Astryle
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Astryle | |
| Player: | |
| Origin: | Technology |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Mastermind |
| Security Level: | 50+3 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Dr Abigail Victoria Amelia Rastra PhD |
| Known Aliases: | Dr Rastra, Abi, Abby |
| Species: | Tech Golem (synthetic chassis controlled by the extrapolated neural data of a human brain), formerly Human |
| Age: | 25 (Neural data preserved at 18) |
| Height: | 5' 9" |
| Weight: | 130 pounds approx. |
| Eye Color: | Silver metal |
| Hair Color: | Wig, varies, currently short gold-blonde. |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Praetorian |
| Occupation: | Inventor and Manager of Astral CyberTechnology |
| Place of Birth: | Cole Memorial Hospital, Nova Praetoria |
| Base of Operations: | *Fetching data....ERROR* |
| Marital Status: | In a relationship with Onition |
| Known Relatives: | Niall Rastra (father), Julie Weiss (mother) |
| Known Powers | |
| Forcefield Generation, Flight | |
| Known Abilities | |
| High Intelligence, Robotics, general Technology Manipulation | |
| Equipment | |
| Various built-in systems, pulse rifle, heavy-duty battlesuit. | |
| No additional information available. | |
Astryle, real name Abigail Rastra, is a cybernetically-augmented inventor from Nova Praetoria, dedicated to the wellbeing of synthetic entities wherever she meets them. Astryle has often been credited with acts of extremism in pursuit of this goal, but time spent socialising with organics has tempered her more radical views, for now at least.
(( WIP as of 01/12/12 - Abi is NOT DEAD and WILL RETURN in some form... ))
Contents |
Biography
Niall Rastra and Early Years
Abigail's father, Niall Edward Rastra, was a Praetorian genius inventor, and the founder of Astral CyberTechnology (ACT), a research organisation dedicated to 'upgrading' the life of the average Praetorian citizen through technology. Rastra worked closely with Praetors Keyes and Berry to design the Praetorian Clockwork, and was for a long time considered their 'human face'. Rastra occupied several high positions in the Ministry of Technology, eventually working his way up to the post of Minister, and it was in this way that he first met Julie Weiss, Advisor to the Minister and the woman who would become Abigail's mother. The two enjoyed a brief affair but never married, and Weiss grew disillusioned with the Cole regime shortly after Abigail's birth, leaving to join the Resistance.
Unaccustomed to childcare, Niall Rastra struggled to bring up Abigail in the 'correct' way whilst continuing to run ACT, but dispite this a strong bond developed between father and daughter. By the age of nine, Abigail had become obese and was prone to extreme shyness, feeling like a blemish on the otherwise handsome face of Praetoria. As a result of this, she withdrew from human society, instead choosing to spend time with the robot staff who manned the ACT facility and offices. Like her father, Abigail cultivated an extremely high level of intelligence, often aiding her father in his projects and designs, and taking a keen interest in all the work going on around her. Nevertheless, she often dreamed of being able to live with 'normal' children, a preoccupation her father shared, turning to drink as the stresses of work, the Ministry and his daughter became unbearable.
The Resistance Plot
Shortly after Abigail's eighteenth birthday, a group of well-organised Resistance infiltrators succeeded in breaking into ACT and kidnapping her father. For twenty-four hours, the authorities searched the tunnels beneath Praetoria for any sign of where Niall Rastra was being held, and were on the trail when the Resistance leader, Calvin Scott, appeared on public television to broadcast Niall's execution. There was no demand for a ransom, they were simply making an example, sending shockwaves through Praetorian community. Official reports claimed that Loyalist teams were just seconds away from the bolt-hole, but they were still too late.
Distraught, saddened by the death of her father, angry at the ineptitude of the authorities and filled with hatred for the Resistance, Abigail became more disconnected from humanity than ever before. Over time, these emotions became focused into an unwavering drive to 'do justice' to the world that had stolen away her father.
