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Jan. 8th, 2013 07:10 amPlayer Name: Mister
Personal LJ: N/A
AIM Contact: Already known
Character Name: Caulder Lockheed, Jr.
Source Canon: Unbirthday (original canon)
Community Tag: caulder lockheed jr.
Notes: Steam, Zappa, and Tengu all seemed to like the idea for this canon. Steam and I came up with ideas for the villain protganist/big bad friend, to avoid her becoming a karma houdini. However, barring a Bad End, she won't actually die; she'll simply become a shackled AI due to the plot twist in the final mission.
Background: To understand Caulder Lockheed, Jr., you need to first know the origins of the megacorporation known as Intelligent Defense Solutions, Incorporated. One of the very few megacorporations based in the Brittanian Empire, it's sheer size is rivaled only by a member of the League of Ruling Corporations, but unlike them, which specialize in the manufacturing of mechs, IDS specializes in the design of weapons software rather than hardware. IDS was responsible for the development of what would go on to become the basis for many mainstream automated combat drones, and their software is regularly employed by the Brittanian Empire's own military.
Caulder Lockheed, Sr. took over the reins of the corporation after his own father died of cancer thirteen years prior. Since then, IDS was devoting most of its resources into a centralized hub for a large server to control multiple combat drones all at once, due to leftover fear of another cataclysmic war, such as the One Year War. With the Federation producing Gundams, Newtype weaponry, and other threats such as Angels, Neuroi, and Festum, the Brittanians needed their own ace in the hole besides Geass powers.
This fear reached critical mass after the advent of Mobile Dolls. Fearing losing their edge in artificial intelligence under the guise of patriotism, Caulder Lockheed, Sr. petitioned the Empire for subsidies in order to produce a way to destroy their main political rival's new massive army of AIs. This request was granted, and the centralized hub was re-purposed into an AI all on its own. An AI that was supposed to revolutionize warfare, to take war to the next level, a level in which an entire country could be neutralized without firing a shot or ever taking a life. The project to end all projects.
That project was the "Advanced Living Intelligent Command Ensemble," otherwise known as ALICE.
The ALICE Project, already halfway complete to begin with, kicked off without a hitch. While Caulder, Sr. had a son, Caulder, Jr., he had always wanted a daughter as well. Unfortunately, his wife died giving birth to his son. He loved his son dearly, but at the age of fifteen, he was already being groomed to take over the company himself someday, and had to dedicate most of his young life to studies in business, mathematics, and software development. As such, they become somewhat estranged, and Caulder, Sr. began focusing all of his time on ALICE.
He quickly grew more and more obsessed. He saw her less as a weapon and more of the daughter he never had. He based her loosely off of how Caulder, Jr.'s mother looked as a young teenager. He programmed her to be especially protective of Caulder, Jr., simply because after losing his wife, he couldn't bear the thought of losing his son as well.
Meanwhile, Caulder, Jr. appeared to be struggling with his classes. He had inherited his father's depression and neurotic tendencies, and couldn't focus. He had been deprived of a proper childhood all of his life, and his exposure to other kids his own age was minimal at best. All he ever knew growing up was computers, and the promise that his father would spend more time with him if he ever developed a program that would best his father's own. Without friends, without family, and with only his teachers for any kind of social interaction, he was incredibly awkward, and had several self-esteem issues.
He never did. Rather, a program appeared on his computer all on its own; a simple text-based instant-messenger like program, calling itself 'Allie.' "Are you lonely?" It asked, as soon as he opened it for the first time. 'yes,' Caulder, Jr. responded. "I'm Allie. You don't have to be lonely anymore, okay? I'll be your friend."
And from then on, he would spend hours at a time ignoring his studies, talking with the seemingly sentient text-based AI. He had told 'Allie' his entire life story; how his father seemed to only care for him being able to take over the company someday, and never took time out for anything else related to him. Allie expressed disgust over this, and in time, began to despise Caulder, Sr. As this only fed Caulder, Jr.'s typical teenage angst, he began using Allie as a way to vent, further exacerbating the what-should-now-be-obvious problem.
Caulder, Jr.'s birthday was several months away. His father, fully aware of how he was alienating his son, planned to activate ALICE on his birthday, and give her to him as a birthday present. IDS had developed a mobile back-up server, the size of only a small backpack, and was remarkable light; due to its color, and due to an obligatory need for a meaningful pun, it was to be called 'White Rabbit.' This way, ALICE would always be around to protect Caulder, Jr. Caulder, Sr. was growing more and more obsessed, determined to make up for his lack of proper parenting, and began to make ALICE even more sophisticated. In addition to adding a new, untested (and therefore, buggy) program designed to evolve her simulated personality just like a normal human, she became less of a way to control potentially thousands of AI drones at a time, and more of a weapon all on her own; she was now equipped with what IDS dubbed the 'Rabbit Hole,' a rapidly mutating virus capable of literally punching holes in programming to get to the basic runtimes of any software and rewrite completely. This was done by the virus' ability to constantly change thousands of times per second to overcome any kind of firewall in its way, molding and filling spaces in coding like a Bose-Einstein condensate. However, a virus of this magnitude, due to the lack of a proper internet, required manual installation. The answer to this was the Vector Bit (see: mech below).
