COOPER [MS0098-6778] (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
text2speech) wrote2020-03-28 10:53 pm
text2speech) wrote2020-03-28 10:53 pm
Entry tags:
#XXX: APPLICATION/INFO
NAME: Frederick E. Cooper
CANON: République
CANON POINT: end of Episode 3
AGE: late twenties/early thirties
HISTORY: Here is the game on Wikipedia, however since there's not much there, here's my summary of Episodes 1-3!
Terminology:
Pre-Cal: short for “pre-calibration”. The children who live and learn within Metamorphosis. Not much is known about where they came from; the events of Episode 4 and 5 suggest that every child has clones or possibly that they are clones of each other.
Metamorphosis/the République: a city-state run by the Headmaster/the Overseer/the Captain, Kenichiro Treglazov. A surveillance-state at its finest, it is theoretically billed as a “more ideal society”, but is extremely secretive and totalitarian. It is generally implied that most citizens are not allowed to leave (...alive).
Prizak: the guards in Metamorphosis. For guards of what is ostensibly just a school, they are well-equipped (pepper spray, tasers, sleep gas), and are often abusive to the children.
Recalibration: a punishment for those who cause trouble within Metamorphosis. Not much information is provided about it, but it presumably involves memory-wiping/brainwashing.
Republique begins with the player receiving a phone call from a Pre-Cal, 390-H (or “Hope” as she calls herself), begging for assistance. She has been caught with contraband - an altered version of the Overseer’s Manifesto which exposes his lies and preaches against his message - and will now be scheduled for Recalibration. Mireille Prideaux, the students’ head caretaker, and Quinn Derringer, head of the Prizrak, take her to a holding cell for interrogation; the closest Prizrak on hand, Frederick Cooper, finds the cellphone the player is connected to and sneaks it back to Hope in the hope that the player will be able to help her escape. The phone Hope has (itself another piece of contraband) does indeed have some very useful abilities, namely OmniView, which connects the player to the many cameras and locked doors in Metamorphosis and allows them to guide Hope through the facility.
With the player’s assistance, Hope breaks out of the holding cell and goes on a quest to get to the Librarian, who is sympathetic to the plight of the Pre-Cals and can supposedly protect her from Mireille and Derringer. Along the way, Cooper keeps in touch via text-to-speech messages (he writes that “it is too dangerous to use my real voice”), providing advice and wry commentary.
Despite taking a roundabout route to the library due to the OmniView software needing to be updated to open the library doors, Hope and the player manage to sneak her through. She is then caught by Mireille, who takes her to be interrogated, asking what “they” know about Metamorphosis and slapping her when she refuses to answer. Before Mireille can finalize the order to Recalibrate Hope, a masked Prizrak enters the room and tasers Mireille, allowing Hope to escape. She and the player resume their journey to the Librarians office; unfortunately, once they finally reach it, they find the old man dead on the doorstep. The sheltered Hope breaks down before finding video evidence of who committed the crime: Derringer. (The player is given the choice of letting Hope watch the video, which is not graphic but has audio of the murder recorded, or of keeping Hope in the dark.)
With the Librarian dead, Hope is left with only one option: escape the facility on her own (and with help from the player). In the Librarian’s secret room, she finds a schematic for the Overseer’s key, which will give her access to the garden and the outside world. Cooper directs her and the player to a 3D printer located in the Archives; the key is successfully replicated and Hope makes her way to the elevator to the surface.
In a bout of bad luck, Derringer steps onto the elevator as well, and fights briefly with Hope before she manages to stun him with his taser and escape. Hope and the player then make their way to the offices of Metamorphosis’ newspaper, the Morning Bell, to steal a keycard to the service elevator. Hope is caught by the Bell’s head writer, Maddie Sade; in a surprising twist of fate, Maddie offers to help, having finally had enough of being a part of the Republique’s propaganda machine that erases the murders of innocents such as the Librarian. With Maddie’s assistance, Hope and the player access two huge, seemingly-omniscient data servers and research the two Prizrak guarding the service elevator. Maddie’s plan is to use the propaganda machine against them, writing up twisted narratives about supposed crimes or immoralities that they have committed. Though Hope expresses discomfort at this plan, it is successful; meanwhile, Cooper is called away from his desk and is unable to continue texting the player.
