ES77

Luxurious and dimly lit, the interior of the Frumptlebucket Manor is absolutely sublime. The hallways, decorated with perfectly crafted statues and paintings of the previous generations of the long, proud lineage of the Frumptlebucket family lay perfectly tidy and presentable; all in thanks to the worker drone staff.

Among the many drones under the Frumptlebuckets “employment” is a short, silvery grey short haired bot wearing a tuxedo; personally dubbed the name of “___k” by his young master. 

Amidst the unnecessarily long hallway with a straight posture and an arm behind his back, ___k tends to the dusting of a rather expensive bust statue of his owner’s greatest grandfather balanced atop a pedestal. Though he’s far too short to reach its top, so he must resort to standing on his toes just so that the feathered duster may brush its stone top hat.

Eugene “Guh! There you are, ___k! I've been looking everywhere for you!!”

___k can’t help but flinch at the sound of his master’s voice. Though by proxy, the statue itself nearly topples over from his sudden movement. As ___k watches in fear of the off-balanced statue nearly falling to the ground where it will surely burst into smithereens; His much taller, stronger 16 year old master manages to catch the bust of his oldest relative just in time.

Eugene “Careful with that!! Father would have me killed if anything were to happen to greatest pappy’s statue!!”

___k locks his eyes onto his shoes as he folds his arms behind his back, the duster still in hand. Shame pains him greatly, fearful of his punishment.

___k “Apologies, sir.”

After placing the bust back atop the pedestal, Eugene holds a hand to his face; shaking his head in disappointment of his robot butler. 

Eugene “Whatever, just don’t do it again.”

Moving on from the near-accident, Eugene turns his attention elsewhere, appearing to be in search of something or someone nearby.

Eugene “Anyway, Where’s your sister?”

Upon returning his gaze to Eugene's eyes, ___k speaks without hesitation. Neglecting to take so much as a second to process the consequences his action would have.

___k “Sibling.”

Eugene “Excuse me?”

Eugene glares down at ___k with considerable offense for an answer he didn't ask for, a correction even. A bead of simulated sweat rolls down ___k’s visor; realizing his mistake. But some part of him can’t help but double down on his answer, to which he shakes his head as he speaks.

___k “I don’t have a sister, sir. __i is my sibling.”

Eugene "___k.”

___k finches at the tone of his master’s voice, knowing well that he will be punished for his repeated talk back. He instinctively looks down at the floor with a non-audible wince of anticipation and dread; mentally preparing himself for what comes next.

___k “...Y-Yes sir…?”

Eugene “Need I put another hole in your face?”

As Eugene speaks, he nonchalantly reaches into his coat and pulls out a rather unsuspecting pen, holding it up in front of him as if to show it to ___k clearly. ___k however recognizes it immediately for what it is though.

He stares at the seemingly ordinary instrument of scripture with a look of horror like it’s far more than that. Knowing it not as some company branded pen, but an implement of torture… One responsible for the many “freckles” on his visor. His expression shifting to one of impending dread, ___k shakes his head in a haste; holding his head down to Eugene's feet as if to metaphorically grovel and beg forgiveness. 

___k “...N-no sir.”

Eugene “Then go find your sister for me, will you?”

If he had a bottom lip, he’d bite it. Accepting a command prompt at the detriment of his adoptive sibling’s identity hurt him to a degree he couldn’t dare speak of to anyone. Though his own self-hate is what would truly haunt him for this action.

___k “...y-yes… sir.”

…

___k aimlessly wanders the Frumptlebucket Manor in search for his missing sibling. From what he’s been able to deduct from his search so far however, they aren’t on duty as far as he can tell. Nor were they indulging in any of their favorite pastimes in the library: reading one the many books the Frumptlebuckets couldn't care less about. 

Gradually, as his search continues and he is forced to check some of the more unlikely spots __i would be, his inability to locate his surrogate sibling begins to worry him. 

___k “__i?! __i Where are you?”

He shouts, concern filling his voice. Not just for __i, but also in fear of being caught fulfilling a task independent from his assigned chores. Should he be found by someone that is not his master such as the Lord himself, the consequences may be more severe than a pen.

