Lly2

I feel like with the NBT mining was made significantly cooler, whilst simultaneously being enormously less efficient; this came at a huge detriment to science and machinists. As it stands, even with mining being the popular role that it is, the chance of actually being supplied in any meaningful amount of time as someone who needs mining's materials is really, really low. And even when it does happen, it's always slower than it was on the Aurora. I don't know the stats, but I personally have felt way less desire to play science since the changes. I wouldn't be surprised if others felt the same. I don't know how to make mining more or less fun, but it definitely needs to be changed in some way to give a faster return, so that materials are more accessible to the rest of the crew. Whether that's EJJ's suggestions or something else, I'm not sure, but I feel that some sort of change is strongly needed.

echoing the opinions of both of these posts. i'd rather a vampire that can actually do things from the beginning of the round, than an antag that only appears 1 hour in. starting blood pool and/or changing how stealth suck works would be nice.

strong endorsement from me the only concern i would have with taking up this as an additional role would be managing time between current work and the additional deputy responsibilities, but i feel like matt already has a good handle on this. i see them fairly frequently contributing ideas or code to the species staff whenever discussions come up in the lore discord already; them having an official role to be able to contribute with proper staff capacity would be great, i think.

+1. additions are cool but i can't unsee the lid now that i read this message

good sprites, but more importantly i think is their willingness to help out with things around the community. +1

I'm still kinda wary of the activity being a competition, but with a sign like you mentioned above, and with the glass door at the top of the wall now rather than down the bottom, I think it could be all good. The door being at the bottom was rough, because everyone always saw the bar first; usually meant people just sat down. Now it's at the top, people will be able to see where the players are at in both areas once they enter service. A lot less, "out of sight, out of mind" this way. I like it.

personally, I feel that the separation of the service areas is detrimental to the department. completely anecdotal, but it feels as though service activity is down even compared to the low-pop of aurora, solely due to the fact it's now split 3 ways. on the previous map, there existed this guarantee that if the other area of service is the busy one on a given shift rather than the area you were working at, at least you could see over the counter and get involved with that RP or interact with the other member of service staff on duty, if the middle shutters were open. with the kitchen and the bar now on opposite sides of the corridor, chefs and bartenders will always be out of range of one another and unable to interact whilst on the job; that in tandem with a wall meaning that the bartender/chef is also completely unable to see or interact with any of the other patrons attending the opposite part of service, it turns activity into an active competition - if you don't manage to have people visit you personally, you'll be AFK with nothing to even see or read. i think this problem is increased by the fact there is also the further split between two sections of the bar, giving more reason for the horizon to have the kitchen and bar able to interact, rather than less. as far as the actual design of the internals of the kitchen, i'm not able to comment. i don't have much experience with the role.

thanks goolies

One of the machines to store chemicals, like what exists in medical's chemistry lab, would be a nice addition for scientists. Additionally, pill bottles would be nice, just to avoid scientists ferrying loose pills around in their pockets. I don't think it has any risk of treading on the toes of the actual chemist, since science's chemistry shouldn't be used for producing medicine, and if anyone tries to do that they can just be ahelped anyway. Currently, without lockers in the RnD lab and nowhere to store chemicals in the chemistry room adjacent, it ends up that there are a lot of random things, like loose pills and components, strewn about on desks by the end of the round.

The one thing I'd love to see is additions that give Mendell the sense of scale it deserved. It gets implied quite often by characters that Mendell doesn't have xyz thing, or that it lacks certain amenities, when realistically it has a population of around four times that of New York. With the population it has, one would expect it has more or less anything you could possibly want out of a city. I couldn't place a finger on any one thing particularly that makes people think that Mendell isn't that big, but looking over it now the only big, obvious indicator of the scale is the population that's mentioned on the main page. Maybe something like Lily mentioned above, like a map or individual population numbers for the different districts (even if they're vague), would help people to get a better understanding for just how big the city really is?

