a second surface beneath the first. host to a lot of weird critters. the cave ceiling provides a shield against the roiling fog above, but enough ruin has fallen down for some of it to get curious about the going-ons down here.
Mechanical humanoids capable of a great many things, depending on what body parts they're wearing. Mechae are most commonly seen near the towns and outposts they carve out for themselves, though it isn't uncommon to see one out in the wilderness or within other civilizations.
Home-bound workers have easy access to charge stations, while those needing to do extended remote work must
install portable generators inside themselves, either powered by concentrated Juice or more mundane fuels.
While certain parts can be common between mechae, it's rare to see one mechae who looks identical to another.
Mechae are formed when the proper components are within a Juice-saturated environment, such as within a scrapyard, spontaneously forming a conscious core.
Most quickly die when the surrounding soul energy flows elsewhere, but rarely,
one of these cores will be formed pre-attached to functional limbs, allowing it to cobble together a body capable of functioning without being immersed in a Juice-rich environment.
Most mechae, however, are created when a full body with the parts needed to form a core are placed in the appropriate environment, waking up with everything they need to
function normally. This is usually done by other people who are in need of more bodies, and can't be bothered with finding someone to hire.
Most people avoid keeping spare parts near eachother for extended periods of time, as it is not impossible to come back home to a newly born mechae trying to break out of your house.
Due to cores being formed from soul, each one comes with its own blend of mannerisms, affected by the experiences of whoever was within the Juice that awakened them.
A group of bugs who've introduced a funny fungus into themselves. They're not dead- some people claim they're more alive than anyone else-
but their jerky movement and the occasional rotting bodypart gives those unused to them some pause.
They're generally friendly to strangers, though the reputations of outsiders spread quickly between their colonies.
Cordysects aren't too durable, but are capable of quickly recovering from injuries that would be fatal without their fungal attributes. Injuries still wear down on them over time, and routine mendings will eventually lead them to become more fungus than bug. Overgrown cordysects aren't terribly mobile, but are more adept at managing fungal connections.
This is what you get if you give a so so scared prey animal a big metal arm to punch things with.
Half of their body weight is rocks and baubles they store inside the many compartments in their body.
Wears a big cloak. Likes droid-bodies for their modularity, with them outfitting their body with an array of drawers and pockets.
They should be allowed to make and weld a jaw to their head to bite people with. Teeth locally sourced from local wildlife, of course.
Recent cordysect convert, intent on testing the limits of her body.
Follows SC-4V because they seem really good at being really really loud and drawing attention from the local wildlife, providing Zvezter an opportunity to see how his pickaxe works on something other than rocks.
Common activities include immediately attacking anything that might be hostile to her, relishing in the consequences of her actions, and running from the consequences of her actions. Generally a menace, but appreciated in cordysectic colonies for the large corpses she drags in. She can siphon the volatile fuel from her internal reserves for use in exploding things.
A little droplet a long way from home. Followed Ieda after being found slinking around a remote juice refinement facility. It doesn't know much about things like "pronouns" or "dangerous machinery", so she just follows whatever Ieda does. Capable of growing extra 'limbs' for use in grappling or grabbing things, though she needs to cool down after any particularly demanding stunts. The caustic acid they produce is used by Ieda for her various experiments.
If you don't see these two together either something bad has happened to them or something bad is about to happen to you
Ever-expanding edifice thats heavily disorganized. Conveyors stretched every which way, usually outputting malformed products that find better use being disassembled by scavengers. Everything AIEE does is intentional... as intentional as throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks can be.
Various creatures can be found roaming AIEE, but the primary threat are the MOOKs that root out thieves.
Robotic creature that works for AIEE. A MOOK is created either by AIEE or by. Dude im literally sick i dont have the brain power
lllisten here its a suited robot that works for a faceless* building that doesnt caare about anything but Making Things as far as MOOK cares,
running halfway across the world to research fungi counts as serving AIEE as long as it comes back with like a fungus.
you should avoid any MOOK you see- their self-assigned tasks can range from gathering pebbles to stealing resources to creating more MOOKs by "recycling" other robots.
imagine a MOOK getting into a fight with another MOOK because M1 is trying to keep M2 from breaking the person they're documenting in half
MOOK is the top contributor to Cave Wikipedia®. Many people find it disconcerting that their whole life history is publicly available.
weird buggy bobot. design originated before All Of This. One of the few robots made before the opening of the second surface, giving this one the unique property of not being animated by souls.