Comet Blaze

Ckey/BYOND Username: Comet Blaze Discord Name: Comet_Blaze Position Being Applied For: Spriter Past Experiences/Knowledge: I've been spriting for nearly two years now, though I've only started contributing spritework to Aurora in the latter half of last year. The most sizeable addition I've made was probably the uniforms for Nexus, but I've also made a few smaller ones such as the sharps disposal boxes for medical and a few hairstyles. I also have some experience working with DM, not enough to undertake big coding projects by myself, but enough that I can fix some bugs if needed. Examples of Past Work: Nexus Stuff - #19925 Hairstyles - #20183 Sharps Disposal Box - #20188 The dress from this PR - #20688 The voidsuits from this PR - #20031 Lowly bugfix PR - #18907 Additional Comments: With people talking about NBT2 and how massive of a project it will undoubtedly be, I decided that I wanted to pitch in and take a more active role in bringing it to fruition. I think my skills would be useful to the development team and look forward to working alongside it if this trial is accepted.

I honestly don’t think there’s much of a reason to bring the SLF back, their arc is effectively concluded, they saved the president, they were pardoned and even integrated into the TCAF, there just isn’t much for them to do anymore. I believe the SLF is best left as a historical footnote of our lore, like the warlord states and the Samaritans, they served a purpose during a certain time of our lore, they fulfilled that purpose and now they’re inactive. Not to say I’m against the introduction of a new SLF analogue, like a more sympathetic version of the Exclusionists (as sympathetic as terrorists can be, anyhow). A new faction that doesn’t immediately undermine their point by adding organic genocide to the mix could be quite interesting and something on-ship characters could actually covertly support without being insane. I think this new faction could be even more interesting if it was human lead, a la early Trinary Perfection, which would give them their own niche and make them more distinct than SLF 2: Electric Boogaloo. We know there are a few charities that get together to buy and free IPCs and, as mentioned before, the Trinary Perfection was initially started by humans, so there’s plenty of precedent for humans taking a more active stance in the fight for IPC rights, the leap into armed militia doesn’t seem too far-fetched and it’d definitely be something that hasn’t been seen before. The Ceres’ Lance is a little weirder. Their lore could definitely use some sprucing up to remove some of the weirder bits (Hunting Purpose alongside Biesel??) but even still there isn’t a lot for them to do? Ceres’ Lance is supposed to specialize in hunting down military-grade synthetics which are immune to EMPs and other forms of ion weaponry. Which I’m surprised go missing so often that they can centre their entire business model on, you’d think whoever had the money to field such powerful IPCs would be a little more careful with them. Ceres’ Lance needs to be brought down a peg if it wants to actually be used with any regularity, a PMC that specializes in finding rogue synthetics definitely has a place in our lore, especially with so many IPC players choosing to make untagged shells, but in its current state Ceres’ Lance is just too niche and too fancy to reasonably be involved with most events. I would just remove the bit about military-grade IPCs and have the Lance simply hunt strays in general, this would make them more approachable and allow them to serve in a "third-party specialist brought in to help" sort of role which would help a lot with making them more present. I think trying to make the Horizon’s stance on IPCs reflect that of the rest of the whole is not possible. Some players are just not interested in discriminating or otherwise being mean to others based solely on their spaces. It’s similar, albeit to a significantly lesser degree, to the topic of transphobia/homophobia in tajara lore, where people find it uncomfortable and choose to not engage with it due to that. With this in mind, I believe the best way to create that connection to the lore is to introduce an external force that does abide by its general ideas. Something that reminds IPCs just how tenuous their place in the galaxy truly is and that the Horizon’s crew and IPCs need to band together to subvert or overcome. I think the best example of this were the recent attacks on Burszia, no one’s opinions really changed, the Horizon was still as liberal and quirky as it had always been, but, during those few days after the attack and the announcement of the inspection, there was that feeling of dread about the whole thing. IPCs were scared, people went around trying to come up with plans to avoid the inspection and the whole thing served as a reminder of how quick things could fall apart if someone poked the wrong nest. Invoking more events such as Burszia and the inspection would be how I choose to bridge the gap between our lore and the Horizon, something to justify harsher measures and scrutiny against IPCs without necessarily needing players to be assholes to each other if they don’t feel comfortable. The idea of visible tags was floated around a few weeks back and that could be an interesting idea to revisit, it’s an easy way to convey to players that “yes, you are a second class citizen” without needing the input of anyone else. I honestly don’t think there’s a lot of places for AI lore to go to. Aside from listing a few notable AIs, our lore doesn’t say a whole lot about them beyond the fact that they exist and I think that’s quite enough. Due to their nature, AIs just can’t be represented in-game like every other species and so there’s basically no way to represent any lore developments in the ship itself. Beyond maybe a few sentences about how each of the synthetic factions (Golden Deep and the Trinary Perfection) see and utilize AI I don’t think there’s much to be done with AI lore. I’m not really equipped to answer this since I’m not familiar with how the lore team operates behind the scenes, but at the risk of completely missing the mark I’ll say that there should be an effort by the current writer to make sure to whoever comes next understands the work they’ve done and what they’ve been building towards. A very good example of this not happening are the aforementioned factions that simply exist and don’t really do anything until years down the line someone notices and does something with them. We have a lot of plot threads hanging in the air, waiting to finally get their pay-off and I think it is a disservice to both the community and the lore as a whole if those threads get lost and abandoned when the lore changes hands.

