[Denied] Naelynn drones about bugs

[Naelynn]

BYOND Key: Naelynn
Character Names:

Spoiler

Species you are applying to play: Vaurca
What color do you plan on making your first alien character: (RGB 91, 31, 0)
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:
Vaurca are as alien as aliens get. Very little about them appeals to modern sensibilities, which… would be interesting to try playing. I want to eventually get every white list, and out of the remaining ones Vaurca seemed like the most interesting overall. And after reading their wiki pages, I’m still not sure if I dislike or like them. That in itself is fascinating and warrants further looking into. I also want to be able to look fashionable while out in space [a.k.a: not be hidden under a suit]

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:
There’s so many things. For one, Vaurca act similarly to a hive mind - more so if they are bound. Unbound are closer to humans considered they have the ability to actually have a form of personality and free will. There also is the universal biological loyalty to their queen and hive, the fact that standard air is toxic to them, lack of natural healing so cuts are superbly dangerous, everything to do with K’oizzz, odd form of religion with confirmed afterlife, lack of pain receptors, sensitivity to light, race-wide sanctioned slave system enforced by implants and bio engineering  … There is so much.

Character:
 - Name: Za’Akaix’Chitx Zo’ra [ Nickname: “Chitters” ]
 - Brood: Ta'Akaix'Xakt'yagz'isk Zo'ra, Queen of Corpses
 - Primary Job: Shaft Miner, NSS Aurora
 - Secondary Job: TCFL Volunteer
 - Personality: Sarcastic, leans towards black humor. Emotionally distant. Very verbose.
 - Likes: Explosions, cartography, exploring unknown places.
 - Dislikes: Overthinking, Filtered K’ois, Gluttony

Please provide a short backstory for this character

Vaurca are created for a purpose and Za’Akaix’Chitx Zo’ra is no different from the norm. Her imagotis design specialized for the purpose of acquiring resources to bring to the hive from unknown and potentially hostile environment. Originating from Xakt’s brood, and being instructed in VR by none other than Xakat'kl'atan Za'Akaix'Cimm Zo'ra, Chitx ended up with a somewhat of a grim personality. Between a distant broodmother, teacher with particularly well known poor disposition, and very small unbound community it would be a small miracle if it weren’t so.

Yet, the training wasn’t for naught. She did sometimes get into trouble with Cimm due to preferring to use explosives where possible, but the effect of VR training was undeniable. Chitx understands physics and air dynamics particularly well thanks to all the knowledge hammered into her in VR after her gestation period, and has served her hive with pride for over 11 years. Sometimes as a protector, but most of the time as a brave scavenger hunting outside for whatever resource happens to be necessary for the hive to survive. But, the world moves on and the times have changed with the Titan Prime’s arrival to Tau Ceti. Chitx followed her Ta to planet Luthien, playing a small yet not insignificant role in mapping out the area in detail and protecting it’s kin from the wildlife. But what is an explorer to do when the map is drawn? When their skills seem to become obsolete?

Her ability to function autonomously was a boon for the hive for a long time, and it would be so once again. As her skills were no longer required planetside, Chitx was sent to join with the TCFL as part of a political move to strengthen relations with the Republic of Biesel. And as an unpaid volunteer for the force, she was forced to find a job that would cover her expenses, and allow what excess she had to send back to her true home. Her natural ability to understand air dynamics and physics, alongside her desire to chart the unknown has allowed her to land a spot as a shaft miner with NanoTrasen corporation, despite the occasional hiccup in communication caused by her outdated voice modulator. Chitx herself sees her current position as the best way to serve her queen, and takes great pain to make sure she brings no shame to her Ta. No matter how trite or grim her duty of the day might be. 

What do you like about this character?

Chitters should be stereotypical older Za, bound by their duty even if it wasn’t given by the Queen herself. Lacking the curiosity of a scientist, or the loving care of a healer, she is a cautious survivor used to exploring dangerous areas with very little in terms of support. 

She knows very well that you cannot win every fight, and that is fine as long as you and your family get to see another day. The strange and unknown provoke an instinct inside her, conditioning her to be cautious and observant - to not take unnecessary risks. And it is exactly this mindset that is Chitter’s greatest boon. 

However, Chitters also experienced many failures, and that has taken a toll on her. Her sense of humor is quite dark and she seems emotionally distant at times - a trait gained by attempting to mimic her queen. 

