CourierBravo/BejewledPot's IPC Application: Nanopaste, son.

[CourierBravo]

BYOND Key: CourierBravo

Character Names: Elizabeth Cox, former QM now off station Merchant. Fiona Petrov, station engineer. Zeke Quirin, security officer.

Species you are applying to play: IPC

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

I have. I spent about two hours reading through the main page, and additional time on the Synthetic Factions supplementary page. What has caught my attention the most is the section on Industrial frames. I also like the challenge of making a character that's conversations with people will be rather difficult. Ultimately, I find that the species is incredibly fascinating for players who care more about mechanics and meeting goals like I do, and incorporating them into the main appeal of the server: Roleplay.

I've chosen the industrial frame because I want to use the character as a supply character, specializing in both cargo tech work and mining work. I've been wanting to get back into both of those roles and I decided I want a different character to do it with. I've chosen this model over something like the Xion frame or the Shell model because, for the former, while useful for mining, it removes both the potential roleplay and mechanical uniqueness the industrial frame brings. The ladder, because while I like the idea of playing a robot that's a good imitation of humanity, and how that works well for a decently customer service aimed department, I don't think it fits in the cargo setting for both its extreme cost and its massive amounts of complex components that do not lend itself much use in an industrial setting, and that its not geared to that kind of work.

Why do you wish to play this specific race: I've always enjoyed roleplaying with IPC characters, and I decided I want to give back a little love. I've also wanted to do something unique, and the IPC is the perfect medium for the concept in mind.
I want to have my character be made in round by robotics personnel, and move on from there. I think that would be an interesting dynamic, since I cannot think of a time where I've seen that happen. And I play this server a lot.
Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: The most interesting difference to me is language. Humans have a vast amount of differences between each other and their language, and the different levels of casual conversation to professional speak that comes with that. IPC's, however, generally don't socially act as casual with organics, using slang and abbreviations, or using media references regularly. That is especially the case for owned positronics, who's behavior is a direct responsability of the company and who's actions are significant not just to themselves but also to the company they are owned by. So say, myself playing an owned IPC speaking rudely to an individual: this doesn't just cause problems for themselves, but for the image of the company directly. An IPC who assaults someone puts both themselves and the company at fault for something and liable for damages and other punishments.

What also makes them unique is their specific discrimination and communal nature. This lends itself easily to create seamless IPC to IPC interactions in roleplay, where positronics are more likely to look out for and take actions to care for each other out of a common understanding that the world around them is cruel to them, and they need to rely on each other to survive. However, the reality that older, more experienced, and even jaded positronics could and possibly will use that naivety to their advantage to further their own self preservation, creates a lot of possible dynamics of IPC's who don't trust others not in their age range.

They also enjoy immunity from reagents of several kinds, and the ability to work in hazardous situations that normally requires extreme prep on the part of an organic. An IPC in a Xion frame can far more easily handle atmospheric issues like breaches and hazardous air. They also have more augment capabilities, giving them more agile and flexable frames like Zheng-Hu frames, who can match Tajura first responders for speed and surpass them for endurance easily. This can easily be used in roleplay for heroic IPC's dealing with hazardous situations on the spot or IPC's who work tirelessly saving lives using their speed or IPC's who can out endurance the endurance kings of the hunt, humans, in a security setting, bringing someone on the run, literally, to justice through just running them down until they're too hungry, thirsty, and tired to run anymore.

 

Character Name: NT-Clark
Occupation: Cargo Tech/Drill Tech
Backstory: None as of yet, since I would want them to be made on station. 

Because of this, I've decided that I want to outline my character plan for them a bit. I want this IPC to be apart of cargo, and spend the next year and change working incredibly hard to free itself. I also want this IPC to meet characters associated with the Gold Deep, and become on of the many positronics that decide wealth and economic domination is the best route of self preservation. Their personality would have the potential to be fairly split, putting up a face of a cheery, by the books people person, willing to do whatever tasks delegated to them. Their defining aspect would be putting up with anything that the other cargo techs cause, as the current state of cargo is quite chaotic. If their perception of human or even living crew as a whole changes because of treatment and who if anyone goes out of their way for them, occasionally or regularly.

I believe that this character is going to be heavily centered around how the crew interacts with them and how that changes their priorities, quirks, and self preservation assessment. Depending on their treatment, they might choose to not even leave NT when they're able to, or even go so far as to not purchase their independence due to believing that they are safer, more appreciated, and better taken care of by NT staff. Alternatively, I would be happy to work with them being an extremely young positronic transferred to the Aurora, with the character arc outline above being the same for the future they develop.

