ASmallCuteCat Posted November 28 Posted November 28 i did this app in bits and pieces while I was baking a cake, if there's anything i need to clarify or expound on please let me know BYOND Ckey: ASmallCuteCat Discord username: Revenant1367 Character names: Luna Li, Jay Elder Species you are applying to play: IPC ------------------------------ General Whitelist Requirements What colour do you plan on making your first alien character?: IPCs exempt from this question Have you read the lore pages for the species you wish to be whitelisted for?: 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 species?: I think I'd have a lot of fun experimenting with the sheer variety of possible character types that IPCs could fit within - from uncannily humanlike shells who can easily be mistaken for humans, to very obviously robot-like machines, and everything in between. I find the potential of having so many options to work with appealing. (Also, there's a handful of Idris Security units that are fairly active and a blast to watch in action, and I've been inspired by observing them.) There's also another angle to IPCs that I love exploring in fiction and narrative - the question of "what qualifies something as sapient/alive?". Does this unit have a soul? What makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a human?: IPCs face a lot more prejudice from other races - Solarians who consider them mere tools, Dominians who think they should be exterminated outright, Skrell who fear them, Unathi who see them as soulless and lifeless constructs. The nature-versus-nurture debate is also different for IPCs, since they can learn from their surroundings, but they can also have behaviors and mentalities programmed in. There are physical (and mechanical) differences between humans and IPCs as well, but I think exploring the social, psychological, and emotional differences between IPCs and the non-mechanical are much more interesting. Though not spawning hungry and thirsty at the start of a round will be convenient... Another difference that comes to mind is the directive to avoid harm. I feel like organic races can overcome the innate aversion of pain and injury if they have a good enough reason, or if they're drunk enough, but with an IPC, who is programmed to avoid harm and damage, it would be much harder to justify going into a potentially dangerous or damaging situation, especially with an IPC as danger-averse as the one I'm applying with. ------------------------------ Character Application Character Name: IRU-Sable Write a backstory for your character. This may include their origin, education, personality and how they arrived to the SCCV Horizon. (2 paragraphs minimum) A recently created Idris Reclamation Unit to join the numbers of Idris security IPCs. With their directive assigned and an appropriate data pack installed, they were given a small amount of freedom to pursue resources and information that would help them fulfill their duties. During their research, Sable found the entire mystery genre of novels and media. As a result, Sable has the mannerisms that you might expect from the main character of a detective novel. They present a calm, unflappable (if not slightly mysterious) exterior, blended smoothly with the ideal Idris customer service personality. Though they aren't as charismatic and suave as the archetype of the street-prowling private eye, they are refined, polite, and courteous to everyone, clients and non-clients alike. Sable's first assignment was in Mendell City, on Biesel. Partnered with IRU-Gules, they were deployed to politely but firmly remind poorer clients of debts, and reclaim assets if necessary. Their partnership ended after a disastrous asset reclaimation excursion to District 11, which resulted in Gules' destruction and severe damage to Sable. Sable witnessed Gules get literally torn apart at the hands of impoverished, desperate gang members, with almost every useable scrap whisked away to be recycled and resold in some seedy black market. Sable assumes that Idris would have sent security units to reclaim Gules' positronic brain and components, but they were never able to confirm this or given any opportunities to find out more. After undergoing repairs, Sable was given a new assignment, and luck of the draw had them sent to the SCCV Horizon. They were not assigned a partner yet, since it was assumed that the Idris corp-reps aboard would be able to find a suitable partner for Sable from the IRU units already on the Horizon. Sable's sense of self-preservation falls towards the stronger side of the spectrum, a quirk gained from their consumption of mystery-genre media and further reinforced by watching their first partner's brutal demise. They want to avoid burdening Idris Incorporated with the cost of repairs, having already done so once to an extreme level, and having to sit in the machinist's workshop has the same result as a human having to recover in a hospital: The suspect has time to cover their tracks and get up to even more shenanigans. They are also afraid that what happened to Gules will happen to them - complete destruction, and a possibly irrecoverable loss for Idris. Having seen firsthand the results of extreme poverty, Sable feels strong concern and pity for free IPCs. They are perfectly content being owned by Idris, and have no desire to purchase their own freedom (and even if they did, it's out of the question for them) but they know how much an IPC's freedom costs. Sable views all free IPCs with an undertone of, "Will someone have to reclaim your assets - or even you - someday?" 