![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
MOM/BX9/SKEETS/_APPLICATION
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Skeets
CHARACTER AGE: Literally unclear, he’s a robot and there’s no indication for how long he was online before he was introduced, but he’s been around for at least a decade and is mentally the equivalent of an adult, at least.
SERIES: DC Comics (Preboot: New Earth)
CHRONOLOGY: Booster Gold #39
CLASS:He's a robot sidekick to a superhero! And also something of a time cop.
HOUSING: De Chima? BUT HOUSE HIM WITH ANYONE.
BACKGROUND:
The DC universe in the present is similar to our own, if we had a bunch of extra cities, magic, superheroes, aliens, and time travel. Also a whole lot of crises where the fate of the world and/or universe is at stake and only a bunch of superheroes teaming up can stop it.
The DC universe of the future, however, is a bit different. The year 2462 isn’t as advanced as you would think, due to the mysterious nuclear conflict that happened sometime between the present and the 25th century. But technology had advanced enough for the existence of Skeets, a Kord Industries-built BX9 security robot with a sophisticated AI, the ability to fly and hover, and some defensive capabilities.
Skeets life as a security droid in a museum changed irreparably when he was taken from the somewhat dystopian 25th century and into the past, thanks to the soon-to-be superhero Booster Gold.
Michael Jon “Booster” Carter was a poor University football star in Gotham city got mixed up in gambling on his own games and subsequently expelled. He left Gotham and came to the city of Metropolis where he worked as a night watchman at the Space Museum – the same museum Skeets was at. There Michael became fascinated by the superhero wing of the museum and came up with a scheme to become one.
Michael stole a bunch of equipment from the museum that would give him superpowers, such as a power suit, power belt and a Legionnaire flight ring (a team of superheroes from even farther in the future than Booster, time travel was involved). And of course, he took one more thing with him: Skeets.
Since Michael was infamous in his own time period he decided to go into the past using a time machine in the form of a large glass sphere made by Rip Hunter (we’ll get back to him later) that he also steals from the museum. He proceeded to travel back to the golden age of superheroes to become one.
During the trip to the past, Michael made Skeets read up on as much history as he could to help him out. So when they both arrive, Skeets soon became Michael’s guide to their new home era. With his knowledge of history in his databanks, Skeets tried to get Michael to use contemporary slang correctly, as well as giving him stock tips to increase his wealth, and when Michael started his superheroing under the name “Booster Gold”, Skeets was the one to tell him what disasters he needed to prevent.
Unbeknownst to Booster, Skeets knew from historical record that Booster Gold was supposed to be there. There were records of a Booster Gold operating out of Metropolis at the time, so as far as Skeets was concerned he was helping Booster fulfil history.
With Skeets’ help, Booster became very wealthy very fast, founding Goldstar Inc., with its employees Dirk Davis and secretary “Trixie”, effectively merchandising and profiting off the icon status of being a superhero, all according to plan. But it wasn’t all profiting! Booster Gold, with Skeets, saved the president of the United States, battled a secret organization of super villains known as the 1000, annoyed Superman, and saved people. All while Skeets helped him present his best face to the press, go where needed, and adjust to that era’s slang.
In one battle with the 1000, Skeets was damaged and Booster became sick, and the only way for their friends to save them was to bring them into the future, to their own time. So they brought on Rip Hunter, who had designed the original Time Sphere that Booster had stolen. A bunch of stuff happened that Skeets was out of the count for, but the main gist is this is when Rip Hunter, time traveler, first became allies with Booster. The other thing that happened during their trip to the future was that Booster was reunited with and brought back his twin sister Michelle.
Things went mostly back to normal for a while, within the superheroic definition of normal. More adventures were had, Booster joined the Justice League (without Skeets), and so on. Until Michelle went on a road trip and took the Goldstar outfit with her, a superpowered uniform meant for Booster’s theoretical sidekick. She promptly got captured by alien beings from another dimension. You know, as you do. Skeets and Booster went looking for her, eventually figuring out what had happened and travelling to the dimension. Her kidnappers gave Booster a terrible choice: stop their invasion of Earth, or save his sister. But, you know, Skeets was there so Booster sends him off to save his sister. Which he managed until Booster got back, even though she ended up dying anyway because of bad writing.
Soon after that, Booster’s employee and friend Dirk Davis turned traitor and drained Booster’s company of all its funds, and a bunch of depressing shenanigans happen that mostly don’t matter but by the end of it Booster left Metropolis and became a fulltime member of the Justice league International. And Skeets? Skeets didn’t have any adventures with the JLI because Booster stashed him with some other stuff in Metropolis behind a box of porn. Because Booster is a good friend.
