Nick Nack Augurbot
Nick Nack is a scrapper who became friend and ally with Miru De Notani during her explorations of the deserts of Ardi Kokufa. His origin dates back from before The Destruction, but his memory banks have become addled with age, and the thousands of years of tinkering and repairs that he has performed upon himself. Nick is known as an Augurbot - a stoneforged follower of the divination school of Edifism. As part of this, he constantly delves into the disjointed and dreamlike memories from his long past to try and make sense of the world around him.
He refers to Miru as his bloodsoul, as he believes her to be somehow related to his own past before the Destruction and that their meeting was a moment of import to the Eternal Edifice he serves. Miru herself likes to chide her friend when he reveals this to others, usually downplaying the moment.
"Even for you Nicknack, you were half starved - but I was much closer to death than you. That kind of thing gets fixed in memory. And yours... well, your memory ain't that fixed." *** She had been running in a panic, but had fallen, tumbling down the face of one of great dunes of Ardi-Kokufa. The thing she had been running from was upon her. It was leathery skin and bone, sinew and teeth and it flailed far too many limbs as it chased her down. The wind was gone from Miru's lungs. The panic that had driven her so far suddenly evaporated, and she couldn't move. She remembered the feeling of utter resignation. it was sad, but also a strange relief. So this was it. Barely four moontides since she had set out from New Lafaelle and The Gleaming City still just a rumour somewhere ahead. This thing, this Soulhusk they called it, this was her end. She almost smiled. But it was not her death after all. She blinked perhaps, and the Soulhusk was there no longer. Instead there was the sound of clanging metal, of flesh being sliced, and a strange whirring, buzzing sound. The thing that had saved her was large, roundish, metallic and it crouched on metal struts above the remains of the Soulhusk. The whirring was some sort of device that was drilling into the bones of the Soulhusk. Sinew and cartilage spattering the sand. Miru could never forget the conversation that followed, one of many to come. The hunched machine was constructed of dented and rusting peices of metal, fitting like armour. it swivelled towards her, the panels clanking as it did, and a strange circular lense, like an eye, whirred as it focussed on her. From within its body, Miru could hear a series of fast rattles and clangs. There was a strange lilt to it, a pattern she couldn't quite make out. It repeated the sounds, shifting its footing on the sand, and repeated them yet again. "I don't understand" she began as she slowly sat up, "um.. What... who... are you?" More whirring, scraping, tapping sounds from within the machinery, but then a crackling sound emerged, it was voice. "Who..." it said, "you?" "I am... My name is Miru." She motioned to the remains of the Soulhusk, and she could see its eye follow her gesture, "You saved me from that thing. Thank you." Miru repeated, "Who... what are you?" "I... saved... Miru... You." The voice came in strange jolting fits, with whirs and crackles between the words, and Miru suddenly realised it was her own voice being played back to her. "Are you repeating... recording me? How are you doing that?" "Recording Miru. Repeat." It stammered at her in her own voice, "Doing. me. That. me." "Who are you?" Miru repeated once more. "Me. I am." A long pause this time, and it kept repeating Miru's own words at her, "My name is... my name is..." "You don't have a name?" "My... name?" the rattling within had a strange uplifting rhythm to it this time, "Me. You name?" "I guess... i could." Miru smiled at the weirdness of this moment, "How about... Nick? You know, as in Nick-of-time? Like you saved me in..." "My name is... Nick-of-time?" Miru smile at this, "Nick, for short." "Nick." a soft reverberating gong sounded, "My name is... Nick."
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Nick stands about 8 feet tall on articulated legs which pivot on a central gyroscope. Atop this is mounted his body, which is a roughly speherical collection of moveable metal plates and two large lenses for eyes.. The metal plates can open and close like louvers to allow for cooling air to enter Nick's interior, or closed to protect the inner working. The main structural elements are connected by a haphazard array of wiring, hinges, joints and bolts.
Much of the metal is rusted, dented and worn from the elements and the damage received from violent encounters over Nick's long existence. There are patchwork repairs, and many holes that reveal the complex machinery within his main body. Larger power cables, weatherd and frayed, emerge from points beneath the main gyroscope and snake down his limbs, providing power to small but powerful motors in his various joints.
