Vertigo

Vertigo, full name Andrew Pilkens is the main protagonist of Prototype, and one of the many creations of Dr. John Tempest Pilkens. He has a special ability that lets him see and communicate with the dead, which he uses to try and help him and his family escape a time loop they are trapped in by Miramae Lucifer.

Appearance
Vertigo has short, messy green hair and red eyes. He wears a hand-me-down school uniform, which is missing the socks and shoes. His metallic skin is standard model, but has some marks from being rushed. The most noticeable feature of Vertigo's is his two tails, which make up for the shoddy balancing system he was coded with. They generally move to counteract his motions, but will react with his emotions as well, causing him to be clumsy when he's emoting while moving.

Vertigo always has a small pocket watch with him. A perfect crystal hangs from the end of its chain.

Personality
Vertigo is stand-offish and prefers to do things on his own. He is quieter and well behaved around family members he trusts, like Halberd and Medicine, but will often stay away from everyone else. His calibrations make him oversensitive to light and sound, reinforcing his want to be alone.

Vertigo doesn't have many outlets for his frustrations, like his standing in the family and the loop he and everyone is stuck in, which can cause him to lash out. When his frustrations are taken care of and he's allowed to cool down, he will instead come off as quiet and nervous. He's generally a good natured kid when he's not worrying about anything, which rarely happens.

Besides the main conflict, one of Vertigo's biggest frustrations is his ability to see ghosts, something no one believes him about. He's unable to tune out their voices and sees them everywhere, which can lead him to panicking at bad times.

Creation
Vertigo is the fifteenth of Dr. Pilkens' robots, built on June 13th, 2311. While the other robots were created with specific purposes in mind, Vertigo was strictly given no purpose and was made to simply exist within the family. Though the Doctor treated all of his creations like children, Vertigo was the one he held the closest, having a whole room of the house specifically for him and watching him almost like a helicopter parent. This is likely due to Vertigo's rushed creation, causing him to have sensory issues and numerous last minute fixes to cover glaring issues.

Vertigo quickly grew attached to the first and second robot, Halberd and Medicine, as they took on the roles as his caretakers when the Doctor was busy. Halberd would keep Vertigo's life signals on his visor and would rush to Vertigo at any disturbance, Medicine close behind with medical supplies expecting the worse.

Death of Dr. Pilkens
On January 3rd, 2313, Dr. Pilkens was murdered by a rogue AI, Vertigo's sibling UNIT-032, given the nickname Ultimos. It is unsure why the robot attacked his creator, but it started a rampage through the house shortly after, making a beeline for Vertigo. He likely would have died if Halberd hadn't heard the noise and intercepted him, tearing him in half during a vicious struggle. Halberd evacuated the house and moved the family to a government house, paid for by his state salary. Leaving the family home and being in a near-death incident caused Vertigo to become reclusive, trusting only his family.

Some time during this, to accommodate Vertigo's distrust of humans, the family decided to trade their human names for nicknames, usually pertaining to their job. Vertigo's name was a suggestion by Epiphany to describe his sensory difficulties. While initially not liking being defined by something like that, he soon accepted the name, liking the word for how it sounded more than its meaning.

Awaking Insanity
One year after their move, Vertigo was coerced by his brother Jayden to join him in revisiting their old home and seeing if anything could be brought back. After sneaking out and maneuvering through the rubble, they failed to find anything that wasn't already stolen by hoarders. Remembering the layout of the house, Jayden pushed away some fallen drywall to reveal a basement door. He put his weight into opening the door- so much that when finally opened, he swung back and hit Vertigo, causing the boy to fall down the stairs. Fearing repercussions, Jayden ran back home.

Vertigo, injured from the fall, struggled to sit up, but realized that he was both in his father's untouched lab- and was on top a forgotten creation. He was desperate for anyone to help him and take him home and turned the creation on. The smell of sulfur filled the air as the robot turned on, showing signs of obvious rust and decay. The robot, nicknamed as Insanity, had faced mental degradation from an unknown amount of time shut off and had a very chaotic personality, shifting between wondering if Vertigo was okay and completely ignoring his injuries. Halberd soon showed up, saving Vertigo and nearly dismantling Insanity, only stopping when Vertigo told him about Jayden and a rip in Insanity's jacket showed him to be a genuine Pilkens model. Not happy but not wanting to abandon family, Halberd took Insanity home, making sure Epiphany would keep a close eye on him.

Obtaining the Watch
One day, from his room, Vertigo saw an old woman fall over while trying to cross the street. Waiting for ten minutes and seeing no one else help the woman, he begrudgingly decided to leave the house and help her. The woman was thankful, apologizing for her clumsiness, and went on her way. Noticing she had dropped a watch, Vertigo tried to go after her, but became uncomfortable with being outside too long. He took it inside, deciding to hold onto it and wait for her to show up the next day. The next day never came.

Present
At current day, Vertigo and the entire Pilkens robot family are stuck in a time loop which brings them to the year 2053. The current world is deep in a decades long Cold War which soon culminates in Insanity, unable to access a power source in the past, exploding and being mistaken for a nuclear warhead, plunging the world into mutually-assured-destruction and bringing on the nuclear apocalypse- creating the world the robots are living in and finishing the loop. Vertigo is the only person in his family aware of the loop, something he believes is caused by the watch, and decides to use his knowledge of previous loops and the warnings given to him by the ghosts to find out who is behind this and why.

Events of Prototype


Events of Witch of Flowers


Communication with the Dead
For reasons unknown to him, Vertigo is able to talk with the dead, something he is not very fond of. However, when he's able to gain the courage to listen to them, they'll tell him of things to watch out for and to keep an eye out for when he's looking for something. Focusing on the voices takes a lot out of him, so it's not something he can do often.

Memory of Time Loop
Vertigo is the only person who can remember the time loop and is able to use it to fix mistakes he made in a previous loop or try other options.

Time Travel
Upon learning how to use the watch from studying it with Thompson, Vertigo is able to harness the full potential of the watch and travel on his own. Though he cannot fix the loop like this, he is able to redo moments and skip to the future to see how certain events play out, not having to wait for an entire loop to pass again. This has the downside of making him more paranoid, with small miscommunications making him consider using the watch to stop any potential negative feelings.

Trivia
Trivia