Heading down an unnecessarily long hall, he peaks into just about every room of the manor's upstairs left wing. A part of the house that is practically untouched seeing as only 4 people live in the oversized mansion. For as much room as there is, it’s absolutely absurd that the worker staff must sleep in small boxes down in the basement.

Soon enough though, he overhears the quiet sounds of what can only be described as mechanical crying hidden somewhere behind one of many doors; though it doesn’t take long for him to locate which one. Peaking inside, there is no source of the robotic sobs to be initially found. Especially given that the room is expectedly unfurnished. 

___k “__i?”

Upon entering the room to further investigate however, the source of the sounds become clear: The only place to hide in a room desperately lacking in furniture. Approaching the closet door, ___k reaches up to the knob to try the handle, only to find that whoever is inside has somehow managed to lock the door from within.

___k “__i? Can you unlock the door, please?”

He gets no response, instead only the mournful cries of his sobbing friend can be heard through the muffling door. With a sigh, he plants his back to it and slides to the floor in a seat, patiently lying in wait for his companion. 

___k “You know I can't help you if you don't talk to me right?”

Once again, ___k is met with no reply, only a quiet whimpering. Sorrow floods his expression; pained by the thought of being useless to help his friend. Staring down in defeat, the silence between them is interrupted only by __i's muffled sobs filling the room. 

It's only then he gets an idea. Raising his hand in a fist, he gently knocks on the door a couple of times with the back of his hand; speaking aloud with a small smile on his face.

___k “Knock Knock”

As to be expected, there is no reply. His brows arch into the shape on an inverted "v"

___k “C'mon __i, I can't tell the joke if you don't answer!”

After a couple of long seconds, a soft grieving voice finally mutters through the door.

__i “...who's there?”

___k “Boo.”

__i quickly catches onto the joke, already knowing the punchline well before they even need to ask. Still they answer rather softly with the explicit interest of entertaining ___k.

__i “...boo who...?”

___k “Hey, There’s no reason to cry! It's just a joke!”

As a direct reaction to the joke they already know, __i lets out a pitiful giggle for ___k’s sake. Their insincere laughter is heard quietly through the door’s solid boards but in its response, another two knocks lightly vibrate the door’s surface.

___k “Knock Knock”

Once again, __i answers rather pitifully.

__i "...Who's there?"

___k “Mustache.”

As a brief moment of hesitation washes over them, __i takes a second to answer; reacting to the set-up with a tinge of surprise. They haven't heard this one before.

__i “Mustache who?”

___k “I Mustache you a question, but I think I’ll just Shave it for later!”

Another laugh can be heard through the door’s wooden boards, this time a bit more genuine. They can’t help but smile in response to ___k’s attempts to cheer them up. Despite the small smirk on their face however, his jokes have yet to cease.

___k “Knock Knock~”

__i “Who's there?’

They can’t help but answer with a small chortle of anticipation.

___k “Ikan”

__i “Ikan who?” They laugh softly

___k “Ikan hear you smiling but I thought you were supposed to be sad!”

A much louder, sincere laugh can be heard through the door as __i momentarily forgets their sadness. ___k’s smile widens with the joy of knowing he’s succeeded, but even more so at that fact he can hear them smile.

__i “hehe... That was bad.”

___k “But you still laughed!”

__i “Hehe, Yeah…”

A second of  silence falls between them before ___k finally breaks; not with an attempt at humor but with a much more sincere question.

___k “...Are… you ready to come out now?”

__i “...”

As the door knock rattles seemingly on its own, ___k stands to take a step back the second he hears the clicking of the door’s latch. Slowly, the door creaks open finally revealing __i. Despite their fairly feminine appearance, particularly of their silvery-grey ponytail, they also look fairly tom-boyish; yet not enough to be decisive of any particular gender. Like ___k, they too possess many holes in their face and visor; some taking the form of white dead-pixels. Though it’s readily apparent they have endured punishment many more times than ___k by sheer number.

