dessysalta

Reporting Personnel: Vasquez, Kira Eladio Job Title of Reporting Personnel: Warden Game ID: cpj-dbas Personnel Involved: Kira Vasquez - Warden (Reporter) Castor Jensen - Investigator (Offender) Paige Murphy - Off-duty (Witness) Secondary Witnesses: Elwood Johnson - Officer (Witness) CL-04401 - Officer (Witness) Frank Pewter - Officer (Witness) Logan Wright - Head of Security (Witness) Time of Incident: Roughly 20:30-20:45 ship time, 15/08/2465 Real Time: 15/08/23 Location of Incident: Security (Brig), Kitchen, Radio Communications [Security] Nature of Incident: [ ] - Workplace Hazard [ ] - Accident/Injury [ ] - Destruction of Property [ ] - Neglect of Duty [x] - Harassment [ ] - Assault [x] - Misconduct [x] - Other - Failure to Execute an Order (I asked the Commander to give a 'no politics and racism' order over communications, he obliged, Castor did not obey.) Overview of the Incident: Security department ended up having a chat about usage of the word "cat" to describe Tajara. I and the Tajara Ana Roh'hi'tin were vehemently against usage of the slur to describe a Tajaran individual. Elwood made a few off-hand comments about it, but agreed with me. This is where Castor, and to some extent Frank, comes in. Castor asks if using the word "cat" is acceptable, to which all of us immediately say no. Later asks if using the phrase "cool cat" is acceptable, as it is "endearing". I explain that while it is endearing, it still makes use of a slur and is more than likely offensive. He replies with "endearing and offensive...I like that" before walking off. Later asks if using the words "domesticated" and "house" are offensive; I could not be properly sure if Castor was referring to cat.exe, our personal AI, or if he was once again being racist to Tajaran staff. However, when I replied, "if you're talking about Tajara? Yeah." He replied, "Uh huh. When was this decided?" At this point I had asked everyone to stop discussing it at least once, and to some people like Elwood, twice or thrice. I told Castor specifically to not use the word "cat" at least once, in varying degrees of politeness. The final straw was "Call me drunk, silly, stupid - but I am not racist against catpeople!" over security communications. I reached out to investigations and had them pull our radio logs from telecomms after the fact, and I provided a recording below. It was at this moment that I lashed out and couldn't stand for it, as the several times I had asked them to stop, and moreover asked Logan Wright, our Commander to drown it out, the remarks did not cease. In my rage, I struck and grappled Castor as a last-ditch effort to communicate to him what he was saying was, indeed, offensive. This was a major mistake on my part that I believe was made in good faith due to him being on our work force; I was reprimanded by our captain that shift, Joliba Kasongo, who filed an injunction stating to keep a no-contact-outside-of-work relationship with Castor until this was resolved. Paige and others (Elwood/Frank/Codus/Azradov) were there to see Castor continue to goad me into a fight after the fact, mocking me and saying things like "if I didn't have HR on my ass, I'd beat you", and words to that effect. It was at this point that I disengaged and made the motion to file an incident report with the help of Alsina Tau'ha'nor, Executive Officer. Submitted Evidence: As mentioned, here is the comms chatter from our security radios. I also included the Commander's initial response to me over PDA when I asked him to take care of it. I'm sure if there's anything else relevant, you can ask investigations to parse more of our radio logs and whatever happened to be near a security camera, if they haven't been wiped yet. Would you like to be personally interviewed?: [x] - Yes [ ] - No Did you report it to a Head of Staff or a superior? If so, who? If not, why?: Yes, Alsina Tau'ha'nor, to elevate it via an IR, and Logan Wright, to snuff it out in the first place. Actions taken: Commander made a remark over communications (detailed above) per my request to snuff out the usage of Tajaran racial slurs. Executive Officer and Captain Joliba Kasongo spoke with some of the affected parties. Additional Notes: I take full responsibility for the minor assault and accept in hindsight I made a lapse in judgement. Despite this, I know for a fact that I uphold my duty as both an officer and a warden, and although I am not a perfect human being (I would even go so far as to say striking someone for making a racist comment is only natural), I can always try. I value my peers and the rest of the crew on-ship as though they are another family, as I wouldn't be an officer if I made no effort to advise and police them--but I should not have taken such a rash and direct path to handle this.

