The diminutive robot T-wk continues to rage against the beast that stole his helper and power cell in “Blood & Oil,” page six. T-wk comes spoiling for a fight following the previous page. Too bad the mutant towers over him, but T-wk is pretty resourceful. It comes with his background, which we’ll dive into in the lore section of this week’s notes.
Following this week’s update, two more “Blood & Oil” pages are left. Despite the delays, I hope this story has been a lot of fun. It is certainly stylized compared to my others. I wouldn’t mind doing other, more brutal stories, so let me know what you want to see in the comments.
This has been the third week with a comic update, if you can believe it. After a rough patch, I seem to be managing my production schedule a bit better. It also helps that I do not need to do as much freelance work as of late. Let’s hope I can keep it up!
Last week was a Cosmic Dash update, so now is a great time to catch up if you haven’t caught that.
Other updates…
As for some other updates regarding me and my many spinning plates…
- There have been no lore or art gallery updates for Cosmic Dash for the past couple of weeks, but I aim to have a couple of things by tomorrow.
- Over at Supernatural Selection: Last week, we did a “Week In Weird” special about all the balloons getting shot down. This week we cover the jackalope and hoop snake in an episode I wrote.
- I am running a hashtag over on Mastodon for webcomic creators, so if you are on Mastodon and make webcomics, please give the account a follow. We do new discussions on Wednesdays.
- It is pose week regarding my daily doodle project. I have a couple of sketches to wrap up this week, so be sure to check the gallery by tomorrow. You can also follow me on Mastodon to see them.
- Over at RGBots… Green is dead. You’re welcome.
Just what sort of robot is T-wk anyway?
Cosmic Dash has had a lot of robots. Many of them have a certain utilitarian nature to their design, and many consumer-grade models are out there. Some robots, however, are unique in that they do not serve a readily apparent function, nor do they behave like task-oriented robots. One of these unique cases is T-wk, the subject of this story.
T-wk is a robot that is about 50 or 60 years old. He is a RoKon T-series Trailmaker, or at least was when he was first created. The RoKon T-series was a line that began as a repurposed model of sapper bots from the later stages of the Dividing War. Their small, slender frames and nimble digits allowed them to manipulate explosive payloads on the battlefield. After the war, most remaining sappers were revamped into Trailmakers for mining operations. T-wk is not in this first generation but was designed for dangerous mining work.
The “T” in his designation represents his model series. The “wk” is an alphabetical designation that indicates his position in the production wave: “w” is 23, with “k” being the 11th produced model. Most Trailmakers were built in such groupings because they tended to be… disposable based on mining work.
As for why T-wk is the way he is and appears more intelligent and free-willed compared to, say… Helperbots? That is a story for another time. It lines up with the origins of the Artifici.
Silver Spiral Stories: Blood & Oil – Pg 6 Transcript
The following is a transcript of page six of “Blood & Oil.”
Panel One
The beast pins T-wk to the ground with a heavy slam. His entire hand wraps around T-wk’s torso, shoving the robot into the muck.
SFX: SKRAA – WHAM
Panel Two
T-wk is still pinned to the ground, and the massive, beaked face of the mutant crattler leans in, drooling. T-wk uses his foot to push the beak back and clicks a button on his staff.
SFX: CLICK!
Panel Three
T-wk shoves the rotating blade of his staff into the arm of the beast that has him pinned down. A shower of pink blood sprays as he carves through the monster’s flesh.
SFX: BZZZ -: SQUICK – SHUCKK
Panel Four
T-wk is using both his arms to support the saw-tipped spear. Drops of pink mutant blood rain down on the robot.
Panel Five
The mutant crattler has pulled its bleeding arm away from T-wk, screeching in pain. Blood pours from the wound.
SFX: REEEE – SPLORT
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