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Name: Booster DeBonne, NomekopCo Flame-Class Defensive Companion Reploid, serial number 00136 Callsign: Booster Rank: Ensign Species: Reploid Position: None appointed Credits: 4,000 gil Quote: "Won't you fight better if you cheer up? Don't dwell on the past, remember the future we're fighting for!" Power Level: 110 Speed Level: 80 Physical Stats: |
Psychological evaluation:
Description/Personality: (Notes: The Compulsion is to protect people, especially humans, especially children, and the Vulnerability is to water and ice. If deviation from standard rules is allowed, I propose that instead of him taking 200% of normal damage from ice, Booster takes 150% damage and his flame chamber is knocked temporarily offline, negating all continuous fire-based abilities and preventing the use of any fire attacks or counters until the flame chamber restarts.)
In a word, Booster is cute, having been marketed as a guard and low- maintenance companion for children. Much of Booster's body is red, but there are tufts of a cream-colored fur-like substance atop his head, around his neck, and surrounding his tail. Note, however, that while these fluffy part look and even feel like fur, they're actually prehensile, fireproof fibers; thus, Booster can hold small objects in his fluffy regions (most commonly his tail). He has the size and build of a large dog, though his muzzle is shorter than one would expect of a dog that size. His reflective eyes are deep black and almond-shaped. His ears are what truly keep him from resembling a dog, looking like a cross between a rabbit's and a fox's with the rabbit aspect winning out and pointing upwards at roughly 45 degree angles most of the time. Finally, he wears a beautiful yet hardy-looking white gold anklet studded with rubies and high-quality cream-colored pearls on his front right leg; "Courage" is inscribed on the inside in fancy lettering.
Under normal circumstances, Booster is happy-go-lucky and playful, always open to the possibility of a good time, whether that involves something as active as a game of football or as calculating as a game of chess (the latter of which he's particularly good at). However, he knows when the situation calls for him to become more serious -- though he still has a tendency to try to get people to lighten up when it seems like the situation is in danger of collapsing under its own weight. He also has a special sensitivity to a family's need to stay together and a child's need to grow up happy.
Booster fights with as much gusto as he plays, knowing his own strength, his
intended purpose, and what he's fighting for -- almost always to protect
someone. He tends not to hold grudges or exact vengeance, not feeling as if
it's healthy or worth his time to make permanent enemies. However, he's
not stupid, and thus does realize that enemies can be ruthless and relentless
towards him; he won't hesitate to continue to fight someone who continues
to fight him, but if the conflict ends, so does Booster's hostility except
under extraordinary circumstances.
RPG Stats:
Exp Level: 12 - 90%
HP: 11,600
Weapons Limit: 11
Skills:
Name: Scouting
Description: This character has is trained to be a scout. They can move through terrain quickly, silently, and under cover. They
can gain information, and spy excellently as well. These skills can be combined with Stealth and Disguise and/or Agility and
Speed. This allows your character to put these skills to many uses.
Game Effects: This character can move twice as fast through terrain as normal characters can, they can move through silently
and concealed, and they can spy well.
Name: Strategy
Description: The character is an excellent strategist, and can devious excellent tactical plans at ease. They are great at figuring
out an enemy's tactics, and guessing their next move.
Game Effect: The character can create and analyze strategies at ease. The player may ask about the opponents' tactical plan
after observing them a little and you can reveal things to him. You can also allow their plan to work fairly well.
Abilities:
Name: Lifeup Duriability
Description: The character has enhanced durability, and their HP will start out higher than normal. They will be more resistant to
effects that would harm their species (example: a human with durability wouldn't be harmed as much by freezing water as a
normal human).
Game Effect: +500 starting HP.
Enhanced Senses
Description: This character's senses are enhanced and therefore
are better than others senses. Their sight, hearing, smell, taste,
and touch. These heightened senses can be put to many uses.
Game Effects: This character's senses are all enhanced, and are
stronger than normal. This can be put to a variety of uses. It
will decrease chances of being snuck up on.
