PmWiki | Stuff / Nechronica

There's got to be a way to mix nechronica and engine heart together...

---

A flash of purple. Then another. Then another, and so on through the corridor. The spectrometer had registered no signs of chlorophyll for over nine thousand days. The thermopile had registered no heat traces for over nine thousand days. The battery had not been charged in over nine thousand days, either, and that would worry the simple mind inside the chassis, if it could worry. The voltage readings remained good, and the action potential within the genetic algorithm that would've caused a return to the charging station simply never triggered. With a quiet squeak from wheel friction, a corner was turned. More purple flashes followed, strobing through the corridor. Direhorse-4 kept moving.

Spreading his senses, perverting the sensors for a moment in turn, the lich clattered a bony grin of satisfaction at the silence he surveyed. Outside his iron tomb, the blinking lights jumped a little, then came back to their symmetrical patterns. There is no chaos here. There is no corruption. There is no stench. There is no life.

---

"Mishka, what's there?"

"Gauze. Share?"

"Thank you."

The third one just nodded softly.

The room's handmade furniture might've been a decade old, or a century - no mold or woodlice to do damage, just the seasons coming from the shell hole in the wall. The two and a half dolls systematically searched for anything useful, one limping a little. Untouched by the sun, the gauze was quickly cut into segments by a scalpel blade tied to a finger bone, and porcelain teeth, and put to use.

"Lila needs a spark." Another nod, just a little softer as perceived by the little one's sisters. Some moved by sheer rape of physics. Some, perhaps the older, needed power. To slowly rot away or to wake up in spurts with ever more fragmented memories seemed preferrable to serving the liches, until it didn't.

"Sleep. Spark soon."

Klempnerin held up a card for Lila to scan. She'd forgot. Mare Island, Battlebots Tournment, Atomic Edition!!! Lila buzzed her speaker, and nodded off.

The largest doll carefully picked up her diminished companion, and sat the little one on her shoulder as she started dozing. Not far now; the arena complex, with a solitary blinking light, was unperturbed. She could handle it. The smallest of twists in space, and a still heart started beating, sending a little bit of adrenaline through dried muscles. She'd power through. Done it before. The strain was fixable later.

---

The thermopile registered a heat trace, just above noise threshold, at the tunnel entrance. An action potential triggered, and Direhorse-4 sped up.

[UNDEAD_CLUBBED_TENT]

[UNROTTENSILENCE]

[ENVIRONMENT:WINDLE HOLE]

[SOCKET REGION:HAMSTERY]

[IMPALE_THROWER]

[PUS:LOCAL_BREAKFAST]

[USE_GOOD_SIDEBURNS_TEMPT]

[SYMBOL:VIOLETTUCE]

[OBJECTED_IF_SELF_CONIC]

[BODYPARTIAL_WHEELBARROT_GROWTH_HIDEOUS]

[CURIOUSBEASTPLATYPUS:ALL]

[ITEM:PLAGUE GARNISHMENT MAN]

And finally: [TITAN_MAKE_INTO_BP:BRAVEN] ((some kind of Voltron thing. "Black Raven, form left arm!"))