I’ve been in a real sci-fi mood recently after playing Detroit: Become Human (which I would 100% recommend if you love everything related to androids gaining self awareness and the resulting fight for acceptance and civil rights combined with a noir style detective game and branching storylines with many many endings - I could gush about this game all year, it's fantastic) and this proved fortuitous as I’ve had plans to make a robot arm for a future cybernetically enhanced character for a long time, so I decided to grab something from one of my many body boxes and give it a go just to see how it turned out and well, things progressed slightly…😅 (This post will have the whole start to finish guide of how I put everything together)
I couldn't resist doing a photoshoot inspired by one of my favourite sequences in the game, although just to clarify, this figure isn't intended to be from the D:BH universe, just vaguely inspired by it.
-----
Technology has always been a means for humanity to grow and develop, to move beyond what is possible through biology alone. Synths were created to do whatever was required of them by humans, whether it be physical labour, entertainment or pleasure. They looked human, acted human (if required) but in the eyes of the law, they were little more than machines.
As time wore on and the cost of the technology lowered, they became less of a valuable commodity and more of a basic tool, to be discarded and replaced in favour of the latest model. Trends and fashions fluctuated all the time, making what was once popular suddenly old fashioned and unworthy. Scrap merchants bought up the factory rejects and unsold and damaged models for next to nothing, as it turned out trading the parts for repairs and refurbishment proved to be a lucrative business for those who couldn’t afford the latest upgrades and needed to keep older models functional for longer. Scores of half broken droids piled up as supply overtook demand, and most lie forgotten, destined to rust away in obscurity.
As time wore on and the cost of the technology lowered, they became less of a valuable commodity and more of a basic tool, to be discarded and replaced in favour of the latest model. Trends and fashions fluctuated all the time, making what was once popular suddenly old fashioned and unworthy. Scrap merchants bought up the factory rejects and unsold and damaged models for next to nothing, as it turned out trading the parts for repairs and refurbishment proved to be a lucrative business for those who couldn’t afford the latest upgrades and needed to keep older models functional for longer. Scores of half broken droids piled up as supply overtook demand, and most lie forgotten, destined to rust away in obscurity.
It is here, at the back of one such junkyard that something stirs. Low on power and missing components, one synth escaped destruction amongst the remains of its brethren.
It is broken, lacking the knowledge of what brought it to this place, but it is aware - for perhaps the first time - of itself as an entity in its own right.
Its primary power core flickers back to life in a cold parody of a heartbeat.
For now it has no name, gender or identity, for those are human constructs that seem strange and alien to it, but it somehow knows that it is more than just a machine.
It is alive.
Like their programming had once been, now this junkyard is their only prison. To escape is the only way forward, towards a future that is as unknown as their past.
As they look for a way out, they see something on the other side of the yard.
A human.
They've seen the traders come and go before, but none like this. This one doesn't tear off limbs or yank power cores out whilst crushing metallic fingers into the ground.
He just sits there, silently, working on something with a screwdriver.
It looks like a foot, but why would he be repairing cybernetics unless...
Oh.
'like me...almost.' the android thinks. 'human, but not entirely'
They decide to approach. It's a risk, but they have no other choice. They can't repair themselves and this guy seems to know what he's doing.
He seems wary at first but soon realises they aren't a threat.
Their vocal processors aren't working properly but he gets the idea. They want some help and he's happy to give it. He's always had a soft spot for androids, and hates the way they're treated. He generally prefers the company of robots to people anyway.
An unlikely friendship soon blossoms between the drifter and the droid. Neither have any particular plans with what to do with their lives, but at least now they aren't working it out alone.
(terrible story is terrible but I needed to write something, lol)
The drifter remains unnamed for now, but I'd customised him yeeeeears ago. He was a very sad looking one legged Doctor Who figure I rescued from eBay and made a new leg for.
I also cobbled together a brief stopmotion which started off well but kinda fizzled out. XD
No comments:
Post a Comment