Name: Power Hungry
Description: The character is stronger than normal and is more powerful than most people.
Game Effects: The character gains +10 PL to their stats.
Drawbacks:
Vulnerability
Description: Your character is harmed 150% more by ice/snow/cold than normal people
Game Effects: The character is vulnerability to Cold. The
character receives 150% as much damage or bad effects from the
attack (or good effects) [AP times 150%].
Name: Compulsion
Description: The character has a compulsion about protecting humans, especially small children, and will do it any chance they get at anytime or place.
Game Effect: Will attempt to protect small children at all costs.
History:
In response to the threat of Mavericks when it first surfaced, entrepeneurs
were bound to exploit the booming demand for means to protect one's
children. One such enterprising man, the CEO of the small-time Reploid
manufacturing company NomekopCo, decided that the best way to appeal to
the terrified masses was with a petlike Reploid guardian that was both
guaranteed not to go Maverick and was cute and loveable. Thus, much
engineering research was done to determine how to make Reploids as
Maverick-proof as possible and marketing research was done to determine
what families and especially children would find the most appealing and
adorable.
When all the research was combined, the result was four models of what they dubbed Defensive Companion Reploids -- the Standard-Class, Water- Class, Electric-Class, and Fire-Class. Plans for Demon-Class and Psionic- Class models were also drafted, but never put to use as the Demon-Class was considered unmarketable and the Psionic-Class too expensive to produce. Indeed, even those models that went into production were expensive; the Standard-Class was the best seller simply because it was the least expensive. The Water-Class, Electric-Class, and Fire-Class models were only bought by the wealthiest of families. [Note: Talk to me if you're interested in the standard abilities of each model.]
On June 13th, 2110, FC-DCR-00136 was activated in a mansion in Neo Angeles owned by Fox DeBonne, the man behind the DeBonne Jewelry empire. The Reploid's playful nature and ability to move especially quickly if need be inspired the DeBonne family to name their new friend Booster. It wasn't long before the children of the family, seven-year-old Hannah and eleven-year-old Lauren, noticed Booster's intelligence and started treating him more like a friend than a pet or device. The three often played games together, most often hide-and-seek and most notably chess (though the latter only with Lauren).
Unfortunately, this idyllic situation was put in jeopardy when the seizing of the Reploids in the year 2111 took place. The DeBonnes tried to hide Booster, but the records showing of his presence were all too clear; Fox DeBonne had to resort to heavy bribery in order to keep his children's favorite "toy" from being spirited away. It took a lot of effort and a lot of money -- the family had to resort to things like waiting to buy other luxuries and eating nothing but ordinary foods for a few months in order to get by -- but in Fox's and his wife Carol's eyes, a little hardship was a small price to pay for his children's happiness.
As the years went by, the children and CorSec's power grew; by the time Hannah was 12 and Lauren was 16, CorSec had started bothering the Reploids. This amazed Booster; surely it wasn't necessary for CorSec to violate the Wastelands just to take care of the Reploids' own criminals. Didn't CorSec have anything better to do with their time? Didn't his exiled kin have their own justice system? Were it not for the fact that it would have hurt the DeBonne children so -- thus inflicting harm on the ones he was currently charged to protect -- he would have left for the Wastelands to help protect the Reploids.
Life with CorSec in power eventually began to touch the DeBonnes more directly. CorSec officers occasionally came by to try to "collect" Booster. At first Fox and Carol were able to bribe such officers into leaving, but it wasn't long before CorSec realized it needed to send in officers with greater loyalty. Threats proved insufficient to make the DeBonnes give away Booster, however -- by now, he was clearly part of the family in everyone's eyes. Thus, in February of 2120, CorSec finally resorted to force.
The DeBonnes were not caught completely unprepared; they did have security guards and a few minor automated defenses to take care of human intruders. However, these security measures were crafted with two or three armed thieves or kidnappers in mind, not a trained CorSec strike team. The minor defenses were quickly breached, resulting in CorSec soldiers prowling the mansion. The present members of the family (Lauren was off at college at the time) hid in a locked bedroom and cowered at first... until Carol said that she wished Booster could just get rid of them as he was meant to get rid of any Mavericks that might approach the mansion.
