-First off, there’s nothing super high-tech about them at all; in fact they’re pretty LOW-tech compared to a lot of the other Cyber World inhabitants. All three work more on electricity-based magic than anything else, the same stuff other Darkners get from their fountain but slightly more refined (and pretty common in Cyber World, versus other Dark Worlds). -Most of their inner mechanical workings are actually dedicated to their musical functions, carried directly over from their Light World forms, rather than keeping them alive and making them move, which all happens via their magic! That said, though, if the circuits and wires that carry that magic through them get damaged, they WILL malfunction and shut down, but they can always be repaired. -They’re also mostly plastic rather than metal, especially on the outside. But, if you stick a magnet to the CD players’ heads, it will stick, and glitch them out! (Please, DON’T stick magnets to their heads) -Their limbs and K_K’s/Cap'n’s waists are little more than a bunch of wires in a black casing. The wires themselves are actually prehensile, able to move on their own, no joints or any other mechanical devices required! (They’re almost LITERAL noodle limbs!) But, that also means that if the casing tears and the wires spill out, it can get difficult to move them, since they’re all trying to go different ways… -This is also why they all wear rubber gloves, and almost never go barefoot: Their hands and feet are just the exposed ends of a few of those wires sticking out, and can not only shock people but also look a little disconcerting (think something like what’s going on with Xurkitree…) They’re also extremely sensitive as well! -None of them can snap their fingers, though that doesn’t stop them from trying. -Their voices come out of their speakers, both of them in Sweet’s case. Rarely, their heads and bodies can de-sync a little, making Sweet’s voices or the CD players’ mouth movements not match up. -All three have audio input ports (multiple different types, in Sweet’s case!), but only the CD players have output. When something is plugged into their headphone jacks, it mutes Cap'n and K_K completely, with their voices only coming out through whatever they’re plugged into. With Sweet, when you plug something in to play through him, it only plays through his body speaker; he can still speak through his head speaker. -All three have spots for their electrical cords exactly where you’d expect their tails to plug in. -The CD players can both fold down their handles, though sometimes they’ll lower or raise on their own depending on their emotions (like cat ears!) Cap'n’s just lays flat against the top of his head, but since K_K’s head is thinner his goes all the way down behind it. -They also have both CD and cassette drives. However, while CDs work a little differently between the two of them (will get into that later), both cassette slots are, strangely, in the back of their throats – meaning they literally have to swallow tapes in order to play them! Needless to say, this supremely weirds Sweet out, and K_K a little as well, which is why they stick to CDs. -The CD players can absolutely detach their heads and be carried around by their handles. They’ve got backup speakers (oddly enough, Cap'n’s are underneath his headphones, while K_K’s are internal), so they can still speak and play music, but they basically become regular CD players, just like in the Light World, albeit ones that can critique your music choices. Sweet technically can detach his head as well, but almost all of his inputs are on his body, and he’s tougher to carry around without a handle, making it kind of pointless unless he really needs to be compact for some reason. -Cap'n’s and K_K’s eyes are actually small LCD screens, with their pupils being made of pixels! They both DO have eyelids, but they’re entirely optional since they don’t need to blink and can fully emote via their pupils – Cap'n chooses to use his, K_K does not. Sweet’s eye is a bunch of LEDs in the middle of their speaker, that light up to form their pupil – slightly different, but produces pretty much the same effect unless you look closely. -Because they’re magic/mechanical hybrids, just eating food / drinking milk heals them, up to a point! Sadly, because they’re magic/mechanical hybrids, their healing isn’t as efficient as other Darkners, and they WILL need to physically fix damage eventually. Even Silk Almond Milk™ can’t help them if something breaks really bad… -They also get computer viruses, always a problem in Cyber World (and now Castle Town!) They basically act just like any sick Lightner, and if one of them gets infected it spreads to the other two almost instantly, wiping them all out for a couple days.
