[Accepted] Tailson's Skrell Application

BYOND Key: Tailson

Character Names: Rex Winters, ASSIST, PocketBuddy 2.0, Rayner Northey.

Species you are applying to play: Skrell

What color do you plan on making your first alien character (Dionaea & IPCs exempt): A pale blue colour.

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

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: I've been looking to play something new (i.e. non-human) for a while. I've been sort of unable to decide where I want to go in this regard until someone recommended it to me and I realised that I have actually been loving the Skrell lore for a long ol' time. Really interests me.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Skrell lore, as mentioned above, is hella cool. I really enjoy reading about the glorsh rebellion, as everyone else should do of course, but even the little bits really grab my attention. My other characters are either synthetic-appreciative or synthetic themselves, so I think playing a character that has this visceral dislike of them would be a nice change of pace.

Character Name: Kere'Selsh Qorina

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

Kere'Selsh has, since quite young, enjoyed the more physical and practical aspects of the scientific process. Taking things apart, putting them together, taking them apart and then putting them together better, all of that fun stuff. It seems natural, then, that he would take a particular interest in engineering and all that mending and improving that comes with it.

Kere'Selsh first realised he wanted to work aboard a human installation after first seeing a human-built ship. It was impressive, of course, like they all are, but compared to Skrellian vessels? It just cried out to him, it was functional, it was dirty, it needed his attention and improvement. Since then, he's done everything in his power to get aboard human-owned vessels and stations, despite his obvious disdain for the synthetic units they seem so obsessed with, and has shown great aptitude when it comes to making sure things run properly. He was eventually head-hunted by NT and jumped at the opportunity to work on a more advanced station.

What do you like about this character?

My characters are quite unconfrontational. Like, to a fault, maybe (PB is an exception, of course. The little shit). I'd like to play a character that gets his hackles raised by something as ubiquitous as synthetics on NT stations. That said, he's not a bad guy, just opinionated and has a very "I never make bad decisions" kind of attitude.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

People like my characters, I think, so I must be doing something right. I'm going to be modest and say at least a 14/10.

...7/10.

Notes: Was originally going to call him Giro'Shels Qorina. Say that out loud. Giro'Shels. Gyro-shells. Spinning shells. Silly.

>someone reccomended it to me

In all seriousness. Tailson is a really good roleplayer, and by giving himself a 7/10 he is really, really underestimating himself. His roleplay is excellent, and he never breaks character. He is also really nice to talk to, and Winters is personally one of my favourite characters.

About the backstory. I can understand why it's not that big - but on the other side, the best way in my opinion to make a good character is to have them grow organically. I think that's what Tailson is doing here, having a fairly solid and simple backstory to build upon. Having spoken to him, he certainly does understand the Skrell lore.

This application is a major +1 from me. I can't wait to see you warble, dude.

Oh man, I wasn't sure how far to go into the backstory. I lieu of having properly developed the character (which, yeah, needs some ingame time to really do) I wanted to give them a sort of framework for a personality, reason to be driven, etc. and then build from there.

This person is amazing at RP. I've played with them before, whether they are a PaI or the RD. They are just so good at pulling off their characters, I think they'd do amazing as a Skrell +1 from me!

+1, played with ASSIST, really good roleplayer. Taught me how Engines work.

I was about to write out generally unmemorable Tailsons characters are. How Rex and Rayner are not really memorable people until I thought about it for a little bit. I don't think I've ever actually seen Rex and Rayner beside son a manifest simply because I play on different departments then every single character he has and I tend to never really leave it unless I'm either looting as a scientist or making sure peoples heads are staying attached to their bodies. ASSIST and Pocket Buddy, however, is a completely different story. The relationship that Assist has with one of my Skrell can be described as similar to that of an old lady who constantly bangs on the ceiling whenever ASSIST comes along and reeks the place with his presence, and I am absolutely okay with that. They are a great way for me to accurately portray my synth hating Skrell, and Pocket Body is someone I genuinely enjoy having around as a PAI because it's hilarious what they do.