WOO boy, we're getting close to a month since last update. Crazy. I won't spoil anything major, just know that a lot of it's going to be confusing war-induced psychosis, because that's pretty much all I have the mind to write for this particular situation LMAO. I've been running over concepts in my head but haven't done a whole lot of writing atm; been focusing on my mental health and other projects, like art commissions and such. As far as feedback goes, assuming any of you want to gimme that, I made a thread for my characters that also doubles as a feedback page for Battlecry. If any of you have ideas on where to take the story (or my characters) (or just have feedback in general) and want to post them without clogging this thread, that's the place to do it. It's nice to see at least a few people like what I'm writing. First time I've actually undertaken a project like this, so we'll see where it goes. Maybe I'll get some kind of award from the Aurora team, lmao.

I don't work in engineering directly (yet), but playing adjacent characters like bridge crewman (and of course antags) has been a lot of fun with Oko Asante on shift. +1, I'd like to see them remain on staff as a CE.

Maint unit is a cute and charming engineering borg to be around, and I love Reem Faladay to death. +1 easily.

+1! I love Jovna and Juno as characters a lot, interacting with them is honestly a breath of fresh air compared to some people. I know Dahlia can play a Tajara based off this alone.

I like Marcus's depth of character a lot. You can really feel the emotions and impacts he has and thinks about before finally doing, and with little moments telling me (or my characters) how much he holds back in order to appear polite and formal, I can tell he has a lot of love and care put into him. I'm curious to see what you do with him as a Consular, now that he is one. I hope you have a very hands-on approach with him, because he feels like a very hands-on person.

Hi! Have you ever dreamed about giving me feedback on how I write my characters? What you think they would be better off doing? Telling me how awful I am at writing? Great? In between? Well for the low, low price of free you can give any feedback you want about Kira, Kasa'an, Sadie, or any other of my statics you happen to know me by (honorable mentions being Sherrie Scott, Eimhir Fenella, GEVURAH, and my PMCG Liaison Yun Sang-Win). This also doubles as a feedback thread for my character story based on Kira Vasquez's adventures in the SAF, and if you'd like to give that a read, I'd love feedback for that too. Kira is my main and the reason I'm posting this feedback topic, but like I said, all feedback's welcome if you know who I play.

I've interacted with Delta every now and again and I love how Frost plays them. +1! I'd like to see another IPC on board, and I have no doubts Frost can play one correctly.

Title says it all! A semi-recent staff complaint caught my attention as I was spelunking on the forums and come to find out, you aren't allowed to pilot the Intrepid as a shaft miner even in emergencies, because you're forbidden OOCly. This is pretty weird in my eyes, especially because one of the things that I like about this server is you're allowed to do over-the-top nonsense that your character wouldn't normally do when they have a justifiable reason to do so (like gunning someone down when they just killed your character's partner). Almost every other mechanic or guide revolves around having a character or antagonist roll that must be played realistically; you're allowed to overcharge people or use contraband as a secoff if your character is scummy, you can be an asshole in the lower ranks on the station, you can even have a greater tendency to kill people depending on which race you choose and what has happened to them over the course of the shift, with the downside of all of these being the fact that your character is held liable for these sorts of things. I can only understand this OOC limit as though it was made to prevent miner players from overstepping, but that that sort of defeats the purpose of IC regulations if you stonewall like this, imo. I feel like it's made worse by the fact that piloting a space ship should be like piloting a plane over 4 centuries into the future. You can't logically say that someone with qualifications to fly a small shuttle would have no idea how to fly a shuttle that isn't that much larger, and imposing an OOC limit for this sort of thing just kills potential creativity. There isn't anything keeping people from putting qualifications in their records as a pilot when it makes sense for them to have them (such as a ex-military PMCs), so why put a hard limit OOCly on what can be flown and when? I have to bring up the "canon event" argument here, too--if there's a canon event that leaves the ship worse enough for wear that a miner must depart immediately and the Spark is inoperable, why am I, as a player, not allowed to take hold of the Intrepid, despite my character having every reason to do so, even if they won't do it very well? Is my character supposed to just give up despite there being no IC justification for that? It's a weird conclusion to jump to. Like I said, I understand it was probably made to filter out powergamers, but whenever this regulation was implemented, it's definitely been overshadowed by the playerbase in recent years. Plus, you can already talk to staff about having a character who can pilot these things without necessarily being one of the roles, as listed on the bottom of the "Who can fly what?" section. Also, for the record, I'll consider the Canary enough of a change from the Spark given it's more akin to a fighter jet than a shuttle, so miners shouldn't have access to it.

I don't have a whole lot of experience with Nauticall's other characters, Leslie and R4NGER are the ones I see most often. That being said, they're damn good characters, and Leslie is incredibly reliable. I'd totally be down to see a trial from them, +1.

Lore Impact (Small/Medium/Large): Small - Medium (it's one of those changes that could spiral into its own thing over time or just stay a little niche "that's cool!") Species: Unathi Short Description: I'm a huge fan of the Zandiziite Games (it's what got my Unathi application accepted, after all) and I think an expansion of it is in order because of how it plays into Unathi society and how much influence it can have on players. How will this be reflected on-station?: The Zandiziite Games are one of the single-biggest events in Unathi society, owed heavily to the fact that it's a sport based around violence, not too dissimilar to how we would treat boxing and wrestling. The more things you add to a sport like that, the more in-depth you can be with character creation or events; there can be 3-time winners of the Games on-board as passengers, ex-Zandiziites working in security after a recreational sport awoke a greater sense of authority and superiority, or even just relatives of existing Sinta on-board who like to reference famous Zandiziites and their competitors for fun. With enough work put into it, there can be masks made and PRed by those who are a fan of the concept (like me) and added to the code for ZZ-related events, or keepsakes and charms that reference the ZZ Games (like a misc in the loadout of like, the ZZ Games logo or something). Does this addition do anything not achieved by what already exists?: I think it better establishes the ZZ Games instead of letting them remain so vague. We know fighters wrestle and perform nonlethal sports like fencing or even ranged fights (and underwater harpoon competitions) but there aren't any Zandis in Notable Unathi (such as the female that refused to claim male spirit after she steamrolled everyone), there aren't any outright Zandiziite masks in the code, we have no idea what the main scoring system is (do we just defer to human sports? Why can't we have Unathi-specific sports with unique scoring?), and even one of the more interesting concepts of being unmasked as a Zandi remains more of a "this happened but we have no specific events to tell you about" which feels almost like an insulting notion given it's treated as something serious enough to start wars in extreme cases. Do you understand that the project may change over time in ways you may not foresee once it is handed over to the Lore Team?: Yeah. I have absolute faith in the lore team to make something amazing, even if it's not exactly what I had in mind--and I should say that I'm not the greatest expert in Unathi lore, I just present my ideas here in case the lore team wants to either utilize or build off of them. Long Description: The Zandiziite Games don't get enough love in my eyes. They're one of the biggest sporting events in Unathi society and have their own wiki link despite only having a thousand words, no notable competitors named, no idea of what they do other than "probably something MMA-related" and a lack of expression when it comes to things like being unmasked, female Zandis, etc. and I really don't like this. Thus, here's a three-parter submission: Notable Unathi/Competitors: Results of Unmasking; The Masks Themselves Games, Rules (Spoken and Unspoken)

Loredevs can tell me if I'm overstepping here, but I've got some questions of my own: 1. How come she chose to have faith in Sk'akh instead of Th'akh? How does this manifest on a day-to-day basis? 2. Is there anyone else other than Zzavek or Alsina whose presence made a noticeable impact on her life?

Tesla's characters are always charming and believable. I like Ella and Anica, and have no doubt they can play a Diona! +1

Same +1 as before! I have no doubt Gilt will be able to play a Unathi faithfully, especially a Tau'ha'nor.

It's always a blast roleplaying with Gilt, especially when it involves Kuri channeling all the cosmic power in the universe in order to die every other shift. Another Tau'ha'nor sounds awesome, but they better make a Drek'za too after the fact. +1!

she :') *dies* but thank you for the reply fluffy!!

