“I was built back in 1896, you know, back when it was still illegal for women to read and write, and all the men dressed like Mr. Peanut. I'm like a p-p-priceless antique.” - Rabbit, introducing herself
Rabbit is the first of a series of automatons built by Peter Walter I in the year 1896. Her clockwork mechanisms frequently malfunction, as she has received the least amount of upgrades and still has most of her Victorian parts. She is one of the original members of Steam Powered Giraffe, where she sings and plays keytar, melodica, and accordion.
Rabbit is portrayed by Isabella Bunny Bennett.
Appearance[]
Rabbit has undergone the most drastic appearance changes in the band throughout its history, and also has the most varied wardrobe, with frequent outfit changes.
She is mainly comprised of copper, the softest metal of the band's automatons. Her current appearance includes a sleek white impossium[1] faceplate, with gaps around her eyes and lips (and sometimes on her forehead) showing her original oxidized copper beneath. She sports vents on each cheek to increase resonance during performance, as well as channel hot air away from her Blue Matter-powered Self Oscillating Utilitarian Lifesource core.
Rabbit is usually seen in a short black hat with Peter Walter I's goggles atop the brim. Underneath the hat, she wears a black hair wig with colorful highlights in pink, purple, and/or blue. Occasionally, she will wear the goggles without the hat, either atop her head or around her neck. There is a large weathered copper plate bolted over her right ear, which she uses something like a hair accessory.
Her neck is connected to her body with copper bands varying in form and appearance, with dark gaps between. Her upper chest is composed of pale metallic bands resembling a human skeleton or ribcage, though she is usually wearing a blue-matter grille over them. Her limbs, when visible, are doll-like in appearance, pale and ball-jointed. Both her chest and limbs may also be made from impossium.
She usually wears a red or red-and-black striped corset, with a black leotard or black dress underneath. She often wears red-and-black vertically striped tights, and sometimes has a short skirt or a long jacket. She usually has long black sleeves and red gloves, which vary in length from her palm all the way to her elbow.
Personality and Traits[]
Rabbit is a well-intentioned robot, and has great expertise in showmanship and storytelling from long years spent performing. She also has a creepy/scary side, often saying or singing things that are morbid or gruesome. She also has rather inscrutable motivations, and often does things that seem nonsensical to others.
Sometimes, she becomes enamoured with inanimate objects, such as Jenny the Toaster. She is fond of puns, and animals; she greets the whales in Whale Song warmly, and when she is not performing, her favourite thing to do is feeding the ducks at Walter Cemetery.[2]
She is a steampunk-style robot, and experiences the most malfunctions of the band due to her antique parts. This is most apparent through her frequent stuttering or false starts, when she repeats herself at length, or when she breaks down during performances.
History[]
Rabbit's old, outdated design. Photo by trekkiebeth.
Rabbit was the first of the Walter Robotics automatons built in 1896. She received her name when Peter Walter I decided to experiment with the world's first artificial intelligence. Walter pointed to a lab animal in a cage and said, "Rabbit". To his surprise, the robot repeated the word back to him. Walter tried pointing to other objects to see if he could teach her more words, but all the robot would say was the word "rabbit".
Rabbit was first used to combat an invasion of Thadeus Becile's Copper African Elephants on the Nile River in 1897. A fourth robot, the Steam Powered Giraffe namesake Delilah, was completed three months after Rabbit, and the automatons rode Delilah to victory in what became known as The Weekend War or The Battle of the Colossi.
After the success in Africa, Rabbit turned to entertainment, and she and Peter Walter I made a premiere appearance at Ralph Benedict's Bayou Music Festival in 1898. Unfortunately, the explosion of Benedict's steamboat ended hope of future performances at the Bayou Music Festival, but around 1915, the band turned to performing closer to home. At the first ever World's Fair, the Panama-California Exhibition in Balboa Park, the group became a cohesive whole for the first time, playing under the name "Colonel P.A. Walter's Steam Man Band."