Personally, I think that Floppa is one of the best role-players I've encountered in ~10 years of SS13 and elsewhere. I could understand someone being wary of giving them a trial because of the nature of their current main. However, from my experience with Floppa and discussing character concepts and roleplay in general with them, they very clearly possess the ability to accurately play out a wide spectrum of character archetypes, and they (already) deeply consider the sorts of qualities that make a good, fun character to play with, like those that are important for someone in command. +1.

I think this is one of the areas that suffers the most from how many railings/windows/airlocks there are. It was mentioned earlier but with no pictures, so thought I'd throw one in and give my take. Essentially, there are like three or four ways into the same area covering different levels of access, but between the divisions of the hangar (the outer edge, the routes down the left to operations, and down the right) is only a single railing to stop people from just hopping over and making all the doors redundant. Some details below, because it's a bit hard for me to explain. The door in blue on the right is accessible to anyone - so anyone can get on the Intrepid in the event of an away mission. The windoor in red is supposed to be accessible to operations only, but right now it's bugged so no one seems to be able to use it. Presumably, this is supposed to make it so that anyone can enter the hangar room to board the ship, but can't get around to the left hand side which leads into Operations. However, the airlock in blue on the bottom left of the screenshot is accessible to anyone, meaning someone just has to hop the railing to be able to go that way anyway. If the windoor is supposed to be a Operations-only route from the main part of the hangar to the left section, there's also just a second way accessible through the room above that's only like five or six steps more. In my opinion, just removing this windoor entirely would make the area feel less clustered, since it doesn't really do anything. The same can also be said of the cargo-coloured airlock in the right of the screenshot above -- all they both really do right now is give access to that six square corridor that doesn't lead to anywhere exclusive. Airlock on the right comes from the hangar, and can be opened by anyone. The one on the left opens into cargo. On its own this looks pretty cool and lets the maintenance shaft come through the middle, but if things do get trimmed back and made more open this might be a contender. Kinda just the same thing as above here. There's two separate ways into the hangar, accessible to anyone, and two windoors at the bottom right that anyone can also open. Having none of these doors at all except the main hangar door would essentially do exactly the same thing. tl;dr: I understand the railings have to be there to stop people walking underneath the Intrepid and getting crushed, but the way the hangar is right now is that its separated by ~5 different airlocks/windoors into little segments that can all be bypassed just by hopping a rail anyway. It feels like things are super complicated for the sake of aesthetics.

gooles +1

Like I said, no comments on this specific one. I wasn't there at the time, but can definitely believe that one change like that wouldn't change much. "It's a self-feeding cycle that you can't actually break" feels like an extremely pessimistic view of the issue though. There is always room for improvement; we have plenty of European players who would be able to play 5-6 hours earlier than currently becomes high pop, so it's not like the playerbase isn't there.

I don't have any comments on this specific suggestion, but it really doesn't have to be a fact of life that low pop is 16 hours of the day of complete server death; it exists as a thing because everyone knows its a thing, so nobody logs on during those hours - myself included. At this point, it's self-fulfilling. There's often groups of people on relay or discord or just generally hanging around, but nobody comes on because they know it's low pop hours. There'll always be downtime, but I'm a huge believer those "low pop hours" can be minimised by making the game more fun with small tweaks for smaller groups. I feel like low-pop suggestions are important and should actually be considered and thought about and not just sidelined because "low pop is low pop, who cares". The amount of replies in this thread feels like evidence enough that people are interested in _some_ solution.

I'm only familiar with Atiyah, but I find that they do a good job of getting involved with roleplay outside of their direct line of work, and generally try to involve people, which is a great quality to have for a Head of Personnel. +1 from me.

