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[ACCEPTED] MoondancerPony's Vaurca Whitelist Application


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BYOND Key: MoondancerPony
Character Names: Azsuko Guwan, Zahra Abbasi, Tanya Robinson, Ferrin Sytes, Monica Huntington, ResearchMate 2459, Trout, too many to name
Species you are applying to play: Vaurca
What color do you plan on making your first alien character: RGB(130, 150, 20), #829614
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:
Paradox has been bugging me to.
But really, though, the Vaurca have always been the most alien species, and despite that also very compelling, especially with how the current Vaurca lore team writes them. They're far enough removed from normal life to be unusual, but they're familiar enough to be interesting to engage with; the kind of known-unknown feeling you get when talking with them is really cool, in my opinion. I've also been heavily invested in the skinwalker/Lii'dra arc, as well, as both Zahra Abbasi, Trout, and ResearchMate 2459.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:
Vaurca are not solitary creatures. If anything, they're eusocial, like bees or ants. They can communicate via hivenet, and this communication with their (and other) hive(s) forms an essential part of their identity. Instead of families, they have hive cells and, above that, broods. Virtual reality is also an inescapable part of their society, and I hope I can convey an interesting facet of this through my character.

Character Name: Za'Akaix'Hra K'lax
Please provide a short backstory for this character
Za'Akaix'Hra K'lax was hatched a year and some change ago from the first brood of Ta'Akaix'Vedhra'rept'ylanze K'lax sent before her birth, into a tumultuous Virtual Reality simulation of constant conflict. Each iteration of the simulation would involve different locations, enemy combatants (primarily Lii'dra), equipment, allies, bodies, and so on. This gave Hra plenty of opportunities to gain useful skills, as well as develop versatility in varied scenarios.

Each simulation had set 'win conditions' and lasted a set period, typically 24 hours. If that time was up, or Hra 'died', before the goal was completed, then the simulation would be reset to the same initial conditions. When she successfully completed the goal, the simulation would be adjusted to a different setting and made harder or easier depending on her performance, in order to allow for the most efficient training.

Through these simulations, two constants emerged: Hra despised the Lii'dra with every fibre of her being, and Hra also despised hard work. Clever shortcuts and subterfuge led to countless victories, but most important in these was her improvisational skills. A fallen comrade's phoron tank could easily be rigged into a bomb; a laser weapon could be overvolted with a capacitor array to fire with much more energy; a camera tracking on a swivel could be converted into a turret. Her simulated conflicts quickly became more and more stilted against her, which only served to fuel her ambitions to outsmart the Lii'dra wherever they may appear. Despite being vastly outnumbered and outgunned, she had as many hard-fought victories as she did tooth-and-nail losses.

The simulation did cause some issues for her psyche, however. In order to make the simulation environment realistic, she received simulated hivenet messages instead of real ones, meaning that she lacked meaningful interactions with other members her hive outside of combat and planning. Those she did have were ephemeral and shallow, and the hivemates she met did not exist in the real world. She would be lucky if she saw one in a different simulation, and even then they wouldn't remember her. As such, this has left her rather stunted regarding interactions with hivemates, though she of course cares for them greatly, as all Vaurca do.

It also forced her to confront her own mortality. While at first she was reckless and took large risks and complex, contrived gambits for dramatic victories (or quick losses), she soon realised that, like her evanescent allies and enemies, she could just as easily fail to 'loop'. From that point on, her actions became more calculated and careful; if her enemies acted like they wouldn't have infinite chances after death, she would do the same. This unfortunately led to another side effect: minor paranoia. It is effectively impossible to determine the difference between reality and a simulation while inside it, and this leaves Hra with the lingering doubt that she could still be in an extra-long combat simulation; not to mention the concept of Preimminence always weighing on her mind.

She completed her final simulation coinciding with the apparent end of the Lii'dra invasion of Tau Ceti (though she of course has no doubt in her mind that the Lii'dra are still present and hiding in the system), but was still in Tret with the rest of her brood. She spent a few weeks attempting to integrate herself there, but as Vedhra's brood was still new and varied, she felt as if she needed to find a better way to fulfill her duties to the hive. As such, she immediately left Tret for Tau Ceti once she received news of the invasion. As soon as the bureaucratic process of her immigration to Tau Ceti was complete, taking on employment with NanoTrasen in the process, she requested placement on the state-of-the-art NSS Upsilon as a lab assistant in order to make use of her skillset; things like reverse-engineering and creating electronics came naturally to her, and so she assumed she could work with technology captured from the Lii'dra invaders of New Gibson there.

This request was, of course, denied by the Upsilon, and she was instead assigned to the much-reputed, though less statured, NSS Aurora. Though she makes use of her improvisational skills frequently in the lab, she still often feels detached from reality, and especially distant to her non-Vaurca coworkers. To others, it may often seem as if she isn't "all there", as she frequently gets enveloped by hypothetical invasions or ambushes which demand her immediate attention to 'solve'.

What do you like about this character?
I think I managed to come up with a unique character origin that also fits well with the new (or, well, new when I began this character concept) K'laxan brood, Vedhra, Princess of Configurations. It also coincided with my interest in lore arcs involving the Lii'dra and their invasion, and me reading a novel which inspired this concept. Time loops, in my opinion, are an underappreciated and underutilised concept in science fiction, and I think I managed to find a way to implement it that meshes well with the setting.
Also, I'd like to get in the headspace of a Vaurca. I had a lot of trouble with it, and suddenly things just... clicked, and I wrote this entire application in one night. The concept of a somewhat-paranoid tinkerer Warrior awaiting the end of the universe just... sounds interesting to me.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?
I still hate this question. It effectively only serves to weed out those who are exceptionally, blatantly overconfident of their ability and even then our roleplaying standards aren't exactly so highly enforced for it to matter. I guess I'm alright.

Notes:
This may or may not have been inspired, in part, by the novel Mother of Learning, as well as the movie Edge of Tomorrow (which I still haven't seen).

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