Sheepishly placing a foot outside, they peek their worried face out of the closet; though they have yet to reveal the rest of their body. ___k watches on with a smile, patiently waiting for them to fully exit. In an effort of reassurance, he holds out a hand to them as if to show them that they are safe.

__i takes a long moment to stare at the ground in contemplation before pushing the door the rest of the way open; now revealing their state of dress: A black and white, French maid’s outfit. Fidgeting with their hands, they pin their knees together; looking down at their feet in total shame and embarrassment.

With gut punching shock, ___k’s face quickly shifts to festering anger

___k “Wh--! What happened to your suit?”

__i can’t bring themselves to look ___k in the eyes. Instead, they turn their gaze elsewhere in the room all while their fidgeting grows more apprehensive.

__i “Master demanded my attire match the other--”

__i pauses, catching themselves before frowning and looking down at the ground in shame.

__i “...the... maid drones.”

___k’s brows furrow in anger, evidently not taking this news well.

___k “Did you refuse?!”

__i plops down in front of the closet door as they wipe away the simulated tears welling up in their eyes.

__i “Of course! But there’s nothing we can do, ___k! You know what they do to us…”

Taking a seat next to __i, ___k frowns; Pulling his knees to his chin with a pouty expression. He remains silent, making it all too apparent that he is already plotting to fix this egregious insult. Finally he speaks, pulling his head up from his knees.

___k “Maybe I can--”

Before he can express his most likely poorly thought out scheme however, he's interrupted with the sensation of a hand on his shoulder.

__i “Just… leave it, ___k. No matter what you do they’ll just make me wear the stupid outfit and punish us both anyways.”

Locking eyes with __i, ___k bares witness to their pained, clearly forced smile.

__i “I’ll be fine.”

___k stares into their eyes with deep concern and sympathy before sighing in defeat. Still he turns to them, determined to fix this.

___k “I swear __i, I’ll--”

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

[Interruption Detected] [Sleep_Mode = False] [Auto-Running…] [Complete]

Serial Designation K’s visor groggily returns online, to which he pulls himself up to a seat on the abandoned bed slotted into the wall of what was assumedly at one point the captain's suite of a human crew long since dead.

Holding a hand to his face, he groans before turning to the blaring alarm overhead; staring it down with genuine contempt… Another stupid malfunction of this faulty bunker. Maybe if they had made sure the place worked as intended those stupid flesh bags wouldn’t have all died in the apocalypse.

He growls loudly.

SD-K “DAMN IT I!! I thought you already fixed this!!”

He shouts out to SD-I with anger painted on his face while he climbs out of bed to further harass his subordinate about the damned error. He storms out of his quarters in a huff; the air-lock door slamming down behind him while the faulty alarm rings out from above…

➤ Under aged Worker Drones are incapable of swearing without their words being bleeped out by their own systems

Starting with a funny one: I mentioned it in another post; but the idea of young worker drones being unable to say anything vulgar is funny to me.

Similarly, they can't read swears or anything vulgar without their systems censoring it and they are physically unable to make rude hand gestures.

Zam likes to get around this either by using the bleeping to swear in morse code or using similar words to substitute lmao

➤ There were Several Test-Runs and Prototypes before the finalization of the Disassembly Drone

I dunno about you, but the idea of every disassembly drone being made at the exact same time without testing, iteration, or finalization feels weird... Even if the Absolute Solver is the Absolute Solver, mistakes are bound to be made in the design process which will lead to course correcting.

I like to think there were several failed attempts and two working prototypes before the finalizations. (Further more, I like to think Cyn left her favorites for last so she knew she'd get it right with N, J, and V)

There are A LOT of differences between the prototypes and the "default" murder drone; everything from function to design; but that's a long list I'm not gonna get into here; that can be saved for another post-

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In terms of Order: First functioning Prototype: Serial Designation K (Functional, but just barely; Deletion of Original OS meant it had to be rewritten)

Second Functioning Prototype: Serial Designation M (Functional, but retained far to much of his original personality and memories.)

