Xerox Star (UNIVER.SYS)
| Computer-tan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General Information | |
| Full Name | Estelle Parkins |
| Alias | Unreliable Star |
| Birthday | April 27 |
| Pronouns | She/Her |
| Universe/Origin | UNIVER.SYS |
| Designer | SpacePuffer |
| Debut | 2023-04-07 (site) |
| Personification | |
| Personifies | Xerox Star |
| Appearance | |
| Hair Color | Blonde |
| Eye Color | Orange |
| Other Information | |
| Affiliation | Whizzy Wigs, ERC |
| Ensemble | ERC |
| Occupation | Idol, aviator wannabe, influencer, and many more... |
| Icon | 🌟 |
Estelle Parkins is the personification of Xerox Star, a revolutionary computer/workstation system released on April 27, 1981, as a successor to the Xerox Alto. It introduced various features that were completely novel at the time, including folders, icons, a two-button mouse, Ethernet, and e-mail. These features, which are now ubiquitous in modern computing, were groundbreaking innovations at the time, and they changed the way people interacted with computers.
History
Estelle was designed by SpacePuffer and debuted on the web in November 5, 2022, however she debuted on this site on April 7, 2023.
Character
Estelle is adventurous and action-oriented, raised in a well-educated family. She's quite charming and knows social graces and norms, but can be rebellious and doesn't mind bending the rules. She finds her austere environment boring and seeks out more engaging and fulfilling interests, such as languages, performance arts, and aviation. Estelle is knowledgeable about aeronautic-related topics and loves all things that fly, including birds.
However, Estelle struggled with staying committed to a single pursuit, and added by her unapologetic confidence, earning her the nickname "Unreliable Star". Her tendency to put herself in danger also caused concern. Despite these shortcomings, Estelle remained optimistic and determined. She gained a bit of success in local scenes as an idol, and later joined the duo of misfit TANs, Nix and Lisa, forming the Whizzy Wigs.
Story
Estelle grew up in Ethereal Research Club (ERC), surrounded by intelligent and skilled Admins. Edel, a particularly close Admin, acted as a mother figure to Estelle and her brother, Alto. Edel taught Estelle many things, but Estelle was most interested in languages and aviation. Unlike her cerebral, thoughtful brother, Estelle preferred to act rather than think and enjoyed being in the spotlight. To Edel, this is a good thing, since she felt ERC really needs someone like her to keep them from being stagnant.
However, most of ERC's Admins underestimated Edel's efforts and considered Estelle too adventurous and destructive, a far cry from ERC's professional image. Estelle pointed out that these Admins were the ones who didn't understand the situation, leading to stagnation. When Alto's paintings were stolen, the Admins did nothing to help, which disappointed Estelle and made her feel that her and Alto's talents were wasted.
She decided to pursue other ventures, one of them being performance arts, with the goal of becoming an idol singer. Edel was surprised and worried about Estelle's rash and unapologetic attitude getting in the way, but she reassured her that she would create her own legacy, even if it went against what she was originally made for. Her first years moonlighting in different careers were difficult, but it paid off for her first step as an idol, and managed to made a name for herself in local conventions, slowly gaining her fame and recognition.
Despite the rough start, Estelle was an influence to many others, especially her bold fashion sense and dazzling charm. Two of the people she influenced was Nix and Lisa, who attended a convention in Selenite Valley to see her performance, and subsequently formed the Whizzy Wigs. The two were virtually unknown to her until she notices their rise to fame and their unique style despite their status as "misfits" who weren't programmed for the idol scene. Estelle eventually approached the duo and joined the Whizzy Wigs, adding a new flair for the now idol trio, and also serves as the benefactor of the group due to her fortune.
Family and relationships
Alto
Estelle described her older brother Alto as "my brother, but kinda like my dad too" because of his height, age, and wisdom, and how he brought her up in ERC. Alto is quite the opposite of Estelle in some ways, yet also similar. While Estelle loves the action and the spotlight, Alto prefers peace and quiet. However both of them share interests in language and communication.
Edel (Admin)
Estelle thought of Edel as a mother figure to her and Alto, and taught her many subjects including languages. Edel is very much supportive of Estelle's ambitions due to her own similarly can-do attitude, however she can get tired of other Admins who never take her seriously.
Kay (Admin)
Despite Kay being one of ERC's prominent Admins, Estelle haven't interacted with him much, and thought that he favored Alto more than her due to their similar passion for language research.
Lisa
Estelle and Lisa's friendship started out rocky due to the former's brash attitude rubbing the latter the wrong way, mostly because Estelle's jokes can go a bit too far sometimes. Soon after some time knowing each other in the Whizzy Wigs, she sympathizes with Lisa's situation and her desire to establish her own identity, just like her, and learns to be more thoughtful and cautious.
There are times she lent money to Lisa for her art and design supplies. She tend to not mind it much, though Lisa's eclectic tastes can leave her puzzled sometimes.
Mac
Getting to know Lisa means getting to know her brother too, who also shares love for the arts. Estelle found Mac's communication skills and outspoken personality to mirror her own, which is interesting in her eyes. However Mac finds her as rambunctious due to her extraverted nature.
Names in other languages
| Language | Name |
|---|---|
| English | Estelle Parkins |
| Japanese | エステル ・パーキンズ (Esuteru Paakinzu) |
Trivia
- Estelle is a French and Occitan name meaning "star."
- Estelle's yellow color scheme and dandelion print skirt is a reference to Xerox Star's codename, Dandelion.
- Estelle's love for aeronautics is a reference to PilotOS, the OS running on Xerox Star's hardware.
- Both the Xerox Star and Xerox Alto were platforms for the Smalltalk programming language.
- The Xerox Star was the first commercial computing environments to offer support for most natural languages leading to their adoption by the Voice of America, hence Estelle's love for languages.
- Estelle's misunderstood status by the rest of ERC's Admins was based on how in Xerox, the Xerox Star was poorly marketed, and there was little understanding of the system by the company's executive.