muse: CHARACTER IDEA!!
Mar. 3rd, 2003 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coronaviridaeThis came to me while showering.
Name: Amaranth
Racetype: Android
Gender: Neuter
Function: Suicide Soldier
Faction: Maverick Hunter
Quote: "We are eternal--all this pain is an illusion."
Profile: Amaranth is unusual among androids, not only for its age, but also for its purpose. It was originally created with the idea of being a reusable suicide soldier, courageous enough to charge into battle or to a rescue without any concern for its own safety. Its design makes heavy use of both quirks of android programming and android construction--when destroyed, its core programming dissipates into energy that can be retrieved and housed in a new body. Despite its unusual function, Amaranth is laidback, playful, and in possession of a shrewd mind and a sense of drama, both on and off the battlefield. It has the strangest habit, despite its gender-neutral programming, of switching between several cosmetically different body designs when destroyed; male, female, or aniform, however, its personality remains much the same.
Notes: Ama here was spawned off the old, old Robot Master vs. Reploid argument--that Robot Masters are somehow 'intrisincally' better than reploids because Wily's e-ring system makes them functionally immortal, as long as Wily is willing to build them new bodies and download them out of E.R.W.I.N. So it all started with a little voice-clip of Abernathy castigating a Robot Master who had used that argument with, 'Your immortality does not make you superior to anything. You don't use your capacity to 'die' without ending this life to do anything worthwhile--you save no lives, you make no bold sacrifices for the sake of your fellows. You exist only as a self-regenerating system to fight a war for a lonely old man in castle, too afraid to come out and finish what he started. You are not superior; in fact, you are inferior to the thousands of reploids and humans who are not blessed with the secure knowledge that their death is not a final end, who nevertheless lay down their lives daily for the sake of their fellow living beings.'
Then I realized that only sounded like Abby in one of his highly philosophical moods.
Then I wondered, 'Well, what if someone actually created an android with a system much like the e-ring system, such that that android could continually sacrifice him/herself to save people in fatal situations?'
Then Amaranth was born.
Amaranth, the grain-bearing plant, has red flowers, and is named from the Greek word 'amarantos', or unfading. Amaranth, the android, is a suicide soldier: A construct meant to take advantage of the undying nature of the android body and codebase, coupled with the mentality of the rare human willing to take on a suicide mission.
The unfortunate thing about suicide missions, of course, is that many of the successful ones are carried out by the most dedicated of soldiers (or firefighters or police officers), people who that, even if they sometimes lack in raw talent, often have skill, experience, and courage that are needed for those jobs. If we could just save some of those people, after they've had the experience of charging into danger with no thought for their own safety, we could do the world a great service.
Ama, created by a gentle (if eccentric) old female doctor (perhaps on par with Wily for madness, though not megalomania), was meant to answer that thought. Equipped with a prototype resurrection system similar to Wily's 'E-Ringing' in operation, Amaranth was designed to charge into battle--or burning buildings, or avalanches--again and again, relying on the fact that it is literally undying to fight to the last. Or, if need be, rescue those who would other die for lack of someone courageous to charge to their defense.
After Amaranth's mother died, it had to reavaluate its priorities. Certainly, the Doctor had told it that, on her death (from natural causes), it would be free to choose its own path in life. However, its programming was rather clear--it was supposed to use its unique functional immortality to save others. But it did not wish to seek employment alongside human firefighters or police officers; it felt a kind of guilt that it would be working alongside reploids and humans who did not expect to die in the line of duty, but might, while it might still 'live'. It did not want to be confronted, either, with the accusations it could not save its more fragile coworkers. Interpol would be a problem for the same reasons, even if the UN Enforcement Division were more ready to confront the fact of death.
So Amaranth turned its eyes to the Repliforce and the Maverick Hunters. The former appealed for its military discipline and determination, but it did not allow androids in its ranks. The latter...well, there was the tiny problem that it didn't accept applications for jobs. So, thought Amaranth, I will have to prove myself worthy of the Maverick Hunters, so that I can be invited into their ranks. Thus it set out on the path that would eventually lead to its heroism drawing the eyes of the Maverick Hunters.
