EVEN COMPUTERS AREN’T SAFE IN THIS ECONOMY

Meet Cheryl, Enya’s unlucky “friend”

Enya’s personal computer who suffers daily marital abuse from Enya. While Cheryl often takes on the form of a regular old laptop when Enya takes her to class, with the click of the button on Enya’s handy-handy smart watch, Cheryl’s floating avatar can be summoned to appear before Enya. Cheryl can also be dismissed into the virtual world when she is no longer currently needed, and then summoned back into the corporeal world once she is unfortunately needed again. 

Despite Enya’s best intentions, Enya works Cheryl to the bone by forcing her to capture the data of every. single. thing. that the two of them encounter in Pop City. Enya’s reasoning is that she’s “Gotta catch all of the data in the universe!” Whatever that means. Ever since Cheryl had the misfortune of becoming Enya’s Digital Friend, Cheryl has been struggling with clinical depression and existential dread. 

Like a three-headed serpent with medical issues, Cheryl has been programmed to experience only three moods: stupid gleeful bliss, primal rage, and all-encompassing misery. Lately, Cheryl has only been experiencing primal rage and all-encompassing misery. Usually both at the same time.

Cheryl’s favorite soda flavor is
“The Computer Dream”

CHERYL’S STATSAge: Unknown
Race: Second Gen AI
Family: She’s a robot.
Friends: Do you eally think Cheryl has friends?
Enemies: Enya

Cheryl’s Facts

Cheryl can be dismissed and summoned to and from the virtual world through a digital layer of connector lines that bridge the gap between the Internet and the real world. Every time Cheryl leaves and re-enters the digital world, she leaves behind a trail of arrow-shaped connector lines as her floating avatar circles around Enya.

  Cheryl’s main physical vessel is Enya’s laptop. When the laptop is off, Cheryl’s either asleep or crying in a virtual therapy session somewhere in Pop City’s health enforcement headquarters. When Enya turns on the laptop and taps her electronic watch to summon Cheryl’s avatar, Cheryl appears from the virtual world.

Why does Cheryl even have a function to appear as a floating avatar? Even Cheryl doesn’t know the answer to that question. All she knows is a life of pain, rage, and misery.

Originally developed as a part of the Science Guys’ latest venture in technology, the Digital Friends, Cheryl was marketed as a “mildly empathetic friend to be there for you on those days you’re feeling down.” With Digital Friends, the Science Guys mass produced unique AIs with their own set of personality traits and sentient programming for lonely Pop Planeteers with a few extra bottle caps to have a friend they can turn to. Each Digital Friend came with a physical computer form and a dynamic digital avatar that could cross the border from the Digital World to the physical world. Cheryl’s model, however, was the least well-received Digital Friend, and now lots of Cheryls sit around in the Science Guys’ warehouses waiting to be bought.