Sycmos - IPC Whitelist Application

[Sycmos]

BYOND Key: Sycmos

Character Names: Nikita Yutani, Cygnus Rey, Kasper Kallstrom, Iniko Sani, Asahi Chernyshevsky, Zane Jelani, Aidan O'Muireadhaigh, Adalgrimur Jormungandr, Nephele Shahin

Species you are applying to play: IPC (Integrated Positronic Chassis)

What color do you plan on making your first alien character: N/A, IPC

Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: I keep multiple tabs open of several wiki pages pertaining to IPC lore that I regularly read over whenever I find myself without something to do. I think it's important to passively absorb lore of other species, planets and factions to gain a better understanding of the universe that my characters inhabit and to facilitate more lore-friendly interactions with other players. I also find that a large majority of the lore to be incredibly enjoyable to read during down time and good inspiration for future characters (that I'll inevitably play a handful of times and eventually shelve to go back to playing Nikita, if I'm honest). Besides IPC wiki pages I've been reading Diona lore as I plan to apply for a Diona whitelist after some time, and I've been reading the extensive Tajara wiki as its a regularly-replenishing source of good information on Tajara current events and culture.

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 find that the existential drama that surrounds the existence of synthetic life in a number of different mediums of fiction (video games, books, television, internet roleplay) to be an interesting avenue to utilize for a character that organic characters otherwise cannot travel down. Despite most universes that utilize the presence of a synthetic faction in its writing describing such in different ways (Replicants in Blade Runner, Geth in Mass Effect, etc.) they all seem to share a commonality in the unanswered questions that revolves around all artificial intelligence - do they have a soul? Do they experience emotions, are they invoked by circumstance (triumph, tragedy, the arts), and if they do are their lives just as valuable as those of humans, etc.? If they do in fact experience these characteristics of sentience, how do they feel about their lack of autonomy? Do they loathe it? Do they find comfort in the security of being shackled/owned? Are they capable of coming to such conclusions at all? With the veil of the unknown separating the synthetic and the organic I feel that there's a degree of mystery to each and every IPC that can be utilized for great storytelling.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: The biggest challenge and difference from playing a human versus an IPC is funneling the aspects that make us human (emotion and identity specifically) into something palatable for what a synthetic would potentially calculate as their equivalents. It can be immensely difficult to channel one's personal experiences, emotions, personality quirks into a character without it coming across as too human, so it has to be diluted or written in a way that is within the confines of what could be considered acceptable synthetic behavior. As a stark majority of IPCs are also owned by a corporation or a private owner they're also largely restricted as to what they're allowed to do as an independent, intelligent being. Playing a character that has something of a ceiling inhibiting the upper reaches of what could be considered 'appropriate' for a character to achieve can be taxing, especially if you become invested and seek to take their story elsewhere. I figure it takes a degree of restraint that's a little less lenient on rule-bending than it does playing organic races who for all intents and purposes are largely free to do as they will.

Character Name: Amandine

Please provide a short backstory for this character: Amandine, initially serialized as Bishop Cybernetics IPC 11311449135, was constructed within the Integrated Positronic Chassis fabrication line on the lowest levels of Bishop Production Factory Adhama “Glory” located on Oran, Epsilon Eridani in May of 2455, with its positronic imported from Terraneus Diagnostics Central Manifold “Nomad Alpha” orbiting among the Jovian moons in Sol. Its chassis fabricated and its positronic written for service and hospitality the two were joined and sold to Idris, exported to its headquarters in Chicago in the United Americas on Earth. Originally serving as a secretary to one of the several CFOs, it was scheduled for decommission following an incident during an executive board meeting roughly two years after its initial transfer to Idris. Instead of scrapping both the chassis and the positronic however Idris opted to keep the chassis, still pristine and ready for another positronic, and sold the 'flawed' positronic to a private buyer in Tau Ceti online under the table - after all, why bother to suffer the losses when you can simply offload the faulty product to a willing buyer?

