#eli-bot

All of this is actually the very paraphrased version of what goes down lol. I don’t want to give ALL of my plot points away XD But yeah I have the real long version written out on my computer and it’s around 5k words. Wow.

Okay, let’s begin!

Phase one is the one I mentioned already–Gifre works for an underground crime organization known as the Python’s Blood. This organization is dedicated to research and experimentation on elementals. Thanks to his space elemental powers, he can “portal jump” in order to escape from any threatening situations. This ability to open portals and travel through them is a very rare skill among space elementals. This is extremely useful when he’s out on missions! He’s best at running away. This is the only reason he was allowed into the organization in the first place, because his shapeshifting abilities are…um, a bit lacking. Of course, very few space elementals can shapeshift, but those that can can transform their entire bodies, while Gifre can only change his arm.

Anyway! Meanwhile, we have Elias, who was found as a baby and taken into the guild. (Remember, it’s the sister guild to Shima’s.) Elias grew up with his caretaker who is also an inventor, so he was surrounded with machinery and engines all the time. He fell in love with tinkering and experimenting, and now he’s the guild’s official mechanic! Elias aspires to be just like the legendary inventor and sorcerer Elymas (who is another OC of mine). Elymas created hundreds if not thousands of inventions back in the day that are still being used now, by combining his talents of inventing and elemental magic (this is a very very hard thing to accomplish). He’s a freaking genius, and Elias adores his work.

Here’s phase one Elias! Before he loses his arm lol

Gifre is tasked with infiltrating Elias’ guild to basically keep an eye on all of them. The higher ups refuse to tell him why, but they pay him a lot of money to prevent him from asking questions so he just goes along with it. Gifre visits the guild on a daily basis, taking jobs there and chatting it up with all of the members. And then he meets Elias…and is immediately smitten with him. At first he just pesters him and bothers him with harmless flirting, to which Elias brushes him off, but eventually he develops deep feelings for him. Gifre starts avoiding Elias after overhearing him say he’s too overbearing and annoying, but Elias starts to worry about him after several weeks pass without him showing up. Gifre apologizes to Elias for his behavior, and they start acting better to each other. Slowly but surely as Gifre reveals more and more of his true character, Elias starts to fall in love with him as well…Gifre doesn’t notice of course lol, but he is happier about them becoming closer!

Skip ahead a month or two. The leaders of Python’s Blood reveal their true intentions for sending Gifre there…and they want Elias. Gifre of course is absolutely shellshocked and refuses to capture him (because he’s head over heels for the idiot, he’s not gonna give him up like that ya know). They decide they’re not gonna put up with Gifre’s shit and knock him out. When he wakes back up Gifre discovers they’ve kidnapped Elias and are preparing to begin an experiment on him. They reveal to Gifre what their plans are because they’re going to kill him shortly (because he basically betrayed them and he knows too much of their secrets). Turns out that Elias is actually an invention made by Elymas. Crazy, right? Elias isn’t entirely human, but he’s not completely “robot” either. So…it’s an inbetween sort of thing, and a bit hard to explain lol. But he functions just like a human and acts like a human, so nobody was ever able to tell the difference. Python’s Blood wants to take a sample of Elias and use it to create their own artificial humans, so they cut off his arm as the sample ;w; And that’s how Elias looses his arm. RIP. So then after an epic battle and rescue mission by the members of the guild, Elias and Gifre are brought back to the guild. Fast forward a couple weeks–Elias is almost completely recovered and is working on building himself a prosthetic arm. Gifre tells Elias he’s going to go on a journey of self-discovery, some cheesy cliche crap like that lol. Elias begs him not to go and asks him to officially join the guild, and Gifre says he will when he returns. He leaves, and that’s the end of phase one! Phewww!

