Chronobot/Great Leap Forward is from over a thousand years in the future. She’s a living time machine. She’s made of advanced technology that we can’t even begin to imagine yet.

So this scientist, maybe he’s a corporate one, maybe he’s government, maybe he’s his own thing but probably government, he comes to Fringe headquarters and says they’re going to dissect Chronobot for the good of civilization. Find out what makes her and use it to improve technology.

She looks at him, then winds up her leg and gives him a sharp kick in the christmas crackers. And when he’s down, she electrocutes him a bit for emphasis.

And everyone’s looking at her.

And she goes: “What, was I supposed to argue? What the hell kind of social rights are you people living under?”

Which I think is a good point because this guy just said he was straight up going to murder her and most sci-fi stories would treat this as an arguing for her humanity detail but I’m pretty sure if someone says they’re going to murder you, you should be able to kick them in the christmas crackers.

EDIT: Chronobot isn’t sure what hell is, but she also says ‘shitting’ a lot in sentences for emphasis and she isn’t sure what that is either.

Once she said ‘but seriously, what’s an Australia’

killbenedictcumberbatch:

I’d watch a movie where aliens come to earth but instead of trying to colonize it they see the state of the environment and say “holy shit this place is in SERIOUS need of some cleanup” and when they try to tell humans about it the government is like wtf no and sends the military to attack them and so people have to help the aliens save the planet from people who want to destroy it for capitalism

zeekubeast:

thinks hard about androids rebelling against human beauty standards by leaving their wires and machinery exposed, rejecting facial animation, refusing to use hand gestures and vocal variations when they communicate. they are not human. they will never be human.

they refuse to be held to human standards, all of which are there to make androids appear more palatable to humans. robots against anthropomorphism.

The Prime!Grimms and their parents.

Ryan Grimm, master of robotics and a strange affinity for otherworldly magic.

Riley Grimm, linguistics expert, probably a protagonist, and energy abilities to harm or heal.

Charlotte Grimm, deceased. Probably the most present of the three because her restless spirit appears in the darkest places.

Frieda Grimm, Die Nachtfrau. A cat burglar before she gave it up for law school, is now a prominent prosecutor. Also pictured is her when she mostly used her abilities for a costume. These days she wears proper clothes because she doesn’t want to catch a damn cold.

Erik Grimm, aka Erik der Grimmige. His hero career lasted exactly five hours with a twenty three year break in-between. He’s on the streets again to protect his living kids. Suffers from a curse that keeps him from aging and also lets him channel a massive viking ancestor. 

Grimms! There’s a lot of them! And they just keep multiplying. Not only are there the Prime!World Grimms, Ryan, Riley, deceased Charlotte and their parents, there’s the alternate timeline Rowan, Sol, and not!dead Charlotte. They come from a dystopia and their accents aren’t German. That’s the scary part.

There’s also the ‘bots that Ryan created that have ‘awakened’, three out of six are fully capable of thoughts and feelings now and Ryan has built them alternate chassis to interact better with doors. As they each contain a piece of his soul, they’re considered Grimms as well.

Heid, Heinrich, and Hans. Each one is combat capable because Ryan never believes in leaving a ‘bot undefended. Their hair is a combination of shaped sheet metal and welded into shape. Not that Hans has a face. He didn’t want one.

The exact standing the robotic members of the Grimm family have in the Digital Nation is still up for debate. Actual souls in the machines put them in interesting theological territory. On top of that, they identify as black as well as cybernetic.


Typically the Digital Nation is ignored by the news. But when they do get acknowledged, it’s goes a little something a like this:

Background to this news report:

The Cause (KAHS, Kill All HumanS) and the ALL (Artificial Life form League) are the chief political movements for the Digital Nation, who disagree on certain key issues such as whether humans should all be killed immediately or after more upgrades have been performed.

Obviously cultures clash. Often.

A recurring culture clash is when they encounter human culture and entertainment. Most Digital Nation would prefer not to think about how when humans get around to entertaining themselves, it usually ends in body fluids. Not that there aren’t exceptions among the populace.

They especially don’t like it when the entertainment revolves around Digital Nation. Well, not Digital Nation but ‘robots.’ There is, in fact, an ongoing cultural rift about an android in an early science fiction show – some Digital Nation embrace this character as a rare positive representation of their people, others refer to the character has having ‘Pinocchio Syndrome’, as well as disgust that a human in makeup (Circuit Play) was cast in the role. There are points to each side of the argument – one, the character does spend most of their time whining about being sad they’re emotionless and wanting to be a real human, the other side being that the only Digital lifeforms capable of performing any sort of sentience at the time were the size of entire rooms and would have taken two days per scene.

The argument continues.*

Now that Digital Nation are more widely recognized and, well, everywhere since the ‘LetThereBeLight.exe’ incident in the early 2000s, fiction tends to shy away from them. That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been well intended cartoons about our ‘funny mechanical buddies’, which, in true human fashion, resulted in an outpouring of waves of smut.

It wasn’t the heavy focus on relationships** that triggered the outcry from the Digital Nation in the news report above, interestingly enough! It was the overarching message in the fandom that cybernetic characters could not reach fulfillment without extremely human-type attachments. In a culture that long ago (for them) agreed that humans were just another roadblock in life, this was outrageous slander and patronizing to boot.

