Nagito Komaeda Posted March 24, 2023 Share Posted March 24, 2023 (edited) BYOND Key: N. Komaeda Character Names: Jason Hellevan, Trevor Mulligan Species you are applying to play: Skrell What colour do you plan on making your first alien character: A cyan colour for a Xiialt Skrell. Not sure about the specific hex-code yet, I'd have to narrow that down in game. Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Certainly. I can’t guarantee I’ve read every single thing, but I’ve gone through the main page and various other pages on numerous occasions. Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. Why do you wish to play this specific race: I don’t particularly get much enjoyment out of playing humans (after all, I play one in real life every day). So I’m looking to branch out a bit. Skrell caught my eye after some lovely interactions in the game, after which I started doing my research. They have a lot of what I like about Unathi on a server like Polaris: A long-lived species whose wisdom always appears in their craft. Furthermore, they’re psionically involved by default, which is new to me! Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Skrell, like mentioned earlier, live way longer than humans do, and thus they see life events differently. One could describe them as carefree when it comes to their views: Generally, they see long-term uncertainty as the devil. Where a human would worry a lot about a presentation and the preparation they have to do to give it, a Skrell experiences a ton of stress when thinking about their life choices and career path. Furthermore, the Skrell are generally described as kind and thoughtful, which is in part due to their culture. Due to their psionic presence, community and like-mindedness have become virtues of the entire Skrell-kind. Their kind and thoughtful nature also shows in their emotions; though rarely visible to humans, they express themselves through body language and auditory mannerisms mainly. Humans would find them eerie, on the notion of their deep, black eyes not showing much emotion. Character Name: Aqii Tola-Riv Please provide a short backstory for this character Considered a light blessing, Aqii Tola-Riv was born in 2241, after Skrellian society started recovering from Glorsh-Omega’s oppression. Due to the mass sterilisation, their Qrri’Myaq cherished the opportunity to guide a new youngling through life. The strenuous years after Glorsh-Omega’s fall resulted in humanitarian efforts becoming part of culture, and Aqii was raised with this in mind: To help the unfortunate. Aqii’s luck was that their Qraa’Myaq and Qrra’Myaqi were capable biological researchers, and thus they were blessed with a higher social credit score. During their youth, Aqii was constantly surrounded and exposed to the scientific method, but also the danger of stress. After all, a familial system filled with researchers experiences uncertainty, deadlines and future concerns on a regular basis. Nevertheless, Aqii persevered through their scientific studies - Partially due to the familial reputation and privilege permitted by the social credit system. The avenues of biological research following the Tri-Qyu Calamity were a perfect fit for the Tola family. Pursuing such biological science always interested Aqii, but they got a lot of satisfaction out of helping others understand what bothers them. Coming from an environment with high stress being a constant, Aqii wanted to learn to remedy the effects of such. Pursuit of the psychological sciences was lightly frowned upon in Aqii’s family - After all, Skrell society needed to be rebuilt, and they needed the best researchers available to them to achieve this. Not just that, but due to the rehabilitation within Skrell society, Aqii’s path towards formal degrees was slow. This culminated in them being treated as ‘naive’, in the sense that Aqii was considered too young to make such a decision. Yes, the Skrell pursue all research, but at the time the study of the mind was deemed less important than the physical and biological sciences. Naturally, this instilled a lot of stress in the relatively-young Aqii. To try and push such stress away, they decided to volunteer for local health systems. This way, they would get some practical experience before pursuing a second degree. During this time, Aqii met many older Skrell who lived through the oppression of Glorsh-Omega. They would keep such survivors company, talking about the time before the synthetic oppression. Days, weeks, Aqii spent with the bedridden, the concerned and the terminal patients of their local hospital. It was during this time that Aqii met Riv, a bedridden physician who devoted every fibre of their being to the local recuperation of society. Riv was ill, from the X’Lu’Oa forced upon them, but also from the hardships they had to endure in their life. They were always devoted to doing the same as Aqii aspires to do: Helping others. When Riv eventually passed away, Aqii was convinced: They wanted to pursue psychological studies in order to better help their kind process the traumatic history they experienced. Their sheer devotion ended up pushing their family to permit it. After all, aid to the Skrellian society would still be considered positive in the eyes of the recovering Federation. Finishing their second degree at around 73, Aqii spent the next decades guiding others through their life, their hardships and helping to relieve their stress. Their methods are similar to the humanitarian school of psychology, where the practitioner holds an open mind and helps the patient to become more aligned with themselves Many, many decades later, Aqii’s Qrii’Myaq and Qraa’Myaq passed away, while Aqii themselves started a family, fulfilling the role of Qraa’Myaq themselves first, and eventually being considered Myaq’Lak by the youngest Skrell in their family. It filled Aqii with much joy to be a figure of acceptance within their family system, and the privileges of the Federation certainly weren’t lost on them. However, with this age also came a degree of melancholy. For the first couple of months, Aqii couldn’t place it. But soon, they understood: They missed the experience of being involved with a life new to them. Seeing all the young Skrell grow up made Aqii happy, of course. However, Aqii realised they could never experience the same unbridled naivety of the society they live in again if nothing changed. This is what prompted Aqii to seek employment under Zeng-Hu, who were already becoming more and more involved with the Skrell