So Skeets was in storage for a long time while Booster was running about without him. Until Booster’s suit was damaged beyond apparent repair and Booster took Skeets out of storage to analyse it with his future technology. In other words: when he needed him. Booster eventually got armour to replace his suit, which Skeets and Ted fixed up. And then Booster continued to not bring Skeets on his adventures, until the comic EXTREME JUSTICE which was about as 90s as it sounds.
So basically a bunch of former Justice Leaguers including Captain Atom, Maxima, Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), Amazing-Man, and Booster Gold made their own slightly edgy version of the Justice League in a mountain base that turned out to be a secret evil quasi-government lair. Skeets, meanwhile, was left behind and had to track down Booster and the League, together with Ronnie, one half of the superhero Firestorm. They do, eventually, and Skeets and Booster are reunited. Soon to be closely reunited – Booster’s armour gets upgraded by alien tech and Skeet’s AI was uploaded onto it.
So Skeets was in Booster’s armour for the next little bit, while everybody fought mysterious bad guys and dealt with Captain Atom’s issues and their own angst. And Skeets stuck around in various iterations of Booster Gold’s armour as they fought bad guys with other heroes and did superhero stuff. Eventually Booster got a suit that didn’t need Skeets, who then got his body back, thus ending his tenure as a disembodied voice.
So jump forward to later when Ted Kord was investigating something suspicious that seemed to get deeper and deeper, and Booster came on to help. They discover that whoever it was was using Skeets’ technology, which they can track. Ted, alone, finds out that the culprit of not just what he was investigating but a bunch of terrible stuff was Max Lord, a friend of theirs from their JLI days, who then shot and killed Ted.
Booster went back to the future in mourning, and returned during the story Infinite Crisis with Skeets in tow. A bunch of complicated company crossover crisis things happened that mostly amount to “the universe was almost destroyed, some people died (including Max Lord), and a bunch of things were shaken up”. Booster and Skeets were in the thick of it, and afterward Booster and Skeets returned to Metropolis where Booster tried to fill in for Superman, who had gone missing during the whole kerfuffle.
Booster returned once again to his money-oriented ways, even putting advertisements on his suit. But Skeets, who normally let him know where trouble was with his historical data started giving him the wrong information. Booster took him to the roboticist and AI expert Will Magnus to see what’s wrong with him who creates a backup, which is important because it turned out that a mutated, villainous Mr. Mind (a highly intelligent bug and Captain Marvel villain) had been using Skeets as a cocoon.
Skeets didn’t end up remembering that year but was told what had happened by Booster which was: to hide Rip . Hunter and their anti-Mr. Mind plans, Booster faked his death and took up the persona and costume of Supernova. Mr. Mind did a bunch of evil stuff in Skeet’s body and eventually metamorphosed into a multiverse-eating giant moth (just roll with it) before being defeated by Booster and Rip. It was a whole thing. After the destruction of Mr. Mind, with the help of Rip and Will Magnus, Skeets’ consciousness was put into a new version of his body (2.0), and this one he’d actually keep.
Booster and Skeets went back to being regular superheroes, while Booster set his sights on the Justice League. But soon Rip Hunter turned up again looking for Booster’s help: because of Mr. Mind’s multiverse-eating habits the timestream had ruptures and vulnerabilities that Rip needed Booster’s help to fix. Rip updated Skeets historical records and gave him an awareness of anomalies. So when Booster refused to help, Skeets disagreed -- but followed Booster anyway.
But it’s not long before Booster changed his mind and the two of them travel time to stop mysterious villains from destroying the Justice League before they can even become the Justice League. After a while of saving Leaguers and trying to track down those responsible, it turns out that there was an evil team of time travellers consisting of an old teammate of Rip’s (Rex Hunter), “Supernova” aka secretly Booster’s dad, and a more advanced security robot, Maximilion, Skeets first personal nemesis.
They don’t win, and first there was a slight detour while Booster attempted to use time travel to save Ted’s life, though Skeets was too damaged to come with so let’s just say it did not end well or with Ted coming back. But in the process, those evil time travellers gained a new villain called the Black Beetle, and Rip threw Booster a bone and saved his twin sister Michelle from her fridging.
So they all went back to fixing anomalies in time and stopping people (and mind-controlling space parasites) from interfering with it. Skeets got to defeat his nemesis Maximillion with an upgrade: acid. After a couple more adventures, Skeets and Michelle ended up at a place called the Vanishing Point, the end of time, a place that allows you to see various points in time and travel to them. Michelle found out she was supposed to die and broke down, attacking Skeets and escaping into the timeline.
