[Accepted] Doxxmedearly's Skrell App

[Doxxmedearly]

BYOND Key: Doxxmedearly

Character Names: Currently: Rowan Fortune, Hadiyya Nejem, Moth, Sabra Maha, Polentia Teagarden, Leviathan-LXI

Species you are applying to play: Skrell

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

Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: No I made it up Absolutely

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:

When I first started, I didn’t. But the lore development in the past few months has been interesting to watch, and now they feel more alien rather than just being “kinda weird humans.” There have been a lot of great skrell characters I’ve interacted with which sort of rekindled my desire to look at the species. Since I’ve come back to being active on the server, I feel that I’d like to try out some skrell concepts for myself.

 

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

Hoo boy. There’s a lot! Of course we have mechanical differences, such as skrellepathy and the Srom and passing out at the club after one shot.

They’ve got a long history and lifespan. This leads to things such as hatred or disdain for AI due to Glorsh (Or maybe a sort of forbidden curiosity, for the younger ones who didn’t witness the horrors or rebuilding afterwards).  They tend to view the younger species in the same way an adult might view a child. This can lean more towards condescending or towards feeling like a caretaker (or a mix of both).

Speaking of children, they’re extremely celebrated by skrell, due to their history with being sterilized and slow population recovery. Children, and really most skrell, are often raised with a focus on being model citizens for the federation, through parental guidance, government-influenced media and social media, and idols. They have a culture based on excelling, with laborers being pampered to keep them happy, but looked on as lazy, and those who excel as researchers, artists, etc. being celebrated and popular. This’ll affect how a skrell views and interacts with others.

Their emotions are easily read by one another, but mostly lost on non-skrell due to the tones and subtle expressions they can’t catch. Even their humor is pretty alien compared to the other species; humor produces a burning sort of tingling, and even the way they tell jokes is different than humans. They have different views on relationships, with some being quite specific, though most of them based on the development of the relationship (Such as a temporary relationship, an unexpected one, one for trusted coworkers, etc). Gender really doesn’t mean much to them, and polyamory is a norm.

They also tend to ask extremely probing questions when meeting a new person, so they can figure out what to say or not to. This is pretty relevant when RPing on a station where there are new faces all the time. Also they chirrup when startled or nervous or laughing, which is frankly cute as hell. They’re expressive, just in a way that’s not easy to catch by non-skrell.

 

Character Name: Quiplsh Ishoph’Tealin.

Please provide a short backstory for this character:

Spoiler

 

Early life: Quiplsh was born in the middle to later part of the Supernova Era. She had a close relationship with her parents, who told her cautionary stories about Glorsh and the supernova, but also about things they loved, such as art and song and the joys of exploring the stars. She, like many, went first to basic college, where she first developed interest in the arts and found further love for space. This was also when she fostered a like for the feelings of humor, and enjoyed a highly social life with other likeminded skrell throughout her education. She followed up her basic college with three more degrees in the fields of spacecraft engineering, maintenance, and design. She remained fascinated with the idea of exploring the stars, as the skrell were just getting in the swing of making it commonplace again. The formation of the new Federation gave her hope for a future of progress and exploration.

 

Human discovery: Quiplsh, at 78, was ecstatic when it was announced the Federation discovered alien life. She was one of many who worked on collaborative programs with humans, with a focus on ship and station design and operation. She made a close friend in Dr. Freya Tealin, a human working with NT. After many years of close work together leading their respective teams, helping each other learn about the other’s species, and trying to get each other to understand jokes, Dr. Tealin became Quiplsh’s first human Quu’Kaax. Their collaborative projects enjoy great success despite a few setbacks, and Quiplsh developed a close working relationship with NT, eventually being hired in an official capacity. Later, she attended human colleges for arts, where she became enamored by human culture and their curious ways of expressing themselves.

 

Unathi discovery: Quiplsh moved with NT to help assist Unathi with their space program, and did work with colony planning for Ouerea. After witnessing the effects of the Contact War, Quiplsh developed more respect for humans, based on what she viewed as their attempt to save the young and foolish Unathi species from themselves.

 

AI Leak: Quiplsh is initially horrified at the idea of humans using AI. Rather than write them off, she continued her work with them, while educating the humans on the potential dangers of it, cautioning them with tales passed down by her family and professors. While she is disappointed that they continue to, on the whole, embrace this technology, she still maintains hope that she and other skrell can watch over and guide them to ensure past mistakes aren’t repeated. She’s made too many friends among them to watch tragedy befall them.

 

Recent years: After the formation of Biesel, she is asked to come back and assist with projects there. She continued to do good work with NT, and became a believer in them and their progress. Her close friend, Dr. Tealin, passed away in 2458; as a sign of respect for her closest friend, and the person who helped her find her current career in working among the stars, she appends the surname “Tealin” to her last name. Eventually, she eagerly accepts an offer to captain for the NSS Aurora, wanting to oversee operations on one of the flagship research stations. While the presence of AI still makes her uneasy, she believes that she has been entrusted to guide the humans and keep them safe from potential mistakes.

 

 

What do you like about this character?

She’s an enthusiastic individual with a legitimate love for working in space and has faith in NT. While she possesses the education and careful thought one might expect from a Skrell, she’s also extremely into the culture of humans and Tau Ceti, specifically music and art; I feel sometimes people (including myself) forget that Skrell aren’t just stoic logic machines and scientists. She takes a legitimate interest in the people working under her, and may be a bit more fun/social than people expect IC when they think “skrell captain.”