The positronic, now owned by an Elyran fashion designer living in Abaster Fields (Mendell City, Biesel) has it installed into a new chassis and names her Amandine. Largely used as a personal assistant and as a model for his eccentric designs, Amandine lives a life of relative ease and luxury until the 35th invades. Fearing for his life the Elyran abandons his estate, and Amandine, and returns to his homeworld before the invasion fully kicks off. Leaving her to her devices in his abandoned estate for several months he eventually gets in contact with NanoTrasen following the end of the conflict and sells both the estate and her to the company in an attempt to recoup his losses. Finding herself yet again at the whim of another careless employer she spends her time bouncing from station to station serving as a Head of Personnel wherever her experience is needed.

What do you like about this character?: The concept of transience is largely lost on most organic characters, as they are usually financially secure enough to have an established home or place they can find refuge. Unfortunately for a number of synthetics this is not the case, as they're usually at the whim of whatever owner or employer that requires their services. Amandine, having 'lived' a life of constant change and chance, has had no opportunity to establish who they are or what their 'life' is about besides whatever current employment they're undertaking. The idea of slowly developing a personality through via reflection of others on the Aurora is something I'd like to do, for better or worse (and probably worse because let's face it, most of the people on Aurora are looney).

How would you rate your role-playing ability?: I would give myself a strong 7.5, personally. I feel like I've been RPing long enough that I have a competent grasp on writing decent characters but I sometimes flounder on keeping my ideas straight and being a little trope-y (Martian main detected (I JUST LIKE MARS OKAY)), so I feel it's an OKAY judgment.

Notes: This whitelist wasn't as long as my command one because I felt like I might have gone on a little too long, so I tried to keep this as short and succinct as possible. I HOPE IT'S OKAY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Edited January 23, 2021 by Sycmos V2
typos, added info

[niennab]

Hello! Thank you for applying! Never worry about an application being too long. The longer the application the better, honestly.

Nonetheless, there’s a lot here about Amandine’s owners and their conflict but very little pertaining specifically to her. Can you expand on that? As an example, did her time alone in the estate have an impact on her? Was there anyone else in the estate? In that time being alone did she develop independently? If not, why? What are her opinions on freedom and self ownership? Etc etc.
Moreover can you go into greater detail on this portion? What was the incident?

3 hours ago, Sycmos V2 said:

it was scheduled for decommission following an incident during an executive board meeting roughly two years after its initial transfer to Idris.

Edited January 23, 2021 by niennab

[Sycmos]

8 hours ago, niennab said:

Hello! Thank you for applying! Never worry about an application being too long. The longer the application the better, honestly.

Nonetheless, there’s a lot here about Amandine’s owners and their conflict but very little pertaining specifically to her. Can you expand on that? As an example, did her time alone in the estate have an impact on her? Was there anyone else in the estate? In that time being alone did she develop independently? If not, why? What are her opinions on freedom and self ownership? Etc etc.
Moreover can you go into greater detail on this portion? What was the incident?

Okay, cool. I just feel that sometimes I am a little overdrawn on things and wanted to keep it short. Of course! I wasn't sure exactly how much you needed to know so I kept it general, but I'm willing to be more precise on the matter.

1. As the aforementioned Elyran had largely staffed his estate with his own personal retinue from his homeworld he was largely more concerned about bringing them along than Amandine, who had been undergoing prolonged maintenance when they planned their hasty escape. Upon stirring from her standby-induced sleep she found the estate completely empty, the Elyran's car gone and the keycard to the front door left on the porch. Though technically still owned she enjoyed a degree of freedom to do as she pleased within the estate and, after some self-convincing over several weeks, elsewhere with use of his other vehicle in the garage. It was all very new to her, largely having most of what she required given to her but never able to ask for anything beyond that, and it came to be something of a blessing after a lengthy period of introspection. This all came to a crashing halt unfortunately when several months later multiple NanoTrasen staff followed by Lance officers came to assess the premises and bring her back to the Odin. It was this particular instance, after the incident while with Idris, that cemented her resentment for ownership and her lack of autonomy. Despite having lived comfortably as a luxury IPC the lack of freedom overruled any contentment she would have enjoyed, and now she believes strongly in freedom and self-ownership. She's not open about this, as she believes it would jeopardize the comforts she enjoys now with NT and the quality of life she has been given the privilege to live as a luxury IPC.