BYOND Key: Dessysalta Character Names: - Sherrie Scott - Ashlyn Rushine - Kira Vasquez (Main) - Eimhir Fenella - Rodrigo Valdez - Dhaval Hiyan - Yun Sang-Win - Kasa'an Drek'za (Main) Species you are applying to play: IPC! What color do you plan on making your first alien character: N/A Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yup! Why do you wish to play this specific race: I thought I would immediately latch onto it when I joined this server, and honestly, I'm surprised I made my Unathi whitelist before I did my IPC one. I was out of ideas on what characters to make for the slot should I take up an IPC whitelist, but now I have ideas, so there's that! As for why exactly I'd like to play an IPC, I just think they present an interesting dichotomy of humans and humanoids. You have Skrell, which are the psionic, mind-oriented super advanced alien race, and then you have Unathi, a feudalistic, clan-based society that places emphasis on family and commitment/efficiency over individuality, but then you have IPCs, which seek to replicate and improve humanity in a way; be that in tasks and efficiency (mining and such) or personality and charm (shell-based IPCs; service IPCs). Synthetics in real life are growing ever-closer to being a reality, and there's been a host of interesting fictional characters that I love to death, like Working Joes/synthetics from the Alien timeline, to people like Broadsword or OBJECT on Aurora, or cool combat androids from pretty much any kind of sci-fi fiction. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: I recently replied to Casgam1's whitelist with a poetic interpretation of what I think you can summarize IPCs as, that of which being: "Uniquely our own (humans) faults." Though now I'd probably retcon that to "uniquely our own differences or imperfections," considering IPCs don't necessarily emphasize our "faults" so much as they do what we are and what they aren't. A much longer answer starts and ends with how positronic brains process information and decide what to do with it. Humans are capable of individual, independent thought and complex, critical thinking. While IPCs aren't incapable, this manifests in a less direct, more roundabout way rooted in in laws and directives, their perception of situations at hand, with a greater (or lower) amount of focus placed on self-preservation or task/objective completion. In today's society (2023, not 2465) a common reference theory as to whether or not machines are sentient is the Chinese Room thought experiment, where if you suppose an AI can behave as though it understands Chinese, does it literally "understand" Chinese, or is it merely simulating the ability to understand Chinese, based on the algorithms it uses to process Chinese characters and text? It's an interesting thought problem that makes you wonder what a "strong AI" (the former of the two options) would look like if legitimately created. I like to apply that when I think about IPCs and AIs as a whole, because it's a question and theory that bears repeating when you talk about truly "sentient" intelligences. With that tangent out of the way, I can use it as a reference for the rest of what I'm about to write. IPCs and AIs in general are a wholly different animal (metaphorically to be clear, lmao!) from human(oid)s, with different ways of processing thought, ultimately coming down to the question of whether or not they're just experts at mimicking behavior or actually capable of feeling, thinking, and acting on their own (I'm totally pulling this from the wiki, because it's right). A lower-end positronic brain that is used for hard labor might be wholly incapable of feeling or processing emotions or social situations while still retaining their machine learning capabilities; processing the before and after or causes and effects of each situation and then delegating or proposing solutions and preventative plans for the next time it happens. For higher-end positronics that are made to mimic human behavior, in the same situation they might choose a different set of solutions for the circumstances and give a more "human" outlook to situation at hand (like a simple G2 will simply chug along and prepare for combat if another carp shows up, whereas those with more emotional capabilities, like a Shell, might choose to forego combat entirely not for self-preservation, but because the other crewmembers will notice the damage and be demoralized by it). Regarding how IPCs form "memories" and skills off of them, having the ability to intake dense packets of data and then apply themselves for a short period of time to get it into their "muscle" memory, they're frankly going to take much, much, much less time than a human would at learning a task. On that same front, a similarity IPCs share with humans (or rather, that more complex IPCs do) is the ability to pick up skills or trades entirely by intaking information on their own and without first installing or replacing a datapacket. If I had to quote the wiki again, "...experiments having confirmed that positronic machine learning has advanced enough for them to be taught new trades and theories in classrooms or with appropriate reading material." This is so fucking cool. Like, the idea that androids can be so complex that they don't even need to rely on hardware/software installments to learn new things. It opens up the ideas of whether or not on a long enough timeline an IPC would be some nigh-omnipotent deity of information (which is made even cooler and is emphasized by the fact that the Trinary Perfection believes that synthetics will eventually ascend to godhood one day). Then of course you get down to the physical properties of an IPC, which is just as rooted in their mental faculties as the rest of them. Similar to the G2 and Shell example I gave, if a baseline and G2 get into combat, they're going to have a fundamentally different way of interpreting their circumstances. A G2 might hike up its britches and get to