Strawberry (droid)

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Character bio
Lambrelli Labs Pill Bug Robotic Avatar, Module 2 Feminine in Pink ("Strawberry" for short) is a robotic superheroine that features in The Gerosha Chronicles of Dozerfleet Comics, partial to Comprehensive and Cataclysmic Geroshas. She was invented by Seth Lambrelli, and first piloted by his assistant Stephanie Barrin. Strawbwerry would later become a member of the Sodality of Gerosha. Her Mk. II version would prove useful in the final season of Sodality at helping the Sodality free the Marlquaanites, which include the Gray Champion, Mapacha, and Extirpon. The Mk. III of Strawberry appears also in Sodality: Battle for Metheel.

Powers, weaknesses, and accessories
Pilltar robots interact with the user via a shortwave radio and redundant satellite radio connection, one which is tied to a device not unlike a virtual reality machine, but which can process brainwave signals. Lambrelli Labs at one point worked with Dereck Johnson to develop a Marlquaanite bond for control modules. However, Seth's acquisition of a Marlquaanite ruby via involvement with Johnson led to the Society of the Icy Finger declaring both of them targets. This would come back to haunt Seth in particular when the Society would attack Des Moines via an subsidiary known as the Screwworm Network.

Lambrelli avatar robots are able to partially put the mind of a pilot inside of the machine. As such, Strawberry assumes the personality and fighting style of whoever is controlling her thoughts. Likewise, she is only as intelligent as her pilot. One distinguishing feature of Strawberry, however, is that she was modeled specifically to interface most with a female-wired brain. More specifically, she was designed with Stephanie's brain in mind. This makes the Strawberry unit very customized, as opposed to the more-generic regular Pilltar line.

Strawberry robots come standard with a silvery body given a pink stain and paint job, with a "Munchkin"-like size and body frame. They have blue-glowing eyes instead of the regular green seen on Pilltar. They also have various gadgets in their fingers, and some flight controls in their arms. They also have rocket-propelled feet and backpacks. Their backpacks, which create the "pillbug" look, also serve as fuel cell containers. Strawberry Pilltars can take a lot of abuse, but are vulnerable to EMP. The feedback of an EMP blast can result in a cancellation of the link between a machine's "mind" and the pilot's, often also filling the pilot's mind with simulated death trauma. For this reason, pilots on particularly dangerous missions are advised to block their left ears from being interfaced with the controls. There is some fear that a total interface going wrong could put the pilot into a coma. Strawberry models tend to be able to deliver more of a punch than their Pilltar standard counterparts also.

Pilltar 2
Main article: Pilltar 2

Seth and Stephanie realized after their first major adventure to defeat the Morrisson Cannibal Cult that one Pilltar in the field may not be enough. Therefore, Seth set to work on making a custom line of Pilltar models that would interface with Stephanie better. A rock concert becomes the first place attacked by the Screwworm Network, requiring Seth to send Pilltar into action. Stephanie dons control of her "Strawberry" model in the field for the first time ever. However, several more battles reveal that Strawberry is not entirely invincible. Audrey's EMP blast manages to make contact with one of the Strawberry units, which didn't quite fly high enough. Pilltar and Ponicatar hold the fight together until Stephanie can recover from her trauma and bring another Strawberry to the battle.

Stephanie enjoys the Strawberry unit so much, she decides to become Strawberry semi-permanently. However, that means she must train her father Ron Barrin how to become a backup Pilltar, as Seth Lambrelli doesn't have long to live.

Pilltar 3
Main article: Pilltar 3

Seth and Stephanie's Strawberry designs are put to the test as Stephanie must help her father Ron to flee to Oklahoma to escape an invasion and takeover of Iowa. Along the way, the Pilltar Mk. II is revealed. Plans exist for a Strawberry Mk. II as well. However, plenty of Mk. I Pilltars still exist. The road trip that already proves dangerous for them becomes even more so when their tireless enemy, Scott Morrisson, comes after them in his new Stagtar line, with Stagtar having been reverse-engineered to become an evil version of Pilltar. Many Strawberry and Pilltar units are destroyed as the journey becomes more desperate for all involved. At one point, the control module for Strawberry is damaged. This prevents Stephanie from fighting back against a Stagtar-deprived Morrisson. Stephanie attempts to use a gun to defend herself against Morrisson, but the shots appear to have little effect at stopping him due to the pure evil that is inside him. Ron tries fighting back without a Pilltar, but proves to be of little use. He finally manages to get a hold of a portable controller and switch it to a channel for a damaged Pilltar.

Ron uses the damaged Pilltar's points of damage to additionally wound Morrisson, then uses the unit's flight to grab the dying Morrisson and fly him high into the air. Pilltar and Morrisson drop to the ground aided by rocket propulsion. Ron order the controller to eject him from his Pilltar right before impact, and activates the self-destruct. Even after the explosion, Morrisson screams at them and thrashes around before succumbing to his death. The trauma causes Stephanie to make several Mk. II Strawberry units, before putting them in storage and trying to lead a normal life for a while to lay low. Ron supports Stephanie in this decision, having also been traumatized by Morrisson's supernatural endurance to punishment.

