#lore rambles

In the age of AI slop being pushed at us from every angle, it was a beautiful reminder of both what technology can do when art and human connection are at its centre, and that - no matter how far technologies might advance, there is never going to be a replacement for humans. We're messy, flawed things that create magic out of nothing and everything.

AI can replicate an existing character or person to a degree, but it won't draw on emotional memories, it won't create from a lifetime of joy and sadness. It won't capture the beauty of the unexpected, the innovation and excitement of the second, less obvious thought.

[ Subject N-58 is still keeping it's organic functions at the very satisfactory level, after succesful completion of small cargo delivery to No Significant Harassment's superstructure ( so called "Jelly Run" ). N-58 has been assigned with exact same task to perform.]

. . . Oh ? Take off my mask ? Well . . . At least show me the basic kindness of looking me in the eyes, will you ?

Didn’t felt like going hard on drawing, mostly just a simple look into what my mind goes through when I think about injector sparks for my au.

I’ve talked about them before for how they are even made and the social aspect when it came to their production, but this is to show what it’s like actually growing, since unlike the other ways of being born, this is only one where they have to grow over time

They start off with the CNA injected spark that is pulled from an energon river into a metal shell. In which it stays in it and forms the shell around it to help develop its protoform. Provided the energon from its creators the shell grows in size and develops the main color that the bot would have. Once it’s fully turned into the color and grown into the right size, it will hatch. Little nubs coming out and a full round head poking up seeing the world, though not very well since they haven’t developed pupils yet. They don’t come with a mouth so they continue just latching onto their creators for energon.

Once they reach toddler age they are officially a sparkling in development. They are still very simple but now have developed a mouth to consume energon on their own, same with pupils to properly see in their environment. Their main plating is very thick to protect themselves, but over time it will molt off and harden with what will be its main armor plates.

When they’re about 5-10 years old in Cybertronian (this is subject to change judging by the environment and conditions, so present day RBA injector sparks are able to grow at the same rate as human kids physically and mentally). They are still unable to transform but they do develop all the main structures that will grow with time. They are the most malleable and easy to damage in this time emotionally. They are at their most observant of their environment during this time, any damage done here stays. This continues on once they become teenagers.

By 11 they are able to transform into their preset vehicle form that was ingrained into their t cog at birth. Now able to move in an alternate mode, they require someone to teach them how to use it to the best of their ability. Still it is possible for them to learn completely on their own, though it takes more time and has them fall behind peers their own age despite how few years ago there were in development. Just as their previous stage, they are very different compared to other born sparks. Due to them being born effectively already in a mature body and mind, it’s difficult to make others understand the feeling of being a true child with no way of articulating it to others. This causes many to grow distant and aggressive towards others due to well borns and cold constructs unable to understand the feeling of truly being young and having no control over your environment or situation. Especially for those who manage to have a familial life instead of a factory made and lived life, due to how small that pool was. They are still growing at this stage since they haven’t reached their full heights or strength yet. They effectively are on equal grounds with the average bot but continue growing.

Warning: everything is on character and some things are MY interpretations, if u don't agree I'm open to discussion- But ob, be polite.

So:

Jimmy's behavior towards Impulse is really interesting to me. Jimmy (usually) is really mindful about his teammates, and doesn't do anything to harm them unless he gets to his limit, which is uncommon. So why? Why did he behave like this?I have a theory, and as crude as it sounds— Impulse isn't either an exciting nor a desirable teammate for Jimmy.

Let me explain: Teaming with someone you have never teamed with before is naturally exciting. You're going to be curious how they work as a team, how helpful they are, how it feels to be that close— It's something new. Exciting. Curious. At the same time, teaming with someone who you have teamed before is comfortable, familiar and safe. You know what to expect, and what is expected of you. It has its charm.

And Impulse, to Jimmy, is neither.

Impulse and Jimmy have teamed before. Jimmy knows Impulse, he knows how he works. He's nothing new. But at the same time— Impulse is not 'familiar.' He might be safe and he might be trying his hardest to make things comfortable, but there isn't that familiarity that comes with old teammates that you could trust with your life.

There just isn't.

And that's a new layer I want to add. Last life (in my opinion) was one of Jimmy's lowest points, due to a magnitude of reasons, his teammates being one of them. And even if Jimmy isn't -that- resentful, I personally believe that he, subconsciously or not, carries some of that resentment in his chest.

For people like Grian and Martyn, that resentment gets buried and pushed aside due to all the time and good memories that Jimmy already has of them—They go way back, after all— But Impulse?Impulse and Jimmy didn't have previous history. There's nothing to cover that lingering bitter feeling. And that feeling is what makes Jimmy feel little to no guilt when he pushes Impulse aside and plays him like a fiddle.

Ok, not a *fiddle*, but Jimmy is definitely way less invested in the whole team than Impulse.When Impulse asks Jimmy to team up, Jimmy hesitates. And I'm pretty sure that if Impulse hadn't offered that future diamond, Jimmy would have made him give him -something- valuable to 'make things fair.'

Their whole relationship was transactional, and it also painfully one-sided, even if it wasn't clear at first. Jimmy enjoys the time he spends with Impulse, sure. Of course he would, Impulse *is* his friend. But besides that and his usual kindness, he doesn't act any different towards him than he would act towards any other player, besides calling their duo a 'team.'

