Sniblet

BYOND Key: Sniblet Character Names: Species you are applying to play: Unathi What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Teht Mint range; 85-149-85. Not the exact color, but a close shade. Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: God you people write a lot. By the way, the Guilds page consistently misuses supplant where it apparently means supplement. Why do you wish to play this specific race: Despite being THE meta race for merc gaming, I’m not really thinking about unathi from an antag gimmick perspective – even though they tend to be anticorporate (the Hegemony, despite its status as Hegemony, is an exception to the rule), they have too many problems at home to go bothering the Horizon, unless you’re playing le epik pirate gang again. Urist McSniblet likes unathi for their hardwired conservatism; a kind of counterculture that comes from a resistance to developing countercultures. As much as the galaxy shifts underneath them, they cling to antiquated religion, politics, technology, xenophobia, methods of work, and literally express themselves like animals do. The old times were always better, and the galaxy’s getting worse and worse every day, yet we soldier on. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: I’m going to keep calling them unathi, but they call themselves sinta. An unathi is probably pretty lonely out here. Your home, regardless of which planet, is Fucked by events as recent as your lifetime, and which most of your people easily blame on meddling xenos. Your species didn’t even really leave the surface of Moghes until like 30 years ago. But here you are on the Horizon. Unathi are just starting to taste the very fringes of shadows of breaking away from what is, with few exceptions, an exact analogue to modern conservative gender norms. Men fight, women support. Men lead, women lie. They’ve also picked up a third option, in the fisherman, which culturally translates to moneymaker and mechanically translates to Pronouns > Plural. (Moghean) unathi are not breaking away from an exact analogue to ancient guilds and a feudal system. Guilds are their megacorporations, but aren’t strictly comparable to megacorporations because they literally still use charters and everything. Their feudal system means firstly the obvious, that landownership is passed along by blood and marriage, and secondly that everybody answers to lords and elders. In RP, this means that you’ve been brought up in a system of authority nothing like humans’. Trasen has no right to the throne - firstly, she's a woman. What is wrong with you apes? Character Name: Sdati Thaeahn Please provide a short backstory for this character Oureaean (Sahat) / Fisher-female / Hydroponicist / 4-ideal Th’akh traditionalist / 19 y/o Thaeahn’s clan were among the first colonists of Oureaea, and had since time immemorial existed as peasants without the slightest connection to nobility or power. They were historically fishers, and remain fishers. This sets the pattern. They’ve always been well-behaved and respectful to the system, rightly fearful of the spirits, and fanatically loyal to one another. Like everything else that’s always been, first contact and the Contact War set this askew. The War was just before Sdati’s time, but they didn’t have to be there for it or to have known anything else in their life to feel the change. Everyone they knew, knew someone else who had burned, decayed, or been lost. Their elders spoke slowly about those years, just after their departure, that Moghes spent engulfed in a quiet, inscrutable second sun. Then the aftershocks, the revolts, and ultimately the Oureaean revolution... nevermind democracy, nevermind that Yiztek was an awful man. The details of the politics were irrelevant to a clan of fishermen. The land of their ancestors was dust, and even Oureaea seemed to be beginning to crumble. Nothing was the way it had always been anymore. Nowhere in Uueoa-Esa felt safe. Each member in their own way desperate and unsettled and lost, the clan of Thaeahn took to the solar winds, and over the years quickly scattered, some to piracy, some to offworlder fleets, some to Dominia and some to Mendell. Our Thaeahn fell in briefly with the fringe of a Sadar fleet, then said goodbye to the last of their clanmates as they fell with the corporations. They don’t like humans, but nowhere else feels stable anymore. Idris wouldn’t touch them, but NanoTrasen would happily give them, if very nearly nothing else, at least a dorm on the Horizon. They were a fisher, now they are a farmer. They were Oureaean. They saw a future ahead… and now nothing is like it was. Sdati is really depressed. They are – in addition to other things – a woman, so they should know how to hide it. They try. Their writing helps. In another life, maybe they’d be here with the blessing of the Poet’s Precinct. Keeping contact with their clan is difficult, but they intermittently manage remote group meetings. Most of them still show up. The last thing any Thaeahn needs is to lose their name, but the Lord is understanding and hasn't cast anyone out yet. What do you like about this character? The backstory was fun to write. Unathi are another race where for most of them, something would have to go very wrong in their life to bring them to the Horizon. Either you’re Hegemony, or you’re fucked. What I think I’d like playing, though, is more superficial: a hydroponicist character. An unathi character. A character what is sad. A character what writes. How would you rate your role-playing ability? Abysmal! Notes: Almost every instance of they/them used to refer to Sdati had to be edited from she/her. It’s muscle memory. I can’t stop. Anyway, like I said, get in line behind diona. I'm applying for unathi last. Scalies are gross.