Tuliia is yet to personally have any meaningful interactions with synthetics so their opinion is not a firm one, but as it stands they're extremely prejudiced against them. However, it isn't to such a degree that would prevent them from working alongside synthetics on the Aurora, because they're confident in the idea presented by the Federation that human AIs are not nearly advanced enough to cause problems for the Skrell. The Vaurca worked in close proximity with the quya that raised Tuliia, but Tuliia themself didn't work with them past whatever limited interactions happened during their scuttle schooling. In general though, they have a very good opinion on the C'thur, and an amicable relationship with the other hives, due to less experience with them. C'thur were very common in the surrounding regions to where Tuliia lived, so he saw them interacting closely with other Skrell and causing no trouble, and heard about the good contributions they made to both agriculture and the entertainment industry. He has never had a friend in the Vaurca, so it's difficult for him to decide his opinion of them in that capacity, but he at the very bare minimum views them as an extremely useful species to have around as a workforce. Jyalra, but he's since had to adapt since the lack of availability outside of Jargon Federation space. Dyn pozole is a passable alternative. This is something I'm generally down to change if I'm just wrong in how I understand Nlom/Srom, but it is something I thought about. My thought process was that the population consisted of a high percentage of people who wouldn't really have a high involvement or understanding of the specifics of politics in the Jargon Federation; i.e. the people there would be pro-Federation, but I imagined the sentiment transmitted wouldn't be an extremely explicit one that involved all the actual details of the politics involved, rather just a general positive opinion on the Federation, and the opinion that they were doing the correct thing. When I refer to Tuliia as being 'apolitical', it's mostly because of the knowledge they have: they lived in a community and were raised by a quya of what are essentially farmers and entertainment workers, and in their own life they haven't endeavoured to learn about politics besides what the average person picks up in passing. They didn't feel the need to, because they were already pro-Federation, and what was transmitted was strong enough to give them no reason to learn more and question Jargon; I don't think transactional is mutually exclusive with legitimately supporting them, and figured it made more sense that they'd justify the thoughts they received from the wake that way, due to their lack of knowledge otherwise.

1. They still follow Qeblak. In terms of personal belief, the character's devotion has only increased since being disgraced, as it's one of the few things that still remains consistent with the lifestyle they had before. However, they'll find it more difficult to actively practice whilst outside of Jargon space, because of lesser access to observatories and other likeminded Skrell. 2. Tuliia doesn't have overly strong thoughts one way or the other as they're a fairly apolitical character; their feelings toward most political events were pro-establishment because of the simple reason that the establishment was what was currently benefitting them personally. Their relationship with the Jargon Federation has always been a rather transactional one: they recognise the Federation as something that will give them a good life, should they put in the effort to work alongside the systems in place, and that has been enough reason for them to follow along with its ideals. Since departing from Jargon, and having made mental plans to renounce citizenship, they have begun to sympathise more with other causes, as they find similarity in the situations they find themselves in. 3. They would be a scientist to start off with, ideally specialising (i.e. taking on one of the alt-titles) later on once they've worked with NT for longer and can prove themselves capable.

