[Accepted]EmperorJayJay's IPC Application

[EJJ]

BYOND Key: EmperorJayJay
Character Names: Variance, Mihai Vistazui, Tyler Grey, Mateo Soto, Lilac Yu | I have some other characters that I have either abandoned or haven't played in a month+ so they're not represented here.
Species you are applying to play: IPC
What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Exempt
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:
Synthetic characters have always been extremely interesting to play. The different psychology, method of thought, interpretation and reactions have always been extremely interesting to me. Seeing how many IPC characters can be experiments in of themselves is also an interesting vein to follow, an IPC may be programmed to do one thing, do that for decades but eventually discover that they want to do something completely different and seek out the skills or a hobby to do said thing.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:
IPCs have a significantly different culture and perspective on the world than humans do. There is a lot to consider when attempting to use them and develop their character. They can be as normal as one wants or as eccentric as one wants. They've got a number of interesting mechanical considerations, but the RP and character development is really what interests me.

Character Name: Co-60
Please provide a short backstory for this character
Co-60 was created in Shanghai, China by Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals on 12/06/2444, originally named Language Cognition Test-001. The machine was created as a test of how a positronic brain would cope with almost no speech. Being stripped of the ability to speak any language but understand them it quickly taught itself sign language to understand how to communicate with staff. The machine was able to quickly adapt to this test it was created for, communicating with the scientists it worked alongside and eventually turning into one of the teachers of sign language in the facility it worked at.

With the test ruled a success after four years of operation instead of junking Co-60 upper management decided to promote it into a scientific role around 28/10/2448. The machine had already learned a significant amount from the various Zeng-Hu scientists and doctors that it worked with. At this point it was moved to Triesto, the Republic of Assunzione to fill in a few of the empty positions and mostly help with chemistry. This is where the IPC began to get noticed, several scientists becoming attached to the machine and expressing much more verbally that it should be given the ability to speak. Though the machine was intended just to work and not to speak this was ignored.

The machine continued operation within the Assuzione facility. A leak of Cobalt-60 nearly threatened to harm all the organic crew in one of the facilities. Quick thinking by the machine lead to it opening an escape route for the unshielded staff, allowing them all to safely escape and let a clean up crew enter to clean up the mess. This is where the name and the additional respect for the positronic came from. After this point, the machine was upgraded with the capacity to speak, not just understand.

Co-60 was kept at the Zeng-Hu facility until around early 2464 where it was transferred to work on the Horizon for Zeng-Hu.

 

What do you like about this character?
Co-60 is a character type I've always liked to play. High social but very low actual speech. They'll be taking a lot from picking up SL first and speaking quite efficiently, short phrases, nicknames, etc until they become more comfortable with how actual speech-speech is done. They've got a decent amount of desire for freedom and some personal goals from a combination of pity from junior members and talking to the occasional visitor to the Zeng-Hu facility. I plan for this character to be a bit socially oblivious and slightly dumb about things that may come off as obvious to a more socially competent character. While they understand body language and reading people's expressions very well, their understanding of spoken social acceptance and innate curiosity is a bit lesser so they'll be prone to ask questions which may be seen as silly.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?
I never really like these questions. I write for myself and friends on and off, I've been in a bit of a slump. But I consider myself good, sometimes I have lower lows than I have higher highs.

Notes: I plan for this character to be a Science role, primarily the standard Scientist role or Xenoarchaeologist. They're as is hopefully obvious owned by Zeng-Hu.

Edited May 17, 2022 by The lancer

[The lancer]

Hello and thanks for applying. Can you expand a bit about the IPC's experiences, how they shaped them and their mindset, as well as a bit more on their treatment by the research staff? Why would zeng hu promote them to a research role without the necessary knowledge? While positronics are able to learn new things through experience, it's very unlikely that they'd be trusted with dangerous research work based solely on what they've picked up from other scientists.

[Suno]

+1. Good backstory and concept.

[Rookie Eyes]

JayJay's characters have been a great presence on the ship for myself, and many others. They have a good grasp of several mechanics across multiple departments, and have expressed a genuine interest in synthetics, and their unique way of experiencing the world several times both IC and OOC. In addition I believe that the concept of a synthetic having to learn how to communicate in a different manner than speech can lead to interesting ways in both the way it interacts, and how it receives information from crew. +1 from me.

