Rotharia's IPC Application

[Rotharia]

BYOND Key: Rotharia

Character Names: Mae McKinley, Graham Mathis, Alyx Ferriday

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?: 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: It is my opinion that IPC's offer the most freedom and player agency when it comes to actually playing their character, the freedom of speech patterns, chassis, and even just naming scheme leaves a lot of room for players to make fun and interesting characters. Additionally, I think that synthetics can offer a unique perspective on events. As an example, something that may be quite damaging to a human such as being fired or demoted could be perceived as trivial to an "immortal" synthetic. Their perception of time and the urgency of some events compared to others is intriguing and offers an interesting dynamic. In addition, exploring the concept of owned vs free IPC's is also interesting, especially given how people may treat them based on that information.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Decision-making. IPC's are not driven by emotion or "gut instinct" like other species. They operate on a very simple cause and effect basis. This binary way of thinking and moving through life makes complex things like friendships and workplace drama different depending on how the IPC interprets these events. While some may see friendships as "strength in numbers" others may see fleshy species as emotionally volatile and a liability. The room for interpretation that you have as an IPC is HUGE and frankly a fascinating concept to explore over the course of several characters.

Character Name: CICI

Please provide a short backstory for this character: Originally created by Hephaestus Industries CICI is a second-generation industrial model created with the purpose of overseeing a massive hydroponics facility serving the system of Sol. While in service there, his facility was attacked by a particularly desperate band of pirates who aimed to shore up their food supplies and salvage what tech they could. What the pirates thought was an easy target quickly turned nasty as the stations security got involved. In the fight with station security, CICI was incapacitated by the pirates and "stolen" from the facility, the pirates hoping that they could recoup some of their losses. Quickly realizing that CICI was worth more "alive" then dead, he was offered his own preservation if he maintained and operated the marauders own ship-side hydroponics array. Deeming that this was his safest and only option CICI agreed. He was in service of these vagabonds for nearly three years. During his time among the pirates CICI did his best to stay in their good graces and quickly found that humans were easy to appease if you just did as they asked, no matter how asinine. The pirates luck ran out just outside of New Gibson when they had an unfortunate and unexpected run-in with system security.  (Thanks to an anonymous insider tip.) Now officially in Tau Ceti space, but still property of Hephaestus, CICI was shipped off to Biesel where he tended the farms there while working towards his own freedom. In an effort to slow his progress, Hephaestus decided to re-train him as a miner, hoping that the dangers of the job and the drastic change would deter CICI from his freedom. Soon after, CICI was contracted out as a Shaft Miner / Cargo Technician aboard the Aurora where he toils to this day. Working ever closer to the promise of freedom.

What do you like about this character?: I find the futility of CICI's task humbling in a way, he's working towards a goal that he will likely never achieve thanks to the powers that be, but like Sisyphus he perseveres. I also like that he's an owned IPC and look forward to exploring the idea of being just "property" to both the corporation you're employed by AND your workplace. I think that it gives a lot of room for other players to interact with him in interesting ways. I also like the potential double-edged sword that's been set up with Hephaestus' decision to assign him to the Aurora. To them, he's being assigned to a backwater station who's mining department may as well not even exist, but in actuality he's got the potential to actually achieve his goal of freedom thanks to the richness of Aurora's asteroid. Which leads nicely into the final reason I want to play him, taking an owned IPC and playing them for a while before finally letting him earn his freedom and seeing how the character changes once it's passed that point.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?: It varies, I think given the appropriate circumstances and situations I can perform really well, but I recognize that I have difficulty making something from nothing, especially during extended rounds where the extent of my role-play is interacting with other people's characters.

Notes: If you have any questions for me that don't fit into the context of the application, contact me on discord at Rotharia#6158

Edited October 26, 2020 by Rotharia
Added a few more characters people may know.

[niennab]

Hello, thank you for applying!

17 hours ago, Rotharia said:

and even just naming scheme leaves a lot of room for players to make fun and interesting characters.

Although IPCs have a degree of freedom and variety to their naming schemes, things like meme names aren't tolerated. Will this be an issue?

