[Accepted] ShesTrying To Be A Skrell

[ShesTrying]

BYOND Key: ShesTrying

Character Names: Thea Reeves, Gwendolyn Miller, Cleo Ora, Ka’Akaix’Voa C’thur, Ka’Akaix’Vind C’thur, Ta’Akaix’Ivara Zo’ra, Cera Rivers, Naia Willam.

Species you are applying to play: Skrell

What color do you plan on making your first alien character: RGB 213, 234. 245 (A light, pale blue colour with a hint of gray)

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

 

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’ve recently found myself re-reading the skrell wiki after interacting with a few folks, and after reading it through, and getting a little push from some folks in discord, I put a concept that’s been bouncing around in my head to pen and paper. I think skrell, while arguably the closest to humans in terms of xeno species, have such an interesting history and backstory that I wanted to try to branch out into this uncanny valley of frogmen to see what I can come up with and contribute.

 

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Skrell, while they may have human-shaped bodies, are very different from humans proper. The most notable is that they are, primarily, amphibian. From the mucus that their body naturally secretes, to the gills, to their webbed hands and feet, their similarity with humans ends past a cursory glance. Skrell need to keep themselves hydrated, another hail to their aquatic nature, but past a purely outside standpoint, the way that they communicate, live, and interact are very, very different. Connected through the wake, and in the srom, skrell are intermingled in a way that humans cannot hope to achieve. They communicate so flawlessly that they can nearly predict the other’s thoughts, and I think that there is a beauty to that that shouldn’t be discounted. From their culture of always pushing to be the best you can be, to the gentle competitiveness of almost all their interactions, they are so similar and yet so different from humans that it’s a refreshing splash in the face.

 

Character Name: Naali’Xiiux Qu-Uish

Please provide a short backstory for this character:

 

Born on the tail end of the Supernova Era, in the year 2380, Naali was largely considered a miracle by their parents, and the people around them. Sheltered in life both by the location of their hometown of Oibuish, and the adults they grew up with, they often found themselves asking questions about their circumstances that they were given no answers to. Serving as a sort of emotional support for all that were grieving, they watched as the adult’s cheeks became stained black with time, often times listening to grievances without understanding just what they were being told. As they grew older, however, the rubble of their city turning to buildings, and the weeping turning to quiet sniffles in the night, they became more privy to the atrocities that had occurred, and the consequent burden that had been placed on the shoulders of the people that raised them. A receiver from birth, they quickly learned to adapt and assist with those grieving, quick to pick out those that might need comforting.

It was this role, since childhood, that pushed them into their field of study-- psychiatry. Tearfully moving from Oibuish to Qerr’wesi for their studies, they found a surprising switch in the roles they had been accustomed to their entire life, the elderly skrell, Xiiux-Gra Vu’ex, they were staying with often comforting them in the transition from the familiar to the unknown, telling tearful stories of an AI they had treated like a child as though the child had died in a tragic way. Passing away at the age of four hundred and ninety one, during Naali’s twenty-seventh year of college, was enough to, with their parents’ encouragement, drive Naali to push past Jargon’s borders with some of the first groups of skrell to integrate with humans, finishing their residency on a Nanotrasen medical station, the Avra. 

Their studies completed after their thirty-first year of schooling, Naali was lucky to take up a full-time position on the station, eventually settling down into a specialization of hypnosis, and communication skills for humans. Of course, humans were not so easy to decipher as skrell, and Naali often found themselves confused and struggling with the alien species, as their lack of telepathy and alien body language left Naali worried about how they could possibly communicate in an effective way-- which was, they could not, not very well. Quickly dedicating themselves to providing the so-direly needed communication skills for humans, Naali began to write papers on the strangeness of a life without telepathy, without the wake, without the srom. How lonely one human could feel even surrounded with other humans. How secluded their minds must be, and how one could assist them to communicate better, even without the wake.

Naali stayed with the Avra until it’s eventual merger with a larger medical station, twenty-one years after their full-time employment began. Discontent with the new management, Naali began to look for other stations as potential places of employment- eventually settling on a Nanotrasen-run hospital in Mendell City, Naali spent the next eight years there taking patients, mostly, from one station-- the NSS Aurora. Eventually intrigued by the trend, they looked further into its statistics and were rather surprised to find a daunting portion of staff having had some large trauma in their lifetimes. Intrigued at the anomaly, and in the interest of furthering their various research papers, Naali placed their transfer paperwork near-immediately.

 

What do you like about this character? 

Honestly, I’ve been meaning to get back into psych for some time, but it’s difficult for me to do without an inspiring character do so with. The development of Naali has been a wild ride, and though the name, city of birth, and workplaces have changed the general idea of something like this hasn’t much. I enjoy their sentimentality, and that they have some experience to bring to the table, lessons to teach, and lessons they have learned. I often find myself playing younger characters, so I think that the branching out into older, more experienced personalities will be good for me.