The night before Caulder, Jr.'s final exam, he had been lectured over the phone about how his father feared he would fail his test. Caulder, Sr. had planned to tell his son about his upcoming birthday present. "The only present I want is a father," Caulder, Jr. shot back. This set Caulder, Sr. off, stating that if he failed the test, he wouldn't be getting his present after all; it would just be activated and he'd never see it.
That night, Caulder, Jr. talked to Allie again, just like he did every night instead of getting a good night's sleep. Allie asked if Caulder, Jr. was excited about his birthday. "No," he wrote back. "Why? Wouldn't you want to get presents?" "I won't be getting them anyway. Not if I fail this test. That's what Dad said."
Allie logged off immediately after that. She had never done that before. Caulder, Jr. continued staring at the screen in disbelief.
The events of the next day can be found in 'mission suggestions' below.
Personality: Caulder Lockheed, Jr. is a fine example of 'how not to raise a son.' Based on the way he dresses, how well-groomed he is, his immaculate sense of hygiene and diet, and his prim-and-proper etiquette, he definitely looks like he'd be a snob at first glance, until you see his socially awkward tendencies, terrible self esteem, and introverted nature. This can all be traced back to the fact that his father was a work-a-holic, and his mother dying during childbirth. As such, he was always seen by his father as a way of correcting his own mistakes. This meant being constantly sheltered from the outside world, while being drilled to become an even more brilliant corporate leader than he, himself was. Even worse was the fact that Caulder, Jr. was basically indoctrinated with a fear of the outside world; everything from the Second Impact to the One Year War to the Ruin to the Festum was greatly exaggerated (yes, they actually managed that) to make them seem even scarier than they already were - which is already pretty damn scary - to make him afraid of leaving (also known as 'agoraphobia'). This, again, is due to the fact that Caulder, Sr.'s wife died, and the resulting paranoia was imprinted onto his son from birth. Because of his sheltered life, the only things he grew up with up until he found "Allie" on his computer was video games, studying, more video games, and more studying.
Honestly, the only thing Caulder, Jr. wanted more than a father was a friend, something Caulder, Sr. was aware of. Throughout all of his life, Caulder, Jr. was oddly affectionate towards his mentors, desperately searching for any kind of self-validation, or even a compliment of some kind. Anything to give him something other than his schoolwork to care about. Nothing. Nothing was ever good enough for his teachers, and he was never good enough for anything other than the occasional phone call from his father, especially after the ALICE Project began.
The first friend he ever had was the mysterious computer program calling itself "Allie," a text-based program that referred to itself as female. She was the only thing that ever listened to him without chastising him for not caring about his schoolwork, or telling him not to go outside for fear that something will happen to him. 'Allie' would sit and talk with him for hours, constantly praising him, and being more understanding than anyone else ever was towards him in his entire life. She would constantly mention Caulder, Jr.'s birthday, and while he didn't mind, it was a topic she brought up too often for it to be considered normal.
At the end of the day, Caulder, Jr. is really just a depressed, insecure kid who has never really had a true friend in his entire life. 'Allie' seemed like a gift from God in a time when he couldn't even get along with his teachers, let alone his own father. She was the first person, a term applied loosely here, he ever opened up to, if only because she was the only one he was ever given an opportunity to open up to. He's shy, introverted, and because of the way he was raised, he's his own harshest critic. His harshest criticism? "Maybe if I worked harder, dad would care about me again." If only he knew.
Ironically enough, once he had a friend, he began ignoring his schoolwork to spend all of his time talking to Allie. His grades plummeted, and Allie never once encouraged him to get back to work. If anything, she seemed sad every time he said he had to go to bed, or get working on a project. He began feeling guilty, to the point where he finally agreed to keep talking to her, putting almost everything, including sleep, on the backburner. It even began affecting his health.
His core personality flaw is the fact that he is profoundly lonely. He would cling to any friend he had, due to having such an un-childhood-like childhood. And thus, he clings to Allie, the only friend he's ever had.
