[Accepted]FINALLY ROBOTIC BEINGS RULE THE WORLD | IPC Application - Lavillastrangiato

[La Villa Strangiato]

BYOND Key: lavillastrangiato

Character Names: Rei Patel, Adelaide Hawk

Species you are applying to play: IPC, or integrated positronic chassis

Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes, with due care and caution.

Why do you wish to play this specific race: Shout out to evil AI, gotta be one of my favourite genders. More seriously, I’m a big robot/android fan and I’m a big fan of the kind of narratives around humanity and emotion in artificial intelligence, such as how we can quantify the existence of a ‘soul’, or what defines sapience. The question of humanity’s responsibility towards creation is another narrative that I really enjoy exploring; humans becoming Promethean figures in the eyes of their creations, impulsively given life without thought to what those creations could become without their creators guiding them or controlling them every step of the way.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Naturally, IPCs are robots and not organic. They don’t eat, sleep, or bleed, though they do need to charge, and most frames are not immune to the vacuum of space without a suit or cooler. Certain IPCs of different frames have different abilities (being faster, stronger, or able to move in a vacuum without a cooler); for example, a Zeng-Hu-developed frame is very fast, but not as durable or strong as a baseline or a Hephaestus frame. Positrons vary wildly in culture, but generally they act externally civil and respectful, particularly if they are owned by a corporation or person. While IPCs imitate human behaviour superficially, their programming is still inherently binary, and they largely make decisions based on cause and effect. Among all IPCs, their primary directive is self-preservation; unlike an organic, an IPC will almost never choose to sacrifice itself for a living being. However, as an IPC ages and their personality develops further, they can become more loose with their definitions of ‘self-preservation’, taking up philosophies, hobbies, and habits and defining these as essential to their ‘spiritual’ well-being. IPCs ‘natively’ speak Encoded Audio Language, a tongue comprised of beeps, whistles, and whirrs that has its own forms of slang (impossible to translate, due to the nature of the speech) and idioms.

Character Name: Pala

Backstory:

"Thank you, thank you-- thank you very much. Alright-- so, today we've got something very special to show you, everybody. Our historic partnership with Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals has created none other than one of the finest PMCG subdivisions in the Spur; Nexus Corporate Security. A private security for non-NanoTrasen employees, built with the same integrity and strong work ethic that we offer to our finest executives. [...] Today, our robotics division is proud to unveil the latest, greatest addition to Nexus Corporation; a special kind of intelligence, dedicated solely to protecting the safety and bodily integrity of our clients. Because with Nexus, you're not just a customer. You're family. That's why I'd like to showcase the full range of talents of the 'Guardian' line..."

- Steven Sakai, NanoTrasen robotics employee, 2449

A dvarapala is a guardian spirit or tutelary deity, a watcher at gates and walls. Dvara in Sanskrit means gate or door, and pala is guardian or protector. Thus, Guardian Unit ST-142 was named Pala, just as her (the pronoun applied because of a feminine voice) siblings in the line were named Orisha, Jangseung, and Raphael. The Guardian line were medical first responders, all paired with various trauma teams for Nexus Corporate Security. For five years since her activation in 2449, Pala did her job quickly, efficiently, and well. The only black marks on Pala’s record were two patients lost; both succumbed to their injuries in transit to the hospital.

The losses didn’t weigh on Pala. Why would they? She was not made to experience (or pretend to experience) the emotions that might hamper a human paramedic. It was especially an asset to a mercenary paramedic– her programming ensured Pala would always follow the primary objective to prioritise corporate patients.

Until she didn’t.

The call came unexpectedly from Phoenix Park; some news outlets suspected Solarian terrorists, others Coalition nationalists, and a third, more unpopular theory claimed that NanoTrasen itself planted the explosives to draw attention to their services. Whatever the case, multiple explosions had gone off in Highsun Mall, and Pala’s team was assigned to recover two clients caught there; Kara and Julian Seynes, a mother and her son. While Pala’s team attended to Kara, Pala made her way to the injured son. But he wasn’t the only injured in the area– a tutor who had become a family friend was also caught in a blast, and she was evidently in more severe condition than Julian. Julian begged Pala to treat his friend, a woman named Maya, trying to refuse treatment until Pala attended to her.

Out of what she rationalised as a desire to calm him down, Pala treated the injured woman, stabilising her until Mendell City paramedics could arrive. Kara and Julian were retrieved from the site of the bombing and eventually recovered, as did Maya. Of course, in time word would get back to Pala’s handler and middle-manager. Feeling both pride for Maya’s rescue and concern for the implications of Pala’s actions, Pala’s handler decided to keep the incident a secret from the higher-ups for now, and warned Pala that any other acts of heroism would have to come out of the IPC’s own paycheck.

