[Accepted] i'm bugge. - Vaurca Whitelist App

[vayrarae]

BYOND Key: VayraRae (discord: vayrarae)
Character Names: Zawati Tasev (medintern), Samia Darwish (engapprentice).
Species you are applying to play: Vaurca
What color do you plan on making your first alien character:  (RGB 61, 0, 0) - Vaur’skiyet’sca's brood.
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: i think the general story beats to the Vaurca can be summarized as a once noble, mighty - but very diverse - alien race that suffered immense amounts of setbacks and great depression unlike very much that could be imagined by most people. i really pity them, because their misfortune can truly be felt as something undeserved and tragic, it makes for a very compelling background to me. there is something romantic, tragic, sad and uplifting about them all at once, and i have come to care about them! they're also very esoteric and I think bugs are cute, -chitters-
Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: i'd say the main distinction that isn't the "they follow the hive hierarchy" answer would be how they can be effectively deathless for each member of the hives, as long as their neural sockets can be recovered. i think that concept of being able to cheat death by rewriting the individual to another body is beyond anything i would ever have thought of. to answer the question: it's very possible that Unbounds (what i intend to play, at least) have a fairly warped sense of what it means to live or die, and what it means to have either life or death happen to you. the esoteric nature of VR and the attitudes of being reintegrated as a being in a larger, out-of-space pocket and still be able to live and learn, then come back wiser or more put together - it's just fascinating!! it's very extra-dimensional and weird. the other thing is, yes, they're bug-like. they're split into castes and purposes and they're basically biologically deterministic, if not fatalistic. wouldn't surprise me if the topic of a defined destiny came up about them!
Character Name: Za'Akaix'Vena Zo'ra (sec cadet)
Please provide a short backstory for this character:
Sleep is but a whisper of death, a hint of the inevitable.
In Vena's first life, they would live to three years of age, before the incident happened. Compared to their siblings, Vena did the opposite of sticking out - they stood only a few inches above five feet tall, and were unimpressive from the outset, but this was by design, for it was intended that Vena would be front-facing towards the other alien races, and as such could not be made to disproportionately present oneself as too great of a threat to any important envoy of interest, or an innocent passerby that did not deserve to be terrorized, for that matter. As a Warrior and part of a small team of guardians to a Lesser Queen, their duty was made very clear and etched into Vena's nursing process before they were even born: Guard and serve your charges, dutifully.

Of course, Vena's life as personal security for a key diplomatic envoy would take many unusual turns. Vena's duties transfigured into also providing attendance for guests, as well as meaningful and flowery conversations with them. They became not just a guard, but also a valet, a door and luggage holder, someone with a pen or a handkerchief close by. Having come into regular contact with businesspersons and diplomats of the human, Unathi, Skrell, K'laxan, and C'thur, Vena found learning decorum and etiquette to be especially rewarding for softening prospective strangers to be more receptive to further political or diplomatic agreements. And most especially: a fondness and familiarity for that which was 'alien', for Vena found there were was not such a gap between us and them after all, there was something to be understood and cherished. This would, unfortunately, come at the cost of softening Vena's guard just enough to make an unfortunate difference at the very end.

A chance visit to Little Adhomai, Biesel, for a fairly routine diplomatic meeting would turn for the worse, as this visit was ill-timed during difficult racial tensions in the district. Vena and their charge were fired upon by particularly hateful and antagonistic 'native' gangsters of the area. Forced to perform their duty, Vena declared to their fellow guardian and sibling to disengage and flee with the Lesser Queen they were assigned to protect, for there was no time to come up with a better strategy. There was no argument, though perhaps slight mournful hesitance, from Vena's partner and their charge, for their mutual relationships were meaningful and dear to each other. Faced with no other option, Vena flew at the attackers, attempting to distract them from the most valuable target. While this worked, Vena was quickly overwhelmed in minutes, and was shot, stabbed, mauled to pieces by whatever the street thugs had on hand.

It would be directly after the convening of the Court of Queens until Vena felt the beat of their heart again and the taste of phoron, as they were resleeved into a similarly dimensioned - but considerably less augmented - body. There was another cost, too: despite Vena's attempt at valiance and bravery, their split-second decision did not make a difference. The Lesser Queen they were assigned to protect was forced into critical condition due to very serious injuries, and their body failed in a Zo'rane emergency facility. Someone had to be held accountable - though, Vena expected the worst, rather than what was received.

Officially, Vena would take a hefty demotion for their failure to uphold their duty, and would not be trusted to keep another Ta under their guard again. Unofficially, they would be recognized for upholding Zo'rane values as best as they could, despite the lack of results - by being allowed to live once again to uphold Zo'rane interests.

Armed with little else but a fresh body, the minimum finances and a small amount of their training and etiquette, Vena would be pressed into the Ve'katak Phalanx at the cadet rank as a learner, to start their life over while still abiding by their purpose as written into their birthing code: Guard and serve your charges, dutifully. 

