[Accepted] 1062 Aphelion's Skrell Application

[Aphelion]

BYOND Key: 1062 Aphelion

 

Character Names: Daniel Blaze, Desmond Rorig and Ixtab

 

Species you are applying to play: Skrell

 

What color do you plan on making your first alien character: _GREEN_

 

Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes

 

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 like the story behind the species, jokes aside, hating on AI due to living under one for a few hundred years, having psionic powers, being a federation and a meritocracy based bias, all of that kind of rolls into what I think has interesting potential for characters that grow, change and develop all in interesting ways. Specifically, I would like to play a Skrell who is an under-achiever and finds herself feeling out of place while in the company of other Skrell. I don't think a character quite like this would be possible with humans, or many other species (although I have not researched many outside of IPCs).

 

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:

For starters, the majority of Skrell are anti-AI due to their experiences with Glorsh, although that does not really concern my character, given she is part of the Radiant Era of Skrell, and also due to the fact that she was raised in human space. What is a far more prescient factor for my character would be the expressions, emitting odd pitched noises that are out of the normal hearing range of most other species, showing chirping instead of laughter, having an odd sense of spazmatic and random humor (if she has humor at all), and the natural analytical mind of skrell that feels the need to probe with questions to understand someone.

While in general human discussion someone might beat around the bush and attempt to ask in a non-linear fashion, a skrell would rather simply state what they want to know.

 

Character Name: Qoklor Zet'gox

 

Please provide a short backstory for this character

Qoklor was born on 15.04.2426 in Bova, an arcology within the alliance territory of mars. Her parents, Zetxui Xo'Gox and Goxqu Toz'Qix while being born within Jargon space found themselves quite fascinated with human cultural and technological distinctiveness, the two having applied for Sol Citizenship shortly before meeting each other and becoming Qu'Poxii. As a result of this, Qoklor would also be born with no Jargon citizenship, inheriting her parent's citizenship and living a life on an alien world, surrounded by humans.

Spoiler

Zetxui Xo'Gox, Qoklor's Mother was a minor Xenosociologist who up until recently had only been working with Dionae and more primordial species. The Discovery of Humans, being the angry confused young interstellar species that they were, she found it to be a brave new world for interspecies studies, attempting to study the species in depth, moving into Sol as soon as it was viable and even publishing a small book titled "Foolish but Smart: A Skrellian Perspective on Humans" It received moderate success, but due to the comedic title it was widely disregarded by any scholars of note. After the book, she would continue her studies, eventually applying for Sol Citizenship, meeting Goxqu Zot'Qix and settling in Bova, quite fascinated at Humanities culture around war and peace.

 

Goxqu Zot'Qix was a Cybernetics Engineer. Throughout his years within Jargon he would have worked in several projects around neurostimulant and psionic amplification nodes, all of which added to his resume nicely. However, his resume would soon become irrelevant, as several would be colleagues worked to discredit the Skrell. It would not be long before the various bad references linked to his name would result in him having more and more difficulty in finding projects to work in. Even being mocked on the various forums he regulared. With little choice, Goxqu would look to working with humans. After achieving a Sol citizenship, Goxqu would rather quickly find himself employed working for Nanotrasen Cybernetics Division in a workshop, in the arcology of Bova. 

 

Goxqu and Zetxui met on a Skrellian dating forum, designed by skrell who live on mars to meet one another. After some time spent dating, the two would eventually move in with each other, Zetxui moving to Bova as Goxqu's career was mostly set within the city at the time. Eventually becoming Qu'poxii and having Qoklor Zet'Gox. 

Early in Qoklor's life it was particularly difficult, while Mars did have a small Skrell community, the scale of it was nowhere near large enough to have a similar care taking system that is normal for her species. Instead, she would be raised until having achieved a bipedal state and a size and intelligence relatively equal to an adolescent of Bova. From that point Qoklor would be expected to attend the Bova public high school until graduating at the technical age of 21. She would then attempt to achieve a diploma in the field of Civil Engineering, this would prove very difficult for her due economic reasons and ultimately she would drop out, instead finding herself drifting into an apprenticeship with a small local mining group.

Spoiler

Qoklor's parents would remain with her, emulating a human family for some time. However, by the time Qoklor was the biological age of nineteen, the two parents had to move on for further work, and instead of bringing Qoklor along with them, believed it was time for her to make her own legacy; they are not completely amused at how well she's doing so far, but they remain hopeful that eventually she will find a career that isn't so lazy.