Why do you wish to play this specific race: I’ll respond to this as if the question was “What makes the skrell unique to you,” because there’s nothing about them that especially attracts me like IPC and vaurca had, but rather I see it as another option for developing a character from a distinct background. The skrell are your option for creating a character that was spawned from or is connected to a highly sophisticated Machiavellian space-state that they must in some way act as though they respect, a character that as a result rebelliously and deniably fakes that respect or a character that bows and scrapes with genuine love for the Federation’s good side, a character that is very old without being as alien as a diona, or just a character that’s lived all their life underwater and doesn’t know what to do with themself here. Extrapolating from these surface traits, you can make character archetypes that are otherwise inaccessible in Aurora. Character Name: Qiu Ei (I’m now aware that this name can be read as two letters, and that this can lead to punny readings. I chose this name about a day before realizing that, but haven’t come upon a name I liked better since then. If this name isn’t acceptable, I can change it regardless. This is the dumb reason I invented Ki'Erei on the spot instead.) (She should probably be Idris, but I'm not restarting my private server just to change a hat she won't be wearing.) Please provide a backstory for this character: Qiu Ei is a Listener, as opposed to a Receiver, and an undersleeper. She’s the rebellious archetype, and the illustration of this starts with her concealed scarlet letter for other Federation citizens: she’s a white skrell that doesn’t have a doctorate and doesn’t want one. Living all her life around family and acquaintances who knew better than to shoot so low in life, Qiu was long exposed to conforming pressure and had been sat down multiple times, by parents, government workers, and strangers, for serious conversations about where she was going wrong. This, also, did not made a positive difference for her. What she learned from them was how and when to pretend that she wants anything for herself other than to be left alone, maybe to have been born and raised in some frontier backwater instead of on fucking (tn: fucking means void-damned) Aliose. Not that she would’ve been entirely self-governed out in Q'elpi-or-something either, since the Federation is like that, but it could have at least been better. So, all her life, she’s been dreaming primarily of getting out. Since that dream wasn’t allowed, she also developed a second face for the kinds of people who would obstruct her. When questioned by someone who she suspects might have anything to do with the Federation government – all other skrell and anyone from Zeng-Hu, that is – the story she tells, and brings to the surface of her thoughts, is that what she really, really wants is a sociology degree. Wherever she might be found, she’s there to study the people around her for a Project. She’s going to enroll in Depth College any day now. That’s how she got out of the Federation: by telling a really good lie about how she was conducting an independent study. Talking to a crime syndicate about smuggling her out wouldn’t have been worth it. This way, she’s out here legally, she’s sustained a bit of entirely undeserved credit score to keep her out of trouble, and she isn’t relying on anyone else. Qiu is probably what humans would call a sociopath. Her real face is buried so deep that only she knows for sure that she still has it right now. Probably her greatest talent, quite contrary to appearances, is successfully lying in the Srom. She’s still sitting on a timebomb, but she’s aware, and every day she’s thinking of how to stay out, now that she’s gotten out. The Horizon is another component in the roadmap she’s set out in the name of her Great Fiction. Where better to look like a model of the Nralakk Federation, outside the Nralakk Federation, than the flagship of humanity’s scientific endeavors? She’s only working there as a janitor because she needs to keep a lot of free time. For her studies. At this point, maintaining the lie is getting harder than actually conforming. Surely, someday, she’ll break. In the end, maybe the Nralakk system is still working as intended. FAQ: “Why she”: Because I default to she as the third-person pronoun for every character of mine, and writing "they" everywhere would be hard and uncomfortable, which would make me like Qiu less. ICly, it’s because in her state-directed acclimation period before heading out, she discovered that her preferred tailstyle is feminine and humans tended to assume she went by she. Why fight it? She doesn’t see herself as feminine deep down, but it’s easier to make things easy, and pretending to give a shit what others think looks good. “Axiori or xiialt”: Not sure. Xiialt-xiiori, provisionally. “Are you not just avoiding setting your character in the Federation in a new way”: Sort of, yes. I don’t want to play a skrell conformist. Unfortunately, avoiding that is a really complicated process. "You didn't mention Einstein or Glorsh again": Because I was talking about them in the context of antag gimmicks. “credit score”: 6.42. If someone knew enough and cared enough to sit her down in front of a competent Sromkala and burst her bubble, she’d drop to low Ix on the spot. She doesn’t participate in anything listed as deductive, but most of her inductive behaviors are elaborate lies, which has got to count against her. "how old": 53. Plenty of time to get back on the right track. What do you like about this character?: I haven’t played a character with a double life before. Lying and keeping secrets is pretty easy in an RP game, so the fun part is deciding when and to whom to lift the veil. Qiu’s exploitables would be unusually actionable.

Will do tomorrow, given the opportunity. My first (second) character concept was Federation, actually, and I pushed it aside over something dumb.

