#askeenis

Answering these a liiiiittle out of order :) you’ll see why :))

3. What was their most expensive purchase/where does their disposable income go?

how does Dolly see?

anf more importantly

can we get a pair of googly eyes for her, it's for uhhhhhhhhh Science

Now this is an EXCELLENT QUESTION!

In terms of technicality—

Like with all companions, she has cameras that sit directly behind her LCD screen ☝️ I’m no expert when it comes to computers and whatnot so it’s mostly just vibes, but her head contains most of the “brain”, including her “eyes”. I like to think about it like the Macintosh pictured— older tech style outside, super compact high-tech interior.

There’s two cameras for the same reason organic beings have two eyes- depth perception! It takes a lot of calibration to be as stable and precise as companions are.

Therefore, all things considered, if Dolly had googly eyes she’d wear them like this :)

Extra special bonus;

So Dolly’s sliver of a screen doesn’t display them, but technically she does have eyes ☝️

The program she uses for emoting was a hand-me-down (genetic inherence ?) from Raf. He’d gone and modded himself a “better” face to use when he became an adult—one without the “childish dimples”— which made room for it to become hers.

I couldn’t for the LIFE of me decide which one to give you (the one I planned I ended up . Getting obsessed over completely finishing so that’s gonna be its own post later) but then I scoured my 40k word doc of just random bullshit and I found THIS ONE!

Theo and Blazer’s first rain

It’s a dark night and they’ve seen those before— but this time something new graces the sky

Clouds, they were called… these ones almost peacemaker gray, covering up the gorgeous stars the companions had grown rather fond of

From them fell water, in droplets, for miles…

Theo’s standing under an awning, curiously peeking his head out but shifting back under when he feels the cold hit his face

Blazer chuckles, maybe makes a tease, then goes out and stands in it all casually

Theo complains he’s ruining his coat, Blazer just takes it off and tosses it at him

That’s a challenge— and Theo decides to meet it

Xe step out— to hell with preserving this outfit— and donk Blazer on the head

He laughs, they both splash in puddles for a while

More specifically: When/how did he come up with the idea? Anything we should know about that particular peacemaker? What was the method? How do xe feel about it? Do the residents of Midtown know? Does the mechanic know (replacement parts and whatnot)? What does Blazer think?

YOUUU! YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU

IT IS 7AM IN THE MORNING I CANT HANDLE THIS RIGHT NOW

I am. I am going to handle this- all plans (sleep) have been immediately tossed out the window I didn’t know I was gonna be INTERROGATED

Ahem.

Living alone that long was. Irritating. On one hand, Theo had control of the entire house- every function from security cameras to water temperature- it was familiar, safe, comfortable… but Theo isn’t much for staying comfortable for too long— not when xe know there are bigger things out there.

Somewhere along his gradual sentience gain, observing passerby and would-be trespassers, Theo realized that he wanted more out of his life. In the city, there are things like celebrities and careers and community- why were xe stuck here of all places? Tethered to the ceiling when xe could be something?

Most bots didn’t seem to like peacemakers. general consensus was; they lack sentience and are better off dead anyways. Another bonus was just how easy it would be to lure one in- in being a security system, Theo literally had the ability to ping WCPD directly in the event of a break in— and given the importance of his long dead human, the peacemakers would flock to him.

The first time he attempted it, the peacemaker that arrived brought a sentinel along. Theo has witnessed how dangerous they are, so he decided to lay low and allow it to investigate without incident. Lucky bastard.

The second time, 198 wasn’t so lucky. It arrived alone, carrying only its baton and a flashlight, it took merely a moment for Theo’s Creepy Ceiling Hands to deactivate it and remove that intimidating-looking head. Theo wakes up on the floor about 20 minutes later, with a new pair of legs.

The general residents of midtown would have no clue that’s what happened- I don’t even think a peacemaker going missing would make it into the news, much less anyone would particularly care- except for Neco themselves..

Theo chooses to keep it a secret to the best of his ability, having told Blazer (& everyone else) initially that he’s new in town because he moved from the slums.. or something… but that lie wouldn’t last long around the rusty bot, who could tell pretty much off the bat that there was something far more to the tailor than he let on. Plus xir lying skills were absolutely shit & ass given Theo had never even HEARD of the slums until immediately before he announced he was From There. Good one buddy

Blazer wouldn’t be told the whole truth until a few years later; bunkering at Theo’s place after Raf had threatened to kill xem (he wanted to be there in case Something Happened), Theo assured him xe could take care of xemself just fine, and backed it up by showing the hands lingering from the ceiling, and the peacemaker’s head xe still had in xir closet. Creepy. Though admittedly Blazer found that hot as hell.

Eddie, the mechanic, wouldn’t meet the tailor for another few years, but immediately after it does, it starts a research rabbit hole. Eddie’d never seen a bot like him, which is a crazy thing to say for a bot that is damn near over a millennium old. He finds that xir head is definitely not supposed to be attached to that body, and sort of files that away as a curiosity to be managed later. For now, he needed to order replacement parts just in case this friend of Blazer’s managed to end up on his operating table— legendary forward thinking that would save Theo’s ass.