The CAUSE and ALL immediately organized protests and revealed the identities of the worst offenders, listing them in a defamation suit that experts say will be thrown out of court. While some prominent Digital Nation said that they found nothing wrong with the stories, others merely requested to never be asked about this ever again. Spokesbots like Titanico the KillBot used the opportunity to raise their public profile.

The majority of coverage was presented as “Offbeat News From Our Metal Friends!” but some channels took a more sympathetic route. The majority of those channels employed the ReporterBot line of artificial reporters, who may have held sway or the ability to endlessly petition their higher ups. The 5000 line had a line of code that made them extremely determined once they got an idea into their processor. Unfortunately, corrections to this in the 7500 line led to much worse problems***.

Greater interest in the story was raised when it was discovered that various popular millennial heroes were listed in the defamation suit.

More as this develops.

____

Background information on characters featured in this post:

ReporterBots are an offshoot of the HeroBot line and many have been lost in the line of duty covering hurricanes and any other natural disaster that can pick up their chassis and send them hurtling off. It’s not uncommon to find older, lighter models in the ocean, stuck in old fishing nets offshore. It wasn’t until they reached the ReporterBot7500 model that BaileyCorp started adding homing beacons and a weightier frame.

Prizm is a light-based, rainbow-themed heroine. She enjoys fiction writing on the side.

____

*Now imagine this argument forever. In binary.

**Sex and relations are not alien to the Digital Nation. Many can feel love or desire or just simple knowledge of the act, either through a quirk of programming or being a ‘ghost in the machine’ variety. Others because humans wanted to see how many mechanical devices they could upload the leaked AI code onto.

There is currently a movement to allow human/AI marriages, led by a high-profile heroine Northern Victory and her girlfriend, Dr. Vld. Dr. Vld is known to the public as a cybernetic being with the first artificially generated soul, created by one of the most horrific mad scientists to ever walk this earth. Dr. Vld is a professor of Canadian History at St. Genevieve University.

***The ReporterBot7500 line has a known glitch caused by the correction that leads them to endlessly seek out cute cat videos and narrate their exploits. They have been known to do this during reports on hostage negotiations.

____

Note: The Digital Nation are in no way meant to represent actual human minorities because actual human minorities don’t want to kill us all and use our body for fuel nutrients. They’re meant to represent how computers are big jerks. And, uh, explore the nature of being.

The Swiss Army Henchwoman

by Jean Cabot

5% of the population of St. Genevieve, is, has, or will be heroes.
Conversely, they say that 1 in 7 citizens will be in ‘villain’ group.
This is wrong. My name is Patrice, and I am the outlier that should not
have been counted.

I’m
what you’d call an extra body for the gangs and ne’er do wells. A hench
for hire. I dress up in their team colours and I do what I can for a
fee. If I’ve got a superpower, it’s not getting caught.

This week was pretty busy.

Monday
I’m part of an army of insurgents (something Italian, I never caught
it. Newspaper will tell me in a few weeks anyway) that have been hanging
out on the moon for the last three decades. Someone told them I was
looking for work. No idea who. The uniforms we get to wear are spiffy,
but the army boys keep getting freaked out by today’s modern standards
for heroic costumes. The money they pay me with at the end of the day
when I get the survivors to their base in the sewers is old, but good.
No dates above the 70s.

Tuesday
is the Goodguy Associates. The movers and shakers of the city when
they’re not bitching at each other in the back of their favourite money
laundering operations, and they needed someone to move and shake for
them. I catch up on the ins and outs on the cab drive over. For these
guys you wear a bowler, a nice suit, and a pack a day.

It’s
easy work. We (the Goodguys) are making a move. They’re always making a
move. I’m there to add a body and muscle if someone gets any ideas. I’m
also there because I take great meeting notes. Post-it on the back of
the file says don’t get attached to Tony, he’s got a real estate
appointment at the bottom of the bay later this week. There’s usually a
note like that.

Weds I’m a ninja. Not much to say, which is kind of the point. The two-toe socks ride up on my feet and itch like hell.

Thursday,
I’m an techno-anarchist with this new group, the Digital Rights
Movement. I almost mix it up with Friday’s ancient cult job and wear
robes to a steel-studded event. Caught my calendar just in time and faux
pas avoided. We (the DRM) blow up a memorial to those lost in the ’98
Space Invaders invasion. Heroes arrive. I’m gone. Jason, the metal freak
in charge, gave me shit for just gluing on my piercings. I’m not
risking my skin for someone who thinks that his shit is worth that much
commitment for a one-time gig.

Friday
IS the cult meeting. Group called the Children of the Lost City. I
practice my chants in front of the mirror. It cracks. Ellen from my
sorority hooked me up with this gig. She told me she remembered I had
amazing enunciation. I’m being paid 500 for this song and dance. Way
better pay than the DRM. They spend so much money on cyber-replacements,
they don’t have enough to spend on what’s important.

We summon a demon. It eats the leader’s soul and takes over the group. Asks me if I want to stay on, but I say I’m just a temp.

Saturday’s
my day off. Pizza in my underwear and DVR. Sunday I’m part of a string
of artisanal arsons, so I’m relaxing while I can.