OolongCow Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 BYOND Ckey: OolongCow Discord username: Maybelle Character names: Jedrzej Kuhn, Head of Security Marisa Warren, Engineer Lena Braun, Captain Species you are applying to play: IPC ------------------------------ General Whitelist Requirements What colour do you plan on making your first alien character?: (IPCs exempt) Don't care that they're exempt. Hephaestus Green, let's go. Have you read the lore pages for the species you wish to be whitelisted for?: Literally bookmarked it for quick reference after doing so. 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 species?: Metal man good. With the bulk of my reasoning out of the way, I just enjoy overthinking things and getting analytical and philosophical about my characters, the world, and what's going on around it all. I had a serious discussion with Danse in lore chat about how Visegrad's soil must suck and be nothing but clay and sand due to constant erosion from rain. Being allowed to delve into philosophical arguments about the soul, intelligence, and what constitutes a person as someone actually experiencing that, with a long lifetime and the ability to plug themselves into the extranet with millennia of literature on the matter to help find those answers is just really appealing to me. Especially if it means dragging other people into those discussions. Conflict is good, but it doesn't necessarily have to be aggressive. It can be inspiring empathy in apathetic characters. It can be challenging people's beliefs merely by existing. And the fact of the matter is that IPCs are the centerpiece of a lot of Aurora's more interesting conflicts. What makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a human?: Because they shouldn't be, by all accounts. They were made by humans in humanity's image. They have human morals programmed into them and human hands built them. The first IPCs were created as a more human alternative to the mindless automata that dominated the 24th century. The most prominent IPC religion reveres the humans that believed in their inhuman humanity. Yet they are distinctly not human; while humans, generally, do not treat them like people. How can countries like the Republic of Biesel, who to the faces of their citizens espouse ideals of market liberalism and democracy reconcile with that? Humanity created IPCs. They're the offspring of our efforts, and yet they're used and discarded and traded and built as if they were chattel slaves. They're subjected to, when one thinks about it for a moment, some of the most horrifying and dehumanizing treatment in the entire Spur, despite all the evidence in the world that they can be practically mentally indistinguishable from a person, given time. Even a Guwan can at times receive better treatment from a Sinta than an owned IPC in some parts of Mendell City. At least a Guwan is still considered a member of the Unathi race, capable of possibly ever redeeming themselves and becoming an equal. Many humans think IPCs are an actively antagonistic force. How crushing must that be to one that knows better? How terrifying must life be living under such a system if you're educated enough to understand how terrible that is, even by the standards of the people doing it to you? That is so incredibly, amazingly interesting to me. I want to be a part of telling that story. I want to play into and rail against and bring that conflict to the forefront, even if it's just making people question why a tin can is reading poetry. ------------------------------ Character Application Character Name: Hephaestus Industries Mining Unit (Generation Two) - Series Z1 - Serial Number Z-100076 - Zephyrus Write a backstory for your character. This may include their origin, education, personality and how they arrived to the SCCV Horizon: ------------------------------------- March 14th, 2456 Mendell City, Biesel Junior Manager of Hazel! ltd. Dealership #TC-104 Ryan Adams was not having a good day. His boss had saddled him with the night shift for the next six months, his team member retention was atrocious, and his stupid bitch of a wife had failed to schedule the family scrapheap for maintenance. Probably too busy being a worthless drunk around the house with the excuse of "raising the kid". What a sick joke. Here he was selling top of the line Hazels when his severance package should've included one. But those goddamn Hephaestus lawyers had weaseled their way into arguing the contract only specified a "domestic servant IPC", and dumped a useless gen one rust stain mining unit that should've been disassembled a decade before he got it on him. And for what? A minor case of corporate espionage? As if they didn't do it too! "Pardon me, sir, but I'm through browsing, and I have a few questions." Snapped back to reality, the poorly-shaven man smiled on instinct. An instinct bred into him by years of climbing the corporate ladder. Peering over his desk at the diminutive woman in a wheelchair across from him, the businessman's eyes flashed as the two's met. He could always sense a sucker. And this woman was the biggest he'd ever seen. "And how did you like our selection, ma'am?" he asked, politely. "Well, I'm not really sure I can afford... any of these. And I don't know if my credit is good enough for a payment plan..." In that moment, something clicked for Adams. A devious little sprout of an idea. He did need some extra cash to pay off a few debts, after all... And what the company didn't know wouldn't hurt them, right? ------------------------------------- December 30th, 2464 Cape City, Biesel 8 Years Later Wheeled into place by the seashore, the woman in a wheelchair smiled up at her caretaker, her small green eyes appearing sad and cold despite the smile. "Zeph, will you miss me when I'm gone?" The question was sudden. Unexpected. The unit was unsure how to respond. It took exactly 482 milliseconds for its processors to generate a reply after the conversational pause timer. "I am unsure if I am capable of grief, Miss Madeline." She had ordered it to be honest with her at all times and not to attempt to protect her feelings or lie about how it "felt". Any emotional distress was regrettable, but unavoidable. "Will you remember me, then?" The woman's curly red hair was characterized as "messy" by her own parameters. The unit made a note to perform grooming duties once they had returned home. There was no one else who could do so for her, so the job had fallen to it as usual. His charge had no other family. "Until my new owners decide that it is time for me to be wiped, or to be deactivated." That response elicited a great amount of internal emotional distress. Even with incomplete interfacing, the unit's Hazel!