[Accepted]Omicega - Skrell Application

[Omicega]

BYOND Key:
Omicega

Character names: 
Alicia Parker -- Security Guard
Sophie Harper -- Atmospheric Technician
Ly Thi Hanh -- Paramedic
Junko Tsutsumi -- Forensic Technician

Species you are applying to play:
Skrell

What color do you plan on making your first alien character?
Somewhere between a kind of minty teal and a watery light blue. The colour on display on their wiki page is a very neat sort of aqua and it's extremely tempting.

Have you read our lore section's page on this species?
I have. There are a lot of them, and I was tabbing around most or all of them while writing this.

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 enjoyed playing Skrell a lot on Baystation due to the alternate avenues for roleplay the race offered, and have been interested in them ever since I first poked my head into Aurora just over a year ago. The fact that Aurora backs up an equally interesting lore background for the species with more prevalent (read: actually present, because Bay pretty much had nothing) mechanics for them in the game itself is enough for me to want to try my hand at them.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a human.
Skrell have several differences which look like they'd be interesting to roleplay out. For one, their lack of ability to express more obvious or overt emotions on their face demands a different approach to conventional /me emotes -- they lend themselves more to aural methods of expression rather than the more simple 'smiles' or 'frowns' or whatever.

Their general personae seems to lend itself to a lightly condescending or patronising attitude towards humanity in general; for a species that mastered space flight while humanity was still working on fully exploring its homeworld, I can see even well-meaning Skrell having some difficulty in not talking down to their human allies from time to time. Their lack of any real apprehension regarding humanity's continued use of artificial intelligences is like a broader example of this -- the dismissive attitude with which the Federation treats them, despite the Glorsh-Omega incident, seems to sum up the species' perception of humanity as a promising yet still developing species. I would like to reflect this general demeanour in my character's roleplay, at least with the initial concept.

Lastly, the in-game mechanics tied to the Srom seem like they could offer some very interesting roleplay in their own right, although I can see them being rather niche and nowhere near applicable to each individual round.

Character Name:
Liishuuu Xilzi

Please provide a short backstory for this character:
A younger and more junior member of the JFESF's basic forces, Xilzi is an energised and highly motivated individual only a few years fresh from their schooling. Despite having barely taken the first step of their military career, Xilzi harbours an intense hunger to rise among the ranks and make the most of their in-the-field training and personal development. To this end, they volunteered almost immediately for a government-run 'exchange' program with the megacorporation NanoTrasen, seeing it as an invaluable opportunity to deepen their limited understanding of alien society and add yet another facet of real-world, real-life experience onto their portfolio -- something they expect will help further their career more than the equivalent years of theoretical xenosociological study ever could.

Born to a smaller Quya of only three members, Xilzi found more opportunity for individual and unregulated personal development than was typical for a young Skrell. As such, the young Xilzi was markedly more reserved and withdrawn than their counterparts, although they never diverged far enough from the ideal model of an up-and-coming member of Jargon society to raise undue alarm. Their fascination with all things military developed from a similarly early age -- and while at first Xilzi's Quya attempted to steer them gently away towards a more directly scientific and academic line of education and personal development, as the years passed it became clear that they could not be dissuaded from their fixation with battle doctrine, clinical military precision, and the application of cutting-edge weapons and defence technology all across the Federation.

With their contract as part of the security team on the NSS Aurora being Xilzi's first experience outside Federation space, they are still somewhat unused to the practical realities of living among humanity -- though this is not for lack of study. They have taken Federation ideology on board as well as any model Skrell should or does, having absorbed it almost passively in tandem with their continued pursuit of progressing through a JFESF career upon their return to Skrellian space and Jargon society as a whole. Despite being only thirty-four -- young for a Skrell outside Federation space -- their allegiance to the Federation itself has been ingrained even more deeply through the basic training programmes of the JFESF itself, and while they imagine themselves prepared to have their worldview and beliefs challenged by the various species and cultures that frequent Tau Ceti, only time will tell how well their conviction will hold up.

What do you like about this character?
I like the idea that Xilzi will have ample opportunity to develop their character through exposure to others on the Aurora. This is the kind of character-building I've always tended to prefer; starting with a concrete ideal that boils down to being a blanker sort of slate and allowing them to become more fleshed-out over time through interacting with others, and I think it works well for a Skrell in particular due to the sharp contrast between the Federation's mandated conformity and the looser, freer, and more radical (by Skrellian standards) nature of human society. I think there is a lot of potential for organic growth for them, and I think it should be fun to play out.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?
I've been around, both on SS13 and on other games with roleplaying scenes. I think I could stand to emote a lot more -- there are some roleplayers here and elsewhere that still manage to blow my mind in terms of the inventiveness and overall quality of their roleplay as well as the speed with which they can come up with it. I don't want to put a number out of ten on what I think my ability is, but I've been roleplaying for upwards of a decade now and feel as if I have a pretty good grasp on building and playing new characters as a whole.

Notes:
I tried not to regurgitate the wiki too much and sprinkle too many "Skrellian words" throughout the backstory and so forth in lieu of actually writing something I hoped would be more interesting. Trying to write a character that seems believable and grounded enough in a broad sense took priority for me over obsessing over every little detail at this stage. I'm still expecting a few questions because I don't think I was particularly daring or took too many risks regarding Xilzi's characterisation or backstory, to the point of maybe being too vague in a few areas or overemphasising the 'short' in 'short backstory'. I don't have a lot of experience interacting with Aurora Skrell on my existing characters, though, and I was very conscious of trying not to accidentally inject or import too much residual Bay lore still floating around my brain into this application. I am not sure if the backstory fits entirely with the concept of the Skrellian military and the JFESF, but 

I'm looking forward to feedback of any sort. Also, I hate the way the forum here handles line breaks and how it managed to fuck up my pasting it over from Notepad -- I tried for a while to make it look neat in terms of spacing but I'm done struggling to make it much prettier.

[MattAtlas]

Omicega's a roleplayer I've had a bunch of interactions with over the years. Mainly in CM with their character there, sometimes their synthetic, and now on Aurora their security officer*. I've always known them to be a good player that can live up to high standards and I haven't found that trust broken yet. I've got full confidence that they can roleplay a good skrell.

Some might yell at me for doing a typical "+1 good friend", but I felt it was needed here considering that some might consider them a bit too new to the server. Which I don't think is the case, anyway.

[Vulcenus]

Omi's a capable roleplayer that does not shy away from reading pages of lore in order to get a firm grip and understanding on whatever setting they take part in, and I can easily say all of their characters that I've interacted with throughout the year(s) were up to a good standard in terms of being grounded on realism. I've seen them roleplaying Skrellian characters during our time in Baystation, and while the race lore between the two servers are different, I am confident that they will successfully adapt, if it's required. +1

[Snakebittenn]

This is a bretty good application. You show a really good level of reading comprehension, reading between the lines, and I appreciate that your answer to 'am I a good roleplayer' wasn't '7/10 i'm okay but sometimes I struggle.' This is kind of standout. Approved.