sperky7933 IPC Application

[sperky7933]

BYOND Key: sperky7933

Character Names: Matt Smith, Khalil Dean, Oda Botsova (i am an on and off player)

Species you are applying to play: IPC, baseline

What color do you plan on making your first alien character: 100% Pure Martian Steel™

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:

I want to play as them is simply because I find them interesting, and playing as humans gets boring. It is time to bake and shake, and play as something cool. Playing as an android built for one purpose - to work for Hephaestus as an engineer, sounds so much cooler than playing as some meatbag who just wants to get paid, get laid and drink space gatorade in the bar. Sure, sounds fun, but I desire to tread new paths. Something about being a specialized robot appeals to me. I generally just enjoy interacting with IPC's in game because they are dependable and predictable. Usually.

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

An IPC is the epitome of profiteering fat-cat corporations, with only greed and selflessness driving them to invest in creating questionably sentient beings and then treating them as cheap, expandable labor to effectively be replacements for humans. Why risk lawsuits sending humans to work in certain hazardous conditions when you can just send IPC's? It is a race that truly questions morality and ethics on its part. Is an IPC truly capable of feeling emotions, or is it just the programming and the way they were designed? Do they even deserve to be free, considering an IPC simply is just a machine? The life of an IPC is one that no human could ever understand. You are born an adult, and born into the labors of indentured servitude, while having to, at the same time, make a life for yourself in the future. To a human this is considered absolutely the worst life possible, but to an IPC it is simply the normality. An IPC doesn't deal with slavery the same way a human does, however, the fact that an IPC would go out of their way to purchase freedom shows that, behind that lifeless flickering glass screen, there is at least a tiny bit of something else to them. Or it just could be a logical misinterpretation of self-preservation to secure themselves security from being wiped. Go figure.

In a less philosophical and practical tone, one would roleplay by prioritizing logical decisions while maintaining some degree of synthesized "humanness". This includes the loyalty (if owned) of the IPC to the owner, self-preservation, and bonds between other people. Emotions are existent, but have little to do with decision making and is reserved for sociability, and even then it is just simulated, regardless of how well a certain Positronic model can mimic humans. This being said, an example would be an IPC being angry when insulted, but not engaging in a fight as that would damage their chassis, and result in breaking the law.

Character Name:(Marvin-224) Please provide a short backstory for this character:

>open info.txt

UNIT NAME: Marvin-224

DATE OF CONSTRUCTION: 03/12/2458

FACILITY OF CONSTRUCTION: "BAY 0224, HEPHAESTUS INDUSTRIES FACTORY 004, Leken, Mendell City"

SHELL: Baseline_Unit_Model_224

OWNERSHIP STATUS: True

OWNERSHIP: Hephaestus_Industries

OCCUPATION: General_Station_Engineer

Marvin-224, also known as Marvin, was manufactured in the factories of Mendell City for the purpose of shoring up Hephaestus engineering jobs due to the recent strikes from labor unions. In this case, many IPC, such as Marvin, were created with cheaper, shittier shells, outsourced by Hephaestus to smaller companies. This unfortunately made Marvin lack the stronger and more capable shells of contemporary engineering units. Nevertheless, Marvin was sent to the nearby Romanovich to service a multitude of smaller Nanotrasen stations in repairing hull damage and electrical work. After six months of work, Marvin was placed in a nice position on board a small phoron mining facility named Archimedes.

Around three and a half years into the mundane engineering job. An obscure Nanotrasen vessel approaches the station. The captain, mistaking the vessel for the cargo ship, ignores its request to hail and simply tells the ship to dock and hurry it up. The ship docks, and out emerges the four Eridian dreg mercenaries who quickly take the entire supply crew hostage. Security got to the scene and attempt negotiation, however, the mercs did not speak any Ceti. Attempts were made for further contact but no progress was made. Being the only person on board who spoke Freespeak, Marvin was ordered to be the translator for the mercenaries. Despite Marvin's opposition to this dangerous idea, the captain told him to "Take that stupid smile off your screen and do what I say.". The captain and Marvin met with a mercenary at the supply desk.