Now for phase two! It takes place a year or two after phase one. Gifre’s “journey of self-discovery” is actually more of a manhunt. He’s going after members of Python’s Blood, trying to shut their operations down. He calls himself the Python Hunter, and he has a really nifty tattoo and his hair is grown out so he puts it up in a little ponytail. Every now and then he sends letters to Elias to keep him updated.

And here’s what phase two Gifre looks like ;D

On Elias’ end of things, he’s pretty damn lonely without Gifre there. He gets letters of course, but he isn’t allowed to respond to them (safety reasons on both ends). Several of his guildmates come and try to cheer him up by showing him a flier for a robotics competition. Having nothing better to do, Elias decides to enter it and participate. He goes through several ideas that don’t work out, and after getting some advice from his best friend and fellow mechanic, Ava, about creating something inspiring, he decides to make a robotic version of Gifre, since Gifre inspires him the most (and he misses him severely). After a couple months and several tests, Gifre-bot is brought to life! (Gi-bot or Gibo for short hehe.) And I’ve already posted stuff about Gi-bot, so yeah :D

And this is what Ava looks like!

Now, unlike his original inspiration Gi-bot is stubborn, a trickster and absolutely refuses to speak, just to spite Elias lol. Gi-bot can speak but prefers not to, he’s pretty silent, unlike Gifre who enjoys talking. Gi-bot mainly uses tons of robotic noises to communicate–chirps, whirs, clanks, you name it. Gi-bot also extremely protective of Elias, and the only people he’ll let near him are a very few friends from the guild, otherwise anyone else who tries to talk to him gets growled at. He’s not the nicest robot around, he’s a bit of a hostile one. Elias tries to fix this but realizes this is just part of Gi-bot’s personality as a whole. Gi-bot has a lot of problems at first, like his fascination with water always shorting out his systems (he goes out in the rain several times and comes back with oil spurting out of his body, and his body itself starts to short-circuit and release little electric charges, which sometimes shocks Elias), and not listening to Elias’ directions all the time, and destroying any other inventions that may threaten his purpose…but eventually they come to an understanding, and Elias becomes very very fond of Gi-bot and vice versa. Gi-bot is actually revealed to have a very caring side, such as looking out for Elias when he’s not paying attention, and does several things to cheer him up when he’s depressed. One of my favorite scenes between the two of them is when Elias is having a really rough day, so Gi-bot and Ava team up (despite the fact that they kinda hate each other and are always getting into spats with each other lmfao) to cheer him up! Ava borrows an old phonograph and plays a song, which coincidentally is a song Gifre used to sing to Elias sometimes back in phase one. Gi-bot sings along with it, as best as he can without actually speaking lol, and dances with Elias. Elias gets super emotional and starts crying and the two of them flip out, Gi-bot gets angry at Ava since it was her idea and she apologizes, “I didn’t think it would make him sob like a baby! Geez!” Elias tells them how happy he is, and they spend the rest of the day all dancing together~ Lol they’re like my friendship OT3. Elias, Gi-bot and Ava <3 (I’m totally gonna do some of those goofy draw the squad memes with the three of them lmfao) Eventually Gi-bot begins to sense Elias’ attachment to him and realizes it stems from his feelings for Gifre, so he tries to act upon these feelings (basically he surprise kisses Elias! OMG) Elias lets him for the first couple seconds but then he totally flips out. (Keep in mind, Gi-bot is a fully functioning AI who is sentient and can make his own decisions outside of his core programming! So he can feel human emotions like love and jealousy and all that. Also, Elias isn’t entirely human either–remember he was created by Elymas. So we have like…two-half robots here. (I uh, ship them quite a lot behind our usual Gifrias lol)) Elias explains to him the whole thing between him and Gifre, and he thanks Gi-bot for trying to fill the gap inside him that Gifre’s absence left. They don’t get into a relationship of course, though they would be capable of that–Gi-bot just becomes an extremely close friend that Elias can rely on. (They cuddle together a lot, Gi-bot has an internal heating system so he’s always really warm hehe.)