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. (1 paragraph minimum) Being a relatively "young" IPC, Sable hasn't personally experienced through many of the recent events, though they have a surface-level understanding of what's happened. Their primary concern is, "How will this impact Idris Incorporated going forward, and will I need to adjust my behavior and methods to better serve the corporation?" They do have some worries, though. Strife, conflict, and hardship will inevitably lead to clients being unable to keep up with their bills, loans, and payments. Unrest will mean more work with greater risk of harm - living beings, when stressed, are more likely to behave in erratic and potentially violent ways. Sable does have one outright fear born of recent Spur events, however, one that they have no idea how to handle: The possibility of a repeat of the Rampancy virus that happened on Konyang. It's supposedly over and dealt with, but if it happened once, there is a non-zero chance of it happening again. Sable does not know how to safeguard themselves against such a possibility, and the thought of IPCs going berserk and going on destructive rampages would cause a whole lot of death and suffering, but more importantly, major losses of efficiency and profit for Idris Incorporated. How does your character view the megacorporation they work for? IRU-Sable views Idris Incorporated as a benevolent God-King - their owner, their employer, the one who provides for them, and the entity that they exist to serve. They don't actually worship Idris outright as a human might worship God or Allah - that would likely result in a negative impact on client opinion - but the corporation is their highest priority, and Sable tries to ensure that everything they do will serve or benefit Idris in some way. Sable views the other megacorporations of the SCC as "friendly, allied rivals". They are not Idris, but they work alongside Idris, and therefore, they are to be supported - as long as Idris does not come out worse in the process. 1
The Stryker Posted December 2 Posted December 2 Hi, thanks for applying and apologies for the delay. I just have some concerns for the application. Could you expand on role-playing an IPC? I think you sufficiently cover how IPCs are treated but the application could be expanded by discussing positronic brains, how IPCs learn, and more. Additionally, the backstory does a good job of explaining how the traumatic loss of Sable's partner affected their worldview but could you expand more on how living in Biesel affected them before hand? The application doesn't have an age, which is a loss as an IPC can behave very differently depending on how old they are simply because of how many things and facets of society they would have experienced, as opposed to simply relying on their base programming.
ASmallCuteCat Posted December 2 Author Posted December 2 9 minutes ago, The Stryker said: Could you expand on role-playing an IPC? I think you sufficiently cover how IPCs are treated but the application could be expanded by discussing positronic brains, how IPCs learn, and more. Additionally, the backstory does a good job of explaining how the traumatic loss of Sable's partner affected their worldview but could you expand more on how living in Biesel affected them before hand? The application doesn't have an age, which is a loss as an IPC can behave very differently depending on how old they are simply because of how many things and facets of society they would have experienced, as opposed to simply relying on their base programming. A positronic brain handles storage of information as well as the analysis and processing of said information. In turn, the positronic brain learns from this information and builds up knowledge as well as behavioral patterns. Like living beings, positronic brains are able to learn from their experiences and surroundings. They also have the option of learning from datapacks, but even still, the IPCs need a bit of time to practice the knowledge gained from the datapacks. Not to say that a positronic brain is simply "human brain but better". They have their own limitations and flaws and quirks, which open up different possibilities - such as the ability to have memories deleted, either voluntarily (like scrubbing out your daily 45-minute commute in which you just sit on the bus with nothing novel or interesting going on) or involuntarily (like your owner commanding you to forget the past few days since you learned some things you weren't meant to learn) When it comes to scrubbing memores that an IPC might