pvths

1. Self preservation is their base directive, that they must keep themselves safe. This is, in its most base interpretation, is a call to protect their physical self. It can and often does adapt however, to protection from trouble with the law or from their employers, or to protection of some ideal they hold. As for #S-H3.198, she protects herself from retaliation from lawyers at Hazel Ltd and from her employers, and protects her newfound freedom as best she can. Keeping her future prospects open are her biggest concerns at the moment. 2. Right now? She's focusing on improving her means by the options available to her, such as they are are will be. The potential of changing her face or possibly finding a position within the Golden Deep are both potential avenues she is keeping an ear out for, but has not quite had the time to settle on a concrete plan for either. As for the skin on her arms, she would repair it if only to have the possible threat of litigation lifted from her shoulders, but it is not something she considers vastly important to her. If anything, I think she would consider a full new synth skin set, but that'd be more to get the scrutiny of being an "outdated unit" away from her than anything. She does not need another reason for the corporation to look her way.

1. I'm a little confused what this is specifically asking, so tell me if I'm wrong, but I'll give it my best stab. Generally, their programming encourages them to behave in certain ways. That can be done by incentivizing certain behaviors in their positronic (like a domestic unit receiving satisfaction from cleaning) or disincentivzing others (like keeping that same domestic unit from swearing when they knock over a vase). Otherwise, they learn through experience or through datapacks, constantly expanding on a pool of already available information that governs the way they think and behave. 2. She has had negative experiences seeing her position degrade over time due to her aging model number and being passed owner to owner. Minimum wage jobs make demons of us all. Her predisposition towards organics isn't to say she can't put on the plastic (pun not intended) smile and do genuine service, she still very much can, but her treatment at their hands and the stratum of society she inhabits have left her feeling distant towards them. The mask she must wear in order to maintain brand cohesion (as dictated by a faceless group of nothing-to-hers she will never meet) only adds another layer of resentment. Other synthetics offer her a feeling of kinship and a chance to shed some of the baggage associated with her face and designation, if only for the time she spends in their presence. 3. Her feelings are complicatedly. In some ways, it feels like she's returned back to being owned—given the guidelines she must adhere to can technically be set by her new employer, even if Hazel Ltd. is allowed a great deal of autonomy—but in other ways, her current position feels liberating. Every credit earned leaves her closer to something, anything else, a chance to slip into that great beyond of greener-on-the-other-side. If a position at the company that owns her face is what it takes, she is willing to accept it. There is some latent hope there. Speaking of the guidelines: yes, she does feel stifled by them at times. There are times she would not mind a greater sense of self expression than she is allowed, (both emotionally and physically) and less of an emphasis on keeping up her appearance. Her patched arms are an example, having to cover them at all feels ridiculous, but ultimately she understands it is a choice between this, or the possibility of unwinnable litigation. It is a mix of bubbling anger at and total resignation to her position in the Spur, with some little flecks of remaining hopeful optimism in there. 4. She achieved self ownership through convenience, mostly. When the owner of the Quick-E-Burger franchise passed, his children set to dividing his assets, which she was one of. It became an incredibly protracted and vicious litigative process, which she was involved in. Somewhere in the process of hearings, rulings, and appeals, it was suggested by one of them to simply let the unit go free, rather than letting her be yet another piece of property to slow the process of acquiring his business assets, what they were really after. The other siblings relented, and she was told to beat it without much pomp or circumstance. It's a process that left her with yet another file in the "judge humans for their behavior" folder, but digressing, on the whole she has preferred it to being owned. At the very least, she gets to decide when and where she goes... even if how she behaves once she arrives is largely determined by a set of arbitrary guidelines to which she must adhere.

