Soon after successfully moving to Emerald City for a new job, Urs Novak discovers their personal laptop did not survive the trip, and found it cheaper to replace the machine rather than attempt to save it. They were lucky enough to pick up a decent enough SOL laptop at a used equipment auction, as an employee of TerraByte.
But, someone must have forgotten to properly erase the data on it before selling it. Much to their chagrin, the laptop turned out to be originally testing equipment for TerraByte's very own operating system that never saw the light of day, CaelOS, and hosting a virtual assistant: something that was already all the rage within the software world, as obnoxious as they were.
...This one was different though. Makes little sense for an artificial construct to be so... fretful. Or even anything beyond the usual corporate friendliness facade.
And so, instead of just reinstalling the whole system, Aster, the oddly emotive artificial construct in question, gets to stay. ...On condition that they will try to do something with their time besides relentlessly offering help.
Aster, beyond an unusal capacity for emotion, is a unique AI among the virtual assistant craze. By virtue of being a dual-module AI, somewhere in development they have formed as two seemingly independent individuals, while still being one and the same. For convenience, they choose to dub themselves Rigel and Vega and choose different colors to accompany them.
The two form a unique kind of friendship, between Urs and both of Aster's modules, and even their rambunctious fusion. As residents of entirely different worlds, they might have a lot to learn from each other.
CaelOS is a personal passion project of ours, and something we work on and develop in our spare time when we're not making fanart. It's kind of a culmination of everything we've loved in the past and love today: various media and personal experience and love for all things computer-related. CaelOS is very much a living organism, and while we are working towards an established story, the main fun of it is figuring things out, and changing things if necessary.
As of writing, we are currently working out the world building and making small projects in the medium of Ukagaka, a form of a desktop toy, to put our work and skills to the test. We hope that one day, as a result of our work, CaelOS may become a fully fledged work of fiction.
Ukagaka (Desktop toy)
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Artwork
Note: Designs and other details are always subject to change. Keep this in mind when referring to provided reference images!
Info cards
References
Illustrations and doodles
Character info
Urs Novak
A newcomer to Emerald City from deeper countryside and tech hardware enthusiast, just recently settled down with a simple tech repair job at TerraByte's local branch.
Urs has a rather rough, hardened attitude towards the world and other people, carried over from the ruined hometown they grew up in. Despite their bluntness and unwillingness to sugarcoat things, they remain kind and thoughtful in other ways. As a result, Aster eventually joins the very few people who get to see what's behind that bear-like mask.
The hobby of studying and modifying hardware allows for a symbiotic relationship with Aster. While Aster can take care of things on the software side, much more in-depth than a regular user could ever do, Urs takes care of their laptop home, being able to repair it and transfer data to another laptop should something happen.
Aster
An AI inhabiting the mystery laptop. As a possible side effect of being dual-module, said modules have formed into two distinct individuals.
Rigel
The self proclaimed face of Aster, Rigel is the module responsible for ensuring the user's interaction with the operating system and Aster themselves goes off without a hitch. Rigel also has a unique duty within the system. He's capable of manipulating the UI to his whims, presumably to aid the user in organizing windows and demonstrating how the OS works beyond the user's vision.
Internally, the module is actually named Altair. However, he rejects it in favor of a friendlier sounding name. A decision very strange for an AI contstruct, but reasonable when aiming to present yourself as someone worthy of trust.
Rigel seems to demonstrate a lot of curiousity about outside world and human creativity, possibly just as much as he is eager to please whoever is using the computer. Generally chipper and easygoing, as long as things don't go off the rails... Which might be common, given that the OS never was finished.
Vega
Vega is the secret guard and watchman of CaelOS. His domain is maintaining system performance, troubleshooting, and defending the OS from malware, with a more hands on approach. Given Aster is a process entity just like any other, his module allows them to dwelve deep into the system's internal world, the Abstraction. There they can handle a much more delicate troubleshooting, out of reach for a mere programmer.
He makes his presence known a little further down the line, allowing Urs to discover Aster's dual-module nature. He speaks in short sentences, direct to the point, and takes his time choosing his words, all as a result of a higher workload his mind performs at all times. A necessity for processing a large amount of diagnostic data.
A contrast to Rigel, he seems much colder and reserved, completely lacking the chipperness common to other software virtual assistants. Of course, that coldness isn't all there is to him, with a dry sense of humor and a soft spot for his new user and other processes alike.
Aldebaran
As CaelOS was abandoned mid-development, neither Aster is free from strange bugs and glitches. When Rigel and Vega fight for the executive control particularly fiercly, the OS bends under them, and obeys both modules.
Needless to say, that is far from intended behavior. Thus forms Aldebaran, a result of Aster's code struggling to keep both Rigel and Vega in charge of their process body. He (they?) is not a module separate from the two, but rather a blend of their personalities, with some parts amplified and some subdued. Unfortunately, as the two are struggling to get along, the combination is as full of bravado and confidence, as it is neurotic and overwhelmed.
To make matters worse, CaelOS fails to correctly determine what access model the newly formed process is supposed to have. This results in Aldebaran posessing total control of his surroundings within the system, additional capacity for self-modification, and even busting the doors of the Abstraction into the open wild web.
...But is that really such a bad thing? Of course, they'll need some time, understanding, and firm boundaries to help manage the power-mad mind. But this combined state may allow them to become something more than some ditched software project.