ACT and Astryle
Two months after Niall's death, Abigail officially inherited her father's position as the Manager of ACT, and in this capacity, began to work on synthesising all of her father's research into a project that could help her to exact revenge on the Resistance. Over time, as she worked alongside the robotic staff, Abigail began to consider the possibility of a government of synthetics, a form of benevolent dictatorship which would keep human tendencies in check and, in doing so, avert tragedies such as hers. By the time she had completed work on the cybernetic body for which she is now known, Abigail had resolved to do everything in her capacity to work towards the synthetic government concept. Without question, she submitted to intricate surgery to transplant her brain and central nervous system into a robot body which limited her emotions, kept her from ageing and contained all the systems necessary for advanced combat.
Under the moniker of "Astryle", the new Abigail set out in her mission to hunt down the Resistance leaders who executed her father, with all the resources of the ACT facility at her disposal. Over time, she became so singularly focused on vigilante work that the business began to suffer and the name of Rastra was largely forgotten. After several years masquerading as Astryle, Abigail was approached by representatives of Emperor Cole himself who asked her to begin research into dimensional and inter-dimensional technology, offering vast amounts of funding for the project. Inspired by this, and welcome of a chance to take her mind off the Resistance, she put aside her vigilante guise to rekindle her love of inventing and designing.
Primal Earth
During her research into inter-dimensional travel, Abigail succeeded in opening portals to the realms of Primal Earth and the club Pocket D. Doing so brought her into contact with many super-powered beings, as well as more synthetic entities, and though she initially treated the organics she met with hostility, her attitude was gradually tempered through conversations which proved that humanity was not as malevolent as she had deluded herself into believing. As she continued to socialise, frequently making new friends and allies in Pocket D, she gained the confidence to reduce the self-imposed emotional restrictors on her brain, regaining more of her long-neglected humanity. To this day, Pocket D remains one of her usual haunts.
The Prototype
During her time in Pocket D, Abigail came into contact with an Arachnos Prototype designated T-X1, who had been intimidating other patrons in the club. She took it upon herself to attempt to reason with the creature, succeeding in averting a potentially dangerous altercation. However, only days later, the Prototype returned to cause more damage, and through the course of events Abigail realised that the being had become strongly infatuated with her. Having never experienced a romantic relationship before, and wishing to be with someone more like herself at first, Abigail reluctantly informed the Prototype that it was not to be, causing him to react violently against anyone else expressing interest in her. Subsequently, Abigail and the Prototype have met several times, and in every case the creature's hatred for her has seemed stronger. The Prototype's current whereabouts are unknown to Abigail, but she dreads the day when, inevitably, they will meet again.
The Starkweather Altercation
Several days after the Prototype's initial departure, one of Abigail's closest friends Josh, also known as the Salamander, was kidnapped and tortured by the VoPC under John Starkweather. His eventual return to Pocket D provoked a short but large-scale fight during which Abigail alternated between attempting to resolve things peacefully and tending to Josh's wounds. In the aftermath of this event, Abigail and Starkweather have made clear their antagonistic feelings towards each other, and Abigail continues to recruit friends and allies from across the universe with the ultimate goal of bringing Starkweather to justice.
Death
After weeks of largely unsuccessful conflict with the Villains of Paragon City, Astryle was approached by John Starkweather who, in a state of pseudo-drunkenness, offered an emotional apology for all his many acts of violence. Cautious of his uncharacteristic actions, Abigail accepted his apologies, only to be struck suddenly by the same neural virus that was affecting Starkweather and his cohorts. The shear power of the virus overcame the neural inhibitors that were keeping her human brain from breaking down into insanity. Without these safeguards, Abigail experienced an abrupt reversion to humanity, the horror of her new synthetic form causing extreme madness, and shortly after, a violent self-destruct explosion. Abigail Rastra was dead.