2. During a routine board meeting Amandine was approached by a passing CFO at a coffee lounge while the board was enjoying a lunch break. She had largely been apathetic to downright ignoring most inappropriate passes made at her while in the workplace, not having any eye for that sort of matter much less the concept even occurring to her at all. However the CFO grew impatient with her persistent ambivalence and grabbed her arm while she tried to walk away, to which she took this as a direct threat to her well-being and punched him in the nose. As to be expected she was reprimanded immediately and the CFO themselves took to demanding her dismantlement, but the executive that signed on her assignment outranked him and chose to have her split from her chassis. Whether it was an issue with logic writing within her positronic, a result of exposure to humans that led to logic change or simply a design flaw was never deduced as she was quickly boxed and mailed out to Tau Ceti shortly after the incident. The aforementioned executive may or may not have had personal interest in ensuring her safety, but this is unknown to her.

[niennab]

Thank you for the expansion. I chatted with my deputies and we have a few points of note.

I will have to urge you to take another route for why she was sold from Idris. The rank of a CFO is nothing to scoff at, near wiki level in terms of named personnel, and to outwardly have them engage in workplace sexual harassment is not a good reflection of the lore. A lot of these more sensitive topics ultimately need to be ignored in favor of catering to a more healthy space for players instead of one that is more notably darker in it’s themes. What I would suggest instead is an accident. You could even lean more into the robotic nature, over one that might seem human in nature.

An an example, perhaps your IPC was told there was an important meeting at 9 and not to let anyone in, the person in question turns up for the meeting but your IPC refuses them entry, possibly even physically barring the person. A small mistake made by a more literal guided mind but one grounded enough to have the IPC ultimately sold.

Lastly, moving from secretary and a personal assistant to HOP is a substantial jump. Although not lore breaking you may want to consider the learning that would have been uploaded to Amandine to take on a more managerial role, as well as how she might need to grapple or adapt with that now. As well as how the life under Idris and the life under the fashion designer interplay in the development of her personality.

A long ramble but if you’re fine with changing the reason for her sale, I can move ahead with the application.

 

[Sycmos]

10 hours ago, niennab said:

Thank you for the expansion. I chatted with my deputies and we have a few points of note.

I will have to urge you to take another route for why she was sold from Idris. The rank of a CFO is nothing to scoff at, near wiki level in terms of named personnel, and to outwardly have them engage in workplace sexual harassment is not a good reflection of the lore. A lot of these more sensitive topics ultimately need to be ignored in favor of catering to a more healthy space for players instead of one that is more notably darker in it’s themes. What I would suggest instead is an accident. You could even lean more into the robotic nature, over one that might seem human in nature.

An an example, perhaps your IPC was told there was an important meeting at 9 and not to let anyone in, the person in question turns up for the meeting but your IPC refuses them entry, possibly even physically barring the person. A small mistake made by a more literal guided mind but one grounded enough to have the IPC ultimately sold.

Lastly, moving from secretary and a personal assistant to HOP is a substantial jump. Although not lore breaking you may want to consider the learning that would have been uploaded to Amandine to take on a more managerial role, as well as how she might need to grapple or adapt with that now. As well as how the life under Idris and the life under the fashion designer interplay in the development of her personality.

A long ramble but if you’re fine with changing the reason for her sale, I can move ahead with the application.

 

I'm honest I had left it open-ended in my initial application post because I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do with it yet and where to move forward, so the general idea I posted was not something I am adamant about sticking with and frankly just kind of threw together. I tend to usually write characters as I go along and occasionally make changes along the way so the idea I had was somewhat a little less refined than what I would've eventually put together. I truthfully had this application tab open for maybe a month because I was having difficulty figuring out what I wanted to do with it, so that probably shows.

I'm 100% fine with changing it, there's no resistance from me. If I stepped on any feet or made anyone uncomfortable with the basic premise it was UNintentional and I apologize - I usually take much, much longer for writing back character premise but I felt pressed for time and making you wait two weeks for me to reply seemed unreasonable.

Edited January 25, 2021 by Sycmos V2
edit because I'm stupid

[niennab]

Not to worry, I understand. I tend to go through the same method myself of piecing together characters as I make them over what the application calls for.

Nonetheless your application offers an understanding of IPCs, accepted!