This ignited a grim and unnerving conversation -- Booster knew full well what the repercussions might be if he were to break the First Law of Robotics, and a breach this would be since the others would not come to physical harm were he to give himself up -- which eventually led to the family deciding that not only was there no other choice to keep the family together, but that Booster didn't deserve to be exiled or worse by CorSec. Thus, Booster heavy-heartedly wandered the house and attacked the soldiers who by now had split up in order to search the huge estate more efficiently, killing two and maiming two more; the fifth noticed what was going on and escaped before it was too late.
Knowing that CorSec would likely return to attempt to apprehend Booster again, Fox DeBonne invested quite a bit of money into turning his family's home into a virtual war fortress, thus converting DeBonne Mansion into DeBonne Castle. He also managed to use his connections to find a former NomekopCo employee to repair Booster's wounds. At the same time, Carol decided to give Booster a badge of honor for standing up against CorSec: a white gold anklet, studded with the best rubies and cream-colored pearls to match his own colors, with the word "Courage" scrawled on the inside, custom-crafted by the DeBonne Jewelry corporation's own employees. Meanwhile, the story of the raid on DeBonne Mansion was circulated through the press; unfortunately, despite the family's best efforts, CorSec's side of the story was very heavily favored. DeBonne Jewelry's stock and sales took a severe blow; for years, the family was forced to live humbly, living off of money earned by Lauren and soon Hannah in ordinary jobs as much as through their usual means.
Time passed; the family's bad reputation faded slowly. CorSec tried to attack DeBonne Castle twice more before concluding that the place was so well-defended that a successful raid would cost more time, money, and trouble than it was worth. As far as family affairs went, Lauren grew more interested in teaching at private schools than continuing the family's business, and in 2134 married a mechanic by the name of Alan Karlson. Booster found the wedding itself to rather formal for such a happy occasion, but found the party afterwards to be great fun. Lauren moived in with Alan after that, but always kept in touch and remained one of Booster's favorite chess opponents.
First contact with aliens in 2150 helped the company regrow a bit faster as those races of aliens interested in decorative objects showed interest in human jewelry and humans grew more interested in learning about their neighbors' scandals than paying attention to old ones of their own. Around this time, Hannah took control of the company as Fox was growing too old to keep up with the pace of corporate life. Meanwhile, Lauren and Alan raised their own child, Jack, whom Booster always enjoyed visits with as he was quite rambunctious -- often too much for Lauren or Alan to handle at times.
In 2161, Carol's health began to fail; her heartbeat became irregular. The company was in good shape again by now, so the family attempted to get her the best possible treatment, but she was simply too old to be helped; that June, she died of heart failure. The DeBonnes were hit hard by this loss, especially Fox. Booster noticed a change in Fox's eating habits as a result of this; he ate less, and much of what he did eat wasn't very healthy. Booster and the rest of the family tried to comfort him and convince him to eat better, but it did little good; Fox DeBonne died in January of 2162.
Booster did the best he could to help Lauran and Hannah through the loss of their parents and help Jack through the loss of his grandparents. He tried to liven up Fox's funeral, encouraging those there to be happy that he lived rather than sad about his death, and for weeks afterward tried to encourage the others to continue to enjoy their own lives. He found this difficult, however; the pain was still lingering, a pain he had to admit he also felt even though he was able to carry on despite it. Concluding that the funerals hadn't been enough to do Fox and Carol's memories justice, Booster got the family together to discuss what could be done to honor them better. After some swapping of options, the family agreed that the best memorial to these two humans who had helped to construct so strong a family and had done so much to protect it was to convert DeBonne Castle into an orphanage. Thus, the building underwent a second transformation, this time mostly in appearance and function. Lauren gave up her job at the private school in order to help teach the children at the orphanage.
