[Accepted] Alien Whitelist App - Unbound Vaurca

[Absynth]

BYOND Key: Absynth

Character Names: Sofia Pennington, Helena Jimjams, Sunzhou Xiao, Grandma (AI), RusComm Emergency AI (AI), Serena Johnson

Species you are applying to play: Vaurca.

What color do you plan on making your first alien character (Dionaea & IPCs exempt): Yellow, probably.

Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes.

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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:

They seem more interesting and less generic than the other races.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:

Vaurca remind me a lot of the prawns from District 9, which I assume they were based off of. The idea of a true hive mind race without the overlordship is a very interesting concept for a player character and I think a difficult challenge to play accurately and believably. I am always up for a challenge.

 

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Character Name: Za'Akaix'Ein Zo'ra. The Ein is short for Einstein, which Za'Akaix'Ein cannot pronounce.

Please provide a short backstory for this character, approximately 2 paragraphs

Excerpt of Audio Log-4 Series-BA

Day 1:

""

Day 3:

"Live. I. Am here."

Day 12:

"Zlow. Move zo sslowly here. I awake but not. Learn. Not same. Want home. Back home. But izz gone forever."

Day 26:

"I learn, but zlower. beingz pink, weak, but zzzzo clever. I want to tear them- "

Day 32:

"Once I learn war. War iz good. The pulze and flow of the dance, the turgid lymph filling all veins to bursting. grow violent thinking of the glory. Glory for the Zo'ra! But now the pinkz cast their eyes away, and we work az one, but NOT azs one. The pink onez do not know of the chorus, or the greatness of the Hive."

Day 64:

"Long for home. Long for paradise. Thiz univerze so slow! SO SSLOW! I move like , compared to moving in Paradise. I ztill zee it when I rest."

Day 89:

"There iz greater thirzt than war, greater glory than death. World zo slow, but I learn and I learn. Zecretz of the univerzzze! Hu-manz. Clever, zzzo clever they break zzo many fabrics of all thingzzz. Time, zzpace, energy- they do not rezpect the fabric, they flaunt it! And zzzo they achieve thingzzz never before pozzible. Perhapzz they will help ."

Day 312:

"New Gibzon, good plaze for Hive. Once, would fight for New Gibzon, tear all enemy hivez with tooth and claw until lymph, bright and thick, spills from all foes and strangers. But now I learn that iz not the way forward. Forward iz in zience, in breaking the fabriczz of all things. Become the mazter, learn all knowledge, and Zo'ra reigns. Pink onez say, to do work of humans, or stay on Gibzon? I do most good learning pink human thingz and bring back to Hive. We grow strong and destroy all other hivezz, but only in time. When time iz ready, we will rize again, and paradise will be waiting."

Day 313:

"Implants are completed. Exoduzz? Home for now. Strange name. Hope I do not kill any soft humanz. They do not tolerate it, I have learn. Will be good. Even accept soft human-meat name, but it iz name of great pink learner. I will learn. Name is Einzzzt. Eye-nnnz-tine. Einzzzsh-- "

Za'Ein is an Unbound Zo'ra of the warrior caste - once responsible for tactics and strategy for an entire wing of warships, Ein never actually got to use those skills as it remained in VR until the arrival of Titan Prime on Biesel. Ein was first sent to Biesel, then New Gibson. From Gibson, Ein was sent to the Exodus, and from there managed to convince NT to make it a lab assistant rather than a janitor or laborer. Though Ein's ultimate goal is the theft of bluespace technology to help the colony on New Gibson, this mission is secondary to simply absorbing as much as possible.

Ein is often quick to act and judge, gets frustrated and angered easily, but genuinely wants to learn. It is eight feet tall, and a golden-yellow color.

What do you like about this character?

It's something different.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

Fairly strong. It's kind of hard to "rate" a role playing ability, honestly; I put a lot of work and effort into my RP, so I suppose that counts.

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Hello. I am here. I will protect your zzoft, pink meatzz.

[Ian The Corgi]

Sunzhao Xiao and Grandmother good characters, and you can definitely RP with the best of them.

+1

[VileFault]

I didn't realize Sunzhao Xiao was also you, Absynth. I have met both her and Sofia Pennington a bunch as Simon Bard, and definitely give this a solid +1. Glad to hear your new Vaurca will be sticking around in our department. Also, I appreciate that you have a built an antag mission (technology theft) into your character that they can pursue as a traitor - too many people don't plan for it then have to make some 'meh' stuff up when/if they get chosen.

Edit: I was reading through your recent head whitelist again, and though I was never super impressed by Sofia's zenobotanical antics, I can see what you were trying to do and didn't really agree with the dog-piling in that thread. Anyway, this character seems a bit less silly, so it might be an opportunity to leave simple gimmicks like that behind.

Edited September 9, 2016 by Guest

[Synnono]

With plenty of time played with Sofia and some with Sunzhou, I can definitely vouch for this player's ability to write cleverly and be entertaining (even when their characters are being absolute terrors). They come up with fresh ideas consistently, are generally helpful in the OOC, and create engaging moments for the people who stick around. I believe they'd take the time to make a worthwhile bugthing.

