[Accepted]Boggle08's IPC application.

[Boggle08]

BYOND Key: Boggle08
Character Names: Markos Rakt(Atmos tech), Hoarace Thratch(Phoron Researcher).
Species you are applying to play: IPC
What color do you plan on making your first alien character: N/A
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-----------------------------------------------------------

IPC's can have extremely varied perceptions of the self. I've skimmed over the lore for other races, and no other race is as foreign in that regard, except Dionna and perhaps Vaurca. If I were to attempt what I'm trying to do with this character with any other race, it not be as effective. Childhood, discomfort, emotions, and stray organic spontaneity would get in the way of shaping and maintaining this thing's mentality.

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

IPC's have a shit ton of constraints, both in the setting and how you can RP them. They legally reside somewhere between property and free citizens, with the latter constantly being called into question. 
However, There are a lot of avenues you can take with IPC's in terms of character design and backstory that you can't with humans. The positronic brain allows for all sorts of quirks. Perhaps an employer programmed in a set of behaviors for the IPC? Maybe the IPC was dropped a few times, and is acting funny for it? Is the IPC running off of artificial morality, or has it found its own way? Where does the IPC land on the gradient of AI sentience or self determination?
    
IPC backstories can be extremely varied as well. Every race undergoes early life or childhood. An IPC can be written with something similar, or none at all, which allows for variety.

Character Name: R4-ND

Please provide a short backstory for this character---------------------------------------------

R4-ND was originally an a bishop model IPC that was activated as a Eridani pencil pusher. It was under the employment and servitude of a sub-branch of the Eridani PMC, one that specialized in the monitoring and pacification of Dregs on the surface. R4-ND, and his department, worked out of a suspended bunker just a few floors removed from the surface of the planet. Due to the nature of R4-ND's work, and its proximity to the Dregs, the unit's positronic brain was installed with an Artificial morality that instilled an almost religious fervor for the corporate way of life.

    For twenty years, R4-ND spent a repetitive life of pushing paperwork, processing arrest warrants, Taking inventory, ensuring the department's equipment functioned properly, and listening to the tall tales told by the private contractors that had to venture out under the Eridanian northern lights.
    R4-ND almost never left the office, and when his shift was over, there was a small closet in the back of the department for him to recharge and enter hibernation mode. He held no interests outside of his duties, except for perhaps range practice and reading the newspaper. Because he never left the office, and because he was always happy to take someone else's paperwork, he became the mascot of his department. All throughout his tenure, he had never had to lift a barrel at an offending dreg, and He had never seen his life or those of his coworkers ever get placed under duress.

Until one day.

A criminal syndicate of Dregs had finally managed to elude the overwhelming force of the Eridani PMC, and through years of planning and accumulating resources, scaled the side of the Eridani office tower R4-ND worked in and literally blew the entire department out of the side of the skyscraper. This left a massive rectangular chunk of the building open to the foul air, and balancing precariously on four support struts that the Dregs were not able to demolish. 
    The Dreg syndicate could've clambered up the struts and to loot and burn the offices above, but they wanted vengeance. At this point, The PMC Bunker was embedded into the ground in a solid, rectangular chunk, with many of the officers too injured to fight. Before the department could recover, The dregs descended from the side of the Office building and swarmed the bunker. The Officers tried to collect their wounded and hold out, but they were slowly losing ground. They were finally pushed into the armory, and it was down to R4-ND, five other officers, and a pile of other injured officers. R4-ND had never had to engage the Dregs until now: He was a paperwork jockey. More than ever, His Morality Utilons seared in the back of his positronic matrix: Every shot levied at his coworkers was a violation of the NAP. It could not continue.

    And so R4-ND grabbed an EMP grenade, pulled the electric pin, and charged into the crowd of dregs as they were banging, scratching, and shooting into the armory. The Dregs had but a few seconds to reconcile their leering disposition with terror before the grenade erupted in a blinding, cyan light. The Dregs lay still on the ground, twitching and trembling as they choked on the foul air of lower Eridani, and felt their cybernetics grind and burn their organic bodies.

After the action, R4-ND's body was recovered, but had suffered extensive damage to his positronic brain. The company deemed R4-ND too expensive of an asset to recover, and slated him for scrapping. It was the men and women who served with R4-ND that saved his life. 20 years of taking everyone's paperwork had paid off. They pooled some money together, and bribed the official responsible for scrapping R4-ND to save his hide instead.

R4-ND was reconstituted into a Baseline IPC body, but there was much that the Positronic recovery specialists couldn't save. He still knew his co-workers, but now, he couldn't do his job properly. He had to relearn everything. The old bunker R4-ND worked in was scrapped, and his old colleagues transferred away.
    Today, R4-ND is a Security cadet on the Aurora, relearning what he had lost that day on the Eridanian surface. Though his old department is physically gone, his colleagues aren't, and he has managed to keep in contact with them in spite of his damaged memory. For one so fixated on his duties, it is ironic that they were the things he remembered the most.

What do you like about this character?----------------------------------------------------------
He's basically a turbo corporate Eridani IPC that OD'd on free market Ancap-tier Libertarianism, resulting in an extremely narrow minded being with a diminished and repressed sense of self. He is effectively, property, and proud of it; dude has the personality of an employee training video. The wage cage is his home.

When this guy goes to work, everything in its surrounding environment is be painfully shoved into a narrow flowchart of conditional statements based on its hard coded beliefs. The fun I'll have with this character will come from this guy trying to rationalize and respond accordingly to the world of organics. 

Oh, and if this dude actually has the capacity for bucking his Libertarian Utilons, he would probably never explore it. I think if he tried that, it would give him existential terror.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?---------------------------------------------------
I put a lot of thought into my characters when creating them, and constantly adjust them to suit their environment. I design my characters from the starting basis that they are side characters in a story with no protagonists, and I tend to gravitate towards ones with comedic elements. I've done stuff like this before Aurora, both tabletop and online.

Notes: This is my first app. I think started here in July.

Edited October 20, 2019 by Mofo1995

[Mofo1995]

Quote

Every shot levied at his coworkers was a violation of the NAP. It could not continue.

I laughed so hard when I read this. 

But all right, onto the app. Not only did you demonstrate a deep understanding of IPC lore, you managed to also come in and demonstrate a deep understanding of Eridani lore too. They way you've sewn both of these together to make your IPC application was bold and allowed you to explore eridani lore through the context and perspective of IPC lore. This could not have been done nearly as successfully as you've done it without a thorough examination and understanding. At first I thought the big chunk of backstory would take me awhile to read, but it sucked me in, it really brought life on eridani as a security IPC to life. It was wonderfully full of character. Application accepted.