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Zulu's IPC Application (Do Not Merge) (High Risk)


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BYOND Key: Zulu0009
Character Names: Francisco Vazquez, Bennet Gris, Annabelle Boone, S.W.A.U. MK-9 (Borg)
Species you are applying to play: IPC
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:

To paraphrase from previous applications and newer thoughts, IPCs are personally the most interesting mirror to the problems that many still face today, and that in 2465 may have been forgotten. Slavery, institutional racial discrimination, unpunished violence. IPCs allow a lot of different interactions, with people defending them, people accusing them, neutral stances and whatever else is in between. Sure, it's correct to treat IPCs as sentient beings with a right to life, but IC personal views, religious views and the ever present question "is AI sentient" blur that correct line a lot. Playing a Trinarist IPC months ago was enjoyable because of the possibility of being insulted, being chastised, having the Trinary banner ripped, etc. I also loved the other interactions with IPCs, especially a specific one whose name I forgot, which struggled with "thinking too much" and the symptoms of simulated emotional responses. I think through an IPC, we can explore a lot of concepts that might be harder to talk about, such as stress, violence, oppression, the existential dread that inhabits us all (real). Jokes aside, I didn't care very much about the mechanical benefits of IPCs, that a G2 could tank this much damage or that this IPC can go EVA freely. What I cared about were the interactions and exploring how the life of a Synthetic can be interpreted, talking with a Golden Deep capitalist one second, then a Dominian Head of Security, etc. But then again, I also just really like playing a big metal man and seeing how people react to it.

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

Aside from the myriad of differences in body type, looks, height, weight (robots be heavy), the main difference is societal, both from an outside-in and an inside-out perspective. Outside-in, IPCs are generally treated differently, as explained above. On Sol, they're considered property, freely sold and scrapped with little care. On Konyang, they're friends and colleagues. In Mendell, they're restricted to a single district under the pretense of freedom. This variety is also what I enjoy while playing. While humans will obviously have their strife and discord, and putting a Legionnaire and a Solarian in the same room will end in bloodshed, there's a general lack of hatred and bigotry if not classist or political, the latter of which is often justified by history and the former which is usually punished with pranks and lower-class solidarity. Inside-out, IPCs are in a weird spot, reminding me of when automated machines are first added to manual labor factories. While basic decency is expected of IPCs, they don't suffer pain, they don't feel sadness, they don't feel happiness - not in the way humans do, at least. This difference makes human-IPC interactions sometimes difficult, especially with older models which were essentially heavy machinery with brains. How would an IPC act if a crew member lost a friend next to them? How would an IPC react to physical or verbal violence? This is up to the player, because it's vastly varied. A 2463 brand new Konyang Shell will probably be able to console a grieving crew member, but a rusty old mining Baseline, probably will not. It's difficult for me to explain how I interpret IPCs detecting human emotions and relating to them and expressing them, but the best way I could describe it is a basic reward-punishment system. "I have done a good job, thus I am/should be rewarded, rewards are good because they mean more maintenance or new parts. I accidentally struck a crew member with my arm, that is harmful to them, I am/should be punished." The more an IPC learns or the more advanced it gets, the more these options branch out like neurons, even abandoning the usual concept of physical self-preservation. "If I console this crew member, they will be happy, which means the general mood of the crew will increase, which is good because it means they will be more motivated, thus may be harmed less" or something like that. Again, it's a bit difficult to describe it, sorry.

Character Name: Torpedo Port

Please provide a short backstory for this character:

Torpedo Port, originally called Supply Delivery Unit 67, was a lonely Orion Express deliveryman, a barely paid IPC flying a small ship to equally lonely outposts and stations. It did this until a fateful day in 2462, when in the metaphorical rear view mirror of his ship, Mars burst into hellfire. Supply Delivery Unit, SDU-67, was travelling to Europa for a standard delivery run, when a combination of a surface cryogeyser and a terrified Solarian corvette met. SDU's ship was struck by supersonic jets of ice and water, and began drifting towards the corvette. Confused and overwhelmed by the thousands of radio calls being intercepted about a massive explosion on Mars and interpreting the tiny ship as a missile, they fired, sending the wreckage flying into Europa's surface. A few hours later, SDU's positronic brain activated and heard two words over a muffled radio: "Torpedo port!"

As it turns out, SDU had crashed through the cryogeyser into the Europan sea, and had impacted an independent submarine. Ignoring the overexcited crewman who had screamed for a torpedo, a team exited the submarine and recovered what they could for salvage, bringing what they thought to be a dead IPC on board. To their surprise, once inside, it gently whispered "Torpedo port". Over the course of a year and a half, the crew of the Buzzed Merman repaired SDU-67, which was unable to say much aside from "Yes", "No" and "Torpedo port". Eventually, they docked at Trelenje Station and brought the IPC to a robotics workshop, unable to continue repairs. An Orion Express robotics workshop. An altercation occurred while the repairs went on, with the Orion Express staff claiming the submariners had stolen the IPC and used it for themselves and the submariners claiming that Orion Express had abandoned it and forgotten about it. As soon as SDU-67's voice modulator was functional, it expressed its thanks to the crew, vouched to remain in contact with them, but expressed a (corporate-influenced) desire to return to its previous job.

Now, Torpedo Port, as it requested to be renamed, works on the SCCV Horizon as a simple Hangar Technician, having absorbed Europan submariner culture after the crash forced a brain reset. It speaks in a hushed tone, dresses like a port worker and dons a little bone charm gifted from its friends on the Buzzed Merman.

What do you like about this character?

