SinfulBehaviors Shell Application

[SinfulBehaviors]

BYOND Key: SinfulBehaviors

Character Names: Amira Amari, Azzam Amari, Celestine LaCroix

Species you are applying to play: IPC, specifically Shell.

Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Aye. I also read into the pages for the Skrell's Three Incidents, Synthetic Origins, The Trinary Perfection, and the factions.

Why do you wish to play this specific race: 

To be completely honest, I had the idea for this design when @ChevyChevron mentioned his idea for shell who just has most of their face missing. At the time I assumed that it would be too much work to implement in game, but I started to think about how to actually implement him and got sort of determined to get him in. Plus RPing with @Faye <3's shell Parting Glass made me really wanna play one too. They're very interesting.

 

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

Well, first and foremost, the nature of the mechanics, pun fully intended, of IPCs allows for a roleplay that is a bit restrictive in some aspects, but not in a boring way. One of the first things is the uncanny valley-esque mannerisms. IPCs are very close to humans in speech and behaviors, but not quite there. One example would be speech patterns that are slightly stilted, such as "I am going to proceed to the medical bay" or "I do not think this is the best option." They are not essentially metal humans, nor should they be played that way. For a more gameplay driven example, IPCs are able to work in different situations from organics. In a moment where an antagonist has gassed some members of security, an IPC officer could potentially subdue and detain the suspect or alternatively grab his comrades and bring them to safety. They cannot deal with every situation, however, and should avoid dealing with antags with EMPs, particularly due to their "self-preservation" coding. 

 

Character Name: Hearse

Please provide a short backstory for this character:

Hearse is a shell built for Roswell and Ashe Funeral Home in Craterview, Biesel. Originally intended for mortuary use, he managed to make friends with Jennifer Ashe, one of the two owners and slowly was integrated into the Ashe family. Ethan Roswell, his other co-owner, started to resent Hearse due to his now lessened workload and increased freedom, and made the move to sell him off to the highest bidder. Unfortunately the highest bidder was Miss Ashe, who gave away her share of the funeral home in order to keep the shell out of other people's hands.

Unfortunately, since Miss Ashe no longer owned the funeral home, Hearse had to get a new job. Considering his experience and knowledge on the subjects of death and the bodies of various species, he pivoted to another morbid profession. Working for the Craterview Police Department, he began working as an apprentice to the coroner, but slowly learned more pieces of police work, specifically taking interest in the work of forensic technicians.

Part of the freedoms he has as a pseudo-family member of the Ashes is the ability to choose how to present himself, and as such he has removed some of the synth skin from his face, revealing his metal endoskeleton underneath. This is purely an aesthetic choice for him, mostly due to the morbidity of his job history and also because he feels it makes him interesting. Character art for reference.

 

What do you like about this character?: 

First, he's a forensic tech. CSI work on the server is fairly neat and a bit underrepresented in my opinion. From there, an IPC who is free, but not really, allows for an interesting character dynamic in whether or not he'll actually attempt full freedom. My initial design for him, I think, is super cool, and just the idea of a mortuary bot becoming a CSI is kinda great.

Notes: For full effect of the design, I'd also need a custom item. I've already sprited one out, did a little code, and tested it in a private server. Obviously, this is a Species Whitelist and not a Custom Item Application, so depending on the reaction to the design and character, I'll be applying there immediately.

 

Edited December 22, 2020 by SinfulBehaviors

[niennab]

Thank you for applying! I hope to eventually give shells the ability to have stripped away synthetic skin, likely applied as a ‘body marking’ however I see no issue with the custom load out item in the meantime! It’ll likely be quite sometime before we see a more official version after all. Nevertheless.

Are you able to expand on how IPCs are different from humans, excluding mechanics?

What made Jennifer Ashe take an interest in Hearse? What does Miss Ashe do now that she has lost her business? How does Hearse feel about this? Both the integration into her family, and the subsequent loss of her business over his person. Is the family just Miss Ashe or are there more members? How does Hearse feel about freedom? How does Hearse feel about death, given his profession’s close relationship with it?

[SinfulBehaviors]

Well, first of all an IPC's most basic and overriding directive is self-preservation. While a human may run into danger and act erratically in the face of danger, IPCs will specifically take steps to prevent damage to protect their positronic brain. They can and do interpret this differently between individual units though. While they have the ability to feel in some sense, they don't feel emotions the same way people do either. Again, it's different between bots, but it's still never the same as people. Simulation can only get you so far. Death is different in the manner that they're not "dead" until the positronic is rendered permanently inoperable, and dismantlement, but not deactivation, is frequently used as a punishment for crimes committed by Free IPCs, but the owner of non-free IPCs are completely within their rights to dismantle and reassemble their machines to their hearts content.

Jennifer took more of an liking to Hearse when he began showing interests into things such as clothing and fashion, body art, and music, all things that he dealt with in his his job, but took a deeper interest in. As far as her new job, she's tried a few different jobs, including being a damn fine taxidermist, but has nicely settled into a job as a hospice aide. Her family consists of her, her 16 year old daughter Ava and her 15 year old son Alister, who have been friendly with the shell for 12 years now. 

Hearse has a weird relationship with freedom. While he likes the concept of being free, and does acknowledge that being free would be good for him, knowing that free IPCs are discriminated against and run the risk of being dismantled over non-serious crimes makes him wary to attempt freedom. Regarding death, due years of working as a mortician and lack of experience with people he knows dying, he is a bit blasé with it. He understands that it is unfortunate and very sad for those involved, he doesn't quite get it. This can cause him to seem a little callous, but he's trying his best.

[niennab]

Thank you for the clarifications as well as the expansion. Your application demonstrates an understanding of IPCs, accepted. 

I would jump on getting the custom item application up asap, as that will likely take a substantial amount of time.