Derringer arrives with a squadron of Prizrak to arrest the elevator guards. Unfortunately, he leaves a masked Prizrak behind as a replacement guard, causing Maddie to lead Hope and the player to the security feed for the replacements room so that they can collect data on him and quickly come up with a reason for him to be removed as well. Maddie suggests that they use whatever information they can to frame him for Mireille's attack.
Propaganda published, Hope and the player make their way back to the elevator just in time to see the Prizrak cornered by Derringer. Derringer tips the mask off of the doomed man's head, and his identity is revealed: Frederick Cooper. As Hope watches in horror, Cooper is pushed around by Derringer and knocked to the floor; he spots her in her hiding place and whispers her name before being pulled away by Derringer to face his fate. Maddie yells for Hope to run for the elevator and she does so, then collapses, sobbing and mumbling that she is a good person.
(Episode 4 and 5 have...more stuff in them, but this is where I will be taking Cooper from.)
PERSONALITY: Frederick Cooper is a surprisingly deceptive man. When he first appears, he seems to be a cowardly, dim-witted, face-in-the-crowd security guard, actually physically cowering away from Derringer and letting Prideaux boss him around and call him an imbecile. Once the player is speaking to him alone, however, it is clear that he’s much more clever than either of his bosses know. He is a sympathizer to Zager, the revolutionary/terrorist who created and distributed the poisoned Manifestos, hiding as a socially stunted loser in plain sight. Technically inclined, he helps the player hack into computers, guide Hope to safe spots, and access secret rooms, all the while providing tips and wry commentary.
While the “incompetent loser” personality we see at first is partially an act to fly under the radar, it does seem true that Cooper is a very bullied individual. An optional part of the game involves pickpocketing guards in order to retrieve Cooper’s game cartridges, which were stolen from him by his coworkers to torment him; Derringer leaves him a message calling his office “[his] little woman cave” and suggesting that his interest in video games is “a severe behavioral disorder”; and clicking on a poster about Pre-Cals hiding in lockers prompts Cooper to mention getting stuffed into a locker once (“this may surprise you, but I wasn’t very popular in high school”). His passport notes that he has selective mutism and severe social anxiety, and the one and only friendly interaction you overhear him have with another Prizrak is charmingly awkward.
He is also a huge nerd. When you retrieve the game cartridges mentioned above, he offers his thoughts on each one, talking about everything from game design to music to narrative structure to “rad skateboarding dinosaurs”. His office is decorated with posters from Double Fine Adventures (“it was $250 on Kickstarter. Worth. Every. Penny.”), Shadowrun Returns, and Kentucky Route Zero (he proudly notes that this particular poster proves that he “was into Kickstarter before it was mainstream”). He communicates with the player using Kaomoji, and appears to have named the security feed in his office “COOPER-KUN: d(@_@)b”.
He can be light-hearted at times and describes himself as “an easy-going guy”. When the player first meets him, he concludes their conversation with “I’m sure you can hack it in this place. That was a joke, by the way. Sometimes my humor gets lost in translation”. He also describes a game he once made as being about “a handsome, quiet guard who escapes his horrible job. I call it ‘Rogue Cooper’”. Even his mutism seems handled easily and lightly, as he only says that he “doesn’t talk much” (and compares himself to a video game protag that spends most of the game silent). Occasionally, his wit can be scathing (“looks like one of my colleagues has left a PIN code sitting out for everyone to see. I long for the days when basic common sense was a prerequisite for gainful employment”), though most of the time it just comes off as goofy (he actually greets the player with a “howdy, partner!” once…). Although not much is known about his family life or interactions with loved ones, he does enjoy talking with his mother on the phone, and leaves her a message about how he loves and misses her. He is canonically gay or bisexual (it is not made clear which).
On a darker note, the information found in his room and in a later episode of the game suggest that he is deeply troubled about his stay in Metamorphosis, and that he originally went there to believe in the Overseer's 'more idyllic society'. In a voicemail to his mother, he tearfully laments that it was a mistake to come there - that he realizes now that “there's order in the universe but at a cost I can't afford”. He struggles with his bosses, his coworkers, and the way the Pre-Cals are treated (“strength doesn't matter here. Only cruelty”); he is a good person caught in a bad situation, and when he sees the opportunity to help Hope escape, he takes it.
POWERS/ABILITIES: Cooper is a normal human and has no special powers. He is a security guard, so he probably has some knowledge of combat/weapons, although at some point a character suggests that he would refuse to use them.
