Half of a N00b - IPC

[Rabid Animal]

BYOND Key: 50_N00b

Character Names: Yasin Deamurr, Clement Sormirr

Species you are applying to play: IPC

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

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

 

Why do you wish to play this specific race:
I’ve migrated from baystation 12, I had almost exclusively played IPCs during my time there, from the literal day they were coded in to when I eventually stopped playing ss13. Upon revisiting the game and joining the server, I’ve realized I’m still breaking out of a lot of old habits that came from playing the race. I still like them, the idea of them, and I think Auroras take on them is far more interesting than what I had seen prior – so I’d like to give the race another shot.

 

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:
Mechanically, IPCs are well. Machines. They do not feel pain, nor do they bleed, nor do they need to eat drink or any of the other things organic creatures need to do. That said, while they are extremely resilient, most IPCs would want to take good care of their chassis – it’s expensive, and they’d be hard pressed to buy a new one outright. This creates a scenario where as an IPC you’d not be avoiding pain so much as avoiding serious damage, which plays out a bit differently; Hot and cold objects, that would normally burn your poor fingees? Not a problem. An EMP which has no effect on the cute squishy parts of a human? Dear god get me out of here.

Emotionally, IPCs are made to replicate, not to produce emotions. Cold hard, FEELINGS. While the line can certainly get blurred in some particularly advanced models, in general IPCs can come across as cold, uncanny, or both. Some forego the formality all-together and express themselves logically. That said, all IPCs rely on logic to get them through the day, they are robots and every action they do comes down to their processes deciding the most effective course of action. They don’t behave irrationally, though some may come across as such to an outsider. As such, an IPC is more methodical than your average human, they’re not phased by stressful situations and rather tend to push their way through – in whatever way they’ve decided is best.

While it’s possible for an IPC to pursue other jobs, they tend to stick in the field they were designed for – for self explanatory reasons; they were designed for it! Beyond that, it can be hard for an IPC to afford maintenance on top of the process of learning new fields. So, IPCs you do see tend to be pretty rigid in their workplace choices.

Lastly, IPCs are property. One may purchase itself and become free, but in the end it’s still seen as property in doing so. This creates a scenario where many people will treat them with very little value, they’re not living, so the cold may question any reason to give them their empathy.

 

Character Name: F-R.A.N.K.Y.

Please provide a short backstory for this character
In 2424 a robotics company by the name of ‘Enigma Enterprises,’ well known in the local area for specialty bots, was contracted by the city of Suwon, Konyang, to create a series of robots able to help their law enforcement agencies with forensic sciences and investigations in light of the ever increasing populace driving an up-tick in crime within the less wealthy areas of the city. Just over a year later, the contract was finished and six bots were released to the cities various police agencies, F-R.A.N.K.Y. being one of them.

A few short years into service, whilst investigating a case involving a violent murderer, Franky was met with a question it hadn’t really considered. ‘Why?’ Why stay here, when there is an entire galaxy to explore, why remain caged here – subservient to the will of its masters. Franky wanted to explore its sense of self in that moment, and the idea of freedom became firmly planted into its robotic synapses, as intoxicating as something could be to a robotic mind. It began to look for an out. The liberal laws regarding synthetics on Konyang made this easier than for it than most, and it was able to carry out its plans with little resistance.

Over the next 23 years, Franky began taking on private cases on top of its normal workload, saving every penny until it was able to purchase itself. It had been fairly secretive about its goals, so its sudden departure from the workplace was a surprise, but not entirely unwelcome. It had a good relationship with its employers, and humanity in general. With that in mind, it decided to keep its original designation, while it wanted to examine its grasp of itself, it still latched onto its purpose as an anchor – and saw no reason to deviate from it. Not particularly attached to anyone or anything, it finally was able to branch out and seek new experiences.

Within the next decade or so, the unit continued its work as a private investigator – landing jobs with a hodgepodge of individuals, including various members of The Golden Deep. Their trading enterprises and traveling tendencies took Franky beyond the Coalition of Colonies and into the Republic of Biesel. It was there it was formally introduced to various mega-corporations, namely Nano-Trasen. From there, the unit, wanting more than just a taste of the area, decided to settle down in Tau-Ceti (at least for the moment) and begin work as a formal investigator.

