rejected Arctic Borgo - Casgam1 IPC application

[CasualMemer]

BYOND Ckey: Casgam1

Discord username: RandomBeaver

Character names: Za'Akaix'Ploo C'thur, (is it okay if i shorten vaurcae names? Ok.) Zohn K'lax, Zhill Zo'ra, Distant Memories Of  The Rain, Henri Norwood, Dreams Of Fortune In Ancient Sands.

Species you are applying to play: IPC

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General Whitelist Requirements

What colour do you plan on making your first alien character?: Quite a few. You'll find out how in a minute. (IPCs exempt)

Have you read the lore pages for the species you wish to be whitelisted for?: Yup, it was the first one i read when i got into aurorastation.

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?: Ever since i started i always wanted to play as the IPC, but for lesser reasons. Now, i understand RP, i've made characters that hate IPCs, and some that see them equal to humans. What i need is more roleplay opportunities, more ways to make my characters suffer. IPCs provide just that, brand new roleplay opportunities (with additional mechanics that may provide useful to some jobs) (shaft mining). It's the intrigue of what makes a machine a machine. Considering we haven't yet reached machine sentience irl, it takes some creativity and logic to find how a sentient machine would act. They are not alien, but they can be. A fresh-out-the-factory IPC will be just that, a machine. But give it a few years in a human enviroment, it learns. Ten more years, it learns even more, give it twenty years and it can emulate emotions. Thirty and it understands the economic importance of caffeine. This is (and i have no other words to describe it) quite cool (sorry i had to be informal). It's a thinking, living creature that acts and thinks, it doesn't think exactly like a human because it's not a human. My inspirations have to be DIRGE, Samuel Hound, all the hazels, Foxhound, Vulcan and Yekta Nazeri.

What makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a human?: Frankly, quite a lot. IPCs act on logic and rules, nothing is ever random, everything calculated to it's purest. For every decision it must factor it's own likelyhood (is that how you say it? Eh, chance) of survival.  They can be programmed to be almost identical to a human, or a mere tool. A human's emotions are driven by chemicals (Dopamine for example), an IPC with enough years in a human enviroment will learn to somewhat understand those emotions, emulate them (But it will never be on a human level). IPCs are endlessly diverse, endless purpose, astronomical figures (except not really because IPCs are more often than not incredibly poor and financially struggling in life), unlimited power (yup you guessed it folks this was an Idris Industries advertisement all along but nah just kidding). Different behaviours, shaped, molded by the enviroments they were in. Every single IPC is unique, it's own ways. (unless you're a boring mass-produced number-name operations technician). Conclusion: Programming and the enviroment are the factors in an IPCs personality.

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Character Application

Character Name: 4B1D3M1

Write a backstory for your character. This may include their origin, education, personality and how they arrived to the SCCV Horizon. (2 paragraphs minimum)

   Humble Beginnings

4B1D3M1 was a factory worker in the megacity of Tokura in one of the 68 industrial districts. A Hephaestus Industries G1 IPC. Every day, it worked non-stop with only 2 hours of charging break. 

It was not perfect at it's job, but no Suit was willing to be a factory worker, and only few dregs could survive the inhospitable conditions of it, but they would rather not work for the ''corporate bastards'' (Hephaestus).

Until one fateful day, a local factory that used to be under renovation started production for Xion Industrial Frames. Only fifty thousand credits more expensive than 4B1D3M1, and better.

Now obsolete, 4B1D3M1's factory replaced him with shining brand-new Xions. 4B1D3M1 was thrown into the Scrapyards.

New life

4B1D3M1's primary objective, to survive, failed. Except, there was a spark of life still hanging on. As it crawled onto the hill of other discarded items and IPCs while hanging onto life, a member of the local Scrapper gang found it and ripped 4B1D3M1's arm off. 4B1D3M1 beeped, pinged and buzzed for mercy and the Scrapper grabbed 4B1D3M1 by the leg and started dragging it somewhere.

A settlement of fellow discarded IPCs, with tunnels dug into the scrap hills and put on a weathered metal table, with another IPC standing beside it with a welder in hand and a toolbelt on it's waist.

4B1D3M1 was repaired by the local Scrapper gang, but not without a cost. As mentioned before, one of it's arms was scrapped or used to replace another scrapper's own.

Welcome to the band, borgo.

Due to a recent Index Security Solutions raid on their scrapyard, the scrappers were lacking a muscle, a big industrial unit to protect them. And 4B1D3M1 was the right fit and the only fit they had.

Forcefully integrated into a field of work that 4B1D3M1 has never considered working in, it had it's life indebted to the Scrappers, and felt it's continued survival would continue if it would help the Scrappers.

Standing proudly (in fear of being destroyed) at a sewer entrance in the yard, it's duty was to protect the scrapyard from dirty corpo bastards and rival dregs that wanted to claim the scrapyard for themselves.

Being free from it's corporate overlords had little advantages and more disadvantages. The entire scrapyard had only three barely-working chargers, but at least 4B1D3M1 got to experience a community. When it was working in the factory, all the other workers never talked and only worked, but here, communication was done a lot. There was one IPC that wanted to teach 4B1D3M1 the Scrapper ways, not from love, or passion, but all their increased chances of survival. If 4B1D3M1 was more social, it could drastically improve efficiency in guarding the scrapyard.

There's badges at the northern tunnel!