He wears large glasses and is likely very near-sighted.
An email from a colleague suggests that Cooper is the resident IT guy and is the one to call for computer maintenance.
CANON: République
CANON POINT: end of Episode 3
AGE: late twenties/early thirties
HISTORY: Here is the game on Wikipedia, however since there's not much there, here's my summary of Episodes 1-3!
Terminology:
Pre-Cal: short for “pre-calibration”. The children who live and learn within Metamorphosis. Not much is known about where they came from; the events of Episode 4 and 5 suggest that every child has clones or possibly that they are clones of each other.
Metamorphosis/the République: a city-state run by the Headmaster/the Overseer/the Captain, Kenichiro Treglazov. A surveillance-state at its finest, it is theoretically billed as a “more ideal society”, but is extremely secretive and totalitarian. It is generally implied that most citizens are not allowed to leave (...alive).
Prizak: the guards in Metamorphosis. For guards of what is ostensibly just a school, they are well-equipped (pepper spray, tasers, sleep gas), and are often abusive to the children.
Recalibration: a punishment for those who cause trouble within Metamorphosis. Not much information is provided about it, but it presumably involves memory-wiping/brainwashing.
Republique begins with the player receiving a phone call from a Pre-Cal, 390-H (or “Hope” as she calls herself), begging for assistance. She has been caught with contraband - an altered version of the Overseer’s Manifesto which exposes his lies and preaches against his message - and will now be scheduled for Recalibration. Mireille Prideaux, the students’ head caretaker, and Quinn Derringer, head of the Prizrak, take her to a holding cell for interrogation; the closest Prizrak on hand, Frederick Cooper, finds the cellphone the player is connected to and sneaks it back to Hope in the hope that the player will be able to help her escape. The phone Hope has (itself another piece of contraband) does indeed have some very useful abilities, namely OmniView, which connects the player to the many cameras and locked doors in Metamorphosis and allows them to guide Hope through the facility.
With the player’s assistance, Hope breaks out of the holding cell and goes on a quest to get to the Librarian, who is sympathetic to the plight of the Pre-Cals and can supposedly protect her from Mireille and Derringer. Along the way, Cooper keeps in touch via text-to-speech messages (he writes that “it is too dangerous to use my real voice”), providing advice and wry commentary.
Despite taking a roundabout route to the library due to the OmniView software needing to be updated to open the library doors, Hope and the player manage to sneak her through. She is then caught by Mireille, who takes her to be interrogated, asking what “they” know about Metamorphosis and slapping her when she refuses to answer. Before Mireille can finalize the order to Recalibrate Hope, a masked Prizrak enters the room and tasers Mireille, allowing Hope to escape. She and the player resume their journey to the Librarians office; unfortunately, once they finally reach it, they find the old man dead on the doorstep. The sheltered Hope breaks down before finding video evidence of who committed the crime: Derringer. (The player is given the choice of letting Hope watch the video, which is not graphic but has audio of the murder recorded, or of keeping Hope in the dark.)
With the Librarian dead, Hope is left with only one option: escape the facility on her own (and with help from the player). In the Librarian’s secret room, she finds a schematic for the Overseer’s key, which will give her access to the garden and the outside world. Cooper directs her and the player to a 3D printer located in the Archives; the key is successfully replicated and Hope makes her way to the elevator to the surface.
In a bout of bad luck, Derringer steps onto the elevator as well, and fights briefly with Hope before she manages to stun him with his taser and escape. Hope and the player then make their way to the offices of Metamorphosis’ newspaper, the Morning Bell, to steal a keycard to the service elevator. Hope is caught by the Bell’s head writer, Maddie Sade; in a surprising twist of fate, Maddie offers to help, having finally had enough of being a part of the Republique’s propaganda machine that erases the murders of innocents such as the Librarian. With Maddie’s assistance, Hope and the player access two huge, seemingly-omniscient data servers and research the two Prizrak guarding the service elevator. Maddie’s plan is to use the propaganda machine against them, writing up twisted narratives about supposed crimes or immoralities that they have committed. Though Hope expresses discomfort at this plan, it is successful; meanwhile, Cooper is called away from his desk and is unable to continue texting the player.
Derringer arrives with a squadron of Prizrak to arrest the elevator guards. Unfortunately, he leaves a masked Prizrak behind as a replacement guard, causing Maddie to lead Hope and the player to the security feed for the replacements room so that they can collect data on him and quickly come up with a reason for him to be removed as well. Maddie suggests that they use whatever information they can to frame him for Mireille's attack.