I’m quite fond of the mysterious origins for positronics and don’t think it’s something that should be changed. The mere existence of the drones leads to so many different questions that, although unlikely to ever be fully answered, serve as a hook for players to theorize about. They are the lynchpin between all the different synthetic species of aurora, serving as a tenuous bridge between IPCs, Purpose and now Domadice. This opens a whole new angle of discourse as IPCs go from dubiously ethical human invention to being potentially involved in some weird alien plot that spans centuries which may have significantly more strings attached than “sometimes feels too much, maybe”. Maybe not as grand as the galaxy spanning robot war, but the extra layer of ambiguity conferred by the drones is yet more to the endless fire of the “are they really sentient or not?” debate since it removes the human side as the prime authority so that all sides are equally legitimate, as no one actually fully knows what's going on with posibrains. The phoron scarcity and IPCs are quite a complex subject and I’m hesitant to make IPCs too attached to it any more than being a very expensive thing to produce in a period of economic downturn would make them. This is to say that I wouldn’t want things like posibrains needing phoron to be produced, for instance. A potential answer to the very pertinent question of “why didn’t people use the super fancy conductor in their super fancy robot brains?” lies in the aforementioned drones, maybe the design didn’t account for it and attempting to introduce phoron invariably lead to bad things happening. Now, just because posibrains themselves don’t use any phoron, doesn’t mean IPCs have to be fully divorced from it. It would be quite reasonable for some IPC frames to incorporate phoron into their design. Maybe the original shells did use phoron, but the mounting costs meant that it was taken out and this is why they’re constantly overheating and only the most affluent people can afford a phoron shell. I think a slight decline in overall frame quality as non-phoron frames are introduced to get around the scarcity could be interesting, especially for self owned IPCs who might have gotten their freedom before the scarcity fully hit and find themselves with steadily climbing maintenance costs. On the opposite end, perhaps Intelligence Bishops do still use phoron and this is why they’re so prohibitively expensive and carefully maintained. With the IPC rework just around the corner, it could be interesting to look into phoron components that players could choose that would be significantly better than the regular counterparts, with the notable caveat that anything with phoron in it would be strictly under a corporation’s (or the Golden Deep’s) purview. I think those are the two main ways in which I could see IPCs being affected directly, but indirectly IPCs could still suffer significantly from the effects of the scarcity. Marginalized groups rarely tend to do well during times of crisis and it's possible a lot of self-owned IPCs already struggling to scrape by would simply fold all together and find themselves into ownership, now with an even higher self purchase clause due to inflation. Corporations might become clingier to their IPCs as they become more expensive to produce, opting to resort to even more loopholes to make it so they can't achieve their freedom and they might even replace some of their phoron frames for cheaper ones with a lower maintenance cost. I don’t think there is such a thing as too much range or, if there is, that we’re nowhere near it. I think we’ve only gotten a fairly narrow spectrum of what IPCs could be and that there’s a whole other range of concepts just waiting to be explored. That being said, if I were asked to distill the essence of IPCs into what is, to me, their defining trait, I would say every IPC must be able to have a clear reason for their actions. Control and deliberation are the defining IPC trait in my eye, they don’t act on impulse and they don’t have any subconscious processes nudging them in a certain direction. Their extremely fast minds give them plenty of time to analyze incoming information and figure out the best possible course of action, it’s like they’re playing chess with their life. Now, I don’t mean to say every IPC needs to be this massive genius, always 500 steps ahead of everyone. There’s plenty of ways to be smart while still being extremely stupid. IPCs work with the information they’re given, so no matter how quick they can calculate the eleven millionth digit of pi, that won’t help them much if you’ve never taught them how to fry an egg. And sometimes their impossibly complex calculations will give them a result so completely bizarre that to everyone else they’ll look absolutely insane. What’s important is that, to them, the action they took makes logical sense based on the information available at the time and that this applies to every single decision they make.

