Chapter Text
Drone Program Headcanons
I got to thinking about how drones, while all looking outwardly the same, display consistent individual traits that make them suitable for different roles. Why is that? I've rationalized it like this: Drones observe behavior for a short period of time as a pill baby (UNNs) and compile a personality and set of skills out of it. I imagine humans specifically "trained" base UNNs to fit into the job roles they were purchased for. (For example, a construction company purchases an UNN. It's placed in the workplace and observes for a few weeks, and after enough time, soon you got a drone that's smoking a cig, laying bricks, and talking shit about the foreman.)
So that made me think: what professions were the main cast (where applicable) trained for? I'm not including "second gen" drones such as Uzi or her classmates, as I believe their upbringing was more akin to human upbringing than the training program UNNs run.
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Khan: Engineering drone. Simple and focused on his work. Got an affinity for doors specifically as it was probably what he happened to watch be constructed while learning as an UNN. Prolonged life (for a drone) warped that into his obsession.
Nori: Mining Drone. What else would she do? Girl's got a helmet and pickaxe handy and comes from a creepy underground church. She probably learned from various disgruntled mine workers who hated their jobs but did it anyways. As a result, she doesn't care for mining as an occupation, but cannot deny that she YEARNS FOR THE MINES. As for her particular tastes...I'm chalking up quirks like that to increased individuality imparted from solver infection.
Yeva: Security Drone. No nonsense. No need for words unless necessary. Likely learned from someone who was similar to herself in both regards. Still, as a security drone, she's tasked with protecting what she's assigned to at all costs and neutralizing threats to them, be it her friend Nori, her "handler" Mitchell, or her Daughter Doll. I actually imagine that's what got her killed in the end. She put herself out in the open so Doll could go unnoticed.
Alice: Hard to be sure, but she might have been an electrician. She's comfortable in tight spaces, covets valuable parts, and knows her way around machines enough to have repurposed spare Disassembler parts and a functioning surveillance system. Likely learned from a blue collar electrician with a heavy southern accent. The murder and cannibalism stuff came later though.
Teacher: Teacher. What do you want me to say? This man learned from a professor that hated his job, so he hates his job as well.
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Manor crew, before their lives as manor maid drones.
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N: "Buddy" bot. Likely a drone intended to be used as an assistant and friend to rich children so that their parents wouldn't need to raise them or hire a person to raise them. Designed and programmed to be friendly, helpful, and forgiving. In addition, will gladly help with whatever is asked of him, even if he isn't programmed for it. Learned likely from an enthusiastic elementary teacher and their students.
J: Office Secretary bot. Trained in a "flawless training sim" to be an unquestioningly loyal and eager helper to an executive, but may have found herself demoted to meager desk work after inadequate performance (no doubt caused by her sim training failing to account for normal human behavior, instead showing every interaction as purely work-related ), causing the source of her general need to prove herself and climb the corporate ladder. Also, It's not that she particularly enjoys office work, but she needs it to keep herself happy. Like a herding dog that gets restless when it doesn't have a flock of sheep to herd.
V: This is the hardest one to nail down, but I feel like she actually was a maid even before being revived by Tessa. Learned alongside newly hired human maid. She learned the skills, but did not get to pick up the efficiency and finesse expected of her role. Coupled with a faulty visual processor, she ended up clumsy and reserved, wanting only to be out of the way and left to do her tasks. Being a "failure" at her job twice in a row likely contributed to the general resentment she displayed towards others later on in life, as well as the deep rooted fear and trauma response to failing again.
Cyn: Nurse drone. Assisted in but did not directly participate in surgeries. Learned from a competent and overall average surgeon, and spent most of her time watching from the sidelines waiting to be called on. Gained her limp and general quirks after a simple mistake damaged her main processor and caused her motor functions to become less precise and her mental facilities to lessen, possibly leading to her screwing up while assisting a surgeon and causing complications, maybe even patient death. After being left to die, the solver contacted her and took over, using her existing databanks of surgery to it's advantage.
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Well, thanks for reading all that, and hopefully Chapter 7 will be out sooner rather than later! Thanks!