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[Declined] nursie's (synth) lore deputy app


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Ckey/BYOND Username: Nursiekitty


Position Being Applied For: Synthetic lore deputy.


Past Experiences/Knowledge: I've worked closely with a few members of the lore team on various projects to expand their species' universe, from everything to basic biology to creatures, to cultural facets, in addition to providing numerous visual assets for the universe such as flags, news headers, and promotional art. I like to think I have a strength for writing what I call "theoretical biology" - I have a huge interest in all sorts of squishy, organic sciences that I think could produce wonderful things with someone with a mind for machinery.


Examples of Past Work: My only significant works have been in application formats, such as Xrim and the Tul, in addition to a few other animals that I didn't formally apply in the forums, but were discussed with other lore team members in the discord. I feel safe saying that my writing and research capabilities have improved at least a little. I've also assisted some members of the lore team in writing concepts, but these are personal projects that I don't think I'm at liberty to share (namely, I took part in this with Cake and Loow, seperately.)


Preferred Mode of Communication: Discord. I'm "pagan cat#8952" but since that changes on a dime, you can usually grab me by just @ing "cat" in staff chat.


Additional Comments: Please don't hesitate to shove questions at me.

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I am under the impression that you, or at least your character/s, largely dislike synthetics. What motivates you to want to shape their lore, and what would you want to change or add specifically to synthetic lore?

 

I don't hate synthetics. I have maybe one or two characters that treat synthetics worse than they would other sapients, but I feel like that's largely irrelevant. I do think it takes someone with a mind for the very abstract to make synthetic characters interesting.


I think synthetics have the potential to be much more than we've written for them. There's always humming and ho-ing over what synthetics can be or can be capable of. My goal isn't to clarify these questions, but expand what we consider "synthetic" in our lore, and I want them to be thought of as more than bipedal, human-like robots.

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I have worked with you on some concepts on multiple occasions indeed. All of them were positive or had positive outcomes for me. Let's get the questionnaire out of the way!


What is trivial lore (or even, trivial information) to you? I'm not asking you to criticize the lore here for an answer (I mean, unless you really want to), just provide a made up example.


When writing a section where the final product is intended to be uploaded to the wiki, would you be able to keep that section of information clear, concise, and free of clutter?


You're resourceful in graphic design, but are you resourceful in Google images design also? Seriously. I desperately need some flair in some places.


Would you be able to log into the server for at least 2 hours at a planned point in time? This is in case I need the deputy to assist in an event. Events requiring assistance like this probably won't ever be spur-of-the-moment, and will have set dates.


Just to bring to light again that I'm looking for a partner and not a secretary. Should you make the team, you will be required to be both creative and logical, realistic and fantastical.

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Awesome, let's get down to this.

 

What is trivial lore (or even, trivial information) to you? I'm not asking you to criticize the lore here for an answer (I mean, unless you really want to), just provide a made up example.

 

Trivial lore is little details that I think, make universes feel more alive. Subcultures and pop cultures and social things, etcetera. Trivial, I feel, gives these things an undeserving negative connotation.

 

When writing a section where the final product is intended to be uploaded to the wiki, would you be able to keep that section of information clear, concise, and free of clutter?

 

I believe so. I consider myself pretty good at streamlining text.

 

You're resourceful in graphic design, but are you resourceful in Google images design also? Seriously. I desperately need some flair in some places.

 

Uh, I need clarification on this. Are we talking about like, hardcore image editing, or just finding images suitable for a cause? (I do have a small amount of images I've edited, if you'd like to see)

 

Would you be able to log into the server for at least 2 hours at a planned point in time? This is in case I need the deputy to assist in an event. Events requiring assistance like this probably won't ever be spur-of-the-moment, and will have set dates.

 

Only on rare occasions would I not be, like being out of the house, or something of that nature.

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You're resourceful in graphic design, but are you resourceful in Google images design also? Seriously. I desperately need some flair in some places.

 

Uh, I need clarification on this. Are we talking about like, hardcore image editing, or just finding images suitable for a cause? (I do have a small amount of images I've edited, if you'd like to see)

 

Just hunting down images on Google images, for many reasons. References and news articles mainly, but also some inspiration. Edited images are also just as good, if not better.

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+1. Multiple times I've worked on character concepts with Nursie and vice versa, and I think through that we've not only created really interesting characters for ourselves but inspired others to do the same. I really find Nursie's attention to small detail is far from wasted effort, as I find that details, even when it seems like it's not useful to add to the overall lore as a roleplay nuance, it's a bunch of smaller things that add up to create a really interesting product.


Nursie's certainly someone who can put her foot down and make her own decisions, not necessarily resigning themselves to the "lore secretary" meme, so I think with time she'd be an excellent partner to Cake.

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I don't hate synthetics. I have maybe one or two characters that treat synthetics worse than they would other sapients, but I feel like that's largely irrelevant. I do think it takes someone with a mind for the very abstract to make synthetic characters interesting.


I think synthetics have the potential to be much more than we've written for them. There's always humming and ho-ing over what synthetics can be or can be capable of. My goal isn't to clarify these questions, but expand what we consider "synthetic" in our lore, and I want them to be thought of as more than bipedal, human-like robots.

 

In light of your response, I have a question for you, one that's stumped both myself and Cake.


You said you wanted to expand what we consider synthetic in the lore, my question for you about this is what do you think dead Vaurca are in our lore?