Third Functional Prototype: Serial Designation U (First Finalization; Lacks all original memories and retains none of the original personality except core traits)

Finalizations: Serial Designation I, Serial Designation L, and Serial Designation R (Same as Third Prototype)

Favorites: Serial Designation N, Serial Designation J, Serial Designation V (Differ from finalizations: Memories are heavily repressed; Personalities Retained)

➤ The Solver is addictive to use

I like the idea of the Solver having way more consequences. Mainly in that it's somewhat addictive, once a drone starts using it, it's really hard to stop.

I think of it as a power thing. Upon getting the taste of it's power and all the things it can do; all the things they can do with it, it's hard to give it up. It's so addictive that even using it once means a drone can't help but find themselves compulsively using it absent mindedly anyway.

➤ Inactive Usage of the Solver increases the likely hood of overheating

Okay, soooo what if a drone realizes that the Solver has a lot of downsides and decides not to use it?

...What if I told you that choosing not to use the solver even once a drone has broken the "addiction" part; means the longer they go without using it the higher the likelihood of overheating becomes when they DO use it?

Heck, if they exert to much of their energy even if they don't use the solver, it can still lead to overheating. Albeit not as easily as usage of the solver.

Which means, Being a Solver Drone who has chosen not to use her Solver as much as possible, Zora has been subjected to this fate for the last several years.

Anyyyyyway, that's pretty much all I have for my headcanons-

This AU is wholly original and mostly focuses on original characters as opposed to those canonically established; Though they are likely to make appearances from time to time.

Because of thattt I kind of made up a lot of head canons in order for certain things to make more sense; though the AU is supposed to be a prequel that can click in nicely with the main series. (We'll see how well I do with that though)

Oh yeah, this AU also gets a lil bit darker than the main series and includes some minor swearing, so do be warned.

🟀 Murder Drones: Outpost 8 on Unvale

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🟀 Storyline//:

Dreams I Don't Remember (Writing) //

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🟀 Worldbuilding//:

Headcanons //

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🟀 Characters//:

The K.I.L Squad//: K.I.L // Serial Designation K // Serial Designation I // Serial Designation L // L-dritch // Wing Designs // Claw Designs

Butler Era//: The Butlers // The Frumptlebuckets // The Chestenovs

The Offensive Family//: Zam Offensive // Zora Offensive // Dart Offensive // Zam and Zora's Relationship // Solver Zam

The M.U.R Squad//: [ERROR 404]

Unlike Outpost 3 which primarily specializes in it's intense defensive measures with it's highly pressurized reinforced doors, Outpost 8 holds a high value for it's incapacitating weaponry and offense-styled defensive techniques. Though 8 also has it's own high-pressurized door systems, they are not nearly as highly enforced or up-to-date due to the colony's focus on incapacitation and disabling offense and as such; an innate lack of additional resources and technicians to spare.

One of Outpost 8's most impressive technical offensive advancements is the Anti-Murder Drone Auto Tracking Turret Model 3 (The A-MDATT)

🟀 The A-MDATT 1-3 on Unvale

Approximately 25ft in height, the A-MDATT Model 3 works very similarly to Uzi's Railgun… If it were at least 100x the size and signicantly more powerful. Not only is it capable of automatically targeting Disassembly Drones within a 1,000 meter radius, it's beam is fully able to vaporize any and all drones in it's path. Resulting in damage that would require extensive repairs that a Disassembly Drone's Regen Protocol is not capable of on it's own.

However, While the A-MDTT Model 3 works wonders for incapacitating and warding off Disassembly Drones, any damage it is able to deal is temporary; as it does not seem to completely dismantle the bots or create permanent disadvantages. With further developments however, Outpost 8 has been able to create yet another particularly impressive advancement in it's Anti-Murder Drone technology.

The Anti-Murder Drone Signal Broadcast Jammer Model 1 (The A-MDSBJ).

🟀 The A-MDSBJ on Unvale

(Error 404: Concept Art Not Found)

In an effort to combat the Disassembly Drones' highly regenerative abilities, the A-MDSBJ Model 1 exist for the sole purpose of consistently broadcasting a signal jammer within a 5,000 meter radius; creating errors in the Disassembly Drones' "Regen Protocol".

While not full proof, The Signal Broadcast Jammer results in slower regeneration, generative imperfections, and at close range: total regenerative failure.