Ama's Home: Amaranth's home is a large, abandoned warehouse in New York's commercial district. It's full of light, air, and dust, as well as the sparing construction equipment Amaranth uses to construct its own bodies from spare parts. It also has 'the wardrobe', as Ama jokingly calls it; a closet full of silent, deactivated bodies with red armor and Amaranth's symbol on the chestplate and helmet. This closet is connected via conveyer belt to Amaranth's 'home computer', an AI system like E.R.W.I.N that serves to house Ama's consciousness while it's disembodied. While Ama does keep a couple of card tables, chairs, and couches around for visitors, its home is not exactly an inviting place. The automated defenses, meant to deal with intruders who would dare to think of destroying Ama's lifeline while the android is out, make sure to keep it so.
Ama's Immortality: Much like that of a Robot Master, Amaranth's body explodes into a coherent beam of data-carrying energy when damaged past a sufficient point. However, its creator never managed to duplicate Wily's trick of making that energy home in on a home computer where it could await re-embodiment; instead, the coherent energy must be collected manually and returned to the computer.
For this purpose, Amaranth is continually accompanied by a flock of small birds that act as energy repositories. Only a very small number of birds is required to carry the whole signature, but Ama keeps the entire flock for redundancy; they can duplicate the signal among themselves so the destruction of a large portion of the flock will not destroy Ama's energy signature. Ama's core protocols, all that it needs to reboot completely from scratch, are small enough that one bird can carry them; the rest of the 'cargo' comprises Ama's memories and emotion programming.
Currently, these birds appear as small sparrows, but they are anything but: while they are not invulnerable, they are highly resistant to damage (the entire flock can generate a small, but powerful forcefield), and very fast fliers. Once Amaranth is destroyed, the birds deploy, home in on the signal of the released energy, capture it, and convey it straight back to Ama's home computer. Though their neural nets have been optimized such that Ama's energy signature can piggyback on them, they also have minimal programming that allows them to avoid attack and behave like 'normal' birds.
Ama's Bodies: Amaranth is a bit of an artist, as well as a talented constructor of androids. Of course, it's only ever worked on its own bodies, but it builds so many of those that it is getting quite proficient at the art.
All of Amaranth's bodies have the same weapons and computer systems, as well as the same partially modular armor that allows for removing some of the heavier parts of the armor for additional mobility. The coloration is the same from body to body, as well. Silver hair, pale gold eyes, tawny skin, red armor engraved with a stylized amaranth flower over the heart and in the helmet jewel.
What differs is the morphology of the body themselves. Amaranth is gender and species-neutral by programming, but it likes to change its bodies like some humans change clothes. It usually keeps a female body, a male body, and an animal-form body in its closet, and switches bodies after each time it's destroyed.
Amaranth builds one body every few months, merely because it doesn't trust anyone else with its specs or equipment, and it always needs to have a body on hand when it is destroyed, or risk being trapped in its computer. It has begun automating some of the process, so it could build a workable shell if all its bodies were destroyed, but it does not like the idea of not being able to return to duty as soon as possible.
Ama's Personality: Despite its lack of gender and species identity, and lack of fear of death, Ama's...pretty normal for an android. It's not emotionless, or perfect: it can fall in love, get its heart broken, get frustrated, be afraid of petty things, be supersitious, hate, rage. It tends to be level-headed in or out of battle, though, and relatively calm and diplomatic when it's not upset. When it IS upset, woe betide--it's hard to move Ama to physical violence against allies, but it isn't averse to punching through walls with its great strength when seriously irritated. Even if it doesn't fear death, it tends to be cranky when its hurting--the fact that it dies more often than not shortly after getting greviously wounded in battle makes it a bad patient when it DOESN'T die.
Ama is also quite a shrewd businessman. Its mother was no slouch in patenting and marketing her creations, and was quick to pass that business sense on to her child. She also left a sizeable nest-egg and ownership of her small, private company to Amaranth, and the android used its own business skills to parley that considerable gift of its mother's into wealth sufficient to sustain its home and its need for new bodies.
It does have her technological prowess as well; the skill it uses in building its own bodies has also proved quite handy in the practical business world, as it has freelanced before as a technologist as well as a bodyguard. The small bird robots that can convey its energy signature have proved so useful in design that Ama has replicated, patented, and sold various variants of the tech.
Ama's Resources: Ama has its home, its liquid funds, its invested money, its bodies, and its technological patents as resources. It uses these to keep itself in bodies, as well as indulge in the little pleasures it enjoys while off-duty.
Ama's Proposed Charmath:
Charisma: 5
Intelligence: 9
Courage: 10
Agility: 6
Dexterity: 7
Endurance: 7
Firepower: 6
Strength: 7
Velocity: 4
Size: 4
CST: 49
*pantpant* Wow. I can't wait to write Ama up. I have its history all laid out in my mind; it's just a matter of doing it.
facelessmuse
Name: Amaranth
Racetype: Android
Gender: Neuter
Function: Suicide Soldier
Faction: Maverick Hunter
Quote: "We are eternal--all this pain is an illusion."