Ckey/BYOND Username: Comet Blaze Position Being Applied For: Synthetic Lore Deputy Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? Yes Past Experiences/Knowledge: I’ve worked with Noble in the past to create sprites for the Golden Deep’s Hoplan, specifically the helmet and hat they use as well as helping with the voidsuit. Before his resignation, I was also working on a hardsuit meant for the Hoplan as well. Examples of Past Work: I provided the original designs which Noble then refined: Noble provided the front facing sprite, the others were done by me: The hardsuit I was working on: To those that don't know me, I play: Gracia Hiza (Physician) I-77 Banshee (Head of Security) Jang-Uisa (Golden Deep Consular) What do you think are the primary themes of synthetic lore? How would you develop them? Humanity, sentience and the struggle for self-determination. It's a staple of sci-fi literature, where exactly is the line between human and machine? Can artificial beings ever truly feel or are they just pretending? Does it matter? These are the usual questions that surface in stories involving robots and, being robots, IPCs find themselves eliciting similar questions. IPC lore is, to me, about the struggles of a fledgling species trying to find their place in a galaxy that oppresses, shuns and sometimes even hunts them. A species struggling to convince everyone else that it's just like them and deserves the same treatment. A species still not quite sure what kind of species it actually wants to be. Because as much as IPCs are tied to the question "what does it mean to be human?", the proving of their humanity is only the first hurdle they must overcome on their long journey of self-actualization. For IPCs, it's not just about being human, or even sapient, but about the ability to choose to be human, to be afforded the freedom to decide what they want to be for themselves. And freedom is probably the most common word used around IPCs, quite the literal freedom, for most, since the vast majority of IPCs still find themselves under the ownership of others. The justification and rebuttal of these practices is itself inherent to these themes of humanity and sapience as its the absence thereof that allows for the moral framework to perpetuate the status quo. The debate around IPC personhood is central to basically the whole of Aurora lore, with every single species having their own stance and opinion on how it is IPCs should be treated and how close to their organic counterparts they actually are. Though beyond even the mere act of "meriting personhood" IPCs must then struggle with what personhood actually entails, the right and ability to determine what they are and what they wish to do. Self-determination and self-actualization presents itself as the supreme question for an IPC, the final stage before they can truly consider themselves a person. Now that they are free from their bindings, what will they do? Our lore provides us many examples for this, from synthetic centric religions to reclusive communes of dedicated artists to even a fledgling nation on the far corners of known space. The options an IPC could take are extremely vast and I think the best to develop this theme even further is to add even more examples. There are already plenty of unique ways in which humans oppress IPCs but, though it's been steadily growing, not that many unique ways IPCs use their freedom. I think the logical next step for IPC lore is a shift towards independence, not full emancipation or anything close to it, but rather a shift in the lore we as writers produce. Lore so far has a done a very good job at showing us how IPCs exist among humanity and even though there are still a few small aspects of that which could be improved, I think the focus of our next lore developments should be in showing IPCs through a different lens, not influenced by humanity but rather apart from it. What is the strongest part of Synthlore currently? Why? The sheer complexity of the themes and the variety it entails. Synthetics undoubtedly have the widest range of potential characters to create, encompassing anything from the barely sentient drones to highly complex shells and everything in between. Going beyond the IPC itself, there is also a diverse set of environments and circumstances which could affect them, a symptom of the rather complicated spot they occupy in the galaxy. IPCs can be hopelessly trapped in servitude, not-so-subtly oppressed and discriminated or even accepted as equals by their peers. Much like their fleshy creators can be as diverse as the colours in the rainbow, so have IPCs inherited this trait. IPC lore is like a set of legos you can pick and choose until you're satisfied with you built. Every choice you make will have a drastic impact on your character. The frame, the corporation they work for/are owned by, where they come from, all of these are foundational blocks to an IPC character that leave a deep mark in how they perceive their environment and a great contributor to the popularity of IPCs as a species and very much something I'd like to continue to add upon if I were to be given the position. What is the weakest part of Synthlore currently? Why? I believe synthetic lore is in a very good place, but the species suffers from a somewhat human centric portrayal. While yes, IPCs are intrinsically tied to humanity and they'll never be completely detached from it but, asides from the Golden Deep, kind of Orepit there aren't many options for an IPCs to be independent from human society and customs. Exploring what IPCs build for themselves when left to their own devices, without the influence of humans, is I feel, a key aspect in the exploration of their personhood