The First Installment

"You should really stop to be so pessimistic."

"We almost died!"

I have a stupide idea that the human can act like service animals for all the big bots, helping them through PTSD or other mental issues. or just being there for them as a mental support.

Like big bot is forced/ goes on his own accord to go to "shrink", get evaluated and the next day BOOM he has a small human by his side, in reflective vest saying something alone like Mental Health Aid and follow the big bot around, helping them in situations like when ever they feel to angry and ready to burst, the human would tap them and try to get their attention, quickly diverting it towards them and big bot would completely forget every thing about anger, to focused on petting the little human.

Even funnier will be that humans will have to go classes to learn how to act around big alien bots to help them to get to better state of mental health. and they will proudly display their diploma saying like "look, I am certified Therapist for Big robot and I am proud of it. My patient is getting better and better with every day!"

Why don't we talk more about the horror that is the opposite of that?

A computer who grafts lab-grown skin in patches onto their own form to feel. To experience a gentle and cool breeze passing by, or the oppressive sweat-inducing heat that their systems produce.

A robot with an organic eye to help them see as their creators once did. Imperfect, sure. But it seems to have quite an uneasy effect on organics, and doesn't that make it more than worth it?

A machine with blood coursing through its systems, flowing through the central chambers, in and out of its beating heart. Perhaps if the heart holds up, it could add lungs to help circulation.

A being that resembles a man at a distance, but upon closer inspection it is clear that he is instead a cacophony of skin, mismatched body parts and features, with just a few robotic limbs and mechanical parts visible. It smiles at you, the wide grin revealing that none of its teeth match.

He lurches toward you, hair from at least three different scalps falling carefree in front of its shoulders. You take a step back.

Where is the line drawn between cyborg and robot with human parts? Do you know? Does it know? Does anyone know?

It gets closer. You continue to retreat. Your back brushes against a wall.

You don't know where that line is, you've decided, but you're positive this individual has crossed it.

Having cornered you, it reaches its mechanical hand out, fingernails grafted on the metal tips. You blink, locked completely still from fear for just a few moments. It angles his hand in invitation. He wants you to take it. You hesitantly accept.

Under the metal you can feel . . . something, flowing, pulsing just beneath the surface wanting to escape. It's warm.

"Wh.. what do you want?" You manage to sputter out.

Skystar Week Day 4: Jealous

Starscream has big scary dog privileges 🤭

And this theme contains another spectrum that overlaps with this motif: Being a Rogue Scientist, who are more on the end of individualism.

The Society of Arcana Scientists is the home of several Rogue Scientists. Unlike their general reputation as 'monstrous', they have limits to how far they want to go. I'm giving their reaction as an example to Moreau's experiments - vivisecting, cutting apart, and stitching together living animals.

At the same time, many of them want to breach limits and taboos! They want to ignore social conventions for their self.expression! As seen with their admiration of Frankenstein's experiments in spiritual alchemy, creating the Creature from corpse parts, and animating him, upon which he becomes his own person.

They ignore in their romantisation of her deeds that the very same actions dehumanized the Creature and made him miserable, leading to the murders, made them isolated fugitives, and the other consequences of all of these events.

And many of them fail to consider that if were to go this route, to reject society entirely, they'd lose not only the comfort and the safety, but also the resources for their experiments the Society provides them.

A short tangent, but related:

Jekyll performed another groundbreaking experiment, and it was successful. He distilled a part of himself into a distinct, self-aware personality, with his body transforming to match. We didn't get much screentime with that, but the Lodgers were fascinated.

Now. I'm unsure how much Jekyll and Hyde would reveal about their potion. Not only: What it was supposed to do VS what the effects actually are VS what the potion does which they still don't know. But also: That they still don't know. Jekyll just mixed together random unknown chemicals without knowing what they did individually or crafted into a mixture.

He loves alchemy. But here it used to be a vehicle for his deeper motivation: An escape of being Dr. Jekyll; being free. Twisting together an desire to things to become better with suicidal ideation.

This is a deeply personal and vulnerable detail.

And would either he or Hyde want anybody to recreate their experiment or the potion with this history? For all they know, Jekyll was incredibly lucky that neither of his unsuccessul nor the successful experiments did kill him. To repeat, he didn't know what the potion would do when he first brewed and drank it. It's possible that it only works for him, his body, without killing him or Hyde.

If they want to prove its effects, they'd have to endanger at least one other person with a similar mental state that he used to have, rather than giving them actual help with their suffering. And even if the potion caused a transformation, how will they know it's the same effects? Do they want the same effects? Where different facets of the same person are constantly fighting each other because of their self-loathing and depression?

Now we consider that they'd only focus on the two: What do they research? To what ends? With what means?

How far until questions could trigger their trauma? How far until they have a panic attack? How far until questions, procedures, tests become invasive? How far until potential harmful side-effects start?

-While they've gotten their condition quite under control, spontaneous shifts still may happen on occasion, triggered mostly by severe stress upon their system or Big Feelings.

-As such it isnt always easy to have it concealed, not as much as they would like anyways. By what little the staff of the household has seen, theories on their masters condition range from everything between epilepsy to lycanthropy.

-They have learned from their mistakes and as such carry a small vial of emergency serum on their person. And also keep one or two stashed away at their desk, by their bedside, etc etc.

-There will usually be some kind of post-shift euphoria going on, aka the body overproducing an array of hormones (Serotonin and Endorphin mostly) to make the pain and stress on their system bearable. Depending on the mood/setting a shift takes place in, it can be anything from giggle-fits to a very deep kind of relief. Either way, it leaves them reeling for a bit.

Lord haste the day when AJR references can be found in this fandom as often as Will Wood and Chonny Jash, they're so fucking fitting.

Mr. Hyde -> no doctorates ❌