ACTReSs One and Resurrection
Almost instantaneous with the destruction of what remained of Abigail Rastra's human form, the ACTReSs project was automatically initiated. Designed by Rastra as part of her investigations into inter-dimensional technology, the robot ACTReSs (Astral CyberTechnology Recognitive System) One contained a small hard-drive, with only about a hundred gigabytes of data, which functioned as the robot's brain. After finding and recieving a psychoelectric signal (in the form of a kiss) from Onition, Abigail's lover and closest confidant, a wireless, interdimensional connection was established between the ACTReSs hard drive and the central supercomputer of the ACT facility, a machine containing neural data collected over the past ten years or so of Abigail's life. The connection allowed the ACTReSs to extrapolate brain patterns and replicate Abigail's own personality, in a sense, resurrecting her.
The Synthetica Group
Back in action, and with Starkweather absent at least for the time being, Abigail began to put in motion plans for her next great project: The Synthetica Group. The Group's main raison d'être stems from her original conviction that the organic world would function better under the guidance of synthetics. Synthetica exists to unite all synthetic beings and experts in technology, so that they can pool their resources, work together, and guide humanity into the Age of Technology. Quite what this entails is currently in question, although Abigail has a strong belief in the coming of Human+, the augmented human, the next evolutionary stage as man integrates with machine. The success of the group remains to be seen - as of present, it is still in the process of recruitment. However, there can be no doubt that Abigail has big plans for Paragon City and its residents, not all of them morally sound...
The end of the Praetorian War has had a significant impact upon Abigail's lifestyle. Though she did not participate directly in the attacks against Tyrant and his cohorts, she was forced to uproot from her home and workplace in the Magisterium, and briefly stored all of her possessions in a warehouse on Peregrine Island, ready to move into the Synthetica Group headquarters once it has been constructed. Abigail recently obtained a PhD in Cybernetic Augmentation Theory, for a paper discussing the importance of tech to the next stage of human evolution, and now introduces herself as Dr Rastra. She also campaigns for the saving and repurposing of the Praetorian Clockwork and the WarWorks robots, feeling that they are too valuable assets in tech development to go to waste.
Digital Transcendence
(( The Kingmaker storyline has been retconned because, thanks to the shutdown process, not enough of my friends were around for it to be worth it. I still like the storyline, and I may yet use it in another MMO, but for now it has been shelved. ))
As the collapse of reality crept closer and closer, Abigail began to put in motion plans to escape. After purging the ACT database of any dangerous schematics, she relocated all of her technology back into storage on Peregrine Island. Her final design was for a Dimensional Data Raft, a device designed to carry neural data across dimensional borders into other realms. This would enable her to transfer her digital consciousness into a new reality, but at the cost of all her physical possessions. She handed control of ACT's technology over to Professor Karen Zifarni, a brilliant expert in tech, hoping that the other woman would be able to put the facilities to better use. After making peace with her friends in Pocket D, she downloaded herself onto the Raft, and waited to see what would happen. As reality began to disintegrate, the epicenter of the collapse gave off waves of dark matter, which were channeled by the raft to slide through the curtain and into a new reality, "Like driftwood washing up on a distant shore..."
Personality
In her original augmented human form, and at her most human, Abigail displayed every characteristic of an eighteen-year-old girl: She was flirtatious, argumentative and extremely carefree, rarely feeling shy or intimidated around strangers. However, despite this, her intelligence often shone through, and she took her work extremely seriously, often going to great lengths to explain the workings of some new device, or debate the merits of certain branches of research. She was equally at home in the field and relaxing in Pocket D, and was always on the lookout for a new business opportunity or pet project. Some criticised Abigail for seeming to disregard the gravity of some situations, but she always attempted to stand up for her friends, synthetic and organic, if they were threatened or attacked.
In contrast, without human contact for any extended period of time, Abigail resorted to her robotic "personality" - an entirely ruthless entity which possessed the same intelligence, but without the inhibitions of human emotions: Often, the robot Abigail would think nothing of dispatching large numbers of organics who were considered "superfluous", focused solely on the preservation of synthetics and their eventual supremacy. This incarnation of Abigail was rarely witnessed after her arrival in Primal Earth, thanks in large part to the supportive friends she met there.