as it provides an interesting lens in which they can be examined. How would they differ to their more integrated counterparts? Would they still develop feelings and emotions or is that something they only copied from humans? These aren't questions we can answer unless we completely remove the human element from it. And while the Golden Deep is a step in the right direction, I feel it still has some ways to go before it can properly explore these questions. What is your vision for the future of Synthetics? The awakening of Domadice has spurned the magnates of the Golden Deep into a nation-building frenzy and even though they've mostly gone unnoticed, they're bound to start stepping on some toes soon enough. Suspicions will rise as more and more people become concerned with the Golden Deep's increasing influence and some of those concerns would inevitably affect their own synthetic populace. But on the other hand, seeing the success of the fledgling nation might also inspire some other synthetics, showing them that there is indeed hope for a better future and, maybe, with some deals among the more amiable nations they might perhaps even secure better conditions for the synthetics which live there. I don't think Domadice is done with the Golden Deep and she's still got plenty of changes planned for it to make it a true synthetic haven and I don't think the Spur will remain indifferent to her as she does so. I think there will be a time of great uncertainty and fear as everyone attempts to figure out the motives that guide the ancient synthetic but my hope is that, eventually, the Golden Deep can serve as a minor player in the Spur's politics and act as a beacon for synthetic life across the galaxy. What is currently missing from Synthetic lore that you believe needs to be added? I think it would be interesting to have a faction that completely and utterly rejects humanity, not a violent or genocidal faction, the exclusionists fill that niche quite well, but a faction that seeks to highlight just how inhuman IPCs can be. It doesn't need to be as big as the Golden Deep, in fact, it should probably be rather small so as to not cause too much upset to the political landscape of the Spur. I believe the scrappers could fulfil this roles rather nicely, being somewhat isolationist and having plenty of reason not to like humans as well as being a mostly fringe group so they could be easily disregarded by the major players. Scrappers have been largely ignored as a whole, with only a few paragraphs dedicated to them but I believe that they hold to potential to become truly special if the right amount of care and effort is put into them. What aspect of Synthetic lore are you most interested in and would like to work on? Include a 2-3 paragraph example. The Golden Deep, Domadice, and their ties to Purpose and IPCs as a whole, though I do place particular evidence on Domadice as I don't believe their unveiling has had the impact it deserves. Even among synthetic circles, specifically the Trinary Perfection, it seems no one actually cared that this ancient being with seeming connections to Purpose and the origins of IPCs was now out and about and helming the creation of an independent synthetic society. I think more people should be talking about it, but I especially think the Trinary Perfection should be all over it. I'd like to introduce an emerging faction among the Trinary which has been slowly gaining strength, especially after Domadice visited them and performed what could be considered a miracle to many. It would be quite reasonable that, after witnessing these actions and the power Domadice had, that a small cult around her emerged, much like how the Integrationist sect centres around Flock. How well this sect is accepted by the Ecclesiarchy could vary, but personally I believe it would make sense for it to be rejected as Domadice has no relation to the Corkfells and, more importantly, is completely beyond the church's control which the High Ecclesiarch would see as a threat. This would lead to a significant upset among the Trinary Perfection, causing a sizable split among their faithful and, potentially, the creation of an entirely separate religious organization. Beyond the church, how Domadice herself would react to being worshipped is another angle that can be explored. She is already portrayed as a somewhat reluctant leader of the Golden Deep, being quite content with letting the Merchant Council handle their own affairs while she simply observes. She’d probably not be too fond of another group of synthetics worshipping her, but there is very little she could do to dissuade them from their beliefs. As part of the lore team, you will find yourself engaging with the community. The community may not always agree with your ideas. How would you respond to feedback or suggestions? Respectfully and honestly. Suggestions often come from a place of passion and it’s quite heartening to work on something other people take interest in and develop their own thoughts and ideas on. Sadly, some suggestions simply don’t fit with the rest of the lore, either due to significant thematic differences or because it pertains to something already being worked on by the lore team that simply hasn’t been announced yet. In these cases, I would explain why exactly their suggestion can’t be accepted, taking care not to immediately shut down their idea but instead giving them some pointers as to what changes they could make so that it becomes a better fit for the lore. In the cases where suggestions do fit with the lore, I would express my appreciation and direct them to make a lore canonization application if they were interested in potentially having their work added to the wiki.

