Dear mods: Please lock.

[BucketORandomness]

o o f
are you alright?

Yeah. I'm feeling better today. It happens sometimes, it was just a little harder yesterday.

[Ranger of the North]

Stay weellll *hugs tightly*

[BucketORandomness]

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((Opportunity))
Red Rover

xxxxxCurio sat at the top of yet another rocky dune. There were so many, and he had wandered so far. He shifted so that his back more directly faced the sun and continued playing with the sand at his feet. Bored, he picked up a rock and stared at it while he rested. Carefully, Curio opened his mouth and vibrated softly. It was a tune he remembered, though not where from. As far as he knew, this scenery was all he’d seen and all he’d ever see, so wherever the tune came from, it must have been before he actively went online.
xxxxxThe little tune done, Curio checked his battery levels and stood up. A bit of red dust fell from his joints as he creaked his way down the dune. It was time to continue exploring. Not that it was ever not time for exploring. That’s the way it had always been. Wander a bit, rest when it’s dark, watch the dust play in tiny winds, and use the sun for guidance. There was that one large storm a while back, though.
xxxxxThe storm had started out fairly normal. The low air pressure made the dust leap at the slightest movement, so Curio hadn’t worried about it. Then, instead of falling, the dust simply sat there, suspended in the air. For over a month, Curio had wandered the dust and rested and wandered some more. It was weird, though not difficult. The nuclear battery helped keep him warm as he wandered, though he did feel very lonely.
xxxxxSometimes, there were small messages Curio received, like a map sometime during his wanderings, and an image of the storm before he saw it. He didn’t know who sent them, but it was another contact. He hadn’t heard from them in a while.
xxxxxThe sound of a falling rock caught Curio’s attention as he looked behind him. His footsteps sat in the dark sand until it disappeared into a rising cloud of sand. A mental image of that big storm sent him into the nearest protective outcrop of stone. It was surprisingly easy to mark due to the contrast with the sand, and he made it in plenty of time to hunker down and wait.
xxxxxWhen he came back online, Curio blinked at the knees curled in front of him and brushed off a layer of dark red sand. The air was still again, and the sun was out, so he continued his exploring. At some point, his optics registered a persistent flashing as he walked. Shiny things were rare around here, so he slowly motored over to investigate.
xxxxxWhat Curio found confused him. It appeared to be some kind of corner, maybe to a solar panel. Gently, he brushed off some of the sand covering it and found more. Intrigued, he began to gently dig out the solar panel, wondering what it had been for. As he uncovered the panels, though, it became apparent.
xxxxxBuried in the sand, Curio found first the solar panels then the body of another mech. She curled over as if praying, her panels spread wide above her as if looking for sun. Curio reached down and gently lifted the smaller thing, fearing almost to break her with his simple touch. She was lighter than he expected, and completely covered in dust, and she was cold. Sol, she was cold!
xxxxxHowever long they stayed like that, Curio looked only at her. This mysterious mech had scars. Her hands, still held in prayer, were chipped and dented, her feet almost made of rust instead of just covered in the red sand. Some of her circuits showed at the knee and elbow, and there were other dents and scratches elsewhere. She looked like mystery and stories, like personal contact Curio hadn’t experienced before.
xxxxxAt some point, Curio’s mysterious messenger send him an image of sand, though he didn’t move. Oh so carefully, he folded the solar panels and picked up the strange, cold mech. Her face was quiet and impassive as he slowly carried her into the shelter of the nearest outcrop, careful to shield her from more of the dust before deactivating to wait out the storm.
xxxxxCurio took it upon himself to carry the small mech wherever he went. She was light enough and small enough that it wasn’t too difficult, and Curio found himself reluctant to leave her behind each night. Together, they found more hills and more craters. They picked up more rocks and hid from more storms. It was an interesting and quiet journey, now that Curio had a friend.

((A/N: Hello, there! For those of you who don't listen to NASA or regularly try to find out what's going on in that area of space or science, the Mars rover Opportunity was recently declared "dead" after a planet-wide sandstorm hit her last year and blocked her solar panels. Unable to charge with the dust hanging in the air, her last transmission was "Battery's running low and it's getting dark" and the NASA team's last ditch attempt to reestablish contact said "Contact Home." This gave me some major muse and I have plans on things I can do in the future, so it's likely I'll post another one of these. Maybe two. Not sure how long this is going to take, but I'll keep you posted! Anyway, I've done some major research in the few hours before I wrote this, and it's actually really interesting what they've found out on Mars because of the little rover. Sandstorms can reach up to hurricane speeds, but it would only feel like a light breeze, and the effects would be more akin to smog because of how thin the atmosphere is. Yes, it looks like the planet used to be extremely watery, as there are traces of hematite and other liquid-related minerals practically everywhere! The sand's generally darker than bedrock, and it's red because of all the iron oxide everywhere. I've tried to make comparisons within the story as "accurate" as possible, though that's going to get significantly more difficult when 2020 makes his entrance. Curiosity runs on a nuclear battery, which is why he doesn't have solar panels. Opportunity had solar panels, and she was generally smaller than Curiosity. Dust does just seem to rise up without much provocation, and sometimes these small storms can last from hours to days, though the largest storm was actually about 48 days, the one referenced as being over a month in here. Yes, I calculated the conversion between Martian Sols and Earthling Days, even if there's not much difference there. Maybe about a day more Earthling side? Not much, considering the planets are so far apart. Anyway, hope you liked it, and look for the next bit soon!))

