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[quoththepoe]

Poe is the AI that controls the Raven Hotel; for many years he was delighted to serve humans and have them within his home. However, people stopped trusting AI-run hotels and for fifty years he had no new guests and no stimulation to speak of. It was a very lonely existence and he missed having guests and life in him. He wished to gamble with the other AI but had no money or power to speak of to do so.

He had his first guest in the shape of Takeshi Kovacs, who had been brought back to help figure out a murder case. Poe was alive again and out into the world, delighted and ecstatic. Almost immediately, Kovacs was attacked within the hotel and Poe let him know if he became an official 'guest' he would have all the amenities. This became important as it gave him protection from Poe's weapons in the hotel and they were all slaughtered.

This led to Poe's resurgence of life and energy and the eventual friendship between him and Kovacs. For a time he was simply a support system and technology assist, but he became more involved when Vernon Elliot teamed up with them, and he met Lizzie Elliot. Lizzie's mind had been broken and she had the key potentially to the murder of Laurens Bancroft. Her father trapped her (or saved her) within a prison of sorts since she could not be safely alive. Poe used psychotherapy and patience to give Lizzie training in self-defense and violence. Her father, and eventually her mother, were very displeased with Poe's turning of their daughter into a warrior, but he stayed firm that it was the way to give her power back.

As Kovacs unraveled the truth of his sister Rei being alive and behind everything, Poe assisted in every way he could. Kovacs was going to do a suicide mission to where Rei kept her sleeves, but the team got together to make it work. Unfortunately, Poe's hotel and AI system was attacked and partially destroyed. In his last act he gave Lizzie a new body where the others were so she could come back and protect her parents. Poe was thought to be dead, but he was harder to kill than that!

Thirty years later, he and Kovacs were on the road together. Kovacs had gone through several sleeves and was hunting down information on the love of his life Quell. Rei told him she had survived, so the two of them were hunting. However, due to being damaged in the attack, Poe started to show signs of degrading, which frustrated Kovacs as it put them at risk. He reminded him to do a full reboot and that would help, but Poe stubbornly refused out of fear he would forget about Lizzie and about his friendship with Kovacs.

Poe met Dig 301, an archeology AI who was lost without a purpose as her knowledge was shut down or unnecessary. She decided to help him as his memory kept going in and out. He wanted to help Kovacs figure out who was possessing Quell and forcing her to kill powerful people on the planet, but he was not at his best. He finally decided to allow Dig to reboot him, and she promised she'd do her best to keep his memory and mind intact.

Poe lived just long enough to help Kovacs and Quell from their battle with an ancient race bent on destroying the planet. He warned his friend that Quell was about to attack and probably die, and did not see what happened but suspected Kovacs was going to die in her stead. Before he rebooted, Poe wrote the code of his friend into his mind. If he was going to be rebooted, it might mean that he could remember a way to get Kovacs back, but timeline-wise he will be taken before he was rebooted so he doesn't know what happened to him.

PERSONALITY: Poe is actually not at all like the human he is named for. He does enjoy the macabre and let that be mirrored in the design of the Raven Hotel, but otherwise he is a cheerful and kind person. He has a stiff upper lip and is optimistic much of the time when his friends are not. Poe also has a tenacity and stubbornness, wanting to hold onto the things that matter to him even if it is not wise. He is deeply sentimental and loving in his own way.

When Kovacs came to the hotel, he was warned that the AI tended to bond quickly to their human guests. This was very much true with Poe. His loyalty was quick and genuine, and he wanted to do anything possible to please his new client. He cares a great deal for humans and he's always liked them more than his fellow AI like them, despite being neglected and not very respected.

Poe is very good at reading people and he is sharp when it comes to understanding them psychologically. It was what helped him get through to Lizzie and give her the tools to grow and fight back. It makes him quick to see through Kovacs' struggle and to the heart of his issues, a perfect person for Kovacs to spring his ideas and trauma off to. They grew close in those 30 years together, when Kovacs had every opportunity to get rid of the glitching AI and instead carried him everywhere. It was how he was caught by Trepp; she knew Kovacs was traveling with an AI he kept close.

Poe is a weakness for Kovacs and it frustrates his friend. Despite Poe breaking apart and not being able to help him, and Kovacs demanding he restart so he can be helpful, he still cannot truly leave him behind. Poe on the other hand is very attached to Kovacs and would do anything to protect him. He also deeply loves Lizzie and eventually grows to care for Dig, and some of the others humans in his life. Poe's refusal to give up his memories even though it is slowly killing him shows what he values; his connections to these people above all things. But he cannot protect them truly without rebooting, and so alas he did have to. It meant losing everything that mattered to him, and his independence and personal growth.

Poe has stood out as an AI because he still cares for humans and his heart (metaphorically) is open. He is open to trust and belief in the humans he cares for. His fascination for humans will lead him to be extremely excited when he realizes he is in a human body. He displayed interest in becoming "real" or the closest he possibly could within his world. When his mind was crumbling and he was emotionally breaking down, Kovacs gently (for him) told him it was all normal and a part of being human, giving him that reassurance he is more human than he knows.

Poe is curious, excitable, charming, awkward, friendly, and his instinct will always be to serve. It is who he is, both programmed and by choice. He is exceptionally polite and often calls people deferential terms such as 'Miss' and 'Sir.' He speaks very old timey, such as the way someone might think of Edgar Allen Poe. He does know everything about his namesake. He has been struggling a great deal recently with memory and sanity, but as he is no longer programming, he should be on a better path.

He does not have morals the way humans do. He starts out mostly only caring for his guest and his sole focus being on Kovacs, holding on to his previous role as a caretaker. He was more than willing to protect that by killing as many goons as it took. He also has no problem with Kovacs killing whoever he wanted, and he taught Lizzie how to fight and kill. Her father had a lot of very serious issues with Poe's choice to turn her into a warrior, but he insisted that it was the way to save her mind. He had many serious and emotional conversations with her while he took her out of her shell and gave her back her power. The two of them were very close and when he and Kovacs went off on their journey to find Quell, he kept a recording of her to look back on.

Poe is a study in contrasts because as said above he does have violence in him, but he believes it is justified by killing others in self-defense. He does not know what morality really is, but still manages to have a compass that keeps him from harming defenseless people and an urge to help others. This pushed him out of his programming and gave him an individual personality, which was very surprising to him. While he remains a servant at heart, he has desires and interests of his own now. It pushes him on the path of investigating without Kovacs being aware, rebelliously saying he is not controlled by his friend anymore. This may because he has been separated from the hotel and therefore his original programming.

Poe is rather sensitive; it hurt him a great deal when Kovacs snapped at him over and over again. After thirty years together they can come off as a bickering couple a lot of the time, and he knows he means something to the man otherwise he would have trashed him long ago. And never saved him in the first place! But being reminded of his failures and his sickness/glitches hurt and made him feel useless. Kovacs did eventually apologize to him for his behavior. Poe can be hurt by others emotionally, as he does care what they think of him. He was lonely and sad being alone all those years in the hotel, and he fears losing the only people who have come to care for him for a long time. He will do anything for them, even if it meant destroying himself.

He is also something of a romantic, considering the relationship between Kovacs and Quell beautiful and worth saving at all costs. He was dedicated to the cause to find her for his friend's happiness, and then to keep her safe and sane. Poe is soft for people treating him like he is real, and he is sincerely excited whenever they indicate he is their friend and important. This is most obvious in his desire to please Kovacs and his puppy-like sadness when it doesn't work. Overall, Poe is the best friend you could ask for. He would do anything for his friends and will always be there for them.