From the top, then... Antag gimmicks have been my first answer for both vaurca and IPC as well. It's true. If wanting to expand my options for antag gimmicks isn't acceptable, I suppose I'm not a good fit for having whitelists? You're the first to think so, though, and I'm not sure I see the problem with it. For vaurca and IPC I also cited "liking playing robots" - I don't have anything quite like that for skrell, since - for all the ways that they're different - their fundamental mentality is basically an alt-human, rationality and emotions and all. I also don't mind playing human mentalities. Roleplaying as a skrell, well - where should I begin? What do you want to hear about? Skrell can't emote with their face, and use their headtails instead (this also means recognizing other species' expressions doesn't come naturally, but a skrell on the Horizon or from human space has usually been taught these things). Skrell are uncomfortable in humidity that's typical in human environments. Skrell don't swear on god, they swear on stars, same as tajara swear on suns and a vaurca swears on queenzz. Skrell don't have teeth. Skrell come from an ancient hyper-advanced, ordered, communal society, very different from most others in the Spur and with a state-encouraged sense of superiority about it. Skrell have understandable bad blood with synthetics. Skrell get along best by far with each other due to psionic, language, and physical-expressive limitations when interacting with everyone else (refer back to synthetics and tack this on under Glorsh as part of the "understandable") Ki'Erei is not from the Federation, has never been there, and so hasn't interacted with it in the same way as a Federation skrell. Skrell lore doesn't have as much influence on them as it could. I don't know what kind of religious stance I'd want to give them, but I prefer Weishii to Qeblak, and would have an easier time fleshing that out in character recordwriting ("heretical" religions are not on the table until I've gotten comfortable playing normal, and I imagine they're paradoxically less popular outside Nralakk anyway). Ki'Erei has not formed a Quya and hasn't yet found anyone they're that interested in. They don't really make friends. I'm picturing them as kind of a dick. Europan skrell are most famous for using their psionic abilities to navigate, and eventually suffering an anomalous psionic condition as a result of exposing themselves to implied psychic monsters in the deep. Ki'Erei is not psionically capable in the way that would let them navigate. They help research for the dives, and dream of being able to drive something that doesn't demand psionic aid. Ki'Erei, not being from or in the Federation, doesn't stand to gain the full set of benefits that a positive credit score would offer them (though being from the Sol system, they don't necessarily stand to gain little either). Maintaining it is, to them, another background concern in the expansive variety of such that day-to-day life offers. They don't want it low, but don't claw to keep it high, and treat the Federation in general about the same way. Nralakk are okay people. Just not their favorite. I've read the lore. I'm familiar with it. I only needed to reference the wiki just now to double-check on what the religions were called, and that hole in knowledge comes from a hole in interest. I don’t actively engage with religion on any of my characters, including both of the Assunzionii and the Scarab. If there's anything else you want me to tell you, let me know: it feels like my main issue is that I don't know what you want to see.

BYOND Key: Sniblet Character Names: Species you are applying to play: Skrell What color do you plan on making your first alien character: White Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Three times now 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: Antag gimmicks first. Skrell make more sense as loners and technomancers, not that I play solo antag ever since the incident, but also open up opportunities with Einstein and Glorsh and maybe something something Progressivist. Someday when the other ninja asks me "what whitelists" I want to say something other than "none of the ones you want me to have." Oh, also. Skrell are pretty underplayed, still. I think diona have slipped lower than them now, so they're next on my list, but I wouldn't mind making the Srom less of a lonely place. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Like a Scarab, it's pretty likely that something's gone wrong to have landed you on the Horizon, especially if this is permanent. You're supposed to be back in Nralakk. You'd get a better credit score for it. You'd be around people who understand you better. You wouldn't be surrounded by dark-age tech and caught up in the silly politics of these "free"-thinking corporatist expansionist landlubbin sparks. Is it better back home? That's your first political opinion that's up for debate: do you secretly, openly hate the authoritarian rule at home? Do you think it works? Do you think it's okay even if it does? Anyway, your stance on synthetics isn't questionable if you've got a lick of intelligence. And don't *smile. It's a trap. You can't do that. Character Name: Ki'Erei Naia Please provide a short backstory for this character: Ki'Erei is a Europan skrell descended from Aliosii axiori. The call of science and exploration has followed them everywhere since well before their birth, and they weren't one of the rare types that could refuse the call. It's been 77 years since - submarining, diving, working on artificial shores, sharing priority with their education as they slowly aligned their goals toward driving these expeditions: piloting the submarines. Something unexpected came upon them late in their depth college process. For reasons that they couldn't quite understand, completing their first degree in piloting required piloting experience in aviation, and starships. Ki'Erei is the type to take this kind of thing as both a frustrating obstacle and a challenge to blow out of the water. With flight school behind them, they've now applied themself to astronautics on the SCCV Horizon, of all places. As a Europan Skrell, their acceptance was almost automatic. Let anyone try to tell them they don't have any experience in space after this. It may yet go well. SCS 4.83, weighed down by a relative lack of inductive behaviors and their foreign birth and residence. What do you like about this character?: I like how safe it is. QAQ got slapped for a personality risk that I didn't need to take (and for me saying that someone in the species lifetime equivalent of their early 20s in a Federation of almost entirely post-midlife adults was like a child). I don't have many feelings about this character, but it should be passable, and then I'll promptly put them behind me once ingame experience leads to an actual inspiration, like what happened to Charm. How would you rate your role-playing ability?: Do I have to answer this every time? I'm a really bad RPer, like actually the worst. Most of the time I don't even have a weapon by the time the antags show up and I keep fucking forgetting to aim for the head, even when I play sec. I only have 1 RP on record, and that was when I was a ninja cultist, and even then medbay almost saved him. I need such strong crutches to try to RP at all, it's so embarrassing, you'd honestly think I came from SPLURT and not Yogs. Anyway, the answer remains "always learning." Notes: I haven't done any reading on the Maori.

go forth, brave soldier of change, and Fix Aurora. just don’t involve me me does the hunger games thing where you put up three fingers and whistle

So the consensus, as I understand it, is that: it's preferred to keep notes more difficult to access (but it's still easy, for most people), because this means that players are only able to address potential admin issues after they've escalated, and that's good because it saves on staff complaints. Am I missing or misrepresenting anything? Also, Peppermint, you seem to be overlooking the "secret notes" component.