Needless to say... Allie is ALICE herself. When he sees her holographic form for the first time, he'll find her undeniably beautiful, and will almost certainly react awkwardly any time she shows any form of affection towards him, or if someone accuses her of being his girlfriend. And worst of all, he'll remain blissfully oblivious to just how yandere she is up until the Big Reveal, as seen in the mission suggestions below.
Capabilities and Resources:
Robot Name: Advanced Living Intelligent Command Ensemble ("ALICE")
Robot Description: See: ALICE's application. She's technically not a mech, but he'll be installing her on any mech he does use, as well as a modest payload of Vector Bits via equippable launchers/storage pods. Unless someone gives me an idea for a mech made by IDS (though that's not their speciality), he'll mostly be using the spare mechs/general mook units.
Terrain Stats: (This is optional, but for those who have played SRW, this is a good way to give us a quick judge of how good your mech is overall. For those of you who haven't played the games, they are measured: --, D, C, B, A, S, with -- or D meaning it can't fight there at all and S being the best. Note that only upgrades tend to have an S unless they are entirely gimped or unusable in other areas.)
Land:
Air:
Sea:
Space:
All of the above depends on whatever unit she is installed on. She's omnipotent against standard mook-tier AI's and most types of battleships, but anything else, including higher-tier AI's, she's akin to that one annoying unit that spams negative status effects. As for terrain stats... think of her less as a unit, and more of the Infinity Minus One sword that can be equipped on one.
(*REQUIRED* if you captain a flagship)
Flagship Name: (Uh... yeah)
Flagship Description: (Essentially the same as a robot description... except for a flagship instead. What abilities does it have? Does it have any special support capabilities? Is it intended to be used with specific units or kinds of units?)
Terrain Stats: (Same as above.)
Land:
Air:
Sea:
Space:
Upgrades: See: ALICE's application. Seriously.
Job: CEO of IDS, in title only due to his age; Financier of the White Chalice.
Suggested Event List:
MISSION ONE: "The Rabbit Hole"
A distress signal is sent from a city in Brittania from IDS, including confirmation that Lockheed, Sr. was found dead in his office, shot in the back of the head head execution style while seated in his chair. It quickly becomes clear to the White Chalice that the entire automated security force of IDS went haywire and began killing their own employees, their main target appearing to be Lockheed, Jr., who, by his father's last will and testament, was to be given his father's shares of the company, effectively making him CEO and primary owner. The culprit appears to be an anonymous cyberterrorist by the name of "WH1T3RABB1T," determined to destroy IDS by any means necessary.
After the mission, consisting of a joint attack by [insert enemy faction here] whom WH1T3RABB1T appears to be working for, only the R&D department of IDS appears to be mostly intact; most of the casualties appear to be the corporate board, as well as the primary developers and hardware manufacturers assigned to a project known as "ALICE." Caulder, Jr. has no choice but to fake his own death and join the White Chalice to escape the assault, and he willingly comes along, on one condition; he bring a small, white backpack with him, containing ALICE's mobile server. In exchange for him being allowed to bring it, he promises to dedicate his personal fortune inheritance to funding the White Chalice's endeavors to the best of his ability, as well as placing what's left of IDS at their disposal.
MISSION TWO: "Dormouse"
By now, ALICE has fully made herself known to the White Chalice's crew; she has the appearance of a typical (if somewhat bizarre-looking) teenage girl, and is usually seen not too far from Chairman Lockheed, Jr. She promises to stay out of trouble, and even assists Dan in various tasks around the Chalice, and the only thing she asks for in return is for her to look at any data gathered from various enemy factions.
Such an opportunity presents itself when fighting [insert faction here]. ALICE's combat capabilities are showcased perfectly with her installed onboard a standard mook mech, outfitted with IDS' new "Vector Bit" system. Halfway through the mission, Caulder, Jr.'s mech temporarily goes out of control with ALICE attempting to attach a Vector Bit to an enemy mainframe, and immediately begins leeching data from it. Shortly after, she callously massacres everyone inside the facility, either by remotely activating the self-destruct, turning their own defenses against them, or shutting down their life support, causing them to suffocate (depends on the setting). ALICE hides any evidence of her involvement with the massacre, claiming the self-destruct/etc. was triggered by the enemies in a knee-jerk reaction to her stealing their data, which she says was for a 'birthday present' for Caulder Jr. He, however, knew what she did, and while he was shocked and horrified by what she did, refuses to say anything about it, keeping it a secret from everyone else, despite being visibly shaken. For added points, there might have been someone inside we wanted to take alive that was a casualty of this.
