| Linden grid account patchouli.woollahra | Port of origin Lower Hamburg, Germany |
| Name fid3lis | Model Yutani Springs PC/8R + custom mods | Serial number CMi-998-60-3173 |
| Manufacturer Yutani Springs (main platform) + CMi Engineering (mods) | Date of manufacture 1990-05-05 |
Configuration: PC/8R
CompanionOS (ported to Yutani Springs bytecode)
CMi Engineering "Potpourri" Content-To-Simulation hardware+software mod
leftover hooks from defunct failed early-era neural-scan puppeting controller
Functional Dates - 5th May 1990 - 12th May 1995, 31 October 2014 - (current date)
Biography:
Originally commissioned as a puppeted actress-bot for a biographical film on one of the earliest white jazz chantreuses-turned-actresses, Camilia Fidelis, "fid3lis" was an off-the-shelf SXD heavily customised by CMi Engineering of LA, intended to veer closer to the uncanny valley than was advisable at the time in order to portray Fidelis in her prime. Camilia was 92 at the time and did both consultancy and helped puppeteer the model on the set of "Forty Years Of Roses", as an attempt to save money with practical effects and rotoscoping rather than synthesise a computer-generated actor, a method which was considerably more expensive and complicated at the time of production.
Camilia Fidelis was claimed by an accident with the experimental neural-scan controller that was being used for fine puppeteering of the unit a month into production, resulting in severe all-round neural scarring leading to permanent vegetation, followed by death a few weeks later. As part of a settlement and attempt to salvage production, CMi Engineering designed an early version of the "Potpourri" Content-To-Simulation Mod, a system designed to base new speech and motions off a corpus of previously collected media data of an individual such as, in this case, a career spanning from Fidelis' first single in 1917 "Come Home Safe" all the way to her farewell swan song in the 50s dystopian sci-fi flick "Where Were You When The Bombs Fell".
The modification was, within the context of the production, a roaring success, with almost nobody being able to tell the unit was not actually a robot on the silver screen. In between clapboards and studio takes however, there were myriad technical issues: occasional disregard for the word of orders given to her (if not the spirit of them), occasional massive near-meltdown spikes in CPU processing and heat production, and a tendency to randomly hop off of standard vocal patterns and motions in favor of frighteningly lady-like irrationality (or at least, how Fidelis behaved in her movies)
After production wrapped up and the release of the movie, the unit was handed over to the Technical Director responsible for suggesting the concept of "Potpourri" to CMi, a Mr Papa(?) Santos. Original plans to reuse her in other movies fell through sadly, as it was found that the Potpourri mod (at least in the prototype version) meshed too tightly with its underlying systems and dataset to be transferred or reprogrammed. Retasked as a home aide and upgraded new hardware and software for social and 'entertainment' activities, the unit served faithfully for several years till the collapse of NSCP in 1994 resulted in the beginning of the end for home-use androids in. Rather than watch her fall apart gradually into a heartbreaking(?) mess, Santos offered her to the Eltenheim Jazz Museum in Western Nevada as a powered-down static display. This serendipitiously allowed the unit to escape the recalls that ensued shortly after, as SXDs and other similar AI variants were recycled, and then subsequently banned in practice by the HEART Act.
Eltenheim Jazz Museum was unfortunately not able to stay open due to poor interest in jazz history in Nevada, and was forced to close early 2015. The unit was picked up at bankruptcy auction by a song by staffers at CMi Engineering as a historical piece, who only discovered the unit was far from gutted and unusable after the fact. The unit was refurbished with a DAX/2m daughterboarded on as a new secondary CPU to boost operating capacity, as well as a less uncanny but hardier external shell and new recharging systems allowing it to recharge via induction. A few sparks of genius also allowed work that helped restrain the Potpourri mod from running rampant as often, though it can still chime in at inopportune/coincidentally witty moments. This unit did not stay too long in the offices though, being rented out at great profit as a vintage refurbish.
The unit has since been flipped multiple times for various tasks including club "entertainment", librarian, and frat house cavemother, in each case being turfed out of a job by one or another foible from her laundry list of bugs and quirks, whether a tendency to make 'no' mean 'no' even for a customer, a lack of intellect, an overdose of diva-tude by turns snappish and overly sultry, or just being visually distracting.
Expect unpredictable shifts between standard vocal/motion patterns and random references from old movies, a frame of mind stuck slightly in ancient times (20th century), and a marked preference for dressing in a sexy manner when left to make its own decisions as to what to dress in. This unit fits like a square peg in a round hole, and whoever picked her up to use in Eisa is somehow having to deal with trying to fit an android of awkward mentality and function into a suitable role.
**a small handwritten note flutters out as you read this bio. It basically reads "This unit has attempted to piece its history as properly as it can, but has had to rely on old promotional reels, news records, partially damaged memories, and a morass of personal documentation and keepsakes safekept for it by its multiple owners. This unit fails to understand the point of storing all this 'bullroar' except that Ms Fidelis strongly said it was desirable to remember my past while heading for the future." The writing is weirdly elegant, as if intended to be calligraphy rather than handwriting...
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Other Contents:
1 certificate, certifying unit is actual unit as used in "Forty Years Of Roses" movie from a long-defunct movie studio in Hollywood.
1 certificate, certifying unit has been refurbished to post-2014 standards where possible by CMi Engineering Refurbishers Section
Several referral mails, of strangely ambivalent nature, from Bellevue Bot-duoir, University of Reformed Sasketchewan's Sasketche-wanders Phi Fraternity House, and the Frumpfelhof University HQ Main Library ('Would Grab By The [unreadable] Again" is scrawled by someone in crayon at the back of the second envelope for some reason)
a tightly sealed set of extremely worn paper letters from "To My fid3lis". For some reason, the letters have been totally sealed with yellow "DO NOT OPEN" tape all around them, as if fid3lis desires her privacy with these letters. The lettering on the tape is oddly similar to that on the note stuck to the main portion of the bio-file.
A picture of a goat, lazily chewing on a grass patch in a desert. The picture is in crayon, but by a proper artist rather than a kid exploring without concern for form, value or fidelity. last updated: 2017-12-18 09:12:26