i thought they were little stickers the mills put on fourby and that little gesture of affection also helped them feel like a bit little more of a person

(Half of this is community lore, half of it is personal HC, I can't pull it apart because of how biased I am when it comes to narratives haha) Pre-incin Chorby Original was a lovely person who hated entropy and built a friendship with Felix Garbage on trying to prevent it. They dove in the way of the team captain, Dominic Marijuana, in their first incineration. Resurrected Chorby Original was angry that they ended up on the Garages, Mills didn't want them, because they were revived as an experiment, not a human. Due to the pattern of players they beaned, we saw Chorby as: - mad that Sandie Turner (their incineration replacement) did not protect Marijuana in his ultimate death a few seasons after Chorby died - angry at Richardson Games (ex-Mill who feedbacked to the Shoe Thieves) for deserting the team, and mad at Ren Hunter (Games's feedback swap, who got Redacted after Chorby's pitch and would later return to the Thieves as an Attractor) for replacing them. ..However, Soul gradually grew regretful for their actions, realizing that not everyone was like them in the way they would step into certain death to save a friend. And they realized that it was okay. That some people have a lot to live for. They began to have things to live for, themself, too. Chorby ended up on the Mills on season 16, and was welcomed with mostly open arms. The team was halfway Ship-of-Theseus'd by that point, so half the Mills remembered Chorby as an old friend, while the other half saw them as a scary revenant (like Jaylen but... less effective). Their incineration on Day 88 was a Garages/Mills game. Winnie McCall died five days later, on Day 92. This continues the pattern of "Mills die in pairs", which is thematic to our Tarot card, the Lovers.

also Chorby Soul's side-hustle was for a long time "a patent for a perpetual motion machine" so maybe that's something Felix can figure out to use to keep Fourby goin!

Felix gets Fourby operational. long-lasting batteries, stability frame. while you're sticking with us, you are not going to be in shambles. it's the LA Unlimited Tacos. we will make sure you're out there as your best self. nothing less

fourby has a Walkman with a few recordings of each of the Mills' voices i think before they walk into that Eclipse game, they're going to give it to Felix ...for safekeeping. because they're going to come back and get it after the game, right?

Also. Spoilered for sad? As Fourby Faded to Dust after Election, Ana sat in that room with them long after all the other Mills went to sleep. She had a bunch of coffee, some energy drinks, to keep herself awake, because Fourby needed someone in their last moments. They were scared, though they wouldn't admit it, and truthfully, so was she. They just sat together, holding hands, as the night went on, and the clock ticked ever closer to the end of Godsday. Ana thought they'd make it through that night together, truly. That in some twist of fate she'd be the one to buck the curse by staying with Fourby. So much horrible stuff had happened. There had to be some respite, right? Some end to all this darkness? But Fourby's hand, though it was never warm to begin with, grew cold. And the day broke with one less person in the Apartment.

fourby soft... i was thinking they were a pretty mechanical person, all things considered. went about things kinda procedurally, was terrible at reading the room. i also think they had a bit of ataxia and/or dysmetria, which is why it was hard for them to hit the ball. kinda bad at social stuff, especially since they're not sure who they're meant to be. but if you approached them late at night, put some music on in the background and just talked about things in the present, then they would eagerly go into the conversation

the way i've been feeling the replicas is that... without Soul Patches, they're kind of like performers? like a character actor at disney. there's something not right about them. they're the version of that player in the public eye. they have their original's memories, but not the full emotional ability to contextualize them but fourby, with soul, can do that. fourby has a full range of human emotion they're capable of accessing or at least that was my assumption

I think Felix would honestly be kinda attached Fourby. Even if they aren't exactly his old friend, they still have a Soul and their memories of their previous life. So they can talk about entropy together!! :)

When Chroby got resurrected, Drac went to Seattle again, for another try at the brunch. Basically encourages Chroby to embrace their new state. So Chorby goes "yeah, yeah I SHOULD!"

Meanwhile one season later, my HC is they come to talk to Drac and basically say "that felt awful. I tried to embrace the anger but only felt worse. I took revenge on those who replaced my friends, on those who went away, and none of it helped"

maybe in universe Felix asked the Mills if they could ship Fourby to Los Angeli!

ARE WE TALKING ABOUT FOURBY

based on vibes for felix i feel like - he probably reacts a bit differently to the uncanny nature of fourby, finding it intriguing rather than creepy - is really interested in tweaking things to try to keep fourby running even with the knowledge it's probably not possible - he's very sanguine about fourby being an actual person who kind of is but kind of isn't the same; like i feel like moreso than most people felix is already aware of the ethical and emotional challenges of clonage

Wonder if with Fish's thembo energy it'd be over immediately. Like. You look like I'm about to bite you. 4️⃣ well, yes, it's hard to separate my feelings from those two long year-- I won't tho. (Beat) (Chorby busts out laughing for what feels like the first time in a decade)

Something to talk about, and another interpersonal relationships thing: Teddy Cervantes is the pitching machine that became a person without wanting to be. Fourby is a human who never asked to be brought back a third time as a machine. But when the soul patches went on (it was goofy, like putting stickers on a laptop. A way to feel better about being "gifted" the likeness of a dead friend) Fourby woke up. Like, Chorby woke up. Alive again in a body that wasn't theirs and they didn't ask for, in a form that was alien to them.

I imagine the Vault is sterile and cold, like a museum would be. A gilded cage with no windows, only walls. They can go wherever they like except Out, but the players are the only exhibits there. They have nothing to do other than talk to each other. And then, through their Replicas, watch. I believe that when the Replicas are disposed of one way or another, their memories and experiences return to the original. It's the closest that any of them are going to come to being with their loved ones again. York and Nagomi were lucky to have each other.

some say that replicas' bodies have.... mysterious, unnatural properties

[i grab fourby under the shoulders and they extend like longcat]

https://twitter.com/lata_batson/status/1406318955082387461 good game. [ID: The last play for Chorby Soul IV. Maybe for a long time. Fig hits it shallow to right field! The automaton, covered in stickers that gave it a Soul, runs for home. It exhausts their battery, wrecks their fragile aluminum frame... but they make it! They make it.] Twitter

my favourite thing about that game is that fourby only scored because NaN also got a single immediately after