throughout Aqii’s life. What do you like about this character? I’m a sucker for psychology, honestly. With Aqii, I can enter the Medical department on Aurora with more intention to roleplay, to ‘be kind’. I can really zone in on the ‘old, but wise’ identity with a character whose entire attitude revolves around helping others. How would you rate your role-playing ability? What a difficult question! I’d say 7/10 normally, 8/10 when it comes to ‘mechanical’/’intensive’ roleplay. I’m not the best at driving encounters, doing barRP kind of things, but you bet your ass I can sound extremely fancy when talking about science, or when I’m doing one-on-one roleplay. Notes: First application, and it will certainly not be the last. I’m left wondering, though: Would it be possible and within bounds for me to play Aqii as a Psychologist and a Xenobiologist/other avenue of Science? Or would this be considered too broad? Do let me know! Also if things seem deranged, I tend to write entire applications in the span of one/two days because I can truly hyperfocus on them to get them done. Apologies if things seem inconsistent or may miss some things, I'm sure such kinks will be worked out the more I do applications around here. Edited March 26, 2023 by WhatsUpBrotendo Link to comment
WhatsUpBrotendo Posted March 25, 2023 Share Posted March 25, 2023 Hi, thanks for applying. Before I ask questions I want to point out some things that I noticed: Quote Not sure about the specific hex-code yet, I'd have to narrow that down in game. We don't really limit colours for Skrell characters outside of a general "be reasonable". This means don't make your Skrell something that would be hard to look at or ugly intentionally, or mess with styles/markings to make something that looks like a non-skrell at a glance (IC this wouldn't be an issue, but we're playing a 2D pixel game). Quote Would it be possible and within bounds for me to play Aqii as a Psychologist and a Xenobiologist/other avenue of Science? Or would this be considered too broad? Do let me know! While IC it would definitely be possible for a Skrell to have a broader skill set because of how long they can live, we don't want to promote job-hopping. Your character would have to either be a psychologist or a xenobiologist, not both. For future characters (or if you decide to change something about this character) I suggest asking admins to see what combinations, if any, they'll accept. On to the questions: What is Aqii's social credit score? How does Aqii feel about other species in the Federation? Specifically Vaurca and Diona, but you can mention non-Skrell in general too. What are Aqii's thoughts on synthetics in general? They were born close to the end of the supernova era/start of the radiant era. They're not old enough to know what living under Glorsh was like, but they're not young enough to have a degree of separation between them and those most impacted by AI. Did Aqii go through the work initiative programme, or were they hired by Zeng-Hu before the programme was introduced? How does Aqii view the Federation? How do they view those that are against the Federation? (Lyukal/resistance groups, DPRA, those that took part in Weibi's exodus) Link to comment
Nagito Komaeda Posted March 25, 2023 Author Share Posted March 25, 2023 Thanks for giving me more insight on those two points! I'll be sure to keep them in mind. It's very likely that I'll play Aqii as a Psychologist only, then. For your first question, regarding the social credit score. I would imagine Aqii holds a higher one, around 6.78. They have a family & (have) function(ed) as Qrri'Myaq, Qraa'Myaq and Myaq'Lak. Their entire family has always devoted themselves to science and rebuilding the Skrellian society one step at a time. I imagine that the Federation looks kindly upon those who survived the Oppression, and those who put effort in helping their kin recover from this incident. Furthermore, Aqii is religious, following Qeblak. They're less active in practicing it, but they still firmly believe in their faith. For your second and third question, regarding views of others. During the radiant era, Aqii has seen how important the presence of manual labour is. Put bluntly, rebuilding is done through blood, sweat and tears. With this realisation of the value of physical work, Aqii holds respect for the Diona and Vaurca in the Federation. There's no inherent distrust or resentment towards them for 'taking our jobs god-damnit', even with the knowledge that some Skrell may miss out on the privileges of a higher SCS by 'settling' for manual labour. Aqii still needs to form stronger opinions on the various other species on the galactic stage, but they hold an open mind and a kind attitude to those with vastly different cultures. With synthetics, however, there's an indescribable fear for Aqii. They were never directly victimised by the synthetic oppression, but the society around Aqii has imprinted them with distrust and fear. Aqii wouldn't outright vilify fully-synthetic individuals, but they've only been told bad things about synthetics through their life. As such, a 'good' synthetic would be an exception, but an invisible feeling inside of Aqii tells them to still be wary. For your fourth question, Aqii would sign with Ziip'Ta, as the route towards such an exchange program is easier. The feeling of 'wanting to leave, and see other things' came on a bit of a whim, and the work initiative program is a comparatively easier way of achieving that goal. I'm aware that this means there's a recognizability to be upheld in character, and I'll be certain to keep this up. For your fifth question, Aqii has primarily positive views of the Federation. This is by and large due to the Federation 'growing' and 'improving' into the radiant era, and Aqii growing up in this environment. They realise the Federation isn't perfect, but they're in a privileged position where they enjoy the benefits of having a relatively high credit score. It's exactly for that reason that they pity opposition groups. After all, they know the Federation can provide for them, if they would coexist instead of diverge. Regarding the DRPA, I'm not that versed in Tajaran lore, so I can't make a solid statement. I'd imagine Aqii to not really harbour ill will towards anyone, but they also uphold the opinion that the Federation in its current state works (which is an opinion generated by their privilege). Therefore, the same story as before: Why oppose it? Link to comment
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