MINTYYY

[+ relevant Invader Zim lore is at the bottom of you don’t know the series/if you wanna see some of my reasoning.]

The loyalty Irkens have to the empire is currently implemented through programming, indoctrination, and an encouragement of its soldiers to compete for largely unattainable glory. Thus far this system has been almost entirely successful, but it isn’t a 100% guarantee.

The experiment with CAINE was to construct a control brain who could create Irkens that have to obey orders no matter what, the problem arose when the system they’d implemented simply wasn’t functional.

The Irkens output by CAINE often had unexplained cosmetic anomalies, and since the programming was focused on an Irken’s potential for obedience and not superiority, the subjects at baseline had the bare minimum brain function required to keep them alive. With the obedience module implemented in their PAKs, these Irkens’ only function was to follow orders, the real oversight was exactly how.

They were unable to pilot a ship, fire a weapon, or even take a step without real-time instructions on each motion involved in the task. The empire had no time to spare on these drones that required meticulous remote-controlling, therefore the project was deemed a failure and abandoned. All traces of it dumped on an unnamed trash-planet, held in a part of space The Tallest weren’t particularly interested in.

The planet, creatively named “???,” housed CAINE and all other pieces of the project, along with whatever else the different sects of the empire had dumped throughout the years. Even abandoned though, CAINE persevered his creations in stasis, as he waited for a purpose to carry out.

Years later, on planet Earth, researchers were working on sending transmissions into deep space, trying to get farther than the limits of humanity’s current space travel allowed. Unknown to the rest of the team, one member was successful in creating brain-mapping technology, which would upload copies of human minds and transmit the files into space. He hoped for the possibility that these digital minds would be intercepted, they could be one of the first direct communications with any potential alien life.

These scans were picked up on a nearby planet by CAINE. Intrigued by the complexity of these new minds (and being as lonely as a defective control brain can be), he uploaded them to the blank canvas brains contained in the PAKs of a suitable handful of his preserved Irken creations.

At present, the software used by [Scratch] is abandoned, yet still available for others to wander upon it. CAINE’s human-minded Irkens retain their memories of their prior humanity, but these copies can never go back. Now they have to grapple with all aspects of their new bodies. A few senses are heightened, finger count and bone structure are very different, hardened fleshy nodules instead of human teeth, and they no longer have the need, or even ability to sleep.

Eating isn’t required, but it would be nice. CAINE’s offers of “snack rations” are quite limited, just whatever lesser-enjoyed snacks were leftover in things like storage compartments of unfixable trash-ships. Perfectly preserved through the years, courtesy of the highly prioritized snack research and development sect of the Irken empire’s scientists.

As this new breed of Irken abomination, the human minds are functional alongside CAINE’s obedience module, these members of his little empire have the impulse to obey his direct orders, though he hasn’t often had any to give. CAINE does like to include them in projects and experiments. In the human’s minds they often don’t often turn out well, which is where giving orders might come into play.

Whether the humans believe they could free themselves of these Irken bodies or not, they’d definitely like to be free from this trash planet. However, any ships here were dumped for a reason. They’d love to be able to repair one, unluckily for them none of them are rocket scientists (much less alien rocket scientists.) None of this is helped of course by their self-appointed…leader? Ringmaster? Control Brain, who would not be eager to help his soldiers to escape his planet.

Not to mention CAINE has many screens and arms around the planet he can control, even scrapped Irken tech is still Irken, and he’s interfaced with a lot of it (along with the more functional parts he was already attached to.) Some pieces work while others don’t. A monitor will have only audio or only visual, a holo-screen confined to a ship’s cockpit, or a camera in the eye of a defunct robot. The cast can’t be truly sure what areas CAINE is and is not able to monitor them at any time, and he’d rather they not venture out into the more barren distances of the planet, the parts untouched by life or machine.

For those who don’t know Invader Zim lore, here are a few points:

Irkens are the evil and militaristic alien race that Zim belongs to.

Most of the Irken biology stuff is canon. Their minds are stored in the PAKs (the backpack things). In canon, their real self is the PAK, while the body, made artificially in a lab, is more something to carry it around. (Canon PAKs have “organic bits” inside, but I’m gonna say based on the origins of CAINE’s Irkens that they are a lot more machine.) I only made up certain concepts, like this whole CAINE project.

Irkens use garish colors and put everything in all caps, that’s one of the reasons Caine here is CAINE.

The standard for Irken tech is incredibly high, Zim’s ship is apparently “made from garbage parts/trash” and it’s still clearly functional. We’ve got a few similar examples, that’s why I’m ok with saying so much of the stuff on this trash planet is still functional enough, just not enough to really fly without being properly prepared.

Even with all this success, Irkens are shown to be uncaring and irresponsible. Which is why instances of stupidity, oversights, and recklessness on their part in this AU were things I thought over and deemed reasonable occurrences under the Irken empire.

Another aspect of canon Irkens is they are intentionally created without the ability to experience love or friendship. This doesn’t apply here, because the TADC cast are just humans in Irken bodies, and it doesn’t apply to CAINE because of his defectiveness.

I get to make up lore about control brains because there’s almost no info on them at all. The show creator mentioned something about them being “super-advanced Irkens that don’t need a body,” but we also don’t know where Irkens come from in the first place, so I think I can do what I want with it. I’m also gonna say this version of Caine isn’t the same as the other control brains, he’s a lot less Irken, and seemingly defective.

When I called the glory to be gained in the Irken empire “largely unattainable” it’s because we’ve been shown time and time again that no matter their achievements, shorter Irken’s will receive unfair treatment.

Whether due to “defectiveness” or the fact that he’s the leader, I don’t think height is all that important to CAINE on his little planet. Maybe it would come up, but it wouldn’t really matter here.

[Other designs are here]

Also doodles I never posted: