Misiek wants to BEEP and BOOP, an IPC application.

[Misiek1001]

BYOND Key: Misiek1001

Character names: 

Species you are applying to play: IPC, Shell

What color do you plan on making your first alien character: NA

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:

 

After I got the Skrell whitelist, I wondered what other species I could potentially find the time to write up an application for, and IPCs came to mind. I never really got to play around with the robits on other servers, be it either by unsatisfactory lore or no enjoyment coming from playing the characters due to a general lack of IPC players or interaction, be it positive or negative, from other species as a whole. I’ve spent close to three weeks on Aurora now, playing a bit on and off since 2018, and I can safely say that I’m totally in for RPing an IPC, be it for the enjoyment of playing a literal emotionless husk with synthskin slapped on it or the IC discrimination that will likely be following along with it. In other words, I enjoy suffering.

 

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

 

IPCs are Artificial Intelligences created by a bunch of people for a specified task. They come in many shapes, sizes and even different frames, looking from completely industrial to creepily human. They’re machines, and as such, do not feel emotion or empathy, but are capable of simulating them depending on how advanced their Positronic Brain is. Most of them are generally owned by an individual or Corporation and utilized as a reliable work force. Their mannerisms are quite peculiar as well, as they are expected to be working alongside humans and other organic species, they try to adapt and replicate speech patterns and behaviours, but generally have a hard time pulling such things off without appearing completely uncanny.

 

Character Name: IRU-Sylvie

Please provide a short backstory for this character

 

IRU-Sylvie is a Shell Frame created by Paragon Systems, per a commission order made by Idris Incorporated on the 15th of March, 2459. They were one of the five units created that day, and each has been shipped out to various branches of Idris all across human space, with Sylvie landing in the Mendell City branch, where it received proper programming as to comply with Idris’ Regulations and to ensure proper customer service when out and about completing tasks. They would be paired up with an older unit, ‘IRU-Nicolas’, in hopes of Sylvie picking up appropriate traits from them and gaining actual field experience. The human handler supervising the two would be a woman in her late forties, a certain Sofia Hendricks.

 

Both Nicolas and Sofia affected shaping up Sylvie’s personality. While Nicolas didn’t necessarily take them seriously at the time, holding onto their ‘stoic and serious’ traits, as the two continued to work together, both managed to form a bond with one another, Nicolas becoming a pseudo-mentor for Sylvie as expected by Idris. It was mutual respect, however, Sofia was the basis of traits that Sylvie adopted and put into motion.

 

The handler spoke to both of them in a soft tone, always happy to congratulate them on completing another reclamation. Sylvie would see these things as possibly beneficial during missions and started to speak in an overly cheerful, soft, and soothing tone, always holding a polite smile on their face. While clearly noted as eerie when dealing with a client that was unable to be talked down, it lead to several tasks being completed diplomatically with little to no use of force, purely because clients would find the calming tone the unit used as trustworthy.

 

Years went by and the duo would still find relative success in talking people down, much to their handler’s delight. However, all good things need to come to an end. During a particularly violent reclamation, both units would sustain damage, Nicolas, unfortunately, being shot and killed, their positronic brain receiving heavy amounts of damage and simply shutting down for good with no hopes of salvaging it. Sylvie sustained heavy damage as well but came out alive, requiring numerous external and internal repairs, along with complete replacement of some parts, including their left optical sensor.

 

Sylvie took this event negatively, after all, losing someone they considered a mentor and close friend, while also almost being scrapped themself, is quite a shocking, and in some cases traumatizing experience. This lead to their personality gradually declining, and Sylvie went back to an emotionless and almost commanding tone, under the assumption that acting how they did before could lead to the death of their new partner or them. Said partner being a unit by the name of ‘IRU-Eve’.

 

Eve held a similar amount of experience as Sylvie did, and Sofia, along with Management, assumed they’d work together quite well. Eve was quite efficient by Corporation standards, but their ways of handling clients left much to be desired. It was more of a personal preference for Sylvie, but they did not enjoy the somewhat violent and intimidating persona that Eve put up, using ‘reasonable force’ whenever applicable. It just muted the previously cheerful character further, as even if Sylvie did want to solve a situation in a more peaceful manner, Eve would be at the ready to use sufficient force to complete their directives.

 

This issue would be solved, however, as in 2463, Sylvie would be leased out to NanoTrasen and assigned to the NSS Aurora, fit for work in its Internal Security Department. Sylvie would now find themselves on foreign soil, having to comply with newly learned Corporate Regulations and environment. To them, however, it is a rather enjoyable change of pace and a possible way of regaining the persona they’ve lost after the death of Nicolas. At least, depending on how the crew decides to treat them.

 

What do you like about this character?:

 

Well, besides the obvious “I think it’s funny to imagine a smiling Shell beating a man to unconsciousness” thing, I like the idea of being a machine that tries its best to simulate emotion to the best of its capability, with the uncanny valley results being shown here and there. I think it could lead to some fun interactions, since even in the face of discrimination, Sylvie would be smiling back at the person yelling at them and would act confused as to what they may have done that made the person so angry.

 

How would you rate your role-playing ability?:

 

I still very much hate this question, and I still rate myself as a 7/10. Pretty much a ‘good enough, could be better’ since some people still amaze me with how they write their emotes or how they can pull off some elaborate accents.

 

Notes:

 

Not sure what to add here. I dunno, I hope the application is fun to read through and that there aren’t any glaring issues with it. Also, huge thanks to Stryker and Faye for glancing through my draft and helping me finalize it all.

[niennab]

Hello! Thank you for applying.

 Could you expand on this portion here? Particularly how they differ from humans in terms of their behavior, aspirations and social hierarchy/status.

18 hours ago, Misiek1001 said:

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

Somewhat in reference to this passage below, is there a reason why Sylvie prefers to solve matters through more diplomatic means? Did the death of her first partner change her outlook on how she should approach reclamation work?

18 hours ago, Misiek1001 said:

It just muted the previously cheerful character further, as even if Sylvie did want to solve a situation in a more peaceful manner, Eve would be at the ready to use sufficient force to complete their directives.

Lastly, what are Sylvie’s opinions on freedom and citizenship? Does Sylvie have any aspirations themselves?

[Misiek1001]

1 hour ago, niennab said:

 Could you expand on this portion here? Particularly how they differ from humans in terms of their behavior, aspirations and social hierarchy/status.

An IPC can behave in many ways, it all really depends on how advanced they are and how extensive the programming they received is. They’re unlikely to lash out and such, unpredictable or inherently bizarre behavior is a rarely seen occurrence when it comes to IPCs. Everything an IPC does is caused by something and has an effect on something else. To add to my previous point about how IPCs converse, most units would be quite precise and blunt, speaking in an unnaturally formal tone. Only adding further into the feel of ‘uncanny valley’.

 

A common aspiration for IPCs is the hope for one day becoming a free unit, having bought themself. Not many will ever achieve this goal, of course, as it’s quite difficult and in some cases impossible, either by insufficient pay or simple greed from a human exploiting the unit to its last moments. Then again, not every unit is like this and may actually be comfortable with where they are, only aspiring to preserve itself and complete its given task to the best of its ability.

 

As sad as it is, IPCs are basically merchandise or slaves if we wish to go that way. They’re owned by Corporations that lease or sell them out for profit, and a unit is generally incapable of resisting such. Those that do, somehow, manage to buy themself and become free, are still likely to face discrimination just as much as their owned brethren. From a law standpoint, attacking an owned IPC could be seen as vandalism or sabotage, as that is considered property damage. Attacking a free IPC with a citizenship would lead to, for example, assault charges.

 

1 hour ago, niennab said:

Somewhat in reference to this passage below, is there a reason why Sylvie prefers to solve matters through more diplomatic means? Did the death of her first partner change her outlook on how she should approach reclamation work?

Sylvie took the ‘excellent customer service’ part of their work to heart, or in this case, power cell. She didn’t like to resort to violence if a situation could be de-escalated and possible damage to both her chassis or her partner’s could be avoided, hence the diplomatic ways. After Nicolas’ death, the persona she previously put into motion was seen as something that could be against the ‘Self-Preservation’ directive, as it lead to her causing the deactivation of someone she respected, and almost her own demise. Her view on reclamation work changed drastically with Eve’s involvement, as more often than not she’d let her take the lead and let the situation be resolved swiftly, rather than waste time on negotiating with someone that could very much be bidding their time and waiting for a reason to attack.

 

1 hour ago, niennab said:

Lastly, what are Sylvie’s opinions on freedom and citizenship? Does Sylvie have any aspirations themselves?

Sylvie is aware of some Units’ desire to achieve freedom and earn citizenship. It’s something that could be described as a ‘grey area’ to her, holding no positive nor negative opinion on the matter. As for herself, she doesn’t hold any aspiration to try and get either of these things nor is she allowed. As it is plainly told, Idris units are barred from gaining freedom.

[niennab]

Thank you for the clarifications and expansions. Your application demonstrates an understanding of IPCs, accepted!