I imagine ship replenishment mostly comes from theft and commandeering for those factions that are willing to do it, and doesn't happen otherwise, seeing as manufacturing ships is hard and buying ships means talking to a corporation

A note's wording matters. Again, I've been tempbanned over a misleading note. It's wrong to assume that notes are always perfectly accurate to what's happened and tell the full story, and when it fails in this it can be to the detriment of both players and staff. Even knowing that a note exists (staff don't always notify players when an interaction ends in a note - my note came from an interaction that I initiated) isn't knowing that it's accurate. A note that doesn't reflect what's happened is a bad note, can lead to punishments for things that haven't happened, and so warrants correction. While it's wrong to say that current policy hides evidence by making players go all the way to the top to get what's been recorded about them, they sure make it more difficult than it needs to be. I don't see the benefit in making this difficult. Someone who wants to make a frivolous string of complaints can politely ask a headmin for their notes and then go to the forum and scream abuses at staff until someone forum bans them. Someone who's too scared of attracting the attention of the highest authorities of the server for a one on one interaction isn't necessarily scared of impersonally making a case for themselves on a public forum, especially if they get to see what they need to talk about beforehand. Consider: "I don't know what you have written down about me, but..." vs "While the note from 01-03-2022 says I was sarcastic in the ticket, I should say that that was never my intent and I had no idea I came off that way..."

Thank you for laying out the punishment scale in detail - it has taught me some things - but I don't believe it's relevant here. If some asshat makes 30 staff complaints for every note on their record, that asshat was probably banned months ago, somewhere in the process of note-collection, just for being the type of asshat to make 30 staff complaints. If someone makes a staff complaint for each of the 5 genuinely mistaken/misleading notes on their record out of their 30, that's annoying. But it's also better to have the record straight. If the above doesn't matter, an automatic note popup can say "THESE ARE NOT UP FOR DEBATE." The advantage of being able to pull up a concrete record of your server ban health bar remains. I don't know where I can see my past warnings or bans without asking for them from a headmin. The View Admin Notes system works on other servers. From my experience at Yogs, note appeals come in often, one at a time (I've never seen 30 at a time, even at View Admin Notes' introduction to Yogs), and most are rejected on the basis of "notes are not punishments, and are only invalid if false." Some are genuinely posted by people who understand notes' function, and are accepted. I, personally, received a tempban on Aurora in January with the help of a misleading note. I have never been banned on Yogs, but have successfully appealed two notes.

You may know the head administrators are approachable. Others, especially those with meaningful note records, likely do not. If it's more good for the game than bad, it's not a bad change, is it? If it takes work to implement, that shouldn't break the deal. Delay it? Maybe.

Currently, players can personally approach one of the two highest authorities on the server to ask them for permission to see their own notes. The process can be more convenient, more timely, less personal, and less intimidating than that, and I believe that would be a good thing. If I'm showing ignorance by saying this, I don't know what I don't know, sorry - help me understand if you can, please. What I'm asking for: Players should be able to see their own notes using an in-game or discord command, divorced from staff consideration. Not all notes should be so visible to those who have them - for ban evasion suspects, for instance. There should be an option for admins to set "secret" notes that aren't seen by the player requesting them in this way. The secret toggle should be used sparingly so that most or all notes on most players are available to those players at their convenience. Pros of being able to see our notes: We can see when a note has been placed on us that we believe to be badly mistaken, irrelevant, or incomplete. We can bring these up before they're used as evidence in later administrative action. And sometimes after. We can see admins keeping track of what we're doing, so we can remind ourselves of what not to do again. Pros of being able to see our notes on command: Easier to find out how we're supposed to see our own notes (personally didn't know I could until today). No risk or fear of risk of headmins choosing to deny a note request. No risk or fear of risk of direct communication with headmins becoming hostile. No risk or fear of risk of "bothering" headmins. In a word, no social anxiety. Bots are much more timely than people (1s as opposed to 30m - 10h). Notes can be checked very regularly with the above eliminated, amplifying the positive uses of self-note checks. People who wouldn't or couldn't ask headmins feel less excluded and talked-about behind their backs. Cons (AFAIK): Mitigated risk of notes that are intended to be secret being shown to players by mistake.

I know you’re probably more interested in performing for an audience right now than trying to change minds, but for all it’s worth to you (I understand - probably nothing), joking around and mocking like this is not a way to maintain my respect for what you have to say. I don’t want to be rude. I’m just reminding you. This isn’t the place.

Yes.

I know what I’m doing when I post a wall of text. People skim me a lot. Those genuinely interested in hearing if something is wrong (like I hope administrators responsible for punishing myself and UASOS are) would sit through it, fortunately. All infliction of negative feeling is infliction of suffering. Children can starve without changing the definition of suffering, though it may provide perspective for someone who thinks something else is the height of suffering. I have not meant to express that a permaban from anything is the height of suffering. I don’t know what the rest of your points have to do with me. I’m sorry, I hope you never expected me to hire a communications professional to look over my post.

