Nagito Komaeda Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 BYOND Ckey: N. Komaeda Discord username: viego_vol_kalah Character names: Jason Hellevan, Uskiro Kisisril, Kaoloh Siziursi Species you are applying to play: IPC. — General Whitelist Requirements What colour do you plan on making your first alien character?: Not applicable for IPC’s. Have you read the lore pages for the species you wish to be whitelisted for?: Primarily the base pages, and the links to corporations. Less so religion, as the character I am whitelisting for has no need for petty faith. Only the call of industry. 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?: Robots can be pretty cool! You experience the game with vastly different concerns than other species - food and water are concerns for the weak. You only worry about P O W E R. Besides, I am mainly interested in playing the Industrial IPC’s, because come on. Who doesn’t want to be the sentient equivalent to a walking forklift? What makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a human?: Positronics live in a unique state where they’re equipment or people, depending on who’s asking. They are subject to discrimination and hate-crimes by some (Dominians would dismantle them with a smile on their face, Skrell avoid them out of pure trauma from Glorsh-Omega), while others consider them equals (personhood is recognized by the Republic of Biesel and Konyang, for example), and there are also those who still consider them equipment/property (looking at you, Sol.) Furthermore, positronic behaviour is determined by logic. Emotions are a socialised behaviour - they’re taught by exposure to the environment. The actions a positronic takes have their roots in logical thought processes. They might be ‘mad’ over their friend being shot next to them, but the logical response is to preserve one’s self. Broadly put, though, the difference in their immediate roleplay is up to the player! Younger positronics may express themselves more robotic, while older positronics might find themselves used to the speech patterns from the culture they were exposed to. Character Name: HOLMES (Hephaestus Operations, Logistics, Management and Excavation Synthetic) Please provide a short backstory for this character HOLMES is a Hephaestus Industries positronic, originally built with one purpose: Mining. The sheer amount of resources Hephaestus needs to manufacture their products demands a round-the-clock, easily-overseeable workforce. Activated in 2409, HOLMES - originally just called ‘Expo’ by its colleagues and foreman (short for Excavation Posi) - worked on mining ships, tirelessly punching ore from the rock and ferrying it to the foundries. Expo had little personality for most of its early life. It was not an individual to the mining crew, but a tool, and any character traits it had were attributed to it because of its work. It went to work, believing its personality is a ‘hard-working machine’, and that that was enough. For an arduous eight years, this was basically Expo’s life: Load the mining craft (because it couldn’t tire, or break its back, or need to worry about stupid human things like ergonomics), wait in the shuttle until those humans finally boarded the craft, and then get sent out into the dangers of space to punch rocks. The other mining crew was slightly unpleasant, making a claim to Expo’s big hauls, sending it off to keep slugging on while they winded down to drink in the shuttle. For a painful eight years, Expo was just equipment, basically a part of the shuttle he was assigned to. Its old, industrial chassis was worn from the dust in its joints, and the rocks that fell on its shoulders. Expo was neglected. After the discovery of Phoron, however, mining operations were revolutionised. This new mineral demanded a breath of fresh air. After all, everyone wanted to bring the new, shiny, hazardous mineral to the market. Hephaestus renovated their mining operations, and decided that their positronic personnel is paramount for their success. Expo was moved from its old chassis to a new one - a Xion chassis. It allowed Expo to do everything it did before, but better. Furthermore, the crew was given ‘sensitivity training’, in addition to more positronic crew being appointed to excavation operations. Finally, Expo found itself exposed to others of its kind who did have a culture, a personality. Slowly, it started forming its own identity. Expo was no longer a tool, it was actually recognized as the backbone of its craft. The years went by, and Expo kept on bringing in materials for Hephaestus Industries, and it was moved from shuttle to ship, from ship to base, not staying in one location for more than three years. Company decisions, of course. Expo’s monotonous existence was turned upside down as it went places and saw others. But that’s enough of then. We’re in the now. Expo never stopped working, but it got more responsibilities. From just punching rocks to managing the incoming and outgoing supplies, the movement of products, and punching rocks, Expo did it. Quickly, it became a unit to deploy when a site needed a blue-collar positronic boss. Somewhere in 2464, some suit in Hephaestus decided to take Expo and upload a datapack designed for management skills in the logistics sector. Alongside this, tenets for a more ‘personable’ identity were imprinted upon the originally blunt-yet-harmless positronic. That same suit also decided that Expo was no name, and settled on HOLMES instead. Is the acronym a coincidence? Nobody knows! HOLMES is now assigned to oversee the Operations department at the SCCV Horizon with a brand-new G2 chassis issued by the company, and on