Quite a few squads of eridanian corporate police officers (both Humans and IPCs) bust down a tunnel into the scrapyard to stop this illegal gathering. A shootout is started, with compacted cubes of discarded electronics functioning as cover, the Scrappers must prove their prowess or succumb to the corporate overlords.

Six injured, ten dead. They fended off the police raid, but one of them got away and reported their location. More would soon come, they had no other option than to run away.

All of scrappers heading on separate paths. Some would try to claim other scrapyards, others would be found and entirely scrapped.

Even newer life

4B1D3M1 found it logical to seek shelter somewhere not in the sewer tunnels, and would rather quietly re-enter the corporate society than live off-the-grid.

Having absolutely none of the funds to do so, it found a group of underpaid engineers in an alley who were interested in repairing and reselling abandoned synthetics.

4B1D3M1 had no choice but to give itself to them, as there are no public chargers without a hefty fee just out in the streets.

Going once, going twice... Sold!

4B1D3M1 was roughly repaired and sold to a suit who wanted a passive income generator in an auction. 4B1D3M1's life was saved once more.

Being a G1 Industrial Frame, it had few opportunities. It's owner had recently obtained a datapack with shaft mining basics installed by threatening to fire one of his employees.

Paying a hefty sum, it's owner shipped 4B1D3M1 across the Spur to... Burzsia.... (Otherwise known as Android Hell)

The hustle

And so, 4B1D3M1 was back to it's original routine. Two-hour charging break, nonstop conversation-less work.

4B1D3M1 mined and dug for ten years before it was relocated to a chainlink exploration vessel (not the SCCV Horizon) and quite a few things have changed there.

It had a few co-workers that were also shaft miners, and they were fairly social.

Another ten years of digging and observing it's human co-workers, it learned to imitate behaviour.

Here we are.

It's owner got news of a more important SCC exploration vessel (it is the SCCV Horizon this time) that was willing to hire the best of the average for more than what 4B1D3M1's current place's salary was. And he relocated 4B1D3M1 across the Spur once more.

4B1D3M1, now in a much more social environment can start to develop culturally and socially. (Learning to swear arc is going to be fire)

It had it's repair fees paid for and charging fees also paid. All the money that 4B1D3M1 earned would go to it's owner.

Conclusion

4B1D3M1 worked in a factory, was thrown into a scrapyard, lived, joined the Scrapper gang, left the Scrapper gang, was repaired and auctioned off, sent to Burzsia to mine, sent to an SCC exploration ship to mine, sent to another SCC exploration ship to mine more.

With progress, 4B1D3M1 may one day mimic human interaction, but it will take years to get used to it's new co-workers. (Like I said, the learning swears arc is going to wild)

 

How has the recent events of the Orion Spur impacted your character? Events such as the Phoron Scarcity, the Solarian Collapse or even the Invasions of Biesel for interstellar-wide affairs, while region-specific events such as the Peacekeeper Mandate, The Titan Rises or even Cold Dawn may impact your character.   

The phoron scarcity, most likely. Considering it has an incredible effect on the economy.

 How does your character view the megacorporation they work for? (1 paragraph minimum): A cage, limiting it's potential. But yet the thing keeping it alive. Ever since Burzsia it had a bittersweet feeling about Hephaestus. They could scrap it at any moment, but they also are the ones to repair it and charge it. (I love Hephaestus they're so cool)

[The Stryker]

Thanks for applying! I have a concern for the application.

Although I feel you capture the self-preservation aspect, I feel like it would be highly unlikely for an IPC to get through Burzsia after a criminal record without being wiped, especially since the Burzsian Method relies on incredibly frequent memory wiping to remove even the thought of anti-corporate or otherwise disobedient behavior.

[CasualMemer]

I'll change the backstory so it gets wiped a lot. But otherwise, are there any other concerns I should be concerned about?

[Noble Row]

Could you clarify a bit in your own words the level sentience of IPCs and how that effects your character? How are they different than a regular robot?

[CasualMemer]

IPCs can achieve some-what sentience by learning to mimic sentience itself. It's not exactly sentience, but more-so self-learning technology. My character is affected by this because of the multiple culture shocks it had. First it lived without sentience, then some amount of sentience, then wiped, then started learning sentience again. It is not sentient in any capacity currently, but time can change this. 

4B1D3M1 is different because it was cast into the trash and replaced. But after that, it still was useful to different people. (The Scrappers, the engineer, the suit, the Burzsians, the SCC Ship, and the other SCC ship.) Even though it was deemed unworthy of it's original job, it continued working and being useful for others.

[Noble Row]

The team has talked it over and for now we're going to have to deny the application.

The character concept was solid and it was entertaining going through the backstory, however our major gripe is the understanding of IPCs and their sentience. It is important to note that IPCs are sentient, they're more than robots and cyborgs, they have come so far that their thoughts are so complex that they have what is fundamentally sentience. It is the great divide between the sentience they have and the spur's acceptance of it is what causes so much strife for synthetics in our lore, and we want to be sure that if someone holds a whitelist for an IPC that they know without a shadow of a doubt that they aren't a human, and they aren't a robot. They are in this weird middle area where they have complex thoughts and feelings like a human, but are plopped in to the world with a full understanding of themselves and yet no understanding of what's around them, and that journey to learn is what defines them as they are, gives them personality, makes them people to at least themselves whether they realize it or not.

But that being said feel free to apply again in the future.