The orphanage had filled to capacity when the war with the Tsivrixsh broke out. Booster attempted to join the Hunters, hoping to protect all the world's children from this new threat, but was shocked when he was turned down on account of his refusal to go to the Wastelands and his "Maverick" behavior towards the CorSec officers decades ago. Amazed that his trouble with the government had not yet completely faded from the record, Booster resigned himself to simply continuing to help around the orphanage, now quite frequently by helping to protect it from any attackers.
After the war, Hannah passed ownership of DeBonne Jewelry to one of her most trusted advisors, who agreed to continue to help fund the orphanage, so that she could give the children more attention in her last years, committing herself to the orphanage as much as Lauren already had. However, over the years, DeBonne Jewelry loses steam as other jewelry companies find themselves more able to compete thanks to materials supplied by Foreigner Inc., forcing it lower its own prices in order to compete. Had it not owned some of the last precious metal and jewel mines on Earth, it too would have needed to depend on Foreigner Inc.
The granting of equal rights to Reploids was a joyous occasion to Booster; at last he could do whatever he liked without fear of his past returning to haunt him as it did a few years before. He celebrated alongside his family and the children of the orphanage with a great party, a good clean bash not soon to be forgotten. The disbanding of CorSec was also good news to the DeBonnes, though this was celebrated simply through an exchange of smiles among Lauren, Hannah, and Booster.
The mid-2180s to early 2190s were somewhat difficult for the DeBonnes, however. DeBonne Jewelry was no longer an industry giant, so other forms of funding for the orphanage had to be found, and fast. To this end, Hannah put much effort into appealing to other companies in hopes of finding some philanthropists high in their ranks and Booster tried to devise some cheap but enjoyable entertainment to center fundraisers around while Lauren took on some of Hannah's and Booster's usual duties to give them the time. Booster's approach was the most effective, thanks to him really knowing how to throw a party, though Hannah did manage to coax a few fairly large lump sums from other CEOs as well.
Just when it seemed like life was going well, however, the plague hit. Most of the children became ill; two dozen died, and about a dozen more kids found their way to the orphanage due to having lost their parents. Booster shut down a total of four times due to plague infections before finally adapting to it; it was fortunate that the Mavericks were too busy with their own plague- related concerns to attack then. But worst of all, Lauren and Hannah both died from the plague, leaving Booster to carry on his life and run the orphanage all alone. Even Booster's cheery nature proved not to be unshakeable through all this; the tragedy of Hannah and Lauren's deaths, as well as those of so many of the children and the parents of the new ones, all of which he was helpless to stop, was enough to cause him to actually cry.
After the plague, Booster faced a new problem: not finding funding -- people were much more willing to help out an orphanage financially in the wake of the shared tragedy -- but finding volunteers. People were so busy that few had time to help more actively; at first people were cleaning up the mess after the plague, then they were trying to deal with the Mavericks. Worse still, Booster couldn't find anyone to help him run the place; he had to do all the administrative work *and* fight off any Maverick attacks alone. Not fun -- and with no one else to mind the orphanage, he couldn't join the Special Unit to help take out Conviction, either.
When the Earth was laid to waste, DeBonne Orphanage weathered the bombardments surprisingly well; the outer wall was blown to bits, all the windows shattered, many breaches of the wall of the mansion proper were torn, and some parts of the building collapsed, but the building remained standing as a smoking shell, having suffered no direct hits. However, a good third of the children were dead as a result, and Booster had to dig himself out of some rubble. For days after that, Booster tried to reassure the terrified children, cheer them up, and find food and water in the area to support them, using what was left of the orphanage to shelter them. However, two things rapidly became clear: one, there were Tsivrixsh patrols crawling around that would undoubtedly find the orphanage fast, and two, what little there was to eat and drink in the ruins of Neo Angeles was going to run out fast. Thus, Booster decided to start heading east with the children, as there was a lot of land to traverse in that direction; hopefully, he reasoned, along the way he would find *something* of use...
