'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.
5 notes
·
View notes
My brain is in Pokémon world yet Majima Goro has the blorbo position tightly in his grip so what was I to do but think PokéAU thoughts and share them with the class
Majima's team:
- Houndoom
Starter; got Houndour long before he lost his eye
- Sylveon
Got Eevee as a gift from Youda and Yuki. Didn't make a decision on what to evolve it into until it ended up evolving on its own. Calls it a little fucker.
- Sandaconda (shiny)
yes his jacket matches
- Indeedee
Received for work at the Grand
- Weavile
They share the same fighting style
- Conkeldurr
Picked up for Majima Construction
All his Pokémon have their own little hardhats
Has fist-fought Kiryu's Haxorus on more than one occassion and will likely do so again if given the chance
I haven't decided whether to keep his back motif the normal Hannya or to switch it to a Pokémon, but the snake on his shoulder is an Arbok
5 notes
·
View notes
When I started choosing embroidery patterns for my store, I was really focused on relatively small, simple designs. Things that would be quick and easy for beginners. But honestly... I think I underestimated just how easy the printed interfacing would be, since it's the needlework version of completing a dot-to-dot patterns. They take time, but none of the constant counting and ripping stitches out.
So that meant I've started to get ambitious. Little designs are still great, but what about a few designs that are dazzling from the other side of the room? As a treat?
Maybe just one of Giovanni Ostaus's shirt opening border designs from 1561?
Some fancy chickens and um... tulips? pomegranates? water fountains?
And just for me, a pattern you won't find in any history book, a little confection I made that I like to call: "Strawberry Fieldmice Forever"
That's only like, half of them. I just dumped a whole bunch onto my Etsy.
Interested?
Beginner-friendly historical and fantasy embroidery patterns, right this way!
3K notes
·
View notes
Okay, my brain refuses to think about anything other than Murderbot, so I looked at every use of the word "friend[s]" in TMBD and... created some pie charts. Normal human activities.
Some Thoughts™ I had while putting this together (under the cut):
In All Systems Red, Murderbot notes that the PresAux crew are all close friends (twice! and goes on to explain their internal relationships which I think is very cute). This is pretty much the only use of 'friends' in ASR, except for when Murderbot says that SecUnits can't be friends with each other.
It seems that this may be one of the first times Murderbot has ever really been around a group of friends before? Murderbot notes that this is not the norm for its contracts and admits that the fact that they are all friends and the way they interact with each other make it actually enjoy that contract (before!!!! the hostile attack, so it already enjoys this contract before they start seeing it as a person etc ghghhhh). [Inference: Friendship seems enjoyable.]
The first character that calls Murderbot its friend is ART in Artificial Condition. Murderbot immediately refutes this (and then goes on to call ART its friend to its clients for the rest of the book). [Inference: Maybe ART is Murderbot's friend. And maybe that is... agreeable]
Rogue Protocol has more than twice as many instances of the word 'friend' as any of the other novellas. Why? Miki. Friendship and its implications for non-humans are a central theme because Miki is friends with everyone. Murderbot initially scoffs at the notion that Miki and Miki's humans are friends. At the end of the book, after witnessing how desperately Don Abene tried to stop Miki from trying to save them, and her grief after its death, Murderbot has to admit that she had in fact been Miki's friend. [Inference: Humans can be friends with bots and can sincerely care about them]
In Exit Strategy, Murderbot tentatively uses the word "friends" for its humans for the first time (several times actually). It questions whether it can actually call them its friends or not and later realizes that it had been afraid what admitting that the humans are its friends would do to it. At the end of the book, Mensah tells Murderbot the PresAux crew are its friends, which is the first time a human has directly said that to it (at least on-page). [Inference: Humans can and want to be Murderbot's friends]
In Network Effect, Murderbot seems to be more habituated to the word 'friend', confidently calling ART and Ratthi its friends, like it is no longer just trying the concept on unsure if it fits. There are many instances in which other characters refer to MB as ART's friend or the other way around and Murderbot's humans refer to Murderbot as their friend several times. Generally, there seems to be less hesitancy, because yes, all of them are Murderbot's friends, why wouldn't they be. [Inference: SecUnits can have friends. This SecUnit has friends. They care about it a lot.]
Conclusion: The Murderbot Diaries tell the story of a construct that does not seem to consider the possibility of friendship for itself and is fine with that - until it accidentally starts caring a little too much and suddenly more and more people annex it as a friend (ew) to the point where it can no longer deny that this is happening and has to begrudgingly admit that yes, it has friends now and maybe that is actually not a bad thing.
756 notes
·
View notes