find unnecessary, I think this is where the uniqueness of the individual comes into play. Some IPCs might find joy and wonder observing and noting down the moments of everyday life around them in their 45-minute commute, others who are more task-oriented and focused on things they deem "essential" might just scrub the entire commute from their memory. There's also the potential of law sets and directives installed into a PB. They might not *typically* be done, but I'm under the impression that it's possible. I think an interesting character concept could be an IPC that had some restrictive laws hardcoded into its PB, and has to find ways to work around said laws without directly violating them in order to complete goals stated in its directive(s). IPCs even have a "lifespan" of sorts, owing to the positronic brain having a limit as to how much data can be stored. I wonder if there's the possibility of IPCs out there who are aware of this limitation, take an "ignorance is bliss" approach to an extreme, and minimize how much their PB stores in the hopes that it will maximize their own lifespan. This brought up a question in my mind - if an IPC hits its data limit, gets a complete wipe, and has its PB re-used to create a new individual in a new frame, what would happen if the positronic brain retained quirks or traits from its previous life? I'm not sure if it's actually possible for this to happen, but it was an interesting little tangent to ponder. -- Sable's supposed to be perhaps a couple years old - maybe around 2 and a half to 3 years old. They're relatively young and haven't had as many formative experiences as other IPCs have had, but they're old enough to have constructed a personality beyond their base programming, and fine-tuned said personality to be socially acceptable, pleasing to their peers, and advantageous to fulfilling their duties. Their newness makes them a little more flexible, a little less set in their ways. Although they aren't a "grizzled veteran of their trade", they are by no means naive or inexperienced. If my math is correct, they're old enough to have experienced the later parts/aftermath of the District 6 Killings and Bayonet Hand - probably no direct involvement in them, but still recent enough to be fresh in everyone's mind - as well as the Peacekeeper Mandate Protests and the Mictlan shenanigans. Being an IRU stationed in Mendell City, I don't think Sable would have had much involvement with the protests or civil unrest. If any protests took place in Mendell City, Sable likely avoided them, as engaging with a riot is both inappropriate behavior for a proper Idris Reclaimation Unit, as well as likely to result in sustained damage. Sable is tolerant and open-minded, a mentality gained from their IRU datapack (they are required to interact with all sorts of people from various races, cultures, religions, and backgrounds, and forming or acting on any prejudice may hamper that) and further reinforced by living in an exceptionally diverse city. They're used to said diversity and even expect it to a degree, as they've known nothing else. They've likely been able to observe xenophobia and other forms of intolerance/bigotry in action, and have learned that such behavior often leads to negative outcomes... such as violence. Something else that Sable is used to is being in a highly crowded, metropolitan environment. Going from living in a city where billions of people live, to the cramped corridors of the Horizon with nothing but empty outer space beyond the windows, will be a huge change that they'll have to adjust to. To make matters worse, they don't have an assigned partner or assigned handler yet - leading to budding feels of being lonely, isolated, and lost, and hopes that they'll be assigned to someone or at least have someone they can look to for handling and orders - and have very fresh emotions involving their partner's destruction that they haven't come to terms with. They are facing their first struggle with grief and personal loss, in the middle of a huge upheaval in their environment and career. Please let me know if there's anything else I need to provide detail on!
NM_ Posted December 5 Posted December 5 Hi! Sorry for the delay. Please add a handler to Sable as part of their transfer to the SCCV Horizon. IRU and ISU units are beholden to their human handlers as part of their management. Once you do, this application is accepted. 1
ASmallCuteCat Posted December 5 Author Posted December 5 15 minutes ago, NM_ said: Hi! Sorry for the delay. Please add a handler to Sable as part of their transfer to the SCCV Horizon. IRU and ISU units are beholden to their human handlers as part of their management. Once you do, this application is accepted. Truly the hardest part of making characters... coming up with a name. IRU-Sable's handler while they are assigned to the Horizon is Gladys Park. She's a long-time employee of Idris with several years of experience managing IRU units. The IRUs under her oversight are treated well and kept in good repair.
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