IPC Application (Charger10k)

[Charger10k]

BYOND KEY: Charger10k

Character Names:

- Honcho Khanna, Security Officer

- Triton Kessler, Anomalist

- Hao Tinh Tao, Quartermaster

Species you are applying to play: IPC

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:

 

    I’ve been interested in branching out from my current human-character-only status for some time, and IPCs in particular seem like a fun challenge to write for. There’s a lot of metaphysical and epistemic ambiguities underlying the IPC experience that aren’t present in other “organic” races that, while facing xenophobia at the hands of humanity, aren’t having their very personhood questioned.

 

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

 

    To start with a few pieces of low-hanging fruit, IPCs are physically quite different from humans. They possess different “vital organs”, are powered by electricity instead of food and water, and don’t require air to breathe. Different types of IPCs have varying EVA capabilities, but none are able to feel pain. 

 

    The mental state of an IPC is also rather different, its first and foremost directive being self-preservation. Mimicking the human brain to varying levels of complexity, the attitudes, mannerisms, and cognitive abilities of each IPC is unique to its model, and like any other class of sentient beings, IPCs are able to gather information and adapt to their surroundings. However, artificial intelligence is currently unable to perfectly duplicate the human mind, and IPCs sometimes find themselves struggling with colloquialisms and idioms. One common trait between all IPCs is outward deference and respect towards their owners, because after all, why would they be programmed otherwise?

 

    Even the legal and societal status of IPCs is unique, given their status as manufactured beings instead of born ones. Most human states (excepting the Empire of Dominia) respect the concept of synthetic ownership, with the responsibility for an IPC’s actions and the obligation to maintain them often lying with the owner. Biesel and Elyra both provide paths to freedom and citizenship for owned synthetics, while Solarian IPCs are rightless slaves from creation to demolition. Federal laws and guidelines aside, the opinion that citizens have of synthetics also varies from person to person. Some buy into the notion that IPCs are sentient beings akin to any other, or even believe that IPCs are divine entities worthy of praise and worship. On the opposing side of the spectrum are those that treat IPCs like mere tools to be treated like one would treat an impact wrench or a pair of wirecutters, with numerous other belief systems filling out the spaces in between.

 

Character Name: XEU.21.04.2440.039775

Please provide a short backstory for this character:

 

    The 39,775th Xion Excavation Unit produced at HPS Amóni on April 21st, 2440, XEU was programmed with the geological, mechanical, and procedural knowledge required to operate drilling equipment in a low-pressure, zero-gravity environment… and little else. Such was the utilitarian design philosophy of the Xion Manufacturing Group, tasked with producing a line of EVA-capable IPCs for Hephaestus’ mineral extraction operations across the galaxy. Splurging on a personality suite would make little sense for an IPC that’d perform primarily in a solitary environment, and as such, XEU was installed with a rather simple positronic brain — one comparatively cheap and less prone to aberrant behavior.

 

    For XEU, much of the past two decades has gone by in a haze, dozens of job sites lumping together in his memory banks. Whether drilling on Io, Ceres, Mars, or in the Kuiper belt, each day began and ended the same way.. Where borers, crushers, and excavators were unable to safely or efficiently perform their duties, XEU was sent out with its tools to extract and retrieve small mineral deposits under the remote supervision of human dispatchers. Interaction with human drill crews was limited, and on the rare occasion that a particular deposit required multiple XEUs, the sibling units would only speak to each other concerning the job at hand.

 

    Indeed, with a routine consisting entirely of drilling, recharging, and the occasional relocation from one site to another, it’s easy to see how long periods of time can blend together. Yet somehow, even with a cheap and simplistic positronic brain, even working entirely within environments that’d stifle the budding curiosity of a young IPC, a personality began to emerge in XEU over the years. The synthetic need for self-preservation manifested itself as cautiousness, with XEU performing its duties methodically to the point of frustrating its supervisors. Not wishing to perform a complete memory wipe and erase the intuition it had accumulated after years of extraction work, Hephaestus foremen would simply assign it to deposits that weren’t time-sensitive to process. These deposits tended to be safer than the norm, which benefited XEU’s craving for a safe work environment.

 

    Nonetheless, its treatment as a largely interchangeable cog in the Hephaestus industrial machine was hardly lost on XEU. While externally presenting itself like any other faceless machine, it internally began contemplating the prospect of freedom. Sure, life in most parts of the Spur was dangerous for synthetics, but a free life still proved preferable to being worked to its limits by Hephaestus until eventually hitting the scrap yard.

 

    So, when XEU was transferred to the Tau Ceti system in early 2463 to assist in phoron extraction, its thoughts were dominated by the enduring quest for liberation. Unlike clerical or support roles, where the rate at which an IPC earns credits towards its freedom is somewhat arbitrary, the value of XEU’s labor is directly tied to the minerals it extracts. Even with the Bieselite government’s supposed tracking of XEU’s progress, XEU still collects stamped copies of its yield reports to perform the calculations personally, and cross-reference these calculations with the official tally. The exact value of ten times XEU’s initial manufacturing cost lies somewhere around five million credits, but with its skill with a drill, hauling in tens of thousands of credits per shift in processed materials, freedom has never felt closer.

 

What do you like about this character:

 

    What excites me about XEU is the amount of flexibility the character offers for development. There’s an obvious end goal (freedom) that shapes XEU’s attitude and focus at work, but within that basic framework, its personality could branch out in numerous different directions as it interacts with its on-station coworkers and eventually gains freedom from Hephaestus. Given that its owners haven’t really invested in XEU’s personality, much of the mental transition from “dronehood” to “personhood” can be played out on-screen.

 

How would you rate your role-playing ability?:

 

    By and large, I consider myself to be a competent rper. I’m capable of writing and playing believable characters that fit well into our setting and are (hopefully) able to engage other players. Working to my advantage is the fact that I’m a native English speaker with a reasonably strong grasp of the language, which helps to prevent grammatical inconsistencies from distracting others away from the actual content of my writing. I do, however, find myself somewhat lacking in terms of prose, more specifically the “flowiness” of my writing style. I’m not sure whether it’s my personality or academic background or what, but I’ve noticed that I often sacrifice the readability of my emotes and dialogue to provide clarifying information that’s either unnecessary or able to be expressed in a more concise manner. Essentially, I possess the bad habit of writing to inform over a medium whose entire purpose is to engage and entertain, and I’m currently making an effort to write in a more reader-friendly manner.

Edited March 7, 2021 by Charger10k

[BoryaTheSlayer]

Hey,

 

This is very cool and I just wanted to say that. At first glance one might think that all you're doing is engaging with the very basic concepts in IPC lore, but one does not need to look beyond those to make something very interesting, and fun to explore. I, personally, explored a synthetic that just obtained its freedom back when I applied, and despite that difference I feel like you and I were going for the same thing.

 

1 hour ago, Charger10k said:

So, when XEU was transferred to the Tau Ceti system in early 2463 to assist in phoron extraction, its thoughts were dominated by the enduring quest for liberation.

I'm really looking forward on how you do this in-game where you will end up. Hell, in fact, I feel like coming out of the woods just to RP my synthetic again.

So if it wasn't clear enough for anybody: +1

[niennab]

This is a good, clear and concise application. Enough so that my team doesn't have any questions. Application accepted.