Also, plotting out her history was very fun with all the major timeline events. I really like how much she’s seen and what experiences she’s had.

 

How would you rate your role-playing ability? Certainly room for improvement, but I feel that I do very well with my current whitelists and characters.

Notes: I know I am often critical on whitelist app feedback, and I welcome the same in return. There’s a lot to skrell that I may not have picked up on or misread, as I struggle with large amounts of info.

Edited June 7, 2019 by Doxxmedearly
what is format even

[Conspiir]

2 hours ago, Doxxmedearly said:

... and passing out at the club after one shot.

Accurate.

 

You've covered all of the questions I usually ask about Skrell-hopefuls. You have a good grasp of "Skrellitude". The name addendum has huge meaning to them. They have likes and dislikes. They have feelings toward Humanity, toward Humanity's actions with other races, toward Humanity's descent into synthetics. They sound, frankly, adorable.

 

So I took a few minutes to cook up a question for you. Quiplsh sounds like a very "motherly" captain. Does she or can she have children? Is it a hope for her? Would she invest in fertility treatments?

[DeadLantern]

Not much missing. Fine character, very common for Skrell to be fascinated with new things, especially with the new contact. I see no problem with this character existing nor their experiences. 

I see a lot of Skrell characters with just a silent aversion to AIs. Even for the generations born after Glorsh, I would not have respect for AIs after they genocides and sterilized our own race. I always think the relationship between AI and Skrell is a bit too calm. It is fine for this individual captain to have just a disdain to Artificial intelligence, but I do think such a science-forward individual would work interestingly with an extreme dislike for AIs.

But it's fine and there is no reason not for it to pass. 

[Doxxmedearly]

@Conspiir This is extremely high praise coming from who I consider to be the best skrell player on the server, and the one who initially rekindled my interest in the species, so thank you. You leave excellent feedback on all skrell apps so I kept those questions in mind when writing. As for children? She does not have any, nor can she, but she has hope that treatments can allow her to one day. She would absolutely invest in said treatments, because I feel she really does hope to have children of her own.

@DeadLantern Thanks for the feedback! It's a good thought to bear in mind.

[VTCobaltblood]

Hello. I will be handling this application.

Delightful to read. A few followup questions, though:

Is Quiplsh a listener or a receiver, and how, if ever, have psionic influences of others affected her life? Does she feel confident using telepathy and projecting herself in the Srom?

Quiplsh has worked with Nanotrasen in the past. What kind of projects has she worked on to receive an outright offer to become Captain rather than a Chief Engineer like her expertise would suggest?

[Faris]

Reading this application, your writing helps me see things from their perspective. What I see is a motherly figure, a matron, a caring yet determined Skrell, filled with hope and the capacity in effecting positive change, a person with a vision. She wasn't just born, raised, had a job and is just existing. She isn't a job with a character attached, in fact reading this, it seems like the job they will have is a minor aspect of the character, which I love.

I feel like your answers are spot on to me, it's impossible for an applicant to cover every single aspect of a race, out of disinterest in those certain topics or accidentally skipping over. That being said, I feel like the points you've presented are written in a lively manner.

So here's my question for you. 

Quote

Speaking of children, they’re extremely celebrated by skrell, due to their history with being sterilized and slow population recovery.

You mentioned this, but your character has no mentions of children or a "Qu'Poxii - Starlover, Starlight". Can you explain why? 

Other than that, this has my deputy seal of approval.

[Doxxmedearly]

@VTCobaltblood

She is a receiver. I don't feel like it's had MAJOR impacts on her life, but certainly she has felt the influences throughout a lifetime of working leading teams of skrell. When her team experiences setbacks, they can feel overwhelming due to the echo chamber. The joy of triumphs inspire all of them. It's also something she had to adapt to when working with humans; since they aren't connected to the Wake, there's a bit of a disconnect that took years to get used to.

I think she has confidence with her telepathy and Srom projecting, even if her player doesn't.

As for captainship: My first thought for this was her many years of experience leading her own team while coordinating with others doing the same. Maybe early on a chief engineer would have been a good role, and she certainly qualifies for it, but throughout her years, she's had to coordinate on larger-scale team projects. The colony on Ouerea, for example, would have been a large project requiring the expertise and insight of many, including humans, from all sorts of different areas of study. Moving over to Tau Ceti, I feel as though he had a leading position in helping build, plan, or improve/expand several assets there, such as the Hospital Stations or Triage centers, which would require working with other team leaders from multiple fields of study. It's the inter-departmental coordination (and many years of NT trust) that qualified her for captainship rather than just chief engineer.

@Aboshedab

Wow, thank you. That's extremely high praise. I'll be doing my best to show that through my RP.

I didn't mention children initially but I feel like I expanded sufficiently responding to Conspiir. She does not have any, nor does she, at this time, have a Qu'Poxii. However, these are certainly both something that she thinks about frequently. She maintains contact with her old team and is doing something to foster a Qu'Poxii, as these are people she's developed a bond with for a long time. She certainly wants children, and is looking to invest in fertility treatments within the next few years.

[VTCobaltblood]

These are all excellent and thought-out answers. Accepted.