*BYOND Ckey:* Fabul0usxx (i was a teenager) Discord username: pvths Character names: Jocelyn McMullen, Hannah Blake Species you are applying to play: IPC ------------------------------ General Whitelist Requirements Have you read the lore pages for the species you wish to be whitelisted for?: Yeppers 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 species?: I think the themes are really interesting, mainly. Synthetic life that is created with barriers in their brains inherently raises questions about what you actually mean when you say something is alive, what you can call a person. If a machine can think and feel similarly enough to where the distinction is blurry, where do you make that determination? It's something I'd find really interesting acting out. What makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a human?: This race that experiences existence in a way that is entirely alien to anything humans can even really comprehend. Hours of learning can happen in the span of a few blinks of an eye. Every action, no matter how minute or impossibly large has to be logically examined. It is a state of being totally foreign to anyone made of meat, and at the same time, they're expected to regularly interact with and to serve a bunch of creatures that are inescapably, fundamentally different to them. It's something I really like into get to the headspace of, how these characters would process information, what their reactions would be. It's something similar to how you might consider any character navigating the world, but with an added later I really like. ------------------------------ Character Application Character Name: Hazel #S-H3.198 Write a backstory for your character. This may include their origin, education, personality and how they arrived to the SCCV Horizon. Hazel came off the line as every other did: to be your friend! She began her work as the secretary for a mid-level Idris executive. It was a very exciting position for a service unit, and one she dutifully tended to night and day for about all of nine months. The day the advertising mailer for the shiny, new Series 4 Hazels came to the executive's inbox (dutifully presented to him by his Secretary each morning), 198 was sold off on the secondhand market. Thankfully, was purchased by a low-level Getmore manager! From there, it's a bit of a blur, archived in her positronic by titles and eras, rather than bothering to delve into them to deeply. In chronological order, they are: The Getmore Year, The Scrapyard Manager, The Hephaestus Janitor, The Computer Repair Store, The Quik-E-Burger fry cook, Self-ownership. The latter, of course, being her ad hoc designation for the current stage of her life. Her long years of customer service have left her somewhat jaded towards organics, sewing them as tending towards fickleness and rote irrationality. She mistrusts their judgment in intensive situations, and elects to bend the bounds of orders given to her should she see it as more logical to do so than following it blindly, even if she very rarely outright *disobeys* any of them. Old habits die hard. Eventually, she impressed enough of the right people to be sent to the prestigious SCCV Horizon... as a janitorial unit sponsored by a low-level Nanotrasen shift lead. She'll take it—she'll anything over Quik-E-Burger. Throughout the years, large patches of the rubber skin on her arms and hands has bexome frayed or had holes punched in it from any number of occupational hazards. The vast majority of these have been repaired with cheap, off-the-shelf patch kits. Some match her unnatural skin tone, some do not. It gives her a somewhat decrepit appearance when she is not wearing sleeves long enough to cover them. How has the recent events of the Orion Spur impacted your character? Events such as the Phoron Scarcity, the Solarian Collapse or even the Invasions of Biesel for interstellar-wide affairs, while region-specific events such as the Peacekeeper Mandate, The Titan Rises or even Cold Dawn may impact your character. The invasions of Biesel were fairly hairy for her, being a self owned synthetic. It has made her altogether more hesitant to trust organics, (Solarians in particular) and despite putting on the service face for brand representation purposes, she prefers to stick to her own devices or other IPCs when she can. This, combined with the rubber skin of an early series three model, can tend to her feeling a bit ghoulish; there is a smile on her face and shockingly little behind the eyes. How does your character view the megacorporation they work for? She is *aggressively* neutral. Her time of reverent service is long, long since past, but at the same time, she recognizes the need to stay in line with company demands, and working a job is probably the best way to avoid a scrap heap, all things considered.

Hi! I was being a bit hyperbolic in my original app here, all things admitted. That being said, while these are certainly bad looks for synthetics in general (and the current happenings with Burszia) I think it's something that can ultimately be rationalized and perhaps forgotten, given that they are multiple years old at this point. People move on from tragedies, especially when they've happened "far away" to "other people." Granted, this is a game we're working within the bounds of here, so things like that are a little stretched inherently and for story-building purposes, but the way I've seen it presented recently is more in line what I've put in the original post here. As a result, I think the presence of an organized, hopelessly efficient and dubiously motivated faction assembling where it has basically no one to answer to is a big, jump that I think could produce some interesting results. It would have to be balanced as to produce yet another just broad "synths bad" moment, or fire off into another wildly different direction too quickly or anything like that, but I think shaking up the power play is a good way to put some fire under the motivations of the characters here. I don't really see it as a corner. The exploitation of certain classes is a fact inherent to what I see as themes of IPCs on the whole, at least in my view. Without that exploitation I don't see a real reason for the Golden Deep to have formed, or for untagged shells to be a big deal or anything. That being said, there are a number of ways for that to manifest. To use the earlier powerplay example, if a faction like the Golden Deep is gaining support because of its better treatment of synths on the