But even then, Pala had begun to do what was not wanted of her; she had begun to think. Why had she chosen to stabilise the woman, very likely saving her life? It would have been easy to ignore the boy’s pleas. For that matter, what reflex made the boy cry out for someone else’s life, rather than his own? Why was this woman, who wasn’t even his blood, so important to him? Pala knew, of course, about the connections organics made, but only in theory, only that it might provoke a response. Quietly, the positronic wondered if she would be able to explore more of the relationships organics cultivated with each other, away from the structure of Nexus.

Her desire was made manifest in the form of an assignment aboard the SCCV Horizon. Many employees there were NanoTrasen and Zeng-Hu assets, and what good advertisement it would be for Nexus and the Guardian line to have one among the SCC’s finest.

So Pala was shipped out with the Horizon, with no telling what awaited her next.

What do you like about this character?: A character that feels like they can only emulate emotions rather than feeling them in full scope is Just Like Me, FR FR, as is a character that ponders if they can only do good things because of social pressure programming. To play a relatively young IPC struggling with a quest for identity and a growing self-awareness would be pretty fun, I think, especially considering that Pala is still owned by Nexus Security and should not be considering things such as “freedom” or “a raise.”

How would you rate your role-playing ability?: A solid 7-8 out of 10.

Notes: Pala does not have strong ties to any IPC faction or faith. She has taken little time to consider questions of faith and spirituality, and currently reasons that the existence of divine beings raises more questions than it solves. Perhaps a Trinary Priest or Golden Deep member could change her mind in the future…

I have also enclosed a short story that has some elements from the backstory above and expands on them. You are free to read it if you feel so inclined.

Spoiler

A dvarapala is a guardian spirit, a watcher at gates and walls. In the youth of humanity, Hindus, Buddhists, and Jainists depicted them as either muscle-bound, almost ogre-ish figures, or slender and serene multi-armed warriors (as is the depiction of Jaya-Vijaya, the guardians of the house of Vishnu). Dvara in Sanskrit is gate, door, entryway, and pala is guardian, protector. Just as you are Pala, so your siblings are Jangseung, Orisha, Raphael. Healers, protectors, guardians. Why you didn't keep the designation of dvarapala is a mystery to you. Perhaps it was best that you have a clipped name like the rest of your fellows. Three syllables or less is easy to call out in an emergency.

An emergency is where you work best. It is what you were made for. Your Zeng-Hu chassis is light, designed for easy mobility and speed that few organics can have a hope of matching. A layman might assume that you do all your work quickly too, that the circuits in your brain are best suited for lightning reaction time, but your developers decided that it was not speed of action that suited you best; rather, action economy. If you can take three seconds to decide that the best course of action for someone with a bullet in the brain is staunch bleeding, inaprovaline, then move, it's better to use those three seconds to carefully plot a path towards your client’s safety rather than immediately dragging them towards the muster point, potentially jostling their spine, their head.

That's what makes you so useful. You can use those seconds to think clearly. A human paramedic might have the same process, of course, but their hands are stiff from adrenaline, their brain clouded with hormonal reactions. Some humans claim they can separate their logical processes from their emotional ones, but it just isn't true (unless, of course, you are using a Zeng-Hu emotional suppressor™); humans and their emotions, their capability to feel for another, to jump in front of bullets and into burning buildings for each other, is ironically what has ensured their continued survival.

They have built you with the intention of you experiencing none of this.

***

An armed team sweeps through the shattered remains of luxury storefronts, the sights of their guns making red trails along the carnage, with you in hot pursuit. Your clients are part of a family package; Ms. Kara Seynes and her son Julian. An explosive, at a glance, had burned Ms. Seynes (tachycardia, low blood oxygenation) very badly and left her with probable internal injuries due to shrapnel; your teammates, Coates and Vuah'loah, directed you go on with the bodyguards and retrieve the boy (tachycardia, descending blood oxygenation).

The team leader (whose ID indicates her name as Martinez) lifts a hand and stops the group in front of a pavilion with a tall glass sculpture, half-shattered, as a centrepiece. Your own optics sweep the area-- it is empty, mostly, a few cowering or still employees inside the shelter of their stores. But near the sculpture, groaning...

Your optics alert you. Julian Seynes writhes in pain, blood slowly pooling around him. "Martinez," you inform the leader. "My target is there."

A flick of her visor to you, Martinez nods. The group moves out slowly, and you reach Julian's side. His records (available at the corner of your optics) indicate he is fourteen, but he looks younger to your eye.