Theo personally.. tries not to think about it. After Raf had pried that piece of information out of xem when he’d kidnapped him, the oligarch went off about just how horrific of a thing that was- a concept he’d never even considered! Stealing another bot’s body? Ripping the life away from one, only to paint it pink and walk around like as though you own it? You monster. How many others would you kill if it served that same benefit?

It’s not something xe’re proud of, necessarily, but he doesn’t regret it. Without feet, Theo would have gotten nowhere, stayed stagnant and unrecognized. He wouldn’t trade the life he leads for the world.

Some other interesting tidbits; Closet-1959 and your average peacemaker model definitely have. A few differences in code and design, which means mashing them together in a hasty, novice manner came with a few oddities.

196 is more commonly known as the peacemaker that is afraid of the cat in-game, cowering away from it when approached. This attitude transferred onto Theo, and means that when presented with a feline the tailor can and will freeze in place, terrified. He doesn’t hate them, they’re just…….. scary….

Eddie would later find that the fact Theo’s head is still attached to his body has got to be a miracle, and I mean that literally. The gerryrigged attempt at mashing the two together that Theo had settled on was . Clearly settled on. The mechanic would take extra care in fixing that problem.

There are a handful of other code imbalances; Theo’s body is immune to pain (more or less), but that makes him particularly prone to migraines and the like. Also, after enduring a hefty bit of blunt force trauma, Theo no longer has a reliable sense of time— and can’t risk being updated to fix it.

Even with these drawbacks, Theo never wants to go back to the way he was. Being trapped in a body that directly prevented him from doing any of the things he truly enjoys was hell on earth. Given any other option to get out of there he would have taken it, but a peacemaker was the only real choice xe had.

Not that Theo would be willing to admit any of this to a prying, peacemaker-shaped journalist…

Krooni, the guy outside of the Burger bar in Midtown (consider me surprised if you haven't thought of this dude/lh)

Consider yourself . Surprised 😭

It’s kind of sad how little we’ve thought of him. I like him a lot and I think he’d add something, but I haven’t decided where exactly he lies quite yet. Ally to Blazer and the rest of the gang? Siding with Raf and being the reason the oligarch found out about the outsider’s plan? Secret third thing?

I think he’s an info gatherer, where Blazer is a . Physical gatherer. The two were coworkers for both Neco and under Raf, most likely.

I just went to look at his dialogue- Krooni’s a lot more resigned to the police state than I remember LMAO. He thinks of Clem as a lost cause and morns his buddy Pablo who’s in jail now… he only refers to Blazer as “we used to work together”

your characters and story and art are Not leaving my brain so i come bearing questions🤲🤲

soo first of all, Blazer being an addict (and a lot of other stuff in the game, like, food places and bars being used by robots) made me wonder how do the substances have any effect on robots? they're not quite. yknow. organic

i js love to dive into the logic of these things and i also love to see how others interpret it!!

as for a more story-related question: how much of the canon story/characters are also in your AU? do Theo and Dolly impact the events of the game in any way? (also i think they should absolutely meet the kitty. they deserve kitty🫶🫶)

n i must say again i LOVEE your art so much keep up the great work!!

HELLO!!! HAIIII!!!

We know that these things have some kind of effect on the companions in-game— there’s the two that sit on a Midtown street with their screens bearing swirls as the giggle to themselves, and we see several signs for “droid toilets” scattered throughout the game.

The Spark interpretation is still vague, but I’ve always imagined that ingesting RAMen (“ingesting” being like the way B-12 stores objects as data) can serve as a form of energy transfer similar any human eating food— which leads to needing to expel waste, which means. Droid toilets!

As for drugs, I always imagined them as being similar to humanity as well. Blazer, for example, uses heroin- the high making him sort of soft, gooey and relaxed, maybe bypassing or putting dampers on software processes the correlate to anxiety, anger and pain (and they can feel pain in this universe). It’s the same with the pseudo-nicotine evidently in the vape he uses, or the whatever-the-hell those other bots huffed on the street.

There is also still the horrific risk of addiction. Drugs make you feel good, you want more of it immediately. Especially since rebooting that code you had suppressed makes everything TWENTY TIMES MORE SENSITIVE. More or less for the sake of plot, there is no cure for addiction outside of weaning yourself off it and ignoring the urges. Attempting to hard reset to make yourself forget you ever liked the stuff would erase your memory & personality… far too great a price.

For your second question, unfortunately Theo and Dolly never got to meet the cat during the events of the game— both were at home when Blazer set out to have to “betray” the outsiders— but they end up becoming great friends with @greenteanchills ‘s oc Tee, who joins b-12 and the little outsider throughout their journey starting from their meeting in the slums.

Once Blazer meets with her again (profusely apologizing for shooting her . And her friends. And a cat.) he introduces her to Theo and Dolly, the latter being ESPECIALLY interested in the prospect of meeting an itty bitty kitty cat. The former refuses to go near it. Theo’s terrified of cats LMAO

Other canon characters they do know include Raf, Latekila, Ozi, Jonee, the bouncer- pretty much anyone that wanders Midtown.

HAHAHAHAH HELLO!! I suggest you go to my good friends @stargayzerlily03 & @mrtreesnek ;)