[TheSongOfTheStars]

I'm crying, this is so so sweet. I really really would just love to see more. The way you described them, the way Curio saw Oppertunity as having such distinct, humanlike features, my heart.

[BucketORandomness]

I'm crying, this is so so sweet. I really really would just love to see more. The way you described them, the way Curio saw Oppertunity as having such distinct, humanlike features, my heart.

Thank you so much for that. I'm really glad I managed to get it across <3

[Ranger of the North]

That was so sweet and pure it hurts ;-;

[BucketORandomness]

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((Opportunity))
Red Rover Red Rover

hello it's me again, stealing the joy from your lives. Again, this has been stolen to move to another site. The first part is there, as well, but I'd actually feel worse if I deleted that one, so now there's a copy out there of it. You don't really need this bit to enjoy Curio and Oppy, either. It's just a continuation thing I thought was cool.

((A/N: As promised, here's the next part in the short series inspired by the rovers and other machines on Mars. At the moment, we've got a number of machines and lots of names being dropped. Most of the prefixes have meanings to them, and I thought they could act like the surnames, positioned according to Japanese tradition with the family name before the given name. They're all abbreviations of important things in their missions. Opportunity and Spirit are part of the "Mars Exploration Rover" mission, so their surname is "MER." Curiosity was the "Mars Science Lab" so "MSL" for short. "IN Sight" is actually already an abbreviation for one mech who's mission is "Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport." Basically, it's a station on Mars set up to see what the crust, mantel, and core of Mars look like, like those maps of Earth's core and stuff. InSight is a "lander" and not a "rover" meaning it doesn't move around. If I remember correctly, the AV in "AV 20" stands for "Apollo V" the rocket launching it into space, though I can't find my source currently, and the mission itself doesn't have a name yet, unlike European mission. "ESA" stands for "European Space Agency" who is launching their own mission with NASA's Mars 2020 rover, although ESA's has a legit name--Rosalind Franklin--after that lady who helped discover DNA's double helix. Rosa's looking for DNA on Mars, so the name is apt and much cooler than a couple of others around. The others mentioned, the "ORs," are what I'm calling "Orbital Relays" since I didn't do a whole lot of research into them. All of them look at weather, but Maven's looking specifically at the upper atmosphere, Odyssey is looking at magnetic fields like the poles and stuff, and Reconnaissance--or Marci--is looking at the history of water on Mars. The jump in that name was because of Marci's tech, nicknamed "MARCI" because of another long acronym I don't want to search up right now. Again, I hope you enjoyed this one. It had a bit of a different tone to it because of the dialogue, but I feel like that also made the mechs more human, so I didn't restrict it. I'll be posting the third segment as soon as t's written, so be warned!))

[BucketORandomness]

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((Opportunity))
Red Rover, Red Rover, Send Somebody Over

I have recently learned that the 2020 rover has been given the name Perseverance, so the nickname on the new site will soon be changed to "Perse" which is interesting. If you're dying to see the gang, they'll be on Deviantart. Remember to cut out all the toxic you can >^.^<

((A/N: Fun Fact! The Curiosity Rover actually does have over 1.2 million names--along with some other cool stuff--etched onto little micro-films that he carries around with him! Also, apparently NASA decided Curiosity was a girl, so do with that what you will. Curiosity also does have a laser meant to get dust off of samples so they can be more easily analyzed, though I don't know if it could be used like this without damaging the solar panels. Other things I made up! Curio's transmitter malfunction. As far as I know, he contacts NASA base just fine, even after his primary computer had to switch out with his secondary computer to compensate for a malfunction that put processes on infinite loop. Curio's knee also doesn't have wires popping out of it on Mars. That's just a cover for why he didn't limp in the first iteration, but I think the wear and tear kinda helps push him from 20 early on. The title started as a placeholder, but as you can see it's stayed put. It was originally from a kids' game called "Red Rover" where you call a single player from one side to try and break through the other team's linked arms. The full chant is "Red Rover, Red Rover, send somebody over!" and it just kinda hit me that it's some accidental symbols there, more than just the Mars rovers being covered in red dust and whatnot. I also had to decide whether or not to make the ending happy or sad, which was surprisingly difficult, considering the timing and subject. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. It's been a great adventure, but I don't plan to continue this any further. Plans aren't concrete, though, so I may return to this little planet at some point in the future if that fickle thing called muse hits me. Thank you for joining me! >^.^<))

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Awwwwwwwwwwww
Happy end happy end happy end
I'm too attatched to these little guys

[Ranger of the North]

Aaaaah Oppy returns, yaaay! Curio's devotion to her is the cutest damn thing omgosh ;ʖ;