Angst-Bot
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| "No, that's okay...I'll just sit here...in a pool of crippling gloom...alone..." | |
| Angst-Bot | |
| Player: @Wonderslug | |
| Origin: | Technology |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Defender |
| Security Level: | 32 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | LWL-AB #000 |
| Known Aliases: | Angst, AB, Sorrowful Robot, Jeremy Rowell |
| Species: | Android |
| Age: | 4 |
| Height: | 5'11 |
| Weight: | 278 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Black |
| Hair Color: | Black |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Student |
| Place of Birth: | Lily-Wight Labs, Paragon City |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Thomas Wight, Albert Lily (creators), Vince and Priscilla Rowell (adoptive parents) |
| Known Powers | |
| Angst feedback release mechanism | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Cloud to every silver lining, horrible poetry | |
| Equipment | |
| Turbobooster, charge gauntlets...technically he is equipment | |
| No additional information available. | |
"Angst-san not useless! Very helpful with creepy dark shadowy power!" - Morning Misa
Angst-Bot is a miracle of modern technology, produced by Lily-Wight Robotics Labs. Exactly why he was produced is something of a mystery, as even the most basic understanding of economics would suggest he is not commercially viable, with a construction cost of over $154 million and an extremely limited target market.
This, combined with his creators' tendency to get themselves indicted for fraud, embezzlement, and racketeering, has prevented him from ever entering mass production.
Contents |
Original Promotional Literature
Coming soon from the robotics lab of Albert Lily and Thomas Wight: the amazing Angst-Bot! Want to experience the joys of parenting a depressed, moody teenager without the hassles of childbirth and childrearing? Angst-Bot is for you! Angst-Bot looks and acts just like a real sullen youth, using the most advanced human emotion emulation algorithms ever developed--his angst is real, but he is not!
Supported functions include dreary poetry writing, compulsive LiveJournal posting, staring at nothing for hours, direct question evasion, avoidance of eye contact, unpredictable mood swings, and a groundbreaking Random Argument Generator based on the patented You Just Don't Understand Me kernel.
Angst-Bot will scorn you in public but will freely associate with other Angst-Bot units. Allowing male and female models to associate may even unlock the hidden He/She Is Not a Loser/Tramp And It's My Life Anyway feature.
Warning: Extreme angst levels may physically manifest.
Don't wait, call now!
Personality
Filled with self-doubt, riddled with premonitions of doom, and packing more emo than a black-clad pseudointellectual Barbie-mutilating art major's iPod playlist, but he doesn't mind. Much. Because it's not like he can help it, it's just kind of hard-coded in, so, you know...just craaaAAAawwling in my ciiiiicuits...these processes, they will not compiiiiiiile...
He is designed with an angst tolerance of 2500 LPUs,[1] far higher than any normal organic mind could withstand, and has a typical operating level of around 300 LPUs. Thus, even at fairly elevated gloom levels he typically doesn't actually feel that bad underneath it all.
Physiology
At his core, Angst-Bot possesses a durable, lightweight titanium alloy skeleton, which is covered by a tough but realistic synthetic skin; facial expression is provided by an underlying system of fibers that mimic the behavior of muscle tissue. Externally he is virtually indistinguishable from a human except under informed scrutiny, and he can replicate nearly all human activities (although many of the more organic ones worry him, and the idea of bathrooms in particular fills him with a dull horror).
Angst-Bot's gloom algorithms make use of an "emotion center" that emulates aspects of human brain chemistry, which also provides much of his operating power. His internal battery packs are designed to produce current when they react with these chemicals; in theory this is a perfectly sustainable closed system, but high or prolonged activity levels can outstrip its ability to keep up. For this reason he can also recharge using standard wall current and has conventional battery packs in the form of large, unwieldy gauntlets. It is also not perfectly efficient, as the amount of angst generated is greater than the amount of power, thus requiring venting or cooldown.
He can derive limited benefit from the ingestion of food, but that runs into the whole "dull horror" issue.
Angst Feedback Release Mechanism
The mechanism Dr. Lily and Wight designed for venting built-up angst is, to put it mildly, unsettling, resulting as it does in a physical manifestation of gloom and doom. This is essentially the whole reason Angst-Bot first registered as a hero; the build-up has to be dealt with, and he reasoned it was better to put it to some constructive use than to mope around in his bedroom, where it would just stain the carpet and occasionally cause the walls to seep blood. (His adoptive parents found this alarming and expensive, or perhaps just alarmingly expensive.)
Emotional projection
Angst-Bot regularly deals with levels of emo that would be utterly crippling to the average organic being, so it was not much of a stretch for him to discover ways of manipulating the vent output to debilitate his opponents. This can leave them disoriented or weakened, affect their depth perception, or temporarily sap them of the will to do anything at all.
By projecting his surety of his own insignificance, he can actually make himself (and those around him) more difficult for others to perceive.
He can also leech emotions directly from a target in order to briefly spike the efficiency of his own nano-repair systems. Curiously, and inexplicably, this seems to benefit those around him as well.
Bullets of pure angst
By concentrating his output (as a sort of "angst laser," as it were), he can produce a much less subtle effect on his opponents. This works poorly on many undead, who already have a good deal of angst themselves.
Rupert
The most recent development is a tendency for his angst to manifest as an ominous, looming, silent, shadowy figure. Angst-Bot claims that it is named Rupert, but that it refuses to reveal any further information about itself. Rupert appears to possess many of the same abilities that Angst-Bot himself does.
Abilities
Through the miracle of his advanced gloom algorithms, Angst-Bot can find a bleak and depressing side to virtually any situation.
Angst-Bot is capable of composing atrocious poetry at nearly twice the speed of the average sullen youth and can upload it to his LiveJournal nearly instantly via built-in WiFi.
"O monorail, your path / is predestined / never choosing your own way / just like / our futile lives." - Angst-Bot, from "Ode to the Paragon City Transit Authority"
Equipment
Charge gauntlets
These clunky metal gloves contain batteries to supplement Angst-Bot's internal power generation. He typically wears them when he's expecting trouble. More trouble than usual, anyway. People shooting at you trouble.
Turbobooster
As thanks for saving him and his family (again) from the clutches of the Clockwork, Lou the mechanic made some adjustments to Angst-Bot's leg servos to allow for extended high-speed ground travel.
Weaknesses and Limitations
As he was never actually designed for combat, Angst-Bot has no defenses beyond the angst feedback mechanism. His body is quite durable, but it doesn't take that much damage to knock his sytems offline until his repair mechanisms can do their work.
"...I think that would void my warranty." - Angst-Bot, referring to any number of proposed alarming system modifications
Affiliations
Angst-Bot is a member of the Do-Gooders, who continue to try to cheer him up despite the fact that it's basically impossible.
Although they have never met, Angst-Bot has lately spent a lot of time talking to Ashlil online. Against all odds, this appears to make him feel slightly better. He would be very surprised to discover the reason for this.
"Maybe you need a new heat sink."
"People are not like overclocked PCs, Angsty."
"Oh. Right." - Angst-Bot and Silver Gale, discussing Jen Rogers's core temperature concerns.
Character History
Coming soon. Ish. Soonish.
- ↑ Linkin Park Units, or the amount of angst in a typical Linkin Park album
