Project OverdriveCONTENT WARNINGS: experimentation, death, body horror, mental/physical torture/abuse, mental health and physical health issuesBasic Summary2 years after the game’s current time, the war between toons and cogs is going in favor of the toons. The chairman is getting both nervous and desperate. Prethinker, who'd been quite aware of the whole situation, had a plan. That plan was a project he wanted to propose known as project overdrive. It had been his secret passion project he'd been working on with his husband Bellringer.Prethinker had discovered a way to harness pure “toon energy” from the gags of toons and toons themselves, and after a complicated process was able to combine it with cog technology to create what’s essentially an upgraded override. Cogs who are given the overdrive chip, otherwise known as changnium, can achieve an overdrive state. Overdrive is a monstrous form that has animal traits based on random animals if toon energy from gags is used, and specific animals if toons are used.Prethinker suggests sending these monstrous cogs out at night to take out resistance members. The chairman, who again is desperate and under blackmail shortly into the project’s company endorsement, puts more funding and research into this project. He was worried that the very limited energy from gags would make the project difficult, but then prethinker’s husband bellringer suggested using toons themselves. With the help of dip of course. The chairman, much to the secret horror of the VP and CFO, agrees to this and using some of the managers as test subjects if regular cog test subjects work. They do, so after six months to a year the managers the chairman is willing to let get experimented on get overdrive forms.What no one but the chairman, Brian, Ben, and Brian’s “suppliers” (his family) know is that the chairman was blackmailed into letting this project happen. He'd wanted to back out when Ben and Brian revealed that the idea of using gag energy had been scrapped a long time ago, and that toons were being used. As it turns out, Brian has been working on Project Overdrive ever since his failed tune-up on Buck. During that time Brian discovered that toons themselves were better than gags as “toon fuel”. The narrative of the chairman being concerned about gags not providing enough energy and agreeing to using toons is a fabrication. Ben and Brian hold over the chairman’s head that they could go and tell everyone back in Suitopia that none of this was their idea in the first place, and that the chairman forced them to do it. Ben was good at fabricating evidence and acting after all. The chairman basically made a deal with the devil without fully realizing what he was getting into. To make things even worse, the CLO and CEO end up promoting and support Ben and Brian once they learn all the juicy details. The VP and CFO are forced to stay under threat of harm.Overdrive, like override, is an AI. Unfortunately for Prethinker and Bellringer, the overdrive AIs become sentient. They're animalistic in mind at first, but over time the managers that have them and the managers that don't manage to “tame” and befriend them as the AIs become more intelligent. It's a battle for the afflicted managers and the AIs sharing a body with them (think Eda and the owl beast) to retain control and to not bring too much harm to toons. Thankfully, secretly of course, an alliance is forming between some resistance members (thanks to Rain) and the managers in order to take down cogs.ink for good.Supporting Details-Chip, Spruce, Bubble, Buck, and Dave are the leaders of the eventual revolution
-so far the ones who have overdrive are Chip, Dave, Graham, Misty, Mary, Holly, William, and Flint
- the monstrous cogs are only sent out either at night, or during missions where toon groups are fighting in buildings
- there's very little known about monstrous cogs by the general public, half of them thinking that they're just rumors
-the toon resistance is trying to learn as much as they can with the help of the managers, though at first a lot of them didn't even want to associate with cogs. Rain had to convince them to work in secret with the managers, and in the process earned ire from some of them for dating a cog manager.
-threats against the managers and their loved ones are the only reason the managers haven't blasted this all out to the public
-Prethinker thought that the managers would be too afraid of the overdrive entities to do anything about them, so he was Big Mad ™️ when they pulled a How to Train Your Dragon on his ass
-secret groups in the resistance are established and coined as “cog control”, a play on animal control
These groups are made of only the resistance’s strongest warriors
They're sent out either to seek out overdrive threats in the night and to come to the aid of weaker toons that have encountered them while in a building
They wear special uniforms and voice modulators that conceal their identities so that cogs.ink can't target them outside of work
They're also the ones that help the managers when it comes to getting over the “kill initiative” of the overdrive
Non afflicted, afflicted, and tamed overdrives also assist when there isn't the threat of being caught
Multislacker helps immensely with avoiding security detection, and if possible the managers try to obscure their identities (some such as Alton can't really do that)
Rain is the leader of the strongest cog control group and the tutor of all cog control groups, bubble (oc partner of chip) providing assistance when not busy with helping with taming overdrives
-”kill initiative” is coding that activates in the presence of a toon that has gags on hand. It heightens the fear and aggression of overdrive, making it so they're more likely to deal fatal damage rather than merely self defense when fighting toons.
This coding was put in as merely a safeguard against rebellion at first, as during training overdrives were told to fear toons
After realizing that the overdrives were becoming more sentient and less cooperative, Brian made it so the coding would be activated more easily
The resistance and the other managers work through this by helping them “fight” their programming, something Chip is most familiar with considering his past with override
Ways to activate overdrive
Instant loss of control: Prethinker speaking the word “resistance”
Slower loss of control: kill initiative overpowering both the manager and the overdrive, great emotional and/or physical distress being experienced by both, ben saying resistance
Giving over control: the managers and the overdrives can decide who's in control. This only happens either when both parties are in control/calm, or in a dire situation where overdrive is needed and can control itself
Overdrive forms produce dip, which is how they're able to kill toons
Overdrive forms have the animal traits of the toons that were killed in order to make the changium core that the overdrive chip resides in
There are toons known as “specialized toons”, which are toons with very powerful and unique gags. These toons are the primary targets for overdrive forms.