stev Posted February 12, 2022 Posted February 12, 2022 (edited) BYOND Key: Memescope McGee Character Names: Spoiler Species you are applying to play: Skrell What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Dark purply-blue, probably? I’ll finalise once I have a chance to play around in char setup. Have you read our lore section's page on this species: A lot of them, yes. Why do you wish to play this specific race: To be honest, I’ve taken quite a while to warm up to the concept of Skrell, but with NBT (and the last year or two’s lore additions) I’ve been having some fun new concepts - I tend to not really get into a species or faction until I get a solid, fun character concept for it. As far as themes and specifics of the race, I particularly enjoy idols and the social credit system, the subtly smug, imperialistic culture & interventionist diplomacy of Jargon (especially with regards to WMDs), the literal thought-police level of oppressive control over Jargon citizens, and I’m always a sucker for a good long-lived sci-fi/fantasy race. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Obviously there’s the mechanical aspects (psionics, no-slip, etc.) but that’s not really super important, at the end of the day. Big, immediate differences include the Skrell’s lack of a gender binary, predominantly polyamorous relationships, a lack of facial expression when expressing emotion (instead primarily using vocalisations and posturing of the headtails), the hyper-homogenous, authoritarian, oppressive, literal thought-police perfectly benevolent and universally-loved Jargon Federation, a culture based around scientific progress, the psionic echo chamber of the Nlom... There’s a lot, to be honest. I think trying to list it all straight is kind of pointless, so I’ve tried to write most of the important stuff into the backstory segment. Character Name: Lwmbliq Sliuup’nuke Lwmbliq Sliuup was born on Qerrbalak to a mostly Axiorii Quya; they proved to have promising psionic aptitude but with middling receptivity, just a little above the Listener threshold. Though they initially showed little interest in education in their early scuttle schooling, even being held back from progression to the Reefgardens for a time, that all changed in 2332 with the sudden public reveal of first contact with humanity. Possessed with a sudden, all-encompassing fascination with this strange new alien culture, they took up their studies with a strength of interest bordering on the obsessive. They rushed through their first depth college in a little under a decade, immediately applying for immersion studies across human space for their second degree, though was initially held back due to concerns of the young, unproven xenoanthropologist misrepresenting the Federation. Lwmbliq nevertheless toured around the known Spur for many years, filming a number of academic holo-studies across exotic, alien locations such as war-torn Moroz, resplendent Oran, and Detroit; as the decades went on, these holo-films slowly shifted from niche academic study toward a more general-audience documentary style, complete with personal commentary and extensive editing. Sliuup, putting faith in academic projections that contact would eventually be made with more sapient species in due time, devoted themselves to becoming a foremost expert in theoretical and practical xenoanthropology and xenoarchaeology. When first contact was made with the Tajara, Lwmbliq was among the first to travel to Adhomai to study their primitive, backwards feudal politics and regressive culture. They managed to record their first documentary to receive some mainstream success amidst the terrible upheaval of the Tajaran First Revolution, to moderate acclaim; critics were divided on their work’s style, with many calling their commentary over footage of horrific scenes of violence patronising, ghoulish, and disrespectful to the dead and their families, though others praised their even-handed objectivity, poignant observations, and offbeat, moist wit. However, what has most defined their career—and in many ways, their life—was their coverage of the Moghesian Contact War. Eager to capture another first contact on film, Lwmbliq was among some of the first non-diplomatic citizens to be approved for cultural research on Moghes. Quickly becoming fascinated with the native peoples and customs, they spent as much time as they could travelling the land, filming and interviewing all the while. Determined to stick out the seemingly inevitable war between Izweski and Traditionalists—they’d seen and filmed plenty of wars, of course—they decided to keep documenting the rising tensions. They were not prepared for the bombs to drop. One memorable scene from their Contact War documentary depicts Sliuup calmly interviewing a local shaman via psionic dialogue when, in the far distance, we see the plume of the first nuclear strike wiping out a city in the blink of an eye; neither of the two can process what’s just happened, at first, until the next bomb drops and the horror sets in. This concludes the first fifteen-hour instalment of the director’s cut of their landmark documentary, Warbling with the Wasters: An Observation of the Class-1.62 Planetary Societal Disruption of Moghes, the Governmental and Societal Collapse of the Sinta Traditionalist Coalition, and Its Consequences on the Way of Life of the Native Populace Thereof, with Commentary from Doctor of Xenoanthropological, Xenoarchaeological, and Xenopolitical Studies Lwmbliq Sliuup'nuke. The following instalments cover the following eleven years of the documentarian’s stay on Moghes, concluding once they were able to safely evacuate from what had come to be the Wasteland; highlights include a psionic interview of a Gawgaryn bandit that managed to capture Sliuup’nuke, teaching a stubborn group of peasant farmers about radiation poisoning, attempting to explain to a native tech-scavenger what parts they needed to keep their camera maintained, and one especially impassioned interview with small-scale religious leader Juzida Si’akh via native interpreter. Since their—or his and occasionally her, following their cultural enrichment on Moghes—breakout success of Warbling with the Wasters, aided by two clips managing to air on Chirp Till You Drop as part of a viral marketing ploy, they have finally managed to reach the lauded heights of an Iqi accreditation in recognition of popular contributions to his field. Aided by our benevolent Federation’s increasing interest in the newly-formed Stellar Corporate Conglomerate, Sliuup’nuke has managed to get themselves onto the SCCV Horizon to document the historic human-led journey across the known Spur. What will the Conglomerate uncover? What dangers will Lwmbliq face? Watch out for the next Sliuup’nuke documentary minisode to find out, broadcasting from war-torn space beyond the Federation! What do you like about this character? Gonna be honest, I love the idea of playing this weird, aloof, imperialistic documentarian who thinks they know better than the people they’re interviewing about their own lives and cultures. I’m also a big fan of how Jargon and its citizens interact with people outside of its reach. How would you rate your role-playing ability? My main is an ENTP. Notes: Frogs are pretty neat. Edited February 12, 2022 by stev funny name
RyverStyx Posted February 12, 2022 Posted February 12, 2022 Hello! I have some questions for you 🐸 1. What was the SCS of Lwmbliq Sliuup's quya and how did that tie into their early development? 2. How did they feel once they initially left Jargon for these strange lands? 3. How exactly are the psionic interviews conducted? 4. Are there any long lasting effects from the scenes that Lwmbliq Sliuup’nuke witnessed? And what compelled them to take such a gruesome reminder of a name add-on? Bonus Question: What is Lwmbliq Sliuup’nuke's favorite piece of Skrell media (other than their own)?