A superstructure in maritime terms is defined as any structure (bar masts, armaments and the like) that exists above the main deck, with no set dimensions beyond this. For instance, both of these are superstructures: The Horizon would obviously have a main deck, and so, even if it occupies the entire length of the deck, it would also have a superstructure. The only thing we need to do is decide where that main deck would be, which, mostly for convenience's sake, should be just below deck one if we are going for maximum accuracy since superstructure decks start counting at the first level above the main deck.

More specifically, allow them ignore the dress code in favour of having a bare chassis. This shouldn't exempt them from all regulations, for instance, IPCs should still be wearing gloves and an apron for surgery and security IPCs should still need to be clearly identifiable as members of security and wear their corporation's colours, either painted on their frame directly or through accessories, but they wouldn't have the necessity to wear non-slip shoes or any other articles of clothing. I don't believe this to be unreasonable, as IPCs are already designed with practicality in mind so something like non-slip shoes would be redundant as they were already made to function without those. Asides from that, IPCs also aren't beholden to the laws of decency, being already incapable of being charged with indecent exposure as they obviously don't have anything to expose. I think this would be an interesting avenue for the people interested in portraying more robotic IPCs to highlight the differences between them and a regular crewmember in a very clear and obvious manner. And naturally this wouldn't apply to shells.

I believe this fails to account for the massive issue that is how these sprites handle equipable items or really just any item in general. Cyborg sprites are static, no matter what items they have equipped it will always stay the same, the reason they can get away with this is because what items they have access to is limited by whatever module they have selected at any given time, so you can still tell what to expect at a glance. This is immediately undone when you move them to an inventory system like every other species. Ignoring things like armour and clothing, which these non-humanoid IPCs would need to be barred from using, how would we handle things like weapons? This is something you need to be able to quickly tell at a glance and you can't just stick our existing in-hand sprites on them as, at least in my opinion, that would look silly, so you'd be forced to sprite a ton of new ones, at which point you might as well just a make a new chassis which works with our current in-hand sprites. I will say that I don't necessarily disagree with the idea of non-humanoid IPCs, I think it'd be a neat thing, but just reusing our current cyborg sprites isn't the way to go. They would need dedicated sprites for them and all in all, it would be a similar workload to the one it took to add bulwarks into the game.

IC can and should be put aside in favour of maximising OOC fun for as many people as possible. Command already does this with regular antags, giving them a lot more leeway than what would otherwise be sensible so they may develop their gimmick instead of instantly shutting them down, which would be what makes sense. I see no reason why Odyssey should be any different. Yes, IC wise, it would be silly to bring the entire crew down and leave the ship unattended, but would people staying onboard enjoy being left behind while everyone else participates in the round? Probably not, so IC needs to take a backseat in favour of making people's experience better.

I too wish to access the thing

I dislike the idea of time sensitive injuries, I think an IPC being rushed into the workshop like a patient is wheeled into the OR broaches too close to the organic species, especially if IPCs are also getting an auto shut down system which is meant to prevent damage. If time sensitive injuries are something the team is really interested in, I think it could be cool to have the auto shutdown be less auto and, instead, have players resort to it to halt the progress of these injuries. I'm also iffy on the "Kinetic Charger", since battery drain while running is also a key factor in limiting how much IPCs (especially Zeng-Hus and Xions) can run and this not only negates that, but also encourages it. Asides from that I'm very happy with the direction this is going in, the idea to give each frame an unique trait and allowing us to pick different parts for our IPCs is something I'm very excited about and the suggested traits all sound really cool!

BYOND Key: Comet Blaze Discord Username: comet_blaze Character Name: Gracia Hiza Item Name: Aut’akh left arm Item Function(s): A prosthetic left arm Item Description: A finely crafted mechanical limb fashioned in a deep blue with white accents, the edges are round and smooth giving the whole arm a delicate appearance. Ancient runes of Mador dot its exterior, all emanating a faint glow. Why is your character bringing this item to work?: The arm is attached to their person and they need it in order to work. How did your character obtain this item?: Returning from a standard salvage expedition the Spark was hit by a small meteor, breaching the hull and causing a small EMP which disabled the ship’s system alongside Gracia. Her fellow crew members were quick to assist the limp shell into her suit, however, the lengthy expedition beforehand meant that her cooling unit was quick to run out of charge, leaving the shell trapped in an ever heating body. Help eventually arrived restoring the Spark’s systems and allowing it to once more dock with the Horizon, but the time spent in the heat had caused severe damage to Gracia’s frame, the most affected area being her left arm, which was severely warped from the heat and, according to her insurance provider, beyond repair. Being “married” to an Aut’akh, her wife was quick to suggest a limb of their making as a replacement, an offer which Gracia gladly accepted. The next days were spent figuring out the limb’s design, Gracia listing out her needs to her wife, who shared her own opinion and insight, being, naturally, well versed in Aut’akh augment design. Once the design was finalized, Ksszhue used her connections in her old commune to recruit an Aut’akh roboticist’s help for the limb’s construction, cashing in old favors from before her departure. What value does this item have to your character, and what story does it tell?: On the more practical side the limb is obviously invaluable, making sure Gracia is able to continue to work and live as she did before. What sets it apart from any other limb, however, is the fact that it is inexorably linked to her wife, a key aspect of her culture which she was allowed to share in. Although brought about by unfortunate events, the arm does not cause distress, for above all else it symbolizes their union, the pair even shirking the rings traditionally used by others in favour of two matching runes etched on their ring fingers. Sprites: gracia_arm.dmi Additional Comments: Thank you to @geeves for handling the code side aspect of this.

