[Marathon] 10K years in the future

[juzo_kun]

Another one about post-infinity Marathon, when Durandal corralls the multiverse on board of the Manus Celer Dei: with him the Security Officer - kinda changed by jjiaro technology - and a group of S'pht that joined them on the quest.

With this, I'mtrying a new kind of thing: since I can't write fanfiction in English (unless I want t make everyone laugh) nor in Italian (kind of a lack of ideas for plot and story); what I have I have is a bunch of worldbuilding notes and another bunch of sketches in various states of unfinishedness... I was thinking to a interesting format than the usual text infodump. Which is, a slightly more decorated text infodump :D (that will be active only on my journal, anyway)

Durandal still showns himself as a holomatter-emitting probe ancillary, his main core and sensory array styll firmly on the Manus Celer Dei. He is the Manus, in fact. 

But many points of his neverending quest his Toth part requires him to do (and the fact that not doing that might leave the multiverse in a bad state...) means he has to access to standard-humanoid size places. 

Hence, Alex. He's still Durandal's bodyguard and still does the heavy lifting, so to speak.

While Durandal basically just modified a bit the clothing style of his ancillaries, Alex went through a lot of changes. Jjiaro were really adept in making stuff able to slap the laws of physics in the face, then Durandal learned a lot from them; that armour (and Alex on the whole, in fact) is one of the many results.


Less an armour and more a part of his body by now. Alex is now quite far from a baseline human... not that after discovering he's a battleroid he ever felt particularly human to begin with.

(has an helmet, too, works sort of Iron Man style)

Wave motion cannon (not exactly, but it's in the RBFG class anyway)

Fly mode: not real wings, more like antigrav field emitters, so he can maneuver accordingly (the same S'pht have, just adapted for a much larger mass and inertial dampening)

(I admit it: he's basically the beefcake version of Sanakan from Blame! manga.)

- "don't make yourself too conspicuous" mode (you tried, Alex)
- minimized mode (I still have doubt on the dorsal antennas)
- the goggles are more a Yamato in-joke than else

will redraw, anatomies are wonky

There's also our beloved F'tha, now a S'pht Elder and main node of a new S'pht clan he created, the S'pht'yr, encompassing all S'pht onboard the Manus. 

Alex's implants always did and still get rid of scars, these are more a nonconscious symbol than something physical. 
His apparent aging in the face, same. 

But woe betide any entity that hurts him: Durandal will come unto them with the anger of a demigod and the firepower of a Jjiaro dreadnought. 
The same in reverse: while not at starship level, Alex will defend Durandal with any mean available to him, cybernetic junction included... 

JK!D is referring at the fact that he still use ancillaries, since he doesn't technically need them anymore. [They are totally in denial about the real meaning behind this behaviour. Especially Durandal. Even after 10K years.]

ok, ok, to be pedant, it's true that's not the same thing: Durandal keeps the use, proprioception, and sensory range of both the starship and the ancillary at the same time -- but still, I like this as a running joke :D

Bonus: a sketch of general_radix version of Vince and Durandal in the Manus Celer Dei era...

(the tech brush I used are various ones by Z-Design brushsets)

Comments

[general_radix]

I like this format. :D Scattered thoughts:

* Hm, so those dorsal antennae are part of Alex's mostly-organic body and not his armour (and JK!Durandal and F'tha seem to have them, too--significant?).

* Hehe, chibi flying Alex. XD

* Elder F'tha looks cool! :) I like the idea of them creating a new S'pht clan after so long, as well.

* Vince 'n Durandal are looking fine as ever. :D

[juzo_kun]

-- It's more a random thing, I started to draw these in the first iterations of my version of Yrro without thinking at anything in particular -- maybe these might become a thing to mean "if it's a weird antenna protuding from the neck base or something, it's from Jjiaro origin" At this point there's very few of organic in Alex' body, anyway... let's just say that the proportions cited in that particular hidden terminal are inverted now. (Durandal's antennas are just posing, since it's holomatter.)

-- When he's between S'pht and walking or running is impractical he flies like this (for floating he doesn't need to extend the wings too much)

-- After 10000 years good old F'tha might be someone important... I have another blurb to post where I tried to get down that "cyberspace is more than human thought" we discussed here and there! Spoiler: The S'pht caught the bulk of the mess upfront and the ones aboard the Manus might be very well the last of their entire race.

-- Thank you :)

[general_radix]

* I see! (For some reason, I have the mental image of Alex giving Durandal's antennae a yank whenever the latter starts getting a bit long-winded. XD)

* Aw man. D: I hope the S'pht remember/have the means to make more of themselves...

* No problem! ^^

[juzo_kun]

...being an ancillary holomatter solid at touch, that's a thing that could happen!

I'm writing right now other blathers/ideas. Spoiler: other survivors might be around but who knows?

[hokuton_punch]

I love this format! :D It's cool AND fun.

I love future Older!F'tha's design! Very dignified. ♥ And Alex looks badass as HELL. That armor is incredible! (I like the antennae a lot.) Awwwwwwwww at Durandal keeping the holographic ancillary... :D

[juzo_kun]

Thank you! It was fun to code too :D

Hehehe, after all certain habits are hard to lose! Also, I know made Alex ridicously overpowered, but we're speaking about the avatar of Destiny after all... so I'm excused, haha!