This application could be turned down though, if the stuff in it doesn't display an understanding of the species being applied for. The question that asks what makes Vaurca different from humans is more a test of your knowledge from the server lore, and it's a good one to answer in full. While it's not strictly necessary to write to a length requirement, I think it's better to put too much into these apps instead of not enough.

It might also be worth expanding on why you like the character as well. Do they have certain motivations or qualities you don't often put into other characters, beyond what the race forces you to?

[Absynth]

The difficulty in saying 'how are they different' is it's an extremely vague question, since they're two totally different species. I've read all the wiki, all the lore forums, and pretty much everything about the Vaurca (even went through the source a bit), watched District 9 something like 40 times (it's one of my favorite movies!) are pretty much the most up to date I can get on them since there are so few in game. It seemed to me like the question was more seeing if you could accurately portray a vaurca as opposed to a human, rather than describing all the actual details that make them different. Obviously they are an alien race and are nothing like humans; that's the very draw of playing one, to 'get inside' the head of something completely alien (in the adjective sense).

My style of RP doesn't give a ton of thought to specifics about the character - I have to actually play it and get a feel for how the character behaves, so I can make it truly believable. I'm nothing like Sofia or Sunzhou in real life (maybe a bit of Sofia..), and it took me maybe 3 or 4 days playing each before I settled into a solid rhythm with them, but once the teething process is over, you don't need any effort at all to maintain the character. Not having either other Vaurca around nor a specific game-culture for them like Tajarans allows a pretty huge amount of flexibility with RP, which is difficult for human characters since they generally require more effort to make them less 'been there, done that'.

[LordFowl]

BYOND Key: Absynth

Character Names: Sofia Pennington, Helena Jimjams, Sunzhou Xiao, Grandma (AI), RusComm Emergency AI (AI), Serena Johnson

Species you are applying to play: Vaurca.

What color do you plan on making your first alien character (Dionaea & IPCs exempt): Yellow, probably.

Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes.

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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:

They seem more interesting and less generic than the other races.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:

Vaurca remind me a lot of the prawns from District 9, which I assume they were based off of. The idea of a true hive mind race without the overlordship is a very interesting concept for a player character and I think a difficult challenge to play accurately and believably. I am always up for a challenge.

 

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Character Name: Za'Akaix'Ein Zo'ra. The Ein is short for Einstein, which Za'Akaix'Ein cannot pronounce.

Please provide a short backstory for this character, approximately 2 paragraphs

Excerpt of Audio Log-4 Series-BA

Day 1:

""

Day 3:

"Live. I. Am here."

Day 12:

"Zlow. Move zo sslowly here. I awake but not. Learn. Not same. Want home. Back home. But izz gone forever."

Day 26:

"I learn, but zlower. beingz pink, weak, but zzzzo clever. I want to tear them- "

Day 32:

"Once I learn war. War iz good. The pulze and flow of the dance, the turgid lymph filling all veins to bursting. grow violent thinking of the glory. Glory for the Zo'ra! But now the pinkz cast their eyes away, and we work az one, but NOT azs one. The pink onez do not know of the chorus, or the greatness of the Hive."

Day 64:

"Long for home. Long for paradise. Thiz univerze so slow! SO SSLOW! I move like , compared to moving in Paradise. I ztill zee it when I rest."

Day 89:

"There iz greater thirzt than war, greater glory than death. World zo slow, but I learn and I learn. Zecretz of the univerzzze! Hu-manz. Clever, zzzo clever they break zzo many fabrics of all thingzzz. Time, zzpace, energy- they do not rezpect the fabric, they flaunt it! And zzzo they achieve thingzzz never before pozzible. Perhapzz they will help ."

Day 312:

"New Gibzon, good plaze for Hive. Once, would fight for New Gibzon, tear all enemy hivez with tooth and claw until lymph, bright and thick, spills from all foes and strangers. But now I learn that iz not the way forward. Forward iz in zience, in breaking the fabriczz of all things. Become the mazter, learn all knowledge, and Zo'ra reigns. Pink onez say, to do work of humans, or stay on Gibzon? I do most good learning pink human thingz and bring back to Hive. We grow strong and destroy all other hivezz, but only in time. When time iz ready, we will rize again, and paradise will be waiting."

Day 313:

"Implants are completed. Exoduzz? Home for now. Strange name. Hope I do not kill any soft humanz. They do not tolerate it, I have learn. Will be good. Even accept soft human-meat name, but it iz name of great pink learner. I will learn. Name is Einzzzt. Eye-nnnz-tine. Einzzzsh-- "

Za'Ein is an Unbound Zo'ra of the warrior caste - once responsible for tactics and strategy for an entire wing of warships, Ein never actually got to use those skills as it remained in VR until the arrival of Titan Prime on Biesel. Ein was first sent to Biesel, then New Gibson. From Gibson, Ein was sent to the Exodus, and from there managed to convince NT to make it a lab assistant rather than a janitor or laborer. Though Ein's ultimate goal is the theft of bluespace technology to help the colony on New Gibson, this mission is secondary to simply absorbing as much as possible.

