Myphicbowser's IPC Application

[Myphicbowser]

BYOND Key: Myphicbowser
Character Names: Katha Mars, Za'Akaix'Vak K'lax, Zaqix Zixquu
Species you are applying to play: IPC
What color do you plan on making your first alien character: N/A
Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Quite possibly

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:
Robots are neat, I’ve always been a fan of dubiously sentient machines of worrying origin, and the variety of IPCs also pulls my interest. Besides my general enjoyment of Sci-Fi synthetics, I also find their style in Aurora incredibly fun, and also I want to beep.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:
Looking for words for this isn’t as easy as I hoped, but here is what I think I can put down safely and still make sense; IPCs do not have emotions, not in the slightest, if they wanted to they could simulate them and appear more human, but the one thing resembling an emotion for them is an overwhelming drive of self preservation, which even that meaning can very from individual IPC to IPC. Which also brings us to the point of differences between IPCs to IPCs, IPCs don’t really have cultures and are very much so primarily a “species” of workers, so each idea of what one should do is different for different frames and depending on if the IPC in question is owned or free as well, adding more variability to those differences. IPCs tend to be a hotly contested issue, with places like the Jargon Federation reasonably destroying them out of the possible danger that they experienced and with places like Dominia destroying them because they see them as soulless, but the issue only comes around because IPCs are usually not lawed and instead are bound by their programming and shell, meaning they could be incredibly dangerous and this presents paranoia and fear in a lot of people.  So their main differences are the emotions thing and legal status that changes from location to location.

Character Name: Shangti - M.C.S. 227 - Rasputin

Please provide a short backstory for this character:
Rasputin, as they currently stand, was created in the Underworld of Oran in the year 2429 by an Extra that went by the callsign “Bot Master” for fairly obvious reasons. Rasputin was coded using the rarely used language OB1, as that was the Extra’s preferred language during their activity period. Given the name Shangti, as the full intent was to use this reclaimed G1 Industrial Frame for combat with a dubiously sourced Posibrain. The use of OB1 was also by design for another reason, as Shangti was supposed to be loaded with other personalities to assist in dealings with Suits, Dregs, and Deep Space traders, however those augmentations were never implemented.

As time went on, Shangti proved itself useful enough with heavy lifting and was adequate with use of tools as improvised weapons if a deal was ever going to fall apart, however their creator eventually realized that using this machine was unsustainable in the long run due to the ever increasing concern of it running low on power and the costs connected with maintenance, so with a spitshine and a smile Shangti was sold to a Suit that happened to be in the cargo business, and once the transfer was complete Shangti was now Modified Cargo Synthetic Two-Two-Seven. The years working under a strange starter corporation named Golden Prawn were good to M.C.S. as it consistently had access to replacement parts and the power it required, it was a solid addition to the Cargo team of Synthetics and with it being coded differently then the others it often found itself outthinking them and being more effective. This outthinking did lead it to the realization that after multiple deep space trips with power losses, pirate encounters, merchant traps and incredibly dangerous environments that almost claimed it time and time again, that working for Golden Prawn was sure to claim it eventually, so it began inquiring into its freedom.

Suffice to say with all that M.C.S. 227 managed to survive, Golden Prawn was not doing well financially, so when a synthetic offers up up two million credits and various items from the locations and events it survived, you are incline to take the loss and save your company or yourself at the expensive of one machine. And wanting to further remove itself from the work at Golden Prawn, it took the name that the most recent pilot gave it after hearing about the stories of what it had experienced, Rasputin.

Rasputin, now a free and incredibly poor machine, made its first move of finding a way to acquire currency and a method of survival, seeing as it was a Hephaestus Make it had the genius plan to return to Hephaestus which happily ended up working pretty well. Rasputin was allowed to work with owned variants of the others as long as it did not plan to assist them with gaining freedom in anyway, which wasn’t an issue as the wages it was receiving were minimal and more often than not it was forced to take charity when the chance presented itself, but it didn’t give in to the tempting offer of selling itself over, for fear of them running some maintenance on it and seeing it’s non standard coding and potentially going as far as wiping it. So Rasputin suffered through the poor conditions and took whatever contracts were available, it’s latest contract landing it on the Aurora as a Cargo Technician, low paying as usual but relatively safe comparatively for an older frame such as it is now.