work on a group of Greimorians because it knows it is more than capable of walloping them (and bonus points if the Grems are preventing the G2 from completing a task/are actively harming the crew), but a baseline or Shell might flee even if their brute resistance would allow them to dispose of the threat. A mobility frame might attempt to run into a fire for a very short period of time to save another's life, whereas an industrial frame not made for that kind of heat would opt not to given its extremely slow movement speed, thus risking both of their lives. I know this is probably way over the amount I had to write, but I really wanted to demonstrate how much I love IPCs and how much thought and care goes into their creation. They can be just like us, entirely different, capable of what we can do, capable of less, more, and so on. They're just so interesting. Character Name: Sadie (formerly Hazel#S-H4.09) Please provide a short backstory for this character: Sadie is a fourth-generation Hazel that was created to suit the (albeit minor changes of) specifications of one Mollo Almayer, a former corporate executive at NanoTrasen, one who was briefly involved with their robotics branch (of course more specifically Hazel Electromotive) and acted as a Public Relations officer before his late passing sometime in August of 2458. Almayer had a family of four, his husband, and two kids: a son and a daughter (named Michael, Jaune, and Blake respectively for the three of them) all of which were invested in the robotics and synthetics business, with Blake being a more technologically-inclined girl who would tinker with things in her spare time and often participated in clubs and AP classes to do with engineering and software development. Jaune would go on to pursue a place in the Getmore subsidiary after realizing robotics and engineering for him was better suited as a hobby, whereas Blake went on to become a professional machinist with ties between both NanoTrasen and Hephaestus. Sadie was not always named Sadie; it was after Mollo had passed that the three remaining family members discussed it amongst themselves. Jaune was in favor of keeping it, as things had always been this way, but was outvoted by Michael and Blake, who didn't want an ultimately faceless machine to represent the man who bought it. "Sadie" was chosen as a name because it was Mollo's mother's maiden name, and had up until this point worked its way into a sort of in-joke to describe something nice ("she's a real Sadie, dad" when Jaune would talk about girls he was interested in, or "it's the damn polar opposite of a Sadie" when Blake was particularly frustrated with something she had created or was working on). Starting with a change in name, Sadie would go on to have her warranty voided with numerous upgrades in software and hardware changes. Michael would order different datapackets pertaining to social experiences and human interaction, Jaune would laboriously stay up late at night even when college classes or his employer was calling to him in order to read or interact with Sadie, and Blake used Sadie's old parts as a sort of "testing ground" and learning experience as to how these things worked. Sadie is gradually coming to understand not just the decisions or questions she's asked, but the thought processes behind them and how to better gauge human interaction, thanks to countless hours of experience interacting with the family's friends and emotional drives Michael has been adamant about installing. With Jaune and Blake finally getting to places in their lives where they can't afford as much time to interact with Sadie anymore, Michael has taken it upon himself to give Sadie a goal of her own for the first time in her existence as a positronic: to become an individual and live up to her name. Sadie asked the meaning of this order and questioned him, to which Michael responded by telling her it was vague for a reason, and that she will figure out in time what that goal is or means--perhaps even nothing at all in the long run. For the next few years, Sadie would pursue employment on behalf of the Almayer family, such as being leased to bars, short-staffed kitchens, and other service jobs she would be naturally good at. For a short period of time, she worked at a small NanoTrasen office, where she would prep coffee, file paperwork, relay messages, and generally stick in the mail room. When the office was eventually foreclosed due to its small size contributing to a lack of profitability, Sadie was offered a chance to board a shuttle and be relocated to a different office or position abroad, one she took in lieu of having to look for another job herself (or worse, ask her family to lease her again). This change in scenery finally landed her a position on the SCCV Horizon, where she works in service and ultimately aims to complete Michael's orders find herself and along the way serve people better than her unmodified Hazel counterpart. What do you like about this character? I originally came up with the idea of Sadie on another server (CEV Eris) very briefly. It started with the gimmick of playing old Western music (like Frank Sinatra, The Ink Spots, etc. think anything you'd see in a Fallout game or American Dream allegory) from her chassis and ended with a crazy amount of love for the character I'd thought up. I like the idea of an IPC that works because it has to going to one that works because it likes to, and I want to portray the gradual change from a somewhat cold machine inexperienced with complex thoughts and feelings to a happy synthetic that feels real, true joy from serving someone. And, of course, play 1940-1950s music along the way, lmao! How would you rate your role-playing ability? I'm pretty good, I hope. I usually give about an 8/10 on a number scale for this question. Notes: Some questions I think the lore team will have are in this spoiler: And an image of me collecting the Whitelist Infinity Stones can be found in this spoiler:

Loved Hector's inclusion as not only a player character, but a Research Director. Hector is a believable, charming character that has an interest in technology and science and can be just as impressed as the rest of us at extraordinary technology or powers he doesn't recognize (READ: was really cool in a psionic ninjas gimmick). I don't play in RnD very much, but so far as humoring antagonist gimmicks, made me feel valued as a player and I need to see more of Hector. +1

Had the pleasure of seeing Fyodor today--blew me away. Treated our antagonist gimmick with respect, didn't let it get too out of hand, put his foot down when he needed to (from the antag's perspective that is) and delegated orders to his men (and I would know, I had a traitor radio LMAO). +1 at the moment, I'll update if it changes. Nope, it's not changing. Badass, respectful commander.

Disclaimer: Everything I say next is meant in good faith and in the least disrespectful way possible. Seriously, it's a blast roleplaying with you when the time is right, and I want to see more from you. The tl;dr is I think you need more experience on the server and as a writer. I feel these responses are very lackluster and don't meet the standards I as a player expect of others, -1. I really, really, really wish there was a trial for certain species whitelists, because I want to go on record to say for the lore team that I could just be completely fuckass wrong in all of what I said and immediately be blown away by your IPC skills. Alas, that isn't the case, unless the lore maintainers decide it on a case by case basis of some sort. If this application ultimately gets denied (or accepted) I hope to see you in game more often. I like the characters you write, I just think there's a little bit further to go.

