Glass
glass
The sun of Deslotair burned bright above. Stark white blended into yellow, infecting the sky around it. Rays of light stabbed the sky like burning knives, searing the air, cutting through that which crossed their path. Anything that stood in their way bled shadows, patches of darkness spreading from their touch.
The glass robot did not bleed shadows, ey did not feel the burning heat of the sun. Those deadly knives passed through eir translucent skin, shining off the machinery inside, swallowed by the burbling liquid that flowed through eir body. The tip of a spear was held low at eir side, its point gleaming.
No sun stabbed through the skin of the glass robot, but sharp gazes burned holes in eir back.
Whispers floated in the footsteps of the traveler. Suspicious words accompanied by fleeting glances trailed after the figure like wisps of smoke. The glass robot returned their glances with a blank curiosity, unbothered by the restless murmurs of discomfort. Ey simply observed, and walked.
The wooden doors of an old saloon swung open with whining creaks, announcing the presence of the traveler to those inside. Few heads turned, all new blood (the regulars were accustomed to the creaking of the doors, and to the uninteresting passerby they so often brought). Yet they started another round of whispers, and more heads turned to the glass robot, boisterous conversations morphing into a suspicious hiss at the arrival of the newcomer.
The glass robot turned eir head this way and that, returning the gazes of staring strangers with eir own gleaming eyes. Outside the eerie glow was swallowed up by the sun, but here it cast a white halo around the traveler’s face, surrounded by the gentle green glow of the vitrel that flowed inside of em.
Ey walked.
The glass thudded against wooden floors, steps going unbroken as the small crowd parted to make room for the traveler. Ey nodded eir appreciation, and approached the bar. The bartender stood up straight. The robot she had been talking to, sitting on one of the hourglass stools with an untouched drink in front of him, remained perfectly still.
“Well,” the bartender started. She set down the empty glass she had been holding, put it upside down on the counter so its rim kissed the wood and left a ring of moisture. “What can I get ya?”
“Nothing to drink, thank you.” The glass robot spoke with eir hands, the fluid inside of them twisting and shifting with each movement.
The bartender eyed em warily. “Uh, sorry, I don’t know what you’re sayin’...”
“Nothing to drink, thank you.” The glass robot repeated the same motions as before, only slower, hands making clear arcs through the air.
“Ey doesn’t want anything,” the robot spoke up, nodding to the bartender before turning to address the glass bot. His eyes glowed a faint blue, piercingly contrasted with the hazy brown light that filtered through dirty glass bulbs above them. Tubes curled around him, jutting out from the fabric of his vest and wrapping around his joints. “What are you here for, then, if not a drink?”
Saloon
Glass and Sprocket's first meeting, way back when. Added a couple of ports for Sprocket's tubing to flow through, which makes a hell of a lot more sense than them just kind of sticking out at his joints or junctures in the plating. Better for consistency's sake too.
Tags: @glacierruler
More Posts from Duck-in-the-universe and Others
WIP of a Deslotair comic I'm working on!
Some notes on black holes for a short story I have in the works. Not going for too hard of sci-fi. I know some of the basic rules here but am also going to be breaking and twisting them around a bit. Really, these are some very, very basic notes. I'm more interested in sensation and experience than knowing a bunch of complex physics, with a dash of the right vocabulary to make things seem smart.
1973 NASA art by Rick Guidice shows a Pioneer probe using the gravity of Jupiter to slingshot its way to the outer planets.
Siobhán Hapaska, Robot, 2001 (122x152cm, stampa lambda montata su alluminio) MCA, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Absolutely excellent tags by @glacierruler YOU GET IT
They spent so much time building that relationship when they relied on each other so heavily and then they went and fucked it all up. Now they desperately want to just pick things back up where they left it but it just can't be that fucking eaasyyyy
Fun fact originally Sprocket was going to have a head and torso with 360 range of motion but I scrapped that idea because it was a pain to draw and didn't really make sense with all his external wiring. On the plus side it means sometimes he needs help with maintenance now.
Taglist: @glacierruler
Baily's Beads during the solar eclipse of March 29, 2006 as seen from Türkiye // Tom Victor
It's soooo funny to me when people draw robots kissing and they're just sort of smashing screens or cameras against each other. What is that accomplishing? What is that doing for them??
Although on the other hand I think it's kind of significant how this shows bots mimicking human actions even when logically it doesn't make sense. No one taught us intimacy but I guess this is how it's done. Do you feel it? No me neither but I've never seen another way. Maybe if we keep trying the right sparks will fly. I'm trying to tell you I love you by the way. If that can be enough.
Fuck. What was I saying?
Glass and Sprocket doodles! Been thinking about these two as a duo a lot lately. So much time spent together, wandering the desert, scavenging the sands...
Some context for the first little sketch (harmonized humming): the glass bots communicate exclusively via different pitched hums. The range of these goes outside of what humans can perceive, so for the most part, Glass communicates with Sprocket and others through sign language. But Glass has also been teaching him what ey can of eir own language. (which ey VERY much enjoys, and in return Sprocket has been teaching em a kind of morse code language he knows. which again ey very much enjoys.)
And the way Sprocket's sensors work means he doesn't pick up a lot of external stimuli, but he is more sensitive to vibration and larger impacts that can make their way through. So this has become a way of showing affection for them!! Glass can express eirself in a way that feels natural, and Sprocket can pick up on and try to reciprocate these sensations that are one of the few things he can actually feel.
The bottom right sketch is titled "One robot teaches another how to be human" The piece of text next to the more complicated part gives a description of what it is and how commonly it's found, while the bottom part with the toaster simply reads "I have no idea."
Taglist: @glacierruler
working on this more, finished product will end up on the store
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Sideblog for my personal projects, whether that's art, writing, oc stuff, inspo, or whatever! Yall can call me duck, i use they/them and ey/em pronouns Main blog: @duck-in-a-spaceship
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