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2024-10-29 19:42:56I got everything cleaned up and snuck back into Carnivac without anyone noticing. Shiro had prepared some breakfast from the leftovers along with a thick, black drink called caff that I assumed was like this world’s coffee. I didn’t bother to ask though.
When the parents were ready, Carnivac and Shiro adopted their running forms and were back on the road, such as it was. We stopped twice for breaks, but finally made it back to AutomaTown by lunch time. I don’t hold any ill will towards Shiro’s parents, I think they’re lovely, but I was determined to build an airship of some sort if it meant that I wouldn’t have to stretch a five hour trip into twenty-five. Especially if I wouldn’t have to carry people on my back that needed potty breaks
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Automata Prime 3.8: Upgrades all around
The princess told me that in her previous talks with her brother that they’d heard rumors that the countries to the east and beyond the Northridge mountains were forming an alliance. The eastern coastal countries were the Principality of Kokoli, Yliasi, Jalagrorun, and the Maxorian Theocrasy.The Northridge mountain range created a natural border between the Fangwell Empire and countries to the north, acting almost like massive fortress walls. Kokoli was positioned at the southern edge of the range and was the first of the eastern countries with access to Fangwell without having to worry about those walls.I believed the former Auto-Knight Number 19, Kalua, was originally from a mountainous tree village in Kokoli while Number 18, Alika, was a soldier for their southern neighbor Yliasi. Princess Relena explained that
Automata Prime 3.9: Infiltration
After my update, I got all of my proxies powered back up and back to whatever jobs they were in the middle of doing. The exceptions being Carnivac and IronHide. Those two got the honor of hanging out in my [Inventory] as I prepared for my mission to Trone.I thought about also packing Cyclone but I got this strange feeling like the proxy shell wanted to stay behind and hang out with Sentinel and keep an eye on the village. I couldn’t really explain it. It was the same sort of feeling that I’d gotten with Carnivac the night before. By this point I had dedicated subroutines that I partitioned for each proxy. Since each on
Automata Prime 1.1: The day I died
I looked at the time. My usual train home left about an hour ago, and I had another half hour until the next one. I worked on putting the final touches on a big project for work; we were supposed to be rolling out a major website redesign, and it would be going to production Monday morning. I poked my head up from my cube and looked around; no one else on my team was there. Typical. I remembered seeing an email that said something about a bar meetup to welcome some new person that got hired in another department. I sat back down and continued testing my code changes. Everything was mostly finished, but I needed to double check everything on the staging environment before it went live. I felt a tap on my shoulder and heard a soft “excuse me.” Weird, pretty sure I was the last one left. I took off my headphones and turned around. Ah, it was the cleaning staff, and they wanted me to move so they could vacuum. Sure. Well, I was nearly done anyway. Control, Command, and Q; the M
Automata Prime 1.2: That ancient rivalry of elves vs bears
Eventually, the game trail met up with a larger path. This one seemed to get more use and was clearly more worn by larger creatures. I noticed there was a large puddle off of the path a bit, so I walked over to it to see what I looked like. My head was vaguely humanoid. It was covered in the same armor-type material with what looked like a hinged jaw; like a cross between a human skull and a rock. I didn’t seem to have any sort of nose or distinguishing features, or even ears. My eyes looked like black jewels with a bright blue pinprick of light at the center. It wasn’t really what I was expecting, but I didn’t know what to expect in the first place. My body looked pretty plain, truthfully. No cool armor or fins or anything, though I did have some neat accent lights that made me feel like I was a program in Tron. It seemed like just the barest of basic design to accommodate human-like joints, like an action figure buck that I might have designed in my old life. That would be a
Automata Prime 1.3: Starter Town
I walked with Shea to the Fiefdom of Urd, the nearby city responsible for spring-boarding Adventurers and hero wannabes into the forest in return for money and rank. It wasn’t quite “Dungeon Diving,” but it had all the hallmarks of a Player’s “first town.” The local feudal lord was a vassal of the King, but “everyone” said that he bought the position. No one really knew how, though, and he was never seen in town. The primary industry for the town was the Adventurer’s Guild, which handled most of the labor needs for the region, and the rest of the town supported the Adventurers. People from all over came to Urd to either try their luck at being an Adventurer in hopes of a quick path to success and riches, or to sell things to people in hopes of a quick path to success and riches. The forest I had woken up in was called the Fangwell Forest, and it covered the majority of the valley we were in with little pockets of town sprinkled through. From the Thundermond mountains in the nort
