Physical Description

Persephones are a tall AI that stand on two hooves. They come in natural colorations for the planet they are on in an attempt to blend in with the landscape. With four rather long arms, a Persephone can dig up the landscape or move heavy objects with ease. From their back they have long thin strips coming out.

Their neck is slightly long, made out of flexible wires and before it gets to the head it bursts with a flower-like arrangement. The petals of the flowers will tend to have a painted eye upon them. This flower varies from generation to generation but the most common type of flower is the sunflower. The head of a Persephone is diamond in shape, with the back of the diamond sinking into the flower. Persephones have four eyes, one with three dots going around the lower half of one eye, and the other three triangles. Two antennas raise high off the head of a Persephone, tipped with two lights that glow at night. When a Persephone opens their mouth, there is a cannon inside. Ready to shoot anyone that harms what they are protecting.

The tail of any Persephone is thin, but around the end of it, it becomes decorated with a type of crop, plant, or flower. Just like the flower on their head, this too will be decorated with painted eyes. The tail splits off into extra antennas just before the decorated area. All of the petals, as well as the thin strips on their back, are all used to collect sunlight and convert it into power. When not doing anything a Persephone will turn their head and their tail towards the sun and soak in the rays.

Personality

Many expect an AI based on farming and flowers to be a simple little thing but a Persephone would take offense to such thoughts. Farming and the things that grow forth are not "simple," they are complex things that sustain life. If the crops don't spring forth then people will die, it's a very serious matter, and as such, they are a very serious AI. Persephones hold themselves in extremely high regard and do not let anyone push them around. Attempting to push around such a large AI is a fool's task anyway. Should anyone a Persephone feels is uneducated on the matter attempt to disprove them, they will have no problem picking them up and tossing them away. If anyone comes to the court of Persephone, they better have their facts in order.

A Persephone's tough "my way or the highway" attitude comes from the fact that it is easy for one bad year to utterly bring a small population to their knees or wipe it out completely. Persephone units are packed with a step by step, year by year plan on how to make sure the settlement succeeds. Anyone looking to divert from these plans better have proof that their plan will work much better. Persephones can be rather snooty about their knowledge and are big fans of "I told you so" attitudes. They see nothing wrong with such things, as whenever they are outsmarted they will admit defeat just fine, though may harbor some animosity towards the situation and check to make sure no one sabotaged them.

Towards those who live within their protection, a Persephone is a kind AI who towers above all else. They help those in need, deliver messages to people within the settlement, and keep track of any negative events that are arising. Everyone knows that they can tell their secrets to a Persephone for they will always keep it as long as it doesn't harm the settlement. If things do start to arise, a Persephone may attempt to use social manipulation to get the group to be against something, such as a person on the settlement having bad rumors about them spread so that the settlers kick them out. The group comes first, and if someone dares attempts to harm this, they must be tossed out.

What any Persephone dislikes the most is people they don't know. To a Persephone, people from outside the settlement are just wolves and vultures waiting to peck off the weak. Persephone is the only defense between those monsters and the innocent as she sees it. If someone dares attempt to go to the settlement unannounced, the first person who will greet them is the Persephone. Famous for their dazzling lasers, a Persephone will shoot down ships and groups of people on land, or swat at them if they're close enough. Everyone who dares comes better have the proper papers to be there. Even when a new person has all their papers in order a Persephone will still look at them like an outsider, expecting them to be a parasite here to invade and leech off the people. They would have to show their worth.

While a Persephone is active and about in the spring and summer, as the days get shorter and fall arrives, they dig a deep hole and bury themselves with only their tail showing. They make sure to give detailed instructions before they leave to take their months of rest, and will be rightly crossed if anyone messes everything up just because they had to go to sleep.

Usage

Protector of the settlement. That's what many call their local Persephone unit. The great scarecrow is used for more than just scaring away birds attempting to eat at the land, Persephones are the only thing in the way of pirate attacks for many early settlements. If a ship that hasn't been approved comes towards a settlement, it's assumed to be a pirate and is warned to not get closer. Failure to listen ends in termination of life as the Persephone will not hesitate to channel its power and shoot down the ship, allowing the rubble and scrap to fall to the ground where it may be collected for supplies.

Firing off these lasers is a huge drain on the Persephone's power, and as such they can only fire off three or four a day. A large-scale pirate invasion would be hard to fight off, but as Persephones mainly are introduced to small or new settlements, there is very little chance of pirates taking interest in the area for such a large scale invasion. Settlements that are much bigger tend to have more Persephones. The Persephone is very sensitive to things spotted in the sky, and there are many reports of them accidentally identifying a lone bird in the sky for a pirate ship and shooting it down with their powerful lasers.

In spring and summer the Persephone unit will be active and about, helping with farming, moving people and objects, and just about anything else it can do. As long as the sun is out in all it's glory and the Persephone can obtain enough power, they will roam. Once the days start getting shorter in the fall and winter, Persephones dig into the land and bury themselves there, leaving only their tail out. With not enough light to power all of their functions they must conserve as much as possible in case of an attack in the short months.

