[OPEN] THOUGH EVERYTHING COULD CHANGE

[evilgrows]

▶ WHO: Dr. Robotnik and YOU
▶ WHAT: event shenanigans!
▶ WHEN: 5/25-31
▶ WHERE: Lunatia
▶ WARNINGS: nothing yet, nsfw themes could pop up



[A. DREAMS COLLECTION]

[This is why Dr. Robotnik doesn't like to go outside. This is why he prefers to stay in and get things done and not deal with this shit. But noooo, he had to go get some things. And what do you know, more ridiculous things happened. Biiiig shock.

Not that he's noticing it right now, as spaced-out as he is. He dreams of nicer things, of success, of the next project. Of his machines, efficient and functional and very much not here, but in his daydreams, there they are. He dreams of a certain agent bringing him his favorite coffee, of music and dancing and being alone.

And he can't do anything about it.

Aside from the dream bubble, he looks extremely out of it, an odd dazed-looking smile on his face.

Embarrassing.]

[B. DO UNTO OTHERS IS OUR GOLDEN RULE]

[These B-Cubes remind him of the Pokéball things Sycamore had shown off, and after considering how much that alleged hedgehog creature had kind of resembled the Pokémon... well, maybe these things'll prove useful whenever he gets home.

So sure, he signs up to try and catch some of the creatures around here, why not. He knows what he's doing, or at least the principle of it. But he's got an ulterior motive.

He might get a creature or two, just for the hell of it, but someone might notice him making off with a cube of his own for further study.

They won't miss just one, right?]

[C. ALL MY MACHINES ARE MADE FOR... DECORATION]

[It's been a process, figuring out how magic works and is integrated with technology here, and he's pretty sure it hasn't been helped by his encounter with zaShunina, but he's learning. Difficult, despite his genius mind. Too different from the technology he's so familiar with. But bit by bit, some of the things he's been shown start to make sense, start to fit together, stop being junk data and start being useful. It's like a puzzle, and he likes to work. Sure, he could take the easy way out, ask one of his sciencey acquaintences, use that weird mindshare thing, but he isn't. And now here he is, at a booth among the many, although his wares are a far cry from the eventual business that he can't believe he hasn't abandoned the concept of yet.

It's not even remotely what you'd expect to find at a farmer's market, but he's got a stall nonetheless, metal-and-plastic objects scattered around and over the surface. Tiny hovering egg-shaped things, sad proto-proto-badniks from a man who no longer has most of his resources. Oh, they might be exciting to other people... which is why he's here. Let the masses enjoy what he can't yet perfect.

He's not looking forward to actually selling anything, of course. Now that the Iris cycle's over, he's back to not even wanting to hold hands, and the fact that they won't let them use normal currency is, frankly, bullshit. He's not being much of a salesman either, sitting there with his chin in a hand, glaring at potential patrons, or focusing on working on more of the tiny things and ignoring the crowds.

But, hey, maybe the merchandise'll draw your eye anyway. Some of it is beeping.]

[D. S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G]

[He does take a break from his booth every now and then, when things get slow, because he's curious to see what other people have. Maybe he can find some materials, or at least something interesting to pass the time.

He's holding a limbed potato like it's the skull of Yorick, staring at it with his eyebrows furrowed.]

It's a novelty, I guess.

[E. WILDCARD]

[anything else catch your eye? anything else you're absolutely dreaming to do with robotnik for some reason? bring your own prompt, or hit me up via pm or agentkaz or discord by request for closed starters or brainstorming. i am extremely open to him getting b-cubed if you wanna go that route, or b-cubing your characters. or whatever!!]

Comments

[evilgrows]

[Great, a customer. He doesn't even bother looking up from the one in his hand, screwdriver in its innards. More important things are going on.]

Stuff I'm working on.

[Real descriptive. He doesn't sound to be having the best time.]

Mostly just decorative at this point. Don't expect them to do anything.

[mayoninofukucho]

[Well, that's a little disappointing. He was hoping they'd shoot lasers or something.]

"At this point"... so what's the plan for them?

[evilgrows]

[Alas... weapons are further down the line than this. Until then... floaty paperweights. He glances up, finally, although he's still working.]

These? Nothing. Just a prototype to see if I could actually accomplish something. Another piece of the local technology puzzle.