A final iteration of Abigail's personality lay dormant beneath layers of emotional inhibitors and repressors - namely, the true human Abigail Rastra. According to leaked psychological examinations, if the brain of Rastra were to be stripped of any kind of repression, she would only have to take one look at herself and go insane with the horror of what she has inflicted upon herself. It was theorised that a violent self-destruction would follow just seconds after. Such an event indeed occurred when Abigail's mind was attacked by the virus transmitted to her from John Starkweather, and led to Abigail's presumed death.
At present, in her new, robot form, enough of Abigail's neural data has been preserved in the ACT supercomputer to allow a comprehensive reconstruction of her personality, and as a result, very little is different. The one key example is that the risk of self-destruction is no longer present, as emotional overstimulation can simply be relegated to processors in the ACT facility and temporarily replaced with a harmless simulation of sadness, anger, joy or whatever the required feeling may be. This does mean that, now more than ever, Abigail often finds it difficult to genuinely engage in emotional connections with organics, often keeping the people she meets at arm's length. Additionally, the new ACTReSs chassis comes with the added complication that, should the connection be severed with the ACT supercomputer, she will revert to a basic robotic personality until the connection is re-established.
Relationships
Onition: Abigail has recently entered into a romantic relationship with the synthetic "Onition" or "Oni", after saving him from kidnapping at the hands of the "Villains of Paragon City" group. Young Salamander, Kolta, Tock Strike, CEASE-R, Steam Maid: Abigail's so-called 'harem' of closest friends, mostly synthetics. It is around these people that she feels most human. Prototype T-X1: After expressing tolerance at first, Abigail grew increasingly afraid and guilty over the Prototype, as his romantic pursuits of her grew ever more violent. John Starkweather: These two recognise each other as sworn enemies. Abigail cannot stand to even be in the same room as this man. Danny Thane Wilson: Once considered one of Abigail's closest friends, Danny was later revealed to be selling out her plans to the VoPC. She has kept her distance from him since then. Thorn Bloodrose: The first organic Abigail talked to on Primal Earth, she treats Thorn with a level of caution due to his powers as a succubus, though deep down she counts him as a friend. DJ Kitty: Abigail's best friend, and a fellow techie. The two never miss an opportunity to hang out in Pocket D together, and Abigail feels very protective of Dee, despite the fact that Dee can easily beat her in a straight fight!
Technology
What technology Abigail doesn't possess on her person, she can quickly construct should the situation require it. Built into her chassis she has moderate armour plating, flight jets, a tech-scanner, a tactical HUD and interface known as SARAH (System of Advanced Reticles and Accessible HUDs, also used by other ACT technology), a module to emulate taste and a forcefield generator. In combat situations, Abigail wears an electrokinetic scrambler cloak, which allows for a basic level of radar stealth, though does not hide her from the naked eye. Her stealth chassis also incorporates visual concealment systems. She carries an advanced pulse rifle based on the same laser technology found in the Clockwork, and is capable of controlling a small squad of robotic soldiers designated by the names of stars. In non-combat situations, Abigail prefers to take on the form of a human, albeit one made of metal, with a thin thermosensory weave resembling skin covering exposed areas of chassis. In this state, all the capabilities of combat mode are still available to her, but take longer to load, and are generally unused as they would not emulate human behaviour. Though she still identifies as female, Abigail's chassis is designed with the capability to emulate both male and female human reproductive organs.
