Obsolete
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Obsolete | |
| Player: @Acyl | |
| Origin: | Technology |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Corruptor |
| Threat Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Atomic Omni-Bot 3000 |
| Known Aliases: | Obs |
| Species: | Robot |
| Age: | 48 |
| Height: | Varies |
| Weight: | Heavy |
| Eye Color: | Camera Lenses |
| Hair Color: | Metal |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | N/A |
| Occupation: | Rogue Robot |
| Place of Birth: | Detroit, MI |
| Base of Operations: | Rogue Isles, Paragon City, RI |
| Marital Status: | Automatic Transmission |
| Known Relatives: | Toaster Ovens, Terra Volta Nuclear Reactor |
| Known Powers | |
| Atomic Blasts, Nuclear Emissions | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Self-Repair Skills | |
| Equipment | |
| Herself | |
| "When robots attack!" | |
A crazy 1950s robot. She's nice enough, though. If you ignore the massive nuclear emissions and the fact she tends to kill people.
Contents |
Affiliations
Supergroup: The Infamous (Rank: Urban Legend)
Personality
Evil robots. You know 'em, don't you? Futuristic androids, advanced AIs, fiendish marvels of engineering. Then there's Obsolete. She was state of the art, once. In 1950. Now? Her ray-guns are faulty, her atomic engine leaks like a sieve...but she's still running. Somehow. And she's even managed to do the impossible: evolve intelligence in her primitive circuits.
Of course, she's still Obsolete. "Self-aware" doesn't mean "smart". Or for that matter, "sane".
It's difficult to say whether Obsolete has a real personality. Her behaviour is wildly unpredictable, and she's prone to wheeling off on random tangents - or developing obsessive fixations on weird subjects. She's occasionally lucid, but more frequently...not.
Powers
Obsolete is an atomic-powered robot. A very old robot, with a creaky and leaky nuclear fission reactor buried in her torso. Her exact capabilities vary, because her body is modular to some degree. She is constantly repairing and modifying herself with scavenged technology. It's enough to make a grown engineer cry.
Radiation Blast
Obsolete is able to produce powerful blasts of focused atomic fire. She can channel energy in tight-beam attacks from the ray-guns in her arms, or fire wide-angle bursts. She can also explosively vent superheated steam from various exhaust ports on her body, releasing intense heat and radioactive particles. These weapon systems are not a recent development - she's had this capability since her initial construction. Which is pretty serious overkill, since she was originally built as a glorified domestic helper. Not many maids are walking weapons of mass destruction. Obsolete is. Clearly, her design was ahead of its time, looking towards a better, brighter, and apocalyptic future.
Radiation Emission
The intense amount of radioactivity emitted by Obsolete can have...unpredictable effects. Getting too close to her is dangerous. Obviously, radioactive contamination has detrimental effects on living tissue, complex electronics, and even mystical ectoplasm. However, curiously, her nuclear emissions can also have constructive effects. It appears the radiation from Obsolete's reactor can accelerate the metabolisms of organic beings, effectively boosting the efficiency of nerves, muscles, and tissues. She can also apparently lend energy to other entities. It is unclear whether Obsolete was actually designed for this, or if it's simply some kind of weird side effect. After all, she spews radiation wherever she goes. Her reactor hasn't been properly shielded in years.
Additional Powers
Flight
Obsolete is capable of flight. Her basic airworthiness seems to come from atomic rockets in her legs. Of course, by the laws of physics she shouldn't be able to fly - her rockets don't provide enough thrust, and they aren't enough to explain her manoeuvrability. Then again, her radioactive emissions don't make sense either, so clearly the usual rules aren't in effect.
Teleport
Recently, Obsolete has exhibited the ability to teleport. She is not capable of translocating herself, but she can teleport other people. This is more like the technology used by Sky Raider and Malta troops, as opposed to the the city-wide emergency networks in Paragon and the Rogue Isles - it is a self-contained system. It is unknown how Obsolete acquired this technology, but it's quite possible she literally picked it up somewhere and stuck it inside her body.
