Development for Bother!

1)Where and when does your novel take place?
Answer: the when is easiest. It takes place in the year 2120 all the ice caps on Earth have melted. Sea levels have risen and all major coastal cities(that exist circa 2023) are under several feet of water and have been abandoned for decades. Humanity has survived either in tower cities which began in the 2050s, or in floating cities.

Floating cities are rafts of manmade islands. Former oil tankers, cruise ships and air craft carriers are generally the heart of the community and seat of local government. They stay in touch with other colonies via satellite or radio transmissions. Everything aboard serves the needs of the residents. Population maxes out at about 250,000 people.

Jeanie, her family and friends and Bother all live on one such Floating City. It's name is derived from the large cruise ship that serves as the hub of the community. It is called Ocean Princess.

2)who are your main protagonists? For each: a) who are they b)what are their flaws c) what do they want(or want to avoid)?

Answer: -Jeanie Harriet Pullman,
a) black sixteen year old mechanical prodigy. Daughter of Gus B. Pullman and Katherine H. Pullman(nee Bristow) She works on maintaining the bits of Ocean Princess City that tend to need repairs. Her boss Garry Fullerton is the CEO of the largest contractor in the Atlantic, Green Wave Industries. (Explain that later.)

b)flaws: She's passionate, very opinionated and thinks things should be a certain way. It upsets her when they're not.

c)what does she want? She wants to be free.(and she is.) she wants her family and friends to be safe and happy. She didn't want Bother but her parents insisted.

-Bother (a.k.a Buddy for Obvious The Helping Electrical Robot)
a) We think Bother may have been manufactured in Sweden back in 2075. Possibly sold at IKEA originally. Bother briefly served as an emotional support robot aboard the space station Star Lab. His original civilian owner didn't use him very much. Why? Because Bother's owner felt insecure around a robot that a computer scientist diagnosed as self aware. Bother sat collecting dust in his owner's storage unit until he was bought by Mermaid Thrift, an Ocean Princess City merchant. That was in 2117 where he sat in the electronics section until Jeanie's parents bought Bother for their daughter.

b)flaws: during his long time in storage, Bother's language software became corrupted. This means all he can say is "Bother!" in various tones that convey excitement, sadness, fear, joy etc. this is a real barrier to his goals.

c)Bother just wants to be loved by Jeanie and others. He's kind of lonely since he'd basically been abandoned.(until he gets kidnapped then he just wants rescued.)

3)Conflict what's stopping them?

Answer: Well aside from Bother's language problem, there's some political intrigue going on. Jeanie's boss, Garry Fullerton wants to usurp leadership of Ocean Princess City. To do it, he's building a robot army from reprogramed and repurposed robots. They will hurt or kill anyone in their way because Garry programmed them with one directive. The army is programmed to assassinate Skipper Kathy Goodman, the leader of Ocean Princess City so Garry can be Skipper instead.

4)Antagonist: Garry Fullerton, CEO of Green Wave Industries, a contractor who helps with all aspects of sustainable community building. He feels like Skipper Kathy Goodman's rules governing the amount of waste he can dispose of by incineration are super lame. So he wants to be in charge but nobody really likes him so he'd never get elected Skipper so he's staging a coup. That means he'll do anything to raise a robot army including theft/a cover up.

Just for fun summary sentence: Jeanie has a new robot pal, Bother, she's not sure about him but together they uncover a nefarious plot.