[Accepted]I wanna beep (Monty's IPC app)

[Montyfatcat]

BYOND Key: Twathead

Character Names: Mia Campbell, Albion-Blaise Caladius

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.

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:

IPCs as a whole are interesting due to their lack of technical emotion. While they have the ability to feel approximations of emotions, they do not have access to a full spectrum of emotions, instead having a sort of series of checkable boxes. This can either work really well for a character or fail miserably, depending on the type of roleplayer behind the character. I would love to give this a try myself simply for the experience, and an enjoyable character would be well worthwhile. I would also like to see if I could manage to fill a rarely played role without having to compromise this aspect.

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

One major factor is the aforementioned lack of spectrum emotions. While an IPC is able to mimic emotions, it is still compartmentalised to some extent. Another major difference would be the fact that instead of the stakes of their job being a career change or unemployment, and IPCs work ethic is a matter of life or death for them if they are owned. This differing aspect of the stakes in their work would mean that if an IPC were told that their job was at risk for whatever reason, they would have very little reason to not change short of a death wish.

Character Name: Elbee-5

Please provide a short backstory for this character:

Elbee is a baseline IPC that was created in 2460 for the purpose of being a librarian, as one of ten test models. With this in mind, their personality was designed with the intent to create a machine that would not only naturally attempt to assist others, but would also be a studious learner. This capacity for curiosity as well as their helpful demeanour landed them in a large library in Phoenix Park, where they were deployed as a library assistant as well as customer support for library-goers that were wary of the automated recommendation terminals. Through this work, Elbee had access to many books and resources, which they often spent large amounts of time pouring over, sometimes not even leaving the library for days on end simply so they were able to study further.

The library could not last, however. One of the primary issues was financing, Elbee consumed more energy than was initially projected by the accountant and the library was struggling to make the maintenance costs for them. While they did not sell Elbee, due to a fondness from the Head Librarian, the library took unto itself a sponsor, namely Nanotransen. This sponsor eventually became a merger, and with the library's merging into Nanotransen came its end, as it sat atop tens of millions of credits worth of retail land. It would eventually be turned into a new shopping centre, and with the demolition of the library, Elbee was repurposed for the station library aboard the Aurora.

What do you like about this character?

I haven't yet seen a librarian IPC, partially because librarian is a seldom played role anyway, but I also feel like people haven't seen it as a possible job either. This would essentially be a budget service IPC of sorts, without the expensive or flashy models and instead being replaced with a semi-genuine fascination with their task as well as a practiced friendliness rather than a programmed one. I also think that the books on the station are quite fun, so having an excuse to just grab whatever book I want until I need to serve someone would be quite nice.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

Due to not being neurotypical, most of my characters struggle with being such. However, I would argue that it could give a level of authenticity to an IPC. I would also say I can usually handle small talk fairly well, as well as talkng in depth about a subject my character would know about, although sometimes I do essentially just quote a wiki page or two.

Edited December 12, 2021 by The lancer

[The Stryker]

Hi, thanks for applying. Just some questions to start,

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

Could you expand a little more into what makes IPCs different, aside from emotions?

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Elbee is a baseline IPC that was created in 2460

3 years is a lot of time for an IPC. Can you expand more regarding how this time affected Elbee?

Could you also talk about how Elbee spends it time off-station, and how it behaves in general?

[whitewolftamer]

Big thumbs up from me, I greatly enjoy RPing with Monty, and I absolutely adore Mia Campbell. Their characters have depth and are incredibly fun to play with or around, +1

[Montyfatcat]

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Could you expand a little more into what makes IPCs different, aside from emotions?

I believe I mentioned later in the thread as well, but their attitude to work quite literally can be the defining issue of whether they are at risk of dying, which in some ways can mean that work would come before all else. However for a drastically different aspect, the aspiration for freedom would likely come into a close second, as that would mean that they could secure their existence and be allowed some flexibility in their lives. While IPCs are not 1:1 mimics of humans, their desire to have options in their lives, and the wish to achieve those varieties of options, would be able to heavily influence their actions in the long term. Certain aspects would also not induce as much fear, for example pain would have very little leverage, however their more vulnerable position to electronic tampering would hold far more weight than it would to a human.

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3 years is a lot of time for an IPC. Can you expand more regarding how this time affected Elbee?

One of the main behaviour patterns that Elbee picked up from their time at the library was the use of their memory to recall anecdotes that would hopefully be relevant to the conversation. They have also kept their interest in general knowledge, gaining the belief that if they are able to recall and personally experience many books, they can accurately recommend books to customers at the library without as many errors. They do miss their old library, especially due to the size, however they had already learned that reminiscing to others is somewhat alienating and can make customers feel uncomfortable.

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Could you also talk about how Elbee spends it time off-station, and how it behaves in general?

Elbee spends much of their time reading, or performing other methods of research around the subject they are currently fixated on. While these could be seen as normal interest times to a human, due to the processing power and singlemindedness of an IPC, Elbee could be more likely described to gain short hyperfixations on a subject for days at a time, rather than months at a time. This subject could consume their entire attention outside of working if interesting enough.

Elbee also makes a great effort to ensure that they are being polite, and that their customer is comfortable in their environment. This could extend from offering to gather books for the customer, to bringing them non-staining drinks and snacks if asked nicely.

[The lancer]

Accepted.