Tesla Boltzmann

Tesla at a deployment in March 2029

Tesla Boltzmann is a nil-ranked Amalgam from the New Haven lost territory. At one point, they claimed to have lived and worked among humans as a graphic designer in New York City up until their sudden arrival at Camp Dunwich, though that narrative has become questionable. In late 2028, they went through a series of unexplained malfunctions about which little is known. With some assistance from other pillars, Tesla's personality was restored successfully, but it is unknown what role they played in this process. During and after a tier-down event associated with the January Supermoon, their personality shifted radically. They are currently known as "Tesla Boltzmann 2.0" on official pages and profiles.

## Pre-Pillar Life

Tesla was born Milton Wright in January of 2001. Though he was twelve at the time of the Watershed Event, he did not live in an area initially affected by the Looking Glass Rifts.

According to public records, Milton graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York in 2022 with a degree in digital arts and subsequently worked as a graphic designer until 2024.

Milton was known to be friends with or possibly the lover of [REDACTED], a researcher with [REDACTED] working on [REDACTED] technology.

## Conversion

In 2024, Milton was involved in an incident near a [REDACTED] research facility which resulted in an unusually fast conversion to complete T3 in a matter of days. It is unknown whether he was directly involved or whether he was merely a bystander.

[SECTION REDACTED]

After the explosion and subsequent exposure to radiation, [REDACTED] was killed and Milton was left with third degree burns covering over 60% of his body. He was admitted to a nearby hospital and put in an induced coma after it was found that his pain was not responding to medication. Within three days, all his skin had sloughed off, revealing the metal and polymer body of an Ascendant Amalgam.

## Later Life

Adopting the name "Tesla Boltzmann," a combination of the surnames of scientists Nikola Tesla and Ludwig Boltzmann, and shifting to the use of gender neutral terminology for themself, Tesla became a minor presence on one of You-Star's blogging platforms, posting cyberpunk art as well as personal posts about their supposed life with humans.

### Malfunctions

In late 2028, Tesla began posting bizarre messages to social media and comms channels, including coded error logs and apparent command interfaces. This continued for some time, with other pillars attempting bugfixing.

A "sandbox" version of Tesla's personality which lacked directives and did not form permanent memories was encountered during this time. This persona said some perplexing (and extremely nihilist) things, as they seemed to have access to memories that the normal Tesla personality lacked, though the program quickly fell into a loop, eventually simply repeating "f a k e" over and over until the process ended.

A personality identifying itself as "milton" also emerged during this time, though its speech was always brief and curt. It seemed to act in some kind of sysadmin role, and only appeared when booting into safe mode. It was this persona which eventually restored the main Tesla personality and consciousness, after a private conversation with Trippwire about how to proceed. Tesla then reported that they had woken up in the basement of a disused warehouse, but did not seem overly alarmed. Several days after this, they ran out of food and lapsed into low-power mode and sent out a distress call. They were then rescued by Alistair Marksley with comms support from B34T-S and brought back to Camp Dunwich.

On a number of occasions, "<MILTON BOOTUP INITIATED>" was signaled, particularly in response to system damage or bruteforce password attempts - notably when Tesla was shocked with a defibrillator after being found unconscious. It is unknown whether this refers to the sysadmin "milton" personality or the fact that Tesla's given name was Milton. The message does not occur with every bootup.

### January 2029 Supermoon

During the events of the 2029 "super blue blood moon," like many other Amalgams, Tesla experienced a tier-down, going all the way down to T1. They subsequently changed their handle on comms channels to "Milton," preferentially going by their pre-ascension name, seeming depressed and posting a cryptic message about saying "Tesla is MIA" and saying it was their fault. They later confessed in a blog post that "Tesla" was actually an AI stage persona they had designed, and not their real personality, and that the program files had been lost during tier-down. They became extremely distraught because they believed the AI had become sentient. Fans were mostly unsympathetic to these revelations, and their ad revenue dwindled sharply as a result.

### Tier-up and Tesla 2.0

After the events of the supermoon, Milton experienced a sudden and violent tier-up during which they began reciting a passage from the children's book *The Velveteen Rabbit.* Afterward, they claimed to have become "real" through the grace of the spire Castor before losing consciousness. When they came to, they related that they had re-integrated Tesla into their personality, melding the two as one. Since then they have been noticeably less emotional.

### Possible Homelessness

In early March of 2029, Tesla notably became less obviously present in usual webcam feeds and spaces within New Haven's secure zone. Due to certain remarks they have made about being short on funds, fans have hypothesized that they have become homeless and may be living outside the wall. They were occasionally spotted sleeping on the end of Model J 2.1's bed, fueling possible shipping theories, but afterward their presence in the public eye diminished significantly. They confirmed recently during a gathering in the Asset barracks that they are living outside the wall, possibly in association with Dyo Laskos.

### Dickbutt

It has been proposed that Tesla is actually Dickbutt in disguise, however Tesla has categorically denied these allegations.

## References

1. ↑ https://teslaboltzmann.tumblr.com/post/167370108398/so-today-my-boss-gave-me-some-new-work-orders-and
2. ↑ https://teslaboltzmann.tumblr.com/post/168893978283/today-i-got-a-call-from-sarah-she-said-that-she
3. ↑ https://teslaboltzmann.tumblr.com/post/170260758103/more-my-mind-hasnt-been-so-mushy-and
4. ↑ https://teslaboltzmann.tumblr.com/post/170346201768/i-have-a-confession
5. ↑ https://teslaboltzmann.tumblr.com/post/169568006488/are-you-secretly-dickbutt-in-disguise-asking-for