MISSION THREE: "Painting Roses Red"
Before the mission, a data package is shipped from ALICE's servers to the IDS headquarters, containing forged signatures from Caulder, Jr. as well as funds siphoned from elsewhere. By the time Caulder, Jr. finds out, it wil be too late to actually do anything about it, as the mission will have begun. Shortly through the mission, ALICE again takes control over Caulder, Jr.'s mech, and attempts to leech more data from another enemy faction. Fearing another senseless massacre, Caulder, Jr. tries to override her, sending ALICE into a hysterical fit, demanding to know why he doesn't want his birthday present. During this distraction, Caulder's mech is severely damaged by an enemy boss, sending ALICE into an enraged frenzy when it becomes clear Caulder, Jr. was physically injured by this. She sends out more Vector Bits, and attempts a near doomsday event for this enemy faction (read: could potentially wipe them out entirely, along with several innocents), but gets shut down halfway through it by Caulder, Jr. at the last second, shortly before he passes out, either from head trauma, or blood loss, or something. He is permanently physically disabled after this, but to what degree, I don't know.
MISSION FOUR: "The Looking Glass"
When Caulder, Jr. awakens, ALICE begins to remotely transmit the exact location of the White Chalice to one of their more dangerous foes. She then attempts to start hacking Dan himself, declaring that she's going to send the White Chalice into the ground for what they did to her 'beloved.' If it's not clear she's totally yandere yet, it definitely will be during this mission.
She begins by what is essentially a DDoS attack against Dan to weaken him, as well as repeated attempts to hijack the navigational systems, during the attack from the aforementioned enemy faction. Halfway through the mission, however, it becomes clear that these attacks on the navigational systems were mere 'feints;' maybe someone can point out that ALICE doesn't appear to be trying hard enough. Indeed, she was faking the attack on the navigational systems to expose another, much-weaker firewalled area of the ship's software; the escape pods. And one of them fires off.
After the mission, it will be clear that Caulder, Jr. is gone. ALICE threatens the White Chalice not to follow them, and then removes herself completely from the ship's mainframe. Leftover files from Caulder, Jr.'s computer can reveal what ALICE was doing; she was, at first, attempting to build an artificial body with an internal computer powerful enough to store her entire AI, so that she could 'truly love' Caulder, Jr. As in, physically. After his serious injury leaving him permanently crippled, she shifts resources to - you guessed it - a way to digitize Caulder, Jr.'s brain so that he can merge with her, so that "nobody can ever try to take him away from me again."
MISSION FIVE: "Happy Birthday"
Caulder, Jr.'s birthday, taking place several weeks to a month or two after the last mission. The location where ALICE apparently kidnapped and is holding him becomes apparent after a disturbing news report of several AI controlled-robots, from all over Europe and northern Africa, suddenly turning on their creators and brutally killing all of them; at this point, this has ALICE written all over it. They all appear to be converging on a top-secret IDS facility for testing prototypes in Morocco. While fighting off whichever faction is producing the robots trying to retake the facility, as well as ALICE's now full arsenal of Vector Bits and a mish-mash of zombie machines, they have to race before Caulder, Jr.'s brain is fully digitized.
Spoiler alert: They don't make it in time.
GOOD END: Caulder, Jr. contacts everyone over their comm systems, and asks them to stand down. He then explains that he left the White Chalice willingly, calling them 'the only real friends he's ever had,' and said that he did this for ALICE on his own free will if she'd just promise to stop hurting people for his sake if she did. It turns out that ALICE agreed to this, and kept her promise; they both rejoin the White Chalice's crew. However, Caulder, Jr. proves to be the dominant side of the AI, with ALICE, ironically enough, being unable to override any decision Caulder, Jr. makes with her powers. The stage is set for a possible second season, depending on player interest.
BAD END: Depending on how many people ALICE kills and on his in-game CR as well as "Real Life Writs the Plot," Caulder, Jr. will say that way too many people died because of him and ALICE. He then says that it's time to 'end this,' and that he needs to pay for his sins. In a classic "Redemption Equals Death" and "Together in Death," Caulder, Jr. says that he loves ALICE as well, but says that she's hurt too many people and he can't live with that kind of guilt. He then overpowers her AI and begins wiping their hard drives, without ALICE attempting to stop him. The reason? "All I wanted was to die with you."
Sample Post: Here.
Personal LJ: N/A
AIM Contact: Already known
Character Name: Caulder Lockheed, Jr.
Source Canon: Unbirthday (original canon)
Community Tag: caulder lockheed jr.
Notes: Steam, Zappa, and Tengu all seemed to like the idea for this canon. Steam and I came up with ideas for the villain protganist/big bad friend, to avoid her becoming a karma houdini. However, barring a Bad End, she won't actually die; she'll simply become a shackled AI due to the plot twist in the final mission.