 

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

A solid 8/10-- there is always room for improvement.

 

Notes: ^~^

Edited November 15, 2019 by Resilynn

[Shenaanigans]

I have to say, that dig at the tendency for Tragic Backstories(tm) on the Aurora? Got a solid laugh out of me. A+

Skrell lore is something I need to do more of a deep dive into before I would consider myself a good eye for a whitelist, but I really like the concept of a Skrell being befuddled by human emotion and thought in a profession where that sort of understanding is important and applying themselves to become an expert on bridging that gap. It sounds like something that gives you a lot of material to work with in RP. +1

One question, because I'm curious. You've mentioned Naali doing a lot of work to generate papers on the human psyche, but how have they applied their findings to help patients when they work one-on-one with them? Do they have any special techniques or approaches?

[ShesTrying]

54 minutes ago, Shenaanigans said:

I have to say, that dig at the tendency for Tragic Backstories(tm) on the Aurora? Got a solid laugh out of me. A+

:^)

 

56 minutes ago, Shenaanigans said:

One question, because I'm curious. You've mentioned Naali doing a lot of work to generate papers on the human psyche, but how have they applied their findings to help patients when they work one-on-one with them? Do they have any special techniques or approaches?

For sure! When Naali first came to Tau, they very much found themselves floundering. The rules and education of the profession that they had been studying for the majority of their life were very suddenly just not applicable-- and that’s scary! Over time, Naali developed a set of rules for interacting with humans, and how to help them to feel comfortable in the face of an alien, open up, and communicate better.

 

1. Allow the human time to observe their surroundings, and settle. Have a variety of places to sit readily available, for as their comfort level changes their preferred location and posture will change as well. Blankets, pillows, soft things. Humans like these near beds and lounge chairs.

2. Do not rely on the wake or your auditory stimuli to convey your understanding or emotions in general. Humans cannot hear the sounds you make or read your body language. Lean forwards if you are interested. Tilt your head to the side for curiosity. Sit back a bit if the human says something particularly egregious. 

3. Do not compete with humans you do not know very well as you would with skrell. They find this offensive and undermining.

4. Acknowledge human’s emotions with verbal confirmation. It may seem redundant to you but it is important to them, to help them feel heard.

5. Humans do not always mean what they say. Watch body language to determine if it is true in this scenario. Looking away is ashamed. Modulating their voice down means they are sharing something private. The more lax their posture and speech, the more comfortable they feel with you.

[Roostercat]

I know as much about Skrell lore as the average spessman knows about Vaurca lore, so I cannot say much there. But I can attest that ShesTrying is a phenomenal roleplayer that plays a very wide variety of characters, I would be very interested to see their Frog Psyche. +1

[ClearThoughts]

I've seen one or three characters that have a genuine interest in Aurora from a statistical standpoint. The irregular, anomalous ups and downs of the station through even canonical rounds must be fascinating and attract a few gazes or rumors around the system, I'm sure. I enjoy this character's outlook on actively seeking to better those around her, while maintaining that, "I will do this, the best that I can." attitude. Very wrbl, such frog.

I give this a +1, but I would really try to make the understanding that Skrell do not share the same social environment other races do, particularly Unathi or Humans, who may have a much more anxious societal air. You'll have to work with the lack of facial muscles to really get the most out of your character, and this can lead to a lot of points in writing where, if you were human, you'd simply facially express to the other human and the message would be conveyed. Now, you have to treat everyone as though they're blind to the "expressions" you're trying to give off. It's a delicate balance, but I think you can do it. Good luck!

[simfantic]

I'm practically obliged to +1 this! Shestrying is a valued member of server, and I don't see why they wouldn't be able to accurately portray this species. Shestrying always makes roleplaying with her fun, and we always need more squids aboard. 

[Guest BoxWulf]

I have to give a solid +1 for a few reasons:

1) ShesTrying is an excellent RPer, hands down. Her characters are varied and each of then have specific traits that differ from one another, she does not suffer from a bleeding effect between characters. Look at Thea and Voa, they are a perfect example of juxtaposition between personalities. 

2) I'm not sure if any of you have had the pleasure of being a patient or victim of back when Thea Marietti when she was a psychiatrist. Her psych RP is perfect. It's on par with some of the more well-known psych mains and I've never been so impressed with a role that I've actually considered trying it out myself. I have absolutely no doubt that she'll be able to perform this type of RP with the same dedication, research, and focus that she's done with Thea (pre-HoP)

3) The backstory is solid. Internally, I echoed the same sentiment that was previously mentioned about how Skrell decipher and handle emotions much differently than other species but, given your ability to play a xeno-character exceptionally well in the past, I am not incredibly worried about it.

+1 again because I really need to see you back in Medical. 

[Resilynn]

Welcome to the world of frogs.

Warble on, my friend.