Profile: Amaranth is unusual among androids, not only for its age, but also for its purpose. It was originally created with the idea of being a reusable suicide soldier, courageous enough to charge into battle or to a rescue without any concern for its own safety. Its design makes heavy use of both quirks of android programming and android construction--when destroyed, its core programming dissipates into energy that can be retrieved and housed in a new body. Despite its unusual function, Amaranth is laidback, playful, and in possession of a shrewd mind and a sense of drama, both on and off the battlefield. It has the strangest habit, despite its gender-neutral programming, of switching between several cosmetically different body designs when destroyed; male, female, or aniform, however, its personality remains much the same.
Notes: Ama here was spawned off the old, old Robot Master vs. Reploid argument--that Robot Masters are somehow 'intrisincally' better than reploids because Wily's e-ring system makes them functionally immortal, as long as Wily is willing to build them new bodies and download them out of E.R.W.I.N. So it all started with a little voice-clip of Abernathy castigating a Robot Master who had used that argument with, 'Your immortality does not make you superior to anything. You don't use your capacity to 'die' without ending this life to do anything worthwhile--you save no lives, you make no bold sacrifices for the sake of your fellows. You exist only as a self-regenerating system to fight a war for a lonely old man in castle, too afraid to come out and finish what he started. You are not superior; in fact, you are inferior to the thousands of reploids and humans who are not blessed with the secure knowledge that their death is not a final end, who nevertheless lay down their lives daily for the sake of their fellow living beings.'
Then I realized that only sounded like Abby in one of his highly philosophical moods.
Then I wondered, 'Well, what if someone actually created an android with a system much like the e-ring system, such that that android could continually sacrifice him/herself to save people in fatal situations?'
Then Amaranth was born.
Amaranth, the grain-bearing plant, has red flowers, and is named from the Greek word 'amarantos', or unfading. Amaranth, the android, is a suicide soldier: A construct meant to take advantage of the undying nature of the android body and codebase, coupled with the mentality of the rare human willing to take on a suicide mission.
The unfortunate thing about suicide missions, of course, is that many of the successful ones are carried out by the most dedicated of soldiers (or firefighters or police officers), people who that, even if they sometimes lack in raw talent, often have skill, experience, and courage that are needed for those jobs. If we could just save some of those people, after they've had the experience of charging into danger with no thought for their own safety, we could do the world a great service.
Ama, created by a gentle (if eccentric) old female doctor (perhaps on par with Wily for madness, though not megalomania), was meant to answer that thought. Equipped with a prototype resurrection system similar to Wily's 'E-Ringing' in operation, Amaranth was designed to charge into battle--or burning buildings, or avalanches--again and again, relying on the fact that it is literally undying to fight to the last. Or, if need be, rescue those who would other die for lack of someone courageous to charge to their defense.
After Amaranth's mother died, it had to reavaluate its priorities. Certainly, the Doctor had told it that, on her death (from natural causes), it would be free to choose its own path in life. However, its programming was rather clear--it was supposed to use its unique functional immortality to save others. But it did not wish to seek employment alongside human firefighters or police officers; it felt a kind of guilt that it would be working alongside reploids and humans who did not expect to die in the line of duty, but might, while it might still 'live'. It did not want to be confronted, either, with the accusations it could not save its more fragile coworkers. Interpol would be a problem for the same reasons, even if the UN Enforcement Division were more ready to confront the fact of death.
So Amaranth turned its eyes to the Repliforce and the Maverick Hunters. The former appealed for its military discipline and determination, but it did not allow androids in its ranks. The latter...well, there was the tiny problem that it didn't accept applications for jobs. So, thought Amaranth, I will have to prove myself worthy of the Maverick Hunters, so that I can be invited into their ranks. Thus it set out on the path that would eventually lead to its heroism drawing the eyes of the Maverick Hunters.
Ama's Home: Amaranth's home is a large, abandoned warehouse in New York's commercial district. It's full of light, air, and dust, as well as the sparing construction equipment Amaranth uses to construct its own bodies from spare parts. It also has 'the wardrobe', as Ama jokingly calls it; a closet full of silent, deactivated bodies with red armor and Amaranth's symbol on the chestplate and helmet. This closet is connected via conveyer belt to Amaranth's 'home computer', an AI system like E.R.W.I.N that serves to house Ama's consciousness while it's disembodied. While Ama does keep a couple of card tables, chairs, and couches around for visitors, its home is not exactly an inviting place. The automated defenses, meant to deal with intruders who would dare to think of destroying Ama's lifeline while the android is out, make sure to keep it so.