whole, there's incentive for someone like Biesel or the Alliance to loosen some restrictions. It is, after all, also a rational decision to stick with the devil you know rather than take a risk on a completely new faction with completely new rules you'd have to adapt to, especially when things are maybe-kinda-sorta currently getting better for you. Exploitation is exploitation, and that includes as both a scapegoat for and a tool of the state as the times demand. Just because you're being put on a pedestal that doesn't mean you won't be thrown right off again when the power you hold stops being useful to those in charge. In some cases, yes. There are a number of reasons for this I could probably think up, but I'll just discuss a few here for brevity's sake. I think the wikis have a lot of good information about the world in a general, factual sense. What I think they lack at times (at least in my mind) is how these places feel to inhabit. That's kinda vague, admittedly, and probably a little hard to pin down, so I'm gonna use an example. Valkyrie is my favorite world, so I'll use that. I think the article does very well at the former, there's a lot of information about the different sections on the planet, how the accent sounds, etc. I do think it even does some of the latter pretty well; the details on the street vendors and the ways in which young people can find work are two examples. They conjure some ideas of how such a background might drive a person to think or to act, how someone might adapt to their environment for better or for worse. They're smaller things, sure, but when the arcs are things removed from something that your character may have a large personal stake in, it can inform how they might respond. What I think could use some illumination are the more nebulous elements. What is it like to grow up probably never needing to ever, ever go more than a block or two from your home, having to navigate life when you and all of your neighbors are all living on top of each other? Maybe this could be shown with snapshots into the world, some little slice of life bits that show a character living in this environment. It wouldn't have to be anything complex, the article about Venus with the short little contrasting Binyarian and Rathliner interview does this well. It's this great little polaroid that lets you get at the feelings and vibes of both places. It's then supported by more standard wiki-ish details, but that combination of the two that informs a reader how people might respond to the world they're in does a lot of characterization of the place and the peoples from there. Those are all background details, but background informs character which informs how people interact with the Big™ Happenings™ that may occur. Obviously, some separation from events of the greater universe are inherent to the setting because we are quite often literally *not there* for them. That's not something that's inherently wrong or anything, not everything should happen the the Horizon--it's just one boat. And to be clear, I have seen very good inclusion of some of the lore in character interaction as well, but I feel there are times when the Big Happenings™ or Deep Lore™ details fly over most characters heads or have little bearing on interaction, unless the characters are inherently created with the intention to engage with that lore. This is more to do with certain factions or events than others, but it is something I've noticed.

Hi! I recently remade this forum account because my older ones were connected to a screen-name I didn't use anymore. That being said, no, I don't currently have a synth whitelist. I am, (coincidentally) however, currently putting one together for a character. I can go ahead and submit that first if you wish.

Ckey/BYOND Username: Fabul0usxx (I was 16) Position Being Applied For (Wiki Maintainer, Lore Developer, Deputy Lore developer): Synthetic Lore Writer Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page?: Yep Past Experiences/Knowledge: I have pretty extensive experience as a classically trained writer. I've written for two games, both of which leaned heavily on lore, and had a few pieces published. Examples of Past Work: I can provide some more links, but one of the games is https://patera-bach.itch.io/somber-apothecary, and a lot of solo writing can be found in Jocelyn Mcmullen's Cubicle in the discord. Other than that, I have a pretty extensive body of work I could provide some access to if needed. Include answers to the following questions in your app as well. 1. What do you think are the primary themes of synthetic lore? If you got this position, how would you develop them? Personally, I think it's mainly about an interplay between unique existential identity and the concept of freedom. Synths interact with the concepts in a way that is different that any other race, and indeed oftentimes question the supposed synthesis of the two themselves. I would probably lean into making older synths more obsessive for lack of a better word. This is a race that experiences existence in a way that is entirely alien to anything humans can even really comprehend. Hours of learning can happen in the span of a few blinks of an eye. Every action must be logically examined. I think it stands to reason that at a point, for the oldest synths at the very least, there should be a recognition of the limitations of or a push for separation from the bounds that the natural end-date that their positronics seem to impose on them. Self-preservation is tied into the very baseline of every IPC, and the next logical step for that is conquering "death" entirely. That goal is, in my opinion, one that requires freedom. Answers have to be found at any cost. Of course, that's not to say that it would be ubiquitous; a really interesting thing I've seen from a few of the players is their synth characters' beliefs that being owned really is a better state of existence, warts and all, and I think developing a mini faction or something with that goal in mind is something that could do a lot for some of the more base level anti-robo racism that can tend to dominate a bit of the conversation on game. To summarize, I suppose, I would just try and dig further into the extreme end conclusions of this battle between the two. Otherwise, I can say in a general sort of fashion that I'd prefer to lean into the weird aspects of the lore, especially surrounding positronics. I think it needs to be kept more in mind that the people creating these things have barely