Let it never be said that I cannot be trendy. Mua ha and ha.
Okidoki. I have, barring only one two-hour visit on Taps four years ago, never been on a MU* of any kind. So please pardon me for any inexperience I may show in the assembly of this application. I feel weird enough as it is sending this thing without worrying about whether or not I'm actually Following Proper Procedure. :)
If I thusly become an annoyance, blame Kristy Tracer. It's what I've been doing. :)
So... the nice lady I have in mind is called GrayZero (or Gray for short). She can appear as pretty much anything, but her favorite is extremely traditionalistic - just a plain-looking tastefully nude anthropomorphic gray vixen. Time will tell whether or not she'll (read: I'll ;) ) get the courage to try changing this around. I suppose that if you looked *really* closely (as in, enough to get you slapped :) ) and you've got good eyes, you might be able to notice a little pixelation; this is because there isn't actually anybody there. She's able to provide feedback to the senses - sight, sound, touch, et cetera - but she is not actually a physical being. Yet.
See, GrayZero is the summation of the distributed parts of a chronologically very old (and emotionally extremely young) upload, originally from $DEITY knows where. The original Gray, pre-upload, was a bit of a mystic, and felt that the core traits of one's character should not be altered, but instead be used as a base upon which to build yourself. This wasn't exactly a common view in a world where experimentation of All things was rapidly becoming the new norm, so in order to stay "herself" she voluntarily underwent uploading and spent large amounts of time developing a system in which she divvied up various parts of her personality such that they're distributed all over all the data networks throughout Puzzlebox, well-protected and multiply redundant, but all securely flowing together to make "her". Having insured her future integrity, she decided to take a look at the Real World again - and discovered a lot of things had changed in that time. So, she's a little behind the times.
So why am I sending this? Firstly, blame Kristy, as mentioned above. Secondly, to be bluntly honest, my motivation's not too distant from the character's - I'm bored, and this looks interesting ;) . I've had very little background and/or involvement in the whole postfurry/posthuman/postetcetera thing, and yet going through the Wiki has left me far too curious for my own good as to what sort of things could come out of such a setup, and so I wanna take a look.
So, there's what I've got. Please don't hurt me. :)
XOR replied in about a month; this was my reply to same.
The following was discovered 08/13/2004 09:54 PM in a note attributed to one 'function XOR':
Hi there -- thank you for your patience while I worked through the backlog of applications. I'm sorry this has taken so long.
'sokay.
First of all, we're more than willing to accept people who are new to MUCKs and give as much technical coaching as necessary. I think you'd find your way around the place pretty quickly.
Okidoki, niftiness.
As for your character... there's nothing at all wrong with it, but could you fill in more of this being's background, its history, its goals if any, and what, if anything, does it want to do in the Mess beyond sightseeing? Does it have an ideology that might draw it towards one or more factions? What kind of plots might it participate in or create? I'm not going to hold you to anything you say, I'm just looking for more evidence of your creativity.
I kind of figured her background as being originally from a pre-post-scarcity (now *there*'s a screwed up construct :D ) other world within PB that was in the midst of transitioning to a post-scarcity setting, which offended and scared a lot of traditionalists, herself among them; thus the reason for the upload. In a small sense she's based on myself in that she (and I) are both kind of repulsed by and yet vaugely intrigued by some of the ideas invovled; her means of dealing with it was to build a system such that she cannot be easily Messed With and then go and see if she really can participate in such a Strange New World.
Ideology kind of follows from her background; by modern (read: Real World) standards she'd prob'ly be thought of as fairly liberal, but I was guessing in PuzzleBox she'd be the modern equivalent of a Bible Thumper. Like, reveres PB as Goddess and Creator, believes in the "essential self" or "soul" as a sacrosanct construct that must be preserved (that "core traits" thing I referred to in the app), feels that Law is necessary to properly manage Freedom (and has plenty of ideas for those laws), et cetera. Not the totalitarian type, but still prone to ocassionally proseltyzing. I don't *think* she'd be drawn towards, say, the VRC as a result (Victorian era's too far back for my tastes :) ), but I suppose anything's possible.
Plots? I only had one thought in mind and that was if she comes to the conclusion that she wants to observe more directly, and so tries to create an actual body to interact in, rather than her current setup. Dunno if that would make for good storytelling, but it's what comes to mind. :)
I realize it can be difficult working out what your character will do when you haven't been on Puzzlebox yet, so I can give you a guest password for a look around if you'd like.
I'll consider that if I'm being insufficiently imaginative here. :) I've been reading the Wiki through and through, though, so I feel like I've got at least *some*thing to work with.
Shortly thereafter, I received the following from XOR.
Hi there. I've created Gray; before we get on to the business of logins and other practical matters, let me just drop a few random thoughts about your character...
I kind of figured her background as being originally from a pre-post-scarcity (now *there*'s a screwed up construct :D ) other world within PB that was in the midst of transitioning to a post-scarcity setting, which offended and scared a lot of traditionalists, herself among them; thus the reason for the upload. In a small sense she's based on myself in that she (and I) are both kind of repulsed by and yet vaugely intrigued by some of the ideas invovled; her means of dealing with it was to build a system such that she cannot be easily Messed With and then go and see if she really can participate in such a Strange New World.
Hmm -- well, *every* place on Puzzlebox has access to postscarcity technology -- the instantiator system is in the air you breathe and the ground you walk on -- but I can readily imagine a society that "went Amish" a few centuries back and was now evolving, socially, to where they could embrace postscarcity.
Ideology kind of follows from her background; by modern (read: Real World) standards she'd prob'ly be thought of as fairly liberal, but I was guessing in PuzzleBox she'd be the modern equivalent of a Bible Thumper. Like, reveres PB as Goddess and Creator, believes in the "essential self" or "soul" as a sacrosanct construct that must be preserved (that "core traits" thing I referred to in the app), feels that Law is necessary to properly manage Freedom (and has plenty of ideas for those laws), et cetera. Not the totalitarian type, but still prone to ocassionally proseltyzing. I don't *think* she'd be drawn towards, say, the VRC as a result (Victorian era's too far back for my tastes :) ), but I suppose anything's possible.
I like this: she'll be getting into political arguments nearly constantly with the anarchist majority of the Mess, as well as, probably, some of the more and less extreme authoritarians. Having someone whose political theory and general background might be close to, say, the early 21st century might be interesting for exploring the ways Puzzlebox is alien to that setting and the ways it isn't...
So, the upshot: I've created Gray with the password [removed]. Below are a couple of thoughts I had about the character... The first time you log in to Puzzlebox (puzzleboxmuck.org, port 8890), you'll be asked to complete a brief setup process which will take about half an hour. Don't worry, you only have to do this once. :) If you have trouble logging in or any other questions, please email me at this address.
Page me or page-mail me anytime if you have questions. To keep up with everything that's happening on PB, you may want to watch the Puzzlebox newsfeed at http://www.livejournal.com/puzzleboxnews/friends. I also encourage you to add your character to the Puzzlebox wiki at http://www.puzzleboxmuck.org/wiki/ if you'd like. See you there!