chef, tip included, and took the bowl with me. If a bluecoat beak was gonna steal me away from a good meal, I’d be darned if I’d just let it sit there to waste away. Poor chef worked hard enough for my chin-yen.

I followed the cop to his vehicle, a sleek, but rugged spinner parked in an alley next to the noodle bar. He had the courtesy to open the passenger door for me, and I stepped in, careful not to slosh my soup. He shut me in then got in himself. With the press of a button, the spinner hummed to life. Slowly, with a great hiss, we lifted off the ground, leaving the entire side street behind in a cloud of steam. The spinner joined the flowing traffic of flying vehicles traveling in between the tallest buildings in the city hundreds of feet above the riff-raff. Our view was surrounded by giant screens plastered with scantily clad ladies fondling the hottest soft drink, or the latest technological convenience. Cheap, but effective. The public needed some kind of distraction.

I slurped some soup noisily. “Been a while, Feth.”

“Hardheaded as ever, Don,” he said, tossing his helmet into the backseat and adjusting his wool cap.

“Y’know I wasn’t gonna make it easy for ya.” I understood every bit of gibberish that left his pointed bill at the noodle bar. Every cop worth their salt knew cityspeak, that funny amalgamation of Japanese, Italian, German, what have you.

“I’m just trying to do my job,” said Feth.

“And I quit mine. Guess one of us can’t get what they want.”

“Tell that to Mallard. He says it’s serious.”

“Must be if he upped you to the Blade Runner unit. Congrats, by the way.” I gestured toward him with the chopsticks, cynical honey coating my words.

“...not quite yet,” he said, eyes focused on the “road” ahead.

We didn’t speak much after that. Honestly, I felt sorry for ol’ Feth. He always seemed to me like the type that had to grow up too quickly, not that that type was uncommon these days. He always had some kind of odd new habit he was obsessed over, probably a fleeting attempt to hang on to some childlike sense of discovery and innocence. Hence why I was the one who had to babysit him on jobs more often than not. Well, there wasn’t gonna be time for that if he was looking to be a Blade Runner.

I thought I had gotten free of that life, free from skittering around this city’s underbelly like a roach. A killer is followed by ghosts, I suppose. Those ghosts seemed heck bent on throwing me back into the fray, and I had no energy to fight it. So I relished the last of my hot meal in Feth’s spinner, which was now descending onto one of many landing pads atop the octagonal column housing my former place of employment.

We touched down gently and Feth smiled at me, his bright eyes carrying heavy bags. “Welcome back, Don.”

“No red carpet?” I grunted as I exited the vehicle, leaving the empty bowl on the passenger seat, my last remnant of warm comfort in this cold, lifeless evening.

[albertonykus]

Doraemon Movie Review: Nobita and the Animal Planet (1990)

What is Doraemon? The title character of the Doraemon manga and anime is a blue robotic cat from the 22nd Century who keeps an array of high-tech gadgets in a portable pocket dimension on his belly, and has traveled from the future to improve the fortunes of a hapless schoolboy named Nobita. Although relatively obscure in the English-speaking world, Doraemon is a Mickey-Mouse-level cultural icon in East Asia (and some other regions, too). The Doraemon franchise was a big part of my childhood, and there are still elements of it that I enjoy now.

Doraemon has released theatrical films almost annually since 1980, most of which involve Nobita and his friends (kind Shizuka, brash Gian, and crafty Suneo) getting swept into adventures thanks to Doraemon's gadgets. Despite being of potentially broad appeal to fans of science fiction and animated films, there are very few English reviews of the Doraemon movies, so I'm embarking on a project to write about all the films that have come out so far. Good luck to me…

Movie premise: Nobita sleepwalks to another planet, where he and his friends meet a civilization of anthropomorphic animals.

My spoiler-free take: This is essentially Doraemon’s take on an environmentalist movie, and it’s alright, but it doesn’t present much that is new for either the genre or the franchise.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT

Review: I always came away from this one with the feeling that it doesn’t do a whole lot with the concept of an animal civilization. Instead, the animal planet mostly serves as set-dressing for a 90s environmentalist story. (“Look, their society runs entirely on renewable energy and synthesizes food from sunlight and air and releases no waste into their environment!”)