This is a rework of an older idea I had about a Plutonian IPC, and is just a fun little concept that I really enjoy. A few other characters have very in-depth backstories, but Torpedo Port is just an owned IPC which was dragged by the current (get it?) through the rough seas of life (get it again?). If nothing had happened, it probably would have remained a silent, average IPC making deliveries back and forth around Sol, but it was thrown into a new situation, and aided by the simple empathy of a hardy submarine crew. Now, it's an optimistic but quiet Synthetic learning what it's like to be around humans, how to be friendly, how to talk to them, and how to make acquaintances. Torpedo Port is like a child that's been thrust into a new environment and is learning the ins and outs of society. I love the idea of a shy, stiff IPC trying to understand how to shake someone's hand properly, or how to pet a cat. I also thought a slightly more upbeat and fun idea would be nice, rather than something heavier dealing with harder topics.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?: I'd say I'm pretty good, but I can get burnt out easily.

Notes: Please allow me a day or two to gather feedback! As a note, I'd like to say that in the time I've been playing since the start of December, I've understood how to avoid burn out, which is the primary issue I faced and the reason I've been, frankly, a dick to some of the staff. I've also taken the time to make a list of the behaviors and interactions I disliked or other people disliked about my IPCs. I used screenshots, conversations and DMs to understand what I will remove from any characters I make, or pick back up. I am 100% open to any personal notes anyone reading may want to send me about the IPCs I played (Mobius, mostly, who will be heavily reworked) and to avoid using this thread, you can send them to me on Discord. I will add them and keep them in mind when playing, if I am approved. As a final remark, thank you to whoever is reviewing this. I know I have caused some chaos with the Synthetic Lore Team, but I hope I can start again and prove that I can play an IPC within your standards.

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Hi

Firstly, thank you for applying. I've had a good amount of interaction with Francisco IC and seeing them both live up to the RP quality I would expect from an Aurora character and Synth Whitelistee makes me personally very happy. Francisco is a fun and interesting character and whilst I haven't seen the others to my memory I have no reason to doubt that either and gives me a lot of reassurance in regards to the application. Which itself, is perfectly good. If this were from a player with no previous history with the server it would be an easy accept for me. 

However, there is a serious matter to be bought up and discussed. Mobius was the character that previously caused your whitelist to be stripped, and regardless of the idea of them being reworked heavily the synthetic team feels uncomfortable with them being bought back and unfortunately we are going to have to say that bringing said character back is a hard no from us. Regardless of the outcome of the application, we don't feel comfortable with someone playing a character that previously lead to their whitelist being stripped in any form.

I understand that the character must mean a lot to you, it's natural to be invested in characters you make and play for a long period. If you decide to withdraw your application based on this decision, there's no hard feelings. If you do continue with the application, you have my full support and I wish you the best. 

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Thank you for replying! Playing Mobius again was one of the factors towards me applying again, and I have to admit that I feel a bit cheated since I was told I could play it again in the past. Regardless, I understand the reasoning behind this decision and I will keep the application up, Mobius was only one of many reasons to play an IPC. Given that part of his appeal was playing a psychologist, would I be allowed to play an IPC psychologist/psychiatrist again, then? Or is this a matter for further talk if I'm approved?

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5 minutes ago, Zulu0009 said:

Thank you for replying! Playing Mobius again was one of the factors towards me applying again, and I have to admit that I feel a bit cheated since I was told I could play it again in the past. Regardless, I understand the reasoning behind this decision and I will keep the application up, Mobius was only one of many reasons to play an IPC. Given that part of his appeal was playing a psychologist, would I be allowed to play an IPC psychologist/psychiatrist again, then? Or is this a matter for further talk if I'm approved?

I'm sorry for the disappointment and do understand it, I would feel the same in the same situation but I do feel that not bringing back Mobius is for the best and I'm glad you understanding our reasoning, my biggest hope will be that you find a character you enjoy even more if you get the whitelist back.

Outside of this, there's no other restrictions that you would have regarding IPC characters or what you can do or anything like that outside of any other member of the whitelist, part of why I think not returning Mobius is it means a truly clean slate and we can all move on with everything previous being water under the bridge and no need for anything more to be done besides let you enjoy playing the server with the whitelist.

I'm glad you still want to pursue the whitelist and as I said before, if this were a new player I would give it 100% approval and with Mobius not returning I fully see everything that happened as water under the bridge and give this application my +1. Best of Luck once again.

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We all get the burnout, big brain or unga from time to time. I found your characters quite enjoyable from our interactions and think you will make a decent IPC as well. Just ask the lore nerds before comming up with wild concepts (it's usually safer to get an official okay before doing the funny, same with ahelps). Not much to add to what the others have said, but yeah sticking to it and not giving up is a good sign of sincere interest.

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I'll also add this from one of the new people around :^)

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Gotta give 'em the +1

 

While I was personally excited to get Mobius back, since our characters had great interactions and were arguably friends. However, Zulu can pull off decent robo's. They're fun to play with and I am excited to see what fun, lore-friendly robo boi's and gals they produce for us to bully RP with

Edited by LordPwner
I can't spell dude, it's a crime
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Vazquez is a Bridge crewman I have interacted quite a bit with
First looks can be deceiving and upon more interaction with him I am 100%  confident that while aimed towards more zany scenarios this player is capable of executing it with utmost sincerity.

I have had many situations where Vazquez wanted to do something silly and then decided against it when asked, or against it when given permission in such a believable natural way.

He is entirely capable of subtle and complex roleplay and underneath everything he does lies someone who can take  the roleplay seriously.

This is not common.

I have seen people who seem serious at first then become neglectful

Zulu is not neglectful

I love playing with him and I hope he can make some IPC crew to liven up the place.

+1

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