Fred

From FaultieCircuitWiki

Fred the Slime Mold

From the Official Cast Page

First Appearance: Fooker's Apartment (Non-speaking, December 2, 1998); Fred the Slime Mold (Speaking, January 18, 1999)

Fred started out as a running joke in a story where Fooker takes Nick to his apartment and finds a bizarre world where the cesspool of his living space has gained life. But Fred returned, was given a name, and has become one of the fan faves. This wisecracking, oozing, PBS-loving sack of protoplasm has become a staple main character, and reminds us that Fooker's life is always interesting.

Fred gained sentience floating in the squalor of Fooker's apartment. Since then, he has grown exponentially in intelligence, and continues to do so. Surprisingly, he doesn't let that go to his head (assuming he has one); while several fans have expressed interest in watching Fred try to conquer the world, I personally don't think he'd find an interest in that. "Sure, I have the ability," he'd say, "but who wants to rule a world as messed up as this one?" Instead, he somehow seems content squirming in the filth that spawned him, soaking in every drop of information he can squeeze from TV and the Internet.

Fred has quite a few interesting credits to his name in the short span of his sentient life. We have discovered that Fred is also Dr. Fredrick Physarum, a former literature professor at a major online university. (How else did you expect him to pay his half of the rent?) He has also given birth to another slime mold named Persephone, after the Greek goddess of the Underworld. Not bad for a green sack of goo....

Following the events of Surreptitious Machinations (where he actually spent most of his time locked in a forensics laboratory), Fred and Persephone moved in with Nick when Fooker left GPF Software to pursue his secret agent duties full time. Unfortunately, Fred lost his job with the university when they found out he had no credentials, but was saved when Dwayne hired him as GPF's new tech support operator due, in part, to his soothing, educated tone. Sadly, this brought Fred head to head with Trent, whose pranks snowballed into a nasty libel lawsuit. With the help of Nicole, Fred eventually persevered, although it cost him his anonymity. He is currently riding the waves of his newfound public fame, making a living from public appearances and from his highly trafficked blog.

It is interesting to note that the week Fred first appeared (with a name, that is), GPF leaped from nowhere into the second-place spot in WebComics' Top Ten. Just goes to show what a sentient talking slime mold can do, doesn't it?

Some of Fred's GPF milestones: