Dogs
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Joy, the cyber-pup
Joy is Cris's cybernetic pet, an animatronic puppy with the appearance of a plush Border Collie who barks, runs, blinks, sleeps and interacts with her surroundings just as a real dog would. She is part of the EternalAI Friends line, a series of futuristic cyber-pets that emulate the various dogs and cats breeds, and are mostly marketed as edutainment products for children.
At the outset in the pirate crew where she worked, Cris was often at odds with the Captain initially and even downright rebellious, with a "test your might" kind of attitude; she was often confrontational and would push it as far as she could to see how much she was allowed to get away with. In the hope to calm her down somewhat, an exasperated Captain thought to gift her with a new puppy dog after her first EternalAI Friend, a Chihuahua named Nano, went missing (he reappeared after a few hours). That was both a good and a bad idea. A good idea because Cris did stop the hostilities; a bad idea because the rest of the crew felt that a full blown hurricane had landed on them. In the span of two days Joy had chased them all endlessly down the corridors, chewed everything that she could reach, scrambled over furnitures and machinery to chew on what she could NOT reach, tried to group the crew together like sheep for hours on end, stuffed her little muzzle in the Captain's food thinking it was chew toys, caused three black outs chewing on cables... and she STILL had not stopped a moment to recharge or draw breath.
If you get the feeling that Joy is a hyperactive pup.... you're underestimating her. She's more than hyperactive. Usually, she tries to do at least three things at once, but has the attention span of a canary so that multiplies her activities in the course of given time to the point that it looks often like she's not just a puppy but an entire pack of dogs, because gosh a puppy alone can't be in twelve places within mere minutes and yet she manages. Maybe it's for this that she often thinks her name is "Joy no come here", and will often act to the word "No" like it's her actual given name and an invitation to play. She's energetic as heck, playful, and full of curiosity. Friendly with everyone, she likes nothing best than to run in people's arms, lick ther faces and then jump in the arms of the next person; the only way to calm her somewhat is through ear-tickles and belly-rubs, though that's only guaranteed to last for a few minutes (and even then, the incredible speed at which she wags her tail is the proof that her energy's just bottling up for the next series of zoomies!)
Lovable and carefree, she adores Cris and her children, but has the tendency to consider everyone else she comes across as part of family even if she's literally just meet them - so she naturally would expect her human mommy to take home random strangers and is surprised when that doesn't happen. Like a true Border Collie, her instinct is to gather sheep, and because she doesn't know what sheep is, she translates it to gathering people and keeping them in a circle of happiness, zoomies and many cuddles to the good girl (her). She also adores running to fetch frisbees, balls, sticks... well pretty much everything, even things that people throw away in frustration and she'll happily bring back (but not give. What is give? Only throw!... OHHHH why you ddn't say you wanted to play tug? Tugtugtugtugtugtug!)
Like all EternAI Friends, she's not programmed to act differently from her "age range" (Puppy, Adult or Senior - in her case, obviously, it's Puppy), so she'll forever stay a puppy at heart and - SQUIRREL! *zooooooooomies*
