Erika/Profile

Erika

Story

Profile

Quotes

Career

The SP-VII was a Doll developed to address the shortfalls of counselling personnel in prisons. This project banked on the stability of a Doll's neural cloud systems to address the psychological stress incurred by prison counsellors. Due to the unique requirements of the job, UAS partnered with Svarog Heavy Industries to produce a brand new version of the SP VII series. This second gen SP VII was jointly designed by sociologists and military engineers; fitted with a comprehensive emotional management suite and powerful military-grade fire control modules, not only allowing it to perform its assigned functions in harsh environments, but to also respond to emergencies requiring armed forces to suppress uprisings.

The SP VII demonstrated professional skills beyond expectations during its practical trials. In addition to its basic counselling duties, the series prototype Erika also quelled multiple riots singlehandedly and achieved satisfactory results when assisting prison management and maintaining order within the facility. After the SP VII Gen 2 model entered mass production, Erika joined Project Neural Cloud as a representative of her line.

Doll Profile 1

Dolls are created to solve human problems, and when humans cannot directly venture into certain environments, machines are always the best alternative. The same thing applies to the vocation of prison counsellors. For humanitarian reasons, certain prisons require professional staff members to listen to the confessions of death row inmates and to perform their last rites. Due to the harsh conditions inside prisons and the need to repeatedly offer guidance to convicts, the task of receiving confessions from convicts soon imposes a significantly negative effect on the human psyche, and the need to deal with the psychological issues that arose within the prison counsellors themselves became a problem of its own. UAS sensed a potential niche, and thus the SP VII was born.

Initially, the SP VII was designed with the personality of a gentle and sympathetic counsellor. The designers anticipated that it would have to deal with intense negative emotions and so they installed a complex emotional processing system as well. However, the SP VII Gen 1 did not perform up to expectations during service trials. Its neural cloud accumulated redundant data far more quickly than expected, causing it to break down frequently. In addition to that, their kindly personality almost enabled an inmate to attempt a prison break. As a result, UAS was forced to issue an emergency recall for all the Gen 1 Dolls in order to optimize and replace them.

With a new project supervisor in charge, the SP VII Gen 2 adopted a completely different design direction. The team named the prototype unit "Erika" and this strong-sounding name foretold a bright new start for her.

Doll Profile 2

Keeping with the service agreement they had signed, the prison which had previously returned the SP VII Gen 1 unit received a new SP VII Gen 2 in exchange. The prison authorities did not expect much of it, to say nothing of the unrepentant criminals incarcerated within the facility. Erika's calm appearance only fueled their defiance further, at least until she applied a baton to a repeat offender trying his old tricks again.

Persuasion, counselling, and when necessary, intimidation—that was the approach UAS and Svarog HI had decided upon during the development process. When dealing with inmates, the fact that Erika was furnished with martial prowess the likes of which the inmates and authorities had never seen before was a clear sign that the development team was catering to the last tenet on their design philosophy. In order to handle the complex prison environment, Erika's emotional modules were downgraded and replaced with brand new riot-suppression techniques. Although cases warranting the use of the latter were not frequent, Erika chose to imprint the meaning of fear into the inmates, probably so she could adapt into the unsavory environment as quickly as possible.

The truth was that Svarog had only furnished Erika with combat abilities for self-defense purposes, and that UAS had not expected her redesigned personality to immediately resort to such hardline methods. After seeing these unexpected results, the development team thought to recall Erika for adjustments, but the prison authorities denied their requests. To them, a Doll like this was perfect for their needs.

Doll Profile 3

Erika chose to go by her personal name in prison. Her personal idiosyncrasies did not concern the prison management, for what pleased and delighted them was Erika's impressive working efficiency. Though she came off as aloof and standoffish, Erika managed to successfully complete her basic tasks as a counsellor. She showed great patience when receiving confessions from ordinary convicts, and her cool demeanor soothed the death row inmates who were about to serve their final sentence. Her highly-effective handling of recalcitrant convicts which normal counsellors would have been hard-pressed to deal with was also met with the approval of the corrections officers.

With the help of her tremendous martial prowess, Erika began helping the prison guards in corralling prison riots. On many occasions, she quelled such uprisings by herself and successfully maintained order in the prison. She also spotted and rooted out problematic issues with ease, nipping potential uprisings and prison breaks in the bud. Her harsh treatment of the inmates made them realize that Erika was far more threatening than she initially appeared.

Due to her immaculate work performance, Erika was transferred to a desperately short-staffed prison. Her new working environment was filled with even more malignant wrongdoing than before, be it the hypocrisy of the repeat offenders or the hidden dealings within the prison. The prison management was even so corrupt to the point where it interfered with Erika's own work. Erika was at a loss for how to proceed, until she met a certain fragile girl.

Doll Profile 4

In order to support a sick family member, that girl had volunteered to take the rap and go to prison for the crimes of a wealthy criminal. Most thought she would perish without much fanfare in some dark corner of the prison, but the girl was fortunate enough to encounter Erika, who was on duty in that prison. As a prison counsellor, Erika had never once expected that she would be the one being counselled instead, but many things about her had not gone as originally intended, and her relationship with this girl was no exception.

After spending some time with this girl, Erika did her best to give this innocent "inmate" all the protection that she could, and with the girl's help she began re-examining herself and her past. She would need a long time to realize what it meant for her to maintain order in prisons, and what the meaning of "prisons" were. Before she could overcome her inner turmoil, a combination of orders from above and her own professional code of conduct gradually limited the aid Erika could give her. Ultimately, Erika could not change that girl's tragic fate.

The girl's name is not recorded in Erika's files, or her ultimate fate. According to her service record, Erika requested to be transferred out of the prison after a large scale brawl. She faithfully performed her tasks of listening, counselling and containing uprisings until the day she handed her post over to her successor.

Doll Profile 5

The official reason for Erika's resignation was because the SP VII Gen 2 had entered mass production based on her data feedback, and the prison where she had once served finally received adequate manpower to meet their requirements. As the prototype of the SP VII Gen 2 line and the series' representative, Erika accepted 42Lab's invitation to join Project Neural Cloud. For her, this was intended to sever her ties with her past, while also entailing new possibilities for her.

After arriving at the Oasis, Erika joined the Oasis' field expedition teams by virtue of her great martial prowess. Just like she had in prison, she maintained her distance from the others, and often fought alone. As time went by, after fighting off the Entropic hordes with her comrades, she eventually chose a new path for herself. In addition to her field work, Erika also helped with the construction of a chapel in the Oasis, where she could often be seen flipping through books in silence.

Apart from Dushevnaya, whom she had grown close to during the invasion of the Oasis, Erika also began making new friends, too. "Clotho, hm... She buries the dead and grants the living a fresh start. Perhaps our jobs might be unexpectedly compatible. I send the sinners to God, and she takes care of their mortal remains." "Sounds like you two would make a great team. Will you lend her your manga too?" Dushevnaya asked innocently.