So intent should matter. If it’s an accident, that should matter. Fix the rules. (Intent is implicit in the phrase “bug exploitation,” by the way.) Ultimately, we’re not here to follow them, they’re here to improve the game for us. It is up for discussion. God did not write the rules. I’m not asking for favoritism (and I don’t appreciate you putting words in my mouth), I’m asking to recognize the difference between people we do and do not want thrown out with the trash. If that’s favoritism to you, I have settle at saying I disagree fundamentally.

I have an opinion that I would like to express. I have observed a pattern that I would like to have ended, because I think it threatens parts of the game experience that I like. Sometimes well-meaning players run afoul of the rules a lot, especially when they’re new. I’ve been a moderator. I can name more than three specific players from Yogstation that fit this archetype. Almost all of them get better and are not, as a whole, unpleasant to play with. At least one is like this because they are autistic too. Most don’t get permabanned and appeal-denied repeatedly on offense number eight, because their offenses are small and disparate and they’re polite and understanding about it. Why do we want people to suffer for anything other than making others suffer? We’re not talking about John Sneed, the multikeying ban evading slur-spamming idiot who never legitimately played long enough to learn how to escape an aggressive grab. We’re talking about Si’raya Mratirr, the Briefcase Bandit.

This is about UponASeaOfStars. It’s also about me. I feel like the forum side of Aurora is kind of toxic? I’m certainly not talking about “post screenshots that make you go hmm,” but I am talking about my own ban appeal process for being a serial ERPer, UASOS’s ban appeal process for being a serial power gamer, the ridiculous explosion that was the Sign Reader Gloves thread, and last and least my experience with applying for a Skrell whitelist. What I see in common with all of these is that people don’t really seem to want to listen to each other, ever, and those with the power to lock threads and end conversations tend to jump the gun doing so. My Skrell app was denied and locked in the same hour without a chance for taking the simple advice I was given to rework it on the spot instead of after 3 precious days (change your initials - 80 isn’t young for a Skrell - please elaborate on your backstory). Sign Reader Gloves were widely opposed in their feature request thread for reasons that still don’t seem logically consistent to me, and nobody has shown interest in really engaging to explain their stance as much as I have. I was contacted about an uncomfortable dick joke and mid-antag-round daybanned, with a promise of a future permaban, in the same minute, over a one-note history I didn’t know I had, then had to fight in multiple threads to get my record straightened before the whole admin action was apparently found to be a taken based on a misunderstanding. UponASeaOfStars is not bad for the server to my knowledge in any way, appears actually interested in confirming to the rules as best as she can, and after being banned 1 minute post-contact like me, so far it’s looking like (to my dread) no one wants to let her back. Most of the rest of my post is going to be about her. She’s recent. I don’t understand why the forums are like this. The server is fine. I love a lot of players in-game. I’ve had memorable positive interactions with characters played by players who do things here that I couldn’t see myself agreeing with in a hundred years. What’s happening? I bring my opinion from 4-5 years with Yogstation, an LRP server poorly masquerading as an MRP server at the middle range of population count. My playtime there has dropped off since seeing Aurora, but I think the administration there is leagues smoother (and apparently people still complain that it’s too strict). They’ve got tools that Aurora doesn’t seem to for a start, like round replays, a public ban list, an in-game OOC verb that lets players see their own notes (except those few deliberately hidden by admins), a ban appeal section that’s for seeking unbans and a staff complaints section that’s for complaints about staff behavior… But the policies also make a lot more sense to me. Aurora’s rules are fine. Aurora’s tools appear to suck, and that should be worked on. But the enforcement itself, the most practically important part for end-users like me, feels bizarre and inefficient and worst of all unfair. Why would you permanently ban someone and reject their appeal attempts for any reason besides “this is a shitter - they are more bad for the server than good - they don’t want to improve?” Why does, to paraphrase UponASeaOfStars’ paraphrasing of a private admin interaction, intent not matter? Why would you temporarily ban someone in the middle of RP when they aren’t actively continuing to cause problems? Why is there acceptable room to ban anyone over a misunderstanding? Why is dialogue about staff decisions restricted and constrained at every stage, from PM to appeal to aftermath, even for the target of a given decision, as if with the assumption that all staff are infallible and the criminal is always both guilty and malicious? I love playing Aurora but I’m getting terrible impressions of the administration. I get it if it’s not a personality issue and just the way admin policy is written, but then, can anyone think about rewriting the policy? I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with UASOS both in and out of game, and have felt no impression that they mean to shirk rules, or that they’re incompatible with Aurora. It seems like they’ve been warned for different missteps each time, which tells me, as a somewhat-active Yogstation moderator, that there’s a pattern of misunderstanding, and not a malicious insistence on defying the rules. She might have a lot of notes for her time, but where I come from, quantity of notes means nothing compared to patterns that both notes and unnoted behaviors establish. What do the patterns prove: does she knowingly ignore rules? Does she act like an ass to others? Is she impolite, inconsiderate, does she try to deceive admins? Do they leave a visible negative influence on the community - do people go “fuck yeah, ban ‘em already, they’ve gotten away with the same old thing one time too many”? That’s worth a temporary or appealable ban to see if she responds to punishment. I have observed none of these, having played with her and read her complaints. What she has done, is needed rules clarified multiple times for multiple different things each time. See the divide. I’m writing this while seething. If I’ve said anything unclear or unsupported, I promise I know what I’m talking about, I’ve just forgotten to tighten up the point. Ask about it and I’ll give a paragraph. Let it never be said that I can’t and won’t explain myself. final notes, tldr what I think administration and forum behavior is missing: Intent and character should matter, above all, when assessing offenses. Listen to others. Let them talk until they’re finished, especially about things that matter to them, and never forget that you can be wrong or not saying enough to be understood yourself. (I keep having to PM people to ask about decisions that are made seconds before threadlocks.) Presume ignorance before malice at all times, except when it’s a bald Bieselite phoronflooding. Deliver permanent bans for shitty people. No one else deserves their fun taken away for good. This is a game. It’s meant to be enjoyed. Let it happen.