And it’s a very 90s environmentalist story: the peaceful animals living in harmony with their environment are threatened by mysterious aliens, who turn out to be humans whose ancestors had already devastated the natural resources on their own planet (not Earth). Not to worry though, because the ending reveals that there are also good humans from that planet who oppose the aspiring conquerors and are working to restore their home!

The main characters do enough to justify their presence in the narrative, but none of them receive much characterization except maybe Gian, who gets to showcase a more vulnerable side of himself that isn’t seen often. However, even that doesn’t end up affecting the plot substantially.

Ultimately, I think this movie is okay for what it is. It has little in the way of what I’d consider to be actual flaws, but at the same time, I feel like it doesn’t bring much new to the table.

Star rating: ★★★☆☆

[ourlastpage]

[ lewis pullman, nonbinary, they/them. ] ✧･ﾟ is that [ oddie eve ] who just stumbled into town? rumour has it that they’re the [ twenty-nine ] year old child of [ wall-e ] from [ wall-e and eve ]. i’ve also heard that they’re [ gentle ] but [ dogmatic ] and have [ two ] siblings. i could almost swear i heard [ prom - ethan bortnick ] playing when they appeared.

oddie was created for a very specific purpose, originally named ‘od-i: oxygen distributor - intergalactic’. they were a simple little robot, tasked with synthesizing and distributing oxygen amongst space ships. they typically worked in the medical wing, assisting in all oxygen and vital-checking tasks. however, they would often try to help more than they were allowed, chastised for going against his programming. they wanted to be like the nurse robots, and was sure they could learn to do it well, but was never authorized.

when humans began restoring earth again, they were needed to ensure humans had enough oxygen to work on the planet as restoration took place. once there, they were easily overwhelmed by all the new things they saw in the rubbish. while exploring, they met wall-e and eve. the two bots could tell that oddie was a bit lost and decided to take them under their wing. they taught oddie how to truly develop the personality they had, and that it was okay to do things outside of their initial purpose. they still performed their oxygen-related tasks, but they began learning – alongside humans that began to work for themselves – on how to be a nurse.

they loved their new life on earth, especially now that they could pursue their dreams and had a family. they found another lost robot that needed a home and brought them to wall-e and eve. oddie kept this sibling very close and did everything they could together. and, of course, their parents adopted yet another little robot. while oddie loved this newest sibling just as much, they weren’t as close as they were with the sibling they personally found.

            basics:                full name:  od - i: oxygen distributor - intergalactic                nicknames:  oddie                gender:  nonbinary                pronouns:  they / them                sexuality:  bisexual                age:  29                occupation:  nurse                species:  robot human

            appearance:                faceclaim:  lewis pullman                height:  6′0’’                eyes:  blue                hair:  dirty blond                piercings:  n/a                tattoos:  circuit markings going up arms                other distinguishing features:  n/a                style:  casual

            personality:                traits:  gentle, loving, dogmatic, shy                likes:  clean sheets, people, classical music                dislikes:  arguments, sea creatures                fears:  losing their family                phobias:  bodies of water                hobbies:  reading, puzzles, gardening                skills:  insert nurse stuff here                quirks:  always smile, even when scare or uncomfy                pet peeves:  n/a

            family:                mother:  eve                father:  wall-e                siblings:  two                birth order:  eldest                spouse / lover:  n/a                children:  n/a                pets:  snail                notable close relatives:  n/a

[untimelytales]

[ lewis pullman, nonbinary, they/them. ] ✧･ﾟ is that [ oddie eve ] who just stumbled into town? rumour has it that they’re the [ twenty-nine ] year old child of [ wall-e ] from [ wall-e and eve ]. i’ve also heard that they’re [ gentle ] but [ dogmatic ] and have [ two ] siblings. i could almost swear i heard [ prom - ethan bortnick ] playing when they appeared.

