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May 28, 2009 17:45

[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Hilo
AGE: 21
JOURNAL: hilohello
IM: wingedmonkey1@AIM
E-MAIL: linnea.abernathy@gmail.com
RETURNING: I just play Snitter now. But I played Gesicht before!

[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: His model number is HRS 0288, but his name is Gesicht.
FANDOM: Pluto (manga)
CHRONOLOGY: His death.
CLASS: He's probably going to join the police again.
SUPERHERO NAME: Gesicht.
ALTER EGO: Gesicht, cop.

BACKGROUND:
First of all, Pluto is a re-write of a popular Astro Boy story arc known as "The World's Strongest Robot." It also takes place an unspecified amount of time into the future, and the names of several important political entities are different.

Gesicht is a highly-advanced robot detective created for Europol. He's also one of the seven robots in the world which are capable of becoming Weapons of Mass Destruction. In the universe of Pluto robots are quite common, though of course most of them are of a far lesser caliber than Gesicht. However, they are all equipped with a degree of Artificial Intelligence that would be quite advanced to us, but which to them is very common. As a result, various international robot laws have been put into effect, regulating the interactions between robots and humans. These include various rights guaranteed to robots, as well as Law 13, which states that a robot may not harm or kill a human being.

This law came into effect eight years before the start of the manga, in response to a robot known as Brau-1589, who had gone on a rampage, and is now programmed into all new robots. Five years (or thereabouts) before the start of the manga, the United States of Thracia pressured the UN to place a ban on the manufacture of Robots of Mass Destruction (such as Gesicht) and the UN complied. Thracia then used this as an excuse to declare war on Persia, thus starting the 39th Central Asian War. All but one of the world's seven strongest robots volunteered their services for this war. Three years prior to the start of the manga, Thracia officially pulled troops from Persia, and Gesicht returned to his regular duties. Approximately two and a half years prior to the start of the manga, Gesicht began to have re-occurring nightmares.

The manga itself is mostly about Gesicht's investigation into a mysterious series of murders. Someone, it seems, is killing off the world's seven strongest robots, as well as the members of the Bora Investigation Group, who were sent into Persia to see if Robots of Mass Destruction were in fact being manufactured. This, of course, means that Gesicht himself is on the list of victims for the killer. The killer has a few unique qualities: he gives "horns" to the heads of his victims, and he leaves behind no human traces. It seems the killer is, in fact, a robot, something which should be impossible.

Parallel to this is Gesicht's slow realization of the causes of his recurring nightmares. Now we get into spoiler territory, be warned. It turns out that at one point Gesicht and his wife, Helena, had a child, which Gesicht had found in a junkyard. Some time afterwards, Gesicht had been assigned to the case of an anti-robot human who had been torturing and killing child robots. Gesicht's involvement in the case was played up for the news, which may have resulted in his child becoming the next victim. This caused Gesicht to spontaneously develop the ability to feel real, bone-crushing hatred, and also to over-ride all his Law 13-related failsafes. He found the man, and killed him quite thoroughly. Europol, of course, realized how bad this would make them look, and promptly erased Gesicht's and Helena's memories of everything to do with their child. Of course, you can never completely erase a file, and the strong emotions had caused Gesicht's recurring nightmares.

Shortly after his epiphany, Gesicht also pieces together the whys and wherefores of his current case, the horn murders. Before he can gather his supporting evidence, however, he is killed.

...And then he got ported into the City. Good on him. He then promptly joined the still-fairly-new police force, having absolutely no idea what to do with himself otherwise. He was the chief investigator in the murder of Optimus Prime by Dr. Crane, though he never actually made an arrest. He was briefly turned into, well, a plant, but it was close enough to human that it messed him up a little. He managed to secure a supplier for his energy catalyst in one Tony Stark. He really didn't get along with Pete Cheney very well, for various robot/human relations reasons. Generally, though, he was quiet and kept to himself.

PERSONALITY:
First of all, Gesicht is a robot. He’s a fairly stoic sort, and pretty much a giant workaholic. Well, as much as a robot can be said to be a workaholic. Europol likes to think of him as a sort of mascot, and toss his name around to the press in a “look how awesome we are, everything will be okay” sort of way. Gesicht doesn’t like that. Heck, when it happens in the murder-flashback, he slams his hands on a desk and yells. This is somewhat surprising, since he doesn't seem to show as much outright emotion in in the present scenes. This is probably due to a combination of Europol's meddling with his head, and a good degree of robot depression. His reaction to stressful or upsetting situations is, indeed, to go somewhat blank. As I said, a stoic sort.

Another thing Gesicht doesn’t like is when people are dismissive of robots, or treat them as second-class citizens, or worse, as objects. Unfortunately, a number of his co-workers in his home-universe like to do exactly that. They usually apologize if they realize what they've done, but it doesn't help much. If robots could develop facial tics, he would. As it is, he just makes sideways-glancing frowny-faces at the perpetrators, and says nothing because he is a German robot, and stoic. He has a soft spot for children, especially robot children. In addition, his experiences in the 39th Central Asiam War, as well as the whole thing with his child, have left him with a number of PTSD-like symptoms. This can probably be considered a sign of how advanced his AI is.

In addition, he cares very, very deeply for those he considers family, and is also capable of great amounts of compassion. He's just not always that good at expressing it.

POWER:
1. He is a robot, made of a very special alloy known as zeronium, which is his universe's resident nigh-indestructible metal. This means his basic structure is pretty damn tough, as well as rendering his robot-brain invulnerable to any malarky with magnets or the like.

2. His left hand turns into a gun that fires hypno-gas. This knocks people out, and is, strictly speaking, what he's supposed to use on humans.

3. His right hand turns into a sort of anti-tank gun that fires exploding zeronium shells. Very destructive; knocks down things and turns humans to smears on walls.

[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE: Here.

LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE: Will this do? If not, I can try to write up a good new one.
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