They're a band! They play basically a dystopian AU rock opera take on Mega Man, and they're really, really good.

Like imagine if you took a fic series that played everything seriously and focused hard on the setting and main characters, and Dr. Wily basically won and took over at the start of events well before Protoman's invention. Legitimately it's a very good story. Except it's not fic, it's like if you took 80s rock and Western movie soundtracks and some really sick synths and dumped them in a blender. And then give it one of the coolest communities I've ever had the fortune to meet.

They're so good live it's a little absurd. I got back recently from three nights in Nashville during which they played all three of their major albums in plot order (and Act III is a cliffhanger, so you can imagine the tension in the room!). It was quite possibly the coolest thing I've experienced. They're doing it again in Dallas and I'm just sad that I can't justify doing it all a second time.

Definitely recommend looking them up if any of that sounds cool. Act I (just called The Protomen) technically has a lot of rough edges, but it can seriously grow on you. Act II: The Father Of Death rocks so hard, and Act III: This City Made Us somehow goes even harder than that. And they're a very good cover band on top of that? Like musically they're wildly skilled.

There's a little bit of a learning curve to the lore, but the pro tip on that is that most of the story is in the librettos that come with the albums, but you can find scans of those online and they're very helpful for making sense of the plot. Very satisfying to get into, whole lot to analyze. They also play around with some fun ARG elements too.