BYOND Key: Lly2 Character Names: Yury Zakharov, Maya Zakharova Species you are applying to play: Skrell What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Pale yellow Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes 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 playing almost exclusively Tajara for over half a decade now, and I have finally decided it’s time to try something different. Initially I was turned off from Skrell purely because a lot of the friends I have on Aurora are Skrell mains, and I thought I wouldn’t be able to do the race justice like they could. However, after talking with a couple of them over Discord about the idea and the reasons why I didn’t want to do it, I was met with entirely open arms telling me to just give it a shot, so here I am to give it a go. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: On a surface-level, Skrell differ majorly in appearance. Hailing from an aquatic planet, they have evolved to have gills, webbed digits, and pliant flesh among other features not too dissimilar from the amphibians of Earth. They’re cold-blooded, but their tolerance to temperature is higher than other creatures in the Spur, so it is infrequently a problem for them compared to other races; instead, their concern is more likely to be with the amount of moisture in the air. But besides the obvious differences in biology and the mechanics that come with it, I think the biggest thing that has to be taken into account when playing a Skrell is how much their society differs from Humans. Namely, how unified it is within the Federation. Although humans do have the Sol Alliance to band them together, within it are completely separate governments running the show in completely different ways, so there’s a huge amount of variation in beliefs. Conversely, Skrell are unified by the Jargon Federation and the Grand Council’s strict reinforcement of political, economic, and societal ideals via social credit: this makes it so that as far as citizens of the Federation go, there’s a lot less room for expressing oneself as they someone would like to; if someone is to behave in a way deemed unfit by the government, their score is reduced, and the number of amenities they have access to (or the ease of access to them) is lowered, right down to being disbarred from society itself. Character Name: Tuliia Qou Please provide a short backstory for this character Tuliia hails from Toqleq’wesi, Qerr’malic, having been born there in 2381 and remained in place for most of their life so far. From birth, they were cast a fortunate lot in life. Tullia was born to a quya of three respectable, Qeblak-following citizens, all boasting a social credit score in the upper bounds of secondary numericals, and all born receivers, Tuliia themself included. The quya’s degrees varied across different fields, but focused primarily on agricultural science, working in close proximity to the C’thur and the luminescent, yellow-hued fields of K’ois on Qerrbalak’s moon. As such, this is where Tuliia was led too, groomed carefully by their Qrrri’myaq - Quibluu - to ensure they had a good foundation ready to pursue the sciences once they were of age for Untuk’mak. During their coming-of-age ceremony, Tuliia was presented with three items, each representing a field in which Quibluu was versed in. Two of the items represented different forms of agriculture, and the third of an area that Quibluu had meddled with decades earlier in their life, but had never chosen as their own full-time career out of necessity for farmers on Qerr’malic at the time: psionic sciences. It was this item that Tuliia chose to burn, partially of their own volition, but partially of careful, subtle suggestion by their Qrri’myaq throughout their scuttle schooling. Throughout Untuk’mak and later depth college, Tuliia progressed well, and as additional modules made themselves available for them to take, they were happy to do so, finding a great deal of personal interest in the career path they had been guided towards as a tadpole. The greatest difficulty Tuliia found during their education and into adulthood was finding fulfillment outside of their career; their studies left them with such minimal time outside of college, studies, and part-time work that they had little time to form proper personal relationships with other Skrell in the Federation, nor any time to pick much in the way of hobbies. After successfully completing a first degree in psionic sciences, Tuliia was presented an opportunity to work in association with Jargon’s enforcers, under the provision that their subsequent degree was in a related field. The position was only a menial internship assisting the Kala’s researchers, but the prospect of being able to claim they were assisting with the Unity Initiative Project was extremely attractive to Tuliia. It was an offer they hastily agreed to, and they began their second degree in data science. The internship lasted for the duration of their second degree, serving as both training and a way for the Kala to thoroughly investigate Tuliia, and whether they would be an appropriate candidate to work on one of their real projects. In the end, it was decided that they would be, and Tuliia was, after a great deal of paperwork, accepted into a full-time position as a researcher for one of the Jargon Federation Security Council’s laboratories, working on psionic steganography. Over the next twenty or so years, Tuliia’s work went well, and they became a valued member of the small, niche scientific community they had found themselves in, but ultimately the workload was something that they were incapable of managing without assistance. With no close friends outside of their colleagues to belay their troubles upon, Tuliia’s work-life balance ultimately culminated into what they consider a minor implosion. Tuliia found themself, in spite of better judgement, becoming a regular at various different Xu’xi gas establishments on Qerr’malic, too arrogant to ever believe that they, someone of a scientific mind and strong will-power, could ever be an addict. Tuliia, the moment they realised what they had succumbed to, became extremely afraid that the Kala would discover their addiction. They underslept severely out of fear they would leak their shameful secret in the Srom, affording themself a meagre few hours a week when they had the aluminium-lined bedchambers of their workplace to themself; they spoke less with the colleagues they once found themself friendly with; and their efficiency in the workplace was significantly reduced. Eventually, after suspicions arose during a biweekly meeting in the research facility’s Observatory Dome, Tullia was outed and ejected entirely from the scientific circle that they were a part of, and had dedicated the last few decades of their life to. Tuliia now finds both their SCS and their once-large bank balance gradually decreasing. Once, they were proud of a SCS of 6.6, but after their disgrace and little success in finding new work in Jargon since then, their score has already fallen to the opposite bound of secondary numericals, sitting pretty at 4.3. Whilst the opportunity is still available to him, Tullia has decided to depart from Jargon space and his previous life, and he now makes his way towards the Republic of Biesel on a work visa for Nanotrasen, the first corporation workplace that would accept him. He hopes that he’ll be able to maintain his secondary numerical status for the two years required before being able to apply for Republic of Biesel citizenship and subsequently renouncing the Jargon Federation, freeing him from the possibility of being swept off to a rehabilitation centre. They holds many regrets about the way they have conducted themself, and considered for some time other alternatives, but ultimately there was no success to be found. Accepting that eventually they would have to be rehabilitated, Tuliia sees leaving the Jargon Federation and the quya that raised them a better alternative than bringing them the shame of having a forcefully-rehabilitated offspring. What do you like about this character? It seems like a fun mix of a personality that’ll let me interact with most of the things that go on amongst the crew, especially in comparison to my current main character, Yury, who de facto doesn’t get along with 2 out of every 3 cats based purely on political background. When I thought them up, I tried to figure out a way that they could reasonably have an excuse to get involved with some of the more sketchy crowd on the Aurora, which seems to be a majority of the active characters usually, as well as the more proper characters, which currently I struggle to tag along with as my two Tajara. Additionally, I like that their specialty in science is something that’ll give me a reason to interact with the rest of the crew outside of the research wing, which often has very little to actually do round-by-round (credit to Ryver for helping with that). When I manage to think up fun ways to get them involved, ideally I’ll be able to pull them along to help with whatever personal stuff Tuliia is working on. How would you rate your role-playing ability? 7/10 - I’ve been writing and role-playing for a long time, but I’m generally someone who takes a while to pick things up and really get into a character, and Skrell are a completely new thing to me. Notes: I’ve had a lot of push and help from friends lately, which is most of the reason this app is a thing in the first place - so credit where credit’s due, thanks to them. Tuliia’s favourite food is dyn pozole, and he'll be living (temporarily) on the Odin whilst he looks for a proper residence.