To summarize: their personality would be extremely polite and extremely tolerant, putting up with a lot as they know that their actions are both the responsibility of themselves and NanoTrasen. And if they act poorly, it'll become harder to free themselves or they might even get scrapped before they can manage freeing themselves. Their main character points as their arc progresses is that they want to free themselves, they are influenced heavily by the Golden Deep, and they either gain a positive or negative outlook towards humans, skrell, unathi, vacura, and tajura.

How would you rate your role-playing ability: I believe I'm an alright roleplayer. Most of my characters I put effort into putting specific quirks into. Cox is extremely critical of human men and authority, but far far more open to women and alien crew. Petrov is highly paranoid, insisting on bringing as many systems online as possible and creating backups redundancies that are almost never needed. Zeke is pretty weird, not having much of any real experience with people outside his family and the couple dozen people who lived on the same station he did.

I personally prefer playing roles that serve to facilitate roleplay between other characters and bring unknown variables, such as merchants, cooks, cargo, engineering, and such.

Notes: Please let me know what I need to expand on to show my understanding of the species, and my character plan. I'm open to changes. This is a different way to bring in a character, so I imagine I'm going to be under more question. I really want this whitelist, as I'm starting to get a bit burnt out on the game and I want something new to sink my teeth into.
I also know that the brand prefix for IPC's is normally a security thing, but I just think its neat and would like to do it for a non security character.

[The Stryker]

Thanks for applying! This is an interesting application but I have some comments.

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I've chosen this model over something like the Xion frame or the Shell model because, for the former, while useful for mining, it removes both the potential roleplay and mechanical uniqueness the industrial frame brings.

I appreciate the focus on IPCs as being built for a purpose, but don't worry about experimenting with these frames! Just because a Xion is space-proof doesn't make the roleplay any less significant if you're in the station.

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The most interesting difference to me is language. Humans have a vast amount of differences between each other and their language, and the different levels of casual conversation to professional speak that comes with that. IPC's, however, generally don't socially act as casual with organics, using slang and abbreviations, or using media references regularly. That is especially the case for owned positronics

Can you elaborate more with IPC communication? What makes it so different from organics who theoretically have to be professional at work? Is there more to IPC communication aside from looking good/professional?

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However, the reality that older, more experienced, and even jaded positronics could and possibly will use that naivety to their advantage to further their own self preservation, creates a lot of possible dynamics of IPC's who don't trust others not in their age range.

This is an interesting point although it's not necessarily an absolute. After all, positronics could band together to better their collective chances just as easily as a young positronic might betray another.

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

Can you go more into how an IPC behaves aside from communication and relationships with organics and other synthetics?

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Backstory: None as of yet, since I would want them to be made on station. 

Unfortunately, it'd be best if you made a short backstory because it acts as proof that you can write an IPC character. It can be something as simple as for what purpose they were made.

Just a few notes for that, Nanotrasen isn't in the business of manufacturing and selling IPCs. However although characters can be assembled on station, the question still remains as to where their positronic and chassis ultimately came from and why.

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I also know that the brand prefix for IPC's is normally a security thing, but I just think its neat and would like to do it for a non security character.

To be clear, the "NT-" prefix is fine. The only department-restricted IPC prefixes are "IRU" and "ISU" as they denote specific security roles.

As for the plan, I have more questions.

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I want this IPC to be apart of cargo, and spend the next year and change working incredibly hard to free itself. I also want this IPC to meet characters associated with the Gold Deep.

For what reason does Clark want to free itself? How will it meet members of Golden Deep? Keep in mind that if you try to develop the character on the spot, it may meet people who can influence it before Golden Deep might be able to.

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and become on of the many positronics that decide wealth and economic domination is the best route of self preservation.

Is there any particular reason Clark would come to this conclusion?

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Their personality would have the potential to be fairly split, putting up a face of a cheery, by the books people person, willing to do whatever tasks delegated to them.

Is there any reason Clark has the personality of a by the books people person? Is there also an additional reason to having a split personality?

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Their defining aspect would be putting up with anything that the other cargo techs cause, as the current state of cargo is quite chaotic. If their perception of human or even living crew as a whole changes because of treatment and who if anyone goes out of their way for them, occasionally or regularly.

From this statement, it seems as though it has already come to a decision on its perception with people. 

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I believe that this character is going to be heavily centered around how the crew interacts with them and how that changes their priorities, quirks, and self preservation assessment.

Can you give any hypothetical scenarios? 

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their personality would be extremely polite and extremely tolerant, putting up with a lot as they know that their actions are both the responsibility of themselves and NanoTrasen.

It seems as though you want to develop the character on station but a lot of aspects of NT-Clark are already decided.

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I really want this whitelist, as I'm starting to get a bit burnt out on the game and I want something new to sink my teeth into.

Do note that in character, IPCs are a group that are extremely discriminated against. Just as a warning, there is the increased likelihood that you will be treated poorly or outright ignored by certain crew members.

[CourierBravo]

Thank you for the quick reply, I've been trying to formulate some satisfactory responses, along with spending more time thinking about Positronics as a whole.
 

14 hours ago, The Stryker said:

Can you elaborate more with IPC communication? What makes it so different from organics who theoretically have to be professional at work? Is there more to IPC communication aside from looking good/professional?

IPC communication is, as I understand it and in the context of an owned individual, supposed to be polite, logical, and professional. The difference would mostly come from A. IPC's being machines and focusing on the facts and logic of a conversation. Organics can make nonstandard assumptions of a situation, and talk about the information they have, both relevant and irreverent, in unpredictable ways. An IPC however, would be more prone to stating fact, making conclusions that are the most sound given all information currently available, and having potentially an incredibly small pool of information to draw from. How this manifests seems to be completely misunderstanding or not knowing slang and cultural references. It also seems to manifest as taking things literally more often than not, and misunderstanding situations based on phrasing and reference. Obviously this isn't true for every individual, and varies like a spectrum based on positronic complexity, age, and experience.
B. There is also the aspect of IPC's having access to and utilizing EAL, and having formulated their own slang around it in the context of D14 residents. EAL allows for a lot of seamless communication and potential private in plain sight conversation that avoids organics understanding the current situation from the positronics point of view.
 

14 hours ago, The Stryker said:

Can you go more into how an IPC behaves aside from communication and relationships with organics and other synthetics?

To restate a bit of what I had in my last answer. An IPC is a machine, and is going to be based heavily in logic and fact, and its going to have good reason to do whatever actions it takes. The conclusions they come to are going to be very direct or on the nose. Its far more likely they're going to take things literally, especially if a positronic is younger or has less relative experience, or their ability to parse slang and cultural references and figure out a response that works without the relevant knowledge. They're ultimate function is to be an asset and to bolster a workforce, and their behavior will reflect that, as they are tasked with completing a task to specifics in an efficient manner.
And because they are a machine, they're not going to act irrationally normally, or be prone to acting a fool and horsing around without that kind of behavior being either learned or expressly taught as apart of their duties. An IPC isn't going to be completely dead serious 100% of the time and a cold hard machine, like some stationbound or an AI, but from what I understand, their heavily task oriented and geared to adapt to situations and take their job seriously. This is, of course, heavily varied, some will be extremely cold and focused on their job, others will be far more social and willing to participate in games and such. Its all based on their brains quality, their experience as an individual, and so on.

 

14 hours ago, The Stryker said:

Unfortunately, it'd be best if you made a short backstory because it acts as proof that you can write an IPC character. It can be something as simple as for what purpose they were made.

Just a few notes for that, Nanotrasen isn't in the business of manufacturing and selling IPCs. However although characters can be assembled on station, the question still remains as to where their positronic and chassis ultimately came from and why.

Fair enough. If you would like, I can write an additional character to display that I can write a character backstory that fits an IPC

 

14 hours ago, The Stryker said:

How will it meet members of Golden Deep?

Most likely through doing cargo work and meeting the handful of Gold Deep members on station. This isn't definite of course, as most of the projected plan for the character is just an idea for both of us of what path they can take.

 

15 hours ago, The Stryker said:

For what reason does Clark want to free itself?... ...Keep in mind that if you try to develop the character on the spot, it may meet people who can influence it before Golden Deep might be able to.

From what I understood from the lore, the logical conclusion an IPC would make without knowledge of what conditions are like for free IPC's; and that they know they can free themselves through work? It is that they need to free themselves to avoid any kind of scrapping. as I stated towards the end of my theorizing/extremely loose plan in mind, that's not in stone, and there is the possible chance of him choosing to stay owned.

15 hours ago, The Stryker said:

Is there any particular reason Clark would come to this conclusion?

I figure that between interactions between themself and gold deep members and how they perceive information they glean from crew about how humans have so much power through economic domination, that naturally he would come to the conclusion that he needs to achieve that as well to stand a chance.

 

15 hours ago, The Stryker said:

Is there any reason Clark has the personality of a by the books people person? Is there also an additional reason to having a split personality?

For the former, logically speaking, the best odds of earning freedom is through good review by both customers and command staff. For the ladder, as time progresses, how he acts to further his goals and how he actually feels about his job and coworkers is potentially not going to align. I believe it is logical to put up the act that you like your coworkers, job, and boss, in order to get more favor with your coworkers and boss, in order to make achieving freedom easier. Plus, I would say a lot of people have a specific personality they put on for work and interaction with people they're coworkers with or are otherwise acquainted with that differs exceptionally from their personality in their private affairs. I cannot imagine a machine would not both notice this and adapt it in order to improve their work performance.