Automata Prime 1.4: Tinker time
Everyone froze and looked at the newcomer. Before anyone else could move, Elita had already drawn her sword and was flying towards the old woman. Shea tried to intervene but was too slow, and Elita’s strike raced for the old woman’s throat. The old woman didn’t move a muscle or even change her expression. She was a statue of calm. Light had enveloped her as Elita’s attack bounced harmlessly away off of the magic shield. Before Elita could strike again, Shea caught her arm. The Automata turned to glare at the girl with eyes of burning blue coals. Shea gripped the other’s cloak instead but was firm in her resolve. “That’s... Um... that’s the landlord, Jada,” Shea said meekly. Elita turned her unblinking glare to the landlord, who only smiled knowingly at her. “I’m going to watch from the roof to make sure we don’t have any other surprises,” Elita said coldly before leaving the room. “Is she okay?” Shea asked. “Elita’s a warrior. Let her do her thing,” I replied. The landlord
Automata Prime 1.5: Ravage eject
Ravage looked up at me and took a step back from Jada. Her head dropped down and her whole body started folding in on itself as cat limbs disappeared and small human-shaped limbs emerged. The cat’s body unfolded and folded again like origami. It seemed to be going slowly and deliberately, which made me think of nearly every robot show I’d ever seen that gave you in-depth transformation scenes at first then later skipped over them. Now I was wondering if they went slow at first to test things out, or if it was a skill thing where you got faster as you gained experience. Ravage the cat was gone and in her place stood a small, humanoid Automata no more than a foot and a half tall. Her face was featureless and white like Elita’s, but she had long fibrous black hair that flowed down her back and little kitty ears on top of her head. The cat tail was still present and flicked from side to side. If you knew to look for it you could see the shape of the cat head in her chest and the cat e
Automata Prime 1.6: I need a duck
I fashioned some simple armor for Elita, trying to keep the design along the lines of what I thought an orc warrior might wear, but it was all guesswork based on the memories from my previous life. Elita didn’t have any experience with orc fashion either and wasn’t any help beyond “I think they wear a lot of leather and furs”. Thankfully I still had the remains of the Thunder Bear in my [Inventory], so I was able to craft some leather and fur items for her. In my past life, I'd been known to do some cosplay from time to time so I was no stranger to making clothes and armor. Laid out on the workbench I had leather boots, breeches, bracers, and a tunic with a fur-trimmed collar along with a simple breast plate and a shoulder pauldron from her sword arm. Now that I looked at the collection, it appeared to be more barbarian than the caveman fashion I associated with fantasy orcs, but whatever; I was sure she’d be fine. The less skin she had to [Cloak()], the better for her mana reserv
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- Automata Prime
3.9: Infiltration
After my update, I got all of my proxies powered back up and back to whatever jobs they were in the middle of doing. The exceptions being Carnivac and IronHide. Those two got the honor of hanging out in my [Inventory] as I prepared for my mission to Trone.I thought about also packing Cyclone but I got this strange feeling like the proxy shell wanted to stay behind and hang out with Sentinel and keep an eye on the village. I couldn’t really explain it. It was the same sort of feeling that I’d gotten with Carnivac the night before. By this point I had dedicated subroutines that I partitioned for each proxy. Since each on
- Automata Prime
3.8: Upgrades all around
The princess told me that in her previous talks with her brother that they’d heard rumors that the countries to the east and beyond the Northridge mountains were forming an alliance. The eastern coastal countries were the Principality of Kokoli, Yliasi, Jalagrorun, and the Maxorian Theocrasy.The Northridge mountain range created a natural border between the Fangwell Empire and countries to the north, acting almost like massive fortress walls. Kokoli was positioned at the southern edge of the range and was the first of the eastern countries with access to Fangwell without having to worry about those walls.I believed the former Auto-Knight Number 19, Kalua, was originally from a mountainous tree village in Kokoli while Number 18, Alika, was a soldier for their southern neighbor Yliasi. Princess Relena explained that
- Automata Prime
3.7: A check-in with royalty
I got everything cleaned up and snuck back into Carnivac without anyone noticing. Shiro had prepared some breakfast from the leftovers along with a thick, black drink called caff that I assumed was like this world’s coffee. I didn’t bother to ask though.When the parents were ready, Carnivac and Shiro adopted their running forms and were back on the road, such as it was. We stopped twice for breaks, but finally made it back to AutomaTown by lunch time. I don’t hold any ill will towards Shiro’s parents, I think they’re lovely, but I was determined to build an airship of some sort if it meant that I wouldn’t have to stretch a five hour trip into twenty-five. Especially if I wouldn’t have to carry people on my back that needed potty breaks