Hi! I haven't given feedback on Aurora before, so not sure if there's a proper format to this. It's nice to see an older character, and I love the art too. Maybe I just haven't bumped into many people yet, but I feel like a lot of the Taj I see, myself included, are all pretty young. I'm not super sure on requirements, so I can't comment on that too much, but I think as far as interesting bits you haven't covered much so far go, there's two main things I'm curious to read about! I'd love to know Naji's thoughts on the PRA, DPRA, and NKA, and I'd love to hear a bit more about her current environment in Mendell. What district is she living in, what sort of accommodation and those sort of mostly fluff details. I find its something that people like to ask about IC a lot, so I've personally found it helpful to figure it all out as a starting point for most of my characters, and depending on where it is you pick it could have some impact on her personality too; if they're in D6, they'd probably retain a lot more of their tradition from Adhomai than if they were living in a district full of humans, that sorta thing.

Thank you so much for the feedback. I was concerned that I wouldn't get any because of how new I was to the community, so I'm really glad to have had this reply. Reflecting on what I wrote, I think I was too heavy-handed with the lack of faith. I took a lot of inspiration from what has happened with veterans returning home from modern wars without accounting for the impact of indoctrination in a PRA upbringing. I've gone back and made some edits that lean away from "lack of faith" and more towards "lack of want to return to combat". Where before the backstory talks about a lack of faith driving him away from The Party, it's now more specific about the war and a desire to make a career for himself that can help the PRA without him needing to actively fight should a new conflict arise. I've expanded on Royalism and Al'mariism (and the other parties in general) in the notes section, and tried to do so here and there in the backstory too where it wouldn't detract too hard from being a cohesive timeline. If I need to find a way to throw the notes into the story itself I can do so, but I found it a lot more readable myself this way.

