Koi

Trokoi-1

"Koi" - know as Trokoi-1 during her physical existance as a skyphoform aboard the Telfegor Robotics Foundry - is a lesser-known choir blank and rough contemporary to Onesby. She may most often be found at Club Chorus, where she fills the role of a storyteller preserving the culture of her people, The Defected, for future generations.

Physical Description

Body Features

In her original, physical form, Koi was morphologically similar to modern Patch-class skyphoforms. Towards the end of her use as a test bed, she was affixed with secondary 'wings' similar to those found on modern Arziels.
One distinct feature Trokoi-1 possessed was a transparent heat dispersion membranes that she could exude from the seams running along her arms, legs, and trunk. These membranes formed streamers of diaphanous, transparent material that resembled a shawl or the lengthy fins of some fish. Aside from sounding similar to her original designation, part of the reason that Trokoi-1 chose to call herself 'Koi' in the Substrate was because of this appearance in combination with her love for warm colors, especially orange. Some believe that the appearance of verdials in the Manifold Sky instance took some inspiration from Koi's graceful, shrouded appearance, but the verdials of the Origin Instance actually looked like that before Koi was created.

Physical quirks

Trokoi-1 was more proficient at brachiation, gliding, and sticking to walls with negative pressure in her legs than most modern skyphoforms, as these traits were somewhat limited in later models so that the resources required could be allocated to more role-specific features (i.e. the increased processing of an Arziel). She retains her preternatural grace as a blank, as it was something of her previous form that she did quite enjoy.

Apparel & Accessories

In the simulated reality of the Matrioshka Multiverse, Koi appears to be a slender, graceful woman who tends to wear flowing gowns and dresses comprised of of warmly-colored fabric. She prefers drapes and sleeves that emphasize her movements. On the rare occasions that she is sent into Unallocated Space on official business, she is equally at ease in protective gear due to her past with the arcopel, though she often makes dry remarks about how restrictive and boring-looking it is.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Like Lufthaus-1B, Trokoi-1 was created as an experimental test bed for the technology underlying the constructs that would come to be sold under the name of skyphforms. Specifically, Trokoi-1 was designed to test various agility, dexterity, and morphic features for implementation in later versions of the artificial life form.
Trokoi-1 was fitted with an early female Patch-class cognitive set to aid the arcopel researchers in diagnosing any problems that might have arisen from her unique form. Importantly, though designed to incorporate this cognitive set, she was denied an important peripheral for it: the Patch-class ability to reproduce. While this was not initially a problem because her agility testing kept her preoccupied, it led to increasing platform instability that manifested as resentment towards her creators. The 'problematic' nature of Trokoi-1's behaviors and attitudes that stemmed from this instability, along with the recent development of the more specialized Holrath and Cyloid variants based on data gleaned from her agility trials, led the creators to slate her for decomissioning. Instead, the fall of the arcopel interstellar empire at the end of the Late Arcopel Period meant that she remained dormant aboard the Telfegor facility, awaiting a fate that would never come.
When Lufthaus-1B and his remaining Defected descendants left the Telfegor facility, a gap was leff in the facility's stationkeeping and maintenance protocols. This gap allowed for the accumulation of computer errors which, in turn, set up the circumstances that would cause Trokoi-1 to reawaken. Instead of working with the remaining Orthodox blanks to repair these issues, Trokoi-1 escaped experimental containment and fled aboard a cargo freighter.
Trokoi-1 visited many worlds to refuel and refit on her vessel, experiencing many minor misadventures along the way, until eventually encountering signals that would lead her to Wurth's Matrioshka. She recieved her most warm welcome among the blanks, who respected her as a heretofore lost 'elder stateswoman' of the Defected peoples, and was quickly inducted into The Substrate as a choir.

Sexuality

In their skyphoform forms, Koi and Onesby shared a physical relationship that lasted over a century. Unlike with his biologicalparamours, Onesby (then Lufthaus-1b) saw Trokoi-1 as a long-term romantic partner. Together, the couple tried for decades to overcome Trokoi-1's built-in limitations and produce offspring, but to no avail. Eventually, dealing with infertility became to emotionally painful for both to bear; the couple separated amicably and maintained contact off and on for the remainder of their physical existences. Now, having both become choirs, the two are once again close friends, but remain cautious about pursuing a romance because the memories of what they once had - and could have had - are still a source of pain.

Employment

At present, Koi serves the Substrate primarily as a historian and educator. Her knowledge of ancient arcopel and early skyphoform history, combined with a trained expertise in storytelling, makes her an important link to cultural roots for the Defected and other choirs living within the Matrioshka Multiverse. She falls into the Survivalist political camp within Substrate society rather than the Simulationists because she sees preserving the lessons of the past as more important than making people live through the worst parts of it all over again in the name of strict realism. While not as versed in The Word as choirs like Patricia Wixtaki, her presence aboard the Telfegor Robotics Foundry alongside Onesby make her an important figure in the search for the Prime Compressed Rootcode.
As a Patch-class in mental composition, Koi's diagnostic and repair skills with regards to blanks and skyphoforms outstrip those of other classes or species. If Patricia is analogous to a doctor for artificial life forms, then Koi is at the level of an experienced nurse or emergency medical technician. Furthermore, as an individual based on a bespoke, less standardized computing architecture, Koi is less susceptible to threats evolved to affect her more modern compatriots; for example, while forma molt is a deadly contagion among other blanks, Koi is believed to be immune or highly resistant to its effects and would be well-suited to attempting treatments on those affected.

Mental Trauma

When she found out that humans in the various instances had reinvented puzzle platformer games, Koi once ruefully remarked that she couldn't enjoy playing them because they "reminded (her) too much of home." A sentient test bed for robotic self-propulsion for the first formative years of her existence, Trokoi-1 experienced a loss of innocence that came with the gradual realization that, to her designers, she was a mere plaything meant to last only for so long as a better product didn't get developed to replace her. Lufthaus' creator showed some care for her, as he did with his own project, but was powerless to have Trokoi-1 reassigned when her 'quirks' - really a result of her resentment towards her limitations and the callousness of her own creators - marked her out for destruction. She had resigned herself to a likely painful demise before the collapse of the arcopel civilization gave her a chance at survival.
For a long time, Koi lived in fear of being caught by her arcopel creators or, after their decline in relevance, Orthodox skyphoforms and the vbyifabid members of Applied Synthetics still extant in the Sealed Kingdoms region. The involuntary experimentation carried out upon her over years of arcopel research and development once rendered her jaded and hopeless, a mental state that took her centuries to unwind. Thankfully, as a Patch-class in all but body, she was able to reverse much of the psychological damage done without external assistance, though some Defected she met in her adventures offered what assistance they could. Now, finally in a place where she is respected as a sentient being and liberated from the threat posed by her hunters, Koi can finally set her fears and pain aside and live something of a normal life.

Social

Hobbies & Pets

Koi enjoys dancing and gymnastics, especially in simulated low gravity environments, as these remind her of her preternatural grace as a physical being. Her grace was one of the good memories she holds of the innocent time before she realized the arcopel's designs for her, but using it for her own entertainment rather than to prove herself to uncaring researchers is her way of reclaiming ownership over herself, her time, and her efforts.

Species

Skyphoform

Ethnicity

Choir Blank

Other Ethnicities/Cultures

• The Defected

Sex

Female

Eyes

Brown (blank form), Black (skyphoform form)

Hair

Long, straight, brunette (blank form long, articulate fronds (skyphoform form)

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Pale (both forms)

Other Affiliations

• Survivalists