As such, any Disassembly Drone or Solver that may endure damage or death within immediate range of Outpost 8's A-MDSBJ, is unlikely to recover from the damage sustained. Thus is the fate of the original DD squad tasked with the eradication of Outpost 8: Disassembly Squad name: M.U.R.

Bunker_Name: "Anti-Freeze" is the chosen base of operations of Disassembly Squad Name: K.I.L

You see, upon completing their mission of the total eradication of Outpost: 9; Disassembly Squad: K.I.L were tasked with taking on the duties of Outpost 8 following the fatal failure of Disassembly Squad: M.U.R. However, As Outpost 9 and the K.I.L's original drop pod is located approximately 37.9 km away from Outpost 8; K.I.L had to move their base of operations closer to their newly tasked Outpost.

Though they had initially planned to hold up in the drop pod of M.U.R; there were was an immediate change of plans with the discovery of the A-MDTT on account of it being located way to close to the drop pod.

Instead, K.I.L have opted to transform an emergency bunker dubbed "Anti-Freeze" into their new base of operations located 1.2 km away from Outpost 8. Though the A-MDTT still looms over their base and ominously remains targeted towards their location at all times in wait to fire at the team once within range. Thankfully, They are at least out of it's firing range.

🟀 Anti-Freeze on Unvale

Initial Test Run and Former General of The Murder Drones. Demoted to Copper 9 following the eradiation of mankind. Believes himself to be better than the rest and favored by the solver. He is not.

🟀 Reference image - [ERROR 404: NO ATTACHMENTS FOUND] 🟀 SD-K on Unvale

Curious Technician. Smart but easily confused, lacks a basic understanding of ethics and is overly enuthisatic. A pursuer of knowledge and a valued asset in their intellect; but possesses poor combat abilities. A handful.

🟀 Reference Sheet 🟀 SD-I on Unvale

Silent Assassin. Disobedient and Rebellious. Dislikes authority. Dislikes commands. Dislikes Social Interaction. Difficult; But extremely quick and efficient. Exceptionally capable in combat.

🟀 Reference image - [ERROR 404: NO ATTACHMENTS FOUND] 🟀 SD-L on Unvale

Zam is one of the local residents of Outpost 8 and son of the drone in Charge of the place. Maybe that's why he's got this weird hero complex/main character syndrome thing going on.

Orrrrr maybe it's because he killed Serial Designation U on accident.

🟀 Reference Sheet 🟀 Zam on Unvale

The fearless leader and founder of Outpost 8: Zora is practically a celebrity of her colony. She fiercely believes in the power of offense over defense hence her last name of choice. She shows this belief to a degree she swore that no worker would ever have to hide if they ever chose to leave the bunker, so no matter what they would be protected.

…If only her relationship with her son was as successful as she is.

🟀 Reference image 🟀 Zora on Unvale

Additional Characters:

🟀 Wrk Drn: Dart Offensive [Status: Deceased] Resident Zombie Drone of Outpost 8. Husband of Zora and Father of Zam Offensive. Despite his status as an outcast, he was seen as the reasonable one of the family.

🟀 Serial Designation M-1X0010100 [Status: Deceased] Second Prototype Disassembly Drone after Serial Designation K and Leader of the MUR Squad. Despite his leadership skills, he was often perceived as crazy for the fact that he retained "false memories" and beliefs that did not align with the company's propaganda. He was also the brother of SD-K... Or at least that's what he always said.

🟀 Serial Designation U-11X001101 [Status: Deceased] The Tom-Boyish Specialist of the MUR squad, close friend of Serial Designation I, and Serial Designation R's sister. She had a thing for explosives and very poor impulse control... Something that led to her death to Zam offensive. She was the very first murder drone to ever die.

🟀 Serial Designation R-111000X11 [Status: Deceased] The sassy and overly sarcastic third and final member of MUR Squad, who really didn't care much about her job but still excelled in her specialty with blades regardless. She was credited to the destruction on the A-MDATT Model 1 and was also best friends with Serial Designation L (who may or may not have had a crush on her).