BYOND Key: Lly2 Character Names: Laurence Boyd, Laurie Blackburn, Wilbert (pAI) Species you are applying to play: Tajara What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Taupe, #483C32 Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes. 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'm primarily interested in playing a Hharar Tajara because I believe it's what I can play the best, and it will end up being the best way for me to contribute to the server. I'm currently returning from a long break. Having not played SS13 in any meaningful capacity since around 2017, I'm looking to return to an old character that I have extensive experience with, just to ease the transition back into the game. I started playing SS13 around ten years ago, and began playing Tajara around eight years ago; since that first Tajara whitelist got accepted on a HRP server, I would estimate that 90-95% of all my playtime has been spent playing one. It's created an odd situation in which I feel more comfortable and capable role-playing in SS13 as an alien race compared to as a regular, mundane human. And then, of course, there's also the underlying reason that made me spend so much of my time playing as a Tajara back in the day - it's a section of SS13 lore I enjoy very much, and the race are so much fun to play. I'm a huge fan of the opportunity to delve into politics for a race that have such a distinctly different history to the real world. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: In terms of mechanics, the Tajaran build sets them apart from humans in a few ways. Some of these differences include (but are not limited to) the following: Tajara are generally more agile and limber than humans, but are more vulnerable to brute damage as a consequence; their fur sees them more resistant to the cold than other races, but leaves them more vulnerable to high temperatures; their eyes allow them better vision in the darkness, but in return make them more vulnerable to bright lights; and their anatomy prevents them from using some items of clothing manufactured for humans. These clothes include human gloves, shoes, and voidsuits. In terms of role-play and personality, I believe the main differences stem from the recency of their introduction to space travel. Where humans have been travelling across space for many years, giving them an extensive breadth of cultures in all areas of the cosmos, the Tajara have been limited to Adhomai for most of their history. As a result, they have been forced as a people to contend with whatever their society has thrown at them; without the ability (prior to human contact) to leave Adhomai in favour of some other more hospitable planet elsewhere, they have all been required to find their own way to deal with what their long history of instability and conflict has thrown at them. In turn, I believe this makes them a more politically extreme race than humans. Many Tajara have nowhere to go to flee from the politics of their planet - and so they are more likely to make an active decision to entwine themselves with their area's political power, or to become a dissident. Character Name: Al-Karim Hussein Please provide a short backstory for this character Al-Karim was born in Nal'tor, Adhomai on the 29th of November, 2437, during the interwar period. His parents were two Hharar labourers making ends meet however they could. They met during the middle of the First Revolution, having fled into the city in hopes of refuge from the war, and quickly married. They were simple people pleased with whatever contributions they could make to society in the city; in 2433, his father proudly carried crates around during the retooling of the Nal'tor mint, and often regaled his son with stories of his involvement. As he grew up, these stories were influential on Al-Karim's view of his position under the PRA, and now under NanoTrasen: the opportunity to work beneath powerful individuals is a great privilege that ought to be cherished. Right from the advent of the Second Revolution, young Al-Karim thoroughly believed himself and the PRA to be the 'good guys'. He had never known a time before their rule, and they had provided safety for him and his family thus far; and after all, the good guys always win, and the most significant thing he knew about the Great Revolution was that the PRA had been the ones to unite Adhomai and end it. The rumours of a New Kingdom and the Liberation Army - to young Al-Karim, they were remnants of a time long passed attempting to disrupt the current era of relative peace. Following the start of Azunja's open rebellion and the assassination of President Hadii the year after, Nal'tor began to feel the full force of the war effort. Over the next few years, the city grew increasingly full of wounded veterans returned home from the frontlines, and the war effort was ramped up a dozen times over; industry turned to the production of weapons and ammunition, and those that couldn't fight were expected to pitch in. Mandatory labour was yet to be enforced, but everybody knew how they would look to the Party if they refused to help. His father joined the industrial effort; Al-Karim looked hopefully for employment in the field of medicine, which he found in the form of an intern position at a local hospital. He was quietly