NullObject's probably overthunk IPC application

[NullObject]

BYOND Key: NullObject

Character Name(s): Arseen Ruhl : Engineer

Species you are applying to play: (Shell) IPC

Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yup, several times!

Why do you wish to play this specific race:

I have always found synthetic races, especially more 'free' ones, like IPCs as depicted on many servers, as interesting and unique. Some of the reasons for this are their more cold and calculating nature, as well as the mechanical differences from humans and other organics that can often be worked into roleplay. IPCs here, with their disputed rights and sentience also propose interesting legal and philosophical questions, like what a person actually is and if synthetic minds can reach what biological ones can do. I also used to play IPC on some other servers which did not require whitelists for them, and felt I did pretty good with them, and playing as them always felt pretty interesting.

 

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

IPCs, unlike humans, typically do not have actual emotions, and only simulate them or don't even bother, depending on what job they were designed for and how complex their brains are. IPCs also have disputed legal rights, with many jurisdictions not giving them any or giving them the chance to be free and un-owned by someone else. Following on that, IPCs are also highly discriminated against, similar to, but maybe not as severely as, Vaurca. IPCs are generally highly specialized into a job(s), and won't have much knowledge outside of it. Playing an IPC also has some mechanical differences, and while these don't directly affect the roleplaying experience, they could and do have minor effects on it, such as being somewhat more self-capable of repairs and being potentially 'stronger' than a human, though this wouldn't make much difference in most scenarios because of an IPC's self preservation instinct.

 

Character Name: Arash (Knapp? Can IPCs have first/last name format?) | Engineer

 

Please provide a short backstory for this character:

Arash Knapp is actually the name of the engineer who designed… Arash Knapp, the IPC (for the purpose of this description, I will refer to the IPC Arash by typing [IPC] Arash, reasons for them having the same name come later). Arash Knapp was an engineer within the Coalition of Colonies, specifically the Techno-Conglomerate, far from densely populated space. Arash worked various jobs from time to time but the catalyst for [IPC] Arash's creation was an incident with a supermatter reactor, in which, due to a faulty radiation suit and control room shielding, Arash was exposed to an incredible amount of radiation. Thankfully, onsite medical personnel were notified and were able to save Arash, though the treatment was only surface level and the radiation had already done it's damage to his cell's DNA, and cancer would appear across his body months later. Arash, perhaps due to his (relatively) young age, was deeply terrified of death and attempted to find a solution to the cancer ravaging his body. Unfortunately, the radiation had 'corrupted' his DNA to the point of being unable to make a genetic backup for cloning systems, and he was forced to find another solution; Positronics. 

 

Arash's plan was simple: Get an shell IPC frame either designed or modified to look like himself and get a positronic brain and program it to be like and believe it was him. There were several problems with this plan, for one, Arash was not wealthy and purchasing either a shell IPC frame or advanced positronic brain would be incredibly difficult, impossible if he wanted both. Additionally, he knew next to nothing about positronic programming and would not be able to do it alone, so he didn't. Recruiting the help of Samuel Joans (Could be any name, just kinda picked at random here), a member of the Trinitary perfection, to assist him with programming the brain and re configuring the shell. Samuel initially had objections, but was also curious as to how Arash's 'experiment' would pan out, and agreed to help under the condition that nobody in the fleet was to know about his involvement in Arash's plan. As for sourcing the components, his engineering position brought him close to labs that produced positronics and the assembly lines where shells were assembled. Over the course of several months, afforded to him by the most median treatment he could be bothered with, he was able to 'unlawfully acquire' the required equipment, by making subtle alterations to supply manifests to steal parts of shell frames, and turning off cameras or distracting the occasional roboticst with a 'urgent' and 'legitimate' robotic malfunction. Programming the brain took shorter than Arash expected thanks to Samuel's high skill, but still much too long, and he was incredibly sick by the time it was complete, Arash intentionally chose not to include memories of after the supermatter exposure, both to reduce friction to [IPC] Arash once he awoke and to prevent any knowledge of Samuel's involvement from being leaked by [IPC] Arash. During [IPC] Arash's initial boot up, Arash suffered a fatal heart attack, and died before [IPC] Arash had fully awoken.