The mercenaries wanted enough phoron to fit their entire cargo hold. Good enough, Marvin thought, this is a mining facility, we have a large amount. They also wanted 200,000 credits. Oh dear. Marvin translated this, "This mercenary requires a 'protection plan' payment of 200,000 credits, captain. The mercenary stated that the deal is not negotiable.". The captains face turned red, and broke out into an absolute fury. Marvin hurried to translate, and the mercenary simply stared at the captain, grinned, and turned around to yell something. A mercenary then dragged one squirming and resisting cargo worker on his knees so the captain and Marvin could see, then blasted a red laser beam from the mercenaries pistol through the hostages cranium, leaving only a large gaping hole and burn marks on his dead corpse. The mercenary laughed, "Ya fuckin' will be next to be creased if yer fat ass don't be payin' up t'e protection fee!". Marvin was realising now he was negotiating between a deranged pirate and a hotheaded idiot who would just lead to more deaths. This would not end well, and he did not like this at all.

The captain attempted to ask for help from nearby stations and Nanotrasen, but no one cared much for the backwater that was Archimedes. The days went on and the mercenaries were losing their patience. Fortunately, the captain under threat of mutiny accepted an exchange to hand them two hostages for safe passage, along with the original deal. The hot-headed captain was PISSED. The captain blamed the entire ordeal going wrong on Marvin's incompetence to translate properly. Marvin then quickly lost his position as engineer on the station Archimedes, and was sent back to Hephaestus to await his redeployment.

What do you like about this character?:

Keeping it simple for a first time IPC and first time non-human player. May choose later to change it up. I also based his backstory off a character from one of my favorite books. I like his outwardly calm deamenor and his loyalty to the company, along with despising Nanotrasen command for allowing such an incompetent fool to become captain. My favorite part about him? He's just a calm working man, caught in the middle of situations he really would rather not be in. You know the "I just wanna grill" meme? That's my boy Marvin in a stressful situation. He is not always calm, as you can see from his resentment of Nanotrasen and his envy of engineering androids which were given proper bodies. In fact, he's one hell of a envious android. I also want a character with a changeable backstory, because I like to play different roles on the same character. Marvin could easily be changed to be an atmos technician or miner.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?:

I've definitely been roleplaying for a very long time (read: 10+ years) on SS13 and other games. I also have never been told my roleplaying is bad. I rate my roleplaying as being very good at taking character, but not so good at maintaining character when under pressure. If I play a stressful day as a doctor, you bet your ass I will break character.

Notes:

Any advise will be gladly accepted. I mention loyalty a lot, as well. By loyalty, I mean, "wholly averse to harming their owners in any way shape or form, or conducting themselves in a manner that would place themselves in a negative light." which is just some line I took from the wiki. Of course they aren't die-hard loyalists, but nevertheless loyal, whether this is gratitude for their creature or whatever.

[niennab]

Thank you for applying! My only worry with the backstory comes down to the severity of the events and given it's close proximity to Biesel, one could reason that an event such as this would be in the news. Why did NT refuse to assist Archimedes? Why weren't ERT or the TCFL dispatched? Especially given the recent phoron shortage? As such it may make more sense if Marvin was employed out in the Coalition of Colonies or the Frontier. That or, potentially on a freighter ship, which could better allow for a more danger in space type scenario.

[sperky7933]

Thanks for your quick response and output! I am pretty embarrassed that I overlooked such a problem to a keystone element of the story. I never questioned to myself why no one bothered to respond, especially considering the stations location and importance. A robbery like that being ignored in the middle of Biesel territory would certainly destroy any business confidence! It did, of course, make much sense for me at the time for me to put Archimedes in Tau Ceti instead of the colonies or frontier so as to easily dismiss the question of "Why the hell did Marvin go from maintaining a mining satellite in the middle of nowhere to the NSS Aurora?". Nevertheless, Hephaestus may have found it savvy to contract one with roughly four years of experience to somewhere less dangerous. It makes much more sense for Archimedes to instead be, let's say, in the same system as Zaurghis, to sell to the colony with the needed resources. For the lack of response, I let my inspiration get ahold of my common sense. So, instead of there being no response, a distress signal was sent out by the captain, but unfortunately the small NT response team responsible for the sector was preoccupied protecting their assets on the moon orbiting Zaurghis, Visraho, due to a property dispute.

Edited November 8, 2020 by sperky7933

[niennab]

Not to worry. In terms of character creation these are small details that can ultimately be tweaked or shifted to better fit a narrative. One could also argue that they simply weren't able to get a distress signal out. Whether due to personnel being captured and/or communications technology being destroyed, etc etc. Your proposed solution works as well.

Nonetheless! Your application demonstrates an understanding of IPCs, accepted!