The Steampunk Meme

[fleshydisguise]

THE STEAMPUNK MEME


"Imagine it... The Victorian Age accelerated. Starships and missiles, fueled by coal and driven by steam. Leaving history devastated in its wake." - Doctor Who

What To Do:
1. Post with your character's name and canon in the subject line. You can leave it blank but it would be exceedingly helpful if you were to kindly post a role for your character to give other taggers a jumping off point.
2. Tag other characters, using the RNG to pick a prompt if you so choose.
3. Have fun and play nice!


The Prompts:
01. Masquerade Ball - Dress in your best and don a mask for a night of mystery and enchantment. Will you manipulate suitors with the movements of a fan, try to work out who you do and don't know, or immerse yourself fully in the experience and do something you normally never would?

02. Airship Pirates - "With a crew of drunken pilots/We're the only airship pirates". You've taken to the skies in an airship, and now a pirate is what you are... Or what you're up against! Ruthless cut-throats or simply men fallen on hard times, these pirates are not marked with a good reputation. A fight just may be on the horizon.

03. Exploration - The Steampunk genre is not only marked by technology and a unique aesthetic, but by the spirit of adventure! Now's the time to look for new lands, or explore the wild, exotic places you've always longed to see! Just be careful to avoid that colonialism nonsense. The natives aren't usually on board with it.

04. Cattlepunk - Steampunk in the Old West! What will you get when you combine steam-powered technology with the life of cowboys, saloons, and a thirst for gold? It's harder to beat the sheriff when he's got a metal heart and his revolver mounted right on his arm.

05. New Discovery - Besides finding new lands, there's finding new technology; new invention! Be it a new way to create steam power, a unique kind of animatronic, or something entirely unheard of, you could have just gotten your name down in history books! Is it the money you're in it for? Or just a love of science?

06. Factory Work - We can't all flutter our fans in the drawing room. Someone has to work to make all this steam power that everyone is going crazy over and, lucky you, you get to be a factory worker. Are you down in the hustle and bustle of the factory floor, laboring for a few shillings to keep your family out of the workhouse, or a factory owner looking down on your empire?

07. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea - The advances in technology aren't just used above ground; you have a job to do beneath the waves, perhaps as a spy on enemy territory or a merchant trying to get to your destination faster. Or maybe you're just an explorer. Just watch out for the sea monsters.

08. Flesh Made Metal - Amputation? No problem. Clockwork limbs, eyes, and even hearts are available for those who can afford the necessary enhancements. Supposedly they've even created clockwork brains...animatronic creatures so lifelike you can barely tell they aren't human. What measure is a man?

09. Post-Apocalypse Steam - Something terrible happened to the world. Maybe it was a natural disaster, or maybe humanity has committed a grave crime against the planet. Either way, the result is a world forced into ages past - although with modern knowledge, perhaps it won't be quite the same as in the history books.

10. Revolution - Whether you're a citizen of a colonized nation, a plotter in the back streets of a city or simply a factory hand who is sick of poor treatment, it's time to rise up against your oppressor and fight for freedom! Let's just hope there are people willing to help you.

11. Wild Card - Roll again, pick a scenario that strikes your fancy, or come up with something not represented here!

[Meme taken and modified, with respect, from brunettely]

Comments

[hamelinic]

A few last stitches, and time to fit on the hair. This is going so much better than he could have hoped.

"Cynric." The wig is snapped into place before he straightens up properly. "I'm Cynric."

Watch carefully, Jarvis. He's holding out his hand. Copy this.

[jarvisconsole]

He's looking quite human now. His expression is slightly blank, but he will probably learn to imitate that properly in time.

"Cynric," he repeats. Filing that away as Very Important to remember.

Jarvis looks at the hand. There is nothing in it. Yet he is still holding it out. Perhaps he needs something. He reaches to pick up the needle and thread, putting it in Cynric's palm to give it to him.

That is into Cynric's palm, point first.

[hamelinic]

--oh, fucking A.

Lesson learned that instructions on human behaviour and mannerisms would need to be completely specific. But lesson only learned with a sharp yelp and a jerking back of his hand.

"--no. Don't-- poke people with sharp things, Jarvis!"

[jarvisconsole]

He was not expecting that kind of reaction. Voice raised, jumping away...red fluid on his palm where the needle caught him.

"That was not right?" Uh oh, had he broken Cynric? Like the gear had been broken inside of him. But Jarvis didn't have training in fixing humans. He should do something to help.

Jarvis takes a piece of the synthetic skin left over and applies it rather swiftly to the broken spot on the other man's palm. But then he stops, holding it in place. Not sure what to do. After all, he had been stitched up for his skin to stay on. But Cynric had just specifically told him not to stick sharp things into people. He's not sure what to do next. "Can it be fixed?"

...my heart. The wibbles. <3

[hamelinic]

It was a needle prick. No one died of a needle prick. It just made a man swear under his breath and ponder where the medikit had been stored away.

Except... then there's something like a bandage pressed to his hand. A voice that can't express concern with tone working at it with words. Like a child. He needs to be calm, even, easy.

"...yes." His uninjured hand reaches to pat the mechanical man's in an instinct of reassurance before he tugs himself back, ducks to rifle for some bandaging. "It'll fix itself, actually. That's what's different about us, mm? A human body fixes itself, if you let it. A mechanical body needs help."

:3 I luff this whole thread to pieces

[jarvisconsole]

He lets go of the hand, putting the piece of synthetic skin back where he had retrieved it from. Watching as Cynric was looking for a real bandage.

"Humans can fix themselves." And fix mechanical men, apparently. Humans must be good at fixing things.