Chitters often finds it difficult to fit in with her new family. This tends to make her unhappy - all her life she was mostly surrounded by either bounds or very, VERY few individual unbounds. This new world where so many have personalities and opinions on everything can sometimes be a little too much for her. She also sometimes misinterprets phrases and jokes as threats, but that is mostly a language barrier and can quickly be sorted with an explanation.

How would you rate your role-playing ability? 
It's... not the best, a lot of the time, but I firmly believe that if I put my mind to it I can do very well.

Notes: I already have a TCFL approved character in Sabael Kyledes, and have studied their lore pages multiple times. Thank you for reading the application!

Edited November 19, 2019 by Pratepresidenten
small edits - better readability edit 2) Name change to fit with rules

[JamOfBoy]

The name breaks the naming rule.

Quote

The only restriction is that it should not be longer than a single syllable - at the very most two syllables.

Chk tk trx. Chktktrx is a mess regardless.

[Naelynn]

25 minutes ago, JamOfBoy said:

The name breaks the naming rule.

Chk tk trx. Chktktrx is a mess regardless.

Thank you for pointing it out - must have forgot about it since the main page was the first thing I read and then went over to the others.

Corrected it by changing name from Chktktrx to Chitx

[Roostercat]

I have not personally seen any of those characters, so I cannot really say anything about your RP skills, but I do know a good amount of lore. Your backstory shows a pretty good understanding of the lore, and also shows that you read in depth about Xakt and Zo'ra in general with the bit about the TCFL, most of the backstory is pretty solid.

But there are a few things I have slight concerns about.

7 hours ago, Naelynn said:

 

 

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:
There’s so many things. For one, Vaurca act similarly to a hive mind - more so if they are bound.

I know you used the word similar for a reason, but I would like to clarify that Vaurca are not a hivemind. Hivemind implies they are thinking as one being, with no individualism or self thought. But the fact is that Unbound are their own selves, having opinions and attitudes towards certain things that might differ from individual to individual. They may have a biological loyalty to their hive and Queen, but that does not mean they wont get into fights. Arguments and quarrel between broods is somewhat common, with disagreements happening all the time. For example, Athvur outed Zoleth for creating hit squads targeting Tajaran gang members to Biesel, leading to a bit of a degradation in relations, she did this so that she could secure more resources and reason to reform the TCFL. They are both part of the same hive, the Zo'ra. A Hivemind would not do this sort of thing as they would be the same being essentially, it would make no sense for them to snitch on themself.  The other main difference is that the Vaurca have a social Hierarchy,  which would not exist within a hivemind. On top of that, If the Vaurca were a hivemind, there would be no point in a Unbound cast either, as they would all follow orders to the letter and likely be designed for a specific purpose regardless.

 

7 hours ago, Naelynn said:

 

lack of pain receptors, 

 

This is false, Vaurca very much have pain receptors and feel most sensations the same as humans. In fact, Xetl's brood has a focus on sensations, one of which being Pain.

 

Those are the two slight concerns right off the bat ( The pain one was really just for clarification). I also have a few questions for you regarding Chitx.

1) How has Chitx conformed to being around aliens? You stated that she was almost always surrounded by bound, so there would likely be a social deficiency. Being thrust into TCFL, which is full of aliens and thinking, talking, feeling creatures in general would be a big shift in scenery, so I would like to know how Chitx is handling it.

2) What does Chitx think about Getmore corp? The massive processing plants would be pretty hard to notice on Luthien. And I Imagine Chitx would eventually run into them at some point.

After those two questions are answered this will probably be a +1 from me.

[Naelynn]

42 minutes ago, Roostercat said:

Vaurca are not a hivemind.

Yes, I had a very difficult time finding a good word so I went with 'similar to a hivemind' - I missed few of the details in your explanation. Thank you

42 minutes ago, Roostercat said:

Vaurca very much have pain receptors

This I based on the following:


I assumed that there would be very few creatures that would be willing to carve out a part of their own flesh just to 'demonstrate' a proper medical procedure. As such, Vaurca have to have either numbed sense of pain, or lack thereof altogether.
Furthermore, Vaurca appearently don't want to be put under anesthethics during surgeries. I've done a brain surgery on a Ka before on my medical char. and I was asked to NOT put them under.
These two factors combined together lead me to that conclusion. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

As for your questions, I'll start with the simpler one:

42 minutes ago, Roostercat said:

2) What does Chitx think about Getmore corp?

