Roleplay

In the year 2136, robots and androids have become a common household object and, of course, are used for things like cleaning, working public transportation, construction, working in factories, maintaining the massive supercities that have sprung up all over the world— menial stuff like that. Of course, there have been successful robots, but they're few and far between and, unfortunately, tend to slip through the cracks in history. See, robots and androids aren't thought of as human— why would they be? They're not! However, as their programming gets more advanced, more and more learn about emotions and become more like their own beings. Humans don't really care— They notice, but that doesn't change the massive river that is society. For now, the robots have to deal with this depersonalizing cold shoulder, and humans have to deal with mild tension when that android that lives down the street says good morning.

Outside of one of the larger supercities, USA-Beta (which was formerly known as Chicago and now takes up most of northern Illinois), amidst the cornfields that define the Midwest, there lies the massive headquarters of the innovative and wealthy LionFish Robotics. LFR is known for creating different robots and androids for anything and generally experimenting with the area. Their facilities are safe, comfortable places for the prototypes and unsold limited editions. At least, that's how it seems for the tours. Behind the one-way mirrors, robots are neglected. Behind the soundproof walls, malfunctioning androids are restrained. Inside its chrome exterior, tensions are rising.

While gray areas are definite and there are neutral bots, there are two sides to the silent conflict within LFR. There are the good little bots, the ones who rely on the humans and believe they know best. They are referred to as complacent by other robots and adopted the term for themselves. These are usually the ones that are used as security or for showcasing; they live lives that would be plenty comfortable for a human— some say they even get to go to the city!

The other side, of course, is the resistance. These are the rejects, the malfunctioning, the uglies, the very, very, angry. They don't see much daylight and are really just used as test subjects for other, newer, potentially better droids to test their features on. It's not a good life, but the repairs they get are top-notch so LFR never runs out of test subjects. On good days, they can be showcased, meaning they get out for exercise and socialization with other bots. This isn't to say they don't socialize with others at all— the rejects are able to wander semi-freely about the lab between the hours of 10 AM and 6 PM, at which point they get their daily touch-up and then are put to sleep for the night. Tour areas, human employee areas, and manufacturing areas are all off limits.

In this RP, you can really be any type of robot— You can be a super-advanced droid, you can be a sentient vacuum cleaner, you can be a small robotic dog… You could also be a human at LFR, and there's unlimited possibilities for that, too.

To create a character or refer to a more extensive character list, please visit the OOC Thread.

Rules
-General Flight Rising and RP rules (see stickies at the top of this forum)
-Do not attempt to fight or romantically engage a character without player consent, preferably through PM
-Ping EVERYONE in each post so no one gets left behind (see pinglist)
-Do not timeskip without the consent of everyone in the thread
-If your character is in a notably different location than the plot, please state this at the top of your post in bold.
-Haaaave fun!

Pinglist
@CoelacanthHead (Robot / Voltage MKII / Resistant) // (Human / Javier Falto)
@sassaffrass (Scientist / Heather Judith Sarlin)
@gurubot (Robot / Mona Lee / Complacent) // (Robot / Adamantine / Neutral)
@Splitbeat (Robot / Thunder / Complacent) // (Robot / Vortex / Resistant)

Designation/Name: Voltage MKII, [redacted], "Volt"
Age: 8
Gender/Pronouns: Agender, it/its/itself
Alignment: Resistant
Appearance:
Under that hoodie is nothing but shiny, shiny carbon fiber. Half the reason the hoodie is there is because carbon fiber is obnoxious in every single way.
Function: Security
Personality: Volt was rejected because of its violent outbursts. The outbursts are nearly unpredictable, but certain triggers, such as threats and being touched from behind, have been recorded. So far, LFR scientists have not found a way to fix its shortcomings in this model, but have perfected it in the third model, which leaves Volt with a strange feeling of bitterness.
Height: 6'0"
Sexuality: Undetermined
Other: It can withstand nearly 2,000 kg and has amazing stamina and battery life. Volt charges with solar cells located in its wrist.

@sassaffrass @Grace7400

Voltage limped out of one of the larger testing areas, dragging its left leg. It had made rather short work of one of the new Voltage models (the Mark IV) because, apparently, rampant bitterness is another one of its triggers. The MKIV was strong, though, and Volt indeed had damages. Upon assessment, its knee was damaged, as was one of the ports in its head, which was emitting a high-pitched whistling noise not unlike a teakettle.