Jarvis doesn't even ponder why he wanted to help, only that it seemed the right thing to do. He watches the hand being bandaged properly. "I will not do that again."

How is it so adorable. HOW.

[hamelinic]

Humans have to be. They're so often breaking things, and themselves so easily broken.

Bandaging is a quick, efficient thing. Men of Science need to be able to patch themselves up and get back to work, after all. They weren't the type to garner a huge number of friends to run to when things exploded on them.

"Cheers. Please don't." The idea of teaching a handshake is lost as he flexes his own fingers to be certain he's not wrapped his hand too tightly. His attention flits on again to finding the shirt he'd sacrificed for this purpose to start helping Jarvis into. "Arms."

[jarvisconsole]

Arms, yes those were the long dangly things at his sides. But this time, he ascertains the meaning and holds them out obediently. Paying close attention as he's dressed. After all, he might be asked to do it himself later on and he had better know how to do it.

The wig, unfortunately, has come unclicked from it's fastenings and is slowly sliding backwards off the scalp. Jarvis quickly puts up a hand to catch it somewhere around the back of his neck but misses.

"The top of my head has fallen off." Now there's a sentence you didn't hear often.

[hamelinic]

"Hair, Jarvis." There was nothing overly normal about this conversation. No need to start pulling faces now. "Call it 'hair.' And-- hold still."

He needs a moment to twist a new latch out of wire so it can be more securely fastened into place.

[jarvisconsole]

He holds still, letting Cynric put his blonde hair back into its position. But he has made one correlation. "My hair looks like yours." That's not all, but he has yet to see his own visage.

The buttons on the shirt are quite interesting too. Jarvis observes them while his hair-do is fixed. They were like little machines themselves, doing the work of holding his shirt in place.

[hamelinic]

Buttons are, in fact, fascinating. Good to know he's built an almost-human curiosity into this one.

"It does," he agrees, giving the wig another sharp tug to be certain it's not falling out of place again. "You're meant to look like my brother."

Which is true. The mechanical man did look just like Simeon. Simeon just also happened to be Cynric's twin.

[jarvisconsole]

His database had a definition of brother. Someone related, someone born by the same parents.

"Why?" Cynric is libel to hear that question often. Jarvis could not ascertain why, if his brother existed, why there should be someone who looks exactly like him.

[hamelinic]

Not an unexpected question. 'Why' is the children question, after all; and Jarvis is like the child-version of his twin.

"Because he's not here to help me anymore. But you are, now."

Jacket on now.

[jarvisconsole]

The jacket is thicker. Jarvis is not certain as to it's purpose just yet. One thing at a time.

"I am here to help you." This was progress.

He makes a motion to move towards Cynric when he turns aside, thinking he should follow...and abruptly falls to the floor. *CRASH!*

[hamelinic]

"Yes, Jarvis."

What a clever little--

--whoops.

Well. Clicking his tongue sharply, he drops the shoes he'd been reaching for in favour of bending to help the mechanical man upright again, fingers checking compulsively over joints.

"All right, then?"

[jarvisconsole]

Jarvis seems almost stunned in that he doesn't answer right away. But really, He's trying to figure out what he did wrong. Sitting was fairly easy. Standing apparently took effort.

He wobbles a bit, one elbow hanging at a wrong angle, but finally straightens as he figures out these things called legs.

[hamelinic]

"There he goes." His hands stay on the mechanical man, worry creasing his brow, not yet willing to fix that arm, waiting to be certain he won't take another tumble.

[jarvisconsole]

He straightens, taking into account gravity and his personal weight. One tumble was enough, he didn't want another. But there was something to learn here. Walking.

Jarvis takes a hesitant step forward, his motion jerky and unpracticed.

[hamelinic]

"Easy does, Jarvis."

One hand stays firmly on the mechanical man's arm, his own feet moving in a slow, deliberate step of demonstration.

[jarvisconsole]

"It is not easy," he almost corrects the other. He was already breaking down walking to a series of movements within the foot, leg, and body instead of just one movement as he first thought. But the demonstration helps, Jarvis integrating it with his walking as he takes another step....then another, a bit more balanced this time.

Soon he has walked the length of the room by himself and has no more need for a balancing guide. His steps smoother and more human.

[hamelinic]

Letting go is hard, but the reward? Watching the newly-upright mechanical man begin to move of his own power?

His smile is completely ecstatic.

"Easier now, maybe?"

[jarvisconsole]

"Yes." Easier now that he had the basics down. He still stands very straight in that one spot, calculating new things like balance and gravitational pull.

There is still the question of the damaged arm, Jarvis now realizing he's broken himself again as he looks down at it. "Two wires have stopped functioning." Cynric had said to tell him if anything didn't work.

[hamelinic]

It's good. It's establishing a trust--if the machine feels trust. He's not thinking overly hard about what Jarvis can actually process.

"Jacket off, then, luv." His goggles are snapped back on, fingers scattering to grab more wiring, pliers. "And sleeve up. Show us where it hurts."

[jarvisconsole]

Jarvis watches Cynric scurry about for tools. It must be his job to remove the jacket. Lucky he paid attention while he was being dressed. He repeats the motions in reverse and manages to get it off.

There's a tear in the skin, the offending wire poking through. Jarvis curiously touches it, the arm flailing up like he triggered a reflex. "Will I need fixed often?"

[hamelinic]

This is good. This is progressive learning and application of logic. Wonderful.

"Less often when you're more steady on your feet." The skin is peeled back gently, pliers set to beginning to bend it back into place. "And when we've worked out all the kinks."