As luck would have it, after a few days, Booster and his slowly shrinking company of orphans met up with a trio of fit-looking humans -- a policeman named Harold, a mechanic named Shara, and a pilot named Ray -- in the mountains. They claimed to be fighting against the Tsivrixsh and following two rumors, one about a hidden "Paradise" and another about a Vulture that had crashed in the region. Their plan was to capture this mech and search for the Paradise from the sky with it. However, they had no means to ensure that the mech was still there -- or any way to deal with any Tsivrixsh who might be present. Filled with hope, Booster agreed to scout ahead, leaving the others in a secluded cave.
Carefully, Booster made his way northward, where the Vulture was supposed to be. It was indeed present... but so were a handful of Tsivrixsh soldiers. He observed their comings and going for a few hours, then slipped back to the cave and explained the situation. Together, Booster, the small resistance group, and the children came up with a plan: Booster and Harold would pick off soldiers one by one as discreetly as they could, then when the Tsivrixsh were all eliminated, Shara and Ray would hurry to the mech, Shara trying to repair it, Ray trying to figure out how to work it, while Harold and Booster stood guard. Once everything was ready, everyone would enter the mech and they'd be off.
That night, they implemented their plan. It seemed to be working well at first; Booster and Harold managed to eliminate all the apparent guards without being caught. However, when Ray and Shara made a break for the Vulture, another guard emerged from inside it. The pair fortunately managed to stay in one piece and keep the guard busy long enough for Harold and Booster to come to the rescue, then get out of the way as the real battle began. This guard was apparently rather skilled compared to the others, as the battle proved rather difficult; Booster later reasoned that they had counted on a resistance group getting as far as they had. Their champion proved to be relatively well-chosen; he (she? it?) did fall, but not before taking Harold's life.
Shara and Ray, while disheartened, had little time to mourn; everyone present knew that they didn't have much time before more Tsivrixsh came to figure out why reports stopped coming from that site, a fact Booster reminded them of. When the two of them entered the Vulture, however, they noticed another problem: there was only room for three people. The children couldn't come. Torn, Booster pondered his options as Shara and Ray worked, finally sadly deciding that he would serve the world's children best by leaving the orphans in the cave so that he could help Shara and Ray find the Paradise, as they might not survive without someone with some combat ability with them. Explaining this to the children, giving them a few survival tips, and promising that he would return for them once he found the Paradise, he tearily said goodbye to them and took off in the Vulture with Ray and Shara.
The trio had barely spent a day searching before two other Vultures appeared on the scanners, headed in their direction. Ray tried his best to avoid them, but they pursued, resulting in a high-speed, high-altitude chase that lasted for hours. In the end, though, reinforcements came from other directions, giving the resistance group little choice but to attempt to fight if they were to keep their prize. However, they were severely outnumbered; it wasn't long before their liberated Vulture was too heavily damaged to remain airborne.
The landing was very rough; however, none of them had tiime to assess their injuries, as several alarms were going off, warning of the vehicle's highly unstable condition. The trio had no choice but to run for their lives; however, Booster was able to do this a lot better than his new human friends... Once the Vulture exploded, Booster was merely thrown several meters forward, but Shara and Ray weren't lucky enough to be far enough away from the mech to survive the blast. Inwardly mourning their deaths and vowing to do his best to prevent any more of Earth's remaining inhabitants from dying so, Booster continued his search for the rumored safe haven known simply as Paradise, though it occured to him that he had no idea just where or how far the chase had taken him.
Eventually, Booster crossed paths with another, larger resistance group...