Completing her apprenticeship in the year 2451, Qoklor would soon find herself moving into the employment of Nanotrasen, working as a drill inspector aboard the NMS Zeplin, working on mining raw mineral deposits. She would live a relatively normal spacer life, only getting the occasional comment and sometimes meeting a person with the expectation that she would be extremely intelligent which would very quickly be realized to not quite be the case. Qoklor's career would eventually lead to meeting the first Skrell that was not known by her since childhood or relation to her parents, a Skrellian Research Director of Jargon citizenship who went by the name 'Aozhore Gu'quzxi'. Having little to no interaction with other skrell, she had no clue what to anticipate... This resulted in Qoklor directly approaching Aozhore and introducing herself in a hopelessly unpracticed attempt at speaking Nral'Malic that was both embarrassing for herself and the the competent Research Director, who rather simply, and quite rudely let out a nervous chirrup before ignoring the miner, carrying on with his duties.

Moving from place to place, Qoklor would drift further from Mars and Sol, avoiding most of her own species for fear of embarrassing herself and usually managing to find herself feeling ashamed with any interaction with most Skrell who worked within positions of science. Eventually she accepts to work aboard the NSS Aurora, and after a short journey from Sol's Oort cloud, arrives in Tau Ceti for her new position..

 

What do you like about this character? (Describe what you like about this character

I just think it makes for a neat angle towards Skrell, rather than being smug or confident, she's lived a rather meek life and over the last ten years has become more and more aware that she is an embarrassment to other Skrell, gaining a sort of anxiety when in the presence of her own species, particularly those who are in important or competent positions.

While she does like her own species, and really wants to be accepted by them, the way her life has led her has made that difficult to the point where it seems like a futile effort.

I suppose the main thing I like about this character is the mix of potential further development and interesting RP situations.

 

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

6.6/10

Edited May 17, 2019 by Aphelion
Minor adjustments due to valid critiques

[DeadLantern]

The "identify what makes roleplaying this species different" part is a bit lacking. You don't go in depth about the emotional differences, only speaking about humor, and you don't talk about any facets of their culture, such as Idols.

However, the story is great. A very neat take on Skrell society and those Skrells who are separated from the Federation.

Just remember, your character is a deadbeat. She would think that she doesn't deserve to be cared for, because of how isolated she is from her native society. I wouldn't expect her to suddenly embrace human ideals and become a friend of all humans. She may even fake being part of normal Skrell culture.

Reminds me of Worf from Star Trek. I like this story a lot.

[Conspiir]

This is clearly the ploy of an IPC wanting to probe Skrell -1

 

Being serious, I like it. I like that you made her struggle with education. I like that you made her an inherent outcast among her human peers. I like that you exposed her to some Skrell during childhood so she feels that want. I like how it's clear how other Skrell will look at her just by how she acts toward them. A very "Skrell" name for a very "Not Very Skrell" package.

 

I personally would like to know more about her relationship with her parents. Where were they born that they did not gain Jargon citizenship? If they were among the first born in a human place like Sol after first contact with humanity (2413), they would've been 13 when they had her, which makes me think they could be from one of the Skrell systems not in the Federation perhaps. Additionally, if I remember right, @VTCobaltblood, Jargon citizenship isn't by blood, but only by birth? So if you are born hatched to two Jargon citizens on Mars, you do not gain Jargon citizenship automatically. Cue long list of paperwork and documentation to be a Jargon citizen that nobody has time for, least of all two now-Sol citizens.

 

I haven't met any of your characters, but I'm excited to meet this one.

Edited May 16, 2019 by Conspiir
a word

[Aphelion]

Thankyou both for your feedback!

 

I'll be adjusting my app slightly to suit some of the revelations I've gotten from it.

[Aphelion]

Added some more details about Qoklor's parents within the spoilers, and altered my answer to the 6th field in order for it to be more involved with my character and a little less descriptive

[VTCobaltblood]

Hi, sorry for the delay. This will be reviewed today.

[VTCobaltblood]

Actually, I decided it will be reviewed right now.

While I don't think that Martian Skrell population is such an abysmal minority, it can be easily explained by Bova being far away from the main center of Martian trade, and as such, having less aliens in it. In all other ways, the backstory makes sense, and is compelling (perhaps because I have a soft spot for Mars :). Your answers to the questions are also all fine. Accepted.