   She views corporations as quasi-hives that are staffed entirely by unbound, which feels utterly wasteful. Why not use bound-castes? And if they don't have any, surely they can make them. She's seen those mechanical workers [IPC's], why not use them as cheap labor? As she dislikes wasteful behaviour, she is somewhat inclined to dislike corporations in general on this principle. 

As for Getmore specifically - she is aware that they have extensive trade deals with her queen's brood, and is very thankful for the economical flow they provide. It has served to greatly alleviate the rampant starvation other Vaurca struggle against. That, and her Ta's wise choices of course. 


Now for the more complicated question. 
This portion will be very long - expect a tangent. I'll provide a Tl;dr at the end.

42 minutes ago, Roostercat said:

1) How has Chitx conformed to being around aliens? You stated that she was almost always surrounded by bound, so there would likely be a social deficiency. Being thrust into TCFL, which is full of aliens and thinking, talking, feeling creatures in general would be a big shift in scenery, so I would like to know how Chitx is handling it.

   This is something I've considered when writing her as part of TCFL. She has cleared basic training before being signed up for Aurora, so she has to have had experience dealing with those pesky toxin-breathing kzzeenoz. 

Xakt's brood is known for having an abnormally high number of bounds. And what few unbounds there are have a very atypical VR upbringing. Instead of having a realm that is a construct that serves as a form of ideal-ish place for the queen's beliefs, her VR is simply an empty white void with perfect emulation of the real world's laws of nature. A.k.a: Her VR realm is very much a sandbox. There's nothing to be had there, unless you yourself put in some work.

To me, this presented a fascinating viewpoint amongst the vaurca. Why? Well.. Most unbounds seem to want to spend time in VR due to the fact that life in vr doesn't suck. But for Xakt's brood that is not the case. Their VR is just as bland as real life. Just, you get to make mistakes during experimentation in it without actually killing yourself. It is an extremely complicated minecraft clone, except there's very little fun to be had if you don't have the 'right mind' to get fascinated by details  and experimentation. 

Which is where finally Chitx comes in - as she doesn't have the 'right mind' to be able to just be plugged into VR 24/7 and enjoy it. Chitx views the VR her queen has provided her a blessing, and considers the behavior of other Vaurca as... gluttonous so to say. They indulge in pleasantries when there is so much work to be done - Titan Prime is still losing it's ability to house vaurca, falling to disrepair and malfunction. Thanks to the fact that the VR she is familiar with is so.. bland to someone who's desire is to chart the unknown [You cannot chart the unknown in vr, if all you can find in vr are things you yourself created.], she never really got 'addicted' to it like so many others.?

Her primary use of VR is as a learning tool. She reconstructs events she went through and replays them a few times, learning from the past. Sometimes she will also synthesize hypothetical scenarios, but that's about as far as her VR-experience goes, beyond the obvious social features... which are extremely sparse in Xakt's brood due to the sheer lack of other unbound.

This fact, alongside the fact that she is unusually autonomous by design [being literally built for prolonged expeditions to scavenge or gather materials, or to explore nearby unknown regions] lead her to be socially.. awkward I suppose would be a correct term, but it doesn't quite feel right either.

In her first meeting with Kzzeenoz on the planet, she basically was unable to function in any capacity as a social creature. Didn't have a voice modulator and didn't understand their language. Considering herself weak and feeling shame for being caught so off guard in representing her Brood, she would have spent time studying in VR and getting herself augmented - one of the steps that would eventually lead her to being sent to TCFL. 

After getting her understanding of the odd language that didn't use any pheromones or body language she spent more time getting used to her voice modulator, getting it to emit the correct noises to convey meanings these Kzzeenoz would comprehend. She then would seek out a non-vaurca, and practice her communication on real people.

The conversations would be ridiculously stilted, essentially amounting to "Hi!" "Hello". "I am Za’Akaix’Chitx Zo’ra" "And I'm Dave Copperfield." "Bye!" "...okay? See you?" but it would allow her to slowly start learning how to communicate.

'Social visits' like that would slowly kept increasing in frequency. Primarily because her duties would be getting phased out more and more. The maps would be complete, guard duties would be done by Za built for stalwart vigilance, not twitchy impatient observation. They would be willing to stand guard and observe for tens of hours, while Chitx would struggle to remain still for an hour.

What she didn't realize is that her queen was very much aware of the fact that the little adventurer was trying to find a new way to be useful to the hive, and practicing her social skills, as that was seemingly the only thing she was good for. This created an opportunity for Xakt which was seized without hesitation. Zo'ra hive was seeking to gain political clout with the Republic of Biesel, and Xakt had just the perfect pawn to move across the board in Chitx.