Sweet:
-Speaker mouth? Speaker mouth. Dude eats/drinks exactly like Bill Cipher, right through his eye. It took a while for Cap'n and K_K to get used to it. -His boxy body is mostly hollow – while CD players don’t require much in the way of mechanics in order to function, speakers like Sweet require even less, just his big ol’ speakers and a few bundles of wires! And most of what he DOES have is in his head and around his shoulders, making him really top-heavy and affecting his balance. He can sometimes hide tools or his cord in there, though the rattling gets on his nerves when he’s trying to concentrate. -He’s by FAR the easiest to open up and work on, and can even do most of his maintenance completely on his own. -However, since he’s mostly hollow, without much internal support, Sweet gets dented REALLY easily. Tripping or getting knocked around in a normal fight aren’t too dangerous, but if he falls from a significant height or gets a particularly bad blow, he’ll need an entire replacement case! And if something gets loose and starts knocking around in there, it can REALLY rip him apart inside. If he gets damaged to that point, expect K_K to carry him around gently like a baby until they can get him back to the shop. -His voice glitches sometimes, particularly when he raises his volume – P and B sounds can be a little difficult for him, since they’ll pop just like on a real speaker! And his S sounds can get extra high-pitched as well. All three of these he can sometimes “stutter” on, retrying them in a way that isn’t glitched. -Also, microphones. NEVER plug one into him, he will produce the worst mic feedback you will ever hear. It’s kind of useless anyway, since he’s his own amp. -He does have a very good handle on his acoustics otherwise, able to even throw his voice, “whisper,” or play brass instruments by concentrating his vibrations onto a specific point. Most of the time he just yells everything as loud as possible, though.
Cap'n:
-Shaped a lot like K_K under the hoodie, with a speaker chest and literally just a thin column of wires underneath for his waist (which I think is actually semi-canon now as of that Short!K_K comic?) -All of his function buttons (Play, Pause, etc) are along the top of his chest, VERY well-hidden by his scarf. No one is allowed to touch them, ever. -Despite being technically a newer and more advanced model than K_K, he’s actually rather poorly-constructed, with a bunch of random mechanical problems and manufacturing defects – basically the sickly kid of the trio. His vision issues are the most obvious one, but his disc drive sometimes skips or refuses to play, he’s unable to extend his torso/limbs like K_K can, his radio antenna is bent (still functions fine, but he insists on keeping it hidden under his cap for a reason!), and he’s got numerous sensory problems that can overload him and cause glitches. His wiring is also fragile and prone to shorting, which has a side effect of making his magical attacks MUCH weaker than the others’! It definitely doesn’t help that he tends to hide damage and neglect his own maintenance, making all of these problems even worse… -Those four vents on his forehead absolutely function as his eyebrows, and you cannot convince me otherwise. -Whenever his CD drive skips (and K_K’s too, but it’s much more common (and embarrassing) with Cap'n), it’s basically the equivalent of getting the hiccups, and it can take him a little while to work through them. -When he switches CD tracks or uses his radio tuner his eyes temporarily switch to displaying the numbers instead, though it isn’t visible behind his shades. -Almost all Darkners, and especially music robots, have four fingers – Cap'n having five on each hand is actually kind of the equivalent of a human having six! He used to be ashamed, always keeping his hands in his pockets and treating it like yet another manufacturing defect, but all it took was one girl telling him it made him look cool (not cool enough to date him, but still) and now he likes to flaunt it, making his little hand gestures as much as possible to show off his extra fingers!
K_K:
-His disc drive isn’t a pop-open tray like Cap'n’s, but rather a slot type, right in the middle of the top of his head in front of his handle. And the button on his forehead is indeed his Eject button, which given its unfortunate placement accidentally gets pressed often, and K_K goes through a LOT of CDs by just having them pop right out… -(Having their CD drive literally right where their brain should be also explains a couple things about K_K’s personality, especially them getting lost in the music and not really processing much else once they hit Play…) -The button on their chest speakers is the one they hold down to unlock their limbs and torso, letting them extend, and K_K uses it all the time! But, unfortunately, they can’t shorten themselves instead, since there’s just no room for the wires inside their case, and on occasion the button or their limbs can get stuck, requiring some repairs to get them back down to normal length. -Seriously, EVERYTHING is crammed into their head and chest. Their circuits are packed closely together, making it tough to open and work on them (and Cap'n as well!) With so little extra room, they also can’t eat as much as Sweet can, meaning they have to snack a lot! -They have full control over their voice, and can change its pitch/tone completely in an instant, to the point of being an expert at mimicking others and even recreating sound effects to drop into conversations! And when they start humming or singing, it’s much more than simple vocalizing, with K_K able to recreate full synthesizer melodies themselves rather than just playing them off a CD! -Without any vents, they overheat VERY easily – the speakers-out look isn’t just for show! If K_K malfunctions or gets too stressed out, they can even start smoking, and spontaneously shut down / pass out, meaning the other two have to drag them over to the couch and keep an eye on them until they cool back down. They have a surprising thing for meditation and de-stressing via self care, mostly because of this.
A little art I did to illustrate a couple of the more Cursed parts of this (along with some cute to make it better):
