Sprocket Tag - Blog Posts

Embroidery sketching! Working on another patch project right now, and since this one is a little more complicated than the black hole I finished a while ago, I thought I'd share my process for mapping out what I want to embroider. (The people that draw straight on the fabric are too brave to be me.)

To do this, I start by drawing out the design with paper and pencil, and then I pin it to the fabric I want to transfer it to and stab a bunch of holes. (I used the sharp end of a drawing compass, but you can use a pen or pencil or whatever your heart desires.) Then, I used a white gel pen to create dots where all the holes were.

This results in a MESS of little spots against the background, so hang onto your original template so you remember what you're doing. But from there it's just an extra-confusing game of connect the dots! I started with the biggest shapes first, and slowly our boy Sprocket started to emerge. Excited to actually embroider this one :)

First Drop

On Deslotair, the storm cycle breaks every three years, clearing the skies for off-world ships to make a rare visit to the planet. But for every ship that can make the landing, another falls to the unfamiliar conditions and dust-laden atmosphere. Scavengers watch the ships as they crash, ready to strip them to the hulls for all their worth.

Taglist: @glacierruler

Fun fact originally Sprocket was going to have a head and torso with 360 range of motion but I scrapped that idea because it was a pain to draw and didn't really make sense with all his external wiring. On the plus side it means sometimes he needs help with maintenance now.

Taglist: @glacierruler

Thoughts on robots and people and how maybe the little rituals we do to show we care don't have to actually mean anything, brought to you by Sprocket and Alonze.

Worldbuilding notes: Under normal conditions, you wouldn't be able to see the stars from the surface of Deslotair. However, this takes place during drop season, when the skies are cleared of storms. Since Deslotair is a planet that's somewhat behind developmentally and lacks a lot of big cities, it's fairly free of light pollution. Scavengers traveling the deserts have an especially nice view. The planet is also in a fairly... cluttered(?) solar system, so there's a lot of comets passing by and bits of space debris burning up in the atmosphere. Most of this is natural rock and mineral, although some is space trash from neighboring planets. But hey, that's a bonus if you're scavenging, right??

Taglist: @glacierruler

WIP of a Deslotair comic I'm working on!

Saloon

Glass and Sprocket's first meeting, way back when. Added a couple of ports for Sprocket's tubing to flow through, which makes a hell of a lot more sense than them just kind of sticking out at his joints or junctures in the plating. Better for consistency's sake too.

Tags: @glacierruler

Incredibly dumb doodles on what would happen if Sprocket and Alonze met @glacierruler's oc, Fig

Whereas Sprocket and Alonze live in a world where bots are fully realized beings that have to fight to be recognized in society,,, Fig's world is still cruising with boston dynamics style military drones. Shenanigans ensue.

Hold my hand

Ooo baby it's a long way down

To the bottom of the river

Some scattered thoughts about Desmona's mask, why she wears it, and how she got it.

Taglist: @glacierruler

Scavengers art! I imagine this one would be pretty early after Desmona joins them, before she has the armor and all that. None of them really know what they're doing yet, they're just trying to coexist as best as they can. Glass and her do a lot of the cooking around here, but Sprocket likes to help pick the ingredients. She needs her nutrition, goddamnit!

Tags and text transcript below the cut

Sprocket: It's bone broth, from an aurack. It has calcium in it.

Desmona: Oh cool. That's nice.

Sprocket: Did you know calcium is good for your bones?

Desmona: Uh, yeah.

Sprocket: That's good.

Taglist: @glacierruler

Glass and Sprocket doodles! Been thinking about these two as a duo a lot lately. So much time spent together, wandering the desert, scavenging the sands...

Some context for the first little sketch (harmonized humming): the glass bots communicate exclusively via different pitched hums. The range of these goes outside of what humans can perceive, so for the most part, Glass communicates with Sprocket and others through sign language. But Glass has also been teaching him what ey can of eir own language. (which ey VERY much enjoys, and in return Sprocket has been teaching em a kind of morse code language he knows. which again ey very much enjoys.)

And the way Sprocket's sensors work means he doesn't pick up a lot of external stimuli, but he is more sensitive to vibration and larger impacts that can make their way through. So this has become a way of showing affection for them!! Glass can express eirself in a way that feels natural, and Sprocket can pick up on and try to reciprocate these sensations that are one of the few things he can actually feel.

The bottom right sketch is titled "One robot teaches another how to be human" The piece of text next to the more complicated part gives a description of what it is and how commonly it's found, while the bottom part with the toaster simply reads "I have no idea."

Taglist: @glacierruler

"I wouldn't say I hope for the crashes. They simply happen, whether we're there to harvest the parts or leave them to rust in the sands. Might as well make something good out of it."

An old mining bot gone rogue, Sprocket (he/him) is now the defacto leader of our little group of scavengers.

Some info:

Was originally scavenging on his own, but started the group when he picked up Glass (another member)

Bounced around in different jobs as he found a spot to settle down on Deslocar after his mining days, the most important of these being his bandit and mechanic days

He still isn't quite settled down now, but there's certain towns and cities he floats between a lot

Very much an engineer, knows his way around all sorts of machines and is great at fixing stuff, including himself

Has made a lot of adjustments and modifications over the years

accidental dad friend

Freaks out HARD when anyone gets hurt, and has a habit of offering the humans water when they complain about literally anything because like??? that's what people need right?????

Not super a fan of violence, but he does what's necessary. Tries his best to keep the crew out of shit, when he can, especially after it's not just him and Glass

The tubes running outside of his body help maintain his temperature- robots run on a liquid power source and it gets hot

Works like rabbit ears yknow?

His eyes emit a light glow, it's hard to see in the daytime but very noticeable at night, some say to an unnerving degree

He has slats above and below his eyes that he can use to emote

Talks through the speaker on his face, but also knows sign language and can flash his eyes to speak in a kind of morse code

He taught it to Glass a while back, and they use it to communicate sometimes, either when its convenient to be able to talk without talking or signing, when they dont want anyone else to understand them, or when Sprocket just feels like it