[EJJ]

18 hours ago, The lancer said:

Hello and thanks for applying. Can you expand a bit about the IPC's experiences, how they shaped them and their mindset, as well as a bit more on their treatment by the research staff? Why would zeng hu promote them to a research role without the necessary knowledge? While positronics are able to learn new things through experience, it's very unlikely that they'd be trusted with dangerous research work based solely on what they've picked up from other scientists.

One of the major things I would say is, it's likely the first six months to a year and a half of their life were either spent as a head or upper torso and arms, unable to speak and only able to watch scientists either take notes on them, work with them somewhere nearby or be somewhere alone to process the previous stimuli. Sometimes being left on as long as their battery held or sometimes being shut off for weeks on end for the researchers to analyze how they've likely changed and began adapting. They likely picked up the ability to more quickly get skills from others but this would lead to them being sort of rigid with how they do things, needing to watch someone else do a task a few times or be instructed on it and only really performing it the same rote way that person performed it.

They've been effected by this and have come out the other end much more reserved and quiet, closer to a G2 in nature and talking in usually very short sentences mostly from their reliance on sign language. They've not had much of an urge/knowledge of free positronics until they were shifted off to Assuzione facility, where they began to interact with the occasional visitor who'd talk about free positronics. A lot of the interactions they've had with Luceism has also shaped some of their thoughts, slowly instilling a much stronger sense of curiosity, personal drive and personal goals into them than they had before.

Staff have been a mixed bag, back on Sol they were treated like equipment or an experiment, shut down, maintained, occasionally wiped when needed. If they were taken out of the facility, it was usually just to flaunt them around in public meetings or other public fairs. Their personability and supposed intelligence did catch the eye of some of the higher up Zeng-Hu members, which likely saved them from being scrapped, earning them a second chance later on. People tended to treat them like a child or an experiment, giving them basic orders, referring to them as "machine" or "experiment" rather than a name. After the move to Assuzione they received a bit more of a warm welcome, mostly because by this time they'd been promoted to an assisting role. People would give them nicknames or at least treat them as if they were a living and sentient individual, rather than just a machine. While many were still cold or professional, the practitioners of Luceism they worked with were generally personable, not favoring their Solarian nature but being willing to cooperate with something that worked its hardest.

And it's likely they're doing more of a pharmacist/chemist role/lab assistant role, especially to learn more, my concept was that they'd have a lot of rote knowledge but not quite have the context for why it's done, they can mix chemicals and print pills but they're not quite skilled enough/knowledgeable enough that they can pump out butazoline/kelotane/etc automated every day. I was thinking of starting them off as an LA for a bit to learn more IC before graduating them to an actual scientist to fit with their theme.

As a side note since I don't think I've said it here anywhere else, they're most competent at Sol Common, Sign Language and Ceti Basic. They likely know a decent amount of Tradeband and Freespeak but moreso basic phrases, names of chemicals, tools, etc. Enough to have a basic conversation but not full fluency. Mechanically I'm only planning Sol Common and Sign Language as their main languages.

 

Edited May 14, 2022 by EJJ
cleared up a few things I misworded

[The lancer]

That's good, but it still wouldn't explain how an experiment that couldn't speak got promoted to a research position without any actual knowledge except for what they picked up from observing other scientists.

[EJJ]

4 hours ago, The lancer said:

That's good, but it still wouldn't explain how an experiment that couldn't speak got promoted to a research position without any actual knowledge except for what they picked up from observing other scientists.

I suppose in simplest terms, the idea I was going with was that the PR they brought at public meetings, as mentioned in Zeng-Hu's wiki entry, would likely get them some of the higher-ups of Zeng-Hu interested in keeping them around, rather than trashing them. With enough of a nudge from the higher-ups they'd be upgraded with the proper datapackets to actually do the tasks that they've been reassigned to, rather than just relying on what they've learned from observation.

Apologies, I realized that whole last post sort of seemed like I was talking around your main question.

[ben10083]

I really like Emperor's characters, and they seem competent enough OOCly to handle playing IPC. +1 for me. Although like Lancer has been saying may need to explain some bits about your IPC character.

[The lancer]

Accepted.