 

What do you like about this character?
I wanted to write a character without a lot of first hand experience with prejudice, to the point it may not fully understand why it receives this kind of treatment. It’s pretty good at blowing off ill-treatment as the opinions of ‘poor, uneducated souls, not realizing the importance of synthetics.’ I think this accomplishes that idea fairly well, whilst leaving plenty of room for development. I’ve always enjoyed playing IPCs with a strong sense of purpose, Franky knows what it was built for – and it is eager to continue that work but it also seeks a stronger identity for itself, which drives this sense of adventure and willingness to approach Tau-Ceti

 

How would you rate your role-playing ability?
Uh… 6 out of 10. I’m massively out of practice, I haven’t done this kind of RP since 2017 so I’m very much trying to get back into the swing of things. Before that I would have rated myself much higher, but I gotta build up those muscles again!

 

Notes:
I was in charge of IPC applications on bay for a bit when I played there, and wrote some iteration of their lore (that is no longer in use) – I understand it’s gonna be way different here and that's fine, but just a footnote to express that I do and have played IPCs. (I was never the maintainer, more like a helper)

[niennab]

Thank you for applying! 

In terms of the backstory, what chassis is Franky? What occurred during the investigation that prompted Franky to consider the 'why'?

I'll make a point to make the date more clear on the wiki but Konyang was under the Solarian government until recently and so freedom would not have been available to your IPC until 2463.

[Rabid Animal]

1 hour ago, niennab said:

In terms of the backstory, what chassis is Franky? What occurred during the investigation that prompted Franky to consider the 'why'?

Franky is a baseline model. The display they have was considered important to it's ability to present evidence, but beyond that it was also not expected to be in any particularly 'rough' situations, so versatility took precedence over durability. As for the why? The guy had been arrested, brought in for interrogation. He pleaded for an out, asking why lock him up? He said that surely an IPC would understand, being owned - it was just the same, he'd be treated like property in a cage. He knew well he was caught so it was more or less a last ditch effort for sympathy, out of a robot of all things. Needless to say it didn't work and the guy went to prison - but it did get Franky to consider it, and that was enough.

 

1 hour ago, niennab said:

I'll make a point to make the date more clear on the wiki but Konyang was under the Solarian government until recently and so freedom would not have been available to your IPC until 2463.

Ah, whoops. I did a quick dig and saw it was mentioned on the collation of colonies page, but I must have missed it. Well, that's not too hard to fix in backstory, I'd wanna push the dates around a bit - say Franky still saved up the money but bided time until it would actually be able to legally purchase itself. Then wound up in Tau-Ceti shortly after due to, as with before, contracts with The Golden Deep. It's probably gonna wind up younger, and with less experience with freedom, but that's the only major changes I see as a result of that.

[The Stryker]

Love the application, concise and covers the difference between an IPC and a human very effectively. I just have a few concerns with the backstory.

Just to preface, could you talk about how you'll change the backstory to fit the lore issue on Konyang? Although they have relatively lose restrictions with IPCs, that's still not quite freedom in the Bieselite or Coalition sense.

Quote

Over the next 23 years, Franky began taking on private cases on top of its normal workload, saving every penny until it was able to purchase itself.

Just to delve a little deeper into the backstory, why was Franky authorized to take on its own cases? How did Frankly live before it was free? Did it use its personal money for anything else aside from purchasing freedom? Was Franky allowed to keep the money or did it have to be a little sneaky?

Quote

It had been fairly secretive about its goals, so its sudden departure from the workplace was a surprise, but not entirely unwelcome. It had a good relationship with its employers, and humanity in general.

Even factoring in the change to its age, more than a decade is a long time for a person to change. How was Franky affected by its relationship with its employers and humanity? Does Franky still keep in touch with them?

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Within the next decade or so, the unit continued its work as a private investigator – landing jobs with a hodgepodge of individuals, including various members of The Golden Deep.

