Caesar, Muttering To Himself: They Call Me Caesar Cause I Be Dressin’

fuck beauty standards let me be a robot

Concept sketch for “IKYK”, a little comic about seeing someone like yourself. Also robots.

I’m moving on to cleans now, it’ll take me some time, but I can’t wait to share it!

having depression makes your friends seem like the coolest most put together people on earth like wow... you got out of bed, had breakfast, went to work, AND spent some time on a hobby when you got home....? that's so impressive you're like superman or something. can i borrow your power.

Scout

His story has gone through some rewrites, so IDK if this’ll be the final product

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The year is 2152. Brenner Linfield is part of a corporation, assisting with the development of technology and robotics, and he has an assistant by the name of Lenora Pierce. He’s spent years as an active member of this corporation and has maintained a positive reputation, being very helpful as he is very knowledgeable when it comes to working with technology.

At this time, Brenner is allowed to work on a side project to later present to higher authorities once he has finished. The company provides him with the supplies and materials needed to complete this project. Meanwhile he has Lenora secretly bringing in his own materials that has not been approved of by the authorities.

The year is now 2158, and Brenner’s side project has been complete. Brenner claims that his “Scout” project was designed to fulfill the role of being a robotic assistant that people could order. Underneath the surface, however, the Scout was programmed with capabilities far beyond what Brenner had publicly disclosed. He was merely seeking approval from the authorities to continue his work.

At first, the machine was able to carry out simple tasks. However, as time progressed, the robot became seemingly more sentient. Its behavior began to appear increasingly lifelike. It was not expected from either Brenner nor Lenora, considering they had not programmed it with an artificial intelligence of any sort. It had begun to question things and wonder what everything was about.

Brenner was greatly disappointed with this unintended outcome while Lenora went on to look into what the cause of this was. She quickly suspected the material that she was able to sneak into the facility and help use to develop the robot. It was an unearthly metal that they were able to extract from a meteorite that landed years before they even started development.

After further examination and testing, Lenora was able to identify the cause. The alien metal they’d used turned out to be its own living organism, and that had a significant impact on the machine’s core systems and memory, seeping into them and making the Scout alive.

Concerned about the implications, they debated whether to shut it down. Eventually, they’d both come to the decision to deactivate his onboard weapon systems as a safety precaution once Lenora was able to convince Brenner that maybe the Scout could still be able to do what it was designed for—if they could teach it to obey. Then, they would bring its weapons back online once it was ready.

However, the Scout never seemed to meet Brenner’s expectations, and he became more irritable as time went on. His own insecurities of not being in absolute control bubbled over, reaching to the surface. Brenner became increasingly more abusive, verbally and sometimes physically toward the robot.

Lenora would try and get between them, but she couldn’t always be there to protect the Scout from Brenner’s outbursts. Overtime, Lenora had actually formed a close bond with the robot. She would do her best to teach it while she was present, and she would make sure that it knew right from wrong—in hopes that her guidance would resonate deeply enough to override any lingering aggression from Brenner.

As these weeks go by, authorities are expecting more progress with Brenner’s side project. However, seeing how things have gotten with Brenner’s destructive outbursts and the robot’s strange and lifelike behavior, they become very suspicious and take all three of them into custody. Since they could not shut down the Scout, they had to restrain it.

They run an investigation and discover blueprints that Brenner had not shown them. The blueprints that he had shown them were false. They also end up discovering the alien metal that Brenner and Lenora had used since they cannot get through his exterior. The metal is far more durable than any other on Earth, and upon closer examination they realize that there is no way to get through it.

They have no idea how to shut it down either, and they interrogate Brenner to try and get some useful information out of him. However, it doesn’t take much at all to get Brenner to talk. He tells them everything about the meteorite metal and what can be used against it. He didn’t want the Scout to be shut down; he wanted it destroyed. In his eyes, the Scout was a failure, six years of his life wasted.

Brenner had developed a solution that was capable of breaking through the Scout’s armor shortly after activating it, and they could use that to destroy the robot. Lenora would argue that destroying the Scout wasn’t the best way to go about it, but Brenner insisted that this was the way it should be. He handed the solution over to the authorities without hesitation, and they set to work.

However, once it occurred to the robot that they were going to kill it, it broke free from its restraints and soon escaped the facility. Now it hides among the city, hiding from people who are actively tracking it down with the intent to destroy it.

Volna 42

i wish usb ports were several magnitudes larger and made a hefty "kerchunk" sound when you plugged stuff in

New art new art new art!! @iahtruong makes cute stuff!

wip

posted 2/23 on patreon, more finished versions up already

form v function

bleep blorp bwop