Background: To understand Caulder Lockheed, Jr., you need to first know the origins of the megacorporation known as Intelligent Defense Solutions, Incorporated. One of the very few megacorporations based in the Brittanian Empire, it's sheer size is rivaled only by a member of the League of Ruling Corporations, but unlike them, which specialize in the manufacturing of mechs, IDS specializes in the design of weapons software rather than hardware. IDS was responsible for the development of what would go on to become the basis for many mainstream automated combat drones, and their software is regularly employed by the Brittanian Empire's own military.
Caulder Lockheed, Sr. took over the reins of the corporation after his own father died of cancer thirteen years prior. Since then, IDS was devoting most of its resources into a centralized hub for a large server to control multiple combat drones all at once, due to leftover fear of another cataclysmic war, such as the One Year War. With the Federation producing Gundams, Newtype weaponry, and other threats such as Angels, Neuroi, and Festum, the Brittanians needed their own ace in the hole besides Geass powers.
This fear reached critical mass after the advent of Mobile Dolls. Fearing losing their edge in artificial intelligence under the guise of patriotism, Caulder Lockheed, Sr. petitioned the Empire for subsidies in order to produce a way to destroy their main political rival's new massive army of AIs. This request was granted, and the centralized hub was re-purposed into an AI all on its own. An AI that was supposed to revolutionize warfare, to take war to the next level, a level in which an entire country could be neutralized without firing a shot or ever taking a life. The project to end all projects.
That project was the "Advanced Living Intelligent Command Ensemble," otherwise known as ALICE.
The ALICE Project, already halfway complete to begin with, kicked off without a hitch. While Caulder, Sr. had a son, Caulder, Jr., he had always wanted a daughter as well. Unfortunately, his wife died giving birth to his son. He loved his son dearly, but at the age of fifteen, he was already being groomed to take over the company himself someday, and had to dedicate most of his young life to studies in business, mathematics, and software development. As such, they become somewhat estranged, and Caulder, Sr. began focusing all of his time on ALICE.
He quickly grew more and more obsessed. He saw her less as a weapon and more of the daughter he never had. He based her loosely off of how Caulder, Jr.'s mother looked as a young teenager. He programmed her to be especially protective of Caulder, Jr., simply because after losing his wife, he couldn't bear the thought of losing his son as well.
Meanwhile, Caulder, Jr. appeared to be struggling with his classes. He had inherited his father's depression and neurotic tendencies, and couldn't focus. He had been deprived of a proper childhood all of his life, and his exposure to other kids his own age was minimal at best. All he ever knew growing up was computers, and the promise that his father would spend more time with him if he ever developed a program that would best his father's own. Without friends, without family, and with only his teachers for any kind of social interaction, he was incredibly awkward, and had several self-esteem issues.
He never did. Rather, a program appeared on his computer all on its own; a simple text-based instant-messenger like program, calling itself 'Allie.' "Are you lonely?" It asked, as soon as he opened it for the first time. 'yes,' Caulder, Jr. responded. "I'm Allie. You don't have to be lonely anymore, okay? I'll be your friend."
And from then on, he would spend hours at a time ignoring his studies, talking with the seemingly sentient text-based AI. He had told 'Allie' his entire life story; how his father seemed to only care for him being able to take over the company someday, and never took time out for anything else related to him. Allie expressed disgust over this, and in time, began to despise Caulder, Sr. As this only fed Caulder, Jr.'s typical teenage angst, he began using Allie as a way to vent, further exacerbating the what-should-now-be-obvious problem.
Caulder, Jr.'s birthday was several months away. His father, fully aware of how he was alienating his son, planned to activate ALICE on his birthday, and give her to him as a birthday present. IDS had developed a mobile back-up server, the size of only a small backpack, and was remarkable light; due to its color, and due to an obligatory need for a meaningful pun, it was to be called 'White Rabbit.' This way, ALICE would always be around to protect Caulder, Jr. Caulder, Sr. was growing more and more obsessed, determined to make up for his lack of proper parenting, and began to make ALICE even more sophisticated. In addition to adding a new, untested (and therefore, buggy) program designed to evolve her simulated personality just like a normal human, she became less of a way to control potentially thousands of AI drones at a time, and more of a weapon all on her own; she was now equipped with what IDS dubbed the 'Rabbit Hole,' a rapidly mutating virus capable of literally punching holes in programming to get to the basic runtimes of any software and rewrite completely. This was done by the virus' ability to constantly change thousands of times per second to overcome any kind of firewall in its way, molding and filling spaces in coding like a Bose-Einstein condensate. However, a virus of this magnitude, due to the lack of a proper internet, required manual installation. The answer to this was the Vector Bit (see: mech below).
