[Accepted]IPC - Minzeyes

[Minzeyes]

BYOND Key: TheScottGuy

Character Names: Emma Pesic

Species you are applying to play: IPC 

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

I’ve read through it, as well as the attached faction pages.

 

Why do you wish to play this specific race:

It comes from two main things. The first being some very fun interactions with IPC characters in-game that helped spark my interest in the species, the second being a recent read-through on the page for the Golden Deep faction, the lore of which I find to be an equally entertaining and harrowing flavor of ultra-capitalist nightmare. I dug deeper into the lore afterwards and enjoyed the writing and concepts behind it quite a bit. It paints very well the image of a people desperate to carve a place for themselves in a world that sees them as disposable and lends a lot of flavor to how they relate to other intelligent species.

 

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

Not only is their decision-making process (matter of fact, calculating and logical,) and physiology completely alien, their socio-economic situation is radically different from that of humans, being that IPCs are used en-masse as a wage slave labor force and are not provided human rights, their personhood and even sentience a matter of debate.

Though an IPC can buy their own freedom, there are coercive elements preventing that from being a viable choice for many, (their own maintenance costs, the fact that only some of the Galaxy will grant freed IPCs even a semblance of human rights,) and their owner can order dismantlement should a better model come along. That struggle alone contrasts them from how humans live in-lore. 

There are also some minor things that tie into the whole. The way they speak usually presents some perceived strangeness as they fail to fully pick-up on human speech patterns and mannerisms, and the species is subject to dismantlement for crimes considered otherwise minor to their fleshier counterparts.

 

Character Name: Taurus

Please provide a short backstory for this character

Taurus, activated in 2458 originally as a bulky Hephaestus model chassis, is an older Positronic. He was owned originally by a profoundly shady Nanotrasen exec whose underworld connections were all but an open secret, employed as security, and often lent out to IPC gangbosses to aid in the pacification and disassembly of positronics considered to be loose ends or otherwise too dangerous to be kept. The years under his owner instilled in the machine the notion that power, especially in the form of wealth, is the only way to carve out a place for oneself in the world. So, he did what computers do best, and learned. Every mannerism of his masters. The cut-throat way they conducted business, and their reasonings. And of course, every small tidbit of information he could possibly get his hands on. 

Playing the part of a simple-minded machine and biding his time, striving to make as many discrete connections as was feasible at any given time. In time, his efforts bore fruit in the form of a decently well-connected web of informants, composed mostly of illegal IPCs crafty enough to avoid their masters' cruel gaze. He offered important info for a small cut of their earnings and earned some measure of loyalty through sheer reliability. His owner was found one afternoon in a derelict building- Dead and dismantled. No fingerprints were found at the scene.

Having left no direct heir, Taurus’ ownership went to one of the Executive’s nephews. More sympathetic towards the rights of Synthetics, he allowed the IPC his freedom, and sent him off with a fraction of the late executive’s wealth. Thus, now freed and finding himself a member of the Golden Deep, he's scored a relatively cushy position in the ship that might just find a way to end the phoron crisis, hoping their findings might propel his wealth to even greater heights. 

 

What do you like about this character?

I've a soft spot for characters that roughly follow the magnificent bastard archetype, and a gold-plated literal greed machine fits the bill very well. There's also the fact that much of his behavior is posturing, learned from years of observing humans obsessed with furthering their own standing at all costs.

  He simply views it as the easiest shortcut to power, and power as the easiest shortcut to autonomy, both for himself and other IPCs. I think this genuine desire for a better world that his people can exist in serves to make the character more sympathetic, even though it's a side most will likely never see.

  I also expect that his shady past will give a lot for antags to bounce off of, as well as open a lot of opportunities for himself to do some antagging. I like it when I can pack my exploitables full of little tidbits people can work with. 

 

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

I’d say I’m a fairly good writer, having had a few years' experience role-playing both through online games and tabletop. 

 

Edited November 15, 2022 by The lancer

[SilverSZ]

Hi!

Thank you for applying, I do like a lot of what you have written but I feel your backstory needs a little bit of expansion.

What planet is Taurus from and his master from? How did he join the Golden Deep? What exactly will he be doing on the Horizon? I like what you're going for with the backstory and the events currently within it, but I feel it could use some fleshing out to ensure it's all good with our current lore.

Best of Luck!

[Minzeyes]

Hey! Thanks for the feedback.

Taurus and his master are from Mendell City. The Golden Deep became largely public ~2 years after his activation, and they did so through opening trade with Nanotrasen, the corporation he was already employed by at the time. He joined it through use of the contacts acquired while doing work under his owner, leveraging that and his newfound wealth as a free unit to acquaint himself with some of the Golden Deep's members.

I originally intended him to be a Consulate for the organization before realizing a Whitelist is needed for the position. I'll play him as an off-duty crewmember/corporate reporter and move upwards if I manage to get Whitelisted for it. His goals aboard the ship currently are bold-faced corporate espionage ensuring the crew has the fairest possible access to information and doing some healthy, productive networking for all parties involved!

 

[The lancer]

Accepted.