What do you like about this character?: what if a miserable thing happened to a loyal, dutiful, decent person, and they got held responsible for things not going their way afterward? i think it's a compelling story beat, personally, since it leaves room for redemption, in both a personal sense and a way that tries to redeem whom Vena truly represents, which is the Zo'ra as a whole. they failed - but their whole life doesn't have to end on that note! it's very hopeful, and this is the kind of character whose vibes i wish to express out into the open.
How would you rate your role-playing ability?: im pretty experienced (10+ yrs over the course of a bunch of different formats, high roleplay DnD included) and i feel like i know what i'm doing.
Notes: i pledge not to open my chest cavity and let people poke at my phoron tank with a screwdriver, this would never happen by my own intent and if it does happen, it had nothing to do with me. in seriousness please shoot any questions down below or straight at my discord! beware, i will return fire

Edited October 24, 2023 by Desven

[La Villa Strangiato]

Howdy. Your app is a little sparse; let's change that. Couple questions:

1. Give me a rundown on the social dynamics between the hives. K'lax-Zo'ra relations, Zo'ra-C'thur relations, etc.
2. Tell me about Vaurca psychology. What makes a difference between a Za and Ka, in the brain?
3. What's the difference between the three playable Hives and the Lii'dra, Hive-structure-wise? Why would they go to war with Lii'dra in the first place? (this one might be a little obscure due to some of the Lii'dra page being kind of crusty; I recommend looking at the Great Hive War page for this one.)
4. For Vaurca, Virtual Reality is a paradise-- it's literally a constructed heaven. Why would Vena want to be resleeved, or why would their Ta want them to be resleeved?

Also, there seems to be some confusion as to the differences between a Lesser Queen and a Ta; not all Ta are Lesser Queens. A Lesser Queen is a Ta, but they're very old Ta who are basically a direct child of the hive's High Queen, and they command their own bloodline/brood of Vaurca. For example, Athvur, Vetju, and Xetl are all Lesser Queens. (Lesser Queens are also wayyyy bigger than your average Ta.)

[vayrarae]

1. judging from what ive read, relations are not very warm between the hives, and most if it centers on what the zo'ra claim to be theirs (perhaps not very respectfully or rightfully)! it's ingroup vs. outgroup and vice versa. the zo'ra and the c'thur are absolutely not on good terms and nothing about their diplomatic/political relationship is particularly friendly. the zo'ra straight up think the k'lax are their rightful subjects, it's kind of tense and difficult to get around. the c'thur and the k'lax at the very least aren't at outright cold war with each other - but that seems to be because their spheres of influence don't have as strong overlap, from what ive read. could be wrong here
2. has to do with the fight or flight response, if im remembering right? the Ka are not inclined towards violence or conflict and will absolutely shy away from it if they can help it. and if they can't, they will still try to run. the Za on the other hand are much more mentally suited standing up for themselves or for others - but a being with nerves still feels pain, and unbounds can still fear such pain or even the sensation of incoming death.
3. if the three main hives are composed of many individuals answering to a select group of individuals, the lii'dra could sort of be compared to the Borg from Star Trek. they are an utter and complete existential threat bc of their [PURELY SPECULATED] motive and desire to completely dominate and bring all the hives under a single universal hiveminded control - since that probably would make sense. what they would do next if they succeeded in that is, well it would be easy n cliche to just say "unthinkable" but i don't think it'd be a far stretch for them to just keep doing that as long as possible. that being said, it looks like the lii'dra attacked first anyway - and from the other perspective of the hives, why would they not go to war back? it wasn't much of a choice - the lii'dra instigated and had no real just cause to do so, and did some very abominable stuff in combination with that, hence the continued 'kill on sight' for anything with a dark grey carapace.
4. i suppose i should've specified that Vena was being resleeved against their particular preference in staying in Forever Bug Heaven, i probably shouldn't have depicted it as a good thing! "honey, it's time for you to hop off the boobtube and get back to working for us" is more or less the motivation that led to Vena's Ta yanking them. 

as for the misconceptions that I got wrong - woops! anyways, yes, i should have said that her protection client was a Ta/Breeder but not a lesser queen or anything, that was my own error there! won't happen again

[Desven]

This is a very interesting backstory. However, as La Villa mentioned, there seems to be some confusion.

First of all, who exactly did it guard? I'm guessing it was a Diplomat Breeder. Lesser Queens are just queens that aren't the High Queen. In this case, Vena belongs to Vaur's brood, the Zo'rane High Queen. It could've guarded a public figure (not exactly Vaurca) or a Diplomat Breeder (any Vaurca Breeder that is good PR). Bear in mind that Diplomat Breeders don't have a hive-cell, so Vena had more of an employer relationship with them. Vena would've still come from a hive-cell that might perhaps specialize in guarding public figures or something.

The big question is why Vena wanted to return. Vaurcae (except for Tupii's brood) aren't forced to resleeve. In this case, I think a good answer would be that Vena still wanted to find a way to live in the real world and continue to guard a public figure, only to "fall in grace" and become a security guard in a spaceship. That would be more fitting to the species.

What do you think, or does this change your concept too much?

[vayrarae]

On 21/10/2023 at 17:51, Desven said:

What do you think, or does this change your concept too much?

i think that concept sounds great and im willing 2 work with that!! it sounds better than what i had going, so this is doable 4 me.

[Desven]

Accepted.