[mayoninofukucho]

[Hopefully Robotnik doesn't mind that Hijikata is smoking in his breathing space.]

I take it you haven't been here long, then? What kind of machines do you build at home?

[Because clearly that was his job before he got whisked away to Prismatica, right?]

[evilgrows]

[Oh, he minds, but he's dealing with it. He just nods towards his floating stock.]

These, but better.

[That's not fully it at all, not even remotely, but as much as he'd love to get his brag on, he's used to things being either classified or too evil villain for most people's tastes, so he chooses not to do so at this time.

Besides, talking means people stick around and he'd prefer the opposite of that, actually. He's the worst entrepreneur.]

Among other things.

[mayoninofukucho]

[Damn, getting information out of this man is like pulling teeth. Still, Hijikata wants to keep trying. Having experienced a disastrous battle and seen a whole town wiped out here he's determined to be as well-prepared for the next attack as possible. He sighs and points at the little floating robots again.]

Any chance you can turn these into weapons, given enough time and resources?

[evilgrows]

[Now that, he doesn't expect. He looks his customer up and down, an eyebrow raised. Well, that might change a thing or two.]

You think I'm an idiot? Obviously. These are incredibly defanged versions of the originals. Didn't expect anyone in nicey nicey world to be interested in combat drones.

[He pats the one he's working on anyway, because they're still his babies, sad as they are right now.]

Why, you offering?

[mayoninofukucho]

[He's in civilian clothes, a plain black men's kimono, so he looks less important and imposing than he would in his uniform from home. Nevertheless he gets a little bit pissy at Robotnik's response.]

You didn't exactly give me a lot to go by, so I had to ask outright! Anyway, that's fantastic. I don't know how long you've been here, but this goddamn place isn't nice all the time. We need as much firepower as we can get, of both the traditional and the magical kind. I'm offering, yes.

[He doesn't exactly have enough Chroma to buy a drone army, but he'll do whatever it takes to get there. Despite being a very reserved person with terrible hang-ups about this whole intimacy thing he'll get over himself and fuck all of Prismatica if it enables him to do his job and protect the civilians.]

[evilgrows]

Little over a month, but I guess evil boy bands seemed a little on the quaint side.

[He'd found the whole situation more annoying than anything, but at the time he'd certainly been in no position to add weapons to anything.]

Magic is something I'm still trying to get the hang of, but firepower I can do.

[He's wearing a pair of fingerless gloves with a number of buttons on the palms, and as he presses a few buttons with a few dramatic gestures, the tiny drones stop bumbling around, get into something of a formation, and hover just a little higher.]

Imagine, full-sized, armed to the teeth... And perfect for surveillance as well, of course.

[mayoninofukucho]

That sounds wonderful indeed.

[He watches the drones with a near-smirk on his face. If they could not only launch large-scale attacks against those goddamn ancient deity monsters and their minions but also discreetly spy on those murderous cultists from the Oracle of the Sinless and cross their plans...]

The boyband was on the quaint side, yeah. I've been here two months, and I've seen some shit. That lion angel thing drained a whole town of its chroma, all dead. That's not going to happen again on my watch.

[evilgrows]

Guess that's a nice contrast to let's all hold hands and hug and get along.

[No, Robotnik, that's bad. But being able to do what's essentially his goddamn job while still working on his own terms... oh yes, he's feeling it.]

I'll need to get a read on the strength of things here, but with the magic that seems ingrained in the tech, I think it'll all even out at some point. And with resources, well... I appreciate a potential lack of limitations.

[Another button press and the drones go back to bumbling and he picks up the one he was working on again.]

I'll have to find some anti-lion-angel bullets.

[mayoninofukucho]

Well, that one in particular isn't a concern anymore. The Moon Knights and everyone else managed to take him down.

[He takes great satisfaction in that, but alas, it's only half the story.]

The problem is that before that happened he forced the queen to conduct a ritual to revive his own queen, so it's only a matter of time before shit hits the fan again, and if my Lunar Scientia contact is to be believed and that queen is the dragon deity that caused the destruction of old Lunatia it'll be rougher next time around.

[Never mind him info-dumping local mythology he may or may not have gotten wrong.]

You look into how we can harness and incorporate the magic, I take care of the finances, does that work out? I mean, we can both do a bit of each, but... mainly.

