Character stuff.

[no3laws]

 
<b><u>[CHARACTER INFO]</u></b>
<b>CHARACTER NAME:</b> His model number is HRS 0288, but his name is Gesicht.
<b>SERIES:</b> <i>Pluto</i> (manga)
<b>CHRONOLOGY:</b> His death.
<b>CLASS:</b> Policeman.

<b>BACKGROUND:</b>
First of all, <i>Pluto</i> 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, in an alternate universe, 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, along with emotional dampeners. 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 resumed his normal duties. Approximately two and a half years prior to the start of the manga, Gesicht began to have recurring 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 <i>should</i> 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 override 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 connected the memories 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.


<b>PERSONALITY:</b>
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 tosses 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 Asian 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. He also has a bit of a dry sense of humor which sometimes makes itself known.


<b>POWER:</b>

Well, I’ve put a bit of thought into the whole “umbrellas” thing. So, here goes.

First, he’s a robot. In terms of power-like things, this means he can watch TV and make phonecalls with his brain, as well as recognize whether other people are human or robot. Alas, he cannot eat food, and his emotions and mind work differently from humans’. Also, take in a room at a glance.

Then, he’s Europol’s Super Robot Detective. He’s made of zeronium, which is this ridiculously rare (and strong) alloy that is resistant to electrical and magnetic damage. In addition, he can speak all the official languages of the Euro Federation (like the EU with a few extra members), plus a few others that come in handy. He also can instantly scan a room for fingerprints (though someone has to actually collect them), determine/estimate how long a body’s been dead just by looking at it, figure out what drug someone’s on and for how long by looking at them, that sort of thing?

Also, gun arms. His arms turn into guns. Left shoots knockout gas for close distances, some sort of electro-magnetic stun beam for longer distances -- both knock the victim out for a few minutes, but are non-fatal. The right arm shoots what is basically an anti-tank shell made of zeronium, called SAAW. It can turn a human into a smear on the ground. Fortunately, his programming tells him to only use his <i>left</i> hand gun on humans. The right is only for inanimate objects....and robots.