The Smith Residence; Earth Dimension [Replacement]; 08/24.

"I am Summer."

In the garage of the Smith household, Rick had finished twisting Summer's head back in place. He flipped up a switch on the back of her neck, which promptly dissipated back into her skin.

"Summer, state your deal."

( Its benefits are totally, like, less about the food than the emotional nourishment. )

"Tell it to my bread in the morning," Rick said, triggering the switch on the back of Summer's neck to shut her down. She fell forward into her dinner plate. "You just became my backup toaster."

"Aw, geez," Morty chuckled, but Rick was on his way over to him, too, hitting the switch so his voice got progressively deeper until it faded out. "My sister died in the spaghet---"

He, too, promptly died face first in the spaghet.

[[ CANON CATCH UP NEARLY COMPLETE! Part 1 of only 2 today, with a special OOC note to follow ]]

Earth Dimension [Apocalypse]; 08/24.

The Death Stalkers seemed to flourish in that one day between Rick's Abandonment and his Return, with Hemorrhage at the helm and Summer at his side. She had adapted, as she would always do, fully embracing this new wild kingdom. She felt, sometimes, that she now understood the version of herself she had met in Dimension C-137, letting her hair down, letting it get messy, donning an outfit truly worthy of a post-apocalyptic queen, a cool new silver face tattoo to match her big metal shoulder pads and steel grey dress. She'd gotten wind that Rick had returned to this land, so, naturally, they would ride out to meet him, but he'd better be ready. Rick Sanchez had hell to pay.

"The reason I wanted this," said Rick, approaching Summer and Hemorrhage with Morty (no longer with his monster arm) in tow, the ball of Isotope 322 in his hands, "is because....it can do this."

He took a light bulb from his pocket and held it to the glowing green mass. And the light bulb shined brightly, buzzing faintly.

"This is a really special thing," he continued. "I mean, you could use it to power all your vehicles. You wouldn't be reliant on gasoline. You'll be the most advanced tribe of radioactive cannibals in the whole...this version of....the world."

Without hesitation, Hemorrhage grabbed the Isotope and pulled in into his possession. Without another word, Rick aimed his portal gun at the ground and stepped forward, ready to disappear again with Morty, though Summer was clearly not making any move forward to join them.

But Hemorrhage stopped him. "Wait. Can you stay to show us more?"

"You don't have to ask me twice," Rick said happily, pocketing the portal gun. "Home is nuts right now. My daughter's going through a divorce, and I am not dealing with it in a healthy way at aaall."

[[FIN]]

OOC: It doesn't look like anything to me.

So, some of you may have noticed (or not, whatever, I don't assume) that Summer's been through quite a week, between her Grampa Rick finally getting out of prison and dismantling the Galactic Federation, her parents getting a divorce, and her going balls-to-the-wall deep into adventures to distract her from the reality of it. And then feeling like maybe the Apocalypse-ravaged Pacific Northwest is a better fit for her right now. Sure, whatever, it's important to try new things.

However, in the effort to keep in his daughter's good graces, Rick couldn't exactly just let it be known that he left his grandkids in a different, very dangerous dimension, so, to throw her off the scent and damper suspicions, he built Westworld-style, hyper-realistic robot versions of Morty and Summer. And since Beth believes them to be her actual children (no one ever said Beth was the most astute or involved parent ever), this Summer will be returning to Fandom High for the fall semester, because why wouldn't she? And the real Summer will continue adventures in Mad Max land.

Robot Summer is real enough for Beth not to notice a different, but, like I said, Beth is hardly Mother of the Year. This is a Summer programmed in her sociopathic, alcoholic, mad scientist grandfather's idea of her, which is pretty much a core of a vapid teenage girl, with an AI processor that seems a little obsessed with what makes humans "human". She will still remember her friends and teachers and habits, thanks to Rick doing a brainscan of her in her sleep to extract that information, but mostly everything about her personality will be derived from Rick's assumptions about her "deal." I very much encourage anyone, especially those closest to her, to realize that something is a definitely off with Summer since she got back. Heck, if anyone gets to the point of realizing she's a robot, I'm totally down with that, too. I'm also sure some people won't even notice a bit, which is beautiful.

Edit: Looks like we're having Rick implant a chip that gives off the impression that she's still an biological organism at a casual glance/read, so someone might not pick up on it at first, though it might seem a little...off. And the robotics become very obvious at closer observation.

Ultimately, then, the Summer returning to Fandom is not the same Summer that has been at Fandom, but instead a programmed computer in a lifelike shell of herself. Because that's totally normal.

Let me know if you have any questions! I'm super stupid excited to be doing this. I love this goddamn show.