In short, the characters I have seen are all around excellently roleplayed.

Hey there. Loow here.

You have some feedback. A pretty good amount of feedback for a new app. It even touches on your character concept, previous characters, previous rp and conduct. I'm here to keep the conversation going and maybe encourage some more dialogue.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Skrell lore, as mentioned above, is hella cool. I really enjoy reading about the glorsh rebellion, as everyone else should do of course, but even the little bits really grab my attention. My other characters are either synthetic-appreciative or synthetic themselves, so I think playing a character that has this visceral dislike of them would be a nice change of pace.

I'm glad to hear you liked reading the lore. I'll admit it might not all be gold, but I think it's developing a certain character to it.

I'd like to hear more about those "little bits" that grab your attention as well. The sort of things that catch your attention, what you might want to touch on with your character. Maybe even what you don't like that much.

It might be a fun thing to think about.

You decided to take the "two paragraphs minimum" route. That's brave. Typically, longer biographies help an application. It gives people more to grab onto, connect with, and talk about. One thing from the bio in particular stood out to me.

It just cried out to him, it was functional, it was dirty, it needed his attention and improvement.

This and the parts surrounding it scream to me that there's some general spark of a character in Kere'Selsh. I still believe that longer bios are "better" or more helpful for applying, but your two-paragraph bio has something to it. Maybe there's more to hear here. Either way, it hints toward some kind of passion. And that's good.

My characters are quite unconfrontational. Like, to a fault, maybe (PB is an exception, of course. The little shit). I'd like to play a character that gets his hackles raised by something as ubiquitous as synthetics on NT stations. That said, he's not a bad guy, just opinionated and has a very "I never make bad decisions" kind of attitude.

Your app definitely tells about the idea of a Skrell character, but I'd like to hear about the character himself. You mentioned: "I wanted to give them a sort of framework for a personality, reason to be driven, etc. and then build from there." I can respect that, but I would really, really appreciate a little more substance. I would like to hear about this "I never make bad decisions" attitude. Or anything you'd like to talk about really.

Before I forget. There's a WIP page that I haven't really linked very well on the wiki. It's meant to touch on the kinds of places Skrell come from. Systems and things like that. It's not finished, but maybe it could be an interesting read.

Don't be afraid to talk more about your character concept. Worst case, it will show you care.

Oh, and keep advertising your app. You can post a link to it once per round on the server's OOC chat.

I'm glad to hear you liked reading the lore. I'll admit it might not all be gold, but I think it's developing a certain character to it.

I'd like to hear more about those "little bits" that grab your attention as well. The sort of things that catch your attention, what you might want to touch on with your character. Maybe even what you don't like that much.

It might be a fun thing to think about.

Honestly, I really enjoyed reading it back to front. The little bit stating that they'd very closely tracked their evolutionary routes from as early as they could really gives me a good feeling of the sort of people Skrell tend to be. Knowing that they don't have teeth and just have these hard gum things helps me roleplay with them, not necessarily as them (grit your gums is a favourite on PB).

Interacting not just with synths (which is an obvious dynamic) but with other crew sounds extremely fun thanks to how generally inexpressive they are when perceived by other races. All that extra inflection being lost when speaking basic sounds like it could lead to some really interesting "of course I was being sarcastic are you dense or something" moments.

Also, a tiny bit I liked: Calling frontier space "the Traverse", implying it's just another steps further along the way to demonstrate that clear difference in thinking between Skrell and Humanity. I really liked that.

You decided to take the "two paragraphs minimum" route. That's brave. Typically, longer biographies help an application. It gives people more to grab onto, connect with, and talk about. One thing from the bio in particular stood out to me.

It just cried out to him, it was functional, it was dirty, it needed his attention and improvement.

This and the parts surrounding it scream to me that there's some general spark of a character in Kere'Selsh. I still believe that longer bios are "better" or more helpful for applying, but your two-paragraph bio has something to it. Maybe there's more to hear here. Either way, it hints toward some kind of passion. And that's good.