Abilities
Obsolete was built in the 1950s. That she hasn't suffered a critical failure in all that time is nothing short of a miracle...because Obsolete's been maintaining herself for decades. She's kept herself running for the past half-century, repairing her own body and adapting equipment for her use. By now, she incorporates everything from Nemesis technology to Rikti gear, even salvaged Freakshow parts. "Salvaged", in this case, is defined as ripping components straight off the hapless Freakshow and installing them directly on her own chassis. She didn't even bother removing the bits of shredded meat.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Obsolete is insane. In fact, she's never been sane. She was never intended to be a sentient robot. She was supposed to be a dumb automaton. She evolved self-awareness on her own. Given her primitive brain, that should be impossible. She's managed it anyway. But that means her intelligence has never been "normal" by any conventional definition.
Obsolete is also a walking mechanical disaster. By rights, she shouldn't work. Normally she works anyway...but on occasion, the suspension of disbelief breaks down. Followed shortly by bits of her body breaking down.
Equipment
Technically speaking, Obsolete is equipment. Aside from that, though, she tends to hoard bits and pieces. She is something of a packrat, stockpiling items she can conceivably use to repair herself. Such items aren't always high tech - by now, there's even a couple of magical artefacts welded onto Obsolete's chassis. Magic actually functions for her, which comes as a surprise to many. After all, she's a robot...
...isn't she?
Character History
Obsolete is a relic of the 1950s, when the future was shiny and atomic-powered. She's not shiny anymore, but she's still atomic-powered. She was from the era where the atom was our friend and the harbinger of the future.
But while atomic power was the latest and greatest thing, robots were viewed with a little more suspicion. In an America that had been terrorized by Nemesis and his mechanical armies, sentiment towards robots was...mixed.
One company sought to change that, to put a friendlier, more human face on machines. Their first product was the Atomic Omni-Bot 3000. The initial model was targeted at wealthy buyers, the rich and elite who could afford expensive toys. Eventually, though, they hoped that their creations would find widespread appeal. A robot in every home!
The Atomic Omni-Bot 3000 was a household automaton in the fine tradition of '50s futurists. Designed to look more or less human, it was designed as a domestic helper - chef, maid and nanny all rolled into one mechanical package. The prototype was also equipped with the cutting edge in ray-gun technology, so it could even serve as a bodyguard...all the better to attract wealthy customers.
In retrospect, the ray-guns might have been a mistake. But nobody was expecting the prototype to go completely haywire at the press conference. They certainly weren't expecting it to blow a hole in the wall and fly away...especially not in front of all those reporters. Obviously, that was the death knell for the company and their vision of a brighter atomic robot future. The investors were not amused. Neither was the US government.
Somehow, the renegade robot evaded capture by the authorities and super-powered heroes of the time. It managed to survive on its own. And slowly, as time passed, it displayed increasing decision-making capability. The level of autonomy puzzled the experts. Her brain was a rudimentary thing, a primitive computer of first-generation transistors. It shouldn't have been capable of complex calculations, much less true intelligence and a sense of identity. But that's exactly what happened. Within a few months, the robot was no longer "it", but "her" - possessing a female persona to fit the feminine shape of her body.
She not only survived, but prospered. As the years went by, she achieved notoriety in the super-powered underground. Today, she is known as "Obsolete", a particularly apt epithet. She is not only a feared rogue in her own right, but also a subject of academic curiosity. Psychologists and Artificial Intelligence theorists want to know how her mind works. Engineers puzzle over how her body works - and scientists want to know how she violates so many laws of physics.
But there is one other group with interest in her - magicians, thaumatological researchers, and others in the occult and mystical fields. They believe Obsolete is a kind of golem.
According to mystics who have examined her, Obsolete is not merely self-aware...she actually possesses a soul.
Of course, that fact raises as many questions as it solves.
Battle Cries and Catch Phrases
"-klik- Stand by for exposure to dangerous life-threatening radiation, which may result in sterility or detrimental mutatio---er, I mean, Acclerate Metabolism."
"-whirr- Please come back to buffing range. Where are you going?"
Trivia
- The primary inspiration for Obsolete is, of course, 1950s cliches about robots and atomic energy.
- There's also a hint of Harley Quinn in Obsolete's insane randomness. She doesn't really act like Harley, but there's a kind of conceptual common ground there. Her original red-black-and-white appearance reflects this.
- Though Obsolete makes a lot of -klik- and -whirr- sounds in her speech, I've never set up a keybind for them. I type the noises out manually every time she says something. I must be crazy.
- Obsolete hit level 50 on the very last mission of the Television's final story arc...just as I planned. Perfect.