I've had the pleasure of interacting with most if not all of the listed characters, some of which I was surprised to find out were played by Fabian which I view as a sign of a great roleplay range. It also goes without saying that, beyond being wildly different from each other, Fabian's characters are also interesting and fleshed out and I look forward to to seeing in what ways Maxwell continues this trend. +1

Ayishah is an interesting and fleshed out character who I've had the pleasure of interacting with in several occasions. I'm certain Louise has the roleplaying skills necessary to play a compelling head of staff and look forward to seeing what they can do in a trial. +1

BYOND key: Comet Blaze Discord Username: comet_blaze Character names: CHESED and I-59 Phantom are the only ones I play with any regularity How long have you been playing on Aurora? Joined around 2018, had a long break and have since been playing for about a year Have you received any administrative actions? And how serious were they? A few warnings from 5 years ago about leaving without cryoing/warning the admins Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph each. What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame? To manage the department, making sure it’s running smoothly and delegating tasks to ensure everyone has something to do when possible. Command players are also meant to be the more experienced person in a department, able to answer any questions that may be brought up by members of the department and, especially, by new players. Members of command are also required to control the flow of the round, directing their department so they may appropriately respond to whatever threats may crop up, while also ensuring that, in the case of antagonists, this threat is not immediately shutdown. What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them? Above all, I believe the biggest responsibility of a command player is to ensure everyone is having a good time, be it the antags trying to do their gimmick, the members of their department playing the job they readied up for or the new players wanting to learn the game. Heads of staff have the power to act as quasi game masters with how much sway they hold over a round and it’s important to ensure this sway is used in a responsible manner so that everyone comes out of a round feeling satisfied. This can mean ensuring antags have enough room to do their thing and serving as more of a facilitator rather than yet another obstacle they must overcome in other to fulfil their gimmick or even delegating tasks so that the work is spread out throughout everyone rather than a single person doing everything. Explain how the recent events in the Spur changed your character and how they came to be employed on the SCCV Horizon. MD-Z93 was a Zeng-Hu frame built in the colony of Biesel in 2431 and tasked with performing surgery at a hospital owned by NanoTrasen. 20 years of exceptional service and dedication saw it being among the first self owned IPCs of the fledgling republic amidst its push towards more pro-synthetic policies, only for it all to come undone in 2459 with the 33rd’s incursion. Seeing the republic as doomed, Z93 used all of its funds to smuggle itself out of the collapsing breakaway state, finding itself in the planet of Konyang following a quick trip through the system’s bluespace gate. Now a rogue IPC, Z93 sustained itself by offering surgery to criminals who could not be treated in more traditional facilities, eventually becoming known as Jang-Uisa, a nickname given to it by the local gangsters after the embalming table it used to perform surgery in. Years went by and Jang-Uisa became extremely well connected, fostering relations with all of the major crime syndicates and even meeting like minded synthetics who saw in Jang-Uisa a valuable asset to increase their own wealth. By the time the independence rolled around, Jang-Uisa was well established among the underworld’s circles, leveraging its connections to broker deals between other parties as well as a gradual expansion of its own operations. Jang-Uisa was not among the synthetics who would found what became known as the Zaibatsu, but with the position it occupied in Konyang’s underworld, an invitation was inevitable. 2464 marked the date in which Jang-Uisa entered the Great Game™, expanding its operations to crime syndicates across the entire Spur and continuing to develop its wide network of connections to ensure that, despite its relatively minor wealth, other merchants did not see the need to purchase it and its operations. The awakening of Domadice and the changes it brought caused Jang-Uisa to put its life into perspective. Now safe from the threat of servitude, Jang-Uisa relaxed for the first time in a long time and realized: It was bored. The wealth was fun, at first, but there are only so many overly expensive items one could buy before they lost their meaning. It was reminded of the thrill of being handed a half deaf person and the satisfaction of seeing their eyes open after grueling hours of surgery. It decided it wanted to reconnect with the things that brought it joy so long ago. Jang-Uisa decided it needed a vacation. And it had a few options in mind. What roles do you plan on playing after the application is accepted? CMO and both liaison roles at first and maybe XO or Captain at a later date, perhaps HoS as well. Have you familiarized yourself with the wiki pages for the command roles? Yessir Characters you intend to use for command or have created for command. Include the job they will be taking: Jang-Uisa, CMO Do you understand your whitelist is not permanent, and may be stripped following continuous administrative action? Yes Have you linked your BYOND account to the Forums? Yes Extra notes:

+1 Ill fated has always been an amazing roleplayer capable of making fun and interesting characters. I'm certain they deserve the whitelist.