- Automata Prime
3.6: Camping overnight
The tiger thing recovered quickly and took a swipe at Carnivac’s head, which ducked back down and out of the way. When it poked its head over the edge to check on Carnivac, he grabbed a fistfull of fur on the side of its head, then another on the other side.The creature jerked its head back in surprise but wasn’t fast enough. With his full body, Carnivac planted his feet near the top ledge and shoved, pulling the creature over the lip and flipping over Carnivac’s head. At that point, gravity kicked in and Carnivac sailed right off the cliff face after the tiger.Keeping a tight hold on the shocked tiger’s face, Carnivac allowed the momentum to pull him on top. The tiger smashed into the ground on its back with Carnivac landing knees first into its chest and stomach. All of the air escaped out of the tiger with a crunching sound.Carnivac climbed off of the creature as Dad wandered over to have a look.“That was quite the move,” Dad complimented Carnivac. “You’re pretty comforta
- Automata Prime
3.5: Meeting the parents
Shiro and Shrapnel were waiting in the market place and they had brought Shiro’s parents with them. They didn’t have a whole lot to pack up to begin with and it looked like Shiro intended to bring them back with us right away. By normal carriage the trip from Trone back to AutomaTown would be about four days, so I wasn’t sure that Shiro had thought it through for his ancient parents.“Ah, Mister Carnivac, there you are,” Shiro said in a cheerful tone.“We need to leave. Now,” Carnivac responded, shepherding Shiro and his parents towards the city gate as he took all of their belongings into my [Inventory]. At least Shiro had remembered to turn his disguise back on.“I thought you wanted to do some shopping for supplies.”“I found some good deals already, but I have a feeling that things might get a little rough soon.”“What? Why? What happened,” Shiro argued and slightly dragged his feet.“There may or may not have been a slight accident at The Factory. Just to be safe, I’d rather
- Automata Prime
3.4: The Factory
“Lord Jhiax is amazing!” Traluna shouted, sitting up straight in her chair for the first time. “He’s the kind of genius that the world has never seen before! The things he invents and comes up with are like from a whole other world.”“Traluna,” Gree warned.“Lord Jhiax is on a whole other level than us!” she said, getting more excited.“Traluna!” Gree snapped. Traluna shrank back down again at the rebuke.“He’s an artificer, eh?” Carnivac probed.“He’s so much more than some artificer. Lord Jhiax is a god among us!” she shouted, perk
- Automata Prime
3.3: Welcome to Trone
Carnivac and Shiro passed through the gates and into the city of Trone. Shiro let out an imitation of a sigh of relief and placed a hand on Carnivac’s shoulder and leaned over.“I am so glad that worked. I have to admit, I had my doubts,” he said, regaining his composure.As Carnivac looked around, he could see a large variety of shops. Most of the shops near the gate were food based but as you got further into the city you could see many different specialty Automata shops. Unlike the magic tool shops in Urd that might have a selection of Automata, here in Trone there were entire shops devoted to just servant type Automata, or warrior types, or labor types. There was even a shop that specialized in Au
- Automata Prime
3.2: I should do some shopping
I climbed inside of Carnivac and tried moving around a bit. Everything had been properly repaired, though the shoulder joint felt a bit loose. If he had been an action figure, a couple of drops of floor polish would have done the trick, but I doubted it would help much on an action figure that was seven feet tall with a magisteel exoskeleton covering a mana fiber musculature.Shiro and I left my shop and headed over to the village Inn. Shea was staying there along with the two Adventurers from the guild, Shiro’s organic helpers from the nearby town of Thompson’s Fork, and Princess Relena. Being an Automata now, the princess didn’t really need a room since she didn’t need to eat or sleep, but it was still nice to have a space to call your own to have some down time.A small communal eati
- Automata Prime
3.1: Slowing down?
My shop was starting to feel more and more like a doctor’s office than a machine shop. Though when you’re a being made out of magic and metal, I suppose they’re one in the same for your species. Scara, from our construction team, had built me a lovely reclining chair. It wasn’t soft or cushy but it was solid and strong enough to handle the added weight of an Automata.It reminded me a lot of the chair at a dentist and was super useful for being able to examine my fellow Automata. Today, I was the patient though. After a mishap on my part, I’d done considerable damage to myself that included destroying half of my face and losing an eye.I sat in the chair and my proxy, Ratchet, set a pin in the chair to recline me back. Ratchet had been designed expressly for handling r