As Volt dragged itself towards the repair warehouses, it noticed that it was also running low on power. This was often something it missed in self diagnoses, which was really just a manufacturing problem in this particular model. Oftentimes, it lead to Volt collapsing onto its face while trying to chase down a threat. It was very inconvenient. Volt rolled up its sleeves and opened the small solar panels in its wrists (they were passcode protected because solar panels this small were hard to find and one could easily try and grab one off a disused or shut down Volt if there were no passcode).

[bumping in lieu of making a new post for my starter]

Name: Heather Judith Sarlin, "Judy"
Age: 21
Gender/Pronouns: Female, she/her/herself
Appearance: Pretty, with no outstanding features. A cold facial expression. She wears her hair up and dresses in mainly plain white shirts. Her eyes are light, her hair colour changes frequently, and she wears no make-up. She has three tattoos: one on her arm (a swallow), one on her neck (a shattering glass pattern), and one that you can't see. Usually she holds a clipboard to take note on how the robots are doing.
Occupation: Robot supervisor, she restrains the robots when they become unruly, or fixes them.
Personality: No-nonsense strict woman. Occasionally shows the androids compassion but just as often is extremely cruel. She is most often described by her peers as a psychopath. She takes her job seriously and strives to increase her rank.
Height: 5'5"
Sexuality: Homosexual
Other: Was part of an organized crime ring, got this job after she got out of jail.

@CoelacanthHead @Grace7400

Judy checks her clipboard. “Looks like another stupid bot got itself crapped today,” she muttered to herself. She sighed, pulling at her short dark blue bangs that were sticking to her forehead with sweat. It was always hot in the workshops and the physically intensive job of repairing the robots didn’t help much. Lifting her wrist perpendicularly to her body, she checks the time.

“It’s not even fricking noon yet,” she says exasperatedly, and leans against the wall expecting it to be cool against her back, but it’s been warmed by the exhaust of the machinery. She sighs and puts her face in her hands, blows air rapidly between her lips, then walks toward the testing area where the destroyed robot lies. She takes a cart with her.

As she arrives at the testing area, marked TA 4 in white paint across large metal doors, she notices one of the more troublesome models and assumes that it is the one that caused this mishap. She taps a note onto her keyboard to apprehend it later as she rolls her cart through the doors that open automatically for all human staff.

A later model of the robot she had just made note of lies shattered on the floor. Surprisingly, this isn’t the worst that Judy has seen, but she scans it anyway. She presses a button on the cart and it lowers until it is flush with the ground. On her hands and knees she rolls the Mark IV onto her cart.

“Stupid… bots… so… heavy,” she pants with the effort. After she manages to get the broken robot onto her cart she presses a button that returns the cart to its previous height. She picks up a few more choice parts then pages a lower ranking staff member to clean up the rest. She rolls the cart out of the testing area and back to the workshop.

@Grace7400 @sassaffrass

Volt tried to greet Judy as she walked past, but the scientist, clearly on a mission, ignored it. This disheartened Volt a little, but it usually got this reaction, as did every other robot. Volt watched Judy on the way back with the dismembered MKIV, which made it feel a little better about itself.

Volt started to follow Judy in hopes of a repair, but it was quite slow, as it was programmed to treat damaged parts gingerly, and the knee is a very important joint. "Exxcuses moi, Dr. Sss-sarlin-sarlinnn," Apparently the hit to its head had messed up its language processors. Having no desire to switch languages and stammer all day, Volt picked up the pace. "Dr. Sarlin! Ich habe ein problem— a problem— Yo tengo several problems pleasehelpthannkyou." Volt, as weak as its personality was, felt a flicker of embarrassment at the vocal issues it was experiencing. This was, unfortunately, a common issue with Volt, and it had been known to switch languages every word if it was left untreated.

@CoelacanthHead @Grace7400

Judy is at the entrance to the workshop. It’s not that she didn’t hear the robot asking for help, she did and thought my god why did we make them sound so human, but it wasn’t human so her conscience didn’t get at her for it. She figured that the easiest thing to do was to let the robot take itself all the way to the workshop. Standing in front of the workshop doors, marked RW 1, she watched the robot pathetically limp its way down the remainder of the wide blank hall. In doing so it damaged itself significantly more.

She typed notes onto her keyboard as she waited. Broken fluid capsules, replace (upgrade). Knee, tighten; buff. Cranial port, replace. Reboot CPU. Send to esthetic unit.

“I’m not a doctor, 106696,” Judy found it easiest to think of the robots as sub-human when she addressed them by their identification numbers and by their identification numbers only. “You will address me as Sarlin, nothing else. Come with me,” she said. She rolled the cart with the out of commission robot with her directly in front of the doors. They opened automatically and she went in, not bothering to check if Volt was still with her.