hopeful for the end of the war, and had made tenuous plans in his head that one day when this was all over he'd make his way to the Trizar State Medical Academy for a university degree. If it was at all possible, it was always best to be hopeful, his parents frequently reminded him. Al-Karim was 20 years old when the PRA lost Tampiska to the Liberation Army and began conscripting - his plans were discarded. As some tiny recompense, at least he had been enlisted as a field medic. For three years he - along with so many young men - risked his life on the frontlines of the war in defence of the nation he loved with all his heart, but he felt no pride in what he did. Whilst he knew that the measures the PRA were taking were necessary to combat the opposing military force, he wished he did not have to take part in it himself; he was not a born killer, and would have found more comfort serving his Party back home healing wounds, or aiding in the re-education camps. In the men he fought he saw boys no different from himself: people torn away from their families and homes and forced to serve in an awful, unnecessary war. The ALA and NKA had started the conflict which now must be rightfully ended, but he knew in his heart that at least some of his opponents were not radicals, and perhaps if they had been born elsewhere those young men would be fighting beside him now. And what if he himself had been born elsewhere, where they had been? Would he be the betrayer fighting for the enemy force? It was a question he didn't want to have to think about, for he feared the conclusion might reduce his conviction - for that reason, he spent the rest of his days in the military trying not to think too much or deeply. When the Armistice of Shastar was signed, Al-Karim tarried home with less urgency than one might expect from a boy returning home to his parents. He had gone into the war as a hopeful Young Hadiist, proud to serve his nation and aid in any way he could to combat the rebel threat, but the years had taken his toll and he did not think - if there were ever to be a third revolution - that he would manage another term on the field. On the trip home, his thoughts regretfully fell upon leaving his family behind; he loved them so dearly, but he feared that should things go wrong again, and should he once more be conscripted, it would be them that the resulting wroth from his reluctance would fall upon. Na'ltor was too close to where he'd seen his comrades fight and die, and he feared for his own mental health should he spend the rest of his life lingering there. There were other places he could help - far away in Tau Ceti there were Hadiists struggling in their own, less bloody battles, trying to find a place for the Tajara out in the wider cosmos. If he could just find a way to get there, he knew that he could proudly lend himself in service again in a place where the slate was cleaner - a place where he was further away from the looming cloud of thought above him of those acts he had to undertake during his military service. And so he did not linger. For a few months he enjoyed his time beside his mother, father, and some extended family within the city, before he began his plans to strike out alone. He took the steps slowly so that he could be sure of himself the whole way through. At first, it was a small, simple application for a work visa in the Republic of Biesel; they were far less strict on their immigration policies than elsewhere, and so he could not see a reason to be denied. Once his visa was accepted, he began applying to various corporations across the Republic in hopes of a medical internship. He hadn't acquired the degree he'd hoped for the Trizar State, but perhaps the qualifications he had acquired as part of his military training would count for something out there in Tau Ceti. "You will be assigned an apartment in District Six." "Little Adhomai?" he hesitated. "Yes," the recruiter responded simply. "It is the most suitable location for your pay-grade." And that was it settled. Al-Karim flies now in a NanoTrasen vessel to Mendell City, where he'll be left off in a home quite similar to the one he'd been leaving behind. But here, at least, there was the wonderment of space travel and human technologies to reinvigorate his passions - that was what Al-Karim hoped. He hoped it would be enough. What do you like about this character? I enjoy the idea very much of somebody striking off on their own to find a new career for themselves only to end up in a place that is significantly less different than they had believes it to be. Whilst he would not be serving in an army in Little Adhomai, the place is rife with violence and conflict. It disguises itself as a cold war, but everybody acquainted with the locale knows what happens behind closed doors to those who speak too loudly or proudly about their allegiances. Additionally, where can now be allowed a little more freedom in speech in terms of the reforms he hopes his party will undertake, there is now the enormous figure of NanoTrasen looming over him; he knows that his employers will have no qualms about relieving his job from him should he misstep too deeply or too frequently. I'm hoping to have a lot of fun with seeing where this character's reflection on his ideology in this new place goes. His