[Accepted] Hepatica's IPC whitelist app

[Hepatica]

BYOND Key: Hepatica01
Character Names: Klementine Kuznetsov, Zoya Kuznetsov, Jane Kanvers, Annika Richards
Species you are applying to play: IPC
What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Dark Red
Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: I have read the lore page many, MANY times over the years, and just reread it before posting this to make sure I wasn't messing anything up lore wise.

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:
Put plain and simply, IPCs interest me far, far more then any other race currently on the server. While I have absolutely nothing against the other races, nor the people who choose to play them, I personally have always been keen towards robots in real life, which naturally influenced me to want to make a whitelist for IPCs. After playing a heck of a lot of roboticist over the years, I've seen dozens and dozens of IPCs of varying types and personalities. I've seen the possibilities first hand, and already have a variety of interesting ideas I believe have quite a bit of RP potential. 

On top of this, the lore for IPCs is phenomenal. I fully believe that, at the advent of robotic creation, it would go near identically to how it is stated in lore, with corporations practically becoming completely reliant on a robotic work force, before the resources to create such a workforce started to deplete. The idea of massive, sprawling scrapyards filled to the brim with the discarded robotics from the era is just an awesome visual to imagine, and even gives me ideas for certain patchwork-esque robots (Not necessarily IPCs) made from parts scavenged from just such scrapyards. IPC lore has always interested me, but I've never felt like I had the RP ability to properly play one. I still am not completely certain, but I would love the chance to try, hence why I'm finally applying for such a whitelist after years of wanting one.

All in all, I think there is an incredible amount of character diversity that can be done with IPCs that I, personally, don't believe any other race can achieve. I already have a multitude of ideas for a variety of different IPC characters with a wide variety of differing personalities between them. It's my hope that, should I receive an IPC whitelist, I can do the race justice through meaningful RP and character interactions.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:
Well, I believe there are a multitude of different answers to this question specifically depending on the type of IPC, so I'll try to go over everything. Starting out, IPCs can range from nearly identical and indistinguishable from humans (Hence, untagged Shells) to extremely robotic in nature. This leads to a significant disparity in how you can play one IPC to another, which is somewhat similar to humans, actually. Given that it was humans who created the positronics, I believe that being the case makes perfect sense, as IPCs are stated to sometimes be a product of their environment.

For example, let's say an extremely xenophobic Necropolis roboticist creates an IPC meant for military application. While it's learning, perhaps it overhears the roboticist constantly talking about how much it hates alien life, how evil alien life is. It wouldn't be surprising, then, if that IPC came to hate aliens and see them as evil. This is very similar to how humans can develop.

However, that being said, even the most human of the IPCs are vastly different from humans in a variety of ways. A human can handle an ion rifle without a second thought, while an IPC would see that and would likely be extremely weary given that their number one priority is often self preservation. While on the flip side, a human would (ideally) be fearful of running head first into, say, tear gas, while an IPC could charge head first in knowing it wouldn't be effected. I believe situations like these, among many others, are where IPCs really shine in their RP.

Character Name: ISU-Brick

Brick was originally designed for construction work, created by Hephaestus as a massive Second Generation model meant for heavy duty lifting and dangerous work. As it was a construction bot, there was little need for a programmed personality, or even much in the way of intelligence, simply being able to do as it was told was more then enough for it's line of work. One day, however, a large steel beam crashed down on top of it in a workplace accident, damaging it heavily. Not wanting to expend the large amount of resources it would require to be repaired, Hephaestus decided to cut it's losses and sell what was left of Brick. At the auction, a wealthy Idris official purchased the G2 after a quick negotiation, bringing it back for the roboticists at Idris to fix up for their ISU program.

There, Brick was tended to for quite awhile, his positronic being the first thing to be repaired. When Brick's positronic came back online, the roboticist was fascinated by how "simple" the unit was, and how it would often mimic things the roboticist said or did, yet due to some minor instability would repeat it in a technically correct, but made little sense practically. For example, when the roboticist had shocked himself on a loose wire in Brick's arm, he shouted out, "Agh! This pain in the ass arm!", which prompted Brick, after a moment of analyzing, to repeat; "Yes, Unit's arm is: hurt donkey."  The roboticist adored this quirk, and opted to leave it in after ensuring it would cause no real issue. The two bonded during Brick's repair, and as a result the roboticist spent quite a lot of his time talking to Brick, teaching him various things so that it could better function in it's new role. As such, ISU-Brick was put into action, where it has happily served for close to a year, often visiting the roboticist when it has down time, for maintenance and to catch up.

What do you like about this character?
I love his little quirk most of all, but I also love the idea that he is rather "stupid" for lack of better term, but has grown from being almost completely machine-like, next to no personality, to learning somewhat from his roboticist, as well as developing the quirk from his accident. These things causing him to gain his own unique personality, somewhat, while still staying true to his original programming of being rather simple, at least compared to other Idris units. While he certainly isn't as simple as he once was, thanks to his relationship with his roboticist as well as Idris training programs he would have downloaded, I'd say he'd be a perfect heavy shock-troop type of ISU, in contrast to the finesse that would be shown by many IRUs.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

I have a really hard time answering questions like this. I've RPed for a very long time, in various different settings, from SS13 to pen and paper RPs (like DnD), and in an effort to actually answer the question, I would say I'm, on my best day, above average. There are plenty of times where I falter, especially in high stress situations, and RP falls to the way side somewhat, but I often try my best and hopefully that's what counts.

Notes: Robo man good

Edited March 17, 2020 by Hepatica

[BearSchwanz]

+1

Hepatica is super modest about their roleplaying abilities, I've seen them massively change between personalities for different characters and they're totally capable of maintaining a believable and interesting IPC character.

[The lancer]

Hepatica is a good roleplayer and community member in general, with good characters and overall interaction with others. They could manage an IPC whitelist with no issue. Brick seems like an ok chap as well, with more backstory put into him than the average factory new IPC.

[Melariara]

Hep is a wonderful person to be a around and is very good at different forms of roleplay.

 

I love the idea of Brick and he sounds like he could be either really cute, or really cool. Or both. I love him.

 

+1

[The Stryker]

Thanks for applying! I've looked over your app and everything seems good, as for your own conduct, I think all the +1s have said what needs to be said. I have a few questions, however.

Quote

Not wanting to expend the large amount of resources it would require to be repaired, Hephaestus decided to cut it's losses and sell what was left of Brick. At the auction, a wealthy Idris official purchased the G2 after a quick negotiation, bringing it back for the roboticists at Idris to fix up for their ISU program.

It seems a little strange to me that Brick's own maker would see it as too expensive to repair while Idris would quickly purchase and re-activate the machine. Aside from wanting to cut losses, is there any reason that Hephaestus would not simply repair the bot and put it back into service?

Quote

 The two bonded during Brick's repair, and as a result the roboticist spent quite a lot of his time talking to Brick, teaching him various things so that it could better function in it's new role. 

Additionally, the roboticist seems to be a big part of Brick's backstory, but what about the official who purchased it? What other influences did Brick have? Does Brick still keep in touch with them? (If this is something that you'd rather show ICly, no need to answer in detail.)

As a side note,

Quote

Given that it was humans who created the positronics, I believe that being the case makes perfect sense, as IPCs are stated to sometimes be a product of their environment.

Love the insight here.

[Hepatica]

I don't really know how to quote @The Stryker so hopefully answering it like this will be okay!

 

"It seems a little strange to me that Brick's own maker would see it as too expensive to repair while Idris would quickly purchase and re-activate the machine. Aside from wanting to cut losses, is there any reason that Hephaestus would not simply repair the bot and put it back into service?"

I do admit even I considered this the shakiest part of his story. However, in my mind at least, the idea behind it was that Hephaestus probably gets it's bots damaged often enough with how many they produce if I'm understanding Hephaestus lore right, and maybe has a set amount of $ they're willing to spend on repairs per robot, since eventually the repair cost would be pretty high. If that's stretching it a bit much, that leads into the next question-

"Additionally, the roboticist seems to be a big part of Brick's backstory, but what about the official who purchased it? What other influences did Brick have? Does Brick still keep in touch with them? (If this is something that you'd rather show ICly, no need to answer in detail.)"

the Idris official was meant to be a very, very wealthy one, I did a poor job of conveying that it'd essentially be chump change for him, not literally of course but you know. The official was more so just scouting for potential IRU/ISU recruits, and wasn't meant to be a super huge part of Brick's backstory, BUT it is actually going to be a thing shown a bit ICly. It was more focused on his relationship with the roboticist with the Official being another player in his life but nothing really major. And yes! Brick is checked up on by him from time to time to ensure his money wasn't wasted, which, just for the sake of answering the question since I don't really mind talking about it, their relationship is a sort of Brick sees them as almost a grandfather like figure, while the official couldn't really care less about him outside of making sure his money was well spent.

 

"Love the insight here."

Thanks a bunch! And thank you for the questions! It's great to hear from you, Stryker

Edited March 17, 2020 by Hepatica

[Dark1Star]

+1. Although I haven't played IPC in a long time, I can vouch for the fact that Hepatcia would make a great IPC player, and I have had many interactions with her character Jane, and I must say that they are an enjoyable character, so I believe that Hepatcia could pull off an IPC whitelist, and an IPC perfectly, though I'm pretty sure my +1 doesn't matter here, because I garuntee Hep will get it anyway.

[niennab]

Thank you for addressing the questions provided above. A more resolution to the issue of sales could be if the workplace accident was caused by Brick, and as such the company wanted to do away with the problem unit, fearing an additional issue or a worse PR situation. You are free to decide how bad the incident was however, if you choose to run with that.

Nevertheless, your application demonstrates an understanding of IPCs and it's clear you're a trusted person in the community. Accepted.