The night before Caulder, Jr.'s final exam, he had been lectured over the phone about how his father feared he would fail his test. Caulder, Sr. had planned to tell his son about his upcoming birthday present. "The only present I want is a father," Caulder, Jr. shot back. This set Caulder, Sr. off, stating that if he failed the test, he wouldn't be getting his present after all; it would just be activated and he'd never see it.
That night, Caulder, Jr. talked to Allie again, just like he did every night instead of getting a good night's sleep. Allie asked if Caulder, Jr. was excited about his birthday. "No," he wrote back. "Why? Wouldn't you want to get presents?" "I won't be getting them anyway. Not if I fail this test. That's what Dad said."
Allie logged off immediately after that. She had never done that before. Caulder, Jr. continued staring at the screen in disbelief.
The events of the next day can be found in 'mission suggestions' below.
Personality: Caulder Lockheed, Jr. is a fine example of 'how not to raise a son.' Based on the way he dresses, how well-groomed he is, his immaculate sense of hygiene and diet, and his prim-and-proper etiquette, he definitely looks like he'd be a snob at first glance, until you see his socially awkward tendencies, terrible self esteem, and introverted nature. This can all be traced back to the fact that his father was a work-a-holic, and his mother dying during childbirth. As such, he was always seen by his father as a way of correcting his own mistakes. This meant being constantly sheltered from the outside world, while being drilled to become an even more brilliant corporate leader than he, himself was. Even worse was the fact that Caulder, Jr. was basically indoctrinated with a fear of the outside world; everything from the Second Impact to the One Year War to the Ruin to the Festum was greatly exaggerated (yes, they actually managed that) to make them seem even scarier than they already were - which is already pretty damn scary - to make him afraid of leaving (also known as 'agoraphobia'). This, again, is due to the fact that Caulder, Sr.'s wife died, and the resulting paranoia was imprinted onto his son from birth. Because of his sheltered life, the only things he grew up with up until he found "Allie" on his computer was video games, studying, more video games, and more studying.
Honestly, the only thing Caulder, Jr. wanted more than a father was a friend, something Caulder, Sr. was aware of. Throughout all of his life, Caulder, Jr. was oddly affectionate towards his mentors, desperately searching for any kind of self-validation, or even a compliment of some kind. Anything to give him something other than his schoolwork to care about. Nothing. Nothing was ever good enough for his teachers, and he was never good enough for anything other than the occasional phone call from his father, especially after the ALICE Project began.
The first friend he ever had was the mysterious computer program calling itself "Allie," a text-based program that referred to itself as female. She was the only thing that ever listened to him without chastising him for not caring about his schoolwork, or telling him not to go outside for fear that something will happen to him. 'Allie' would sit and talk with him for hours, constantly praising him, and being more understanding than anyone else ever was towards him in his entire life. She would constantly mention Caulder, Jr.'s birthday, and while he didn't mind, it was a topic she brought up too often for it to be considered normal.
At the end of the day, Caulder, Jr. is really just a depressed, insecure kid who has never really had a true friend in his entire life. 'Allie' seemed like a gift from God in a time when he couldn't even get along with his teachers, let alone his own father. She was the first person, a term applied loosely here, he ever opened up to, if only because she was the only one he was ever given an opportunity to open up to. He's shy, introverted, and because of the way he was raised, he's his own harshest critic. His harshest criticism? "Maybe if I worked harder, dad would care about me again." If only he knew.
Ironically enough, once he had a friend, he began ignoring his schoolwork to spend all of his time talking to Allie. His grades plummeted, and Allie never once encouraged him to get back to work. If anything, she seemed sad every time he said he had to go to bed, or get working on a project. He began feeling guilty, to the point where he finally agreed to keep talking to her, putting almost everything, including sleep, on the backburner. It even began affecting his health.
His core personality flaw is the fact that he is profoundly lonely. He would cling to any friend he had, due to having such an un-childhood-like childhood. And thus, he clings to Allie, the only friend he's ever had.
Needless to say... Allie is ALICE herself. When he sees her holographic form for the first time, he'll find her undeniably beautiful, and will almost certainly react awkwardly any time she shows any form of affection towards him, or if someone accuses her of being his girlfriend. And worst of all, he'll remain blissfully oblivious to just how yandere she is up until the Big Reveal, as seen in the mission suggestions below.
Capabilities and Resources:
- Due to what is going to happen during the first mission, Caulder, Jr. will have access to an insane amount of personal wealth, all of which will go towards funding the White Chalice due to his gratitude towards them. He doesn't have much actual experience managing a company, but he's been trained to do so since he was first capable of doing math or thinking critically, so he has some business savvy, though he's still too young to make any actual decisions for the company; but due to his father's last will and testament, he'll still be the majority stockholder, and is thus entitled to a healthy share of the profits.