The ACTReSs Chassis, currently in use, carries all the same features as the original life-support chassis, with the obvious exception of any organic matter, plus the capability to replicate the appearance of any other biped, through the use of a layer of property-changing panels that can modify skin tone, eye-colour, facial and bodily hair, and even muscle structure, but not height. Additionally, Abigail now counts among her arsenal a large heavy-duty battlesuit designed for close-quarters combat with larger enemies such as mechs and Devouring Earth monsters. While the suit is a separate entity, and is not built into her chassis like her standard combat systems, it is designed to accommodate direct interface with her neural patterns, essentially becoming an extension of her own body, and allowing for added versatility. Abigail's latest investigations have focused around amplifying energy fields to create powerful, overcharged blasts to deal more effectively with whatever new threats are bound to arise from the Primal-Praetorian crossover.
((OOC)) Inspirations
Just liked Praetoria, really... My first vision was of a sort of techno-Batman, standing broodingly atop some skyscraper in Nova Praetoria in the night, with the city lit up below him. I then spent about two hours deciding the look of the armour in the character-creator (standard!) and the thing kind of spiralled from there. In terms of personality, motivations, etc. true believers will recognise parallels with new Doctor Who's Cybermen, particularly Lumic, and the woman from the Christmas one where she was controlling the giant robot... and it blew up because she realised there was all this tech in her brain. I know the science is dubious, but it was a cool concept. Most of the rest of the character came from considering what would be so terrible that you sacrifice your own mortal flesh for a metal suit. I tried at first playing her like a straight-up robot where the emotional level was much more submerged, but it was boring, so I made up some BS about being in the company of organics....
Theme Song: "We Can Make The World Stop" - The Glitch Mob
Abi's on Twitter! Follow @AbiRastra to find out more about goings-on in ACT and her escapades in the City of Heroes...
((OOC: The Kingmaker Saga))
The Kingmaker Arc was designed to be a sort of conclusion to Abi's personal story so far, so that if the game was canceled she achieved at least some kind of closure, and if it wasn't she could start developing in new, more super-teamup based directions (inspired by the awesome RP mythos of the Challengers et al - Seriously, guys!). As it happened, there weren't enough of my own personal friends and relations left actively playing for the arc to be meaningful, so I put it aside. But I still like the ideas and I'd love to use it in another game sometime. Until then, I proudly present a detailed summary of...
Project: Kingmaker
Our heroes are relaxing in Pocket D (where all good adventures begin!) when they are approached by one Gabriel Cazador - a time-travelling angel of justice with an Antonio Banderas accent and dual old school pistols (another alt who never achieved his true potential!). Cazador appears, Kang-the-Conqueror-style, warning of a danger to the future of Paragon city. He invites the heroes to travel with him to the future (via an Architect arc) where Paragon is under a form of benevolent dictatorship, seemingly peaceful and prosperous. All the citizens are cyborgs in some way, and the streets are monitored by imposing, faceless robots who immediately identify the heroes as a threat and attack. The robots are extremely powerful, channeling huge amounts of energy into destructive beams and blasts, but the heroes are eventually victorious, and together with Cazador they return to their own time. Cazador promises to return when it is time to act, and warns the heroes to remain vigilant.
A few days later, the heroes are invited to the unveiling of ACT's latest project - the Kingmaker. The event is a black-tie occasion, where Abi gives a speech about transhumanism on a societal, governmental level as well as a personal one. She then unveils the Kingmaker - a robot that looks almost identical to the high-powered enforcers in the future. As Abi teleports away, the robots inexplicably begin capturing party-going heroes (those who are "killed") until the heroes escape.
The heroes escape the party to discover that ACT and the Kingmakers have launched a full-scale takeover of the city, the new robots virtually indestructible by conventional weaponry. The heroes are called in by Vanguard to contain the fighting and push back the invaders. The heroes fight a series of battles against different variants of the Kingmaker, alongside a host of D-list superheroes ("Scary Dairy, the Bovine Brigadier", anyone?) but ultimately they are fighting a losing battle.