As for the competition! They enter that, of course. I’m not going to go into too much detail about that, but I can say Elias and Gifre do very well and impress the judges during every round, even though Elias almost fails the first round since Gi-bot decides to be a little shit and doesn’t listen to anything he tells him to do. But when Gi-bot notices people making fun of Elias for making a faulty creation, and Elias being the sweetheart he is is almost in tears, he gets pissed and shows off what he can do, impressing the judges and everyone in the room basically. (Then he gives El a big smooch on the cheek just to embarrass him and get him to stop crying lmfao) While the judges are blown away, some of the other competitors find this to be totally stupid and grow jealous of Elias. After the second round is over (they pass, of course) some of the others manage to get Elias alone while Gi-bot is getting a checkup from the robotics committee or whatever. They all start insulting Elias, accusing him of cheating and bribing the judges. One guy gets super pissed off since Elias denies all that, and tries to sic his own robot on him. Luckily Gi-bot comes to the rescue just in time! But he gets horribly “injured” and is in dire need of repairs. Elias is in tears, Ava is terrifyingly angry and threatens to tear the dude’s head off, and after the whole situation dies down the guy gets disqualified for trying to injure another competitor and for ruining Elias’ robot. Once Gi-bot is completely fine, Elias tells him that he’s dropping out of the competition, afraid that Gi-bot is going to get hurt again. Gi-bot gets upset and insists that they keep going, and eventually with enough persuasion Elias agrees, and then they pass round three and are up for round four! But before Elias and Gi-bot can think of something to do, out of nowhere someone arrives and kidnaps Elias in the middle of the night. Gi-bot comes online after hearing the commotion and manages to follow them to where they’re going just in time…

Back to Gifre! When he hears the news that Elias has been captured (again!) he discovers that it’s not actually Python’s Blood who kidnapped him, but something entirely different. One thing leads to another and Gifre actually ends up meeting and teaming up with Elymas (who is still alive after half a millenia–he’s a brilliant sorcerer, so of course he knows how to prolong his life). They find out that Elias has been taken into the Mirrorplane, an invention created by Elymas. So the second half of phase 2 is basically about Gifre and Elymas’ adventures in the Mirrorplane trying to save Elias! (Technically this should really be phase 3, maybe I’ll change that lol)