What was CICI's role or duties once taken by the pirates? How were the pirates killed or captured in New Gibson? What transpired? If made a Miner, how would that deter CICI from working towards his freedom? Also, what is CICI's perspective or reflection in a lot of these events? How has their story shaped them or their outlook?

[Rotharia]

- Meme names will no longer be an issue.
 

-Once captured by pirates CICI took on a "custodial" role. Cleaning up after the pirate's nights of drinking, scrubbing floor tiles, any kind of menial labor the pirates felt was beneath them he was put up to. On top of tending to their small ship-side hydroponics bay (which likely housed more recreational plants than edible ones).

-When en-route to one of New Gibson's bio-domes to lay low they were intercepted by a detachment of the Tau-Ceti Foreign Legion who had received an anonymous tip from CICI about the pirates intended flight path., After a short series of negotiations, the pirates were taken into custody without incident. As CICI was untagged but still branded, they contacted Hephaestus who confirmed their ownership of him and he was returned to their custody.

-My logic here was basically that Hephaestus thinks Aurora is an unprofitable rock (if this is incorrect and the amount of resources present at Aurora is well known please inform me) AND doubling up with a set of skills that CICI has not had time to hone. He may be an excellent miner eventually but for the moment he's just as new as anyone else.

-This question is difficult to answer as I think a lot of a character changes from paper to when you actually start playing them, but for the moment CICI's outlook on his past is one of bewilderment. By all accounts, he should have been scrapped as soon as the pirates got their hands on him, and once again when he made the anonymous tip to the TCFL. He understands that his situation is lucky beyond belief and more than anything he's just happy to return to a safe normal life. While he may feel frustration at times, he's in Tau Ceti now, and he has a chance at freedom. After everything he's been through, CICI has something that he can work towards and finally feels like he has a future ahead of him.

[BoryaTheSlayer]

10 hours ago, Rotharia said:

-My logic here was basically that Hephaestus thinks Aurora is an unprofitable rock (if this is incorrect and the amount of resources present at Aurora is well known please inform me) AND doubling up with a set of skills that CICI has not had time to hone. He may be an excellent miner eventually but for the moment he's just as new as anyone else.

I hate to tell you this since I actually enjoy what you're trying to do with this, but yes, Aurora is a rather well-known station and Hephaestus would most certainly know the value of Aurora. Though, I should note that our setting is always developing, and right now the Orion Spur is in a phoron crisis, which means that Aurora is becoming less valuable due to the phoron shortage. 

I hope you can work something out with this info. You should check this page out just in case you haven't yet.

[Rotharia]

Damn, I must have read something wrong somewhere because I've definitely read this page. Sorry for the misinterpretation! I don't think it really changes his backstory too terribly much, Hephaestus is just trying to get their money's worth out of him before he meets that ten-fold threshold. I'm open to ideas if this isn't feasible.

[niennab]

Thank you for the clarification and expansion. I chatted more with the team and the only thing we're curious on is what you mean by this.

On 26/10/2020 at 17:08, Rotharia said:

As an example, something that may be quite damaging to a human such as being fired or demoted could be perceived as trivial to an "immortal" synthetic.

Since, given the legal fragility of an IPC and the substantially less credits they earn, one could argue being fired could be a terrifying thought to a free IPC.

[Rotharia]

I suppose it was a poor example, what i was trying to touch on here is that there are events and circumstances that a emotional being would find far more distressing and serious than an IPC both due to their cause and effect mentality and their different frame of reference for time given their long lives. A more accurate example would be the following, If a distraught co-worker approached an IPC looking for advice about being rejected by a potential mate. The IPC may fail to see the reason why they are distraught. Logically, there are billions of other potential mates out there and an IPC may not recognize the importance of emotions in selecting a mate. As another reason why the IPC may not be able to fully grasp their plight, IPC's would not feel the same pressure from a biological clock. Their timeless perspective means that if they were a species that required reproduction they would have hundreds if not thousands of years to find that mate, so getting one rejection would basically be a non-issue. Hope this helps!

[niennab]

Thank you for clarifying. Your application offers an understanding of IPCs. Accepted.