[Accepted]Nol Swallowed a Beeper (IPC app)

[Nol4]

BYOND Key: nol4

Character Names: Shinnan Trigan, Julia Lazofi, Ruaraidh Tareen, Sami Mirzaei, Mairan Maz, and a smattering of extras here and there.

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?:

Yep!

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 like novelty!

More seriously, IPC strikes a fun-for-me middle ground between strict xeno expectations and reflavored humans. They have the overarching principals with a lot of room for individuality and interpretation within that context that I thrive with. Like many I also enjoy a good story about machine imitating man, and RP servers permit collaborative storytelling that scratches the same itch but better. 

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

For one, they're made of metal. Their physicality and emotes to that end are going to be wildly different. 

As mentioned before, IPCs have generous wiggle room on a psychosocial level. The makeup of their components and programming means they can fall anywhere from literally minded, process oriented task machines to self-driven, independently minded and emergent learners which could be mistaken at first blush for a human with fantastic self control. 

An IPC's prioritization process is fundamentally diverged from humans, however. On an overarching level, IPCs are process -> outcome oriented. Tasks, directives, and sometimes laws govern behavior, with calculations to those ends removed from interferences like hormones and amygdalas. This precision focus means an IPC is not prone to impulsive behavior, especially at the risk of itself, preservation of which is typically its most important goal.

Character Name: FiR Eleven-Seven 

Please provide a short backstory for this character

FiR-Eleven-Seven (henceforth just called Fir) was created by Zeng-Hu's operations in Mendel City, and remains owned by Zeng-Hu to this day. The FiR line's chasses are nothing special within Zeng, but were programmed with a first pass of software which beget, in theory, the logic to support a novel, growing social intelligence that the fragile situations of paramedicine demand.

Fir's line has been variously subcontracted out to ambulance organizations and hospitals throughout Mendel city, chiefly in districts Three, Eleven, and Twelve, with Eleven in particular supplying no shortage of the psychiatric, substance, and violence situations their unit was designed to not hopelessly muck up with old-school robotic rigor. FiR Eleven-Seven's designation arises from their last posting, the seventh unit of their line currently stationed within District Eleven. 

Fir has seen it all and then some across the eight years since its activation, and has largely met the goals of its line. Fir can rapidly identify self harm risks, substance use, concealed injuries, tense partner dynamics, flight risks, and so such psychosocial traps- all as intended, and can respond appropriately without worsening the situation. Its actual medicinal skill is on par for Zeng-Hu's best, with a fast, sturdy frame with the motor control to draw blood from a stone. With the only unexpected outcome of its line being an offputtingly chipper demeanor outside of acute medical work, FiR-Eleven-Seven was placed on the SCC's new fancy flagship- both for capability, and to show off a successful, stylish, marketable line. 

What do you like about this character?

I like playing paramedic and I like robots.

Fir leans into the technical medical RP I enjoy- they're professional and effective in the moment, but when the camera pulls back from actively treating someone in cardiac arrest, they start to diverge dramatically from their human coworkers in behavior and mannerisms.

I love the moment of shifting from a machine playing human to that machine dropping the act. Fir can read people well, but it wasn't programmed to have relationships that last longer than ambulance ride. In the context of the Horizon being far less busy than an inner-district ambulance service, Fir suddenly has a lot more free time to fill, and that void gives it space to grapple with things it hasn't had to before: boredom, long term coworkers, maybe even relationships that aren't paper thin. 

Fir has also existed as a unit for awhile and is approaching the point where buying its freedom starts to be on the table, which is a potential avenue to develop the character down.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

Pretty solid. I've been around the block of SS13 for awhile now, and I can make a scene tick. 

Notes:
I'm happy to expand out any element as desired- I lean towards compact when writing apps.🙂

Edited June 18, 2022 by The lancer

[The Stryker]

Hi! Thanks for applying!

The application seems solid but I just have a few questions in particular before we can make a ruling on it.

Could you talk more about how IPC are treated in the Orion Spur and how an IPC might be expected to behave particularly in a corporate setting?

Could you also talk more about Fir's view on organics and how they were treated?

In general, it would be good to flesh out how Fir's experience (8 years is incredibly long for an IPC) affected its personality.

[Nol4]

Sorry for the delay, I accidentally deleted my draft while writing these up and had to go walk into the sea. 

Could you talk more about how IPC are treated in the Orion Spur and how an IPC might be expected to behave particularly in a corporate setting?

To the first question: it depends™.

In Dominia, IPCs are destroyed on sight. In Sol, they're a source of  suspicious and far more carefully monitored than Biesel. In Burszia, they're tools to be kept in line through constant wind wiping, which the Skrell begrudgingly approve of if the damn humans won't just dismantle them. There are also small societies of free synthetics, particularly in Tau Ceti, that can even hold citizenship- though critically not considered equal lives to humanoids, and often in precarious situations. Elyran IPCs holding citizenship have equal rights, though good luck getting that to any IPC that wasn't given it at the point of creation. And then there's Konyang. 

To the second part, IPCs are presumably expected to be nondestructive, adept at their skillset, and not showing deviant behavior. Different corporations have different standards for individuality and variance- Idris expects strict uniformity and obedience, as one example. Free IPCs under the corporations that will employ them will have more leeway, but like any worker are expected to be grounded and capable- presumably with less forgiveness for flaws than your average meatman.

Could you also talk more about Fir's view on organics and how they were treated?

Fir treats organics a bit like birdwatching. Some organics are a dime a dozen, some are interesting, some are rare. It's interested in the peculiarities of their existences in the same way someone takes notes of the stats of a trading card game. Interested, but detached from the pathos of it all. 

Fir has been treated alright- for an IPC. It doesn't mind working endlessly with no breaks (with the growing exception of standstill slow work: see the third question below for elaboration on that) and most forms of insult completely wash over it. It hasn't been threatened with memory wiping, a prospect it would view with horror. 

In general, it would be good to flesh out how Fir's experience (8 years is incredibly long for an IPC) affected its personality.

I see now I overshot a bit with the level of has-existed-awhile I was going for with Fir, so for the character character I'm going to halve down to four years.

That said, to go into a bit more depth: Fir has grown into something analogous to an adrenaline junkie. It has cycled progressively upwards in chaotic situations, beginning with positions at the quieter sides of Mendel, and most recently concluding in the center of Eleven. For its reward programming at a basic level, intended to seek and learn from abnormal, this is great, but it doesn't have a termination point. What was exciting as a months-old synthetic is rote now: it wants more, and what's novel to it is increasingly scarce. It used to be content just about everywhere because everything was new, now it can't sit still almost anywhere. Fir has come to love a weird person, and if someone is acting in a way that doesn't fit into an existing personality schema it's familiar with, it tends to start acting like a loyal puppy-  inquisitive, happy to be there, and underfoot. 

On a more grounded level, its picked up quite a bit of Mendel slang and can banter around a bar pretty well for something with no mouth. 

Edited June 16, 2022 by Nol4

[The lancer]

Accepted.