And this is what Elymas looks like c: He’s the best cutie sorcerer njgfnjgnfj

On Elias’ side of things, he meets the Mirrorplane version of Gifre, and is tricked into believing that he’s the real Gifre. Gi-bot apparently malfunctioned, so he’s off being fixed somewhere. Elias worries for him. Of course after seeing the other inhabitants of the Mirrorplane and how different they are from the counterparts he knows, Elias eventually realizes that Mirror!Gifre isn’t the one he knows and loves. Elias tries to escape from him, but unfortunately Mirror!Gifre has developed a very unhealthy and possessive obsession of him and absolutely refuses to let him go. He sets up his sentry robot, Mirror!Gi-bot, or going by his nickname, Error. Error was originally created to be a fighting robot, but did not obey any of M!Gifre’s orders and there are tons of flaws and errors in his system (hence the nickname). He’s actually very gentle and not as hostile as the original Gi-bot, and he is tasked with watching over Elias whenever Mirror!Gifre isn’t around. Soon, through some coaxing, Elias comes to discover that Mirror!Elias is dead, and has been for a very long time. Mirror!Gifre didn’t even have the opportunity to meet him, for he died years and years before he was even born (remember, Elias was created by Elymas, so Mirror!Elias was probably also created by Mirror!Elymas but did not survive…) Mirror!Gifre begs him to stay in the Mirrorplane, having been watching him for quite some time from inside that world, and only wanting his happiness. He had seen how upset and depressed Elias became after Gifre left, and promises him he won’t ever leave him and will always stay by his side, sappy crap like that lol. Elias hesitantly agrees to a sort of bet with him to get him to shut up (“If your Gifre doesn’t come to get you by the end of the week, you stay with me forever”). Elias feels really bad for the guy, because he has a very compassionate nature;; At the end of the week, Gifre miraculously shows up with Elymas in tow. Mirror!Gifre sends several of his underlings including Error to prevent them from getting to Elias, who he has locked up in a magical darkness chamber thing. I haven’t really figured out what to call it. Eventually they break through. (Error gets totally destroyed and Elias cries like a baby over that, but he’s repaired later in phase 3, no worries!) Mirror!Gifre throws an enormous hissy fit and his powers go berserkers, destroying half of his palace. Gi-bot manages to escape his prison and eventually reaches the whole gang. Elias tries to reason with Mirror!Gifre and notices that he’s very off; his eyes are bright red and he doesn’t seem to be listening to anything he’s telling him. Elymas tells him that Mirror!Gifre is so attached to him because he’s directly connected to Elymas himself, who discovered the existence of the Mirrorplane and connected it to it’s parallel world. So Elymas is sort of the Mirrorplane’s “god” and basically everyone who exists there all have a connection to him. I hope that makes sense? Then Mirror!Gifre’s powers go out of control and he really isn’t himself anymore because of Elymas’ and Elias’ presence. In one last desperate attempt to get Elias to stay with him, Mirror!Gifre attacks Gifre, trying to kill him. Gifre gets really badly injured, like half of his face gets totally wrecked and his throat too and it’s. Very bad. He almost dies ;m; Mirror!Gifre immediately shuts down after seeing what he’s done, and Elias leaves him with some pretty sweet words of advice before kissing him goodbye. So yeah, Elymas, Elias, Gi-bot and Gifre escape the Mirrorplane and rush to save Gifre’s life ;w; Lol these phases seem to end with somebody getting hurt.

Phase three begins with Gifre’s recovery! Elymas lends a hand with mending his injuries, and makes it so his face doesn’t look as marred. (Bless you Ely.) Unfortunately they weren’t able to salvage everything; Gifre’s right eye was torn out and his ear was ripped to shreds, and the injury on his throat was the worst–his vocal cords got so messed up that he can’t speak anymore. Eventually he wakes up and realizes he can no longer talk. Or see or hear from one side. Poor…poor sweetheart. Luckily after he recovers Elias makes him a mechanical eye and a special earpiece thing, but there’s still the problem of his not being able to talk anymore. And that’s really hard on both Gifre and Elias…eventually they learn to communicate, Gifre normally uses a mini chalkboard where he writes things out, and sometimes they try to use sign language lol. Buuut after some time, Elymas helps Elias invent a device that attaches to Gifre’s throat and allows him to speak again! But not with his mouth, more like his brain sends signals down to the device and his voice comes out that way, so he doesn’t even have to move his mouth at all. (He thinks it’s the coolest shit ever.) And yeah I really like drawing phase three Gifre, he’s smol and soft and injured and I just want to hold him.

Poor, poor son ;m;

Continuing forward, Elias, Gifre and Gi-bot work to upgrade their living quarters and Elias’ workshop. Lots of goofy shenanigans go down between Gifre and Gi-bot, since they’re finally sort of meeting and getting used to each other. Elymas is also staying with them, since he and Elias are sort of like brothers but not exactly? But yeah he sticks around, showing up every now and then, along with Ava. Finally, the upgrades are complete! Things start getting busy for Elias, who has somehow become famous after mysteriously disappearing during the robotics competition (he vanished into the Mirrorplane before round four, don’t forget! And this caused a huge uproar since everyone predicted he would win so they freaked when he disappeared). Gi-bot helps him with repairs and building new things, while Gifre tries to help them in his own way. As a thank you to Gi-bot for all of his help, and also as a way to make things easier on their busy lives, Elias creates a robotic version of himself as a companion, Elias-bot, or Eli-bot (Eliot) for short hehe >w< Surprisingly Gi-bot warms up to Eli-bot quite quickly, and they kinda become a couple. Robotic couple. Lol. Eli-bot is a sweetheart, honestly, he’s so kind and nice and always wants what’s best for everyone. He is a soft…soft son. So Gi-bot becomes very possessive of him, wanting to protect him from the outside world. They’re so cute…And yeah, I’ve already drawn them quite a bit! Here’s their concept sketch:

