Doodles for some dumbass AU I was talking at revorocketnails about. I saw some mechs and my mind did the thing. The concept I had was of what’re called ghost machines (or any suitably punny name) - with a pilot, and the co-pilot is sacrificial. They are integrated and their trace used to bind into the AI, which prevents Process interference and allows the pilot to use the core properly. So needless to say you want to know your ghost.
There were a few, which kept getting totalled. Grant had himself bound into one of the newer models, much to Asher’s… well, we’ll leave it at ‘dismay’. He spends most of his time in the cockpit, gradually losing contact with reality as he stays linked up.
Because of what they’ve been getting up to, Sybil gets Process sick and, in a ditch attempt to save her, our intrepid Transistor-discoverer has her bound in and becomes her pilot, despite Asher’s warnings otherwise. Turns out Asher was right, as the Process sickness overruns the entire machine - and her pilot. Royce regrets that he can’t leave the cockpit any more since they have ‘become one’, shortly before driving his tail through Asher’s chest.
Fifth (05) here is a synthetic created in an attempt to avoid the need for killing people and jamming their trace into a machine-shaped soul jar. He’s aware that he is not human, but is kept carefully unaware of his nature as a Process at Royce’s behest. Seeing his minder bring back Cluckers and do uncomfortable things to them to see how it works fills him with an uneasiness that he has trouble explaining, and he has peculiar dreams told in snapshots and dogs-eye views.
Recursion 3.0 You Can (Not) Die Quietly