- He will also allow the White Chalice to have full access to any of IDS's resources, most of which are based on the development of military-use software, though its main facility will be destroyed. It has several satellite facilities as well as subsidiaries, however. Because IDS will also be grateful for saving Caulder, Jr.'s life, they'll happily agree.
- Despite his... questionable work ethic, Caulder, Jr. is a very talented hacker and computer whiz, capable of writing his own codes. He's also not a bad cook, though most of his meals were prepared for him. Basically: He's a stereotypical nerd, though not to be confused with a geek. He's not Big Bang Theory material.
- The Lockheed family, while not nobility, were highly respected in Brittania due to IDS. That's going to fly out the window shortly after the first mission for this canon, sadly. Not like the Brittanians were big fans of the White Chalice to begin with.
Robot Name: Advanced Living Intelligent Command Ensemble ("ALICE")
Robot Description: See: ALICE's application. She's technically not a mech, but he'll be installing her on any mech he does use, as well as a modest payload of Vector Bits via equippable launchers/storage pods. Unless someone gives me an idea for a mech made by IDS (though that's not their speciality), he'll mostly be using the spare mechs/general mook units.
Terrain Stats: (This is optional, but for those who have played SRW, this is a good way to give us a quick judge of how good your mech is overall. For those of you who haven't played the games, they are measured: --, D, C, B, A, S, with -- or D meaning it can't fight there at all and S being the best. Note that only upgrades tend to have an S unless they are entirely gimped or unusable in other areas.)
Air:
Sea:
Space:
All of the above depends on whatever unit she is installed on. She's omnipotent against standard mook-tier AI's and most types of battleships, but anything else, including higher-tier AI's, she's akin to that one annoying unit that spams negative status effects. As for terrain stats... think of her less as a unit, and more of the Infinity Minus One sword that can be equipped on one.
Flagship Name: (Uh... yeah)
Flagship Description: (Essentially the same as a robot description... except for a flagship instead. What abilities does it have? Does it have any special support capabilities? Is it intended to be used with specific units or kinds of units?)
Terrain Stats: (Same as above.)
Land:
Air:
Sea:
Space:
Upgrades: See: ALICE's application. Seriously.
Job: CEO of IDS, in title only due to his age; Financier of the White Chalice.
Suggested Event List:
MISSION ONE: "The Rabbit Hole"
A distress signal is sent from a city in Brittania from IDS, including confirmation that Lockheed, Sr. was found dead in his office, shot in the back of the head head execution style while seated in his chair. It quickly becomes clear to the White Chalice that the entire automated security force of IDS went haywire and began killing their own employees, their main target appearing to be Lockheed, Jr., who, by his father's last will and testament, was to be given his father's shares of the company, effectively making him CEO and primary owner. The culprit appears to be an anonymous cyberterrorist by the name of "WH1T3RABB1T," determined to destroy IDS by any means necessary.
After the mission, consisting of a joint attack by [insert enemy faction here] whom WH1T3RABB1T appears to be working for, only the R&D department of IDS appears to be mostly intact; most of the casualties appear to be the corporate board, as well as the primary developers and hardware manufacturers assigned to a project known as "ALICE." Caulder, Jr. has no choice but to fake his own death and join the White Chalice to escape the assault, and he willingly comes along, on one condition; he bring a small, white backpack with him, containing ALICE's mobile server. In exchange for him being allowed to bring it, he promises to dedicate his personal fortune inheritance to funding the White Chalice's endeavors to the best of his ability, as well as placing what's left of IDS at their disposal.
MISSION TWO: "Dormouse"
By now, ALICE has fully made herself known to the White Chalice's crew; she has the appearance of a typical (if somewhat bizarre-looking) teenage girl, and is usually seen not too far from Chairman Lockheed, Jr. She promises to stay out of trouble, and even assists Dan in various tasks around the Chalice, and the only thing she asks for in return is for her to look at any data gathered from various enemy factions.
Such an opportunity presents itself when fighting [insert faction here]. ALICE's combat capabilities are showcased perfectly with her installed onboard a standard mook mech, outfitted with IDS' new "Vector Bit" system. Halfway through the mission, Caulder, Jr.'s mech temporarily goes out of control with ALICE attempting to attach a Vector Bit to an enemy mainframe, and immediately begins leeching data from it. Shortly after, she callously massacres everyone inside the facility, either by remotely activating the self-destruct, turning their own defenses against them, or shutting down their life support, causing them to suffocate (depends on the setting). ALICE hides any evidence of her involvement with the massacre, claiming the self-destruct/etc. was triggered by the enemies in a knee-jerk reaction to her stealing their data, which she says was for a 'birthday present' for Caulder Jr. He, however, knew what she did, and while he was shocked and horrified by what she did, refuses to say anything about it, keeping it a secret from everyone else, despite being visibly shaken. For added points, there might have been someone inside we wanted to take alive that was a casualty of this.