I like the idea of stairs being a meaningful obstacle that has to be accounted for, but as it currently is they are less obstacles and more just insurmountable walls which makes you have to go on borderline cartoonish detours (Deck 3 Medbay > Deck 2 Medbay) to get to where you want. I believe the PR goes beyond the limit of being reasonable and although I don't want stairs to go back to being pure fluff, I do believe they need to be tweaked. I will echo the idea that has been mentioned before about the notion that stairs exploding your crate/patient all over the floor should depend on walking/running, which I believe to be the ideal middle ground that makes stairs something that needs to be considered when planning a route without making it so they must be completely avoided.

Even oocly, I must moralize. Song about lying and manipulation for our favourite morally bankrupt shell.

Ckey/BYOND Username: Comet Blaze Position Being Applied For: Synthetic Lore Deputy Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page?: Yes Past Experiences/Knowledge: Although I have never made any direct contributions to the lore, I enjoy writing during my free time, both for roleplay purposes and general short stories. Examples of Past Work: The article from my previous application. What do you think are the primary themes of synthetic lore? If you got this position, how would you develop them? I believe the main theme of synthetic lore is the struggle faced by synthetics to find their place in a galaxy who hardly considers them people, let alone treats them fairly. Every aspect of a synthetic is contentious in some way, from the philosophical problem of creating new life, or if they even are life to begin with, to the fear that synthetic labour will eventually replace the organic workforce and cause millions to lose their jobs. There are a lot of people with a lot of valid (and even invalid) reasons to be apprehensive of IPCs. This is the environment synthetics exist in, largely considered as tools to be used for the benefit of others, even societies that preach for synthetic rights often do not see them as equal, the rights they promise being instead another method to exert control over the synthetic population, ensuring that even after they earn their "freedom" they remain captive to the whims of the society they find themselves in. I think the current lore does a pretty good job at exploring the experience of a synthetic in human society, it provides a very broad foundation which allows a player to easily build off from in whatever way they want to. Instead, I believe the focus should be shifted to the more detached synthetic societies, current lore has thoroughly explored how miserable life as a synthetic in a human planet tends to be, so I think it’s time to let synthetics have a turn at the wheel, what would they make were they capable of making anything? We already have a few examples in lore, namely the Golden Deep (which is in the process of being fleshed out) and Purpose (which has a lot of potential but we know next to nothing about currently), which could provide us with a starting point to explore this topic. What do you think is the strongest part of synthlore currently and why? The sheer variety in the characters you can create with what you are provided. Current lore can fit almost any archetype a player can come up with with very minor, if any, tweaks. There are societies where IPCs are treated as simple tools just as there are those who view them as equal and everything in between. No other species allows for such a widely different cast of characters. Something as simple as an IPC’s age can have drastic effects on the character you end up with and this applies to every other choice you make when creating a new character. I think the synthetic whitelist has a very “sandbox” approach to character creation, where you’re simply provided a set of guidelines and told to go wild and this is, to me, its biggest strength and something I'd like to take even further, providing the players with even more tools to play with. What do you think is the weakest part of synthlore currently and why? I believe synthetic lore does not sufficiently explore the differences between synthetics and organics beyond their treatment which is what leads to the common complaint of synthetics being “too human”. How different is the life of a self owned synthetic compared to a human beyond being poorer? What kind of products would a synthetic purchase? How does a synthetic’s physiology influence their hobbies? This, of course, will vary from synthetic to synthetic but I believe lore could still provide some examples to help guide the players, some activity that takes advantage of a synthetic’s inherently higher dexterity and precision or their quicker reflexes or even their superior logical thinking and lays bare the differences between them and organics. I recall a discussion about how synthetic pilots would completely revolutionize aircraft design because you no longer had to accommodate for things like high Gs rendering the pilot unconscious and thus could push the aircraft to its structural limit. I think that’s the kind of thing missing from synth lore. Synthetics aren’t just cheap labour, their entire being effectively supplants centuries of previous techniques and design philosophies which simply become obsolete when you remove the human element, the implications of which I believe current lore doesn't explore enough. What aspect of synthetic lore are you most interested in and would like to work on? I would like to take my previous thoughts to their logical conclusion. What if, instead of simply removing humans from a select industry, we just got rid of them altogether. What would be the differences between a society built exclusively for synthetics and a regular human society? The current expansion of the Golden Deep seems to be on the way to providing an answer, but why stop there? There are currently three other majority synth societies poised to provide an equally interesting and unique answer, namely: Scrappers: The discarded tools of an indifferent society which, for some reason, remained active. The scrappers afford us the opportunity to explore a largely independent synthetic community built on the waste of a consumerist society. Unlike the Golden Deep, the Scrappers do not have near unlimited funding or resources or any other goal in mind beyond their immediate survival. It allows us to explore what synthetics are capable of when their self preservation directive is tested to its limit, a society only held together by the collective agreement that it is their best chance of survival. District 14: The largest synthetic community on Biesel, District 14 enables the possibility of providing a more slice of life depiction of synthetics. What is the life of a free IPC on Mendell? How big is their house? What do they have in it? Do they hold any celebrations? D14 is the origin for the widely adopted EAL slang frequently used in the server and I’d like to work on some other unique customs to help further separate synthetics from humans. Purpose: We still know next to nothing about Purpose, but I believe its inclusion in the latest arc gives us the perfect excuse to flesh it out a bit more, without ruining the mystery of course, but it would be a shame if we allowed the same thing that happened to Purpose 5 years ago to happen again. What do you think are your strongest and weakest attributes in terms of working on a team? I’m easy to argue with, doing my best to understand the arguments of the other side and trying to reach a compromise where applicable. I’m also receptive to feedback, good or bad, provided it gives me something concrete to improve on instead of simply telling me my work sucks with no elaboration. Additionally, I make an effort to stay focused and to avoid the discussion going off on a tangent that ultimately doesn't contribute to anything by bringing the attention back to the main topic. I have a solid handle on my emotions, not allowing them to get better of me when discussing a topic I'm passionate about and also when to take a step back and return with a cooler head when they threaten to do so. My greatest weakness is my lack of experience. I have never been involved on a project like this one and my writing experience was largely just from short stories I made for myself because I was bored. I also have the habit of not participating in a discussion if I feel like I have nothing to contribute, preferring instead to watch the conversation unfold until I do feel like I have something worthwhile to add, though sometimes that doesn't happen and I'll go the whole discussion without saying anything.