Sodality
Main article: Sodality (series)

Judge Terry Beliah begins harassing Lambrelli Labs in an effort to make trouble for Ron and Stephanie. Before that even, Stephanie's involvement in saving Candi's life during the Senator Gobar scandal results in her having to publicly destroy a Strawberry unit, killing several armed assailants in the process. She is hidden inside a SCALLOP jail for several weeks to protect her while the politics of the scandal are sorted out. She and Candi meet Ann-Marie Benarko, who dies while in SCALLOP custody in spite the girls' efforts to save her life.

Ron and Stephanie are forced to flee their private residence when Beliah's goons invade. As they learn more about what Beliah intends to do to all Phexos and Marlquaanites, the two of them decide to bring some Pilltar and Strawberry units out of storage. It is not long before they are added to the roster of the Sodality of Gerosha officially. The two prove very useful in taking back Houston from the Phaletori and their army of True Centhuen warriors, even playing a major role in recovering many other heroes who would join the Sodality. In the great battle, they helped buy time for Extirpon to find his way to Beliah himself for a final showdown. Afterward, they compare notes with others in the Sodality. Ciem is surprised to learn how much she and Pilltar have in common.

In the Vindication timeline, it is partially the Kirby Act and partially Stephanie's sacrificing of another Strawberry unit to save her new husband Jonathan from the Screwworm Network that results in an APB being issued for Stephanie's arrest. She joins the other Sodality women at SCALLOP Women's Containment Center for a month, before going insane and requiring extensive therapy before returning home to her father and husband. She is placed under house arrest, and is on parole for several more years. In that time, she finds an eventual replacement at Lambrelli Labs to be Strawberry's pilot for her. She also takes her and Dolly Malestrom's combined Strawberry and Earwig technologies and repurposes them to invent a robot parole officer named Strawforcer, making it easier on her SCALLOP overseers to address their staffing problems. Stephanie does help out the Sodality and the Phaemer Village Peacekeepers in saving Dephinapolis from a Phaletori attack, but returns to Earth after that Strawberry unit is destroyed in the fighting. She eventually retires from being Strawberry completely, to focus on family life regarding her husband Jonathan and her son Ricky. From that point onward, Strawberry goes through a series of pilots that aren't Stephanie. During the civil war in Arkansas over the Swappernetters, Stephanie is almost sent back to jail for refusing to put Strawberry's deadly arsenal inside Strawforcer for purposes of several government leaders' desires to assassinate Tabitha Pang.

Battle for Metheel
Main article: Sodality: Battle for Metheel

A slightly taller and more durability-minded version of Strawberry is introduced some time after Beliah's defeat. In the video game pitch Battle for Metheel, the Mk. III version of Strawberry is put to the test to help the Sodality in overthrowing the evil King Morzhuk. Stephanie Barrin resumes being her pilot. Due to its considerable ability to take more abuse than the previous models, the Mk. III becomes the new standard model. It is a tiny bit heavier than its predecessors, but proves to be more than worthwhile for use in combat situations.

Altered versions of the Mk. II made to look more bug-like end up being licensed for use by neighborhood watch organizations and small town police. Lambrelli Labs becomes significantly profitable from said transactions.

Concept
In 2010, the character of Stephanie Barrin was created as an initial secondary protagonist for Seth Lambrelli, and as a backup Pilltar pilot. Before Seth had a developed backstory, the story was going to revolve centrally around Stephanie. However, plans for a sequel developed in early 2011. This resulted in the envisioning of a pink-colored Pilltar dubbed "Strawberry." Stephanie would eventually pilot Strawberry, and develop the catchphrase "Strawberry, reporting for duty!" right after flying in and punching a villain out.

It was decided in late November of 2012, following the outcome of the elections, that Strawberry would also end up in the series Sodality as an eventual member of the Sodality of Gerosha, along with Pilltar. She was previously going to appear in Abolition, the original plot for what became the fourth season of Sodality. Back in 2012, Sodality went by the working title Cataclysmic Horizons, to indicate that it was in the Cataclysmic Gerosha universe.

Appearance
From 2011-February of 2012, there was no clear appearance defined for Strawberry. It was always assumed that she would look like whatever Pilltar looked like, except for being pink in color and having blue optics rather than green. The same custom Sims 2 skintone that was used for creating the Mk. I Pilltar look was almost immediately given a second look. Its feminine counterpart was utilized for Strawberry, and post-snapshot edited to make it pink. Other modifications were made to it, mostly to the head design. It was also given a backpack like Pilltar, and was made even short via the stretchSkeleton cheat in Sims 2.

For the concept art for Sodality: Battle for Metheel, her Mk. III specification was designed in The Sims 3 for the first time ever. A heavily-modified custom skintone was used to create the appearance, and designing her backpack-and-all took considerable Photoshop editing. Like with Pilltar, forced perspective was utilized to shrink her down to size given the model being significantly taller than its Sims 2 counterpart.

Trivia

 * There were plans at one point, later scrapped, to make a variant of the Strawberry droid for the fanfic universe for Marvel: Avengers Alliance.