Alma’s first thought would be that it’s Dr. Chen’s (his creator) blood if it’s red, and he’ll rush to find her. If it’s silver blood, he’s going to worry that it’s either Arda or Errol’s blood and rush to find them. He’ll immediately want to make sure they are okay. No matter who it is though, even if it’s not one of those three, he’s going to try and help whoever is hurt.
I’d say a unicorn. Alma is very rare and unique and very precious to the future of both his own race as well as humans and an alien race. He also has silver blood, which is often depicted of unicorns, either silver or gold. I dunno. It just seems fitting.
Alma is one of those rare people that can live off of just a few hours sleep each night. He only needs like 6 hours to function normally, so I’m super jealous of him when I need, like, 12. He can stay up all day as well as spend a few hours each night awake. I think he enjoys the night time more though. Less stress of day to day living, plus he can look up at the stars, and that’s one of his favorite things.
Alma’s least favorite season is Winter. He doesn’t like the snow and ice, as it is cold, unforgiving, and causes him seasonal depression. Despite his “birthday” (activation date) being right in the middle of winter, it’s not a happy time for him. It also makes him reflect on a very uncertain and anxiety ridden time in his life when he was first brought online and had to figure out who/what he was and what his purpose and place in the world was.
His favorite season is spring. It’s when life is new and things are changing for the better environmentally. He also loves to see all the greenery and other colors of flowers in bloom and nature coming back to life. The rain is an added bonus because he loves the smell of petrichor and the feeling of cleanliness and purity in the air. It reminds him of innocence.
Alma develops haphephobia throughout the series. This is the fear of being touched physically, in Alma’s case, especially by people he doesn’t know, trust, or when it’s unexpected. He prefers people ask his permission first before touching him, and even then, he may say no if he doesn’t feel comfortable with it. In moments of high stress or anxiety, his haphephobia is more likely to act up. This especially sucks because he’s also touch starved because of it and actually needs positive touch in his life to alleviate stress and anxiety, but it has to come from someone he trusts completely and they have to ask first. Even then, there may be some anxiety involved before he calms down enough to allow them to touch him and actually feel comforted instead of tense. It’s a bit of a catch twenty two, in that he needs touch, but also fears touch, because he’s been hurt in the past so badly.
Alma starts off being much less opinionated, but as he grows and develops as a character, he gets his own opinions and is more comfortable expressing them. He likes sharing his opinions, as well as hearing other people’s, even if they conflict with his own. He likes hearing other points of view and taking them into account. It’s all just information to him, and he enjoys learning, even if he doesn’t share the same opinion, it’s good to know about it and why other people might have them.
Alma doesn’t have to eat as much as a normal human, and he doesn’t particularly enjoy eating. He finds it tedious and often forgets to eat unless someone else (usually Arda) reminds him to. He usually prefers to eat more healthy and balanced foods like lean proteins and vegetables rather than empty carbs and other junk food. Even if the food tastes good, he doesn’t particularly enjoy the very act of consuming it, though, drinking is easier for him than actually eating, so he does take a bit of enjoyment out of drinking teas.
This is a bit of a spoiler for the first book, but it’s when he is being tortured and literally ripped limb from limb by one of his creators. They want to know more about the mysterious nature of his A.I. and how it works, and think that the best way to find out is to reverse engineer him by literally deconstructing him. Despite creating him, they don’t really know why he has sentience and autonomy. He was not designed to have, basically, what equates to a soul, but he does have one anyways, so they rip him apart and kill him multiple times in attempt to figure it out. He comes back to life because his code rewrites itself (also something the creators can’t explain) when altered or deleted, but he experiences death each time it’s deleted. Luckily he survives this process (barely) and is transferred to a new body afterwards but the psychological damage is irreparable. So… yeah, his most traumatic experience was that.
… Not yet. But possibly in the future. Well, actually yes, in the future, he will, indirectly, at the very least be responsible for the deaths of many. But I don’t know if he’ll kill anyone directly… We’ll see.
Where I’m at in his writing, still on the first book? Alma would cower. He’d be afraid, he’d try to run. He’d beg for them not to hurt him.
Where I’m going with the series, in the later books? He’d probably kill them. Or at the very least, he’d tell them what a vile, horrible, despicable person they are, but that they can’t hurt him anymore, and then leave them to rot in prison.
This actually happens in the books I’m writing quite often. At first Alma reacts by feeling ashamed and simply taking whatever is said to him and quietly internalizing it without trying to fight it. Later on? He gets a little more vindictive and finds ways to either verbally rebuttal and emotionally crush the other person making those crude remarks, or he gets his revenge later by planning out something to get back at them with while simultaneously making it look like he did nothing wrong. He gets spiteful and bitter later on in the series.
Depends on the character. Some see Alma as an enigma, disobedient, uncontrollable, dangerous. Some see him as timid, uncertain, shy, easy to manipulate. Some see him as protective, intelligent, sensitive, compassionate. It kind of depends on who is looking at him.
Alma is programmed with self defense protocols, but is afraid to use them. He’ll try to de-escalate the situation first, if that doesn’t work, he’ll just give them what they want. It’s only if his life, or someone else’s life, is in danger, that he’ll actually fight back. At least in the first book. If someone tried to rob him later on in the series, he’d probably knock them on their ass before they can finish saying “give me all your money” without actually hurting them, just kind of startling and knocking the wind out of them.
Alma becomes the lead synthetic aboard the Horizon (a space ship designed to take humans to new worlds to start clean since Earth is dying). His job is basically to keep the ship running and help with anything else the crew might need him for. He takes this job because it’s the only way he sees himself having any sort of freedom to be himself and have a future outside of just serving humans. It’s a chance to prove his worth as a person, not just a machine, and do something that he feels matters.
This is another spoiler for later on but eventually he becomes a diplomat and translator between humans and an alien species they meet because, as a synthetic, he has the ability to communicate with this unique alien species due to their technology and his A.I. being compatible. So, really, he’s one of the few people that can do that job in the first place because of what he is. He also takes it because he has a strong interest in that species and relates to them, so wants to build positive relationships between them and humans, as well as his own kind, synthetics.
Honestly, Alma could see himself doing a lot of different jobs, since he has a vast capacity for knowledge and a strong sense of curiosity, that has led him to master many different skills. He could do just about anything as a job, but circumstances have led him to the one’s listed above, and he can’t see himself choosing to do anything other than those unless circumstances were different.