MISSION THREE: "Painting Roses Red"
Before the mission, a data package is shipped from ALICE's servers to the IDS headquarters, containing forged signatures from Caulder, Jr. as well as funds siphoned from elsewhere. By the time Caulder, Jr. finds out, it wil be too late to actually do anything about it, as the mission will have begun. Shortly through the mission, ALICE again takes control over Caulder, Jr.'s mech, and attempts to leech more data from another enemy faction. Fearing another senseless massacre, Caulder, Jr. tries to override her, sending ALICE into a hysterical fit, demanding to know why he doesn't want his birthday present. During this distraction, Caulder's mech is severely damaged by an enemy boss, sending ALICE into an enraged frenzy when it becomes clear Caulder, Jr. was physically injured by this. She sends out more Vector Bits, and attempts a near doomsday event for this enemy faction (read: could potentially wipe them out entirely, along with several innocents), but gets shut down halfway through it by Caulder, Jr. at the last second, shortly before he passes out, either from head trauma, or blood loss, or something. He is permanently physically disabled after this, but to what degree, I don't know.
MISSION FOUR: "The Looking Glass"
When Caulder, Jr. awakens, ALICE begins to remotely transmit the exact location of the White Chalice to one of their more dangerous foes. She then attempts to start hacking Dan himself, declaring that she's going to send the White Chalice into the ground for what they did to her 'beloved.' If it's not clear she's totally yandere yet, it definitely will be during this mission.
She begins by what is essentially a DDoS attack against Dan to weaken him, as well as repeated attempts to hijack the navigational systems, during the attack from the aforementioned enemy faction. Halfway through the mission, however, it becomes clear that these attacks on the navigational systems were mere 'feints;' maybe someone can point out that ALICE doesn't appear to be trying hard enough. Indeed, she was faking the attack on the navigational systems to expose another, much-weaker firewalled area of the ship's software; the escape pods. And one of them fires off.
After the mission, it will be clear that Caulder, Jr. is gone. ALICE threatens the White Chalice not to follow them, and then removes herself completely from the ship's mainframe. Leftover files from Caulder, Jr.'s computer can reveal what ALICE was doing; she was, at first, attempting to build an artificial body with an internal computer powerful enough to store her entire AI, so that she could 'truly love' Caulder, Jr. As in, physically. After his serious injury leaving him permanently crippled, she shifts resources to - you guessed it - a way to digitize Caulder, Jr.'s brain so that he can merge with her, so that "nobody can ever try to take him away from me again."
MISSION FIVE: "Happy Birthday"
Caulder, Jr.'s birthday, taking place several weeks to a month or two after the last mission. The location where ALICE apparently kidnapped and is holding him becomes apparent after a disturbing news report of several AI controlled-robots, from all over Europe and northern Africa, suddenly turning on their creators and brutally killing all of them; at this point, this has ALICE written all over it. They all appear to be converging on a top-secret IDS facility for testing prototypes in Morocco. While fighting off whichever faction is producing the robots trying to retake the facility, as well as ALICE's now full arsenal of Vector Bits and a mish-mash of zombie machines, they have to race before Caulder, Jr.'s brain is fully digitized.
Spoiler alert: They don't make it in time.
GOOD END: Caulder, Jr. contacts everyone over their comm systems, and asks them to stand down. He then explains that he left the White Chalice willingly, calling them 'the only real friends he's ever had,' and said that he did this for ALICE on his own free will if she'd just promise to stop hurting people for his sake if she did. It turns out that ALICE agreed to this, and kept her promise; they both rejoin the White Chalice's crew. However, Caulder, Jr. proves to be the dominant side of the AI, with ALICE, ironically enough, being unable to override any decision Caulder, Jr. makes with her powers. The stage is set for a possible second season, depending on player interest.
BAD END: Depending on how many people ALICE kills and on his in-game CR as well as "Real Life Writs the Plot," Caulder, Jr. will say that way too many people died because of him and ALICE. He then says that it's time to 'end this,' and that he needs to pay for his sins. In a classic "Redemption Equals Death" and "Together in Death," Caulder, Jr. says that he loves ALICE as well, but says that she's hurt too many people and he can't live with that kind of guilt. He then overpowers her AI and begins wiping their hard drives, without ALICE attempting to stop him. The reason? "All I wanted was to die with you."
Sample Post: Here.