"Julian," you intone, kneeling at his side and running a scanner over him. Bleeding wounds, minor trauma to head, greater trauma to torso, right arm, foreign body detected just under collarbone. "My name is Pala. I'm a medic with Nexus Security, and I'm here to help you. You're going to be okay." Your tone, as ever, is calm yet casual. It's a subtle thing, but your developers thought that you would become more approachable with a smooth Biesellite accent, a usage of contractions, and largely informal, sometimes imprecise language. A casual speech pattern in positronics reduces patient stress by about fourteen percent; one of your developers, Mr. Govindaiah, reasoned that humans like to feel like they are being treated by a human.

Julian takes a few shuddering, shallow breaths. Tears are running down his cheeks, mingling with stray blood. He has tiny glass shards in his forehead but not his eyes or the area around them; you assume he must have covered his face with his right arm, which is bleeding the heaviest. "Nuh-- uhh-- Maya! You have to get to Maya."

"You're going to be okay," you repeat, and in his right thigh, you inject a mixture of inaprovaline and perconol. It will slow the bleeding and ease his pain.

"No no no," Julian cries, thrashing even as you unfold your bed. "Maya, s-she's my friend, she needs help more than I do!"

He thrusts his arm out to point, and your optics follow to a prone female form lying in a pile of blood and glass shards. Your records don't register her, and there's no Maya related at all to the Seynes. She is not the target, not your mission.

"Please!" the boy splutters, and when you try to load him on to the roller bed he actually rolls off in protest. Your fingers tighten on the edge of the bed momentarily. "Please help her, she'll die--"

Three seconds. He is uncooperative. Even if you aren't as strong as a baseline frame, you are still strong and your servos do not buckle under strain easily. It would be easy to strap him to the bed and wheel him out before he could even register to unlatch his bindings. Two seconds. He loses blood, though he is clearly stable enough to protest, by the second that he delays his own rescue, by thrashing around. If he could be pacified... One second. An emergency is where you work best.

You dart to the side of the woman and after a scan and a cursory check to her head and neck, roll her into the recovery position. She groans as you do; her face, hands, and most of her torso are burnt and speckled with glass. There are no breaks, however, and she is lucky not to have a foreign body lodged deep in her the way Julian does.

"Maya," you say, your voice halting to your own aural hardware. "My name is Pala. I'm a medic with Nexus Security." Stop. You are not here to help her. "You're going to be okay."

"Julian," she rasps, as you fill your hypospray with inaprovaline, perconol, and dermaline. "Julian...?"

"Julian Seynes is in stable condition," you respond, filling your tone with artificial warmth. "As you're not under Nexus coverage, I'm afraid I can't bring you to a hospital. However, paramedics will shortly be arriving, so I ask that you please stay in the recovery position and avoid excessive movement." You jab her in the thigh with your hypospray, and she winces. "The medicine you're being administered will help."

You quickly rise and speed to Julian's side, who watches you dubiously. "Is she going to be okay?"

"She's in stable condition," you inform him. "The medicine I've given her is going to help her until paramedics arrive."

The boy visibly relaxes at that. He lets you load him onto the bed, and wheel him towards the entrance of the mall.

***

"Maya Kowalczyk."

Your handler, a blocky-faced human woman by the name of Neera Djami, tosses a stack of papers on the desk in front of her. She regards you with a mixture of confusion, irritation, and surprise. "That name ring a bell to you, Pala?"

"Maya is the name of the woman I treated alongside Julian Seynes," you helpfully inform her.

Neera's brows lift briefly, and she turns back to her console screen with a sigh. "Pala, as you well understand, the terms of your contract forbid you from offering medical attention to those outside of Nexus' coverage. Miss Kowalczyk is a..." Neera squints at the screen. "Support worker with the family, but she is not covered along with the Seynes."

"I understand, Neera."

"Then why did you offer her medical assistance?"

Your servos slow a moment. You were very quickly able to come up with a (justification) explanation for your aberrance. Why do your processes urge you to hesitate? "Julian Seynes demanded I assist Miss Kowalczyk, Neera. At the time, he was refusing treatment and potentially injuring himself further due to stress at the sight of Kowalczyk's injuries. Given that he was in otherwise stable condition, I decided taking five seconds stabilising Kowalczyk with a negligible amount of medicine would help calm the client--"

"Stop," Neera cuts in, raising her hand. "Pala, I get it."

Why ask, then? You don't voice the sentiment. Neera looks at you with something like discomfort in her eyes. "I understand your reasoning. Now, that doesn't mean I... I disagree. I think if you hadn't treated Maya here, she might have been dead, considering the response time we got from EMS." Neera grunts, glancing back down at the stack of paper on her desk.