[evilgrows]

[He leans in while he's infodumping, looking interested anyway, because, hey, any info he can get is fine. He'd considered joining the Lunar Scientia briefly, but the idea of working for any government again basically gave him metaphorical hives, so he decided to go solo.

Intel is, therefore, always useful.]

Really. Fascinating. Nothing like a little regicide to get the blood pumping.

[Oh, he is clearly on board.]

That's all fine by me. I've already been researching all of that anyway, frustrating as it is. 'Course, you got any leads, I'm always all ears.

[mayoninofukucho]

[Hijikata initially wanted to join the Moon Knights to gather intelligence on how the Prismals carry out their interdimensional abductions, because clearly that's what's going on here - or so he thought until he witnessed the death and destruction first-hand and learned more about the Moonblessed's role in everything. Now he's about to become exactly what he was back home: a dog of the government. But clearly he's a crooked enough cop to be willing to invest in killer drones.]

Tell me about it being frustrating. Hm... I've got no leads as such, but someone wrote a good summary of the last year, which is pretty much the time frame in which our kind has been popping up on Iris, on the network. It's a starting point if nothing else; we can dive deeper in the archieves, or I can ask my contacts. I can link you to that if you give me your network name.

[Little does he know that Robotnik was the first responder to that post.]

[evilgrows]

Oh, I've seen the summary, I'm more interested in going deeper. Magic is... well, seemingly illogical, but it's interesting seeing how there's actually some kind of logic to it. And seeing how it all fits together...

[This kind of situation just seems to work out. He can do what he wants, get some information out of people, keep working on his own projects...

Open a sexbot and combat drone business, apparently.]

I go by "robotman." First thing I thought of, didn't care to think much harder about it. Send me anything you got.

[mayoninofukucho]

[He looks his username up on his device right there and then and adds him to his contacts. Robotnik will get a notification from 'hijikata' (that's right, he's even less creative than him).]

I honestly don't have the first idea about magic, but I'll see if anyone I know can help us with that. You may have more luck reaching out on your own, though. Anyway, let me know what you need in terms of physical materials, and I'll see what I can do. We really will have to pool our resources, though, both financially and mentally.

[He has to train and study for the Moon Knights entry exams after all, and that's without accounting for all the big and small pitfalls life likes to throw his way. Robotnik can probably relate.]

[evilgrows]

[Robotnik glances at his wrist, nods, and taps on the device.]

Luckily, you're talking to Earth's greatest scientific mind, so mental resources won't be a problem. Finances, though... I miss having funding, but I don't miss having to beg for it.

[Part of why he decided to skip going for the government job. Meetings are the worst, funding meetings most of all.

But, uh, also he doesn't like to hold hands.]

I'll need plenty of metal, weaponry, electronic parts... I'll make a list.

[mayoninofukucho]

Do that and send it my way. I'll see if we can find some... sponsors.

[However that will end up looking. He'd prefer not having to whore himself out, that's for sure. He should be able to win them some interest, right? This is for a righteous cause after all.]

Let's keep each other updated.

[evilgrows]

Will do.

[He's already making mental notes of what he needs, peering into the mini-badnik he's working on again, thinking about previous construction, concepts of improvement.]

I'm sure plenty of people'll be willing to provide.

[Or... he can wait til the Iris cycle rolls around again and he becomes less averse to niceties.]

[mayoninofukucho]

[Hijikata is a Sanguis, so his life is hard in different ways... he still wouldn't want to trade, in all honesty.]

Here's hoping. This is in their own best interest after all.

[He gives Robotnik a nod and heads off, starting to make mental notes of his own. Where could he get cheap or even free scrap metal and electronic parts? Maybe at the factory that makes the cleaner robots that keep the streets tidy? They must have plenty of scraps that are unusable for them but might hold value for Robotnik... well, only one way to find out. In any case this was fruitful. Maybe he should visit the farmers' market more often.]

[evilgrows]

Unfortunately, people rarely understand what's in their best interest. But we can try.

[He waves him off before going back to his project, deciding on all the things he's going to need as he works.

His list is probably going to be pretty fucking huge. Try for as much as you can, right?

But, damn, here he thought he'd be stuck coming up with nice applications of his work. Turns out this was an extremely good idea. Go figure!]