stev Posted February 12, 2022 Author Posted February 12, 2022 (edited) 57 minutes ago, RyverStyx said: Hello! I have some questions for you 🐸 1. What was the SCS of Lwmbliq Sliuup's quya and how did that tie into their early development? 2. How did they feel once they initially left Jargon for these strange lands? 3. How exactly are the psionic interviews conducted? 4. Are there any long lasting effects from the scenes that Lwmbliq Sliuup’nuke witnessed? And what compelled them to take such a gruesome reminder of a name add-on? Bonus Question: What is Lwmbliq Sliuup’nuke's favorite piece of Skrell media (other than their own)? Thanks for the fast reply! 1. That's an interesting question, I hadn't considered their quya that much. They grew up in Eriuyushi, born roughly 150 years ago, so their quya was likely composed mainly of ranchers and farmers before or during the start of state enterprise encroachment. As manual labourers are generally kept with good conditions and benefits to promote work ethic, plus being on the homeworld, I think they'd range through mid Secondaries to low Primaries (SCS 5.00-7.50) - Lwmbliq getting out of agriculture and into high-minded academic pursuits would be a point of pride for the quya. Lwmbliq's own early circumstances weren't ideal, being low on the Receiver band and probably widely expected to just go into ranching, and that played into their lack of drive and work ethic until first contact with humanity came around. 2. Leaving Jargon for the first time was probably some combination of terror and enraptured excitement - they'd been studying human cultures for a good decade or two by the point they got to leave and see it all for themselves, so broadly knew what to expect, both the good and the bad. They were continually fascinated by these peoples, going out on extended field trips for a few years at a time before travelling back to the Federation to write/edit, debate their work and findings, and take the opportunity to de-stress. 3. These psionic interviews would usually be initially negotiated through a TCB-speaking (or simply psionic-consenting) native guide, then conducted primarily via psionic communication to circumvent the language barrier. Sliuup found out the difficulties in filming this kind of interview from issues in their escapades on Adhomai, so they came to Moghes prepared - they used emotional/psionic reading devices similar to those used in the filming of Swimstars to record a facsimile of the actual psionic interview, with commentary dubbed in post where necessary. In particularly desperate straits, they used psionic communication to try and stop some starving Wastelander from literally eating them, which sometimes had the unfortunate side-effect of making them believe Sliuup'nuke to be some sort of spirit or lesser god; these segments were mostly cut or edited around for the theatrical release, though most of the follow-on interview segments were kept in if possible. 4. While Sliuup'nuke had seen some truly terrible things on Adhomai and holy war-era Moroz - not to mention the untold horrors of Detroit - the sheer scale of the devastation on Moghes affected them deeply. Cities they filmed mere months ago were blown to radioactive dust, entire cultures and peoples wiped off the face of the planet, some with only Lwmbliq's footage to prove that they ever existed. Subjects they interviewed could die in just weeks from now, along with the stories and cultures of their people; this was why it was so crucial to them to record every last thing, up to psionically interviewing the dying to give them a chance to make their story known in the timeless archives of the Jargon Federation, ever may it stand. 4.a. Their name add-on's Basic translation is a little harsher and less elegant than the Nral'Malic 'pointless devastation in nuclear fire', but they thought that getting across the horrors of weapons of mass destruction was more important than sounding elegant and refined; beside, the crude ugliness of the word gives it a certain weight that they think is fitting for such a thing. Finally, and most importantly, Sliuup'nuke loves The Professionals and has a half-decent Solarian cowboy costume lying around somewhere, as well as being a fan of a number of Cytherean art films; he's also a Swimstars fan but very specifically stans the Jaws, with an ongoing Lu'Pluux feud with a vocal critic of the Jaws - they've been trying to find ways to subtly snub them in their documentaries for a while now. Edited February 12, 2022 by stev
Recommended Posts