What do you like about this character?: I really like robots with a story, a grungy story is a good story, something it can talk about and enjoy, could use it to go on tangents about space travel and tell stories about surviving pirate attacks only to endear itself to the crew, which obviously it doesn’t do for its own ego as it really doesn’t have emotions, but being friends with people is advantageous, and it has lived an eventful “life” that it could use to tell stories and make friends.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?: I’d say I’m okay at it, I can hold a conversation and I do emotes to make my characters seem more organic and less robotic, ironic then to mention on an IPC whitelist but still, I do prefer the suspense and action of Secret as many know, but I can enjoy Extended greatly if I am in the mood for it, RP is why we are all here after all.

Notes: Ha ha, robot go *ping *buzz *beep

[niennab]

Hello! Thank you for apply. I have a few questions.

On 24/10/2020 at 17:03, Myphicbowser said:

as Shangti was supposed to be loaded with other personalities to assist in dealings with Suits, Dregs, and Deep Space traders, however those augmentations were never implemented.

I am curious what you mean by this. Does Rasputin possess combat databases? If he does, why were they never utilized?

On 24/10/2020 at 17:03, Myphicbowser said:

so when a synthetic offers up up two million credits and various items from the locations and events it survived, you are incline to take the loss and save your company or yourself at the expensive of one machine

Since Rasputin was an owned synthetic at the time, how did he collect and keep in possession these credits without them being claimed by their owner? It may be more realistic if his ventures and possible shady dealings amassed the company more profits along with a stash he had amassed, meaning that there came a sooner point in time when he had paid his cost ten times over or had close to it and a sizable amount of his own (something more reasonably hidden).

[Myphicbowser]

32 minutes ago, niennab said:

Does Rasputin possess combat databases? If he does, why were they never utilized?

The main thing I was going for here, and sorry for my inability to type it well, is that at the time of conception Rasputin was designed to be a general thug type with multiple personalities for different situations and different processes running that loaded information for efficient responses, so while the combat databases were planned to be put in, it became more effective to just have them be a "Big Bruiser" type, as the time investment wasn't really needed as a good G1 Heph model is sturdy enough and strong enough to be a deadly combatant, so upon second gaze I would say that some combat databases were included, but due to how difficult it would be to code in the other personality the most likely case is that information was used for improvised combat mostly with general tools and some light bare knuckle combat, but the idea is he was an ambitious project that the creator didn't really abandon but didn't put in as much effort was needed to fully utilize all planned features, so they were left with random clusters of information that could amount to something more
 

37 minutes ago, niennab said:

Since Rasputin was an owned synthetic at the time, how did he collect and keep in possession these credits without them being claimed by their owner? It may be more realistic if his ventures and possible shady dealings amassed the company more profits along with a stash he had amassed, meaning that there came a sooner point in time when he had paid his cost ten times over or had close to it and a sizable amount of his own (something more reasonably hidden).

That is where I am happy to hear your input, because I have absolutely no idea how synthetic ownership really does come around, so I am partial to your idea of his more backroom dealings providing enough benefit along with the final pay of the easily hidden cache of trade goods and oddities, so I think that it does make more sense to be that way, so thank you for the clarification and the idea, it gives me some shady breathing room while still holding to the idea of striving for freedom safely, since they would have the information to be safe in those dealings due to their creator

Sorry if I over explained points that didn't need to be overexplained in this response, and thank you for responding!

[niennab]

Thank you for clarifying. So long as the combat database stuff isn't used as an excuse to chase after antags or placing yourself in unwarranted danger while in cargo, then I have no issue with it. Not to imply that you would, of course.

For the freedom portion, I don't blame you. The wiki could use a degree of clarification or expansion. Largely I run with the idea that an owned IPC doesn't necessarily acquire set wages but the income they would be getting goes into the 'pay for freedom number', minus any maintenance costs. However, at the same time someone could reason an IPC getting wages but being able to decide how much they want to pay back to the company in order to acquire their freedom. 

After thinking more on your original proposal, it's honestly fine. One could reason that, possibly with assistance, an IPC could set up a bank account that they secretly dump funds into while being owned. If you wanted to run with that idea, you're more than welcome to. Or, if you want to run with your original idea or a mix of both you're more than welcome to.

Nonetheless, your application demonstrates an understanding of IPCs. Accepted!