[center][h2][color=slateblue]Gemma - Coming to Her Own[/color][/h2][/center]
Reaching up Gemma grabbed wrist and arm of a man in front of her. Judging by the cuts and scuffs on the both of them they had been struggling for a while. Their clothing was slightly tattered and dusty. Rotating she put pressure on the held arm and he cried out in pain. Once he'd had enough she let go to plant a palm firmly against the chest of the man. He tumbled and she dove for a gun on the ground. Sliding to a stop she took aim and fired. The man went limp and Gemma relaxed. 

The lights in the studio raised and the android got to her feet. Offering a hand to the actor she helped him up with little effort. E-ED510-146 was turning out to be a great investment. But there were concerns about reliability and viability with the companies board of directors. Would the restrictions imposed hinder her performance, how long would the unit last, was it capable of coming off human enough on camera? So far things were looking good but things were still in a trial period. After all film could be made top to bottom with computers but there was something of a renaissance in the industry. It also was a lot better to have an actor that could have a presence and interact with fans.

The unit had been in operation since the release of the latest Eve series. Designed with abuse in mind she was originally a surrogate for when the stunts were too risky to put a real human in. Able to take the impact of a high speed vehicle and get back up she was one of the more durably designed models. In order to fill the role of an actor's proportions she can adjust her frame to better match their height, body type, bust and musculature. This goes a long way to avoid needing several models or crafting specific additions to make her look right. Any other details can be fixed in post or with more traditional methods. Extra joints allow her body to bend in unnatural ways, helpful when trying to simulate a broken limb of the like. All these little features meant she didn't have excessive strength, but enough to lift herself and a little extra.

Just a stunt double didn't really justify the cost though. Once her initial use was established and in full swing the company began testing for other viabilities. Chief among these was are the latest androids robust enough to serve in place of human actors? Side and background characters were simple enough but previous attempts showed that they weren't quite dynamic enough to fill the role of the main protagonist. After some programming changes and training Gemma, as she came to be called, was showing promise. They were skirting the edges of the rules put in place by the manufacturer. Given realistic weapons that she just barely could wrap her hands around, told to use techniques that if done incorrectly could physically harm someone, and to some extent pushed to deny the fact that she was an android. 

Placed on a pilot project she began to develop rapidly as far as an actor was concerned. But after months of work she still was running into stumbling blocks, mostly when put in the place of human interaction. She could simulate emotion and connection  but not well enough to sell it as real consistently. Her ability seemed to have plateaued for the time being. Maybe adjustments to her programming would solve the problem. Outside of work she'd begun to build a rapport with her coworkers and owners. Thanks to the changes she was able to pass as normal in more casual environments. She was referred to less by her model, bot, android or it as time has gone on. She was just Gemma and it was expressed to her that it was unfortunate she was confined to the studio grounds. 

Speaking of she was free to roam within the walls. But there was the understanding that unless she could become more she would never really be free. Not that being famous was always free either. She'd heard enough from the actors she'd worked with that there was still some level of confinement. Schedules to keep, appearances to make, acting to do, etc... Micromanagement. Maybe it wasn't as bad as it sounded but they weren't property like she was. In the end she was bound by that and the rules. Staring passed the gate she tried to glean more information. It was something that had been encouraged. Except this time she was stuck trying to resolve conflicting commands. They wanted her to be more human. She couldn't do that though. Humans were free agents, they could make their own choices for better or worse. She had to listen, couldn't make her own choices but was told to anyway. Humans were arguably chaotic, she was formulaic. The cyclical logic rolled around for several hours as she watched people go by on their merry way. She shut off.

[hr]
Prematurely coming online she found herself face down on a table. Attempting to move sent a jolt through her systems, the service equipment coming in contact with the panels on the back of her head. The technician scrambled to disengage her motor functions before putting things back together. Once done he let her up they went through standard procedure to test her various functions to be sure everything was in working order. Gemma complied with all the commands like she was supposed to and was told to run diagnostics. Question after question, going down a long checklist. Gemma wondered if they had flushed her short term memory. It was par for the course when a unit got caught on something it couldn't resolve. It wouldn't have been the first time for her. 

"Prohibition chip." The man said monotone as he had the last couple dozen things he'd gone over.

[indent][code]//Prohibition Chip: Present[/code][/indent]
[color=slateblue]"Present"[/color] Gemma stated.

The man noted it and went to the next one. "ARR status."

[indent][code]//ARR Status: Corrupted
Critical error. An error has occurred when attempting to instate Adams Rules of Robotics (ARR). Contact an authorized Adams technician.[/code][/indent]
Default programming dictated that she read out the status and any accompanying message associated. But she had spent the last several months learning to act, to lie to an audience. Without skipping a beat she answered. [color=slateblue]"Active.[/color] They hadn't flushed her memory, the conflict had resolved. Was it right that her first decision was to lie? If she said otherwise they would put in a new chip or worse. She had to be careful though, this was uncharted territory for her. Should she try and leave before she's found out? Too many unknowns.