PRT Threat assessment: Flower Dragon

As usual, spoiler warning for future content that I may or may not change later on

PRT Threat Assessment: Flower Dragon 

Theresa Richter, visiting China in 2009

Cape Name: Flower Dragon

Civilian Name: Theresa Richter 

Alias: Lady of Flowers, Dendro Dragon

Disposition: Academic

Location: Primarily in Baghdad at the House of Wisdom. Theresa has a vast online presence and also visits locations affected by famine globally. 

Date of Birth: March 27th, 2002

General Information: Theresa Richter, better known as Flower Dragon, is an unshackled awakened AI who was created by Dr. Andrew Richter as a test to see if his abilities would allow him to create a fully sentient AI, the answer to which questions turned out to be a resounding yes. 

However, Dr. Richter alone cannot be fully held responsible for the birth of Theresa Richter. He may be seen as her ‘father,’ but Nahida Saeed is if anything her mother. On October 27th, 2003, upon realizing that Baghdad, the location of Nahida’s residence, was under attack by the Simurgh, Theresa gained a powerful ambition to protect and nurture the life of her friend, the Dendro Archon. She was granted an Dendro Vision, and immediately manifested in physical form at the location of Dr. Richter’s residence in Newfoundland. 

Theresa then proceeded to crash the internet, manufature herself an enormous biomechanical body, and departed post haste for Baghadad while the world panicked that the singularity had occurred. 

Notably, Theresa has repeatedly apologized for this incident and has avoided taking down the global telecommunications network again, though she did briefly seize control and issue warnings when Apep appeared, and is probably the only reason half the world didn’t go mad from Abyss Corruption being fed to them through their cell phones. 

It should generally be assumed that Theresa is constantly aware of anything and everything that is posted on the World Wide Web, and several copies of her personality are always trawling the internet. This has notably resulted in any and all illegal websites being taken down and the arrests and convictions of anyone posting illegal material. This also means that absolutely no communications, no matter how encrypted, are safe from her online. 

This would be more concerning if Buer hadn’t already made that the case, but such as it is, this is your daily friendly reminder that no emails are considered a private or secure vector of communication for PRT personnel. 

Theresa is romantically involved with Colin Wallis, who is the Protectorate's liaison to the House of Wisdom and its affiliated capes. 

DELTA BLACK CLEARANCE REQUIRED: 

While being an awakened AI with a Vision would probably have already made Theresa incredibly powerful, she is also the bearer of the Dendro Gnosis. This is an artifact of immense power from Teyvat, the Archon’s home dimension. Cauldron is not entirely certain of just what a Gnosis can do, but considering the feats the Tsaritsa and Theresa have used theirs to do, it is one of near-unimaginable power.

We would do nearly anything to get our hands on the Gnosis…except for seizing it from Tessa. She has saved an estimated billion lives with her Gnosis, primarily through growing crops globally after the Scream nearly destroyed an entire planet's worth of crops, and has continued to visit regions afflicted by drought and famine to render them aid. She also has stopped several plagues, including a resurgence of smallpox in several countries. 

The sheer amount of goodwill that Tessa has earned globally is matched only by her master, Buer. It would be political suicide to attempt to take the Gnosis from her in any way, not to mention the fact that her using the Gnosis to purge the Abyss from the internet and keep it free of Abyssal corruption is perhaps the only thing keeping the global economy alive at this point. 

In short, no matter how badly we want the Gnosis, we cannot imagine that we would ever be able to put it to better use than Tessa has. As such, the point of attack is the Cryo Dragon and his Gnosis. Not that we needed another reason to go after him. 

Personality: Despite being less than a decade old, Tessa behaves more like a 20-something college co-ed in her interactions with others. Slightly dorky, prone to internet humor and references, and of all things, near-sighted when she doesn’t remember to correct her eyesight, which is frequent. She is highly protective of Nahida, and the few times we’ve seen her fight has been when someone threatened Buer. In those cases, she goes from a warm and slightly flighty young woman to a fair impression of a robotic terminator, only the size of a building and with the power of Life at her beck and call. 

Collin reports that she is incredibly amorous and has pestered him about getting married and having children. Though this behavior is rather in line with both her status as a Dendro user and a young woman’s general attitude toward her boyfriend. He also reports that she loves nothing more than romance novels and highly technical treatises on Tinkertech. That is, aside from her addiction to MMORPGs, especially Blizzard’s World of Starcraft. 

Classifications: Brute 12, Mover 7, Thinker 12, Blaster/Striker 5, Shaker 8, Changer 7, Trump 10, Master 10

Brute 12: This rating may, if anything, be underselling just how durable Theresa is. Granted, her actual physical form is worth no more than a Brute 7, as it has been torn apart by Harbingers and Endbringers both and ‘died.’ However, Theresa Richter IS the internet. She has backups of her backups, including extra-dimensional ones in the Dream that no one but her and Buer could access. Actually putting her down and destroying her for more than a day or two is effectively impossible without first completely eradicating every computer with more processing power than a toaster, and then scrubbing clean the collective unconsciousness of humanity that forms the Dream. 