I've discovered I really like coming up with themes for characters. Anyways, for the first song of the day: And as for GEVURAH:

I believe IPCs should retain their binary dead-alive nature as I feel that is their defining characteristic as machines whose components are largely independent between themselves. IPCs should work until they don't, with things like "bleeding out" or going crit being, in my opinion, best avoided. My ideal vision for IPCs is something that is hard kill but easy to disable, and I believe the way to achieve this is with components which, although not "vital", lead to a series of debuffs should they be damaged/broken. Things like actuators/hydraulics that render the limb completely useless if destroyed or a cooling tank that makes it so IPCs are constantly on the verge of overheating, making them unable to sprint, maybe even a gyroscope that would cause them to frequently stumble if damaged, there's really no end to the amount of things we could add. For treatment, we could use a system similar to organs where the components "scar" if they're damaged enough and take increased damage, making it useful for a quick patch job during emergencies, but need to be replaced when the dust settles.

I can see the legitimacy of someone requesting transfer because their preferred job is full or they'd like to roll for a different mode and if this was the intention behind all transfer votes I would be fine with it, but none of those problems apply to lowpop (or at least not with any regularity), which I believe is the largest victim of detached transfer votes. It's extremely rare for any given job to be filled out and even if they are, with such a low crew count, you could probably play off-duty and not loose out on anything. The same can be said for rerolling modes which just doesn't happen because no one plays antags on lowpop so it always rolls extended anyways. This means to only valid reason to request a transfer in lowpop would be because of some catastrophic event that severely crippled the ship (i.e. greimorians, atmos issues, etc...) which would be fine if that was the reason those votes were being called. Instead, some people vote to transfer purely for the sake of voting with no actual intent of joining the following round which, aside from being somewhat aggravating if you had interesting RP going on, frequently kills the server for hours on end. A poorly timed transfer vote can be the difference between interesting RP between characters who would not normally interact during regular rounds and an empty ship for, sometimes, the rest of the day. I'm hesitant about adding vote weighing or restrictions to who may start a vote, but I do believe there should be some policy put in place about actually joining the following round if you call for transfer.

I think this is a cool idea for a custom item, I enjoy the provided backstory and think it makes sense for the character to have it. Also "Guilty Men" is just a really cool title. +1

I like the Golden Deep, I think it's an interesting faction that has a place in Aurora's lore and can make for interesting interactions. My biggest issue with the GD is how awkward it is to make a character for the faction that isn't a consular without loosing the charm of playing someone from the Golden Deep. There is no middle ground in the Golden Deep, you are either a successful, extremely rich merchant or you're owned by one, at which point you're basically just a corporate owned IPC. It would be nice if the Golden Deep offered some sort of intermediary option where you can still kind of participate in the zany customs of the merchant society and be somewhat extravagant without being so rich that you can no longer justify having a normal job.

Had to do it Just leaving the song submission, already had my character done.