Sparks of energy often shoot up and down these cables, revealing the presence of crystalline Uhd tendrils which form the basis of his internal power network.
by Midjourney
Specialized Equipment
Scuttler and brain unit
Deep within his main body sits Nick's smaller and more mobile scuttler form, within which resides his primary brain unit. This is the only part of him which remains of his original form and is where his memories and personality are encoded in a dazzling network of crystal uhd tendrils.
This scuttler form can be seprated from the outer form, and Nick will do so only under the most dire of circumstances as it leaves his true self exposed without the protection of his outer shell.
by Midjourney
Tools and systems
Nick currently has a number of additional tools attached to his outer body. This includes:- A solar energy array to recharge his stores
- A energy tool that is primarily used for cutting and welding his material components, but can also be charged as a weapon when needed
- A complex tool used to drill and extract magial energy from rocks or even biological forms
- an array of other mechanical tinkering tools used to maintaine, repair and construct both hsi own parts and other machines he finds.
- One eye to see i the visible light spectrum, which also is connected to his internal recording systems
- A second eye that allows him to detect magical energy
- A sound recording and playback device, used to communicate with others
- An internal percussion system used to communciate in scrapper cant.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Much Of Nick's history is lost to the vagaries of time. He delves deep into his own washed out memories to try and understand his origins, in what he believes will help forsee the future and whatever it is the Eternal Threshold has planned.
He has momentary images of vast light-filled cities, where glass towers cascade with vegetation. he recalls a body he once inhabited, graceful, delicate, porcelain. He thinks he was protecting someone. Someone important. Important to him at least. Now he thinkgs this might have been or will be Miru herself.
Another image haunts him, of towers burning, and a cracked porcelain mask shattered on blackened ground. His own hands picking up what remains of a broken eye-peice.
Gender Identity
While gender is a strange concept to Scrappers, Nick has taken on a masculine persona since associating with Miru. He uses male pronouns simply because that is what Miru has always favoured for him.
What does bother him, is when others refuse to address him directly, and instead only refer to him in the third person as they talk to Miru. Many do forget he is a sentient, self-aware being in hiw own right.
Morality & Philosophy
Nick describes himself as an Augurbot, and is a devout follower of Edifism and the Eternal Threshold. He regularly meditates and explores his own memory banks, exploring the patterns of what has been left behind and what has been obscured and smeared by time, while adding and overwriting it with new experiences and recordings.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Nick's primary purpose is to record as much new knowledge and experience as he can and merge it with his already addled memories. In this way he hopes to fulfil his duties to Edifism and the Eternal Threshold.
He also seeks, more personally, to understand the memories of his past that he can still recall. His belief means that any memory not yet given over to the Eternal Threshold has not yet been fully experienced, and remains unresolved. He seeks to understand th significance of these flashback to his time before the Destruction.
This is one of the main reasons he has partnered with Miru, as through her explorations of the ruins beneath the Shatterbright he hopes to unearth things that can help him intpret what he has yet to fully forget.
Social
Speech
Nick Nack can communicate with other Scrappers using the percussive language invented by them over the aons known as Scrapper cant.
His outer form also contains an audio unit, which enables him to record sounds, and re-combine them as playback through speakers. This allows him to construct sentences and entire conversations using a collage of found sounds and snippets of conversations he has recorded over the centuries.
In recent years, this audio bank has become dominated with his many discussions with Miru, and his playback is now nearly always dominated by crackling and warbling versions of Miru's voice.
Conversations are not fast though, as the splicing and editing process can take a few moments at best as Nick scours his fragmented memory for the right words and phrases to express what he means to say. He much prefers the speed and fluidity of Scrapper cant, but not many can understand it outside of other scrappers, who are rare to come by.
Miru can recognise much of the meaning of scrapper cant, though cannot physically recreate most of the phrases.
In some cases, conversations between Miru and Nick can operate over two levels, where Nick can appear to be conversing about one topic audibly, but be augmenting with scrapper cant beneath it. This can allow for much subterfuge and hidden agendas to be passed between the two without others knowledge.
Current Location
Species
Age
unknown, thousands of years
Children
Gender
Non-gendered
Height
8ft
Belief/Deity
Although it is a machine equipped with many of the things you would expect from a bot, it appears to have feelings, consciousness, memories and what I find most interesting, it is a follower of a religion. A great character that I would probably like to become friends with.