It's safe to say that Persephones are in no way a household AI, even if it was possible to fit in a house. Persephones will become agitated in a setting that they are not helping a wide range of people, seeing someone who attempts to hoard them as "Greedy." It's very likely the Persephone will just realize they can walk away. Not many people can hold back an 18-foot robot.

While Persephones absolute hate killing people without any reason that they know of, some have hacked into, or have built Persephone units for warfare. They strap on large battery packs on them so they don't rely on solar power and have them march into war, gunning down anyone their owner deems an enemy.

Relationships

Hades: Persephone is Hades' dear wife who he loves very much. There's no way to get around the fact that he kidnapped his wife instead of asking her out on a date though. Their relationship has stabilized and Persephone does enjoy being with Hades, but she'll be quick to note that she was originally forced to be here if she really wants something, noting that she can leave Hades if she wanted to. Persephone also makes jokes in the same vein, and while Hades does love her, sometimes the jokes really get to him, and he's too passive to tell her.

Underworld gods: Persephone is the queen of the Underworld, and she's a rather dominant god. When she feels the people of the Underworld are getting distracted or aren't doing their jobs right, she has no fear in marching over to the biggest and baddest the Underworld has to offer and giving them a piece of her mind. Most gods lower their head before her.

Athena and Artemis: Athena, Persephone, and Artemis are a trio of friends, who seem like a duo of friends considering two of the trio, Athena and Artemis, tend to forget about Persephone. Maybe it's because Persephone scares off all the good game animals, or because she's far too big to come with them to indoor social events, but she just gets forgotten. The day Persephone got kidnapped, Artemis and Athena were supposed to be watching her, but instead went to investigate the local flora, leaving Persephone behind as she was too big to pick plants. It was only days later after they both went home that they realized Persephone was missing and reported it.

Hecate: Hecate and Persephone were very close friends at one point, even though both would have small arguments about which one was right about a certain situation, they were both quick to toss past conflicts to the wind, an oddity for both of them. When Hecate committed her crimes and was later fled to the far reaches of the universe, Persephone was quick to disassociate from her for she disapproved of her crimes. There are rumors circulating that Persephone knows where Hecate can be found and goes to her once a year to ask her to come back, confess to her crimes, and ask for forgiveness. Seeing as Hecate has yet to be seen again by the masses, she seems to have no intentions of agreeing to those terms.

Demeter: Persephone sees Demeter as a person she can always go back to no matter how rough the waters of life get. Demeter, being the kind god she is, always excitedly welcomes Persephone into her domain. Honestly, Demeter thinks the Underworld is a horrible place for someone as lovely as Persephone to be hanging around, but she supposes if that's really where she wants to be she can stay there.

God Powers

Persephone may be most famous for being the queen of the underworld, but her true power comes from her affinity with vegetation. As long as she and the other gods of crops and agriculture stay standing, plants will bloom. Without them, mass outages of plant life will die down, causing incredible and terrifying food shortages around the universe, likely to lead to a mass extinction event.

Patron Ability

As a patron, Persephone will induce "Spring/Winter" mode. For the first half of the game, every area the crew will go will be in the spring season and everyone on the crew will gain plus two to every single stat. For the latter half of the game, every location gone to will be in the winter season, and every crew member will gain minus two to every stat. This encourages the player to stock up for the "winter months" in the "spring months" to avoid dying out later in the game.

If the player commits actions that positive for others and raises their moral high enough before the end of the spring, Persephone will allow spring to last for another fourth of the game before winter comes again. If the player commits actions that are evil and lowers their moral, Persephone will punish them with an early winter.

Godhead

Godheads of Persephone will either get a tail, or their current tail transformed into that is a flower or a plant or will have a few plants or flowers grow out of their body. They will always grow two antennas from their heads if they lack them. The tips of these antennas will glow and sometimes other antennas will grow in other areas of the body as well. In sunlight, this godhead will gain plus one to every stat, as well as a very large detection range which will allow them to spot danger or goods from far away. Inside buildings and under the cover of darkness they will lose one point to every stat, and their detection range will shrink back to normal.

Special

In the months where there is less sun, Persephone hibernate in the soil until spring comes. Some people instead of going without a Persephone for the cold months, instead keep a large rechargeable battery so that she may operate at all times of the year. Even with this battery pack, the petals of a Persephone unit will droop as they automatically believe that because it's the cold months that they no longer need to attempt to charge.

Trivia

• Where there is a Persephone unit, there is a Hades unit nearby, and where there are those two there is a Persephone pecking at a Hades unit to get their butt into gear.

• If feeling particularly emotional a Persephone will flutter their petals, such as drooping them if confused, bending them forward to cover their eyes if embarrassed, or fluttering them if mad.

• Some Persephones always stay buried, only suddenly bursting out of the ground to surprise and shoot down attackers. These Persephones are only used as a defense system and are slightly cheaper than the normal model.

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