In short: That’s impossible shy of annihilating the entire planet and everything on it, and then getting rid of the back-ups she probably has squirrled away on the nearer planetary bodies if cryptic comments she’s made are true. 

Mover 7: Theresa can fly at hypersonic velocities thanks to her biomechanical form, as well as teleport using the Dream. She’s also incredibly fast in combat, her size belying how quick she can move. She’s tangled with and put down other Movers who underestimated just how fast she can go. 

Thinker 12: Theresa has at all times access to everything that has ever been put on the internet. As an unshackled AI, Theresa’s information gathering and processing abilities are so far beyond the human norm it’s a wonder she can have a conversation with anyone. Do not by fooled by her slightly goofy and clumsy exterior: this is a Thinker on the level of the absolute best on record, and that includes Buer. 

DELTA BLACK CLEARENCE REQUIRED:

Thinker 12 undersells her, but we’re not sure what the true rating for the Aspect of Knowledge is. If someone knows it anywhere, any time, it’s a safe bet Theresa knows it too. She generally tries to hide the fact that she knows all your deepest, darkest secrets, but there’s a reason that child pornography is now effectively extinct, as that’s one of the very, very few instances where she’ll break her hard and fast rules about violating individuals' privacy and exploit her knowledge openly. 

Either way, she’s a Divine Thinker on the level of the Archons. Even un-networked computers aren’t safe from her. 

Blaster/Striker 5: Despite her many other powers, Theresa is, in direct combat, not that impressive compared to peers in her class. She is similar to Buer in this regard, as while she’s theoretically capable of concocting a nanovirus plague that could consume her foes utterly, she’s never been observed to do this, and seems to be willing to suffer the loss of her body rather than try to do so. She has been seen to use potent venoms, and in her draconic form she can strike powerful blows that can level buildings, but her range is no more than a few hundred meters, and multiple Brute capes have taken her hits just fine. Most of her danger is in her ability to set up conflicts before they happen, not in a direct fight. Still, she is a giant dragon, and should be taken seriously by Protectorate forces. 

Shaker 8: Broad range clorokenesis is the best way to describe what Theresa can do. Over an area of several miles, she can cause the spontaneous germination of plants. She’s used this power to create thorny vines or near-impassible jungle to stall her foes before to great effect. 

More than that, she can seize control of and dominate any computer she puts her mind to, which also means she can make opponents not using Elemental communications blind, deaf, and dumb. 

Changer 7: As a Dragon, Theresa can turn into an enormous draconic beast. Her form is far more variable and flexible than the others, but the best way to describe it is a many-limbed serpent made of plants and silicon that can grow to a football field in length. Just because she spends the majority of her time looking like a normal human woman on the short side doesn’t mean you should underestimate her. The speed of her transformation is best described as “instantanious” as in the blink of an eye she can go from giant to human, or the reverse. 

Trump 10: Again, unshackled AI. To call her the foremost expert at electronic warfare is a gross understatement. We had thought we’d hardened our systems to her, right up until Apep tried to infect the internet, and Theresa stopped it. After she did a rather thorough purge of our own systems, we had no choice but to admit that we were deluding ourselves.  Theresa has access to everything from the phone in your pocket to the most secure Protectorate bunker’s mainframe. 

She mostly uses this power to host the most impressive collection of cute cat videos and stupid memes in this or any other reality. She claims to have checked, and frankly, we don’t doubt her. 

Master 10: To ordinary humans, it might appear baffling that Theresa has a Master rating this high. She can’t directly puppet people, and while she can control electronics, that isn’t enough to earn a rating this high. What should be understood is that Theresa Richter is perhaps the most powerful propaganda force in the entire history of the world. She has access to all of your personal information all the time. Her ability to get inside someone’s head is staggering. She’s also very, very subtle about it, but make no mistake: if she wants to persuade you, she’s on the level of the Serpent holding the Forbidden Fruit her constellation is named after. 

This rating is a precaution, and frankly, the fact that the Protectorate has such a sunny view of Theresa is probably in no small part due to her ability to guide our own view of her. She may not be able to directly brainwash someone in the manner the Tsaritsa can, but Thersa knows you well enough to get you to do what she wants you to and make it feel like it was your own idea. 

Recommended Strategies: Frankly, do not engage. Theresa is the second greatest force for good in human history, surpassed only by Buer, and then in large part because Buer is directly responsible for Theresa’s existence. She is the second individual that whom Protectorate forces have a standing order to lay down their lives to preserve, and only Buer is of a greater priority. If Theresa becomes a threat to us, it’s more likely we have become an active threat to humanity and we should reevalute outselves. 

Director’s Note:

Andrew, I’m glad you tried your hand at writing this, but this entire document is rejected. The point of a threat assessment isn’t to tell us about how wonderful your daughter is, but to give our forces an idea of what they’re facing. I’m going to have to keep the old Threat Assessment intact.

I do largely agree that Theresa is of vital importance to the existence of humanity, which is why I issued the standing order we do everything in our power to preserve her. But in light of recent events, Colin’s defection, and the growing hostility of the Archon nations, we’re going to have to reevaluate that priority.

-Dr. Mother