Chitx struggled in the new environment she found herself in - a TCFL boot camp. Every other recruit could be considered unbound. Most of them seemed incompentent to her, yet somehow she was being treated differently and didn't really understand why. Of course, it was because she was one of the semi-new bug-like Vaurca, one that was very new to this social thing but was pretty good at following orders and utilizing weapons provided by the legion. 

Because of this, the struggles she faced were distinctly different from the other recruits. While they struggled to live up to the drill instructor's demands and adapt to the combat scenarios, Chitx struggled to work with others, often falling into habit of either disregarding them [treating them like bounds] or overvaluing and protecting them [treating them like Ka unbounds]. 

It didn't take a long time for the instructors to figure out that Chitx needed a different training approach - her combat skills were already there, and the basic training wouldn't really benefit her much. So she was thrown over to support division for training - an unorthodox process that took her out of the stressfull competetive environment where she was getting antagonized by her peers into a cooperative environment where the quartermasters and nurses were just glad to have help of 7ft large warrior-caste to carry things for them and listen to them ranting about things all day long.

And Chitx learned. In this new environment where she wasn't being constantly shut down by her superiors AND peers, where she was supported by others and felt useful, where she understood what is expected of her, where she could listen and understand without having to speak back... it was a match made in heaven for her social skills.

She spent 3 months in this unusual basic training and started getting a hang of this socializing thing, even getting to have her own spin on it. She would start sharing her own opinions without being prompted about a month in, and sprinkling in her brand of humor around two months in.

Quote

"The prefect wants these boxes loaded in twenty minutes.." the quartermaster would say in an annoyed tone, grumbling to himself about how they are to get the small mountain of ammo crates onto the transport. "Lokked and Loaded bokzzezz.. Kyeheheh." Chitters would chitter to herself, amused at using the human phrase in a partially appropriate setting while already starting to move the mountain of crates as if the time limit was a reasonable demand. "Do you knowzz what the lazzt thing going through their headzz will be?" Chitters suddenly asks the man while moving another set of crates onto the transport. "No?" The man asked, somewhat confused. Did Chitters mean the Prefect? Or enemies? Or what? "Zzlugzz!" Said the large Za, pulling out one of the slug rounds from the crate and pressing it against the quartermaster's forehead and chittering in amusement. Clearly, it was amusing to the Vaurca, but the Quartermaster didn't quite feel comfortable with a 7 feet tall bug-monster that could bite his head off pressing a slug against his forehead. He asked to be reassigned few days later.

Chitx had learned to interact with other creatures in the back-end of a war machine, between jaded veterans, wounded soldiers, depressed survivors who lost their friends and somewhat optimistic support staff. In the beginning it was hard on her, leading her stranded in a world she didn't understand. But thanks to an adaptation from the TCFL training personnel, or maybe just a stroke of fate, she found herself in an environment that allowed her to grow where she needed.

Once her basic training was complete, she was signed as a volunteer in active service. And then she quickly realized a problem with her current situation - no money. She found herself a shared living space with other Unbound, 'owning' about 9 square ft. of space in a room. This was the last piece of her social puzzle. Finally, after all this time, after learning to talk with Kzzeenoz, after learning to work within larger organizations, after learning that non-vaurca societies are actually insane and despise the concept of bounds and unbounds, after all of that.. she finally was to interact with other Unbounds... and the experience was a great disappointment. 

Most of the time, there was no interaction to speak of. They were from different broods, and were immersed in VR almost all the time, unlike Chitx who unusually prefered the real world. And she found herself with a unique perspective... looking at her own society from the outside, yet being on the inside.



Tl;dr: She was handling it extremely poorly and was abused for it in the beggining. Thanks to quick thinking on the part of TCFL instructors she was saved from being a complete anti-social bundle of disgruntled murder and learned to blend in with non-vaurca society more than the traditional vaurca unbound society. This is because of her original purpose in her brood being phased out but her managing to find a new niche for herself simply by the virtue of lucking into it.

[Roostercat]

Solid reply, +1 from me.

[JamOfBoy]

Hello.

You display decent knowledge on the lore.

However, nothing here really persuades me that you will use this application well:

The fact your whitelist application character is a warrior.
The fact your whitelist application is a TCFL volunteer.
The fact you thought vaurca did not have the ability to feel pain.

All of these are big red flags when it comes to you. Big enough to warrant me denying this application.

Application denied. You are free to reapply after 3 days.