Once a Vaurca dies, its neural socket is uploaded into a VR forever. Are the Vaurca minds so put here synthetics or are they organics? They were born, they lived and died but are they synthetic? Are they synthetic because they only exist as part of mechanical technology? What about biotechnology? VR constructs themselves are hosted upon Cephelions, large biocomputers, very much so made of flesh. All of these can be said to be synthetic since they only exist as a result of artificial means. If the seat of the soul is seen as the brain to us, and the neural socket to Vaurca, does it really being mechanical matter anymore within a species so defined by artificial means to begin with?


What do you think?

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Hey there. Loow here.


I'm mentioned a few times in the original post, so I'm obligated to say something.

 

I am under the impression that you, or at least your character/s, largely dislike synthetics. What motivates you to want to shape their lore, and what would you want to change or add specifically to synthetic lore?

Don't get too scared, fam. NK's Skrell and other characters are so synthetic-neutral that it feels like I'm watching a drier set to low. I mean to say that it's not very exciting.

But yeah. If anyone's going to infiltrate the synthetic department and ruin it from the inside, it's probably not going to be NK.


I don't hate synthetics. I have maybe one or two characters that treat synthetics worse than they would other """sapients""", but I feel like that's largely irrelevant. I do think it takes someone with a mind for the very abstract to make synthetic characters interesting.


I think synthetics have the potential to be much more than we've written for them. There's always humming and ho-ing over what synthetics can be or can be capable of. My goal isn't to clarify these questions, but expand what we consider "synthetic" in our lore, and I want them to be thought of as more than bipedal, human-like robots.

Zoom and enhance on that. This sounds like you have an idea somewhere in that brain of yours, but there's a lot of room for interpretation. Zoom. Enhance.


Cake and NK have some banter here. I'll spare picking that apart for now and get to the reason I came here.


NK's done fine by me. Idea-game has been strong. Everything they've offered has been more or less workable. NK also takes feedback pretty well.

Did I mention I liked Xrim?


You could do worse than NK.

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In light of your response, I have a question for you, one that's stumped both myself and Cake.


You said you wanted to expand what we consider synthetic in the lore, my question for you about this is what do you think dead Vaurca are in our lore?


Once a Vaurca dies, its neural socket is uploaded into a VR forever. Are the Vaurca minds so put here synthetics or are they organics? They were born, they lived and died but are they synthetic? Are they synthetic because they only exist as part of mechanical technology? What about biotechnology? VR constructs themselves are hosted upon Cephelions, large biocomputers, very much so made of flesh. All of these can be said to be synthetic since they only exist as a result of artificial means. If the seat of the soul is seen as the brain to us, and the neural socket to Vaurca, does it really being mechanical matter anymore within a species so defined by artificial means to begin with?


What do you think?

 

This is a really fun question! I look forward to this kind of stuff if I get accepted.


I don't think they're necessarily either in this case. I would consider them a program. I would go even further to say vaurca are more synthetic than they are organic, and I'll explain a bit of this.


I think that brains are similar enough to programs that if you distill the two and put them side by side, they would be nearly identical. I also think that with sufficient enough technology, you could do the very same with the rest of the body, and compare its activity to a machine built the same way. But I digress.


All vaurca are built with a purpose in mind - built. They are hatched and then they are designed for whatever task their higher power deems necessary, much like the other sapient species do with synthetics. The most synthetic of vaurca obviously being a fully augmented bound, I think that no matter how you spin it, even the least augmented vaurca is more synthetic than organic for this reason. I think that when a vaurca is uploaded into VR, it's no different than transferring a program.


After all, the definition of synthetic is to be synthesized, or to not occur naturally.


 


I don't hate synthetics. I have maybe one or two characters that treat synthetics worse than they would other """sapients""", but I feel like that's largely irrelevant. I do think it takes someone with a mind for the very abstract to make synthetic characters interesting.


I think synthetics have the potential to be much more than we've written for them. There's always humming and ho-ing over what synthetics can be or can be capable of. My goal isn't to clarify these questions, but expand what we consider "synthetic" in our lore, and I want them to be thought of as more than bipedal, human-like robots.

Zoom and enhance on that. This sounds like you have an idea somewhere in that brain of yours, but there's a lot of room for interpretation. Zoom. Enhance.

 

Thanks for the super nice words!

I think synthetic lore deserves a diversion from what we see on station - I know we're being held back a little by game mechanics, but I'm not here to shove anything aboard the station just yet. I'm here to create.


And this is still going to be super vague, and I'm sorry, but I'm having trouble finding the right words. I think we need to diversity the types of silicon-based life that we see in the lore. I want to see more variety in the robots we write, and I want to give them culture. I think they deserve it, after huge chunks of them have been given rights in Tau Ceti. They finally have the opportunity to grow on their own.

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Guest Marlon Phoenix

Another person applied for synthetic deputy, so a ruling on synthetic deputy applications has been pushed back for a few more days to give people time to respond to the new applicant. We will make a decision on monday or tuesday.

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Guest Marlon Phoenix

Hello,


You have a strong application, and it was weighted with the other 2 applicants. Both Cake and I decided to accept Kyres1 due to his similar strengths, synergy with Cake, and a small part of them not already being part of staff. If we have an opening then I really encourage you to apply again in the future!


Locking and archiving.

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