BYOND Key: SierraMike
Character Names: Brooke Calavet, Eric Chilton, Ivan Renko. I've also done several one-off characters for rounds I couldn't participate in completely.
How long have you been playing on Aurora: Two months, I think. I came from Hypatia originally, and got tired of people attempting to ERP (badly) and the somewhat boring 'all extended all the time' setup they have.
Species you are applying to play: Skrell
Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes I have, as well as the pages for other races.
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: Aliens in general are not represented enough. Skrell in particular seem to have the lowest player count, with (at a glance) Tajaran and Unathi players greatly outnumbering them. I think I can bring some diversity and entertaining RP opportunities as a non-human. In addition, the idea of playing a somewhat isolated and emotionally distant crewmember struggling to fit in among their non-majority fellow staff. While NT corporate policy emphasizes equality, the actual crew still have their own beliefs. Working with a greenish-blue frog thing of indeterminate gender is unsettling, no matter how advanced a culture is.
Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: I like the idea of being an outsider. Skrell and humans are on good terms, but I imagine a Skrell would get lonely with no other fellow Skrell to talk to in it's native tongue. Furthermore, Skrell are already somewhat emotionally muted when talking in the station-standard Sol Common. Months at a time speaking in a language one is not fully comfortable with is mentally taxing (I'm an immigrant OOC, I can attest to this). The vegetarianism is obviously an issue, too. Most human players can waltz up to the bar, grab a giant burger, and satiate that round-long hunger. Skrell... can't. They'll have to chat to the botanist or go hungry, and be annoyed at the lack of accommodation for them.
Why does this species in particular hold your interest? I like the other species, but Skrell seem to have the lowest player count, as I mentioned earlier. I'd like to bring some green into the usually whitebread Research division. Skrell seems a fun way to play and It has a few elements that I can integrate from my out of character experiences into making my Skrell character more believable.
Character Name: Adrian Lake
Please provide a short backstory for this character, approximately 2 paragraphs
Birth name Qual'joun, Lake has a long and erratic employment history with NT. Since his juvenile development stage, he always held a fascination for space travel. When an NT recruiting ship landed in his home city on Qerrbalak offering employment, Lake immediately signed up. He was assigned to a drilling ship in a backwater asteroid belt, and worked as a miner, a job he was not completely suited for. He enjoyed being out on the asteroid outposts, often finding strange rocks or fossils while digging. Many of the other miners, simply digging holes for pay, destroyed these anomalies without a second thought. Lake collected as many as he could and hid them in his cabin for further research. He created his human-like name after a particularly stressful dig operation under a foreman unable to pronounce his original Skrell name. Liking its brevity, he kept it for future use. Throughout his service on the drilling ship, Lake always felt out of place- He was the only Skrell in EVA operations, and the only other Xenos on board were a group of Unathi, who Lake felt were too stupid to hold a conversation with. Lake's unfamiliarity with Sol Common lead to feelings of isolation from the crew.
After a passing research team noticed the out-of-place Skrell miner examining strange rocks and artifacts he was keeping in his cabin, they approached him and requested he be transferred into xenoarchaeology with them. He worked on this questionably legal archaeology vessel for two and a half years, finding many artifacts from long-lost civilizations... without dig permits, unbeknownst to Lake. After their somewhat fraudulent digging practices were exposed, the research team's contract was dissolved, their artifacts confiscated, and their ship repurposed into a military transport. Devastated, Lake took up janitorial work on a refueling outpost to stay in NT's employ. He was cleaning the refueling post's bar when he saw a flyer- Employment opportunity, NSS Aurora, Research Division. Needless to say, Lake dropped his mop and applied for Crew Transfer.
What do you like about this character? He sort of reminds me of me. When I first moved to the US from Switzerland as a kid I understood English very well, but had difficulty expressing exactly what I meant- Just like a Skrell. Now, four years later, I've almost completely lost my accent and I'm quite comfortable with English. I like thinking of Lake as how I felt a few years ago, unable to really connect with people due to the language barrier and differing interests. As time goes on I plan on developing him more and moving on to a more comfortable and outgoing character.
How would you rate your role-playing ability? I'd say I'm quite good at RP in a calm situation, but I tend to break character in times of crisis. The most recent example I can think of would be a blob infestation. I charged into a structurally compromised segment of the station with a welder while not wearing a hardsuit. This is a very 'gamey' thing to do, and not something a sane human being would even consider. I'm getting better though, and playing Xenoarch as a human has helped me practice, with the somewhat unpredictable nature of artifacts causing problems for me to react to ICly.
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