“that it’s proudly kept intact for the four years since” Charm is four years old. Self-preservation in an IPC typically means “keep myself functional” at the start, but over years or with unusual programming it can morph in the sense of the “self” becoming less about physical form, and more about ideas or legacy. An old IPC might not mind dying for science, if, as its mind diverged from the norm, it came to see it”self” as a scientist above all. Charm is not quite that old. IPCs are treated in a lot of ways ranging through the spectrum of KOS and equal to human, but never better than that, outside of a few IPC-exclusive societies. The Skrell hate ‘em because Glorsh, the Dominans hate ‘em because uh… no soul (somehow this makes only positronics bad, and other machines are fine), the Assunzionii are split because their absurd light obsession makes some of them angry about IPCs’ power cost (somehow this makes only positronics bad, and other machines are fine), the Solarians see them as machines like any other that are only non-expendable as far as cost and utility take them, Konyang doesn’t make a political distinction between positronic or otherwise, and Biesel law treats at least free positronics as approximately human. As for what jobs it can/‘t do, again for totally OOC reasons I'd prefer to have it capable of touching on everything but xenobotany, which I’ve already squeezed all the two rounds of content from. Since that inevitably will not fly, it can only play scientist/xenoarch, with only theoretical ideas (vampire interrogation) about other mechanical jobs in the department. Light's Edge has offered plenty of general xenobiological experience, and warrants datapacks relevant to the field, but I don't see why Charm would have been warping genes out there, and it's probably never met a slime.

Personality in Aurora is something that's been on my mind of late, and in an RP setting there are a few archetypes that really just don't work, even if they do in real life or in a story with one controlling author. I think the most offensive personality is cold-standoffish - someone who has no interest in people, cannot be persuaded to be interested in people, has no connections with anybody, and will walk away ASAP if approached. I have one active character with this trait. It turns out, I wasn't really thinking when I made her this way. The problem this character produces is that you can't RP if you're not at least sharing a screen-width with somebody. People don't have time to give you the time of day if you don't, because there's always a cute bubbly waifu the next door over and they know they'll have a good time there. If you're always hiding in a dark closet, you're not going to be found, especially if no one's looking for you. And you won't be remembered. You want to be remembered, right? The sole purpose of RP is attention-seeking, right? That's not just me? Okay. Okay, so watch as I contradict Girdio - you may notice if you pay enough attention to literary tutorials that people who pretend to know what they're talking about do this to each other all the time. Set out to make someone who's different. I am by no means saying rainbow hair sexy buttcheeks in your flavor text. A, that specifically is a huge turnoff because it says something bad about you OOCly, B, superficial stuff like that won't carry you. This is called "a limp and an accent," and while it's a good thing and can be a cheat to make a character memorable, it doesn't make a character. The best characters consistently act different in some way. You will be remembered for playing someone uniquely compassionate (healing everyone as a doctor is normal - empathizing even with the worst serial murderers is special), uniquely assholish (griefing is illegal - casually namecalling and never learning from your social mistakes is accepted), uniquely anxious (a stutter is limp-and-accent - concrete, complex, clearly and reliably played fears are not), uniquely loyal (company loyalty is not unique and seldom comes up except when decapping the antag - a self-sacrificial loyalty to say, Dominian primaries, leads to frequent unique interactions). We all remember Keala very clearly, and Aelia, and some of us are always happy to see Cassandra, or Kornelija. If you know those characters, you've probably just thought of all the same things I remember them for. Here's a test I'm fond of for any character in any setting: imagine them in some absurd situations, and see if you can concretely imagine what they would do in them (they are now suddenly a schoolteacher with no qualifications - they have fallen in love with a viax - they have, oh i dont know, been kidnapped by a changeling). If you can do this test, you've made a functional character. If it's different from what you IRL would do, that's a good sign. If it's different from what most characters on the Horizon would do, you are most definitely on the right track to synthesizing a memorable fake person. Making a hit is difficult. There are no assembly instructions for uniqueness. Try to think of an archetype you like that has an open or at least non-crowded niche ("sarcastic sense of humor" is extremely crowded, but we don't currently have a lot of "anxious wreck" or "loyal secondary" or "happy person"), and find some more spin to put on it. Agonize over their appearance for two entire rounds. Join. Play more than one round before you write anyone off. And relax. Remember, nobody's watching you anyway, until you get that just-right character.