Armaments:
| Standard Combat (punches/kicks/etc) | Slots Used: 5 / Slots Left: Unlimited | Elemental: None / Status Effect: None |
| Attack 1 capabilities: | Kick | 650 AP / 0 PL |
| Attack 2 capabilities: | Ram/Headbutt/Throw/Etc | 625 AP / 0 PL |
| Attack 3 capabilities: | Bite | 950 AP / 0 PL |
| Attack 4 capabilities: | Claw Slashes | 775 single, 900 AP combined, 0 PL |
| Defense 1 capabilities: | Paw Block | No Loss of PL or SL (if your SL is higher than attackers') |
| Defense 2 capabilities: | Grab | No Loss of PL or SL (if your SL is higher than attackers') |
| Defense 3 capabilities: | Defense Crouch | 1/2 AP damage reduced, 0 PL |
| Standard Hunter Saber (close range weapon) | Slots Used: 3 / Slots Left: 3 | Elemental: None / Status Effect: None |
| Attack 1 capabilities: | Regular slash | 1,500 AP / 1 PL Usage |
| Attack 2 capabilities: | Charged Slash | 3,200 AP / 2 PL Usage |
| Defense 1 capabilities: | Standard parry of melee weapons | Block Without Loss of PL or SL (if your SL is higher than attackers') |
| Flame Chamber (Long-range weapon) | Slots Used: 3 / Slots Left: 3 | Elemental: Fire / Status Effect: None |
| Attack 1 capabilities: | Ember Throw -- Booster's flame chamber produces small coals which are then deposited in his tail to be hurled at the enemy, usually in the middle of a 360. | 1,500 AP, 1 PL Usage |
| Attack 2 capabilities: | Flamethrower -- Booster breathes flames over one enemy. | 3,500 AP, 2 PL Usage |
| Special 1 capabilities: | Ash Blower -- Booster blows fine black ash from his mouth which gets into a Reploid's gears or human's eyes, thus lowering the victim's attack accuracy. | Slow; 4 PL Usage |
| Special 2 capabilities: | Heat Aura -- Excessive heat waves eminate from Booster's body, distorting his appearance slightly and making him a little more difficult to hit. | 1 PL Usage |
| Enhancement Modules (Special ability) | Slots Used: 3 / Slots Left: 3 | Elemental: None / Status Effect: Enhances |
| Attack 1 capabilities: | Fly-by -- Booster can deliver a physical blow at very high speed with the help of his speed enhancement module | 700 AP, +30 SL (for this attack only), 2 PL Usage |
| Attack 2 capabilities: | Mirage Wave -- A speed/physical crossover melee attack that's basically a weaker, non-elemental variation of Flame Mirage, Booster attacks the enemy multiple times in very rapid succession from seemingly every direction at once. | 3,000 AP, 5 PL Usage |
| Special 1 capabilities: | Haste | +40 SL Cannot excede Max Speed though, limited time, 5 PL |
| Crippling Gaze (Special ability) | Slots Used: 1 / Slots Left: 5 | Elemental: None / Status Effect: Stun |
| Attack 1 capabilities: | Crippling Gaze | 70% Stun; 6 PL |
Limits:
None.
Attack: Anti-Tamper Stun -- Anyone who opens one of Booster's access panels or who breaks the plane of the opening revealed by them is targeted with a strong stun pulse which has been proven effective on standard issue military Reploids and rookie human military personnel. Unless the person attempting to modify Booster has Heightened Senses or is aware beforehand of this feature of the Defensive Companion Reploid series, there is no chance of dodging. The pulse, while strong, might be shrugged off by particularly powerful individuals. In order to make legitimate maintenance possible, Booster has a special code that may be input through a jack just beneath the base of his tail. Booster himself is unaware of the code, though he knows it exists. In addition, an EMP will disable the system.
Counter: Anti-Viral Process -- Not all attempts at reprogramming necessarily involve physical tampering. Knowing this, NomekopCo incorporated a potent anti-viral system into the Defensive Companion Reploid line. In the event of a viral infection, Booster will immediately shut down except for the anti-viral systems, which will attempt to purge the infection from Booster's system. This process is very effective, but may result in Booster shutting down at inopportune times for hours on end...
Counter: Proprietary Platform -- As an added defense, the DCR series uses a completely foreign API -- someone unfamiliar with it would be unable to modify Booster without doing a lot of observation of and experimentation on his systems. Of course, this can work against companions as well. Also, Booster may not be affected by some weaker, less adaptable viruses