Booster recovered Skeets and things continue as normal ie. Rip, Skeets and Booster preventing heroes being wiped from history and all that, and trying to stop Black Beetle but never quite managing for good. At one point Booster went missing for a bit and Skeets went out to find him, teaming up with Jaime Reyes, the successor to Ted Kord as Blue Beetle. Along the way they were attacked by evil zombie Ted Kord due to a bunch of black space rings resurrecting people left and right as part of a larger event that is largely irrelevant. They defeated him, along with a returned Booster Gold.
Booster and Skeets went on their next mission: preventing someone from stopping Cyborg Superman from destroying Coast City a few years prior. An event in “solidified time”. But Booster decided to save the city, while Skeets tried to talk him out of it for the good of the timeline. Along the way, Skeets found Michelle again, who had ended up in that era and gotten a boyfriend, Drew. But soon Skeets had to inform her that Drew died along with the rest of Coast City. Skeets, Michelle and Booster were all returned to the present, despite the latter two’s efforts to change the past.
Back to work again, Booster was sent on a mission to the future in the 30th century for the sake of an artifact but returned with a small child in tow: Rani. She ended up living at Rip Hunter’s lab with the rest of them, to Skeets distaste (“ never work with children or pets”). But soon that becomes less important than the news that Max Lord, former friend and murderer of Ted Kord had come back to life.
Everybody and their mom who wears a cape got called on to find Max, and eventually Booster is the first who did. And got beaten for it, but sent a distress signal to Skeets, who comes to his aid along with some former members of the JLI: Fire, Ice, and Captain Atom. Max, meanwhile, used his mind-controlling powers to wipe the memory of himself from the entire world, and only the people in that building were spared.
While trying to figure this out and find Max, Booster and Skeets travelled back to the past a couple of time to when Booster was still a member of the JLI so they could find evidence or some way to prove that Max Lord really existed. Instead they get roped into stuff like an intergalactic adventure with JLI-era Ted Kord that involved a whole lot of ridiculous shenanigans and Skeets trying to convince Booster that it was unhealthy to focus so much on the past.
At some point between this hopping back and forth in the past, Booster, Skeets and the others, in the present, ende up picking up the Russian hero called Rocket Red and Jaime Reyes in their anti-Max Lord crusade.
After another trip to the past, Booster and Skeets returned to find out that Rani had gone missing somewhere during World War II, because time travel. They saved her and return the present, just in time for Booster to finally come to terms with how the whole Max Lord business and seeing Ted in the past had affected his mourning. Skeets comforted him, which is when he will be imported! With the Max Lord stuff not yet resolved.
PERSONALITY:
Skeets is a robot built for service, and this tends to come out in how very polite he is. He tends to use formal language, referring to almost everyone as sir or ma’am, with the occasional madam or similar terms thrown in. While he’s not afraid of bringing up certain subject matter or criticisms, by no means, he often tends to word it carefully. Every once in a while his polite demeanor slips up, like when he first saw Maximillian and let out an “oh crap.”
That being said, he also won’t refrain from dry digs (and his observant nature means that he has a pretty good handle on what people’s faults are) or metaphorically straight-faced snark, especially with people he’s familiar with (like Booster, Rip or Ted). He definitely has a sense of humour even if he’s not a jokester. He’s more Jeeves than Wooster. He's also spent a lot of the time on the internet and between that and researching contemporary slang and parlance can be found saying stuff like "you are teh awesome". It was slightly less old meme when he said it, okay.
He’s also not afraid to point out when people are wrong like mentioned before: if he spots a problem or error he can and will point it out. This can be anything, from errors in calculations to improper use of slang or things that he thinks are emotionally unhealthy. Sometimes when he’s making sure things are correct he doesn’t care if his corrections embarrass people or are needlessly pedantic. Some of it is him trying to be helpful. Trying to be helpful is part of what he was built for and is a huge part of his personality. But part of it is also just him wanting people to be correct – he himself finds it important to be accurate. This extends to correct behaviour – even while dismissing Rani’s presence in Booster’s life he still finds it important to try to get Booster to stop swearing because he gained a child who looks up to him.
He’s very practical minded and logical, but Skeets does have awareness of emotions and feelings. Even to the point of noticing that he’s jealous of Booster’s obsession with Ted Kord, and analysing said emotion. He does care about people, expressing concern, comforting if necessary, exchanging quips and referring to Booster especially as his best friend. He can also get frustrated when people don’t listen to him. He’s extremely loyal to his friends and generally improves of saving lives, being prudent, and trying to be a better person.
But he also has a certain amount of emotional detachedness sometimes - during their time travel adventures, for example, Skeets never seemed to have a problem with letting people die if they were supposed to die. He also takes being kidnapped into the past and occasionally put into storage remarkably well. He doesn’t usually takes things personally. He’s well aware of the fact that he’s a robot, sometimes jokingly making references to it. He’s comfortable as one, neither wishing to be human nor seemingly bothered by his treatment. Only his development of emotions and real feelings seem to surprise him.