BABIES

And then we go back…to the Mirrorplane. Le gasp! You thought Mirror!Gifre is done? Nope! After that terrible experience with nearly killing his counterpart and greatly upsetting Elias, M!Gifre feels extremely guilty and lonely. He repairs Error, who starts avoiding him and not answering his orders out of spite for all that he’s done lol. Missing Elias, M!Gifre attempts to copy what Elias has done and make his own Eli-bot, failing several times. After a massive failure with trying to create an Elias-bot, he completely scraps that project and decides to seek out Mirror!Elymas instead. He asks him if there’s any chance of being able to bring Mirror!Elias back to life. M!Elymas tells him it’s impossible, he’s tried. But, M!Elymas is different than the other Elymas in that he specializes more in magic than in inventing, and says he may be able to grant a wish to M!Gifre. M!Gifre wishes to have his own Elias, and M!Elymas warns him that the Elias he gets might not be the one he’s thinking of (since the Mirrorplane counterparts are different in personality from their originals). M!Gifre says he doesn’t give a shit lol, and M!Elymas grants his wish. And so…a new Mirror!Elias is created! Unlike Elias Mirror!Elias is a total asshole, arrogant, and altogether a huge jerk. But he has a softer side as well. Even still, M!Gifre is in love with him anyway, despite all of his faults. M!Elias hates his guts at first but eventually warms up to him. AND MEANWHILE! With the help of Mirror!Ava, who works for M!Gifre, Error somehow finds the discarded Eli-bot M!Gifre had tried to create a while back. Using his robotic knowledge, Error brings M!Eli-bot to life. M!Eli-bot is riddled with more glitches and bugs than Error, and has a very hard time speaking, but Error develops a fondness for him anyway, and with M!Ava, decide to dub M!Eli-bot Glitch. (Get it? M!Gi-bot has an E name, and M!Eli-bot has a G name! Genius~~~) So yes…now we have:

Elias,Gifre,Eli-bot (or Eliot),Gi-bot (or Gibo),Mirror!Gifre,Mirror!Elias,Mirror!Gi-bot (or Error),and Mirror!Eli-bot (or Glitch).

Lmao I know that’s a lot to keep track of. And yes, all of the other ATS characters have mirror counterparts as well, I just haven’t really thought too hard about what they’ll be like yet.

Hmm…idk if I’m going to make anything else happen after this–they all go through enough shit and phase three ends pretty happily, with Gifre being able to speak again and him getting into an official relationship with Elias, and the bots also happy with each other, and the mirror counterparts all set and good, so yeah!!

Alright, that’s all of it!! If you read all the way through you’re really awesome omg. I really hope you enjoyed reading about my boys’ difficult yet inspiring journey~And yeah, please don’t steal this idea? It’s mine, I worked hard on it and this is probably one of my favorite story arcs in ATS now, even though it won’t be a part of the main storyline I definitely want to do something for it in one way or another. :D

Feel free to make fanart! I highly encourage it and it would make my day if someone drew my sons! Just make sure you tag me if you post it on your own blog, or submit it here! There’s nothing an artist loves more than getting art of their own children ;w;

And here’s some extra doodles hehe

Elias gets a nifty labcoat in Phase 3 lol

Also, a bit of extra information:Gi-bot runs on pressurized air, making him a pneumatic robotAnd Eli-bot runs on oil and pressurized liquids, making him a hydraulic robot c: (Yes, I actually went and did research on this lol)