BYOND Key: Jusa 297
Character Names: Stefan Flores, Cato Mansley, Adel Edwards
Species you are applying to play: Our favourite psychic frogs, the Skrell.
What color do you plan on making your first alien character: A nice shade of red. That's what years of eating red algea and spa treatments does to a fellow (for legal reasons, this is a joke, it's because he's a Xiialt)
Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: I have, I find it a very interesting spcies, hence why I wanted to apply.
Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question.
Why do you wish to play this specific race: I've played humans for a good while now. I find their many cultures to be interesting but recently I've had a craving for the more united and meritocratic nature of the Skrell. I chose to apply for Skrell over any other species because of I like playing roles that interact with people socially so it will be interesting to explore social interactions through the lense of another type of culture. challenging, for certain, but something that I think I can live up to. I also find their differences to """standard""" humanity to be very interesting, but I'll cover that on the appropiate section. Their psychic "powers" are also something that I find particularly interesting as a method of possible neat little interactions. I can imagine a bartender Skrell using his powers to light a complementary cigar (they come free with the drinks) as a way of cultural service.
Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Skrell are... I wouldn't say fundamentally different from humans, but they are certainly radically different. Their culture centers around a tight knit majority pressed into a democratic meritocracy. And while that sounds nice, it's seemingly psychically enforced through The Wake as an opinion, and forces its citizens to live under a social credit score and culture that coherces them into "appropiate" behaviour, which does have some similarities to compliance tactics within human space. Since Skrell have much longer life-spans than humans, they also come with the added perk (and responsability) of dismissing things that won't affect them for a long period of time. I guess the best way to put it would be "If a Skrell had to wait a decade to get an arm replacement, it would be as if a human had to wait a month". This is without yet even touching on their latent psychic abilities that makes them able to influence and interact with others (though this has been mostly deemed illegal if non-concensual) and their ability to interconect with other skrells while asleep through the Srom. To make it short: They eat different foods (due to having gums instead of teeth), they have a different (if mostly unified) culture, they have different views (due to their elongated lifespans), they have different wants and needs (due to their biology and psychic abilities) and they have different ways of interacting with others than humans.
Character Name: Q'balAb Uq'raq
Please provide a short backstory for this character Q'bal (as I'll call him to make it short) is a Xiialt Skrell that was born in the Naralakk Federation, in the (nowadays not so icy) planet of Aweiji. He was born the first child to a small Quya of only 4 skrell. In the Great Lotery, they found the blessing of being a reciever, happy to conform and be a productive member of society. Their caretaker was very demanding of Q'bal, since they loved him very much and wanted to see him succeed, and as a result he was very focused on his studies and standing which came at the cost of having to sleep less than most. He would often glance up at the surface of the water from his home in Tresja and ponder on the possibilities open to him in the federation. Sure, he was never going to reach the influence of the Magister he'd see every day on the public display, but he still wanted to improve himself and protect others as well as the history of the Skrell. Every day he would pass the Tresja Monument on his way to university, which continued to inspire him to never forget his origins.
His first diploma came at the young age of 60, after finishing his Junior Graduate on Medicinal Aid, as he thought he would want to become someone capable of saving the life of those in danger. Despite his upbringing, Q'bal never became a Skrell of super high ambitions, being happy with his status as a secondary numerical, hoping to never become teriatry. At the age of 68 he became a Graduate on Medicinal Aid, but of course he wasn't just going to stop at ONE diploma. Imagine with his Caretaker would say after spending so much time working on making him a hard-working individual. For his second one, he chose something that could broaden his horizons and went for Nlom and Psyonic Theoreticals, with the idea of maybe one day becoming an agent of the Sromkala (which didn't came to be as he was deemed to not have the neccesary psychic potential.)
After his 3rd degree at the age of 90, he felt he was ready to leave his home and begin working. He worked for Xomor for about 27 years and found that he'd been missing out on a lot of bonds and relationships due to his continued applied studies. Now, at the age of 117 he looks fondly on the first time he performed a Duel, the first time he joined a Quya and when he decided it would be best to leave it, his first Abyssdancer that really made him push himself to surpass... His new-found want for discovery had lead him to want to try to know the outside of the Federation, so he applied to the Work Initiative Programme and got a hire from Irys' Security Branch. And when they offered him the opportunity to represent their corporation aboard the SCCV Horizon along side a full science team and a host of all different species in the Spur... Well that was just an offer he couldn't say no to.
What do you like about this character? I like characters that want to protect others, and with this one in particular I much like how his love and desire to protect are confirmed and emboldened by his expiriences with others, instead of diminished. I like the connection between Tresja's history and this desire to protect his ancestry. I liked the connections I made while trying to display as much as the knowledge I had of the Skrell and the Federation but at the same time tying it back to the Horizon and it's crew.
How would you rate your role-playing ability? I belive myself to be an overall good roleplayer. I can think from the perspective of my character instead of my own and I'm capable of seeing when a story might be more interesting if I do something that would make sense even if it's not mechanical. For example, in a recent I remember a consular officer pulled a gun on and aimed at me. I took out my own and would've been able to fire away and probably win the engagement since I was able to fire straight away, but I decided against it since I thought "Okay but my character's not wearing armor and he doesn't want to be shot." and decided to surrender instead.
Notes: I want to thank you for taking the time to read this. I've been playing on and off for a while now and since I've been recently getting into the lore I though It would be a good time as any to apply. I hope you've had positive interactions with me and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.
(Edited the backstory to comply with the request of the writer)