 

[IPC] Arash, understandably, had a bit of a panic waking up and seeing what he believed to be his own corpse on the ground. After calming down and attempting to rationalize the situation, he left to find help and was greeted by Samuel, telling him that he was correct in assuming it was 'his' corpse, and that the experiment to 'transfer' Arash into an IPC body had worked, and though he had a strong sense of denial at first and objected, Samuel was able to convince him, somewhat, that he truly was an IPC replica of Arash. (Going to drop the [IPC] here, I don't refer to bio Arash after this) Arash's gaps in memory proved difficult to explain in conversations with people that 'he' knew before, and with Samuel's insistence and assistance, Arash chose to leave the fleet and after a long period of deliberation and consideration, chose to join the Tau Ceti Foreign legion, but left after little more than a year due to the stress, gaining citizenship in the Republic of Biesel. Existing isn't free, however, and he had to find some place to work after his brief service in the legion to afford maintenance and energy. His skills opened many possibilities, but his free IPC status closed many.

 

Nanotrasen, ever hungry for more workers, hired Arash, though at a lower position than he was qualified for. Arash's movement through Nanotrasen's promotion structure was difficult and slow, though his large knowledge of supermatter engines and atmospherics systems allowed him to somewhat dampen the effects of his IPC status. Through hard work, dedication, and the occasional lie through omission to the inspectors and bureaucrats, he was able to be promoted to a well-paying role aboard the NSS(?) Aurora, working as an engineer, maintaining the various station systems.

 

What do you like about this character?

There is a constant sense of denial with this character, his core programming is TELLING HIM that he is a human named Arash Knapp, but the inescapable reality of his situation is that he is an IPC designed to act like and think it is Arash Knapp. He has learnt, somewhat, but that core feeling of being a human is ever present and nagging on him, like a mental tumor.

 

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

I would say I'm anywhere from average to somewhat below average. I feel like I can handle the role of a character pretty well, but flexibility and staying 'detached' from my characters is difficult for me. I also have problems incorporating actions into my roleplay and (I don't want to say 'rely', but) rely too much on speaking.

 

Notes:

I've got a runoff sentence problem. Also, I'm not 100% on if an IPC could be 'traumatized' like I described above, I would think yes, somewhat, as I asked around in the lore channel on discord and was told IPC brains are somewhat dynamic like ours, and the discovery of their own corpse was a pretty big contraction on what [IPC] Arash knew and goes against what he was designed to believe pretty hard.

Edited October 9, 2020 by NullObject
Revised

[niennab]

Thank you for applying! Are you able to expand upon Arash's portion of the application? As it stands two paragraphs are dedicated to Arash Knapp where as Arash (IPC) only has one.

It's also too much of a stretch that an Engineer would be able to program a positronic brain.

How did Arash acquire the positronic brain and shell frame? How did he acquire the funds to have it altered to look like him? Where did Arash acquire their citizenship and how? An owned synthetic cannot acquire citizenship. Why did Arash (IPC) decide to move to Tau Ceti over remaining in the Coalition of Colonies? Where is the Coalition of Colonies are they from?

[NullObject]

Thank you so much for replying! Give me a couple minutes and I will revise the backstory to address your criticisms/questions.

[NullObject]

I've gone ahead and updated the backstory with your questions, though I wasn't 100% sure on what to put for [IPC] Arash's second paragraph (Though I did extend on why and how he moved to TC).

1 hour ago, niennab said:

Thank you for applying! Are you able to expand upon Arash's portion of the application? As it stands two paragraphs are dedicated to Arash Knapp where as Arash (IPC) only has one.

It's also too much of a stretch that an Engineer would be able to program a positronic brain.

How did Arash acquire the positronic brain and shell frame? How did he acquire the funds to have it altered to look like him? Where did Arash acquire their citizenship and how? An owned synthetic cannot acquire citizenship. Why did Arash (IPC) decide to move to Tau Ceti over remaining in the Coalition of Colonies? Where is the Coalition of Colonies are they from?

 

[niennab]

Hello, I talked your application over with the team and we've decided to deny your application for now. The biggest factor being that the application reads more like a human, over an IPC and thus does not demonstrate an understanding of the lore. Additionally, there are a number of red flags in the application itself.
I believe it's a stretch to say that a Trinary Perfectionist Roboticist would program an IPC to be someone else, as it conflicts with the ideas of the religion itself.
Moreover the application reads as though it's an attempt at the concept of a full body prosthetic, which I fear offers more of an excuse to play a robot as a human without the inherent nature of what'd make them robotic. This is part of why I am vehemently against FBPs in our lore.
Although the character concept could be trimmed to match the lore, I would advise re-applying with a more common and perhaps owned IPC, then working on this concept after you have the whitelist. You're welcome to reapply in 3 days at the minimum.