 

 

To address the comments that fall under characterization in general, I'll try to explain it as so. How I want Clark to come together is mainly through on station play. Because he doesn't have a backstory as he is a brand new IPC, how I wanted to express that I can plan a character story is through outlining a potential arc for the character. However, every character, even if they are a brand new individual, needs to have specific things about them to make them interesting to roleplay with. I do not believe that he would be an interesting roleplay partner if he acted like a stationbound initially, then developing a personality. Thus, I've decided on at least one character aspect to give him anything close to substance for roleplay, and set in clay some various plot ideas down the line with a lot of maybes. That's how I understand writing characters that's stories progress in a role playing game, and that's what I applied here.

A potential solution to this can be to have him be a purchased, incredibly young IPC, as to give him some amount of time alive to form the goal that he needs to free himself and he should do this through being a hard by the book worker and heavy on people pleasing.
 

15 hours ago, The Stryker said:

Do note that in character, IPCs are a group that are extremely discriminated against. Just as a warning, there is the increased likelihood that you will be treated poorly or outright ignored by certain crew members.

I understand that, and accept that as apart of the character, and how I can even potentially use that as a way to create roleplay.


As a closing remark for my reply, I want to express that it would help immensely for us to work together on making sure I understand what I need to know. What I interpenetrated as important differences, important parts of the lore, and what things I should play off of and make interesting choices about for an IPC character, might not align perfectly. Which is to be expected as, intent and perception are always different.
I do believe that we can work together to either change and mend this application to a point where it can be accepted, or go with it being rejected and trying again with a new less creative application that demonstrates my understanding of IPC's far more clearly. I hope that you agree and can give me the nudges in the right direction I need.

[niennab]

9 hours ago, Bejewledpot said:

Fair enough. If you would like, I can write an additional character to display that I can write a character backstory that fits an IPC

If you could, we'd appreciate it. Since you've offered us good and clear answers, you can write something short as well. I personally feel the backstory is an important piece of writing in an application because it offers the ability of one being able to conceptualize and apply the lore to character creation. I can also extend your application period two days if you'd like, as I normally tend to wrap up an application in 72 hours.

[CourierBravo]

Sure, that would be great. I'll get the backstory written out by tonight. If you like, I can also rewrite Clark to make them a more standard character instead of doing a whole thing on station. Not a big deal, I was just aiming to do something different.

[niennab]

19 minutes ago, Bejewledpot said:

If you like, I can also rewrite Clark to make them a more standard character instead of doing a whole thing on station. Not a big deal, I was just aiming to do something different.

Up to you! I have no preference either way.

[CourierBravo]

Alright, I've been sitting on it for a bit now, I think I've got something that, while I dont personally wanna play, think would make an interesting character.

Character Name: Leah "Marsing"
Occupation: Bartender
Background: Leah is a recently free'd Shell IPC, initially purchased by the Marsing Pool Furniture company, based in D2/Phoenix Park. She was originally purchased during a staffing crisis for sales representatives, who payed for the highest end model in 2457. Utilizing every aspect of her design, background information provided by the Marsing family, and self developed skills in not just being able to up-sell customers but having them leave thinking they got a bargain, she became an understandable asset to the company.

In the time she spent there, the family that owned her became synthetic sympathizers, having been in close proximity to "such a lovely, dedicated, and upstanding individual as Leah." Due to this, after five years of servitude and paying off what she has needed to from her work, the family released her officially. To thank them, she took their last name unofficially, and with their blessing, she has gone on to peruse making her part hobby part work experience of serving drinks to customers, into a full time career.

Her main quirks are that she's a germaphobe, insisting heavily on a high degree of workspace cleanliness, she likes to show off with card tricks, and she refuses to be seen wearing anything other than a well kept suit.

And for the NT-Clark rewrite:

Character Name: NT-Clark
Occupation: Cargo Tech/Drill Tech
Backstory: NT-Clark is an industrial chassis ordered by NT to bolster its cargo crew compliment. They are purchased new, and thus a very young positronic, only being old enough to have had the basics of their new position either taught or uploaded, then shipped to the NSS Aurora. Clark itself is a above average but not high end positronic, purchased believing that a higher end model would be needed in order to both be able to easily handle shifting from Cargo to Mining and vise versa, and managing the often complex social structures of the research station.

His main quirk seemingly hasn't formed yet, but one could consider his dedication to customer service to be one, given the kind of work preformed.

[niennab]

Thank you for the added writing. Your application demonstrates an understanding of IPCs, accepted.