But the musical function of these robots was destined to be short-lived, as America was thrown into the mix of World War I. Rabbit was enlisted along with other Walter robots for search-and rescue missions, and it was not until 1933 (at the Chicago Exposition World's Fair) that the robots were able to perform in any capacity again. By 1941, the United States once again found itself in the grip of global warfare, and Rabbit returned to the battlefield. She saved the lives of fellow soldiers, even against orders to participate in a bombing raid.
In 1942, while the robots were still deployed overseas, Rabbit's inventor and long-time friend Peter Walter I died in his sleep at Walter Manor in San Diego, California. By the time the robots returned home in 1945, World War II had ended, but so too had Peter A. Walter. Rabbit received Peter's brass goggles after the fact, and wore them round her hat for the next 68 years.
In 1950, Rabbit's Self Oscillating Utilitarian Lifesource was stolen by Ignatius and Norman Becile, long-time inventing rivals of Peter Walter I. An attempt to reverse-engineer it resulted in a horrific explosion that tore through the space-time continuum, killing both Peter Walter II and Professor Guy Hottie. Rabbit's power core was eventually restored to her safely. She was devastated to learn how the cores had been used, and it still weighs on her conscience.
From there, Rabbit went on to participate in classified government operations in Roswell, New Mexico, and in the Vietnam War. During combat, she and the other Walter robots were rendered inoperable, and their chassis went missing from 1965 to 1974. Peter Walter V repaired the robots and returned them to less dangerous entertainment purposes: touring all over as "Colonel P.A. Walter's Steam Man Band. By 2008, the group name was changed to its current form: "Steam Powered Giraffe", after the mechanical giraffe that carried the automatons to victory so many years ago.[3]
In 2014, Rabbit began experiencing more extreme and frequent malfunctions than usual. Peter Walter VI and Walter Worker Liv were concerned and consulted her original schematics to try and repair her. They were surprised to discover that Rabbit had not been completed to her original specifications; she was always intended to be built as a female robot, modelled after Delilah Morreo . After confirming what happend with Rabbit, Peter Walter VI repaired and completed her to match the original schematic the best of his ability.[4]
Most people nowadays think she's perfect :)
Relationships[]
The Spine and Zero[]
As fellow automatons and band members, Zero, Rabbit, and The Spine have a sibling-like relationship, where they're friendly with one another at times, and argumentative at others. More frequently, Zero and Rabbit will team up to antagonise The Spine, but occasionally Rabbit will also act as a mediator for the others.
Peter Walter I[]
Rabbit had a very close relationship with Peter Walter I; she saw him as a father figure, in human terms.
Trivia[]
- Peter Walter I's goggles, which Rabbit wears, are actually a prototype particle accelerator designed by Peter Walter I and given to Rabbit at the time of Peter's death.[3]
- At Youmacon 2012, Rabbit had some technical issues as it was discovered that one of her parts — a converted popcorn machine — had been malfunctioning.[citation needed]
- According to Steam Powered Giraffe The Card Game, Rabbit weighs 1.6 tons (assuming imperial US tons: 3527 pounds or 1600 kilograms). [1 ton = 2204 pounds/1000 kilograms].
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ SPGRabbit on reddit: “Rabbit's face is actually white now- you can still see the copper plating underneath it. The update has lore behind it, which will be covered in the Red Core comic. The white metal is called 'impossium.'”
- ↑ Steam Powered Giraffe official website
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 User:Steampoweredgiraffe
- ↑ Red Core comic on the official Steam Powered Giraffe website
| Steam Powered Giraffe Band Members | |||
| Current | Robots | Rabbit (Isabella Bunny Bennett) · The Spine (David Michael Bennett) · Zero (Bryan Barbarin) | |
| Walter Workers | Camille Penyak · Chelsea Penyak | ||
| Former | Robots | Hatchworth (Samuel Luke) · The Jon (Jonathan Sprague) · Upgrade (Erin Burke) | |
| Walter Workers | Brianna Clawson · Carolina Gumbayan · Paige Law | ||
| Other | Matthew Smith (Drummer) · Michael Reed (Instrumentalist) · Steve Negrete (Sound Engineer) | ||