Previous I decided to keep talking with him. I know he'll say something I want to hear sooner or later. That said, it might be wise to end the era of friendly chatting. I kept going. No reason to start breaking him now. "Willard, do you understand what's happening currently?" I asked him, tilting my head to the side. It was a sarcastic question, intentionally so. If he was so dumb that he needed this explained to him, maybe we might be better off... "You're interrogating me. You want to hear something that gives you a lead on someone or someplace else." The prisoner shrugged his shoulders and leaned back into his seat, like he was getting comfortable. It took every inch of me not to leap at him and drive his skull into the hull plating. "I might get a deal if I give you a key worth knowing. You might kill me if not. Does it matter now?" I chuffed more smoke out of my mouth after letting most of it absorb into my lungs. The heat and nicotine gave me a short-lived rush of relief after all that, but the bad news is when my leg pain came back it hit just as hard. The difference this time is I didn't jolt or show it. I studied him again. "Does it?" I leaned back myself, crossing my bad leg over my good one. That seemed to help. Now a new problem arose: the feeling of dried oil and sweat in my fatigues. Having been moved around so much to have my wound properly treated, paired with working in this claustrophobic freighter that had seen better days and probably didn't have a cleaning crew worth half what they are now, I felt every bit of dust or grit on the interior of my clothes. One of my hands went to scratch at it, but it didn't relent very much after it. I just had to get used to it. John was surprised at that remark. I could see it in his face. It wasn't a kind of visible, "oh shit" surprise you might see on a petty thug when they watch a cop round a corner, but his complexion softened and shifted away from his dismal glare to a more cold, not-quite-understanding level of fixation on the gaze he set on me. Come on baby (Don’t fear the reaper) Baby, take my hand (Don’t fear the reaper) We’ll be able to fly (Don’t fear the reaper) Baby, I’m your man "I don't know." He said, finally. He sounded tired. I could hear an edge in his voice pronounce itself more than it had previously. Good. Now we're getting somewhere. I'm surprised he snapped this soon, they're not usually so weak-willed. Then again, it's probably the first time in his life he's gotten into a firefight. I finished my cigarette and cast it aside. "Why did you really go after this ship, Willard?" I peered at him, softening my own expression a little bit. "...It was for the weapons. Hand to God. But I wasn't going to use them. Zavodskoi guns go for a lot around the system." He averted his gaze from me finally, like a child who'd just gotten scolded by their mother. "Just sell them to the highest bidder, then?" I clarified. "Yeah." Smugglers. I guess that makes sense. With what Sol has been pulling lately, everybody's looking to get decent arms that can hold their own in the event of some kind of uprising or invasion. Sure is dumb as shit they can't see Sol won't invade itself. At least, I'd sure hope so. "I admire your restraint and ethics when boarding this ship. Honest. It's not very often pirates leave the crew alive." I reached for my pack to grab another cigarette, stopped myself, then let my hand back down. "So far off the Highway you can expect blood and guts every which way. You know, I saw a coupla Earthers ram into a civilian habitation not too long ago. Fucked them right up. Disgusting. Thank you for saving me that sight, John." I wasn't lying when I said that. After that scene near Callisto, I didn't need more towns painted red by schmucks looking to earn a quick buck. John didn't respond to that. Instead, he said: "I'm not a bad person." "I don't think you are, John." I replied. "Really?" He scoffed. "I bet now that I've--" "John. I do not think you're a bad person." I raised my voice a little bit to punch it into him. He froze and met my eyes again as I did. "Thievery is usually done out of necessity. Not always, but usually. Armaments I can't excuse, but I can understand the reasoning behind it. Hell, maybe I'd be boarding some trade ship if I was in your situation, right? Human condition, all that." I paused. "We aren't friends. But you have some sense in you. Frankly I'm astonished you didn't kill any of us or get killed yourselves. Everyone on both sides suffered minor injuries, and your men are being treated. Now, if you want this conversation to keep going well, I want you to answer a few simple questions for me. Not a lot. Most of it's already on the record." John, again, didn't respond for awhile. He just kept staring at me, flicking his eyes around the room periodically and I can only assume admiring the architecture while lost in thought. "Alright." He finally said. "Good. Firstly, any associates who got you into this? Here, Biesel, anywhere." "No. My own accord." "Alright. Your men, did you put them up to this, or did they volunteer?" "Volunteer. Group effort. Had to be if it was going to work, we all figured. I don't think any of them have associates." "Do you regret what you've done?" Another long pause from him. This one made the air grow thick with tension. By now, my pain was a far cry, with how intently I was focusing on this convict. "...No. I'd do it again. A hundred times. Money is money." I nodded my head. "I can understand that." Wasting my fucking time. As I kept staring at him, I felt my mind drift a little bit. I wasn't a chain-smoker, but my injuries and frustrations bottling up was probably enough to set my mind afloat. I didn't really consider my position in speaking to the man with all of my malaise and conditions. It just felt like the natural thing to do. This prick. I wanted to look for another question to ask him, but I sort of...blanked. That was all I cared about, frankly. Leave the rest to police chiefs. They'd handle it. "Is this how you were trained to fight? You're pathetic!" "You mother fucker." Sorry? "Shit! Shit, man! M-My-y fucking-g--" My leg screamed at me as the bloody bandages around it sent a thunderbolt of pain through me. They must have touched a nerve, I swear. It made me grunt. No, it made me yelp. I saw the color drain out of everything in front of me as the pain only grew worse by the second. It was like someone had stuck a hot rod of lead into me and was twisting it around, begging the devil to make it worse while it happened. "D-Dios-s m-mio!" I exclaimed. Everything was so dark, I couldn't see a foot in front of me. ... ...Slowly, I felt my senses shift back into my limbs. I had stood up somewhere in the middle of all that. That didn't surprise me. What did was the... Iron sights. Steadied on the man in the chair. The glowing dots burned into my retinas. When the fuck had I pulled it? "Do it." He said. "Lo haré, hijo de puta." I roared. "Do it." He said again. This piece of trash. I swear to God, I put so much effort into being nice and reasonable, and he just tells me to fucking do it? Well, I'll tell you something, asshole, I'm no pushover. I fucking earned the callsign Viper. I earned that shit! And you know what? I don't give a fuck about you and your little pirate gang! I'll kill each and every last one of you scumbags until there's none of you left and I won't feel a goddamned thing except recoil. I'll do it, you son of a bitch. I'll fucking... [ ] - Pull the trigger. [ ] - Pull the trigger. [ ] - Pull the trigger. [ ] - Calm down. This isn't real. You wouldn't do something like this. Next

I'm like 90% sure I'm the person who mentioned Hazel in (L)OOC. Based application. Plus, Rebecca and Rahal are both great characters I love to interact with, both on their side and against them. +1! Give us another Hazel unit, because I sure as hell will if you don't.