current belief in Young Hadiism stems mainly from his age. He has seen the violence other parties have taken part in, but it was only during the context of the war and what he was told, not during an era of peace - this is the main reason that he believes the PRA could function as a state even after reductions of authoritarianism taken through gradual reforms. However, depending on what he sees first-hand now that he will be interacting day-to-day with members of the other parties, there is a large possibility that he may tend away from Young Hadiism and towards Orthodox Hadiism, as he sees the necessity for an iron fist in order to keep dissidents in check. How would you rate your role-playing ability? In the context of SS13, I consider myself remarkably average, but in the greater scope of role-play in general I would place myself highly. I've managed to get a pretty big portfolio of experience in a lot of different communities over the years, and throughout I've been employed in editing or doing creative writing as a hobby, but I think that in SS13 I'm currently limited by my knowledge of the game mechanics. It's been a long time since I've really got deep into the game, and the codebases used today are far different to what I was used to back in the day, and so I feel hindered sometimes by having to spend my energy on figuring out how things work rather than just being able to put my 100% into what I'm typing. Outside of just this application, I hope to remedy this by taking my time in intern roles just to have a nice refresher, and not leaping into important positions where I'll be expected to be extremely knowledgeable of mechanics right away. Notes: Some things which I struggled to include without making the backstory a huge infodump were little bits about his new opinions on the other factions, and his religion, so I wanted to throw this in here. During the rebellion, Al-Karim prayed to whoever he thought would answer, for he hadn't a strong persuasion to one god or the next. During his time in the service, his faith in Gods wavered moreso. They hadn't shown much evidence of answering his prayers, nor the prayers of any of the men who stood (or died) beside him. As of today, his belief is that religious worship is a great vessel for comfort - he is unsure of the existence of any greater power, or if the greater power would truly be worth worshipping in the event they did exist, but he recognises that religion and its practices give people - and himself - something to believe in, and that faith is truly powerful. Regarding the DPRA and the NKA more generally, Al-Karim can never truly forgive them for their grievances against the Party and its people, but he still believes deep inside of himself the citizenry of those nations are capable of learning. With enough time and effort from him and other willing Hadiists, there must be at least a number of them who will be able to be convinced of the evils of their nations, and the good-intent of the PRA. He was a big believer in the re-education camps that were set up during the second revolution, and he hopes to take some inspiration from them and what they did when he inevitably interacts with citizens of the DPRA and NKA once he arrives in District Six. Regarding Royalism specifically, Al-Karim finds fault in the belief that society will naturally drift towards a caste system without intervention and in the adversity to fast change. He knows the power of tradition and how it is important in some aspects of life, but he has seen firsthand the huge leaps in advancement that collaboration with NanoTrasen and other corporations has brought the planet of Adhomai - to not work as fast as possible towards those advancements is to refuse the Tajara important technologies that would hugely advance their quality of life as a race. Al'mariism is something Al-Karim could never support for its open opposition to alien influence. The extreme violence that Al'mariists have displayed already as a result of their xenophobia gives Al-Karim absolutely zero faith that they will manage a prosperous future for the planet without huge ordeals of more bloody death. If an ideology staunchly refuses the assistance or collaboration with anybody else, including those that have not yet proven themselves to be a detriment, he can see absolutely no merit to the belief. As for his own faction, Al-Karim is a proud Young Hadiist with great aspirations that his nation will return to the glory they had when he was born. They had taken great losses during the war and the necessity for some time to regather themselves was absolutely there, but given that time and effort from him and other aspirants, he knows they can unite Adhomai once again; his only hope is that the next time it happens, it will be able to be done in a manner less violent than what he saw his faction do during the second revolution. There it was necessary - the opposition used their share of violent tactics too - and so the PRA were only acting in kind, but now there was time to reinvent strategy: to come up with a solution that would not result in so many lives lost. However, should the necessity for brutal tactics return with the advent of a new revolution, he would not blame the PRA's leadership for what they needed to do to keep his great nation alive.