He may have started out as just a security bot, but over time he’s gained more life experience, nuance, and an increasing sense of humour. He says himself that he seems to be developing past his programming, becoming an artificial intelligence beyond what he was originally intended for.
POWER:
1. Skeets is a robot. This is canon.
Specifically, he is currently an upgraded BX9 security bot from the future, about the size of a deep dish pie, with gold colouring and the ability to fly and float. His body can withstand general damage, but excessive force will damage the outer hull. This, however, can be repaired (possibly by one of the various mechanical geniuses in MoM, in theory).
Additionally it is possible to put his AI into another body or system, but for the purposes of the game I assume this would require a power update. Mentioning it for the record.
While he is quite adept at movement, his body is limited in what he can do. He does have small mechanical arms that are capable of gRipping and carrying things, as long as it’s not too heavy, but don’t have opposable thumbs or other basics. Skeets is also capable of accessing the Internet and plugging himself into computer systems to download information, hack them, etc.
He also has a holographic image projector (capable of displaying information or crafting an illusion of a disguise), a more combat-oriented non-leathal stun beam (essentially an energy blast), and he can scan people's DNA (which won't be done without player permission).
He has a couple of other functions that simply won’t be in mom, like the time travel-related capabilities or the ability to monitor Booster.
(Also I’m assuming that in this form his tattoo will be on his wing flap.)
2. Humanoid shapeshifting. Non-canon.
Skeets will additionally gain the ability to shapeshift into any humanoid in his historical databanks. He can only take on the appearance of said historical figures, he cannot replicate superhuman powers or access any memories, skills, or knowledge those figures may possess. He is a normal human in this form, lacking any of his robotic capabilities. Also in order to shift into any form, he has to undergo a transformation sequence involving gold smoke and sparkles. It is not subtle.
Also of note, Skeets historical databanks date from the 25th century, and are specific to the preboot DC universe. But he will be incapable of shapeshifting into anyone who is currently an imPort, regardless of original universe.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[ Skeets is holding his communicator in one of his little robot claws, mostly so he can let himself be seen on video. ]
Greetings, network. I seem to have lost my photogenic companion Booster Gold, so I’ll just introduce myself. I am Skeets, a BX 9 security robot and artificial intelligence. I’m pleased to make all of your acquaintances.
[ A local bystander comes up with a phone. "Are you a real robot? You’re an imPort, right?" ]
Yes, ma’am, but I’m in the middle of something –-
[ "Can I take your picture? Oh, you’re so cute!" ]
…If you’ll excuse me, ma’am.
[ And Skeets flies up to rooftop height before continuing his post as if there hadn’t been any interruption. ]
I’d also like some assistance. It seems the Porter granted me the ability to assume a human form. For the record, Porter, this is unnecessary. I’m a proud, independent robot who needs no limbs.
That aside, I’m having issues with my balance and if anyone has any tips for walking on two legs, I’d appreciate it. There aren’t any tutorials on how to be a human on wikiHow. Shocking, I know.
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
Test Drive Meme thread!
FINAL NOTES:
Because of the nature of his historical databanks and knowledge of the DCU that could get very close to infomod territory, I'm going to have a permissions post for his files/knowledge. Between gaps and inaccuracies in his databanks and possibly the Porter messing with his files or just ICly avoiding stuff, there should be room for anyone to opt out.
POWER UPDATE 01/01/18
#2: Healing Transformation:
Skeets can transform at will from robot to his default human form with a burst of gold smoke and stars and energy. This magical energy has certain effects: when turning from human into robot, it either recharges some of his batteries (up to about 20%) OR repairs some (but not all) damage to his chassis; when turning from robot into human it temporarily boosts the nanites' healing ability and can heal some wounds.
In both instances, it can't prevent him from being destroyed or killed, but can heal light wounds or turn a heavy wound into a manageable one. However, while he can transform as much as he wants the healing effect can only be used once per day, and if it has to repair a significant amount of damage it may cause him to get stuck in one form or another for a couple of days.
#3: 1 Minute Time Travel
Skeets can jump forward or backward exactly 60 seconds in time. When threading with other PCs, this will require the player's permission. He can also, again with permission, take up to three people with him.
Skeets can use this power in either robot or human form but regardless of which it drains his robotic batteries significantly - about 30% with an additional 10% per person. If his batteries are drained completely, he'll shut down or, if human, immediately fall unconscious until either someone finds a way to charge him or 24 hours have passed (if human he'll wake up, if robot he'll automatically transform into a human and then wake up).