Propaganda published, Hope and the player make their way back to the elevator just in time to see the Prizrak cornered by Derringer. Derringer tips the mask off of the doomed man's head, and his identity is revealed: Frederick Cooper. As Hope watches in horror, Cooper is pushed around by Derringer and knocked to the floor; he spots her in her hiding place and whispers her name before being pulled away by Derringer to face his fate. Maddie yells for Hope to run for the elevator and she does so, then collapses, sobbing and mumbling that she is a good person.
(Episode 4 and 5 have...more stuff in them, but this is where I will be taking Cooper from.)
PERSONALITY: Frederick Cooper is a surprisingly deceptive man. When he first appears, he seems to be a cowardly, dim-witted, face-in-the-crowd security guard, actually physically cowering away from Derringer and letting Prideaux boss him around and call him an imbecile. Once the player is speaking to him alone, however, it is clear that he’s much more clever than either of his bosses know. He is a sympathizer to Zager, the revolutionary/terrorist who created and distributed the poisoned Manifestos, hiding as a socially stunted loser in plain sight. Technically inclined, he helps the player hack into computers, guide Hope to safe spots, and access secret rooms, all the while providing tips and wry commentary.
While the “incompetent loser” personality we see at first is partially an act to fly under the radar, it does seem true that Cooper is a very bullied individual. An optional part of the game involves pickpocketing guards in order to retrieve Cooper’s game cartridges, which were stolen from him by his coworkers to torment him; Derringer leaves him a message calling his office “[his] little woman cave” and suggesting that his interest in video games is “a severe behavioral disorder”; and clicking on a poster about Pre-Cals hiding in lockers prompts Cooper to mention getting stuffed into a locker once (“this may surprise you, but I wasn’t very popular in high school”). His passport notes that he has selective mutism and severe social anxiety, and the one and only friendly interaction you overhear him have with another Prizrak is charmingly awkward.
He is also a huge nerd. When you retrieve the game cartridges mentioned above, he offers his thoughts on each one, talking about everything from game design to music to narrative structure to “rad skateboarding dinosaurs”. His office is decorated with posters from Double Fine Adventures (“it was $250 on Kickstarter. Worth. Every. Penny.”), Shadowrun Returns, and Kentucky Route Zero (he proudly notes that this particular poster proves that he “was into Kickstarter before it was mainstream”). He communicates with the player using Kaomoji, and appears to have named the security feed in his office “COOPER-KUN: d(@_@)b”.
He can be light-hearted at times and describes himself as “an easy-going guy”. When the player first meets him, he concludes their conversation with “I’m sure you can hack it in this place. That was a joke, by the way. Sometimes my humor gets lost in translation”. He also describes a game he once made as being about “a handsome, quiet guard who escapes his horrible job. I call it ‘Rogue Cooper’”. Even his mutism seems handled easily and lightly, as he only says that he “doesn’t talk much” (and compares himself to a video game protag that spends most of the game silent). Occasionally, his wit can be scathing (“looks like one of my colleagues has left a PIN code sitting out for everyone to see. I long for the days when basic common sense was a prerequisite for gainful employment”), though most of the time it just comes off as goofy (he actually greets the player with a “howdy, partner!” once…). Although not much is known about his family life or interactions with loved ones, he does enjoy talking with his mother on the phone, and leaves her a message about how he loves and misses her. He is canonically gay or bisexual (it is not made clear which).
On a darker note, the information found in his room and in a later episode of the game suggest that he is deeply troubled about his stay in Metamorphosis, and that he originally went there to believe in the Overseer's 'more idyllic society'. In a voicemail to his mother, he tearfully laments that it was a mistake to come there - that he realizes now that “there's order in the universe but at a cost I can't afford”. He struggles with his bosses, his coworkers, and the way the Pre-Cals are treated (“strength doesn't matter here. Only cruelty”); he is a good person caught in a bad situation, and when he sees the opportunity to help Hope escape, he takes it.
POWERS/ABILITIES: Cooper is a normal human and has no special powers. He is a security guard, so he probably has some knowledge of combat/weapons, although at some point a character suggests that he would refuse to use them.
He wears large glasses and is likely very near-sighted.
An email from a colleague suggests that Cooper is the resident IT guy and is the one to call for computer maintenance.