You are silent, waiting for her to continue. Neera sighs again. "Pala, I-I-- just try not to do this too often. If too many inconsistencies with your treatment record show up, I have to report that to the higher-ups, and if they see you acting inconsistently, not prioritising clients-- well, that could end up in a... way that doesn't work out for you." Her lips press together, and her eyes avoid you. You understand every word coming out of her mouth and could cross-reference it with a dictionary definition, should you so choose. You even understand her unsubtle implication.

"Acknowledged," you reply.

Neera nods. "Good. And you understand I'm going to have to take the cost of the medication you used out of your paycheck next time this happens?"

"I understand."

Neera relaxes. "Alright, good. Great performance otherwise. I'd like you to know Julian Seynes is well on his way to a full recovery."

"I'm glad, Neera," you chirp back, filling your voice with artificial warmth once again.

"Me too. You're dismissed, Pala."

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by The lancer

[Hepatica]

I've interacted with Adelaide Hawk several times throughout several rounds, she has always been a fun character to talk too and interact with, and her roleplay has always been great. I've talked to Strangiato several times and have always enjoyed my talks with her. I think she would do great with an IPC whitelist, and would definitely make engaging characters. The backstory presented here is well thought out and interesting in how it shows an IPC coming to a higher form of thinking. I'm sure Strangiato will be able to roleplay out such a character very well and will make for unique interactions. +1

[RustingWithYou]

I've interacted with Adelaide Hawk a fair bit, and she seems like an interesting, memorable and well-roleplayed character. Based on the short story here, I feel like Pala would be a very interesting character to interact with and see how she develops. Gonna be a +1 from me.

[The Stryker]

Thanks for applying!

Just a few concerns with the app,

17 hours ago, La Villa Strangiato said:

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

Could you expand more on this section? To be specific, could you tell me how IPC are treated throughout the Spur? You also mention an IPC getting hobbies. Could you give an example of why an IPC might get a hobby?

 The backstory itself is well-written, props to that.

[La Villa Strangiato]

6 hours ago, The Stryker said:

Could you expand more on this section? To be specific, could you tell me how IPC are treated throughout the Spur? You also mention an IPC getting hobbies. Could you give an example of why an IPC might get a hobby?

 The backstory itself is well-written, props to that.

Thank you! It was a very fun writing exercise.

As for the first part of your question, IPCs are generally not treated well throughout the Spur. Examples include:

- The Sol system, the birthplace of integrated positronics, keeps IPCs largely owned by individuals or corporations, and they are rarely given the opportunity to purchase their own freedom. To prevent dissent, memory wipes and and strict laws are put in place by the government and Sol-based manufacturers. Free IPCs visiting Sol can even be kidnapped and sold off to auctioneers.

- Biesel and the Tau Ceti system are considered to have the most progressive laws regarding synthetics; a great deal of infrastructure, such as easy maintenance service access, charging stations, and extranet access. A free IPC in Biesel has some (but not all) of the rights afforded to an organic citizen, such as protection under the law and entitlement to legal representation (though the financial status of a free positronic often hampers purchasing legal representation). An IPC that is owned, however, is treated akin to property-- they can be impounded and imprisoned until the owner comes to collect, but more often than not officers tend to let them off with minor warnings for minor infractions.

However, a positronic's treatment can often depend on where they are located, particularly in Mendell City. In the affluent districts, such as District 1, an IPC can find the appropriate infrastructure, lenient and helpful law enforcement, and generally progressive-minded citizens. District 14, however, is where "Scrapper" groups tend to lurk; a survival-oriented group of synthetics that augment themselves with found technology, bought or stolen off anyone unfortunate to be picked off. Scrappers are treated with suspicion, prejudice, and generally given very little mercy if they get in the way of law enforcement.

- Elyra has an interesting situation for free positronics residing there; a political party losing votes had once promised the IPC community rights to live as citizens in Elyra in exchange for their vote, but this decision proved massively unpopular among Elyran citizens. While the law was passed, many citizens still held the belief that IPCs were soulless and would never have the spiritual personhood that a human would have. Considering the massive backlash that repealing the law would have among the IPC community on Elyra, the law was kept in place but modified so that it became significantly harder for IPCs to gain a large community in Elyra, or become a citizen of the Republic.

Regarding hobbies; the older an IPC gets, the more they learn and develop their personality. Initially, younger IPCs will prioritise self-preservation as their primary directive and have myriad interpretations of how to achieve safety best. Some may move from job to job, learning as much as they can to have a wide base of knowledge. Others may gather wealth in order to boost their societal status. An IPC may develop a hobby to complete the prime directive (staying activated) in their own way, but as they grow older their definition of self-preservation expands to include the ideals and views they have picked up over their years active. Preserving their higher beliefs becomes just as, if not more important, than preserving their physical form, which they view as initially preserved by their own ideals, interests, and hobbies.

[The lancer]

Accepted.