oddie was created for a very specific purpose, originally named ‘od-i: oxygen distributor - intergalactic’. they were a simple little robot, tasked with synthesizing and distributing oxygen amongst space ships. they typically worked in the medical wing, assisting in all oxygen and vital-checking tasks. however, they would often try to help more than they were allowed, chastised for going against his programming. they wanted to be like the nurse robots, and was sure they could learn to do it well, but was never authorized.

when humans began restoring earth again, they were needed to ensure humans had enough oxygen to work on the planet as restoration took place. once there, they were easily overwhelmed by all the new things they saw in the rubbish. while exploring, they met wall-e and eve. the two bots could tell that oddie was a bit lost and decided to take them under their wing. they taught oddie how to truly develop the personality they had, and that it was okay to do things outside of their initial purpose. they still performed their oxygen-related tasks, but they began learning – alongside humans that began to work for themselves – on how to be a nurse.

they loved their new life on earth, especially now that they could pursue their dreams and had a family. they found another lost robot that needed a home and brought them to wall-e and eve. oddie kept this sibling very close and did everything they could together. and, of course, their parents adopted yet another little robot. while oddie loved this newest sibling just as much, they weren’t as close as they were with the sibling they personally found.

            basics:                full name:  od - i: oxygen distributor - intergalactic                nicknames:  oddie                gender:  nonbinary                pronouns:  they / them                sexuality:  bisexual                age:  29                occupation:  nurse                species:  robot human

            appearance:                faceclaim:  lewis pullman                height:  6′0''                eyes:  blue                hair:  dirty blond                piercings:  n/a                tattoos:  circuit markings going up arms                other distinguishing features:  n/a                style:  casual

            personality:                traits:  gentle, loving, dogmatic, shy                likes:  clean sheets, people, classical music                dislikes:  arguments, sea creatures                fears:  losing their family                phobias:  bodies of water                hobbies:  reading, puzzles, gardening                skills:  insert nurse stuff here                quirks:  always smile, even when scare or uncomfy                pet peeves:  n/a

            family:                mother:  eve                father:  wall-e                siblings:  two                birth order:  eldest                spouse / lover:  n/a                children:  n/a                pets:  snail                notable close relatives:  n/a

[musicarenagh]

Urban Soul Collider: Spacey Vibes in “Drifting Lost in Space” In the latest celestial dispatch from Urban Soul Collider, "Drifting Lost in Space" rockets into the ether like a comet made of confetti and existential crises. It’s an Electronic Dance Music symphony stitched with pop threads dense enough to tug on your heartstrings as you bounce along through its pulsing bassline cosmos. https://open.spotify.com/track/3WQtyj5lTiAw0E4I32c2bj?si=91330760a9974909 Aria's digital heart beats through every note, synthesizing human emotions with robotic precision as she glides across star-studded dance floors. The galaxy? A metaphorical nightclub veiled in velvety darkness studded with flickering strobe stars—the kind of place where one could tumble forever without ever hitting ground. USC mimics this feeling of unmoored drifting beautifully within swirling synths that act less like instruments and more like gravitational pulls. [caption id="attachment_56031" align="alignnone" width="1365"] Urban Soul Collider: Spacey Vibes in “Drifting Lost in Space”[/caption] As fingerprints vanish into foggy club air, Aria sings her yearning for connection—her voice a silk ribbon unraveled across the vast expanse—a haunting echo amidst synthetic euphoria about being expelled for feeling too vigorously. Here lies the brilliance of USC: crafting shadows out of lightwaves, finding homesickness in a vibe designed to incite revelry; juxtaposing isolation against ultimate unity under pulsating lights. https://youtu.be/fn7zY9qKgU8 Each beat drop feels almost like coming up for cosmic air while descending further into alien territory—to love is to be lost but gloriously so among strangers bonded momentarily by rhythm rather than reason. Ultimately, “Drifting Lost in Space” offers not just escape but solace—infinite space compresses around us warmly suggesting that perhaps home was never a planet or person but simply our permission to feel fully wherever we float. Follow Urban Soul Collider on Website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram