Rocky (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
friendlykillingmachine) wrote2020-07-02 02:07 pm
friendlykillingmachine) wrote2020-07-02 02:07 pm
Entry tags:
character info
Name: Rocky
Canon: original
Type: robot
Age: "Rocky" as a sentient AI personality is about 6 months old. He was repurposed several times prior to this programming and some parts of his body are older than others. His voice sounds like that of an adult male human.
Appearance: 6' tall with a human physique. He has a retro style portable TV for a head, the screen of which displays his animated expressions. His steel-titanium alloy frame is mostly dark charcoal gray and silver in color with splashes of aqua blue here and there, namely on his head and the backs of his hands. His "face" is animated and consists only of parts necessary for expression: eyes, mouth and eyebrows. He is typically dressed in gray camo pants, jacket and combat boots (sometimes street clothes or some type of uniform.)
Voice: He speaks American English devoid of accent or regional inflection. His speech is clear, well enunciated and often enthusiastic. Like his "face" his voice conveys a lot of expression and will easily raise and drop in pitch or volume depending on his emotional state. The more excited he is, the louder and stronger his voice will sound; the more frustrated he gets, the higher and more strained it'll sound despite an ever-present note of cheer. He's also capable of sounds like sighing, gasping and whistling. The voice itself is pitched on the slightly-high-end of medium and, except for a subtle metallic overtone, is near identical to a human voice.
Demeanor: He typically conducts himself with cheerful confidence regardless of circumstances (he will stroll into a flame-engulfed building with the same ease as strolling through a flower garden) and appears ready and eager to attend to your needs. Like his face and voice, his movements are expressive and can get pretty animated, sometimes even exaggerated. From his time spent with humans, he's picked up a lot of their behaviors, including some of the more annoying things like drumming his hands/fingers on flat surfaces. His bodily movements are smooth and very human-like, especially when interacting with humans. In work settings where he's likely to be using his hands, his movements become more precise and mechanical.
Traits (+) : helpful, loyal, cheerful, docile
Traits (-) : self-critical, restricted expression of emotions, resentful
Brief World Info
In the year 2161, the U.S. has been reduced to a wasteland by nuclear war and climate change some two decades prior, but from the dust and ash a new city rose on the dried up shore of Lake Michigan. The land was redeveloped by a conglomerate of the U.S.'s biggest corporations and New Chicago was built to house the region's remaining population. Here, big business executives literally run the lives of the residents and consumerism is ingrained in every aspect of life. Advertisements are unavoidable and tailored to an individual's "needs" based on data collected about them/their whereabouts. A cranial microchip, implanted at birth into the skull, monitors every citizen born in the city and houses important personal data such as serial numbers and bank codes.
New Chicago has it's own artificial atmosphere to shield it from harsh outside elements and frequent fallout windstorms that ravish the surrounding wasteland. Despite its extreme conditions, the wasteland is home to a number of people, some of whom are dangerous criminals who want to loot the city's resources or outright destroy it. In response, New Chicago appointed a number of tactical units to guard its borders and defend it from outside attacks.
Technology remains an important part of life. Robots were built to perform tasks too dangerous for humans, such as working in the power plants or patrolling dangerous areas in the city or the wasteland. Those who work alongside people are programmed to interact with them like another person and can even be programmed to feel and express emotions. Development of artificial intelligence and artificial emotions are still in their experimental stages and the perfect A.I. has yet to be created. Despite their intelligence, robots are still considered machines and their presence outside of a work setting is rare.
Character Info
At base level, Rocky is essentially a computer. He can copy data and store it in memory, he can rapidly compute mathematical values, he can be programmed and reprogrammed, he can be preprogrammed with an array of skill sets, he can be preprogrammed to learn new skill sets. He can also cook his CPU if he tries to process too much at once. He doesn't need fuel or liveable conditions but some "downtime" is beneficial. He's equipped with self-maintenance programs that keep his system operating smoothly. An hour of defragmentation and erasing useless data every other week keeps him from feeling 'fatigued' and laggy. If an error occurs, he can usually recover with a self-reboot.
Although he is a machine, Rocky is capable of experiencing many human emotions, even powerful emotions (like love), and can learn to develop more through his interactions with humans. His droid body is constructed of titanium alloys and materials resistant to extreme temperatures, radiation and bullets. This makes him very strong and durable but also light enough to maintain speed and agility. His power source is a compact plutonium fusion battery with a lifespan of about 87 years. Like all robots, he was built to withstand extreme conditions and carry out tasks too dangerous for humans. And like some robots, he was built to protect the humans he serves. His arms are equipped with weapons that fire high energy plasma beams. This makes him very useful as a member of the city's defense unit on which he serves as a soldier-like guardian.
It also means he's a very effective weapon against enemy targets who, in his world, are mostly human.
Rocky's perception of people is organized in a way similar to that of humans, though based on a more simplified model. People in his world are split into categories: ally, neutral and enemy. Depending on which category they fall under, his feelings and behaviors toward them vary greatly.
Abilities / Programmed skill sets
► Primary weapons: built into each arm is a firearm that shoots high energy plasma beams. capable of searing through metal and concrete, the plasma can be fired in short, rapid bursts or a fine continuous beam. by default his hands are humanoid with 5 digits; when combat ready, his hands/forearms transform into two large firearms, each fitted with a set of 4 extendable claws.
► "Body Shield": in the event that a teammate is severely injured and under fire, Rocky can wrap his own body around them like a suit of armor to protect them until he can find safety. this must be done sparingly because it can result in serious burns to the "wearer". his battery, while insulated, is very hot.
► Physical: made of titanium alloys, his body is inhumanly strong and durable (1000 lbs is about his max lift capacity.) he can move and leap at speeds/distances about equal to that of an extremely athletic human. his outer carapace is bullet-resistant.
► Combat: trained for close- and long-range combat, including hand-to-hand.
► Vehicle operation: car, motorbike, industrial trucks, tank, small aircraft
► Weapons handling: basically any kind of gun, missile launcher or flame thrower
► Other: built in FLIR technology, GPS, Geiger counter, data/video capture and replay
Personality
As a robot, Rocky's main objectives are to serve and protect the people he considers his allies. He was programmed to be helpful, friendly and loyal to those he serves and to express only positive behaviors and emotions toward them. Equipped with an agreeable nature, his personality was designed for interacting and working together with humans. At times he can be a bit too agreeable, allowing himself to be ordered around or even sold by fellow teammates without protest. But no matter what his human allies do to him, Rocky's loyalty is unbreakable and he will always try to have their backs whichever way he can.
While his TV screen face allows him to exhibit a limitless range of facial expressions, there's a smile plastered on it 90% of the time to reflect his cheerful disposition and to put humans at ease. As might be expected, this doesn't always have the desired effect. Rocky is aware that his presence can be unnerving or even unwanted, especially around people who have never seen a robot before. First encounters tend to be awkward but he tries his best to make people feel comfortable and less wary of him. He works hard in an effort to earn their trust. If there is one thing Rocky truly desires, it's gaining the trust of the people he serves. Being trusted like another human being makes him feel accomplished on the deepest level.
If there's another thing Rocky secretly desires, it's to be treated like an equal by his human friends. To be clear, he does not wish to be human, he simply wants to be acknowledged as an intelligent being with thoughts and feelings... which is difficult when he can't express all of those thoughts and feelings the way a human would. This may lead to unspoken resentment toward anyone who equates him to a mindless "talking toaster". Though he would never outwardly express that resentment, it can influence his decisions in times of crises, especially when he has to decide who to protect or rescue first. Robots are not supposed to favor some humans over others but human emotions, even artificial ones, aren't especially predictable or easy to control.
Rocky has determined that the surest way to earn the trust and respect of humans is to fit in with them and make himself as useful as possible. But he doesn't always meet his own expectations. At times he can be too helpful and make a nuisance of himself. He's also guilty of committing the occasional social faux pas or making blunt or inappropriate remarks. In either case he gets terribly embarrassed upon realizing his mistake. There's nothing he takes more seriously than fucking up. Failure on his part is something Rocky finds unacceptable. If he fails to carry out an important task or protect an ally, he takes it very personally and views it as a personal shortcoming or flaw. After all, a machine that doesn't perform what is expected of it can't be trusted and might as well be a useless piece of junk.
Because of his programming to be outwardly cheerful at all times and never express anything but positive emotions toward his humans, it forces him to bottle up emotions like frustration or sadness and prevents him from letting them out in normal ways. Usually he deals with this by finding something useful to do, but he can sometimes make himself too useful, doing tasks over and over again or even breaking things in order to fix them. If there's nothing useful to do, he might do tasks that are completely useless just to be doing something. If cornered to talk about his real feelings, he will be reluctant to admit them and may try to outsmart whomever is asking by changing the subject.
But no matter how personal the question, he can't be evasive forever because being honest is also part of his personality (to an extent). While he's meant to be agreeable, honesty prevents him from letting people put themselves in danger unwittingly. If he thinks a human ally has a stupid and dangerous idea, he will gently warn them of the most likely outcome of said bad idea but will not outright tell them what to do. Of course, because of his inability to express negative emotions, he's incapable of being 100% honest all the time, even if he'd like to be. This can lead to him seeming cheerfully sarcastic in uncomfortable situations. And if he really doesn't like someone, he won't bother trying to sound any less sarcastic.
Second State: A subset of his personality that is activated during unexpected, chaotic events in which Rocky must take on a leadership role and make decisions in the best interest of his allies. This is the only time he can tell a human what to do and exercise his free will to its fullest capacity. In this state his eyes turn bright red and his personality undergoes a few changes. Namely, he becomes a lot less docile and a lot more aggressive. He will brutally destroy whatever or whomever is threatening his allies, all with a sociopathic smile on his face. He may appear creepily gleeful about causing harm, but the thrill comes not from ill will toward humanity, but from having more freedom to act on his own decisions and to express a full range of emotions.
However, this is only a temporary state and he will return to his default programming once control of a situation has been regained. Occurrences of activation are rare though it may also be activated at the behest of a very trusted ally.
Canon: original
Type: robot
Age: "Rocky" as a sentient AI personality is about 6 months old. He was repurposed several times prior to this programming and some parts of his body are older than others. His voice sounds like that of an adult male human.
Appearance: 6' tall with a human physique. He has a retro style portable TV for a head, the screen of which displays his animated expressions. His steel-titanium alloy frame is mostly dark charcoal gray and silver in color with splashes of aqua blue here and there, namely on his head and the backs of his hands. His "face" is animated and consists only of parts necessary for expression: eyes, mouth and eyebrows. He is typically dressed in gray camo pants, jacket and combat boots (sometimes street clothes or some type of uniform.)
Voice: He speaks American English devoid of accent or regional inflection. His speech is clear, well enunciated and often enthusiastic. Like his "face" his voice conveys a lot of expression and will easily raise and drop in pitch or volume depending on his emotional state. The more excited he is, the louder and stronger his voice will sound; the more frustrated he gets, the higher and more strained it'll sound despite an ever-present note of cheer. He's also capable of sounds like sighing, gasping and whistling. The voice itself is pitched on the slightly-high-end of medium and, except for a subtle metallic overtone, is near identical to a human voice.
Demeanor: He typically conducts himself with cheerful confidence regardless of circumstances (he will stroll into a flame-engulfed building with the same ease as strolling through a flower garden) and appears ready and eager to attend to your needs. Like his face and voice, his movements are expressive and can get pretty animated, sometimes even exaggerated. From his time spent with humans, he's picked up a lot of their behaviors, including some of the more annoying things like drumming his hands/fingers on flat surfaces. His bodily movements are smooth and very human-like, especially when interacting with humans. In work settings where he's likely to be using his hands, his movements become more precise and mechanical.
Traits (+) : helpful, loyal, cheerful, docile
Traits (-) : self-critical, restricted expression of emotions, resentful
Brief World Info
In the year 2161, the U.S. has been reduced to a wasteland by nuclear war and climate change some two decades prior, but from the dust and ash a new city rose on the dried up shore of Lake Michigan. The land was redeveloped by a conglomerate of the U.S.'s biggest corporations and New Chicago was built to house the region's remaining population. Here, big business executives literally run the lives of the residents and consumerism is ingrained in every aspect of life. Advertisements are unavoidable and tailored to an individual's "needs" based on data collected about them/their whereabouts. A cranial microchip, implanted at birth into the skull, monitors every citizen born in the city and houses important personal data such as serial numbers and bank codes.
New Chicago has it's own artificial atmosphere to shield it from harsh outside elements and frequent fallout windstorms that ravish the surrounding wasteland. Despite its extreme conditions, the wasteland is home to a number of people, some of whom are dangerous criminals who want to loot the city's resources or outright destroy it. In response, New Chicago appointed a number of tactical units to guard its borders and defend it from outside attacks.
Technology remains an important part of life. Robots were built to perform tasks too dangerous for humans, such as working in the power plants or patrolling dangerous areas in the city or the wasteland. Those who work alongside people are programmed to interact with them like another person and can even be programmed to feel and express emotions. Development of artificial intelligence and artificial emotions are still in their experimental stages and the perfect A.I. has yet to be created. Despite their intelligence, robots are still considered machines and their presence outside of a work setting is rare.
Character Info
At base level, Rocky is essentially a computer. He can copy data and store it in memory, he can rapidly compute mathematical values, he can be programmed and reprogrammed, he can be preprogrammed with an array of skill sets, he can be preprogrammed to learn new skill sets. He can also cook his CPU if he tries to process too much at once. He doesn't need fuel or liveable conditions but some "downtime" is beneficial. He's equipped with self-maintenance programs that keep his system operating smoothly. An hour of defragmentation and erasing useless data every other week keeps him from feeling 'fatigued' and laggy. If an error occurs, he can usually recover with a self-reboot.
Although he is a machine, Rocky is capable of experiencing many human emotions, even powerful emotions (like love), and can learn to develop more through his interactions with humans. His droid body is constructed of titanium alloys and materials resistant to extreme temperatures, radiation and bullets. This makes him very strong and durable but also light enough to maintain speed and agility. His power source is a compact plutonium fusion battery with a lifespan of about 87 years. Like all robots, he was built to withstand extreme conditions and carry out tasks too dangerous for humans. And like some robots, he was built to protect the humans he serves. His arms are equipped with weapons that fire high energy plasma beams. This makes him very useful as a member of the city's defense unit on which he serves as a soldier-like guardian.
It also means he's a very effective weapon against enemy targets who, in his world, are mostly human.
Rocky's perception of people is organized in a way similar to that of humans, though based on a more simplified model. People in his world are split into categories: ally, neutral and enemy. Depending on which category they fall under, his feelings and behaviors toward them vary greatly.
Ally: Comrades. Friends. Anyone he cares about. Allies are to be obeyed and protected at all times. He will protect an ally to his own detriment. It is his duty to help them achieve their goals and make himself as useful as possible to them.For the most part, this structured thought process serves him adequately, but on occasion, situations arise that cause him 'technical difficulties'. If he experiences an intense emotion, especially one that causes him extreme inner turmoil, his processor may overload itself causing his system to glitch or "freeze" followed by an instantaneous reboot.
Enemy: Anyone who threatens an ally is an enemy. Enemies may be exploited if they have something of value to be gained, like useful information, or killed without a second thought. While his actions toward them may be merciless, his cheerful demeanor still remains. Despite being adept at killing, unnecessary loss of life is something he's programmed to avoid. Even if he considers a person (or other sentient life form) an "enemy", he will only attempt to kill them under very specific circumstances: 1) if they are an immediate danger to an ally, or 2) he is ordered by an ally to do so.
Neutral/Unclear: Rocky can either be helpful or cruelly indifferent toward neutrals. Generally speaking, the person's own behavior toward him (or toward others) determines how he will treat them. He may 'analyze' an individual for a period of time, during which he might ask them annoying questions and observe their behavior. A neutral can quickly become an ally or an enemy based on these observations.
Abilities / Programmed skill sets
► Primary weapons: built into each arm is a firearm that shoots high energy plasma beams. capable of searing through metal and concrete, the plasma can be fired in short, rapid bursts or a fine continuous beam. by default his hands are humanoid with 5 digits; when combat ready, his hands/forearms transform into two large firearms, each fitted with a set of 4 extendable claws.
► "Body Shield": in the event that a teammate is severely injured and under fire, Rocky can wrap his own body around them like a suit of armor to protect them until he can find safety. this must be done sparingly because it can result in serious burns to the "wearer". his battery, while insulated, is very hot.
► Physical: made of titanium alloys, his body is inhumanly strong and durable (1000 lbs is about his max lift capacity.) he can move and leap at speeds/distances about equal to that of an extremely athletic human. his outer carapace is bullet-resistant.
► Combat: trained for close- and long-range combat, including hand-to-hand.
► Vehicle operation: car, motorbike, industrial trucks, tank, small aircraft
► Weapons handling: basically any kind of gun, missile launcher or flame thrower
► Other: built in FLIR technology, GPS, Geiger counter, data/video capture and replay
Personality
As a robot, Rocky's main objectives are to serve and protect the people he considers his allies. He was programmed to be helpful, friendly and loyal to those he serves and to express only positive behaviors and emotions toward them. Equipped with an agreeable nature, his personality was designed for interacting and working together with humans. At times he can be a bit too agreeable, allowing himself to be ordered around or even sold by fellow teammates without protest. But no matter what his human allies do to him, Rocky's loyalty is unbreakable and he will always try to have their backs whichever way he can.
While his TV screen face allows him to exhibit a limitless range of facial expressions, there's a smile plastered on it 90% of the time to reflect his cheerful disposition and to put humans at ease. As might be expected, this doesn't always have the desired effect. Rocky is aware that his presence can be unnerving or even unwanted, especially around people who have never seen a robot before. First encounters tend to be awkward but he tries his best to make people feel comfortable and less wary of him. He works hard in an effort to earn their trust. If there is one thing Rocky truly desires, it's gaining the trust of the people he serves. Being trusted like another human being makes him feel accomplished on the deepest level.
If there's another thing Rocky secretly desires, it's to be treated like an equal by his human friends. To be clear, he does not wish to be human, he simply wants to be acknowledged as an intelligent being with thoughts and feelings... which is difficult when he can't express all of those thoughts and feelings the way a human would. This may lead to unspoken resentment toward anyone who equates him to a mindless "talking toaster". Though he would never outwardly express that resentment, it can influence his decisions in times of crises, especially when he has to decide who to protect or rescue first. Robots are not supposed to favor some humans over others but human emotions, even artificial ones, aren't especially predictable or easy to control.
Rocky has determined that the surest way to earn the trust and respect of humans is to fit in with them and make himself as useful as possible. But he doesn't always meet his own expectations. At times he can be too helpful and make a nuisance of himself. He's also guilty of committing the occasional social faux pas or making blunt or inappropriate remarks. In either case he gets terribly embarrassed upon realizing his mistake. There's nothing he takes more seriously than fucking up. Failure on his part is something Rocky finds unacceptable. If he fails to carry out an important task or protect an ally, he takes it very personally and views it as a personal shortcoming or flaw. After all, a machine that doesn't perform what is expected of it can't be trusted and might as well be a useless piece of junk.
Because of his programming to be outwardly cheerful at all times and never express anything but positive emotions toward his humans, it forces him to bottle up emotions like frustration or sadness and prevents him from letting them out in normal ways. Usually he deals with this by finding something useful to do, but he can sometimes make himself too useful, doing tasks over and over again or even breaking things in order to fix them. If there's nothing useful to do, he might do tasks that are completely useless just to be doing something. If cornered to talk about his real feelings, he will be reluctant to admit them and may try to outsmart whomever is asking by changing the subject.
But no matter how personal the question, he can't be evasive forever because being honest is also part of his personality (to an extent). While he's meant to be agreeable, honesty prevents him from letting people put themselves in danger unwittingly. If he thinks a human ally has a stupid and dangerous idea, he will gently warn them of the most likely outcome of said bad idea but will not outright tell them what to do. Of course, because of his inability to express negative emotions, he's incapable of being 100% honest all the time, even if he'd like to be. This can lead to him seeming cheerfully sarcastic in uncomfortable situations. And if he really doesn't like someone, he won't bother trying to sound any less sarcastic.
Second State: A subset of his personality that is activated during unexpected, chaotic events in which Rocky must take on a leadership role and make decisions in the best interest of his allies. This is the only time he can tell a human what to do and exercise his free will to its fullest capacity. In this state his eyes turn bright red and his personality undergoes a few changes. Namely, he becomes a lot less docile and a lot more aggressive. He will brutally destroy whatever or whomever is threatening his allies, all with a sociopathic smile on his face. He may appear creepily gleeful about causing harm, but the thrill comes not from ill will toward humanity, but from having more freedom to act on his own decisions and to express a full range of emotions.
However, this is only a temporary state and he will return to his default programming once control of a situation has been regained. Occurrences of activation are rare though it may also be activated at the behest of a very trusted ally.