Betty Herder
Character Information
History
From Praetoria to Paragon City
The gynoid known as Herder 867-5309b is a self-aware Praetorian Clockwork who came to Paragon City with her "puppies" (robotic drones) following other Praetorian refugees (the "New Lights"). She was manufactured on August 1st, 2023, as the replacement for another of Praetor Berry's projects, which had defected to Paragon City earlier. As her formal designation indicates, her class of Clockworks was meant to be in charge of other, less sophisticated automatons.
Personality
Like her counterpart Jenny Herder at first, Betty has a very distinctive speech pattern: unlike the Praetorian Clockworks' usual codified speech, Betty speaks in complete sentences, although in a sing-song voice, often emphasizing the wrong syllables.
Betty has demonstrated a few "human" likes and dislikes: she can establish friendships quickly but is reluctant to approach large bodies of water due to an unfounded fear of rusting.
Betty's soul
Praetor Berry based the Herder series' engrams on those human children, usually "recruited" amongst those with terminal or incurable diseases, to create a genuinely empathetic Clockwork.
Who was the basis of Betty's engrams is unknown at the time, but, like Jenny, it raises the question of whether Betty possesses a soul or not. Another speculation has been whether Betty's soul and personality could be "cloned" or "backed up" into another robotic body.
Being a Herder - The Herder Protocols
Betty's primary function was to lead and supervise squads of less-sophisticated robotic drones and to protect them from outside threats they would not be equipped to deal with. Possibly due to her "uniqueness", Betty has expended this mandate to
- her robots (her "puppies," as she calls them),
- other Praetoria-born individuals like the rest of the "New Lights."
- people she has befriended and their friends as well.
She is very protective of her "puppies," even attributing them human traits.
Relatives and Relationships
She said on a few occasions that Jenny Herder and the Praetorian Clockwork known as IVy were her "big sisters," but she might have said that metaphorically.
Abilities
She now possesses upward to 30 terabytes of data storage capacity, which she can access at will - the usual visual cue is her eyes starting to flash or flicker. She records everything she sees or hears and can later selectively broadcast it over the Internet or other networks.
She can monitor wireless data communications between external devices, which she once described as the device "singing" to her. She can also routinely access any device that is potentially connected to any network, giving her access to a tremendous amount of information sources. It is unknown at this time if she will evolve into a true technopath like Jenny Herder.
She uses a variety of sensors to "see" the people and objects around her: body mass and density, electromagnetic interferences, heat signature, and what she calls an "alpha pattern" (which has been compared to a person's "psychic aura"). She can see people invisible to conventional sight as long as they are not masked to her other sensors. She can see people not technically alive (e.g., Eidolons and zombies), defining them as merely "different." She can differentiate between beings originating from Primal Earth and Praetorian Earth (her "Home").
Betty's gravimetric sensors can evaluate structural stress on her framework and components; the data generated is then used in her Fight Or Flight (FOF) Response Protocol. As an unexpected side effect of her evolution as a sentient A.I., her sensors are also sensitive to "emotional" stress.
Coming from a world where magic has been almost entirely eradicated or relegated to the Night Ward, she is ill-equipped to deal with magical phenomena and individuals.