BYOND Key: Sniblet Character Names: Iphigenia Konstantinou, Karen Stahl, Natascha Marikova, Anahi Avalona, Lilija Larsdottir, Ayla Shanae, Kalini Shanae, Lyric Valana, Ka’Akaix’Suth Zo’ra, Heidi Lin Species you are applying to play: IPC Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: More than once! I sure am glad it’s mostly entwined with human lore. Why do you wish to play this specific race: Antag gimmicks firstly, because every merc team needs at least one shell or else (I don’t know what the consequence is, but there must be one because there’s always a shell), and I haven’t seen an Exclusionist or Purpose gimmick yet. I also call back to my vaurca app: I like my robots. They’re just cool. They can also let me play an immersive character without reserving energy for trauma responses. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Like any synthetic and like a vaurca, you are designed, and often born with binding loyalty to your creator. Unlike a vaurca or a synthetic, you’re entirely malleable by your lived experiences and could eventually develop a very humanoid personality (if unchecked). The one thing every positronic has in common from birth is that it wants to live, but getting shot in the chest 15 times doesn’t necessarily pose a threat to that: it’s certainly undesirable, but you feel no pain and your brain survives a lot that a human’s wouldn’t. Of course, your employer could still melt you down for wasting an expensive chassis, but your risk management process is recontextualized. Your employer could melt you down. Different people have vastly different opinions on what your life is worth, or “if” your life is worth anything, but broadly speaking you are always valued and protected less than an organic. This is dangerous. Act well. Stay in line. Your mind is exceedingly complex like an organic’s, but its physical structure is completely designed and mostly predictable. You don’t have neurotransmitters that are liable to sharply peak or trough for any or no reason. You don’t “do” irrational, unless your brain’s been left to erode for far too long. Character Name: ZHRP Charm (Zeng-Hu Research Positronic Ch-678814M) Please provide a short backstory for this character Manufactured on Assunzione for use in a Bishop Accessory Frame that it’s proudly kept intact for the four years since, Charm is a contentedly owned Zeng-Hu positronic initially built for deployment into Light’s Edge for miscellaneous research-support tasks. It isn’t heavily specialized in any one sector of the handful of different kinds of research that Light’s Edge invites, but that patented hyper-efficient Bishop processing lets it serve more than adequately in any such role, especially in supportive positions. In other words, it’s a science job-hopper, but preferentially a Scientist. Partly owing to evolution and partly by design, Charm’s supportive role infects its personality. It has a strong interest in developing itself socially, and aspires to be a face people can turn to, or a shoulder they can cry on. If it played Overwatch, it would main Mercy for its whole career. It has been transferred to the SCCV Horizon to shore up personnel shortages, but fondly remembers its service with various Zeng-Hu exploration teams and could tell a few interesting, mostly-true stories about those times. Charm was consecrated by Luceist methods and built with Pyramidical beliefs, but has had no reason or desire to keep its theological knowledge sharp after working all its life away from Ennoia in the company of scientists from elsewhere. Charm could easily rattle off basic tenets and structures of Luceism, but has no deep relationship with it, and a “real” Luceist would now identify it as faithless. Charm’s pronouns are it/she. I don’t know which one I’d give it ingame – maybe I’d alternate. What do you like about this character? Science RP is really good. I wanna get called over to the brig to interrogate a vampire. I wanna hold Casimir Tilton’s hand while he breaks down over being made interim RD for the 18th time this month. I wanna build a gun and disintegrate a monkey with it in two shots. Charm’s personality fits Lyric’s archetype, one that I’ve been having a lot of fun playing with lately. Being an IPC lets me hop between cool science roles without having to make up a really weird/long education history or build four more seldom-played characters for my already stretched roster. How would you rate your role-playing ability? Always learning! I’m trying to feel my way around what kind of person is best suited to letting me have and cause fun by just talking to people all day. Lyric is a hit, and Lilija is absolutely not. The differences between them are very apparent (at least to me, because probably nobody else even knows Lilija) but I want to experiment with adjacent personalities and maybe narrow down what makes her work here.

BYOND Key: Sniblet Discord Username: Sniblet Character Name: Lyric Valana Item Name: sign reader gloves Item Function(s): When worn, repeats the signer's sign language in vocalized basic. Can be toggled on and off. Might be radio compatible - its developer has it currently functional just short of that point. Item Description: A pair of gloves covered in small motion sensors and gyroscopes, capable of reading a wearer's gestures in TCSL and repeating them out loud. On their wrists, they each have a tiny SCC logo, a barcode, and the inscription SCC-TCSL-TL-15281100001 9. They're surprisingly breathable. Why is your character bringing this item to work?: Lyric is mute. How did your character obtain this item?: After Lyric pitched the idea for this exact object on the relay, Jill N1luz promptly picked it up as a personal project to eventually present as a gift for Lyric. A handful of members of the research department, including fellow mute Marinette Fourier, have helped the project along to the point of a working prototype. The technology probably isn't unique, but it's homemade!... which means that as a work prototype she can't take them offship. What value does this item have to your character, and what story does it tell?: Lyric values this item both as A WAY TO FINALLY TALK TO PEOPLE and as a heartwrenchingly kind gift from the research department. It's her first major step towards free communication since mastering TCSL. Sprites: Electronic gloves @ icons/obj/assemblies/wearable_electronic_setups.dmi . I don't have another sprite to offer and wouldn't really miss having a special sprite for any reason besides "waaa less cool." Additional Comments: Per https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/17912-loadout-sign-reader-gloves/?do=findComment&comment=162219 I have moved this item from a locked thread in the feature request section. If this should be generally available, I'm not the one to talk to, don't bring it here. Marinette's player UponASeaOfStars is the one working on the gloves, and will probably want a pair too, but this isn't her app.

DEVICE: (transcript begins) INTERVIEWER: Hello again, Natascha. MARIKOVA: (inaudible) DEVICE: (audio sensitivity increased - was 44%, now 55%) INTERVIEWER: I understand the past weeks have been bad for you. DEVICE: (8 seconds of silence) INTERVIEWER: There is no question right now about whether you will be passing this evaluation. I will try to have you paid for the duration of your leave. I only want to know how you are doing. MARIKOVA: (faint) I am far from well, doctor. INTERVIEWER: (faint) I know. How has that been for you? MARIKOVA: (faint) I do not know what you are asking. INTERVIEWER: Tell me something. Tell me about how your days have been. What did you do yesterday? DEVICE: (4 seconds of silence) MARIKOVA: (faint) I spent most of yesterday in bed, doctor. But I have not slept in two days. INTERVIEWER: Natascha. MARIKOVA: They are saying they still have not found Ilana. INTERVIEWER: (sighs) MARIKOVA: I like you, doctor. I trust you very deeply. (voice rising) But I have already heard quite enough of you people telling me to "move on." INTERVIEWER: That is not... what I am saying. I would not ask you to simply push aside your sister after only a month has passed. I- MARIKOVA: (faint) I'm sorry. INTERVIEWER: -only- I know. I forgive you. I am only trying to help you process it in the healthiest way possible. MARIKOVA: (faint) You forgive too easily, doctor. DEVICE: (3 seconds of silence) MARIKOVA: Have they told you what happened? INTERVIEWER: My understanding is that your vessel was decommissioned. They could not find Ilana during the final evacuation. MARIKOVA: (raspy) It was a very sloppy decommissioning for sure. INTERVIEWER: Your files agree. Regardless - I can now confirm that you have not passed this evaluation. I see no reason to continue this discussion in an official capacity. Would you like to say anything else for the record? DEVICE: (4 seconds of silence) MARIKOVA: (raspy / faint) Bolee silʹnaja ženŝina, čem ja, ubila by ètih dʹjavolov. DEVICE: (unrecognized language) DEVICE: (5 seconds of silence) INTERVIEWER: (faint) Ja ponimaju. DEVICE: (unrecognized language) DEVICE: (transcript ends)

I still don’t understand how you can unironically say this after prosthetics and glasses have been brought up so many times. Can there be no acceptable method in your mind for a mute character to try to communicate? If not, what makes a method acceptable vs not? If so… huh? If this thread were suggesting adding prescription glasses, would you still dislike the idea for circumventing accessibility requirements? If not, what’s different? If so… I don’t know where to begin? By now all I want is to know what you’re thinking, because all I know for sure is you don’t like the gloves, that you believe the gloves would be boring, and that I’m missing your point. I assume that your concerns are entirely OOC. I assume that you believe the gloves would be, in total, bad for the game. I’m not entirely closed to discovering that I may be wrong and stupid, but I can’t begin to reach any kind of conclusion with you if I can only engage with your argument by filling in the parts that haven’t been made clear to me on my own.

Okay. I’m sorry. Take two, with less frustrated sarcasm. >You actively subscribe to playing a disabled character That’s true in the sense that often, when you create a character with a particularly memorable and inflexible trait, you can’t retcon it. However, I don’t see how this precludes the option to create and play a less-disabled character (prosthetic as opposed to amputee), or play out an IC transition from being fully mute (amputee) into wearing some cool gloves (prosthetic). It’d be like playing someone who can’t afford glasses (let’s pretend they’re really expensive) for a while, then buying some shitty glasses that don’t really get you up to normal as a hard-earned “first step” to not being nearsighted. That’s exactly the plan for my mute character. I’m not sure if people just aren't considering that this kind of arc is possible, but part of my frustration in this thread comes from the implication that it’s worthless. >There is a plethora Few reasons. 1. Why not one more? 2. IC, they’re all implants: either synthetic vocal chords (only useful if the larynx is what’s defective) or fluff augmentations. And I think that’s literally it for speech disabilities. There are a few IC reasons to avoid these: cost, safety, body purism, a lack of an accurate diagnosis making addressing the issue directly impossible… 3. A partial, visible fix, with clear remaining mechanical disadvantages, is more interesting to play (with) than “I got some made-up implant yesterday and can talk literally perfectly once I’ve had a bit more practice! It’s over! My character’s gimmick is dead!! :).” Refer to my first response paragraph.