The Parting Glass | Faye's Shell IPC App

[Faye <3]

BYOND Key: PersephoneQ

Character Names: Sanaa Al-Mansoor, Svetlana Sidorov

Species you are applying to play: IPCs

Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yep.

Why do you wish to play this specific race: (One paragraph minimum)

I've always felt connection and pull towards races that are more, for lack of a better term, marginalized. Growing up as an LGBT person in the American south, I really relate to stories and lore of people who are disdained for who and what they are. It's the same reason why I really love tieflings,- IPCs and Tieflings are both ostracized for who they are. They may not have the same chances and opportunities as other people. They are depicted as the Other, and because of that Otherness they experience a variety of social discrimination as blatant as being turned away from a store or refused service to as small as a glare or judgmental look on the street. It is a character that I can personally relate to and use my own experiences and understandings to better write theirs. 

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

I think that the distinction between being a person and being a human is very important to understand in playing an IPC. Too often we use the term 'human' to describe someone that can think and feel and relate, when it seems to me that this should be adapted for sci fi or fantasy scenarios. I do not think my IPC is a human, but she is, in my mind at least, a person. I do not want to explore just what it means to be a person as her, I wish to explore the expectations and roles of machinehood and how those molds can be broken and expectations shattered. What separates IPC and Humans from one another most predominantly (and what I am most eager to explore) is, of course, their artificial creation. This has incredibly wide-reaching effects seen in everything from the way they think, to the way the public sees them, to the way the government sees them, and especially to the way they see themselves. Another core difference is in the way they think! If a synthetic wishes to learn sometihng outside of their programming (and are capable of it!) they operate on a 1:1 cause-and-effect system, and that is how they learn. To me, it is almost like a child doing things just to see what happens. They press boundaries, they cause an input to understand the output. With the output of an action learned, they can adjust their lines of thought and reasoning.

backstory, name is all here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SpLM3m9KO2Xe5MojFppoShln59JDZqZAg9NtOtohAYE/edit?usp=sharing

What do you like about this character? 

Honestly I like everything about this character. (I did write them!) I think that I am most excited to explore the concepts of machinehood vs personhood. I do not want Glass' story to be the (admittedly) tired trope of 'can synthetic life be as valid as organic?' which is indeed fun and thought provoking. Instead, I want Glass' story to be more along the lines of 'the seeds of personhood have always been there. when these seeds sprout, how can a synthetic break the mold and roles typically expected and associated of machinehood?'

Additionally, I made this for her. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_Lcrql1GPr0tjxqaNgdhL9s59pbccNHKKmc3rvNQyEo/edit?usp=sharing

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

I like to consider myself a pretty good writer. My main weakness in writing is that I am poor at playing cruel or mean characters,- but I am pretty good at more lighthearted or comical characters. This does not mean, however, that I cannot play someone serious or someone tragic. I think to be a good writer, you have to have an understanding of your weaknesses and strengths and tailor your characters around that. 

[niennab]

Hello and thank you for applying! Long form applications are always a breath of fresh air and you've done a fantastic job in writing it. I had a few questions.

What prompted Sarah/Parting Glass to shed a few tears when in the Chief's office? There aren't any wrong answers, however I am curious about your thought process. One could argue an IPC is built efficiently and (circumstance depending) would need to willingly cry in an overwhelming moment, over a human simply finding themselves overwhelmed. I'm not saying you can't have tear ducts or do it however.

Is there a reason Parting Glass didn't stay in the role of a Detective? Given that she has the databases, training and experience. If she were to move to being a bartender, it may be a good point to just make that she would have had to purchase relevant databases for her new job. Something that is admittedly unclear on the wiki.

[Faye <3]

Sure! 

1: I wanted the tears to more symbolize PG's realization of herself as a person rather than a tool,- that something spontaneous could happen as a result of the shock enough to change her worldview and image of herself,- that maybe she isn't so much a tool as she thinks she is but could be her own individual with complex feelings and thoughts. I think that her having tear ducts also fits into the whole "we want these police IPCs to look and act as similar to organic police as possible so people will be more ready to trust and come to them" thing I tried to emphasize.

2: Yes! As part of her realization of personhood, PG decided to try to do something she wanted to do rather than what she was instructed to do. Bartendering seemed like the best bet as it would allow for her to socialize and talk to organics from all walks of life, viewpoints, species, to better learn from them and thus understand herself better. I admittedly assumed she could learn bartendering on-the-job, but buying the databanks for it is totally fine too! Would you like me to edit that in? 

 

Edited November 28, 2020 by Faye <3

[niennab]

Sounds good. There's no need to edit it in but just something to consider/make a note of.

I chatted with my deputies and another question did come to light: Given that emotions and emotional displays often seem to run contrary to the logical "1:1" nature of IPCs, it might help with character consistency to think about how PG views emotions. For example, why would she play a song that elicits tears? Is it simple curiosity? No wrong answer, but simply consider how it views emotions.

Also bear in mind that living as a free IPC is no easy feat. Parting Glass will be coming off of having to pay for the relevant databases for their new line of work and supporting their maintenance all while making a 3rd of what a human makes as a bartender. Just another thing to note about the lore and how it applies to the base concepts surrounding IPCs.

[Faye <3]

I didn't really think it'd be easy for her! She's probably gonna be a maintenance goblin for a while. ;-;

For PG it was definitely curiosity. In pulling up as much media as she could find on the subject of loss and moving on, she's 'trying on' new emotions like a shirt or a pair of pants to see how they make her feel to help her understand, if that makes sense? 

 

 

[niennab]

Fantastic! Thank you for the clarification. Your application demonstrates an understanding of IPC lore and the ability to apply it to character creation. Accepted.