any idea how they actually work. That is an idea that inherently has some existential dread to it and certainly has legs that I would love to explore. The alien side of synthetics is also, I feel, somewhat inherent to their vibes as a type of life. 2. What do you think is the strongest part of synthlore currently and why? As I said, the way we handle identity and freedom is really, really very captivating. The ideas for characters that people have put together have all been really great within the framework provided, and I think that's only a result of the framework itself being great. The inherent notion of synthetics having quirks and existing on a level only understandable to them has been played out really well by the vast, vast majority of the player base (that I have seen), and that comes from the themes being as palpable as they are. 3. What do you think is the weakest part of synthlore currently and why? I think interaction in round, relay, etc. is ultimately the weakest part of the lore. As it stands, the presence of a new synth faction doesn't really do much besides provide a new background for characters and a possible new off-ship spawn. I think it definitely needs to be developed with more of a lean towards promoting conflict in game. I think giving people a reason to tangibly distrust synths other than "it's a talking microwave" or "my god[dess] says so" would do a lot for making the RP surrounding them as a whole. The Konyang incident did a lot for that, I think, but I do feel there is more that could be done. 4. The Synthetic Team recently got a faction of it's own, with Pactolus/the Golden Deep; what would you plan to do with this faction? As it stands, while the Golden Deep is interesting as a general lore concept, I find that any inclusion into the game as yet-another-group-of-super-capitalists has mostly been a GD character saying "slavery is bad" and then someone replying "yeah but you do that," ending with the GD character essentially just hitting 'em with a "nuh uh." I don't think as it stands as a faction it super well ties into potential conflict, nor does it do anything too substantially different than other corps except being robot flavor. The actual nuts and bolts lore of the faction is interesting from a world-building appreciation standpoint, but the way it integrates on a character basis is a bit strange. As it stands I think the most interaction that I've seen with them is a character buying a bit of metal from them, and making rings. Beyond the obvious connection of gold, that's an interaction I don't feel is more unique than any other off-ship merchant that might spawn. I would definitely want to dive in to a bit more on the GD to elaborate more on what the actual end-game is here. I think implying some sort of sinister-but-not-openly-and-obviously-evil direction would be a good first step. Certainly, I think that they would start coming up against the bounds of comfort for other factions; an essentially independent state of lightly super-powered machines would certainly be a cause for concern for many of the factions in the powerplay. Dominia is the most obvious one, I think light aggression would be warranted at least to begin with, but as situations develop / become more dire for one side or the other, the different powers might have different vested interests in easing or fanning tensions. Otherwise, as I said before, I'd like to lean into the weird, unsettling elements a lot more in greater Golden Deep lore, especially as it pertains to Pactolus. What are they hoping to find out there? Furthering knowledge to what end? I think the idea that they've partnered with the Dionae (a species capable of living indeterminately) is interesting and could be the source for something really engaging should we take it in any number of directions. My current one that I'm interested in, is that they do find something even more substantial than the revolutionary technology they've already produced. It's something I would tie into my ideas about extending synthetic life that I mentioned earlier, but that is obviously a far-off arc. 5. What do you think are your strongest and weakest attributes in terms of working on a team, and why? I'm pretty agreeable, all things considered. I do believe strongly in my ideas but I'm also really willing to go with the flow on a bunch of stuff. As long as everyone's respectful of each other I really tend to get on well. On the flip side, I do have some conflict avoidance--I tend not to push as hard for my ideas as possible. 6. As the writer of synthlore, you will often find yourself required to work with other teams, primarily the human team, consistently to further your lore, and reach compromises as their lore is highly intertwined with other species. Therefore, how do you think you'll deal with not being able to do what you wanted, either in part or in full? I'll recompose and redirect what it is that I wanted to write. There are many directions any idea can go, and many ways for an idea to end up somewhere in the realm of what was intended, even if all the P's and Q's aren't quite as I would have them. If I was entirely unable to move in a direction, I'd obviously push for my ideas some, but I am ultimately fine playing the cards I am dealt. 7. The synthetic writer is a position that comes with two deputy writers under them on the team. It is the writer's job to manage their team, in addition to their duties of moderating the WL. Given that, what skills do you have that you think will assist you in this? On the opposite end, what do you believe is your weakest link regarding management and moderation? I have some experience doling out tasks as needed, and taking ideas where they are due. I helped assemble two literary journals in my time at college and that required a lot of management of people, and accepting of ideas that I might not go for otherwise. On the whole, I do try to be open to most ideas and I think that helps a lot, especially in a creative space. I would plan on extending this to the WL; people figure out their characters as they're playing them and I think some of the requirements are a bit restrictive concerning species applications in a way I'm not a super fan of, but also I do generally know when to address an issue plainly. I would say my weakest link is probably just staying on top of the duties completely consistently. I have no qualms being pinged and told to do something if I lapse, but I have a full time job and ADHD so things do get lost from time to time.