hehehehehe I have so many thoughts on Kes
okay so in the story world that my friends’ and I came up with we first meet Kes as this asshole robot news reporter who has sent Augustus to do a job at the high elves ball/banquet to find out just what the heck is going on between the nature and the city realms.
then after stuff happens at the banquet, Augustus and my friend’s two characters are at the store where they overhear Kes reading the news + the weekly wanted which include the two characters and Augustus
Then after that I wrote a scene where Kes is annoying
“This chapter ends and the next chapter begins with Kes walking into the main area of the recording studio. She immediately calls Hyacinth over to her and calls her many incorrect names (like Helen, Hickory, Heather, etc (today was a good day for Hyacinth because Kes at least got the first letter correct)) while asking if everything is ready to go and the flashdrive of what Kes is to report that day. Kes gets handed this to her by the still stuttering Hyacinth”
There’s more to this scene but it has my friends’ characters involved so yeah
Kes’s backstory is that originally she was a human. Still a bit selfish and tired of the world not listening to her. There was an offer of a way the world would listen to her and she took it. Which leads to her being experimented on by the city side who is realizing that AI keeps failing them and so the best way is to build off an already sentient creature’s mind (aka Kes).
The experimentation is long and harsh and it finishes when it’s no longer her bones creaking but metal. Her mind is intially fully wiped of explicit memories using memory magic (which also exists in this world and is a part of trade and closely related to the underground market where city and nature people barter and trade).
However that magic combined with the computer-like programming glitches/(flashbacks from the days where she was human) with one another and so she has to be ‘uncorrupted’ multiple times and her personality goes from cheery and innocent slowly to uncaring and down to the basic components where her programming to search and find knowledge where it gets to almost a lawful neutral where she is antagonistic.
Later in the story as Calla and my other friend’s character searches for who is after them (it’s Kes) in the archives, they find Kes who starts glitching and it gets bad for her because it’s a lot to take in after so many memory wipes and corrupted coding to find/remember what happened to her. I’m thinking that the programming to seek truth and knowledge (orginally for news reporting/seeing how far the programming can go) coincides with her subconscious need to process what happens. I don’t think she can be redeemed until after almost complete shut down of her body and programming. Maybe this where Baba Yaga (dw about it) comes in but also that might be putting way too much focus on my characters.
Oh yeah. The experimentation number was K-35 hence Kes which Kestrel Newstation bases itself around.
The technicians for the new station hate Kes because of frustrating she becomes and irate (due to the memory magic/code corruption) overtime and so they hate having to repair this rude robot every time she glitches after she gets angry.
So yep! That’s Kes!