It was International Dog Day on the 26th, and I’ve had this clunking around in my brain for a while-
A big part of Hojo’s job involves producing battle sims for training purposes, and the techs responsible for this often get attached to the monsters they meticulously program into merciless killers. The more powerful, subtle, and ‘clever’ the sim, the more work goes into its upgrades and maintenance, and certain monsters are so lovingly crafted that they get designated names, and are referred to as if they’re real living beings (which, to a limited extent, they are).
Exp 110, the Behemoth bull, is affectionately known as ‘Frederick’, or ‘Freddy’.
Freddy has a default behavioural set to attack - and attacking is what Freddy does with ruthless efficiency when faced with practically anybody who steps into its sim. Occasionally, the techs need to interact directly with Freddy within VR to properly analyse his functionality, and they do so by utilising his diagnostics set, in which he behaves like a obedient dog. Freddy is programmed (or ‘trained’, as the team likes to say) to recognise each individual team member and follow their instructions.
At some point, the team thought it might be funny to install a ‘puppy’ set, specifically on Freddy’s recognition of the Professor. This decision may have happened on a slightly drunken whim, and was no problem for a long time since it’s very very rarely the Professor himself steps into VR, especially with the monsters (the Professor interacts sometimes with the Sephiroth sim he spent most of his sim time designing… but that’s another story). Indeed, the ‘puppy’ was forgotten for a good long time as the techs returned to their everyday work.
So… imagine everybody’s surprise and alarm when, on that one day Hojo went to diagnose Freddy himself, all two tonnes of Behemoth bounded over, almost knocking the old man off his feet, before promptly rolling over, tongue lolling and spiked tail wagging dangerously, demanding to have its belly rubbed.
Hojo, narrowly escaping injury and incredibly unamused, gave the techs a stern reprimand. But interestingly… nobody was punished for the incident, and the Professor didn’t order the ‘puppy’ set deleted either. So, in true Hojo fashion, nobody quite knows what the old man really thinks of Freddy’s ‘love’, and unreliable rumours are that once or twice, he’s even been seen to play with the puppy after working hours…
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