Ama's Immortality: Much like that of a Robot Master, Amaranth's body explodes into a coherent beam of data-carrying energy when damaged past a sufficient point. However, its creator never managed to duplicate Wily's trick of making that energy home in on a home computer where it could await re-embodiment; instead, the coherent energy must be collected manually and returned to the computer.
For this purpose, Amaranth is continually accompanied by a flock of small birds that act as energy repositories. Only a very small number of birds is required to carry the whole signature, but Ama keeps the entire flock for redundancy; they can duplicate the signal among themselves so the destruction of a large portion of the flock will not destroy Ama's energy signature. Ama's core protocols, all that it needs to reboot completely from scratch, are small enough that one bird can carry them; the rest of the 'cargo' comprises Ama's memories and emotion programming.
Currently, these birds appear as small sparrows, but they are anything but: while they are not invulnerable, they are highly resistant to damage (the entire flock can generate a small, but powerful forcefield), and very fast fliers. Once Amaranth is destroyed, the birds deploy, home in on the signal of the released energy, capture it, and convey it straight back to Ama's home computer. Though their neural nets have been optimized such that Ama's energy signature can piggyback on them, they also have minimal programming that allows them to avoid attack and behave like 'normal' birds.
Ama's Bodies: Amaranth is a bit of an artist, as well as a talented constructor of androids. Of course, it's only ever worked on its own bodies, but it builds so many of those that it is getting quite proficient at the art.
All of Amaranth's bodies have the same weapons and computer systems, as well as the same partially modular armor that allows for removing some of the heavier parts of the armor for additional mobility. The coloration is the same from body to body, as well. Silver hair, pale gold eyes, tawny skin, red armor engraved with a stylized amaranth flower over the heart and in the helmet jewel.
What differs is the morphology of the body themselves. Amaranth is gender and species-neutral by programming, but it likes to change its bodies like some humans change clothes. It usually keeps a female body, a male body, and an animal-form body in its closet, and switches bodies after each time it's destroyed.
Amaranth builds one body every few months, merely because it doesn't trust anyone else with its specs or equipment, and it always needs to have a body on hand when it is destroyed, or risk being trapped in its computer. It has begun automating some of the process, so it could build a workable shell if all its bodies were destroyed, but it does not like the idea of not being able to return to duty as soon as possible.
Ama's Personality: Despite its lack of gender and species identity, and lack of fear of death, Ama's...pretty normal for an android. It's not emotionless, or perfect: it can fall in love, get its heart broken, get frustrated, be afraid of petty things, be supersitious, hate, rage. It tends to be level-headed in or out of battle, though, and relatively calm and diplomatic when it's not upset. When it IS upset, woe betide--it's hard to move Ama to physical violence against allies, but it isn't averse to punching through walls with its great strength when seriously irritated. Even if it doesn't fear death, it tends to be cranky when its hurting--the fact that it dies more often than not shortly after getting greviously wounded in battle makes it a bad patient when it DOESN'T die.
Ama is also quite a shrewd businessman. Its mother was no slouch in patenting and marketing her creations, and was quick to pass that business sense on to her child. She also left a sizeable nest-egg and ownership of her small, private company to Amaranth, and the android used its own business skills to parley that considerable gift of its mother's into wealth sufficient to sustain its home and its need for new bodies.
It does have her technological prowess as well; the skill it uses in building its own bodies has also proved quite handy in the practical business world, as it has freelanced before as a technologist as well as a bodyguard. The small bird robots that can convey its energy signature have proved so useful in design that Ama has replicated, patented, and sold various variants of the tech.
Ama's Resources: Ama has its home, its liquid funds, its invested money, its bodies, and its technological patents as resources. It uses these to keep itself in bodies, as well as indulge in the little pleasures it enjoys while off-duty.
Ama's Proposed Charmath:
Charisma: 5
Intelligence: 9
Courage: 10
Agility: 6
Dexterity: 7
Endurance: 7
Firepower: 6
Strength: 7
Velocity: 4
Size: 4
CST: 49
*pantpant* Wow. I can't wait to write Ama up. I have its history all laid out in my mind; it's just a matter of doing it.
facelessmuse