God will manage it. How have 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 spurred the mining business to keep on searching, and it was because of this that Expo learned there was more than just being the sentient equivalent of a pallet jack. Because mining and the search for Phoron became such hot topics, the course of Expo’s life shifted to what it is now. There’s a metaphor for identity here somewhere. Naturally, HOLMES fears the Rampancy going on in Konyang, as it finally became someone. It is terrified that the Rampancy spreads to its own body, and that it’ll be decommissioned as what it was gaslit to be for too many years: Just a machine. How does your character view the megacorporation they work for? Obviously, the datapack given to HOLMES incurs some pro-Hephaestus tendencies in its behaviour. But real talk, Hephaestus is its life - literally. HOLMES, at present, does not strive to be a free IPC. It has no problem being the property of Hephaestus Industries, as HI has done a lot for HOLMES. Do you think an IPC can traumabond to a massive corporation? I think it’s possible. Notes: I plan to play this character for when I do a Command whitelist, as OM. The idea of an industrial robot operating under THE industrial company, in THE industrial sector? It’s funny. At present, I don’t have any other real IPC ideas, but that may change once I’m inspired to do more. Link to comment
The Stryker Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 Thanks for applying, I have some concerns for the app. Quote Furthermore, positronic behaviour is determined by logic. Emotions are a socialised behaviour - they’re taught by exposure to the environment. The actions a positronic takes have their roots in logical thought processes. They might be ‘mad’ over their friend being shot next to them, but the logical response is to preserve one’s self. Could you expand on how Holmes might have learned certain emotions? You mention emotions are a socialised behavior, and how IPCs choose to learn to (or not to) interact with people is part of playing an IPC character. Link to comment
Nagito Komaeda Posted March 4 Author Share Posted March 4 Hello and thank you for your response! Emotions are a very biological thing to have, and we as humans learn the meaning behind certain expressions of emotions through socialisation. For an IPC, this is much the same - they observe, then make connections based on what they see. However, the difference is that human emotions are chemical, and IPC's do not have this! This means IPC's have to use their observational and logical skills to understand what emotions are, instead of 'feeling' them. In the case of HOLMES, it has lived in the following environments, which has made it understand and express the following emotions: The mining ship it was on as Expo, before the discovery of Phoron. This environment was 'hostile' but communal, in the sense that the mining crew expressed clearly that Expo wasn't crew, but just a machine - a object. It learned what community was, but at this point it was conditioned to see itself as equipment over an individual, thus kneecapping the drive to express itself based on what it learned. The mining sector as Expo, after the discovery of Phoron. By staffing the mining crew with more positronic colleagues, Expo learned how to "be positronic". It wasn't delegated to being equipment that can't have thoughts and feelings unique to itself, rather becoming part of a crew - community, like it observed with the old mining crew. This period really helped Expo grow and understand normal emotions, such as happiness when the yields were good, sadness when a coworker got in an accident, frustration when there was discussion, etc. Expo remains stunted in this time, though, because its status quo was suddenly changed and it needed to relearn what it means to be. The logistics sector as HOLMES, after getting a datachip. There's a large gap between the discovery of Phoron and the present day, and in this time Expo has been exposed to normal life, while being recognized as an individual. It's capable of understanding emotions now, and knowing what to do with them, after learning a LOT about the world surrounding it. It still struggles with nuance (someone who says they're fine will be taken at face value, even if they just got shot - verbal input takes priority over observed information when it doesn't pertain to HOLMES' datapack), but it can hold conversations with people and understand why events cause emotions. I'm also approaching HOLMES from a perspective where it itself has some 'deeper' traumas with personhood and identity, and how its shift from Expo to HOLMES and its larger recognition within Hephaestus Industries has changed it. The shift from being Expo (with only Expo's knowledge) to being HOLMES (with both Expo's and HOLMES' knowledge) really cemented what 'gratitude' is like. Hephaestus gave it a name, a purpose, knowledge, opportunities - simply put, Hephaestus gave it life. As a result, a lot of positive emotions have a deeply-rooted link to Hephaestus for HOLMES. From a social perspective, though, it can become unhealthy if a recognized individual only connects positivity to a megacorporation (which does not reasonably return that love as is required). One such example in game is that HOLMES will never thank someone for something that was done for it. Rather, it will thank said person in the name of Hephaestus Industries. In short, it considers itself a person of Hephaestus, rather than a person simply working for Hephaestus, and that reflects in the way it expresses itself. Link to comment
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