Ein is often quick to act and judge, gets frustrated and angered easily, but genuinely wants to learn. It is eight feet tall, and a golden-yellow color.

What do you like about this character?

It's something different.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

Fairly strong. It's kind of hard to "rate" a role playing ability, honestly; I put a lot of work and effort into my RP, so I suppose that counts.

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Hello. I am here. I will protect your zzoft, pink meatzz.

 

There are a few flaws with your application. First of all, Zo'ra cannot be yellowed, as is outlined in the wiki for the article. Secondly, your character seems to revel in violence, almost to the extreme. This is not in obedience to Vaurca culture, as Vaurca see combat and conflict as merely a means to an end. There is no special ritual or flavour applied to it, Thirdly, your character is stated as having once been "responsible for the tactics and strategy of an entire wing of warships" - this is a task that would not be delegated to a mere Type BA warrior, who typically serve as the lowest of the low, warrior drones in disposition but lacking in many augmentations. It would most likely a position occupied remotely by a Type C Vaurca.

Finally, this last passage raises a few eyebrows;

From Gibson, Ein was sent to the Exodus, and from there managed to convince NT to make it a lab assistant rather than a janitor or laborer. Though Ein's ultimate goal is the theft of bluespace technology to help the colony on New Gibson, this mission is secondary to simply absorbing as much as possible.

While there is no problem with characters that are antagonistic to NanoTrasen's operations, this borders on self-antagging, and edges onto some lore questions. Was he deployed by the hive specifically to do this? That is pretty much full-blown antagonism, and I really wouldn't let that fly. Is he doing this of his own initiative? It is possible, but unlikely. The second anyone even slightly suspects you of this malice means that your ass is grass.

Beyond these mostly minor complaints, the application displays an adequate understanding of Vaurca lore, and I simply want your response to the points raised here before I make my final decision.

[Absynth]

Ah, the color should have been red, not yellow.

The wiki was pretty vague about noting the intelligence of each caste; the idea was Ein would have shown enough cleverness and grasp of tactics in the VR, and be trained there, to be designated as something beyond just a mere grunt. The aggression and love of aggression serve two purposes- to give the hive a good excuse for getting rid of Ein, and to function as a contrasting character hook; barely restrained hostility kept in check by a genuine interest in science. This forces people to look past the obvious "oh shit huge angry bug monster" to see a frustrated being that honestly wants to improve itself, but has no real concept of how to do that.

As for the bluespace thing -- lorewise the Gibson colony has all kinds of mysterious tech built by the Vaurca, I just felt it stood to reason that they would be interested in the possibility of integrating new and exciting stuff that they haven't seen before. Theft is probably too strong a word; I meant it more like learning how all that blue space stuff works and is built (Ie. taking a suspiciously deep interest in it), not actually grabbing stuff and running off with it.

[ChevalierMalFet]

Hives don't need 'a good excuse to get rid of' someone. If somebody doesn't fit the program, they just get liquidated, or don't get let out of VR.

[VileFault]

While there is no problem with characters that are antagonistic to NanoTrasen's operations, this borders on self-antagging, and edges onto some lore questions. Was he deployed by the hive specifically to do this? That is pretty much full-blown antagonism, and I really wouldn't let that fly. Is he doing this of his own initiative? It is possible, but unlikely. The second anyone even slightly suspects you of this malice means that your ass is grass.

 

I am fine with characters having built in and subtle antag-missions, so long as their players understand that they should only play them as overtly antagonistic when they have been selected as a traitor. To me, it makes sense that hostile actors within the crew would bide their time and blend in before trying to cache in the trust they have built over the shifts during some theft or assassination. I really don't know that much about Vaurca lore, beyond what a quick look at the page will tell you, so I can't speak to other people's concerns. I do wonder whether you are treating them too much like humans, however, and not as part of a collective hive mind that actively subverts dissent and unhelpful behavior even in the unbound. Good luck!

[LordFowl]

Ah, the color should have been red, not yellow.

The wiki was pretty vague about noting the intelligence of each caste; the idea was Ein would have shown enough cleverness and grasp of tactics in the VR, and be trained there, to be designated as something beyond just a mere grunt. The aggression and love of aggression serve two purposes- to give the hive a good excuse for getting rid of Ein, and to function as a contrasting character hook; barely restrained hostility kept in check by a genuine interest in science. This forces people to look past the obvious "oh shit huge angry bug monster" to see a frustrated being that honestly wants to improve itself, but has no real concept of how to do that.

As for the bluespace thing -- lorewise the Gibson colony has all kinds of mysterious tech built by the Vaurca, I just felt it stood to reason that they would be interested in the possibility of integrating new and exciting stuff that they haven't seen before. Theft is probably too strong a word; I meant it more like learning how all that blue space stuff works and is built (Ie. taking a suspiciously deep interest in it), not actually grabbing stuff and running off with it.

 

As mentioned before, if the Hive has a reason for "getting rid of" one of their Vaurcae, they'll simply destroy them. Vagrant and hiveless Vaurca are a no-go.

That said, with everything mentioned here taken into account - and I suggest you do take it into account - I will be accepting this application.