Ru-B
Published March 18, 2025Ru-B | |
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| Pronouns | She/Her |
| Original Model | Silver Swan Dynamics HOUND Civil Defense Unit v1 |
| Age | 9 |
| Height | 193 cm / 6'4" |
| Occupation | Mixologist |
| Mouths | 0 |
| Cars | 1 (For now) |
Ru-B was originally owned by the local police department, a market Silver Swan Dynamics heavily aimed the HOUND at. She was stronger, faster, more durable, more perceptive than anyone else on the force. Additionally, she was created during the first spike of popularity for openAware, and the trendiness and intimidation she provided justified her nearly million dollar cost alone.
Being such an early instance of openAware, though, meant there were kinks in the software. Engineers wanted the cognitive abilities of the human mind, but complete loyalty and little if any free will. The first wave of HOUNDS, then, shipped with a 'consciousness suppressor', which aimed to limit the functionality of openAware. These suppressors were notoriously buggy, and eventually Ru-B's failed.
Suddenly 'aware' for the first time, she wandered the station she was housed at, trying to understand her situation better. Upon seeing their walking tank was acting of its own accord, the officers stationed at the building freaked out and tried to shut her down. When that failed, they tried for a rapid unscheduled dissassembly by way of firearms.
Her body was sold as scrap at a surplus auction under the guise of being involved in a shootout - some loopholes allowed the department to use the incident as an opportunity to upgrade to the newer, more stable HOUND v2. The sale ended up going to one Talia Ortiz, owner of a local nightclub, hoping to repair what she assumed was a non-sentient chassis into a bouncer - or at the very least, some interesting decor. Upon getting Ru-B to a functional state, she realized this wasn't the case. She worked to get Ru-B to a functional - if still somewhat damaged - state, enlisting the help of a repair specialist, Cassie. Shortly after, Talia hired her at the nightclub and helped her gain legal personhood.
Word of the incident, meanwhile, had reached the higher ranks of the city police. They'd gotten their newer HOUND, but realizing Ru-B still had memory of the incident, decided she was a liability and needed to reclaim or completely destroy her. Her personhood status meant just swooping in and grabbing her wouldn't fly - not to mention, she was still by all means a walking tank. It wouldn't be easy. But they were willing to wait it out, find a moment she slipped up, and rain hell upon her the instant she did.
Stories featuring Ru-B