Our heroes retreat to the Vanguard base, where scientists are analysing the remains of a salvaged Kingmaker. As the heroes look on, they discover that the robots are actually cyborgs, metal constructs powered by the still-beating hearts of Incarnates! This is the source of their incredible power - residual Incarnate energy drawn from as-good-as-dead heroes and villains. As they discover this, Cazador reappears, explaining that they must return to the ACT facility and access its central database to find out more about the Kingmakers, their plan and their weaknesses. As the heroes make to leave, the facility is breached by Kingmakers, and the heroes have to fight their way out (with the option of saving the scientists too).
The heroes and Cazador have to fight their way across the city again, this time dodging or carving through patrols of Kingmakers on their way to the ACT facility on Peregrine Island. (Perhaps at one point they are ambushed by flying robots on the ferry from Talos to Peregrine.)
They arrive to find the facility heavily guarded. Cazador recommends they enter through underground storage tunnels which are not as heavily guarded. If the heroes do so, they have to confront a series of rejects and obsolete prototypes from the facility's labs (including a Goliath War Walker or two, why not?) before emerging deep within the facility itself.
Inside, the facility is remarkably quiet. The heroes make their way without resistance to the server room and access the main database. The database hosts all of ACT's data, as well as relegated or unimportant elements of Abi's personality. The heroes have a bizarre conversation with the database where they view security footage of a known incarnate hero (theoretically an old character who is a common friend of our heroes, provided their player's okay with it, for extra drama) having their heart surgically removed by machines, whilst still alive and screaming (*shudders*) with narration to the effect of "Surgery beginning on subject 34, noise levels adjusted to minimalise disruption. It should be notice that the subject is stimulated with a certain chemical formula to maintain bodily functions. Research shows that Incarnate energy typically vacates a body upon termination, so for the purposes of the project, the subject must be kept alive during the operation."
The heroes that Abigail is single-handedly behind the coup, including the next stage, to use the computing power of the city-wide Architect Network to take control of every networked device in the world (internet, Wi-fi, bluetooth, phone signals...), as the foundation for the new technological dictatorship foretold in the first act.
The database, feeling threatened by the heroes, begins to self-destruct, downloading all of its data into a series of ACTReSs droids which look and behave just like Astryle, which rush to attack the heroes in waves, first one, then two, then three, and finally the giant Mech armour. As the heroes defeat ACTReSses, their speech becomes more erratic as more and more data is lost.
When the heroes escape, Cazador encourages them to enter the Architect system to catch up with Abi. In cyberspace - a digital reconstruction of Niall Rastra's old office in Praetoria - the heroes confront Abi, who confidently explains her motivations - Despite many good examples of humanity, there are also many bad, she cites John Starkweather and the Prototype. Humanity is dangerously unpredictable, and it's in its own interests to submit to synthetic control. She's not acting out of hatred for humans, but genuine care. She begs the heroes to reconsider and join her. Those who do are sent to become "Prime" Kingmakers (with the same abilities and distinguishing features, but the chassis of a Kingmaker - I remember the design for the DJ Kitty robot had little cat ears and a scarf!). Those who don't are left, as Abi solemnly teleports away, at the mercy of an imperial craptonne of digitalised Kingmakers. Fortunately this is for spectacle only, and the robots are, mechanically speaking, a lot less powerful than normal. The heroes defeat the robots through the power of badass and make their way through cyberspace to the source of the digital incursion - the Magesterium Tower in Nova Praetoria. Hidden from detection by the dimensional barrier, the tower, hooked up with Architect tech, is the perfect staging ground for the infiltration.
In the Magisterium, the heroes face off against first any characters who might have sided with Abi, synthetically souped-up, and then a robotic reconstruction of Onition with a squad of full-power Kingmakers. Finally, they fight Astryle, until she is defeated, but not dead. The heroes have the choice to destroy Astryle, exterminating her consciousness entirely, wipe her memory, keeping her consciousness and data intact but without the context of her past experiences, or let her go free with no consequences. Regardless of the team's choice, they can then use the Architect rig to purge the system of Kingmakers and so prevent a global takeover.