-branded body language package registered a level of anguish that took the tall Generation one by surprise. Such a level of stress was not healthy. "I apologize if my words upset you, Miss Madeline. You ordered me not to be untruthful nor hide my observations." "I know, Zeph, but I don't want you to talk like that." The unit paused for a moment, processing. "Miss Madeline. If you mean to continue in your plan of allowing me to register as a free positronic, I urge you to reconsider. My frame is far too old and would require constant maintenance. I would be unable to afford such costs due to my age. You should transfer me to a corporation of your choice. There is simply no alternative." Withdrawing an envelope from a pocket in her sweater, the normally kind woman's eyes, with moisture forming at the corners, turned uncharacteristically stern. The stamp across the front of the unassuming piece of mail read "VeriLife Insurance". Holding it up to the optics of the unit behind her, her hand trembling slightly, the woman stated matter-of-factly, "Yes. There is." ------------------------------------- How have the recent events of the Orion Spur impacted your character?: Decurion Reynolds gave the limp remains of the Exclusionist terrorist at his feet a kick. "Finally dead?" asked Zheng, the company medical sergeant. "I don't want to lose another guy to the 'standing back up' trick." With the memory of a laughing Legionnaire with a pretty smile - now a smoking corpse - in his mind, the Decurion leveled his rifle with the heart of the felled terrorist and loosed another two rounds for good measure. One for Sasha, another for Jeremiah. Rot in whatever hell you believed in, he thought to himself, before kicking the remains aside, shouldering his rifle, and pulling the IPC tag scanner from its pouch. Senior Legionnaire Zheng balked as he entered the cargo hold proper. Rows and rows of hibernating IPCs lined the walls, awaiting wakefulness back on Biesel proper. A good way to avoid maintenance and power costs during transport, for those on a budget. "So this is what they were willing to die for, huh?" A low whistle escaped his lips. "Must be at least sixty of 'em here." Staring down at the readout on the scanner, Decurion Reynolds replied, "Seems like most are pretty freshly wiped, too. Fresh from Burszia." Rapping his knuckle against the armored shoulder of a freshly-painted G2, the medical sergeant grimaced. "Good thing we caught 'em quickly. These fucking Exies would've turned them into good little soldiers if we hadn't." As he glanced down at an ominous little pouch tied around the neck of the dead Exclusionist, the sergeant shuddered. It looked full of sand, but he knew all too well what was really inside. Watching his superior's back as he paused in front of one frame in particular, the medic continued, "So what now?" "We call Hephaestus to come collect their property." How does your character view the megacorporation they work for?: Popping the hefty battery of the G2 in front of him out with a screwdriver, Machinist Ket'ah Kuhwinla chuffed as he examined the readout on the console beside him. This free machine would almost be better off submitting to the company, as he had. There was no shame in submission, especially with such outrageous maintenance costs. Flipping the welding goggles down over his eyes, the Sinta set to work repairing a crack in the superstructure of the machine before him. He was experienced enough to know that this "wear and tear" was a common manufacturing defect in these cheaper frames. However, manufacturing defects were a loss in profits, and if it kept these machines coming in for regular maintenance, and kept him supplied with a steady flow of work, where was the real harm in mislabeling it? Matriarch Ss'wala would have considered it shrewd and proper. And who was he to argue with the matriarch? Leaning back to admire his handiwork after some time, the sinta picked at the slag scale of his weld with a claw, flicking the crust onto the floor and frowning. Below par work. He'd distracted himself. Sloppy. Slotting the battery back into place, he tapped a few keys on his console, scheduling a maintenance appointment in three months to fix it and a thinned wire he'd spotted in the left arm. "Is my maintenance complete, Master Kuhwinla?" the G2 asked as it whirred to life. "You are good to go, yesss," replied the Sinta offhandedly. A little white lie would not hurt, he thought. It was a fairly new frame, and a free one at that. Keeping an eye on it while under Hephaestus's employ was just good business. Such minor issues were a convenient excuse, and these G2s would inevitably develop real problems for him to fix regardless. This was just insurance. The G2 remained silent for a moment. An awkward moment that began to make the machinist uneasy. "Thank you," the imposing IPC replied eventually, as it climbed to its feet. "My self-diagnostics report nothing of note." Ket'ah watched the IPC warily as it began to leave. Something pricked at the base of his tail. An intuition. Was that machine just sarcastic with him? 2 Link to comment
Farofafeijao Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Maybelle has displayed many times, through characters such as Kuhn and Braun, the capacity to engage, discuss, and explore many of the core topics that compose the IPC lore and its themes. Giving her the ability to engage in this conversation once again, now with a positronic character, seems like a natural progression. +1 from me. 1 Link to comment
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