I'll be honest, I want this character to grow dynamically. When I created Rex, I had no clear backstory in mind, he was just a name I liked and an old face that looked good as a tiny sprite. He's the person he is now because I had those interactions and that time ingame to develop the character into what it is. I have an idea for Kere'Selsh's backstory if they're asked where they come from, what their parents were like, any clutchmates (one, extremely lucky parents). I can put it here if you want, or more likely in a PM. I don't want to be a memer and go for the whole "find out ICly" shit, but I think I'd enjoy dripfeeding and developing it over a longer period of time during actual ingame interactions than posting it all here as a sort of character reference library.

Your app definitely tells about the idea of a Skrell character, but I'd like to hear about the character himself. You mentioned: "I wanted to give them a sort of framework for a personality, reason to be driven, etc. and then build from there." I can respect that, but I would really, really appreciate a little more substance. I would like to hear about this "I never make bad decisions" attitude. Or anything you'd like to talk about really.

Oof, well. I'll start with the easy bit, the last bit. So Kere'Selsh is fiercely proud to a fault. He absolutely does not make mistakes. And even in those rare moments he made a mistake? He didn't make it. It was a test. He did it on purpose. Think Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf with a better poker face. As far as he's aware, he's basically infallible in every way.

That said, when he's not insisting he's correct, he can be quite understanding. He's not a monster, and his employment on human vessels probably wouldn't have lasted if he'd been deliberately antagonistic to his peers. He works better with Skrell, of course, he's not here for the humans, he's here for the human engineering.

Before I forget. There's a WIP page that I haven't really linked very well on the wiki. It's meant to touch on the kinds of places Skrell come from. Systems and things like that. It's not finished, but maybe it could be an interesting read.

I did take a look through this! Most likely, he'll hail from a planet with a lot of influence from Xaqixal, as the surrounding systems likely would have adopted that hardworking, industrious mindset from the main planet in that wave/cluster. All of that stuff needs maintaining, so it's likely that machinery would have been a part of Kere'Selsh's life growing up.

Don't be afraid to talk more about your character concept. Worst case, it will show you care.

Oh, and keep advertising your app. You can post a link to it once per round on the server's OOC chat.

Ohyes, totally going to keep advertising. I'm actually really excited to play another species and want this to go through right.

+1 I've played with and love PocketBuddy 2.0 - definitely one of my favorite pAI personalities, if not my favorite.

I assume a defensive stance having another Skrell come into engineering to challenge my engi-snowflake-frog position, but all jokes aside I'd be really excited to see and play with this character!

The notes made me laugh a little, though at the same time showed a level of attention-to-detail with care for this character that I can really appreciate - I would love to see this whitelist go through.

Tailson has provided some of my most fond experiences on Aurora with ASSIST and PB, and in the sparse times I've role played with Rex it's been no different. He's one of the few people on the server who has been able to consistantly pull off snarky and funny characters without ever crossing any lines or going out of character. I would gladly give my first +1 to this guy. Hope you get to play a squid, bubber.

Actual Thought Process: "...taking things apart and putting them back together..." Please be an Engineer not Scientist. "Engineering" YES!

App seems pretty good and though I haven't interacted with Tailson's not PAI character, his PAI PocketBuddy doesn't make me want to jump out the nearest window. That is saying a lot compared to my generally EXCESSIVELY negative opinion on PAIs. Though I would love to see more about the character's, well, character. I know it can be really hard in a app, but I love reading little backstories and learning more about their journey to being qualified for station duties. Like their family life, university experience, and possible previous jobs.

Still a solid enough app and I'm trusting you to be a good squidman.

I don't often play with your other characters, but PB and ASSIST hold a special place in my heart. A joy to rp with, some of your characters are the most charming by a long shot that Aurora has to offer. I've no doubt you can create interesting characters of this and any other species.

+1

Hello! I'm sorry for the delay. Loow was struck by real life shenanigans and I'm going to be handling skrell applications at the moment.

You show a solid grasp of the lore, gave good responses to Loow's questions, and have a lot of positive feedback. Application accepted!