Once again, 10 years is a long time for something to change, how did its travels, and consequently its exposure to many sorts of people (presumably both the best and the worst, as a private investigator,) affect its outlook on life? Golden Deep in particular has a very different outlook on synthetic life compared to the rest of the galaxy, even factoring in that they themselves are IPCs.

In general, I liked the backstory, but there's some room to add character details in the "time skips" given that it's old for an IPC.

Edited May 15, 2021 by The Stryker
Forgot to add a question.

[Rabid Animal]

1 hour ago, The Stryker said:

Just to delve a little deeper into the backstory, why was Franky authorized to take on its own cases? How did Frankly live before it was free? Did it use its personal money for anything else aside from purchasing freedom? Was Franky allowed to keep the money or did it have to be a little sneaky?

Given the rather liberal stance regarding synthetics on Konyang, Franky wasn't met with much resistance when it wanted to start on its own cases - so long as its required work was done. At first that didn't mean much, its workload was designed for a synthetic so Franky was kept very busy in the earlier years. There were periods of time when law enforcement in the area was less busy, as per the natural cycles of things - and during those times is when Franky was most able to work on personal cases. Primarily it worked for lawyers, though it found work in a wide variety of cases doing a wide verity of things, boiling down to getting dirt on people, for the most part.

I'm sure a fair amount of people understood Frankys goals in taking on side work, but it was cautious enough when saving its money to ensure nothing would be taken. Franky has a generally positive relationship with humans, but it also understands the resistance in letting one such as himself become free. So in that sense, yeah. Franky was sneaky about it, though a fair number of his co-workers at the time knew what he was up to. It was still somewhat of a surprise though, particularly to those who didn't work closely with the bot, as beyond what's mentioned above, Franky didn't indicate it's intentions.

Since it was owned at the time, expenses in terms of maintenance were covered by its owners, and as it had little reason to spend money on those beyond itself. It didn't, every cent it made was put towards furthering its freedom.

Before it was free, Franky worked. It really didn't do much else, it was living the life it was built for, and any fragments of free-time it had was dedicated towards accumulating extra wealth.

1 hour ago, The Stryker said:

Even factoring in the change to its age, more than a decade is a long time for a person to change. How was Franky affected by its relationship with its employers and humanity? Does Franky still keep in touch with them?

After switching the dates around, Franky is gonna be 26 years old. 2 years to account for working for the law like it was designed, 23 to account for the time it took to accumulate enough money to purchase itself + the time it had to sit and wait for laws to change, and 1 year to account for the time its been freed. Within that time, Franky would have had the opportunity to become accustomed to a much wider verity of people which in turn would give it a much better understanding of them. To Franky this just helped its ability to do its job. It's views shifted a bit during that time, I wouldn't say it became cynical or anything of the sort, but it definitely started to grasp the complexity and nuance of situations that, prior, it may have seen as more black and white.

Franky is not attached to things or people. It never has been. While its outlook on humanity and his previous employer was positive, it certainly didn't form any emotional bonds with them - if that's even possible. So, Franky does not keep in touch with them.

 

1 hour ago, The Stryker said:

Once again, 10 years is a long time for something to change, how did its travels, and consequently its exposure to many sorts of people (presumably both the best and the worst, as a private investigator,) affect its outlook on life? Golden Deep in particular has a very different outlook on synthetic life compared to the rest of the galaxy, even factoring in that they themselves are IPCs.

In general, I liked the backstory, but there's some room to add character details in the "time skips" given that it's old for an IPC.

The 10 year timeskip is getting snipped given that Franky would have only had the opportunity to become free within the last year. That said, it still had opportunity to interact with those outside of his previous environment. Given the fact it was a PI for what primarily amounts to a group of merchants, I'm sure its dealt with more than its fair share of seedy individuals, you know the type? Cut-throat sellers looking for ways to ruin the opposition. That said, Franky has always dealt with seedy individuals, just this time its on the other side of the fence. So, in that sense I think the most change it would have experienced between when he was freed and now would be a wider sense of right and wrong. It's just business, after all.

[niennab]

Thank you for the expansion and clarifications. Your application demonstrates an understanding of IPCs. Accepted.