If they hadn't said outwardly, I would honestly have believed that there was no actual allyship at all.Impulse, on the contrary, actively searches for jimmy, spends time in his house, asks about his plans and wishes, and so on. He puts effort and gives, meanwhile Jimmy just takes and gives back the usual.

Jimmy, unlike Impulse, kept treating Impulse as if he was just anyone else, not his teammate, and honestly, it shows.Let's talk about the betrayal. Jimmy, no pun intended, is actually very impulsive by nature. Even if you go to the start of the series, you can notice this behavior of him very clearly.

He's impulsive— And more than a few times he takes inexplicably bad decisions that no one, not even himself, understands why he took.The betrayal was one of these impulses. (Again, no pun intended)

But unlike the ones before this, it isn't an impulse that puts himself in harms way. This time, he put someone else in its way. I relate this to his new found confidence after getting rid of the Canary curse. (theres probably something to say about jimmy indirectly killing impulse and then causing him to end up in last place when hes KNOWN for always ranking high, but my brain can't brain anymore) Jimmy wronged Impulse more than once, but because he got away with them (Because Impulse is like that) he didn't think twice before selling out his teammate, and I honestly believe that the weight of what he had done didn't hit until the death message hit the screen. And Jimmy started feeling guilty over it — but Impulse forgave quickly, so it was fine.

And that feeling carried even after he saw the message of Impulses permadeath. Jimmy didn't mourn, didn't even get shocked. If anything, he sounded slightly done- like he had seen it coming.He ransacked Impulses house, loudly complained how he had nothing *worth* stealing, and didn't stop anyone from burning down Impulses house. No, what he did was, while the house was still burning behind him, he directly went to Big B to joke about now being with him instead.

Immediate replacement.

No tears were shed. No mourning, no anything. Because in Jimmy's heart, he hadn't actually considered Impulse a teammate, not at all,Even when Impulse was trying his hardest.

In conclusion, wow Nice life is such a nice, lighthearted, unserious serious funny spin-off. Definitely no one took it to heart and made angst. Nope. That would be so crazy...

(1/3 estimated lore drops)

As you all know, Baby au is a au in which Marc is able to get children and gets his and Vale's during covid. This is half based on "wow can I use the injury and his break during covid for mpreg angst?" and also half based on "people were so bored during covid they had nothing to do except hooking up".

The current part of the series that is getting uploaded here chapter by chapter, is a 5+1 of people finding out about this pregnancy. Firstly Marc, then Bez finds out (because of SPOILER the damn pills Marc forgets in the bathroom while Marc lives with the academy), then Luca, the whole Academy and finally Vale in this order (Yes, the poor father is getting the news at the breakfast table and no its not Marc who tells him. He is a bit mad.) And well eventually the public.

Then I am thinking about a mixed media side story how the world finds out and reacts to important mile stones in their and the babies life. Just for shit and giggles and all.

A few more side pieces are planned, mainly telling about the struggles of parenthood and the fights Vale and Marc have over and over again. How Alex found out, the wedding, they together realise that the second children is on its ways, happy married life is also included. All in all, they are very happy with how life turned out. Marc eventually retires, goes on to support his "junior drivers" and becomes JLo style a couch for them while his children get older. Valentino continues racing.

So I've always been a bit confused about the timeline of the Reef Wars and Twilight Gap (I've never played D1 nor found a cohesive source for a timeframe) but through looking for other lore I stumbled across something that gives a timeframe at last.

So if Ikora's winning streak was 126 years ago from whenever Cayde's Ghost Fragment was meant to be, that means the Reef Wars and Twilight Gap were over 126 years ago (realistically like 130+ now), as the current form of the Crucible as a competitive arena only existed after Twilight Gap. Before Twilight Gap, it was a venue in which Guardians settled their differences, before Shaxx turned it into a method of Guardian training.

So, if I'm understanding this right, then we at least have a rough timeframe of the time since the Battle of Twilight Gap and thus the Reef Wars, as I assume they weren't counting win-streaks before Shaxx reformed the format into a form of live-fire training. So this gives some frame of reference as to the timescale of post-Twilight Gap, pre-game events. It's not much, but it's something more specific than the couple-decades to couple-centuries estimates I've seen floating around.

This also has the funny implication that Eido is at least 126 years old, as she was newly-hatched at the time of Misraaks finding her in a downed Skiff. The presence of Sjur places Truth's loretab within the Reef Wars, due to her death being during the conflict, and knowing that Twilight Gap was roughly concurrent with the Reef Wars backs up the suggestion that Eido is well over 100 Earth Years old by this estimate...

Which really puts into perspective how damn slow the Eliksni age, if she's still considered somewhat equivalent to a late-teen/young-adult by Eliksni standards - She's likely lived around half of the Golden Age's tripled life expectancy for Humans. It obviously doesn't give any real reference for how old Eliksni can get (or if they're susceptible to old age at all, at least in the way humans are), but if they mature that slowly then uh... They can get pretty damn old! Makes me really curious as to the exact ages of Eliksni like Variks, Eramis and Ixis.