Arsenal of the Fool

31 flavours of robotic rampage...

Did this to challenge myself, I think I realise now I need a refresher on Scott Robertsons perspective drawing activities, and also more practice translating equipment into my own style, rather than always going for gun / sword hands.

It's cool though! Normally I'm so anxious, I always say "oh, it'd be nice to do that some day, then give up before finishing the sketch. This one is just okay, but having tried it now I have a measure that I can compare against next time. Also like the aspect of some of these looking a little wacky and maybe even if they have a specific purpose in mind.

It’s not super common, but sometimes a pilot falls in action while their HAK remains operable. In events like this, commanding officers will usually order a new pilot to be assigned to the chassis - and the Doors pity the poor fool who gets the charge.

We’re not entirely sure how, but HAKs frequently store a backlog of sorts of their previous pilot’s brain patterns. When a new operator is introduced to the unit… well, it’s absurd but I reckon the HAK doesn’t like it. That’s the best way I can describe it; these machines have a preference for their old pilot, and they need to make sure everything is as close to “normal” as possible.

It starts with the pilot reporting hearing voices. Usually they’re helpful, they give the pilot advice in battle situations and whatnot. I remember one kid, must’ve been no older than 24, who swore she’d heard someone whisper to her to dodge a missile she had no clue was coming.

Our scientists say that they’re“false memory hallucinations” but the pilots call em “family”. But these aren’t some helpful sprites; and that ain’t the end either.

Secondhand pilots start to lose track of things. Sometimes they report feelings of dissociation; legs too long, faces too thin. Some pilots start to feel something like gender dysphoria, others get paranoid or anxious where they previously were fine. They experience dysmorphia so extreme that many attempt to modify their bodies to satisfy the mech’s desires. They all start to forget their names - instead, they demand to be called by the same sign as the previous operator for their HAK.

At the same time, their piloting skills increase. They pull maneuvers they’ve never even tried before, and all secondhand pilots have at least a 250% mission success rate. Probably why the higher-ups still keep reassigning pilots like this; it’s just too lucrative to have an operator with twice as much experience.

We have three of these pilots in our division. They’re freaky - even more so than regular HAK operators. They have scars on their hands and legs from where they tried to adjust their lengths, and they move uncannily, like some alien creature infesting a human shell.

There’s a rumor that they’re experimenting with subsequent iterations of inheritance, seein how many souls they can cram into one body I guess. God only knows what that’ll be like.

the pale mech pilot (chronically depressed tgirl) slumps out of its cockpit after a prolonged battle (playing borderlands 2 for 6 hours) at the orders of its handler [NO METAPHOR HERE] shocked from having its neural interface ripped out (taking off noise canceling headphones) it is quickly rewarded with just a pulse of neurostims, (a drink of water and a handful of chicharrones) legs slack against the ground as it struggles to remember how to operate outside of its titanic metal shell it calls a body (memory foam mattress)

Obsessed with the very concept of mech pilots having handlers; and specifically the usage of the term. They aren't a navigator or support, they're a handler. Mech pilots may be unparalleled agents of war on the battlefield, but they're raw, uncontrolled. A pilot needs a handler to point it to what to shoot, because otherwise they just don't know what to do. Brains so melted by their training, overwhelmed by neural linking, that they need a voice they can latch onto and follow unconditionally. An unconditional obedience that carries over outside their mechs, where they're oh so weak and broken. Where the veil comes down and the true power dynamic reveals itself. A tool that follows orders without thinking, and the one who wields them.

the tension between two pilots in combat when all the weapons on their mechs are reloading or overheated at the same time so they just fly around eachother angrily for the briefest of moments before they tear into eachother again is yuri probably

Thinking more about Mech dysphoria today.

Stepping out of your cockpit and stumbling because you don't have the right number of legs.

Blinking your eyes out of sync because you don't have the right number anymore, don't have access to on board cameras the way you're supposed to.

Struggling to grab and pick things up because you have the wrong number of fingers.

Failing to recognize your face in the mirror without layers of armor plating over it.

Feeling like a brain pulled from its body and forced to function independently.

a mech is a type of creature. btw

Foxgirl mech pilot does the head tilt thing in her mech, then leaps and slams her head through a building to catch her target in the mech's jaws (She does this to 15 different buildings before finally hitting the right one.).

The Corporation is distinctly opposed to calling pilots "angels". They've released several statements recommending that officers silence any such language, saying it "threatens the integrity of the forces", and that HAKs and the pilots who control them are "tools, not deities". But I mean, when you see the way a suit's holoprojectors form a pulsing ring around a pilot's helmet, or when one slumps forwards out of its cockpit to reveal that thick mass of wires creeping from its back, it's impossible not to see the resemblance. And when, like most of the men stationed here, you've found yourself pinned down by heavy artillery fire from two directions with no chance of survival, but out of the heavens a Bishop-class rig emerges and razes the enemy with what can only be described as holy flame? I mean hell, that's enough to make anyone a believer (pardon my language).

I have a buddy who deals with the HAKs directly. He works in biomechanics, combat simtech or whatever. I asked him once what he thought about the whole "angel" thing. He got real quiet, and he looked directly at me and said, "you don't even know the half of it." And I stared right into his eyes and I could see that same heavenly flame burning in there and I knew that he had seen something he couldn't quite understand, but that he loved with all his heart.

your mech can deteriorate your brain a little. as a treat.

Feelin real beepy boopy tonight, so:

Mech pilot handler playing Armored Core VI and ranting about all the inaccuracies to her pilot. (who is on the floor between her legs, too twitchy and blissed out by continuous battlestim use to actually understand anything other than direct orders)

Sometimes she says the word "combat" and the pilot looks up at her and shivers like an eager puppy. She pats its head fondly and then roughly pushes it back towards her crotch as she continues to complain about the implausibility of mechs being so mobile flying in Earth's gravity.

mech handler: oh don’t worry, all that goop in the cockpit is just stabilization fluid

you, three hours later: why are my nipples sore?