[OOC][PLOT] The Seventh Thread of Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals

[robkelk]

Speaking of Piffle and persocoms... I was browsing Behind the Name and came across a name that they could use for their first all-original design in the Metacontinuity: Ririka.

According to the website, ordinarily one would write "Ririka" as "花" or "華", either one meaning "flower". But one can also write "Ririka" as "理倫加" - the first "ri" as in "logic", the second "ri" as in "companion", and "ka" as in Canada. It might not be an actual Japanese name when written that way, but that just makes it more attractive as a name for a Canadian-made "logic companion".

And, you know, Maika could use some help with the cleaning at Blossom...

Now to decide what she looks like. That's what a Safebooru source for "original" and "maid_apron" is for, right? (gives that a try - 139 pages of results) Hmmmmm... this image looks good. She's definitely a maid, not a meido, and the ornament at her waist shows that her personality has a bit of whimsy to it. As for glasses on a persocom, maybe she's borrowing one of the zero-prescription pairs that Skuld gave the residence a while back.

It looks like we're all good with robot mages, so... one writeup-stub, copied from the wiki. Let me know when the story's ready for her to show up - but she won;t show up for at least a month after the palmtop Taiga is online and in Ben's hands.


Ririka
理倫加

• Residence: Blossom Apartments
  
• Original ficton: There's Nothing Better, via Chobits, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, and Lyrical Nanoha
  
• Height: 150 cm
  
• Blood Type: n/a
  

She started as an experiment - could Piffle make a persocom using only of-the-shelf parts available in the Metacontinuity? Well... no. So they fabbed their own parts. Her original design came from Minoru Kokubunji's notes, but when Chitose Hibiya saw the plans, she immediately redesigned the chassis to be less "teenaged boy's wet dream" and more "cute girl next door", and told Minoru to revise the personality programming from "meido" to "maid".

The Kobayashis and Gil Graham visited as she was being developed, and Chitose quickly added a magic coprocessor to her design - delaying the design phase of her build project. ("Feature creep" happens.) After her physical design had been finalized save for cosmetic matters, Rob Donaldson was invited to see the "Project Ririka" during one of their visits to Piffle, at which point he volunteered (after being asked by Chitose) to beta-test the completed persocom. A month later, after alpha-testing was completed, Ririka arrived at Blossom's doorstep.

Description

Ririka is original to There's Nothing Better.

Her name is written 理倫加 - logic, companion, "Ka" as in "Canada" - as an indication that she's the first persocom made in Canada from the ground up (instead of being based on an existing flesh-and-blood person or persocom model).

Her glasses are an affectation.

Skills and Powers

Ririka has the standard persocom abilities. She does not have the chobit abilities.

She also has a basic grasp of magic, which she uses in the performance of her duties. Her forte is in cantrips/charms for spot removal, light dusting, and related matters, but she does know some offensive and defensive spells.

Her mundane skills, to begin with, focus on her role as a maid-of-all-work... but she also has a childlike fondness for baby animals, and has learned the basics of pet care.

Relationships with Other Characters

Ririka thinks of Chitose as a mother and Chii as a big sister.

She thinks of Rob as her employer and Maika as her "sempai" co-worker.

Ririka has not yet found her "the one who is only for me".